001good evening it is I'm doing great in case anybody was wondering um tonight is Monday March 10 yes we're here for the discussion meeting of the Mount Lebanon Board of school directors in room d205 of the Mount Lebanon High School public participation is also available via Zoom uh it is 7:37 p.m. thank you for your patience a roll call please Mrs berdick here Mrs krael here miss fler here Mrs Gelman here Mrs gensel here miss Guth here Mr Hoffman here Miss Johnson here Mr Wyland here all members are present and Miss Guth is attending via Zoom excellent um first up on our agenda this evening we have some of our Administration team here to give a scheduled presentation on their curriculum review for the science curriculum I will turn it over welcome thank you for
002having us tonight get all started there we go um so thank you everyone for having uh us this evening uh tonight um Mrs Webb and myself are going to talk a little bit about our elementary science uh curriculum review that we've been working on for almost two and a half years um as you can see from the slide tonight we have uh myself um I'm the principal of Foster Elementary as well as uh the science corresponding principal along with Miss Brook Webb who is our principal at Washington also uh our science corresponding principal and from Foster fifth grade we have Margaret satmo uh who is our science facilitator so a little bit about our team as you can see here we have a a large team who has participated in the last two years um
003on our science curriculum curriculum review we have a cross-section of every building all seven elementaries represented as well as every single grade level and so I'm going to turn it over to Mrs web to talk a little bit about how we came to this place thank you Dr Ramsey you going to turn for me great thank you okay so this is our philosophy statement and there are really three uh essential components to our statement so the first part is to provide our students with Equitable opportunity that's science for all um engage explore elaborate evaluate and extend is direct tie to the 3E or 5e instructional model uh threedimensional learning I'll talk about here in just a little bit and then science knowledge is more than just content it's the application okay so in overview the
004Next Generation science standards were introduced in 2013 and so the new Pennsylvania science standards science technology environment and ecology affectionately known as the Steels um are driving the framework for how pte recommends providing instruction in science beginning with this upcoming school year um so some components to the steals are skills driven we are focusing on science and engineer practices these are our seps uh phenomenon based instruction is connected to real world it's what we notice and wonder about our environment depth over breadth is giving students time to develop their thinking through exploration it's who's doing the cognitive lift the thinking in the classroom uh less specific content especially at earlier grades we're moving away from memorization of facts and then that very specific skills and student centered objectives we're prioritizing what students should be able
005to do rather than just on what they should know okay here are the three dimensional learning components the First Dimension being disciplinary core ideas these are the scientific Concepts that students learn uh the second being the seps or science and engineering practices these are the skills that students develop this is asking questions developing and using models analyzing interpreting data and then the cross cutting Concepts is how we put it all together it creates the big picture or the Big Ideas its patterns cause and effect energy and matter how things relate to each other and then the implementation model um is integrative we're moving away from those teaching Concepts in isolation again um the Technology and Engineering practices speak to applied problem solving it's Bridging the Gap between science knowledge and the real world application and
006then that last piece of environmental literacy and sustainability is the human impact um the goal being to create responsible informed citizens who can make sustainable choices let me get on my so a little bit about our timeline we started around 2022 23 when we knew that the state um was coming out with new standards which were including not only the old science standards but also technology um and the environmental and sustainability piece and so we I spent a lot of time reading on those working with the IU and then as we moved into the 2223 school year um we really wanted to set out a timeline for last year for this year and then for the next two years going forward so as you can see here last year we worked on really understanding what
007the standards were and how we were going to begin to teach them and to instruct our instructors on how to teach them to our students we needed to identify our intermediate and uh primary lead teachers at the time so they could help us with the lift of planning our uh timeline out getting the appropriate people on board uh to start writing our curriculum then we had to identify all of our science uh committee volunteers we try to have at least two per grade level and some we had so much interest we have three and again as I had said earlier it's representative all grades and all schools and then uh under the leadership of Mrs Webb we spent a lot of time last summer uh in into beginning of last fall creating a standards crosswalk
008where we were looking at what our standards were currently where we were moving to what was the same what was different and where were the gaps that we needed to fill and then making sure that our current practice was starting to move to the new aligned Steels uh standards we also spent a lot of time uh working with Dr freeze uh and Dr scholo and Dr Davis uh to determine steps in curriculum writing implementation and professional development as we were really getting our feet wet with these new standards and then we also presented to the entire Elementary staff last August so they knew right a way that this was coming um changes were on the horizon and we started to get that information out to them and we did do a lot of communicating with
009the adoptions of Steels our Steels team and the timeline so the entire Elementary division knew what was going on in a timely manner and then we started our monthly uh inperson and virtual meetings uh monthly with our team to talk about the crosswalks what we needed to do to begin to prepare um and work on the timeline and then around this time last year we had four different identified uh resource uh companies come in to present to us um from those four presentations in the committee that we had determined we narrowed down to two different uh providers and so as you can see here we identifi two core resources to Pilot and we are currently in in almost the end of that pilot this year and then at the time after the restructuring of of
010a lot of our edrs we identified Margaret um as our uh facilitator for Science and so this year as you can see um this past summer we completed stage one in Atlas which is really the big lift of the standard so you do not need the resource determined yet that you're using our curriculum are the standards and so when you go into Atlas you will see all of stage one is complete uh kindergarten through fifth grade that in includes standards Big Ideas what students will be able to learn and what the expectations of our students are uh throughout the new standards we had one pilot team of our first core resource which is amplify um and our second pilot team was that of f so we are piloting this year amplify and F and in
011many cases we have each of those Pilots going on in all seven buildings we continued our monthly uh in-person and virtual meetings and we've collected a lot of feedback um over since the beginning of the year on these two um important resources that were going to be recommending in to you very soon we also created our own uh rubric that every time a teacher is complete in that pilot for a unit they submit a rubric that has a comprehensive list of questions that we ask which will help determine uh the recommendation that our committee will make we also spent a lot of time this year in with both Foss and amplify um having professional development whether it was the beginning of the year uh throughout the fall um throughout the winter and they are still
012supporting us with professional development even one-on-one meetings with a lot of our pilot teachers um we are also uh spent time going out and visiting other school districts um who have F and amplify as well so our team has gone out um and spent a lot of time at Pine Richland um at Canon McMillan and we had a lot of virtual meetings uh with uh fast representatives from Mount East and so we are at the point right now we we are pulling together our consensus um looking at all of our rubrics and we will be making a recommendation to all of you next month uh for the resource that we um feel would be best to supplement uh the curriculum that we have and to best support our students and then this school year and
013Beyond we will be implementing and then monitoring our new new core resource um once that is adopted and we are also also preparing for fifth grade to be moved uh science pssa to move to fifth grade this year and so in the past it's been in fourth grade this year it will be moving to fifth grade it is a field test so it's not scored but for the 25 26 school year it will be scored and both amplify and F have provided a lot of information to us to help support our teachers in preparation uh for this field test I also want to mention too that all of the uh science kits that we had from asset from years previous we'll also be using those to supplement and augment uh the curriculum as we move
014into this new resource and so as you can see here uh next month we will be making a recom recommendation to all of you to purchase um either amplify or F and then this summer we will be working and we will be completing stages two and three in Atlas so in August when we uh everyone returns we will have everything ready to go for each and every teacher kindergarten through fifth grade all in Atlas knowing exactly what to do with the resource and even additional resources uh beyond that we already currently have and then next fall and probably throughout the entire year we will be hosting professional development uh for the new implementation of that core resource so we feel comfortable um and all of our teachers feel support Ed in it and so with
015that Mrs web will open up the floor for questions I mean this this is a stupid question but just uh so you were saying there's the new steel standards that is the base of the curriculum so either F or amplify would just be the resource um that would be used to deliver that curriculum or to supplement that corre and and what's nice about both of these products which we did not have four um there is a technology platform for both so that if we would go remote we would have we would be able to access that uh but also there's a lot a lot of instruction material uh for teachers and a lot of learning material for students and um is there a cost difference between the two resources and is that part of the
016consideration for the that's part of the consideration for sure um Dr shulo has been working on getting the best deal over how many years we know how he did yes and so it it you know as I'm sure many of you know it's it's like buying a car you know we want to go back and forth once we have a decision part of making a DEC a decision about this is of course the input from the teacher that's one piece the second piece is obviously the bottom line cost and the third piece is the support that that resource and their company is going to be able to provide to our district and our teachers so we really take those three things into consideration when we when we'll make our recommendation and then I have one
017so the current resource that we have which we can Contin is not aligned with the new standards so we do need a new resource because we're required to teach the standards correct and this is across the Commonwealth yeah so so one of the so it's an unfunded mandate correct just check it the good thing is there are pieces of um the material that we have taught before the science culum that we currently have was written by all of us gosh when I first got here 20 years ago and we rented kits from asset and then we purchased and built our own kits about 10 years ago those kits have served us really well unfortunately many of the part parts of those kits have been discontinued with the Advent of these new standards coming out but
018there are some really great things about them that we can move to different grade levels because when you look at the new steel standards and you look at the old standards a lot of them have been either eliminated or shifted to another grade level or split up um the new steel standards have specific skills that are taught in specific grades K to five the old science standards were you had a grain band so you'd have like K2 35 you know 45 and you it didn't matter what grade you taught them now it is very specific with engineering with environmental sustainability with cross cutting Concepts which is required not only for science but it's also looking at how can you bring mathematics um Ela into science and that's again across the entire Commonwealth so now I'm
019I have a fifth grader other questions on the presentation I have a question um so a few years ago we evaluated two different reading um resources and the result was oh we like some parts of this one and then we like some parts of that one and neither one do we love and so how are we going to reach a consensus what is the process for consensus building among those who are deciding and um can we avoid that uh that happening again most certainly so we created uh a rubric um that is totally private to the teachers who are piloting this curriculum so each unit they'll complete they complete this uh rubric that is sent to myself Mrs Webb and Dr schula and so we will then be looking at those scores in fact they're
020due on Friday the last round is due Friday so then we will look at a quantitative look at how each of the uh resources came out score-wise for amplify and F so that's one piece the other piece is going to be obviously the financing part in the business you know how much is it going to cost and what are we going to get out of it the third piece will then be the support that we will get from that company so having those three options and those three pieces of of evidence to look at plus the very concise and succinct data that we're getting from our rubrics we will definitely have a number one choice I would add to that too a beauty with the rubric system is if we find areas for opportunity through
021our pilot the curriculum writing team can find supplemental materials to fill in for where we think that the tool might not fit perfectly uh to make sure that our staff have what they need and this is year two of that process for selection so last year when we adopted the ELA curriculum we went through the same process with rubrics um and informing people from the beginning that a decision will be made and um that we need to move forward and they did a fantastic job and from all accounts that I've heard from this group it's been very collaborative which is appreciated and all of the educator evaluators are are uh evaluating both correct so we have an equal number of those those who are piloting F and those who are piloting amplify so it's either
022or so so one evaluator is is we started with four okay before we piloted okay we narrowed it down to two after their presentations and review of everything they were able to show us and that's where we got down to these two okay to that point one thing to mention is that many of the lessons from both resources are similar and that it provides um collaborative conversations regarding what each publisher has to offer um in regard to those specific um units of study thank you thank you for the great detailed presentation I'm just curious is there a fourth element in regard to the students learning and how they're doing and how you're comparing those two pilots and best practices that type of thing that's embedded in uh the rubric we've created for the teachers to
023fill out got it thank you and both of us um by Design have both curriculums being piloted in our buildings so we're able to get in observe talk to the teachers be able to see the material see the students in action and in fact there's I added a picture because I thought it was prudent um of actually Margaret's class right there where they were learning about molecules and so I and it was are they a molec molecules that are attracted to one right and so I thought I'm putting that picture in because it worked really well so yes a lot of the student voice is in that pretty heavily that's good excellent and is differentiation um the ability to differentiate part of the rub I'm assuming it's part of the rubric but I just wanted
024to check correct so you know we expect our teachers to be able to differentiate the lessons for themselves but we're also going to be addressing it when you get into um is it step three of Atlas where we're looking at students um who have special education needs students who have and we're not and not just special education but also gifted so what are we doing to help enrich to support those students actually in Atlas and both of both F and amplify are have material to also help us with that as well perfect beauty of phenomenon based instruction as well really LS nicely to that differentiated piece because we really are having students answer questions to arrive at a solution rather than like a Fillin the blank or right or wrong answer so there's a lot
025more like leading up to a solution rather than um a traditional idea of like name all the types of clouds or parts of a flower that's great thank you I just started sweating when you said like I can't there's not going to be a test F okay B asked my question but I just want to say thank you so much for all the work that you've put into this it is very evident that it was well thought out and you have a very long timeline so that shows how important this is to to you as well as a district so I would just like to say thank you yeah and I'll I'll Echo those comments as well just hearing this process I'm so grateful that you're you're here to share this with not just us
026but but the public as well um this type of thoughtful collaborative process you you're talking about high order thinking skills um you're talking about learning content in in a deeper meaningful way to draw those connections um this is very important work and it's great to see the efforts that have been taken over the past two years and that it's headed towards this this decision that you know everybody's able to coales around so thank you for that and then it'll be exciting to see the curriculum implemented and and to see everybody really go after it in the coming years other questions for Dr Amy Mrs W how many years would we anticipate this uh curriculum to carry us for this new implementation would go for how many years forever six to eight years we're looking at
027a new six-year review cycle at least so I'm and I think Mrs Guth had a question comment no just a comment I just wanted to Echo everyone's sentiments that this is just really exceptional um this is kind of my subject matter field so I'm really excited to see how much thought has got into this it's really revolutionizing a lot of the steam education incorporating environmental literacy it's it's really exciting I think our students are going to benefit immensely thank you all right well thank you all for having us we appreciate it thank you thank you all right well that was the fun part right it's all fun um next up on the agenda is uh the policy section um Miss Guth are you able to walk through the proposed adoptions revisions and retirements or would
028you like Dr freeze to do so yes absolutely hold on one second so this evening we discussed a lot of policies that are predominantly related to human resources and um AI which is very relevant to our conversation we just had so we discussed um 301 which is creating a new position 302 which is employment of a superintendent assistant superintendent 304 which is employment of District staff 3041 which is uh anti-nepotism 305 which is employment of substitutes 306 which is summer school staff 307 which is student teachers interns in laa teaching and three uh sorry excuse me 85.1 which is artificial intelligence and will also be a retiring gdfb and um laa student teaching excellent thank you for that overview um any questions comments or discussion to bring forward to the board um from the earlier
029meeting on The Suite of policies great um excellent I'm I'm just excited to see once again this thorough like adoption of or proposal of several polic to you know create to replace two fairly like scant in the area of Human Resources um I you know appreciate again the ability to provide more Direction and more clarity on the different steps that um the board and then the district take when we create a position employ um our staff and um where those responsibilities lie and how we're going to go about it and we move forward uh these policies for adoption for next week excellent next up is our finance section uh the first agenda item on that is the treasurer's report including the February report and the projected expend and revenue M Connelly the treasurers report reflects
030cash transactions for the month of February 2025 treasur report is a four-page report that lists all of our beginning and ending balances for the month as well as our investments and as well as um various accounts besides the general ledger including grants Student Activities and donations [Music] I also included the 2425 projected expenditures and revenue as of February 2025 the the deficit is now at $721,000 this is moving in the right direction it accounts for $67,900 of a deficit decrease um most of that came through other state subsidies we were able able to update that the other state subsidies under state revenue from 550,000 to 650,000 other state subsidies includes State subsidies in the form of student teacher stens ready to learn transportation driver's education and and our feminine hygiene Grant okay any questions or
031comments on the treasurer's report just an observation I think for clarity to the community in particular um it's unpleasant to see a deficit and that is just true but it would be inaccurate to say that we are overp spending because what I see in the expenditures now that we have a variance adopted to projection um line item there we can see that overtime reduction positions not filled due to leaves retirement savings all the reasons are listed there why we are on track to be under spending not overspending the problem um is very clear in the next two columns where we are underfunded we not overspending we are not receiving the money in for again listed reasons housing sales are down the state didn't produce the money that they said they would the federal incomes are
032down the local revenues are down our revenues are lower um our expenditures are also lower but our revenues are are are taking a hit more so than our expenditure cuts are and I think that that correct me on any of those summary type of statements but I think it's helpful for the community to hear that because a deficit is to be avoided and we're working hard to avoid it and those are the ways we're working on it to add to that Mrs berck um the the the the savings the underspending is is nearly half a million so the district has done a nice job in that regard um and the the the funding shortfall the 1.1 is largely from what was projected from the state and what was actually delivered mhm and that's that's most
033of the Delta so thank you for that observation other questions or comments on the treasurers report all right the next uh Financial item is the monthly list of bills the monthly list of bills reflects checks authorized to be drawn between February 13 2025 and February 27 2025 all checks have been reviewed by the administration the superintendent recommends approval of this list great any questions or comments on the list of bills okay um the next uh agenda item is budgetary transfers for March budgetary transfers for March total $3,285 126 for athletic supplies and Pennsylvania M music educators Association mailings the superintendent recommends approval of these transfers okay questions or comments on the budget transfers excellent um next item on the agenda is the list of unusable equipment the list of unusable equipment includes a floor scrubber
034in fair condition and a dishwasher in Poe condition the superintendent recommends approval of this list great any questions or comments on the list I'm guessing it doesn't matter but it says dish water on the I've been in the market some used dish water dish water in poor condition would be even more appealing we'll fix that we're definitely not selling dish water thank you Mrs G just yet other questions or comments all right um the next line item in the finance section is the um AIU program of services budget annually the district approves the AIU program of services budget for their Administration the budget for the 2526 school year totals $2,361 with Mount lebanon's contribution estimated at $85,900 .73 in 2425 tuition services for students with disabilities and IU classes are built separately the superintendent recommends
035approval of this budget questions or comments so just to clarify um this is sort of a cost for um operating the AIU that shared across all the member districts separate from any specific services that we would contract with them for for our students um and it's held fairly steady yeah all right and then the final um Financial item is a resolution for uh the reduction of professional staff um I just wanted to preface this so this is a resolution similar to one we considered last spring um that is on the agenda tonight really for timing purposes um this is something that um if the worst case scenario were to come to pass and we would have to take steps to reduce staff you are required to give a 60-day um notice before you can then
036adopt a budget and with the timing that we're under um that puts it on the agenda for this month um but similar to last year um Our intention is to present and pass a balanced budget without any reduction of um of staff and I think we know a lot more now than we did um going into the budget process last year for how to creatively and diligently ly work with our associations and with our staff to make that a reality so it's not as much of a wish as you know the plan that we're going in with but this is a step that is required by the state if it's even on the table at all um that we would have to take for this month um I was going to pass it over to
037Dr freeze also to provide a little bit more context about the planning that has and conversations that have gone on around this um step to date thank you um at next week's meeting we'll present the base budget to the school board and the public uh since November we've been working closely with budget managers and the business department to assess anticipated revenues and expenditures for the 2025 2026 school year over the last year the administration and budget managers have spent a great amount of time looking for ways to identify cost savings this included but was not limited to NE negotiating new contracts with vendors reducing positions through attrition looking for efficiencies and services we provide challenging tax assessments eliminating services that are duplicates or unnecessary revising job descriptions reducing overtime and meeting with politicians to seek
038additional funding and to address the need for a standard real estate assessment process in our state and County the base budget we will present includes revenues that call for raising real estate taxes to the index and utilizing the actual on exception for special education services this source of Revenue is pending the Commonwealth's approval for the exception and Mount Lebanon school board's approval of the overall tax increase in addition to this it includes the state's preliminary budget presented by the governor on February the 4th we wish we had better news to report but we do not the preliminary State basic education and special education Revenue was slightly higher than 2425 with an additional 223,00 0 however last year we received $1.48 million less than the preliminary budget proposed as a result for the 2526 school year
039the projections that we have are built on assumptions of a flat funding for basic and special education subsidy considering these Revenue sources as of today our projected budget for 2526 includes using approximately 1.5 million of remaining fund balance to balance the budget this 1.5 million includes purchasing much needed curriculum a 10% increase in health care Bond payments scheduled salary increases and increases to operational costs due to inflation this preliminary budget would leave us with a minimum amount of a fund balance this practice is not advisable for the long-term fiscal health of the district the board of directors will be asked to vote to authorize furlows to meet Pennsylvania Department of Education timelines this is the same process we used last year the required vote to authorize furlows applies to mlea employees only however all work
040groups are listed in the resolution to demonstrate that all work groups may be impacted by furlows our goal is a balanced budget not relying on the use of fund balance and to reassign staff utilize attrition to reduce positions Implement program modifications and evaluate the lifespan of equipment rather than utilize furlows as a reminder last year we went through this process and we did not need to utilize Furlow and our goal is to do the same this year over the goal our goal for the next month is to work to reduce our expenditures to meet our projected Revenue so that we can present a balanced budget that is not reliant on fund balance we understand that a challenging budget is never easy and we remain committed to transparency while making thoughtful strategic decisions for the long-term
041stability of our schools I'd like to thank all the budget managers for their hard work on this budget and the commitment to collaboration is greatly appreciated without them without working as a team we wouldn't be in the position that we are now which I think is a very hopeful position for a much more sustainable Budget moving forward thank you all right questions and comments from the board so just to highlight a couple things um one Dr freeze you talked about the um the $1.2 million that was budgeted from the state last year that we didn't receive reive and earlier in the meeting when we were going through the the budget items uh Mrs berdick pointed out exactly that it was that 1.2 million that put us in the hole for the current Year's budget and
042that that uh the administration and the entire District really has done a really nice job um from an expenditure perspective to save us half a million dollars over what was budgeted but unfortunately we're still working our way out of the hole that was created by the shortfall for um not receiving the the budgeted amount from the state and and I think that it makes sense you know learning from that lesson moving forward to even though the state is again projecting um an increase in funding that we're not going to count on it for the purpose of producing this budget um that we're going to cons you know assume no increase um so as to hopefully avoid U starting off in that that negative position uh again once you know later this year when the state
043actually gets R to passing their budget that's first um second um and this is equally if not more important I want to thank all of the uh budget managers and employees of the district in in their effort to participate in this process to own this process to self-evaluate you know themselves and their departments to look for areas and opportunities for savings I know that we've had discussions in Prior meetings um you know about the zerob based bud budgeting uh approach that that your team uh applies and I know that through that process and because of that level of ownership um that has has been accepted by the entire Mount leban School District team we've identified areas for savings that that we would not have otherwise so um your statement that this would not have been
044possible without them Rings Rings true um but I also recognize that as far as the administration is concerned in that regard the level of of honesty and transparency that you continue to exhibit with um the the unions and with the the staff and and with the community puts us in a position to have honest conversations and to recognize those types of savings by being completely transparent uh regarding all of these things warts and all um and I know as as Mrs berdick said earlier um acknowledging a deficit is is not a pleasant thing to experience but I would prefer prer to be honest in the representation and to work together to find Solutions um I think is is the best and healthiest way to go uh and I also commend you Dr free and your
045leadership in this regard sort of as you referenced in in in your presentation a moment ago that it's it's it's all areas of expenditure and revenue you know it's it's it's lobbying our legislators it's um you know looking for all opportunities for us to insert ourselves in the process to work collaboratively to solve this problem um and I look forward to doing more of that you know with you moving forward um you know it is critically important for anybody that's connected to our legislature to to to local government to look at at the funding strategies and this this common level ratio mess that we find ourselves in presently um to to put for a countywide reassessment to to fix this problem um because it it's not uh going to be completely solved until those hard
046decisions are made in areas that are outside of our immediate control um but they're they're necessary and and to the extent that we have the ability to to push those people with the power to make those decisions to make those hard decisions to fix this problem not just for our district but for all of the districts within the county in particular and AC acoss the state as a whole um you know school districts are going to continue to struggle with this stuff so I appreciate that we're we're doing everything in our power both directly and indirectly to to to address this so thank you for that thank you um and to note the last year when we were creating the budget we became um more bullish towards the end because we had reduced staff by
04730 employees and um if we had not considered that 1.48 million that would have been about 10 more employees potentially that we would have lost and I don't know that we could have sustain that sadly the state did not come through for us but we have been making as um everyone has shared tonight some pretty substantial impacting it by really looking at expenditures throughout the year um we sent out a stop spending memo in January and we stuck to it because that's going to help us as well and that is helping us to reduce down that 1.1 plus million to what you see it as today um and also to your point about advocacy we would greatly appreciate advocacy from the public um we're not looking for any handouts but we would like a more
048um consistent approach to real estate assessments um we get notification daily for properties um that are brand new in some cases that cost more to build than they are assessed at that's a problem um and these are commercial properties it's hard enough on taxpayers when you own your home and you may have a um income that's not gaining each year if you're a commercial property you should pay your taxes um and you shouldn't be given huge discounts um on those properties because that does impact the school district significantly and Dr freze in your in your pres initial presentation also you mentioned that the the state of next year's budget presently you know uh potentially calls for the use of $1.5 million in fund balance but to make clear the the the directive from the board
049is or from I speak for myself I I suppose I should say is is to to continue the hard work to get to a place where we're not using fund balance to balance budget and that's what I heard you say but I I just want to make sure that's Amplified to the community on the off chance that somebody caught that little tidbit and and and hung their head on that that that Our intention is not to use fund balance to balance the budget and to the extent that you know we uh exhaust every possible Avenue is to not despite the fact that we're voting potentially this month on a resolution that could allow furlows because of the legal timing that is required that Our intention is a balanced budget without fund balance and without furlos
050that's correct thank you and that I can say is the direction of the board thank you other questions or comment in terms of advocacy every member of this uh board does have an opportunity this month on March 27th to attend AIU at State advocacy day and they have options to do so um virtually or in person Valerie and I are going we got two more spots in the car yeah we're car pulling out in monroville I believe but there's also options to participate um virtually it's very important to Advocate to our state to change what's happening other questions or comment all right the next uh agenda item area is the area of human resources and we have the Personnel report the Personnel report details Personnel appointments changes and assignments leaves of absences resignations sabatical and
051retirements to be considered by the board excellent questions or comments okay next section is facilities and we have one agenda item there which is a security window film bid the district opened bids for security window film on March 5th 2025 seven bids were received the lowest responsible bidder meeting specifications was Suns safe film at a cost of $2,384 for Hoover Elementary $7,695 184 for the high school for a total cost of $37,988 this project is fully funded through a pccd grant at no cost to the district the superintendent recommends approval of this bid thank you for that and I appreciate the public bid tab to show what we mean by lowest responsible bidder because I think there were some other bids that were potentially lower but did not meet all of the specifications of the
052bid um any questions or comments these you know there's a lot of Grants across the country now that are you know in Jeopardy is there any concern this is a state level Grant I believe um any concerns about the dollars coming through um no we it's a it's a 252 2425 and 2526 Grant we plan on spending all of it in the 2425 in this school year but no concerns about it coming into the district there not about this one [Music] no is this the same um installer that did the film at the athletic complex where you might not have that at your fingertips I don't know okay were you here when we did that um but it's the same type of window film yes other questions okay the next uh agenda bucket is for
053curriculum and instruction um and we have three items in that the first is an agreement with Sun Belt Staffing sure um the board is asked to approve an agreement with sun Bel Staffing for nursing services for a student with special needs one day per week for the remainder of the 2425 school year at a cost of 65 per hour for a registered nurse superintendent recommends approval of this agreement thank you questions or comments okay and the next is a well the next two are um Winter Guard trips good evening uh we have two uh Winter Guard trips for your approval and these will be the only two long-distance trips being requested by the Winter Guard uh Item B is uh requesting permission for the winter guard to travel to Orlando Florida for the winter guard
054International Southeast power Regional Tournament from May 21st to the 24th 2025 uh students will miss two days of school in fundraising efforts covered the cost of this trip the superintendent is recommending approval of this trip questions or comments and the next one uh the second as soon as my thing catches up for Doc is thinking it was doing that for me too so I think it's thinking globally or Doc is thinking so thank you Dr mind's up do if you want it Dr SCH gave it so Administration is recommending uh permission for the winter guard to travel to Dayton Ohio for the winter guard International World Championship from April 2nd to the 4th 2025 students will miss two days of school and fundraising efforts will cover the cost of the trip the superintendent is recommending
055approval of this trip as well okay questions or comments right thank you very much um next we have questions or comments from residents um this public comment period is open to Residents and taxpayers regarding matters of concern official action or deliberation which are or may be before the board all commenters should begin by stating their name comments are limited to 3 minutes and will notify commenters when their time has expired questions requiring follow-up will be referred to the administration for later response comments by public participants are their own and should not be assumed to be the statements of the district the the Mount Lebanon school district is committed to providing a safe inclusive and welcoming School environment that recognizes and celebrates the diverse identities within our community so everyone feels a sense of belonging is
056there anyone in the room who wishes to offer a comment please state your name and you'll have three minutes yeah Bruce later from 140 Skylar I'm I'm back again uh I I've been helping out basketball season quite a bit I've seen it probably about 30 Games something and um but anyway um um the the trip U I was concerned about the yearbook trip to Columbia for Dr Davis um I voed the concerns about four or five months ago about going there at all it's it's come back again the Devils rais their head again and uh we're on Columbia University and it's a dangerous place I I would advise to cancel that trip for their own safety unless you want to at least one armed guard for every student there you know because they're not they're
057not going to be able to attend to maybe it's a facility whe they're going for anyway won't be able enter it the way it's being handled now or what was how it was handled last year um the other thing about for Budget uh consideration uh consider uh dropping some non-core classes that have been added over the years that don't U are not maybe not required for graduation for in the state and not not lay off those teachers necessarily but uh move them into an open position position elsewhere in the school district that's a way of reduction also get rid of the classes that are not need uh uh for graduation uh that that'll be it oh the other thing is um I'm concerned about lack of um comment on anything I've ever said in the
058last year and a half it it seems like uh lack of comment is a disastrous it was disaster for Biden for Harris you can't answer they can't uh questions are being asked if you can't answer them maybe you don't know or you don't want to commit to anything is a problem uh the only way you can uh advance in life is to have open conversation open dialogue even if you do agree with uh uh what I say or don't say you know uh you need open dialogue U like um you can AR I had a Granddad he was famous for being to argue the opposite what they thought they he would uh you know he was a school teacher all his life but uh he he was famous for being able to argue the other
059point of view all the time thank you Mr Slater is there anyone else who wishes to offer comment anyone online Okay um I'd like to announce that the board met an executive session this evening for personnel purposes um and a legal update and our upcoming public meetings are Monday March 17th 2025 at 7:30 p.m. um the board regular meeting will be in d205 of the Mount Lebanon High school and also available via Zoom do I have a motion to adjourn CH moved second okay thank