PV Board of Education Meeting 2/27/2025

001the month making right there I can't either iooking show I watch [Laughter] sports you can continue to talk get close to the longest two minutes are the longest minute of Our Lives yeah it's the longest minute no no it isn't it isn't you're right not for pleasure as much business but [Music] okay all right oops there it is good evening everyone I'd like to call the PMA Valley School District Board of Education meeting to order if you could all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and Mr did I you last time Mr burer no I'm gonna ask Mr burer to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and then if you could all please stay standing for a moment of silence iedge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the

002it stands one nation indivisible andice thank you every everyone again I'd like to welcome everyone that's with us this evening and if we could have roll call please here present here thank you someone's quite happy back there I would like to let everyone know that we did have an executive session this evening February 27th 2025 immediately prior to the regular scheduled meeting for purposes of personnel matters including but not limited to Performance and or discipline negotiations and legal issues um I don't see mea with us this evening unless she's hiding somewhere so uh we will move on to our students of the month and I know it all begins with Mr pelo so if you would please good evening everybody good evening gentlemen absolutely it does all start at PB starts kindergarten kids today I

003think the what 2037 where will you be in 2037 [Music] who she's like 11th grade honestly before I start I say this every time this is a 5050 50% parent 50% school and that's how you keep wind up getting this award so thank you so much Mom and Dad you guys are awesome because your child will not be here without your help and support okay so I do appreciate supporting public education and BBE for all the schools okay so uh we brag right away with Miss Parker kindergarten teacher is going to be here and present Hank Logan and the family and the little sister very Hopey [Applause] [Laughter] good evening everyone when considering this month's of the month Hank came to mind for so many reasons Hank is encouraging thoughtful and Incredibly driven in every

004subject area Hank has shown incredible growth when Hank struggles with something new he shows perseverance and will keep practicing until he succeeds and while Hank is always so proud of his own accomplishments he is even prouder when his friends see Hank is a truly selfless friend when I asked my students about their favorite things about Hank they told me he is funny kind helpful to everyone and a really good friend six of my students went on and on about how Hank always let them play with him and how other students talked about how they love going to wrestling practice with him and that Hank is always a great partner at practice as you can see Hank Logan is a student that everyone wants to be around I will leave you all with a quote from

005one of Hank's peers Hank is such a good friend and a really nice person I hope his spots of love happiness and confidence grow super big because we all love them [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] all right next we're going to go to first grade and we have Miss K here to present Gabriella baby and family come on up everybody conratulations h The Time Is Here Gabby where is do my parents know where to go it is my pleasure to recognize Gabriel b as the first through the month for February Gabby greets me every day with a big hug and a big smile and usually a story or two or three and of course some questions about our day she always wants to know about our day and I was okay Gabby I'm gonna go through our

006day wait and I love her inquisitive mind this is one of the qualities that makes her an awesome student she is eager to learn and always does her best Gabby is a beautiful person inside and out her thoughtful and kind heart always it has always has her thinking of others Gabby is helpful to her classmates and teachers and she's willing to help anyone who hasn't problem she definitely helped me a time or two as teachers we all have those days when we wonder anyone listening to me and I can tell you that Gabby is always the first one with her hand up no matter what I say I'm like yes someone is listening to me um so thank you Gabby um I always tell my students that they can't forget anything that I've taught them

007and Gabby reminds us every day when something comes up that we've learned in the past that that's something that we know so Mr pomelo when Gabby's already to do the commercial for everything starts [Laughter] atab always shares her goal of wanting to be a teacher whenever visitors come to our classroom she wants to teach them about everything we do it doesn't matter if it's visitors from ESU other school districts or even people um from central office she already shows her characteristics of being an excellent teacher I'm so lucky to be Gabby's teacher and to be a part of her journey you are going to do amazing things in this world Gabby I'm so proud of you congratulations [Applause] all right BB has one more we have our second grade student of the month and I

008would like Miss Gordon to come on up second grade teacher to present Y St Louis and family come on up I'm GNA beef because I don't want to cry she's so emotional um but I'm honored to present to you the second grade student of the month Yan s Yan is a wonderful student but more importantly she is kind and she is generous she comes to school every day with a big smile a positive attitude and a genuine interest in learning she works hard and is a role model to both her classmates and the younger students that she tuts Yan your positive attitude your dedication to your schoolwork inspires me and it inspires others and makes us [Applause] all all right before I give it to Miss Albright I like to announce the support St member

009of the month at tve is Colleen Schmidt par professional kindergarten doing a great job uh a professional staff member is Christine satini our current art teacher she teaches over 00 students art uh in our school we had a little bit of a HCM the move for a week she took a trooper we helped her get her supplies in the room get her back of the room not one complaint this amazing professional um a few highlights for PBE we had Daryl cob children's offer there on Tuesday he was amazing interacted with the kids had lunch with the kids played a little guitar read some books he was just a great author great experience uh Miss Boos My Librarian has been hosting books and bals um all the students get a chance to come in from 8:30

010to 9:00 in the morning um and have a begel with Mom or Dad and learn about all the resources in the library that they can use at home so pretty cool like can really utilize Easter break and summertime and the last thing we also gave a shout out to all our really hard working school counselors this was last week was school counselor week and they worked so hard so thank you that and this all right it is all [Applause] you all right um we have some really awesome students to highlight here for PBI today um we are going to kick it off with third grade and we have both Miss Smith and miss o farell to present our third grade student of the month Eva [Applause] meas they must bring their smiles from element I

011have it in mind too I am very pleased to present the third grade student of the month award to Eva mechas she's an absolute joy to teach and have in our third grade class every day she comes to class eager prepared and always with that contagious smile on her face ready to learn something new EV is an excellent role model to her peer she leads by example in the academic setting by volunteering paying attention and doing Stellar work she cares very much about her academics and consistently strives to do our best so I don't want to embarrass you here but one of the first convers Sation I had with Mom was about her mom's concern that Eva was being behind in her reading well at the beginning of the year some of you know the

012guided reading levels quite well at this level right she was reading at a guided reading level why and I told her we would work on it and I'm pleased to say that with all of her dedication and her hard work she's currently reading at a guided reading level M and in that time has increased five levels so that's over a full year of growth in just three Market additionally in our class she's had the third highest growth points on her star reading assessment since the beginning of school year so that's huge that's awesome recently Eva was out for a week with the flu and going around but every day she made sure that Mom was on dojo and sent me a message to find out what work she missed what she had to do that

013night to keep up so she wasn't behind and I have to add one thing in there that we I checked on today I have an incentive at the beginning of the school year and I always tell kids if you can go the whole school year and Miss zero homework assignments then Mr Smith will pay for a pizza party and we will have a pizza party lunch in at the end of the year for those kids that achieved this and everybody thinks they're going to get there and slowly and they start to dwindle usually end up with 10 or 12 Eva has missed not one homework assignment this entire school year that's a huge feat huge so I'm very proud to announce Eva Mech as a third grade student of the month the strength leadership love

014for Learning and her sincere kindness in this young lady is nothing short of inspirational congratulations Eva from Mrs Smith and Mr farell I her come always doing a spectacular job every single day I'm extremely confident that she'll continue to excel in her years here at Pleasant Valley and continue to make us all PB proud [Applause] gr we have Miss Kus here to present our fourth grade student of the month Nico Spiker so as a as a teacher we get blessed with having great kids in your class and if I could take Nico and clone him and and make 22 more of him it would be the perfect class um he is kind he has a positive attitude um he's a hard worker he's a great listener he's always in he's in the front of the

015class and his hand is always up and I try not to call on him all the time because his hand is always up but he's always listening he takes pride in his um his work and his assignments um he his grades are great um I'm going to kind of echo what Mr Smith said and he keeps up with we do IES we do reflex lessons that requires work at home and at school and he keeps up with all of that um and we're again PV proud um I'm surprised you don't have your hocke [Laughter] [Applause] J and then moving on to fifth grade um our fifth grade student is on un fortunately not able to be here but in the trend of what we often hear about our students of the month is because um

016they participate in a lot of extracurricular activities and they have a lot of things so um tonight I'm recognizing for fifth grade um Rory wadak and she's not here tonight because she's receiving awards at another ceremony um her teachers did give me some things to say about her though um so this is in the words of from Mrs tonight I am proud to recognize Rory w as the student of the month she has shown determination and a true commitment to doing her best each day she doesn't just focus on her own successes but also cares about her school her classmates and her teachers she works hard in everything she does always striving to improve and do better whether it's in her school workor helping a friend or participating in class she always gives it for

017all in fact Mrs Bowman said Rory is demonstrating incredible grow becoming confident in her ability participating in class cooperating with others and tackling challenges with a positive attitude in addition Mr Rory has a great only herself but her classes what makes her even more special is her caring attitude she shows kindness and respect to others always making sure that everyone feels included and valued her positive attitude and willingness to help others make our costume a better place for everyone we are all proud of her and the wonderful example she has set for so congratulations and then um building highlights a lot of really wonderful things happening right now um but I do like to recognize when we have our staff volunteers putting activities together um in February um a group of Staff volunteers hosted a

018family math mate um featuring math Bingo that was the The Grand Event um the event was well attended by our students and their families um and in addition to our staff helpers just showing the community involvement um we had support from our typ one funding Kinsley Supermarket our PTO and the Pleasant Valley National Honor Society students came and help us out too so it really was a community Affair um and everyone had a really great time so um it was a wonderful opportunity and then our staff members of the month for January were um our professional staff member of the month was Jennifer Sera and support staff member of the month bla borer so thank you to them for all the hard work they do every single day and now we're pass it [Applause] [Laughter]

019to all right for uh congratulations to all the students of month so far for the middle school and six grade unfortunately our sixth grade student could not be we have a few words from Mr Clawson who who nominated her Julia Place Julia is a fantastic student she gives 100% in everything she does she participates in class is always prepared helps other students and always completes any work that she misses she does careful accurate work and is a pleasure to have in class congratulations to your pleas and then here for our seventh grade St month we have Mrs goard one of our seventh grade science teachers and she will be presenting Aubrey St tonight I am honored to present to the school board one of our Middle School's incredible seventh grade students Miss Aubrey d being

020in middle school isn't easy with new challenges new subjects and a whole lot of changes happening all at once but through it all Aubrey consistantly demonstrates a remarkable positive attitude that brightens our classrooms every single day it's not just that she smiles a lot or has a great sense of humor which she does is that she approaches every task with a G do Spirit when fa with a difficult problem she doesn't give up she digs in asks questions and shows real fortitude whenever I forget to hand out passes for band in the morning she's always the first to help REM but most importantly Aubrey is incredibly kind she is always there to offer help to her group members and makes them feel part of the team she creates a welcoming and supportive environment for all

021of us Aubrey you are a shining example of what it means to be a fantastic student and an even better person your positive attitude your fortitude and your kindness are qualities that will take you far in life we are so lucky to have you on our team and I know that you will continue to brighten our classrooms here at Pleasant Valley until you congratulations for being our seventh grade student of the [Applause] month not only bright she is tough with a bad knee and now she's going to run track represent our eighth grade student month we have Miss dud who's going to recognize Jasmine [Applause] green practice so I already I about it but I had the privilege of being able to teach jasine for two years and during that time she has conable character

022is a truly hardworking student she approaches every task with diligence and genuine desire to learn she is only punctual to class prepared and ready to engage with the material that is being taught from every day Beyond Simple completing test jine demonstrates a concern for the quality of work and Conant drives for excellence but steling theart however goes beyond her academic abilities she's a kind compassionate person always willing to Wi helping handle fellow fellow students an example of that would be we had a new student come in and she welcom in and help someone work because he has some difficulties does she possesses a real ability to make people feel welcome and included going out of her way to include that everyone feels comfortable in and out of the classroom in the classroom jasine is a

023model student she's constantly on task actively participates in discussions volunteers daily to answer questions demonstrating both her knowledge and willingness to contribute to the Daily lessons her enthusiasm for love is contagious and she inspires those around her to do her best she is a remarkable young woman who possesses the quality of intelligence diligence and compassion and is Will to and I'm willingly believe that she become very [Applause] sucess all right thank you congratulations again just a couple of highlights at the middle school we like to uh give a shout out to our eighth grade school counselor Sher Bon Her our guidance secretary Rachel Brown and our pvm teachers who the 60 spots at mcti we were able to build 27 of those slots for our grade students incoming grade students um our Junior Honor Society

024they sponsored a Super Bowl kickoff collection where we collected about 300 cans that's going to be donate to the west and F Pantry uh this month we also celebrated our CTS and desserts at the middle school where over 2060 students uh were recognized for receiving distinguished honoro and over 150 students our honorable students and then lastly we want to recognize our uh middle school students who participated in the 100th birthday C drive for World War II veteran Rond Ben petki uh our students submitted over 100 birthday cards so conrat again and we'll pass it off to the high school oh staff member I'm sorry our staff member the one of our learning support teachers Kelly Suman was recognized and then our support staff member of the month was uh her support staff teacher Mary CLA

025hos [Applause] thank good evening Dr Conor and the school board it's our it is our honor for the high school to uh talk about our students of the month our ninth gr student is Brook surface and we have Miss gar here who will speak on her behalf [Applause] so at the end of last year I had one of my biggest graduating classes for enira I had 12 of my kids who have been constantly with me for four years left and I knew coming into this school year I'm like this is going to be different September was a little quiet there were not kids in my room constantly after school asking questions things like that and then the next day starts coming around and you get this sense sometimes you're like okay they're gone you know

026you're by yourself you're not g to come back and stuff B has started and has started the next group and now it feels much more like home in my classroom you have the kids around again she's there many many times a day when she has chance um Rook is also one when you talk about academics here as kids go through the high school there's certain kids that board members are going to see many times as we go through events with kids that are just standing out with everything they do grade wise extracurricular wise this may be the first time you're seeing Brooke but you're going to be seeing her a whole lot over the next four years I'm very confident that she's very driven she has goals for herself to be in that top 10

027when she gets out to graduation she's interested though in learning I know when I go around the classroom when I'm like all right time to make a lap and see if someone needs help I actually go to her group last because I know when I get there I'm gonna be there for a while so make sure everybody else is set and then my opening is often okay what do the Warriors have for me because they have a list of stuff we're working on Rook wants the whole unit on the first day she wants all of the information right now and she wants to be able to figure everything out she's always one who's going to participate in class and she's putting together the pieces she's not just repeating things she's looking at something from a

028critical level and figuring out what's going on and then she's really really strong at explaining things took me a little bit to convince her to start coming to Environ but now my top team gradu I've got a lot of SPS here she was just after school with me here today very fixated I mean she's excited about [Laughter] soil she's going to keep this up she's awesome she's great she's extremely helpful yesterday at the end of the day I had started cutting stuff up to make 70 chromosomes for another class and she was like why didn't you ask me to do that and I was like didn't think of it before she's like keep that to me she took the list took my instructions and an hour later she pops back in my room and she's

029like here you go and then this morning was in there she like did that work for you first grod I yes else you guys are going to be seeing a lot of her for the next four years she's going [Applause] lovely all right for our 10th grade student of month they were nominated by Mr Jason Smith who unfortunately could not be here tonight and nor could our student but our student is Elena Bolan and I will read a message that um Mr Smith wrote about her Elena is a driver in her education not a passenger she is not simply a for the ride she is proactive in learning always ask questions always striving to do better responsible for her actions and willing to work with others a pleasure to have as a student student she

030makes my job more enjoyable Elena has had Straight A's all year and excels in all of her classes Elena you make us PB proud our 11th grade student of the month was nominated by Miss ban who will speak on his behalf and this is Cameron Hayes [Applause] good evening everyone I don't know how much Kon loves attention earlier this week it was his birthday not so much he said this is okay I'm here tonight to present the 11th grade student of the month to Cameron Hayes and I met Cameron last year in Algebra 2 and I had the opportunity to see him grow with his skills from last year to Geometry this year and he is very knowledgeable so knowledgeable that he offers to assist his peers in class that sit around him and he's

031actually kind of their go-to person because they know Cameron is knowledgeable and that he has a kind heart and he will help him he always brightens my day gives me a laugh thank you for those par usually when I needed the most but Cameron is also a member of the Pleasant Valley High School marching band and he even spreads his kindness throughout our community as a volunteer firefighter at the conle Town fire company so thank you for being you and giving me that last one I need one I'm proud of your hard work and your family should be proud for raising such a kind heart kindhearted respectful young man congratulations on this award and finally our 12th grade student of the month is nominated by Miss Danielle Brandis and her name is [Applause] mar yeah

032I don't know where to begin um I have a really short uh Reflection from last year I teach seniors last year obviously she was not a senior but and I didn't know her but I was at my door you know between classes and this girl walks by with his funky hair and his cool outfits and I'm like yeah you go cool chick and I just like wanted to know her I was like I need to find out who this is and um you know a couple times whatever the period was that she always traveled at ho and like was like she's so cool and then I didn't see her for a while and then all said of this year started I was like this is the girl and so you know she uh she has

033everything I mean you know I not to diminish it but like academics participating in activities holding down a job she's got everything good grade she's wonderful so as a student academically socially she's got it all um but I feel like if you just she's the kind of person you just need to get to know um she just makes us laugh she's kind to everybody she does these cute doodles when there's like a few minutes at the end or there's downtime entertains people um you know helps other groups helps her classmates she just has such an amazing soul and I feel like that's what really really shines and it's it's magnetic and it really really draws people to her don't make me cry and I one example um just and this is funny when we have

034one of our virtual D and you know we our classes on Zoom whatever Google meet and um I always you know 12th graders are like little kids all over again you know they get a birthday pencil which TRN their birthdays and it was another student's birthday so we were like oh birthday and all of a sudden the blue I [Laughter] hear she just um just finds ways that are not cous but always just the right amount of Joy um and just you know makes everybody laugh and finds ways to uh respond and participate in just she's just a great harmonizer everything she does just brings people together um and so I feel like that's her best quality so you very much deserve it congratulations school so let's give one more round of applause to all

035the [Applause] students for the high school staff M of the month we have Miss Liz MCR and our support staff of the month was Miss Susan gimlet a couple highlights in the high school we had our Min kick off couple weeks ago prar which will be at the end of April uh last week we ended up inducting six new members to our national math society and the last one is we were celebrated our honorable ceremony for Mar 2 last week we had almost 4 students um so again absolutely awesome things happened at the high school and work real and I believe the Bears Academy not so all the students of the month okay yes again I'd like to congratulate all the students of the month and what a great job parents you are doing congratulations

036to you also and I know they'd like to have you all go out into the lobby and get some pictures taken I'm sure Lewis is out there he's usually the one telling you where to go but um have a great night you can stay if you want back in [Laughter] thinking to [Laughter] myself how are you than [Music] yeah I can hear him out there all right I'd like to go ahead and continue on our agenda Dr Conrad were there any uh Community questions this evening yes good evening everyone uh there were a couple of community questions um I guess before I begin uh and may we can close that room oh There He Go thank you so um it's interesting earlier tonight I just told the board how much I really do appreciate uh

037you know all the parents the community members the students and the staff that come out to um you know celebrate the students and and really that that's what our focus is always uh on is is focusing on the students it's really nice to see and hear all the wonderful accolades and the great things happening in the buildings um there were a couple of things I just want to talk about tonight that kind of either got bled up through uh you know some Avenues of social media or you know even uh through discussions in the last board meeting but one of the things I want to address as I said earlier I mean we have absolutely incredible staff here in Pleasant Valley and um you know unfortunately we've experienced some situations where uh we've had some

038staff members um for whatever reason resigned or retire in the middle of the year and as you can imagine that that's not only heartbreaking to us it's heartbreaking to our kids right and you know as a district we always have to Pivot and figure out how are we going to best serve the academic needs of our students um the social needs of our students uh when when we're looking at the same time to fill some of those vacancies um as a result from that uh we have made the conscious decision to offer some of our elective courses at the high school online and again this isn't something that we um are are striving for this is something that we're utilizing to help fill the academic gaps and we don't have a certified teacher in that

039particular role um I am proud to say that uh you know through hiring processes through our principles our human resources department here and staff members that are on those um committees we have hired some incredible staff members uh that are on this agenda future agendas but just please uh be mindful that we always find it's important to uh in the absence of excellent teachers when we have that from time to time and not just PV other school districts as well um we need to keep the education opportunities moving forward for our students um so that's what we're going to continue to do and again these are the elective classes uh actually I think we're about H half of our classes which was 18 and now down three uh had had transitioned to live construction uh

040six more I believe are going to be um fully stacked within the next two weeks and then from there we have a few elective classes we've talked about that the German classes and so forth that we've posted for again and again so our hope is that we can continue to find high high quality teachers to uh bring to PV to uh emulate the great strategies and techniques of our current excellent teachers but I just want to share that um information with all of you um a couple other things I just wanted to share too uh I had read a couple of reports this last week that came out um and what it was focusing on specifically was the financial expenditures of Commonwealth Charter Academy which is also known as CCA and just wanted to bring

041some some um U really pointed points to all of you and I think something that we can all rally towards um some of the expenses from the 2223 school year included $116,000 in dining expenses $45,000 for entertainment $63,000 for car scholarship uh SC I'm sorry car dealerships and car washes 407 um for unidentified shopping expenses and then 1.2 million in cash payout to CCA families um according to a report that was just recently released from the auditor general uh CCA had actually increased its Revenue by $256 million in three years uh due to enrollment incases which again CCA is cyber tar school is across the state they had enrollment of 27,000 students in 2020 when you know the pandemic was occurring uh to now over 44,000 and not only Pleasant Valley but other school districts

042across the state unfortunately have lost enrollment um and and opportunities to serve our communities by having um students attend Cyber Charter Schools and what I'm asking all of you to do and I'm bringing this to your attention because I think again it's time for our community for our Educators for our leaders to uh state and local representatives to prevent the siphoning of money from public schools without accountability and I've shared with you before the um horrid uh graduation rates from CCA um again unfortunately I I feel that another public school is in competition with our school district but I just wanted to bring that uh to light to everyone this evening um the third that I just want to bring up was uh Sena Valley cyber um Services which is on the agenda tonight and

043just to have a point point of clarification so we utilize a service uh an opportunity to help support our Bears Academy which is through senica Valley and it's through a program called Edgenuity okay um we offer this program for our 274 students that are attending our cyber programs but I also want to point out that in the last three years we've transitioned from a k212 um online cyber offering through edgen to this last year actually Hiring Our Own PB teachers in grades 6 through five um certainly with uh people that are in education they understand that there's uh certain certifications that High School teachers need to have in order to teach those courses and that's something that we're looking to continue to uh utilize in the future but I just wanted to clarify that that's

044how we're using that there have also been opportunities where you know again when we've had a midyear resignation or retirement we've had to um utilize that uh learning platform as a way for students to have still high academic learning with a certified Pleasant Valley teacher in the class but again this is a temporary fix um because our goal is to not lose any um individuals due to retirement or resignation in the middle of the Year Dr Conrad that's K through five that we're using our teachers that's correct K K through five we're using our teachers oh I'm sorry yeah you said six through five goodness just wanted to clarify that thank you yes K through five we're utilizing our teachers and and our teachers have done an incredible job uh with Mr van Boris at

045the helm um you know we're very proud of the opportunities that they uh are afforded here and then the last thing was just uh there was some uh confusion it seemed uh on some of the graduation requirements for mcti so there was actually uh an item that we placed on the agenda this evening we wanted to refine it just a little bit more so we've actually taken that item down um what we will do is make it very crystal clear for the incredible students that are at mcti to ensure that the parents and students understand uh what they need in terms of graduation requirements and ways that we're going to support them uh and the great things that they're doing at mcti so just wanted to bring that to everyone's attention and again just have

046a couple of minutes just to share some thoughts uh from the last couple of weeks okay uh so there were six Community questions that were submitted this evening uh first was submitted from Don Yos act from chesten Hill Township and she asked if another location had been reserved for the Chris Hixon fitness center which was located in the jcm wi um so what the renovation uh that will be occurring actually in the next few months um that uh fitness center is actually going to be uh reall it's going to be moved from its current location actually closer to the the um the high school gym and we will uh obviously continue to keep that name in honor of Chris Hixon and the incredible um you know things that he did down in in Parkland and

047um we want to keep his memory alive so that will be continued uh to to be called the fitness uh Center for Chris Hixon okay uh for the next question I'm actually going to defer to our director of instructional technology uh Jason vanor he answer the next question sure so the second question was from Jan duner from P Township who asked about po Gemini and ask who would be using it specifically um Google Gemini is going to be accessible if it's accepted uh to teach us from grade 6 through 12 uh it can be used to enhance lessons it can also be used to make greater connections with students and also Concepts the resource is not going to be available for students um we are not this is not being rolled out for students the

048foreseeable future strictly for GR teachers grade 6 through 12 we're acknowledging the use of AI we're acknowledging that that moving forward different companies different organizations will be using generative AI uh we wanted just to start getting more experience with it so they have a better understanding of it and then we can also help their students understand how to use it appropriately as we're moving forward so again sixth grade through 12th grade teachers is going to be accessible for if it's if it's accepted no students um the policy that's written that has students written in it is about how do we educate our students and make sure they're using an AB if they are choosing to great thank you thank you all right uh for um the remaining questions I'll defer to our uh business manager

049Mrs SM I know I had some difficulty understanding the question question itself there's a lot of sub questions in it and it was a little bit unclear so Mrs SM could you take those away there were four questions that were refer to finance the first question was submitted by Denise H chville Township question was item four expenditures non-instructional Services bottom 1,447 590 at bottom of chart increases attributed to Bringing students back from outside Cyber Charter students order cost of returning students is there an itemized list why does the figure match page 103 on same itemized list item 3000 total 1447 590 sub items 3210 Student Activities 3250 Athletics 3300 community service how is this possible who signed off on this what board members signed off on this so I'll start at the beginning um the

0501,447 590 is not the amount being spent on bringing students back from outside Charter student from outside charter schools to Brick and water the this amount is inclusive of all expenses listed on page 94 if you're reading the page numbers or page 103 if you're reading the PDF of the audit account code 3210 is the amount of 3,428 which includes all salaries benefits supplies Etc through District Student Activities count code 3250 in the amount of 1 milon 161 367 includes all salaries benefits supplies etc for our district Athletics the last account code 3300 which is community services this is in the amount of 17,7 the Auditors know that states these increased expenditures The increased expenditure is $2,820 it's the difference between 2223 and 2324 that $2,820 increase from the year before is attributed to outside

051Charter students who participate in our Sports at PV the expenses for these students is increased from the year before and hopes that these students would return to G Mor at the very least 10 Pleasant Valley cers p the following activities were conducted during the 2324 school year in attempt to bring outside Charter students back to PB monthly information sessions were held every month during the school year information sessions were held at the high school Outreach to All Families conducting surveys and conversations an additional time from the Cyber staff meeting with parents who were thinking about Le the entire board is provided an electronic and paper cop of the audit a month in advance of approving the audit this allows more than time for board members to review and ask questions prior to approval the audit

052was presented in detail at the February 13th working session the second Finance question was also submitted by Denise hopy from chville Township the question is forb Fox Rothchild a fourth bill from attorney in 4 months 20,000 plus why are these fees so high where are level one and two minimizing stakeholders exposure to just grieve at decisions cost these past four months cost for stakehold stakeholders are over 100,000 Fox the answer to the questions the fox Rothchild check for 24442 encompasses Personnel issues special education assessment appeals negotiations High School renovation legal paperwork home school issues Grievances and right to no requests the third question was submitted by Denise hopley of T Hill CH the question is 4 e 2831 item recruit replace Services spent 3381 123 of 46365 of the budget what is this for what

053services company the answer to the question um account 2831 is our HR department 182,000 is strictly for salaries and benefits 5700 is for employee assistance program $48 for the coffee machine $400 in postage $102 for mileage reimbursement $2,400 in office supplies including badges for the district $1,200 for new teacher orientation lunches and arbitration lunches $143,000 for all of the software programs used by the HR department some of these programs are around a 1 to threee contract $2,400 conferences and dues the last questions submitted by Denise hopley CH Hill Township what is 100,000 emergency money for Dr Conrad's use for renovations the money is not for Dr Conrad's use this was discussed at the working session meeting on February 13th the motion allows him to approve a change order from the general contractor for emergency situations

054only during the construction project to ensure safety and efficiency all questions thank of them all right thank you uh Mrs smil please um secretary's report tonight I requesting approval of the meeting held on February 13 2025 and approval of the February 27 2025 meeting agenda including the removal of item 12 Aion so Mo second I have a motion uh by Mr Burger seconded by Mr Walters is there any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying I I I anyone opposed scary there and that motion carries um Mrs surface I just want to make sure you can hear us yes I can and I did abstain from that one okay that's right because you weren't at the last meeting okay thank you uh Pleasant Valley citizens um um is there anyone that would like

055to address the board this evening on agenda items only um again please come to the podium state your name the township you reside in and there is a three minute limit and Township um I need clarification on 905 citizens advisory according to your citizens advisory um the board as a whole um and that you have a difference between board and committee people now you're allowing 15 people on the committee but according to this the school board will decide the board which is the three members of Two And The One V we'll decide what we can discuss citizens advisory is for us to come to you with what we hear in the community yes we can narrow it down to one but this isn't clarified here even when you read the breed that you put you

056differentiate between board and committee people now it's 15 people going be part of the board that way you bring our concerns the reason why we want the citizen advisory for us to tell you what the problems are and work on a solution I can understand only picking one of those problems but according to this you guys get to pick the problem and only one of them we can discuss it it's not written right so whoever did this I think it should be removed because if you read it you differentiate between board and citizens advisory and Dr Conor I don't if I can speak about this now I hear that write 18 teachers left in the middle of the year um no that's not how many teachers left at the high school again a better question

057for the second public okay the other thing is we just heard how great the the reading program is one girl went from V to m whatever okay why are we spending 900 million $900,000 on new reading program isn't like you guys have money to burn and you keep every so many years change the reading program in the school system can't you find one that works enough's enough people as I said you're hurting the taxpayer we cannot afford this okay I went through it last time how do you expect a senior citizen I'm making $50,000 after all expenses to live on $600 a month okay enough's enough people when we don't have it maybe you should decide which program and stick to one instead of every so many years changing it thank [Music] you okay so

058it's uh the item items in 4B and then seven and they all cross over with each other so it's about payments Etc so it's about cyber PB cyber and Cyber Charter so I just made a chart because there's questions on this so I don't know how many students um Mr vores has successfully brought back from Cyber Charter to into PB cyber since last year and up to this point of this year and how does this impact the evaluation for him if students have not returned what steps have been taken to prevent further departures um from brick and mortar schools and how many of our brick and mortar students are currently enrolled in these online courses um parents have reported that the high school credits from brick and mortar aren't being accepted to for colleges somebody

059had taken an FCS class family consumer baking and the course was listed as a science credit on a PB transcript so the colleges are rejecting it um what's the next step will students be denied acceptance or will they have to pay an extra credit that should have been properly Guided by the high school to ensure they were applicable to postsecondary education now I get to the online courses brick and mortar it's increased this year so 120 parents have shared that their children are enrolled at least one online course at PB in all seven periods of Pleasant Valley why are these eight courses offered online I know you addressed I know you addressed it um but it's still all seven periods with 120 parents concerned with multiple classes with their children um how are these students

060factor in enrollment numbers and are teachers available to ask questions online for these courses chemistry bio Earth and science math throughout the day where is Cal ab and AC and apparent reported that the child had to pay out of pocket for a college course in physics after pushing for the solution and what going on with robotics metal ecology and business courses and why aren't these classes running what's IR rationale in this situation it seems as though students are being set up for failure lacking the necessary education for success as adults where are the lasts experiments collaboration and opportunity for communication skills development why aren't we considering bringing back retired teachers for specific courses they're qualified to teach and or Contracting out on online teaching to provide students with a more effective learning experience what are

061the additional costs associated with these online courses and why are we not prioritizing direct teacher Leed instruction it appears the issues such as unreasonable demands lack of support and lack of discipline or contributing to teacher retention problems could these be the core issues affecting the quality of Education MC we're at three minutes we're at three minutes is ncti pull from the agenda at three minutes I know but it's a yes or no if I need to come back did you pull ncti enrollment not enrollment we okay then minutes come back thank you come back good evening de MOA chest Hill Township um my questions pretty much all go with senica Valley School District in Pittsburgh the online school for Pleasant Valley um the new fiveyear contract why is it five years does it have to

062be five years or could it be a shorter term two or three years to give that a try um do we have any other quotes on that is there any other schools that are even closer that you had quotes on that we could find out why are we not hiring the teachers which I think you you based on some of that what data shows this is best for the students does senica Valley have a minimum guaranteed students in their seats versus our brick and mortar of Pleasant Valley Academy there is a very broad description of services are PB students being shifted to Sena senica is all the way on the other side of the state of Pennsylvania I just can't fanom why we can't get something closer here what do other schools near us that

063score higher than Pleasant Valley used for reading programs what do the other schools that score higher than pbus as an online school versus senica Valley what about the reading program how old or how new is the current program being used is there quotes from other programs what company are schools that outperform Pleasant Valley usion who recommended this reading program what was the data causing this switch did the board have a presentation on that why are we having to decide are we having to decide this tonight who are hmh readers are we requesting grants where is the money coming from stakeholders which are taxpayers me you probably everybody in this room are already facing 37% countywide tax increase a 3% and up to 5.5% in tax increases in the school year for 2526 and the state

064may have a 7% tax increase for pennsylvanians I work as a real estate broker in the state of Pennsylvania for almost 30 years I work with mostly seniors I literally have seniors calling me and begging me for help they feel that they are going to lose their homes because of the taxes and this is no joke the one lady's house I went into 91 her hands were blue do I put on the heat do I eat or do I thank you three minutes thank you Evelyn denovo just Hill Township um 14a building reports Pleasant Valley High School line 15 um who is paying for the 2025 cap and gowns uh 7c superintendent February enrollment uh Cyber Charter School enrollment for 2025 is 438 students an increase of 120 from 2024 uh why can't we bring

065back these students and what is the administration doing to get these students to return and why do we have middle and high school students working online thank you thank you um seeing no one else come to the podium we will move on in our agenda Mrs surface could I have the treasurer's report please yes tonight I'm seeking approval for item 4 B through e so MO I have a motion by Mr Burger and seconded by Mr kisy is there any discussion hearing of none all those in favor please signify by saying I I anyone oppose and that motion carries uh moving on to unfinished business Mr Fitzgerald there is no unfinished business this evening thank you is anyone else have any other unfinish business okay we will move on to new business um under Technical

066Institute Mrs surface no report this evening our next meeting is March 3rd okay thank you um Colonial IOU Mr Galler is not here this evening um I'm thinking he he doesn't have a report because normally it's attached if he does uh psba liaison Mrs zip nothing this week okay education report um the only thing I'd like to let everyone know um we have our comp comprehensive plan update it is mandated by the state that we do a new plan every three years so the new one is up on our um website for public preview um it will begin on I think it's there right Bernie it's there already right okay and then we're looking for board approval on March 27th it the plan covers from 2025 through 2028 uh moving on to finance Mrs surface

067yes it will be called for later on in the agenda okay thank you Mr o'keef athletic yes good evening uh here to to give a little athletic update uh congratulations to all those in the winter sports your season is ending but you had great uh Seasons some of us are still going uh which I want to first start off with a huge congratulations to Juliet trout for winning the southeast girls Regional wrestling title that happened to be at my Al moer in Quakertown so that was great to see that queue and that Panther on there when she was standing on it uh and now going to advance the states and that's in Hershey Pennsylvania so awesome job to her that is our girl's first season and look at that we have someone going to States

068already ready so awesome job uh jumping back into golf you know we're going into the golf season well for some people but congratulations to Len peser for winning the 20 20 2024 Lehi valy Junior golfer Tour player of the year award uh awesome to him and I know he is going on to play somewhere I believe out west I don't recall the school but uh congratulations them we look forward to seeing you uh on tour M PB CH is holding a spring craft fair this Sunday March 2nd in the new high school gym from 9:00 am. to 3 pm. there will be over 100 vendors basket Raffles concession stands and yes even free pictures with the Easter Bunny come out and shop with while supporting PB here and again that is this Sunday 9:00 a.m.

069to 3M and lastly uh spring Sports the official start date is March 3rd so early congratulations to everybody and we wish them a good luck and for all those seniors make it your best okay thank you uh policy report Mr s there are two policies on the board agenda tonight for first reading policy 209 and policy 85.2 and then one policy on and that's the policy 905 citizen advisory committee for second reading and approval thank you Capital Improvement plan Mr Herer uh our design team met today to discuss the high school renovation and related contracts plus the overall uh status of the other District impr Improvement plans uh this evening uh the board will be voting on three agreements that are required by chville Town Township to move forward with the high school renovation and

070they deal with the topics of storm water uh deed of C consolidation uh the uh the district had bought several par of property uh as part of the renovation they would want us to consolidate all of these part Parcels into a single deed so that's the deed of consolidation and then uh there's a general agreement as to how the development is going to be moving forward uh looking forward uh we have designed meetings scheduled for the 27th of March the 24th of April and the 22nd of May thank you thank you Mr berer uh Mr Clark isn't with us this evening for technology report uh Mr Walters anything under security no no information okay thank you moving on to superintendent reports Dr Conrad all right so tonight I'm seeking approval for item 7A item 7B

071and 7 C items 8A are ination second I have a I'm not sure motion by Mr berer okay and seconded by Mr Walters is there any discussion I'd like discuss a and see comments on them um hey policy I'm not quite sure I looked at I I don't know what was misplaced other than probable time and stuff like that I do I mean I read it but I hear different things such as it should be someplace for them to bring topics to us um I don't see where it says we don't allow that am I missing that that not allow I know it say we can also pick as a board but I I'm just asking we is it in there it says that they can bring stuff I think we discussed that too I

072think the idea of identifying topics was so we can have some body come there with specific knowledge of those topics additionally at any of these meetings from our understanding from when we discussed this any issue can be brought up to so so maybe we' have like like you have the community question maybe it would be a Google form you said up that we're getting ready to meet what are some of the topics that the that the community wants brought to that something like I don't I I just don't read it but I don't I I I think the general concept was the community at large would be submitting topics for consideration but for any specific meeting one topic would be discussed at a time so to to together with the community we would decide what

073that specific topic would be and and so therefore we could focus properly on that topic and try to bring one topic to solution rather than having multiple topics and we have a lot of discussion but zero progress on resolving what the topic is so the the idea was how do we manage this in a way that produces positive results I think there's also I me my understanding also part of it was that if we as a board has something coming up that's a major concern that we would s pick that top iic specifically for certain night so that we can get the community's you know thoughts on thate and I just want to make sure that's that's the way I I understood it um I I think it's a work in progress talk about that

074at the um oh my gosh at the at the working session the last meeting that we we didn't want what was Mr O said exactly he said this is going to be something ver one version one you said exactly yes we're not um we're not letting progress right like we want to move and start and then adjust as needed as as needed okay I mean my other question with that was the AR and I was hoping that uh Mr fer was gonna say something or I don't know if you I don't how that was going yeah I I and and the the AR is is is informational I I would actually recommend this evening that that to the extent the board wants to approve the policy they they they they can and should um I

075think the AR do is it just the first reading if it's the first reading we move forward when the first first reading I think the AR needs to be Revisited um you know if we're putting a a a guideline in place for the board in terms of guidance to the policy that's fine um I I I I do think the language that the citizens advisory committee will adhere to the following when I looked at at the AR most of it is what we the board supposed to do not really the committee so I I I I'd rather it be kind of a regulation for the board than that of the committee um and and and probably adhering to the spirit of of the policy itself kind of let the committee breathe a little bit you

076know they will get direction from the board but then let them kind of exist as their kind of Affiliated entity to to the board I mean I can see where Dr con maybe with staff MERS and students maybe that might be something that you know how he's adjusted how that comes in that that I I mean I'm not saying anything not telling just Sugg way um if we're done with that I could make com see that see I was looking at the enrollment thing there and I just need some clarification when I look at the enrollment it says here the number of students counted in Brick and mor with full-time schedules taking additional virtual credit towards graduation says six so when we received that email from you that that there was 222 students that were

077currently um taking seven periods a day uh they were taking classes where where is that on this how does that feel those two work so yeah good question yeah I do I do so um so specific to the en rollman report the number of students that are in brick and mortar that are actually like in classes uh that have seven periods and then these are students that want to take those additional classes that's what it captures um this number does not reflect students who have seven periods and I'm not aware of one student that has seven periods online in fact I'm looking at our our admin team just to be clear there's not one student that's brick and mortar that has seven periods of cyber learning that's in brick and mortar not Bears Academy okay

078um but for that answer uh there are the 220 students with those 18 courses now it's down to nine I believe um that have one of their elect classes uh and that's not counted in here because frankly the the remember this was something that started a few years ago in the second semester and it was a small number because we had a mid-year resignation um our retirement actually I believe it was in February or March um and so we were hoping that that number of individuals who leave in the middle of the year it's going to stay at a smaller number unfortunately we have seen an increase as have other districts with with comings and goings um but that's not reflective in here because the majority of learning that's taking place for uh 1,200 students

079at the high school actually all of it is um uh learned in in brick and mortar in in person with that certified teacher there is that um outlier currently where right now 2.9% of the total population of courses that high school students are taking are virtual and that's reflective of the 200 22 students that have one class that they no on consider regular well because yes for enrollment correct thank you and good point so for enrollment purposes this is just counting the number of students that are in physical brick and mortar it doesn't desegregate brick and mortar plus the one course yes thank you and one other things I saw just came from your emails Singleton Singleton class what is that so what I meant by Singleton was um there so so for example um

080we had students that were originally going to be into German 3 and German 4 okay um those students then had an opportunity to take a different elective that was offered there were some students that didn't want to do that and said I want to take uh Mandarin Chinese as you know we don't have Mandarin Chinese teacher because otherwise that would be $100,000 for salary and benefit for one particular student right so what we did is we offered that opportunity for stud students to select a course through um you know what's offered through a genuity so that way they could take that course so there were a number of students that chose to take um and Mr Bo and I'm not sure if you uh know any of those other Singleton courses but they were kind

081of those unique one-off courses that we currently don't offer in pleas day so we don't offer it here so how how does that fit into our curriculum or how does that been intellect that's something we're supposed to be approved somewhere along the way the board approved that they you think these classes in C I think these are from the Bears academ studies the are looking at the our our actual bear it's so you have those listed in your curriculum that listed so if we had example for German 3 we don't well I know German what we had but I just he just said like if it's Chinese or Latin or whatever other language that we don't have here Mandarin Mand I just wonder something that I guess I don't I see how we do the

082curriculum you know the studies and stuff programs of study and where does that fit into US approving it I I I guess that's what like if we don't say we want that the count as an elective credit I mean isn't there somewh that we should say Su sorry um have in our agreement with uh sen Valley their their programs are we accept that but there so we we as a board through the contract these are the offer that's yeah yeah that's good thank you app y um studies yeah so but that's through the agreement with valy yes something where it's noted separately it's something the engine yeah I want like some kids just saying okay well I found this online I'm going to take this class and it's going to count towards an elective t

083that's not no thank you that doesn't much and speaking with Mr Galler when he said he wasn't going to be here this evening he wanted me to to relay a thank you to Chief um or uh Miller Miller right yeah oh my gosh like okay to do with uh policy 80 excuse me 85.2 um he was very he wanted to again thank him for um having the first reading he did a good job with that he wanted me to relay that all right so any other discussion all those in favor please signify by saying I I anyone opposed and that motion carries moving on to Human Resources Mrs pmer evening tonight I'm seeking approval of items 9B through 9 G items 9 H through 9 K information so move second I have a motion by

084Mr O I'm not on I have a motion by Mr o'keef Right and seconded by Mr Walters is there any discussion yes um I read thatou and I know that something wasn't followed and there was a grievance and then it led to the possibility of arbitration I understand that but when we're signing this mou it's stating in there that basically we agreed to follow the contract as was already stated so it wasn't like I mean my understanding is that we didn't follow we we the district didn't follow the CBA because in their states we because we didn't we now have to follow we have to follow we have to follow it and because we didn't we're now going to instead of pay these people for back time we're giving the teachers a 2hour early dismissal

085on May 27th was May 27th ever an early dismissal for the students before for the past two years uh it has been but it has not been for staff and then further uh there was a financial uh compensation that goes along with this as well um for back pay so the back pay I I just want to be clear with theou there's there's no admission of guilt on on either side and in fact I would I would say on behalf of of the administration on this one um no I think the contract was followed to a this was a decision to mutually agree on a resolution to a long-standing matter that in fact you know frankly the the the board and administration had offered this resolution about a year a year ago um but to

086suggest that there was not following the contract I would just disagree with that that categorization I I don't see that as being the case here but the 27th it was this year right now was supposed to be a normal regular day for students and staff but we're now going to dismiss the students early and the staff in order to fulfill this m thank you anyone else all those in favor please signify by saying I I anyone oppos and that motion carries okay tonight I'm seeking approval of items 10 B through 10 e item 10 f is information so move second motion by Mrs Zip seconded by Mr gazis is there any discussion I'm sorry John I didn't is this the oneing just are try to bring staff to help with our students like that anyone

087else all those in favor please signify by saying I anyone oppose and that motion carries there's the lag moving on Tock Dr Howard yes tonight I seeking approval of item 11a and I just want to reiterate item 12 a has been so moved second motion by Mrs Zip seconded by Mr Walters is there any discussion okay I just question on textbook only because I walk arounds it said 50 books in when I was going by jcm on the outside it wasn't inside I was outside I saw all this fitness equipment there but then I saw like 10 pallets of books yeah that's that's not what we're tonight but I'm but is that going yes um I will say this we have U been going in every plan of the high school into preparation for the

088renovation and we have found tax BS Dat Back to like 1950 well I know I had one from my7 [Laughter] and I I will say that um you know up maybe 10 years ago you can sell tax folks nobody wants to buy them because everything's moving to online but these ones at the middle school they're just outdated and so we just this is the process we have to go thank you and yeah just as an add on we had a discussion about that at the uh our the design meeting and uh there'll be a forthcoming uh um proposal to dispose of those uh numerous pallets of of books which are no longer useful but you can expect that shortly and I will say there's a number of yearbooks and the high school administration has been

089like for a very very nominal price selling them and I was at a basketball game yeah they're selling all the events moving forward just to uh make some money for the club but also in case somebody came in they graduated in 1999 they grate books possibly future sell s that too when I was there they made a very good am of and just to go on with what Mr burer said about the pallets that will come forward to do with textbooks they're not going to list each textbook okay it's going to be like a blanket one just so you when you see it because it would just be go on and on and on so just wanted to let you know that all right anyone else all those in favor please signify by saying I

090anyone oppose and that motion carries moving on to operations Mr Smith good evening M speaking approval of item 13 a a motion by Mr o' that and seconded by Mr gazis is there any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying hi hi anyone the motion carries okay moving on to uh building reports um obviously if you take an opportunity see the great things are happening to the buildings uh something that we want to highlight and I appreciate our Administration this evening talking about some of the uh the bright spots that are happening in their buildings that are impacting positively our students and staff so thank you keep up the great work can I add something about I oh go ahead iead you might ask what I'm ask I'm not really well I was

091gonna ask one question and just say something I just wondered how the after school tutoring numbers are PVE I had four tutors uh 24 kids that we Flex in and out as needed um so are they getting snacks yes and water yes can I ask like why are we stopping on the 20th I saw a year before you start from the 20th then I saw in PDI that you're collecting data as to whether to go PA is that what we're actually both doing we're both doing that we're both we're both moving on we just that's another Flex spot for the schools so um for tutos we like hey have a with more need let's Flex this one out this one some of the kids and the parents sometimes want to flex them out for sports

092and things like that so it's just it's kind of she heard um we actually had a couple students who who moved or through various different reasons we actually ended up a couple empty spots so we wanted to we wanted a a set point where we're going to add more students in um collectively so that's what we're doing um we also have a couple of Staff members who do other activities for the district so with spring coming and spring Sports they're not able to so we're going to adjust the numbers and the groups based on their the teacher availability as well so each group only has so many students in that's that so if you get over and you don't have enough help to you like that can you help us out and uh cover that

093group like let's say if your group said you go around yeah actually at PBI all of the tutors are they're actually work they're all co- teing together so they're kind of running like stations and they're all sharing the students so if the staff member is absent um they don't rely on the sub they all have each other that they can lean on we've kept the numbers in a reasonable amount that they're able to do that without too much stress or burden still getting lot from it um Mr Rodriguez you here um I noticed that um like I noticed that at the middle school a lot of your administrators I see at different games and stuff like that and I was impressed that you come over to the high school and I was unaware why you

094would be at the high school and then you inform me that when you watch the junior high some of your eighth graders play I like we had three eighth graders that played up so I mean it was nice because I see those kids come over and fist bumping stuff like that and see pration I appreciate that that that's really different um and uh I have sort of general question about the monthly video because I try to watch it but when I went to each school and I pushed a monthly video the only face that comes up is Mr papell Elementary Mr Pap I'm like okay now I go to PBI P sh Mr Pap Mr ad Adams that I put it Middle School Mr Papa on his like okay I'm not even going to go

095to cyber because he's probably wearing but I didn't know if that was something that we we went away from or is that something that I mean I know it's you're doing it all time I was just wondering I said the video to Chuck and check what's it on we're moving though the monthly video the team we meet um every two weeks and we are moving quarterly video just so um I just sent an email out my believe at the beginning of this last as of last week that the third quarter video is due March 7th I don't know next week yeah and then they going do another one at the beginning and I like the idea that our high school is pulling up that program studies and making adjustments that's that's nice we're doing that

096prior to approving and then after approve it again and again thank you very much thank you you're welcome um again I read all the building reports I not going to highlight everything because they were phenomenal reports I thought this month but one thing I have to do is give a shout out to miss Hinton over at the middle school with um or life skills class I had the opportunity I just happened to be in in the building looking at Middle School furniture and it was the Super Bowl um lunch thing and oh my gosh those kids are just wonderful and the soup and the grilled cheese and it was just phenomenal so Kudo yeah chil but kudos to her her I had a I had a student say well good old Dr Howard student wanted

097to know if the Eagles won if they wouldn't have school on Monday and she said go talk to that lady over there she she has the power to do that so they were just it was precious it was great they all so well together is an awesome awesome room and the and the new furniture in that room is wonderful too all the bright colors that was really cool I really like that so thank you all all right go ahead all right so uh moving on to business management Mrs SM tonight I am requesting appr it 15 15 J it 15 so move so move second okay I have a motion by Mrs surface and second In by Mr Walters is there any discussion 15 C and 15 G 15 see um that's a Gemini Conta

098I know Mr Clark is here I was hoping what would be he brought up before about how many licenses we actually are going to get I think Mr might with that with only a certain amount and I know you sent us a number you said a certain percentage of those which came out like 103 teachers said that they would possibly use it um is we're looking at 160 licenses could you I me understand something Administration but could you go a little bit more to why we're so high with that sure so when we actually ran so so everyone can understand we at the end of the professional development sessions that we ran for AI uh we give our teachers an opportunity to use the tool experience the tool see the tool at the end of

099that presentation we actually push a survey to all the present faculty members um who would be willing to who wanted access to this as a as a resource um outstandingly we had 91% of the teachers that were present in those professional development sessions say yes they would like access to the tool they want support to support it um 9% said no uh in going back through I did see that there was a few teachers who they didn't quite read the survey correctly um so I'm not sure how many of the yes and those got confused but some of the previous questions of survey got confused um that was just the teachers that weren't present so again 115 that's not the entire staff and faculty of middle and high school that was just who came to

100those PE sessions they were able to take survey we only left it open for that that brief time I didn't want people who weren't part of that professional development answering it um because I want to make sure that they'd experienced it uh the the number we gave out right now is 160 licenses we did actually change some things to reduce the cost um out of those 160 licenses the current plan is to actually again ask our teachers who is willing to use this who would like to use this who is going to use this they would receive a license um the building administrators would also receive a license key people as far as central office would also receive a license the 160 licenses are not going to be stagnant if we have licenses left over

101we're going to continue pushing them out to people who are going at be using them appropriately to make sure that we're we're we're utilizing them and for each one to I again I didn't actually I mean I have it somewhere I don't they're concurrent they're concurrent so what it is when we when we pay for the licenses we are not a sign we don't pay and say with this purchase this license now belongs to this person that's not it we as a district have 16 people that we can turn on we can also turn off and reassign so it's it's a reusable license in the sense of we are paying for again if it's accepted 160 site licenses I guess you can say that we could assign to other people in this oration and the

102main reason for having this program is share that again sure the main reason for having this is as is honestly I'm going to say efficiency and effectiveness of Education um we see it as a tool that can decrease the amount of time that teachers are having to spend on on certain tasks um dramatically same thing it's going to decrease the time for certain tasks for building Administration it's also going to help teachers um be more creative it'll help teachers be more engaging um it's going to help us align with standards if it's used appropriately uh when we're talking about how can it help you it can help in an abundance of ways um what's really important to note and I know I said this every single presentation I'll say it again here this is not

103to replace an individual this is in no way going to remove the need for personel what it will do is hopefully make it so you know our hardworking educators are going to be able to work more efficiently so they can spend more time on what's really important and less time on doing things like writing a rubric from start to finish right this is something now can be taken care of um finding better ways to connect with students you know so again there's there's a lot of different reasons if you're interested in that I highly recommend you go back to one of the three presentations I've done at the board please go back take a look at those videos but that that's purose and this is coming being paid at a grant is that you're saying

104Grant I guess me I originally was going to say no F I'm going to try to put the trust and you that if this gets used that you come back with the data that our that our staff is using this because I know grant money people say oh it's just grant money well to me grant money can be spent in a lot of different ways and and I don't want to just say oh just because we got let's throw this program in here no I want something that's going to be used and you know so if there's some kind of evaluation on or something like that so we know that it's I mean even an update like maybe when school starts how many people are really interest what they're using for and stuff like that

105you can track the data by user yes so so the administrative accounts we're going to actually be able to go back through it again it's always kind of big brish and I hate even saying this but we can track how many hits individual users are using right that's the administrative dashboard in no way meant to be I got you I caught you anything else but just like you said you know if we try this for a year and we see as a district that's not being utilized effectively or effici scor of the games and stuff like that no yeah exactly but in this case if it's something that we as a district say you know what this isn't this isn't really doing what we wanted to do it's not we don't REM it right I

106mean I do think that where we are is a turning point it is a pivot point in education and and Society in general I think it's not a bad thing plus always kind of on The Cutting Edge on this one and say no let's actually utilize let's see what it can do and then again this is a onee contract if we say we don't want to get then we don't do it again you know um but it could we see beingz we might come back and say hey you know what maybe we need to get PP teachers LIC like yeah go ahead I know you have one more on G right stay sorry I'm sorry so when I said a sample size a sample a subset of how many teachers do we have at middle

107school and high school we don't have to guess it's about 160 80 and that's not that's not a sampling size like now everyone is going to have access to it and we said let's focus on a small subgroup let's see if it's utilized by 40 and now we have 160 someone's not listening I will tell you I had the opportunity to see the Middle School presentation and I would say that the excitement in the room I thought Mr vano said a great job but when was the time to have teachers look at their current curriculum and what they're teaching the next week and start making some connections to maybe sports or the elements in the periodic table I mean light bulbs were going off so much so that there was a lot of chatter through

108that point and I think what people are starting to understand now is that this is a great tool that can help uh as as Mr van Bo said that we can streamline some processes um you know we are in my opinion being very uh conservative with not only the amount of grand dollars that we're looking to spend here uh but at the same time you know the feedback with uh overwhelmingly from the middle school and high school that the teachers want to utilize this and I think you know Mr van wor makes a great Point too if we're finding that um you know it's not in our best interest to continue something we're not going to do it I think what we always have to do is give ourselves an opportunity um because it's like

109you don't know what you don't know so until they actually are have the opport opportunity to use it they had one day maybe an hour or so to really play around with it they're going to need some more time to see how this um what they're teaching aligns to this PA standard and then um you know if I'm having struggling students what are some remediation opportunities that I can help to support my students and I think that once they start utilizing that uh Mr AEF I think they'll they'll see uh how much this can enhance it so I I do understand your point but I also think that if they don't have the opportunity to experience it uh this could be something that um again they're they're behind yall so okay so with Mr said

110about basically a pilot of number of people and you said that a lot of people didn't get to look at it and you said a lot of people didn't have a chance to make comments is this something that you can do in a come upcoming um development to push those people see like I said I see we don't want to see people you get 6 and you're you got 100 being used and the other 60 I mean they're 180 Pop I just that the sit around well could I go ahead I we have people that are concerned about you know their taxes going $3 you know first of the month but then you at $180 per 10 or extra extra go ahead I'm sorry I'm sorry I just want to click maybe get clarification on

111the numbers you Shar this with 116 we had 115 people fill out the survey so 115 people got in there got to play with it out of a total number of well high school has what 100 and middle school has so 20060 is pretty much align with the number of teachers yeah that that that's about so 115 people tried it that's about half of both of those about and 90% of those people said that they would use it 103 but but 103 right but then admin yeah yeah so I guess what I I guess what I'm saying is if if if 50% is representative of the whole group 160 would be used I think easy my question is all right so we're getting 160 licenses so let's say a 100 teachers we you we have

112100 20 people that are going to use it the 40 that are left what are you going to do the point we go through the organization identify other people that Administration the office we've the administration's tried it okay we did a free version so we could make sure that the 160 is being used I guess is what I'm I think that's their major concern I 20 would have been sufficient and then next year we come back and say look how great it was here's how we could have used this to excel what our teachers are doing for our students like if we give this to everybody but we didn't have the opportunity if I could and I understand that wholeheartedly um had I had 50% of the teachers in the survey say that they would

113use it I'd be much more inclined to be like okay let's scale this back let's see what's going on when I had 91% say they want it it's going to be real hard for me to pick which 20 are going to be part of the pilot group without causing other disappointment life's full of disappointments though right I mean and this is this is AI do I have a go do or not I'm sorry we're adults you know this is this you can go te somewhere else but we should have started small and then grew it down the road I'm all for it don't get me wrong if it works great we have these analytics that it comes back and people are using it awesome but it goes back to what I requested was do a

114small sampling size and then we take it up from there we don't just jump in the deep end if you can't swim it's it's it I don't know the next topic to remember just people are not listening if if it if it doesn't work um you guys know who to have a conversation with so I mean I think we have for a year we we'll have a year to see how this is going to benefit our staff and I think you know having the data and then may um an opportunity for some staff to be able to present uh you know their thoughts and findings on it I do believe that 160 licenses will be utilized and and again if there's other opportunities across the district I'm looking at different curric that we're looking to

115implement I I think that we'll have the opportunity for staff to utilize this so Mr you I know you're saying roughly 40 I saying 160 John is there a question here yeah okay get to it please we need to move on I would you would you be more apt for let's say 125 since he already has 103 that are interested I mean there there's really no difference at that point in time right I'm going I will say yes yes but I want to see analytics analytics analytics of how it's being used and then prove me wrong right I'm okay my words I'm I agree with you okay we'll definitely get that information that because it's important for us too we want to make sure it's being utiliz so good point John you had another I

116understand the $100,000 situation my issues my issue is only that if it happens tomorrow that we have to wait before we as Bo up he just said a quick email bur at the high school uh we need to you know spend uh $15,000 to fix it I will shoot you all an email we'll get that from like six different people only because sometimes the community finds out first and they're say what about this absolutely yeah we'll make sure that the board uh gets that information and actually I'll be frank um at mcti when when there's been a few change orders Dr ver has done a great job um which I I would like to emulate just that the situation comes through the next boarding board meeting is is on xate uh here's an update uh

117I just wanted to let you know that we're going to go ahead and move forward so you will absolutely be in the know when these happen um but it's also going to be vetted through the general contractor subcontractors uh the business office myself so this is not a James signs off on $100,000 this is a 15 people have gone through a process and again it's just to ensure that um uh you know we're staying on track with our project that's all yeah the um the important factor here that we taking into consideration is is that uh we've got a complex of which is more than 60 years old there are a lot of things that are underground that we don't know about and if we run into a situation where we have to stop the

118contract tractor that's the delay of his work that means we're going to end up with a change order to our contract which is going to drive the price of renovation of the high school so therefore it is extremely important on a very tight difficult uh renovation schedule with great deal of complexity that we're trying to achieve here and and and we have to take consideration also how that affects the teachers and and the students and the availability of resources to be able to do the things we need to educate the children that means we need to have extremely timely decisions so if it's gone through the review process by the engineer by our uh our building uh individuals Randy uh and his staff and our business department what we're doing is authorizing up to a

119certain amount we're not anticipating that it'll ever get to that amount but we don't know what they're going to find but I can tell you that uh those of us who were were involved with MRA CR Career and Technical Institute we went into a problem there if we have to and where they ran into um a Hard Rock Red Rock that needed to be D dyami in order to put up a wall it was not included in anything in the contract and and it was going to be a delay which would have cost us money fortunately enough we had the common sense to allow them to make a decision to continue moving forward so this is a prudent thing to do it's going to be managed we'll be watching it carefully anyone else all yes

120I'd like to also make a comment on that uh when we put together the budget we also put some contingency money in for these kind of things so it's not like we will be going above the budget very true anyone else all those in favor please signify by saying I I I anyone oppos and that motion carries I'm also requesting approval of item 16 16 I I just want to mention that's item 162 there will be say that again Tammy I'm really sorry it 16 it's noted but that's going to be paid oh right Grant dollars correct yes yes can I have a motion please so moved second a second motion by Mr Walters seconded by Mr Burger is there any discussion yes 16 B1 one 16 B1 I would like I'm requesting to table

121this and the reasons are is I think there might be some some better options out there um my daughter had 3 weeks unfortunately it was abysmal of what she had to go through uh the incompetency of the teacher that we were interacting with was horrific and if that's one small slice of what we're our kids are getting we're failing them so I would like to see what is better out there what makes senica so great that we keep going back in five years I don't know I don't have that answer but what are other schools using um right so there was a motion to T to table to table it we need a second before we discuss okay and now there's a straight vote there's no more discussion you have to vote on the table

122there's you can't you you can't discuss a procedure you cannot discuss sure I'm sure about that okay so we have a motion on the floor to table item 16 B1 which is the sen Sena Valley School District um contract so move no no we already have the motion in a second it's going to be a vote on the table okay all in favor to table all can am I not allow not allow to ask any questions I know that's where I'm at too after comment period are we allowed to again ask for a motion to Table after the comment period on the vote you have to you can vote you mean if it voted after conversation if it's fa if it fails then you go back to the the motion on the table and then

123you can have discussion about the actual substance of motion right after that after the discussions of substance can we then motion to table I do not believe you can I that that I've never had that question asked before the second table I think if it's failed once you can't you can't seek the table again this in this meeting correct I believe that's correct I think only you can motion correct [Music] sorry you needy music so this says here take from the table resumes considering a motion that was laid on the table you cannot interrupt the speaker you can a second is needed it's not debatable it is not amendable and you need a majority vote so from here from what I'm my wonderful complete idiots guide to Robert's rules that I carry with me it

124says to take from the table which is what we're doing so I'm thinking we can do it right I don't think I've ever seen a board T try attempt table a second time um I don't know that I ever have either but I'm not so sure but but as we think about it I'm not so sure legislatively that it would be prohibited ultimately if the board decides after debate it just doesn't want to address it it would just table it or or it vote It ultimately vote it down so at least for this this motion right now to to table it this this it's not there's no debate on it and it sounds like it failed at least from what I heard there was there um so now we're back to the regular motion motion

125which includes so you can you can talk about it now okay that's what I thought yes that that that much is true okay no there was a there was a voice there was a voice vot there was a Voice vote there was all right let's let's try to get control okay please I am I gonna ask I'm gonna ask the community to please let us conduct no no no let us conduct our business okay um Dr Howard you can answer when they asked who else I believe and E straber use um uity as well I can say this when we um look to move to uity I'm just answering some of the questions you when I first arrived at Pleasant Valley we were using um that was really um bad nothing can ever replace brick

126and I'll tell you that um we looked at many programs and uity was by far the best I I feel bad for the experience that your daughter had it's not just mine it's yeah I can tell you that my own children have used aity and had a great experience taking AP exams and getting like five so I think it's with anything the teachers that you get but that's what we can take take back and make it better and with uity we have started at the elementary with bringing more of our teachers on to be in charge of it and as we move we've already started talking about not for next year but maybe the following some of our Middle School teachers so this is a program we're trying to make our own and that is

127what hogo mountain and um eburg have done which makes it so much better I'm not opposed if you us to go the of the board we would definitely do that but that would put us all the way back at at square one where we have to rely completely on a different platform so I'm ask go back to Spirit one but yeah five years is a long time and I I want to actually address that because I think that was a question posed earlier and I think it's important to to clarify it's a five-year rate lock this agreement um it's essentially a series of five oneyear agreements right um so for instance if say over the course of the next six months the administration who who theoretically could be charged from the by the board to

128look for other options finds other options by April 1st of 2026 they would notify uh and genuity S Cav Val that we are no longer continued so we're not committing to five years we could be Comm just a one more year and and maybe that's the the time for them to really look to explore and we actually did that when we brought our teachers on at P five we had to go to S Valley by that date and say we're changing some of our contract we want our teachers to do that so we we have done that already so is there a plan to make our PB cyber program truly a PB cyber program I I understand the high school bit wordss we're not going down that road but yes what's that look like what's

129the time of that it would be another year out before we Jason have already started talking about the middle school we could we think we could do the Middle School um there are some things that we've learned from the other districts like maybe don't do it this you know do you do it as part of the school day do you do it as a statement after the school day there's a lot of things for us to consider and Jason has been collecting that information from us um so yes we're already talking about that because I I I I think it's a great job we're doing inhouse that's what it should be as in housee and that's what I want to see and aren we already doing some of that at the elementary level we are

130correct and and I think if I remember some of our prior discussions We are continuing looking at growing that aspect particularly from the elementary and intermediate it becomes somewhat more difficult when we get up to middle and high we do think it's something we could do at the mid yeah and that's where that's where Jason's been Gathering that information from the other District of what's worked what hasn't worked or some things like avoid this don't do this you I mean that's Mr O me when I was back here in 2020 we were pushing for it for ours and that's five years ago and like when I saw this five years just like like okay no we we need to start bringing our backy in this and I I guess I want more of a Define

131because I could have sworn we were told that last year that we were a year out for doing middle school now we're a year out again so I would like almost a definite time FR says okay we we're done collecting our data by September of this coming year we're gonna this is this is what so just uh to add to this right to add to this conversation so if you take a look at the uh enrollment report and you take a look at the Bears Academy um so when you're taking a look at 7th 8th and 9th so that's 14 and 16 16 so that's 30 + 29 59 students are currently in our Middle School Bears Academy okay so in order to educate 59 students we would need a teacher that has different certifications

132now the certification band for middle school students usually covers a few different grade levels but what that would mean and I just want to put some things in perspective is that um if you were to take just Ela and math you're talking about a $200,000 investment to uh educate 59 students and that's only for one or technically two if you're Ela and math of their seven periods so what that means is that we would need to hire enough teachers and preferably teachers that have multiple certifications to be a full-time cyber teacher to cover those courses and just to kind of put in perspective that's that's where we're at right now is that you know do we have an interest for teachers that are currently pvm teachers who would want to completely change schedule from full-time

133brick and mortar to full-time cyber but then also to make sure that we're educating those 59 students the reason we've gone with Edgenuity as a program through senica Valley is because the cost differential in most cases and in most school districts with 59 students it doesn't make sense to have seven teachers at a cost of H 100,000 that's $700,000 to educate 59 students and that's why why many schools that are in the secondary Middle School and High School do not utilize this because there's not many high schools other than you know some of your cyber Charters that again don't follow the rules um that that which frankly I don't even know if they would show the certification for those things I mean if you there was an audit done so that all that being said

134that's kind of where we're at with this process is that right now we're not trying to Kick the Can we're trying to investigate from our research from other school districts in order to build that true K to8 platform how many teachers do we need how many students are we servicing and what's the cost so that's kind of where we're at right now so we just need a little bit of time to continue to process that um and I think you know with with contract negotiations with the teachers that's something that we're we're trying to you know look at it from all different angles I do hope having a conversation you know in this room a year from now will be in a much better spot to provide you an answer of this is the way

135we're moving towards but I think right now we have to be very mindful of a a student having seven or eight periods in the middle school had needing seven or eight teachers and then the cost for each of those teachers those are all things that we're just trying to factor in certific certification is really what it comes down to and and frankly I haven't come across one Middle School teacher that has an Ela and math certification um it's a very it's a rarity it it does happen but again a lot of school districts are probably trying to get those individuals to have more um latitude with schedu without going into any detail yeah is the is there opportunity to have some hybrid version where a teacher teaches there uh so so yes teachers let's answer

136one question at a time so Ryan to answer your question there is um the problem is frankly that um this is starting to become a un a union issue with psea and what I mean by that is there's there's discussions right now let's just call transparency um where some unions are uh having Grievances and and arbitration on well if one of my sections I get paid an extra $2,000 to teach um online well then how is the school desegregating who gets that money and who doesn't and that's where the problem is starting to come and frankly I would not want to explore that option and in conversation we've had right correct so so I'm looking for if we're going down the path of um our teachers and TV teaching online courses that their full schedule

137similar to what we do um in K to five is their full schedule as a um certified PB teacher is all cyber all day long so that does that help answer your question it does so I think like I said there there's just there's challenges because a lot of this is still new and and really you know kind of reverberates from the 2020 where uh you know we're all trying to figure out what to do and then what has broken down is that some people have greatly benefited from their salary and benefit or salary I'll say for um teaching staff and then some have it and then so there's that grievance of well you have to make everyone whole so now these people didn't do it but you paid them 6,000 you have to pay

138everyone 6,000 so that's kind of where that we're at I say this I I come from a district that did we did take it over and our own and it sounds very easy but it has a lowed all harder about four years to get our middle school and high school over but we also had a whole we had a facility called George stream of republic for judic Youth and the enrollment fell there so we had that school of teachers to use um my teachers when I was a principal did do the hybrid we tried it and after a year that they said please don't make it do it's it's too much um so I think we need to talk to our teachers too see what their feelings are um how they feel about it but

139yes we did talk about it a year ago you're exactly right but um when we're dealing with lots of things other than I understand I mean maybe but I thought some on the way was brought up they Well Valley doing after school our te you have to remember the valy is probably one of the largest districts in Western Pennsylvania I don't even know know you have a hard time getting teachers out there they but if we don't have somebody all of the subjects like let's say we said okay we have English teachers that say yeah I'll do that I'd like to do that if I can't do it for all the subjects then I'm I'm paying to so we have to make sure we because there's a lot of the sound of it sounds so

140easy just a quick calculation a lot it's a lot of yeah so so I mean I I think and I just want tolight the board that you know if if the goal is to utilize our teachers at a cost savings so that way we're not spending money at senica Valley and I just want to put this out there if we have seven um se you know seven teachers that need to te educate 59 students that comes at a cost with their salary and benefits let's say being $100,000 $700,000 for them with 59 students and this is to assume that none of them are special needs meaning that the state will provide us about 125 or so uh for each student that comes at a a rate of we would get a return of $737,000 what

141that basically means is that um you would be uh essentially netting $37,000 and that's if everything were to line up perfectly like a Rubik's Cube it doesn't work that way and so you can expect that if you were to go down that path you're you're basically paying salaries of $8 to $900,000 and getting only reimbursables from uh per student um for about $750,000 so you're actually going to lose money and then also not necessarily have a great educational uh opportunity so so again I I I think this is a really good discussion I genuinely do and I want to make sure that we have great opportunities for our PV teachers but it's it the work to do this is a lot more comprehensive than it seems on paper um you can't just and that's why

142it's easier at the elementary school because that teacher has all of the different um areas that they could teach for per their certification they are a k to6 certification so it's not a math specialty it's math Ela social studies science and that's the problem as Mrs Fulmer said it is a certification issue and challenge so so come back yeah I just have a question though um which kind of got us to where we are I think um is the fact that one of the classes or maybe more than one of the classes that sen Valley was helping us with uh the teacher was not good I guess so what in our contract do we have that we can say can you replace this teacher or do we have anything sen Val has been very good

143with us with that um and and while I I mean to be honest I'm not sure it's in the contract I call up you know the principal over second Valley I give them the feedback of hey this isn't working this person and and I've had teachers that were removed from courses I've had teachers that were repos from courses and I had teachers that became responsive all of a sudden so I mean like the the the feedback between C Valley and Pleasant Valley is a good relationship as far as that's concerned okay if we need to adjust curriculum it's the same thing it's never an issue so so that's there okay that's there so then my next question is once um a class is being done um do how do we how do do we have

144anybody evaluate that or go to the students and say you know how do we know it's not going well other than maybe parents complaining or whatever do we have a daily email that your child ising what do we have or what can we do to to ensure that you know that class is being run properly I mean that's something else start yeah I mean you know have just just so every goes aware we do actually have an open uh Forum what that means is we actually have a Google Calendar link for our school calendar or our school counselor um at any point in time a family that single Friday week newslet it's also beginning of the year um our counselor does actually make contact with each individual student multiple times throughout the year to make

145sure that things are going well so there are opportunities for them to provide that feedback um as far as specific to that to ask them Del like going you know that's something we can look but we also do have a teacher in the room so that's something that maybe if we could have the teacher the kids how they going in there not for yeah for the war yeah okay uh question what kind of feedback do you get from senica on issues related to teachers student progress and that kind of stuff what kind of updates do you get and when do you get them I get them all the time um we get a full list of all of our students quarterly Midway three quarters away and at the end of the quarter we get a

146full spreadsheet um I also what about between quarters do you get any alerts on students that are having issue yeah absolutely as a matter of fact the teachers will even s email be like hey such and such student hasn't started like the teachers there are live teachers that are inre it's not it's not while it's an asynchronous program it doesn't mean that there's not a live person behind but is that is that feedback coming relative to the kids in the high school taking online classes or only applicable to cyber school right because the concern seems to be more the online and the high school theck and mortar C right so are you getting feedback from the students in those single courses we are having teachers in those rooms I would answer that by saying um

147we're not getting enough to be frank uh I think what we need to do as a team to um at the at the quarter marks uh or even on a monthly basis just send out a quick Google form for those teachers I mean I think the other thing too is the teachers that are in those classes in the high school we also need to maybe see if we can pull them for a little bit to get some feedback about what does the experience look like um what what I've what I've heard is that um there are of course some students that you know just come in and then they're doing their work and don't want to be bothered I'm sure that there are some students that are struggling with some of the content area um

148so certainly I think we need to do a better job with it is is certainly what I'm what I'm hearing and I'm certainly more open to um getting that feedback and then obviously you know we have a good obviously a great relationship with senica Valley and you know just for context too senica Valley I'm trying to do the research right now but at one point I know for a fact they had 37 schools across the state of Pennsylvania that were utilizing their um teachers and resources and then their online platform um and and what it was when it started which was right around um you know a little bit before the pandemic was um schools that were then reaching out that's when I had actually started to reach out um back in 2019 to senica

149Valley because we saw that some things were a little bit un known at that time and we were seeing that students were interested in moving towards online just because of health related reasons um so senica Valley I think you know just for context really Rose to the top of um a a school district a public Public School District that partners with a platform that they're then helping to provide those opportunities to other school districts and mitigating some of their costs by charging other districts and that's kind of where we're at with uh senica Valley and and again I think we can all attest or at least look back at the news articles when we did have DN here and and from all accounts I I heard it was horrible um there's always opportunity to see

150if there's other programs that are out there and I think that that's something our team could certainly do but I did uh rest assured we did see as Mr Fitzgerald had mentioned that 90day and I know for a fact we've communicated senica Valley when we transitioned to have our PV teachers in the elementary that we said okay we're going to stop utilizing your services in senica Valley but they've always been a phone call away and and again I think we need to get the feedback from the students then we need to have the conversation with senica Valley and continue to make sure that at least when we're trying in a pinch to educate our students they're getting some high quality education so so we'll keep that on our radar about Pennsylvania State scoring do we

151we do the scoring separate so we know what kids are we can deseg right we can desegregate the data so when you're talking about um student Setter in Bears Academy um we can desegregate it so far down to say if they're taking the foundations courses meeting they we brought this up before that sometimes the classes they're doing great class to the test bricking water doing sure and I was wondering if if we have a comparison for the same think we have this for for our online yeah we do all right any other discussion on that specific topic no no I think we we we I think we did no any topic Hunter 16 B2 okay okay uh we were first brought to this on um January 9th at a working session same night that and

152Penn State wasl it was a very long meeting at the hour mark of four hours and 12 minutes I requested for teachers to be at the podium to have a discussion with us as the board between the two options that they were provided and their feedback here we are 27th of February I have not heard one personal feedback from a teacher we did receive a I'll call it a survey yeah feedback survey feedback survey of 43 respondents of the elementary system and four for six through 10 I believe it was not good to feedback um I have quite a few comments I'm not really thr about either one of these programs because I know that te there are better programs out there for K through three that will meet their needs however I do not

153want to teach unit to study again next year wonders doesn't provide explicit instruction and practicing essential decoding skills which can lead to difficulties for students struggling in reading fluency the PD is putting out a list of their best choices for reading in June why are we picking one now the schools will be using both programs will not be visited excuse me were V were not visited following the program but supplementing it with other materials both programs are lacking in some and many areas these programs do not seem to be aligned with the science of reading uh this is my input and on the limited time we had to view the resources but I do not think in into reading is much more valuable I could go on and on it's getting late but I think

154we see what I'm done to get to these teachers were not engaged in picking the the subset of what they wanted to narrow in on it seems like um and then the the short time that they had to provide feedback on what they had I got a wonderful email last night um stating during the February 13th working session you stated that you would like to see teachers at the podium the date was wrong but that's okay I appreciate the request as I imagine that you are seeking verification that we truly support our one program over the other I eagerly awaited for our admin team to send an invite but it never came later learned that only the Review Committee was contacted on February 25th at 1:32 p.m. two days ago if I were able to

155attend the Schoolboard meeting this is what I would have to say the overall program is the two options presented are are we asking if you like Burger King or McDonald's I don't like either but sure you'll eat but at the end of the day is it really the best option the healthiest choice for every day why not consider Jersey mics or even Panera Bread well the answer is that they considered the lack of transparency of the time when the two programs were presented to attend the board the board troubling but here we are with only two options McDonald's and Burger King if you can give people these two options of course you have to choose one make no mistake that is that this does not mean to translate into fully supporting one option over the

156other it simply means that with limited options they may all agree that one place has the better priz versus the other this was at 10:30 last night I responded back to this person and I asked if I could use these these verbes from them and they had no problems with me doing it I am going to vote no on this because we need to do better finding something better for our kids and our teachers I'm I'm don't think this is a win for the union that I'm supporting this or not supporting it but we need to find something better that's going to be good for our teachers and ultimately the best option for our students I I agree with Mr because as people know I have a tendency to research Beyond research and I called

157a number of school districts and talk to reading specialists in schools that were 30 points ahead of their pssas than us and one of the programs they talk about using most was wit and wisdom and when I went through the um process that Dr comrad had us it said that our administrators didn't think that program was what I want to elaborate elaborate on that because if these school districts are 30 points higher to us using this program that we our administrator don't think this is a good program I'd like to know why I mean I'm not saying anybody else picked it but I was just curious as to why um we don't research districts that are that are doing well before we make the decisions we did we did but why did the administrator say

158like said if these school districts are 30 30 30 not five 30 above us and they're using this and then we say that that program our administrators it says right in there administrators didn't think that that was good what administrator I want to know why why wit and wiard like what what was the problem with that the other thing before I even get to that was they don't understand and I and I said I said we're looking at a program trying to go k through 10 and it went dead each time on the phone for five different phone calls went dead and it's like I said hello you still there and they're like yeah but then they're like why are you going we don't understand we don't do that it's like what do you do

159said our biggest thing we focus every one of them is K through two and their respark was that our teachers were involved because they're the ones that s set the foundation they're the one to put the concrete down because if we have ugly concrete we start building on it sooner or later it's going to fall down so they said their biggest concentration and they said their program three through five is different because those teachers in that area and like I said I'm not put words in I'm asking them why they said that those people that that's their expertise in that area and they know and we hold them accountable well it's quite obvious they hold them accountable if you're 30 some points ahead of us 35 points ahead of us so I guess I guess

160it goes back to you know if you want to be a winner you see what the winners are doing and you try to modify your curriculum try to modify your team according to what winners are doing because when we look at teams that that have that equal to us or below us I don't know how you expect to get better so I guess my first question is why what happened with the W in wisd what was so wrong with that I I don't know well I want I want the administrate nothing personal but I also know Roger has been an elementary teacher forever before became a principal so and I'll call upon your expertise and I'm hoping that when you answer me you're answering me I me don't take this personally but I don't like

161when people look to see if anyone else is going to agree with what you're saying so I want to know from you personally what what you felt with these programs well the latest you know my passion oh yes the latest I can tell you is I I was part of the group that went to the the different schools to look at everything I talked to all the teachers I talked to the principles of both school districts um and I know the overall goal of the district was to try and get the older building streamlined right absolutely all starts PB I said the foundation absolutely so you're saying the other school districts you're at were trying to Ste up or we're trying no we are we went to see that we went to Beth and Wilson

162to look around and see everything you saw PSS what's that and you saw PSS yeah I actually I asked questions about that and both District said we're working on that they came with Co all the different stuff that people have have talked about because we had all we asking those questions and but so anyway looking at those do and to to talk about something Mr Keef just said my teachers did feel bad that they're not here so they gave me something to read to you okay so you give me a second to read this out loud sure it say the PVE reading Review Committee was asked to provide feedback however we were unable to attend in person due to prior commitments we have asked Mr pump to sett me to share our feedback okay um

163as part of the reading Review Committee we were asked to review programs that span grades K to 12 the choices were remove were narrowed down to two too and as you know from The Sur results the teachers are overwhelmingly chose inter reading at this point we as committee members feel that of the two programs in Reading is the best program to meet our students needs we are looking forward to the implementation phase and to receiving professional development that will support us to ensure our students become the best readers and writers that can be we appreciate your support in this endeavor and then was signed the PVE reading Review Committee none none of the ladies made it tonight but they did ask me to read that because they know you did the board members asking so

164they don't want to put their signatures to that or it's only certain person that decided to I just I just want know because you know you know my history with PBE okay and my history of what I hear is definitely not what's being read here okay and and that was reinforced as early as this morning all the tell you this I have 45 R teachers right and John I've been to this process like five times we've never agreed on anything it never happened the most consensus we got was inserting I had some people when we took unit study they were ticked off because because they weren't allowed the program they wanted way back here in October that I remember Mrs KY brought it up she started back then and said hey the teacher said that

165the program they wanted didn't make the the the final three and that they didn't feel that they got to make those choices as to what was in the final three so again going back to Mr o'keith if you're going to turn around and say well you know you got McDonald's or Burger King but I actually I actually wanted something from Pandera which was better for me but you didn't give me that choice so now I have something that's really bad which might be our freeding program right now it's got to be better than that but it's still not what we could have had so we were wasting our time to move up maybe two points and and I don't want this this the wrong way but I I if this program goes through okay and

166it doesn't show a good response after one year I mean it's got to show something I know it's not going to show the third but after a year I hope I'm sitting here I hopeing it goes up because I want to commend you for what you did but guarantee you all know me that in a year if I don't see some of those results I'm going to be here in public and I'm going to be making say calling you all out that why did we listen to these people who are down here digging the ditches and ask for a shovel not a teaspoon to dig out dig out of a hole what is a realistic time frame B uh piggy back on what you're saying what is a realistic time frame to start seeing some

167results positive or negative research always said 3 to five years been education how long when was the last time you said the last time it was switched over is when you first started 2018 no new curriculum has been purchased in the district since then and all of the choices were primarily made by to teachers and the Review Committee at that time but no nothing like math nothing has been purchased since I've been can I make a comment I mean the reason we're here and and I shared this um uh El sorry pssa data and I know you guys can't see it all but like very simply we're here because we need to see better we have great teachers um what I find is that you know different teachers are maybe using different resources um and

168and you know things are kind of disjointed okay and I think the part of the reason that we're there is because during the pandemic um you know frankly and I don't mean to make excuses but you know different people kind of were using different things and there was really no um approval process right now I can tell you that we have teachers in our district that are using resources that aren't approved um they're not even collaborated on in some cases now again this isn't the norm but the reality is the reality right and so you know understanding that this is going to take uh you know at least two to three to four years to really start to see the results the results have to stop going downward and that's what they're doing now and

169that doesn't mean that we don't have great students and great teachers and great families what that just means is that we have some barriers that we need to overcome and and I want to reemphasize this curriculum is not the Saving Grace for Pleasant Valley this is a primary resource this is something that is a tool this is not the only tool this is not everyone is on page 12 on the fourth day and I think when I shared that with the um PVE and pvi teachers they were kind of Blown Away like I have teacher aony yes of course you do but there also is responsibility collaboration um expectations uh discussions about what resources we're using figuring out when students are struggling how do I reinforce some of those skill sets so I mean you

170know I I I want to just reemphasize that you know there are some some uh good programs out there for any uh School District but obviously there's there's parameters that have to be factored in you know the financial of the district the um the Integrity of the implementation the the professional development that actually leads to the program being implemented you give them uh teachers a day to implement this it's not going to be successful we're already trying to actually we already have it established uh in March uh a couple dates in April May and then in June to give teachers what they need because we don't want to have a false start where we tell them this is the program but we're not going to give you the resources or the opportunity to collaborate and

171that's really what I think is missing right now so using this as a primary resource and I actually had a meeting today with some of the teachers uh at PVE and pbii and and the feedback that I've gotten is um you know well we like this particular program for grades K to2 well we like this program for three to five yet we had professional development this year alone where I will tell you that teachers did not know what they're teaching in their counterparts in other districts what that means is that there's breaks and gaps in that learning Continuum that we cannot build upon and the idea is to have some sort of synchronization in the direction we're going for ELA because at the end of the day this isn't good enough and and what we're

172trying to do is create an opportunity and a resource for our teachers to utilize and again as I said before you know where to go in two to three years when it hasn't uh you know worked but but knowing me I think hopefully by now you guys know that we're going to put the resources the time in we're going to work with our staff we're going to overcome some of the barriers it's not going to be perfect but the reality is that we're moving in the right direction and that's all I've ever asked this District I have to say that we did look the state is coming out with a list we've looked at uh programs that have been rated Bernie talked about it hmh is rated very high our teachers are using some programs

173right now that are going to be on the list that will not be allowed to use in the state fish tank is not probably list it's not allowed to be used the state of Pennsylvania was that just pilot one here like it was never approved we never approved it I don't know what it was I mean I'm not asking for I'm just saying but it's on the list it's most likely there's always chance it's gonna be on the list that says not all St psylvia but some of our teachers wanted us to get that for this are there currently schools that sorry course are the there currently schools out there the Pennsylvania um not just are anywhere that are currently used in hmh that are 30 points higher than where we're at right now Mississippi

174whole the whole state around musing but this is what I'm going to tell you and I know this well enough I do believe the teachers in the building are the experts in their building and at third grade level however in curriculum we have to look at the district and I do rely on them I met with Rogers teachers this week because I went to them I said you guys are the experts I need you to help me roll this out in your build how we're going to implement it but when you're talking about curriculum you to study that that's K2 it's not talking about what's happening in the the classroom and I don't I don't have an emotional attachment to any of the programs but I can look at our district and I can see

175what's going on academically and it's just not right and it's nobody's fault it isn't there's just a lot of changes have happened a lot of changes in administration we had Co we need to bring it back together I'm looking at what's going to bring us I'm the co that's that's years I hear two terms you keep throwing around and one is you're saying that it's a program and the other one you're saying it's a resource now my understanding if it's a program then that's something everyone's going to have to use but if you're saying it's a resource then you're saying that it's it's not mandatory anybody can I think resource in a program is the same thing curriculum is different the curriculum is set by the state right I yeah but I think in the

176past here people have taken the resource plate if it was if it would have been um units of study they think that is that is the CRI that we're using no units of study is a resource to support the standards we need to look at the standards and how are we using this resource and this program to support it I ready how do we use that to support the math standards so what we're saying is how do we use it it would be different maybe how we use it in each building depending upon the needs each classroom but you're saying it's going to be mandatory for them to use this this the material or whatever from this hm hm for what they need in that building so like right right but I'm just saying that

177they can't in this building say okay well you know what this is only resource and I prefer this anybody so I'm just going to put this to the side and I'm going to use my own resch because but I'm just saying so when they when this is rolled out this is mandatory if I walk in every one of you teachers out there better be teaching something somewhere along the line of this H because that's true but not true um so as I was saying with Mr pomelo and his teachers uh we come up with a great plan his uh Department chairs which are two that share it and then there are two teachers from every grade level we are going to start meeting our first meeting is on May 18th sorry 18 thank you and

178we are going to look at the standards and we're looking at the first marketing period and then how are we going to use hmh as a building at each grade level to support those standards and what else could we use what else do we need no program is going to give you absolutely no no no no I understand but your main your main your primary resource but to other things there will be other things that can supplement and other levels of we want everybody to use the same resources because it's it's not right to any student that depending upon the teacher that you have what resources you're getting or what standards and currently you're getting so what we're going to try to do is sort of standardize that right now we have so many things

179being used and like I said there were programs like I think there were teachers that would have loved to have fish tank they told me that it's on the list that you're not going to be allowed to use so like even though they might say I want to use that and that's what I want it's going to be on the list you can't so like sometimes you have to trust us in what we do this is what we do i r on the teachers when it comes to the implementation so you know vote I I I respect the vote of the board whatever it is I'm still going to do my best job I know all the teachers are going to do their best job it's up to the board and I'm more than happy

180to continue to do my job do the best we can and I know all our teachers and our Administration will work together to do that Dr Howard can can you just quickly summarize for the benefit of those who may not be familiar with how did you start out with what the five or six programs and then yeah what what drove it to the to the two that were remaining and then my third uh question is there there are a number of of questions that said well the Department of Education is going to come out with a recommendation June um I'm anticipating and and you can tell me where I'm wrong here that when they come out with the recommendation not only about what the syllabus of the curriculum should look like but potentially give you

181a list of all potential candidates that would meet at least the minimum criteria yeah an agent can you sure I'm talky on that yeah I'm going to briefly say a couple things that I'm going to look to as well um you know this was the most comprehensive review we've ever done at Pleasant Valley the last review they only looked at three resources and did it in three months and they bought it okay this was started December of 2023 we started pooling resources this was not something that we just you know did so we thought wow you know we did all the same steps that they did but we take we took a lot more time and I believe there were six or seven resources that we started with originally there were n originally there were

182nine um and the only other thing I want to say let Bernie talk more um is that the it's called the reading league and they they're going in rating programs hmh is rated very high um I know that when Bernie talked with Carrie Ramsey from the IU who is reading there most likely hmh is going to be on that list um because it is rated High um wonders wonders is down below it yeah down below it's down below it but um so there's going to be a list of resources that state says yes these are good to use these no you cannot use them um which is kind of I've never heard that this coming out from the state so it's kind of new um but some of the resources that our teachers wanted are

183going to be on that list that you cannot use so I'm going to exp to you how you got from the nine down to the two what I saw at home I don't know um so the reading review actually began last spring when Lori Hagerman was still here and and last spring we met there were four teachers um myself Lori and uh one of the special education supervisors and these teachers were only K to five and we met to review um a lot of the programs um Whitten wisdom was one of them Whitten wisdom does not have foundational skills it is what's known as a knowledge building curriculum only and several of the things we looked at um were only knowledge building or the teachers only wanted the knowledge building uh component and because they

184wanted to keep 95 phonics which is another issue Al together we won't get into that tonight um one of the reasons that Whitten wisdom was not included this spring or this fall when we redid the the review um and expanded it is because wit and wisdom teaches four topics per year one per marking period W which is a lot um on just those topics so students are isolated every year in their Ela class to only four topics like maybe one might be the American Revolution and then astronomy and then Greek mythology and trees those are your topics that you're going to read about every day nine weeks each for the entire year um there's a lot of criticism for wet and wisdom um and it's it's not particularly highly rated and again it doesn't have

185integrated foundational skills doesn't come with that so there would have to be another program to do foundational skills the reason that we started um the review again this fall was because we wanted to have um an expanded committee we wanted to address this through more grade levels on the Review Committee um instead of just such a small one um there was not a 100% consensus of what people liked on the small committee uh we wanted opinions for more grade levels when I reached out to everybody in August I I was very clear that we were unsure are we going to do this K to five and then maybe six to eight or was it gonna be K to six and 78 were we going to maybe um get some high school resources and I did

186very clearly State we will not know the answer to that until after we have done a thorough evaluation with the Review Committee of the samples of the resources that we had um another reason that we wanted to do it is because um some of the programs that were rated last spring almost a year ago now were rated quite low but when the reading Le came out with their reports those same programs and a few others were actually rated quite high so I thought that since some people um kind of had an idea of what like their their favorites were and everything we we need to take a more objective expansive look at this because this was going to be a really big deal it was very expensive Endeavor so we wanted to give everything um

187as an objective view as possible uh so we had programs we divided it across two days took an entire day spent a good deal of time with each one examining the samples um and then at the end of the second day the teachers on the Review Committee provided feedback now some of them wanted to have a vote a vote would have been unfair because um ultimately if you if you're going to vote there there are more teachers from one area and another and you know everybody had different ideas there there was also a lot of discussion um where where people you know had very definite ideas about things um and and of course you know you want to try to convince people about that you're right so we really wanted everybody's individual opinion like as

188purely as possible to be fair and so everybody gave feedback and in examining the feedback in I have written this in reports for the board um but just to Briefly summarize in going through the data um into reading the hmh that's on the board report now had the most positive feedback up and down all the grade levels and that seemed like it was going to very clearly be one of the finalists I was told there could only be two um and and I I think that that's that's a good decision then there were two also that were immediately not going to be any finalists nobody likes them nobody um so they were taken off the table and then that left three others out of what we reviewed in the fall there was one um that

189on the review day nobody wanted to look at it I mean nobody in the room wanted to look at it so we just put it away and moved on um so out of the other three um two of them stood out one was amplify CA and one was my view from SAS and on the my view um as you go up into upper grades toward Middle School the teachers really really liked that but as you came down through the lower grades the teachers really did not like it amplify CA was the opposite the teachers in the younger grades really really liked it but in the upper grades they did not because the um readers literature there the informational books were very watered down they were Rewritten from classics specifically for that program um and not

190authentic books so the other thing and and this is what had amplifi CK kind of like out of the the running then was because for the foundational skills the feedback from the elementary school was we want to keep 95 phonics we don't want to use use the foundational skills from amplify C so to me and I think to any logical person that means foundational skills are not good enough for them the feedback was only on that program so then that was out of the running the last two left were wonders and my view of us wonders had more favorable um comments they were still very very much about the same so I turned to the reading League um and Ed reports and wonders was rated higher than my deal so wonders became the second finalist

191um you asked about um the yeah uh relatively speaking um when when we when we look what the department education's going to do I I think we're anticipating that that they will give a broad definition that meets the a set of criteria for the for the curriculum and that they will probably come out with a number of of uh programs which are published and available for schools that meet at least the minimum criteria that they expect yes and and do you anticipate that your recommendation would rank in that category I I think it probably will uh when I spoke with kri Ramsey um she is she is a part of that um she's a part of that process and she said they are using the reports from the reading league and hmh is one of

192the higher uh rated programs that they have in there um in addition to that I know there were some comments that were read about um concerns that inter reading doesn't align with science of reading however there are other comments that were on those surveys that say that it does actually align with science of reading Ed reports now conveniently comes with an extra little science of reading button that you can click on and it will show you how aligned it is hmh is one of the highest rated for being aligned with uh science of reading through Ed reports I did look at um several examples from different grades to show where they lost points in that review and I was in the comprehension area um comprehens um for science of reading emphasizes knowledge building the questions

193that were flagged as not being aligned were not specifically content oriented for knowledge building however um they are very specifically aligned with the Pennsylvania state standards which includes comprehension skills not just knowledge building so I think that's actually a a bonus that we have those questions that were flagged in that program because there's less work to do for our teachers to make sure that we are aligned to the standards we need to be teaching thank you I just I heard you repeat this a couple times where you're saying that middle school and high school didn't like the programs at the elementary Pi because it was too water down but you had Elementary School didn't like the stuff that the high school and middle school like because of another reason so I guess I'm saying is

194why do we have to have a program why not a Elementary program that they're happy with and then one for the high school if they're happy with I understand why you want to try to make this fluent throughout anything but again if we're not giving the people material that they need to be successful and we covered this some te times that by if they're not even by age three who cares what's happening in six seven AG because they're not really going to get anything back well go ahead again looking at curriculum at from a district point of view a vertically aligned curriculum and I didn't teach elementary school but I did teach at the high school I know where kids need to end up and I have that broad view um a vertically aligned curriculum

195is the easiest to achieve if you have vertically aligned program or resources that are moving these kids up um and I if you recall from my my summary that I gave had the most positive comments up and down only four inter reading not any of the others and I will say that um you know you District I don't think anybody would argue that um you know when we arrived it was just some disjointed between buildings our teachers hadn't talked a lot about what's happening in other buildings there put a lot of turnover so we do our district we have a need that maybe other districts don't we do need to bring something together so we aren't so disjointed um K to 12 and uh I think our scores reflect that we do need that so

196right now we have nothing or 100 unapproved things well no we we do have called un study and I will say to the that asked about that unit the study was um U 2018 it is not aligned with the state anymore you know we're moving to the science of reading so it's just not even in line um so that's why the programs were looked at um and it actually was the teachers who came to me and said when I got here we need to look at what we're doing because this isn't working and it was actually third grade um and so that's what I did and that's why I started so long ago like this was not something that we just jumped into we spent a lot of time and I I list I really

197have to say that Bernie has found herself in I m just what she's reading about like she knows these programs inside and out really spent a lot of time so I do want to say that we've spent a lot of time doing this um so we do have something but I think because it's not a l a lot of people just have to be careful this how many how many teachers were involved in the conversation in the fall in the fall um you said it 18 or 19 there was one from every grade level and then PVE also had um a reading specialist as well as a special education teacher and then tvi had a reading specialist an ESL teacher and a special education teacher and we had a reading specialist from the Middle School

198at left we don't have reading and we also had a chair who's also um she has her Masters and doctor in and teaches the master program for reading at ESU was on our Comm that was com sent us all that yeah the ELA review that was that attachment that's correct did you have anything else M did you have anything else no no okay all right um so I'm sorry what I like vote individually on the contract okay I I need to make a few few comments if I could though I've waited and I waited and waited um because I've been watching this process since the beginning and have become pretty involved in this process and our students have not had a reading resource for how long we are doing a disservice to our students I

199can't emphasize that more they deserve a program a resource whatever we interchange those words um but no program or resource is perfect that's even written various places of that I've researched we're never going to find a program or a resource that is perfect that satisfies everyone they brought up about um talking to Carrie Ramsey I called Carrie Ramsey myself and I was so happy that I did because she was um she had some great information Carrie Ramsey used to work for Pleasant Valley she was our reading um supervisor um before Lori Hagerman I think it was um I talked to her about the science of reading I talked to her about this structured literacy that's that's the new thing um and then she pointed me to a website which is it's on my phone um

200it's called The Learning it's the the reading League which Bernie talked about and she explained to me she sent me the link and she explained to me um because I asked her about this list that's supposed to be coming out by June 1st from pde and I said you know do you know anything about this she says oh I absolutely do she says I'm helping work on this um through PD so again she sent me this link where the reading programs are been evaluated and she's helped do this and she says that PD is actually going to use this list to help them decide what programs go on their list so again hmh is highly rated wonders is down below and if you click on the report it red flags anything that as Bernie said

201um and I just can't stress enough how our children our students deserve a program right now um some of the things in the comments I know I read all those comments myself you know and again one says it isn't align with with um the oh my gosh I lost my train of thought the science of and others said it was so I'm like what's going on here you know I I mean we gave this a lot of time and if we don't do something now and we put it off we're not going to have a program again for next year for these students and that breaks my heart I'm telling you that hurts me our students in this District deserve a program and you heard Roger read the letter from our teachers our teachers are

202great teachers our staff is wonderful the program that we decide on hopefully we decide on one tonight that they are going to do whatever they have to do to make this work the most important part is rolling this program out how how we do it the professional development we provide for this um you know we need to roll it out with Fidelity we need to roll it out with Integrity um you know we need to provide them all the PD we can that's what's important here our teachers are going to take it and run with it they know what to do um you know I know there was 47 total you know uh on the survey that was taken and 38 of the those 47 chose into reading which is hmh I mean I don't

203know what else more we can do um as I have a thing up on my on my bulletin board in my office um you know you're never going to please everybody you know and again I you know we're doing a very disservice to our students if we don't act on this and do something um hmh is rated very high um again I think you know we need to roll it out do the PD if we need to bring them in in the summer you know we need to find a way to do that uh as far as I'm concerned you know we need to put everything into this and I I think Bernie and Ray and our principles are are ready for that I I truly do I I just think you know and you

204know if you would have asked me a number of years ago do we need the same program you know in the elementary and in the secondary I would have said no but I understand we're so disjointed and so whatever that this we've got to try this we've got to um do this for our students I just you know I think it's the right thing to do um there's a couple other things I guess I could say you know um hmh uh I guess it's talks I don't know right terminology but it talks with nwaa which is another um the assessment tool that we already approved you know um also it can Group after assessments it can group our students that's the nwaa but also the hmh so there are some positives with other things that

205we've purchased that hm that works with hmh um also when I sat in on the presentations from the companies I heard about onetoone coaching that hmh will provide I don't know what the cost of that is but again that's another another tool that hmh has we get our curriculum leaders involved in that and then they could be maybe go out and become the coach you know to help implement this program um I'll get off my bandwagon I just think this is necessary for our students is a bottom line for me so can I I just have one more quick question and I don't know if you're gonna know this off the top of your head how many ELA teachers are there I have 45 um there are 3 five seven n no eight of them

206middle school and there are in n and 10 atol [Laughter] give you that MTH for me so 45 17 give me Middle School 16 middle school and high school would be 16 78 I mean sample size was adequate there were there were a number of teachers who commented um that the day of the 14th was the day we originally want did the survey do so that feedback would be fresh from the presentations the teachers asked for more time so we extended the deadline and at first we just took extra comments and questions on the 14th so a lot of teachers gave comments then or asked questions and then they felt their their comments they had not more say so they didn't yeah I I was more thinking from the from the narrow it down in

207selection if you do 17 teachers that's representative sample of the ELA population to help narrow it down I do think it's not pragmatic to get what did you say it was 74 78 opinions and Whittle that down to I don't think that that's really a pragmatic approach so I mean I think you got a A good sample set there so I need to ask who made the motion and who seconded it please Mr Walters and Mr burer on the original so what I would like to do is ask if you're okay to amend that and just do item C through uh how many where I got to go I Tammy C through I I'm gonna take out B and and vote on them separate so C through I are you okay that we do that

208vote first I'm fine with that I just hope that everybody up here making that vote read all those comments and I truly believe that letter that was written was Ghost written or at least someone was told to write it because those those comments do not align what was I wrote I yeah the teacher handed I'm telling you did you read the the surveys so the far right hand does that align with what you just read okay all right sorry i' we're doing see through see through I it's still commenting that's not that's not in that no we're still having a conversation for this we just can we go back to comment conversation yeah we can once we get there we're doing C through I right now okay so so move no I I no we've

209got the motion we have a motion in a second I just asked them if they were okay do saying C through I so is there any discussion any more discussion on items C through I okay all in favor please signify by saying I okay all right that motion carries now we're going to go back to B Item B which is contracts and could I have a motion for item B1 we do the SE them separate y I'm breaking them out okay so move second I have a motion by Mr Burger and seconded by uh Mr Walters for item B1 which is the Senate Valley's um contract is there any discussion one question I have is what Assurance do we have that we're going to revisit this to put something different out there that is more

210more productive for our students to be using and utilizing our teachers for the grades of k through eight I understand the whole High School thing it gu I I recognize that but how do how do we how do we assure that's G happen Okay could we have time over the summer to have some discussion once the school year ends to then present something U maybe in early August before the school year begins about kind of where we're at and what what do we see as next steps because I think there's a couple moving pieces that hopefully might be tied up by the end of that if that's okay with the board and that way we have some more discussion to really you know delve deeper into cost problem solving and I mean if you could

211give us till August I think that's reasonable I'm okay with that because I I was not I'm happy to hear that we're not locked in the five years yeah right that makes it more it's been year by year instead of you guys having a discussion and Reporting back to us is there a way to maybe partner it more instead of a reporting structure maybe working together for something this on this scale um to have us involved in some of these behind conversations maybe what we could do is put together what it was Plank and then talk with the teachers be there like yeah yeah good so we're have that noted in the minutes that a yeah that we have a little bit planning time in the summer so August anyone else would you like a

212roll call or would you just Voice vote any preference let's roll call let's let's roll call okay we're going to roll call this one please yes yes Sur yes yes okay and that motion carries um could I have a motion for Item B two to Mo second a motion by Mr berer seconded by Mr Walters is there any further discussion I'll I'll say something real quick that's all right um so I I have I have concerns okay and I'm trying to pinpoint my concerns whether it's the process of how this came about and probably a lot of those concerns will be addressed maybe end of year review type comments right um at the end of the day though I I I think I have more of an issue with that than the actual program itself

213I I I see the comments I've actually engaged with teachers um not that are not listed um in that and I've gotten multiple feedbacks Pro con and neutral so it do I know if this is the right program no I have no idea I have a panel in front of me of 20s something teachers of 400 plus years of experience I'm not going to sit here and and I know but at the same time I was always taught you know if you're going to I I have concerns but I was always taught if you concerns about some come with a solution and I don't have that solution so I I am very I'm very much on the fence on this however I definitely agree that we cannot table something and go another year where the

214kids are not set up I mean we hear from the community not just everybody in this room um that are often vocal about a lot of the issues but also online and and I see a lot of the stats that we provided um the just need to be fixed and and I I I don't know at this point I got to put my faith in something I do believe that this is one of the programs that can get us there I'm gonna vote Yes um well the reason why I'm I'm GNA be a yes is we've spent a we've spent a lot of time looking at poor performance and we've been trying to find a a solution we've invested um a lot of the resources from the administration and and our our teachers to come

215up with a program which I think will be on the based on everything I've heard will be on the pte list so you're you're you're not going to end up with the poor program will it be the best program I have no idea but sometimes you you have to come to the conclusion that good should not be sacrificed in the pursuit of perfect nor should we begin in the mode where we have analysis paralysis that is to say we spend all our time studying something and never doing anything so I think this is a posit POS step to move forward will it be the final solution I don't think we ever find final Solutions but we do can what we can do is find ways to continue to improve and move forward and I think

216this is one step [Music] I am not going to beat a dead horse it's quite obvious I'm going to say no and I hope I'm sitting here next year apologizing to all you administrators I really do anyone else okay could we have roll call please yes no yes no and that motion carries [Music] all right I think it's back to Mr fitgerald oh there's nothing further this evening okay all right we're up to Pleasant Valley citizens at this time anybody like to address the board and again name Township and you do have a three minute limit I was trying to take speed so listening to all of this um I think we need to get outside of Monroe and go to other districts to try and really find out about senica Valley I'm sorry I

217forgot to give you the topic sen Valley and find out really what's going on because asynchronous is asynchronous and they really don't the scores you have the scores we don't get them published um we like to see the scores because parents are not happy with it getting information from 120 parents and wasn't just electives it Wast courses they're not happy with it because some of their kids are in a classroom with a teacher others are not they they have uh videos of paperwork and I think they're getting this service done so something else has to be done you probably put that on as the first topic for the Community Committee you can work together and get this because there isn't any communication that everybody's getting the other thing they should put on that is then

218how the parents help with hmh that could be your second topic another topic could be is why aren't we opening up or I don't even know if they they're allowed in anymore um the PB I'm sorry the PB board members I don't know if you're allowed to come in and walk around that used to be able to do that there was great communication it opened up dialogue people felt comfortable with whomever they wanted to talk to um so they could be supportive the board members and all the stakeholders would probably get some kind of feedback back I would hope at some point and it'd be nice to see the people that we elected around buildings and just saying hello or chat with teachers and students those people were coaches people relate to you you have

219parents you're on their teams um and if you don't come into the buildings uh on on your own why not I don't I don't know what's going on there do you need permission you are elected to represent us you're our ears and our eyes so you should be allowed in I mean I don't know why we can't the board members are uh representing the community um the other thing is Administration everybody you guys should get on carts even once in a while and get out of the hallways and talk to the kids and talk to the teachers that could be something else we can talk about because there is no communication I won't say that's not 100% but something's breaking down here cyber schools breaking down the big thing is we have all these discussions

220and these amount of monies bring the kids back that would save a lot of money why can't we get these kids back we're talking about all these programs get them back get the committee the the parents to get in there and give you some ideas of how to get them back make phone calls or whatever bring the retired teachers back I don't know what's the about that and excuse me okay thank you thank you you three minutes or oh Christmas night I need this one you want isn't there something if somebody else doesn't talk yeah you can always you can always hi Township I would like to thank and Mr O where there no votes okay um yes we need to do better for our kids and I 100% agree with Sue but our scores

221have been so low for so long soe how long have you been on the school board scores have not come up they have been down for years Mr Conor you yourself as Mr Kazuki said who are you holding accountable why are you not holding these teachers you are are eyes and ears to these teachers okay why why is no one being held accountable I think a year in a reading program do I think we should go up 40 40% 40 points no but do I want to see at least a 10 to 15 Point increase yes okay but when we're having such discommunication that we have so many teachers retiring in the middle of a school year that we have to sit our kids on a computer why aren't you in the classroom teaching why

222aren't you in the classroom teaching these kids we have all these teachers as administrators why are you not in the classroom teaching these kids why are you sitting them on a computer I said you back in Co I'm saying it again get out of behind the desk go in and teach these kids thank you just the other thing that I've uh noticed that pb's PB goals online are education focused on the facilities and Personnel performance and achievement rather than equipping our Stu equipping our students with skills needed for success in the future the goal of Education should be to teach comprehension understanding of application not just basic content why are these um BS not focused on printed in our in our programs and all over the district on developing communication employability skills in the district's

223objectives get the kids out from behind these sanica Valley go into Lehi Valley go into montg County go into Bucks County it has to be somebody else that uses something other than senica Valley and BLM we haven't done that it's a disservice excuse me Janet Jun from Township thank you for being here so late especially our staff again because big got busy days this morning tomorrow morning thank you for answering about the AI because it was brought up and I do have concerns about about it and I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention I'm glad that is only being used for teachers and I think that everyone's concern is will be over you um I think regarding the rumors about the Cyber would it help at all if and particularly I think mostly through middle school

224and high school people have rumors abounding about cyber being used in the Britain Mor can a report be generated on a monthly basis of some kind saying why something that you do put up Ian we talk about it here but we don't maybe put online to let people know that there are only this many classes being offered now this is why this is the goal that we're getting back I we're in a time of transition and um cyber is taking over in many ways even it happens at Northampton most of M classes are are really focused that way even as they do student they're online colleges are doing online mbas I'm not a fan of it but I think it would leaves the community community's fears that much more is being offered through cyber in

225the brick and mortar if we can come up with a plan maybe the 905 policy and maybe that would be one thing that we action committee can actually start working on right away because I do think people need to understand we're transitioning that way to more self style learning but in the meantime this is what Pleasant Valley has been doing that's all and thank you okay Pleasant Valley School directors anyone um first of all the program of studies was removed I just have a question possibly to make it we're talking about making it more um user friendly in the mcti it talks about how they can take certain classes mcti in their field that would cover a math or cover a science is there a chance that we could have like okay under culinary this

226class would be as your math this class the colonary would cover underneath your science or this and Automotive so when they look at this they can say okay I'm going to go to The Culinary and here's the one that's going to take care of my math here's the one that's going to take care of my science understand like so uh Mr Morgan has a list of programs of what he can take from there and I think he usually use it when he talks to those students individually because it's still being flexible that a student might not want to do that student might want to take another course from another section where every kid is different and they let the students decide on what they want to right but most culinaries going to have the same

227list so if somebody going in there I understand what you're saying but I would say okay those are take on here's here's what could possibly cover and aut up here's what possibly can cover so that they can look at that list I understand you're saying the where the guidance counsel me with it but you know sometimes it might be easier that message doesn't give to the parents and then they're coming and complaining because my kid didn't get this covered or that covered and well here it is so yeah just thought um other thing uh I the common denominator and your student of the month all of you was great is that homework and parents and I'm hoping there's a lot of parents that are watching this and realizing that they're the key all right we

228as Educators can only give so much to these kids and if these parents aren't backing it up at home and and helping and you're talking about parents are contacting you for information which is great they're making initiative because it's their child and that's the one they should be caring about that's the one they should be getting as much help as they can so I'm Hing parents start to stand up more and hey I need to take what how what did you what happened today let me see your folder sign your folder I hear this all the time there's people's folders are being sent home they're coming back totally unopen well that's a parents responsibility to show the child that they care about their education and the kids are GNA say wow Mom and Dad care

229about this I've got the attention so you know what I'm going to make sure I bring my homework in and and show because Mom and Dad actually spend their time with me so hoping parents get more into that um I know we have quite a few but we need more of that um other thing is I I hear a lot of concerns and stuff like that and all I can say is that uh primaries petitions for running for school board are due by March 11 so um hoping people uh how would you say it nicely if you want to step up step up I mean all I can say I understand we're here but thank you anyone else thank you administrators for being here app uh relative to Bears Academy um as we getting closer

230to the end of the year perhaps you could prepare some information sort of a report on how goes it what went well where are areas that you think we could improve what additional resources you might um advocate for us going into the next school year um also I I I think I've heard some bits of information of students who are attending cyber school outside of uh Pleasant Valley uh and you might in your report that I would hope you would to us at large at a school board meeting perhaps in May or June if that would fit in your schedule and uh and so that we could provide um parents who are considering cyber school for whatever reason why uh Bears Academy is a better choice in a number of ways and some of the

231frailties uh particularly I'm hearing relative to graduation rates uh poor performance and you know that kind of thing and highlight that in your report I would greatly appreciate it yeah I think that that would go you said um I I think that you said it's been a long night um I think that you said that you calling people that have left and so like a a summary of that feedback would be really good so I can again it's late at night and I'm not gonna go into it now because I know that we're looking at doing this more later um there's a lot of questions and there's a lot of of statements that we thrown around uh not just tonight but also online and in general I do think that having some sort of state

232of pbba what it looks like comparisons I think that's important um but calls were primarily made last year and uh this year there were less calls made but we'll talk more about that as to why that happened um the response rate from our parents that we called very few picked up the phone when they saw PB number um the ones that did pick up the phone um there was three major reasons as to why they chose what they chose and that's something that I think I need to flesh out in my head how I want to report that because it could come across very negatively for other schools and I don't I don't want to do that so again let me put this together in a better better cleaner way and I do think that's

233probably a good time to do at the end of the year I can give you a better of a load out of what actually happen throughout the year and I do think that picture is going to help as well because the enrolling numbers really only tells one story right the 274 just a brief kind of bears Academy returned 55 students this year to the brick and mortar school so we keep on talking about brick and mortar being our premere or preferred method of of Education 55 of our our Bears Academy kids went back to Brick and Mortar this year that's not going to show up in the enrollment numbers because that's a rolling enrollment of kids that came into my program and then left my program so while it says 274 or whatever the number

234is currently right now it's probably different two minutes ago um that's 55 students we returned right and if our program is 274 that's also 274 students right now that did not go to a Cyber Charter School so so there's a lot to this that that's deeper than just that one number so I think that's important and I do think we'll be able to get back to on that all right I appreciate it yeah all right last call anyone else all right Dr Conrad two quick things I promise February administrative employees of the month uh was uh pvm assistant principal Mr Ramone Rodriguez uh as well as Administrative Assistant Andrea Moore um excellent staff all throughout the district but appreciate the things that everyone's doing each month so congrats for those two stop trying to keep

235moving and then just a quick update uh Dr Avery from the singer scholarship will be coming in next Thursday as we have six finalists for the singer scholarship and I understand that they'll be notified next week who is the recipient of the singer scholarships which is super exciting definitely want to just give a big shout out to uh Mr Morgan uh Dr Avery uh for returning the scholarship back to Pleasant Valley and go be all right my two people aren't here so can I have a motion for adjournment so move all right all in favor since 9:30 I'm like I need to get up and use the restro I need to all right