001Good evening. Uh, welcome to the discussion meeting of the Mount Lebanon Board of School Directors. Tonight is Monday, May 12th, 2025. It's 7:34 p.m. and we're present in room D205 of the Mount Lebanon High School with public participation also available via Zoom. Roll call, please. Mrs. Berdick, here. Mrs. Crrael, here. Mrs. Fleer, here. Mrs. Gellman, here. Mrs. Gensel, here. Mrs. Youth here, Mr. Hoffman here, Miss Johnson here, Mr. Wland here, all are present. Okay, excellent. Well, we are going to kick off um this evening with two presentations by the administration and the first one is on the final budget. Uh and I will turn that over to Dr. Freeze and Mrs. Connelly. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Fleer. I'm going to present the 2520 2026 final budget to the board. This budget has not really changed
002since the last time we talked in April. Uh beginning with revenues, we are still sitting at 125,119,257. Two things have changed since the last meeting. Our gaming revenue has increased by $29944. So that increase in state subsidy is sort of like a pass through straight to the taxpayer. It will decrease our real estate revenue because it will increase the um homestead exemption which we will also be talking about tonight. Those are the only two things that changed on the revenue side. And um going forward uh this budget includes a proposed tax increase to the act one index plus the exceptions for special education. Our current mill is 29305 or 029305. A millage increase to the act one index of 4.7% equates to 0.0013771 mills with a revenue impact of $3.4 million. Plus the approved special
003ed exceptions equates to a millage increase of 2724 mills which will be a revenue impact of an additional $748,000. Upon adoption of the final budget, the 2526 millage rate will be 0.0395. This is an addition of 0.0016495 mills and its projected revenue is 4,159,98 for the district. The next graph just gives a uh examples of home values in our district and what this millage increase would look like per month and per year. So that's $24.79 per month for an average home of $200,000. And if we just look at $500,000, a $5,000 home, the increase per month in millillage would be $68.73 or an increase of $824.75 per year. As for far as the final expenditures, again, there have been no changes to the expenditures since we met at the budget forum on April 7th. The
004final expenditures are $125,119,57 and the this is a summary of our expenditures. Since the 2526 base budget was presented in March, the final budget expenditures decreased by 1,528,081 and included the following adjustments. Healthc care expenses were adjusted for a 5.7% increase and a 3% increase to dental and vision. Due to attrition, 4.8 positions were not filled. There was a reassignment of teaching positions that took place. Some sabbaticals will be covered with existing staff versus hiring long-term subs. Six period stipens will be used to offset additional staff. Stipens were reduced, overtime was reduced, and travel for professional development was reduced. Some costs came in lower when budget managers negotiated a second quote, which was very good. The driving factors of these expenditures in the 2526 budget are salaries increased by 3 and a.5% over 2425. Retirees
005were replaced with entrylevel positions, entry- level salary positions. Healthcare insurance increased by 5.7 and vision in dental increased by 3%. The Paser's employer contribution rate was certified at 34%. Bond payments are not adjusted for refinancing. The purchase of curriculum for ELA K5 science K5 science K6 math 6 and program resources for K5 IST are included in the total amount of $665,000 uh $677. Increased tuition for special ed ranges from 3% to 11 a.5%. We have a 3% increase to charter school tuition built into this budget. A 10% increase to Parkway is built in due to increased enrollment at Parkway and uh their tuition increasing. There's also a 3% increase to our district's transportation contract. Department and curriculum expense budgets are flat or below the prior year. and 119,000 supports capital projects on buildings and grounds
006throughout the district. There are some risks and opportunities within this budget. The risks are that interest rates can be affected by future federal actions that can impact both positively or negative negatively. The Pasers rate are expected to increase each year through 2034. Health insurance premiums are also expected to increase each year and transportation and tuition costs are expected to continue each year going forward. The common level ratio will continue to impact real estate tax collections and refunds and we do have open litigation cases due to commercial property tax repeals. Federal revenue is subject to approval and is also under discussion at the federal level. The opportunities that exist are state funding for basic ed, special ed, and grant funding could be higher upon the approval of the governor's budget. There continues to we will continue
007to pursue grant opportunities. We are um creating the strategic and comprehensive plan for our future and the opportunity to build intuitive budgets based on past data and future needs is a great opportunity which we will leverage. This next slide is just our five-year projection for the district this year for 2425. We are currently uh projecting a deficit of $24,000. We still have six weeks to catch up and do a final analysis of that. The proposed 2526 budget has no use of fund balance. That's a zero. And if we stick to these revenue assumptions and and expenditure assumptions that real estate increase for real estate tax increases to the act one index, state and federal revenue remain flat, earned income tax growth will be at about 1 and a.5% and all other revenues stagnant. We will
008also uh assume in these projections that salaries will increase by 3 and a.5%. Health care will increase at at least 7% and all other appropriations will increase by 1 and a.5%. If we stick to these assumptions and if they remain true, we will be able to increase our fund balance of about a half a million dollars for the next three years after this 2526 budget, which is a good path to be on. Finally, the overall 2526 final budget summary is this budget is balanced and does not use fund balance or furlows to balance it. The 2526 final budget will leave Mount Lebanon's fund balance unchanged. To ensure the 2526 final budget does not rely on the use of fund balance, the district considered all options, including reassignments, program modifications, attrition, capital projects, and purchases. Proactive
009planning underscores the district's commitment to ensure the long-term fiscal sustainability aligning with state regs and our dedication to transparency and responsible financial management. Are there any questions? Questions, comments, or discussion from the board? No, largely it's territory that we've already covered, but and I've expressed before um when we reviewed the information as was presented previously. Thank you for the for the hard work to the administrative team, to all the budget managers uh to help deliver a balanced budget under difficult circumstances. Thank you. again. So, I I also just want to express my thank you to the um executive team and the budget managers um and staff across the district for carefully um their careful and thoughtful approach to this and for uh keeping those annual costs flat or lower. um the of the bit that
010we have that's discretionary within the budget. Um so greatly appreciated. Um and just as a reminder to the public, um the uh voting meeting on this um budget will discuss several resolutions related to the final budget this evening and the voting meeting will be on Wednesday um May 21st instead of a Monday just so that we are uh in line with the state's uh 30-day window from when we proposed ose the final budget to when we would vote to adopt it. All right. Next up, we also have a presentation on the um special education and student services program reviews. Thank you. Dr. Schuman's going to join us for these two presentations. You will notice that the slide decks are separate, one for special education and one for student services. And as she goes through the
011presentation, um, just to note, the items that are listed as next steps in the special ed and the student services program review also appear in our strategic plan, which we will present next week. Dr. Schuman. Okay. Um, thank you for having me back for part two of this presentation. We are going to start off with the special education program review. Um, it is slightly larger. It includes a couple different components. So, our agenda for this portion is the overview of the program review, least restrictive environment, um program profile data, PSSA assessment data, special education personnel development, and next steps based on our program review, stakeholder feedback, and state requirements. So once again the timeline is at the beginning of the school year we participated in the strategic plan and focus groups. Um from that point
012on we developed and distributed our staff and family survey. Uh we conducted focus groups in March. Um from January through March we were analyzing all the data that we received and then last month I presented the data review to the board. So what does least restrictive environment look like at MTL? So we are trying to educate students with disabilities to the maximum extent possible with their non-disabled peers. Um and there are some bullet points on the right um that involves our state data. So the state data report is public along with our pen data report um and it shows that 71.4% 4% of our students with IEPs were educated within the regular classroom for at least 80% of the school day. So that represents a 1.4% increase from the last time we did this review
013and a 9.8% um higher is higher than the state average of 61.6 for this particular indicator. So we are always trying to um meet the state average or do better and in this case uh we were 9.8% better. When we look at the middle ground or supplemental supports, 4.9% of students with IEPs in the district were educated in the regular classroom for less than 40% of the school day, which was again better than the state average, 5.1% below. One of the target areas that we will discuss later in the presentation is special education students in other settings. Um, so for us, we have 4.9% of students with IEPs that are receiving special education services in other settings. we were slightly off um at 0.5% higher than the state average of 4.4. Whenever we spoke to
014families um and conducted our survey, one thing that um was expressed to me is uh they wanted some transparency and communication and what our district offers and where our programming is located. So, the next few slides go into special education services in the district, the levels of support, and then where the support types are located at each of our buildings. Um, before I continue, I want to share that there is a document that goes along with this slide deck that will be presented to you later. Um, we wanted to make sure all of the suggestions and bullet points towards the end were included and we wanted to make sure you had time for suggestions or comments before we presented that to you. So, all of this and more is available in a document. So, first
015up we have our continuum of services. Um, and if we're looking at just autistic support as an example, five of 10 schools offer itinerant support, seven of 10 schools offer se uh supplemental support, and five of 10 schools offer full-time support. Can you just quickly define those three levels? Yes. So, when we talked about least restrictive environment, keeping students with their non-disabled peers, that's what we consider itinerant special ed supports, the lowest level. Supplemental is your medium or middle level. It's 20 to 80% maybe pull out time, specialized instruction, small groups, individualized instruction. And then full-time is for students who need specialized programming, uh perhaps a lot of related services or supports, outside providers. So that is the um most restrictive setting that we're offering in our district. Thank you. From there, we go to
016our special education program profile. Um, we're looking at each school on the left hand side. I also included if there was a specialized classroom in that school building, the student population, the number of full-time or part-time teachers and personal care aids, specialed classroom assistance, and then the programming that is offered at each school. So I do include a key in the document but just again for an example itinerant ES is emotional support, LS is learning support, SLS is speech language support. Um so it goes on from there like DHH is deaf or heart of hearing support. BVI is blind visual impaired support. Um, so the document does have a key for the types of supports. We have some more schools there listed for you. And we also included if there were IU professionals that were
017contracted at each building. So I should note that this is the current structure and support which has to be updated for the state. Um and if there are changes um in terms of staffing or support types, we would update the state on a semester basis. Okay. Um, so we also had some feedback about which program providers or special services um, do we contract with, which is referenced regularly at board meetings in terms of contracts we're seeking for approval. Um, but here are the list of providers that we utilize that we have a relationship with in terms of sending our special education students for support. Um, we obviously want to contract with an approved private or licensed private academic school to make sure that they are in line with what the state requirements are for special
018education and that they are going through this similar process that I am in in developing a program. Um, and then on the right side it says which type of support we are sending the students to that facility for. Okay, so this gets into the state plan and what uh targets that they would like us to meet. Um so for district special education students and other settings, I mentioned that we were slightly off what the state um requires. And so um in this special ed and other settings which you just saw the list of who we utilize, we need to create some improvement or planning activities for that. So the plan is to review and analyze data for students in other special ed settings to research district-based transition programming options for students aged 18 to 22
019and to create an elementary specialized classroom based on student need. So, one of the things we're looking at is, you know, once a student gets through grade 12 and they still have a need for special education, we are typically using an outside provider for that service. So, is there a possibility of bringing that service inhouse, getting some more students back to the district? What would that look like? And then, um, we are starting to get a a good reputation for our elementary autistic support and life skills support programming. And with that be comes more students and more student needs. Um so we may need to open an additional classroom um in those areas, but we're holding off until we know what the need is. Yeah. Question. Okay. All right. So for state assessment participation rate,
020um I'll apologize because this may be a little confusing, but this is a state report and there is a note at the top. the district was above the state rate at all levels. So technically we beat the state's rate. Um but we did fall below the state target of 95% participation in state assessments for IEP students. Um and that goal you know should be familiar because that is what the goal is for all students. Um so in a few slides we're going to show what we plan to do to address that area. And is that just due to opt out? Um it yes mostly. Okay. Yeah. Um some could be attendance okay with the students on excused or medical absence. So for proficiency rates um this one uh we had did not meet target in
021a couple different areas and they were in math four and eight. So again um we are looking at the LEA rate which is our rate and we are trying to be at this point lower than the SP target rate. Okay. So there were two areas that we did not meet the target. And this is talking specifically about proficiency rates for children with IEPs versus all students against grade level academic standards. So they're performing lower proficiency wise than our regular ed students. Um we will be again showing some action items in this area to address the math concern. So, this is saying that um students with an IEP are performing at a lower uh percent proficiency rate than their typical peers. Yes. And they're allowing a gap, but our gap is a little too big. I
022see the gap is the concern. Okay. Is is there a breakdown of the students that were outsourcing their support versus not for the other placements? You mean for the for the percent that are not eating? Uh there I don't believe there is and the reason I say that is because usually students that are in specialized settings are not taking this assessment. They're taking the alternate assessment. So the number that would be taking the the typical PSA PSSA is probably very low but I can look into that. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. So, next steps based on our program review, stakeholder feedback, and our state report requirements. Uh we would be looking at the state assessment, data, professional development, communication, consistency, and programming. So, first up, we have our state assessment requirements. So in order to address
023some of those items such as participation and math proficiency, we would be analyzing data, creating a plan for decreasing non-participation in state assessments in grades 4 through 8 and 11. 4, 8, and 11, educating parents at IEP meetings about the importance of state testing and the availability of accommodations that are similar to the ones they use daily in the classroom environment. Presenting information at special ed department meetings and administrative meetings to show the importance of this indicator. implementing evidence-based options for supplemental math curriculum and ensuring that special education department personnel will participate in the curriculum review cycle for tier one instruction and remediation and make sure that those options are included in any selected curriculum. We then turn to the state requirements for personal personnel development. Um, and the state requires that we address certain
024areas. So for autism, we participate in Patan's autism initiative. Uh we also conduct on our own um applied behavior analysis principles part one and two to our staff that needs it. We talk about assistive or augmentative uh communication devices, best practices, and supporting students with autism. For positive behavior support, we do crisis prevention for full certification, refresher training, deescalation techniques. we're looking to do with all staff and then completing functional behavior assessments and positive behavior support plans for our special education staff prepare professionals. We have to do a session on confidentiality and furpa CPR first aid and we also do an introductory course which is our MTLSD procedures for pair of professionals for transition planning. uh we want to offer support services for post-secary education and employment in terms of um a session on personnel
025development. We participated this year in the full indicator 13 training from the AIU. So next year or the years following we we want to do a refresher refresher to ensure we stay in compliance. Science of literacy came up from parent feedback um in terms of reading disabilities and dyslexia. So we want to work on our implementation of foundations training into reading curriculum which is coming up and our Wilson reading system. For parent training we uh piloted a lamp uh training this this year which is an app that we use on iPads for students that need to communicate differently. Uh we would continue that with other options. student support services for post-secary education and employment and then our own MTLSD special ed and student services overview which we presented at Lebo University. And for IEP development,
026we want to um share with our teachers the essentials of IEP writing, special ed procedures as they update and change, and then IEP goal writing and progress monitoring. If you have any questions, you can stop me. So next steps is to and this is from our um survey and focus group feedback. Develop and implement neurodeiversity training for staff and families. Further develop and implement trauma-informed training for staff and families. Train staff on verbal intervention, crisis prevention and restraint with identified personnel only for each building has a team. Continue to develop Wilson certification across schools. Work with HR to refine the onboarding process for new staff. utilize feedback from the program review to create additional training sessions for Libo Summit and Parent University. For communication next steps, we are looking to streamline communication across the 10
027schools regarding special education processes, review and revise the special ed website, add department updates to district newsletters, and create a monthly special education newsletter, utilize social media to highlight our programming, and align parent communication tools with school or department initiatives for consistency. And these are the themes again that were brought forth from the the program review. We want to create Google forms for common staff procedures such as extended school year, determining if a student needs a personal care aid service provider referrals. Research and implement progress monitoring tools that allow for reporting by students, school, and district. Evaluate, research, develop, and implement district procedures for special ed. and collaborate with department chairs to disseminate important information during monthly staff meetings about special education. So for programming next steps, we are looking to develop and implement K
028to2 SEAL curriculum specific to the needs of identified students. Add an elementary emotional support specialized classroom. Add an elementary specialized classroom based on student need. Evaluate, research, and develop and implement district-based transition programming options for students aged 18 to 22. Ensure special ed teachers are trained on new curriculum based on the cycle. Continue to participate in budgeting, staffing, and contract negotiations to reinforce department needs and implement evidence-based options for supplemental math curriculum. And finally, um, analyzing data for students in other special ed settings to develop a plan for including students in district schools. We also wanted to develop a plan for ensuring equitable access and meaningful participation for K to2 students receiving special ed services in our athletics, arts, music, and extracurricular activities by removing barriers, fostering inclusive practices, and promoting a supporting environment that
029nurtures individual talents, social development, and a sense of belonging within the school community. The next steps for special education is the state report is now on the website and available for public comment and review. The strategic plan which will be coming up next and then the cyclical monitoring um is actually coming up next March for our staff. Dr. Dr. Schuman, can you also remind the public that the special education state report is not as detailed as the strategic plan or these slides and explain why? Sure. So, the state report um is due every uh 3 years and it asks for your current practices in terms of procedures for special education. So, it wants to know who are our staff, where are they located, what supports are they providing, what's the case manager, I'm sorry, the
030um yeah, the case manager levels in terms of number of students. They're asking about least restrictive envir environments, how we support students that may be out of district. Um, but it does not go further into the feedback that we collected from the strategic plan and the program review for special ed. So, it is more of a compliance-based document. you know, what are we doing that we obviously know we have to do? Um, these items that were on the end and the bulleted and what will be in the strategic plan are things that we'd like to do to enhance our district programming. So, they go above and beyond compliance into best practices and evidence-based uh curriculum. I think it's important to note also that in the state plan, there's no space to add those additional items.
031So when people view that document online, it's not because of lack of effort. It's because of the requirements of the document. Any questions for special education? Um just a comment with a question too, I guess. Um I'm so pleased to see the district um adding classrooms to meet student need. We've talked about that at the board table and um so I'm excited to see that be actualized uh next year. You mentioned um that autistic support and learning support LSS learning life skill support life skill support would be um the areas of need that you'd be thinking about but you didn't know yet because of enrollment and diagnosis can change and so forth. But when would you know that in order to prepare the classroom for the fall? Yeah. Um, we're I I think you remember
032we started a new program at Foster Elementary last year and that program will be full to start this school year. So, we went from like one or two students to eight over the course of this year and these um early intervention students that are transitioning in. So, um it's going to be based on the students that are coming to us in terms of move in. you know, are we able to um place them in our programming that we currently have or do we need to expand? So, Dr. Freeze is fully aware that, you know, it may be a sooner rather than a later. For right now, we have spots for all of the kids that are coming in for kindergarten. That's awesome. And um for the public to know that we've budgeted for that. That's
033that's part of the plan. Yeah. Dr. Schuman, overall great work. Thank you very much for this. I'm impressed. Um when when looking at your presentation holistically, you know, at the outset, you you you you led with data. Um and I I appreciate the transparency with what within within which you presented that that data and information of the areas where we're we're meeting the mark and the areas where we're not meeting the mark. And I appreciate that. um you've presented a a a very robust and comprehensive plan um to to meet those areas where where there's opportunities for improvement. Um I also am impressed by the um the marriage of the the feedback from the um the different focus groups um that that you know we had discussed previously. Some feedback that you received you know
034here from the board table that all of that information to my eye has been thoroughly included. I'm impressed by the the depth and breadth of your next steps. I'm I'm looking forward to seeing you get all of this stuff done. This this is a lot. Um so I I set the bar high, man. I'm I'm all for that. Um and everything that's in here is is part of the the budget. Is that that's Yeah. Well, I mean this plan will address several years. So we will kind of move forward. My question number two is this this is all going to be done, you know, by this time next year. A little bit little bit of time. Okay. A six year plan. Yeah. Um and I think just for that ongoing sort of accountability piece is
035that we are these next steps will be um reflected as objectives in our six-year strategic plan and then as the board knows as the community knows we have annual goals that are aligned with that strategic plan. So, I think we'll be looking at how do we eat the elephant? Um, you know, how do we progress to where we need to be over the the cycle of the next strategic plan and prioritizing what needs to happen sooner rather than later. And a lot of these items are time, not necessarily a resource. So, there is some things that it won't require a budget, but it will require time to develop and um to provide such as like trainings and things like that. Sure. Which goes right into my question. So, thank you. Um, so when it comes
036to training, uh, we have, you know, our arts and our music teachers. They are embedded. Um, but my one area that I would like to just have a question about would be athletics and extracurricular activities because I know that we have some people that aren't necessarily in the building every day. Will we also be rolling out training for them as well? Yeah. So, at the last few um LEO summits, our special ed department and student services really stepped up and offered sessions that were voluntary and and teachers could select. Um what we may be looking for is some items that all teachers have to participate in. And when you talk about athletics and extracurriculars, those trainings are typically on a specialized basis, meaning we have a student that may require some accommodations in that sport
037or activity. So, we kind of meet with them more individually. Um, but uh just as an example, like IEPs versus 504 training would be all staff, not necessarily. Yeah. So, yeah, those are on the horizon. Great. Just want to make sure it's really important that they they do have that training because we do have students that have those, you know, um challenges and then if you have a coach or someone coming in that doesn't understand that, then we have a an issue. So, thank you so much for that. Okay. Is there um a goal to be written that um brings a certain number of students or percentage of students um from the outside educational um placements back into the district? Are we quantifying that in any way or or how would you describe that? Um,
038so I would say that every month or so, um, we look at the list of students and we talk about who might be ready for a transition back into the district. Um, the state at this point has not required a certain percentage of students to come back in, but that's probably because we're so close, it would maybe be one student that would need to come back to meet that target. Um, so um, whenever we have our compliance monitoring, if that is still a concern, they may say we need to set up an action item towards that. But right now there was no suggested percentage for returns. Okay. So state compliance is the driver there. Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean we're always looking at bringing kids back. Um but in terms of the met target or
039did not meet target, that's okay. Yeah. And that's in um on slide 15, special education state requirements. There's the first goal. analyze data and create a plan for decreasing um non-participation in state assessments. And then the second one, where is it at? Um there's another one about returning students to um to our district. Yeah, if I can just add, I think there may have been a misconception in the public that if we create a specialized program, we're bringing all the kids back that have that service. And that's not true. Um because we're not going to bring a student back that it's not appropriate for. and we want their experience to be successful. So we would not bring a student back just to bring them back for a number. We would want to make sure our
040programming is adequate for that student. I really appreciate that student centered approach. Yeah. Ready to switch gears? Okay. So student services. So once again, we would be reviewing the program review timeline. This time we're going to look at gifted education section 504, ESL, school counseling, school-based mental health, and related services. And then next steps based on the uh program review and feedback. Timeline is the same. Uh we conducted these surveys and focus groups at the same time or around the same time. So now we take a look at gifted. So the 10-year data um should be familiar to you in a previous board presentation. However, I wanted to show the breakdown of percent of students receiving gifted education compared to the total student population. And then we have a little statement there about our increase
041um from 4.6% in 2014 to 5.5% in 2025. Currently there are 58 more students than 10 years ago. When we look at highlights and again there is a full document um that explains all of these things but for tonight's purposes um the program highlights are we do offer a universal screening for gifted at grade three. Um we have a matrix which is provided in this program report for public view for grades K to 3, 4 to 5 and 6 to 12. We provide both enrichment and acceleration options as per the state model and we have built capacity by assigning additional staff to the program during this past school year. And our staff also provided twice exceptional training to staff and families. So students that may have a disability but also be identified as gifted. Can
042I just ask if in the larger report I know in the past we've also looked at some of the like demographics of kids who are being identified as gifted. Is that going to be included in the larger document? Not currently, but I can. We have that would be great. Yeah. For section 504 service agreements, um we are looking at 8.1% of our students have 504 plans. That has been an increase uh a pretty dramatic increase of 333 more students than 10 years ago. Um if you look at the numbers over there, we have steady increase, a couple uh years of a little slight dip. Um but it is steadily going up. For our program highlights, we are providing timely evaluations by identified staff members and teams, a distribution of services K to 12 and aids,
043accommodations and services provided for our students based on um their disability. Is it true that um there's overlap between 504 plans and gifted students? Yes. Yes. Yes. So, a student um can have a GIP and a 504, but if they have uh if they qualify for special ed, everything goes in the IP. So, there's a gifted goal in the IP. For English as a second language, uh we are currently at 5.6% 6% of our students receiving services. Um that is a total of 112 more than 10 years ago. And for our program highlights, we currently contract with the AIU to provide teachers at each building. Title 3 funding allows for PD and summer learning center scholarships. Students are assessed based on the state requirement in terms of entry level and exit. And the goals of
044our program are to assist ELLs to work at an optimal pace to gain proficiency in the English language to achieve academic success and acquire cultural familiarity for school counseling. Um if you remember last year we completed the ACT 339 K to2 guidance report that covered all of the services in our district. So this is a little snapshot from that. Um, so these are the full-time equivalent of staff members at each building in terms of counseling. And I just showed you the ASCA um recommendations and averages there. So the average um what that they found in 21-22 was 415 students to one counselor. ASCA recommends 250 to1. We are very close um to that ratio in most buildings. Some buildings were a little short. for program highlights. Um like I said, we completed the plan during
045the last school year. There were no state required updates. However, um stakeholder feedback was utilized as next steps that are coming up. And our building level goals for counseling at each level, our personal, social, career, and academic domains. So if you remember from the plan and it is on our website um we had to identify activities for each age level and grade level and then we had to define artifacts that our students were completing um for their portfolio for school-based mental health. Um these are the current number of students that are accessing the service. So, if you remember, this service began last school year, and we currently have a contract with the Bradley Center to provide school-based mental health. We have 47 current students that are utilizing this, 11 that were already discharged through progress,
046and we have 13 referrals that are in process. For our program highlights, um, all 10 buildings are now licensed as a satellite location. We currently have one full-time and one part-time uh licensed professional counselor assigned to us and students are referred and screened through our student assistance program. Um and a a highlight or benefit of this is the students can continue to meet with their counselor over the summer in our building since they're now licensed. So there doesn't need to be a break in service. So that one service provider travels to all 10 schools. We have uh one basically one and a half and this they do travel to different schools. Um the Bradley Center is currently interviewing for additional staff. So again it would be based on our student need for related services. Um,
047just a definition of what this is is basically a student that has gone through an evaluation and has been identified as a student with a disability that has demonstrated the need for specially designed instruction may qualify for related services as part of their program. We currently contract with the AIU to provide OT Whoops, I'm sorry, skipped the slide there. Um, provide OT, uh, physical therapy and supplemental speech language support. We contract with the Bradley Center for two full-time social workers for IEP students. They again would travel between buildings and we have one Mount Lebanon employee that provides social work to nonIEP students at the high school. The contract with first student, this is for transportation and first alt um is in year one of a three-year contract. Um the feedback that we have received from
048that provider has been great and we've been working with them all year. I will add that first view is an option for all of our parents that are receiving transportation in the fact that there's an app that they can track their students and their driver. That was a a big um highlight from the last contract. And in 2526, we are proposing to move health services to student services. That would be um under this umbrella. I'll just go back quickly for that one. you just don't have enough to do. Um, for OT, we currently have um 110 IEP students and nine 504 students receiving service. We have 51 IEP students for physical therapy, 463 for um total um that includes our district people, too. And then social work, we have 80 IEP students and transportation, 70
049IEP students. Okay. So, let's look at the plan. Once again, these are the following themes or areas that we are focusing on. For communication, we are streamlining communication across the 10 schools regarding student services processes. We are reviewing and revising the website. We are adding department updates to the district newsletter and creating a monthly student services newsletter. utilizing social media to highlight our programming and we are aligning parent communication tools with school or department initiatives. We also want to create a frequently asked questions resources for student services for staff and families. Streamline and clarify related service provider communication. Sometimes, you know, our teachers aren't sure who's our OT in the building and we want to make sure that we are communicating who's the staff that is working with our students. um increasing awareness of school
050counseling services and programming within the district. I think our counselors do a lot of great things. We want to make sure that we're highlighting everything that they offer. And then developing a library of translated documents for families with limited English proficiency. For professional development, we are going to provide parent trainings on strategies and supports that can be utilized at home. Train staff on twice exceptional profiles. Create and offer training sessions for Lebo Summit and Parent University utilizing this feedback. Develop and offer ongoing postsecary education for families. Provide PD on IEP writing for social work and gifted staff because that's not, you know, something that doesn't come up as frequently. Provide PD on section 504 impleation implementation of teaching staff. That's what we discussed with the um coaches or extracurricular and provide ongoing deescalation training for
051staff and provide training to staff related to supporting our English language learners. For consistency, we are looking to evaluate, research, develop, and implement district procedures for student services. Create Google forms for common staff procedures. Excuse me. implement recommendations from the special ed student services review to enhance our progress monitoring benchmarks and family communication and collaborate with department chairs to disseminate important information during monthly staff meetings. I don't talk this much. Sorry, water. All right. So, we are providing training to staff on new curricular when implemented, expanding school-based mental health to meet staffing and student needs, reviewing and adopting curriculum across grade levels to help students develop social and emotional skills, incorporating feedback for more authentic discussion-based models, expand the use of SEAL learning resources, excuse me, examine resources and tiered intervention supports for ELLs. Conduct
052a program review of health services. then develop and implement improvements. Explore the possibility of adding acceleration opportunities in ELA and science and to research, develop, and implement ways to increase inschool enrichment opportunities for gifted students. You guys didn't think you'd make me cry today, did you? Um, one thing um we wanted to look at is opportunities for our gifted students to meet with their peers in the school day. Um, so that is one of the ways we're looking to increase enrichment opportunities. And for programming next steps, this is the last one. Evaluate and update the K to2 guidance plan to ensure relevant services and post-secondary opportunities are referenced. Provide students with a clear understanding of various college and career pathways, including four-year universities, community colleges, trade schools, apprenticeships, and other career training programs. Evaluate, design,
053and implement improvements to the IGP, the individualized graduation plan. Look at improvements to informing students about college application process, SAT, ACT testing, essay, scholarships, and financial aid, and evaluate and improve the social emotional learning, counseling activities to help students manage stress, set goals, and communicate effectively. Okay. Next steps is the strategic plan which all of these items will be addressed. Let me grab my water. Yeah. Thank you. I mean I it's as Doc Dr. Mr. Either uh Mr. Wland mentioned Yeah. for the first um report. You know, it super comprehensive, really excited about um all of the changes that will potent, you know, that will be made over the next few years. Um it's been a long time coming for for most of this. So, just thank you. I it's it's a lot and and
054I know you have your hands full but um at the same time given all of this has has been done this year and just in in this presentation putting this together is impressive. So yeah, a lot of the items, you know, have been on our mind and so my my thought would be to take all of these and put them on my bulletin board and just start crossing them off as I I think also it's just really appreciated and I participated in in some of the focus groups for for this particular presentation is just that like that we you listened not you individually did and then also everyone that was there, you know, it was well done and I'm Um, I actually snuck into two different focus groups, which I hope I didn't wouldn't get
055in trouble for, but you know, it it was really, um, everything that was mentioned is included in this. And so, just just the fact that that you heard everyone and um, it's great. Thank you. Um I guess my one question um for the and I know this is also a question for the board um as we're talking about the budget because it's a budget related question but if we are sort of are we looking at the schools where we're more out of line with the 250 to1 and thinking about staffing changes again I think you'll see that in the next plan that comes up. We're looking at the staffing models for different support services. Um that includes ELLL counseling um to see if we can do it better in house. Great. Obviously with the fiscal
056constraints it's going to create some creativity around it but that is one of the goals that you'll see in the overall strategic plan and once again that's why we have some time so we can budget accordingly. Thank you for this. Um, so in regard to kind of the strategic plan and the objectives and the metrics, will there be a timeline of kind of like what what each year what what we're looking to achieve kind of to get from point A to point B? There will be. Yeah. Yeah. Each objective, right? There is a lot. Yes. um you know we captured everything that we have been thinking along with strategic plan focus groups um in the survey. So this is a seven-year plan. This is an a we're going to finish it all next year though
057Dr. Schulo and Dr. Davis joke that we did a lot the last few years. Yeah. Um, you know, we are moving at a pretty fast rate in terms of the work that we're getting done. But I think that the benefit of it is that we have experience on our team. You know, people that have done this work before in the past, which makes it um not easier, but we understand it. And everything that's captured in these two plans as well as the strategic plan will set a really nice road map for us. And there'll be things that we have to prioritize over other things obviously because there's no way to complete a 100 tasks in one year, you know, or 100 objectives in one year. Other questions or comments? Great work. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks.
058Thank you, Dr. Schuman. Thank you. Okay, now we're getting into the agenda items, um, which are lengthy, so thank you for bearing with us. Um, first up in the policy section, um, we have a suite of proposed policy adoptions, uh, revisions and retirements. So, for the policy adoptions, we have 19 policies this month. Um they range from student trips to human resources related items um facilities related items as well and there are seven policy retirements that will go into place as well. Um the policies that are related to human resources are aligned with our collective bargaining agreements and contracts and state law. So the a lot of it is just memorializing that and breaking out from these policy retirements um information into smaller bits rather than it being like 10 different things in one policy.
059We did have a policy meeting before this where we talked about these items for um a little bit over an hour and that report will be online in the next day or so for anybody that would like to listen to it. You don't want to recite it? No, I can't. I started saying words and they weren't the words that were on the page and I knew that we were getting towards the end. Um well, yeah, as Dr. Freeze noted um that full discussion um is going to be available online uh as of tomorrow. Was there anything that anyone on the committee wanted to highlight or any other board members with questions or [Music] comments? Okay. All right. Um, moving into the finance area, we have items A through S. You have your water? I do.
060Excellent. Okay. Uh first up is the uh monthly treasures report. Um the treasures report reflects cash transactions for the month of April 2025. First part of the report is um the four page uh listing of all of our accounts, their beginning cash balances in the beginning of the month and the April 30th cash balance as well as of our as well as our investments. We do have on page four of four the um the uh other funds outside of the general fund which the board is also um can see the ins and outs of those accounts in interest earned. The second part of the report is our projected expenditure and revenue. There has been no change since the update in March. We're still projecting a uh deficit of about u a deficit of $200,000. We
061are working on closing that gap and we will be making projections and spending a lot of time on salary and benefits again at the end of May uh to bring you a more finite number for June. Excellent. Any uh questions, comments or discussion on the treasures report? Okay. Next item on the list is the monthly list of bills. The monthly list of bills reflects CH checks authorized to be drawn on April 24, 2024. That should say 2025. I think all checks have been reviewed by the administration. The superintendent recommends approval of this list. Excellent. Any questions, comments, or discussion on the monthly list of bills? I had a question. Yeah. curious what is what service is being provided by the city of asylum. I think this was a a thing that was also on our
062list of bills in March and I was curious. It was not not a not a large fee, but what that was contracted. I will update the board. I don't know what that is. I'm sorry. It was a Sudanese poet. Yeah, I think it was um student programming melon. Okay. I saw that. I just didn't know what a contracted service that would be defined as. It was very It was well received. It was very good. But we can confirm that. Thank you. Okay. Unfortunately on this month's report, we do have a tax refund. The list of tax refunds totals $11,1504 refund for April 2025. The list has been reviewed by the solicitor's office which recommends approval. The le list is also re recommended for approval by the superintendent. Excellent. Um any questions or comments on the
063tax refunds? Okay. Um we have our budgetary transfers for May. Budgetary transfers for May total $43,2816 for contracted facility services, utilities, bus maintenance, athletic supplies, and CPR cards. The superintendent recommends approval of these transfers. Excellent. Any questions or comments on the budgetary transfers? I just wanted to highlight that um or ask I guess that a lot of money line items came out of um various utilities in order to pay the high school gas bill. So I'm wondering was it super high for a certain reason? Was that out of what we expected for? Obviously it's out of what we budgeted for because we needed to draw elsewhere to cover it. And has that been um adjusted for in the future budget next year? We did take the historical information to budget for 2526. I can't say
064exactly why it's there the it wasn't budgeted uh properly for or if there were an increase. I'd have to get back to you on that. But um this is the purpose of the budget transfers to take these lines that have surplus funds to cover those that are deficit. Yeah. And just a reminder um until last year there hadn't been um this level of recording and accounting. So this is still fairly new to the district. So we'll adjust as we know more and as we track it for longer. That's correct. Any other discussion? Okay. The next item uh the next several items are related to um I think the budget and levying taxes. So item E is the homestead uh farmstead resolution. The board is requested to consider the 2526 homestead farmstead resolution which provides a
065tax reduction of $326.39 per homestead. Excellent. And this is related to that sort of $299,000 balancing that you showed us on the the budget. Okay. Any additional questions or comments about this resolution? Okay. And then we have the real estate tax resolution. The board is requested to consider the 2526 tax resolution increasing real estate millage to 30.9500. All right. Any questions or comments on this resolution? Okay. Um, we also have the uh act 511 or 511 resolution. The board is requested to approve the 2025 2026 act 511 tax resolution that includes earned income tax levied and assessed at the rate of 0.5% of earned income. real estate transfer tax levied and assessed at the rate of 0.5% of the sale price of the real estate and local services tax levied and assessed at the rate
066of $5 per person. Any questions or comments on these local taxes? Okay. And then we have the 2526 final budget. The board is requested to approve the 2025 2026 final budget in the amount of $125,19,257. Okay. And this is presented here in the required state format but is largely the information that we reviewed. Yes. is not largely but is the information that we reviewed earlier. Any additional questions or comments before we move on from the budget resolutions? Thank you. All right. Um next we have the annual list of contracts in excess of $100. Annually the board is asked to approve a list of contracts in excess of $100 as required by school code. Note that the contract amount required to be approved has not changed since 1949. Some of these contracts have been approved separately
067by the board as they became due. Some continue yeartoear without separate action. All known contracts are listed here for board review and approval. The superintendent recommends approval of this list. All right. Any questions or comments on the list of contracts? Yes, I have a question. So, um the difference between the amount of the contract column and the 20 2526 amount. Um I just wanted clarification. So specifically for Western Psych it was at 12,000 and this was last year too. But then it says for 2025 it jumps to 137K and I was just trying to understand what that means. Western Psych because most of the items are either at or below when you compare those two columns. Um, typically what happens is we enter into a um a multi-year contract. So, what we try to do
068in column D is show what it is over the multi-year and then annually what it is. Um, I think possibly that one is it's $12,000 per student and we're projecting a $137,000 expense. So, I'm not sure. I think Dr. Schuman may be able to answer this for us. This is a partial placement um for a student and that is why you see the increased amount from last year. Yeah, I can take a look at our budgeted numbers and confirm that for next week. Okay. It just stuck out at me because it didn't didn't wasn't consistent. Thank you. And I believe this is a new presentation format for this. Yes. So, we have been working on having um data that goes back more years than one so that we can do comparisons. And in addition to
069that, we can have all of the contracts in one place. So, next week when the public um can see the links, there will be there's a link to all of the contracts as well that will be available for the public to view. And I appreciate it as well because on here on most on many of these line items, you can see the number of students that it affects and I think that's important. I very much appreciate the sort of increased transparency here where we're verifying that these contracts are in fact included in the budget. Um and there is uh links where available or there will be links. Yeah, there will be. This has been a labor of love for some of you um to get them all in one place because previously we may have
070approved things but didn't have a good handle on what the um what the contract was. So in the last year we've worked really hard to make sure that we have a contract for everything that we do. A labor of hate. A labor of labor. um additional questions or comments? I I know we'll get back on what that difference is on that one line item, but any other questions or comments? It's just really helpful to see that we've needed that level of um clarity into this and knowing um knowing what the contract is, having it linked here and whether that it's budgeted for or whether it's in con in progress. So, it's something that we've already voted on and it's in progress. Um, so I think that's helpful um to It's a lot. It's not light
071reading, but it's a lot of uh help in understanding it. Yeah, it's a lot of information and you can almost take it to the next step in regard to the the report that we just saw and how many students are being outsourced and how much we're spending on those students and then how it all kind of relates to one another. And I feel like we get it in bits and pieces, but but seeing it how it connects makes it more meaningful. Yeah. Yeah. And Dr. Schuman maintains a list of all outside placements and the cost. And we do the same thing for our um students that are in cyber charters as well. That's something new that we started last year to keep track of where people are. I wonder if there's any contracts less than
072$100. I'm just kidding. probably very few. Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. Um I'll ask Dr. Freeze, I guess, to talk about the appointment of the treasurer. Um annually, the district must appoint a treasurer. administration recommends the appointment of Patricia Connley as school district treasurer for the 2025 2026 school year at no remuneration. Any questions or comments on that? Okay. Um this is another standing item. The exoneration of of tax collection for listed properties. Annually, the district exonerates the real estate tax collector from collecting taxes on district-owned properties. There is one property on the list. It is a lot on Illinois Avenue that belongs to the school district. The superintendent recommends the exoneration of the collection of taxes on this property. Any questions or comments on this item? Okay. Uh, next is the municipal real estate
073tax office audit. The independent audit of the municipal real estate tax office for the 2024 calendar year is complete and presented for board approval. There are no findings in the audit. Superintendent recommends approval of the audit. Okay. Questions or comments on this item? Okay. Um, next is a resolution related to the American Fidelity supplemental benefit. The board has asked to approve the continuence agreement with American Fidelity as the district's provider of supplemental insurance benefits for employees. There is no cost to the district for these services and the superintendent recommends approval of the agreement. any questions or comments on this extension? Okay. Um, next up is a uh the workers comp insurance for next year. The board is asked to consider the approval of UPMC work partners to provide the district's 2025 2026 workers compensation insurance
074at an annual premium of $138,979. The superintendent recommends approval of this insurance renewal. Excellent. Any questions or comments on this item? Okay. And then we have our um larger insurance renewal. The board has asked to consider the approval of the 2520 2025 2026 insurance policies for property, terrorism, liability, cyber, crime, commercial automobile, excess liability, school directors and officers, ber and machinery, and student accident in the amount of $456,684. Okay. Any questions or comments on this item? Okay. I just wanted to note uh I was happy to see the lower increase compared to the previous year than we saw last year. Um, and thank you for working with the car the agents and the carriers to keep those costs down cuz I tight it's allergies apparently. Okay. Any other discussion that? All right. Next, we have
075an item related to the postage machine lease. The board has asked to approve a lease with Quadant for a district-wide postage machine in the amount of $41.69 per month for 60 months from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2030. The superintendent recommends approval of this lease with Quadant. Okay, any questions or comments on this lease? Excellent. Uh, next up we have a resolution related to student meal prices for next school year. The board has asked to approve the 2526 student lunch meal prices which includes a 5 cent increase. Recommended 25 202526 pricing with the 5 increase includes elementary lunch $2.70 middle and high school lunch tier $2.85 middle and high school lunch tier $3.20 middle and high school lunch tier $3.75. The superintendent recommends approval of the 2526 student lunch meal prices. Okay. Any questions
076or comments on on this item? Out of curiosity, if breakfast is no longer free, do we will this compens compensate for that? Would we be able to do anything with that? No, we would bring a proposed breakfast price to the board for approval. Okay. And the free breakfast is a state program, I believe, and it it is included at least in the proposed Yes. budget from the governor. Um I know we have held um lunch prices steady for several years. Um, and so this is the first time I think in four years that we're having a 5-cent increase. Um, have we seen, and this may be something that we need to look into and report back, just increases in the amounts of students um, applying for and being approved for free and reduced lunch during
077that time as well. I just want I mean it's five cents but I just want to make sure we're um our free and reduced lunch rate has increased over the last few years. I think our biggest challenge is that during the pandemic um when meals were free that really confused families when we went back to a paying structure. And so that's something that we work on daily um for people to pay their um fees because you can't stop feeding people. So even if you don't pay, you still have to be fed. And so that has been a challenge since that um since that payment for lunch was taken away a few years ago. Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. Um, next we have an agreement um for athletic training services. The board has asked to approve
078an agreement with UPMC sports medicine as the lowest responsible quote to provide athletic training and physician services for a 5-year term at a cost of the following. $36,990 for 2526 school year. 38839 for 2627. $40,781 for the 20272028 fiscal year, $44,859 for 2028-29, and 47,12 for the 292030 fiscal year. UMC is the current provider of these services and the athletic department reports that this has been a positive relationship. The superintendent recommends approval of this agreement. Any questions or comments on this agreement? Uh and finally, we have an um provider for duplicating and cover stock. The board has asked to approve WBM Mason as the provider of high-speed duplicating and cover stock paper for the 2526 school year. WB Mason was the only bidder at $83,126 for high-speed duplicating paper and $9,970 for cover stock paper.
079This is a cost savings of $4,76 over last year's paper bid. The superintendent recommends approval of these bids. Okay. Any questions or comments on the paper bid? Okay. The next section of the agenda is related to uh human resources. So, we're not letting Mrs. Connelly off the hook quite yet. The personnel report details personnel appointments, changes in assignments, leaves of absences, resignations, sabbaticals, and retirements to be considered by the board. All right. Any questions or comments? Okay. And then um the next line item is the appointment of the board secretary. Every four years, the board must appoint a secretary to perform functions required by law. The board secretary maintains minutes of all board meetings, executes contracts, and signs other legal documents after the board has has approved such action. The superintendent recommends Kimberly Walters to
080a 4-year term effective July 1, 2025 at no renumeration and to serve in the capacity of recording secretary, notary public, and open records officer at an annual renumeration subject to increases aligned to administrative assistance. Any questions or comments on this item? Miss Walters isn't here, so this is the time to say nice things without embarrassment. Okay. Uh the LA, no, not the last. The next section of the agenda is related to curriculum and instruction. And the first item on that is the approval of uh the 2024 2025 act 80 request. Thank you. Good evening. Uh the board has asked to approve the act 80 days for the 2425 school year. Section 1504 as amended by act 80 of 1969 authorizes exception to the 180day requirement or to the daily schedule providing minimal instructional minute requirements
081are met. These exceptions are only for certain purposes including professional development and parent conferences. Superintendent recommends approval of this schedule. Any questions or comments on the act 80 days? Okay, next up uh probably also going to Dr. Davis is a textbook adoption. So, this is a carry forward from last month because they've been sitting for review for 28 days. Uh in accordance with section 803 of the Pennsylvania school laws, the following basic textbooks are listed for adoption and recommended by the superintendent. Uh at the middle school, uh it is the Inquisitor's Tale and at the elementary level, it is amplified. Okay, any questions or comments on these uh texts? Excellent. Um, next up we have the AIOU um comprehensive services agreement and special education addendum. The board has asked to approve the comprehensive services agreement
082with the Alageney Intermediate Unit for special education services for the 2526 school year in the form presented. Okay, questions or comments on this agreement? Excellent. Um, and then we have the uh AIU waterfront learning addendum. The board has asked to approve an agreement with the Alagany Intermediate Unit for its waterfront learning services. Waterfront Learning provides a menu of flexible cyber education program options for the 2526 school year. This agreement establishes what costs the districts would incur if it uses any of the services. Waterfront Learning is used as the course provider for our K12 asynchronous program and as a credit recovery option for students. The superintendent recommends approval of this contract. All right. Any questions or comments on this item? So, as I recall, Waterfront was something that we um first adopted during CO. Um is
083is it a product that's working well for us? Is this something we're I mean beyond obviously this renewal is is for the board's consideration but but beyond that we're we're happy with the product and yes we have been very happy with the product and it has allowed us to offer um cyber education to students who may need it who would typically leave and go to PA cyber and the cost is about a tenth quarter quarter of the price yeah it's very very low um and is a much better option for us than sending them to a cyber Great. And then it this is uh students that go through the waterfront program do graduate with a Mount Lebanon degree. Correct. That's correct. And we sent our most recent letters to the cyber students stating that we
084have a program and that we would love to have them back. Last year I think we got maybe three people back. Any additional discussion? Okay. Um, next up is the standardized testing schedule for 2025 2026. So, annually annually for the purposes of providing appropriate educational programs and services for all district students, the board has asked to approve the standardized testing schedule for the next school year. The superintendent is recommending approval of this schedule. All right. Any questions or comments on the standardized testing schedule? Are AP exams part of this? Uh, historically they have not been. They are they are selected by students to take as opposed to the district students. Okay. Thanks. Any others? Do they take keystones on both of those dates? I see the um duplication of algebra 1, biology and English lit
085on December and then again in May or is that either or? Uh the December window is for makeups uh or students that were not successful the previous spring. Uh and then May is typically the um largecale administration of the exam. Okay. Which is happening starting tomorrow. Yes. Additional questions. Okay. Um, next up we have a uh a not a field trip, a student trip request. Yes. The administration is requesting permission for our marching band and the wind ensemble to travel to Orlando, Florida for the Disney Performing Arts on Stage from February 26th to March 2nd, 2026. Students will miss three days of school and are responsible for the cost of the trip. The superintendent is recommending approval of this trip. Excellent. Any questions on this request or discussion? Okay. And then we have another request
086for a concert trip. Yes. The administration is requesting permission for the concert choir to travel to Nashville, Tennessee for performance at the historic Ryman Auditorium, a coral workshop at TCA University, and cultural experiences from February 13th to the 16th, 2026. 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. Excellent. Any questions or comments on this item? Okay. Uh the next section of our agenda is other very mysterious. Uh first up is the designation of voting delegates to the PSBA conference. The board has asked to authorize Melinda Berdick and Eva Gellman to be voting delegates to the annual PSBA delegate assembly. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 21st, 2025 at 2:30 p.m. at Kalahari Resorts and Conventions in
087the Poconos. Okay. Any questions or comments on this item? Just thank you to Mrs. Gellman and Mrs. Berdick for agreeing to serve in that capacity. and happy birthday to Mrs. Gelman tonight. Um, and then next up is the board meeting schedule for the 2025 2026 school year. The board is asked to adopt the following dates for regular monthly meetings for the 2025 2026 school year to be held in room D205 Mount Lebanon High School. August 18th, September 15th, October 20th, November 17th, December 8th, January 26th, February 16th, March 16th, April 13th, May 18th, and June 15th. Other open meetings of the board will be held on the following dates in room D205 Mount Lebanon High School. August 11th, September 8th, October 13th, November 10th, December 1st, January 12th, February 9th, March 9th, April 13th, May
08811th, and June 8th. And a note, by next week's meeting, um we are working on confirming having the October 13th discussion meeting at Parkway CTC. and that'll be updated once we have that confirmed. Is a field trip. Any questions or comments on this schedule? And just just as a reminder, um we did only uh at our reorganization meeting approve the first half of our meetings for the year and we decided to align that schedule with the academic calendar since that makes more sense in terms of the cycle that we are going through here. Okay. Um, next we have questions or comments from residents. Presentations or comments are to be limited to three minutes. Um, if there's anyone in the audience who'd like to speak, please approach the mic and state your name. You'll have three
089minutes. Good evening. Paula Bonjouro Pine Tree Road. I'm here this evening to ask the board to reconsider your book selection for the seventh grade, The Inquisitor's Tale. I am not sure whether this book is the right choice for our district and for our students. I decided to uh look into what the evaluations were out there uh about this book, The Inquisitor's Tale. And according to Katie Fitzgerald, a mom who makes it a point to read children's book with religious themes, among her issues with this book are the issues of heresy, the blurring of the lines between religion and fantasy, moral relativism, not to mention redemptive suffering, God's name in vain, and toilet humor. This mother also is concerned because kids however at this age are still in the process of forming their religious beliefs and
090and other views of possible issues are one profanity two some gross stuff three universalism which is promoted at odds with both religions. Maybe the most important issue is the fact that the author makes some mistakes which might be jarring to Christians and specifically Catholics. As a concerned resident, I feel and I would like the board to think about all of these reasons to re maybe reconsider this. there are other very good options and I think also considering the age of this if this would be something for an older age group but um I too have concerns with this religious factor involved with this book selection. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your comment. Um is there anyone else in the auditorium or online who'd like to make a comment? That's online. Okay.
091Uh upcoming p upcoming public meetings are on again Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. The board's regular meeting will be in room D205 of the Mount Lebanon High School and also via Zoom. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So move. Second. Second. Yeah. Okay.