ASD Committee of the Whole / Regular Board Meeting 01/22/2026

001All right. You want to hit it one more time? Okay. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the Finance Committee of the whole meeting of the Board of Directors of the School District for the City of Allentown for today, January 22nd, 2026. And we're going to go to something else now. Good evening. Good evening school board directors members of the public to all our families students as well as my team Good evening tonight before we begin our formal committee meetings I would like for you to please join me with a roaring round of applause for the tiny tappers from Jackson As they assemble, the Tiny Tappers are celebrating an exciting second year as part of the 21st Century After School Program. Don't they look cute? Oh my goodness. The Jackson Tiny Tappers have

002taken meaningful steps toward academic success. They've been integrating tap dance into their daily learning. as young performers and they practice early literacy through movement using tap patterns to explore syllables and word structures. They are clapping and stomping. Oh, thank you. They're way strong to phonemic awareness, laying a joyful foundation for reading. They're tapping also to help them master mathematical concepts like counting and sequencing and pattern recognition. Let's get ready for the Tiny Tappers. I want to thank our staff, our teachers, Principal Walter, Mr. Rimmer, Ms. P-Mom-Teezy. Yeah, I got that right tonight. Thank you so much for your support. And, of course, all the families in the house, all the moms, dads, abuela, abuelo, tia, tia, everyone. Thank you so much for being here. I'm not good at it Got a feeling that oh yeah

003You could be everything that that I need Tastes so sweet Every sip makes me a boy yeah Like a nice snack Cause you got to take a big bite Wanna run the bar yeah I'm gonna turn up I'm gonna go yeah I already know it's a story Yeah shit My little syrup up Down your throat Lift the top, one more could make you hit the spot Drip the drop, fizz and pop Ah, I'm getting more and more Just a sip and then it's dripping out It's done, I need a second round Thank you, Ms. McBurden. Ms. Norega, Ms. LeBron, Ms. Mercedes, and the 21st Century Learning Program. Let's give it up to everyone at Jack's. And I just want to ask that all the proud families, moms, dads, abuelo, abuelo, everyone, please stand. T.O.T. Everyone,

004all the family, let's give it up. You did an amazing job. We are so proud of you. Wasn't that fantastic? Yes. I don't know if I could have had that much rhythm at that age. Thank you. Great job. Do we have another number? Oh, okay. We're ready for another one. Let's give them some music when they go out. Let's do some tapping on the way out. Can we get some music, Mr. Rivera over there and Mr. Rutherford? My little soda pop. Let's give it up for the Jackson! Can we play the song? I guess I have to sing it. Woo! at that age. And just think, you know, you plant these seeds in our young people early and give them opportunities and exposure. All the great things will happen. Those are our next professional dancers

005and singers and everything else. And we're starting young. So thank you so much. Tonight, is it okay if I continue? Tonight... I'm really excited that I have the opportunity to ask you to join me in giving a roaring round of applause for our School Board of Directors. It is National School Board of Directors Month. Tonight, we are joining school districts across the nation, honoring school board of directors or school board members, in which some districts call them, for your commitment, your service, your sacrifice, and all the love that you show our students and our staff. And I always say this often because here in our district, our school board directors, they don't get paid. And I have some colleagues in California, their school board directors get paid over $100,000 a year. and they have staff

006and they do all these things and how our directors donate their time and their service and they spend a lot of hours. And I just wanna say I honor you, I appreciate you, and I'm happy to be able to work closely with you. And I'm learning a great deal from each of you. And thank you for sharing your unique gifts and talents with the entire school district. So I thank you and please join us in another round of applause. In addition to, like, you received lots of great gifts from our schools, and I want to thank all of our teachers and our students, all staff in our administration for all the gifts. Many, I would say maybe 98% of those gifts were created, I mean, by the students and the teachers, and they colored them,

007they designed them. And so I want to just let you know that, aren't they beautiful? So I want to thank all our staff for their hard work. for their sacrifice for creating and the students these gifts for you. So as a way of saying thank you and gratitude, we have a brief presentation from our students and staff at Central Elementary Stream Academy. Let's give it up for Central Stream Academy. Let's give them a round of applause. We also have another presentation by Union Terrace Elementary School. One, two, three. Thank you. Everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much for your hard work and commitment to the Allentown School District. And I must say on behalf of all the students and our team, we thank you again for being a part of our team and providing your

008leadership and support and your sacrifice. And I'm honored again to serve with you on this great community. Before we begin our first official meeting of 20, uh, 2026, I want to take a moment to thank our entire learning community, everyone who works with, in our, our learning community for your hard work and your sacrifice. We're looking forward to a great new year of learning, of leading, as well as reaching new heights. We've had many accomplishments over the past, for this past, uh, for this academic year thus far, and I'm looking forward to building on that work. As an organization, we believe in continuous improvement. So we have, of course, some successes. We have some opportunities for growth and opportunity and to really serve our students and our staff better at scale. So I'm looking for

009us to continue and to build on the momentum. And I'm grateful and I appreciate your passion and your commitment. As always, I'm really proud when we win as an organization. And so I'm really honored and happy to showcase some student accomplishments, some students accomplishments. And this month we are celebrating two outstanding athletes whose excellence reflects the value and spirit of the Allentown School District. We want to commend William Allen High School's senior boys basketball player, Tahit. Also known as Chunk Wise, who was named the Lehigh Valley Live in the morning call athlete of the week. Let's give him a round of applause. This occurred during the holiday break after he and his team, he led his team over a 9-2 start, including notable wins over Parkland, Nazareth, and Emmaus, and that's a big deal. So

010thank you so much. He averaged 20 points per game, and he definitely exemplifies what we know is the best and brightest of Allentown. Not only is he a great athlete, he's a phenomenal scholar, so we commend you for all your hard work. Well, let's go on over to the east side, and we want to acknowledge Jayla Rosario. Let's give Jayla Rosario, who reached a significant milestone in her athletic journey, and I was so happy that I was able to be there to witness her hitting her 1,000-point career height with 1,000 points for her entire career. So let's give her a round of applause for girls' basketball. And this happened during the home game that was at Pleasant. They were playing Pleasant Valley High School on January 6th. We want to commend her, Jayla, for her

011accomplishments and her strong academic prowess as well. And we're looking forward to hearing all the wonderful things that they're going to do. Of course, we want them to complete this year as seniors and go on to pursue their post-secondary pursuits. We have some additional highlights as it relates to our partnership updates and this month the district We spotlighted a commitment to bilingual education And we were able to receive $20,000 from the American Federation of Teachers who support, they represent our paraprofessionals. And they donated $20,000 for paraprofessionals to pursue their post-secondary education so they can go on to become teachers. So we're really excited about that partnership. And we want to thank Representative Swire, Representative Cepeda Freitas, as well as Representative Schausberg. and of course Mayor Turk and others and Senator Miller who helped us to

012bring the American Federation of Teachers their Executive Vice President, National President and for the recognition of supporting our staff. So we're excited the investment in the staff here in Allentown. We also were thrilled that they highlighted Sotomayor School and donated 500 books to our students, bilingual books to the students at Sotomayor, and they're looking forward to continuing to support multilingual learning. And so they shared with us there was a Latino coalition from New York City who also joined them and they are willing to make investments in ensuring that our students and their families are multilingual. So we want to thank them for their support. We also started the year, kicked off the year with our groundbreaking ceremony. And I want to thank the school board of directors for your support, as well as all our

013elected officials who were present for the groundbreaking of our new family and community resource center that's going to be located on the current Bridgeview campus. I want to thank all the councils, all the family council, the student council, the advisory council, as well as our interfaith council and our business council. We had representation from across the city. So we're really thrilled. about that, so I wanna thank you. We thought we were preparing for about 30 people and there were over 100 people who attended, so thank you so much for your commitment and investment in our district, our students, our staff, and our families. One other thing I like about this particular center, it's for everyone, including all of our staff, students, their families, and the broader community, so this is not just for a... the

014Allentown School District or just for Bridge Butte, but this is for everyone. So I wanna thank the collective community for coming together. I also really want to highlight my family and community advisory council because they played key roles in this. They served as MCs and they gave our statement. purpose and they did and of course all our staff who we had to pivot I would think the facilities team and technology we had to pivot because of the inclement weather so they prepared for inside and outside ceremonies so thank you so much for that what a great day it was in Allentown and really excited but that we are doing together also let's say we have a few more quick highlights We shared with the board some of our highlights from our strategic plan. We will,

015and we shared with you our attendance dashboard, and we do have a commitment after we continue to ensure that we work out some of the infrastructure that the dashboard is public facing so that all staff, students, as well as our collective community and families can access the DataDax board. We have a few more, Ms. Matheson. I want to say most of my remarks. I want to also thank our school-level teams. We're in the process of preparing for next year, and I know we're still in the midst of this year, but we're conducting our school quality reviews, and I know it takes a lot of work from our school leaders as well as their school leadership teams that includes our teacher people who are in our teaching ranks, part of the AEA. I want to thank

016you for all your hard work in preparing the presentations and being very thoughtful. about the needs that you have as a learning community. And with that said, we will disseminate, I don't think we got it out yet, and I want to thank the members, Miss Franklin and her team for giving us some feedback. I know we presented it to you for your feedback on this, on the survey that we're gonna disseminate to staff so that we can get some real. quantitative feedback about how we are supporting them and the resources that they need to help improve their practice and to make the working conditions good for them or better for them. So we do have a survey that's being disseminated. Can someone tell me, Mr. Ramos, when's the deadline or Mr. James for the survey

017to be returned? We're we're gonna do a first look in meeting at central office on Tuesday So we're hoping that there'll be some time allocated officially on Monday a few minutes It's pretty short. So it really should take one or two minutes But the survey was released yesterday. Okay. Thank you so much. So thank you and you have our commitment We do we really want to know so please I'm encouraging all staff to complete the survey and you can put your name and we wanna know, someone's like, I don't wanna tell because we want your feedback. In the spirit of continuous improvement, we want to get better together. As we begin the second half of the school year, of course our focus will. be fully remained on the five big rocks that we identified in

018the beginning of the school year, as well as our work within our strategic plan, Lighting the Way, a Blueprint for Innovation and Excellence 2030. And again, I want to thank everyone. And I do want to say this, and I know I get to talk a little bit later. As you know, we are facing and to the school board directors inclement weather. And so the city has declared the city as a state of emergency or will on Saturday. And so we just want to make everyone aware of that and we will have our students take home devices. tomorrow and our teachers and staff prepare for possible school closure on Monday given where we are where if the storm is exactly amounts that they are projecting so please so everyone inside my voice we want you to

019be safe as well as prepare because we could still learn and work while we're at home yay we can learn at home yeah I'm excited about that so thank you very much so Ms. Matheson I'll give it back to you and and let you continue your remarks so thank you Prior to tonight's meeting an informational executive session was held the purpose of the executive session was to engage in informational updates presented to the board on a number of district initiatives as well as discussion regarding proposed expulsion adjudication confidential students matter pertaining to LCT I programming and confidential personnel matters Discussion with council regarding Allentown Public Library noncompliance on fiscal planning and budgeting. Informational updates and discussion with council pertaining to district real estate and the costs associated with the neighborhood improvement zone. The board welcomes

020and invites public comment, but we have no cards for this point in the agenda. We have one discussion item and two action items on the finance agenda this evening. First, Mr. Koff will present the budget discussion. This is for discussion only, and it's the first step in a process that will continue through the meetings from now until the spring. Start us on the new round of budget discussions. Thank you very much. Good evening, Dr. Burks and fellow board members. Tonight we will start having our first discussion as we move forward with our discussions for the 26-27 school year budget. There's been a lot of work, as Dr. Burks had mentioned previously, with our school quality reviews. A lot of that work has been going on, and we'll show that on the calendar. But these are

021the items we'll be discussing tonight, the foundations, our priorities. We'll get into our budget creation timeline, the Act I index information, revenues, cost drivers, and we'll talk about the future discussions. That will be a big part of what we're discussing this evening. So on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026, Governor Shapiro will present his proposed 2026-27 state budget, providing the first indication of potentially state funding levels for the Allentown School District. So this is a major step in our budgeting process, and this will help us get a framework for what our revenues will be for the upcoming year. As I stated before, and you'll see later on, Roughly 67% of our budget comes from state funding. So this will be a help and it will give us a formation of where we go from the next steps.

022Good evening. So as I mentioned all of our decisions are made based upon our strategic plan lighting the way the blueprint for innovation of excellence 2030 and rooted in our five our seven priorities and our five big rocks and So all the decisions that we're going to present to you from now until the June 30th will be anchored in all the action steps That would live within our strategic plan These are our big rocks we shared with you at convocation, our areas of focus, because we know there are many actions within the strategic plan, but we want to distill down for all of our stakeholders the direction that we're going as our areas of focus and where we're funding, allocating the district's resources at this time, human capital as well as fiscal resources. As you

023can see here, this is the demographic makeup of our student population and the number of staff members that are represented here. So we've shared with the school board our budget timeline in here to pay your close attention to where we are here presenting to you at the Committee of the Whole meeting where the governor is going to make his decision at February 3rd about his budget. He's going to release the budget. We will come back to you in February and have more opportunities for budget discussions. answer any questions that you may have. In March and April, we will also continue to share with you our thinking about the budget. And throughout that time, we would have met with our financial advisors so we have a clear picture of our fiscal outlook as we've done previously.

024And so we also will share, each of our schools will share their school level budgets with their school governance councils. So they will have to wait, and the school governance councils will have some input as to the areas of focus for the schools. Some of the schools have, through the school quality review process, have shared, expressed some needs, even some staffing needs based on enrollment or areas of interest as relates to staffing. We will host a budget forum. We are looking to leverage a few forums at the same time. So we will, because we have areas of various topics we want to share with you. So somewhere in between late April, early May, we will release the dates to you as soon as possible so that the school board as well as the public can

025plan accordingly where you get to become more intimately engaged in the budget process. And by state law, we have to present our budget for the 2026-27 academic year to you no later than June 30th, but for us, it will be June 25th because that is our last school board of directors meeting in June. Mr. Cuff, as I said, in the spirit of building on strengths, Mr. Cuff is going to talk to you about the financial aspects of the budget now. So thank you, Mr. Cuff. Thank you very much. So this evening, I'll give you a quick summary of a couple items that are of key importance. The first one I'm going to talk about is our ACWIN index. And for those who are unfamiliar, your ACWIN index is set by the state, by PDA. And

026what this does is shows you how much that you are a school district is allowed. to raise taxes in the event that they need to raise their local real estate tax. And you'll see here the base index for the state, and I'll direct you to the bottom chart, the base index for the state is 3.5%. So what the state does is any district that has a market aid ratio, an aid ratio basically shows your wealth and financial strength of a district. So the higher it is, basically the more assistance you'll need. Any district that has a high aid ratio, the state will factor in an adjustment. So with Allentown, our adjustment is raise the index up to 5.4. And you'll see in the upper chart, I listed out the other school districts in Lehigh Valley,

027and you'll see their aid ratio and you'll see their adjusted index. So ours is 5.4. The closest one is Northern Lehigh, which is 4.8. And this is here just so you get an idea of where we stand with our neighbors. Here I wanted to show you what we've done historically for the past couple years. And you'll see, again, for 26-27, our Act 1 index is 5.4. But I'll direct you to the middle column where it says ASD millage increase. You'll see for the past three years we've had 0% increase. That's been a lot of work that we've done internally with our administrative staff. It's a lot of support received from the legislators. So you'll see while there is an ability, there is a need for a tax increase, we have worked diligently and been good

028stewards of the financial money within the Allentown School District. And you'll see over the past seven years, the average increase was roughly 2.0%. And you'll see there are a couple of years where there was a hit. And this is prior to a lot of adjustments that have been made by the state. But I just want to give you an idea of where we've been for the last couple of years. So it's been our... Mode has been our our our objective to keep our cause and keep the knowledge down for the local community So I will quickly talk about what our revenues look like so I've stated before so our revenues are composed of three different areas our local tax revenues our state revenues and our federal revenues So I'm going to quickly go over each

029one and show you what we're looking at for the next upcoming year So right now, this is what our composition looks like. So as I stated before, our state revenues of our overall budget is roughly 67%. And you'll see that's a little north of $333 million. And I'm going to talk about one of the major... focal points of the state revenue in one second, but you'll see our other sources of revenue are our local revenue and our federal revenue. So this year total for this school year, our total revenues and our expenses are roughly $481 million. So I'll quickly go through so this is our local revenues the biggest part of our local revenue is going to be our local real estate Taxes these are the taxes that each homeowner receives For your property and

030based on your millage for your property there are also other taxes that are out there for x5 11 These are related to your earned income tax your local service tax and per capita tax There are other sources of revenue which are much smaller than real estate, which are interest that we earn on our investments. Because someone may ask, what do we do with the money that we have? We take our money, we invest it in secure, safe investment tools to make money for the district. So the money we have doesn't just sit there. It doesn't go unattended. And we also receive a... another source of money, which is IDEA money, which is Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This is the money we get for our special services. It comes through as local revenue, but it's

031still generated from federal sources. So I'm going to focus here. These are the major state subsidies. They're actually about... in excess of 10 or 12 state subsidies and reimbursements that we receive. But I'm going to focus on the major ones here. The major one we're going to get is our basic ed funding and our ready-to-learn block grant. That's going to account for, of that 67%, of that $333 million, that's going to be roughly $260 million of that. So this is what we're going to be focused on, and this is where our focus is going to be when the governor releases his budget. So we're going to pay particular attention to that. We've been very beneficial for the last couple years with the support that we received from the state. So we're looking, hopefully, that that

032will continue. But we'll have that conversation. We'll have more information and more content of what we're going to get next month in February. So keep your eyes looking. You'll probably see it on the news. You'll probably see it in the local newspapers. But this is what we're looking forward to, and this will help us frame our work for the next couple of months. The last source of revenue we have are our federal block grants. Those are Title I, Title II, Title III, and Title IVs. So last year there was a lot of conversation around title grants. You probably heard it all. You probably saw it on the news. You probably saw it in the newspapers. We weren't certain that a lot of this was coming through. There was a lot of conversation from the White

033House, a lot of conversation from the Department of Ed, which has been defunct or torn apart, so to speak. So right now. We haven't heard anything negative, which is a good thing. We haven't heard anything positive either. So right now, as we go through the process, we're going to look to hear more. But right now, our budgeting is to do as we did last year. We're going to go with a flat budget for federal programs. As time goes on through the process and we get more information and we get more feedback and more clarity, we'll update that information going forward. So one of the areas that we're going to talk about and I'll talk a little bit about this evening But these these are the major conversations over the next couple of months So as

034with most businesses and with most school districts, the major portion of our expenditures, our major cost drivers, are going to be related to personnel. So you'll see there our personnel costs for our district, and I think you saw before we had roughly 2,591 employees. Our major cost is going to be salaries and benefits. So next month we're going to go through this. We have to evaluate. all of our collective bargaining agreements for all of our categories of our employees, and we'll have that for you. We'll show you what that's going to look like, and that's going to help create the major portion of our cost expenditures. Another area we're going to talk about, and we'll just go into detail, is going to be our charter school tuition. Approximately right now, our charter school tuition makes

035up 19% of our operating budget. Keep in mind what I said salaries are 35% charter schools what we're paying charter schools currently are 19% There's been a flux of charter school over the last year. We'll talk about that We'll show you what the impact is the other area and I'll go to the next slide I'm jumping ahead the next area we're going to talk about outside of the charter schools is going to be our debt service so We did a lot of conversations. There will be more conversations. We're going to have representatives come in from public financial management. This is the organization that helps us craft a lot of our borrowings, a lot of our financial structure. And we're going to talk about what the capital projects that we have lined up for the next

036couple of years, how that will impact us. So over the next couple of months, there will be a lot of conversation. Number one, personnel costs. Next year will be the governor's budget, which will be in two weeks. I'm looking forward to it. It's my Christmas. I'm looking forward to it. I'm sorry. I'm weird like that. Next will be our charter school costs. We'll have what that looks like. PESERs is our retirement. retirement source I'm sorry it's our retirement tool for everyone who is a district employee we pay a pizzer's and the pizzer's rate is currently 30 will be 33.59 percent I will show you what that means in dollars and cents next month our capital projects and the other area which we will have next month and we typically have them come in February we

037will have a representative from Lehigh Lehigh Carbon County Community College Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit, and Lehigh Career and Technical Institute. Next month, we will put forth their budgets. Every district has to approve their budgets because we are a part of their group. So we will put forth their budget for approval, but representatives will be here so they can talk about their impact and what their budget provides for the Allentown School District. Okay, so our next step so you'll see right here We're currently in January and you'll see this as we progress through every month That's going to get smaller and smaller and we'll have a little bit more detail what we're looking forward to so next month as Dr. Burke said we have our school quality reviews. We will continue to do those We will

038have our presentation from LCCI and CLIU and we will work more in our preliminary budget going forward Thank you Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Cuff? This is part one of an ongoing process. I have two questions. Go ahead. Just what month do we communicate to residents about potential tax increases? If there is a tax increase, it would more likely come in May. In May. When we have our preliminary. When we put forth our preliminary approval budget, that will come through in May. Okay. And then how do our sort of ratios compare to neighboring school districts? Like as far as the percentage of local tax that we levy on like residential homes? I can have that for you. I don't have that slide, but I will add that slide next month, and you can

039see exactly what that looks like. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I have a piggyback question, actually. So the city just raised taxes 4%. How does that impact us? Well, the city is totally separate from us. Completely separate. It has no impact on us. Okay. Because keep in mind, our revenue sources are separate from theirs, even though they may get some money from, and they probably get it from the same sources every day. They probably regulate local taxes. They probably get a little bit from the state. They probably don't get the same percentage we get from the state. And I'm not sure exactly what they would get. If they do get any, it's probably a minimal amount from the federal government. So they probably have the same revenue sources. So what they do is

040totally separate from where we are? No, I just wanted that to be clarified because I think some people can convolute the two. They'll hear, oh, the city raised taxes 4%, and when we need to make decisions, they're thinking, well, the city just did this. Why are they doing this? So I need people to understand that it is two separate entities. It is, and you raise a great question. And, again, I'll echo what I've said before. We're fortunate that a majority of our revenue sources are coming from this state subsidy and state reimbursement. So they don't have that same funding source or they don't have that same impact from their revenues. I think majority of what they get are going to get from local taxes or property taxes and things of that nature. And my other

041question was, I don't know if we know this off the head, but do we know how many Title I schools we have? In the district? Every school we have. District-wide. Wow. Okay. Thank you. Which is good. It helps. It helps. In a financial sense, it helps. That's it for me. Anybody else? Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. We do have two action items as well. Mr. James is requesting approval from the school board to hire the Alma Advisory Group, an executive search firm, to assist in the recruitment of various leadership positions. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good evening, school board directors. This evening, we are seeking the board's approval to hire Alma Advisory Group, an executive search firm to assist in the recruitment of five critical leadership

042positions that we have been struggling to certainly fill. Director of Science, Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, Executive Director of English Language Services, Chief of Family and Community Engagement. and the William Allen High School Principal position. These roles are essential to strengthening instructional leadership within our district, student support systems, family engagement, and school level administration across the district. The Alma Advisory Group will support us and assist us in providing access to a broader and more competitive pool of highly qualified candidates, ensuring a rigorous, equitable, and professional selection process. Their expertise will help us identify leaders who bring to the district the necessary experience, cultural competence, and alignment with our district's mission and values. The cost for services is estimated at $191,250. We do have representatives from the Alma Advisory Group on Zoom with us this evening,

043if they would like to certainly make any comments at this time. Good evening, members of the School Board of Directors. My name is Sylvia Flowers. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Okay. My name is Sylvia Flowers with Alma Advisory Group. I'm the Managing Director of Executive Search and Talent. I did want to share a few slides about our organization, if that is okay, and then take any questions that you might have. Let me see if I can share my screen. Ah, you cannot hear me. Okay. Can someone from the board unmute me? Are we able to get her audio? Okay. Testing, testing. Can you hear me now? The Alma Advisory Group brings extensive experience in recruiting educational and executive leaders across the nation. They have a strong track record of successful placements and efficient and

044comprehensive search process and consistent positive feedback from clients. One of the benefits is to access to a wider pool of qualified candidates across multiple leadership disciplines and professional thorough and equity centered selection process. The impact on students in our district will certainly bring about a stronger instructional leadership team, improved student services, enhanced support for our multilingual learners, deeper family and community engagement, and stable school-level leadership when we speak of William Allen High School, all contributing to better student outcomes and school experiences. Test, test, test. Can you hear me? Test, test, test. Yes, test test hope is certainly to have a candidate that's gonna be longer than that a school board director But we do have engage with them as test test test kind of support that they can provide for those candidates coming on board

045Don't know if we have anything where there's a return of a fee test test. Candidates don't stay for a certain period of time. No, okay Anyone else? Yeah I don't know what's going on. So does the community have access to sort of like the procurement process that we went through to select? Test, test, test. Is there some way that we can see what the evaluation was, who else we evaluated to perform this function? Test, test. We did review three additional vendors to support this effort, and we had certainly went through that process internally, but not the community or anyone from outside to certainly weigh in on that. So we did an internal process where we did review three other vendors to support us in this regard. Oh yeah, that's perfect. That's great. So I'm actually

046just curious, like if the public has access to the materials that we performed internally so that they can see like what our procurement process looks like. This action was a professional service on professional services. There is a wide level of discretion given to the district to select professional services because it doesn't need to be. Test, test, test. Responsible. purchaser under the circumstances. So generally under the community's rights to see records, it is much more limited when it comes to a professional services procurement. On the other hand, if it is for supplies, for contracted non-professional services, a building construction project and the like, the actual procurement criteria and many of the documents would be subject to disclosure under the best test test distinction we often don't cheapest doctor in the neighborhood Right. Okay. Yeah, no, I

047understand. Thank you for that, by the way. That's helpful. I was just curious, just, I mean, it makes sense. When we look at like the Allentown city government, you know, I'm used to being able to go in and see like, oh, they went through this process. This is what the criteria was. This is what the bids were, things like that. But I understand the distinction about professional services. So thank you. I have a question. You said it was 191,000 roughly for. Roughly for the cost, what's the average price for these kind of services? It's roughly about, right now we're getting a reduction cost of service. They're about 30 to 40% of the salary of each position that we're certainly having the search firm to complete. Alma has provided us with a discounted cost of 25%

048of the salary for each of these positions. And that is typically standard in the industry. I'll make the motion. We have a maker and a seconder. Is there any other discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Then the motion moves forward. Thank you. Dr. Wharton-Bee is requesting approval from the Board of Directors for the Lehigh Valley Health Network to be the exclusive health care partner for the Family and Community Resource Center. Good evening, everybody. This is something that's close to a lot of our hearts, specifically Dr. Burke's. So when we talk about the Family Engagement Resource Center, excuse me, the Family Community Resource Center, we do have a component of a health suite. So two months ago, we came to you asking if it was okay for us to run an RFP, a request for a

049proposal for these professional services, and we received two bids out of four. firms that were represented and we would like to recommend the following. The district is recommending Lehigh Valley Health Network as a healthcare partner for the Family and Community Resource Center because its proposal most closely aligned with the district's vision for a fully integrated place-based model that combines on-site clinical services, student and family supports, workforce development, and long-term stability. sustainability excuse me. Lehigh Valley Health Network demonstrated the strongest overall value through its commitment to a comprehensive on-site clinic. robust behavioral health and wrap-around services, meaningful student programming and career pathways, and a significant long-term financial and operational investment that supports the district's priorities. Additionally, if you are to approve this tonight, we will be working with our solicitor to craft the agreement between the

050Allentown School District and likewise Lehigh Valley Health Network to strengthen this partnership in the near future. Thank you. Madam Chair, may I just build on that? Madam Chair, Dr. Birx. We also have to acknowledge Valley Health Partners in partnership with Lehigh Valley Health Network. So we want to make sure we acknowledge them as well. And as we know, they're part of the Jefferson group. And we do have representation here. Ms. Nyberg is here. Is there anyone else here, Ms. Nyberg, besides you, representing the hospital right now? Oh, and then we want to, and Ms. Gonzalez, the CEO for Valley Health Partners. So we want to thank them for their leadership and their support of the district. Aside from this, they are invaluable partners and provide resources. They are operating our Hays Clinic currently, as well

051as our Sheridan Elementary School clinics. So both of those clinics currently. And they are very, here's another part of their team coming in now for this presentation. So they have been invaluable partners in supporting our students. So I just want to underscore that. and they're involved in everything in the district including our AI, our mental health services, everything. So I just want to underscore that and thank them for their partnership and leadership. Thank you. Is there any other comment or question? Yes. I would like to say thank you to LVHN as well. This has been years in the making. It's been years of conversation about how can ASD and LVHN partner to create career pathways for our children. And a partnership of this magnitude, sometimes we think it happens overnight. No, it takes tons of

052meetings. I'm looking at Ann, not in her head. It takes tons of meetings, tons of... Trying to figure out what is best for our students, and I think we've came up we've come up with the best things so far And I want to thank dr. Brooks for keeping the engagement going I want to thank everyone that was at that table that negotiated to make sure that our students are going to be well prepared for the future because we know health care is a Major industry and we have a lot of children in ASD who would like to engage and learn about health care So knowing that we're gonna build upon this partnership is very exciting to see and I'm very excited for this. Thank you Anyone else? May I just expound just for clarity, just

053because of the board members. So this partnership would mean that the Lehigh Valley Health Network and Valley Health Partners, they will be the key health provider at our Family Resource Center, as well as they will support the academic programming at the Bridgeview Academy. And bring some of their resources, their post-secondary resources to our students. May I have a motion to move this item forward? So moved. Do we have a second? Okay. We have a maker and a seconder. Is there any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Then the motion carries and it will move forward. Thank you very much. Do we have any comment cards? Is there any old business to come before this committee? Any new business? May I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Then we

054are adjourned. I'd like to call to order the policy committee of the whole meeting for the board of directors of the school district of the city of Allentown. Do we have any comment cards? Lovely. All right. So we'll move on. Superintendent, any remarks? Dr. Birx. Oh, I'm sorry. I just want to say I want to thank our team, the board, and all our stakeholders. One thing we're excited about our policies that we get illicit feedback from all different stakeholders before we present them to the school board. So I want to thank everyone, even our student representatives for their feedback, families, and all staff. So thank you, Mr. Nikolov. Okay, we have four policies tonight. There are first readings. The first two are for Mr. Singh. It's policy 806 and policy 818. If it's okay with

055my colleagues, we'll vote on them together. Okay. Good evening, Dr. Berks at school board. The first policy for the first reading is policy 806 child abuse. This is an updated policy. As you work through the policy, you'll notice there was a significant amount of additions to the definition section of the policy. They go on through page three at the bottom of page three. You have your delegation of responsibility This speaks to requiring each candidate for employment to submit official child abuse clearance statements state and federal criminal history background checks as required by law there also is a part about reassignment there and the renewing of clearances these are Aspects of our work that we already do but that are now captured in this policy Page four goes into guidelines including training and duty to report

056which are also aspects that we already administer in the district and then lastly as you move to page five you have some additional language there in reporting procedures which as School employees we are mandated reporters and this is part of the training that we provide any discussion or questions on this policy All right. Let's move on to 818 then 818 kind of overlays with some of the language and responsibility for 806. This is for contracted services for personnel. You'll see in the purpose the board uses outside independent contractors for a variety of purposes, and we're required to ensure that the contractors comply with the legal requirements regarding contractor employees involved with the deliveries of service to the district. So, again, you have a definition section. guidelines as far as employment practices that we already have

057in place but are now added to this policy as far as its update. They go into the criminal history background checks, child abuse certifications, employment history reviews and training. And then pre-employment requirements. arrest and conviction reporting requirements. They are a part of our onboarding for both district employees as well as contracted employees through our different personnel vendors. Any questions, discussion on this? All right, then may I have a motion to move these two forward to our regular meeting? Is there a second? I second. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Move those forward. Thanks, Mr. Singh. The next two we have are Policies 812 and 813. Those are by Dr. Wharton. Good evening again. Policy 812 is property insurance, and when we talk about property insurance, we're talking about... Property insurance, general liability, crime, automobile, excess liability,

058educators, professional liability, workman's compensation, special coverage, equipment breakdown, and cybersecurity. These are all the portfolio of insurance products that we are required to have by a state mandate, and on an annual basis, we renew that. So basically, the... There's not much on this existing policy that was reworded, but it does call for shall appoint an insurance advisor who may be the agent of record. We have an insurance provider at this time, and we've had the same provider for quite some time. So that is 812. 813 is very similar. but it's other insurances. Other insurances include medical, dental, vision, prescription, life, disability, and unemployment compensation, the stuff that you see in your paycheck. So that also is mandated. Some of that's mandated by federal law, obviously. So we're required to have insurance for that, too. Again,

059the big thing on this policy is the board shall appoint an insurance advisor who may be the agent of record. really not too much change in either policy. It's just verbiage. So thank you. Thank you. Any questions for this? No? In that case, can I have a motion to move these two to our regular meeting? So moved. Is there a second? Fantastic. All in favor? Aye. Perfect. We'll move those forward. Thank you, Dr. Wharton-Bee. Do we have any comment cards? Awesome. Any old business? New business? I have a motion to adjourn. So moved. Is there a second? Fantastic. All in favor? Aye. We're adjourned. Thanks. I second. I'd like to call to order the Education Committee of the whole meeting of the Board of Directors of the School District for the City of Allentown. The

060Board welcomes and invites public comment. You may address the Board on agenda or non-agenda items. The first opportunity for comments is at the beginning of the meeting and is limited to agenda items only. Thank you. Okay. You said we don't have any. If you choose to address the board, please fill out, like I stated, any comment cards. And Dr. Burks, do you have any remarks? Yes, thank you, Mr. Burcio. I'm just so excited that we're going to present tonight some enhancements and additional course offerings, proposed course offerings to the board within our program of studies. So, of course, this is the purpose of why we're here. We're in the learning business, so this makes me really excited that we will present tonight. We also are presenting to the board a proposal to support our AVID

061work. Yes, seven mindsets. Yes. Sorry. Thank you that effort supports our students affective building their affective developmental skill sets and so and Additionally, we are happy to report that the Allentown school district has been written into a grant by the University of Pennsylvania to support our work that's underway as it relates to AI. So we are really thrilled about the partnership with the University of Pennsylvania. And I have to say, I want to commend Dr. Coleman for her work in helping us to broker that relationship. And so we will partner with UPenn as well as Google to focus on AI literacy and put it into practice. So we've had some professional learning, but they will help us make coherently. put some of the aspects of our work together, providing professional learning for our teachers as

062well as systematizing some efforts to personalize learning. So we're excited. So thank you, Ms. D'Abersio. Okay, tonight we have three action items. Ms. Smith is requesting approval from the School Board of Directors of 2026-27 Program of Studies, which includes the proposed addition of five new courses at the high school and one related arts course at the middle school. Ms. Thank you, Mr. Burcio. Good evening, School Board of Directors. Good evening, Dr. Birx. As Dr. Birx said, the program of studies is at the heart of the work that we do with our students. It maps out our instructional programming that we have at the middle school and high school level. So it is very important. This evening. We have not recommended as many courses as we usually have in the past two years. However, there is

063a specific reason for that which I will review and share some highlights of information of the work we are doing. Our foundation for our program of studies goes back to our strategic plan, Lighting the Way, and our mission is for the Allentown School District to serve the diverse educational needs of each student by igniting their passion for learning and creating an academic culture. Our vision is we envision a learning community that increases student achievement by cultivating positive relationships, offering rigorous and meaningful curricular, and empowering the Allentown School District. community. We are also looking for core values that as we're writing curriculum and bringing in curriculum to support our students, we're looking for our core values to be seen. The collaboration, empowering our students, providing innovation, having integrity and respect within our curriculum. There is a

064curriculum development and review cycle. So we plan, we develop, we implement, we review, and we refine. Over the past two years, we have offered 39 new courses, and it's time for us to review those courses and refine those courses. So that is an... a huge lift for us to do. We're doing that a lot by student surveys. You saw in our recommendation packet that we did our first round of student surveys where 75 students reported that they would recommend that course to somebody else, but 97% described the new course as enjoyable or very enjoyable. So we are going to be doing... those surveys with students quarterly, so we'll have new data in the next few weeks for the second quarter, but that's part of the work that drives our revisions. One of the focuses is

065adding and embedding into our curriculum. So for our world language pathway that we have, something different, and when we're talking about that review. There is an interpretation course that's four hours that students will be able to take that is not a course that we offer That is a course we're offering to all students. However, when we are in revising our curriculum We will be embedding interpretation into every world language course to support students with getting that credential So they can do the minor interpretation within our school communities The process for this began in September 2025 with the establishment of the priorities and a project timeline. We had committee reviews by directors and supervisors of instruction. We always do research of other districts. We receive feedback from staff. We examine the state requirements of Act 158,

066our dual enrollment courses and our early college options. We do departmental reviews and we do results from our student surveys. This is a collaborative effort. I'm standing up here as part of the learning and teaching team, but every member of our team participated in the creation of the program of studies and the recommendations. This allows us to focus on researching innovative courses, implies decisions about course offerings and title revisions aren't arbitrary but based in investigation and analysis. This research-based approach that we use ensures changes are informed and have a solid instructional foundation. As I started with our presentation, all of our development revolves around our program of studies revolves around our strategic plan. They're grounded in the feedback and goal of offering students more engaging and relevant courses. And again, we're in that review cycle,

067so we're monitoring that information through student service. We have some key revisions. In our high school math, we're going to add a course of foundations of Algebra II. This revised course will directly align to target skill gaps using aligned high quality Algebra I and II resources to produce measurable gains. But we're also eliminating math and personal finance. This course is being eliminated because Pennsylvania Department of Education has a requirement for a personal financial literacy course, which we offer. So we have a duplicate, so we're removing it from math so it can be offered following the state's requirements and other certified teachers can use it. In World Languages, we are taking a half year course of Spanish Literature and Culture and making it a full year Advanced Placement course for students. That will give students more

068time to engage in the work of that class and more learning versus a half year course. Our new course of recommendations, we're asking for the AP Spanish Literature class. which aligns to our academic excellence priority. For our technology for universal learning priority, we're offering a .5 credit for drone technology and aerial systems, as well as an AP cybersecurity class. And then for creating classways for tomorrow, we're bringing AVID into ninth grade. So our students that are in the middle schools in eighth grade that are in AVID, they'll be able to continue with AVID in ninth grade, as well as we'll be able to support other students with that AVID college and career readiness course. We were in a school quality review this week where... The principal of one of our middle schools was raving about

069the impact of the added class it on his school community And so we're excited to see this move into high school. We're also adding that integrated algebra for one credit and When we partnered with Juilliard for this amazing pack of performance and Professional learning one of the things we realized is at the middle school level We don't have any performing arts courses. So what we're proposing is a theater and dramatic literature for grades six, seven, and eight so that we have drama and dance at the elementary level. So our little kindergarten kiddos, when they go into middle school, as we start to think about that in a few years, there'll be a course there for them as well to support the theater and dramatic. and drama pathway as then they move into high school and

070we have those courses as well. So that's giving us a performing arts pathway across our school district. Again, we're always looking for our innovation that we're doing. We're bringing in drone technology and we're bringing in AP cybersecurity. But we do have many courses that are already in our program of studies that we've brought in in the past that are related to technology. So they are listed. We have video media production. We have robotics. We have game design. We have cybersecurity. We have intro to engineering, we have Python for data science, we have mobile app design. So we have the innovative courses that our strategic plan is asking and having us offer our students. And with a new program of studies, there's always next level work. We will be ordering copies of our program of studies

071and working with our graphic designers. We have our first meeting with school leaders and school counselors tomorrow to review the approved program of studies. We will be scheduling parent information sessions at the school level. We will begin course selection in PowerSchool, so students will actually this year be selecting their courses in PowerSchool. while they're meeting with their school counselor instead of doing it in paper. So we're excited about the improvement there and we're developing the curriculum for the new courses. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Smith. Okay, next Dr. Savoy is requesting approval. Hold on. Go ahead. Any comments? I said I was gonna go through it. Any questions? Thank you. First. Yes, of course. Program of Studies is in Bridgeview Academy. as well as our four middle schools. Their courses are embedded within the program

072of studies. Last year, we did revisions to the special education courses that are offered, so they are not on for proposal now, but they are embedded in our program of studies. They were approved last year. Okay, I have a question. Algebra 2, it's not very successful here. I guess only 3% do well through it. right about that? So you're switching it to integrated algebra? What is the national average with regard to, you know, is that like a necessary change due to, like, we need to do more remedial math? Or what's the reasoning behind getting rid of algebra 2 and making it intermediate? Or, you know... integrated algebra. We're not removing algebra 2. Algebra 2 is still part of our program of studies. Last year we revised our entire thinking around algebra 1. So currently students

073have either a lab, so they have algebra one every day, and every other day they have a lab, or they have a double period of algebra. This integrated algebra helps support students that were still struggling a little bit before that algebra two piece, but we have not removed algebra two. It is still an expectation for our students. I think that's great. I mean, integrated algebra will help kids who find math to be challenging. Can you explain the AVID program? I know it stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. What exactly does that mean real quick? AVID is probably one of my favorite courses that we have brought into the school district. What it is doing is supporting students to become college ready. So this class is about visiting college campuses. This class is about, they have

074their binder. There's a very specific AVID curriculum. There's a binder that they carry and you can see the middle school kids carry. Mr. Fritz did make a joke yesterday about that binder going through security, which was funny. But it's about instilling the work habits and the understanding and the... self-efficacy so students are Understanding that they are super capable of attending college and they are prepared for it And so we started it last year in seventh and eighth grade We will start it in sixth grade next year and it will go six up into high school so that we are continuously having That program to support students preparing for college. Yeah, it'll be neat to see how the outcome is over the next You know, let's say ten years or so sounds really good No, I

075was going to just expand on the algebra response because we have an algebra expert, the math expert, and we got it from the reading specialist. So, so, so, so. Yes. Yeah, just to further explain the integrated algebra course. Ms. Smith was right. It's not replacing Algebra 2. It's replacing a course that we had which was called Foundations of Algebra 2, which was meant to help get students ready for Algebra 2 if they weren't quite ready after completing Algebra 1. But what we want to do is redesign that course so that we can target student needs. This integrated Algebra course is specifically for students who were successful in Algebra 1 in the classroom, meaning they passed the course. we're not successful in meeting the state standard for proficiency. So we want to help our students be

076able to meet that standard for proficiency so that we can begin to show the world that our Allentown students can compete on that level. So we realize that there are some gaps we need to fill in skills. So this integrated algebra course is going to be very targeted to those needs to help our students be successful. After completing integrated algebra successfully, then they will move into Algebra II and be much more prepared so that we see our students move into our AP courses more easily so that we can hopefully in the next few years build our scores on those AP exams as well. Very clear. Thank you. I like that. Yep, so that's a question and I just wanted to say thank you. I think you did a great job of like both of you

077talking through sort of like the motivation behind the changes. And I also enjoy seeing like the focus on STEM classes, which was really awesome to see and the theater arts. So yeah, I just want to say great job. Good presentation. Great job. I wanted to piggyback on that as well. Great job. Looking at all the courses, I'm seeing the fact that we are preparing the kids for the future because everyone keeps thinking like AI is going to replace, AI is going to replace instead of thinking strategically. what jobs and career paths should our students be thinking about so they're still needed, right? So when I see that they're going into cybersecurity, that's a job that's necessary, that's always going to be needed. So we're thinking strategically when we're doing these courses. And of course, everyone

078knows I'm an arts girl. So the fact that I see that we're putting arts in the middle school, I mean, that was a part of the reason why I started my foundation because ASD did not have arts. And I started to fill those gaps. So I'm happy to... see that we're filling those gaps now. My question is that the Juilliard curriculum that we're implementing in the middle school or? No, I mentioned the offer in partnership with what do you do in middle school? We will be creating. Can we solicit their feedback on integrating that curriculum? I would like to see like what that would look like because I am still for us getting our own art school. I'm still for it. I'm praying on it. It's gonna happen. I think we just saw little ones

079here tapping Like they're they're ready for it and I'm thinking about okay like the kids that are in high school that are If you look around Allentown, you're seeing murals everywhere and art everywhere This is an art city and we have a lot of students that Let's be clear, we're losing them to charters because the charter art schools are there, but we don't have the art school. So I think we're leaning towards that, showing them that we have the tools for them to succeed here. And another question is, how many credits do they get for the arts in high school? Is it like a half a credit? Yeah, I think another thing I want us to think about, because I've gotten that feedback from the community, is some of the courses that we have that

080are arts, whether it's like dance, like having that for the full four year versus like two to three years, because there are kids that are out here that are going to like dance studios and they see that gap as like, I can't do two years of not being able to dance and waiting for like 11th grade or 12th grade to start dancing. So if we can start filling those gaps, we'll get a lot of kids back. So let's think about that. And that's it, Missy, great job. Thank you. We'll give the board a copy of the program studies. We want to make sure that it was. we have a draft to show you once if and when you approve this tonight so we will see a draft before we make it in mass production and

081so and then we will also provide to the board the courses that we have currently so our team will get that together for the superintendent's report and the courses that we offer in the credits may i have a motion to move this item forward to the january 22nd regular board meeting so move second Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Dr. Savoy? Thank you. The seven mindsets social emotional learning curriculum renewal. The renewal request is for an agreement with the Allentown School District and seven mindsets to continue providing the social emotional learning curriculum for students in grades six through eight. This is in all four of our middle schools. This renewal will extend the current agreement through November 30th, 2026. Seven mindsets is a scaffolded pre-K through 12 mindsets, evidence-based curriculum in English and

082Spanish. The company's mindset-based learning and well-being solution offers an evidence-based scaffolded digital curriculum, professional learning and coaching, and a robust adult social-emotional learning platform. It is designed to foster a positive, productive school climate characterized by renewed hope and connection. The curriculum is designed to be teacher-led. Educators deliver 30 easy-to-use lessons, one per grade, per academic year. The seven mindsets focus on the CASEL framework, which is a collaborative of academics, social-emotional learning framework. The lessons are fully translated, again, into Spanish and offer flexibility for all of the students that we serve. I want to provide some data. Since we launched seven mindsets in the spring of 2024, the district has steadily expanded and strengthened its implementation, culminating in a broad adoption across all four middle schools by fall 2025. During the first year of implementation, the

083district focused on building a strong foundation by introducing select lessons, conducting baseline insights, assessments, and providing targeted professional development. strengthening the educator capacity. In the second year, the work scaled to a four-tiered one curriculum delivery with SEL, social-emotional learning instruction embedded into school schedules and mindset language becoming increasingly visible throughout our middle schools. The evidence of progress is reflected in several key indicators. Educator engagement has grown from 34 active educators in spring 2024 to 235 as of date. This increase reflects staff buy-in and ownership, a growing commitment to consistent SEL instruction, enhanced training structures, and better campus-level leadership support. Curriculum usage has increased at even a faster rate. The lesson access rising from 624 lessons accessed by all middle schools in spring 2024 to 6,658 as of date. 6,658 lessons accessed as of date. Student

084engagement has also increased. We went from 331 students engaged to 2,762 students engaged this year. This demonstrates the SEL instruction. Students are participating in self-awareness, self-regulation, self-management, social awareness, and relationship skills. We decreased the number of students who were scoring below average in responsible decision-making from 46% in spring 2024 to 30% in fall 2025. Self-awareness increased from 61% to 71% Self-management so she social awareness and relationships skills show growth through spring 2025 and We use our climate survey data and this data to determine and provides feedback to schools Dr. Savoy, did you get any data on the completion of the lessons? I know that it's saying they access the lessons. So when the teachers facilitate, that's them accessing and implementing. And then they go back in the system and then do the completion. So that's

085exactly it. Okay. So the access and the completion is it? Okay. Yes. Great. Thank you. Okay, Dr. Savoy, are you able to go next to the next one? If there's any questions at the moment. I think that's it. She said that she doesn't have any more. Okay, there's another one. That's Dr. Coleman. Sorry, in the papers. We need a motion for this one. Could I ask for a motion on this? I'll make a motion. I second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. This evening, I'm requesting the board's approval on school district to pretend to pioneer artificial intelligence in school systems. Google that board-funded cohort program. in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, providing district and school leaders and educators with structured professional learning to support ethical, responsible and system level integration

086of artificial intelligence at no cost to the district. The program is slated to begin February 2026. The Pioneer AI in School Systems, PASS, initiative is a district-based professional learning partnership led by the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. PASS is designed to help public school systems thoughtfully and responsibly integrate artificial intelligence into teaching, learning, and district operations. Originally piloted in spring 2025, PASS has expanded through a $1 million investment from Google.org to support a limited number of districts across the region. Allentown School District has been selected as one of only two districts in Pennsylvania. Positioning ASD as a regional leader in ethical system-level AI integration. ASD was selected based on its commitment to increasing access and opportunities for all ASD students, strong leadership structures, and readiness for system-level innovation. Being one of only two

087districts in Pennsylvania reflects confidence in ASD's capacity to lead responsibly in this space. PASS is delivered through a three-tier model. District leaders, AI governance, policy alignment, and strategic planning. The second tier will focus on school leaders, school-wide implementation and capacity building. The third tier will focus on our educators, classroom-based application, practice and resource sharing. The program emphasizes responsible use of AI, including data privacy, equity, bias mitigation, and ethical decision making. For example, We will strengthen our skills in recognizing when a tool, system, policy, or practice may unfairly advantage or disadvantage certain groups of people, intentionally or unintentionally, such that we take deliberate steps to reduce, correct, or prevent those unfair impacts. How will this affect our students? PASS is designed to strengthen instructional quality and student learning experiences by ensuring AI is used intentionally, fairly

088and safely across the system. For students, this means more personalized and responsive instruction supported by informed AI use, increased access to innovative learning tools while safeguarding privacy and equity, educators and leaders equipped to critically evaluate AI tools before classroom adoption, a district-wide approach that aligns instruction, leadership, and policy, reducing fragmented or inconsistent AI use. By building internal capacity rather than relying on isolated tools or vendors, PASS supports long-term student-centered innovation aligned to ASD's strategic priorities. There is no cost to the Allentown School District. PASS is fully funded through Google's dot org's philanthropic investment and is offered free of charge to participating districts. Our ASD professional learning calendar and plan will support staff engagement to include district-wide adoption of practices that will be an outcome of our participation. Success will be reflected in increased staff capacity

089and confidence in the ethical and effective use of AI, clear district guidance and governance for AI integration and decision-making, consistent and aligned practices across schools, ensuring equitable access and instructional quality, Sustainable systems and structures that continue to support AI use beyond the program timeline. And if I could, just in closing, I'd just like to highlight six reasons why I'm excited about this opportunity. So one of the reasons that systemically we'll be able to identify and enhance how AI is used across the district to benefit students, staff, and families. AI tools are already shaping education. PASS ensures ASD leads proactively. with intentional ethical practices while expanding student access to learning opportunities rather than reacting after the fact. It positions ASD as a forward-thinking district that prioritizes student safety, instructional quality, and responsible innovation. Two, it allows

090ASD to learn with and from a nationally recognized research institution. Three, this opportunity supports our strategic priorities, strengthens professional learning, and ensures AI serves students not the other way around. PASS does not replace existing curriculum or platforms. It helps the district evaluate, align, and strengthen how AI may support instruction and operation over time. PASS supports critical thinking by shifting how educators, leaders, and students question, evaluate, and apply information, especially in an AI-rich environment. Rather than treating AI as a shortcut, PASS trains schools to use it as a thinking partner that strengthens human judgment. Last thing. After the program ends, the knowledge and capacity remain with us as a district. PASS is intentionally designed to build internal expertise rather than create dependency on external partners. Our staff will retain full access to all PASS resources and

091materials. Participants will receive certificates of completion, and the district establishes sustainable practices and leadership structures that continue well beyond the program timeline. If approval today allows a approval today will allow ASD to move forward with participation begin in February. Thank you, Ms. Coleman. Yeah, so I did have just a few questions. I think it's great. Like, obviously, I'm going to highlight the fact that we're like very much at the bleeding edge here, right? So we're kind of getting ahead of like the research practice gap. And what I mean by that is like, you know, we say ethical, we say responsible. And I would like to hear more around that, especially when I'm hearing things and looking at data around AI-induced psychosis. So before we put these tools in front of our students, what does that

092actually mean, ethical, responsible deployment? Think that this opportunity allows us to set the fine and figure out and gain knowledge around what those times really mean to us as a district one of the Things I'm excited about so we'll have a chance to customize this experience alongside the institution Breathe for a second. So one thing good about being second is that we learn from the first rollout Are we deploying these AI tools to the students directly? Because I remember we had a presentation for Course Mojo, right? Now, the cool thing about Course Mojo is it's kind of encapsulated in a framework that doesn't expose our kids directly to LLMs. And so what I'm curious about is, as a part of this program, are we actually putting those LLMs in front of our kids? So part

093of the process will allow us to... Mr. Kaufman is going to help because he's the expert here. Okay. So the 815.1 policy. We don't put any LLM in front of our students that hasn't been vetted and reviewed. So for the district currently, the only chat-oriented system, other than something like Course Mojo where you talk about that wrapper, is Google Gemini for Education, which has all the protections and safety features built in because it was designed specifically for education. A lot of what we hear is about students using AI platforms. Privately on their own time outside of school. So by using very safe tools within school We developed that AI literacy so that then when they're making choices outside that we don't have control over what they do on their personal devices on their own time

094They've had that AI literacy training to try to head off some of the stuff that we see in the news about engaging in a chat conversation and not being able to understand that it's just algorithmic noise in the background that's talking to them versus a human being. So we're using safe tools that have been approved so far. We'll grow those tool bases, but everything will go through a very strict vetting process. Okay, yeah, so last point. Thank you for that, by the way. I think I just want to add a very nice point on Google Gemini for Education. I still believe that that's... an LLM that they have guardrails around it to ensure alignment, right? But certainly we understand that you can jailbreak out of these alignments. I believe that's even possible with Google Gemini

095for education. So the only reason I bring this up is just like for parents in our school district, I think we need to be a little bit more clear about what this ethical, responsible, like deployment looks like. Because certainly like when I'm reading these stories and I'm looking at the research. There's been some pretty terrible things that have happened recently with kids and LLM usage So it's just something that's like very personally relevant to me as a parent Absolutely, and we'll continue to increase as the sophistication of the use increases We'll increase the safeguards that we put in place We have various monitoring tools that we currently use and will increase the sophistication as those as our students get more sophisticated in you refer to it as jailbreaking, you know, the guardrails that are already

096there, will increase what we can do. But a lot of it is about that foundational training that we provide for students about artificial intelligence, what it is, what it represents, to help disassociate this technology from the human interaction that they're craving and make sure they understand when to seek that out in others around them and not within an AI platform. Okay, thank you. Sure, may and thank you. Mr Morris for those questions and heightening our awareness from your area because this is an area of expertise for you and so and that's why when we were talking with the University of Pennsylvania and actually we have another follow-up meeting with them as we roll this out. We want to start at the senior leadership level and us understanding our direction first as we're taking a phased

097approach and then we'll get down to our school leaders and then to the educators and our students. So to your point, not just immersing upon our students and not educating our families and just when hearing you talk, it kind of resonates with me about some attentional work we need to do around more forums because we launched a pod... to bring a greater awareness but how do we engage more families we've shared our policy and some of these practices with my family Advisory Council but I just for your point we need to build a greater awareness so thank you for bringing the point and we all want to also want to enlist your thinking as we design this so we will call upon you to help give us some feedback if that's okay And then, yes,

098and additionally, we want to thank our friends, our Google partners, because when they are testing out new services and products, they contact us and they invite us to their offices to give feedback, to work through some of those problems and practices. And we send, if they say that two people can come, Allentown brings 20. And so we have the majority, and I'm not exaggerating, our team will tell you. I say, they say, oh, you can bring two Dr. Burks, and then now we got a bus of 25. You know, so because we want to educate our teams, and we have pushed our staff to get all the Google certifications and such, so as they become available, we want to continue to learn. And we will share it with the board, if the board wants to,

099because it's all free, so we can also share those resources that we're getting from them with all of you. Yeah, that sounds great. I appreciate that. With the board and the district, like you're saying, are at the... I have a couple questions as well to kind of follow up on that. For one, I'm curious if this is a tool that's going to be used exclusively proctored by an instructor so that, as Mr. Morris mentioned, there isn't any intentional jailbreaking by students. I'm sorry, can you repeat your question? So is this going to be something that's only used in the classroom? Are we sending this home with students as well and they can have access to it on their laptops? So it isn't a product, but it's an opportunity for us to consider and think about

100what we have on the Tier 1. the university also encourages us to engage with board directors and if you want to be a part of that process as well. Okay, so that's still to be decided. And then there was the mention on there about bias mitigation, and you gave us kind of a brief example about that. Can you talk more about how the bias mitigation happens? Is this something that's done during the vetting process before it goes to the students, or do you envision this being something that needs to be done reactively in classrooms as well? Mr. Coff, talk about that. The answer is both. In the selection and vetting process, we look for products that have already built in their own system level. bias analysis and evaluation but part of our ai literacy tool

101is helping them students who again to the point that it's not 100 no no technology so far has been able to 100 prevent that helping our students then see past that and identify bias that maybe was missed so the evaluation so it's like understand use and evaluate ai tools as part of that literacy framework we want our students to understand bias is inherent because the models are trained on our reality and that's filled with bias and so our students will learn how to see through that as part of the ai literacy training and the partnership with you Penn will help us get better at providing that type of support for our students so we vet and make sure that our products have already had initiatives around bias mitigation that we select and then secondly we

102help our students and our teachers be trained on how to spot and offset those those bias effects okay so part of this would necessitate teaching our students to recognize bias Yes, and specifically this particular conversation around that which is introduced in AI, yes. Okay, thanks. Sure. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Coleman. And thank you, team. So we build on the strengths. Mr. Kaufman is our resident. We've invested. He's been to a lot of this professional learning, and he's kind of our lead on that. So thank you. Yes. So we're not going to pull the answers. He has the answer. Okay. May I have a motion to move this item forward to a regular board of directors meeting? I make a motion to move it forward. Thank you. Is there a second? I second. All in

103favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. At this time, we're taking public comments, non-agenda items. Once recognized please come to the podium state your name and address for the record Please no remarks are limited to three minutes and the microphone will be disabled at the end of three minutes Please also be informed the school board of directors appreciates public comments However, we are not able to respond to these comments administration will address your concerns and update the board of the status of your concern Are there any comments on non agenda items? I also serve as a third grade teacher at Roosevelt Elementary. Tonight I'm here to represent the superintendent's family advisory council, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to share a brief update on behalf of the 60 plus family leaders who represent schools

104across Allentown School District. This school year, family leaders have met with Dr. Burks and members of her team three times. During these meetings, we have had the opportunity to learn about the district's strategic plan, year one progress and achievements. Provide family experience and feedback on the rollout of power school and parent square Co-create our council charter including our norms and agreements offer feedback on a student attendance campaign Learn more about social media as it connects to the development of policy 816 receive guidance and clarity related to family-led social media accounts, and currently we are in the early phases of helping co-design a family university conference for next school year and planning a family service day for this spring. In addition, members of our council have also had the opportunity to speak at the Family Community

105Resource Center groundbreaking a few weeks ago. Families truly appreciate opportunities like this because it shows that family voice is valued beyond feedback and that families are being included as leaders in district experiences. We also appreciate the opportunity to now lead and facilitate parts of our advisory council meetings, which helps strengthen shared ownership, confidence, and partnership. On behalf of our family leaders, I want to say thank you to Dr. Burks for including family voice in meaningful ways. Families truly appreciate the experiences we've had and the work we've been exposed to this year. We look forward to continuing this partnership as we work together to support students, schools, teachers, and families across the district. Thank you. Thank you. I want a clap. Thank you. Okay. Is there any old business come before this board? Is there any

106new business? May I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Any opposed? All in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you. We'll take a quick bathroom break and then we'll be right back. Experience in visual arts residencies led by local professional artists. In the middle schools, we are supporting participation in regional competitions for National History Day and the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science Fair, as well as the Reading is Rewarding program. At the high school level, student performers from Allen and Deeruff are preparing pieces to perform at our 16th annual High Notes Gala, taking place on Saturday, March 28th at the Palace Center. Notice there's a change in location. Each group will receive a performing arts grant and participate in a theater trip in the spring. Additionally, we have provided support initiatives over

107the past few months, including the emergency food and coat drives, the You Are the Light ceremonies, and the Institutional Review Board. During the spring semester, students at all grade levels will participate in special projects supported by 25 teacher innovation grants we recently awarded to district educators, and we will administer more than 70 graduating students senior scholarships. And that ends my report. There's no report from the Carbin-Lehigh Intermediate Unit. We meet next week. Any reports from LCTI? We also meet next week. Thank you. And for our student representatives, Mr. David Thor? The William Allen High School community continues to demonstrate excellence and engagement across various fields. Health and Wellness. The Health Careers Club is actively promoting student well-being. Student Angel Otana is representative of the club at the ASD Wellness Committee meeting. And the group organized

108an awareness campaign for the Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout Day. Students also benefited from a guest lecture by Dr. J Tanzania from OAA orthopedic specialists. Athletic highlights. William Allen High School successfully hosted the third annual ASD kids game drawing over 800 students from the 21st century after-school program to the Canary cage for a huge victory. In wrestling Curtis Cooper and Will Shakir placed third and Seamus Reed finished second at the William Penn tournament. Quarterback Juju Pagan was recognized for a significant achievement joining the thousand-yard passing club. Leadership and Mentorship. A group of students attended the Multicultural Student Leadership Conference at Moravian University to hone vital life and leadership skills. Art Recognition. Student Naomi Herrera showcased her talent at the prestigious District 10 Choir Festival at Berks Catholic High School, performing alongside over 200 students from

10914 districts. She has now advanced to Regionals Competition in February. Upcoming school events. The school is gearing up for the Winter Pep Rally on Friday, January 30th, 2026 at 12.30 p.m., leading into the Allen versus DRF game on Saturday, January 31st, 2026 at the Canary Cage. The William Allen Arts Alliance will also host an off-the-wall open mic coffee house on Saturday, February 28th, 2026 from 1 to 3 p.m. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. And next we have Yasmiri Munoz Gutierrez from Bridgeview Academy. Good evening and Happy New Year from Bridgewood Academy. This Wednesday saw the kickoff of our peer mentoring program. 109th graders met their seniors mentors for the first time at our kickoff event. These seniors have been training for the past two weeks for their roles. And tomorrow morning they will have

110their first of their weekly one-on-one check-ins with their mentees. We look forward to all the ways this will bring our strong community even closer. We are honored this month to host the entire Allentown community at Bridgeview to celebrate the groundbreaking for the new Family and Community Resource Center. All of our students, families, faculties, and staff are so excited by all that our district is doing and we are proud to be at the center of it all. With a new semester comes a new crop of internship opportunities for our seniors. We're especially excited to share that our partnership with AVHN is expanding to include internship opportunities in physical plans and security. In the second semester, we will be increasing opportunities for students to receive additional support as they continue to work towards complexion of their courses.

111In the next few weeks, we will be announcing academic labs that will meet before and after school for students who need extra support. Of course, we would like to add our voices to all of those who have shared their gratitude for the work of our school board directors. We are especially grateful for all of the ways you are investing your time, energy, and resources into realizing a new vision for the students at Bushview Academy. We hope you will enjoy the gifts which we made for you using some of our new tools we have. help to place in our students' hands. And that's the news from Bridgeway Academy. Thank you and remember as always, together we rise. Thank you. And next we have Anaya Holder from Deerhoff High School. Dr. Burks had already covered this in

112the previous meeting, but I'm going to say it again. Jayla Rosario made her 1,000th point against Pleasant Valley on January 6th. She also was the first female basketball player to reach this milestone in 25 years. Come on. The girls basketball team were also able to make history as they qualified for the district playoffs for the third time in a row. This is the first time the girls team has been in this position since 1983. The girls senior night game will take place tomorrow night, January 22nd. The senior ceremony will start at 545 and the game will start at 630. Bless you. The boys basketball team is also looking to add a few more wins to the record so they can also qualify for the district playoffs. They are 9-9, needing only two more wins to

113achieve this goal. Their next home game is Monday, February 2nd. Our cheerleaders attended USA Regionals and Keystone Regionals to close out their competition season. The team was able to bring home a first place title at the Zephyr Cheer Challenge at Whitehall High School on December 13th. The track team, the Deer Track team traveled to Alvernia University to participate in the Golden Wolves Invitational Challenge on January 3rd. Laquay Hamilton placed first in the 400 meter dash with a time of 52 seconds. Aniah Holder broke the 200 meter dash school record with a time of 26.63. Thank you. Our bocce team is continuing to develop and grow as more students are starting to get involved. Our athletes have been extremely motivated and have worked super hard all season as they played their last match yesterday. Our regular

114ed students are partners to the athletes and have been very encouraging and supportive towards the athletes throughout their entire season. Our Spanish Honor Society will be hosting tutoring and speaking practice for Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 to help enhance students' speaking skills. In addition to that, they will be hosting a second reading event in Spanish to elementary students at Sotomayor. Our regular ed students participate in... activity once a month with our life skills and autistic support students. They participate in activities such as candy apple decorating, slime making, and fans in the stands where they encourage attendance to our bocce matches. The Dieruff Dance Department presented the first showcase yesterday, January 21st, where Chance, Sarai, Zenaida, Karen, Miley, and now Elise all performed wonderful dances choreographed by Miss Spangler. Lastly, our ninth grade academy has been

115on the right track as 90% of the students have not failed more than one core academic course. These students have been working extremely hard and creating great positive academic habits for themselves. Thank you. Great job. Thank you so much. On the board of directors report this evening, we're approving the obituary minutes in resolution for the beloved employee Milagro Negron, who passed away on Christmas Day. I'd like to read the resolution into the record followed by a moment of silence. It is with sincere regret and deep sorrow that we record the passing of Milagro Negron on December 25, 25. In recognition thereof, the Board of Directors submits the following obituary minutes and resolution. Whereas Milagro Negron was a faithful and devoted employee of the Allentown School District for almost 23 years. And whereas in her position

116as the secretary at the Administration Center, she carried out her duties in a caring and professional manner. And whereas she treated colleagues, other staff, and students with a cheerful attitude and willingness to help. and whereas she provided the learning community of Allentown School District with a pleasant and encouraging environment, and whereas her passing is marked by a deep sense of loss across the district. Be it resolved that the Board of Directors take note of the untimely death of this faithful employee by causing this obituary minute and resolution to be spread upon the permanent minutes of the Board this 22nd day of January 2026 with a copy to be sent to her bereaved family. Respectfully submitted, Andrea Brown-Noel, Audrey Madison, Yvette D'Amour. Dr. Sarita Johnson, Diane Michaels, Denzel Morris, Robert Nikoloff, Zaliye Sierra, and Anna Tabersio.

117May I please have a moment of silence? May she rest in peace. I just want to say on behalf of the Allentown School District, we extend our heartfelt prayers and condolences to Mr. Grons' family. She was an invaluable member of our learning community. We walked by her desk, all of us, and stopped by her desk many days because she brought lots of chocolates and treats for all of us and brought a lot of sunshine to us. So she will be... she will be missed by our learning community and we are here in support of the Negron family and we just want to thank you for allowing her to sacrifice so much for her time and commitment and I want to thank her husband who works with us in the district for his service and everything

118to our learning community so thank you. Thank you. Now may I have a motion of approval of the Board of Directors report? I'll make the motion. Is there any discussion? Please call the roll. Ms. Matheson? Yes. Ms. Michaels? Yes. Mr. Morris? Yes. Mr. Nikoloff? Yes. Ms. Noel? Yes. Ms. Tabersio? Yes. Ms. D'Amora? Yes. Dr. Johnson? Yes. Passes 8-0. Thank you. May I have a motion of approval of the policy agenda? I make a motion to approve the policy agenda. Thank you. May I have a second? I second. Is there any discussion? Please call the roll. Yes Thank you may have a motion of approval of the secretary and treasurer's report Is there a second I second is there any discussion Please call the roll. Mr. Nikolov. Yes. Ms. Noel. Yes. Ms. Tabersio. Yes. Ms. D'Amora.

119Yes. Dr. Johnson. Ms. Matheson. Yes. Ms. Michaels. Yes. Mr. Moores. Yes. Motion passes 8-0. Thank you. May I have a motion of approval for the superintendent's report? I'll make the motion. May I have a second? Is there any discussion? Please call the roll. Ms. Noel? Yes. Ms. D'Amore? Yes. Dr. Johnson? Ms. Matheson? Yes. Ms. Michaels? Yes. Mr. Morris? Yes. Mr. Nikolov? Yes. Motion passes 8-0. Thank you. May I have a motion of approval of the personnel report? So moved. Is there a second? I second. Is there any discussion? Please call the roll. Ms. D'Amore? Yes. Ms. D'Amora? Yes. Dr. Johnson? Yes. Ms. Matheson? Yes. Ms. Michaels? Yes. Mr. Morris? Yes. Mr. Nikolov? Yes. Ms. Noel? Yes. Motion passes 8-0. Tonight the board approved new administrative hires. Mr. James, would you please come forward and introduce

120our new hires? Yes, ma'am. When I serve the Lord. Stand in front of me, block me. Certainly welcome to our Allentown School family. Kaitlyn Hoffman, who is the new assistant principal at William Allen High School. We also have the principal, Dr. Knopf, and the assistant principal here this evening to congratulate her and welcome her to William Allen High School. We're excited that we have one of our very own, Jose Rivera, who will now serve as the acting executive director of information technology. Give a round of applause to all of our teachers tonight. Congratulations. I just got here about three weeks ago. Okay, cool. I would like to talk to the person, like the significance, like they were sad or like you haven't been like the sun shining on them. So tonight we have school board

121directors. The solicitor is going to get me later. So, but we have one honor tonight and I'm really extremely happy that I'm able to. Share this with our entire learning community when I first came to Allentown this particular person told me all about the valley all about All the things happening with our school district She was very selfless and providing me with resources. Where should I go to get food? What Simon shops I should have it took me to some consignment shops and so, I'm gonna have a joke in this, I'm so serious, I guess I'm gonna say 40, but also she has spent so many years dedicated to public education through her practice and her service, and tonight I'm extremely honored and grateful to serve with Miss Audrey Matheson and celebrate her 10 years

122as a school board of director with the Allentown School Board. She is always a teacher and she tells you every story about being an English teacher. And she also gives me great feedback on my reports and you missed the comma, Dr. Burks, and all those things. Yes. So we want to say we appreciate you on behalf of the Allentown School District. And the Allentown School Board of Directors. And the Pennsylvania School Board Association, we want to say there's an honor roll certificate, so you're still getting honors in your year of 10 years of service to the Allentown School District. We appreciate you. We love you. God bless you. And it's her birthday, so let's embarrass her a bit. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. Who knows that? Give it up for

123Ms. Matheson. Listen, Ms. Matheson is the toughest cookie I know. To see her cry, it's a moment. We're proud of you, Audrey. Thank you for your 10 years of service. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. Thank you. Now may I have a motion of approval of the finance report? So moved. Second. Second. Is there any discussion? Please call the roll. Mr. Parcio? Here. Yes. Yes. Or not. Yes. Dr. Johnson? Yes. Ms. Matheson? Yes. Ms. Michaels? Yes. Mr. Morris? Yes. Mr. Nikoloff? Yes. Ms. Noel? Yes. Motion passes 8-0. Thank you. At this time, we're only taking public comments. None? Is there any old business to come before the board? Is there any new business? We have a motion to adjourn this meeting. So moved. Second. Have a great night, everyone. Meeting is adjourned.