001[Music] like to call this meeting to order please stand for the pledge of allegiance [Music] roll mr christensen here mr mcgregor mr mojac you're mr nagel here mrs rowell here mr scalzo here mr spakusa present mrs turner here mrs dobos here all nine members present thank you before we begin the meeting i'd like to um make a couple presentations in the midst of opening the school this year with all the masking controversy and their long meetings we weren't able to properly acknowledge the retirement of miss lori sutton our director of special education and we would like to take this opportunity to recognize her with our appreciation lori began her career with the district as the assistant director of special education in 2003. she was promoted to the position of director of special education in january
002of 2013 and held that position until her retirement this summer ms sutton has worked tirelessly with parents teachers administrators and students in developing our special services program in multiple instances during my tenure her knowledge and expertise have helped the school board in decision making and for that we are appreciative additionally over the years lori was instrumental in the writing of the sro spo and safe schools initiatives in writing competitive targeted grants and in writing the more recent essers grants she was a key player in crisis management and has supported students in the early college enrollment program annually laurie coordinated and participated in the process of the miranda awards an award started in 2012 by the parent by a parent in memory of a 2007 special education student that attended pathfinder this award was given to
003one of has been given to one of our special education students who displays determination in overcoming obstacles lori also attended state representative dan miller's annual disability and mental health summits where she was also a presenter she has been involved with numerous events at our fellow schools such as pathfinder al auberly and what and watson what's what wesley wesley yeah sorry and countless others schools which helps serve our students with their many needs thank you lori and we hope retirement brings you joy and relaxation in appreciation for your dedication to this district and for your tireless efforts for our students please come forward to accept some gifts from us gifts that will keep you out of the kitchen for some evenings and meals [Applause] she's going into the circle our certificate of appreciation they should have
004taken them thank you all so much it's been such an honor and a privilege to work for the district and so i don't cry i did come up with something a little funny to say was been here 18 and a half years which not counting this board uh election i was i was here for nine board elections something the school board members can relate to nine superintendents something that something that dr walsh can relate to and i did a quick estimate of just about 5 000 student meetings which was the joy of my life and thank you all so much i loved serving the students and families and seeing the kids at the high school that i had known when they were young was truly a joy one of my favorite favorite parts of the
005job and i hope to continue to serve in the field of special education and i wish you all the very very best just not k-12 director [Applause] [Applause] in our next presentation we would like to recognize dr janet o'rourke janet o'rourke will be leaving this district at the end of december to begin her retirement dr o'rourke and i shared some of our career time together since she was an administrator when i was still teaching i remember working on curriculum committees with her many times and just recently we were able to recreate some of that shared focus well on the strategic plan curriculum committee as co-chairs i'm not that astute with data analysis but i can tell you that dr o'rourke excels in that area and she ably shares those insights with all of us in
006contrast to her ability though to analyze data janet has always advocated as her mantra what is best for our students she has worked diligently to make sure that our students are taken care of academically socially and emotionally janet began her career in bethel as the assistant principal at neil armstrong middle school in 1999. she was promoted to principal at neil armstrong in 2002 and held that position until she became the director of secondary education five through twelve in 2016 janet was again promoted this time to the assistant to the superintendent in charge of evaluations human resources and assessments her most recent promotion in 2020 brought her to the current position of assistant superintendent for curriculum and special services as assistant superintendent dr o'rourke has guided and helped us at the as the board plan for
007the bethel park school district's future vision in our strategic plan she also helped us to navigate the covid crisis and our transition in administrative personnel her history with bethel park has been invaluable to us during the last two years most recently she stepped up to help us at ims with our with mr minch's transition to special services we're grateful for her willingness to step in whenever needed dr o'rourke has also served as a board of director with the pa association of elementary and secondary principles she's secured several grants such as the highmark healthy high five grant last year she coordinated an effort with bethel park borough and the recreation department for a series of healthy living workshops which were held at the bethel park community center dr o'rourke has also been instrumental in the implementation
008of the new pa state mandates in regard to teacher evaluations common core tims and pims and the comprehensive plan dr o'rourke has always been bethel park proud and we've been lucky to have her generous perceptive and intelligent abilities during her tenure with us thank you dr o'rourke we hope your retirement is restful and joyful and please come forward to accept some gifts from us that will also keep you out of the kitchen [Applause] uh-huh okay thanks i am i hate to say it but this is one of those times where i'm really at a loss for words i i have been privileged without a doubt working in the bethel park school district and um somebody once said and i don't know where the quilt came but you know success when you feel that you've left
009someplace better than you received it and i truly hope that i did that because i really felt that i put my best effort always first and and really kept the focus on the kids and um i think it's i think i'm finishing my career here in bethel park the best way i possibly can um being at independence middle school with the kids and and talking to kids every day has been extraordinary and actually the last thing that i will do as the assistant superintendent in the bethel park school district is read a bedtime story on franklin's bedtime stories on december 23rd so i'm honored to have been a part of this great great school district working with extraordinary people across the board we have there's not any student that is second to none they are
010just extraordinary students extraordinary families and i'm blessed thank you [Applause] i would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank my fellow board members whose terms like mine are also coming to an end this month miss connie rule has been a faithful and dedicated board member for 24 plus years since april of 1997 she served this community and school district as a liaison with her vocational school still center with the south hills area school district association shazda as an elective representative with the allegheny intermediate unit and as a representative for the pennsylvania school board association connie's years of experience have been invaluable thank you connie russ bakuza has also had years of experience on the board serving at the school district twice from 2008 to 2017 and now since 2019. his knowledge and
011expertise regarding facilities guided us toward our future needs in the strategic plan russ's volunteer efforts in our community through rotary and the bethel park community foundation also provided students with beneficial opportunities to give back to the community through service as he shows us with his example thank you russ ken nagel brought a fresh perspective and unique perspective to the board over the past four years never hesitant about asking hard questions i found his work on this board to be personally motivating a parent a veteran an electrician and an advocate ken's comments and concerns always had the best interests of the students and community foremost his initiative in creating the diversity inclusion and equity committee has sparked our district's efforts to ensure that you that we are a welcoming and accepting school community thank you ken
012my my term in office will also conclude with the board's reorganization meeting on december 7th in my eight years a school district have been rewarding and i'm grateful to the citizens of bethel park for electing me during my two-year tenure as board president i believe we've accomplished much by hiring our excellent superintendent dr walsh by safely navigating the covid crisis by completing a five-year strategic plan which includes an educational fiscally responsible facilities projection for the future and by hiring several dynamic new administrators in the last two years we will vote on that plan tonight and with that vote the next five years will have a road map to follow with educational excellence as the board's focal point the strategic plan goals ensure that the bethel park school district reflects the best in class i'm also
013grateful for the friendship and support of the other board members jim modrak barry christensen darry mcgregor darren mcgregor vince galzo and kim walsh turner i feel that the progress made over the last two years can be attributed to how well the nine of us have worked together for a common vision and i wish the new board members much success as they begin their journey buffy phase dan gribsack gail hopey and sharon janasek and with that let's get started on our meeting tonight i need a motion to adopt the agenda for business items so moved moved by mr nagel and seconded by mr spakusa all in favor will you please put up the vote open yeah motion carries i need a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of october 26 2021. so moved
014move by miss rule seconded by second second by mr christensen voting is open this is real yes motion carries thank you i'd like to announce executive session on november 8th 2021 and november 16 2021 for personnel other legal matters and to receive information at this time student government has informed me that they do not have a report for tonight pto pta i believe neil armstrong is reporting tonight yes hello mrs dobos can you hear me yes we can hi uh it is royally mcgregor i am the co-president of neil armstrong middle school and i will be reading the report tonight abraham lincoln elementary the lincoln students celebrated halloween wearing their orange and black spirit wear while enjoying party treat bags created by parent and guardian volunteers we very much look forward to returning to in-person
015class party celebration sometime soon the pto provided our teachers with a catered dinner and desserts during the parent guardian teacher conferences we also assembled a digital directory that was sent out to our families the families of lincoln donated socks for kindergarten service project celebrating letter purse and miss s we are proud to announce that kindergarten donated 542 pairs of socks to shim to help families in need this coming winter our next service projects are pajama toy and food bank drives we were able to hold another school store event during lunch and recess students enjoyed getting to shop for their favorite smelly pencil or squishy world kindness day was celebrated on friday november 12th it was so cute seeing everyone in their cardigans just like mr rogers it's always nice to be reminded to be kind
016and fill someone's bucket tuesday november 16th the lincoln pto will hold a spirit night at toss pizza on mcmurray road in upper sinclair profits benefit the pto students will also have fun celebrating crazy hair day on wednesday november 17th we are finishing up our sarah's candy sales and have a spirit wear sale happening as well we continue to participate in amazon small market day and box top fundraisers george washington elementary outdoors halloween parties went very well and students enjoyed being outside for the festivities winners for the pumpkin decorating contest and the chaplex meat raffle were announced a night at the races has been rescheduled for may 7th 2022. the sarah's fundraiser just wrapped up was very profitable the sugar creek candle sale that also ended recently was successful they are planning a port center sale
017for the holidays due to covered restrictions the holiday laser show assembly was rescheduled and will now be held in march with a different theme they are currently running a yearbook cover competition where students submit their artwork for the yearbook cover design the winner will receive a new camera and accessories planning for the holiday shop is underway cookies with santa a family holiday event is planned for december 3rd this year will be an outdoor event with use of multiple rental tents and generators students will take pictures with santa do a craft play games and have other surprises awaiting them william penn elementary october was a fun month at william penn they ran a brand new and very successful cookie dough fundraiser the pickup date is at the end of this month they expect to bring a
018nice profit they had a restaurant spirit day with chick-fil-a school pictures went well they had their first in-person book fair in two years the kids loved it the fourth graders enjoyed a hay ride at simmons farm the fall festival was a big hit they raised funds for the fourth grade committee with donations from the food trucks of wood stove barbecue bill barbecue and hot buns they recently had a fundraiser with mo's taco kits pto provided moe's catering dinner for staff during virtual teacher conferences on november 2nd they had a virtual meeting where they discussed plans going forward for winter holiday activities pto purchase flags for in-person students for veterans day they are looking forward to more spirit night fundraisers sarah's chocolate sales and planning winter holiday events neil armstrong middle school school school and popcorn
019fridays continue to be popular and the community has begun donating items to sell the school store my most recent fundraiser was the pasta fundraiser and made about 718 profit and good feedback from the school the color one was held on november 13th and had over 150 participants registered the event included raffle baskets 50 50 and a bake sale the total profit was a little over two thousand seven hundred dollars thanks to all involved including mr patterson who permitted the kids to throw color on him in preparation for the holidays the pto is painting a virtual santa shop as well as a fundraiser at five below trivia night has been moved to january and they will begin to re-promote uh in the coming weeks they would like to thank all the bethel park families especially the
020parent volunteers who continue to support the programming put in place by the pto independence middle school the annual holiday craft show will be held on saturday november 20th they have over 50 vendors and crafters participating this year the ptso is also running a spirit wear sale with delivery in december these two fundraisers will help fund all activities for the remainder of the year that is it for me thank you very much thank you thank you for all that the pto and pto organizations are doing um ms sundell do you have a solicitor report i do mrs dobos thank you i just want to take an opportunity to um to congratulate all the outgoing board members on on your service and thank you for your service i will miss working with you but i am looking
021forward to establishing good working relationships with the four incoming board members as well um i have an update a legal update it's not as exciting as the pto's update but nonetheless it's important um so the every i think everybody is aware that um last wednesday the secretary of health's masking order was deemed invalid from its inception and the commonwealth took an immediate appeal to the pennsylvania supreme court which effectuated a stay of the masking order that the masking order would continue in effect until a decision was made the plaintiffs did petition the commonwealth court for that to be revoked and removed so that masking would not be required under the order and they were they were successful so as of today an order was issued effective december 4th the masking order will no longer be
022in effect for public school districts however the date of december 4th was picked by the court on purpose because the pennsylvania bulletin will be issued that day and that is the publication by which the governor can issue an emergency order requiring schools on december 4th to mask children so long story short right now we are still under the masking order from august 31st but we have to stay tuned to see what the state decides to do on december 4th whether they will issue a renewed emergency order requiring master gang or whether districts will really have to revert back to their health and safety plan which for bethel park does require masking in all structures and buildings so that's that's the summary it's not straightforward it's always convoluted when it comes to masking but we will
023continue to monitor it in our office and provide updates to clients as they become available before you before you move on may i just ask a question pertaining to that just for clarification of the public uh what you're speaking of is the order from the governor requiring masking our health and safety policy requires masking winning district buildings uh irregardless of this uh how this is found so when we're looking for clarity we have it within our health and safety plan do we not we are required to mask regardless of what the courts find that is that is accurate and thank you mr nagle for that clarification i do think that in factions of residents who were looking for masking to be removed there sometimes ends up being confusion so it is helpful to make crystal
024clear that bethel park's health and safety plan requires masking no matter what happens december 4th that will still be in effect okay miss sunderl transportation again can you explain that because that's not under the governor's order that's a federal order right that is correct that is a federal order that has been issued that requires masking on public conveyances which include school buses and again that is um outside of the masking order that was issued on august 31st that will stay in effect until until further notice and the pd and cdc guidance pertaining to contact tracing is still in effect correct that is correct yes that's all i have thank you mrs dobas thank you very much at this time in the meeting we'll have committee reports i will report on the shade tree commission in
025the last couple weeks there have been three uh plantings one at millennium park one at memorial and one at ims the plantings have involved the students and um has they've been teaching the students about how to plant the value of trees and you know the various things that trees can provide for us particularly around the schools regarding runoff and shade and all of the trees have that have been planted are native to pennsylvania and if you are interested um dave cable from bethel park tv has created a video that you can take a look at and watch the process in both all of those three places and this is through tree pittsburgh and one tree per child which all of the trees have been donated and they're they come out and they help us in
026that process of planting them also so hopefully this will um this relationship with the shade tree commission and the district will continue mr fierce has been instrumental in making the it happen and i want to thank you for that did you want to say anything about the planting or i just like to add that the plant things did go very well and we did have some kind of rescheduling issues but once we actually had the dates the last planting was last friday and was an absolutely beautiful day and everything just went as well as it possibly could have yeah i watched the video and the students seemed to be very happy to be out in the sunshine and helping with planting of the trees and so forth so um that that shade tree commission meets
027four times a year uh to help coordinate that mr modrak you want to report about this uh bethel park recreational board had a meeting on november 3rd and two items of interest i'd like to report on one the the wreck board is sponsoring a turkey trot on thanksgiving morning at 7 30. they'll be on the montour trail they'll be based out of washington elementary school but registration is online and refer back to their website about registering for that event and the other event they have is the christmas tree light or the tree lighting ceremony will be on wednesday december 1st at 6 45 pm and that will be at the community center that's all thank you thank you mr modric miss rule do you have anything for yeah we had an active meeting this past
028week with the the career technical education school which all of you are familiar with we had duquesne light came and gave us a presentation on a program that they're really promoting on electrical distribution technology program and students can get scholarships and they get paid internships it's a wonderful opportunity they're going around all the districts trying to promote it because you know there is a critical shortage in in these areas so if anybody wants any information they can contact me and i have all the information about the program but it's a great opportunity for students and even adults that are looking to get into this profession and there's several types of positions and it's quite a process to go through it really is we were surprised when they presented it what you had had to have
029in order to get one of these but it's a great opportunity the other thing is that we are talking about it's still center a 50 million dollar renovation but all the districts will have to vote on it and they will pay their fair share but it'll be over a long period of time we're looking at really a good pro budget plan for that and our share will be 7 million because we are the second largest i think market for the school we also came in second for the number of students that attend that school again so we do have quite a few students that are involved there we own two buildings over at that property we own the the mon valley school in the still center school so those are our assets so you need
030to be aware of that and you'll be voting on it anyway later also i'd like to say that we had a veterans dinner over there we had over 50 veterans came and our culinary students cooked for them and they really do a great job and they're so proud of what they do and the other thing is they're going to be starting services we're going to be doing some revenue generating services and one of them is going to be printing and they've done some printing for schools like for yearbooks and other things it's amazing what they do but we'll be bringing in some revenue into the school that with the cosmetology class and other things that they can offer to the public so i think that's a good step in the right direction and i will
031be staying on there i will be going on their executive council to stay with the school to work with the businesses and to see what we could do to beef up that part of it so anyway thank you thank you for your report any other committee reports okay the superintendents report thank you mrs dobis good evening everyone first on behalf of the administration uh being the newest member i think of the administration is my honor to congratulate and wish sincere gratitude to the outgoing members of the board who have served bethel park so well in your tenure i'm sitting here counting the years that that you have accumulated and all the votes that you took to move bethel park uh were noted and acknowledged as a volunteer to help the kids in bethel park so
032thank you for that service tonight we're beginning our our fall winter concert season we're actually there's a band concert at the high school tonight orchestra concert on thursday so this this is the season where we get to enjoy the fruits of the students laborers over the the past part of the fall semester and i got a little preview of tonight's concert earlier in the week as i snuck around and listened to them rehearse uh what a what a talented group we have it i'm sure it's going to be a great show this evening looking forward to all the other concerts lined up and please mark your calendar to join at one of the schools and enjoy the music performances i want to congratulate our fall sports teams and the coaches for a great season a
033lot of accomplishments and kudos uh to our athletes for their commitments and their skills and their achievements now that winter season's upon us we wish luck to our winter sports season uh athletes as you head into the into your into your season practices good luck with your season uh i'm going to tell the board that you're going to make a motion tonight to to accept a retirement letter and i wanted to tell you about this employee this is judy kasonovich is on your agenda tonight with her letter of retirement and she began her employment as a part-time health teacher at ims in 1989. in 90 she became full-time health and phys ed teacher and she's been in that position ever since she's also been our volleyball softball and basketball coach over the years we thank
034judy for all of those years of service and keeping our kids into that healthy and productive lifestyle and finally i'm going to ask mr crummy to on mute his mic and present his uh community updates for us now please sure hello i'd like to first echo dr walsh's sentiments and thank the outgoing board members for your service and welcome the incoming board members i'm going to get to our good news um our it starts with uh we had military leaders last friday three very distinguished military leaders uh spoke with a group of high school students who may have an interest in working uh at high level jobs within the military in regard to technology artificial intelligence national security linguistics engineering foreign affairs etc the guests included lieutenant general laura a potter who is the deputy
035chief of staff g2 to the pentagon lieutenant general potter reports directly to the chief of staff and the commander of the joint chiefs of staff uh also joining the groups was major general david c hill was originally from wexford and uh uh major hill uh he is the commanding general of the us army war college in carlisle pennsylvania and the other guest who spoke with the students was dr douglas maddy he's the director of army artificial intelligence capabilities his organization is responsible for the development coordination and synchronization of artificial intelligence capability development for the army and while the task force is overseen by the pentagon the operational element of the task force which is what dr maddie heads is actually located here in pittsburgh at carnegie mellon so it was a real honor for them
036to meet with our students and really came together at the last moment and uh really have to credit uh mr valadi for helping to make that happen and i think it was an amazing opportunity for some of our students um also last weekend we wrapped up the production of you can't take it with you it was a fabulous show unfortunately saturday's production was cancelled um we had an unforeseen circumstance involving code of 19 and um everyone's feeling well and and um the show was was just fabulous and hopefully we'll have a great performance in the spring as well on saturday november 20th we have uh the seed project is holding its sixth annual operation feed enabler food and household supply drive donations will be collected from nine a.m until noon at the spencer family ymca
037just up the street from the high school unfortunately there are local families and seniors who are facing some tough financial times and some may not be able to have a traditional thanksgiving dinner so that's why they're reaching out to the community and looking for any sort of donations people can provide if anyone would like to assist or if they have any questions they can contact diane ford at 412-523-8019 [Music] uh spartan pharmacy hosted a pair of flu vaccination clinics and an employee covid19 booster clinic uh they had that uh the vaccination clinic for the staff was on october 29th that was for the flu and the flu vaccination for students and their families was on november 1st and the booster vaccine was also last friday which was obviously quite a busy day here over the
038weekend the high school competitive cheer squad took first place in their division at the uca allegheny regional competition at slippery rock university that earns them a bid to the national competition at walt disney world and resorts in february and that's quite an honor we talked a little bit about the one tree per child program so i'm going to skip over that but it was uh as someone who was at all three plantings it was awesome it's a perfect stem type of program i'd also like to uh complement our mets food service the allegheny county health department recently concluded their first round of unannounced inspections of bethel park school district cafeterias and all cafeterias past inspection and earned a combined total of 51 diamond awards diamonds are the highest award given by the health department and
039they are only given to those facilities that demonstrate exceptional sanitation and food handling practices the allegheny county health department annually conducts two unannounced inspections of school district cafeterias and bethel park regularly things up in those in those inspections um bethel park will hold a special english as a second language tonight from 7 8 p.m on wednesday november 17th at ims the hour-long presentation will focus on the four domains of reading writing speaking and listening it will also give our guests an understanding of how the school district assists with esl students as well as how the district assesses their progress all guests in attendance will be automatically registered to win a 50 gift card from giant eagle uh also this week on thursday is children's grief awareness day and this is children's grief awareness week and
040children and and staff in grades 5 through 12 are invited to wear blue and write the name of a deceased or very ill loved one on a butterfly to be displayed on an honor wall this type of event while healthy can also create a myriad of complex feelings for students so our counselors are happy to follow up with uh any families that are having trouble dealing with laws and our counseling department's really uh doing a great job uh wallet hub named bethel park among the best small cities in america the new study from all the hub named bethel park the number 16 best small city in america and the second best small city in pennsylvania and its criteria was affordability safety local economy healthcare restaurants and education so in uh they registered more than 300
041small cities across america that's who they studied this saturday november 20th ims will host its annual craft show from 9 00 a.m until 3 p.m we're pretty excited about that if you're interested in it you can always contact caitlin genzler at gestler.caitlin at bphawks.org i'd like to also congratulate our piaa state finalists with her third place finish at the piaa state championships mia gorman wrapped up her storied high school tennis career with two section championships two wpial gold medals two wpial bronze medals one piaa silver medal and one piaa bronze medal she also had the unique distinction of losing to the eventual state champion all four years uh uh also i'd like to congratulate sophomore jenna lang who placed 15th in the piaa state cross country championships in hershey a few weekends back and finally
042i just want to talk about uh with 14 high school students at student athletes who signed their letters of intent to compete in their respective sports at the collegiate level that happened last week the six blackhawk student athletes representing four different sports have committed to play division one schools while eight other division two signees also signed on congratulations to the following blackhawk student-athletes who participated in national signing day in boys baseball we have david kessler who's going to iup boys basketball dolan waldo also going to iup in boys lacrosse owen peters is going to mount saint mary's and boys swimming dominic cordopazzi is going to clarion in girls basketball emma doskowski is going to wheeling and girls lacrosse they have four signees riley miller is going to st joe's sydney costco is going to edinboro
043caitlin schultz is going to virginia wise and victoria crap is going to seton hill and girls softball uh sandra soltas is going to pit uh alexis alex excuse me alexandra snowgaki is going to holy cross delaney sierra is going to penn state new kensington and abby quickl is going to robert morris and of course mia gorman the young lady we just talked about she's going to southern illinois university at edwardsville there will be more signings uh as the year goes on but for the first signing period that's that's quite a haul and something we should be very proud of finally i want to talk about today was bethel park high school day at piatta italian street food and members of the top 21 chorus saying the star-spangled banner helped launch one of our newest neighbors
044italia piata italian street food all proceeds raised today will go directly to bethel park high school so if you haven't eaten dinner yet wait for the meeting again of course but when the meeting ends if you're still if you're still hungry please visit uh piana italian street food and support the high school that's all i have for you thank you thank you mr crummy and mrs douglas i'd appreciate a moment during the personnel section to share some more news but that's all i have for now sure thank you at this time we will be accepting public comments on agenda items to comment during a public meeting at the this meeting you may call 412-851-6911 commenter is required to state their name home address and a description of their comment please be reminded that the public
045comments right now at the beginning of the meeting are reserved for agenda items only public comments about non-agenda items can be shared at the end of the meetings board policy limits each public comment to two minutes in duration and we ask that the public bear this in mind mr mccoslan are there any calls there are no calls at this time okay we will wait 30 seconds for the delay and then we will proceed with the meeting okay any calls no callers okay this is a combined committee meeting and business meeting so first of all each chair will ask if there are any questions on any of the items or any discussion on any of the items before they move the items and then once they move them we'll have another opportunity to discuss if needed
046before we vote on them mr scalzo will you take the curriculum committee please okay under curriculum committee we have two items uh first item is approval of the bethel park school district comprehensive plan and number two school sponsored overnight educational activities leave it open for discussion can um someone in administrative station please explain the difference between the comprehensive plan and the strategic plan for the public sure i'll be happy to do that so the strategic plan that's also on tonight's agenda further down is a comprehensive five-year plan that covers all aspects of the district operation from facilities and infrastructure business and finance including instruction curriculum uh student support services and uh even diversity equity and inclusion the comprehensive plan is a state requirement that takes pieces of the strategic plan specifically the curriculum and instruction
047piece and student experience piece and weaves them into a form of a comprehensive or a strategic plan also required to submit it this with the plan is your how your professional development plans will be handled over the next three years uh your special education plan is also infused into the comprehensive plan all with um all in one long larger comprehensive plan it's a three-year piece that's required from the commonwealth and uh so they we drew directly from the strategic plan to populate the comprehensive plan it it's a [Music] online form that you fill out a kind of prescriptive and so you put something in one cell and it shows up three or four more times so it does look a little wonky when you try and read it cover to cover but it's essentially the
048meat and potatoes of our comprehensive of our strategic plan thank you does anyone have any other questions or comments about any of the other items looks like our band might be going to disney this year that is that's item two on the agenda as a request for approval for the overnight travel uh the district administration dr jensen has been working closely with the planning group about that to ensure all of those precautions would be held would be carefully followed so students would be safe on this trip it is um it is an opportunity for them to get back to what they've been known for doing for years and that's marching performing getting adjudicated and um really on a national level thank you okay would you like to move them please yes i'd like to move
049items one and two under curriculum committee second second move by mr scalzo seconded by mr christensen any other comments or questions this is the approval to let the staff members go on the trip to do the substitutes that will be needed at that time that's this is not us approving the trip it's to permit the students and their chaperones oh okay any other questions comments okay mr mccoslan voting is open mrs ross motion carries thank you mr mcgregor personnel okay under personnel there are seven items um i don't believe dr walsh wanted to say something now dr walsher would vote on all of these first and then give you time afterwards yeah at least on item four if we could if i could speak to that after you approve it yes okay all right uh
050first one changes to the extracurricular pay schedule uh current positions number two the approval of extra duty responsibility program number three is the acceptance of resignations number four appointment of personnel number five approval of staffing changes uh number six uh change of assignment and seven approval of schoology champion any questions discussion so is the um number one the interact that's the position at ims it's going to be an additional position we're approving is that correct yeah so that would be an additional uh that group itself has blown up and they are doing extraordinary things so when we got to see what they were doing we felt as administration they needed another position so so there's one at the high school and two ims now or one at each school so it's gonna be combined so
051two it's just gonna be two interacts but they also combined through ims and high school so they work together to do both okay yep i just wanted to be clear about that in the art club position is because we've had so much interest at that school yeah and we never had an art club at ims so we thought it was time to have an art club at ims okay i think we've had an art club it was just called an av club yes correct it was never official so now it's official oh okay all right so mr pictionary quick question so we're hiring two new campus managers we're transferring one a change of title so we still have openings correct we have one more opening for campus managers thank you just one question on number
052three and you know there's a retroactive resignation of a bus driver and we've gotten some emails from people because we got some variation and variation in the uh you know schedule of buses where do we stand here i mean how close are we at full capacity of our bus drivers or you know how much of an issue is it we're still about four drivers short to getting back to where we were okay it's four with the extra hiring we have tonight we're still four short all right so we got a wash here one resign one hard okay if there are no other comments or or questions i move uh items one through seven okay i need a second second seconded by mr scouso items one through seven under personnel any other comments or questions about
053these items voting is open this is wrong motion carries okay doctor before we move on dr walsh yeah thank you mr mcgregor on the appointment section of the agenda tonight the board did approve a new principle for independence middle school we'll start to introduce with to you tonight raquel sutton she'll be coming to us from south moreland school district where she's been a middle school principal for this year and an assistant principal for uh three years prior to that and was in the greensburg salem school district where she was an administrator for five years so lots of administrative experience and teaching experience at the middle school level we're looking forward to having ms sutton join us and bring that middle school model and her experience with that model to independence i believe she's on the
054webex tonight we've asked her to repair a few comments so raquel if you could unmute your mic and the floor is yours thank you i am honored to be accepted into this position and to serve the bethel park community and school district i'm looking forward to everything that is coming in the future to work with the strategic plan and the comprehensive plan and to meet all of the staff and get started as soon as possible thank you so much for this opportunity i'm really excited to get started thank you we're glad to have you too so we uh we lose a sutton and gain a sutton apparently we yeah very good right welcome miss sutton thank you mr spacuza thank you mrs dovis there's one item this evening under facility and services committee it's the
055approval of a change order for the high school excavation project and i would like an explanation myself so i would appreciate that someone could help us out yes i can address that so can mr fierce as well but basically uh we're getting uh ready to complete the complete the job which includes adding the top soil and with the past rain that we've had over the last month that topsoil's gotten very saturated so we're going to add lime to the top soil enable and in order to properly spread it and compact it in the way that will be ready for the spring sounds like a very good explanation any other questions on that on just another follow-up since we're going to put the limestone in what is the projected completion of their for the courtyard it
056was december 1st i think we're pretty close that aren't we now we are very close to having the actual fill and backfill and grade done december 1st we're going to wait just due to the weather to pour the new concrete sidewalk just so it sets with the proper temperature and we have the proper stability for it and i asked before again the same answer obviously it will be it has been the whole time available for emergency egress correct thank you one other question also i guess you'll wait till the spring for um seating and everything correct okay thank you okay mr speaker yes i would i would like to move the one item this evening under facility and services the approval of the change order for the high school excavation project and seconded by mr
057modra any further questions or comments okay mr mccoy is open motion carries okay mr christensen see you guys and it needs to be held out also yeah yeah in the finance area we have 14 items before we move this does anybody have questions on any of these i have a couple oh the district vehicle is that for uh snow plowing or what or what what's what's that for uh with our shop mechanic he does a lot of field work versus pulling tractors and other equipment into his shop he actually repairs them in the field and this way he'll be able to bring the proper tools save on mileage and be able to make the repair directly in the area needs to be done versus having to haul everything back to a shop would it also
058be outfitted for plowing if needed right yes so this isn't a replacement this is an additional it's in addition to but the tru the truck he currently uses is starting to near the end of his service life so we're going to have that as a backup truck but this will essentially replace that it's pretty difficult to find vehicles right now and this one we found available so we thought we would take the opportunity to seize it before it was snatched up by someone so next year for more like to hold out 14. okay any other questions otherwise um i was i was thinking that maybe ms sundell could explain a little bit about the engagement letter to the public as much as you are able to yeah absolutely um there is a proposal that the
059school district engage a special construction litigation council that is a technical area of practice that our firm does not provide somebody who has the ability to dedicate the time and expertise to that ms quinn horgan does with her firm she is an attorney who also has similar contracts with upper st claire and peters township our other clients in the area there's one specific matter of litigation that she will be working on pursuant to this engagement letter thank you any other questions or comments about any of these items before mr christensen moves them okay with no other questions i move to approve items one through thirteen second seconded by miss walsh turner any other comments or questions on items one through thirteen whoops one through yeah thirteen okay mr mclaughlin voting is open yes motion carries
060okay number 14 i moved to a doctor to approve the amended contract with hayes design group i need a second second seconded by mr spacusa and this is the contract for the independence middle school renovation project phase one let's clarify though that this does not mean we're moving sixth grade to ims at this point in time we we have decided that it's not being moved i just want the public to know that that we're voting on this but we are not moving sixth grade to ims at this time right comments questions so at this point this vote right here we will we will be entering in phase one and what is the cost again so this vote does not enter into phase one you did that already you already have an agreement with hayes but
061it was missing the amount and we discussed at the time that we were tabling that until we had a more accurate cost of the project and now that we know rough more closely you know within a few percentage points of what the final cost of phase one will be we were comfortable negotiating the lump sum price with with the hayes group okay that's actually just finishes what was missing in the previously approved agreement and the recommendation from our solicitor was to come with a lump sum right or who who came with that recommendation for lump sum rather than a percentage based we did okay our administration lump sum rather than something based on percentages or commissions in other words so if there were any changes or unforeseen circumstances when the construction begins there would be
062no additional fees paid to the hayes group to solve those issues okay i have another question for those spaces that will be obviously renovated was there do we have an you know an official internal study of how it's going to fit our curriculum for the sixth graders the the actual spaces themselves they're going to fit the curriculum that's currently in place and we know that what they're doing what they're actually renting what they're going to do to that space will accommodate our program as is right now it'll accommodate the sixth grade curriculum as is with the addition of steam programming that space will be they're adding that space to them did we get 3d renderings of any of the rooms to look at the functionality of the spaces uh just tonight we got some things
063i i haven't even looked at them yet but there were some of the preliminary renderings that were delivered uh the electronic here the reason why just you know if we're if it's a facelift you know if it's paint you know if it's lighting flooring i know an elevator changing over the ramp moving walls doing things like that i i just want to make sure that the functionality of those spaces for each of those disciplines is workable just because it has a facelift and it might look nice will these spaces really work for our curriculum you know our students and those teachers depending on what is where physically in the room that that's i think really meaningful for those teachers and those students inside just there have been and through my experience i i've seen this
064happen where you can have a new room and it doesn't function as well as the old room it might look new uh but it's not functioning as well as it should so i just want to be really really well the hayes group did spend time with faculty getting input and then went back again a few weeks later and met with additional folks for input on the designs they also met with mrs figlioli in helping to design the maker space so they've got direct input from the teachers that have to use spaces like that yes and overwhelmingly was i guess was there a survey done with with the staff to see if it if that if they agreed that this would really work or is it just how many how many people were involved with that
065i i'm sorry is that do you know how many people were involved uh the focus was on the key areas like for example the science department math department english world language um not every teacher but there was a representation from each of those departments so is that a small sampling it's it's not a big sample it's not like i'm just making sure that everybody you know had a voice in this if because what what each department was to do was to survey their full department bring that information into the meeting and they did do that so yes everybody had input into the process it might be good to have a facilities meeting maybe even you know next month early next month once we get to the point there's a really question for hayes group when
066they have the designs at a point where they're detailed enough for us to do a thorough review but yeah in fact that would be they couldn't really go into place until the board approves them so absolutely you're going to have right additional opportunities to examine the plans comment on them provide feedback ultimately leading to what would probably be a january approval for public bid other comments questions concerns okay mr mccauslan voting is open this is motion carries 7-2 miss turner any comments questions or concerns we are only voting on number one okay would you like to move that please mr turner sorry i moved the approval of policy 915 booster organizations for final reading second seconded by mr modrak questions or comments about this okay is open this is wrong yes motion carries mr nagel
067will you please take other it would be my honor there are two items under other student agreements and approval of the bethel park school district strategic plan uh are there any comments or discussion about either item i just like them both to be voted on separately i would also anyway all right so i will first move uh item number one student agreements okay i need a second second to buy mr modrak mr mccoslan voting is open motion carries now i it is my pleasure to move the approval of the bethel park school district strategic plan second seconded by ms turner comments questions discussion i would like to start out by thanking everybody who participated in this over the last several months but over really the last several years uh there has been a tremendous amount
068of community input staff input administration input this is something that i take great pride in having a part of with all of you and i it's something that buoys my uh faith that this district is going to be in good hands for years to come along with this strategic plan the board the administration the staff and the community we have who are so invested in in bethel park school district for our children i'm very proud of all of this and i'm very proud to have been a part of and i'm very proud of all of you other comments questions i think it's just great that we have actually a strategy behind a lot of the things that we're doing um i think that you know this is what was the driver for a lot of
069this it felt like we were doing a lot of very tactical things and kind of changing course and kind of not really knowing where the north star is but this is our north star is the priorities that have we've collected from across the district from many different stakeholders and this this gives us confidence as we invest in some of these longer-term initiatives some of them are expensive some of them require a lot of you know work a lot of investment from people but we'll have the confidence that we're doing the right thing you know that that we've picked the right priorities to work on um it'll also help us focus and there's a million things we can be working on this helps us prioritize also those things that are the most important that we need
070to to invest most of our time on making sure that we're successful so i think it's fantastic you know it's been you know it took a long time in the idea stage and and um the uh that over the last year wow we've made fantastic progress and this kind of it's not the finish line it's more the starting line or maybe it's the first lap okay but it feels good to get to the finish line of the first lap you know at this time so i agree with mr christensen uh when he came on the board he started talking about well what's our future plan where's our five-year plan what's the strategy and then mr nagel also started to say that and then and now we have this strategic plan now i'd like to remind
071everybody just as dr walsh reminded us a little while ago this is going to take five years it's not instantaneous this approval doesn't mean that all these things have are happening right away but it is a road map for the future and it is a goal um in many different areas and i think that the future looks very promising as a result of the hard work that everyone put into this strategic planning over this last year and i am very delighted to vote on it tonight mrs douglas could i also add i i to echo mr nagel's comments i think a great big thank you to my fellow board members the administration staff parents citizens and students who really participated and showed a lot of passion and care about where this district is going to
072be in five years and i think that it's long overdue and i i thank everyone here for for their efforts and i know that this will make me feel very comfortable stepping off the board i just want to say that i'm very happy that all nine of us the administration and all the community support work together on this this was a huge lift in a year that you know we didn't know what it looked like when we started back in the sun in january um so thank you all thank you to the community for your support in all of this and the main goal of this strategic plan is best in class and students being best in class and the students are why we're all here every day i'm extremely excited about it uh because
073we have a vision we have goals and now the the really hard part will be the measurement of growth so we will have to you know hold ourselves accountable up here along the way every meeting that we have making sure that we are checking off everything that we put into that strategic plan and i i definitely think that we have the momentum to accomplish all of that and we will get there so again i want to thank everybody that was involved all of the board members administration students parents community members i just want to say thanks to everybody who worked so hard any other comments okay mr mcclosely voting is open yes motion carries thank you at this time are there any public comments that have been called in there are no callers no comments
074okay if there any come in before we adjourn let me know please okay at this time are there any board comments i just want to thank the four board members for their service i it has been a wonderful two years with you at this point i've got to learn a lot about each of you individually everything's been civil and professional even though that we can probably get into heated discussion or debate at times and we we won't we always you know will not agree and that's okay but the civility that we have had among the nine of us i really respect that and i think we're ending on a very good note and i just want to thank all of you for your service again yeah i agree uh thank you that this the last
075two years working with this whole board has been a lot of fun i think that in terms of the you know the makeup you know how we interacted it's fantastic like uh vince said yeah i mean we there's a lot of diversity we don't see things all the same way but i think that's the strength of the good board not the weakness of a good board we're able to resolve you know differences of opinions really effectively and you know i just think it's fantastic you know we accomplished a tremendous amount you know even with all of the distractions like you know kobe and things like that so um thank you thank you for uh yeah well i wouldn't it's not an accomplishment it's a distraction okay yeah i agree with you with all of you
076guys i mean connie i can't believe 24 years huh 24 years wonderful that's wonderful and thank you guys and it's been fun the last two years take away coven all right i've had a lot of people ask me how did i last 24 years but you know it's been it's really been a nice 24 years i mean i've had the opportunity to build schools redistrict have students that we had a thousand students in ninth grade one time we split them in half half came in the morning half in the afternoon you think sometimes you have a challenge and you can't find an answer but it's there and they all survived quite well we've also gone to when i started as an aide we were having a blue sheet of paper called a teacher learning unit
077that's what we had look how far we've come we now had remote learning whoever would have thought when was like writing on a wall when i started out also that we were we had we've gone from 9 500 students to 4 100 been a big change in how we managed the district and what we had to do i've gone through nine superintendents all been different all brought something to the table you know any way you look at it also that um we we had we've talked about often times what you gain out of it and i've always felt like i've been out and students have come up to me you don't think you've made an impact but they come up to you and they'll thank you for something you've done the other day i went
078to senator robinson's office and one of his aides came up to me and said mrs rule i know you you gave me my diploma in 2005. it was like you know you don't realize that students will remember you and you've made an impact in some way and i that part i'm going to miss working with the students but it's been a good ride i am so glad to see a strategic plan imagine being on the board this long and like every time it was like okay now what do we do you know it's great to have direction and i think it's good that that dr walsh has come on board at this time the timing was right for us and a lot of exciting things and when i first came on this board i thought
079i came on for education the first meeting was they were handed me windows to decide what kind of window was going to go on the renovation of the old high school and i thought i didn't sign up for this and then the next meeting was something else from construction i was really getting discouraged but you know as i leave the board i'm kind of glad that i don't have to look at windows and pick floor towel and things like that sorry but you'll have your chance and i think you'll do fine i'm looking forward to seeing what the district looks like when it's all done thank you uh we have one comment before further board comments go ahead sure you have uh mr foot on the phone adam are you there i am yeah okay
080you have two minutes thank you uh good evening i just wanted to briefly comment on the comprehensive facility study that was done by hayes you know the options were quite extensive and there were dozens of options with multiple subsets but they all rely on using the existing building spaces or the locations and an email earlier to the board i just asked i would like to see you know an additional option that at least examines the feasibility of a centralized k5 center located on the current campus adjacent to the high school and my thought is that a centralized campus you know for the purpose of operations curriculum safety and student experience i think it would just be very beneficial to the community and ultimately our students so i know that the whole process is in the
081works right now and as hayes continues to bring forward some options i think looking at again a centralized campus of of all of our students along blackhawk drive and then also utilizing ims would be something to at least look at prior to making the the final decision uh so thank you and also thank you to all the outgoing board members for all of your time over the years so thank you go ahead mr spacuza yeah i um this is actually the second time that i've done this no no there were not and i and and it's it's a really an unfortunate reason that i'm sitting here for these last two years and if most of you are aware of a good board member a good teacher educator friend of the community cindy buckley who passed
082away and i was appointed to replace her for the last two two years in a month of her term and to echo some of the words that vince said earlier i think that thinking about all this the night that i got appointed two years ago was a little tumultuous and i guess my feelings are to echo your words vince i think that we've really grown as a board i i think that we all had some skepticism and not not understanding you guys were new on the board etc and i think we've grown from each other and learned with our administration and staff etc but i think it's been a really good experience i've learned a lot from all of you and i hope you've learned something from me and uh barry if we all agreed
083then we'd just be yes men or women and we would get nothing accomplished so a good solid discussion stand on your convictions if you don't do that then there's no reason to be here we all have to stand up for what we believe is the right thing and i think we all have believed that number one thing is the education of our students in the community so i just like to thank everybody for allowing me to be on the board it's been an honor it's time for someone else to do this and i know several of us probably feel that way right now but i will miss it i have enjoyed it and i don't think there's another place i want to be other than bethel park so thank you all mrs dovis i'd like
084to um wish you ross connie and ken happy retirement but hope that your skills that you all brought to this board and to making this team of nine along with the superintendent work will be used again to help us in the future if we so needed as to tweak strategic plans tweak floor plans um you know i've locked the floors of the high school with mr spakusa looking at rumbles and um so you know to all of you thank you for your service thank you for making bethel park what it is um also mrs sutton welcome to ims and finally um ims is going to lose losing someone in january that's been a large part of the community for a long time judy casanovich i wish you the best in retirement but i do know
085that we will both be in the same place on june 3rd so i hope to see you then thanks i'd like to thank the four of you for everything you've done these last couple years as we transition this board i think was very effective and very knowledgeable that you brought to the table and you set a good example for our future as board members as we welcome our new four board members and how to operate and make sure we are keeping everybody the kids are interested in keeping this district moving in the right direction moving forward the best we can i've known the three of you for a long time and ken over the last couple years i would not wish nothing but the best to you and your future endeavors i know some people
086have grandchildren they're chasing after in other states and some have little ones that are growing up fast uh but again thank you for everything you've done for us and the direction and the guidance and that wisdom you brought to us and the energy you brought to us and then thank you this has been a good two years and i've said it before and to repeat other people we did not always agree but one thing we always did we were able to function as the school board at bethel park and you're a good example of that so thank you and also along with judy i've known judy for a long time and we wish her well in her retirement plans also but again thank you folks so i want to thank all of you for the
087service for it's been a pleasure to serve with you i want to thank the administration for your support i want to give a couple special thank yous to mrs dovis and mr christensen for both being mentors to me as i came on the board as an electrician not knowing much about being on a school board or education to mrs dovis in particular for serving as board president over very tumultuous times uh almost the wholesale change in administration uh covid helping navigate us through a strategic plan your leadership and guidance none of this was possible without you most of all though to the community this community is amazing this community is such a such a home to me and my family and this community has been an inspiration to me all along and none of this
088could have been accomplished without a community so invested and so uh so passionate so thank you guys all it was very humbling to allow me on this journey with you any other comments any other public comments there are no more colors okay i just would like to say i'm excited for the future of this community excited for the education of my grandchildren thank you good luck and god bless i have i would like a motion to adjourn so moved by miss rule and seconded by mr modra all in favor say aye any opposed [Laughter] motion carries this meeting is [Music] you