001Hello, Lockport Township High School District 205 parents and guardians. My name is Dr. Bob McBride, superintendent of Lockport Township High School District 205. This is your board meeting brief for the board of education meeting that we had in the porter room on Monday, March 16th, 2026. You might tell by my outfit, I'm recording this on March 17th. So, happy St. Patrick's Day to you. As we always do, we began our board meeting on March 16th with a real celebration. We were back in the East Campus cafeteria. We had well over 120 students to celebrate an Eagle Scout. Incredibly and notably, we had two National Merit finalists. Many students are semi- finalist in the PSAT NMSQT competition. That's a test that students take their junior year. But two of our students arrived at the finalist stage,
002qualifying them for very ample scholarships for college, but more importantly putting them in the top 1% of 1.3 million students in the United States that took that test. It's an incredible national feat. Then we were able to turn and congratulate well over a hundred students who have been identified by the ACT as preACT stars. In the fall they took various preACT tests and their test scores put them in the top 5% some in the top 3% in the nation. It was a great celebration and a great time for just us to say to our students we are proud of you. Whether you're doing service as an Eagle Scout or you're accomplishing great things academically, a beautiful way to start our March 16th meeting. We did dive into all the business that we typically do as
003a board of education from announcements to board salutes to our treasurers report where we look at all of our finances top to bottom. But I want to spotlight with you in this message the most important thing that we do annually. And that most important thing is when our board scrutinizes the staffing plan that I submit to them on behalf of our entire staff, our entire leadership team and an incredible amount of hard work. I want to thank our school counselors. I want to thank our students. Those two worked so hard to enroll in classes next year and it's a very different enrollment next year. We are adding an eighth period to East Campus that increases opportunities for students and of course will increase our staff, our administrative team, especially our three assistant principles, Josh Oster,
004uh Jason Osbol, Robert Beachch, and then with the veteran help of assistant principal Matt Bartley worked diligently with our department chairs who worked so hard to look at enrollments, look at class sizes, look at how many sections we will produce to produce a staff to serve your children. All of that work started in late October and it culminated on March 16th where we presented the results to our board of education. We are asking our board of education to add 19 additional positions to make up for the addition of an eighth period at East Campus. Four of those positions were approved last month as social workers and we know that there is a need for social emotional support of our students so that they are physically well and they are socially emotionally well to learn. 15
005of those positions are new teaching positions because of the course requests your students have made. We are strategically using an 8 period day and there is cost by adding that new staff for the academic benefit of our students. For example, we have a huge increase in social studies. Six new social studies teachers. Why? Because we believe that our students should be studying social studies, history, government, but we also believe that they should be taking rich, difficult, challenging non-fiction text to improve their complex reading proficiency. Similarly, we had a huge increase in our college and career applications department, business, technology, family, and consumer science. What we saw is five new teachers because students are now able to get into classes that they'll enjoy that they otherwise wouldn't have had a chance to take. Opening up the
006schedule, creating more opportunity for academic rigor, but also just for learning that students will enjoy and we enjoy providing is really the mission of our board in approving an 8 period day here at East Campus. For the rest of the spring, you'll be hearing all about this 8th period day to get you ready, to get our students ready, to get our staff ready for a change that is coming. That means more opportunity. Yes, it means more work. And certainly it means more expense. But we believe that the teachers we will hire become the future of this district also become the opportunities your students will have next year and future students will have in years to come. It's the most important decision we make because we still are an organization that 85% of our expenses are
007spent on human beings. Because we still believe that as modern as we are, as much artificial intelligence as we have, it really comes down to what you do every day in your home, raising your children, face to face with your children, but also right here in places like classrooms where every single day our teachers are working with students to advance their learning. And ultimately, that's what we approved on March 16th. It's a human plan, not just a staffing plan. Thank you so much for listening to this board meeting brief for the board of education meeting on March 16th. We appreciate your knowledge, your support, and your continued attention to this change that's coming for August 2026. Go Porters.