2026-03-16 MTLSD School Board Regular Meeting

001Good evening. It is March 16, 2026. Calling to order the regular meeting of the school board directors. Uh please stand for pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> All right. First, bear with me. Uh, Mrs. Crarabel had a family emergency. she had to attend to. So, I'm filling in for her this evening. Um, we did have a number of students here from Foster Elementary um that were here to to help us lead the pledge. Thank you for for doing that. Um, students from from Foster Elementary. >> Dr. Ramsay, do you want to come up and introduce our friends? So we have a large group

002of students. We have nine students who represent our principal advisory committee uh to do the pledge tonight and they wanted to share a little bit about what they do for foster school on as being a part of our principal advisory committee. >> Hello, my name is my name is Ben Wily and I'm a fifth grader at Fals Elementary School. It is an honor to be here tonight to share some of our positive outcomes of our principal's advisory committee at Foster School. Thank you so much for inviting us tonight to speak. >> Hello, my name is Reese and I'm a fifth grader. Our role as a principal advisory committee member is to have a chance to speak out and express our feelings about Foster. As a student leader, we help to make decisions for Foster to

003make it the best possible school. Hello, my name is Cormarmac and I'm a second grader. Our roles are to also make to help make schoolwide decisions and help with rules. >> Hello, my name is Maddie and I am a third grader. This year, we give Dr. Ramsey and the teachers the idea to open up the tennis court area as an optional area for fourth and fifth graders to go with recess to help with the chaos over 300 students can bring to our playground. Hello, my name is Hank and I'm a fourth grader. We also decided to give out a different colored reward feather that are green at recess. We hope that by us giving out these feathers, it would help us develop leadership skills while make students who receive them for following our sore motto

004feel good about their positive choice. Hello, my name is Jude and I'm a fourth grader. In December, we recognized that our foster egg nest was filling up and wanted a way to celebrate. When it was full, we gave Dr. Ramsay idea ideas to share with the teachers and come up with the Foster Falcon Bowl winter Olympics edition. Hello, my name is Savannah and I a second grader. The Foster Falcon B Winter Olympics edition took place on January 23rd. This is our school's adaptation of the Winter Olympics as the real Olympics were held just last month. The purpose behind the celebration was to allow students to enjoy Olympic theme fun that incorporated physical activities, steam activities, interactive play, and art activities, all without technology. Hello, my name is Kate. I'm a fourth grader. We also give

005ideas for spirit weeks, assemblies, and rewards. We feel special because we the voice of our peers. Hello, my name is Johnny Wy and I am a third grader. Tonight we have shared how the principal advisory at Foster School helps the school operate at its peak performance. It is an honor to present in front of you and share the pride we all have for Foster School. Thank you all very much. Thank you so much for coming. We always love having students come here and and share the activities that they're involved in in school. Thank you. >> Okay. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Berdick, >> here. >> Dr. Campanero, >> here. >> Mr. Clocky, >> here. >> Mrs. Crrael. >> Miss Flecher, >> here. Mrs. Gellman >> here. Miss Given >> here, >> Mr. Hoffman >> here,

006>> Reverend Dr. Strauss >> here, >> Mr. Adams, >> Miss Antunes >> here. >> We have eight members present this evening. >> Great. Thank you. I move that it be resolved that the board approves the minutes of the policy committee meeting held on February 9th, 2026 and the joint voting discussion meeting held on February 9th, 2026 and the regular meeting held on February 16th, 2026. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Okay, we're moving on to the board reports and I would like to welcome students from uh Melon Middle School. Thank you so much for inviting us to speak tonight. My name is Abigail B and I'm an eighth grade member of our student council's executive board. My name is Andrew Latner and I'm also an eighth grade member of our melon of

007Melon's executive board. >> My name is Clara Junker and I am a seventh grade member of our student council. I hope to update you on the happenings of our student council since the last update to the board in December. We reconvened in the new year and planned two spirit days for the month of January. Our first was held on Monday, January 12th. It was a black and gold day to cheer on the the Steelers in ahead of their first playoff game. The second spirit day was a quarter zip Friday on January 23rd. We then kicked off our fuel to beat Fridays initiative for the month of February. Students and staff were encouraged to wear red, pink, or hearts on each of the days in February. We also sold a variety of heart merch each Friday

008in February to promote heart health months such as heart bracelets, necklaces, and stress balls. We ended the month of February by raising $194 for St. Claire's Health's cardiac unit. Additionally, 30 lucky students won heart-shaped ring pops at the end of the month from our spirit slip raffle. We also sponsored our first ever candygram sales the week before Valentine's Day. Students were able to purchase candy a candygram for $1. The candygrams included pre-filled notes to send to a crush, faculty member, or friend. Student council then attached a heart-shaped ring pop to each message and delivered the candygrams to home rims before Valentine's Day weekend. We were overwhelmed by the popularity of the candygrams. They were a huge success and we look forward to making them a Valentine's Day yearly event at Melon. >> In March, we

009hosted our annual Shamrock Shamrock Blitz. Throughout last week, each student at Melon had a shamrock with their name hidden somewhere in the building. Students were able to search for their shamrocks before home room during team time or after school. Students who found their shamrock deposited into a bin in the days leading up to St. Patrick's Day. Winners were then chosen from each of the grade level bins. And tomorrow we will announce uh 20 winners per grade. Each winner will receive a fun prize. Lastly, we've been working with the PTA to run a t-shirt design contest for the eighth grade picnic. All eighth graders will vote on their favorite design ahead of break. We look forward to planning a few more events to close out the school year. Thank you so much for listening for listening

010this evening and we hope you we hope everyone enjoys their spring break. Thank you uh again for for sharing. We do love hearing from students. Uh it sounds like some great activity. So, thank you for coming and sharing with us all. Next up is the board president's report. I will read Mrs. Crabel's report. As we move into spring and adjust our clocks forward, it's a reminder that change is often where growth begins. Spring is about renewal, momentum, and the excitement of what's ahead. In Mount Lebanon, that spirit is alive and well across our student achievements. I'd like to begin by congratulating our new athletic director, Danny Bonaventura, who will be joining us at the end of the school year to prepare for next season. We're excited to welcome him to the Blue Devil family and

011look forward to the leadership and experience he will bring to our student athletes and programs. I also had the honor of speaking at our winner sports recognition night. And as both a former athlete and a sports mom, again, this is Mrs. Curt, I always love celebrating these moments. The dedication it takes to compete, train, study, and show up every day is something truly special. Congratulations to all of our winter athletes for representing Mount Lebanon with pride and excellence. A special shout out goes to Boyce Swimming who finished the season with the highest G team GPA at an impressive 3.7. That's the kind of balance between athletics and academics that makes us all very proud. March is also Women's History Month, which gives us the opportunity to celebrate the strength, courage, and leadership of women and

012girls who continue to open doors and break barriers. That spirit was on full display this season in our girls wrestling program where our athletes made history and represented Mount Lebanon in an incredible way. Congratulations to our state medalists. Senior Paige Jocks, bronze medalist. Freshman Camila Hardaway, bronze medalist. And making school history is Mount Lebanon's first girls wrestling state champion, freshman EA Silva. Sophomore Juliana Vanlike also took first place this past weekend at the Keystone Championships. We would also like to recognize Cole Gibbons who placed sixth in the state. What an outstanding accomplishment and testament to the dedication and grit that define our athletes. I would also like to congratulate girls wrestling coach Amanda Labbec for being named Whipio Coach of the Year. This is a well-deserved recognition for the culture of toughness, discipline, and belief

013she has built within our program. What makes it even more impressive is that we don't yet fill every weight class, but our girls continue to dominate their matches in tournaments at the highest level. Thank you, coach, Coach Lebec, for your dedication to the program. Moments like these remind us that athletics are about so much more than wins and losses. They build character, discipline, and confidence that our students will carry with them for the rest of their lives. To all our athletes, thank you for representing Lebo with pride. Few district highlights. Kindergarten registration is open for students entering the 2026 2027 school year. For more info, please visit our website under enrollment. On the evenings of March 19th, 20th, and 21st, both Jefferson and Melon Middle Schools will host their annual spring musicals. Jefferson Middle School

014will present High School Musical Junior in the Jefferson Auditorium, while Melon Middle School will perform The Little Mermaid Junior in the Melon Auditorium. Both productions are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Join Mount Lebanon School District for Lebo University on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:10 p.m. This engaging event is designed to provide parents, guardians with valuable information and resources to support your family and contribute to our students academic and social emotional well-being. RSVP is required by Friday, March 20th. Congratulations to our Mount Lebanon High School team on its second place finish at this year's BrainB hosted by the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Neuroscience. Sophomore Angelina D. Carlo also took home second place for the individual round. Mount Lebanon uh DECA made its debut at the PA State Career Development Conference

015with 14 students attending. Alli Miller and Brandy Lowe earned first in marketing management team decision-making. They will move on to the International Career Development Conference in April. And finally, our inclusivity calendar, National Development Disabilities Awareness Month. This was established to increase awareness and understanding of issues affecting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day and that is a day uh of global awareness that has been officially observed by the United Nations since 2012. The date was selected to signify the uniqueness of the triplication of the 21st chromosome which causes Down syndrome. March 25th, the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade is United Nations International Observation that officer that offers the opportunity to honor and remember those who suffered and died at the

016hands of the brutal slavery system first observed in 2008. The International Day also aims to raise awareness about the dangers of racism and prejudice. Today, March 31st, International Transgender Day of Visibility, celebrated to bring awareness to transgender people and their identities and to recognize those who help fight for trans rights uh around the world. Okay, that is all for the board president report. Next up is the superintendent report. Dr. freeze. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Hoffman. Um, this evening I have a couple of reminders that Mrs. Crarabel also reminded us of, but we just want to remind everybody again, kindergarten registration is open and it will be open through the summer, but it's very, very important for people to get registered by May 1st so that you can attend the open house that takes

017place on May 8th. Anybody out there that still has little kids, little kindergarteners for the fall, please show up and sign up so that we can see you in the next month. and a half. On February 27th, we hosted the PMEA Junior High District Chorus Festival here at the district. It was 163 students from 63 districts participated in the festival and it was led by Dr. Ethan Murphy from Dukane University who was the guest coral director for this event. I'd like to thank Miss Rankin from Melon Middle School for organizing and uh hosting the event here at the high school. It takes a lot of work and they spend a lot of time preparing for this event. On Sunday, our or sorry, Saturday, our band participated in the Pit Pittsburgh St. Patrick's Day parade. I

018heard that we may have won an award, but it's not public yet. They did a fantastic job. The day was absolutely beautiful, and we were very excited for them to represent us in downtown Pittsburgh at the parade. Our business roundt, the second one of the year, will take place on Wednesday, March 18th at noon. As Mrs. Crrael shared in her report given by Mr. For Hoffman, we do have our two middle school musicals that are coming up. We hope that you come out to see them. They are fantastic and they are um backtoback. So, they will be happening this weekend. Tickets are for sale and the students hope that everyone will be able to come out to celebrate their performances. Lebo University, the registrations have been open for the last 3 weeks. We have 66

019registrants to date. Um I do know that people like to wait until the last minute. This is really cutting it close. So we hope that um individuals will register. There are 28 topics all based upon feedback that was provided to us by families as to what they were interested in seeing. It would be fantastic to get 300 people like we had last year. Lebo United update. Um some of the things that we've been working on over the course of the last couple of months are related to professional development sessions that are offered here in the district and we have a link there if you're interested in seeing what we've been offering. We provide curriculum updates, um, onboarding status update for our new families as well as our new staff members. We're currently selecting a community

020service project that will take place between now and the end of the school year. This year, we launched central registration, which is electronic and online so that families can register 24/7. Um, helps to fit in with their schedules. Uh we're currently working on a transition program for grades five to six that will replicate our grades 8 to nine transition program. We're working on our website. We will launch a new website this summer and Mrs. Smith is working on accessibility because the requirements for accessibility will change in 2027 and we want to make sure that we are making those changes now so that we're not waiting until the last minute to do so. And then in the last couple of weeks, we held our middle school student presentations. The light initiative, which is a group that

021we're working with and have been working with for quite some time, uh had the cure for hate film and the director Peter Hutchinson and Tony Mleier were here and present with our students. It happened at both Melon Middle School as well as Jefferson Middle School. And after the school event, there was an extension activity for students to ask questions of the director as well as Tony Mcclear, who was the um main character in the film. Over spring break, we will be hosting the U. Mount Lebanon Public Safety Department. It'll be police, fire, and Mertzah. They'll be training from Monday, March 30th until Wednesday, April the 1st at Jefferson Middle School. We did something very similar to this last year at Melon during the summer. Um, with the police department, fire department in Mertza, it is

022easier for them to train in the springtime when people aren't on vacation. And so we opening up our doors to them. They will make announcements on their um social media just to make sure that everybody knows that this is a drill and that it is not an emergency at the school. And then finally, the majority of our update today is based on the base budget. Um, the board of school directors will be asked to vote to authorize furloss to meet Pennsylvania Department of Education timelines. We've voted to authorize furlows for the last two years and have never had to furlow staff. I think that's incredibly important. Um, it has been covered in the local newspapers and um the coverage was dire. It is not dire. This is something that we do to ensure that if

023we can't make the cuts that we need, that we are able to make changes that we need to make in order to create a balanced budget. And to do this, we'll reassign staff. We'll reduce pi positions through attrition. We'll make targeted program modifications and review equipment and facility lifespans to delay replacements. Um, these strategies have helped us before in the past, and we're confident that our team will be able to do that again this year without furlows. This vote is required um by law and if you don't take the vote or if we don't have this vote then we can't do anything related to furloss and that's the only reason that we're doing it. We do not intend to use it. You'll also notice if you read the document that's included in the board update

024or in the board docs that it also includes all work groups. So it's not just teachers, it is every um staff uh category that we have within the school district. And at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Mrs. Connley, who will give an update on our base budget for the 2026 2027 school year. We actually did a good job. Thank you, Dr. Breeze. Good evening, board of directors. Uh, tonight I'm going to present the Mount Lebanon School District 2627 base budget. Um, our agenda is to go over what the budget process is. We're going to review revenue sources and in detail our 2627 proposed preliminary budget revenues. We will also review the expenditures. We will also review fund balance steps we are taking to balance the 2627 budget in the timeline. This

025is the first timeline that timeline that I want to discuss with you. This budget process is truly a a process. We talk about it um constantly in the office at every meeting. We review monthly reports. we review um different things that come up. So, but the actual budget process starts when the act one index is issued by the commonwealth and that is in December. And then in December and January, we um this past year did an analysis of our special education exceptions and we uh did an analysis to see if those would be applicable for us again this year, which they are not. In December and January, we also did a anal an analysis of the revenue sources and projected the base revenues that you saw in January based on historical amounts. In January, a

026preliminary budget was presented to the board for review to pass our pass our opt out resolution. And that was a resolution not to raise taxes above the act one index. In January, we started with all the budget managers meeting with them on their zerobased budgeting. Budget managers start with zero dollars in their budget and they have to analyze every single line item, obtain quotes, categorize every expense on that budget by essential need and want. And then in January and February, we have meetings with the budget managers. Those meetings are with me, the assistant superintendent, Dr. Davis, Dr. Shulo and uh we go through every line item at least once sometimes twice and the budget managers have to um explain the need why they are requesting the expenses and if it's they categorize it as an

027essential item, a need or a want. Then in January and February also we um have uh more internal meetings to decide uh how we were going to move move forward. In March, that's today. We're presenting the base budget. We also in March are having staffing meetings. This occurs with the administration and department heads. We review student enrollment and staff schedules are analyzed to determine staffing. In April, the first meeting of April, we will have the budget forum forum for 2627. That is the um the presentation to the public and to the board on the preliminary final 2627 budget. And then also in April at the second meeting, the the board will vote on the proposed final budget. Then that will be on display on our website for 30 days. um and also live in our

028office and anyone can come in and and inspect it. In May, there will be a final budget approval by the board. And our goal is always to find savings in our budget. It's a very long process, but everyone involved knows uh the purpose and for trying to um reduce cost. The first uh thing I want to go over with you tonight are the 2627 projected revenues. So our revenues come from local, state, and federal resources. The local revenue is the biggest part of the pie. Local revenue is the largest revenue source which is driven by real estate taxes and it's controlled by the act one index. Other local revenues include other taxes, pass through funds, and fees associated with school programs and operations. The base budget local revenue is 98.5 million and that's 76.5% of

029our of the total revenue for this base budget. The state revenue is aligned with the governor's proposed budget and is approved by the state legislators. It includes subsidies and grants funded by PTE and other PA departments. I'll go in more detail, but tonight's uh preliminary statebased budgets, we're projecting them to be 29.7 million or 23% of our budget. And then finally, federal revenues. Federal federal grants supporting our atrisisk learners and challenged learners come through title funding and Medicaid. That revenue is sits at $560,000. It's less than half of a percent of our budget. So, it's a very tiny sliver, but it is um something that we project every year. So, local revenue, most of it comes from our real estate taxes. This type of revenue accounts for approximately 63.6% of our overall revenue. Our current

030revenue projection for local real estate tax is $81,916,311,000. The act one index is calculated by the commonwealth each fiscal year using the base index index and then district adjustments. The base index is the average of the percentage change in wages statewide, not locally, statewide. in the percentage changes in school employee compensation costs nationwide. The 2627 act one base index for all school districts in Pennsylvania is 3.5%. The district adjustment is an adjustment for districts with lower or declining wealth. Mount Lebanon's 2627 adjustment is 67%. Therefore, we have an act one index of 4.1%. If we were to raise taxes to that amount, the increased millage is 1.2689 mills. That equates to 2,540,000 $938. The 4.1.1 index is significantly lower than the prior year which was 4.7 plus we were allotted exceptions. So our millillage did

031increase by 1.6495 mills to equate to uh revenue projection in tax real estate taxes of 4.1 million. I want to go over the exceptions for just a second because that is a little bit of a change from last year. Uh Miss Connley, can you forward the >> Oh, sorry. >> Yeah. No, good. >> Thank you. >> So, our act one exceptions permits the district to adopt without voter approval a final budget containing a rate higher than the act one index. We are not eligible for either one of these exceptions for special education or retirement. We did submit the paperwork. It was declined. So, I just want to reiterate that uh we will continue to analyze all of our revenue sources um including the real estate taxes. It's still under analysis. We're waiting for the final

032uh collections from Mount Lebanon Township for us and it will be here in within about two weeks. But based on that, we'll have the final real estate revenue increase. But if we were to raise taxes to the 4.1 index, the revenue increase would be $2,540,938. Mrs. Connelly, can I clarify that the projected amount for local revenue then that you have this 98.5 million includes that increase? Okay. >> I also want to review with the board and the public um why we've had such high refunds in real estate tax appeals. The common level ratio is a ratio used to calculate property assessments in Pennsylvania. The CLR is set by the Pennsylvania State Tax Tax Equalization Board, also known as STEB. However, on September 1st, 2022, Judge Herzburg issued a preliminary injunction reducing the Alagany County CLR

033for 2022 from 81.1% to 63.5% and has decreased every year since. Therefore, there's been more appeals, there's been more refunds, and real estate values in Mount Leb Mount Lebanon have decreased due to the tax appeals related to the CL CLR. The current 2526 real estate values are 2 bill748 million. This is a decrease of 3.3 million from the prior year. And this slide also shows going back to the bottom 2022 what our values were um and how they've decreased each year except for last year there was a slight increase but we think that because the CLR did not drop that much. There was just there weren't as many appeals. The big appeals hit in those prior years in 23 and 24. And I also want to mention that local real estate taxes have always been

034the the district's main source of revenue. It's the main source of revenue in almost every school district in Western Pennsylvania. This grid on the left shows by school year what the act one index was and what the not lean millage rate is. Um so our current mill rate is 30.95 mills. Simply state revenue has not kept pace with the increase in expenses school districts are experiencing in regular and special education. For example, um this grid here in the lower corner or lower lower part of the slide, it shows Governor Shapiro's proposed 2627 budget. It provides only a 1.82% increase in key funding uh compared to the prior year. Historically, the leg legislature also makes deep cuts in the governor's proposals. So, when we look at the slide and you can compare for yourself, but in

0352520 the 2526 actual basic ed funding went from it's it's only going up $79 million or $79,000. Special ed funding is only going up 103,000. and the ready tolearn grant is expected to go up $50,000, but all that has to be approved by the legislators. >> And just to give let's give some context for that. So when you look at $182,000, um if it's a special ed student who needs additional services outside of our school, that's going to take care of about two and a half students at most. And if you're looking at a staff member here within the district, um that would cover like a a teacher in a quarter. So when the state gives us an increase that is that low um yeartoyear, it is really not providing us with additional support to

036run a school district. It's it's a very very very small amount. The federal revenue for title funding is also expected to decrease. that's always on the radar at the federal level. So, I'm going to go over the other sources of local revenue. Um, and I go, it's a long list, but I do want to go over it in public because we have analyzed all sources of revenue. Other sources of local revenue uh can is is approximately 12.9% of all overall revenue. Our current projection for other sources in within the local revenue bucket is 16.6 million. This includes earned income tax collection, interest on investments, realy transfer taxes when a property is sold, delinquent tax collections for earned income and real estate. Our idea pass through comes through locally because it's passed through to us in

037all school districts from the AIU. We also project gate receipts, gate receipts for sporting events, ticket sales for the musical and evening theater, pay for play fees, permit fees, building usage, student parking fees, and tuition for programs like summer enrichment and driver's education. So, moving on to state revenue. This type of revenue accounts for approximately 23% of all of our overall revenue. The governor presented the state's preliminary budget on February 3rd and the preliminary state basic ed and special ed revenue was only slightly higher than 2526 with a proposed increase of only $182,294. That is a total of $12.5 million, but compared to the prior year, it was only $182,000. And that was proposed by the governor in February. the um the the budget hearings are taking place and it has to be approved by

038the house and the senate for the 2627 base based budget. The projections are built on an assumption of flat funding for basic and special ed subsidy or 12 million 12.3 million. Combining these subsidies with other state revenue such as social security and pasers construction subsidy, health services subsidy, gaming fund allocation, transportation, our ready tolearn block grant and PCCD. The 2627 preliminary state revenue is projected to be 29,758,477. And I want to go over a little bit of the federal revenue even though it's just a very small piece of the pie less than half percent $560,000 but this also assumes that the federal revenue will come in through title as flat funed funded. Um this is always at the federal level and under discussion. Idea funding supports special education and is also driven by the federal

039government but as I said it's listed under local government government or local revenue because it comes through the AIU. So I want to go over um the 26 proposed preliminary revenue right now when we are looking at the base budget. The assumption is that we adjusted the act one index to 4.1% and we applied that to the current real estate values. State basic ed funding and special ed funding is flat as well as the ready tolearn block grant. Title funding is flat. Medicaid is flat. Revenues are analyzed and projected by reviewing 3 to 5year actuals. The total revenue is 128,87124. Sorry, I keep forgetting to do that. 1288712 $214. We're going to talk about expenses, but the proposed preliminary revenue shortfall is $1,169,91. So at this point, our expenses exceed our revenues and that's why

040there's a shortfall. So regarding expenditures, uh these are the the buckets that we uh use with the chart of accounts. Our revenues sit or sorry our expenses sit at 130 million. This is all a product of the zerobased budgeting. There is really very few department budgets that have increased. Most of them are flat or they decreased. But we had to um make assumptions and I'll go over them shortly. These buckets, the biggest are personnel and benefits. Personnel sitting at 58.4 4 million and benefits at 39.5 million. Our third largest bucket bucket is in the 900 series under other financing uses and that's where you will see our bond issuance or bond payments and our capital projects. And this just gives you a little visual of how big those salary and benefits are in the pie.

041And I'd like to go over the um expenses a little bit in more detail of how they were analyzed. 84% of the preliminary base budget expenses are related to salary benefits and bond payments. That only leads leaves 16% available for all other commitments and they are commitments. These are not things that we can't do without. We have to have curriculum, new and revised curriculum, supplies and experiences for students. technology. We can't teach, we can't do our work without software, hardware, and security facilities, buildings and grounds, maintenance, utilities, and security on all 10 of our buildings. We pay for some outside placements. Um some students go to um a special ed placement. We have students attending Parkway and we have to pay the charter schools for families that choose a charter school over our schools. transportation.

042We have um expenses related with transportation for special education, athletics, field experiences, and parkway on a daily basis. We have day-to-day operational expenses such as school supplies. And we have 53 high school and middle school sports that this budget supports. Um we also have prior year real estate tax refunds. That's up to about $300,000 this year. Um, and I did build that into next year to make sure that we don't fall short because without a leveling of the common level ratio and a countywide reassessment, we will continue to have real estate tax refunds. So, these are the assumptions that we made while building the proposed preliminary base budget for expenses. Salary expense increases were calculated according to the collective bargaining agreements and we used the 25 26 staffing level levels. We're not increasing staffing but

043we did um make align we aligned with retirements and which we do have 14 retirements this year. Health insurance is huge. We have an 8.3% increase in health insurance. Paser's employer contribution rate was certified at 33.59%. Bond payments are not adjusted for refinancing. So we know what that number will be based on um the loans that we have. We have a 3 to 5% increase to special ed tuition, 3% increase to charter school tuition. We have a 10% increase to Parkway due to increased enrollment and Parkway tuition increases. We have a 4% increase to trans the transportation contracts. And as I mentioned a little bit ago, our department and curricular expense budgets are relatively flat or below the prior year. We have uh budgeted however very importantly the capital project expenses that were presented in

044February totaling 619,000. Can I ask just a question on assumption one for the salary? I know you mentioned that the staffing um exercise takes place in March. Has that already taken place or will those numbers be refined following that? >> They have just started. They're not part of this presentation. >> Okay. So, the only adjustment to staffing has been for the known retirements. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> You said that was I for 14. How many retirements did you say? pay 14 retirements >> and that's without >> teachers MLEA alone. So >> that's without replacing the without replacing we're accounting for not replacing those 14. >> No, we're accounting for replacing them but at a lower salary. >> Okay. We budget for step four masters. >> So it's very important to know where we are

045in 2526 before you vote on next year. This was presented um at the last meeting. We are projecting our revenues to be at this is as of the end of February. We still have four months to go. So, this could improve. It may get worse, but I don't think it will. But this this will likely improve. We're currently in a budget freeze. Our revenues are projected to be 125,323,95. This is for 2526. Our expenses are less than that12495154 for a projected savings or surplus of $418,751. And this is just a visual of everything that I said. Revenues 128, expenses 130. Uh we are looking at a shortfall right now of 1.169 million. And also I want to remind the board that we did increase our fund balance but that is for savings. Our goal is

046to have a fund balance of 8%. Right now it's at 5.99%. So the fund balance and that's an an assigned fund balance. The total fund balance is 8 million 8.1 million. And you can see oh you can't see the that um unassigned is 7.494 million. That's where the 5.99% of um our our our goal is eight and we're at 5.99% of budget. If we move over, if everything stays the same and we do save $418,000 this this year, that will go to unassigned and our fund unassigned fund balance will be at 7.9 million, a little bit closer to the eight. And I just want to cl we're seeing this just to demonstrate to the board and the community how we're responsibly growing the fund balance but not to show that there's fund balance available to

047balance that >> yes >> deficit that to show growth but not to we don't want to use that to balance the budget. Yeah. >> Can you talk about um why it's important for us to be at 8% for our fund balance? And >> yes, why that why that is our goal? Why are we why are we continuing to take taxpayer money and put it into the fund balance? Why is that important? >> A sustained 8% fund balance is like our credit report. It makes us look better on paper to creditors. And if we ever went into a borrowing situation again or refinanced our current bonds, um the higher we are to 8% or the closer we are to 8% sustained overtime, not a one and done, you know, 8% this year, 4% next year, uh

048the the rating companies like to see sustained savings. So help us get loans. We have 10 buildings and we some of them will need to have a little bit of love. >> I was gonna add that. Thank you for adding that. 10 buildings and the stadium. >> Right. Well, there there's quite a few things, but I think it's very important for us to know that two years ago we were at about a 2% fund balance. So, the work that we've done as a team over the course of the last three years is to is for us to get to this point, right? And our goal is by the end of this year if we can to get to 8%. because the the district deserves it. Our Moody's rating deserves it. We had taken a hit

049for about five years on our Moody's rating and in the last two years we've been able to sustain it and keep it level and our goal is to go back up. Um for us that will then show that we've put in the work necessary to have a sustainable budget that we are making in very difficult decisions, right? that we don't always want to have to make, but we're making them because we know that it's going to be just a more stable situation for our community and for our school district. And in February, we talked about the projects that will need to occur. We're a 100 plus year old school district. Um, as you can imagine, if you're 100 years old, you need a little bit of maintenance here and there. Um, we're going to need

050to do maintenance over the course of the next 15 years to make sure that we can sustain our buildings, keep them safe, keep them running, and that Moody's rating and this fund balance is going to be very, very critical to our sustainability as a school district. >> I did also just Dr. Cotton, you may know this, so I'm saying this for the public. Just like there are taxpayer protections in the act one index where a district is limited on the amount of a tax increase they can pass for a year. I believe that there is a limit to how high an unassigned fund balance can be and to still retain the ability to levy tax. So 8% is also the cap. if it were to go above that um we would not we would have

051to balance the budget with some of that fund or assign it to a capital reserve or >> right >> I also was aware I just wanted to clarify for the public why it is so important for us as we think about the long-term financial health of the district to not just say we've done well for the last couple of years but we're not we're not there yet and um and we do have those aging buildings that um Mr. er laid out for us in February. >> Yeah. On that slide in particular, it says the general fund balance. We have a depleted capital reserve and um that is part of our long-term plan is to make sure we have some capital reserve in cases of emergency and for future planning uh for capital projects. So we

052don't have to build it into the into the general fund. right now that's our only avenue of of doing them. So this slide talks about the steps to balance the the 2627 budget. Our goal of a balanced budget and not relying on the use of fund balance is to reassign staff, utilize attrition to reduce positions, implement program modifications and evaluate the lifespan of equipment rather than utilize furloss. However, tonight the board of school directors will be asked to vote to authorize furloss to meet Pennsylvania Department of Education timelines. This is the same process as Dr. Free said that we've used in the last two years. The required vote to authorize furlows applies to MLEA employees only. However, all work groups are listed in the resolution to demonstrate that all work groups may be impacted by

053furlows. And then lastly, we're really getting to April. So, um we have three more meetings and we have a lot of work to do. But, uh we will present on April 6 in the budget forum the 2627 proposed final and then the board will um vote on that on April 13th and then the final budget adoption will be May 18th. Are there any questions? >> Thank you, Mrs. Connelly. Uh I do want to just reiterate uh the shared goal of the administration and the board that uh we will not be moving forward with a deficit first plan. Uh so that work over the next month and a half is to close that gap that was shared tonight, that $1.1 million gap between expenses and revenues for next year. Um we're all on the same page

054as far as making sure that we continue the work that's been done the past two years and continue to uh strengthen uh those reserves. Okay, any other questions or comments before we move on? I guess just one other very quickly is, you know, the need to raise our taxes is very much driven by the fact that we have outdated assessments and we really should be pressuring our county and state to have a reassessment of the whole county. >> Thank you. >> Great. Next, we have our uh student representative report. Miss Antunes, looks like you're running solo tonight. >> Yeah, I'm missing my partner in crime today, but he'll be next. He'll be back next month. So, good evening everyone. Um, as always, thank you for having us here tonight. It's been an exciting and eventful

055month for the students, and we're thrilled to share what we've been up to. So, throughout March, there was plenty of travel and many exciting excursions, including the Blue Devil marching band's weekend trip to Walt Disney World. Um while there they performed in a parade while color guard color guard simultaneously showcased a choreographed dance. Um it's safe to say the trip was a success with junior student Omaly Williamson describing it as an unforgettable experience. We'd also like to congratulate several groups on their recent achievements. Namely the calculus team for securing a second place overall with senior Soh Dom earning first place individually. the quiz bowl team for placing second at the Pittsburgh Regional Brainbe and PMEA students for their performance at Hines Hall last week. Additionally, as of this past Sunday, the evening theater company completed

056its production of Shakespeare's play Much to Do About Nothing, featuring the comedic story of two couples, Beatatrice and Benedict and Clauddio and Hero. Um, and then finally, we'd like to provide an update on the mental health proposal we announced at the previous meeting. Um given budget considerations and after a comprehensive conversation with Dr. FZE, we've decided to redirect our proposal and instead we'll be working with our current school psychologist at Mount Lebanon High School to implement additional integrated services and explore ideas from the student body. Um namely this may include more frequent mental health check-ins and benchmark surveys as well as yearly and monthly events focused on student wellness in partnership with local organizations. Um, and we also hope to gather student feedback on which events and initiatives they find most helpful and supportive. Um,

057over the next few months, we'll continue this work and plan to report back in late spring with updates um, on these collaborative efforts. So, as always, thank you for your time tonight and if you have any questions, please feel free to speak with me. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thanks for the great update. The work you're doing uh, is really great. I love the focus on mental health supports uh and also the collaborative effort to get there uh with Dr. Fes. I think that's that's excellent work. You're doing some real leadership work that's that's going to help the entire community. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next up are the board member reports. Uh first is policy committee, Miss Flecher. >> So, the board uh policy committee of the whole met last week,

058March 9th. Uh we reviewed seven uh policies that are proposed for adoption this evening that are all in that 200 or um student category of PSBA policies uh and would retire for um related uh older policies. Um the the discussion really focused on a few of these policies namely um tobacco and vaping and controlled substances and paraphernalia in more detail. um a really robust discussion about searches and um just the the balance between um safety and privacy for students and some uh discussion about changes to the dress and grooming policy to ensure um that it's more inclusive. So, it was a good discussion and we moved all of those policies forward for consideration tonight. >> Thank you. PSBA board development liaison, Mrs. Gellman. >> Thank you. So PSBA school leadership conference will take place October

05918th through the 20th and the conference is currently seeking proposals from educators and school leaders to present sessions with submissions due May 8th and then I can also give a civil engagement board update. >> Sure. >> Um I attended the civil engagement board meeting on March 4th. The board finalized and approved its annual report. Some of the updates included um coffee with the cop community engagement event and an update from the residents academy which um graduated 28 participants on March 5th from the program. And then the board also completed its review of the community service award nominations and selected this year's recipient which will be presented at the boards and authorities dinner on April 30th. There will not be an April meeting due to Passover and the next civil engagement board meeting is scheduled for

060May 6th. >> Thank you. >> Uh MLF, Mrs. Berdick. >> Yes. Good evening. Uh MLF and the high school art program were partnering again this year to sell student original artwork um and duplications at their annual art show uh which is April 24th. fantastic work has been done by our students. Um we're including lots of great um duplications for purchase and um as a reminder all of those funds are used by the MLF to fund teacher grants for innovative educational opportunities. Um the spring grant cycle is upcoming and it will have a newly revised application. administration will send this out to the teachers in the next few weeks. We're hoping to garner some um increase in the number of applications for grants this spring. This is a great way um to encourage our teachers um

061for finding innovative teaching ideas and supporting our staff uh with creative teaching initiatives. >> Thank you. >> PTA Council, Dr. Campano. >> Thank you. The PTA council met on Wednesday, March 4th at Melan Middle School and um President CC Carlson shared a letter of thanks that u was received from the administration at Arlington School which um the council partnered with for a food drive for their um the food pantry at Arlington. So I just uh took a little quote of that quote out of that. Uh we are overflowing with gratitude for your incredible donation to the Arlington Eagle food pantry and resource room. Your generosity is more than a contribution of items. It is a powerful reminder that our village is strong, compassionate, and committed to supporting families in times of need. So, I just

062um add a thank you to our students and families who participated in that donation drive last month. Um a slate of candidates was presented for the 2627 council board and all seats are in contested and a voice vote will be held at the April meeting to confirm the election of new officers. The uh environmental sustainability chair Shaina Bod is coordinating with individual PTA units to prepare for hosting tables at the Mount Lebanon Earth Day celebration. The event will be held on April 26th from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Um she's working with the graphic arts teacher here at the high school, Mr. Johnson, for the design of reusable shopping bags. Um Mr. Johnson will be running a design competition in his classroom and then the class will be screen printing the bags. Um, and the

063bags will be on sale at the Earth Day event. Um, they're also planning on running a clothing swap again this year in coordination with the high school light group led by Mrs. Davenport. Um, and also um, Foster Elementary will be running Earth week um, April 20th to 24th in the within the school and um, Markham may hopefully be showcasing their um, composting program which is a student led initiative in their school garden. Um the parent education chair Kristen Weir um has been collaborating with outreach te and family services to offer two upcoming events. The stress management workshop will be offered here at the high school in this room D205 from 7 to 8 p.m. I forgot to put the date on that. I will I have it. Hold on a second. Um April 14th. Um,

064and the workshop will educate teens and families on practical, actionable strategies that they can use to navigate academic pressure, social stress, and daily overwhelm. And then the family communication workshop will be offered online on April 29th from noon to 1 p.m. This workshop will help families understand the roots of conflict within the home. Topics to be covered include deescalating tense situations, improving communication, and setting healthy boundaries. And registration for both of these events is available at outreach.org/ org/events. Um, and of course, another reminder, it's in the um, weekly email from Dr. Freeze, but um, Lincoln's 100th birthday celebration will be held on April 11th from 1 to 4 p.m. They've got some awesome stuff going on with that as well. And the next council meeting is on Wednesday, April 8th at 9:00 a.m. at Washington

065Elementary School. >> Thank you. Lots happening. Uh, Mr. Clocky, municipal liaison and financial management. >> Sure. So we had a session between uh myself, Todd and representative from the municipalities from the commission to talk about ways to save some money through shared services share you know other ways to find to reduce costs. Um also the uh municipality in their last uh discussion meeting uh was going over the new zoning that they're going through. They're doing complete review of zoning. Uh that's going to happen throughout this summer. They will be reaching out for community engagement in the fall. As part of that, they will be reaching out to the school district to get our input on that zoning. Um they've also um had a set of purchases, some like what we have to do, a lot

066of non- sexy things. They've had to replace a snow plow. They had to do concrete maintenance. Uh they had to do repair of brick streets and unfortunately they had to do emergency repairs of the ice rink. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh Parkway West that is Mrs. CrarAel. Dr. Campanera. I know you're the alternate. >> I don't have an update since she had to leave. >> Got it. Yeah. >> Uh Pathfinder, Miss Given. >> Sure. Um well, our next meeting is in two days. So, I'm going to dig back in my brain to the previous meeting on February 18th. Um, they are uh we we voted on uh getting new boilers for the school because they failed a pressure test unfortunately and they are past their expected life. So, Pathfinders getting new boilers. Um, we

067discussed uh the annual maintenance fee, which I learned about is a fee that is paid from non-member districts for each student that attends Pathfinder. Um, so we are a member district. It doesn't apply to us, but um, Pathfinder's previous fee was $3,200. Other schools um, other peer schools um, had a fee of 5,000 or higher. So, we voted to raise ours to be in line with other uh peer schools, which will generate additional revenue for the school and help make up some of that cost of those new boilers. Um the principal reported uh 81 students currently enrolled. Um they did a winter sports week for the Olympics, a friendship dance uh over Valentine's Day, and I like this. They did instead of a hundth day of school, they did a 90 days till summer, believe

068it or not, looking outside tonight, but it is uh we are now less than 90 days till summer. Uh and the next meeting is uh Wednesday, March 18th. >> Great. >> Thank you. Uh the last one is uh mobility. I will be joining the mobility uh team in uh April with the municipality. Next up are comments from residents and taxpayers concerning action items for this meeting who have previously requested to speak. I don't believe there are any. Uh next up, questions or comments from residents. Um and again, this is for action items for this particular meeting, things that will be voted on later. There will be another uh opportunity for public comment on on other items uh at the end towards the end of the meeting. Are there any people who have questions or comments

069uh regarding action items for this meeting? Okay. Next is unfinished business for board consideration. Uh there is none. And Mrs. Berdick, would you please read the policy resolution? I move that it be resolved that the board adopts policies 216.1 supplemental discipline records. 220 student expression dissemination of materials. 221, Dress and Grooming. 222, Tobacco and Vaping Products. 226 Searches. 227 Controlled Substances Paraphernalia. 233 Suspension and Expulsion and Retires Policies. JIHA student searches, JIC, Student Drug and Alcohol Offenses. JJIE use of performance enhancement substances by athletes and JKE suspension and expulsion. >> Second questions or comments. Um, I just want to confirm based on the policy meeting last week, um, for policy 220, um, when we talked about the the limitations on speech, um, that hate speech is covered under existing board policy and that we are

070going to revisit, um, policy 122.1 as it relates to disinformation. We'll revisit that a few months down the road. >> That's correct. We'll revisit that in May. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you for clarifying. Anything else? Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Berdick, >> I. >> Dr. Campanero, >> I. >> Mr. Clocky, >> I. >> Miss Flecher, >> I. >> Mrs. Gellman, >> I. >> Miss Given, >> I. >> Mr. Hoffman, >> I. >> Reverend Dr. Strauss, >> I. >> Miss Miss Given, would you please read the finance resolution? >> I would be delighted. I move that it be resolved that the board approves the finance agenda items. >> Second. >> Questions, comments, points of clarification. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Berdick, >> I. >> Dr. Campanero, >> I. >> Mr. Clocky, >> I.

071>> Miss Flecher, >> I. >> Mrs. Gellman, >> I. >> Miss Given, >> I. >> Mr. Hoffman, >> I. >> Reverend Dr. Strauss >> I >> Dr. Campanero uh human resources please 8B. >> Yeah. >> There we go. Got it. Hold on a sec. I move that it be resolved that the board approves the human resources agenda items. >> Second. Questions or comments? >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Berdick, >> I. >> Dr. Campinro, >> I. >> Mr. Clockery, >> I. >> Mrs. Fleer, >> I. >> Mrs. Gellman, >> I. >> Miss Given, >> I. >> Mr. Hoffman, >> I. >> Reverend Dr. Strauss, >> I. >> Okay. And Mrs. Flecher, curriculum and instruction, please. >> Mhm. I move that it be resolved that the board approves the curriculum and instruction agenda items. >> Second

072>> questions or comments. >> Okay. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Berdick. >> I. >> Dr. Campanero. >> I. >> Mr. Clocky. >> I. >> Miss Flecher. >> I. >> Mrs. Gilman. >> I. >> Miss. Given. >> I. >> Mr. Hoffman >> I >> Reverend Dr. Strauss >> I >> Okay. And now we move on to the section where uh we have questions or comments from residents. Uh presentations or comments are limited to three minutes. Do we have any people that would like to speak this evening? Let's see. I think that works. I'm just going to do this. My name is Christine Sorenson Griffin. I'm a Mount Lebanon resident and I have one child at the high school and two who graduated from the district after going here since kindergarten. I spoke before the board last

073spring advocating for phone-f free schools all day and I just want to update you on some developments that are happening at the state level. 24 states now have a belltobell phone ban in schools. Belltobell means banning phones from the first bell to the last bell, meaning students are not allowed to use their phones during the entire school day. That means including no phones at lunch or in the hallways. Pennsylvania is likely to be the 25th state with a new statewide law. A Pennsylvania bill making all schools K through 12 phone free bell-to-bell passed the Pennsylvania State Senate with only one senator voting against it. It was co-sponsored by Republican State Senator Devlin Robinson from Alageney County and a Democrat from Philadelphia. A similar bipartisan bill has been introduced in the state house and is expected

074to be voted on this spring. And Governor Josh Shapiro has come out in support of phone-f free schools and has asked the state legislators to pass this legislation and to put it on his desk so that he can sign it. Now, the PSEA teachers union with 140,000 members in the state has also come out in support of schools going phone free, bellto, and has testified in support of this Pennsylvania legislation. One of the biggest concerns voiced about schools going phone-f free has been safety. And that's why it's important to know that both the Pennsylvania and National Associations of School Resource Officers have come out in support of Belltobell phone free school policies. The Pennsylvania officers testified in support of the state legislation. The Pennsylvania School Board Association has testified in support of local control regarding

075this legislation. And this bill does give school boards and administrators control over how the phone ban is implemented. It could be that phones have to stay in lockers or in backpacks or in pouches. That's something that you will likely have to consider. The bill before our state legislators would not take effect until the 202728 school year, but Mount Lebanon has the opportunity to be a leader in the state and start it this coming school year. There are now thousands of schools across the country that have implemented this and that can share feedback on what's worked well and what hasn't. As a founder of Libo Unplugged, I have resources in the phone free schools movement, and I'm happy to connect you with any schools in our area or around the country that have done this if

076you'd like to learn more. Mount Lebanon can continue its tradition of being a leader and teaching our young people to be leaders by going phone free, bell-to-bell this coming school year, giving our kids the freedom to learn and be together without feeling tethered to their phones every moment they're not in class. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hey everybody, how you doing? >> I feel much more comfortable like this. Okay. Okay. So, my name is Ashley London. I live at 223 Dan Drive. I have a daughter in uh 8th grade now. My gosh. At Jefferson. I want to start out by first giving a shout out to Dr. Shaw, who is amazing, especially about the film policy, and she is cracking down on the kids playing that Five Nights at Epstein. So, if you see her,

077please give her an absolute pat on the back. She's doing a wonderful job. So, am I here to talk about phones? No, I'm here to talk about edte, my friends. EdTE. So, y'all started out and last time I was here, we talked a lot about the budget. We got some budget shortfalls. Guess what? We're spending a lot of money on edte. So, first of all, you guys have all seen the studies, have you not? How bad screens are for students, how the pedagogy is not great, how it impedes their learning. Okay, so you've seen it. I'm not going to go over that. It is bad. I primarily want to focus on edtech and its effect also on higher education where I am. I am a law professor at Dukane and I also teach at CMU.

078Great schools. I think we can all agree. And I'm telling you, the delletterious effects on Gen Z in higher education due to the overuse of screens in K through 12 is terrible. Law firms are telling me that they do not want to hire Gen Z students because they are not equipped. This hurts their critical thinking skills and they do not have evaluative judgment. EdTE right now, $42 billion profits over pedagogy. Also, y'alls, have y'all done? Have you looked at the LL program that we have? Have you looked at it? Are you impressed with it? >> Go ahead. >> Okay. No, you should. Because you shouldn't be. Right. So, as a professor, I have been a professor now for over 10 years. I am convinced are written by AI. They are pedagogically unsound and a waste

079of our students time. So, I'm here to tell you, please, while you're thinking about phones, I saw in the proposed budget, I think we spend $4.8 million on professional and tech services. And that tracks across the country, school boards are paying $4.4 million on average for edtech. That's $4.4 million that can go into new boilers and can go into all of the sidewalks that are terrible in our hundred-year-old buildings. Please, we have a chance to do something right for our students pedagogically and soundly. We do not want to create another underclass. We pride ourselves on 100% almost of our students going on to higher education. I'm telling you what I'm seeing now. Even at CMU, guys, they're asking, "Oh, well, can I have like a study guide for this? Are you going to tell me

080what's going to be on the test?" No, I'm not. Use your critical thinking and evaluative judgment. Please consider getting rid of edtech and saving that money and putting it back into education. Thank you. >> I don't think I have the same charisma, so I will put on my phone. Okay. Uh good evening. I want to begin by thanking this board uh the work of a governing uh school district is uh balancing fiscal responsibility, community expectations and the well-being of thousands of children is genuinely hard and I do not take lightly at the difficulty of the decisions you face. My name is Dr. Palo Marago and I am a parent of an 8-year-old at Lincoln Elementary. I am also a tenure professor like my colleague h of public policy with a PhD in political science with

081the specialty in public administration and nonprofit board governance and a researcher who has raised millions of dollar studying data literacy and online education. I also published and received awards related to educational technology use in classrooms. I say this not to brag but because I want you to know I am not here to criticize but strategize. Tonight we are reviewing a proposed budget with a $4.2 million deficit. 85 cents of every dollar is already locked in. We know this. The tools available to close these gaps are limited and painful. I understand you are in difficult position. But we have an obvious and implementable option before us to close some of this gap. I am proposing tonight a solution that both saves money, improves outcomes for our children, and positions our district as a national leader. I

082respectfully ask you to phase out individual personal devices, iPads, and Chromebooks across our elementary and middle schools, and dare I say, even beyond. Let's consolidate technology into shared supervised computer labs like we all grew up on and did fairly well. Let's stop purchasing, refreshing, maintaining individual devices for students from kindergarten through at least 8th grade or more. I studied your budget and it seems that we are spending nearly 1.8 8 million per year on technology hardware, software licenses, and support contracts embedded in a budget that has no room left. I recognize this constraint. These numbers, 1.8 million, does not include staff time, IT infrastructure, classroom disruption that individual devices generate. In conclusion, Mount Lebanon has an opportunity and should be that district to lead nationally by focusing our classrooms without technology and close this deficit

083gap that you are all trying to solve. Uh, and I'm sure more importantly that we all care about our children. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Heidi Nvala. I live at 340 Atlantic Drive and I have a sixth grader at Mela Middle School. And tonight I want to talk about the benefits of using paper and pencil versus computers for learning. First, paper and pencil helps us focus better. When we use computers, it's easy to get distracted. A notification pops up, a game is just one click away, or we start browsing on something unrelated. But when you're writing with paper and pencil, there are no pop-ups, no tabs, and no distractions. Recently, there have been inappropriate games that middle school students were able to access, including the Five Nights at Epstein and human or not.

084These games are terrifying for parents that are trying hard to keep their children from interacting with chat bots and playing violent games. My daughter doesn't have a phone for those reasons. And last week, her friend was able to get a man from Canada's phone number through the human or not game during team time. The district can block one site, but new sites keep with dozens of games, including this one, constantly appear. Second, writing by hand, actually helps us remember things better. Studies have shown that when we write notes with a pencil, our brains work harder to process the information. Because of that, we understand and remember what we're learning more clearly than when we just type quickly on a keyboard. According to the International Journal of Educational Research, kids score higher on reading comprehension tests

085when reading text on paper rather than a screen. The Association for Psychological Science also indicates that the present research suggests that even when laptops are solely to take notes, they may still impair learning because their their use results in shallower processing. In three studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand. We show that whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop notetakers tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words and it's detrimental to learning. A metaanalysis of studies on writing versus typing shows that writing notes rather than typing them leads to higher achievement. It's a win-win. Less expo exposure to non-school distractions and a boost in benefits to learning. And finally, paper and pencil

086work work reinforces essential skills such as handwriting which remains important for test taking completing forms and clear written communication. I encourage the district to reduce reliance on computers in the curriculum and to incorporate greater use of paper and pencil learning. Thank you. Hi, I'm Dr. Dixon. I've come here to speak with you as a social scientist and a professor. As a mother of a ninth grader in the high school, I want to bring your attention to brain rot. an annoyance. I am sure for at least some of the parents in this room and including myself. There are various definitions of brain rot, but what I'm really talking about is what we could call junk online content. Brain rot is by no means, of course, the only content that kids access on YouTube and other platforms,

087but it is a main form of entertainment for young people online and it is designed to to attract kids. In your January update, the administration claimed that access to entertainment is blocked on school devices, but that cannot be the case as middle schoolers and high schoolers have access to YouTube on these devices. In high school, between their Chromebooks and personal laptops and phones, kids have access to this mindless entertainment in home room, in the hallway, in study hall, at lunch, and sometimes even in the classroom. This is a problem not just because it is time wasting. Brain rot shapes kids social interaction. Kids want to watch what other kids watch to fit in. And it's not just the type of entertainment that is a problem. It is having access to entertainment throughout the day that

088is a problem. Ubiquitous entertainment plays a role in rewiring young people's brains, maybe all of our brains, so that reading and writing and other activities that require sustained attention feel boring. Teachers can't compete with the latest release of an online YouTube influencer. And as an educator, I often feel that I need to be as entertaining as that tick- tock dance to gain my students attention. I take seriously the very difficult role as a parent to protect my kid's ability to do deep learning by limiting his access to online content. But I can't. And we as parents can't do that work alone. I asked the administration to take phones out of school and to limit kids time on their Chromebooks in the classroom and for homework. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jane Cassella. Over the

089last decade, schools across the country have embraced edtech. And now we have data showing it's often not helping. And in fact, it can hurt student learning and performance. So what do we do? First, we use the devices less. The more students are directed to their Chromebooks, the more opportunities they have to play games, email their friends, watch YouTube, or use AI. The filters the district uses can't prevent kids from accessing games. And they don't filter out inappropriate content in YouTube. All kids have access to AI mode on their Chromebooks and can ask it questions. There is apparently no way for parents to opt out of this or to even know if their child is using AI to help to cheat or help with schoolwork. When devices are used less, kids can develop a better attention

090span, patience, creativity, handwriting, and spelling. And research shows, as you've heard, many benefits of paper and pencil over screens. Along with using devices less, we're asking the district to vet ed tech better, specifically looking at the content and student experience. For instance, Extra Math replaced Reflex this year. It seemed less gamified. However, right away, kids found out how to access an addictive character battling game or GIMKit, where kids not only break up learning with mindless games, but also have figured out how to play for almost 15 minutes between questions. On Epic, kids can access inappropriate books. On Fan School, which is modeled on fantasy sports, kids don't even have to read the current events to participate in the draft and competition. Even less gamified programs like are arguably not helpful. I've heard a ton of

091complaints from parents and kids about. How the scoring is punishing and frustrating, how it makes kids anxious, how it fails at explaining what they're doing wrong. When looking at what edte to use, I suggest taking an approach like the edte triangle, which you can see here. As it shows, the best type of edte provides students with a skill they can't learn from in-person instruction, like coding, graphic design, animation, or spreadsheets. Edtech to avoid includes gifi gamified apps, screenbased homework and studying and programs that can easily be replaced by in-person instruction. Overall, I think the question at the heart of thorough edtech vetting is, does this have value to a student over in-person instruction? We're also asking the district for transparency around this vetting. While the district has been open about using one tech, parents should

092be able to know how and why the district decides to use something like over paper and pencil based instruction and homework. Parents should also know they can opt out of edtech programs. We appreciate some of the changes we've seen, such as getting rid of bottle and YouTube for elementary students. We believe it's time for bigger change. Getting rid of one edtech platform and replacing it with another doesn't solve the root problems. The research on edtech is clear, as our parent and student experiences. I really appreciate the hard work and time you all spend constantly pursuing excellence for our district. Mount Lebanon has an opportunity to lead the way by reshaping school tech use and allowing kids to learn, engage, create, and grow to their greatest potential. Thank you. >> Um, hi. Can you hear me?

093Okay, maybe. Um, I'm Mindy Rainey. I have three kids in the district and I've been here for about nine years. It's so um nice to see you all and thank you so much all the administrators and the school board members, school directors for the countless hours that you put in in your job. Um it really shows how much you care. So, thank you for your dedication. Um I wanted to I feel like this isn't on. Is it on? >> Okay, thanks. Um I just wanted to share quickly a little bit about edtech that has been on my mind for the for maybe five years. I've been in the district nine years and I've seen a lot of changes over those nine years with my three kids. Most of them have been for the better across

094the board. The one exception is is unfortunately in the area of technology, especially when the onetoone tech was introduced during COVID. We all understand why that occurred. Um and we and my friends and I kind of hope that it would some of the technology would go back to what we thought was normal um as co kind of has left us and we really haven't seen that. They've seen a reliance on technology in the classroom. And from my perspective and my kids' perspective, some areas are amazing. Like I'm impressed with their Google Slides experience. Their use of spreadsheets is impressive. Um, things like that. But unfortunately, the edte that we've been talking about has been a source of headaches and tears in our family. Um, I can tell you like just as a quick little story,

095my kids have all had the same teacher for math in middle school and the oldest had no ad tech software just because of the year that it was precoid and all the instruction was done as lectures and with big packets and I would like see these packets. They'd be working on them sometimes for an hour at night and it was exhausting but also really impressive um as they would like work through and feel this accomplishment of being able to do these big five math pages, right? and like I got this material. Then the next one came around and edtech was in and there was a lot more and a lot more frustration but it was during COVID, you know, those many COVID years and we just were all trying to do our best to get

096by. And then the third one came along. Same math teacher. This is like a math kid. Loves math. He's crying almost every night and it's all overl. So I get involved and my husband gets involved. We're trying to figure out what's going on. And this is just like one little glimpse of like adte. There's lots there's Lexia, there's Dreambox, there's a whole bunch of people. We'll talk about it. But what happens is that it's um you have to get to a certain percentage to get complete whether it's 80% or 90% whatever your teacher sets. So you don't really know how long you're going to do your your math homework anymore. You don't really get that satisfaction of like five. I'm on page four or five. I can do it. I'm going to take a break

097or whatever. you would kind of get along and you get your score and you're at you're almost at your 80% that you have to get or 85% or 90% in his case. And then he misses one and it doesn't go back five points. It goes back 20 points. That's just how it works. And then there's the tears because it was like, "Mom, I've been doing this a half an hour. I got to get ready for soccer." And it's like, "I'm sorry, dude." And he was like, "If I don't say my work, blah blah blah blah blah." And this was every night. So my husband was fortunate like he was watching it and he's we're both in software. We're both from Silicon Valley. We're tech people. He's like, "This is effing ridiculous." So, like, he emails

098a teacher and the teacher says, "I'm sorry, this is just out of our control. This is coming down from the principal." So, he emails the principal. Principal says, "Sorry, this is out of our control. This is coming down from the superintendent." So, he emails the superintendent and superintendent super responsive and says, "This is just what the district purchased and we have to use it for a certain number of times to get some metrics to know if it's actually helping." And nobody really seemed to be able to get us out of this loop. We ended up having a meeting about it later in the year because he stopped liking math. And I really felt like everybody's hands were tied, especially the teachers hands because they didn't really like it either. And this this pattern has repeated

099in both English and math every year for five years. Most of my kids teachers have given. And when there's been push back, the teachers have really said that it's out of their control. That's coming kind of from the people in this room. So that's why I wanted to come here today to say it's nothing we can do about the past at all but just moving forward as we make these educational tech technology decisions thinking about is it working for the teachers do they have control over using it or not instead of um this at least what I perceived as like a top down kind of approach that is being put upon them the teachers are really the you know I'll leave you with this um my >> you should be done if you can >>

100okay my daughter said the other day she's like mom I figured out what makes my ADHD PhD um work better. How I work best is when the teachers really care if I'm learning. I want to do my best for them. Um and that makes me that like inspires me to pay attention because I know that they're trying to get me the best education that they can get me. And I was like, "Oh, how does that work with like software then?" And she's like, "Oh, I I just don't I don't care about like the software piece. I just I'm work I'm just working like for the teacher because they are care they're investing in me and I want to I want to show them that that that's worth it. Then their investment's kind of worth it."

101So, um, be safe tonight on your way home. It's really bad out there is what I'm hearing. Please be safe. Especially Julia and Tunis, if you're driving Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I went away. Um, is anybody else gonna talk about >> her husband? >> Ed, I'll hand you that. >> Never heard of them. >> Hi, my name is Haley Boyd. Um, I guess I'll just hold it. Um, I'm a parent of a four and a halfyear-old and I'm here with similar concerns from my fellow parents but of a child a different age. I'm not really envious of some of their concerns with what their children in middle school and high school are seeing on their devices and accessing, but I am concerned about my child who we've not permitted to use devices at home entering

102kindergarten not until 2027 and receiving a one-on-one iPad. I was really surprised like taking him to the library story time two years ago and they told us that an iPad and familiarity with an iPad was like part of kindergarten readiness. I was like what kind? Why would this be part of kindergarten readiness? I still don't really fully understand it. But I am concerned about the way the devices could impact my son's learning as well as all of the other all of the other children. I'm worried about the impact on fine motor skill development, attention span, um his academic performance, reading comprehension, writing, that sort of thing if introduced to a device. I feel like maybe it's just my opinion, but providing 5-year-old, six-year-olds devices to learn and get information from instead of like books and

103their teachers and these sort of things kind of sets them up to rely on devices for learning and and like getting information when there are other ways to do that. Um, part of the reason why my husband and I made the choice to move here is because of the reputation of the school district. Um, and we believe that our child will have a better chance at receiving a highquality education, one that is free from devices. Um, I think this school district can continue to set itself apart and uphold its reputation, be a leader like some of my other fellow parents have said by removing some of these devices. I would love to see it across all all schools. So, um, I don't have to worry about it, but presently my concern is my young child

104who will be entering kindergarten in the fall of 2027. Thank you. Thanks. I know everyone's tired. Thanks for listening to me. Hello, I am Leon Hartensius, the parent of a child at Washington Elementary School. Um, first of all, I would like to thank you for your thoughtfulness regarding technology in the past and the implementation of limitations on screens in schools that was implemented this summer. Um, last spring, a bunch of us spoke. My daughter spoke, so I'm sorry. I'm a poor substitute today. I am here today because I still see several areas of concern. The first area is inconsistency in the implementation of the no screen time rule during recess. I have been told this only applies to lunchtime recess. I believe the intent was for this to apply to all periods of recess. I

105think increased consistency would be great. The second area I would like to highlight is communicating about edtech with parents and guardians. The district presumably has intentional decision-making around edtech being used in the classroom and I do believe there are edtech offerings that are transformative or supportive on the edtech triangle where the use of screens is meaningful and valuable um through for example developing a high level skill or supporting students with special needs. When I monitor my child's screen time though at school using GoG Guardian parent, I do not currently know whether a new to me website was intentionally assigned attewise inappropriate website being accessed. If the district is relying on edtech for part of the curriculum, I would like for parents to have access to a list of the tech being used, including information on

106the goals of each piece being used and where it fits into the curriculum. This would remove the questioning that happens when a new website pops up in GoG Guardian and the burden on parents to research. The third area to highlight is an elementary student spending time playing games while at school. Last year we talked about bottle. This year one of the new games that appeared was Awakening which children were actively being directed to through Extra Math. I have also heard about children playing Minecraft in school as well as older kids playing various concerning games related to current events that were mentioned by fellow parents as well. Since the district relies on blocking websites to limit access, this makes me question, how are websites currently being evaluated? How does leadership know which websites have become popular

107and whether they should be blocked? My ask for you is since you have GoG Guardian, it should be possible to have stats on how much time children in the district are spending on different websites. I ask you to monitor this more regularly to identify websites that have increases in usage rates and then evaluate the educational value of those websites. That way, it should be possible to be a lot faster at this game of whack-a-ole. I believe awakening has finally been blocked, but we are over 7 months into the school year. What learning could have taken place for students who instead spent their time playing a video game? If GoGardian data were evaluated in real time, harmful or timewasting websites could be blocked much faster. Ultimately, I would ask that screen time is minimized with children

108using screens when it is transformative, but use pen and paper where possible. I think edtech can be a great way to provide differentiation. Um, but I would like the district to limit children's time on screens outside of those situations, both to have more time for work with pencil and paper, for which you heard the benefits from um fellow parents, and to limit the exposure of children to potentially harmful or time-wasting websites. Thank you. Thank you. Mine is going to I'm not going to be nearly as eloquent as my friends over there, but my name is Joan Prasad from 113 Oak Park Place. I have two children in the Mount Lebanon High School. Um, first of all, thank you so much to all of you because I know it's a lot of time, dedication, service to

109try to make our school district a a great place for our kids and that's much appreciated. I'm here advocating in support of phone-f free schools. I'm a member of the Libo Unplugged group and um what concerns me as a parent is that we don't fully understand the long-term social and mental health impact of these devices of using phones, but we know they're addictive and very distracting. And even when they're only available in between classes, it can be distractions that are prolonged and interfere with the next um u period or session or or topic that's covered. And that's there's no question that that that's detrimental to the learning environment and a school is first and foremost a learning environment. Um and then also when another thing that concerns me is that when um kids are looking

110at their phones, they're not really interacting with with each other and developing those social skills that are so needed um as they grow into adults. Um, I work in in higher ed also as some of my colleagues and I can say that when things are made into policies at a higher level, it makes it a lot easier for teachers to implement those policies and not appear like they're the bad guy for saying, you know, you need to put your phone away or you can't have your phone uh right now. Really appreciate you listening to me. Uh, thank you very much for your consideration. Good evening board members, superintendent, and fellow community members. My name is Matthew Hackworth. I am from 430 Carnegie Drive, and I'm a parent of three students in this district and two

111graduates. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I do hope you will implement a bell-to-bell phone ban as promptly as possible. But I'm also here tonight to ask the board to consider meaningful changes in how our district approaches technology overall, especially philosophically and specifically the use of schoolisssued Chromebooks in class and at home. The growing broad national ground swell over technology concerns with our youth demonstrates this is not a partisan or political issue. It's a question of whether our technology policy is effectively serving our students. Evidence continues to mount to mount as you've heard tonight that change is needed. Many speakers tonight are advocating for reduced Chromebook usage and I agree with them. The concerns are real and are compounding. Teachers are being asked to manage classrooms without adequate tools. The version of GoG

112Guardian that's in place here in Mount Lebanon to my understanding does not allow full-time real or real time monitoring of student screens. Um, without it, teachers are left policing attention with their eyes alone while managing instruction at the same time, which is not a fair position to put them in. The home environment presents its own problems. I raised this concern last year, and I am back in part because nothing has changed. My child, who struggles most with focus, is one year older, incrementally more mature, and that appears to be what we are banking on. But I'd like to ask everyone in this room something. How many of us are getting meaningfully better at managing the pool of our own phones and their deliberately addictive apps? And again, if adults with fully developed brains are losing

113this battle, what are we expecting of children? Ultimately, we need to recognize that the Chromebook as an educ educational medium is fundamentally flawed. As has been noted tonight, um, and while I should state that I'm grateful for the attempts that the district uses to control content that's available on those Chromebooks, the policing approaches do not work. Blacklisting is an arms race that the district clearly cannot win. As you've heard tonight, new websites are registered daily. Mirror sites appear overnight. Embedded content within otherwise acceptable domains slips through. YouTube is particularly problematic. It's a platform built on user generated content and no filter can reliably screen what a newly posted video contains. Google Docs and shared documents present a similar challenge. Filters cannot distinguish harmful content from benign within the same trusted domain. I'd love to advocate

114for whitelisting, but I understand that it's really not a practical approach. But we can't accept the status quo. I'd like to ask each of you directly, how much exposure to harmful content is acceptable? How much pornography is too much? Because it's impossible to unsee things. And we're talking about the most impressionable segment of our population. And we are contributing, however, unintentionally, to some of the most corrosive forces in our society. And I have not even raised the issue of our artificial intelligence. AI enabled cheating is expanding daily and our current infrastructure has no meaningful answer to it. You've heard many good points tonight. I would encourage the district to take a serious look at reducing usage of technology in our schools. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Chris. Um, and uh, a I

115want to thank you all for listening to us. I was not planning on getting up and speaking tonight. Um, but I just wanted to back up what everyone who spoke before me said and uh, thank them for speaking in their points and I just want to tell you there's a huge contingent of parents out there who feel the same uh, about wanting phones out of the school and a bell, you know, a bell-to-bell policy. you know, these schools should be a free like a safe haven for our kids without having that phone on their mind tugging on them or other people showing them stuff or feeling like they have to be using their phone to fit in and checking stuff. Um uh yeah, just want to make that clear. And then um again, as I

116wasn't going to talk, but this whole talk about edtech, I have a sister who has a senior in high school right now and uh it's just funny. And she'll tell a story when she was first looking for schools, private schools in Chicago for her my niece. Um she used to go to these schools and interviewing them and always saying, "Well, what's your technology policy?" Always like wanting to hear like, "Well, we're at the cutting edge of it. We have this in the classroom and that." And she thought that was like the way to go and the greatest thing. And I just want to say like now my niece is finishing up school in a total different district. Um, and now when my sister would like interview schools that she was going to send her kids,

117she asked about the technology policy, but she any school that starts like bragging about what they have, she just, you know, shuts it away. She wants schools that don't have this edtech because she sees what it does do to the kids. Um, and along that line, you know, I'm kind of appalled that like my third and fifth graders have, you know, Chromebooks they have to take to and from school. Uh, so just thank you again for listening and know that there's a lot of parents out there that feel the same. >> Are we allowed to ask questions? >> There's a card if you have a question to ask and it'll be followed up on. Sorry. There there are cards over here by the entrance. If you fill those out, you'll get an email response. >>

118If you send an email, okay, any other comments before we wrap up? >> Uh Bruce Slater from 140 Skyler Circle. Uh there's four items that weren't voted on today that was on the agenda last week. one involving a track team, two involving the the crew team and one uh something about Sharksburg W Ca. >> Those are in the curriculum and instruction section of the agenda. >> Why aren't they separated? >> Yeah, if they're separated, then you know what's going on better. All right. Uh I'm from a different era everybody here but uh my my conclusion all along has been I think it's too much technology. It should be more paperwork you know for the kids and homework. Um look at the history of this country. A lot of the in creative inventions started occurring in

119the 1820s to about maybe uh 1980 or something like that and there was no computers around. And in fact, back back in the 1800s, most of the teachers uh didn't have much more than eighth grade education, but they uh they uh taught the kids to think, how to solve problems. And that's what we need to have in this in this country, in the school district. you know, teaching them how to analyze, taking information from different sources, not just one source different and concluding something uh about it. Uh what whatever the subject is because um I'm not uh totally an advocate of computers at all. Although I did a a project in college that uh I didn't have a degree yet have any kind I developed something was computers and I wish I had a patent

120on it. Two professors tried uh to and they took it and when I explained how I did it to the federal government to got a sizable contract just to prove themselves. If it worked, they they would have been big bucks, you know, big big corporation. They failed. Didn't matter if they had a PhD. They couldn't make it work. They didn't have a analytical situation, common sense idea to develop ideas because I I have done that all my life. I'm not an architect, but I I came up with the the layout of the high school rebuilt. I'm not a I can't swim. I taught my kids to swim. I officiated swimming and did a 80 or 90 to 95 different colleges, different schools many times sometimes college and I saw something in 1993 uh my kids

121were doing something they were 11 years old at the time and uh I I brought it up at a meeting in pit. I said what happens if we see this because I saw this at a national meet in a 50 meter pole. Oh. Oh, we can't call it. So they took Colorado Springs, then they took it to the International Committee and rewrote it. You know, I I I I it's teaching people how to figure things out, solutions, you know, >> your time if you can wrap up, please. All right. But I've done a lot a lot of other things like that too, you know, but it wasn't even in the design codes and I've come up with stuff that they had later that was started and design codes were started in 1880s and uh but

122I had personal experiences you know. >> Thank you. Any other comments this evening? Okay. Upcoming public meetings, we have uh the budget forum on April 6th. That will be held at 6 p.m. Uh also, April 6th will be the board discussion meeting at 7:30 p.m. Uh April 13th is the regular meeting at 7:30. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second.