001Good evening and welcome to the regular meeting of the Mount Lebanon Board of School Directors. It's Monday, September 5th, 2025 and we're present in the uh in room 2, sorry, we are present in room D205 of the Mount Lebanon High School and also online via Zoom. Uh before we begin, we'd like to invite some friends from Washington Elementary to lead us in introduce themselves and lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Good evening and everyone. My name is Riley Spigglemire and I'm in fourth grade at Washington Elementary School. I'm excited to introduce some of my friends who are here to help you. From third grade, we have Christian Popson, Emma Redhead, and Zoe Louis Spectra. and for first grade AA redhead. This has been the best start to the school year ever. Here are some
002highlights so far. Our fifth grade cereal drive is stacking boxes higher than most of us are tall. We had our annual garden party which is pretty fancy. We even had stones and gelato. And now we're getting ready for hair Harry Potter read. I just hope reading doesn't make us grow a wizard beard. On behalf of all 386 students at Washington, thank you for having us here tonight. It is now time for the pledge of allegiance. Please stand and salute. 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. >> Great job, guys. how we'll take it from that. [Music] >> Thank you for sharing and good luck with the readathon. >> Roll call, please.
003>> Mrs. Berdick, >> here. >> Mrs. Crrael, here. >> Ms. Fleer here. Mrs. Gellman, >> here. >> Miss Gensel, >> here. Miss Guth here. >> Mr. Hoffman >> here. Miss Johnson >> here. >> Mr. Wland >> here. >> Mr. Adams >> here. >> Miss Antonune >> here. >> All members are present. >> Excellent. I move that it be resolved that the board approves the minutes of the discussion meeting held on August 11th, 2025 and the regular meeting held on August 18th, 2025. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed or abstensions? Okay. We're now up to the section of our agenda for board reports. First up is my report. Um, just to highlight a few of the things that have been going on in the school district since we started school a
004few weeks ago. Uh, we are proud to announce that 10 of our Mount Lebanon uh, students have been recognized as semi- finalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Approximately 16,000 students across the country were named semi- finalists and have the opportunity to continue in the competition for some 6,930 national merit scholarships worth approximately $26 million that will be offered next spring. Our national merit scholarship program semi-finalists are um here with us tonight. And if they would stand when I read their names um I think most of them are here. Katherine Ding, Alexander Fu, Emma Cutotler, Vivian Lowe, Samuel Maxum, Jonathan Ramachandran, Benjamin Tan, Samuel Wetzel, Jerry U, and August Sentner uh to be considered for the merit scholarship award. These semi-finalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the
005competition. About 95% of semi-finalists are expected to attain finalist standing and approximately half of them will win a national merit scholarship earning the merit schol scholar title. So congratulations to all of you and we can take a picture. You can get in the front. >> It's like where Melissa go. All right. >> Thank you. [Applause] Um, other highlights. Mount Lebanon High School has earned the top spot in the Pittsburgh metro area in the US News and World Report 2025 2026 best high school rankings. Additionally, Mount Lebanon High School was reci recognized among the nation's top high schools in the US News and World Report 2025 2026 rankings and number one in the Pittsburgh PA metro area high schools, number seven in Pennsylvania high schools, number 102 in STEM high schools, number 433 in national rankings,
006and the highest ranked US public schools in US News and World Reports 2025 2026 best High school rankings are those whose students demonstrated outstanding outcomes above expectations in math, readings, reading, and science state assessments, earned qualifying scores in an array of college level exams, and graduated in high proportions. Uh we're also happy to announce that two members of the Future Business Leaders of America chapter at Mount Lebanon High School proudly represented their schools at the FBLA National Leadership Conference held at the end of June in Anaheim, California. Henry Mitchell from the class of 2027 and Michelle Zu from the class of 2026 advanced to the national stage after excelling in earlier rounds of competition. To qualify, both students first won at the regional level, then placed in the top four at the state level, competing
007against dozens of students from across Pennsylvania. At nationals, both students showcased their knowledge and skills through challenging events. Michael competed in a live presentation event, data analysis, while Henry participated in supply chain management, a testbased event. And as we do every month, we'd like to highlight some items from this the inclusivity calendar for September. On September 1st, we celebrated Labor Day, a federal holiday that honors the American labor movement and the contributions that workers have made to society. On September 11th, we commemorated Patriot Day, honoring brave Americans who met the terror of September 11th with extraordinary acts of courage and sacrifice. And today, September 15th, kicks off Hispanic Heritage Month, the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Lasting until October 15th, the this month celebrates
008the histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. And that concludes my report. Uh, next up we have our superintendent report. >> Thank you, Mrs. Glacier. So, this past month has been pretty busy as we kicked off the beginning of a new school year. Since the last meeting in August, we walked to school with families from all of our elementary schools, which is always a lot of fun. held our first PTA meeting of the year, opened our new emotional support classroom at Lincoln Elementary, kicked off the process for designing our new website, launched Libo ID, single sign on and centralized student registration using the student information system platform to streamline the experience for our families. Welcome student teachers from across the region and
009honored Patriot Day with a ceremony led by Markham students. The second half of my presentation today is actually going to be delivered by Mr. Grogan. If Mr. Grogan wants to come up for the presentation, he will be presenting on athletics. [Music] >> Good to go. Well, good evening everybody. Sort of like Mike Tyson, you know. Um, appreciate everybody giving me an opportunity to to talk a little bit about our athletic programs. Um, I'm starting my 26th year here at Mount Lebanon and and certainly extremely proud of our athletic department and and the programs that we've been able to to grow and maintain uh throughout many of those years. Um, this is the Chris. This is wrong. >> Yeah, >> sorry. >> This is the um wrong slide. Okay, >> that's last year's presentation. >> We
010can talk about if we want to. >> Yep. On board docs if you want us to send them to you real quick, Mr. Sangle. >> All right. >> I can keep going as he's as he's looking for for the slides. I I I think uh you know one of the really cool things is Friday night uh we obviously had a home football game and I was talking with one of our parents at the game. We had unfortunately one of our game workers uh uh got ill and couldn't make it to the game. And so late Friday afternoon we're switching people around and making it work so that we could we could run the game. And I'm talking to our parent. I said, you know, the the old saying, it truly takes a village, you know,
011to to sort of run this. and and um you know we get the slides up that you'll see that we're we're so appreciative of all the many people and and um groups and organization that that care so much about our student athletes that make what we do possible. You know certainly the support of our board administration Dr. Fes, Dr. Davis, Dr. Thompson are are so supportive of our programs. We utilize so many different groups within our uh within our school district. You know, Mr. Kaiser's over there. We're in contact with facilities almost on a daily basis, our transportation office, food service, you know, so many groups within the the school system that we utilize. And, you know, then you look at our athletic department and our staff and our coaches and parents and boosters and,
012you know, most importantly, obviously, our our student athletes. It it it truly takes the the village and and by us utilizing and doing this together um really allows us to have 32 varsity athletic programs, another 18 middle school programs, club sports, and uh approximately 1,800 student athletes that that compete um and have an opportunity to do something that they love within our program. So, I think that's um that's really important to all of us. Um all right, Chris, come on. I'm stalling. All right, I'm just going to keep going. >> How about them Steelers? >> Yeah, exactly. >> Yeah, it was a tough week. >> Um, >> here we go. >> There we go. >> I worked hard on this design. I need people to see. Very good. >> All right, here we go. So,
013there's us together, right? All of us together, you know, all our 32 programs, our 1,800 kids. Um, this is just for the board. Uh, gives you an idea of of what our programs are. Um, these are all our uh Whoops. These are all our varsity programs. The ones with the star are our middle school programs. and down below are are club sports. If you lived in Mount Lebanon for any amount of time, you know how proud we are of our history and tradition. And and this slide uh shows um all our Whitfield and PIAA championships. Um it's a great picture of our 1980 WPL football championship team. They were just in town a couple weeks ago. We celebrated their their success at one of our at our first home football game. But the thing that
014really sticks out to me um with this slide is is how well-rounded our programs are. I think when you think of different high schools within the WPL, and not to name anybody, but you would think, oh, that's a basketball school or that's a football school. Um, you know, our programs are well-rounded and you can see we've had success in so many different sports and I think that speaks volumes to the support that we provide all of our all of our athletic programs. So that leads us into one of the things that I think makes us really successful is we work really hard to try to provide a positive experience for for our student athletes. Our culture, we want it to be about effort. We want it to be about working hard. We want it to
015to to be about setting high standards and and and sticking to those. And by building the the positive relationships with our student athletes, we think that that we have developed over the years a a great culture um within our programs. I think it's one of the reasons why we've we've been able to enjoy success. Some of the things that we do, we we do a recognition night after every sports season. And um we look at award at at the awards we give as ways of emphasizing what we want and what's important to us within our programs. And one of them is our scholar athlete awards. Um we have a couple different awards that we do every year. Uh we have a team GPA award. So the team that has the average GPA, the highest average
016GPA that that season wins that award. And then we have three individual awards, uh, a Lebo, a Blue Devil, and a Mount Lebanon, which is based on their grade point average, 30 to 349, 35 to 399, and a 40. Um, and then we recognize them at the recognition night and also on our website. The cool thing is, and and I think you'll appreciate this, is we didn't have any one of our teams last year that didn't average at least a 3.1 as a team. and across the board, our athletes are averaging a 349. Um, they are getting it done in the classroom as well as on on the fields and in play. Uh, some of the other things I'm I'm really proud we had uh um Dr. Davis, uh myself, uh Trisha Shine, who's one
017of our our English teachers, worked really hard a couple years ago to become the first school ever uh to get accredited from the Middle States program in athletics. And um a lot of effort, a lot of time went into that. But I I told Dr. Dr. Davis, the one thing I was most proud of that is feedback that we received from athletes, from parents, from boosters sort of justified and and made us understand what we're about and and clarified that in our heads. Um, a couple years ago, we were the historical society historical program of the year, which speaks to the earlier side of how proud our our community is of our of our history and tradition. And probably the most important award that we give out, and it's one um that that it's most
018important to me, is our honor the game award. Um honor the game is our sort of definition for what sportsmanship's all about. Um we do respect for roots, ros, which is respect for rules, officials, opponents, teammates, and self. Each one of our team nominates one of their athletes that they feel best exemplifies um honoring the game. And then we nom we award one male and one female at each one of our recognition nights. And it's really those are the kids that that are really representing our district with class and excellence. And uh again, we want to make sure that we're we're celebrating those kids. It all starts with our our quality coaches. I'm very proud of our coaching staff. I hope people understand. It's one of the things I talk to our parents about a
019lot is just how much time and effort and commitment our coaches put in. Um folks, if you're a 6A coach at Mount Lebanon, your head coaching job is basically a second full-time job. Um it's year round. Um parents often times see, you know, your practice in 3:30 to 5:30. They don't see the parent phone calls, the student meetings, dealing with the AD, uh media calls, practice planning, film watching. It is another full-time job. and and I'm very proud of the job our coaches do in in not only being great X's and O and strategy coaches u but more importantly for me terrific people as well. Um some of the things that we do to ensure that we we have quality coaches um NFHS which is the National Federation of High School Sports. Our coaches go
020through their coaching education program, first aid and CPR training. Um all our coaches go through concussion management and cardiac impact. uh uh training on a yearly basis. Um we have offered through outreach a Q uh QPR um program. If you don't know, that's a suicide prevention program um that we have done with our coaches. Over the last couple years, we have trained all our head coaches in Alice um beyond school. Um most of our teachers have gotten the Alice training through the district and what happens in the classroom. We wanted to talk to our coaches of what happens if you're in the middle of the upper practice field and something goes on. So, we partner with our police uh Mount Lebanon Police and they've come in and done um Alice training for our coaches as
021well. Um M. Schuman has been terrific at coming in this year and starting to train our coaches on how to deal with athletes uh with special needs um because we're seeing more and more of those kids within our our our programs. And of course, you guys are busy updating policies every month that we need to to to get out to our our our our coaches as well. But you see, we have about 151 coaches in our program. I always put 60 work in the district um because folks that's one of the challenges that we have is that more and more of our coaches quite frankly are coming out of outside of our um our educational system. But um you know it's and and it's important for us then to to work with those coaches to
022um so they understand what our culture is and what our expectations are um etc. For the board, here's just our athletic uh budget breakdown. I know um you have these, but you know, you'll see that the vast majority of our our budgets tied up into salaries and benefits. Um but that's basically what we're spending a year on athletics. Um I put this down for the board's knowledge. Uh these are the facilities that we utilize. The column on the left are our district facilities that we use uh on really as much as possible for our athletic programs. and the the column on the right are um facilities that we are very fortunate and thankful that the municipality uh allows us to use as well. So um these are the the the is where you'll find our
023athletic kids. So contributors to success I I I think one of the things that we we talk and um talk to our coaches a lot about and and we've stole from an organization called the Positive Coaching Alliance. It's an organization that I used to to to do a lot of work with and um we talked to them about being double goal coaches and a double gold coach your first goal is to be competitive and win. Um we enjoy winning, right? We like putting up uh banners and um we certainly want to compete, but the second and the most important goal is to teach the many life lessons that are associated with sports. That's the value in what we're doing. That's what's most important. And that's why, you know, I I I I think it's so
024important to continue to support our athletic programs. And I think when you look at at those values and the lessons that our kids learn in athletics, them being able to take those and use them for the rest of their lives, I think is again why why participating in athletics is so important and why it's it's so important for us to continue to uh to support them. As I said earlier, we get support from a lot of people. Um there's not a recognition night that doesn't go by that I don't tell our parents without their help and support many of the things that we do within our program just simply wouldn't be possible. Um we count on our parents, we count on our Blue Devil club, we count on our booster organizations um to be able
025to to help us provide um again terrific experiences for our kids within their programs. our youth sports and feeder programs. We're very fortunate to live in Mount Lebanon where sports are important from like the time they're out of the womb until they get up to us. Um uh all our association organizations um uh work really hard to provide opportunities for kids to be in sports throughout. And then I I did want to uh speak a little bit about our sports medicine program. um gang, we we have one of the best uh provide some of the best sports medicine of any high school in our area. And quite frankly, um in in working with UPMC and going through the contracts, we have much more and offer much more than most small colleges. Um we have four
026time four full-time athletic trainers that that work tirelessly with our kids. They're here before the end of the school day, so they're here and ready when the rush comes right after school. um and they're here to the last practice or or or game at night. So, um you know, we're very fortunate to have great athletic trainers. Um we're also fortunate to have continuity with our athletic trainers. Um three of our four have been with us for for um a number of years. The fourth one was here for 24 and just retired last year. So, we we replaced Dan. But, uh um again, we're fortunate to have people that have been around our kids. um our our our athletes trust them, our coaches trust them, our parents trust them. Um it's really a good good situation.
027We're also really fortunate to have um two team doctors. Um we have Dr. Mushelle who is uh our main team doctor and Dr. Muchelle is actually the director of the UPMC Southside facility and the head team doctor for the University of Pittsburgh. So, um, again, we we have the best of the best working with our kids. Our second team doctor is local. His name is Dr. Fleming. And one of the great things that we have an opportunity is Dr. Fleming is actually in our building once a week. He comes in on Wednesdays. And, you know, if he needs to see one of our kids, follow up with one of our kids, evaluate one of our kids. If our trainers aren't sure about something, he's here to to to evaluate. and and both doctors are are
028a phone call away for any of our trainers uh um to be able to get advice or or to to recommend next steps. Um we're also uh very fortunate to have uh Dr. Mickey Collins that lives in our community and has been really helpful for us from a concussion standpoint. He's one of the uh renowned experts on concussions throughout the world and and uh um Mickey, Dr. Collins has been terrific in in in helping us with our concussion management protocol and all of our kids uh go through the impact testing. We do it in 7th, 9th, and 11th grade for all our contact sports. So, um really great opportunities within our athletic trainers. Um because of the success of our athletic trainers, uh we also typically get between two and three college students that come
029in to to help out and train. And for the last, I don't know, four or five years, we've had uh students from the high school that want to learn more about athletic training and and uh go and help our our our trainers out as well. So, um really a terrific program for our kids, activities, just some of the things that we do again to promote programs. We have a pre-participation parent night um which is just simply held to open up lines of communications, explain our expectations for for their kids and what they can expect from us. We I've mentioned the recognition night. Uh we do a college recruiting simplified program each year which is an awesome program. Anybody that has kids that are starting um to get recruited or going through the recruiting process um
030big shout out to Mrs. Shelley Saba who's one of our guidance counselor and our NCA uh uh rep um for the district. Um she is a wealth of knowledge on this subject. She is terrific. Um, she is really unique because she has sort of looked and and has seen this from every angle. She was a great high school player. She played division one soccer. She coached division one. She coached high school. And now she has two daughters that that played in and got recruited in college now. So, she sort of sees it from every angle. And then on top of that, we've developed a terrific relationship with a gentleman by the name of Mr. uh Rick Christensen, who's the associate athletic director in charge of compliance down at Dukane. and and Rick comes in each
031year to to to help us as well. And he's been a great resource because um well, if you read the newspapers, you know, the NCA changes things on a yearly basis, sometimes multiple times a year. So, if we need help, we need advice, we have somebody that we can we can reach out to. Um our Hall of Champion celebrations coming up shortly, November 1st, Slair Country Club, 7:00. Can't wait to see everybody there. Right. that that is a program that we started um uh probably about five or six years ago and it really was was put together um to really celebrate athletics in Mount Lebanon. It's not a banquet. It's more of a social. We wanted people to come and have fun uh celebrating our athletic programs. We do induct our student athletes that earn
032their way into the Hall of Champions that night and then also recognize some of our distinguished Blue Devils um as as well. So terrific evening if you can make it out. Every fall our football band and cheerleaders get together to do a uh the community celebration which is has been a lot of fun and and many of our teams um do alumni games, alumni functions like bringing teams back. Soccer does a right before their season every year does an alumni game. Lacrosse is at Thanksgiving. Um a lot of team a lot of our teams do that. So we have a way of connecting really our past with with our future. So, some of the challenges I I I think that we're going to have over the next couple years and and the first is really
033hiring and retaining good people, good coaches. Um gang, it is getting harder and harder to to find and and hire coaches. Um when I first started this many moons ago, we we would have dozens of people applying for jobs. Now, in some of our positions, I'm going out trying to find people. So, um it is a it is a real issue. Um it's something that we part of my challenge is making sure that we're taking care of the coaches that we have so that we can retain them and keep them happy so they want to keep coming back. Um but again being a high school coach is really really hard right now. The amount of hours that you you have to put in um the amount of hours away from your family um u to
034be frank some of the criticism that you know everybody's a Monday morning quarterback and they get to hear it constantly. Um you want to talk about get evaluated be a coach you're evaluated. Um, so again, I I I think that it's one of the things that we got to continue to look for creative ways to continue to encourage our coaches to to to want to be here. I think sports specialization, I I know a number of you have youth kids um here that that play sports. Um, it used to be when I was growing up, a kid would would decide maybe going into a senior high school, well, maybe I'm going to go play in college, I'm just going to concentrate on that sport. Now we have fourth graders that are trying to decide which
035sport they want to play and and and specialize in because they have some club coach telling them that this is the way to go. Um gang, we encourage as much as possible multiport athletes. Um and we do it because we think it's healthy for the kid. We think it's better for the kid to hear different voices and different coaches. We think it's better for them to um uh look at uh different skill sets, etc. Um, and then selfishly, we know we can't be successful without it. You know, one of our challenges is is, believe it or not, Mount Lebanon is a smaller 6A school now. Um, so if our best athletes aren't playing multiple sports, we're not going to be successful. So, it's something that we we constantly are encouraging our kids and one of
036the things that we do, again, looking for an award to to celebrate that and promote that, is we we have the Trident Award. I always give coach Merr, our boys lacrosse coach, credit for for naming this. We're in a coaches meeting and we wanted to um come up with with ways that we could celebrate our multiport athletes. And we came up with, well, if you letter in three sports in the same year, you would win the award. And Mike said, "Well, that's that's that's the Trident, right? That's the Blue Devil Trident." So, um, our Trident Award was was born and and, um, in the spring recognition night, we recognize our kids that are able to letter in three different sports in the same year. It's really hard to do at Mount Lebanon. It's really hard
037to do. We have, you know, normally between five and 10 kids that get it, but again, we want to make sure that we're continuing to promote that. Some of the facility issues, I I think we know about the stadium and some things that that we're going to be working on moving forward. um legislation that I that I think the board needs to um continue to to consider and look at. NIL is legal in the state of Pennsylvania. We have not seen it yet at our school. Um quite frankly, it hasn't been very prevalent across the state. I think in Western PA, there's only been two or three kids that have have been involved, but um high school sort of tends to to follow what happens at the collegiate level. And I think once they get
038that sort of figured out, um I I I think you can see it coming down. So I don't think that's imminent, but I think uh in the future you'll see that. Um we talked about our enrollment numbers, and I think that's uh it'll be interesting to see over the next couple years whether we stay 6A or or head down to five. We're actually closer to 5A now than the the larger 6A. So it'll be interesting to see where that goes. And again, along with the the the coaches, I think um the official shortage out there is real. So, as you're talking to your neighbors and you're going to games, etc., um I I think it's incumbent upon us to make sure that we are treating officials with respect. Um, you know, it always amazes me,
039you know, I I I've been fortunate, um, over the last, I think it's over 10 years, I've led a committee within the WPL to look at officiating fees so that as we budget as athletic directors, we can control what the budget is, or at least know what that budget's going to become. And in that role, I meet with every assigner of every sport, every official sport in the WPL and have for years. And I can tell you the number one thing, they all need officials. Folks, we're changing games now because we can't get officials. Our big 56, which is five and 6A sports, are looking at a Thursday night football game next year, not because anybody wants to do that, but because we don't have enough officials. Um, so it's it's real. The number one
040reason officials are quitting is what? >> Parents in the sideline. Okay. Parents in the sideline. We have to do better. I tell people at our parent meeting, it's it's amazing to me. I have 15, 16, 17 year old kids that are killing themselves competing out there that can keep their head and keep their coal and not yelling at official, but I look up and there's a 40-year-old in the stands that can't do it. Think about that every night. So again, as as you see it and you're talking to your friends and family, encourage us to be nice to the officials because without them, we're not playing. budget concerns are, you know, are real for everyone. Um, again, as as you saw from the athletic budget, the vast majority of that is is salaries and benefits.
041You know, looking at at at our operating uh budget and and the reality of the cost of everything going up um is is is a challenge for for all of us. So, future, this is one of my favorite pictures. This was from uh May of last year. Um, our girls and boys lacrosse teams won WPL championships on the same night backto back. And can anybody tell me what stadium that is? >> Uh, you said it, I didn't. >> All right. So, a great picture of after the boys game, our girls getting together and and everybody um u getting a picture. So, again, the future is still bright. I I think we always got to look at how can we do things better, how can we do things more efficient, um what can we do to
042get better. I think that's part of it. Um, fundraising is certainly going to be key. Um, you know, it's it's it's partnerships with with with our community. It's partnerships with our alumni, um, with our boosters. It's sponsorship money. Our our new scoreboard, which we were able to to to raise, um, with with private money, um, was very invaluable last year in us being able to purchase the equipment needed to run the board. And also with some of that money, all the weight benches in the in the weight room were all uh, completely reupholstered. So, you know, finding ways to to get additional money to help uh support things that we we can't afford, I I think is going to continue to be real important. Um I I we we talked about the stadium facelift and
043um you know, the lights on the upper practice field. I think the reality is is we don't have land to add more fields. So, if we can do some things to to extend the use and the um the time that we can utilize those fields, I think would be a really important, you know, the dream would be great to have have the middle school's uh turf. That would be gamecher. And I think down the line, you know, um you know, creative looking if if if an indoor facility would certainly be hugely benefited for our teams, but I think it could also look at at at ability to raise money. I can tell you many of our teams are going outside of Mount Lebanon to rent those. if we could keep that money internal, um it
044could be another uh uh money maker for for the district as well. So, with that, again, one of my other favorite pictures. Thank you very much. Um we we certainly appreciate all your support. Um and happy to answer any questions or if I talk too long, maybe I it's good too. >> Do we have any questions for Mr. Burkin? >> I had one quick uh question for you regarding intramural sports. M um they're so important for kids and I would love to see a continued um intramural program development and um volleyball and pickle ball have been mentioned to me as I've been talking to community members as things we would like to add. >> Sure. >> Community members also have mentioned to me that Seymour Field is somehow like not up to snuff with uh
045with seating and so forth. So, I I don't know if that is something that you um agree with or concur with, but that was that and um then Melon's facility in terms of football are things that I dialogue with people a lot about in the community. >> Um let me take them one at a time. >> Um intermerals, I can I can share that with Mr. Dernardis. He's the one that that oversees the inter mural program. I do know like from a pickle uh ball situation um because I just had six kids in my office last week. They're looking at starting a pickle ball club. So, um that's actually going to take place um um >> our assistant volleyball coach is going to run that. Coach Young, and that's going to happen right after volleyball
046season. So, >> um the the facilities at um at Seymour, you know, that's municipal field. So quite frankly, >> is that also used by our varsity baseball team? >> It is. Okay. >> It is. Um but again, I it's I don't have control over that facility. Um from that standpoint and and Melon um you know, yeah, I'd love to when let's talk about it. >> I have a question about referees and and um harassment of parents towards referees and umpires. So like I know hockey they have a zero tolerance policy that parents have to sign like would that be something that Whipiel or any PIO would ever be interested in engaging? >> Well, it would be up to individual schools. Whipiole wouldn't get directly involved in that. That that would be something that that a
047school district would have to do and then you know you would have to police it and make sure that it's followed through. But absolutely. >> Thank you. Just a quick question and you might not know this off the top of your head, but I'm curious out of the approximately 1,800 athletes we have, how many are multiport. >> I don't have it off the top of my head, but we we do have a number of them for sure. >> Okay. >> Again, it's it's something quite honestly I'm proud of that that we have we have kids that that do they got one chance at high school, you know, um and we want them to experience as as much as they can. Well, I just want to say thank you also for your time and the presentation
048and everything you do. Um, I know athletics are so important to our kids and their families. So, thank you. >> Thank you very much. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Appreciate you. [Applause] Okay. >> Um, next up we have a reports from our student representatives, um, Henry Adams and Julia Angel. >> All right. Good evening everyone. Thank you for having us back today. We're so excited to return. So, as you all know, August and September are very busy months at the high school. So, here's a quick recap. At convocation, we kicked off the 2025 to 2026 school year strong with a choir performance from our triple trio group, an incredible set from both our percussion and orchestra groups, and inspiring personal stories from four of our student speakers, including Henry and myself, which we were honored to
049be a part of. To help welcome our incoming freshmen or the class of 2029, our link crew hosted a 9th grade orientation complete with ice breakers, games, and activities led by the upperassmen. Just this past Friday, they followed that event up with their annual link crew tailgate, which was a huge success. Finally, we'd like to welcome our five new international students joining us from Argentina, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, and Italy. Some will be here for just a semester, while others will stay until the end of the school year in June. >> All right, so last year we had our senior boat ride, which was very well attended and was a great senior event as always. Uh, homecoming. We announced the theme today. It's Hokcoella, which is inspired by the California Music and Arts Festival, Coachella, and
050the tickets went on sale for 20 bucks. Uh, as for some upcoming events, we have the great alumni lunchon in celebration on October 10th, and we'll be celebrating the three great alumni that the SEC and I chose last year. We'll also be having our activities club fair on September 19th. Julie and I are also currently collecting student feedback on the implementation of the new phone and tech policies and we'll be we'll present uh some responses at upcoming board meetings. Uh we're also going to start currently a social media page and are planning a schoolwide survey to gather commentary, critique, and questions. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next we have board member reports uh policy committee MSG good it's a hard act to follow. Um, so in our in our as we transition
051from NSBA to PSBA services, we're retiring numerous policies this month. And then we are going to be voting on today adopting uh 627 which is commercial activities and partnerships, 137 which is home education programs, 207 which is confidential communication of students, 208 which is student discipline, 28 excuse me 218 which is student discipline, 218.1 which is weapons, 2182 terroristic threats, 2183 discipline of students convicted or adjudicated of sexual assault and 222 tobacco and vaping products. That is all. >> Thank you. Of course, I navigated away from my board member report list. Give me one moment. Um, PSBA and board development. Mrs. Gellman, >> thank you. Uh, we will be voting for PSBA endorsed officer candidates later in this meeting. But in addition to that, as I mentioned before, Mrs. Berdick and I will be participating
052in this year's PSBA school leadership conference, which is going to be held October 19th through the 21st. Excellent. Um, MLF update, Mrs. Gensel. >> So, we haven't met yet this year, but are looking to meet toward the end of this month. And then, uh, per usual, the grants uh will be decided on in December. And then, as far as PTA council goes, um, we had a long meeting uh earlier this month, but they're always the I think one of the best meetings that I go to. You hear from everybody in the community. Um each of the superintendent uh gave their welcome back reports uh filled us in on all the new things that are going on. A lot of the information is redundant. Uh so uh I don't have too much to share. Um you
053know we do hear from the municipality, the library outreach, teen and youth services. Um so if you have any questions at all you can ask. Um I don't want to trump Mrs. CrarAel. Uh I know there were some, you know, a large chunk was spent with the commissioner and some municipality things. So that's all. >> Thank you, Mrs. Stencil. Uh the municipal leazison and parks and recreation board, Mrs. Crarabel. >> Thank you. Um so currently the biggest thing we're looking at right now is for September 24th for the upcoming commissioner meeting. Um they are bringing in a police officer from Abenting, Pennsylvania who administers the program and trains police officers into the automatic red light cameras. So if you are interested in information about that, please attend. Um Representative Dan Miller and Wayne Fontana will
054also be there to talk about uh the camera laws. So that is it from the municipality. Uh parks and wreck, Mrs. Berdick. Uh, in terms of Seymour Field, we are starting to get the umbrella organization back up and running to continue to talk about partnership with the district. So, I will keep us all in the loop when that happens. It's a it's a long process and a lot of people are involved, but we should uh be starting that work up here shortly. Um, to your point about pickle ball, they have done some upgrades to Williamsburg Park for pickle ball and some playground upgrades uh as well there. And that's all I have right now. >> Thanks. >> Um, Parkway West, Miss Johnson. >> Thank you. And I hear the pickle ballers at Williamsburg parked behind
055myself, >> which I like that. >> Um, so we met on September 2nd. Um, and school had just started a few days before, so not a lot um, happening student-wise, but um, everything's going well so far. Knock on wood. Increased enrollment. And similar to Mr. Grogan's um statement on challenges, Parkway is also having challenges keeping good staff and having substitute backups for different programs since so many of them need to be certified in the program that they're teaching. Um and Parkway is looking forward to hosting our next board meeting. And that's my report. >> Okay. Uh Pathfinder School, Mrs. Berdick. >> Thank you. Uh the Pathfinder board met on August 20th and will meet again this week. Uh the school opened with 84 students enrolled. They are experiencing a shortage in personnel and that hiring
056was underway with 16 open positions at the time of that meeting which was a cons a big concern and so I'll be looking forward to the update this week. Uh we covered um in our last meeting the results of the audit from 2024 which was a clean and unqualified audit. Uh the fiscal year ended in positive values with revenues over expenditures. Uh there were new positions um within the board readjusted and so we voted on um the representative from Bethl continuing as president, myself being stepped into the vice president role and the Carinton rep continuing as treasurer. Uh there was a facilities update um that included completion of summer pro uh projects and the retirement of the longtime facilities director um and the full onboarding of the new facilities director um who's intending to serve
057at all three special service schools in the county. >> Thank you for that update. Um there is no update from Shazda uh civic engagement. Mr. Hoffman. >> Yeah, thank you. Uh the civic engagement board last met Wednesday September 3rd and the big news from that meeting um is the addition of two new junior board members. So uh just like we're trying to really promote and bring the student voice um civic engagement board is doing the same which is great. You know we're all here for uh students certainly here uh community is here really to help and support uh students as well. So, it's good to see that level of engagement at the municipality and uh the committee will meet again the first week of October. >> All right. Thank you very much. Um we are
058now at the section of our meeting for comments from residents and taxpayers concerning action items for this meeting. Um we have none who have previously requested to speak. Um, so we would be opening it to residents um or taxpayers with comments on action items. Again, these are the items listed below on the agenda for voting this evening. Um, there is another time period at the end of the meeting for open comment on board actions or items of concern that are maybe before the board. Um just a few quick reminders about our um public comment policy. Um this is an opportunity for residents and taxpayers to provide comment on matters of concern, action or deliberation that are or may be before the board. Um, public comment may be interrupted or terminated um if there's um sexual
059harassment, racial, ethnic, religious or nationality intimidation towards an individual or individuals in the school community. Disclosure of confidential personal information regarding students or staff. Speech that is traditionally not protected under the First Amendment. uh speech that constitutes true threats um to individuals and speech that does not concern matters that are or may come before the board. Um we do have a sign-in sheet and as always we ask um residents or taxpayers who wish to speak to please make sure that they sign in at the front um so that we can confirm and verify their residency status. Um this evening, um we did want to announce that we will not be taking public comment via Zoom. Um it came to our attention that we have no way to verify the um residency and taxpayer status of
060those who are commenting virtually. So we're currently looking into upgrades to that. Um and we will keep uh the community and the public updated on when we're able to implement that. Um, and so with that rather long preamble, is there anyone in the auditorium who wishes to speak on action items uh for this meeting? Okay, moving on. We have no unfinished business for board consideration or action. So, we'll move right into the voting items. Um, the first is our policy section. U, Mr. Hoffman, can you read the resolution? >> Sure. I move that it be resolved that the board approves the policy retirements and adoptions. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Berdick, >> I. >> Mrs. Crrabel, >> I. >> Miss Flecher, >> I. >> Mrs. Gellman, >>
061I. >> Mrs. Gensel, >> I. >> Miss Guth, >> I. >> Mr. Mr. Hoffman >> I. >> Miss Johnson >> I. >> Mr. Wland >> I. >> All right. The next section is for our financial items. Um Mrs. Gelman, would you please read the resolution? >> Sure. I move that it be resolved that the board approves the finance agenda items. Second. >> Any questions or discussion? >> All right. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Berdick. >> I. >> Mrs. Crabel. I >> Miss Flecher >> I >> Mrs. Gellman >> I >> Miss Gensel >> I >> Miss Guth >> I >> Mr. Hoffman >> I >> Miss Johnson >> I >> Mr. Wland >> I >> Okay, the next section is on human resources. Um the only item noted with an asterisk here is the personnel
062uh report which has just been updated to include new information um since the discussion meeting. Mrs. Gansel, would you read the resolution, please? >> Yep. I move that it be resolved to approve human resources items. >> Second. Okay. Any questions or comments? >> Okay. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Berdick, >> I. >> Mrs. Crrael, >> I. >> Ms. Fleer. >> I. >> Mrs. Gellman, >> I. >> Mrs. Gensel, >> I. >> Miss Guth, >> I. >> Mr. Hoffman, >> I. Miss Johnson >> I. >> Mr. Wland >> I. >> All right. The next section of our agenda is for curriculum and instruction. Again, these were all previously discussed except for an additional crowdfunding approval um from Washington Elementary School for the readathon that their students uh clued us in about earlier this evening. Mr. Wland,
063would you read the resolution? I move that it be resolved that the board approves the curriculum and instruction agenda items. >> Second. Any questions or comments? >> Okay. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Berdick, >> I. >> Mrs. Crrael, >> I. >> Miss Flecher, >> I. >> Mrs. Gellman, >> I. >> Mrs. Gensel, >> I. >> Miss Guth, >> I >> Mr. Hoffman, >> I. Miss Johnson >> I >> Mr. Wland >> I >> Mrs. Fer I have a question from the previous um the PSB PSBA officer elections. >> Yes. >> Are we needing to make a determination about our selection for that? >> I think we are just supporting the endorsed candidates. >> Okay. I thought there were two from our district and we needed to select one, but maybe we're promoting two. >> I
064believe the um endorsed candidates are noted. >> Okay. >> On the slate. So, there was only one endorsed candidate. >> Okay, that's my misunderstanding. Thank you. Okay, we're now up to questions or comments from residents. Uh, presentations or comments are to be limited to 3 minutes. Once again, as a reminder, um, this public comment period is open to residents and taxpayers regarding matters of concern, official action, or deliberation which are or may be before the board. All commenters should first sign in and then state their name. Comments are limited to 3 minutes and we will notify commenters when their time is expired. Questions requiring follow-up will be referred to the administration for later response. Comments by public participants are their own and should not be assumed to be the statements of the district. The Mount
065Lebanon 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. If there is anyone who wishes to make a comment, please approach the podium. >> Please state your name and you'll have three minutes. >> Sure. >> Uh my name is Mike Velvacer. I'm from 450 Summit Drive. Um, I wasn't expecting to speak tonight, but our main speaker uh for the group that I'm here to represent had a family matter. So, I'm just bear with me. Um, we understand that the board had uh tabled a proposal to uh to name uh Art Walker, the field after Art Walker, a prior coach. Uh, full disclosure, um, he's my father-in-law. Um, I also tried this same process in
0662010 when I went to the same uh to the superintendent at the time, Dr. Steinhower. uh he um putting me in touch with people that u provided me with the naming rights policy which to be quite honestly at that time the the monetary value uh for that was just completely outrageous for and what we're looking to do is again this is a man who has contributed significantly to to the school district. Um, I can tell you that no matter where we go as a family, um, there is someone that knows him and and and and just as elaborates how much he meant to him as a teacher, but also from a from a coaching standpoint, I go to a lot of games. I've seen a lot of other coaches. Uh, I talked to a lot
067of retired officials and they are they are ones that always state that, you know, as you know, a lot what uh John Grogan talked about as far as caliber of coaches and everything. uh he's at the you know he his picture should be next to that definition. So uh we understand that you tabled um our proposed from the previous time. We just want to reiterate um you know we have a a proposal follow-up proposal that we'd like to present to you. I have hard copies for all of you but we just want to reiterate um couple of the name things is first of all time is of the abs essence. My father is 89 years old and I don't want to make this personal but I also played against him and I saw what he
068did as a coach. Um, we we had I went to Baldwin. We had a team that to this day my father and all his assistant coaches that are still alive talk about how on paper we were we were superior, but we lost that game that night for two reasons. One was the coaching of my now father-in-law. Second, you had a phenomenal quarterback named Terry Moeen. There's an award named after Terry and you all probably know his story. So, timing is of the essence. Uh we think that our proposal pretty much follows what we understand to be the draft and follows the guidelines of what you all are considering. We um and so we think it is in line and we are looking for an exemption. We were looking we we wanted to try to see
069this happen where we can get this field named. We're hoping for this current football season. Again, he's 89 years old and uh he's in decent health, but uh we want him to be able to experience this. So, um that that that is uh why we were here. There's several me there's a couple members here. If if I can um Jim KC is here. Jim is no he's doesn't live in the the district. However, um he he graduated from here and um and and and and his brother Paul was a teacher here, gym teacher and a coach here. And if if if I may, can I allow him to speak briefly even though he's not a resident or >> I think unfort we would love to hear from you um following the meeting. You're you're welcome
070to contact the board, but we're not allowed to seed time to another speaker or have anybody speak who's not a resident. My apologies for that. >> Okay. Um so again, I have we have a proposal that I think was electronically distributed from our our um one of our other uh me committee members. You need to know that the committee consists of athletes and that have played for him and a lot of them have attended the meetings. Um John Groen mentioned that the class of 80 was recently uh honored and recognized and they all are aware of it. My father doesn't isn't aware of this. He has no idea I'm here. He has no idea that I did it in 2010. Um but again it's something as someone who played against him. I was also on
071the sideline uh when he was a coach, but a lot of his contemporaries, Panaman Marino, Jack Mccur, um um Art Bernardi from Butler, they have all his contemporaries that have had either a facility, a field or stadium or or some some part of the athletic facility named after him. And we understand that the school district is in a place where the stadium is going to be a key thing as far as raising funds. We're just looking to get get the field named after him and um uh so that's that's what I'm here to talk about. So, >> Thank you very much. >> Appreciate it. Thanks. >> Okay. >> Is there anyone else who wishes to provide comment? Please state your name and you'll have three minutes. >> Chip Delisandro, 142 Hoodridge Drive. I'm not sure
072I need this. I'm also here for the Art Walker field naming. Please do not mistake my passion for anger. I am passionate about Mount Lebanon football. I bleed blue and gold. I first walked into a Mount Lebanon huddle when I was 6 years old. That was 60 years ago. Drove my bike down Washington Road. Right out here was the practice field. Walked into the huddle like I owned it. Ralph Fe was the coach then. And I always tell the kids, Ralph came up to me and said, "Your time will come, son." Actually, Ralph grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and said, "Get the hell out of the tunnel." Anyways, I then got the opportunity to play for Art Walker. I coached for Art Walker. I coached today in Mount Lebanon and have for
073many, many years, as some of you may know. Everything that I learned about being a man, being a good citizen, and being a good football player came from Art Walker. But it wasn't about football with art. It was about life. And you need to know that he was a great educator. We all took him for history because we were football players. We're going to take coach. We didn't get a free pass. I got to tell you, we had homework during the season. Art was a great educator, a great man. Anytime you needed him, he was there. There are countless men and women that have relied on Art Walker to get into colleges. not on athletic scholarships. When you needed a recommendation, you went to coach. And coach knew a lot of people in the nation.
074And a letter from Art Walker meant a lot. I don't know if I'd have got into college without Art Walker's recommendation. I'm asking you to consider like moving this along just in in honor of Art. He was a great man. He was an educator here. He was an athletic director and as you know a a very well-known coach and for many of us he was he was he was a mentor and and a lot of that's continuing and I hope to continue it in his name. I want him to see this. It would mean the world to him. I want to thank you for everything you do. I know it's a thankless job. I don't know how you sit here and take some of these comments cuz I'd be jumping up and down but Anyways,
075thank you again and please consider it. Thank you. >> Thank you very much for your comment. >> Does anyone else wish to offer comment? >> Please state your name and you'll have three minutes. >> Hi everyone. I'm Amy Grella from Meridian Drive. Um, hi everybody. I'm here tonight to raise a concern regarding the insufficient amount of time elementary school students across our district are given to eat lunch, particularly in light of national health recommendations and the district's own school wellness policy. This issue became especially apparent following the schedule change at How Elementary on August 25th when lunch periods were shortened to 20 minutes for all students due to overcrowding. As a parent with 10 years of experience at how I've observed persistent lunchroom capacity issues which have only worsened with enrollment growth from approximately 370
076students in 2014 to 392 today. Despite these cha uh changes, lunch periods remain confined to a 1-hour cafeteria window, limiting flexibility and leading to reduced seated meal time for students. According to both the CDC and um the American Academy of Pediatrics, students should receive at least 20 minutes of seated time to eat lunch, not simply a 20inut period that includes walking, lining up, waiting, and finding a seat. Yet, many of our elementary students consistently fall short of this recommended seat time. This practice not only contradicts national health guidelines, but also violates the district's own school wellness policy, which states the district will provide adequate time to eat, 20 minute sitdown time for lunch. By failing to follow this established policy, the district undermines its public commitment to student wellness and creates inconsistency with how board
077approved policies are enforced, eroding public trust. Moreover, extensive research shows that adequate time for lunch supports student success. Studies published indicate that students with sufficient time to eat lunch demonstrate better pe be behavior, increased consumption of healthier foods, reduced food waste, and improved focus in the afternoon. Out of the seven elementary schools in our district, only two currently offer more than 20 minutes for lunch. And all seven schools uh restrict cafeteria access to single 1-hour block, making it difficult to schedule lunch periods that comply with policy JLJ um and the national best practices. So, we owe it to our children to do better. Um, I respectfully urge the board and administration to revise our scheduling practices so that all elementary students receive at least 20 minutes of seated lunchtime in full compliance with our policy
078and in alignment with the CDC and AAP recommendations. Um, I am probably almost out of time, but thank you for your attention to this matter. I appreciate you listening. >> Thank you very much. Is there anyone else who wishes to offer comment? >> Please state your name and you'll have three minutes. >> Bruce Slater from 140 circle. I've mentioned in the past about schools purpose is to educate not indoctrinate. Um, I'd like to see the school to do away with the DEI, critical race, and now I can get back to the fundamentals of teaching, teaching the subjects only. And uh maybe uh a little more history because it seems like people don't understand history about what um um a dictatorship is, you know, or you know, because you know, or respect to other people in
079the politics. Um it's causing a lot of problems. I I said uh in the past that there's an epicenter of what's going on in the colleges, especially the Ivy League. It's causing uh a lot of lot of problems now. Um, in fact, what's going on now with a crime that's going on, it's almost like there's a um a terrorist group now in this in the society now. And you may not agree with it, but uh but it's very similar to what the uh IRA in in Ireland was going through up in for years. They're bombing, shootings of opponents of of politics, politicians or whatever. And we're we're coming to that now in a very fast rapid succession of problems and and I'd like to see get back to the fundamentals of teaching and teaching the
080subjects only. >> Thank you for your comment. Is there anyone else who'd like to offer comment? >> Okay. Um, I'd like to announce that the board met in executive session earlier this evening to discuss personnel matters. upcoming public meetings on October 13th at 6 PM. The policy committee meeting will be at the Parkway West Career and Technical Center, followed by the board discussion meeting at 7:30 p.m. at the Parkway West Career and Technical Center. On October 20th, the board regular meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. in D205 of the high school as well as on Zoom. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So move second.