001good evening tonight is Monday March 17th 2025 and we are present for the regular meeting of the Mount Lebanon Board of school directors in room d205 of the Mount Lebanon High School with public participation also available by Zoom um we will open tonight with some special guests to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance um Dr Nikki Gil is here with some students from Hoover and she will introduce them and then they'll lead us in the pledge [Music] good evening everybody my name is Nikki Gil and I'm the proud principal at Hoover Elementary I'm joined this evening by four of our fifth grade leaders and I'm going to pass the mic to them to introduce themselves and get us started please rise and turn toward the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance
002to the flag of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all good evening my name is Gia and I'm a fifth grader at Hoover Elementary School I'd like to thank the board of directors and Dr freeze for inviting us to speak with you this evening my fifth grade classmates and I are excited to share about a special event that we have coming up later this week good evening my name is denou the Hoover Carnival is a unique event that has been a long-standing tradition for our school Community each year the fifth graders work in small groups to create carnival style games this year our theme is wonders of the world and thanks to our wonderful parent volunteers we have been
003spending one day per week design and building our games during our lunch hour good evening my name is Lucinda with our games complete the fifth graders then invite the entire School Community to come to our Carnival in the Hoover gym we host our stations where the younger students enjoy playing each of the games and earning fun prizes it is truly a hwome evening for our students and their family good evening my name is Marcus we'd like to invite you to come and check out this year's Hoover carnival on Wednesday March 19th from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. in the Hoover gy if you think Kenny would is good you haven't seen anything yet we hope you can make it thank you for having us tonight thank you [Applause] guys that does sound like a hawk some
004time uh roll call please Mrs berdick here Mrs krael here miss fler here Mrs Gman here Mrs gensel here miss Guth here Mr Hoffman here Miss Johnson Mr Wyland here eight members present thank you I move that it be resolved that the board approves the minutes of the policy committee meeting held on February 10th 2025 the discussion meeting held on February 10th 2025 and the regular meeting held on February 17th 2025 second All In favor I I I any opposed or abstentions okay all right we're now at the point of our agenda for board reports and first we're being Jo joined by Connor and Kaden from Jefferson Middle School to present a report on behalf of student council good evening my name is Conor Ry and I am here as an executive board member of
005the jmss student council to give you an update on our activities on Friday January 31st we sponsored our snow globe dance the dance was for all three grade levels and brought an amazing turnout in addition to having a dance floor a DJ with lights we borrowed two pingpong tables from melon and set them up on the elementary side of the cafeteria for a ping pong tournament our spear committee went all out in planning and decorating with many council members donating nine bound baskets for a raffle Refreshments were provided with the ticket cost and 130 students purchased tickets for $8 ahead of time and an additional 30 students paid $10 each at the door thanks to the detailed and creative thinking of our spear committee and the help of our all our student council members this
006was the first profitable dance jmss has ever had the total profit of the evening was $952 this money has gone back into the Student Activities account to be used for current and future projects today 34 of our members attended the lucky to lead PSA pasc conference hosted here by our own high school student council we spent the past few weeks preparing and 15 of us volunteered to help Middle School attendees Network by playing Minute to Win It games and two of our executive board members rehearsed with Council groups to practice presenting their workshop entitled leading despite my difficulties we are excited to attend this conference especially here in Lebo knowing we follow in the footsteps of leaders who took the opportunity to host Host this event the day was filled with leadership exercises including an
007inspirational motivational speaker and a variety of student Le workshops each of the members who attended from our Council left with a better understanding of the pasc and the opportunities it provides and a new motivation for our own leadership Journeys and even though we students could have done a variety of other activities today this was an extremely worthwhile way to spend a day off we would like to thank all the staff and students at the high school who took part in planning this conference we hope our leadership class will have the same initiative to put together such a class event in the future that wraps up our event so far for the second semester I would like to turn the podium over to a fellow Executive Board member and my service committee co-chair k Mohammed thank
008you and good evening I would like to take the opportunity to share with you that our Council has been planning for the near future first to celebrate the starter spring our Council will be hosting a pretzel and lemonade sale this Friday students will be currently pre-ordering Philly Pretzel Factory pretzels at the price of $3 or two for $5 on Friday after school they will be able to pick up their pretzels and purchase lemonade for $2 outside the front entrance we hope to we hope sorry we hope to give everyone spir spring Spirit a boost while raising money at the same time half half of all our proceeds will be donated to the red door charity organization in downtown Pittsburgh that provides Foods meal food meals and necessary Necessities for the less fortunate in our Community
009next in April the service committee under the leadership of Connor and I will be hosting a clothing dve we hope to encourage all our jmss families to gather all the gently used clothings that they that they do in their spring clean outs we will collect donations March 24th to April 4th we are pro we are in the process of finalizing a goal to the school and a reward that will coincide all the donations will be delivered to the Salvation Army we choose the Salvation Army because the proceeds they collect will be donated will be used Pro to provide much needed social services that covers the plans for early spring we currently we are currently planning events for teacher appreciation in our council's and of the Year celebration thank you for your kind attention good evening
010and good night thank you and how special to hear about the impact of the work of our high school council from uh their middle school peers uh presenting on behalf of the high school student council we have students Kate and [Music] Sophie good evening everyone my name is Sophie Chim and I'm one of the senior class co-presidents Kate my fellow co-president and I are here to share some exciting updates about some past and upcoming events that have happened at the high school so we started off February with the annual Snowball Dance that was held in Center Court the theme for this year's dance was Winter New York City the Skywalk was decorated as though you were taking a walk through a snowy Central Park and Center Court was decorated with the all things Broadway we
011had about 423 students attend and sold 450 tickets total but unfortunately this dance has not been as well attended in the past so we sent out a Google form to the school at asking for more feedback the feedback we got helped us select a better date for next year brain brainstorm ways to encourage friend groups to attend and make it unique from homecoming today we held the Pennsylvania Association of student councils other otherwise known as pasc region B conference which we were lucky to be hosting this year we chose a lucky to lead theme as it's St Patrick's Day and we were all grateful to have hosted such a fun and beneficial event students from both our student council and other schools have taken time to create and present workshops which were all guided towards
012practice of leadership building connections and sharing experiences with other student councils in addition to workshops we hosted the keynote speaker Colonel Scott CK who is a retired Marine Corp colonel from bethle Park he set the tone for the the day by speaking to us about servant leadership we also welcomed a panel of students from Carnegie melan University's student government who answered a series of questions for us our Leo Legacy games games leaders cat Walters and doy Plick presented on what botching means to our school and how to bring a tournament like ours to the student bodies and finally we had a Four Diamonds representative an Louise de board present her work in minithon overall it was an exciting day with so many opportunities to make connections and to grow as Leaders to plan it a
013team of 40 student leaders gathered in committees led by the senior executive Council and supervised by a class sponsor every Wednesday morning for several weeks the seniors then met with Mrs tonkovich to give updates and work out any issues prioritize the work that needed to be done and come up with the plans to move forward it was challenging but very very rewarding now it may sound like a great time to take a break but we've got a lot more work to do this month we have Clash of classes next week on March 28th which also marks the end of our of the third nine weeks Clash of classes is an exciting event where all four grade levels are able to compete against each other in fun games such as Hungry Hippos knockout snake relay races
014and dodgeball the week leading up to Clash of classes is also Spirit Week the themes this time around are PJ day on Monday Adam Sandler versus Jorts on Tuesday anything but a cup day on Wednesday twin day on Thursday and Clash of classes shirt SL class class class colors on Friday The Home Room with the most Spirit Week participation will win Donuts March also marks the beginning of a season meant to recognize the hard work and accomplishments of students in a variety of ways to start we have the Kum La induction ceremony coming up this Thursday March 20th at 700 p.m. 70 seniors will be honored for their incredible academic achievement during their time at Mount Lebanon High School then on April 3rd at 700 p.m. we have the National Honor Society induction ceremony and
015during the week of April 14th through 18th we will have spring break we are all super excited to take some time off to relax and recharge before jumping into the final stretch of the school year in speaking of awards we have also had several successful Sports Seasons this winter rifle and boys basketball made it to whips and states and girls basketball who made and girls basketball also made it whips Devon mccauly of Mount Lebanon captured a wrestling title at the southern sectional and advanced to whip class 3A championships and several wrestlers qualified for states after an impressive competition at whip finals sever several wrestlers qualified for the P AAA West Regional senior Malcolm Thompson also came home with a fourth place medal from the PIAA in diving finally senior Sylvia Roy concluded her whip swimming
016career in record-breaking fashion she not only secured her fourth consecutive individual titles in both the 50 yard and 100 yard freestyle events becoming just the third female swimmer in class 3A to achieve this feat but she also set three new District records shattering old records in the process she then proceeded to the state finals to bring home gold and bring another record in her own her own in the 100 backstroke but that's not all make sure you keep track of the Arts calendar not only did the theater department just finished a great show Puffs which was a huge hit with audiences but we are also looking forward to many concerts and the musical ahead that is all for our March report thank you for your time and have a nice evening thank you [Applause] okay
017I'll let everybody leave before the board president's [Music] report okay a few things to report this evening in the area of budget and finance uh tonight Dr freeze and Mrs Connelly will present the 2025 2026 base budget the base budget highlights proposed preliminary revenues and expenditures along with key assumptions and areas that are impacting the budget as well as next steps in the process to balance the budget before adopting a proposed final budget in April and the final budget in May part of this planning process is tonight's board consideration of a motion authorizing the reduction of professional staff for economic reasons for the 2025 2026 school year while this is an important and necessary step to take this evening in order to meet Pennsylvania Department of Education timelines the shared goal of the board and
018administration is a balanced budget that minimizes impacts on student experience does not rely on the use of fund balance and makes difficult decisions to reassign staff utilize attrition to reduce positions Implement program modifications and evaluate the lifespan of equipment rather than utilizing Furlow to achieve a balanced budget next month we will hold a budget Forum on Monday April 7th and the board and administration encourages community members to attend and participate so that their feedback can be considered prior to adopting the proposed final Budget on April 21st as we do every month a few highlights from the district's inclusivity calendar uh March is Irish American heritage month this celebrates the Heritage and culture as well as honoring contributions of Irish Americans in addition we like to wish folks a happy St Patrick's Day March is also
019National developmental disabilities awareness month this was established to increase awareness and understanding of the issues affecting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities it's also National multiple SC sclerosis education and awareness month which was established to raise public awareness of the auto immune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord and to assist those with multiple sclerosis and making informed decisions about their healthare and March is also women's History Month started in 1987 women's History Month recognizes all women for their valuable contributions to history and Society on March 21st we celebrate World Down syndrome day which is a global awareness day officially observed by the United Nations since 2012 this date was significant was selected to significant I'll start again the date was selected to signify the uniqueness of the triplication triem of the 21st chromosome
020which causes Down syndrome March 25th is the international day of remembrance of the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave tra trade which is a United Nations International observation that offers the opportunity to honor and and remember those who suffered and died at the hands of the brutal slavery system first observed in 2008 the international day also aims to raise awareness about the dangers of racism and Prejudice today and on March 31st is international transgender day of visibility celebrated to bring awareness to transgender people and their identities and to recognize those who help fight for their rights of transgender people a few District highlights uh our high school student council did a wonderful job highlighting many of the academic athletic and artistic achievements and events that are coming up so I will highlight a few
021others uh six Mount Lebanon Middle School students are heading to the state competition after earning first place honors at the recent Pennsylvania junior junior Academy of Science or PJ Regional event the first place winners will move on to the state competition this may at hen State University congratulations to the following students for earning first place recognition eighth graders svi banka Colin boic Liam Fury Eli lysis and Elena Raph and seventh grader Alex Petri congratulations also goes to our Mount Lebanon High School science club members for their hard work diligent research and Stellar science presentations at the PJs Regional competition first place winners incl include Analise Mayer clay Raph Aisha Ansari Julia Gil Peter golin Katie ding Alex Fu Anna MOSI Jonathan ramachandran Lyra stiglets Sam Wetzel augus sentner Lucian Mish and lla polot Jefferson Middle
022School presents Frozen Jr March 20th through the 22nd each show is at 700 p.m. at the JMS Auditorium for more information and tickets visit the JMS website and for the first time this year melon Middle School presents the musical The Wizard of Oz youth Edition April 3rd 4th and 5th at 700 p.m. in the melon Middle School auditorium for more information and tickets Please visit the melon website on Tuesday April 1st please join the district for Libo University which begins at 6:30 p.m. here at the high school this engaging event is designed to provide parents and Guardians with valuable information and resources to support their families and contribute to students academic and social and emotional well-being guests will have the opportunity to select three 40-minute sessions uh for more information and descriptions of each of
023the sessions please visit our website mtlsd.org Lio university is in the family section and finally the great alumni award which was established by the M Mount Lebanon High School student council in 2004 recognizes outstanding alumni who have made a significant impact in their communities and professions honores are selected based on their exceptional contributions in at least one of the following areas improving the lives of others community service volunteer work or professional achievement nominations for the 2025 great alumni award are being accepted through April 15th 2025 winners will be recognized at a special luncheon and honored during the homecoming football game this fall for more information please visit our website that concludes my report next up we have the superintendent report thank you so much Mr stangle is going to put the presentation up for me
024all right so the first thing that I want to highlight is that the Mount Lebanon band Blue Devil band was at the St Patrick's Day Parade in Chicago and I had the opportunity to go and watch them play very very proud of them um I can't imagine being on such a large stage and there were a lot of people as you can imagine and they did a fantastic job and represented our school district very well in addition to that I just wanted to remind everyone that we have our business Round Table that's coming up next week um it will be held on no I'm sorry that date's wrong I don't know why it says say March 12th but it's being held cuz March 12th already happened um it's going to be held on March the
02526th from 12:00 p.m. to 2m this is the opportunity for our business um members in the community to come and hear about the things that are taking place here in the school district this is our second one of the Year our first one was very well attended and we hope to have just as many people if not more this next one next week in addition to that as Mrs fler mentioned we do have Libo parent University that's coming up there are a variety of opportunities for families and the community to get involved and sign up for one of these sessions or three of these sessions the registration date goes through um not this Friday but the following Friday which I believe is the 28th the 28th uh this month went by really really fast we
026have over a 100 people signed up in just a week so if you know someone that would be interested in any of these topics please encourage them to participate we're really excited about it we have quite a few people both internally and externally that are coming in to present on these topics and we'd love to fill up the rooms and make sure that people get the information that they've been requesting and then finally for our presentation in the superintendent update today we have an update on Libo United and as many of you know um Libo United has a mission and a vision that we created last year with our working group the Mount Lebanon school district is committed to providing a safe inclusive and welcoming School environment that recognizes and celebrates the diverse identities within
027our community so everyone feels a sense of belonging we're dedicated to providing Equitable resources staff professional learning and support to ensure students and staff from all backgrounds identities or abilities reach their full potential and pursue their unique talents and our vision is we see a future where every student family faculty and staff member feels at home at Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon School District seeks to build a Las Legacy of community where diversity naturally thrives and flourishes in our schools through inclusivity belonging and accessibility Leo United is a voluntary group that meets after school at least once a month we have 21 staff members from across the district and 14 students in grades 5 through 12 who participate in Lebo United each of our committees is going to give an update today we're going to be
028starting with committee number one which is Dr Davis um followed by committee number two Mrs Smith will provide that one and then committee number three Dr Schuman and I'll click for you that' be perfect thank you good evening all thank you Dr free uh so our our subcommittee's focus is on developing a comprehensive professional development plan for all staff support equity and inclusion and it actually dates back to a survey that occurred at the end of the 2023 2024 school year which then drove our 2024 2025 Focus uh and as you can see in the uh descriptor there it talks about utilizing Baseline data and again that came from the survey in 2324 draft the plans specific to professional development activities uh stakeholder outcomes will directly impact the specific professional development activities in alignment with
029identified needs of the stakeholder groups so we've really been focusing as you'll see here in a second uh ident you know we've identified what stakeholder needs are and been trying to offer that specific programming uh as it's needed uh so our second then Focus becomes implementing that professional development training and providing tools and resources specific to stakeholder groups uh as you may recall Dr freeze did a presentation in the fall that that itemized the number of trainings that were provided in the fall and I'll give you the update from the spring here in a second and then our third focus is to gather feedback uh to determine the Su the success of the training and supporting our goals uh and that's what our subcommittee is currently working on is developing that feedback Tool uh that
030we will Implement before the end of the school year uh and then in the other uh other side of the frame there you see that talks about alignment to our goals uh is developing a professional development plan for all employees with the assistance of the professional development committee as the board is aware we launched K through2 professional development committee so been we've been working closely with them uh in the redesign of professional development and how some of our topics fit into that uh into that redesign uh and then that second bullet there talks about uh imp implementation improvements for the continued progress of the Lio United committee uh and provide quarterly updates uh through the uh through the uh to the committee through these uh board updates thank you uh so here's the slide that
031mirrors similar to what you saw in the fall uh it itemizes the professional development uh activities that occurred in this uh Libo Summit uh and running through some of the top ICS in there strategies to support multilingual Learners uh fostering inclusive excellence in the in the school district uh accommodations and supports for working with students uh supporting students executive functionings uh executive functions uh uh eligibility and dismissal criteria for speech and language support applied Behavior Analysis uh epilepsy U multilingual Learners part two uh and then apply Behavior Analysis part two and as you go to the next slide uh really what we were trying to do here is meet very specific requests uh that came forward so you'll see the number of participants per session uh so again dating back to our survey last last
032school year 2324 we were looking at the topics that were being requested and the specificity of the programming uh and you can see on the slide there uh the number of attendees that we had per session uh so we've got we've got um as we move forward two more things to work through one is to come up with our survey for this particular year about our two uh Lio Summit presentations but then the continuation of professional development into the 25 26 school year thank you Dr Davis next up we have Mrs Smith oh we got a little reset there we go hello um I'm representing subcommittee number two and our goal for the year is um a safe and inclusive climate to ensure all stakeholders feel safe supported and included as valued members of the
033school community so for this school year our Focus has been the onboarding process for new families celebrating the people who make Mount Lebanon special prepared to respond to harassment how do we communicate the updated policies to students staff and families on the following slides I'll show um the activity to date um aligning to our Focus um and the alignment to the goals for the Strategic plan are to evaluate and make um recommendations and Implement improvements to services that positively impact the academic social and emotional needs of our students as measured by the school climate survey and to evaluate and to make improvements to the bully harassment policy and administrative regulations um on the next slide um so we analyzed the enrollment process um we call this the family Journey as they enroll and join Mount
034Lebanon School District so we really thought through how does that start from a family saying I need to enroll my student we just moved to the community um and their process for enrollment and how we can improve that um we have expanded our translation services for new families that are registering for the district um if they do need those services and then we're looking to launch a welcome page on the website in a welcome letter for the 25 26 school year um the reason we would have something on our website is because that is able to be translated through Google translate where sometimes emails aren't as easily translated or you know through the service provider we tend to use for designed email so we really want to send people back to the website where they
035can find that new information so at any point when they join the district they'll be able to easily access the calendar lunch information um safe walking routes anything that a family would need if they're new to the district because you know quite frankly when you enroll you're overwhelmed with lot of information so this will be a reminder in case they forget anything um just a guide for where to find those key information um so the next goal is celebrating the people who make Mount Lebanon special so throughout the year um we have been updating um the using the inclusion calendar to update social media for key dates throughout the year so you'll see two posts we kept things a little bit styled similarly so when people see it in their feed they can recognize um
036that that is one of the days that we are celebrating so you'll see two that we're here that were used throughout the year um and then we're recognizing events across the district that celebrate the diverse identities within our community so everyone feels a sense of belonging um you'll see here an event that Washington Elementary had with their International Heritage Knight all right on the next slide um prepare and respond to harassment how we communicate these policies to staff students and families um so earlier this year students reviewed our unlawful harassment and discrimination information earlier this year or actually that is um being prepared for this fall um with the updated policy so there is a presentation going with that and um then uh we did some midyear reminders which gave us the opportunity to direct
037people to the bullying report so that button is included on all of our schools websites that they can update if they are um experiencing bullying or know somebody that may and that's subcommittee number two thank you Mrs Smith Dr I'm sorry can I just ask a quick question about the the email Ser service that you yes mentioned because I do know we've really streamlined the our weekly email that goes out and I think almost 80% of all of the families that receive that do open that it's a mean is there a way to look into a service that is more easily translatable so the Google Docs are so that was another reason of switching to the Google Docs within the school newsletter so once they click in there it's translatable um it's been something it's
038been a struggle for email providers like Constant Contact and other ones services that we've actually looked into um and they say they're working on it but they've yet to launch it so it's something we keep monitoring too um but most families we know and it's something that we direct them to um there's ways that they can view that differently where they can translate it or if they cut and paste to be able to translate it but it's definitely something that's top of Mind as we explore this process too thank you yeah you're welcome Hey and then committee number three Dr Schuman hello thank you um so for subcommittee number three our overarching goal was to utilize inclusive strategies and curriculum for all students we had three Focus areas which were to establish practices for assessment
039and placement that ensure all students have equal access to Opportunities through ongoing professional learning incorporate a wide variety of culturally responsive and inclusive instructional strategies intended to meet the needs of differing learning styles second language acquisition and backgrounds and Implement curricula that are representative of our diverse population inside and outside of the district um these goals or Focus areas directly aligned to our Student Services Program review which is taking place this year our special education program review and then as we begin to update our curriculum in the cycle making sure that we're utilizing a rubric to review piloted curriculum um so our group decided that in order to um think about next steps and how we want to move forward is that we really need to look at the the data um and so our
040group took a deep dive into um the student academic outcomes report we pulled enrollment data any subgroup data such as IEPs gips 504 econom economically disadvantaged data uh we looked at discipline reports and then also the past which is like our social emotional um learning assessment so our group really just took a look at at all those different um areas and how our students performed um how our students were referred to programs and if they participated in tests such as AP exams sat PSAT act so we then um have some different areas that we are going to continue to review and make recommendations on um so again we took a look at which students are accessing secondary level courses such as AP honors um interventions that are available at the secondary level in their enrollment
041to make sure that students are getting the supports they need create a plan for addressing the disparities in elementary math performance creating a plan for addressing disparities in gifted in special education and introducing a rubric for assessing any new curricular resource thank you and that concludes my update for the month excellent uh next we have board member reports the first is policy committee Miss go sure excuse me um this month we reviewed numerous policies as we transition from uh nsba services to psba services and we reviewed 301 which is creating a position 302 which is employment of a superintendent assistant superintendent 304 which is employment of District staff 304.8 which is anti-nepotism 305 which is employment of substitutes 306 which is employment of Summer School staff 307 which is student teachers and that will effectively
042retire Lea student teaching and 85.1 which is artificial intelligence and we will also be retiring G dfab which is reporting arrests and convictions and massive thank you to um Dr freeze and Dr Joel Thompson and Dr Schuman Dr shulu and um Dr Davis about the artificial intelligence policy it's really exciting work that they're doing and we are happy to have it on the agenda today to vote for that us all all right um psba and board development Mrs Gman sure so um psba released the 2025 state of education report which was a or which is a comprehensive overview of the current state of public education in PA um student mental health needs continue to be one of the biggest challenges faced by school districts along with budget pressures and Staffing shortages full report is available
043on the psba website also May 13th is advocacy day in Harrisburg and um the board did meet for a Communications board development session last weekk um MLF Mrs gensel hi there um not too much to report the grant applications have gone out to teachers so we'll be reviewing those um shortly uh and then the only other thing we're very excited about the partnership with um the art classes the AP art show which will be on April 25th and I really encourage everybody to come there's tons of beautiful artwork for sale um I I saw some of the examples when Mrs Rodriguez brought them to the meeting and and our art students are just very impressive um we wanted to buy some right right then the spot to take home um but anyway hope everyone comes
044out to the art show and um yeah that's it and Mrs gensel I uh once again neglected to add um PTA Council updates to this list but are there any updates to share I can't think of any any updates to share tonight but going forward um we'll remember what' you say I'll remember to add it yeah exactly exactly thank you I'll ask him to remember um Municipal liaison Mrs cral sure short report tonight um we have hired a new fire chief and the new renovation for Williamsburg Park is on the way so they have started renovation there and nothing from last month for parks and wreck we meet this Wednesday and I just also want to thank Mrs krabble while I'm here for representing the board at the winter um Athletics recognition night thanks uh
045Parkway West U Miss Johnson is not here Mrs Grable nothing to report uh Pathfinder School Mrs berdick uh yes we met last month and the space rental agreement that I discussed with you in detail last month passed um the jointure board vote um so that is anticipated to go into effect at the end of December of 25 so still several months away but they um anticipate the funding of act 77 to discontinue um and to and to be retired at the end of this year so as of um the start of the next calendar year um that new rental agreement will go into effect the students have enjoyed Valentine's Day Celebrations they had a dance that was well attended and that is a a favorite among their students and they are looking forward to rocking
046their crazy socks on the 21st which is the world Down syndrome celebration thank you uh shaza I have nothing to report uh Civic engagement Mr Hoffman yeah thank you uh the Civic engagement board met uh at the municipal building first Wednesday of the month and they released their um annual report that documents the different projects that the committee helped lead over the past year uh many of those I have uh discussed at previous meetings including the Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service that brought um over a 100 community members together to support uh many different efforts throughout the community uh the residents academy uh police engagement Dei efforts and a community service award so this group has been doing a lot of work uh the next meeting is coming up uh it's always the
047first Wednesday of the month so I think that's maybe April 3ish sure sound sounds legit uh so that's all thank you Mr hofman um and our final report this evening is a presentation on the base budget thank you Mrs Connelly thank [Music] you thank you Mrs fler tonight I'm going to present um general information about the 2526 base budget and it's going to be an overview of Revenue sources for the 2526 proposed preliminary budget and expenditures for that budget which we will uh Deep dive at the budget Forum there's also review of fund balance steps to balance the 2526 budget and our timeline so let's first talk about the the 2526 projected re Revenue there are three basic Revenue sources that make up and support our budget local state and federal local Revenue sources uh
048is about 77% of our budget this is the largest revenue source which is driven by real estate taxes controlled by the Act One index other local revenues include other taxes pass through funds and fees associated with school programs and operations the second largest revenue source is the state funds that come in from the state this is revenue aligned with the governor's proposed budget it's 23% of our total budget uh this budget and these funding this These funds have to be approved by the state legislatures it includes subsidies grants funded by pte and other PA departments and then finally a very very small portion of our budget is federally funded that is 0.4 of a percent or 004 per. these are federal grants supporting atrisk Learners and challenged Learners through title funding and Medicaid so as
049you can see from the pie chart on the right uh this represents you know 77% is is locally funded and uh that is what uh really drives most of our funding local revenue is mostly sourced from our real estate tax this type of Revenue accounts for approximately 65% of our overall Revenue our current Revenue projection for local real estate tax is 8,850 64 $4 the Act One index is calculated by the Commonwealth each fiscal year using the base index in District adjustment the base index is the average of the percentage changes in wages Statewide and the percentage changes in school employee compensation Nationwide the 25226 act1 base index for all school districts began at 4% the district adjustment is an adjustment for districts with lower or declining wealth Mount Lebanon School District 2526 adjustment is
0507% so the projected real estate Revenue increase for Mount Lebanon School District in 2526 with a 4% Act One index is 1377 Mills and that equals $3,411 $41,250 the the index is significantly lower than last year which was 6.2% which at that time it was 17105 Ms or about $4.2 million in addition that we could count on the Act One exceptions permits the district to adopt without voter approval a final budget containing a rate increase greater than the Act One index if we are found to be approved for Exceptions there are two exceptions that we applied for special education and retirement the special education exception will likely be approved for special ed for special education due to the increase in expenses between the base years of 2022 23 and 2324 if approved the projected net
051revenue and millage increase is $748,000 or 27224 additional Mills we also applied for retirement exceptions however we will likely not be eligible due to the flat level of full-time employees in our district we haven't increased the FTE and the peers rate is slightly decreasing in the past two years so in February we applied for these exceptions and we we will receive a response by March 26th from the Commonwealth continuing with local Revenue the act one plus the Act One exceptions these are pending the Commonwealth's approval for the exception in the Mount Lebanon school board's approval of the overall tax increase the highest increase in real estate revenue for 2526 for the 2525 2526 school year would be 4,159 9,98 and the breakdown is there for you so you can see the math the 4.7% Act
052One index brings in approximately $3.4 million the Act One exceptions for special ed an additional $750,000 for a total of about 4.1 million we have to um acknowledge that we've had high refunds to the te to to homeowners um and part of that is because of the CLR CLR and the impact on real estate values the CLR is the common level ratio and it is a ratio used to calculate property assessments and Pa the CLR is set by the Pennsylvania state tax tax Equalization board or St on September 1st 2022 judge her hburg issued a Min AR injunction reducing the CLR in alany county in 2022 from 81.1% to 63.5% and has decreased each year since real estate values in Mount Lebanon have decrease due to the tax appeals related to the common level ratio
053so this next table gives us the history of the CLR from 22 to 25 and how the property values have decreased over those those years and as you can see between 22 and 23 and 23 and 24 those were the biggest dips we're finally leveling out a little bit in 2025 we've seen an increase of $214,000 but um that is very insignificant it's basically flat level for a district with as many homes as we have in Mount Lebanon this slide gives a history of of the millage rates over from 20242 to 2425 uh I I want to reiterate that our local real estate taxes are the district's main source of Revenue state revenue has not kept pace with the increase in expenses that all districts are experiencing in both regular education and special ed federal
054revenue for title funding is expected to decrease slightly besides real estate Revenue the local Revenue sources also consists of other category this type of Revenue accounts for approximately 12% of our overall Revenue our current projection for other local sources of revenue is 14.9 million about that much this source of Revenue includes earned income tax interest on investments reality transfer tax when a property is sold Delinquent Tax collections for Earned Income Tax in real estate gate receipts for sporting events ticket sales for the musical and evening theater pay for play permit fees for building usage student parking fees and tuition for programs like summer enrichment and driver's ed all of those Revenue sources equate to about 12% of our total revenue budget the next category is state revenue sources this type of Revenue accounts for approximately
05523% of our overall Revenue Governor Shapiro presented the state's preliminary Budget on February 4th 2025 the preliminary State basic Ed and special ed Revenue was slightly higher than 2425 with a proposed increase of only $223,000 for a total of 12.2 Million last year we received 1.1 million less than the preliminary budget proposed for the 2526 budget the projections are built on an assumption of flat funding for basic and special ed subsidy or 12,617 because there's so much at stake with the with Governor Shapiro's budget it's it's best to be conservative in this area and project with flat funding at this time combining the state subsidies with other state revenue such as Social Security Anders reimbursements construction subsidy Health Services subsidy gaming fund allocations Transportation subsidy the ready tolearn block grant the 2526 preliminary state revenue
056projection at this time is $28.8 million for Mount levanon the next source of federal of Revenue is federal revenue and again this is a very very small small um allocation nevertheless we do account for it this type of Revenue accounts for approximately .4% of the overall Revenue our current projection for federal revenue is idea funding supports special education and is also driven by the federal government but we have it listed under local Revenue because this is pass through money through our local Intermediate Unit and I just want to review the 2526 proposed preliminary Revenue assumptions the assumptions are the ACT adjusted Act One index of 4.7% was applied to our current Rel real estate values exceptions are included in the projection the state basic Ed funding and state special end funding is flat the ready
057tolearn block grant is flat we will see a slight decrease to title funding Medicaid is flat and the revenues anal analyzed and projected by reviewing the last three years were um subject to this analysis the assigned fund balance to be used for prior year real estate refunds can be used but we aren't we are trying to avoid that also as of today our proposed preliminary revenue shortfall is 1, 528,000 $81 so now I would like to discuss the 2526 proposed expenditures this is as of today we have expenditures projected to be at 126,595 38 according to the chart of accounts we divide all the expenditures among objects so you can see by this chart the personnel and employee benefits consumes almost 75% of the total expense budget and I also want to bring to your
058attention that our our bond payments are under object 900 and they're at 11.9 million almost $12 million everything else in between is budgeted through the department managers um but the budget managers and direct directors and the assistant superintendents this is just a visual of the expenses that I just went over and as you can see salary and benefits gives you a good visual there that they take up the biggest pieces of our piie and the dark gray is our bond payments so this slide discusses about what I just said 84.9% of the preliminary expenses are related to salary benefits and bond payments only 15.1% is available for all other commitments such as curriculum new and revised curriculum supplies and experiences technology which includes software hardware and security facilities which includes buildings Grounds Maintenance and security
059tuition for outplaced special education students Parkway and Charter School tuition transportation for special education Athletics field experiences and transportation to Parkway Athletics we have 53 high school and middle school sports that are funded through the general fund and we do have the budget for prior year real estate tax refunds due to the CLR impact these are the assumptions for the 2526 preliminary expens expenses salary expense increase of 3.5% with 25 2425 Staffing levels less retirees who separate ated in the second semester we are expecting that our healthcare insurance increase will be 10% the paser employer contribution rate was certified at 34.0% Bond payments are not adjusted for refinancing prior refunds on residential and Commercial properties at 700 $700,000 purchase of Elementary Ela and science curricul curriculum at $665,000 we budgeted a 3% increase to special
060ed tuition 3% increase to Charter School tuition and a 10% increase to Parkway due to increased enrollment and Parkway tuition increase projections we will have a 3% increase to our transportation outside contract department and curriculum expense budgets are flat or below prior year our assistant to superintendent and our department heads work very hard to keep everything flat or below prior year we have budgeted $199,200 for capital projects which are essential to maintain um for next year's buildings and grounds so this is a visual of our 2425 budgeted projection we are experiencing a projection of $721,000 deficit in 2425 if we do not close in on that that will be taken out of our unassigned fund balance this again is the 2526 proposed preliminary budget in deficit of 1.5 million and if we cannot narrow that
061down that again would have to be taken out of unassigned fund balance which is only at only sitting at about 2.3 million so we are uh digging into to that and we want to maintain it so this is a visual of our fund balance as of June 30th 2024 the graphic on the left shows the breakdown of our fund balance and our unassigned is 2.1 million and if we don't if we have a deficit the the projected deficit for 2425 uh 721 th000 will be used and that will bring it down to 1.4 million so we are taking pretty big steps to balance the 2526 budget the board of school directors will be asked to vote to authorize Furlow tonight to meet Pennsylvania Department of Education timelines this is the same process we used last
062year the required vote to authorize furlows applies to mlea employees only however all work groups are listed in the resolution to demonstrate that all groups may be impacted by furlows our goal of a balanced budget is not relying on the use of fund balance it is to reassign staff utilize attrition to reduce positions Implement program modifications and evaluate the lifespan of equipment rather than utilize furlows and this is our timeline on April 7th we will conduct the budget forum for 2526 on April 21st the board will be asked to adopt a proposed final budget and on May 21st they will be asked to approve the final budget for 25 2026 are there any questions a few um I'll kick off just to note um for the board and the community um again we showed um
063as part of our general operating budget the federal portion that comes Direct in title funds is fairly minuscule but there is a chunk of federal funding for um special education that is a pass through through the AIU as well as a a separate stand alone budget for Food Services which is also through the USDA for free and reduced lunch and other food subsidies I just want to make sure that that's clear yes that is correct and are those um represented in the 0.4% OR that's they are not they're represented in the state budget um they're at pass throughs they pass through so they get provided to the AIU that then passes them through to us and for the um funding related to food service they have a completely separate budget from the general fund they're
064sort of a standalone understand and that 04 my quick math was it was still about a half a million dollars I mean corre you know as a percentage of the budget it's small but it's it's still real money well and it's for the the title funds are for I think the students who are sort of some of our most vulnerable and we typically use those to provide reading support yeah yes um reading and maap is there an estimate for when we will know final health care costs or is that 10% the final number um no we will know on April 4th there's a there will be a Consortium meeting and they will um give us the final rates and that will be before the April 7th Vote or before the budget Forum but um we'll
065have all that together for you and then um um you know this is my sixth or seventh budget so I've seen gaps of as much as $4 million in this base budget so I'm not like super nervous about F you know making up a $1.5 million do Gap although I do know that with our budgeting last year um as was already noted we did reduce staff not through furlows but through retirements and attrition through reassignments um I think we reduced 31 total staff or somewhere thereabout so there's not a ton more um reduction that's possible as well as getting our zerob based um curriculum and supply and that other 15% budget really as streamlined and efficient as possible so even keeping them flat I mean there's not a ton of savings so can you talk
066a little bit about what Staffing and other proposals um I guess what's your level of confidence and coming to The Forum on April 7th with a proposed budget that is balanced that does meet the goals that we set out I I will speak to that our goal is to not Furlow our goal is to get the curriculum that we need which means very difficult decisions as it relates to everything else over the course of the next month um Staffing takes place this week um so with that Staffing we'll come decisions about um attrition and then in addition to that we'll be looking at some of our items that are still out there that we have that we need but may need to pass on in order to balance the budget and those discussions um are
067ongoing they're daily we believe that we can get to the 1.5 it won't be what we want but it's going to be what we need to do in order to balance and then um I'm happy to see that the state funding with the balance budget is being held level so hopefully we won't get a reduction from the state so that would eliminate a big surprise since our timeline for our budget is before the state's timeline for their final budget um can you just remind me one more thing and then I'm going to turn it over how many retirements have we already received this year from um we have 12 from mlea and one in act 93 okay thank you and other questions from the board or um just general [Music] comments well thank you first
068for putting together such a detailed base budget for us it's very exciting to see uh so much thought and everything that went into it one question that I have and I know that we do a lot of um work with the aiou has this been like I know this is across all of the district so have we started any other conversations or there any other creative ways for us to work together with them as well just curious if that has started to hit the table yet the AIU has really fantastic resources but some of the programs that they provide have an overhead part component so it usually exceeds what we can um afford and what we can exceeds what we can do on our own other questions or comments a couple uh just observations and
069just to highlight a few points um thank you for for the hard work that that you guys have been putting into this um the uh the CLR I just want to highlight I you did a very nice job just detailing the numbers and the impact of that over over the but over the four years that were depicted here between 2022 and present it looks like a total reduction in the taxable value of property in Mount leban and it's somewhere around $32 million and and that's a year-over-year number so every year the taxable value of what accounts for 77 six I'm sorry 65% of our total revenue is is reduced by a a very meaningful amount um and and that while the number has leveled off recently you know it's likely to decrease more over time
070until there a fix is implemented and there's a couple different ways that that fix can be implemented um a countywide reassessment would fix that problem right legislation from the Pennsylvania leg legislature could fix that problem but for one reason or another neither the county nor the state legislature has the backbone to pass the leg to to stand by campaign commitments uh and to pass the legislation necessary to fix this problem and this isn't a problem that confronts just us here in Mount Lebanon this is a problem that that confronts all school districts across the state but more dramatically school districts within alagan County because of Judge herzberg's decision terrible decision in my opinion um there was a challenge that was um a lawsuit that was filed by P Pittsburgh Public Schools um and and and
071attorney Ira Weiss that has worked with us in the past on on some of our Labor Relations stuff and unfortunately they they they lost that and and they just were found that they didn't have standing but they didn't rule on the question okay thank you um and certainly um for our solicitor board president superintendent if I'm if I'm off the mark on any of the factual basis here certainly you guys know better than I you know but part of the sort of what what what what I read um you know is that the county is able to and other other Municipal entities are able to raise taxes to sort of offset the reduction in the in the value the taxable value of property but but they're able to just do it proportionally so that more
072or less even though the tax rate is higher because the value of the property that's being taxed is lower the sort of net effects to the taxpayer is isn't all that great and they're able to continue to um balance their budget but school districts are restricted by act one right we can only raise our taxes by the Act One index so even though the value of property goes lower we're not able to raise taxes to keep Pace with that on on a one toone basis so as a result school districts lose this Revenue year over year over year and and that's going to continue until these other governmental B with the power and the authority to make the necessary changes stand up to make those changes so to anybody that I'm shouting to in the
073void this this that's listening to this you know Lobby campaign talk to somebody talk to your legislator talk talk talk to your county Representatives um County Council has the ability to do this um they just don't have the will at the moment and I I don't know what what what's going to motivate them or trigger them to to to do the right thing but it it's a fix that has to happen um so I'd like to add just another thing too to give homeowners speaking directly to homeowners this impact of the CLR the highest impact for us is um commercial properties so when commercial properties file an assessment appeal and maybe they're worth 20 million and now they're worth 5 million that gets passed along to homeowners uh when you think about the county and
074the raising of taxes by 30% they had to raise them by 30% because the valuation of properties in the county have gone down significantly with majority properties are commercial properties um I think the best example if you read articles about this is that a skyscraper in downtown Pittsburgh is being valued at under a million dollar and I think we all know that for a skyscraper to be built or to be maintained it's worth more than a million dollars and sadly um not everybody thinks that that's a problem I personally think it's a huge problem um I've been told in the past when I've asked questions about it that um they're doing it to prevent homeowners who have a fixed income from having raised taxes but those people are being impacted they're being impacted by local
075taxes from a school district they're being impacted by the county and they're being passed by in favor of giving incentives to commercial properties and to me that is probably one of the most um unfortunate things and needs to be addressed and you know as Mr Wyland shared we have been advocating as a school district to anybody that will listen we've talked talked to um County Council we've talked to our Senators um I've talked to Senators who aren't even our Senators in the state to say like this is a problem for all school districts and if we are to Value education which is preparing our future for lives outside of our walls then we have to invest in it and I understand that there's other areas that need to be invested in as well but don't
076make us the bad guys to be the ones that have to raise taxes every year to survive and also um don't put us in a position where we always have to be the ones making the hard decisions because after a while it gets kind of old um you know if you go and you search um a recent Senate hearing that I was invited to speak at I asked um the politicians to do their job so that I don't have to do it for them and that's a hard you know disclosure but it's something that needs to be said because it's not just going to impact m and it's going to impact all school districts in the county and it's sad because we're the only ones being impacted by it because our peers in other counties
077already have a plan or you know do it in another way yeah and just to add to that just to pile on if if you're looking for things to talk to your county Representatives or state representatives about I mean I've spoken with Folks at the county who basically say that the county is violating the state constitution for tax Equity because of this issue if you have a property and you're paying so much below what it would be at a fair and like reasonably excessed value and if if they were to do a reassessment the district there's a no windfall Pro provision so we're not saying this because we want to get I think you can get up to 5% more than your current um amount of of Taxation what happens is the millage rate gets
078reduced to match the valuation of the properties it's not like this would be a huge windfall but it would just be that compounding effect if properties were assessed at their actual value and then each year we could weigh that act one index on what made sense locally for our residents there are there is there was a state law that was passed last year called The Loop which is a longtime owner OCC occupancy um longtime owner occupant tax exemption program which now does make it um legal for tax taxing municipalities and counties to help protect longtime homeowners and from major um tax increases that might come with something like a reassessment so I do know that that's being considered at the county level and it is possible that if they were able to pass that legislation
079that then they would get enough County counselors which a majority of County counselors who would be willing to consider a reassessment um because we can certainly empathize that they are concerned about the impact on longtime own your occupants primarily seniors on fixed incomes of doing something like a countywide reassessment so I would say also we can advocate for them to pass this Loop legislation which is being drafted at the county level so that they can then take the next step while protecting those longtime homeowners of reassessing uh at a regular and constitutionally mandated interval the properties in the county um so that we don't end up with you know really school districts um and our taxpayers bearing the brunt of their inability to act those are great points uh miss fler you know I I
080think a lot of folks fear that a reassessment means that there would be some giant windfall that the their property value would would Skyrocket therefore their tax bill would also Skyrocket but to your point that's just that's not the case right so what's happening now is as property values are artificially being driven down by the by these these two factors the the other Municipal entities are jacking the tax rate up to just sort of offset it so that more less you're taxing Folks at the same rate that that if you were to fix that and just tax everybody at a real feel accurate what is it today value then the tax rate comes down to sort of equalize that so there there wouldn't be that kind of windfall so to the extent that you know
081folks are are you know concerned rightfully that if if the the taxable value of of their home you know went to the present day fair market value that suddenly their tax bill would explode that's not necessarily the case and I think that the second piece of legislation that you described Miss fler I think would add an extra layer of prot ction and comfort for folks that you know maybe are on a fixed income or maybe are at a point in their life that they've been in their home for you know for decades and um you know to to to make this something that hopefully um a majority of um people in power uh in in the county could get behind uh to pass to fix this problem right I don't even think we've gotten into
082the regular agend yet but I will ask if there are any other questions on the base budget um or comments [Music] presentation I have a question regarding the special education funding um to be one of the assumptions is that we are considering it to be flat in terms of what um what our our income would be however our expenditures for special education do 10 tend to go up year-over-year um so for that reason is my understanding that the board has authorized the exceptions um and we would find that out later um but they might not that might not make up for all of it in terms of it it might go up more than 720 $748,000 worth of expenditure in which case where would I think I know the answer where where would we be
083finding that those funds because those are IEP mandated we're not going to stop serving those kids and we get more and more special needs population and English language learning kids every year so let's say we do get the exception and we get even more kids where does that money come from well our projections are based upon what we expect our enrollment to be next year as well as some additions so we do plan for that so it's baked into the numbers that you see this evening and really it comes from the increase in taxes I do want to give one final note before I forget our timeline so April 7th at 6: p.m. we will have our budget Forum here in d205 followed by our discussion meeting April 21st we will have the presentation of
084the proposed final budget adoption for approval and then May 21st 2025 the 2025 2026 final budget adoption um you may remember from last year if you were attending the meetings or watching um at home that our process and our timeline was interesting because we had got some news in January this one will be our typical timeline moving forward so you'll see the base discussion in March the proposed final budget in April and then a vote on the final budget in May yes with one exception to the typical timeline because of Wednesday holidays and weirdness as that our May meeting will be on a Wednesday so we we'll look forward to seeing folks on a non- Monday night um and that to meet the 30-day requirement to keep the proposed final Budget on public view prior
085to the board being able to consider and vote on the final budget okay we're now at um comments and residents from comments from residents and taxpayers concerning action items for this meeting um nobody has previously requested to speak but is there anyone who wishes to speak on the action items for tonight these are the items related to policy Finance Human Resources facilities and curriculum and instruction that are on the agenda for Action anyone wishing to speak or anyone online okay we don't have any unfinished business for board consideration or action so we'll move into the first set of um motions the first one is related to policy Mr Hoffman can you re please read resolution 6A sure thing I move that it be resolve that the board adopts policies 301 creating a position 302 employment
086of superintendent assistant superintendent uh 304 employment of District staff 304.8 anti-nepotism 305 employment of sub substitutes 306 employment of Summer School staff 307 student teachers 85.1 use of generative artificial intelligence and education and retires policies Lea student teaching and GD faab reporting arrests and convictions second roll call please Mrs berdick I Mrs krael I I miss fler I Mrs Gelman I Mrs gensel I miss Guth I Mr Hoffman I Mr wiland I okay the next set of items on our agenda are related to finance um including the treasures report monthly lists of bills budgetary transfers the list of unusable equipment the AIU program of services budget the resolution for the reduction of professional staff and a pilot agreement with Asbury Heights Mrs Gman can you please read the resolution sure I move that it be
087resolved that the board approves the finance agenda items second okay um before we open to general questions on the item we do have one marked with an asterisk which is a pilot agreement or a payment in L of taxes agreement with Asbury Heights and we are going to ask our solicitor to review sure um this is this is an agreement that our office reviewed and is recommending it's an agreement between the district and a tax exempt property um the tax exempt property has agreed to payments in lie of taxes um that allows the exempt entity to contribute towards the services that they do receive the payments will be split between the school district the township and the county over the period of the next 5 years and this is a renewal of this agreement yeah
088so this is an existing agreement agreement um that is expiring um and we are grateful to um Weiss Parker Kramer and to Asbury hides for working to renew this um any questions or comments on this or any of the finance items okay roll call please Mrs berdick I Mrs krabble I miss fler I Mrs Gelman I miss gensel I miss Guth I Mr Hoffman I Mr wiland I all right next on the agenda we have human resources items including our Personnel report and a settlement and release agreement for an employee um Mr Wyland can you read the resolution please sure I move that it be resolved that the board approves the human resources agenda items second any questions or comments roll call please Mrs berdick I Mrs kble I miss fer I Mrs Gman I
089I Mrs gensel I miss Guth I Mr Hoffman I Mr wiland hi all right the next section of the agenda is facilities and we have one item there on security window film B bid um Mrs Crable would you please read the resolution I move that it be resolved that the board approves the facilities agenda items second questions or comments roll call please Mrs burck I Mrs krabble I miss fler I Mrs Gelman I Mrs gensel I miss Guth I Mr Hoffman I Mr Wyland I and finally we have sorry I was trying to look and see what my son was doing now we all know I saw him outside and I was like what are you doing outside that's great um finally we do have a section on um curriculum instruction including an agreement with
090Sun Belt Staffing and Winter Guard trips to Dayton Ohio and Orlando Florida Miss Guth can you please read the resolution absolutely I move it to be resolved that the board approves the curriculum and instruction agenda items second any questions or comments on the section all right roll call please Mrs berdick I Mrs Crable I miss fler I Mrs Gelman I Mrs gensel I miss Guth I Mr Hoffman I Mr wiland I okay uh next we have questions or comments from residents presentations or comments are to be limited to 3 minutes is there anyone in the room who wishes to offer [Music] comment please state your name and you'll have three minutes uh Bruce Slater from 140 Skylar Circle um I I went back some of the old um uh Schoolboard um minutes and I saw
091when uh in October I believe October 21st it was voted that the yearbook committee would go to Columbia University but I could not I could not find it when it was when the time of of the trip IID like to know when that trip is supposed to be this spring and why is it still on if it's still on because like I said it's one one of the most dangerous places in the the country right now um you don't send kids to in in into combat like that um and I like to hear a response when that trip was on or if it's already already happened and and I I I I will not accept anything but an answer on this one um one thing um I brought three copies of the United States Constitution
092I believe that Constitution is freedom of speech and and also discussion of subjects that I bring up and I I like to hear a response from the administration or School word or whoever has an idea to uh that's different than mine even I uh I I I like to hand I have three copies of it here I I'll hand it out to anybody that wants one I have some more at home um one thing I noticed on there um on on the pie chart about 77% of the revenue for the State uh for the school was local and uh almost nothing from the federal was 004 three zos you it brought up another idea was that's exactly what we breathe about 78% of nitrogen and uh oxygen and and a bigger bigger part of the
093next piece of the part chart and there's couple other small elements but carbon dioxide is 004 so nothing and everybody's so worried about carbon dioxide in this country it's a nothing and it could be increased by 100 times and still be nothing it still be one less than 1% but anyway um uh I'd like to hear a response when that trip is supposed to be for New York City and how how how the school is going to gu assure that the safety of those those students being there I'll wait for the answer I don't have an answer right now but we can certainly follow up with you on that well I every time I hear that it never happens anyway so Mr Slater if you'd like a response there's cards in the back of the
094room where you can list your name and your contact information and we would be happy to get back in touch with you that's how we handle the responses they're back on the table as you come in so please write your name down and your contact information and I will personally contact you all right Fair uh yeah I I I don't recall but it's like April or something like that you know but that's it's a real a bad time at Columbia thank you for your comment is there anyone else wishing to speak I welcome please say your name and you'll have three minutes Paula bonjourno Pine Tree Road I would I would hope that you could help me and I think maybe help the public I thought that the uh presentation and the information that the
095board gave this evening concerning the base budget and what was going on was extremely helpful it's very confusing now we're going through the federal changes with the Department of Education which puts great uncertainty on the state funding and then we have this property tax issue that is I mean I don't know if I can even get my hands around this whole this lawsuit that has caused all of this Havoc am I correct in understanding that this just is unconstitutional for alagan conie and not the rest of the state I I that's what I'm not sure of and if it is unconstitutional for the whole state and I know uh Mr Ryland you've been very helpful in all of your information why is this being let going so long if we have an unconstitutional issue why
096is the legislature why isn't anybody doing anything and I'm beginning to wonder why we aren't doing any anything uh anything about this and if it is unconstitutional just for Alan con I'm sorry to say folks that we've got it's aligan con that's really going to have we're going to have to all get up and really uh really fight and the other question uh I'm sure that you noticed that with the uh the um Shapiro with his budget where is that $526 million going is it coming just to alagan Cone to address this issue it was in the it was in the paper that he's going to give $526 million to that's uh to address this inequity well where's that money going if this is if this is just our issue do you think you could
097help get some clarification on this I mean unless you I mean I think this is really important and with what I'm hearing tonight I I like I said I I think it's time for for something for for the community and not to get together and uh we we've got to do something about this I mean this is just ridiculous this whole thing that's going on thank you for your comment Miss but and if you also wouldn't mind leaving contact information so we can follow up with you on on that okay and and I don't know even if you get this ready for the uh The Forum on on the 7th and I think this would really be great to to bring more of this out because I do not think I'm talking to people and
098people do not know about this unconstitutional issue a and what's going on with this whole situation yeah that's a good plan thank you thank you for your comment anyone uh else in the room or online that would like to offer comment this evening okay um I would like to announce that the board did meet an executive session on March 11th for training purposes for an annual legal training as well as uh board communication training and upcoming public meetings are April 7th 2025 uh at 6:00 p.m. as we noted there'll be a budget Forum in room t205 of the Mount Lebanon High School at 7:30 p.m. the board discussion meeting will be in room d205 of the mount Lebon High School just as a note for those that attend there will be no policy committee meeting
099that evening so that we can schedule the budget forum and on April 21st 2025 at 7:30 p.m. the board regular meeting will be in d205 of the Mount Lebanon High School do I have a motion to adjourn so moved okay thank you all