5.8.25 Board of Education / Working Session

001to be out. All right. Good evening everybody. Welcome to the Pleasant Valley School District Board of Education meeting. If everybody can please rise for the pledge of allegiance and a brief moment of silence afterwards. Mr. Keith Julia yourself to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. All right. Good evening, school board directors. Mrs. Duff, can I have a roll call, please? Here. Present. services present here. Thank you. An executive session was held tonight on May 8th, 2025 immediately prior to the regular scheduled meeting for the purposes of personnel matters including but not limit to performance and or discipline negotiations and legal issues. And then before we go any further, um I'd like to open

002the nominations for board treasurer. I nominate uh Diane surface. Okay. No need for a second. Any other nominations? Motion to close. I move the nomination be closed. Okay, Mr. Gaziski. Second. Um do you let me know if there's any uh repeats you needed for the names? All in favor? I I all opposed. And congratulations, Mr. Service. All right. And I believe now, Mr. McCutchen. Floor is yours. Good evening, everyone. I'm honored to present tonight's highlight from middle school. uh when I stood at the podium at the beginning of the year, we had talked about a lot of the work we were doing and focusing on school culture and climate um and we continued that work this year and I believe we've we've really made some big strides at the middle school. And one of the

003things that kind of guided me this year was that people won't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And that kind of was my personal motto for staff and students this year. and we executed that through uh teacher appreciation week. So, I'd like to say thank you to all of our district's teachers and I know my fellow administrators echo those sentiments that we truly appreciate the hard work and dedication of all of our staff. Um, but we really set to make the middle school a place where students and staff wanted to be. Um, I know that when your children come home and you ask them how their day is, because mine does the same thing. What did you do today? They say nothing. We've prepared this uh presentation to show

004you that we do more than nothing school. Um you'll see everything from frog dissections um to sixth grade teachers helping to make a novel come to life with our students to a March Madness con contest with books, collaborative history projects and math lessons. administrators serving lunches, art shows and robotics, crowd rewards, students of the month, acts of service, kindness, the craft club, um the staff contests, which we did win. We did win the offered staff photo contest. You'll see why. [Music] [Applause] to close out the presentation. I couldn't do this, we couldn't do this um without an incredible team. Um it takes a village. Mr. Rodriguez and Mrs. fields are a big part of my village. A special special thank you to Dr. Gibb who up until last week I was sending her could we

005add this? Could we put this in the video? So, thank you. Thank you to Kayla and Austin Finn for what they did to help put this together. Um a special thank you to Mrs. Arnold and our craft club and Mr. Rodriguez has um some samples for you of what our craft club does for our students. They make these little plushy animals and hide them with positive messages for kids. And on it, it says, "If you need it, take it. If you don't, pass the kindness for somebody else." And um wait and see what we have in store for next year. We'll be back. Great. Thank you, Mr. McCuss. You're up. Is the mic working? It is. Okay. Okay. I finally got it. All right. Um, this is kind of the April report, but we had

006a very busy month. 52 new members were inducted into the Clemson Valley National Honor Society on the 23rd. It was 50 regular members and then we had two honorary members from the life skills classes. I think this is the first time you guys ever done that. So, that was very exciting. It was really, really nice. Um, yeah, very good. Um, the Environ team absolutely swept the Monroe County competition for the about the billionth time in a row. We got first place, second place, third place, and fourth place. And every single team got an award in some way. Like because there's like the five different categories. Um, every team like won one category at least because we've sent four teams. All four teams came back with something which is great. Um, the Pleasant Valley Concert Band

007and Jazz Band had their concerts on the 30th and that was pretty fantastic if I do say so myself. Um, the bands also participated in the music and the parks competition at Hershey and both the concert and jazz bands placed first in their respective categories and we got the gold medallion superior rating which is a big deal. Um, we also have one of soloist awards which includes Isaiah Garminy got the award for best baritone solo. Edwin Cely won best clarinet solo. Katie Smith best alto saxophone solo. The best baritone/uponium section which went to Isaiah Garney, Taylor Blum, Antonio Adorno, and Chelsea B. The jazz band soloist awards included one for Remy Grab de Baralta who won best guitar solo. Addison Croc, a freshman, got best bass guitar solo. Chris Sro got best drum set solo.

008Dylan Carol won best trumpet solo. And Katie Smith again got best Alto Sax solo. Um, the NHS chapter held elections for their officers for the 2025 2026 school year. The president is Keegan Martin, vice president is Abigail Nelson, secretary is Ryland Kresy, treasurer is Emily Hecman, and historic historian is Sienna Pierce. The affiliate chapter also held elections. We just did our installment ceremony. That's why I'm dressed like this. It was 60s theme. Um, so the new president is Chelsea Henry, three vice present Kimch, Sharon Yang, and Brees Beck. We actually just implemented that we're splitting up our secretary positions into reporting secretary and corresponding secretary. So our reporting secretaries are Khloe Duder and Abraham Vasquez. Our reporting secretary is Isabella London. We have two treasures, Colin McGra and Isaac Klein. And our vice president at

009large, the first time that a freshman already has a position because he was a middle school member is Silus Juna. Our reporter is Ellie Rice and our historian is Cole Clark. It's pretty much all for the month. Um, prom is this weekend. Everyone's very excited about that. Um, our prom court was nominated, so we're all kind of buzzing about that right now. Yeah, more to come. No, thank you. And, uh, as I understand, this is your last meeting. Uh, graduation around the corner. I can. All right. Uh, any plans after graduation? I will be attending Embry Middle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach. Oh, exciting. Space engineering. Congratulations. And if you don't mind, uh, we have a little thing for you here. Um and uh dedication of your service if you go on up. No, this

010is uh dedication to your service of the school district and the class of 2020. Thank you so much. Absolutely. [Applause] Dr. Conrad, do we have any uh community questions tonight? Uh yes, we did. So, good evening everyone. There was one community question submitted this evening. Uh this was from Janet Duner from Pulk Township and she had asked uh how much teacher time is utilized in the classroom monitoring security pass. Uh once pass is granted do students carry an electronic device to monitor their steps outside the classroom. Um so just for context security uh pass is a digital signin signout process that we've uh been utilizing and this can be reviewed by administration to address uh issues in the middle school and in the high school. Um there's actually no physical pass that individuals are carrying

011around. But it does help to uh monitor how many students are out of class. Uh you know, so that way if there are, you know, safety issues or concerns, um we can, you know, utilize that that data um to help make sure that we're mitigating any of those issues. Um let's see. Uh it only takes teachers just a couple of seconds just to uh identify the student needs to uh use the restroom and then obviously when they come back it just takes a couple seconds just to mark that they're back in. Um so again it creates a safer environment something that we've been utilizing in middle school and high school. And you know another thing to add too is uh there are some additional features that we're uh looking to utilize. So, for example, um

012you know, traditionally if a student has to go to the main office because the parents uh may be at the main office, uh oftentimes there would be a phone call that disrupts instruction in that classroom. Well, now there's an opportunity where again uh a note can be shared in securely pass to identify that James Conrad needs to come to the, you know, main office now or within a couple of minutes. We also have security that are walking around that help assist with that, too. So again, the focus is to utilize this as a way to keep students focused on the great instruction that's happening in the classroom. That is all I have for this evening. Come a long way since when I was in high school. I used to estate from chemistry to make me

013carry like a large clipboard. Right. Right. Or or the wooden blocks. We all remember that so we don't do that anymore. Uh secretar's report. Good evening. I requesting approval of the minutes of the meeting held on April 24th, 2025 and approval of the May 8, 2025 board meeting agenda. Nor second. Any discussion did that with an O. Um any discussion? Yeah. Nope. We got it. All good on that one. Um say again. All those approved. I I All those that oppose and that motion carries. All right. I'll get that down the line. All right. All right, Pleasant Valley citizens, at this time, um, please come to the podium if for agenda items only. Um, when you come to the podium, please state your name, the township in which you reside, and which item you're going

014to be speaking of on the agenda tonight. Uh, Denise, that's Township. Uh, I guess this fits in with the payable. Uh, want to wish the debate team good luck at the nationals because we're so excited for them to go. This is his start because it's their first time going to national debate team and uh Mr. Ch I want to congratulate him as well. Um also Mr. Galler had posted I'm sorry school board director Galler posted presentations about uh monthly publications for the IU. It was absolutely Is that a Is that an agenda item? The second Yes. 6B. Sorry. 6B. Hold on. Let me get to 6B here. six form as a media report. Got it. Okay. So, um it was spectacular. It highlighted the 20 um 20 highlights of the IU and it was a

015superior job and impressive. I feel like a part of the IU from it. And I didn't know if we could mimic this since we have the forefather. He's here and the board we could mimic this newsletter summary. And kudos to him for the time and effort and energy in this IU newsletter. again um schoolboard director Galler the Dr. Bartech and Dr. presentation. It's also a sixp positive culture in the IU 20. Again, it was a spectacular report. Building a positive culture in the IU. The retention of employees, building positivity, strengthening staffing, decreasing monthly absence of staffing. Is there a way to produce this for our community and health guide as we have um again 400 in this to be able to move forward so we can duplicate it? 12c um as a stakeholder is there

016a way to um put the total cost presented for this NWI then show the stakeholders breakdown later as the 2B pay dates occur. We have two payments estimate on purchase order 630 2024 for July 2025 through June 30th of 2026. 76,000 and 63,000 respectively. That was for licensing and math growth basics for up to 35 participants. Some elementary others K through 12. And then tonight we have something on the agenda that we have a new sales order 22725 and no contracting on this for $8,400. So isn't there a way to put this whole package of 147,400 together and then advise the community as we're going to pay that because it's a sales order for training of 35 also labeled basics for teachers. Um and all I know is the first way to save is a

017penny. So we can get a better picture of that in communication. It might save a lot of confusion. Okay. Matt Gold Township agenda item 7A, retiring of board policy 1 AR1. Good evening members of the board, administration and fellow meeting members. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here to ask the board and Dr. Conrad to reconsider implementing a rigid September 1st cutoff for kindergarten administration without exception. While I respect the desire for consistency and understand that some neighboring districts follow this model, I urge you to recognize that development does not always align with the calendar. Uh there are children bright, eager, socially and emotionally ready to miss the cut off by just days or weeks. To deny them entry based solely on their birth date when their parents and even

018educational professionals agree they're ready is not only limiting but potentially harmful to their development. According to research from the National Center for Education Statistics, age alone is not a reliable predictor of school readiness. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics states that decisions about school entry should consider cognitive, social, and emotional maturity, not just chronological age. A hard date can unintentionally penalize students who are fully prepared. Um, it was stated to follow suit with uh the districts in the IU, other districts in the IU. Um, of the 13 districts, we are one of them. uh four other districts do allow for uh a grace period um within the IU do allow the exceptions of September 1st. So these districts recognize that education and Pleasant Valley currently that education is not a one-sizefits-all. They allow for

019early admission based on parent request, development screening, developmental screening and professional education by school psychologists or evaluations by school psychologist. So why can't we continue to have what we already have? I'm not asking for a free forest or having a date for general admission, but I'm asking you to continue to include a reasonable structure exception process such as a process that is already in place with 201 AR1 that ensures we maintain standards while meeting standards where they are. As a district, we preach individualized education once students are enrolled. Let's continue that model and mindset from the very beginning. Please don't close the door on children ready to walk through it. Instead, give families and educators the ability to make thoughtful decisions together. Our children deserve that. Thank you. Okay. Treasures report. Oh, wait. I'm sorry.

020Are there any other Pleasant Valley citizens that would like to come to the board about agenda items? Okay. Thank you. uh treasures report service this evening. I'm seeking a motion for item 4 A through C. A is informationational nor second Mr. Burgerer U and Mr. Gaziski for a second. Um any discussion? Yeah, I just thought the hydro jet removing of the blockage check was borders to come in and hydro jet blockage. Where where did that uh it was a sewer line that was blocked up, right? Which I like was it on this campus here? Yeah, it was here. I just I'm just quite curious about that because with the renovations going on, there's so many old sewage pipes under there. Do we look to get any other problems when you start moving that construction around?

021Uh we're fixing one pipe in the parking lot from JCM to the sewer plant. We already scoped that out. We know we need to fix that. Um most of the piping staying. Uh there's bathroom reconfiguration at the high school cafeteria. Uh so those will be put in. I just wonder because we're like I said we are pretty old this high school and if we that piping's been in that long it's like how much longer is that going to last if we start building structures up are we going to run the problem now we're underneath buildings what are we going to do there we've discussed it committee with the contractors fairly confident going forward that is quite expensive you want to no I was just yeah well I was just saying how expensive building, right? No,

022no, I agree. Yeah. Was this Was this I mean, Norm, you might have some insight here, but was the conversation about piping um part of the renovation? Was was it considered to potentially replace the initial wastewater piping or or anything like that? Was that part of that conversation? Because he Mr. because he puts up the there there have been multiple discussions on what was needed and as inspections went forward additional things found and I I think uh this might fall in that category. Is that right? So when when they went in to to look at things to be done, they found things that were not previously identified as being part of what it was intended to be done, but in order to make the project complete and have long life, it it is beneficial to

023do it to prevent future damage and maintenance costs. Just want to make sure I was taking consideration also. I know that the I don't know know the old problem going down but I know all in that area there. Any further discussion? All right. All those in favor? I I. All those opposed and that motion carries. Mr. F. Any unfinished business? There is no unfinished business this evening. Is that easy? New business. Mr. Surface. Yes. My report is attached for MCTI. But I did want to let you know that the buildings and grounds committee had an opportunity to tour the new addition this past Monday evening when we met. Uh it's coming along very nicely. The painting is done. The floors have been epoxied in both bathrooms. The new conference room looks huge. Um we're getting

024there. The brick is all up on the outside. The windows are in. Our anticipated completion is in early June. So, barring any weather issues and tight tightening up the roof, we should be right on track. Thank you. You're welcome. Um, Colonial IU, I know Mr. Galler is currently um at that awards dinner right now um because Pleasant Valley received um some acknowledgements and he's representing us on on that behalf. His file is attached. Uh PSBA has a report. So, the report is attached as well as um two supporting reports. One is the state of education report for um 2025 and the other is um a 2025 school mandate report which talks about the cost of implementing the 2025 mandated items which I thought would be interesting to share. Thank you. Um education report, no new

025information. Um finance report, Mr. Surface. Yes, we will be looking for movement later on in the agenda. Thank you. Athletics, Mr. Keith, as always, athletic report. It's a busy week for our PE athletic teams competing in their respective EPC events. Our boys and girls track and field athletes competed in the EPC championships on Wednesday, May 7th, and today, May 8th. Some notable accomplishments from day one. Congratulations to the boys 3200 green light team for securing fourth place. Additionally, we extend our heartfelt congratulations to Demetrius Otton for achieving the second place in the 300 hurdles with a personal best and a new school record of 39.77 seconds. As we see here tonight, our girls lacrosse team girls lacrosse team is currently battling Nazareth in the EPC quarterfinals in Northampton High School, which is a neutral site.

026Also just announced for the girls lacrosse, the EPC all-star selections for the PB girls lacrosse has been announced. First team, team all MVP Riley Raph. First team, Devin Bush, Olivia Ayandoli, and Olivia Raph. And second team is Brianna Palmary. Best of luck to all of our athletes as they take postseason competition. Make us proud, PB Proud. Some important reminders. St. Luke sports physicals for the 2526 school year will take place Monday, May 19th from 5 to 8:00 p.m. in the high school new gym. And the cheerleading triyouts for the 2526 season, high school and middle school, will be held May 27th through 29th, 5:00 pm through 700 p.m. at the high school. That's it. Thank you. Um, policy report is that on the agenda tonight first reading. Well, we are number seven. All right. Capital

027improvement, Mr. Burger. Our next schedule meeting is on the 22nd of May. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Clark. Technology. Uh, my report is attached. Okay. I actually have a couple of updates for security report. I missed the last meeting, so I wanted to get this information out there. Um, on April 15th and 16th, the students grades 5 through 12 conducted their annual safe to say training through the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation. Uh, safe to say something is a youth violence prevention program run by the PA Office of Attorney General. This program teaches youth and adults how to recognize warning signs and signals, especially with social media, from the individuals who may be a threat to themselves or others, and to say something before it is too late. The program is a valuable tool used by

028our community to report safety concerns, to help us prevent violence and tragedies from occurring. And then a second I have for tonight um additional uh on the on the agenda tonight there's a an ask for additional security cameras to be addressed to address some of the blind spots. Um this will be paid from the PCCD grant the remaining funds um and the Johnson controls us on for number 14 B item number four that is what I have for security. All right Mr. Gazyski citizen advisory. Yeah, we had our first meeting of the citizen advisory committee of Mr. Service and Mrs. Zip joined my mom and myself. We had a great showing. We had Mrs. Herrerero, Mr. Harris, Mr. Van Or there as their administrators answering questions about technology use in the classroom. It was very

029productive. Um, a lot of good questions came from our um, committee and our administration did a wonderful job of addressing those. Uh, some of the three things that they would like us to continue to possibly look into would be technology to be more balanced with the students activity should involve additional hands-on activities. They want, you know, a little bit more technology with with hands-on basically manipul type things, not just using technology. The other one's the students to perform small group work that technology not be used so as to facilitate more social interaction before with their children our students. Um and homework they would some homework was brought to the continuation of more technology when they go home after being having technology all day. The parents would really need to cut down technology so maybe not

030doing assignments or had anything else be assignments such as a paperwork or something like that that we didn't have hands on. Um would you discuss that? I know that he took notes and I'm sure they're going to address that with, you know, share that information with our principles. Um, we look for our next meeting will be June 4th. The topic at that time, I said that the whole community is involved about come to it. Um, it's called relating real life skills experience in the classroom. Um, I'm going to have to have some discussion with our administrators and hopefully they'll help find out some resources we can have and I'm hoping we get involved. I know we have great programs at the elementary and you know those new rooms that they have and so someone can

031come and explain those type of things with middle school and PDI and high school just just so we have something to go with with that and again that will be the June 4th and it'll be 6:30 in this room 6:30 to 7:30 um appreciate it um during the time we talked about hands on and this just brought up something and I asked our high school principal assistant principal to please sh if show a poster because I know people talk about we don't do too much hands-on and I went to the academic fair and this is one of the posters if you could expl when I first looked at I'm like okay that's great that I looked at queen but what is this standard as you notice there's no technology they had a draw they had

032a print stuff like that could you elaborate on that a bit yeah absolutely um this is coming from one of Mr. Shupa's AP social studies classes um and which are wrapping up right now. The students have started taking exams already and what we see is a project called an anatomy of a civilization. So the students worked in groups and they had to pick a civilization and then what they had to do is they had to sort of decide what their superhero for that civilization was. So in the British Empire we see here this is who they chose as their superhero. Then to stay with the anatomy theme, you can see that all around all the different parts of the body, they came up with analogies. For example, in talking about the head, they discussed all

033of the uh impacts that Queen Elizabeth had and all the accomplishments and things like that. Um the ears, I thought this one was really interesting. the British medical systems and looking at the practices and how we uh how they were able to learn more about um you know health care and things like that and and the um advance of medical school things like that all the way down to the feet which let me just read what this is the feet are about trade routes right so the travel that is taken for trade so they were able to integrate a number of concepts um you know looking at sociology uh looking at um the human anatomy piece of it as well. But what um was really unique about this was that the students were doing this

034in summation of what they had learned over the entire course. So it was completely their ideas. They weren't told what body parts to use. They weren't told, you know, um what things needed to be included. It was just give us your interpretation of this. So Well, thank you. And that that's why that's what I'm talking about. Sometimes people miss that we are an all technology and that there are interactions going on and like this is a grace project that these kids had to work together and you know brought that information. So I just want to know that we do have a lot of good things going on in the school. I know there's other ones unfortunately sorry I miss the other academic fairs around the world here but um that that wraps it up but

035thank you very much. Thank you. All right Dr. Conrad superintendent report. Okay. Uh so tonight, uh item 7A isformational. Um I did want to clarify that what you'll see under 7A is a first reading of three of the policies. And then you also have uh the administrative regulations. So I just want to clarify the administrative regulation is not a policy. The policy itself is related to policy 201. the administrative regulations means that this is the procedure in which we're going to um operate and honor the uh what is written basically within that policy um when we're admitting students uh to Pleasant Valley School District. Um, so with that being uh a point of discussion, I'm I'm wondering amongst the board uh are there any uh questions or concerns you have regarding either the policies listed

036even though they'reformational and not um you know for vote at this time other than first reading. It's still not up for vote yet. Um but are there any questions or concerns about the policies or the AR for policy 2011 which is early admission for students? Um, I' I'd like to address on your administrative regulation. I understand there there's data that has been collected. Um, I' I'd like to sometime in the near very near future have that data presented to us as the board so that we can feel that we have a complete understanding of what is happening at the elementary school. Um, but I also in reference to uh Mr. rules comments. I'd like to add that early uh admission has been helpful for a number of of individuals. And um I I have an

037example. This goes back quite a ways. I'm going back to the 1930s here. uh actually the starting in the 20s, but my uncle uh Albert who my middle name comes from um started school at the age of four. So, and went through graduated at 16, went to what today is ESU, became a mathematics teacher and taught down at Emmas until he he passed away. uh so that there are people who can benefit from this and I think we need to have a full understanding and maybe um consider ways that we can accommodate people who are exceptional in their own way uh and allow them to progress. And what happens to some some students who are extremely pride is they get in they get into school and they they're uh they get bored. I I know

038when I went to uh uh we didn't have kindergarten. I was bored for the first three or four years because I knew how to multiply before I went to first grade. So uh are we helping or hurting? That's the question. I I will piggyback on that if you don't mind, Ron. Like I I agree with the aspect of um and I'm sure we're going to hear a bit if that's okay. Right. Um so maybe I'll hold it. But um I do like the fact or I do want to also recognize the fact like like Nor said that um I don't want to punish potentially um kids that are going to benefit from this. The kids are not going to be disrupted in the classroom. And I like the idea of a gray area on a

039case by case basis. I know it's a difficult conversation to have. Um, and putting a a date to that is even more difficult. You know, two months, 10 days, 5. I understand that no matter what date you put, you know, there's always going to be somebody day after day after. I know that that's a grayer, but I don't know. I I like the idea of having a a deeper look at this to to see if there's a case by case basis you can look at. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know if that looks like parents paying privately for um out of school whatever to kind of accommodate but put that also as a as a gray area as well because then I let's hear let's hear just like you said um

040parents pay for it my daughter when she was younger she was the third of three girls right who were all honor stars so by the time she was 4 years old. Her birthday was October 1st. She came in, took the test and she was at a first reading at first grade level, but they denied her access to kindergarten say she wasn't ready. Right. I said I paid for her to go private kindergarten where she came in at first grade reading at second grade level speaking Spanish and everything else. So yes, there's that alter, but I also believe that we if they are ready, I don't see any reason why they can't come. But in Kansas, where my grandchildren go, they have a rule that let's say you start the year and then you're misbehaving or

041you're this and that, second time you're done for the rest of the year. You can't come back until the following year. So maybe that could be something like that because kindergarten is not mandatory. So I said if we have that policy that states that okay where to start these kids but you know one of our things was if they're not trained if they have two accidents they're done you know or you know just so we make it more strictly I think it's behavior is what I'm thinking we're hearing is going on that they they're smart enough to get in there but when you're smart you're at home with mom or wherever you're not in a classroom from 9:00 until 3:30 without a nap time. So I I just I I would I don't want to

042see it just cut off because there are some very smart kids out there that are young. I'd like to see the opportunity. Yeah. Let's hear what let's hear what the driving forces behind it. Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. And and these are all really good uh talking points and obviously you know with our administration team uh you know one thing I really value about them is the push and pull. And what I mean by that is you know we're looking at this from a global perspective as to you know what are the the pros and cons? what are the benefits and the challenges um by making one decision versus another. And just, you know, to kind of take a step back, I will say that um you know, when I stepped into the role of superintendent Pleasant

043Valley, we did have this policy in place. We had the AR in place. Um over the last couple of years, we have allowed uh students to be tested. Uh and and I would say maybe about half, maybe a little bit less of those students would then qualify uh to be admitted into um or you know, early into kindergarten. So what one of the challenges that we encountered last year if you even were to go back to videos around the beginning of the year was to look at you know so what are the guard rails that we're putting in place with the administrative regulation and we had a really lengthy discussion about um what is a date? So as soon as you select a date, right, you immediately select winners and losers because anybody before that

044is has an opportunity to benefit from the decision and anybody after immediately has uh you know it might feel sour because they just missed the cutoff, right? And that's going to happen no matter what date you pick. So um you know most school districts as as brought to everyone's attention um you know use a a September 1st uh expectation for kindergarten. However, um because that wasn't really outlined in the AR specifically, as a board, we had discussions and as an administrative team, we had put guard rails to say that we would have a cut off extended to October 31st. Well, immediately you could imagine that the parents of children who had a November 1st birthday or any s time thereafter kind of felt uh very frustrated because again this arbitrary date that you're setting up

045um is really going to be a hindrance to what I would hope I can have my student or my child attend kindergarten. And again, let's just be honest, there's a financial impact as well, right? Um, you know, it's either you can m maybe get into accepted into early kindergarten or you're going to pay $25,000 having your kid going to the growing place. Like I I'm very aware of that. But, you know, one thing I want this board to understand too is, you know, when we make decisions, we are looking at data and as educational leaders, we are looking at pedigogy and um cognitive competence and and behavioral competence of students. Um and and and I I I think you know best to talk about that would probably be uh Sarah Adams who who you know

046maybe can share not only some data but some perspective because you know we have to look at this as as longitudinal data. This isn't just a flip decision that we're making. I think some of the conversations just to put in context for those you know uh in Zoom and and and and um and Google Meet and then for those that are here is that you know over the past couple of years we've been noticing some challenges. Um I'm sure many of you are aware compulsory age in uh schools in Pennsylvania was changed a couple of years ago. It used to be what eight 8 through 16. Okay. They had to be in school by 8. They had to be out by or they could leave school by the age of 16 if the parent signed

047off. remember those days? And now it's actually dropped down to six years old. So we're bringing these students in at a younger age group, but then also um 17 is the the other end of that spectrum. And so I think what we've noticed is the trend data. And I want to highlight that as as well so that way you all kind of see more comprehensively what is leading to these decisions. um and what is the longitudinal data, the impact that's having on students because that's what we're we're about is making decisions that's in the best interest of students. And I know that that's not palatable for some people because sometimes it's how does it impact me as an adult or as a parent, but I think educationally we have to look at what we feel

048is going to benefit our students. So, Miss Adams, um you know, if she can maybe come up to the podium, share some insight and perspective, maybe some data, but again, I want us to remember this. Um, prior to Mrs. Adams becoming the uh, assistant principal at PVE, she's been in the building for years and worked as a counselor. So, I think she has a very unique lens to this issue. um which I very much uh would love to hear and and we've had some discussions about this because she has that unique perspective from a child development perspective um age appropriateness perspective and obviously we take feedback from the individuals who are testing the students and the feedback that they're getting um and the feedback that we're providing back to families. So without further ado, Mrs.

049Adams, if you could share insight, perspective, data, and anything that you can share with the board that leds perspective. Thank you. Um, so when we're talking about early entry, you you guys are absolutely correct on what you said, it's not just about their academic readiness, their social, emotional, developmental readiness is is a huge piece of it. And that's something that we take very seriously and that's part of our process when we we've gone through this. Um, they're never easy conversations to to have when we have to tell a family, look, we just we're not seeing it. They're not ready. It's a very it makes the dynamic between us and that family very challenging because eventually they do become our kindergarteners and now they kind of have a bad taste in their mouth. So, that's always

050a concern for us moving forward, too, because we still love the kid. We want the kid to come, but they're they didn't show us that they were ready in that situation. um we took this challenge to to engage in this process very seriously and we didn't want it to just kind of stop after a year. We wanted to be very um thoughtful in the process. So we have tracked the data of the students that have come in for early admission. We've looked at how they're doing academically. We've looked at how they're doing socially. I've got feedback from their teachers, from their counselors. Um and I've also looked at what services are they requiring. Did they come in and then eventually need speech and language support? did they start needing reading and math specialists um support

051from those individuals? Um because that is something that we wouldn't necessarily want to see happen if they're truly academically ready in those those cases where you are so intelligent. That's not a kid we would anticipate needing those additional academic supports. Um our we now have first graders uh they were our first group and looking at how they're doing and seeking feedback. Um, one of them of the two is requiring requiring breathing and math support as well as speech and language support. Both of them are having some social issues. Um, one of them is extremely shy and struggles to to advocate for herself um and has had some issues with peers not totally being on the same um level as her peers. They're they're a little bit more mature and she struggles to sometimes fit in.

052Um, sweet girl, so well behaved, like just a very pleasant kid. We we love her, but we are seeing those struggles with her. Um, the little boy as well, kind of struggling to connect with some of his peers. The other piece that we have to always consider is is the physical piece. Um, he's very tiny and and so, you know, you never know, a kid could grow. It it could happen, but he's remained very tiny. Um, and he is a little aware of that. um and has has made some comments about that. It seems a little uncomfortable. Um at this time we we do have the data for our kindergarteners from um they are in currently in kindergarten. Um of those students we had seven of them uh last year that we admitted. Of those

053seven, two are receiving support in reading or math or both. One is both. Um and three are receiving now receiving speech and language supports. Um, a few of them struggled to enter in the fall. There was a lot of tears. There was a lot of getting them, you know, getting them to separate from mom. Um, we got them there and and you know, they're they're doing doing well. Could you just focus on the can you focus on the data instead of the students? No problem. Um, so in looking at the data, what we need to do is there's two pieces to the process. One piece is that academic piece. Absolutely. Because we look at that for all kindergarters. The other piece is the social emotional. So what we do is we bring the student in,

054they complete the kindergarten screener, they have a a score on the screener, but then we also take them into a kindergarten classroom and we do an observation and we look for certain things. Can they follow directions? Um, can they speak in complete sentences? Do they engage with their peers? Do they engage with the teacher? Um, and we have a checklist for that and we check off whether or not they did it appropriately, not appropriately, or we just didn't observe it because sometimes you just don't depending on the lesson. Um, we also don't put them in a full-size kindergarten class. We put them in our title one classroom so that we can um it's a little bit easier. It's a smaller ratio. There's 12 students. It's not a full classroom of 20. Um, then what the

055team does is they get back together. They review all of the data. They look at their their total score. They also look at their score in terms of just reading and in terms of just math. And then they look at those checkpoints um what everybody observed. And it's never just one person observing. it's two to three people observing and providing feedback because one observer can be subjective. Um so we look at what the observations say for all what everybody noticed. Um we then put this into a report um and we discuss as a team whether or not we think that this child has met the criteria. We do look for a screening score of an 80 um for them to be recommended. Um, in previous years, you know, we we had started with a 60,

056but we adjusted our kindergarten screeners. So, then of course the the number did need to adjust as well. For this year, we were very aware of that. And so, we did look very carefully at our students that scored in the 60s. Um, one of them we did recommend, one of them we did not because of some behavioral concerns. Um, but anybody that that has a score of 80 or below, we we don't recommend because they haven't shown us that they have those um foundational skills that would help them be successful long term. The social emotional piece is always a little bit harder. It's hard to to make something that's observable quantitative. Um, so that always leads to more of a discussion, but really what we're looking for in those observation is did they attend to

057tasks? Were they able to engage with a peer? Were they able to respond appropriately to the teacher? Um, a big one, honestly, is did they stay in their area? A lot of times they come in and they're kind of all over the classroom and and disruptive. Um, so those are all things that we look at. Um, and then we submit our report to Dr. Conrad. Um, and he'll sometimes give us a call. We'll we'll talk through a couple that that aren't as clear-cut as some others. Um and then the the recommendation goes from there at which point he lets us know and then we make the phone calls to all of the families. For for clarification for the board um there are individuals and and per the current AR they needed to submit a request

058by certain deadline for this upcoming school year for 2526. Um and on the board agenda and probably future agendas um the any decision that we're making regarding this administrative regulation for policy 2011 will not impact those students. So this you know what we're looking at is the students that um we have recently at you know tested they've met the threshold we are allowing those individuals for this upcoming school year. this would impact us two years from now because we want to honor what we had in place at the time that we tested the students which I think is the commendable thing to do. However, and let me I kind of cut to the chase on it I guess you know Mrs. Adams between you and your team because you exclusively at PVE are the only

059building in the district dealing with kindergarten students coming in. Is it the perspective of you and your team that the early admission of students into kindergarten is a hindrance um to future success and therefore we should eliminate the um administrative regulation to allow that grace or you know or or are we looking for like a a certain cuto off date? You know what would that date look like? And again, this would be two years from now, but I I'd like to know what your team's perspective is. Before you answer that, sorry. When you say two years, you mean fall 2026 or fall 2027? It would um So, it would be for the students beginning school in the fall of 2026. Thank you. Yes. You were saying that if they're 80 or below, we don't So,

060you're saying the ones that you do bring in are 80 or above 80. and you're finding out that they still aren't successful in that year. So is it that they're not successful or we don't have the proper test to make sure that we get those very small percentage that that's my concern like I understand that's 20% chance of getting in there but are we we give a test that basically we almost like 5% or something like that and data wise is there a way to go back and look at how these kids like we should have known who were early admissions over the past 17 years. Can we go and see what happened to them like in the middle school and high school? I mean, that's a lot of work and and and and that's

061my other concern is like you're having all these people that want their kids coming in. Your staff, you are now dealing with them instead of the current students that are there and that's a concern of mine too because we have those that are there that that's what our staff should be focusing on. But I still don't want to limit that 5% could possibly get successful. I'm sorry. I was only gonna raise my hand. I just wanted to go before she started again. I I So my question is more about and I I I hear the examples and I hear what you're saying, but what we don't know is if they had started on time that they wouldn't have needed the same help, right? And I I get like for me to make that kind of

062decision like what does that percentage look like of early starters compared to people that didn't start early is that percentage like much greater of needing that additional help for people that start early than it would be for the people that are starting on time? Like I I think that that makes a difference too. Yeah. I mean, and that's that's it's it's hard like that would be data that we have to to collect and look at and look for almost at our our kindergarten screenings for that entire group that entered that year because they did take the same screener. The the academic piece, they did all of them received the same academic screener. So, that's data that we would have to to look at and then look at what services they're they're now receiving, but we

063we certainly could. Um, I think the piece that that is important and and there was a lot of like questions, so I want to try to make sure that that's okay. I just want to try to make sure that I hit them all. Um, when when we're looking at these kids and and they are not scoring as as well as maybe they needed to, we want to give them the time to to develop those skills and be successful. And and so having that extra year of preschool, they might come in a very successful kindergartener because they had that extra time to learn those foundational skills. And we know as educators, if those foundational skills are in place, then they can start applying those skills. if those foundational skills aren't in place, then it takes longer

064to get to the application piece. So, you know, a kid that that doesn't have all of their their and they don't need to have all of their letters, but let's say you have a kid that knows all of their letters coming in, then they start working on their letter sounds and before you know it, they're becoming readers. A kid that doesn't have any letters or or only a few has to spend all those initial months learning those things before they can get to those next steps. So that's why academically we look at kind of a range and a cut off so that we want these kids to be successful. We know that there's all those other pieces that are developmental and social. If we can set them up for success with a certain academic score,

065we hope that that then helps facilitate the the rest of it with the social emotional um and that piece is I was a counselor like that that piece is is where I'm really at is is what is going to to have the best impact on these kids. And I want them all to to be successful. I don't want anybody to feel singled out or anything like that. And and that's hard to predict. You don't entirely know. But what we can do is look at where those current kids are when they come in for for that observation. And we're very aware that they're coming in and these other kids have been in that classroom all year. We're thinking about what did those kids look like at the beginning of the year. If this child entered into

066a kindergarten classroom on day one with with some of the behaviors that we're seeing and the social emotional um kind of concerns, would they be successful or would they be disruptive? Would I be calling these parents saying, "Hey, your kid is really struggling with their peers. Would a counselor be meeting with them frequently?" We want them to be set up for success. Any kid too, but especially our kids that are starting early when we know that developmentally they might not be exactly there. I can't say that we've had any kid that has come in and been like, "Oh my gosh, they're already reading. They're doing math." That's that we haven't seen. That would be a completely different conversation. I have not seen a kid in any of the years we've been doing it that that

067is like that. And we will have kids that that come in that are ready that are reading, which is al actually why we adjusted our kindergarten screener because they weren't getting data to support that. They, you know, they knew all their letters and sounds, but they also read the book to us. there was nothing to show the teacher that hey this kid did read. We wanted to adjust our screener to account for some of those things. So that that was a part of it. Consider not that I want to say but my grandson was in London at three years old and he was reading signs everywhere. I mean words I couldn't even say. So someone like that plus his mother be able to talk. So, is there a leeway to allow that type? Like you

068said, especially those that have older brothers or sisters, the younger kids seem to have a little bit more knowledge. And sometimes I just wonder if there's going to be an a lotment for that. I I hate to say, "Okay, this is it. Got dry. If you're not engaged at this time, you're done with." I don't mean that. I just I I get I mean I get what you guys are saying and and that's also subjective because a lot of times and I think where some of the parents struggle is especially when they have older brothers and sisters, they love to talk to the adults, they love to talk to the older kids and then they come in with same age peers and they kind of don't know what to do. And we're seeing that with

069some of these kids as well where the parents are like, "Oh, they're so ready. They do this. They do that." And then when they're with their own age kids, they're not fitting in. and and so and that could happen with others but we are seeing that with with this group of students and I I think it really it's it's difficult because it is like you said taking a lot of time away from other students um we the kindergarten screener itself takes about 20 minutes during that time a teacher is is with it's normally one of our reading specialists is with the three people observing yeah three people are observing and that's a 20-minute observation and then until we review all the data it's it's hours and and the number is increased inreasing in terms of

070how many kids we have. This year we have 15 or it was 15. Are they are the are the children that are having problems in the emotional side and on the academic side the same vend diagram? Not always. Some of them are what's the crossover there? Um, a lot of, so looking at my data, I would say that our students that were below the 80 generally also struggled in the classroom to engage in the lesson because they didn't have the skills to do it. It was over their head. They they weren't Well, let me back up and ask a slightly different question. When you did your initial screening, did did that include the social interaction side of it or was it only an academic uh achievement? Yeah. The like the initial screening the the initial

071screening did did social skills was that part of the screening? Oh yeah. Yeah. So they we look at how they did one-on-one with the the teacher that was doing the screening and sometimes they they completely shut down and wouldn't engage in that process and then we also looked at the social side of it when they were in the classroom for the lesson. So it's it's every screening we've done we've looked at both things and and they for for them to be admitted that they have to meet both the social and the academic. But now you're saying after the fact that that uh they're not equal to their peers. Yeah. And that's we in that snapshot of time, we looked at the data and said, "Okay, they they did okay." But that year of of being

072younger or those months of being younger or that lack of time in that preschool now, as we're seeing their peers move along developmentally and socially, some of them are not keeping pace with that. What percentage of the students who met the age requirement by the 1 of September have those equivalent kinds of problems, right? And that that that I'd have to look at like I I couldn't off the top of my head give you No, no, no. If if you could Yeah, please uh provide us with that. Absolutely. We can look at behavior referrals and and referrals to our child study team for behavior. We could get that together. We can have a discussion. I have a question. Yeah, absolutely. of the students that you looked at, how quickly does it manifest or like show,

073hey, they're like you're looking at the year data right now, right? Is it something like by the first in the first quarter, all right, these kids are not going to be there? Like how quick are these students being, you know, identified as potential students that aren't going to grow to the full capability, I guess. So, we're definitely seeing more of an impact now with our group in first grade. It's it's becoming much clearer um for a group that's currently in kindergarten that the ones that are now receiving services started receiving them the second half of the year. To Mr. Gajiski's point, I thought maybe it was identified by the first court for some kind of reevaluation process and like all right, they're not meeting standard at that point. So then this is not going to

074happen. But if it's going more to midyear, that's tougher. I'm sure. Yeah. Sorry. So, I know it's been a long discussion and and I I it's very it's very good and insightful. Um, one one thing that that I'm kind of, you know, looking at if you boil this down is is literally like with the AR, you have an October 31st deadline. So, a deadline is a deadline is a deadline. We are having a discussion about changing that to September 1st, a couple, you know, month, month and a half or so, uh, earlier. Okay. Um there's data that that you're asking for which definitely we can do a little bit of a deeper dive and I think the other piece too is um two things we need to think about. One is the amount of time

075and staff that it takes to go through this process because I don't I don't know about anyone else in the room, but this is Adam. I know that it's a it's a lengthy process, but from the time that you get that initial email from me pretty much because they sent the request to me, I send it to you. You set up the meetings, you have three teachers assess this, you coordinate it, like this sounds like hours upon hours upon hours of collecting data. Okay. Um, and that's something I think that we really need to be mindful of because although it's important to think about the students that 15 or so that we're going to be admitting next year, guys, I I have I have a big problem when I have 900 kids in my building

076that I now took three admin two administrators, two counselors, and three teachers out for an entire day to work on an assessment. Um, and and to some parents, frankly, that that's not good enough. We need to have seven, you know, times that we're touching point with with these kids. No, we need to respect the educational perspective of the individuals that are dealing with the students and you know as is normal any decision that you make has pros and cons and I think we need to recognize that. The last thing I'll say is this timeliness of this this does not impact the students entering next school year. I think there's an opportunity to maybe talk a little bit about this in the summertime. Is that maybe something that you're thinking? Yeah, I was I was going

077to ask if we can t not I'm not going to say the word table. We're going to continue this conversation, but I was going to ask if we can further continue and have these questions answered over the next couple board meetings. So maybe by the end of summer, there is going to be a cut off where we're going to want to let families know, of course, stir, right? They have to prepare their lives. But I do want to table or not table. I do want to continue to have this conversation and not make any rash or not have let's just continue talking about their kids care about all the kids. Like I just we want them to be successful. And it is something where we looked at the data but we also talked to the

078experts and we talked to local counselors, we talked to professors at local universities um and we also looked at what the national um association for the education of young children has said about these matters. So it is we took all things into consideration when when looking at this. So just one question I have so two questions. Did we look at upping the standards like we're we're accepting mediocracy at 70 something why don't we raise the bar to 90 and we we get the best of the best right? And then it's cut and dry. Leave the data as it is and raise your standards. And then I don't care what the parent says. You have you have a standard times where you say we still you're still going to have 20 people throw their kids in

079trying to hit the N. No, you got you have to set set the bar. You need to set standards. You need to have an acceptance test before we even invest any of our time into allowing to this program. Sorry. And what about it's not a free-for-all. And yeah. Okay. What about like prerequisites for even coming into that conversation? That's interesting because one of the things that we actually have proposed was actually having the director of the educational center that they're in preschool to write a letter of recommendation. But again, that could be subjective. You know, it could be the neighbor of that individual and you're paying a bill. I mean, let's just, you know, kind of think about how how the world works. But maybe not uh but maybe not making up. Maybe that is

080just a prerek of just getting to even Yeah. And it's not as subjective as it really it's not as right. You know what I mean? Yeah. Absolutely. So, so procedurally I think I think we can we can revisit this. I agree. Uh, you know, we can look at procedures. I I I like the idea, you know, with with certain parameters of of adjusting numbers. That was kind of going through my head about 80, you know, to 90 to 100, but what makes up those numbers? And I guess at the end of the day, if I raise the bar up to a 100 out of 120, you know, does that 100 then guarantee or have a greater percentage of likelihood that that student's going to be successful? And I think, you know, you hit the nail

081on the head. These are, you know, indicators. It's not factual. These are things. It's not a science. It's just a, you know, it gives us insight, but there's no guarantee, right? So, I think we have to be mindful of that as well. But, yeah, let's definitely Good conversation. I love it. But I know we have other stuff. My my only big concern is that they are occasionally exceptional students and we should not become an anchor on an exceptional student. We should allow them to excel and that's my biggest concern. Absolutely. And I can't we didn't experience any student like what you're describing. I can't speak to that, but I I completely understand. There are absolutely students that even come in at the regular, you know, when they're supposed to start kindergarten that are exceptional and

082then it's our job to put things in place to challenge those students and to to make education meaningful for them and hit them where they're at and there is an approximal development. Thank you for the effort that you have. So, just we're on the same page. We are not changing the administrative just so everyone is on the same page and and even if we did, it wouldn't impact any student uh entering this next school year. So yes, we'll continue the discussion. No change has been uh made further discussions necessary and at a later date we will um look at procedural uh and quantitative data uh and analytical points that we may want to consider when making this decision. And we also really need to determine what that um the date is because at the end

083of the day October 31st or September 1st it doesn't matter. A date is a date and that needs to be clearly established um as a threshold as well. So yeah, great. Thank you. Any further discussion on this? All right. Um number eight, human resources. Mrs. Former. Yes. Good evening. Tonight I'm seeking approval of items 8B through 8 G. Items 8H through 8 K are information. Mr. Gaziski with a motion second. what I'm doing. Second by Mr. Zip. Any discussion? Yeah. Um AJ, Chief Miller, the guy was with us for 10 years. I think he did a heck of a job. Um I really think our staff as well felt safe while he was here. I think it's a shame that we're losing him. Um I I still feel that if we would have acted on

084something sooner, he might have decided to stay around. Um, I just want to know let them know that we will definitely miss it and we really appreciate everything you did for us and uh wish you well intended together. Any other discussion? I you know I'll just take a moment real quick. Sorry. I I I do want to acknowledge um you know since I've worked with Chief Miller the last couple of years uh very exclusively as well with Dr. Howard um we've seen a lot of refinements. uh we've seen, you know, an increase of community policing and and I'll say, you know, I felt that we have a safer uh school environment. Um and and and you know, again, as when everything closes, there's also opportunity in the future. And you know, I look forward to

085that. We are uh we already have interviews scheduled uh for next week, in fact, for uh hiring a new police chief. Um and so we have some excellent candidates, so I'd look forward to that. But again, you know, I had a very good relationship with um our chief of police. Chief Miller did a great job. I want to commend all the things that he's done. And you know, again, whoever's going to fill those shoes is going to continue to move our district uh into a safer and supportive school environment. But we do acknowledge and I personally appreciate all things he's done. So, thank you, Chief, and uh his staff. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I. All those opposed? That cares tonight. I receive approval of items 9B through 9. G motion. Second. Zip.

086Thank you guys. Thank you. I appreciate you guys. I appreciate you guys. Um discussion. Okay. All right. Saying that did you get the Okay. As a Yeah. No discussion. All those in favor I. All those opposed and that carries. Moving on to curriculum. Dr. Yes. Good evening. Tonight I'm seeking approval of items 10 A and 11 A. Promo Norber. Any discussion? Yeah. 10A on there. A top. Yes. It's a new course of a high school. Um and uh the college board required the textbook to be within a certain uh range of addition. Um so we have five books that just it's a new course. So we have an extra math class now sign up another AP. Thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I. All those opposed and that carries. 12 operations. Mr.

087Good evening. Tonight I'm speaking seeking approval for item 12 A. So move second. Okay. Any discussion? Yeah, just again I know we keep bringing this up but I wanted so the public knows will any of this interfere or be moved because of the renovation stuff like that's going on like will this affect any of these people should they be I guess what I'm saying is we're approving them to be okay with these dates but is there a possibility that they you'll have to inform them that it's not going to happen? I mean, we had a meeting with the outside groups, uh, Mitch Kazinski and I. Um, they're actually working together pretty good to, um, accommodate themselves. Um, so far so good. We didn't really get we didn't lose anything yet. So, I mean, that's, uh,

088we'll find out next year. Yeah. So far, they've been they've been awesome. The outside groups have worked together. Um, just going, can I ask just to follow up on that? Do you have a follow-up meet from the March meeting? Do you have a follow-up meeting with scheduled with the groups? We do not have anything scheduled. I figure maybe throughout the renovation project um quarterly meeting maybe or maybe that's unnecessary, but maybe a twice a year meeting or something would be helpful. Yeah, we should look at that. Or is as bigger things are happening where things are shutting down, maybe it's that's the time to come together and based upon the actions are happening as opposed to a set dates might make it more useful. All right. [Music] Any further discussion? All those in favor? All

089those opposed? And that carries. Moving on to business management. Businesses 13 through 13. So nor second. Any discussion? Yes. Um, one, the mobile lab is a contract on page five that talks about PV reimbursement or any damage or repairs and see because of the hooking up the electricity. Who is hooking up the electricity or is it our electricians that are hooking it up? That's why we're going to be responsible. I think there's been a cord that's been run for this. This isn't the first year, right? I know. Yeah, the cords in place. But so our our electricians make sure they Thank you. Um number four hall pass. Dr. Con, is this the thing you were talking about? This was a little bit more just Yeah, just uh securely passes is is a system that we're

090using to um for students if they need to use the restroom during instructional uh class periods. And this way just uh is something that we're uh able to access on the back end if there are any, you know, safety concerns. Obviously, our goal is to make sure that students are in class. uh you know learning and and you know obviously we're trying to make sure that our students are making good decisions during transition time during lunches to you know take care of uh bodily functions whatnot but um certainly they come up so we're just trying to be mindful of it and just uh trying to have um a good system to ensure safety and uh focus on education so that's all so as we are using that today currently we are currently using that so

091no teacher should be expecting any child student to be carrying anything ancillary with them to the laboratory to the nurse. That that is the expectation and and I know I spoke with Mr. Bird a couple days ago just to see how it's been going. Um I believe we were using it at the middle school maybe a little bit last year um as kind of a trial period just to see if this is something we were going to utilize and then we thought that there was benefit and we had some experts uh in in both buildings that have actually uh p previously used this um application uh and and and we we're finding that there's a lot of success. But yeah, no student should be walking around with like a wooden block uh to go from,

092you know, point classroom to restroom and back. Um yeah, remember those days, right? But it's in both buildings. In both buildings, correct? Yes. Um number five, the all American publishing. What? That's no cost to the district. Like what is that? Mr. President's not here, so I'll answer for you. Um they're post number seven the NWPA I mean I know we talked about this before and I was just going to say so um we we okayed a huge amount back in February and in there it stated that there was training that was covered And now we're saying that we need another $8,400 for training. You sure? Uh yeah, we uh had the licenses, the program licenses to train a certain amount of teachers and we counted most of our core teachers in that which we think

093of our math, English, um sciences. There were other teachers that wanted training, expressed training such as special ed. So we're going back and getting the people that we missed. This is no cost to the taxpayers. that's being paid through any line grant. So the reasoning was that they weren't included the first time there. Well, first uh we were looking this at the core because that's we thought we'd use it special. How would they use it? How is the special? I mean, I know we train how they going to Well, they can see how their students are access. Yeah. Because that would provide another lens to that. And there's some other people that will be included in that. Um so we just wanted to make sure that everybody had the training that could use it. One

094thing I just wanted to clarify to you just uh regarding NWA uh the NWA program and and this is the uh you know testing students basically in fall, winter and spring. This is not in addition to what we're doing. This is a replacement of what our current systems are and and if you go back a couple of uh work sessions ago a few months back we talked about you know the frequency that we're testing students. So we're trying to be very mindful of you know constantly testing students because it's one thing to get data. another thing and more importantly what are we doing with that data so you know as we're uh going down the pathway of utilizing NWEA actually our teachers are collecting data now um and the students are actually beginning some of

095those assessments now throughout the end of the year that's going to be some discussion points for our administration and our um educators as well but remember the the the purchase although you know a large purchase also comes at a cost of reducing other programs that we were replicating and now this is a a replacement of not in addition to I just wanted to clarify that for everyone they're coming next year throughout the year we already have the schedule of September 12th so they're already can I ask follow up on seven okay then yeah just because it's related to seven so uh because of the the turnover rate that the world has right now but because of the turnover rate new teachers coming in whether they're core or not core um year by year are these

096going to be additional expenses related to No, we we've already talked about um the first like so we have x amount of teachers. Okay. I'm saying but we've already talked as we hire new teachers when are we going to get them trained before they start the school year. I've already talked about that. Um I've been meeting I think I've been down there I four or five times meeting with kindergarten first second and I'm working with the um the teachers down there about what are we doing as these new people come in not only for NWA but with HMH like how they can serve the ground running so yeah I'm going to put it into induction as well okay we do have quite a list that we saw that are getting yeah probably more on the

097way so just a selling staying on seven how many teachers do we still not have that might need to be trained like what's I think this this that's it. Okay. Second is why can't we get anme somebody certified to be the trainer of Pleasant Valley School District as our own you know it's a supplement to their contract to be that to be that expert so we don't have to rely on I think that's something that we can look at down the road but we've added many features of NWA and so as you see the price come in we've added on things that are replacing other things at the elementary I get it I'm coming up with the long haul right let's get an expert that knows the system familiar with the program I think we

098can definitely do that that It's a lot right now. Um the biggest lift is really going to be at our elementary age. So um we're trying to be cognizant of that too. What we're expecting is a lot. I'm not just grants a lot. I'm just saying I want to have an expert in house. Oh yeah. That is training the new employee coming in. That's a very good point. So I spend a lot of money on training people to just walk out the door. It's nonvalue added. Yeah. I heard he wants to be anme so I can't do it. And he couldn't afford me. So it doesn't matter. Okay. Number just wonder with their renovations and everything and what what all that what are they going to be doing? So the school district is the hub

099if there's a disaster. So it's all our schools are listed on there. renovation. They storing anything. Okay. And the last one, PB carpet. We have a start date on it. Um, we're going to start the second week of summer. Second week of summer. Take a week off to um clear out the areas so when they come everything's ready for them. And our staff that's in there going to be wearing masks so you don't get from all that stuff that's been there. Thank you. Sorry. Good. Any further? Uh, I I've got a I've got a side question for the business management with what's happening at the federal level. Do we have any pending contracts where the money has not been spent and committed that that might be affected by the potential freezing of federal funds? Uh

100all of our federal funding 2425 school year have been received or allocated. Um our grant we have a grant from the high school renovation project. Um and that has been we've received half of that so far. I'm building out the other half tomorrow. I I can answer your question. Uh there there's been a lot made of recently where there were freezing of of outstanding non-liquidator or unlquidated esser and ARP ARP dollars. Uh we're that's not that is not Pleasant Valley. I have a I have a client who has $51 million that they're waiting for because they have a building project. They've already started and they're waiting for the $51 million, but that's not Pleasant Valley. Um, in terms of block grants, IDA, the title grants, there's no indication that those are going to be disrupted.

101Okay. The reason I'm asking is because we got budget coming up. All right. Any uh further discussion? Okay. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? And that motion carries. I'm also requesting approval 14. So move any discussion over and third or uh two, the sports care turf maintenance contract. I want to just explain to you first and then I'm going to tell you what my question is contract. Explain what the contract is, right? Exactly what they're going to do. Yeah. I mean, they read it, but I just wanted Yeah, they come twice a year back in tariff. They have a magnet in it to take up any kind of metal that's in there. They do a GMAX test of certain areas once a year just to make sure that the compression is good. Um,

102if there any low spots, they'll fill in the low spots with the granular rubber. Um, there is if there's a tear in it, they will fix tears. Where is the tear going to occur? What's that? The tear and I'll tell you what, it could be a seam came loose. I mean, we don't have too many sharp objects on there luckily. So there's not just that going to happen, but it's a sea more than likely would come loose. Okay. I I guess what I I saw this and my question we have all these new big vehicles the like the I don't think you call it monster machine the trainers and okay they had mud tires on them and I see them going across the turf. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but mud tires are

103burnt and really big down here. Is that something that we really want to see going across our tires like possibly ri them? I mean, I know that in the past we had golf carts which had those they're good for going across greens and everything else. They have more turf tires. Correct. Turf tires. So I guess my concern is like said I see this it's like okay that that that's an expensive thing and I saw in there that the tears only go so far but if we're riding across that and making these turns and we're risking more than we should that's going to cost us why because we don't want to go around the house I mean I just might say we put this money out let's protect it and and it's not foolish things like

104that is that something we can address yeah I mean I I would think tires of some of the ATVs that we just purchased. I I think what I would really need to let let maybe Brandy um Jim and actually the um uh sports care. I think that they can also provide us some insight because I mean I'm sure that we're not the only school district that uses um you know different tread on the tires. Right. But I'm not paying No, of course. No, I understand. But Right. They're going to tell us whether or not um that this this is a legitimate concern, which it may be. Or they might say, "Hey, you know, we're put we're talking about putting rubber on rubber." So, you know, technically it's going to compress as you're rolling over because

105of the pellets, but then it's going to, you know, form back up. So, they're not having I just don't know. Okay. Yeah, we we could certainly um find out from to get some perspective. It's a beautiful turtle. Yeah. Yeah. We need to maintain it. Um, one last one. The, uh, I already asked this for Johnson control. We just talked about that security candidate. Basically, replacing those to that are hitting blind spots wherever they are and other areas that need stuff. Yeah. Thank you. Any further discussion? Uh see additional teacher furniture for TV school. Okay. And I'm just going to say this. Let me say we bought nearly a million dollars worth of furniture. And we spent so many months figuring out what this furniture was that we needed. And then we came and a lot

106of us had to swallow it and say, "Okay, we'll go where we were kids." So when I see this after the fact, there's two things that come in my mind. First of all, it's like, "Okay, well, we got the additional 37,000 or it would have pushed us over and the board would think, oh, what the heck's going on here, so let's just split it up." Or we didn't take in consideration something was missing the first time that we should have looked into and now we have to make up for. So, if someone could elaborate on why I can't. I'll own it. It was my mistake. I didn't break it up intentionally. This was a project that we were going to do as part of the capital improvement project. We did the classrooms. We spent a

107lot of time with the furniture for the classrooms. I can't tell you um how many times I've walked around that building and kept desks in classrooms. uh we did not think about the offices, the nurse's office, the offices in the locker room, the guidance counselor offices. Um so we went back to the company. They're giving us the same price and there wasn't any other fees on that. So I own that. I appreciate your honesty. I just I just wanted to tell where we came from. It's almost like when we had that guy the key locked me and then so many doors, I just like Okay. Well, I will say I've never been through a project like this and some very easy to do this. Two buildings at the same time. So, I will own that.

108That was my my Any further discussion? All those in favor? I. All those opposed? And that motion carries. questions. Oh, just ju just very briefly, and I I think I mentioned it last month or the month before, um the board negotiating team continues to meet with the Pleasant Valley Education Association uh in the collective u desire to uh enter into a successor contract. Those discussions continue at the table. So, I just wanted to update the board on that one. Pleas Valley citizens, at this time you may come to the podium to talk about any non-aggenda non-aggenda items as well as agenda items. Uh, you have a threeminute limit. Hi, Alex Township. Um, I'm not going to propose to be an expert in kindergarten education. I'm not in any way, shape, or form. Middle school, but

109not kindergarten. Uh but I think just listening the September 1st date seems rather arbitrary to me and for a couple different reasons. Um I'm a September 9th baby and I was early admit admit and um appreciative that I was um but I also know that my birthday and what source you look at is the most popular birthday in the United States. So having a September 1st cuto off puts you immediately at a disadvantage because the most popular in the most you know filledin birthdays are are kind of coming up right behind that September 15th but sounds a little bit more reasonable um because you know you get all the holiday birthdays out of the way holiday babies out of the way um and that might get you a little bit more room. Um, you know,

110you'd have less people coming at you, I think. So, I think that's something to consider. September 20th is like the big cut off date if you want to go there. I agree that October 31st is way too far. Um, but but September 1st seems rather arbitrary and you know, so looking at from a numbers standpoint, um, I think, uh, you have some things and I have some wonderful teachers here. So, happy teacher appreciation week and happy administrative assistant, you know, like administrative assistant. Well, that too and administrators those too because they run everything, right? Um, but administrators [Music] too and we love them. So, thanks so much. Thanks. Thank you. Anyone else? [Music] It's okay. Hope I can do this without messing up. Janet Duner from P Township. Um, this is addressing policy 103. Um,

111policy 103 replaces 103, 102.1, 104, and 103.3. October 18th, 2022, the PHRC submitted a final rule proposal to the IRCC regulation 5213. Definition protected classes under PH and PFOA. The new subchapter is to define terms of sex, race, and religious creed. Title 16 PA chapter 41. The PHRC recognizes that certain terms are not defined in the PHA and the PFOA. Given the lack of clarity as to the interpretation of PHA and PFOA because certain terms are not explained, the PHRC recognizes a compelling compelling public interest in clarifying your meaning. Okay, one of the definitions is under 41.204 gender identity or expression having a gender having a having or being perceived as having a gender related identity, appearance, expression or behavior which may not be stereotypically associated with the person's sex assigned at birth. gender identity

112or expression may be demonstrated by consistent and uniform assertion of the gender identity or any other evidence that the gender identity is part of the person's core identity. And there is a definition of core identity. I'm not going to go into that. Um so just how does the PHRC's rule change align? Currently in the Senate, the Pennsylvania Senate, there's the Protect Women's in Sports Act, HB158, that was just March 20 March 28th was just passed. And I guess my only thing, and I know it's a question, so I don't expect an answer, but is the policy consistent with the vision and values of the school board and the school community? Because how will this align with Title 9? Because I know it's been changed and it went back to 2020, then it was 2024. Now,

113we're currently under title 9 2020. So, this comes from Pennsylvania and my there is no question. It's just please read this and and understand that it's putting gender identity in and how does that affect when someone decides that they want to be different gender identities. How long does it take to become an identity? Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, school directors, school board directors, um any additional topics you'd like to discuss? Okay. Anybody besides Mr. Gaziski? Before he goes, I just want to put a reminder out there that the NCTI senior awards are scheduled for May 28th here at PE in our stadium and the rain date is May 29th. 6:00 start. Can you repeat those dates? Sorry. Yes. May 28th 6:00 rain May 29th 6:00 as well. Thank you. Uh first of all,

114yes, congratulations and uh we do appreciate all of our staff. Um I know I do and have a feature that's hard for us even know behind the scenes, but thank you very much. Um I also want to apologize I'm going to try to say it this time. Miss Chipoli Chipia I want to say it. I'm like I'm gonna really mess it up. I want to apologize for not saying your name out loud, but I also wanted to say that I said I did visit the academic fair at the high school and I was totally impressed with the projects and things that were done by by the students and your band concert was wonderful. And if you haven't read, you should look at the March Bearfax that are on online. That's uh that's very interesting there

115too as well. I also attended the PBI concert um which was very nice. Um it was very wellrun. A lot of happy faces. I it was crowded. Um I also heard that you were got received band instruments um for I think so. Yes. Thank you for following through on that. I appreciate that. That's great. Something our kids can use. Um it's Gemini licenses. I I we received the list of all who has60. I guess my question is when we were brought to our attention, the big thing was we're selling on how it would benefit our teachers at the high school and middle school. And I said, I looked at it. We got about a 100 teachers that have it, but I'm wondering, are we going to shift some of the non-teers licenses into our teachers

116that would like to use that or are you looking to come back with those and try to buy more? So the initial thought right now was with that 160 licenses, we're going to be going back through taking a look at licenses, making sure they're being used appropriately. Um the goal here is actually to communicate back with our teachers and other staff members who are not utilizing those licenses as much as we feel they can benefit from. Um and then the hope is actually to extend it to other users within our organization. So, possibly looking at PBI, PBE, pulling those teachers, seeing who else would like to be a part of that and who would actually use those licenses and then diving them up that way. Only, like I said, I looked at I'm not going

117to bring out what's on there, but I just don't see I guess the relativity of some of the staff that had that signed because of the purpose that we told how was going to be so beneficial for the staff. I I I don't know what they're used for. I mean maybe that discussion we'll have some other time it I don't want to bring that public. Um but other than that uh the comprehensive plan I noticed we got the results that that asked for last board meeting there's list eight of them on a page but when I looked at that thing there was like 30 pages of so I don't know if we just we condensed that I was thinking like went from all the grades into this one and stuff like that. Okay. No I

118appreciate it. Thank you very much. I was wondering if that's something we can like put on the website so people can notice that hey this is what what our goals were this is what we're trying to get to it. So like I said I know people say it's just something to give to the state but it is something that we're set up like a lesson plan that we have or syllabus that the the teachers have like what can we reach any of these or are we still heading that direction? Yeah, we we can certainly have that conversation with our admin team and and again, you know, we want to make sure that we're um highlighting transparency, but but to your point, you know, we have this 110page document and you know, I think that's very

119overwhelming to use that as a guide. So, you know, what our admin team is doing is, you know, as we reflect because again this is all about growth. So, as we reflect and and look at areas that we're uh improving in, we certainly want to highlight those successes with our staff. But to your point, you know, when we identify actionable things like, you know, if we need to increase our reading levels um for students in grades four, um because that's where we're seeing gaps, maybe three, four, and five, let's say a PBI, um as an example, we would want to actually have actionable steps and and I would call it a playbook if you would, where it's maybe one or two pages of um intentional things that we're doing. So take for example uh and

120this is a great, you know, opportunity to talk about this uh PVE. So PVE in particular in grades like one and two there's been an emphasis on um how are we incorporating uh like reading and writing and in in fact we were doing some of these things um you know after noon and you know after after lunch and recess and we're finding that that's becoming a little bit challenging. So now what we're trying to do is shift to say okay let's be intentional about um writing for 20 minutes in the morning every single day. And so that you know uh small shift that that change in atomic habits is going to have a great impact on um you know the data that we'll see at the end of the year because we're being more intentional.

121So that's what we're ultimately using this this uh you know this this global comprehensive plan is that you know when we boil this down what specific actions is administration going to do to support our teachers and teachers are going to utilize to say hey by by adding and incorporating 20 minutes of writing in the beginning of um let's say first and second grade by the end and when we see the growth for third grade we should see that their reading and writing levels are you know exponentially increase. So, so that's really how we're utilizing this. And again, I think that that transparency is something that is communicated certainly with all of our staff and our parents as well because, you know, go back to the idea of like homework and reading, right? I would much

122rather our students um in in the younger grade levels K through five, you know, put this aside at night, pick up a book or something or something that they're actually physically reading because we all know that, as you eloquently put, it's about balance. It's great that you can utilize a laptop, but you also need to be able to take notes. You also need to be able to have shorthand. You also need to be able to have conversations and make eye contact. So, these are all obviously I call them life skills, not soft skills anymore that you really need. So, we are trying to emphasize all those things together. And there's one other thing I want to add that it was brought up last night by Mr. Ferrero and I was very impressed with it. uh

123because someone questioned you know why are you taking away let's say this certain book and you know because we've been using it for all these years and her response was well the scores show the scores aren't where we want it so we have to move on and that's what sometimes people don't understand yeah that we're comfortable with what we have have but the scores are down here and it's quite obvious this isn't cut in the mustard so we need to find something new we're not going to say it's going to be the best but at least it's an attempt to go and I was I was really appreciated her saying that at that meeting last night because it it hit home that you know we are trying to bring those scores absolutely and and honestly

124the the scores uh they really drive decisions that we make. So when we see uh that there's plateau grade levels what that should tell us and and we have to own that data. We've always said that. So reflect on it. Don't get offended by it but say you know maybe this isn't the best strategy. you know, may let let's say, you know, if I have 45 minutes with um students in 10th grade, maybe reading with them on a novel in class probably isn't the best way to utilize the time, but maybe we can have the students, you know, read at home like you were talking about a physical book. Come in, have some dialogue about, you know, static and dynamic characterization or things of that nature. You know, what is the plot of this particular

125scene in this play in Shakespeare? there are things that we can do that are very intentional that can help break up the monotony of just using a computer. So, so that is our balanced approach and and we know we have awesome staff that are doing that in classes. So, thank you very much. Sounds good. Thank you. Schoolboard directors, any other topics? Yes. Um I've I've uh I've brought up the topic before that um we have a lot of students that are that are being pursued who whose family the the students and the family collectively are pursuing some other alternative rather than brick and mortar. And many of them are are are being attracted by um the advertisements and the offerings that are made by the commercial cyber school. Uh but along the way I I

126know we've had some discussions about some of the lessons that that we've learned and some of the some of the pitfalls that um students and families can get into relative to student achievement and and a variety of other topics. And um I I think it would be beneficial for us to have on our website and have our presentation here so that it's recorded in the minutes and put something on the website to u help guide um parents and their students to perhaps the better alternative So which in many cases could be our own cyber academy. Um so and if we do that we're also benefiting the school district because we're reducing our co external cost because most of the cyber schools are charging more than we can conduct than what we would pay for our

127cyber school. So, could we put together some sort of a presentation to be presented, you know, sometime this summer? Yeah. uh you know, June, July time frame where we could put together something that that could be presented uh and and then be available posted on our our website as a reference for parents who might be looking at another alternative. Yeah, I mean absolutely. I mean, I can certainly work with Dr. Conrad um and figure out what we as a school want to make sure that we are um putting out there. Uh we are very confident in our program. We're very confident in what we offer. Um it's just trying to make sure that what we are offering is aligning with what our community is also looking for um while staying true to Pleasant Valley. So

128I I definitely think we can put something together. All right. I appreciate it. Thank you. Uh school board directors, any other topics? Dr. Y. So, uh just a couple comments this evening. Uh first off, congratulations to Pleasant Valley's FDLA national qualifiers. Uh the following students qualified for nationals in Anaheim, California at the end of June. Vera, uh first place journalism, Matthew Altimos, who had second place for financial math. Silus Ga, second place uh FBLA concepts and fourth place Alex uh Alexander Stan. Uh fourth place uh introduction to financial math. Uh both Meera and Silas Ga will have chosen to compete in California. So we wish them best of luck. That'll be in the next uh month or so. And uh yeah, we obviously they're going to proudly represent Pleasant Valley. So let's uh cheer them

129on. Um I also wanted to uh send a thank you to Mr. Van Borges and um also Ariana Levenuth for attending the PA Families for Education choice at Signature Event Center right around the roundabout um on Saturday, April 12th. Uh so they they represented Pleasant Valley very well and and mind you this is uh you know when when parents are looking at opportunities it's it's charter schools it's private schools um and and it's Pleasant Valley and and Pleasant Valley in my opinion uh there was an article if you haven't seen in the newspaper but talked about some of the great things that we're doing not only in brick and mortar but in cyber again we want to continue that momentum um you know it's that old adage of you don't know what you don't know

130so unless we're advertising and promoting voting, maybe showing uh videos of student testimonials, um like you said, a presentation of what parents need to know uh about what the benefits are to come to uh PV Bears Academy as opposed to a CCA. Let's just call it Spade to Spade. The graduation rates, which is, you know, 90 compared to 50% that's actually 43% at CCA. So again, you know, like if you're a parent that cares about your child's future, let's think about, you know, how they may fare. So, we'll continue those things, but I I definitely want to appreciate uh you know, Mr. Van Morris who did this on a Saturday, too. Um but but again, proudly representing PV and uh you know, making sure that our community knows the great offerings we have in the

131community. Um a couple other things, too. Just again, happy uh Pleasant Valley staff appreciation week. So, we take this week uh to really acknowledge all of our staff. You guys all know that some days it's nurses day and some days it's a paraprofessional day and administrator's day and you know before you know it there's 15 dates on the calendar and that's really hard to keep track of as well as 4,000 students every single day. So what we've decided to do over the past couple of years is say you know what let's just take one week to really honor our staff and I really want to you know commend our principles and board members. I don't know if you're aware but each of our principles have done some wonderful things for their staff in the buildings

132um including you know breakfast ice cream. I missed that guys. I'm sorry if you have some leftovers on here. Uh, you know, at at at middle school. Um, again, you know, working with some of the PTO's at PBE PBI. So, really nice ways to acknowledge um not just our teachers because our teachers are are incredible. They are the backbone of the district, but you know, you think about our secretaries, you think about our support, our cafeteria, food workers, our security. I mean, there there's there's such a large team, a team of over 600 employees that make a difference every day, and we're so grateful for all the great things that they're doing. Um, so thank you truly from the bottom of my heart. Um, I'm excited for prom. So I know that was mentioned earlier.

133Can't wait to see our kiddos. Uh, you know, I know some of our administrators are going to be there. And guess what? Not just administrators uh from the high school. Just saying because uh a few of us will see those kiddos and it'll be nice to see them. Uh, you know, and and obviously some of the administrators from the uh other grade levels are like, "Wow, that you know, young men or young women, they're tall and look at how they've changed." So, it's really cool to see and just hear some of the stories about those students when they were younger. Uh, but definitely looking forward to seeing that event. It's always a highlight of the year. And and obviously as we're in May, there's a ton of things happening in each and every building. And

134and as much as like I love May, it is like the super busiest month ever for Pleasant Valley. Um, I really encourage everyone in the community, whether you're a neighbor or a parent, um, you know, come out and support our great kids. you know, whether it's athletics, whether it's academics, whether it's um you know, the band performances, like we have so many great kids and staff. It's ridiculous, but let's cheer them on. Let's highlight them. So, um you know, wanted to say that Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday. So, certainly to all the mothers, the PB moms, uh and grandmoms and and you know, even even our our families, you know, our steparents, our mothers, uh mother figures, um you know, we appreciate you, love and support you. So, it's definitely uh you know,

135enjoy your weekend and and hopefully you'll you're around your loved ones. And um uh I I did want to pivot last thing to an update for the website with Mr. Van Boris. Um there was a dialogue at our last board meeting about the construction and the renovation that's happening at the high school and we know that that's going to impact traffic flow at the high school. So, per the request of the board, they had said, you know, can we maybe get an update so the community is aware? So, front center and you'll take a look. If you look right on the website and you hover over in white where it says high school renovation update, all you got to do is click the button and check this out. Gives you a nice update what's going

136on um you know the the uh the current routes, some of the blockages that you might experience, um delays and so forth. Now, this isn't something that we update every day, but certainly as the project moves along, we want to make sure that parents and students are aware of uh some of the changes and patterns. I mean, for any of us that go to MCTI, you know how we that whole, you know, renovation has changed the flow of traffic. So, similarly, we just want to make sure that we're updating our community if they're coming to those wonderful student events and celebrations and support. So, keep an eye for that, please. You know, definitely you should bookmark our website. obviously um some great things on it but uh that's it and um thanks Mr. more. Yes,

137please. I want to say that um Miss Alamos and the crew at the high school did an awesome job at Minon and they over just over $15,000 for I just want to make sure. I I appreciate and and I'm going to throw out one other number and I probably shouldn't do this but I'm going to do it because it's still early enough and I the number is going to change. Um I'll share this email with you. Um, currently we have 78 of our seniors that have reported earning some type of monetary award and to date our senior class has earned $7.2 million in scholarships. That is absolutely incredible. And I will say not only is this commendable from all the teachers that they've had over the years, but we have our ELA teachers right now

138with our seniors working on scholarships. Um, and this is just what's reported to us. And we know students, right? sometimes they forget to fill out the Google form. So, uh, we're going to continue to encourage that and I can guarantee you that number will grow exponentially over the next couple of weeks and and I'll I'll I'm just going to give you that teaser because I'll tell you on the night, actually I won't, Mr. Boland will of what our incredible senior class, class of 2025 earned. So, just want to give you a little bit of a taste, but uh more to come on that. So, just uh again, you know, we're so proud of our kids and and our our staff and and our families. So, go Bears. That's it. Cool. Thank you. Uh I want

139to thank the Pleasant Valley community for going easy on me tonight on my first ever run board meeting. Um and I will say right after this there is a working session meeting. So feel free to stay for that. Um but at this time do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Zip. All right. And we are adjourned. Thank you very much. Do we want to take a couple minutes real quick? Yeah. Yes. Thank John. Thank you. That was I was that was the kindest closing that I've experienced in the last like two years. You know, your name Thank you everybody for attending the working session meeting. I'm going to jump right into it. Are we waiting on anybody else? Yeah. One more minute. One more minute. This It's probably been 20 years since I

140come out to present finance for Tammy, but she might not like my report this evening for financial. Tammy, you're here. I'll let you report instead of me. I was going to take it for you, but How much time do we have, right? Oh my gosh. Okay, great. Okay. So, tonight, um, Maryann Livingston, our PTO, our current PTO president for at least a little while longer, um, is here to present our courtyard presentation. Um, the PTO has been working diligently um, alongside us to try just to continue to enhance the experience for our students. Um and so when Maryanne on behalf of the PTO came to me with this idea regarding improving our court courtyards for the kids, we absolutely loved it. Um we've done a lot of work and research. We've talked to a lot

141of individuals throughout the school district to make sure that it's a possibility. Um and so Maryanne is here to share a little bit about um the plans for the from the PTO for our courtyards. Sorry. Um and as you know, it takes a long time to get these processes going. Um, and this was talked about at the beginning of the school year. Unfortunately, my term as PBI PTO president is ending. Um, but we still have hope that the next group coming over will keep on track of our plan. Does that mean you're moving to the PV middle school PO? Is that what that means? Okay. Four years I've been with you. Okay. So, our goals were right now, if you've been in PBI, um those courtyards are kind of like not really used and they're

142beautiful spaces. So, our idea last year was to come up with a plan to get those spaces more usable. So, we want to create a pleasing environment, um aesthetically pleasing environment, welcoming environment, um provide more seating for the students and the staff outside. Um we want to introduce um green space for to promote the environmental awareness and mental well-being outside and we want to improve the accessibility for all students including those with disabilities because right now there are no picnic tables out there that could accommodate a wheelchair. So that was um one thing we wanted to make sure was on our list to be able to to purchase with our PTO funds. Um and we wanted to incorporate educational and interactive elements such as outdoor classroom and outdoor sensory area. Um so our current challenge

143are there's limited seating. The shade we talked about and unfortunately that's like a big big big project because it's just it's a lot of money but there's not a lot of shade out there. Um so because there's limited seating it doesn't get used a lot as an outdoor classroom. there. It's not inviting because there is no outdoor greenery that can come back every year, I want to say. Um, and it's just it's an underized space. It has a lot of, you know, it's missing opportunities for outdoor learning and outdoor activities for the kids. So, there's two courtyards. Courtyard A, if you know PBI, that's the one where the ducks come every spring. Um, so we were going to leave that as our sensory and nature area. Sorry. Um, and I'll show you what we want

144to put in there on the next slide. So, there we want to purchase uh benches. We found buddy benches that we would like to put in there, and they're actually labeled buddy bench um to create a welcoming environment. We wanted to put in raised plant boxes. So, I'll just say now, nothing we are proposing has to I talk with my hands a lot. um that nothing is going to have to involve disturbing the grounds that are already in there. Everything's going to be above ground. So that's why we put in raised planter boxes um that they'll be easier to maintain during the summer with plants that will come back every spring. Um so it's not a lot of maintenance for the maintenance or the PTO's that are coming up in the future. um and our

145resident ducks. We um want to purchase posters of the duck life cycle and have a binoculars bin that the teachers could sign out that would be inside so they can look out during the spring to see what you know mama duck is doing out there. Um rain barrels and water troughs, weather instruments, um rain gauges and all that kind of stuff. um windchimes and we have already purchased sidewalk stencils because they were used to um enhance the blacktop recess area. So we would just reuse those and get some of those sensory walking paths put on the sidewalks that are in that in that courtyard. So there's an example of what we're talking about storage buddy benches more more seating rain barrels. Um and then this is courtyard B. This would be the one that we

146focus on our outdoor classroom space. And we again we have convertible benches. Um one of them was pictured there. It could be a bench or you can flip it over and sit into it like a seat. Um handicapped accessible picnic tables. Um outdoor classroom materials, outdoor chalkboard, outdoor whiteboard. Um will be helpful for the teachers to actually go outside and be able to teach the child outdoor space. Again, a small shed to put all of our storage in and some more, you know, plants and greenery to make it, you know, more aesthetically pleasing. So, we actually did get a whiteboard already because with our holiday shop company that we use, we earn points with them. Um, and our holiday shop is not a fundraiser. It's just a service through kid for our kids. But in

147return for signing a contract a year in advance, we get points. So we actually got a free whiteboard already. We already have it. Um and um so that one we didn't even have to pay for. So that was a good a good bonus. Um so I broke it down into phases and each phase would be about $5,000. Um right now our current board's uh end of fiscal year is June 30th. So, anything that we want to purchase um for this end of school year, we'd have to purchase by June 30th. Um and we broke it down into uh kind of what we can what we can do this year and then what could wait till next year. So, the 2024 list is what we would try to um purchase by um the end of our

148fiscal year. We did get we actually got an email from Lowe's in Walmart or Lowe's in the Heighten I think not Pokemon Mountain I think it was the the Heighten one that they are willing to give up to $2,000 and manh hours to help a school with any outdoor improvement project. So, we have been in contact with them and hope that um they would help with the plants and the ring barrels and stuff like that and actually maybe they could bring some of the help to actually do the planting of that stuff. Um so, it was really nice. We got that email from them and our treasurer has been in correspondence with them um to work something out with them. So, then phase two would be next year's PT award that comes in to help

149you know finish the project. We have met with the um building. Yeah, we went with Randy. Y and he Yep. He went through the list with us and um said all the things that were on our our wish list are, you know, okay to put in the Any questions? I'll try to answer. No, it's great. You you were talking about shade. Do we look at I mean like I'll use a a canopy where it shes from the corners. They're $20,000. Oh yeah. Yeah. And I guess it's not in this area in the wall from like they'd be like they're called like parasail pyail tents and they would have to be anchored into wall. They're only they're 20,000. So I don't think that's anything one PTO can do in one year. I mean, I'm sure you

150could look around, but those are like the cataloges that you get from like the recess equipment places, and they are they're expensive. Yeah. And I mean, they are smaller areas, but still to even we looked into even finding something to put like part shade, but we could look to see what time of day there's there is more sun out there because as the sun moves there, there's more shade and more sun. So, but yeah, we had to take that one off our list, unfortunately. That's all I have. Thank you. I just want to say I love my four years at PBI. I've been there since my now eighth grader was in fourth grade. Um, so I've worked with Mr. McCutchen and I've worked with Miss Albreight and it's been fabulous. It be really sad. Every

151time I say I've been my last couple weeks, stop saying but then you'll say go back around. So you're in good company. So yeah, that's great. So thank you. We'll continue conversations planning for it. One other thing is MCT. Yeah. So, so um before you do your presentation, I just want to follow up. We're sidebarring real quick, but um I I did want you know everyone to to be aware that um we have a great relationship with MCTI. And in fact, uh if you were wondering where the Dewey bus was yesterday at Ready Setle Learn, um it's at MCTI and I was assured that we're going to be thoroughly impressed when we receive it. uh the students have been working diligently on um you know improvements for uh that are very much needed. I'll leave

152it at that. I say all of this because uh if you're not aware, MCTI uh students as well as Dr. Verga and his staff actually were able to um create some benches and um uh areas for our garden, our butterfly garden that's at PVE. And so I say all of this and I'll sure I'll have a follow-up conversation with Dr. Ver tomorrow. But you know again MCTI has been very helpful and and when we're looking at yes there are some costs associated with this and I'm very grateful that the uh PTO is trying to organize this. We also have some students that I know would be very grateful to um provide this opportunity for some younger students or even some of their siblings at uh PBI. So, we'll certainly reach out to them and they've

153been very gracious to um provide us with tables and benches and things of the sort. Uh and and the craftsmanship is like top notch, just being very frank. So, let's continue to utilize that uh connection and relationship that we have to maybe offset some of those $5,000 and $5,000 costs. So, I just wanted to make everyone aware that uh we'll tap into that resource, but they've been very great with supporting TV. They have done the buddy benches in the past for Straburg. Oh, great. Yes. So, I'm sure they'll help us out. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Um, so the next item under finance, um, Greg Gallagher, the general manager for student is here tonight present some information to the board in reference to the operations of her student and the benefits of her student that

154they offer. Good evening everybody. Good evening. Thank you for uh allowing us to come in to uh speak to everyone. Uh kind of give an overview of our operation, what we do, the all the things that First Student has to offer. Uh we've been um we've been with Pleasant Valley School District since 2008. Um, Rita Rita Conrad is a general is the is the general manager of the location. She's been here for um 20 years. I've worked with First Student for 15 years. Um, we have an assistant manager at the location, Joanne. She's been with us for 10 years. And believe it or not, we have 24 drivers that used to drive for Pleasant Valley School District that are still with us with her student. So, um, we've really appreciated the partnership with Pleasant Valley

155for the last, uh, I guess 18 years, and we're hoping to continue to, uh, grow with the relationship. All right, First Student. Um, First Student is a very big company. We're very big. We're in uh, 39 states in Canada. Um, we are the leader in technology when it comes to school buses. We uh just this year came up with we call it Halo. It identifies all of the all of the kinds of uh technology that we have and we have some of them. Uh we use a lot of them right here in Pleasant Valley. We have a cutting edge recruiting training program for recruiting drivers. Um we have driver navigation on our buses that I'll go into a little bit in a little in a little bit. We have a tracking app that we have

156that's available. I'm sorry. too quick. Too quick. All right. We have a we have a tracking app that we that we have in our company um for where parents can track the buses. Um we don't have that in in in Pleasant Valley right now, but we do use another uh type of communication I'll talk about in just a minute. Uh we have dig digital fleet maintenance for all of our buses. Um, and we have we're we're one of the leaders in electrification as electrification goes into the world now. We're one of the leaders uh in the industry with electrification. Um, we have the most advanced buses on the road. All of our buses have GPS zonar on them. Um, obviously all our type A vehicles that we use for special needs have air conditioning. We

157have two-way radios and interior cameras. We have child checkmate and theftmate on our buses. That is that is a system that the drivers must check the bus whenever they leave the bus. Definitely at the end of each of their morning shift and afternoon shift. Um and if they do happen to miss a child and a child is asleep and they miss them once that child makes movement on the bus, the horn will beep and to make everyone aware that something's going out in the yard and you out in the yard. Um, but I can tell you that hasn't happened here at this location, which is good. That means the drivers are doing everything they're supposed to be doing. Uh, we have crossing arms on all our buses for the safety of the kids when they're

158getting off the bus um each morning and afternoon. Um, the communication I talked about, um, we have an app that we we have for school districts that they can use internally with their with their different principles at different schools. And then another step to it is that the parents can have this app downloaded and see where their child is in the bus as they're being transported. But in this in this um school district, we have a we call it root text where um it's used with Rita and her team and uh and Dena also in the district has it where if there's any changes to any route for any reason, we can just send out a blast text to the parents and to the school administrators that it pertains to so everyone has up to

159the date uh notification if something's happening. So you get real time real time updates and that's been a really successful tool for us. We just brought it in to uh not just this district other districts that I cover um this year and it's really improve the communication and and stops the where their parents think where's where's the bus type of thing. They get notifications. Everybody everybody looks at their phone usually when they have a text. when I talked about the first view app that we have um that's you know that you would have to go in and look for it. So we like this this better and we use it here in my school district. Um routing we do our company does the routing and I believe back in January Rita and and the representative

160from our company were in here to give a routing analysis of how we're doing here in PV. Um, so I can tell you that through the efficiency of that and working with the school district in the past few years, we we have eliminated uh a few routes here in in Pleasant Valley to be more efficient. Um, we always like the uh the kids to be in on the bus one hour or less. Um, and uh we feel that's a good tool and and uh we're working both with the district and with our team at the location to make sure we're run most efficiently as efficient as we can. Um we have um as I mentioned we're we're a big company and we have uh a lot of I and me being a uh a supervisor

161we have a lot of technology and information that's given to us to me every day about every location. I to be honest with you, I would never have to step foot on in Rita's location, but I do. But I can see everything that's going on in her location with uh on time performance. Uh are the employees uh doing their child checks, how how much iteming is going on, with the reporting that we have. We can I we can see everything from everywhere and we work with Rita and other managers I work with to try and be as efficient as possible with all that. I can tell you that we as a company have a goal of 95% on time performance mean getting the children to school on time and Rita is currently right now is

162running at 97.3 for the for the uh PP school district. So um we we really work towards being as efficient as possible um in our operations every day. uh tablet technology. All of our school buses have these tablets on the buses um where the drivers that's where they sign in. That's where they do their pre-trip. Um that's where they do their child check at the end of the day. Everything's done through the tablet and that's why we can see everything. Um it also gives you the option of turnbyturn directions. Um we have technology where um if if a school signs up for um children discipline if you have a discipline problem and the driver can put the the information into the tablet. It goes to the school district whoever's assigned to it and then notification

163comes back that at least the child was uh spoken to. It doesn't tell the driver doesn't find out what happened with the drive with the child but they just know that the issue was addressed with the child. Um, we also, one of the things we track too is the pre-trip and post-trips that uh, all our drivers are expected to do every single day to make sure the bus is safe every day. And part of the post- trip is when they're checking for the sleeping child. We call sleeping child on bus. Um, then every child is off that bus and no kid is left is left alone. So, in our location here, we run it 999 99 U 6% I'm sorry, 99.6% of our drivers uh are doing it every single day. And the average time

164that they're doing this pre-trip is nine minutes. So, in the bus industry, um the amount of time you should be doing is if you have a hydraulic if you have a hydraulic bus, it's six minutes. If you have an air brake bus, it's eight minutes. And if you do a have a a wheelchair vehicle, it's 9 minutes. That's our standard. So here in this location, they're the average time is over 9 minutes, which is very good. Um the the use of the tablet also does, you know, they get all their schedules, the any route changes that are uploaded into our system are put into these tablets. So the driver has all the information they need on the bus. um they'll go one thing with a tab is when the bus is moving that's not activated.

165They can't look at it unless they're in the turn byturn directions where they can keep the the volume down and just do it like you would do it in a in a car if you have to look to see where you need to turn. Um but we don't have that turned on here. That's an option to turn that on. Um we also have through our tablets is we have uh we rank all of our drivers. Uh, and we call that um with the safety score on how they're doing on things like pre-trip idling. Um, and we rank them between one star and five star. Um, and each month this location has between 19 and 24 fivestar drivers. We have about 100 drivers here. Um, but the rest of them are are in the four uh

166star range and working toward they might have an issue with idling or something's throwing them off that they can't get to the five. But I know REI, I know all locations that I have, they reward the top drivers when they hit the five star. So it becomes we post all the results in our depots and it becomes a competition between the drivers to to um see where everybody stands. But if somebody isn't in the five and they think they should be, they'll come in, they'll talk to Rita or one of my other managers and they'll they'll ask why am I not there? So, um, so like I said, we use a lot of technology, um, in our company. Um, we're industry leader in maintenance. We have, uh, we rank our all of our maintenance shops

167either, um, bronze, silver, or gold. Uh, and this, this, uh, Pleasant Valley shop is a gold status. This means that every every tech in that location, one of the items, every tech in this location has an ASC certification. Um and it also ranks them on um overtime cleanliness of the shop. Um how how they record all their work orders, all the work they do on the buses. Um so and once again it's competition of all the shops and all the all the employees within a shop of getting to that gold status and and employees are rewarded when they do get to the gold status. Um, okay. I'll talk about this a little bit and I've been around for first student for 15 years. So, I was here, not in this particular building. I was in

168the in one of the schools when we had a uh a board meeting about four years ago when our contract came up. Um, and we came down to the wire on the contract. And so, I had to come in and present to the board on on the increase that we were asking at that time. And one of the things I was talking about at that meeting four years ago is that we had we've had and you can see it on the chart here. We've had consistently low increases, annual increases um through the years until we came to 2021, right after COVID hit and costed everything in the world went up. Um we needed to write our operation to be you know a profitable operation. Um, and one of the things that I talked about at

169that meeting that night was that, you know, we we've given very good very low increases, I would say, through the years. Uh, and that's why we needed that at that point. Um, so, um, so I just wanted to put that up there so everybody could see kind of our trend with you that like when I mentioned that we're here for 15 years and we're a partner. Um, we felt that during that time we were we tried to keep the the the increases down as low as we could. Um but obviously we're we're you know for-profit company. Um no. Um so I just wanted to explain what I just wanted to explain that to I know that we have you know we have one more year in our on our current contract expires next June. Um

170I'm not here tonight to to talk about what the future brings um when it comes to any kind of rate increases or anything like that. And I just wanted to use the time tonight kind of to educate anybody who wasn't familiar with first student what we're about. I know you we're down at the other side of the parking lot. You see the buses and you know um I just want to come in and kind of you know run through some information for you. See something else. This is just in closing. This is our company's missions and values. Um we f five things we do focus on safety. We care for our students. We surpass customer expectations. We foster teamwork and we set the higher standards. Those are our five um mission uh values that we

171uh that we follow in our company. Um so we are u we are big on on you know working with our communities. Um and just going off script a little bit I as I listened a little bit tonight you know we talked about um scholarships for kids right? Um, we talked about just the last thing that came up about improving the front of the couple schools, right? Um, we work with our schools and and we do put in we have been since co put into our contracts where we we annually give um scholarships to seniors, right? We don't have it in this one here, but I'm just saying since that since we came out of that co um we've been doing that. So, um, you know, I would even stand here tonight. It might be

172late maybe for this year, but, um, we could we could work it out where we could give, you know, $5,500 scholarships to to outgoing seniors. And we could in the future, if we continue on in the future, we put that in our contract. Um, you know, and we leave it up to the schools to decide, you know, who gets the scholarship. Um, they just put in there that it's per student. And I can tell you in the schools that I have done it, I've probably done about seven school districts since co um I always get emails from the seniors when they get the reward thanking thanking the company for doing that. Now I don't know if that I mean I've got younger kids and I don't know if that's the parents saying you sit down

173by the computer and you write the email but um but but we get it and they they they really they really appreciate it. So, um, and then the other thing was with the, uh, working outside the courtyard. There you go. The courtyards. Um, you know, we have for school districts. Um, you have thrown in some money for those type of things also. So, so I apologize if we haven't done it to this point, but just listening, I'm like, we do that here, we do that here. So, um, just wanted to bring that up, but I just wanted to, uh, kind of run through that. I know we went pretty quick, but is there any anybody have any questions for me or for Rita while we're here in front of you? I do. Um, is our

174fleet mainly diesels and gas? And if so, have you explored anything in the propane area with any of your other districts? Yes. Yes, I have uh two school districts that have propane. Coconut Mountain being the closest to here and then I have my North Penn school district that has uh propane. And then this year I mentioned about us being a leader in electricity electrification. Um I have a William my William Penn school district down by Philadelphia will be getting 25. They they applied for a grant with the state and they won. So probably in about March they'll they'll go it'll be a partial. They have 100 buses. 25 of them will be electrification. Do you find that that would be cost effective for a school district our size to switch to either propane or electric

175for some of the fleet or all of it? the well we when we took over Pocono Mountain five years ago they they had 80% of the fleet was propane when we got there um and then we as we replace buses we stick with propane that's what they want to do um they the William Penn school district they have 100 vehicles and then you're here you have about 100 vehicles um the I can tell you the propane vehicles are much quieter start in the winter There's not a problem with that in the winter. Um, and we find that it's it's, you know, the school districts that have them and the drivers that drive them like them. They're mostly bluebirds. Now, we have probably Thomas is here probably, right? So, we have Thomas is here, but they're

176bluebirds and, uh, you know, there's other districts that are looking looking, you know, at the electric side. Um I can tell you the electric side the um the grants that they were giving out were about 350,000 and an electric vehicle cost about 300,000 then you have to put the infrastructure in for the other 50,000. So they're pretty expensive but you get grants from the government. So I would just say if there's any interest in that and when you you know I don't know you know how many more electrics going to be with the world but we'll see. But um when you see grants, it can't hurt for the school district to apply. Doesn't mean you have to take it, right? Just see if you qualify. They have certain school districts that the the state tells

177are qualified and other ones that are not qualified just based on I guess the wealth of the district, I guess, is what West can say. Um but that doesn't mean you can't apply for it. So um if they if there's any interest in it there we have a big electrification team with the first student. So I generally have when districts show any interest in it we have someone from our team come and speak about it the goods and bads about it. They know a lot more about it than I do. I'll be well educated when it gets to be March when when I have these 25 under my watch. So I'll learn a lot more then. But um but yeah that's uh did I answer your question? You did. Thank you very much. Anybody else

178have any questions? I did just about the um um if you go back to the app page. Nope. Well, this is what we did. This right? Yeah. Go back. Yes, that. Yes. So, we have which one of those? We do not have the tracking app. No, we have No, we don't have the tracking app, but we use a called Robo Text. It's a It's a texting system that we communicate with you. Everybody, all the parents information. It's a phone numbers are on there and the sta all your staff, principles, they're all on there and we communicate with them through that. But it is a it's available to every district. It is we we did speak a little bit about it. Um and at the same time we talked about this and we decided with the

179robo tax we decided to go with the robo tax. But all of any of these items here are available to our school district. Sure. So we did we had the act the track tracking app in the beginning. We were just using it in house with um Dr. King with the teachers, not the teachers but like the superintendent and we were using it just to try it out. Our only fear was is that when um if we put it out to parents that there's very a lot of areas where the GPS would dead zones. So because it works off of cellular, right? So because of our area, that was the fear that if we did try it out there and they weren't seeing what they wanted to see, that would be so for us. Uh Greg

180suggested the other app, which is it's really good. We give Dena access to it so Dena can use it also when there's an issue. we can just go right on and you can zone in on if it's bus 106 only the parents of 106 and only the students of 106 that are on whether it's high school middle school or PB and PBI we can actually that down and send it to the admin of those schools and to the parents of those students so it also lessened down the calls coming into my location because if the bus was running late and the parent didn't get a phone mall or anything like that because they're out at the bus stop. They weren't calling them, "Where's my kids bus?" Like, it's not here. It we don't get that

181as much anymore. We might, but um now they get the text. So, it cuts all that down. It cuts the calls to the school, it cuts the calls to us, and then the frustration when the driver arrives to that bus stop. So it really is working out really good that the thing with that though is the parents get a generic text saying if you wish to opt out or if you wish to continue getting these messages a lot of parents didn't do anything. So they, you know, some of those parents would call and say, "Well, I didn't." And we would say, and we can look and see, like if Rita says, "Oh, we did a fleet text." And I'll say, "Well, did they really?" I can go in and check the log and I can

182see every text that went out, the time it went out, what bus it went out for. So if a parent calls in though, you can just resend the text and fix it that way. Correct. So then we can tell them, "Well, you did, you know, like you never you didn't accept getting these messages." And then they say, "Oh." So then, you know, we keep on top of that. And what I do with every new student that registers, I make sure I manually add them to that fleet text alert so that I know that any new students coming in are added, and then they'll and it goes by bus number. So we enter their name, the parents phone number, and the bus number. So that all gets entered every time we have a new student register.

183So that if they get if the bus is running 10 15 minutes late, they'll receive that text. Okay. All right. Ideally, when do you send that text out? Like a couple weeks prior to school start. How when does that work? It's daily. Oh, yeah. To opt in. We set that at the beginning of the year. I think we did it. Well, this was our first year at all. We had technology. What Chuck did was he um pulled the information from the CIS, created a CSV file which we then uploaded into the system. So, we could do that. I only ask I only ask because if you let us know when you do it, we can follow up on our social media pages or whatever to remind parents, please opt in and maybe you'll get more

184traction call for that prior to us even doing it. Like, we had a plan. He was like, I'm going to send out a call saying like, you're going to get a text message. This is for our, you know, fleet pack. So, you're up to date in your buses. We had people even call home, is this a scam? Did you really sign this? Yeah. So, but yeah, but yeah, we'll do that. I have a question. So, why why not have both available? Is there additional cost with that or is this all No, it's it's it's all included. It's something that's available to the district. But I but when we like Rita said when we were discussing it because we have dead zones because it's all run off the where's the bus right? So if the data

185is not going if we're losing data if the parents are not going to get the right information we don't want them to be frustrated to give them something that they can't rely on like I don't if I had something like that would I really I can't rely on it. I don't I'm not I'm not getting up to date. And then we were seeing that also like in another district the parents relied on it to shutting the kids out the door. So they were looking at it going, "Oh, the bus is 10 minutes away." Well, it wasn't up to date because of the cellular. The bus already had passed. So then now they're complaining that their student missed the bus because they were tracking the bus on their Just think about the like think about it.

186The effort, middle effort, Jonas. Well, yeah, I know. Listen, I'm working back. They have the same app and I don't have I don't hear those problems. So that's why I'm asking the question because they're much more rural in this area. We have a lot of dead zones in this area. Yeah. I The only reason I asked about that is because I would be the idiot sitting at the bus stop for an hour and a half when the bus had already gone by. I got right. And that was our fear to get to give them something that But I would also be the idiot that doesn't opt in or out. I didn't get text. Is there a reason we can't just force opt in opt out? I feel like that's a problematic process in my brain.

187Like as a parent, I feel like I would want to opt I would be automatically opted in. If I wanted out, I get out. I don't feel like if you go in, you shouldn't have to opt in. I don't know. I like I'm because it's um so I I learned on that. I think Dina remembers learn a little lesson on that because it's a text now like any stores are you signed up for store text messages say you have to opt in now it's a legal thing that has to be done because it's a text I get a thousand political tests a day I never opted in but you like I don't know I'm gonna have to do this email hair so I'm going to be like TJ Maxx Bath and Body Works and all

188those things they always when you sign up for the text it says you have you have to say yes or stop or whatever. So, that was one of the things they said we had to do legality because we weren't allowed to. I guess there's still services out there where you pay for text. I don't know. I guess maybe the pay as you go phones or something like that. I know that in the other districts that we have um it's it's well accepted. It's people like it. People like it because um it's attached and everyone will look at the text. Oh, I like that. I like that as well. I was just I was only looking at the proactive, but then I also understand that that parents might use it as as a predictor, right? Okay.

189You can just wait till the bus is like right here at the corner and then you can go. I can see that. And then they're screaming at you because the ad I got it wasn't going to be there yet. But we but we've tried we've had it here where we've had it for the for the schools. Right. Right. And then we have the problem with the dead zones and all like that. Yes. We did go through the pros and cons of all text. Okay. Okay. For our area. That's why that's a conversation we can discuss again then, right? Like yearly. Okay. I text I'm 90% sure I never text to sign up for it. I'm pretty on top of that stuff. Like, so I don't know. You can look me up, but maybe that's my

190wife, not me. Can you report back at the next school board meeting? We cover the cost of the robo taxes. Right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. It was very very nice uh meeting everybody, seeing everybody and uh we look for a long long time relationship but we'll take it one year at a time. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. I totally got texture all the [Laughter] emergency kids. I couldn't manage their education very well. [Music] Yes, please. Um, attached to the C reserve reports 2018, the 2023 and 2024 bond April reports. The cap reserve account has an available balance of 16,91,4394 at April 30th, 2025. The 2018 bond has an available balance of $0. It's been allocated to the construction project. The 2023 bond and the 2024 bond both have a zero

191available balance at 43025. Again, both of these bonds have been allocated to the high school renovation project. Um, all interest that's been earned during the month of April has been rolled into the construction cost which will lower the amount needed for the high school renovation and any other district facility needs. Does anybody have any questions on those reports? Okay. Um, item D just that last one when I presented the ETF February report I attached February 2024 February 2025. So the updated report is attached there for you to review and I apologize for that. Um item E uh is the March 2025 FTE report. Pleasant Valley's FTE reserve balance after 3125 is 5,213,912.98. This is equivalent to 5.5 months of reserve. We're required to maintain four months in that reserve account. So we're in good shape

192with that. Does anybody have any questions on the uptemp reports? Before I get to the big ticket item, I'm going to let Mrs. Sites review service numbers for the month of April. Good evening. Um, item F attached are the cafeteria meal totals for April, which I will go over. Um, April was another successful month. Breakfast meals served were 21,748. The lunch meals served were 48,899 and the afterchool snacks were 20,427 and alocart sales were 26,5245. Any questions on that? Um item G is uh attached is the Woodson's April newsletter for you to review. Um, Woodson's had a very busy month between catering, marketing, promotions, and the end ofear projects. Um, one thing that I do want to remind parents, students, and staff that the survey Witson's is conducting uh on their service is ending tomorrow.

193Um, your participation helps them improve their dining services. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any questions on any of those? There you go. Um, so up next, Dr. Conra's going to present the 2526 budget. I'm going to let you do that. Appreciate it. So, this is the proposed final budget for the for 256 school year. We're going to review some budget highlights, a staffing summary, our revenue and expenditure summary, expenditure comparisons, fund balance review, tax impact scenario, and the history, our next steps, and we'll have a little Q&A discussion at the end. Um, um, so for budget highlights, all again, all of our programs are have been maintained. We continue to provide student classroom supplies, after school tutoring or LRO program, and after school transportation. Um, this year we added cap and gown purchases to

194the general fund at the high school to help our community alleviate some of the expenses. Uh, transportation um was a 4% increase. Special education and out of district placement, that is a 7% in increase for next year. supplemental contract increases, that's at 2%. Contractual salary and benefit obligation increases. Um the estimated number for this overall for the entire district is about 4%. Noting that we still are in negotiations with the professional staff. Um so these are estimated numbers at this point. 5.8% in benefits is the increase for the 2526 school year. that encompasses health insurance and our paychecks as well. Um on the revenue side, basic education funding that increased $225,000 for next year. Special ed funding that increased $250,000 for next year. Our ready to learn grant and tax equity monies that states that's

195staying status quo for next year. um tax revenue increase which is school taxes um that's currently budgeted at 2%. You'll see all that coming up and we continue to fund um increases for our capital projects. We are fully funded for the bonds that we used for the high school renovation project. We are fully funded at the end of this school year. Um, and we will continue to supplement the districtwide capital projects, transferring money from general fund into the cap reserve fund so we can do the other districtwide projects without having to borrow any more money. Um, staffing for next year, uh, we are only adding one professional staff member for next year and that's an intermediate fourth grade teacher. And we are adding one safety and security personnel uh one 12 months uh security guard.

196This is to alleviate some of the overtime costs and to add additional security during the high school renovation project. So this is an overview of the revenues and the expenses. kind of a very condensed uh view of what the budget looks like. So for revenue for 2526 the proposal is on the local level it would be 57.8 8 million on the state level. 56.7 million federal 1.5 million for a total revenue for next year of $116,99,470. Um this is very close. It's a little bit less than the preliminary budget that I did back in February or March. Um expenses for next year instructional 66.7 million support services 40.8 million non-instructional and operations 1.4 million and financing 7 million. Um the differences from the preliminary budget um are we had an increase in the gambling money

197because that's what everybody refers to it as. It's the It's a reallocation tax money is what it is, but also referred to as the gambling money. There was an increase in that. So, we were able to lower the local um the revenue that comes in from that and we made some adjustments. I made some adjustments to the interest. Over the last few years, we've been trending high in interest. This year's a little unstable, so I budgeted a little bit less for the interest for the upcoming year. Um on the expenses, we added additional money into con instruction and the financing number is stable now since we don't have to add any more money for the bond. So this this part is again this is this expenditures. This breaks it down a little bit more. It

198breaks it down into the objects. And when you're looking at the account codes, that's the third set of numbers in the account code. Um I'll try to explain some of what they mean. So the first one is the 100s. It's large very large part salaries. Um that's 38.4 million. You will see that it shows a decrease of $1.4 million. It's not really a decrease in salaries. We used to when we had our substitutes inhouse, our substitutes were paid through this account code because they were our employees. when we switch to ESS that payment switches to the 300 account code and you'll see how that kind of balance they balance each other out. Um so they move to there and that's why you see that decrease in the salaries and the increase in the 300 object

199code. Um the 200 object code that's where our employee benefits stick this is health insurance pasers um social security that's where all of that sits. that increased about 822,000. Um I did just review the 300 account code 400 account code. This is where our least equipments whether there are uh copers, jockey tech, um we have some least computers in there. That's where all of that falls. That very slight increase in that $61,000. Um the 500 series, this is where transportation sits in our charter schools. Um so that has a increase of 800. That's $1.6 million. Again, that's where those things they're the major items that sit in that object code area. 600s are supplies. That is an increase of 916,000. Um, this is where teachers, teachers, students, and employee supplies sit. Also, all of our

200utilities and insurance sit here too. So, those those increases are every year. They're just normal increases like everybody else has. And I'm sorry, and supplies in that it's supplies for teacher, students, but our utilities also sit in there for the district, our electric, things like that. our our insurance property. All all of our insurance policies sit in there. Also, um 700 object code, that's property. Um there are things that we buy that are $2,500 or more that could be depreciated. Um so that's about an $854,000 increase. the 800 series. Uh that's our debt, that's the bond with the 40 million bond that's coming up and the uh budgeting for that. That's the where the increase of the 1.4 is and then the 900 objects is everything else. That's where and also the principal for the

201bond sits in there. Your savings, you're talking about the 100 and then it goes to 300. Is that just salaries or is there additional savings that we have with our pay playing fees and stuff like that? So the major piece of the savings in the 100 is that ESF when the substitutes were here in house they were our employees so they were coded to the 100s 100 account right they're with ESS now so it's down so some of there is some savings in the salaries because we've had retirements and the replacements have come in at the lower salaries so I was saying so we because they're within the company we don't have there's no benefits there's no feas There's no benefits. So, so there's additional savings every single Right. That's that's a unforeseen savings is

202what I'm asking. It's not something you put in here as a savings because No. No. Yeah. We saved just with using ESS. We saved right off the top of my head, we saved 33% in paying forers for those people, the health insurance, and 7 and a half% for their bike. This breaks down the expenses even further. This breaks it down into the function which is the second set of numbers when you're looking at the account code. Um I'm going to touch on just a few of these because we're really really getting into the detail with this now. So the regular instruction the 1100s um there again we added additional funds to that. So, it's $1.5 million. And uh the 1,200, that's special education, and we've added $1.5 million to that as well. Enrollment is increasing

203in special education. Um and Dr. Howard and her team is trying very hard to get our curriculum and our programs up to snuff to challenge our students and to make things better. So, that needs additional funds in it as well. Um the rest of this the rest of this page uh there weren't too many changes in the rest of the accounts that are there. The next one that had the most change um would be our operations and security services. And again this is insurance utilities. Um we're adding act 235 to our uh district. So that's a little bit of an extra expense. 2700 transportation. That's an expense um where that sits. That's 4% increase. Um and then support services. This is where most of our technology sits in here. And as the world grows in

204technology, we have to keep up with it. So there's some extra money that's added into there from the year before. And it simply just increases in current contracts that we have. there is significant changes in those areas. Um, and then the last three that we have on here, you'll see there's not a whole lot of significance. So, in total, the budget has increased $4.5 million from the 23 from the 2425 budget. I'm sorry. Can you go back to That's it. I'm sorry. I just want to see the numbers again. No problem. Um, so I wanted to break it out. Sometimes a visual picture of showing where the expenditures come from and where the money is going in the district kind of helps. So 58% of those of our expenditures goes to salary and benefits and

205that's districtwide. um every every area, every department, every employee. Um the next one is the 19% that's our utilities, our insurance, and just the upkeep of the buildings in the facility. Uh that's the next largest piece of our budget. Professional services is the third piece of it. That would be our substitute services. Anything that we have a contract with that we use outside of the district. And then that next mix them up. uh not to get professional services. Okay. Next would be supplies and equipment. Um so they're just the supplies that we need for to run the district. You know, I mean for teachers, um employees, for students, supplies that they would need to function. And then other is 1% of our budget. And that's just miscellaneous items that could come in that don't fit

206in any of the other categories. Um, so next I wanted to break down the revenue a little bit. So the local revenue, which is the 6,000, there's three three main parts to it. It's the school tax and that includes the school tax, delinquent taxes, and interim taxes. That would be $47.6 million. Our earned income tax, $4.8 million. And then the balance of the local revenue comes from interest, student fees, athletic events, and other LEA payments to us. So that's a total of 57.8 million. Um, from the state funding, the basic ed funding, 28.2 million, special ed funding 4.8 8 million transportation reimbursement 2.7 our ready to learn grant 3.5 the real estate tax reduction allocation for gambling money $7 million um retirement reimbursement 9.1 um and then other miscellaneous revenue that comes in $1.1 million.

207So our state revenue is $56.7 million. And then on the federal level, our title 1, 2, 3, and four. This is an estimated number because the numbers for 2526 have not come out yet for the titles. So this is about $1 million. And then medical access, that's about $525,000. Um the tax the local the 6,000 area includes a 2% tax increase at a 93% collection rate. Um on the state level as I stated before the basic ed and special ed is a total of about $570,000 increase. And the tax allocation for gambling money is it actually went up $916,000. Um, so that that was quite a jump and I'll explain how that affects the taxpayers in a minute. Um, so that just to give you an idea again the visual effect, 50% of the school

208district's revenue comes from local taxpayers, 49% comes from the state, and 1% is federal. The picture makes it look a little kind of hits home. does. Um, this is the fund balance projection. Um, I really, this really hasn't changed much much since the preliminary. It hasn't changed at all since the preliminary uh budget that I presented. So, we're still projecting at the end of 2425 that we'll have a fund complete fund balance of all of our funds of $119 million for the 2526 year. You'll see that the projection drops down to $92 million. The reason for that dramatic drop is a lot of this fund balance is it's our bond money that we're using for the high school renovation project. So those payments are going to start coming out faster. So you're going to see

209that fund balance drop very quickly over the next two years. Um this is what the 2% tax increase shows. Um for an average assessment which uh this number is given to us by the county. Each school district receives this number number from the county tax office. It's 14314 138 is the average assessment of properties in our area. With the t the 2% increase, the tax rate would be 0.02588, which is a 0.005 increase from last year. The net tax with the new tax rate on a piece of property that was valued at 1431 138 would be $3,79. That would be a $78 increase from last year's taxes. If you divide that by 12, it's a it's $7 per month. That's what the 2% just to give you an idea of what that 2% how that

210affects people. If you're above that average, it's going to affect you more. If you're below that average assessment, it'll affect you less. Um, this is a bit of a tax history. um for anybody who wanted to know the tax history lesson of the Pleasant Valley School District. So if you go back to 2011 and 2012 for for seven years the district did not have a tax increase for the following three years there was a a small increase of 1.4% and then you see 2.8 and 3.5% two years in a row. I also want to point out that in those two years was also a furlow that happened here at the district. Um Pleasant Valley wasn't in a very good financial state at the time and had to do some drastic things to get right through

211write the ship. Um so I wanted to show that that in that year to write everything the tax increases were higher than anybody was used to in this community. Um in 2324 it was a 2% increase. For 2425, we were actually able to do the 1% increase mostly because of ESSER funds. We were able to purchase a lot of things that we needed for the districts with Esser funds. So, we were able to pass that on to the community and just do a 1% tax increase. And for 2526, the recommend my recommendation is a 2% increase. Um, you can stay on that. I want to find myself. So, I just wanted to talk about the uh tax allocation money, the $7 million. So, how that works out um we have $7,654 taxpayers that qualify for

212the homestead exemption and we have 18 taxpayers that qualify for the farmstead exemption. What that means is I did the calculations today so that I had all the numbers for everybody. If you are one of these $7,600 and some people, you will get $36,20 taken off of your assessment value of your property. That will that equates to a tax savings of $932 that you would save. Now, if anybody's not familiar with the homestead farmstead, the county sends that out to you. We fill it out, send it back to them by I think March 1st of the tax year. They process it and then I get a report that tells me who had who who got it, who filled out the form, who got it, who qualifies for it. Then I'll send this information back to

213the tax office with the numbers and they apply that to your tax bill when it comes out in July. Um this is the highest since I've been here um of a reduction that it'll be for anybody and it's also the highest tax savings in the homestead. Okay. So the next steps um proposed budget um will be on the board agenda on May 22nd. The PTB deadline is May 31st. Our final adoption for the budget for 2526 will be June 23rd. PD's deadline is June 30th. questions. This is just a quick question about the um we kept all the programs. We're also keeping the um just because I didn't see it on there. The senior rebate, the senior citizen tax rebate. Yeah. Yes. In line with the state amount. Yes. The state will come out with

214any changes towards the end of the year and I'll come to you with any changes then. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Um, so on the May 22nd board agenda, you'll see the uh budget. It'll be the PTE 2028 um for board approval with a 2% tax increase. And then for the community on May 23rd, the day after the board approves it, it will be available out here at the front desk uh for public inspection. And I'm sorry, just to say this out loud again, we don't know where we're going to end up with the contracts for salary increases yet. Correct. Right. So, we're we're estimating I'm estimating support staff and administrative and administrative um support. Those are set um the teachers contract. No, these are estimated numbers that are in the budget right now.

215Support is the follow correct support 2526 is the last year for the support contract. Any other questions? Thank you very much. You're welcome. Sorry, you would submit a number. No, this is important. At at this time, uh since we are finished with section one finance, is there anybody from the community that would like to comment on any of the the finance discussions that we were having? Okay, thank you. Um, moving on to education curriculum. You know what? I just have a couple quick things. I just just to keep you up to speed with what's going on. Um, just let you know that we're continuing with the uh ELA curriculum writing in all the buildings. Um, PBI is coming to close on the first marking period for next year. PBE is not far behind and the

216high school started today and they already have the first marking period done for 9th grade. So that's great. We're doing our training on June 3rd for all our ELA teachers. Um and then the work is grade level on June 4th. Uh science, we're like I told you before, we're going to do the review next year because they are suns setting our programs. We put together a committee. There are 16 teachers represented from every building. Um and then we'll have some administrators on that as well. Um just a reminder that the MAP we extended PBE for two years and PBI for one year just because we're holding on that until we get the other um ELA and science in place. Um PD that's coming up for our staff like I said it earlier will be on

217June 3rd. We're doing um training with the new science standards um with PBM and PBH. Uh we have the math program advisor from TTE coming in to work with our math teachers on June 3rd and we're getting that small group that we didn't get with MWA um on June 4th and then everybody will do NWA on September 12th. Um we're doing a survey to our middle school students for the esports club. Um and that room is we're starting to get stuff ready. U Mr. and his team have um with mounting the TVs and things like that. And just remember a reminder just some of the few new courses we have for next year is uh we're expanding AP with the AP3 cal we have the esports class. We have French and we are looking at

218the following year doing an algebra course with financial applications in the real world. So just I wanted to give you quick update each month what we're doing so you guys know fast but I can elaborate. No, you're great. This is great. Yes. I'm going to go with this is education but it might touch on finance. AP testing fees. We pay for that. And under the new budget, we will continue to. Okay. And actually, students have a choice. They can either do AP or if the class is um offered as concurrent enrollment with a college that you get the college credit, we'll pay for that. Whichever one that the students choose. Yep. So, it was really finance question, but I missed that second. They go hand in hand. Thank you. You'll pay for just one. Correct.

219One or the other? One. Correct. Correct. One or the other. All right. And then moving on for education too, I just want to highlight there's uh going to be a reduction of credit recovery costs for students starting with summer school. Um you know, previously we have uh uh in fact we actually paid the cost for uh credit recovery through ESSER and um learning loss. Uh obviously we don't have that uh allocation anymore. So we've decided uh to reduce that cost to $200 per course. So I just wanted the board to be aware. Um you know obviously we're offering these courses for free. Uh so students are encouraged to obviously pass them in high school because these are credit bearing courses. Uh but sometimes there are situations where a student might not earn that credit. So

220then here's um a way to regain that particular credit. So just want to give an update. Are there any questions about that? uh for the summer school. Are we finding adequate number of staff to yeah to service the students that we we are at PBE and PBI and high school I believe as well. Correct. We have um special education staff and then math uh ELA staff as well. So, uh, we we've definitely had interest when we've had those postings out and we've hired. Have we had an indication of how many students we need? Uh, for the elementary, we've invited over 200 students K to 5 to attend the Cub Academy. We have about 75 that are um responded that they'd be here and we've had over 17 teachers. Yeah. Uh, put their name in to

221teach. We do about 15 students per class. uh the secondary uh we have been successful in securing teachers for every subject area except social studies we're still working on it. Thank you. And we don't have to students are enrolling now as you come to the end of the year they realize who who may need I'm sorry middle school's covered as well. Yes. Okay. Just because seven and eight. I thought I just I thought I just heard PBE PDI in high school. Seven. They do it for seven and eight. Sixth grade. They do that. Okay. Um any community questions on educational curriculum at this time? Thank you. Um operations and transportation. Uh, I didn't really have many written down, but um, I'll give you a quick update of the high school with the renovation. Uh, the

222contractors got about a month early head start. Uh, Dr. Conrad approved that for them. So, um, they're ripping stuff apart pretty good over there. Uh, the teachers are are very cooperative. They're doing good. Uh, Crystal and her crew are are really doing an awesome job staying ahead. Um, it's going good. Um, pretty happy. All the contractors are happy. We had furniture delivered this week for the teachers to look at their input like we did. Yeah. Are we taking pictures of the as as the progress is going through just so we have a a timeline to put something together at the end? you know, someone better at a lower rate. Yeah, I know I know a guy that did the playground stuff at PBI if you all recall that last year. Uh certainly to to your

223point, I think it is important because if you're starting with the groundbreaking and then you know we're phasing this out and whether it's you know uh some videos uh some commentary from students and staff, but then also some pictures along the way. So, um, I'll work with my team. It's a great idea, but we do want to kind of, uh, historically look back and see, you know, how this has impacted our, uh, learning environments and and our students and staff. So, yeah, great idea. We have our yearbook in our TV. May we get some input from Mike and Ashley. Yeah, because I'm sure they gentlemen coming up with summertime project. Absolutely. The finale. Yeah. Anybody else got any questions? I know you're going to be busy for the next two and a half years. Yes,

224very busy. Any further questions um on operations? Um community questions on operations. Yeah, I I have one question that has been uh asked. So maybe just because they know I'm involved with the school with the band and so forth. The thing is is that up until this construction, it is my understanding that we've always had a thing where the students could not carry their backpacks and so forth. Now parents or some of the students have been told that they're going to be carrying their backpacks. So the question is is what are we going to be doing in reference to the security? because now you're going to have what you told what you said before is now totally the opposite side of the perspective here. So what is going to be done as far as security

225for our students? Sure. So um this something that we've obviously talked a lot about uh we've communicated with students um and obviously the reason why is because they don't have access to the lockers because they're going to be ripped out, right? Um you know a lot of what we do at the high school is what's called community policing. um which is uh you know and and then we talked about safe to says earlier tonight. Um our students and staff are very vigilant um because we are trying to create that safe environment. Uh anytime that there's a potential concern or threat and and it could be something as simple currently as something in a student's um pocket or it could be something as a concern in a student's backpack. Obviously we have to be very uh

226mindful that uh there could be again security threats regardless. Um, I'm not sure if you're aware, but the students right now actually have uh bags that they do carry in the high school for their Chromebooks. Um, sometimes they'll put, you know, stuff on on top of it or within it and things of that nature. So, I don't think it's going to be much of mitigation from what we're currently doing now um to uh having something on on your back. Um, certainly, you know, it's something to be mindful of. Uh we know uh many districts recently and again this is kind of a COVID thing I would say too because there was a time that Pey had backpacks that were allowed to carry around and and to my knowledge and I wasn't here but that was

227occurring during COVID and then obviously with COVID that that kind of went away um and and it's maintained. Well, the the facts are that most of the other school districts have gone back to utilizing backpacks and and you know, our police chief and other uh chiefs of police as well as administrators and superintendents have a network of you know, what are some things that we're doing. So, in terms of the procedures we're currently doing, we're going to continue to maintain those. And again, I'm not going to elaborate specifically on what those look like. Um, but certainly, you know, vigilance is really important. So that that's probably the best answer I can give you right now. Um it it does require parents to notify schools if there are concerns whether it's their own children or other

228children within the neighborhood. Um and they're doing that right now. So I don't see it being a major transition. Uh we had a good conversation with students at the high school. I think it was two days ago just talking about, you know, their thoughts around this and and they they like the idea of having that ability because um they're having challenges running back to classes and frankly they're carrying and I' we all see it. They have they have stacks of books um and and it becomes very very challenging for D and that's actually more of a safety thing of breaking Chromebooks, knocking it in, you know, especially with the renovation project. So you bring up a really good point. um something that we're certainly very vigilant about as you understand how we operate with safety

229and security. Um but it's not anything that's out of the reach of things that we've done in the past and and certainly that's going to be something we're continuing to work with. Just to be crystal clear, this is only the high school. So So this is the the transition. So that the people that got the phone call and the notifications were those 8 through 11th graders currently. So you going to be using your metal detectors? So a little bit more. Well, we have them. We use them and and again that's something that you know our team will continue to to have those discussions. I there's been discussions about running everyone through metal detectors which we could do but it will take three hours and you all been through TSA to go on to an airplane.

230So you know think about that times a thousand 12 you know 1,200 uh high school students. So again, when we find it's it's warranted and necessary and concerning, we have procedures in place that absolutely have mitigated those concerns and we've addressed those disciplinary when necessary. So now the other thing is and this is only that you know I can't tell you that I definitely know this from somebody in particular but um are they not going to have lockers anymore? They are. Uh so we actually um so we we talked to uh with with the 11th graders that'll be the senior class next year. So obviously we're trying to prioritize um the senior lockers. That's always been something that's near and dear to our seniors. So we we're trying to allocate those lockers currently for those

231individuals. Um when the project's all said and done, there will be a slight reduction of lockers. Um but again you know we've talked to many of our students and this was a decision that we had uh a while back that some people will and some people won't. So it's just like you know high school parking their spaces available and and you know then then there's priority lists of of seniors all the way down. So we'll be doing similar processes in that regard as well. But but it when the project's all done there will be lockers that will be accessed. In fact, we just had a conversation today about where to place some of the ADA lockers because we we are, you know, currently don't have them. So, we're trying to make sure that they're accessible

232to our students in wheelchairs and other um you know, physical devices to help them. And have you guys gotten anything in place about where things are going to go that have to go over to the middle school? Is there a plan yet? There is in reference to moving all this stuff. Yeah, absolutely. Let me just say this. Being the president of the van board. Yes. Okay. Right. Uh like where is all of our stuff going to go? Where are all our uniforms going to go? Where is how are we going to do it with band camp? Is there going to be a refrigerator for you know different things for the for the band? I I would say this. We've had the discussions. It would probably take about six more hours to divulge all those answers

233to your questions. They're very good questions and I appreciate how thoughtful you are with um thinking about how it's going to impact everyone. But I will tell you that our team has been planning this for two years and those are definitely considerations and things that we've um gone through to say okay this is where they're going to be. This is the access points that students are going to be able to utilize um you know throughout the middle school and the high school because if we moved anything over to the middle school then that impacts the middle school. So we've been very mindful about mitigating that particular concern but I will tell you a very thorough plan has been outlined to consider all of these factors. Yeah. The important more important factor is you can't make

234improvements without some disruption. Yeah. And uh um we we know there's going to be some inconveniences, but we're going to have to live through it. U relative to the backpack issue. I believe we did a survey among students uh about whether or not they prefer to have backpacks or not have backpacks. And it's u Many of them would prefer to have a backpack because their transition times would be a lot less and particularly for individuals who had great distance to go and a limited amount of time um influenced their decision as to what they would prefer. Well, the biggest concern is is in this day and age is the security. Yes. that that's for the parents, you know, uh if I, you know, is going to have to worry about, you know, a child in

235the high school, especially in the high school, but we know that it's not only limited to high school students. I'd say the way it is in this country, you know, I would say in short, sorry, if I would say in short to the the original question, the security question that you did have, um, which I've gotten asked, same question asked to me by more than one person over the last couple weeks. Sure. I think my and my short answer is once the once the child gets into the school with their backpack, right? Whether they have a locker or they're carrying the backpack, they're in the school. So, and the contents of that backpack are in the school. Those contents are in the school. So, at that point, it's all about an accessibility thing which they

236have, say it's a vape issue or something, they're going to put that in their pocket or something small. So, at that point, no additional security other on top of the great security that's already happening is going to be needed. That that's a short answer for you. Um, that's just kind of way that I'm looking at it. Um, but I do love having continuing to have these conversations because security is number one and that's the number one priority. So, well, you know, it's it's a an issue in in schools and everywhere. Sure. Everywhere. I mean, it's not only us. Yep. No. And the one thing I will say just while we're on that because I know security is not on the like it's a couple sections down yet but just because we're talking about that when

237when um ju in as a general statement when we're saying we don't want to go into details or we we don't want to elaborate on things that's specifically because you you don't it's not there are processes in place you don't want everybody to know them because you don't want them to circumvent them. So, it's it's not a matter of not wanting to share. It's a matter of keeping that information private so that it can't be circumvented. But, Mrs. Cleer, honestly, we're we're very happy that you're bringing this up because I can tell you that you are thinking the same way that we're thinking about how do we make sure that we have safety within our schools. Um, and and I think everyone here, as you know, we have a great police chief right now. We

238have great coordination at the high school. We have three armed officers. I mean, three armed officers at the high school like and and with with training for more um and so again trying to put systems in place to make sure that we really have uh you know a solid foundation for safety within our school. But I I I can assure you with coordination with with chief with um Dr. Howard with with many others that we have put mitigating processes in place to decrease any potential threat within our school. It there's no guarantee. We all know that. But to your point, are we thinking about this? What is our impact? Pros and cons, but you're right there with us because these are the same questions and conversations we're having. So, I appreciate you bringing them up

239because it is something that that I want our community to know that it's not just a, hey, we made a decision and it's over. It's continuously refining and revisiting. So, thank you for bringing that up. Constantly reevaluating basis. We don't It's never just status. We have a free security. We do. Absolutely. You are right. Yeah. Did you have a followup just very quickly? I think possibly what had the high school principal did send out emails and within the one same one email within the same email one part said about this year there's policies and procedures that you cannot for safety and security and then the bottom of the email says well next year it's going to be exciting. We don't need it because of the recommendations. I think it was the communication process that has

240actually gone out to almost a thousand students. No. So, it's a communication issue that you're you're hitting this with because parents are asking me too like listen, what's the message here? Janet, my Jet, my phone blew up after that. So, I I feel you. I understand it. Um, and we're gonna take that feedback. Yeah. We'll follow up. But you have a very good I mean, your explanation there, Matt, was very Yeah, your your short answer was was a very good answer. Like, it's already in the school there. So, I got um Thank And I I would just want to make a comment too that your students are going to be very safe when the contractors are even here on we already have all our standards in place to make sure that everyone knows that they

241belong in the school or they don't belong in the school. So safety has already been considered throughout the entire construction just to give you a little bit of rest assurance for that. Any other um comments on operations transport? Did we talk about transportation yet? You love them both together. So together transportation. Um if that's all right with everybody. I'm going to skip the five minute. Continue. Are we I'm sorry. Are we talking for transportation? Are we talking about whether or not we need an RFP? Oh, thank you. Is that a discussion you want to have here at this point? Thank you. Uh, do we have to make a decision right now? I My concern is that last time we didn't make a decision till too late. The contract contract 3026. Um, advertising has to has

242to be advertised for three weeks, three continuous weeks. Um, then you'll have a bid opening. It's quite a large RFP, so it will take time to review and go through. So, it does have to it does have to be decided. We probably need to talk about it. I think that we need to talk about it. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I know that it's my it's my position that uh uh we can't wait. Uh the only way to know that we're getting a fair deal is to have a competition. So my position is we need to advertise uh and put it out for a request for proposal RFP and go from there is um I it's it's my opinion that that we're getting excellent service from per student. However, uh in fairness to the taxpayer, we

243have to make sure that we are getting a fair deal from the financial aspect as well as from the service aspect. And I also believe that state law requires us on certain types of services to put it out for bid. You can't just award it to a single company and keep going with that company. So you'll end up with a legal. Yeah. So then why are we even questioning this? Yeah. That's that's RFP too. So I don't like and like in my profession like to me the answer is obvious. A lot of times I go through like co-stars for projects like big project and stuff like that and then the minute I don't get to I love co-stars. the minute I don't get to go through a co-ars project and it goes out to bid

244I often see contractors and municipalities actually have to pay more money when they do. So I just want to make sure we're not going to fall into a position where we're going to have to pay more money if we do put it out to an RFP. But the fact that we didn't really get a price with the details of this contract with the number of buses our area you would not be able to go to coars. No, I get that. I get that. We would absolutely have to go out for our then then there's no there's no discussion then, right? Transportation doesn't fall under the legality, okay, of renewing. We you can renew. The only legal piece that's on there, you can't renew more than five years. You can't tie a future board to a

245contract that was more than five years. Our problem with the last process was that the the decision to put the RFP out was so late that we really didn't get a fair competition. And I it's my opinion that we could have got a better contract price had we had a more stringent earlier competition. help educate me real quick. Um, if we put that out and they do bid, do we have are we bound to a low bid in this scenario? And then my and then my second question is would we give them an opportunity to get closer match? Well, wouldn't that what what typically is done is they come in and make presentations and then we have to decide whether or not they have met all of the criteria to the level that our satisfaction.

246Okay? So you you you can be in the mode where you don't award it to the lowest bidder. I don't want to get into a lot of contract stuff here, but but you but you have to go through the process and you and if you don't go with the lowest bidder, then you have to justify the reasons why you didn't. But it's still it's still legal for you to do that provided that you're you can justify it for not getting the services that you're that the district need. I believe it was large brothers. They had the lower dollar amount. Yeah. But they had zero buses and it was June. Yeah. No. And that you gota look at there was there was no way we could go with them because they had to getund and some

247buses in three months. Once once the RFP is established and all the parameters then we will pick a committee to work with Tammy to analyze those bids as they come in just as we did for our construction. So that kind of keeps things on an even at this point. Let's just put it up. We're we're going to put our fee in there. I'll send it over. It's done. I did it. It's I send it over to Morris office tomorrow. I didn't want the legal expense if we weren't going to do it. So, I'll send it over to um Does anybody in the community have any comments on transportation? Thank you. Uh technology. Uh yeah, so I have two things. Uh the first one is a proposal for the boardroom upgrades. Uh, probably the most reoccurring

248thing I've heard is, "Is this thing working?" Um, is this thing on? Can anyone hear me? Um, it's been a frustration of my own for a whole year now. Uh, anyways, we did go through and get a proposal for boardroom upgrades. It's broken into three sections. Um, and it's it's an expensive project because everything's expensive at this time. The three parts of this project would actually be uh the audio portion, which is the microphones. It also is the sound cabinet back here. the sound cabinet back here has to be completely redone. Um, so that would be um, and I'll let Tammy take over with the pricing on this. Uh, I don't want to talk. Thanks. Yeah, I learned I learned from James. He told me everything I didn't know. Dr. Conrad said the money stuff.

249So, the second part of the project is actually the visual part, right? So, if you look up the projectors right now, this screen has a ribbon. That annoys me. It probably annoys you, too. And these screens are just generally blurry because the projectors are old. they're not full resolution and I think that we're doing a disservice to our community members and also the board members who can't read what's actually up on these screens. Um so the second portion would actually be to fix the projectors, make it so they're brighter, uh so they're clearer and it's more up to date. Um and then the last piece would actually be for our members at home. Uh we're looking at increasing the uh the stability of our streams and also the quality of our streams so they're actually

250better off. of possibly having uh multiple cameras or at least cameras that are better at actually tracking picking up the audio um so we can actually produce a better quality product. Uh there was actually an increase from the first quote to the second quote because the first quote was those three separate projects and the last quote we got was actually have a control panel that if we chose to get everything we could actually control all three aspects at once. Um, so I'll have to read the good news. Before we get into, do you have like a rough average of how many people tune in and watch the meetings? It depends on the meeting. Actually, I was going to say it's actually quite surprising. Um, well, when I closed this stream down, they'll actually tell me.

251Uh, the last time I looked though, we did have like 70ome viewers. Okay. So, it depends on the stream comics. Sometimes we have like a hot button issue or something where it's like something big. We've I've seen the numbers go to 150 um you know so it it does vary. Um sometimes 12 users at a time are viewing live up to 24 again it really does vary quite a bit and the views are pretty high too. Yeah. Not maybe not live but the Yeah. I mean I and if you want if you're interested after once I hit end because I don't want to mess with anything once I hit end on it I can actually tell you how many people were on at a time stuff like that even just that's I was just curious

252thank you sorry now before we just jump to the numbers did we get more than one company to give us a quote the I did not for this now when we talked about co-star uh this this is that so so generally speaking if I got multiple companies what you'd probably be looking at is the difference in labor cost or possibly different projections of what their scope of project would be different technology. Yes, correct. So maybe one person can say we're going to install one camera, the other company says we're going to install two cameras. That's going to be a business price, but the cameras themselves are co-star, but doesn't include a screen over there, right? As opposed to having two screens, one I'm okay with having those, but could we also have one over there?

253I I don't I could certainly work with them to possibly remount the screen and turn a projector like possibly that screen could be mounted over here and turn projector so you guys could have it again. We could get along with the whole I know it's a big improvement technology. Yeah, this is a big improvement from what it was before. So I do respect that. All right. Let's hear the bad news. Okay. So, the total cost for this project is 87,68867. So, we all got together and we decided how are we going to pay for this? It's not in the budget. So, for the 2025 St. Luke's Loyalty Partnership, we get $50,000. Um, so that can go towards it and then the remaining 37,68 we can just have reserve the 50,000. Sorry, I'm just gonna the

25450,000 um grant budget is what what are alternative uses for that grant? Like was there anything that we potentially projected to use it on? I don't want to I don't want to take away something from It doesn't go to athletics. Correct. Not just athletics. Is there anything that we were projecting to use that money for in the students for the building? Anything that we would be taking away for not saying this isn't important. This is for the public. This is for the viewership. This is but I wanted to ask that question. And then you you have another option. If you only want to do the audio with the control panel, that would be 49,000. And then that could be all of the St. Luke's Oil Partnership Fund. We can split it up between the St.

255L. Just give me the options. 49. That's just I know you said it's at the audio and the control group. The audio and control. Yes. I mean, I'm sorry. The price for everything was 877 and we can use that grant. So, so here's my thought for everybody. I think we should maybe dig it a little bit and see if there are any other companies that could have a lower price. I like the idea of going all three, but this isn't like a rush. I don't know what everybody else's thoughts are. I don't mind pulling the trigger on it, but people hear me. Yeah. I mean, we I'm not in a depends on the person. I don't know. What is everybody's thoughts on it? I I also don't mind right now if we want to pull

256a trigger and make this happen yet. Let's make this happen. But it's not like a we need to happen before the summer or anything. I don't know. I have a question. So, who who designed the audio cabinet? Was it SHI? This one's pre-existing. No, like the new one. This one back in the 80s. It's I almost said something really stupid. So, um the one that we had, I believe it was CDW that we had. It was CDW. We had come out. I use SHI. I'm sorry. That's why I said No, no, it was it was CDW who we had come out. Um we've had them come out and do recent work over at the middle school auditorium. uh and that's all their jobs generally was happy with the the quality of work and also their

257suggestions. My question probably I'm questioning is does someone else have a better solution that they can accomplish what we're trying to accomplish? Like I feel like there's a cheaper solution there for audio. I use the adage you get what you pay for. Um, the audio solution generally does it. It's expensive primarily because the microphones themselves that they're suggesting are quite they're they're robust, but they're also expensive. Um, there's other aspects of the actual sound that I I hope not. No, I mean, and honestly, Mr. I have no problem coming back to CDW and saying, "Hey, can we get a cheaper option?" Um, last level with durability. Again, I I I'm a little skeptical to do that because I'm I've always been an advocate for let's, you know, if you're gonna do it, do it right.

258You know, um is there a cut off date for the grant funding? A reset date. This one we're good on. St. Luke's is a sponsorship, so that's just you can roll that. I say grant, you know, I Yeah, thank you. I know. Thank you, Tammy. Do we already have the dollars or do you have to submit? Thank you. I would get it on September 1st. So you do this other money. We could use the general fun. [Music] Is this a summer project, Jason? Is it something you would prefer to do in the summer? I would prefer to do the summer because I think then we have a little bit more space between board meetings as well. Um that hopefully we can get the scoping work done between meetings. That would also be my preference too.

259So that way we can hit the ground running for Yeah. It's going to come up here very quickly. So what does our board mean in June? Uh 23rd Monday. We have to meet before the end of June, but 30 days after after the 22nd, right? So I believe it's the 23rd of June. 23rd June is the if if we put this in for actually no because there's no working session on the 22nd, right? Yeah. Just a voting meeting on 22. But if it was on the agenda on 22nd. Yeah. No, I know. Yeah, we could break it out and put on a couple different lights. So, it's tied to to the ceiling speakers. Yes. Could you not do like just surface mount speakers? Like we have four surface mounts and not tied into that system.

260It would be cheap actually. Yeah. Right now the sound the sound we could do anything for right and that's the best way I can say. Um, what we priced out was to redo this system in an optimal way that would hopefully facilitate the community and you guys having a seamless experience. And that's not to say your Southbar solution wouldn't work. Um, that's what I got. It's it's it's just trying to figure out um, you know, when we start integrating systems, we do go with all three components. You're looking at doing streaming and stuff like that. It's also being able to tie the audio into that process. So instead of picking up the audio from that microphone, we're now picking it up on the way to the speakers. So again, there's there's it'll be better. It's

261production quality. You know, I mean, that's that's what this is about. But do you have thoughts? You think we should move forward with this? What do you thought? We have to do something. I I don't disagree there. I'm not the professional says what's the best. could put this on the agenda for the 22nd and then have further discussion and vote it. If we've at time don't feel like it, then we're just going to have to reset vote not not approve it and then reset at least then discussion. Yeah. Is that okay? Would the direction from the board be for just the audio or would it be the package? We should do it full package. Yeah, it needs to be done to get it. All right. question through I think at this point through the whole

262thing for the 22nd and then we can have further discussion at that time and what we could do is on the motion we can also list um how it essentially will be paid for how long for the board isn't comfortable with using the same um loyalty sponsorship money that's what the cap reserve money is for projects like this okay so we could use all of that in there as on the working session agenda if you are interested the actual breakdown of components is listed so that way if you're like curious about where's that what why are we coming up with this value it it's there I like the fact that it's all tied together I do like the fact that it's all tied together and with the audio okay we are we are adding that

263to the board agenda for Any second comprehensive comprehensive of Yeah. Um are there any are there any community questions on technology? Yep. If you use the the St. Luke's, does it mean that you have to advertise for St. Luke's in here or is it just We're gonna have we're gonna have like St. Luke's lighting in the football stadiums eventually. Okay. St. St. Luke's Fridays. St. Luke's Friday. St. Luke's Fridays. St. Luke's lights. Um St. Pennsylvania there real quick. Yep. Was there is there maybe a glitch last time that the video and everything wasn't launched out to the community? 428 meeting wasn't posted. I think we're constantly having those glitches that didn't get you posted. So the the meeting that was posted was one I had that was recorded which I think that was there was

264our great bear prize. So anyway, there's nothing posted for the last meeting. So maybe there was a glitch. So we need to need to look at it sooner. Don't know. I'm just asking. The other thing is there closed caption. Is there closed caption on the system for our viewers at home? Yeah, actually when it goes to YouTube, YouTube actually does automated close caption. You can turn it on. Okay. So, I mean that it's generated. It's not like someone actually in People were asking us. So, do you call this the gold star system? I didn't hear. So, I I didn't I didn't I didn't hear. She didn't hear that. You're telling me nostar system. This was the solution CDW proposed for this space. Um they being the audio and visual specialists um in part I am

265taking a recommendation for this. Oh yeah that was it. Thank you. Actually by you saying all that it makes me feel better about my decision to to get through this upgrade quicker. Um policy two. There was annual renewals, too. Oh, yeah. So, just this one, this one would be a lot quicker. Uh, just letting the board of directors know that the next board meeting there's going to be a fairly substantial number of annual renewals coming up for technology. One of the things we try to do is make sure everything's happening on July 1 for the most part. Uh, the annual renewals, I'm not going to go line by line or bullet by bullet. Um, but it's it's generally things that we have to have to keep our infrastructure running. It's going to be the server

266licenses. It's going to be the um things that we need for the voiceover IP. Uh there's going to be power school, which is obviously our cyst. Those are going to be on there. Um the only two things that I'd like to highlight are um a slight change in how we're going to be doing our firewall uh within our schools to make us so we actually have better network security. Um and that's going to be actually a little bit cheaper than what we currently have, which is good. Uh and then the other one is looking at our actually antivirus software. Uh we're doing the same thing. We're going to be upgrading that a little bit to try and make sure that we're getting better network protection for our users. And these are all same conversation every

267year around this time and they're all budgeted to right except for maybe the upgrades. Yep. Okay. And then the last thing that's going to be on there is going to be our Chromebook refresh expense again budgeted for um same thing with staff l staff laptop refresh and then cases for kindergarten. So, I mean, it's going to look like a lot coming at once and it is, but it's just because how we do it is in the summer time. Thank you. Y Thank you. Any uh community comments on that last section? Okay. Thank you. Uh policy, the only update for policy is just there's uh with with federal mandates um and obviously some of the policy for first read were title 9. Um there are going to be some other policies that are forthcoming. So, at

268least we're the ones that we really need to address initially, but obviously we're still looking at um uh what those changes are and then also making sure that it's being vetted through um uh Pennsylvania as well um as as uh our solicitor's office. So, that's all. Thank you, uh superintendent. Uh nothing to report this evening. Chief, all I have just in addition to your uphold report is we're preparing for graduation and the MCTI graduation. Exciting, exciting stuff. That's where we're at with that. Uh, most all the act 235 officers are in the procedure of getting their certification. I expect that to be done by the end of June. Okay. Take anything on athletics additionally. We need to talk about girls lacrosse one. So, they will move on. I don't have anything on the huddle renewal.

269I told Jim so at our last board meeting um the huddle contract was questioned um why we were paying $13,000 per year and that there's a streaming component on the contract and we're not using it. Um so Jim and I sat we talked about it. So when you look at the contract that's streaming it's not a all cart contract. The contract is what the contract is for $13,000. You get everything that's listed on that contract. You can't remove something and get a a lower price or anything like that. It's inclusive. So we looked at um play on sports. That's what we use right now for streaming. Um their contract ends June 30th, 2025. So we're not we already sent the cancellation letter to play on sports. That contract is cancelled. Huddle streaming is going to

270replace that. So now we will be using every item line item in this huddle contract. So the community can log on to stream the sports that are being streamed through huddle. Correct. That's good. And the re and the reason that huddle the streaming part in huddle since we've had it for the last few years isn't being used. You plan on had in their contract. We can't use both. So that's why we couldn't use the huddle stream. We have it but you can't use the cameras are there. It's just Yeah, we couldn't use it. Um and play on was brought on with St. Luke's contract. They were all kind of tied together. Um so that's that's how this is working. and play on sports. I wrote the letter myself to cancel the contract. It went out.

271Um so that'll be done 6:30. If everybody is okay with that, we're going to put it back on May 22nd for you guys. Good. Okay. Thank you. Um anything else? I will say uh to everybody in this out there, thank you for staying. Um good luck on the May 20th primaries. Um to everybody in the room, I know that the fact that we're all here at 11 o'clock um shows that we're invested in the kids in the community. So, thank you for that and good luck to you. Um and we're done. No, never again. Never again.