001Good evening. Uh, I now call to order the regular meeting of the Mount Lebanon Board of School Directors. Tonight is Monday, April 21st, 2025 at 7:32 p.m. Um, and before we begin, we have some friends from How Elementary to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Rudo, if you would come up and introduce your students, even though I know many of them. Good evening. It's an honor and a privilege to be here this evening. Uh with me, I have some of our fifth grade students from How Elementary along with Mrs. Cara Shields from How Elementary as well, fifth grade teacher. Uh in our audience, we have Maggie Roland, Lena Danley, Nancy Ayabota. We have Aubrey Flavin, uh, Laura De Lima, and Leo Allen. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America
002and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. I'd like to take this time to also share some of the many exciting things that are going on at How Elementary. Uh our fifth grade teachers, Miss Shields and Mrs. Jeans, uh worked on a service project with animal friends. So, our students are going to share some of that excitement with you this evening. How we lend our paws. Animal Friends fifth grade service project. What is Animal Friends? Animal Friends is a shelter that offers a safe place for cats, dogs, bunnies, and more animals that are in need. They also help people in the community by offering affordable care for their pets, pet supplies including food, volunteer opportunities and classes. How we helped sniffing mats.
003How fifth graders went around to each classroom and taught students how to make these mats to donate to the shelter. Fifth graders cut hundreds, maybe thousands of pieces of fabrics for students to use. What are sniffing mats? Sniffing is a natural behavior for these animals and it stimulates their mind. The sniff mats calm and relax them while also providing enrichment. Supply drive. Howal collected items that the shelter was in need of things such as dry and canned food, unopened treats, cat litter, small animal bedding, toys, animal friends, Amazon and chewy wish lists were sent out. Two donation boxes were set up at how for easy drop off. Thank you to our how community. Our service project was extremely successful. We donated several boxes of supplies and other wishlist items were purchased and sent directly to
004animal friends. In total, how fifth grade maiden helped to facilate facilate making 64 [Applause] mats. Why don't we do a picture? Thank you. You're going to get it out there. You've got instructions from Miss Smith already. Thank you so much. Great job. Thank you guys. Thank you. Uh, roll call, please. Mrs. Berdick, here. Mrs. Crabel, here. Miss Flecher here. Mrs. Gellman, here. Mrs. Gensel here. Miss Guth here. Mr. Hoffman. Ms. Johnson here. Mr. Wland here. Eight members are present. U Mrs. Gensel is attending via Zoom. Mr. Hoffman is absent this evening. Thank you. Um I move that it be resolved that the board approves the minutes of the policy committee meeting held on March 10th, 2025, the discussion meeting held on March 10th, 2025, and the regular meeting held on March 17th, 2025. Second. All
005in favor? I. Any opposed or abstensions? Okay, thank you. We're now at the section on our agenda for board reports. First up, uh Melon Middle School students Arada Pradep and John Grath will present a report on behalf of student council. Thank you so much for inviting us to speak tonight. My name is John Grath and I am a seventh grade member of Melon Student Council. My name is Aradana Praib. I'm also a seventh grade member of our student council. Since our last update, we were able to finish our field the beat Fridays initiative for the month of February. We sold a variety of heart merch each Friday in February to promote heart health month. We ended the month by raising a total of $270 for St. Clear Hills cardiac unit. In March, we held our
006annual shamrock blitz. Each student at Melon had a shamrock with their name hidden somewhere in the building. Students who found their shamrock deposited into a bin in the days leading up to St. Patrick's Day. After the 3-day weekend in March, we drew 24 winners for grade and each winner received a fun prize. Our student council was also thrilled to send a handful of members to the PASC conference hosted by Mount Lebanon High School on Monday, March 17th. Our members enjoyed networking with other councils and attending studentled workshops. Our delegates also helped out with the closing activity as councils reported for the day. Prior to spring break, our council created positivity posters to hang throughout the building. Some of these posters offer words of wisdom as PSSA testing approaches, and others seek to put a smile
007on the student body's faces. If the weather cooperates, we also hope to decorate the main melon entrance with the cheer with cheerful sidewalk chalk messages in the coming days. As the month of May approaches, we plan to recognize our amazing staff and teachers during staff appreciation week. We plan to deliver bunt cakes to our staff on our snack wagon on May 6th. Likewise, we will sponsor an appreciation station for several days where students are able to write a thank you card for our wonderful melon faculty. Cards will be delivered prior to May 9th. Finally, our council plans to sponsor one final spirit week in June to countdown until summer or summer break. We are excited to close out the year. Thank you so much for listening this evening. Thank you. [Applause] Next up from Mount
008Lebanon High School, we have Max Vorama presenting on behalf of the student council. Good evening everyone. My name is Max Balderama and I am one of the senior class co-vice presidents and I am here to share some exciting updates about some of the past and up and cominging events that have happened at our high school. On March 20th, we held our Kumla induction ceremony where 70 seniors were recognized for their outstanding academic achievements throughout their time at the high school. More recently, on April 3rd, we welcomed new members into the National Honor Society during our annual induction ceremony. These students were honored for their dedication to academics, community service, and leadership. Following a busy March and spring break, we kept things a bit calmer in April, but we ended March on a high note with
009the second annual Clash of Classes games. It was a huge success. All four grade levels competed in a mix of traditional and new games from knockout and relay races relay races to a new challenge called Snake where teams raced while keeping a balloon between each player without using their hands. It was a tight competition, but in the end, the seniors took the win and claimed the Levo Cup. Leading up to the games, we had a fun spirit week with themes like PJ Day, Adam Sandler/Jord Day, anything but a cup day, twin day, and class colors day. Students showed a ton of spirit, and we even held a competition to crown the most spirited participants with prizes for the winners. We also just recently revealed our prom team, Cir Re. I don't speak French. I'm so
010sorry, Jinpal, which translates to circus of dreams. The theme combines a mysterious dreamlike circus vibe with the fun and excitement of prom. Seniors are looking forward to prom night on May 29th, and tickets just went on sale this week. After a restful spring break, everyone is recharged and ready to finish this this year strong. This Friday, we're also celebrating our talented art students with the art show taking place from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in the C20 lobby and center court. Looking ahead to May, students will begin taking AP tests in Keystones. For seniors, May marks the final stretch of high school with several big events on the horizon. Decision Day is quickly approaching on May 1st as many seniors get ready to officially commit to their college plans. Finally, we're excited for this year's spring
011musical, Anastasia, which will run from May 1st through May 3rd in the auditorium. The auditori this story follows Anna, a Russian orphan on a journey to uncover her past and discover her true identity. The cast and crew have been working hard for months and they're looking forward to sharing an amazing performance per performance with the community. That concludes the April report. Thank you for your time and have a great evening everyone. Thank you. Max, have you made your decision yet? Um, it's not fully official. Uh, I haven't put down the deposit yet, but hail to pit. A no pressure. You heard it here first. All right. Next up is the board president's report. Um, first an update on budget and finance. So, tonight the board will be asked to adopt the proposed final budget for
012202526. If approved, this budget will be available for public review and comment for 30 days until the board takes action on the final budget at its meeting on Wednesday, May 21st. I want to heartily thank Dr. Fes, Mrs. Connelly, the entire central office team, uh, particularly the business office and the dozens of budget managers across the district for their thoughtful and diligent and often creative work on this year's budget. I'm proud that we can present a proposed final budget that meets the shared goal of both the board and the administration to achieve a balanced budget that not only minimizes impacts but improves student experience and does not rely on the use of fund balance or on furlows. As we do every month, I'd like to highlight a few items from the district's inclusivity calendar. Um,
013April is Autism Acceptance Month. Autism Acceptance Month celebrates and honors the experiences and identities of autistic individuals and emphasizes understanding, inclusion, and support, moving beyond awareness towards meaningful acceptance. For those who celebrated, um, April 12th through 20th marked the Passover celebration, and this yesterday, April 20th, was Easter. A few highlights from around the district. Um, we're very proud that Mount Lebanon School District's elementary library aid, Nikki McBride, was named outstanding school library par profofessional by the Pennsylvania School Library Association. Um, Miss McBride serves as the library aid for Mount Lebanon's three largest elementary schools and has made an incredible impact supporting students, staff, and the library programs across these buildings. Her dedication, warmth, and love of literacy were recognized through nominations submitted by students and librarians, Miss Cassie Mater from How, Mrs. Sarah Blotzer from
014Washington, and Mrs. Moren Stab from Lincoln, along with Dr. Ron Kitskow, the principal of Lincoln, and Mrs. Jackie Zapco, a second grade teacher at Lincoln. Mrs. McBride received her award at the PSLA annual conference awards breakfast in Eerie, Pennsylvania on Friday, April 4th, which is also National School Librarian Day. She attended the event with her husband and was joined in celebration by Markham librarian and PSLA conference planning committee member Mrs. Jackie Fulton and Marine Stub. Congratulations also go out to Foster Elementary for earning this year's Mount Lebanon Fire Department's Fire Safety Championship belt with a red-hot 93.8% average. Every year, the fifth graders across the district take a 50 question test that assess what they have learned from the department's K through five fire and life safety programs. The elementary school with the highest average
015score is awarded the coveted fire safety championship belt. Um, you'll hear about this probably again uh when we talk about MLF, but please do join us for the Mount Lebanon High School annual art show this coming Friday, April 25th, from 7 to 9:00 p.m. For the first time ever, artwork will be available for purchase with proceeds supporting the Mount Lebanon Foundation for Education and its mission to enhance student experiences. Explore stunning framed and unframed prints or bid on an original masterpiece by one of our talented AP artists in the silent auction. Don't miss this annual celebration of creativity. The Mount Lebanon High School will present Anastasia May 1st through the 3rd. This captivating new musical brings to life the fairy tale legend of Princess Anastasia who esca escaped her family's demise and lost all memory
016of life in royalty. Inspired by the 1997 movie Anastasia Must Journey to Uncover the Truth About Her Past, May 1st and 2nd at 7:30 p.m. and May 3rd at 2 and 7:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium with tickets at $15 for adults and $10 for students. Um, to purchase tickets, visit our website and gold card holders should contact Lorie Cersei. Tickets are also now available for the high Mount Lebanon High School's nationally recognized percussion program's 41st annual spring concert series, an evening of percussion, which is scheduled for May 15th through 17th. The popular concert series showcases the talent and dedication of student musicians through dynamic and high energy performances. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit mount lebanon mtlpercussion.com. And that concludes my report. Next on the agenda, we have the superintendent
017report. Thank you so much, Miss Glacier. Mr. Stangle is going to pull up the presentation for me. I have two updates um this month. The one is a pretty long one related to Lebo University. Um, as many of you know, we hosted Libo University on April the 1st. Our final count for participants was 257. This was up from just under 100 two years ago when we hosted it. On this slide, you can see a chart of the registration for each session. And the two highest um selected sessions were college 101 which was a panel of local college admissions specialists and preparing for the college application process which was hosted by our high school school counselors. Um this will be posted on board docs for everybody to see so you can look um more closely at
018the sessions that were offered and the number of signups for each. The next thing that we did was collect feedback on Libo University following that night. So the survey was sent to anyone um who signed up to participate. The survey was open from April 2nd to April 11th. We had 92 out of 257 participants complete the survey. And in the following slides, I'm going to give an update on what the feedback was. So the first thing was um which topics or sessions in the program did you find most helpful or relevant to your needs? And you can see the breakdown here. Um, the highest being college 101, which it would probably have an unfair advantage considering there were over 100 people who signed up. Um, but this slide kind of gives a breakdown of the
019people who responded, which sessions meant the most to them. The next update or the next question was, how would you rate the overall quality of Lebo University? One being poor and five being excellent. We had one person rate us a two. um three people I'm sorry five people rate us three 27 rated four and 59 rated five. So this was um in our opinion a successful night in which um the quality of the presentations um met the need of our families. The next was do you feel that the information provided was practical and easy to apply in your daily life? One um not at all and five very much so. And for this one, you can see that two two people said I'm sorry, one person said two. Um, five people gave us a three.
020I'm sorry, I'm reading the wrong slide. I didn't advance mine and I can't see that far, which is very sad, but I probably need uh what are they called? Progressives. Um, two two people rated us a two, six people rated us a three, 28 people rated us a four, and 56 rated us a five. So again um successful in this area as well. The time allotted for each session we asked if it was the right amount of time, too much time or not enough. Um 66% people said that it was the right amount of time and 33.7% said not enough time. So then we broke it down a little bit further and um asked an open-ended question. What additional topics or resources would you like to see included in future Lebo University offerings? So, the
021first request was requests for more from the Mount Lebanon Police and keeping kids safe. Um, as you know, we hosted another event in March that was related to safety. Uh, as a result of this feedback and the interest in getting more people to attend, we're going to merge Libo University on our school safety partnership night so that we can get more information related to safety and make it one night rather than multiple nights because it is very hard for families to give up a lot of time in the evening with all the different requirements that they have as parents. So many parents want additional sessions specifically focused on how to keep children safe in real life and online scenarios, signs to look for that might signal concerning behaviors or situations. Tips for take talking to
022students about safety, including peer pressure, substance use, online grooming, and cyber bullying. A session on what parents should do if they suspect that their child is being targeted or involved in risky behavior. and then age specific safety recommendations for instance elementary verse middle school verse high school. The next um feedback was related to technology and online safety and clear practical tools. Technology focused sessions were popular and parents want even more actionable how-to content such as how to find, activate, and use parental controls on phones, tablets, gaming systems, etc. Vetting apps, how to understand what apps are safe or concerning, and how to monitor usage, hands-on tutorials or demo sessions on parental control tools, online safety trends, and what kids are really doing on social media and what to watch out for, AI and future technologies,
023sessions on how AI is impacting education, social media, and the future job market. The next area was related to mental health transitions and support systems. Parents ask for more executive functioning strategies, mindfulness and mental health resources, support for parents of children with special needs, including stress management, transition support for middle school and high school, what to expect, how to support students, and where to find help. And then the fa last piece of feedback for this was related to program format suggestions. Um, feedback showed interest in enhancing the structure by offering more than three sessions per evening or offering the event across multiple nights. Um, an option to view recorded sessions or access slide decks afterwards. 15minute transition times between sessions because um, as our families learned, this is a very large building and you got
024to really pick up the pace if you're going to get there um, quickly. Kids can do it, but I don't know. It's it was it's a lot. and then session descriptions with recommended age ranges to help parents select relevant topics. So, we have a really a lot of great feedback to plan for next year and we're going to begin the process um over the summer to start setting it up, selecting the date and getting us ready for next school year. So, if you know someone who didn't attend Lebo University last year, please encourage them to attend this year because there were some really fantastic opportunities for learning. And then the final update that I have is related to our strategic plan. Um, as you know, beginning in September, we started talking about the strategic plan.
025We have completed the community input. We've completed analyzation of survey data and pres and presenting findings. We've conducted focus focus groups and presented those findings. And we're currently in the planning group work sessions. So, we are completing workg groupoup sessions with administrators, board members, curriculum council, staff, and PTA. And we will present a draft to the board and to the public in May. And that is my update for this month. Thank you. Next, we have board member reports. Um, anything from the policy committee? Miss policy did not meet this month, so we have no update. Yeah, we had the budget forum instead. Um, Mrs. Gellman, PSBA and board development. Sure. Thank you. Um, advocacy day is May 13th in Harrisburg. You can register on my psba.org. or um the other thing is school directors are
026invited to submit proposals for consideration for PSBA's 2020 2026 legislative for platform as well as the 2025 school leadership conference held in October. Um topics for applications need to be done by submitted by June 1st and that's it. Thank you. um MLF and if you would take PTA council together. Um Mrs. Gensel. Sure. Um I don't have anything from PTA council and I was just going to um do one last plug, but the high school student council report um did it uh for me. But one last plug for the art show on Friday night where um beautiful pieces will be on display, but also prints will be and originals actually uh will be for sale um and to benefit the MLF. So hope that everyone can come. Thank you. And that's we're excited. Um Mrs.
027Crrael, municipal um liaison and parks and welcome. We have lots happening right now in our community, folks. Um, so currently the municipality is talking about uh sidewalk replacement and that's about roughly 10 streets. Some of those include Washington, Austin, Foxland, Crescent, uh, Long Ridge, and a few others. Um, they are also upgrading traffic signals and crosswalk audible and visual notifications. They received um a significant grant uh to cover most of the cost. It will be a half million dollar project uh and bids came in cheaper so they are able to do more uh signals at a lower cost. And um oh there is one more thing that is connected. Let make sure I have the flyer. So, the municipality has been working on uh the uptown space and making it more of community and they
028are officially having a public engagement meeting and that's Tuesday, April 29th and that'll be at the Howard Hannah conference room and that'll be anytime between uh 600 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. And that also includes our uh artwork piece as well. So, there's going to be some more to come with that. And in terms of parks and wreck, we are moving forward with the pool replacement project. So they are working on um making sure that the pool water stays cleaner this year. If you go to the pool, you might have had some days that were closed may have been a little cranky because it was hot last summer. So, they are hoping that uh the more efficient vacuums should reduce some of those closures and cloudy days. And that's all I have to report. Thank you,
029Miss Gra. Uh Parkway West, Miss Johnson, uh we haven't had a meeting since our last update in April, but just a reminder that May 13th is graduation and it will be held at Robert Morris University. Thank you. And Pathfinder School, Mrs. verdict. We meet this week on Wednesday, so there aren't any um big updates, but I did get an invitation to graduation and uh Dr. Schuman will be attending for Mount Lebanon. Thank you. Um I also do not have a Shazda update and Mr. Hoffman is not uh here tonight to give the civic engagement update. Uh next up, we have a presentation on special education and student services. [Music] You can confirm your own. Yeah. Okay. Good evening. Uh thank you, President Fleer, Dr. Freeze, members of the board for allowing me to present our
030program reviews for special education and student services. So the purpose of a program review is for quality insurance to ensure that the program is meeting its stated objectives and delivering highquality education. I'm pleased to report throughout the survey that the majority of our respondents uh said agreed or strongly agreed to most of the objectives that we placed um for continuous improvement. Um we are looking to identify areas for enhancement and make necessary changes to improve student learning outcomes. This was uh facilitated through our focus groups and our open-ended questions in the survey. For accountability, we are looking to demonstrate to stakeholders that the program is effective and aligned with institutional goals. Um this will be demonstrated through our special ed state plan and our strategic plan which is coming up next month. The first section
031I'd like to review is our staff survey results. So for our staff survey um we had all of the staff and we offered two separate surveys. One was the special education survey which related to IEP students. The second was the student services survey which included 504 gifted ESL counseling and related services. Um because we had the strategic plan, the elementary program review and MTSS program review, we decided to give a little space between surveys and we distributed them on December 6th, 2024 and closed on January 10th, 2025. So here is a pie chart with our percent of respondents. Um as you can see, we got a nice representative from each of our staff employee groups. Um, there were two slivers of the pie that were not listed there, which was related service providers at 4.6%
032and Encore specials teachers at 1.5%. So, we had 130 staff members complete the survey. And as you can see on this slide, the staff survey breakdown. We had a nice representative from each building. And please note that some of our staff members work in multiple buildings, so they may have been checked twice. So when we look at the overall um special education staff responses in strength areas, something that we are very proud of and feel that we do a really nice job at is our dedicated and highly qualified staff, our inclusion and least restrictive environment for students and our ABA life skills and secondary emotional support programs. We also identified the top three growth areas which were emotional support at the elementary level, hiring, retaining, and training our support staff, and consistency and communication across
033schools and special education services. When you have 10 buildings, we're looking to make sure there's continuity and consistency between the programs that we are offering. We then asked our staff for specific training needs and we asked them for a top three. This is for special education. They indicated crisis management and deescalation strategies, executive functioning and emotional support, and IEP goal writing and implementation. And one of the responses I thought was kind of cute is they wanted to know the Dr. Schuman way of IEP writing. Um, and so, uh, we will be going more into that, but it will definitely be, uh, what's required by the state for special education staff results. Um, I'm not going to read some of these slides because there's a lot of text, but I wanted you to have an idea
034on each area of special education and IEP services. Um, this was the survey topic on the left, and these were the opportunity areas on the right. So, we took all of the open-ended questions and text responses, we summarized them, and we asked them to write as opportunity areas instead of just just comments. Um, so when we look at, you know, training goals for our special ed plan, when we look at our LEBO summit or our parent, you know, LEBO University, we now have a good um repertoire of topics to look at when when what should we present? And what you will find throughout these program reviews is that they are very much aligned with the strategic plan responses um some of the Libo University responses and elementary and MTSS programs. So not going to read
035through those but I do want um them to be available for you to review. So you can see on the left we asked about our inclusionary practices, PD, school staffing, evidence-based practices, educational programming, instruction, datadriven decision making, communication and crisis prevention and intervention. And I think too just to add, when you look through these opportunities, a lot of them are ones that Dr. Schuman and her team have identified. Um so it was really um I thought it was very good to see alignment with the work that she has started and the work that um people agree that we should be moving in that direction. Absolutely. And there's a lot of great opportunities. Yeah. I like how specific some of them are too at Thank you for joining us um for our student services. I'm sorry
036Dr. Sh real quick before you move on. Uh great work so far. Um some of the things in here that really um I I agree with wholeheartedly. Um consistency across all of our uh buildings on the campus. Um high quality um curricular resources for all learners. Um I I it's great. um um culture uh you know I know with with some some of the buildings uh I know Melon Middle in particular you know have done a nice job historically building a culture of inclusion um not just in the classrooms and with the professional but you know um building wide um I I certainly hope that as we uh roll out uh an initiative to build consistency across all of the buildings that that that's that's part of it as Sure. Yeah. Thank you. So, we
037would then switch gears a little bit to our student services staff survey. And again, you can see that this survey received 93 staff responses. Again, a nice range of people that responded in terms of our staff groupings. Related service providers were indicated there at 5.4% and Encore teachers at 3.2%. Once again, we had a representative from different buildings. That was nice to see. I think I may have been the one central office. Um, and our staff responses for student services. So, our indicated strength areas are strong related services. This would include our blind, visually impaired, our hearing impaired, our speech, our occupational and physical therapy, um counseling, SAP, and mental health supports, which you know have been a work in progress the last few years, and then staff collaboration and students a student- centered approach.
038um for growth areas um again this is something we've already identified is English as a second language programming 504 plans um not in terms of you know writing them but making sure they are consistent um clear they're very clear and implemented um across all teachers and then gifted and tiered support services when we asked our staff about training needs for student services it was most mostly number one, how do we support our ESL or English language learner students in both academic and social settings? Um 504 plans, process implementation and how they are different from IEPs. Our mental health, social work, and crisis intervention. So they want to know more about what resources are available to students and how to help students that are in the classroom with any mental health concerns. Once again, we have
039kind of a breakdown by section and opportunity areas. Um, we plan to use each of these opportunities in our training plans, in our strategic plan, and in our special education plan, which again is coming up next month. Um, the good news is we have several years to implement these things, but as Dr. Freeze stated, these are all um items that the administration is in alignment with in terms of parent and staff feedback. And if you have any questions, happy to answer. Okay. I have a quick question for the responses both for special ed and student services. Is that like what percent like that's not 100% right? In terms of how many people indicated those items in in terms of how many people submitted the surveys? Um no definitely not 100%. Um as you can see
040from our last like demographics presentation I believe we had about 800 um IEP students. Um and the result I think that we have coming up from families um was about 130. Okay. Um, now some of the families may have children with IEPs gifted 504. Um, so they may have indicated two different programs. Um, but we definitely did not get 100% participation. Thank you. Okay. So, we'll move on to our family survey results. Um for this section uh once again we had a survey offered with um a liyker scale meaning you know disagree agree um but we also broke it down into these different sections. And what we did was we asked parents do you have a child you know with an IEP in the special education program. If they said yes they were prompted to
041answer the next questions. If they said no we skipped to the next question. We tried to hit um whatever service that their child had at our school. So this survey was distributed the same time closed in January and as you can see we had 128 total responses from parent guardians and there is the breakdown of um whether they had an IEP student five 504 child JIP ESL or their childhood related services. Once again I'm I'm happy to see that we had some people from each building respond. So for our family survey responses um our indicated strength areas aligned with the staff comments which are dedicated and skilled staff uh comprehensive student support services and a strong school-based collaboration for growth areas. Uh we they were looking for professional development and training for staff, consistency, communication
042and continuity of services and more inclusive, diverse and responsive programming for family training needs. Um they are looking for neurodeiversity and disability awareness in educational settings, effective communication and collaboration with school staff and supporting mental health, socialization and anxiety in students. So those would be potential parent workshops the next several months. With the family survey, we again took each topic area and outlined opportunity areas. So section 504 service agreements, special education, gifted education and then we have related services and counseling services. And again to note, we saw a lot of similarities between the administration, um, our staff, and the family results. This may be more of a I know we're going to see the draft plan. Is the plan going to be a separate plan from the strategic plan or will it just be incorporated?
043Because in May, we're going to have a special education plan that's due and that will include training. Um, but the strategic plan is obviously going to have goals that were aligned to special ed and student services. Excellent. And I think it's important to note our plan, our strategic plan will be far more detailed than the state plan. The state's requirements are limited and we need to go a little bit deeper. So that's why we've chosen to do the state plan which is a requirement but then also to provide more context to the work that we're doing. State plan is more compliance-based. Okay. So then we offered um an additional opportunity for feedback um in the terms of focus groups which were similar to what we offered at the strategic plan just on a much smaller
044scale. For special education we offered four focus group sessions. We had 62 participants. Um again we took the summary of the feedback given from the the families which was um number one to enhance parent education and empowerment in the IEP process to improve IEP implementation consistency and communication and to strengthen inclusive culture and address gaps in curriculum and support services. These are the questions that we asked our families in the focus group and once again we highlighted opportunities um for the development of our plan moving forward. For the student services focus group, we had two sessions. We had 37 participants. Um the number one uh overall response was the need for greater equity and transparency in terms of what we have to offer and how our services um are provided to students, improve communication and
045support, and stronger programming and staff training. For student services, we asked um by support type and these were the opportunities that were provided by the families. We also asked a question at the end um about our website. Um I want to say thank you to Mrs. Smith for helping me um make this presentation look a little more visually appealing. Um, we are planning to do a website overhaul for special ed and student services. Um, as that kind of goes along with the feedback that we received for better communication and transparency. Um, we found it really hard to find different items on our page and it's just time for an update and a refresh. So, that will be part of our plan moving forward. I think one of the I I did the strategic plan focus
046groups and also my own and one of the most frustrating things was that we were facilitating and not engaging. Um so a lot of the items that were being mentioned are things that we already do and maybe just need to be communicated better to families. Um and we're looking forward to doing that, you know, via the website or or different methods. So, so we have some room for questions. Um, but the next steps are that we will be providing recommendations uh next month and the special ed state report will cover years 2025 to 2028. The strategic plan is 2025 to 2031. Um, before I close, I just want to say thank you to Dr. Freeze, Dr. Davis, and Dr. Scholo for u modeling this process. Um, and also wanted to note that I did refer
047to the last program review that was completed in 20 2022. Um, it was very well done and I looked at the recommendations and conclusions and I'm happy to report that those items were carried out, you know, by the time that we started to work on this one. So, great. There is a little bit of closure for that cycle. Thank you. Yeah, great work. A lot of a lot of stuff, a lot of ground covered. Um, and I look forward to the recommendations uh next month to see how you're going to take on these these tasks. But but good work. Thank you. I want to say we had about a 100 pages of text. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Quick review. You've hit a lot of my sort of high point areas of of of interest and concern.
048So, thank you. Second. Yeah. And I think, you know, just seeing such alignment in the feedback we're receiving from staff and from families across all of these multiple points over the past couple of years that we've had the opportunity. I I think there's a lot of opportunity for enhancing and improving the program, but it's also exciting because it feels like our like community and our constituent groups are giving us a roadmap and we have the right people in place to actually follow through on that. So, I'm I'm also looking forward to seeing the recommendations that come out of this. And Dr. Freeze, this presentation of course will be available on board doc. So for any of the, you know, families that may have been watching the presentation, it's there at home or later. Yeah. There's
049a lot of content in here that included all the bullet, right? That was that was not read aloud tonight. So the the the big periods of silence while while everybody watched us read, uh there's a lot of really great content in there that I read to go read all 32 slides out loud. I think we went back and you know, back and forth about how detailed and it was important to Dr. Schuman to include as much detail as possible so that people could see the full perspective of what was shared with us. These departments are growing and there's a lot of interest in what we're going to be doing next. So, I think it's important to share what feedback we received. Yeah, I think the detail was great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
050you. Okay. Um, next up on our agenda, um, we don't have anyone who requested to speak previously, but we are open to questions or comments from residents, um, on action items for the agenda. So, this would be the voting items for tonight's agenda. Um, does anyone have a question or comment on action items for the agenda or anyone online? Okay, we do not have any unfinished business for board consideration or action. So, we're moving on to new business. So the first section up is our finance section um which include the treasurer report, the monthly lists of bills, the list of budgetary transfers as well as the 2025 2026 proposed final budget. Um Mrs. Galman, can you read the resolution, please? Sure. I move that it be resolved that the board approved the finance agenda items.
051Second. Second. Okay. questions, comments or discussion. I believe that the proposed final budget is available um both in the format that is required to of us by the state. Um and as well as the materials that were presented at both the budget forum and the uh discussion meeting on April 7th. Um so as I mentioned up at the top this is a balanced budget. We did not furlow any staff. There is no reliance on fund balance. Um we used some fairly conservative projection when it came to things like the state budget which is not going to be known for a while. Um, and uh, I, you know, I I'm very pleased and proud of the work that went into this um, and that it is able to meet the needs um, of our students and
052expand curricular offerings. Um, any other comments before we move to a roll call? I just have a a clarification. Are we going to vote on all parts of it? If I for example need to abstain from something in the budgetary transfers are am I able to abstain on one part? Yeah, you can abstain as to item A, B, C or D. Okay. I just wanted to add one other thing. Um, as the community knows, last year when we created our budget for the current year, 2425, we used the projections that the state provided to us as to what we would receive. And when we received our budget, it was shorted by about $1.2 million. Um, at last month's meeting, we were able to share that we got that um, number down to just over $200,000
053with the goal of having a balanced or a surplus at the end of the school year. So, I do think that that's a really important note is that though we didn't receive the funding that we thought we did, though we were very bold with our projections because we were risking losing another 12 employees, we are in a position that's much different than the beginning of the year because of the amount of work that was put into it by the individuals at this table as well as our budget managers who are hopefully at home resting after the first day back from spring break. So, I did want to say thank you for that work because it's not easy. Um, and it's not enjoyable, but it needed to be done because it's our commitment to have a
054balanced budget for our community. Okay. Uh, roll call, please. Mrs. Berdick, I abstain from number C and agree to the rest of them. Mrs. CrarAl I Miss Fleer I Mrs. Gellman I Mrs. Gensel I Miss Guth I Miss Johnson I Mr. Wland I Okay, next section of the agenda is our human resources section. Mr. Wan, can you read the resolution? Sure. I move that it be resolved that the board approves the human resources agenda items. Second. Any questions, comments, or discussion? All right. Roll call, please. Mrs. Berdick, I. Mrs. Crrael, I. Miss Flecher, I. Mrs. Gellman, I. Mrs. Gensel, I. Miss Guth. Hi. Mrs. Johnson. I Mr. Wyland. Hi. Okay. Um, the next section on the agenda is related to curriculum and instruction including a proposal for amplify science materials and stipulated uh adjudications. Can
055I ask you to read the resolution, please, Mrs. CrarAel? I move that it be resolved that the board approves the curriculum and instruction agenda items. Second. Any questions, comments, or discussion? All right. Roll call, please. Mrs. Berdick, I. Mrs. Crrael, I. Miss Flecher, I. Mrs. Gellman, I. Mrs. Gensel, I. Miss Guth, hi. Ms. Johnson, I. Mr. Wland. Hi. Okay. And the next uh section of the agenda is related to facilities. Um, this includes several proposed um, leases and fee schedules for next year, including the lease fee schedule, the extended Mount Lebanon extended day summer program, the Mount Lebanon extended day program for the school year, proposed facilities rental fees for Monday through Saturday, proposed Sunday facilities rental fees, proposed stadium occupancy license, and the Mount Lebanon Aqua Club agreement. Can I ask you to read
056the resolution, please, Miss Guth? Absolutely. I move it be resolved that the board approves the facilities agenda items. Second. Any questions, comments, or discussion on our facilities items? Yes, I have a question. Yes. So, last meeting I asked about the disclaimer clause um ensuring that the use of the facilities does not imply endorsement by the school district. And I believe there was an answer saying that yes, it is in the rules and regulations and it's not in there. And I just want to know where that is found because I just want to make sure it is in there if it is something that we do have um for policies. I mean we have like a lensure branding policy but like we can't use elements logos logos branding any no my my so my question was
057in regard to when an outside um body rents one of our facilities that that on any public-f facing advertisement that there is something that says that Mount Lebanon School District does not endorse nor sponsor this event something like That that was that was my question. I was recently working with Mrs. Connelly on reviewing the rules and regulations for the use of facilities. So, we'll make sure that that is included in any updates that we make. Um we had just um started looking at how how those facilities are leased um the facility use policy and so that will be something that we'll make sure that um we address when we complete that review and those will take place in May. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Okay, roll call, please. Mrs. Berdick, I. Mrs. Crrabel,
058I. Miss Flecher, I. Mrs. Gellman, I. Mrs. Gensel, I for and I'm sorry if I say this wrong. Um, all parts except for part G abstain. Part G, Mount Lebanon Aqua Club Agreement. Miss Guth, I. Miss Johnson, I. Mr. Wyland, I. Okay. Um, we now have questions or comments from residents. Presentations or comments are to be limited to three minutes. If anyone has a question, please approach the podium. or comment or anyone online. Excellent. Um before I announce upcoming public meetings, I'd like to announce that the board met in executive session this evening to discuss student settlements. Um, upcoming public meetings are on May 12th, 2025 at 6 PM. The policy committee meeting will be held in D205 of the high school and on Zoom. On May 12th at 7:30 p.m., the board discussion meeting
059will be held in D205 of the high school as well as on Zoom. And on Wednesday, uh, May 21st, 2025 at 7:30 p.m., the board's regular meeting will be held in room D205 of the Mount Lebanon High School and also on Zoom. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So move. Second. Thank