001Good evening. Today is Monday, March 9th, 2026. It is 7:30 p.m. We are here live in D205. Um, roll call, please. >> Mrs. Berdick >> here. Dr. Campaniro >> here. >> Mr. Clocky >> here. >> Mrs. CrarAel here. >> Miss Fleer here. >> Mrs. Gellman here. >> Miss Given here. Mr. Hoffman >> here. >> Reverend Dr. Strauss. That is eight members present. >> Thank you, Miss Walters. Um, first up, we will have a presentation uh for secondary science. >> Good evening, uh, members of the board. Thank you so much for having us tonight. For those of you who don't know, I'm Joel Thompson. I'm the principal of the high school. I'm also the cooperating principal for the science department. I have the privilege of working closely with our science teachers and with our science department
002chair, Mrs. Nikki Juver. Um, one thing I know for certain, and I think you'll see it tonight, but I know from certain from working with these individuals, that they care first and foremost about their students, but also about their content very, very much. Um, our teachers uh make sure that our curriculum is uh relevant, it's engaging, and it's rigorous. So the work that Mrs. Juver will share tonight reflects uh the kind of thoughtful curriculum work that we look to have at Mount Lebanon. Our teachers approached it with a seriousness of purpose, carefully considering the standards, the student experience, and uh how we continuously improve instruction across the department. So Mrs. Joover is feeling a bit under the weather as uh I'm sure you'll hear in a minute, but she's here and ready to present. So
003I'll allow her uh to do the majority of the talking. He's a little bit taller than me. Sorry. This is my voice. Uh, I'm Nikki Jover. I teach both uh chemistry and forensic science at the high school. Um, I also coach softball, which is where I just came from on a beautiful day on our field. It was amazing. Um, but anyways, we're going to talk about science today. Um, and you're going to hear me talk about three main fields. Uh, we go through physical science, life science, and environmental geoscience. That's kind of how our curriculum is built and it cycles through that K through 12. So you'll hear me talk through that uh a lot as we progress through here. But the one thing and I want to preface this by saying these have been
004our this has been our philosophy even prior to these new standards. So we kind of had a philosophy that the new standards were built to which was kind of nice. Um so we always focus on evidence. A statement without evidence means nothing. Um and that's in every it's not just science that that matters what you know in any career path that these children take that is something that will you know be important to them. So we always are looking at can you interpret this evidence what does it mean support your statements with evidence. So that's first and foremost collaboration and real world problems. That's another big part. Again in life you have to work collaborative with collaboratively with people whether you like to or not. And the end goal is we have to solve these
005real world problems. So that's another one of our big focuses. And then finally scientific literacy. Scientific literacy is, you know, in this day and age with AI and every other aspect of the internet and anything else that you have, knowledge is at your fingertips. So memorizing facts is a thing of the past. It's can you apply that knowledge and do good things with it. And that's where scientific literacy comes in. So that is our third uh pillar that we try to build upon. So that's kind of the philosophy behind our um science program. the sequence through K through 12 um is really again like I said the cyclic sequence that just keeps going through these same three main overarching concepts. So in K through 5 which I was uh lucky enough to sit with Dr.
006Ramsey u when he was picking that curriculum and see what they picked. It's an amazing curriculum. Um, and it covers physical life and the environmental geoscience which is the same that we do starting in sixth grade again. Uh, where they cycle through that. They'll take a sixth grade uh life I mean geoscience class uh environmental geoccience class and then we go into seventh grade which is life science eighth grade physics and then at the high school we start over again where in now you have a physical science in nth grade where it's chemistry and then you go into biology and then environmental geoscience and then a plethora of electives. So it's this reinforcement of the same cyclic process over and over again. Um obviously the content changes and the you know the depth of which
007we cover the material is different but you can see that it's um a lot of information especially when you get to our electives. Our electives um are a there's a lot um you can start taking AP electives as early as in ninth grade um with our curriculum. Uh physics electives are the earliest electives that can be taken and then you can start AP chem in 10th grade so on and so forth. Um but you can see again we have them classified into the three subcategories and again some of them do overlap because nothing in science is in a vacuum and there are overarching concepts between them. Um we have a lot of electives we're in the process of writing some more currently which will come to curriculum council in the spring that we're super excited
008about. So um we always try to you know take the students feedback and build these electives based upon their needs. Um, so when we kind of got put and you'll hear us talk a little bit about the curriculum cycle here in a minute, but we kind of got put into the curriculum cycle because of where the standards when the standards got taken over. 2526 was the new steel science standards. So we had to kind of move ahead and get rolling on that in advance of um us actually, you know, getting put into the first stages of the curriculum cycle that we now have here, which Dr. Thompson will talk about in a minute. But the old science standards compared to the new science standards you're going to see kind of model our philosophy of science.
009The old standards were very knowledgebased facts. Can you regurgitate this information? They were also kind of on their own like planet like everything was kind of separate. Well, now engineering, science, technology, environmental sustainability is all lumped into one large overarching theme which falls into the steel standards. So we kind of went from this segmented to the integrated and we went from knowledge to application and that's kind of what our philosophy in science always has been here. So uh it was almost like them catching up with us in some regards and now I'm not going to say we didn't have to tweak anything because we did and I'll talk about that in a little bit. But again uh sustainability was one of the big focuses uh in these new steel standards. So that's where a lot
010of our focus went. And the design process, that was another thing that we spent a lot of time. How do we get more design into our science curriculum uh because like I said, a lot of the other stuff we already had. >> So I'm going to let Dr. Thompson talk about this one. >> Yeah. So our our review cycle is something that I think uh I'm I'm very pleased that we've moved to. Uh it's not a one-time approach. It is an ongoing cyclical process where we are trying to look at the most relevant data. if there's a standards change or something like that. Um, make sure that we're taking feedback from stakeholders and then implementing changes and then importantly continuing to assess whether or not those changes were effective. So, one of the things I
011think we've done really well and I appreciate Dr. Freeze's leadership, Dr. Davis, Dr. Shulo, and she mentioned Dr. Ramsey. Uh, you're going to see we've worked with K to2 through the science curriculum in particular as these changes were implemented. um trying to make sure we understand what is going on vertically in our organization so that the expectations that we're going to have for students when they reach our highest level classes in their senior year we can backwards plan that uh through our elementary program. So I think that's been something that our our review process will continue to help us with but something uh Mrs. Juver did a great job working with Mr. Ram or Dr. Ramsey, excuse me, uh and with our our district leadership has really supported that effort. So, >> so, um, I'm
012actually going to kind of, so year one was a lot of, you know, pre-planning to get these. We knew these standards were coming. How were we going to make sure that we were implementing them? Um, and one of the things, uh, actually I kind of started a year before this. Dr. Davis gave me the opportunity to go to a book study at the AIU, uh, which was all about the steel standards. Um, and it was, uh, a great experience. Um, it was actually a book about the standards, which sounds really dull and boring, but the nice thing about it is we I was able to use that resource because it like took each standard and explained it in layman's terms because sometimes when they write these standards, they make them sound all fancy and then
013you're like, what do they actually want? And this book did that. Um, so it was a great resource that we ended up using throughout. So that was even prior to year one. Um, then in year one, we attended more uh I attended more trainings at the AIU. I got to work with, you know, comparator districts and some districts that weren't quite where we were and we learned a lot from each other. Um, the one thing that we had going for us that a lot of districts didn't is we already had environmental geoscience embedded into our curriculum and most school districts don't offer that and that's like our capstone course. So, we were kind of ahead in that regard. Um, but like I said, we still had to make some tweaks and so on and so
014forth. So, that's where we looked at this. We did a lot of problem based learning there and a lot of phenomena based learning and they showed us how to implement this at all levels. I mean I focused on 6 through 12 because that's what I do but um they also went through elementary stuff so I did get to see some of that too. So it was kind of nice. Um our next step was a gap analysis and we're science teachers so we like spreadsheets. I took every standard and put it on a spreadsheet. took every course and every teacher of every course and said, "Do we cover these in your course?" And they had checkboxes. So, every standard we went through, we looked for where are these check boxes? Uh where are they not? And
015where there weren't checkboxes is where we had to start looking, okay, where can we put this or do we teach it somewhere else? Like um like I said, technolog is big in this. So, we had we talked to our tech department. Uh we Dr. Davis and I and Dr. Thompson contacted the state at one point for clarification about eighth grade standards and how they fit into this whole thing. So we kind of did this gap analysis and found out where we were short and then we went back to the drawing board, highlighted it all, had it all, you know, figured out and then we decided where we were going to put it. That was the next step. >> That gap analysis really to the work. I had a lot of principles reaching out and envious
016of the foresight of our district for years ahead being ahead of the curve which is something we're certainly proud of but it was also important for us to recognize that yes we've been doing a certain part of this but where where aren't we meeting those standards now and Mrs. Juber did a great job and really the teachers led that work of where is it where isn't it and how can we make sure that we're we're meeting the standards they are today. So, we were fortunate in a lot of ways to work in a cutting edge district, one that was 15 years, 20 years ahead of of where these standards were, but this gap analysis was huge to us being able to really identify what's the granular work that we needed to do so we could
017make those adjustments so our students were best prepared for our new skill standards. >> Um, and then in year two here, we are starting or we started to again start to implement this stuff. So, we had to uh get each subgroup together cuz in science we're kind of subgroup based. Um, and we had to make sure that they were all on the same page, all going to deliver a similar curriculum, make sure everyone agreed and this is, you know, these new things we're going to implement and try and see how it goes. Um, and you know, we have to continually revise that curriculum. We do that anyways. I mean, that's something that we're always looking to do, but we had to make sure that the sequence was in line. And again, we had to do
018this. We just got a new sixth grade curriculum to update to these standards. I don't know if I mentioned that before. I don't think I did. But we did get a new sixth grade curriculum that meets these standards that matches very nicely with the elementary curriculum. Our physics uh curriculum, our physical science curriculum for the middle school is also relatively new. So again, we had a lot of this already in place and it was just a matter of tweaking and moving and seeing how we were going to revise this to add the engineering, the sustainability and this problem based learning uh to it and design. Design was one of the bigger things. Um but if you're familiar, if you have any children that have gone through here, one of the big projects in the middle
019school is the designing of a house. Um that project is huge and meets a ton of these standards. um when we talk about that to other districts, they're extremely jealous of that being in place here. So then it was uh crosscurricular representation and adoption. Again, we had to make sure that um our progression met from K12. So now that we have this curriculum council where we get to meet K12, we have the opportunity to talk with our elementary peers and make sure that we're still aligned and still going in the same direction. Uh so that's critical. That's something that we hadn't had for a long time. So, that's a great addition. Um, and again, we have actually with Libo Summit, it's another great opportunity for us to uh meet with our elementary colleagues when their
020new curriculum um was being implemented. The high school and middle school teachers without even me having to ask, volunteered to go to those those elementary sessions to make sure we knew what was going on there. So we do love the opportunity to to build this from uh K12. >> The courses if you remember back to our course offerings and we have very high level programs that we are trying to get students ready for. So you know having missteps or misalignment really makes it challenging for those teachers in the highest level AP courses to have kids prepared to succeed. So this K12 vertical articulation is hugely important to us. being as efficient as we can with our time and ensuring that students are maximizing their learning opportunities that um and that's kind of the same thing
021that we were just talking about there. That's what Dr. Thompson was just mentioning. Um so now year three again it's all about you know it's in full implementation as we have implemented this curriculum and we're working through it. We make notes in each course. We have documents where we're like okay this went well. This is where we think we need to tweak some stuff. Um, we are really going to need to wait on some standardized test scores from PSSAs and Keystones to get some formal data there. Uh, we looked at our final exams and our midterms, but we're going to need a couple years of, again, science is all about data. We need to collect a couple years of data to see where we are. One year, as you know, is not sufficient to give
022you a a great trend. So, again, we'll modify and adjust as this data tells us that we need to. And we're fortunate. Nikki's been a great department chair for many years. She's got spreadsheets going back 15 10 15 years. >> Spreadsheets, >> midterms, final exams. So, we have a wealth of information that is easily accessible that's really going to help us be able to to determine the success or lack thereof of these changes so that we can adjust the cuts. >> It's like a a competition in our department. Who can make the most obscure spreadsheet? And you know, you should see the Keystone ones. They're pretty impressive. Um, but again, it will be ongoing data analysis and standard-based reflection. And we're curious. We haven't seen the new state tests yet for this year. So, we're
023very curious to see those and see if what we thought is what they write. And that will be to be determined. And if it's not, we'll readjust. And if it is, great. But that's kind of >> and the the Firefly is an assessment that came from the Keystone this year to help us assess. It's a supposed to be a predictor of student success on the Keystone exams, specifically biology. This is the first year they've ever done the biology Firefly. So, they're kind of saying, can you take it for us to help get them a data set? Um, but without any actual student, no student has taken the test after taking the Firefly for biology yet. So it's more of a guess from the state than anything else, but we're using that. We're also using PASS
024data um which gives a projection of how based on their 3 through 8 PSSA testing how they would anticipate the student doing on the test. So we have multiple measures that we're using in addition um to some of our localized assessments. >> Yeah. And so we're going to like I said continue to revise pacing so on and so forth. One of the biggest things again that we focused on to just give you an idea of where we made the biggest changes was our labs instead of cookie cutter labs. You write the procedure. You tell us what you're going to do. Now that procedure might need to be approved so we don't do any harm to the building or themselves but you know we do work I mean chemistry and stuff like that can get dangerous.
025So we do have to approve it but let them design it. So we try to add this design piece and always data analysis. most of these the the trend with the keystones and the PSSAs has been in the past few years way less about content and way more can you interpret this data and tell us what it means and that's kind of the process of we've what we've tried to do on our test again it's less about uh regurgitation and memorization and all that stuff you don't need that anymore you have that in your pocket at all times so it's can you apply this to a new situation and make good of it and that's kind of the the the thought process behind how we developed our curriculum There it goes, Art. >> So again,
026I want to thank Mrs. Juber and all of our science teachers for the work that they've done. Um, they really have taken it very servant. I know you're all aware of this, but our teachers, they do really see themselves and they are experts in the field, not only in the content, but in teaching. And so when you bring that together and they're at the forefront of assessing curriculum, making decisions about what we teach and how we can best align it uh to the standards, that's when good things happen for kids. And that's why we've had such a successful track record and we'll continue to do so. So thank you for the time. Um there's any questions or >> Thank you so much. I don't have a question, but there are three things that really stood
027out to me. So one um was data. Second was student representation and then third was the cross level representation and I cannot tell you how important all three of those are and I'm really excited to hear that the students are involved. Um so I cannot wait to hear the electives that they're thinking about and thank you so much for being so intentional with the the data to make sure that we are you know in step with our students and making sure that they have what they need as well as connecting with everyone. So thank you. Can I ask a question? Thank you. Um, my kids love you. So, um, the science curriculum here is awesome. And as you, as you mentioned, the environmental geoscience has been a capstone, I think, going back 15 years, like
028when it was new and different and something no one else is doing. And most high schools don't do it. Like they they have the environmental science, they have the AP, but not the like the capstone junior year class. I guess knowing that I'm trying to figure out my question but knowing that there's only certain number of periods in the day have there has there been consideration how do you look at it as a department in regard to physics because it becomes the extra science it becomes where are we going to fit it how are we going to take higher level physics courses and I'm just really interested in knowing how that how that comes from your side >> yeah so that's part of the reason that we started the physics first curriculum um in middle
029school. Now, I it's a conceptual physics course. I get it's not a high level physics course, but it's an introduction. So, those kids that find an interest in engineering hopefully can determine that in 8th grade. Now, maybe not, but they can then take any of those elective physics courses as early as 9th grade. So, they do have the opportunity to take that physics as any at any point. Um physics has never been a required course here. Um, I know that the way it used to be set up where we had ninth grade, it it's goes way back, but we had like ninth grade was earth science or biology and then some people inherently went into physics, but our we have um I forget what the percentage is. I have that data somewhere. I have it
030somewhere, but the amount of students that leave this high school taking physics, Dr. Davis, do you know off the top of your head? >> Um, it's high. Most students leave this building with taking another physics course upon that. So, I don't necessarily see it as an issue right now. Um, I think we provide like, you know, I would love to have four years of science. I mean, if it if I had a wish list, I want four years of science for every kid. Um, but I understand why that that's I mean that that's not a thing. Um, because people have other interests, you know, and so I think, you know, the best that we can do is open up as many opportunities as possible for them to get into one. >> Yeah. I mean, I
031I would say two things. But obviously the state has a three-year requirement. So there's choices that then come in that happens. >> I think the the benefit though is we're allowing choice to drive the decision for families. So if physics is an interest, we have academic physics and honors physics, multiple AP physics. So there are many different ways to be able to engage the physics curriculum if you as a family, as a child, if that is an interest for you. And as as Nikki said, um they are all getting it eighth grade. um you know not as is conceptual physics but it is something that I think you know when you have to make choices it's best to kind of leave that choice to families in a lot of ways when there's that opportunity and
032they are making that choice many times over our science department is one that even though there's not a three-year requirement like four excuse me a four-year requirement for the vast majority of students are taking doubling up on sciences or at least taking four years so the choice is being made because you know the curricul Ulum is strong, the teachers are strong, it is uh students are making that choice this >> I can actually give you that number. Right now we have 191 2017 students enrolled in science for next year which is more than are in the high school. So a lot of kids are doubling up >> about 175 right now is the number of kids in the high school. So that just gives you a sense without a fourear requirement how many kids are
033taking that much the amount of science we're taking. >> I have a couple um thoughts to share with you. one from personal experience, but I have a child who chose to and was allowed to audit the AP uh one of the AP classes as a senior instead of taking it for credit because she didn't have necessarily all of those. She she discovered science later. In other words, she didn't have all of those. And that has set her up fabulously, just the ability to audit. um of course if she had all the other um all the other requirements for graduation taken care of um to set her up for future studies. So I was pleased that um we petitioned and asked for that and that it was granted but also to know that that feedback is
034that um down the line in college that was a that was a really good choice for her and and maybe an option um to really open that up. um let other seniors know that perhaps they could do that. Um another thought um we've had ninth grade chemistry, 10th grade biology for a long time. Other schools don't do that and they they reverse those two. What's the thought on um is it going into like chemistry has a lot to do with biology so that is a a foundation for then life science. Is that where that's coming from or do you have other words for that? >> Yeah. No. So, chemistry starts with the atom, the building blocks of matter. So, it's the smallest piece of matter. Biology is molecules and macroolelecules and larger. So, we we're
035just going from the small to the macro. Um, and it really does allow you to teach biology on a different level, which is beneficial for the keystone. And the way that biology is today, it's not really biology anymore. It's microbiology and um it's also biochemistry and that's what the AP bio gets into. So, it's kind of that progression um that just seems from a scientific basis to make more sense. >> Um and the last one is were there um curriculum needs that were identified for that we need to budget for in your process? >> No. Um we did not need any additional funding to implement anything that we needed to do. Um, I'm a college biology uh instructor and a biochemist by training. Um, I agree. I think chemistry should be should be first and
036it makes a lot easier to teach molecular biology for sure. Um, so, uh, from that perspective, I just wanted to say that I think that the way we're approaching science is, um, very much in line with and preparing students for, um, the way that they need to be able to think, um, when they get to a college classroom if they're interested in in biology or, you know, any science. Um, I love that students are getting the opportunity in a high school classroom to design their own experiments. Um I think you know they're that's not going to be something that they'll do until later in college uh typically within a major. So coming in with that experience is going to be very beneficial for students. Um and then the other thing I wanted to comment on
037is um you know the work on collaboration and real real world problems I think is uh from this is a personal personal anecdote but uh I think has been life-changing for um my high schooler right now because of a real world problem that they're uh being asked to to solve in environmental geoccience um that is allowing him to bring in his interest in physics and course work in physics and in um calculus as well um that led him to completely change uh how he's thinking about his future. So um in addition to helping students to think across disciplines and how things are related um it gives them an opportunity to see uh different career paths uh for them. So I think this is great work. Thank you. >> The silos is the future certainly is
038not silo and the real world is not silo and so continuing to look for opportunities for authentic learning experiences for students naturally breaks down those silos. It's not possible to just say we're only doing this when it's not that experience. You have to pull in so many different skills, knowledge, competencies. And by doing that, that really forces them to be flexible. So, we continue to to work do as much as we can. >> Um, I have a brief question. Um, you talked about the progression from more like wrote memorization of facts to deeper engagement with the content, which I think is awesome. Um, I'm thinking about it kind of in parallel to the way that we took cursive out of schools and now we're bringing it back in because later we see the benefit of
039it. So, in your expertise, how do you see students retaining those facts as they're engaging more deeply like as the primary focus of the class is deeper engagement? Do you see that not memorization but that retention of the specific facts or like periodic table elements, things like that? Right. That's a big one, especially for me who teaches honors chemistry is the periodic table. We used to make them memorize a certain number of elements. To be quite honest, we've gotten away from that because once you use them over and over again, they get to know the ones that they need to know. And we used to make them memorize them. Not because it was important because you always gave them a periodic table anyways, but because speed. We can get through this faster. If you if
040you can, you know, find this on the periodic table, you can answer more questions on a test. you could but we have like moved away from even that train of thought. It's not about how many questions you can answer on a test, but it's how can you answer these questions on a test? How deep can you answer this? How, you know, not just a surface level answer, but like here's my answer. Here's the data that supports that. Here's where I would go next. So that's kind of what we started doing. So I think inherently the important things the the the what like you're talking about are still things that they kind of know without forcing them to. So, it kind of takes that like I'm going to give you a test on these, you know,
04135 elements. You're going to have to spell their name. Like, no, it takes that pressure off, but I every one of my students can tell me where oxygen is, what is atomic, like without, you know, and the ones that we use every day. So, I think we just kind of inherently do that without drawing attention to it. >> I also was a biochemist. So, I >> I was going to add to that. I tell my students, >> super helpful explanation. >> It's like learning a language and you have to learn the language before you can use the language. And so there is some memorization early on that is necessary. How you do that varies not to take over your presence. >> Right. No. Right. Exactly. Like naming chemical compounds is a is a big thing.
042Like you have to know the rules to name a chemical compound because it eventually becomes like reading. >> Like the end goal is to be able to read this fluently. >> So it is like a language. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you both so much. Thank you. Thanks. I now want to come and take a science course. So, Dr. Thompson, just go ahead and sign me up. >> Okay, we do. Next, we do have two items tonight that we have to vote on. Um, that would be our facilities improvement grant as well as um a matter in the personnel report in regards to our athletic director. So, first we will start with our facilities improvement grant. Approval is requested for Mount Lebanon School District to submit a public school facility improvement grant in the
043amount of $519,000 for a roof restoration project at Melon Middle School. If awarded, the school district's commitment will be 25% match of the total project cost in the amount of $129,750. And I recommend approval of this grant and resolution. Any questions or comments? very excited for this grant. Um, so roll call, please. >> I have a I have a question. Oh, >> procedural. Do we need to open Do we need to take comments on the actions before? >> I'm sorry. I thought we opened with public comment. We can take Yes. >> Sorry. >> For items were voted >> for items that are being voted on. Yes. So, any public comment in regards to the facilities improvement grant or our personnel report in regards to the athletic director? >> Nope. Okay. >> And then I think
044we need to move and second. >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. >> Um, did we do the resolution? Oh, you do that. >> Yep. >> Okay. So, we open questions, comments. Any second? >> Motion a second. Oh, motion for the second. >> My brain will come back. >> Did we motion in the first place? >> No, that's what Yes. >> I just >> Did you make the motion? >> Yes. So, I am making a motion that we um go forth and with the facilities improvement grant. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. We'll get it together. We already said questions and comments. >> Mrs. Berdick >> I >> Dr. Campanero >> I >> Mr. Clocky >> I >> Mrs. Crrael >> I >> Miss Fleer >> I >> Mrs. Gellman >> I >> Miss Given >> I
045>> Mr. Hoffman >> I >> All right thank you I will wake up since we are dealing with the clock change so next up is our human resources personnel report Dr. Freeze. >> The personnel report details personnel appointments, changes in assignment, leaves of absence, resignations, sbaticals, and retirements to be considered by the board. Be resolved that the board approves the personnel report and the form presented. >> Any questions or comments? Okay. Motion, please. >> For second. >> Well, >> I made the motion. Sorry, I made the motion. Okay, I'll second it. >> Thank you. Roll call. >> Mrs. Berdick. >> I. >> Dr. Campanero. >> I. >> Mr. Clocky. >> I. >> Mrs. Crrael. >> I. >> Miss. Fleer. >> I. >> Mrs. Gellman. >> I. >> Miss. Given. >> I. >> Mr. Hoffman. >>
046I. >> All right. Thank you. Back to my regularly scheduled program. I don't like being thrown off. >> So, next up um is policy. As a reminder, we do meet as a full board um previous to uh this meeting to discuss any policy items. I will pass this over to Thank you. So for this month, we have seven policies for adoption. 216.1 supplemental discipline records, 220 student expression dissemination materials, 221 dress and grooming. 222 tobacco and vaping products, 226 searches, 227 controlled substances and paraphernalia, 233 suspension and expulsion. And we're also requesting policy retirements of J JIHA student searches, JIC student drug and alcohol offenses, JJIE use of performance enhancement substances by athletes, and JK suspensions and expulsion. >> Thank you so much. Any questions, comments? Okay, great. Next up, finance. We will start with
047the treasures report. The treasures report reflects cash transactions for the month of February 2026. Any questions or comments? No. Monthly list of bills. The monthly list of bills reflects checks authorized to be drawn between February 12th, 2026 and February 27th, 2026. All checks have been reviewed by the administration. The superintendent recommends approval of this list. Any questions or comments? We didn't do the projected expenditures from the treasures report. >> Oh, do you call that one? >> We can go back to that. Did anybody have any but that's just it's normally when we say the treasures report >> Mrs. Conny's commentary and then there is there is updated information in terms of the projection this month so >> that we haven't had in the in the past. >> Okay, go for it. Okay. Um yes, we
048did do we're really honing in towards this uh you know we're in the third quarter honing into the fourth quarter. Budget managers have been extremely helpful in projecting where they will be at the end of the year. We're trying to project more of a surplus. Um but we've d we had a deep dive into expenses and you'll see some activity in the um personnel and se and benefits area. they kind of wash each other. Even though we are now seeing a little bit of a savings in salaries, uh we are a little bit over budget in our benefits. Um and they kind of netted each other. We can we're seeing uh a possible savings of surplus of 166 in purchase services, 26,000 in outsourcing um our copies. We are no longer doing that. So that
049has stopped and we think that's going to be a $26,000 savings. And um there's some savings in dues and fees. Down in the revenue section, we have um did a deep dive into an analyzing the local, state, and federal revenue. The biggest analysis was on those locals because everything else state and federal are pretty predictable at this point. But um we've seen some increases and decreases in various areas. And um at the end as of the end of February 28th, we're seeing a surplus of $418,000 to be toward to be put towards fund balance. Uh we will revise this March, April, May, and June, but we are definitely projecting a surplus and as we get closer to the end of the school year, this number will likely grow. >> Thank you. I did um have
050a couple questions on on the projections just since we're also thinking ahead um to next year's budget. So, specifically on the um benefits expense, just wondering if those are higher because of some change in um premium or or costs that we were unaware of or are people just electing different kinds of benefits that are more expensive and we need to factor that in. >> Um it's the latter. We when we budgeted those expenses, we looked at three years. every year it could change with families coming on, families going off. Um I do think it's because of the elections of of u new employees coming into the district. >> Excellent. Um and then with the um real estate tax collections lower than expected, that's kind of a bummer to read. It's usually we have really great
051like payment and collection rates. Um I realize we're we're referring those to um council, but is it so it it has nothing to do with um evaluations being lowered. These are these are delinquent taxes that are owed to the district as of February 28th. The this is how much the U Mount Lebanon has collected. they will and that includes whatever came in like that last week in February which we didn't record yet. Um but we do think that the collections will be under budget by about 750,000 and um I have to say I do think it is has to do with the economy and some of the um ability for people to pay. We are now into um moving from the penalty phase to delinquent. These will all be turned over to WBK for collections.
052And if their success rate is like last year's, I do think we will see higher delinquent earnings, but um you know, we've only have had one year of experience, so I'm being fairly conservative. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. Anything else? All right. Budgetary transfers. Budgetary transfers for March total $48,278 for athletic supplies, family consumer science supplies, employment benefits, and vote. The superintendent recommends approval of these transfers. >> Any questions or comments? Okay. List of unusable equipment. The list of unusable equipment includes elementary science kits in fair condition. The superintendent recommends approval of this list. >> Some good stuff in there. Any other questions are coming. >> Just wondering what fair condition means? Like like what could I use this for? >> I'm quite sure. I'm not an elementary kid anymore, but I used to
053when I volunteered like for Valentine's Day, we did experiments, Valentine's Day experiments, but what is what is fair condition? >> Um, I think that they're heavily used and they're incomplete. >> They've been left. >> Some of them are incomplete. >> Well, I know we have a new It's It's because we have a new elementary curriculum, right? And these are Yeah. >> scoured what we could use for K12. >> So, there's nothing left. >> They were really picked apart. What's the last they could use? >> They're at a great price, Dr. Camp Panera. So, if you choose to, just let us know. >> I'm glad that the district found the items that they could get. >> Oh, any questions or comments? >> No. All right. AIOU program of services budget. The administration recommends that the board
054approve the proposed 2026 2027 Alagany intermediate unit program of services budget in the amount of 2,431,488. The Alageney County AIU3 School District's total contribution to this budget is $2,42,623. The Mount Lebanon School District's contribution to the program of services budget is estimated to be $90,255 compared to $85,249 in 2526. The district's final withholding allocation will be based on the district aid ratio and weighted average daily membership. The withholding allocations will be der be determined by the Pennsylvania Department of Education sometime after July 1, 2026. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Okay. Next, we have the resolution for reduction of professional staff for economic reasons. Uh just to uh give a reminder to some of our community members or anyone that's new to this uh this is something that we have done for the past three
055years. It is a fail safe. We do not have an intention um to furlow any of our staff. This is something that they have been notified about as well. And uh Dr. Freeze, I believe you plan on doing so again. >> Yeah, absolutely. So for the last few years, we've utilized this as a way to ensure that if we are unable to um meet the requirements of the budget by reductions and attrition and um reducing costs that we are protected and permitted to do furloss if necessary. It is never our intent to furlow. It is our intent to look at what we have and to make decisions that are best for the school district. This is something that we inform the um staff of and then on Monday they will receive an overview um that
056kind of summarizes what we talk about in the board meetings and then also the base budget an overview of that. Thank you so much. Any questions or comments? Okay, moving on into curriculum and instruction uh agreement with the Navigate 360. The superintendent recommends approval of the sales agreement with Navigate 360 for the campus 360ear subscription for their emergency management suite platform and wearable panic buttons at the cost of $65,000 per year with a one-time year 1 cost of $55,000. This agreement is contingent upon approval of our PCCD grant. >> Thank you so much. Any questions or comments? >> So, one question is, you know, you've got the one-year cost for the startup. If we go beyond the three years, would we need to reinvest in those? >> We we would need to renegotiate for additional
057time after the three years, right? >> The 65,000 stays for year 1, two, and three, though. But would would there be a possibility that you would be able to reuse some of those fixed costs like the cameras and >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. The the one the year one startup the 55,000 I do believe is infrastructure that we could use if we extended the service. >> Great. Thank you. >> Anything else? All right. Thank you so much. Next we have crowdfunding approval requests for the Blue Devil Club uh for high school track and field. So, the board has asked to approve a request from the Blue Devil Club in the high school track and field to crowdfund and support equipment, apparel, and supplemental track needs. Uh, the superintendent is recommending approval of this request. >>
058Any questions or comments? >> Okay. Mount Lebanon crew team trip to Milford, Michigan. The board has asked to approve a request for the Mount Lebanon crew team to travel to Milford Milford, Michigan from May 8th to the 10th, 2026 to participate in the Midwest Scholastic Rowing Championship. Students will miss one day of school and are responsible for the cost of the trip and the superintendent is recommending approval of this trip. >> Any questions or comments? Um, one more trip for the crew team to Oakidge, Tennessee. >> Yeah. So this one is for the students that qualify in Michigan. They have to be able to go to Tennessee. So the board has asked to approve a request for the Mount Lebanon crew team to travel to Oakidge, Tennessee from May 21st to the 24th, 2026 to
059participate in the Scholastic National Rowing Championship regata pending their qualification. Students will miss two days of school and are responsible for the cost of the trip and the superintendent are recommending approval of this trip as well. >> Any questions or comments? Okay. Agreement with Wiska Sharpsburg. This is a request for the board to approve an agreement with the Watson Institute Social Center for Academic Achievement, Wiska Sharpsburg, for the replacement of a student with special education needs for the remainder of the 2526 school year. The annual cost of is 65,219 will be prrated. The superintendent recommends approval of this agreement. >> Any questions or comments? Okay, moving on to questions or comments from residents. This public comment period is open to residents and taxpayers regarding matters of concern, official action, or deliberation which are or may
060be before the board. All commenters should begin by stating their name. Comments are limited to three minutes and we will notify commenters when their time has expired. Questions requiring follow-up will be deferred to the administration for later response. Comments by public participants are their own and should not be assumed to be the statements of the district. The Mount Lebanon School District is committed to providing a safe, inclusive, and welcoming school environment that recognizes and celebrates the diverse identities within our community so everyone feels a sense of belonging. Do we have um any members here that would like to speak? Uh Bruce Slater from 140 Sky Circle. Yeah, I was just talking to Paul Barno before the school if I missed anything in the last three months because I was busy with basketball. Um he was
061mentioning about the the 16th of last month and I I couldn't remember one game data from another but all of a sudden came back to me. It was packed that day for two games. Well, one first one was a girls game and boys game and it wasn't in my 11 teams at all, but uh it was the biggest crowd for a girls team I've ever seen. And it just too bad we didn't have more seating. But we needed more parking, she said. when we were planning the school, we needed 500 uh parking spaces and we were maxed out there and we couldn't even put make another parking spot. Then um one thing uh I back in the day you quite a few years ago now I was a chaperon for u trips for crew team
062quite a few trips and um I don't know um Dr. Davis I don't know we always we learned till I leave about late in the day late in the night early the kids slept on the bus so they're ready to go the next day save the uh the cost of uh hotel but but also the kids were more um ready to to perform then too because they slept on the bus. Um uh the other thing um about chemistry uh I kind of I grew up on a farm and I I did a lot of experimenting and everybody knows about the ammonium nitrate. Um two ships in Galveston Harbor blew up about 110 years ago. Killed about 1,500 each time. And um another ship blew up in I think it was Cypress maybe 10 years ago.
063Killed a lot of people then too. And also the um Oklahoma City federal building. And my my dad always said I I asked him, "Well, why do we put lime in the and the fertilizer on the fields?" He said, "Well, to get develop a chemical reaction." And so, yeah. So, I got a cup, put some uh fertiliz ammonium nitrate, and there was other stuff in it, too. Put some lime in, nothing. Put some water in, it just fizzed everywhere. So, I was always experimenting growing up. Find out why skunk cabbage was called skunk cabbage. I pulled out a pocket knife, kept cutting away, got down in the heart, found out, you know, science, you know, I was I was learning something all the time. And uh but anyway, um one thing um I I like
064to see >> actually at time. I'm sorry. Thank you for your comment, though. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Anyone else? Okay. Our next public meeting will be held here in the same room March 16th, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So move. >> Second. All right.