School Board Meeting - 11/03/2025

001Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> Please remain standing. We are going to hear from Euan Crane who is a Boyce Middle School student who is going to play the national anthem for us tonight. Thank you so much. [music] >> [music] [music] [applause] >> Thank you so much. you and everyone please be seated. I was wondering if someone could hand their microphone to you and so I could you and can I ask you a couple questions? >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Well, first of all, thank you for playing for us. This always makes us really happy before a meeting because

002we have really >> kind of boring things sometimes to talk about. So, this makes us remember what we're doing this for. So, thank you. How long have you been playing the trumpet? >> Um, three years. >> Yeah. Because I gotta tell you, you you got those notes. >> Yeah, >> that was amazing. >> Few crackups, but >> everyone's gonna do some crack, but you kept going, too, which was which was really amazing. So, thank you. And amazing breath control. >> A lot of self-discipline there. Who did you bring with you? >> Uh, I brought my family right here. My mom, my dad, my grandma, my grandpa. >> That's awesome. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Well, thanks for every thanks for coming and thanks to the family for coming. You and you made our day. >>

003Thank you for having me. [applause] [applause] >> And now it is time for our roll call. >> Sorry. >> Mrs. Bolus, >> present. >> Mrs. Hannah, >> present. Dr. Gans, >> Mr. Lambert, >> present. >> Mr. Mosscarero, >> present. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> present. >> Mrs. Schnore, >> present. >> Mrs. Schneider, >> present. >> And Dr. Watzel, >> present. Eight members present. >> Thank you. And now, Mr. Mscar, could we have a reading of the mission? Developing lifelong learners and responsible citizens for a global society is the mission of the upper Slair School District served by a responsive innovative staff who in partnership with the community provides learning experiences that nurture the uniqueness of each child and promotes happiness and success. >> Thank you, Mr. Mscar. It's now time in the agenda when we ask

004if there are any residents comments regarding any district related items. Do we have anyone? Thank you. Uh, as per the guidelines for residents comments, please state your name, confirm you are a resident, and limit your comments to three minutes. >> Check. Check. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Brian Schill, 102 Wilshire Drive. Um, I'm the chairman of the USC Veterans Committee for the uh for what's going on on Tuesday, next Tuesday. So, I wanted just to give you a little personal touch, uh, an invite. We'll be doing it at 9:30. Again, like usual, a couple things I wanted to mention. Um, possibly the, uh, excuse me, [clears throat] the public's invited, so we'd love to get the word out. I know, uh, you know, this is a township and a school district coordinated effort. Um, I

005did want to mention, um, uh, a thank you to Raise Gang. Um, so, uh, we have Michael Binkley and Mark Loya and of course, uh, Sarah McDonald as well. So, they've been really good and we really appreciate it. They've been doing it for a while now. So, um, this year we're trying to have, uh, we'll probably have some elementary students uh, involved again. I know Streams will be there uh, handing out some uh, some letters that they have written. Um, we'll have the chanted Claire's. We will have a uh brass quartet from the high school. Um and we'll have some folks from Troop 366. So I'm sure some of those will be St. Clair students as well. Um the speaker will be Lieutenant Colonel Eric Schillow. Um he is in the township. His kids are

006now at Boyce and at the high school. So he served with me at the 171st Air Fueling Wing. Um and the last thing is we may weather permitting have another special appearance uh this year. So uh you may have remembered we did a fly over uh for the first time last year. Well, even though I had Air Force approval this year, uh the 911 finally told me today it's like everybody's shut down. So you won't see any military folks. But uh but you will see a UH1 uh helicopter, a friend of mine, uh Ron Curado from Washington, uh uh an army guy. Um it is a it's a private aircraft. So he's not he's not affected by the by the shutdown. So hopefully weather permitting everything will be good and he'll be here. So I

007just want to say thanks and again I'm inviting everyone to stop by and check it out. I think it's going to be 80. No, no. 39. I think I think 39. So, [laughter] anybody have any questions? Okay, sounds good. Thank you. I don't mean to leave, but I got to go down to the township meeting next. So, but you were priority. You're first. >> Well, thank you for your service, Mr. Shel. >> You're very welcome. Thanks, gang. Appreciate it. Moving us along to item number six, the for the approval of the minutes. And Mrs. Bolus, would you read the motion? >> Certainly. I move that the board approve the meeting minutes of the October 6, 2025 board meeting as attached. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? And actually, I

008need to abstain because I wasn't here for the last meeting. Anyone else? >> Me, too. Do I need to abstain as well? I was um traveling for work and missed the last meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Motion carries. And now we will hear from our other awesome time in the agenda, our student board representative reports with Isabella Donnie Donnelly, sorry, and Anthony Razo. >> Thank you. Good evening. We are glad to be with you again. and representing the student body. I will begin our report with an update on athletics. Our last meeting in October, I shared that some of our fall sports teams were completing in the playoffs. Since then, se several teams have concluded their seasons. Girls soccer finished their season with

009a record of 106 and two. After a thrilling playoff victory over Penn Trafford, the girls lost a hard-fought game to Senica Valley in double overtime by the score of one- nothing. Girls volleyball finished the season with impressive record of 14-4 after defeating def after defeating Fox Chapel in the first round of the playoffs. The girls lost a well-played match against North Catholic. For girls golf, after concluding the Whipio playoffs, Olivia Ziggler finished the season as a state qualifier. Girls field hockey finished their season after a playoff loss to Peters Township. Football currently holds a record of 9-2. We won our first round playoff game this past Friday against Plum High School by the score of 46 to8. Our round our second round game will be played this Friday at the Wolverina against Woodland Hills High

010School. Wooden uh winter sports seasons will be starting later this month. Winter sports at the high school include boys and girls wrestling, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls swimming, boys and girls rifle, and boys hockey has already begun their season. Now on to academics. This Thursday evening, the high school counseling department will hold their annual junior parenting meeting. The second nine weeks grading period has started. Report cards for students in grades K through 8 for the first nine weeks will be stri distributed this Friday. As a reminder, high school students will receive their report card twice a year with the first one being distributed at the end of the first semester in January. Our next lunch and learn series at the high school will be this Thursday. The speaker will be Christy Code who

011is the head athletic trainer and lead regional medical provider for the Olympics US track and field team. Lunch and learn sessions are available for any student in the building. Lunch and learns are held regularly throughout the year and cover a variety of career options and pathways. Hi for arts. On November 8th, our high school marching band will be playing in the Veterans Day parade. And as mentioned earlier, on the 11th, the Shanta Claire's and the Trombone Quartet will be performing at 9:30 to honor our veterans at the Upper St. Clair Veterans Day ceremony that is co-hosted by our school district in our township. Um, I would like to take some time to recognize five upper Upper St. Clair students who have been recently selected to perform in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Honors Jazz Festival.

012The students honored are Edwin Croftcheek, Thomas Malison, Anthony Mastro, Michaela Pella, and Andy Sheer. Our final report is for activities at the high school. I'm thrilled to report that the high school will be hosting a variety of activities this month. Our annual Powderpuff game will be hosted on the 19th of November, and it will raise money for our St. Clair Women's Breast Cancer Center. As Anthony had mentioned earlier, this Friday night our varsity football team will travel to Woodland Hills to play in the second round of the WPIL playoffs. The school will be sponsoring a fan bus to provide students a safe and easy way to go support our Panthers. And the bus will leave at 5:15 um and the game will start at 7:00 p.m. And then lastly, our global education week will be

013November 17th through 21. Um featured this week include competitions, raffles, prizes, donation drives, ex expert speakers, um food, a talent show, and then theme days. This year, there will also be an evening event during global education week, the global gala, an opportunity on Thursday, November 20th for members of the high school community to gather and participate in a number of globally themed activities. Thank you for your time and attention. And at the at this time, I would like to h I'll be happy to answer any questions if you have them. Thank you. >> Yes, I have a question. Oh, this one's directed towards Anthony. Anthony, on Friday night, I I heard somebody's name a lot when I was at the attending the football game. Um, can you tell me who led the team in tackles

014on Friday night? >> Uh, on Friday, everyone had a great game against Plum, but uh I led the team in tackles. [clears throat] >> That's interesting. I >> I'm seeing a pattern here. You know what? Um they tell me that wrestlers are the best tacklers. So, um >> just something to think about. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Uh I second that. [laughter] >> Well, thanks to both of you. Appreciate the summary. Uh any other comments? >> All right. We're going to move now to the superintendent's report. All right. Thank you, uh, Dr. Wetszel. Um, just a couple updates. First of all, some some good news to share. Uh, some recent is that, you know, as we've talked about in the past, there's a lot of different metrics and recognitions that exist out there that recognize

015school districts for a variety of reasons. Uh, the US News and World Report recently came out and I want to um recognize and commend Boyce Middle School. They were the second ranked school district middle school in Pennsylvania. Um, actually they they should have been won. Number one is a magnet school in Philadelphia and it's an application school. So it's not essentially a public school district. Not that I'm being defensive, but um but Boyce Middle School was the highest ranked um a true public school. Um and Fort Couch was the only other middle school that were in the top 10 in Pennsylvania from Alageney County. So I want to commend Boyce and recognize them. And Dr. Aor happens to be here with us tonight and has done a tremendous job um with Boyce the last couple

016years and uh the staff there is amazing. So, congratulations to the boys. Great recognition for the district. In addition to that, um, Money Incorporated came out with a ranking of school districts throughout the United States. Last week on on Friday, um, they ranked the top 30 districts in in the entire United States and there was only one district from Pennsylvania and that was Upper Slair and we were ranked seven. So, again, a lot of different metrics uh, out there and certainly um, we need to make sure that we promote and celebrate when we are recognized. And so both of those are tremendous accomplishments and I wanted to share that with with everyone tonight. Um, also in in the spirit of sharing some good news, our our alumni giving program uh has been an endeavor of

017ours here and um I'm glad to report proud to report that we do officially have our website up and running. um a web page on our website up and running with a lot of information um that is targeted to our alumni and for anyone interested in donating to the school district. We do have it targeted into three halls, arts, athletics, and academics. And so we will use our our social media channels and a variety of district events to promote this uh this this website, but also to promote the opportunity to give back to a cause here that one feels passionate about. I do want to commend uh Dr. Angelo has spent a lot of time he and Mrs. Voco and working on that and also our our technology department and our business office. It truly

018was a collaborative effort as you can imagine. A lot of work goes into to pulling that off and making sure that everything is done properly and so I do want to thank everyone and we look forward to providing you with updates as we move forward with with this endeavor. um state budget on on the flip side, some unfortunate news as we still have a state budget impass. So, not much new to report there. Um we do know and uh Mr. Burchil and I have spoken about this extensively. We are fortunate here that we have not been impacted by this um as much as most of the school districts or many of the school districts I should say throughout the Commonwealth. As you are all aware, school districts in Pennsylvania have to pass their budgets by

019June 30th. And here we are today, we're in November and we still don't have a state budget. So for districts who rely on a significant portion of their budget to come from state dollars, some as high as three4s of their budget, you can imagine the impact that it's having on them. There are districts that are looking at at not paying staff members. Um there are districts looking at taking loans. Uh it it's really not a good situation for us. We are, as everyone knows, highly reliant on local tax dollars. We had about 20% of our budget comes from the state. So it still is substantial but not enough to to have a negative impact on us at this point in time. I also will use this an opportunity to commend our finance team and um

020and the forward thinking and not that we saw this happening but continued financial stability is one of the reasons why we're not feeling this unfortunately but unfortunately like so many others are. Mr. Burch I don't know if you'd like to add anything. You're more boots on the ground. >> Yeah. So, I talked to Hannah Barrick who's the executive director for PASBO today just to try to get an update. She said that uh Governor Shapiro and all four of the legislative caucuses, leaders of the legislative co caucuses left met last week. Um so there's really starting to ramp up the pressure on them to get something done. Uh the town the municipalities are feeling it more than us because their year runs January to December. So their tax revenue, they're already past their real estate collection

021period. So they're really feeling the the stress. West Mullen County is laying off people and so on. So the pressures mount is mounting on them. So we're in this is starting the fifth month. The GOP bill basically would flat fund the government. Democrats uh total plan is 50.3 50.3 billion. Um pretty much any solution to this budget will require dipping into the the 11 billion dollars in um excess funds that they have at the state level to uh uh fill the gap in the revenue. Last year the state brought in $46.4 billion in total revenue. So there's going to be a gap there and have to fill in. Um seems like lowering the corporate tax rates taxes seems to be a target for both parties. So hopefully, you know, maybe that'll stir some economic growth

022in the in the Commonwealth. And so just in general, I think additional revenue streams are going to have to be explored, although there's u obviously uh differences of opinions between the two groups on what those streams should be. So uh I don't think there was any real urgency to do anything before the election, but I think once tomorrow's done, I think then things will start to ramp up. And I would guess hopefully we have something by Thanksgiving, but there's nothing for sure. So that's my state budget update. >> Okay. Thank you, uh, Mr. Burman. Just a a few other quick items. Um, just as a reminder, as we previously shared, our reorganization meeting will take place on December 1st. Um, at that meeting, we will uh recognize Dr. Gans who is not able to be

023here with us this evening but um she is been on the board for eight years um and she will attend a reorganization meeting to be recognized for her years of service and she was unable to be with us tonight. We also have a Shazda event um for school superintendent and uh board representatives which for our board is Miss Santa. The two of us will be attending uh an event next Thursday for legal updates with uh superintendents and board members from other districts that are part of Shazda. So we look forward to also providing you with an update um in December on that as well. At this time that concludes the report and be glad to answer any questions if you have them. >> I just wanted to say congratulations to you and your team and

024your teachers for those amazing rankings. And I think I just wanted to say thanks to principal AOR for all of his work at Boyce. Um I just wanted to make sure we pause there and amplify that. And you've got another item here, right? >> Yes. So we will uh move down into district update. We um are going to be projecting here on the screen. Uh so if you give [clears throat] us a minute um there are several of us um that will be taking part in the presentation. Um this presentation we're targeting 15 20 minutes tops. We really want to be succinct um but also share some important information um related to this work here. Um Dr. Oor and Dr. Wagner with us this evening. They've both been a big part of this work. Will

025continue to be a big part of this work as well as Mr. Brought and Mr. Wilson. um a lot of things happen behind the scenes um that otherwise would not exist if it weren't for for much of their work. So I do appreciate their efforts and thank them in advance for for the work that we definitely have in front of us. Okay. Okay, so the this just to provide some background um where this is stemming from is one of our district goals uh is on the screen and I won't read everything verbatim, but um really the work around the district goal and and maintaining the highest levels of of excellence in those areas. Um we have specific outcomes attached to them and one of those outcomes that's very timely is the expansion of the artificial

026intelligence strategic initiative team. Um and and the work from that team is really to identify areas of needs in a rapidly evolving space. Uh really to deepen our understanding and learning um of artificial intelligence and education and ensure that we we have an effective implementation um with regard to to our programming. And so based off of the the work and some of the information we're going to share here tonight, um we want to talk more about kind of where where we're at and and really where we're where we're headed. So some context, you know, innovation, the term gets used very loosely, uh, gets used a lot. And so there's a lot of different definitions. And we've really been working from what you see here on the screen, and it's it's it's can be defined as

027the creative process by where new or improved ideas are successfully developed and applied to produce outcomes that are practical and of value. And so that's that's kind of been our guide uh, as a team here. Obviously, artificial intelligence is still relatively new, but I we thought it's important to take a little bit of time to also talk about when we talk about innovation, um some of the work that we're doing and have been doing here in the district that we do deem to be uh innovative. And so, I'm going to turn it to Mr. Bar right now. This is his slide. And we'll go from there. So, this is not my pitch to add another person to the tech department, but I won't argue if that is a board motion later tonight. So when I

028was talking to my team about innovation, uh we started to like list things that that we support and what we do and I said we have seven tech staff members and this is what we support. So if we're not innovating, if we're not creating efficiencies, this doesn't happen. Every time I share a slide like this with the business community say there there's no way that you can do this. I go we do do it. I said we do have to innovate and this is our our time and effort in doing this with very little outsourcing. So we I was just trying to put in context with my team. It goes like what is innovation? I go like we couldn't do this without innovating on a regular B. We innovate to survive and that's how how

029I look at like in the tech department. So some key considerations about innovation. And it's hard to it's hard to compare a school district um to other fields when you're innovating like moving 4,000 students with diverse needs 300 and some staff members in one direction with a few professional development days for the year. Um take that in context because like to to establish change and the amount of time you have to devote to professional development um we've got to be very selective what we do. And so our goal has always been about being the best. Um not necessarily being the first, but there's times when we are the first. Um I keep on thinking of the analogy with Apple. Apple did not create the smartphone, but boy did they make it better. Um so I'd

030like to make that comparison that we are like Apple. Um the change process, making sure that we're we're doing the right changes. Um I look back at 2005 we PA came out with a classrooms for the future grant provided over a million dollars worth of smartboard software professional development. We're going to move districts to one to one. So Dr. Lombardo was not happy with me because we didn't apply in year one. The the software they were doing the professional development plan that they had the equipment it was going to change too much of what we were already doing in our district. Year one goes by, the state decided they they they admitted they made a lot of mistakes. They changed the program. We apply in year two. It meets our goals and we received close

031to a million dollars for that grant. Innovation um I mean the developing needs of students um anybody in this room can tell you pre- pandemic versus post pandemic the needs of children even the needs of staff have changed. the change process pre- pandemic compared to post um it doesn't even compare how much harder it is to change based upon the needs we have today sustainability I would say that um financial professional staffing capacity to support sustained innovation if John told me that he just received a grant for VR headsets and that we're going to have a VR headset for every student in Upper Slair first my blood pressure would go up I'd have heart palpitations my hair might turn gray um but then You really have to look at do we have the funds to

032sustain that over time? Do we have the staff even to support an initiative like that? Flexibility. How fast can we change and be sustaining what we're doing? The the example I'd come up with is second chance learning. We paused and looked at second chance learning in the district. We revamped what we were doing 5 through 12 because of parent feedback, student feedback, and teacher feedback. Um, not a lot of districts can can pivot that quickly as we can. continuous progress. Um, this is my 29th year with the district. When I started, John was in college. Brad, you were in seventh grade. I've seen the entire administration turn over. I've seen the entire central office turn over. I've survived five superintendent. But what has not changed is the culture of this district. Continuous progress is our

033mindset. And I can attest that with my 29 years, it doesn't matter what people we had in place. This culture survives, this culture drives us. We have, I would say, one of the most innovative practices we have in this district is our curriculum review process. There isn't another school district I can even point to that looks at all their curriculum twice a year. The amount of work and effort in that process, that's our culture and it works for us at Upper Slair. Grassroots. I can tell you that our our best initiatives come from grassroots. Um, a few years ago, a few elementary teachers approached me. Um, they had an idea about changing the interactive program we have on our Prometheian panels. Right in the middle of when elementary is doing massive ELA changes, I didn't

034want to touch this at all. Like, I didn't even want to meet with people to talk about that. They brought me the change. They had grassroots effort. They developed it. They provided the training for it. They knew it was the right way. And they connected to the ELA curriculum. I said, "That is that's true grassroots." And that doesn't happen everywhere. Strategic initiatives that we have focused on strategic initiatives like this year's AI. And from the day we started to research AI to today, AI has totally reinvented itself. It is not the same eye. When we started research, the research can't even keep up with AI. Um, gone of the days of AI hallucination. What AI can do is changing literally by the day. Um, and that's what that's our one of our current strategic initiatives.

035And I would say that is true continuous progress. Right. So, as we um transition to um some further examples of innovation in the district, um Dr. Or and I are proud to share some of the the things that our teachers, just as as Mr. broad was just alluding to have really spearheaded um and that this board um through our curriculum recommendation uh process has uh has supported over the years. Um we're going to to talk about um these examples um in four categories or four characteristics um and to sort of group and and um have them make make sense in terms of of the way that we see them as educators. Um and the first is student voice. Um Dr. Beck wrote his dissertation on on student voice. We have a lot of uh research

036uh and a lot of practices that um we know are important and and that uh what our students are contributing um in terms of their needs and their wants is is essential. Um and so student voice and curiosity must must drive our work. And so some innovations that have happened um at the high school level in the last couple of years. Um uh first is our lunch and learn series. Your if you're a high school parent, your children may have participated in this. It's a great opportunity for career exploration. um people from outside the school, expert professionals come in uh for 40-minute uh presentations um sharing their their knowledge of what it is to to be in a particular profession. Um our student board reps mentioned uh the um the presentation that's coming up this

037week. Um we know that our students can't take full courses in every single thing that's of interest to them. And so the lunch and learn is a really great opportunity um for students to um voice what their interests are and to hear about those professions. Um, our wellness access uh during free periods is another innovative uh practice we've had in the last couple of years. 11th graders um can jump into their wellness education course at a time that meets uh their needs in the day. Whether that's during a free block, a scheduled time, or after school, uh students can meet the the wellness education requirements um and a time that works for them. We know that our students have expressed over the years that the time is precious. Um they have a lot to do.

038they have many responsibilities and so this is one way that we've responded to those needs of of students in in our approach to wellness ed. Um and the last high school example that um we'll move right into to middle school uh has to do with esports. Um and so beyond just holding a video game controller um esports is something that our students have asked for um in different ways across the years. Um we have a wonderful teacher uh Monica Irwin who is spearheading that work. Um and really what she's doing is providing a venue for students to develop skills and develop community. this is what they were asking for. Um, and so we have a space um, and we have a teacher who is really um, providing wonderful support when it comes to to our

039esports program. Um, so much so that sometimes what's happening at the high school and the voices of students and their interests um, is heard beyond the walls of the high school. It's perfect segue. And then you'll see that tonight um, throughout our presentation that there's a lot of uh, collaboration and mixture between things that are working well at the high school and then trickling down. So there's also a successful esports program that was established at for couch as well. Uh this is year two of it and it's a great extracurricular activity uh that happens at for couch and there's also some collaboration between what happens at for couch and also the high school as well. And the last example that you see here on the slide is the middle school engineering club and so we

040implemented uh steam in about 2017 I think it was at at at boys and um now it's also at at Fort College. We're going to talk a little bit more about the steam program here momentarily. It's a course that kids absolutely love. I know some people in here um have had kids that have been in that class and love it. It's one of the only classes um where kids actually hate it when when the class is over. They want to stay longer. They don't want to leave because they're so engaged in what they're doing. And so this engineering club is kind of a byproduct of that class where kids, you know, they they wanted it and they thirst for more. And so as part of our clubs that we offer at boys, there's an engineering

041club that kids can sign up for um where they can participate in various challenges and projects that include a design cycle and engineering that extend beyond what is accomplished in the actual steam course. So if uh student voice was the first characteristic of innovation, um outside partnerships is is the second that we'd like to talk about. Um and so how do we um engage our communities both in Upper Slair and beyond the greater Pittsburgh region um to support our students? We've made great headway over the last couple of years um in bringing college and high school courses um to our learners, whether it's marketing, calculus, uh law and justice or CHS leadership courses. Um our students have had a great opportunity to um collaborate with universities like Robert Morris and the University of Pittsburgh, not

042only to earn credits, but these partnerships allow students to have um experiences on these campuses. They've allowed our faculty to interact with faculty from the universities. Um and so really the the community industry partnership component of our course work um has has really um extended lately. The remake remake learning network um is a wonderful collaborative um in our region and really has become nationwide in in some regards lately. Um Mr. Doug Kchner uh wrote a grant um and received as as you know $15,000 from from the network recently. Um and so his work in civic engagement um has further uh connected us to the Remake Learning Network. We look forward to continued partnerships uh with them. Um the board also uh passed anou with Clear View Financial Credit Union a couple of months ago and

043we're grateful uh for the ongoing work to establish a financial empowerment center at the high school. The state of Pennsylvania requires that um starting next year our students earn a financial literacy half credit. Um and so that's the the mandate. Um but in in our fashion we want to try to um augment what the mandate is. Um and so the partnership with Clear View will really uh launch us at some point in 2026 into an opportunity for enrichment within the school. Um students who are interested in in finance um can have some community based learning internship opportunities with those folks. But really the entire student body will will benefit from that ongoing external partnership. Um and it seems like just yesterday Fred Pascorski started his theme innovation and consulting course. Um, but that now long-standing

044course has continued to provide students with an opportunity to partner with with outside businesses. Um, new businesses and and business partners are are joining us regularly. Thanks to to Mr. Mascaro for for joining that uh group last year. And so we're really um excited about the ongoing work around innovation that really um is sort of in an incubator in in that course within our high school. >> All right. Thank you. And another um I think outstanding community partnership is is one we have with JA Biztown. Um, I know some people in this room have actually been there before as either observers or volunteers. And I'll give a little bit of information about what what JA Bistown is. Um, so essentially our students in fifth grade, every single student goes to JA Bistown at the end

045of one of their expressive arts rotations in fifth grade. Um, it's an experiential educational program run by Junior Achievement that teaches students about business, economics, and free enterprise. Um the core of the program is a large interactive mock city that in this case it's located in Bridgeville where students apply for jobs, they receive paychecks, they manage bank accounts and operate various prominent local businesses like UPMC, Highark, Alcoa, Alcasan, Giant Eagle, Mascaro Construction. Um, and they spend a day there in a full day simulation and it gives students hands-on practice with civic responsibility, personal finance, and career exploration within a functioning microeconomy. Um, the students love it. If you ask students at the end of fifth grade what the best parts of their year are, a lot of them will say it's a steam class or

046it was their teachers or it was their trip to uh to Biztown. Uh, it's a fantastic opportunity for our students. They love it. Um, fortunately, you know, the education leaders at Biztown have actually made comments to me before that they think that our district has established one of the best models that they've seen because we actually tied into our CAPS course, which is going to be at the beginning of the next slide. And so, one of the things that we stay focused on in the buildings is to make sure that we are being cognizant and aware that we're preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist. And so we want to provide them with opportunities and really foster their collaboration, their problem solving, their communication, the skills that they need to to succeed in whatever

047kind of profession they're going to be involved in, whether that exists yet or not. And so one of the successful programs that we were able to establish is is CAPS. And that stands for for those of us that that may not be aware um consuming and producing successfully. This is now the beginning of the third year of that course. It's for grades five through eight. Um, and within that course, the students learn anything from community and economy to citizenship, circular f flow of money, free enterprise, financial literacy, types of payment. Sometimes they walk in a classroom, they're learning about debit and credit and and savings accounts and checking accounts. Uh, they create résumés. It's very interesting. Sometimes the students make digital resumes and they're so excited about they'll actually send it to me in a

048Google doc so I can see it and then I'll see them later in the school day and and talk to them about the digital resume that they made. They practice interview skills. um entrepreneurship, innovation, business management, marketing, and so much more. Um, and I think these classes are are such an outstanding opportunity for our students, and it's a great segue for some of the business classes that are offered up at the high school. Um, along those lines with the CAPS course, the second bullet here is a virtual reality headset. So, we talked about how in fifth grade they learn those foundational skills and they go to JA Biztown. In sixth grade, they actually create their own business and they use a virtual reality headset. So, our teacher actually has them explore different vis different businesses

049with a virtual reality headset. The students then um they determine market gaps and they create their own business, but instead of them actually making a a business because they're a little bit limited. Some of them do use maker supplies and they use 3D printing. Others make a virtual business where they actually code the VR headsets to design a business in the township of Upper Stair and where other students can actually go in them via their virtual reality headsets um using a program that is called the Liteex and um again they're programming them and coding them to make to make their own business which is really exciting opportunity for the kids and and they love that. Turn over to you. Um, steam we could talk about for for days and days. Um, but I I wanted

050to highlight the steam pathway program um modeled after some um pathway programs in in other districts, some some national models. Um, but this is the first year that high school students will be able to earn the the steam uh designation on on the transcript. Um, a great opportunity that uh the Tracy Smith and Don MTOI are spearheading. Um, and so really this is uh just another way for students who are already doing many great things um to to pull all of that work together for this endorsement on the transcript. Um but it's also caused us as a school to continue to push um on the edges of what we offer because students are finding uh external experiences bringing them to us to vet um and then we're able to to endorse those as part of

051their ongoing steamwork. Um shop at USC the the long-standing program um now is expanded to the middle schools as well um showing how opportunity pays. um a venture of the special education department um and the business and finance uh kind of thinking that that we um aspire our students to to have um as they create um and uh build entrepreneurial skills. >> And I was going to interject if you don't mind for one second. So um I sort of skipped over to Steam at the the middle school levels, but I talked about a little bit before that. Um so Steam does exist at grades five through eight. Um the students absolutely love the the the class uh the projects that they have, how engaged they constantly are. Um it's it's really a highly soughtafter course

052that that students love and again they all go through it's once a rotation as part of our expressive arts class and it highlight something about shop as well. Both middle schools now have it too. Um this year um we're very excited at Boyce that we are able to do a a a coffee shop and so the teachers can go online. It's twice in a six-day rotation and they put their order in very specific a lot of options that they have. The students make the coffee and they deliver it to the the teachers doors. The teachers can use cash. We also have mobile payment options as well that are offered at this point. Um, so within the in the room they make stickers and magnets and buttons and t-shirts and sometimes programs for our musicals, but

053now they kind of went on the road a little bit and they're they're doing coffee within the building. And they also this year have a storefront, a mobile storefront that they bring into the cafeteria as well so they can sell some of their supplies to their to their fellow students. >> So sorry about that. Um and it is uh fun to see how our programs have started to extend across the the grade bands. Um which is which is great for students in terms of the the continuity that they're seeing in our our future focus programming. Um last couple from the high school. Uh the second to last is our smart desk. Um when Mr. Broad uh brought the idea along with um with others um it was really about tech support in the moment. How

054do we um you know assure that our students that big long list of technology that we saw at the beginning um seven people and some some student experts um help help with that. Uh but the smart desk has really evolved over the years. Um and a lot of project development happens out of the smart desk as well. A lot of um piloting and testing of new technologies um happens with that group in addition to the the more day-to-day routine operations of of the smart desk like fixing printers and u making sure that active panels are working. Um and last but not least, as mentioned, Clear View Financial um really does provide us some future focused opportunities. Um that group um is also interested in working with our special education department um to see about how

055some um level of job coaching um and external job training can happen within the walls of the high school. And so we have shop at USC as that great opportunity for students in our our special education program. Um now we uh potentially will have a second opportunity uh to develop different kinds of skills uh for students through Clear View. Um so again looking looking to the future there. Um and our final um bucket final characteristic is [snorts] uh related to improving learning. >> Yeah. And so I think this is one of my favorite buckets to talk about because um I would say the majority of innovations as it says here on the slide and and they focus on enhancing learning in the classroom. And I really think this is a foundation of what we do

056on a day-to-day basis. And I think this is an area where our district really excels. And so when you look at this, you know, the Top Bullet curriculum and programming, and I know it was mentioned earlier that our district goes through a curriculum recommendation um twice per year, which is almost unheard of. I've I've been in other districts before. I've worked in other districts before, some of which it's a seven-year cycle. So every curricular area goes through this process every seven years before they can make, you know, really implement major changes, we can do so twice per year. Um and our programming can be enhanced as a result of that. And so I think you know a key component of that is where a lot of this is born out of is our professional learning

057community model. Teachers are constantly working together discussing collaborating on what do we want students to learn? How are we going to know that they learned it? What can we do for students that demonstrate that they already mastered the content? How can we best support students that don't? Um they're they're sharing resources at these meetings. They're analyzing assessment. You know are assessments aligned? Are they rigorous? Are they giving the students feedback that they need? Are they giving us feedback that we need to drive what we do next in terms of instruction? Um, and being able to see what our teachers do on a day-to-day basis within their classrooms just is is unbelievably rewarding. They're so talented. They're so incredibly good at what they do, innovating, constantly changing the way. The other day I was observing a

058classroom, this was at the end of last week, where it was a a fifth grade math class. They were learning about dividing fractions. And instead of learning the way that many of us may have learned in the classroom, that the teacher used AI to simulate um that the students were working at Google and they were tasked with trying to figure out a way to get products to people in a quicker manner and they had uh Jeff Bezos give a speech to them to kind of pump them up to get ready for the lesson and and it's just the way that the this the teachers use the resources they have share with each other and deliver instruction on a day-to-day basis. Um it's really rewarding to see, but I really think it's the nuts and bolts

059of what we do and and what makes our schools as successful as they are. Um and certainly many of the the items uh in terms of improving learning that that you see on this last slide of ours um are things that have come to the board's attention um over the years. We really want to continue to be great at at the basics. Um we want to innovate the basics as well. um and anything that we do have as as a new innovation, we want to ground it in the processes that um allow things to to thrive here in Upper Slair. Um so many of the examples that we gave tonight started um somewhere in a curriculum uh review process. Um and I think that's a great way to ground um and provide foundation to to

060the innovations that we consider. Okay, I'm up now. So, uh, I will tell you that I spent 45 minutes in rotations today talking about tomorrow's professional development and preparing. So, if that's what it was for one professional development day, imagine what three years is going to look like right now. That's a joke. I'm not going to go for for six hours. Don't worry, I'll be very very brief with this, but I just want to give a little bit of a sense of the work that we've really had going on here. And I'm going to break it down into three [snorts] quick phases. Uh, and I'd be happy to follow up with anybody about uh any of these details beyond. So, phase one was the early stages here of AI. was when chat GPT hit. Um,

061and people didn't even know the chat GPT hit and some teachers experienced the man this doesn't look like that kid's writing. What is this? Um, and that was the early stages of uh of this world of AI and um we're looking at really the beginning of 2023 and into the first year. This phase was really marked with learning for us. It was what is going on here with this? what is it that we need to be aware of and what are the practices that we can do to mitigate some of these concerns. You know, at this stage of the game, it was very much how do we manage this? What are policies like out there? And that's where we were really looking to um you know, the PA schoolboard association for help with with developing

062policy. And for us, it was also about strategies for how do we um really work with with plagiarism and address that effectively. So, phase one, this would have been um two school years ago, this is what we were really working on. brings us into last year um and last school year and the work that we really had uh especially picking up last summer um which would have been like June July of uh 24. It was a a lot of time meeting with a tremendous number of groups and number of teachers uh and administrators to really develop our policy and our practices that we are going to implement with our staff to ensure that we had appropriate use of AI related technology. Um there are two things that really were born out of this that were

063really significant. Number one was our district policy that was approved last August. Um and along with that was an addendum to the high school handbook uh student handbook that really has helped us uh tremendously so that we've been able to really um train students on this directly and have a consistent message to them about what is and is not appropriate. But the second part to um that was equally important were strategies. So again, the the biggest concern early on was plagiarism. And we developed a set of strategies here using the tools that we have, and I'm not going to get too deep into it, but it's a combination of Canvas, Google products, and Brisk. And it makes it so that teachers can observe and see the process for writing. And after doing this and every

064student being shown this process, it has really been kind of like the nuclear deterrent of, you know, you might say that's your writing, but it took you three minutes and it's three copies and I can tell you exactly what the copies are. So, it's become something that's really helped us quite a bit and it's helped us to also move our dialogue and all of our conversation away from just being about plagiarism and into something much more broad, um, which is where the conversation really has needed to be. So we spent a lot of time last year training our staff in improving uh general practice in this area and and we saw a tremendous amount of gains. Um and one of the things that we had been preparing for um from the beginning was the next

065layer which is student uh student AI literacy training which we knew we wanted to begin this school year but it was a matter of getting a little bit more feedback around what is the right timing, what is the right grouping, where should we be going with this. So, at the end of last school year, we sent out um survey forms to family, staff, and students um to get feedback and input around some of our initiatives related to data and uh and as artificial intelligence as well, excuse me. And this right here that we've been sharing um at a number of our trainings is related to the feedback on when should we begin training? What in your perspective is the right time and the right age? And interestingly enough, our parents had identified a younger sector

066than what our staff and our students identified as the appropriate starting point for us this year. We're starting with boys as our as our kickoff um in our our lowest level for it. And then also doing this up through for couch in the high school. And that brings us to our current work. So our current work this year is uh as I mentioned on uh student AI literacy. It's about preparing our staff to be a part of this. Now, this isn't on the slide, but I'm gonna say this as a key point to all of this. There are two ways that you can do things like this. One is you can say, "Go do this." And we can sit there and have students go and complete modules and do something like that. We could have

067checked that box a while ago. There's no doubt about it. But it wouldn't have really led to anything significant. Our approach has very much been let's build total capacity across the entire organization. As Ry mentioned earlier, it's 4,000 teacher or 4,000 students being led by 300 plus teachers. For us, it's about moving the entire system because if we want cultural shift and a cultural change, it requires that. So, for us, it's really been about how do we build the capacity and then have those teachers leading those lessons. So what we will see here soon uh and it's going to be in December is uh student AI literacy days at our middle schools and at the high school in which there will be lessons led by teachers um that will help kids to have a better

068background of all of these topics so that they can be critical producers and consumers of AI content and that's the theme that we're running with the idea being we need to be very critical with how we create what the types of things are that we're trying to create as the producer of the content but also how we consume it and um if if nobody has seen what's happening now with deep fakes and the video AI technology, it's amazing to think and you know oftentimes it's used for humor and entertainment, but there are other uses that are a little bit more nefarious and it really is important for us to be uh training our students on this directly and leading that. So that's been a big part of the work that we have here um in

069this area. So as I mentioned, we've been working through this. Tomorrow is actually a full AI day. I'm pretty excited. We uh we have some consultants coming in from uh IU12 as we used last year. We have some sessions that we're leading on our own and uh it's it's going to be a good day and and our teachers are in a good place and what I feel good about is that they recognize need in this area and they also recognize that it is complicated and we have to learn. So it's a really good place for us right now and I think we're making uh good progress here in that area. So, moving forward, um there are a couple things just to to give you the heads up on. Um number one, we're going to be

070sending out parent communication here soon. We're actually building a course for all of our students that have all the resources and then quizzes so they can get their kind of like AI driver's license. You know, I have to pass all these checkpoints to make sure that I understand uh what I'm doing here. But we'll be sharing out all those materials with our families as well whenever we get closer to our um our AI literacy days. And this is going to be an area of continued evaluation. um is is the last like random thought on this that is just so significant. It changes so fast in this space that what it looks like right now will not be what it looks like in six months. And that's the thing that is amazing to me. So um

071again not on the slide uh July of 2025 uh PA uh signed into a law signed an act into law excuse me about digital forgery which is basically deep fakes. Um, so it's actually a misdemeanor and it can be a felony depend depending on the type of use around that type of uh technology. Well, it doesn't sound like a big ordeal because kids didn't really have easy tool access to be able to create some of those videos and then just recently Sor 2 comes out which makes them extraordinarily fast now. So the technolog is picking up making these things easier. So again it is changing kind of like the target of what we need to do here for students especially when we're talking about kids in their teenage years. um because that is really important.

072So that's a little bit of context here for AI. >> All right, thank you. And that brings us to the last slide here, which is um I won't go through all these, but for for any of our strategic initiatives, what we we keep in the background are really what are our key performance indicators for all of our specific outcomes. So I won't read all of them on the screen, but um th this team has a lot of work in front of us. we have uh still the need to expand um and I think the two biggest things are expand the team with to have appropriate stakeholders um but also to make sure that we're we're partnering with the best available collaborators that exist out there because this is by far the biggest change we've seen

073um not just in our sector but as we all know in all sectors and so I'm I'm proud of our team where we're at but fully recognize there's a lot of work that's still in front of us and this is one of those spaces that we aren't the experts we don't know everything about this. Um, and there are very few who do. And as so many people have said tonight, there's been a lot of change. I I think, you know, we use this presentation obviously to talk about AI and wanted to make sure that we we're providing an update to the board and the public with regard to where we're at, but also to, I think, share some of the innovative practices that are happening in the district because there are a lot of good

074people that work in this district and a lot of good kids in this school district every day. And it's important for us to take some time to to highlight the experiences they're having, the great work that our kids and staff are doing. Um, and you know, the the the stuff that you saw up there on the screen tonight, we you could talk for an entire evening about JA Bistown, right? And I know a lot of us have been I mean, I went there and was just blown away by it and and looking at the kind of courses that our kids are now taking in expressive arts in their middle school and high school versus when we were in school. um it's a lot more forward thinking and it's a lot more uh it's better preparation

075for the world that exists and and and job market that's going to be changing quicker than ever. So um again this is just a snapshot. We certainly are open to any questions, feedback, um, as we continue to navigate this path because, um, what we're sitting here talking about today, a year from now, we I think we all know, I'll say the obvious, AI will look very different a year from now. And, um, that's exciting and scary at the ta same time. And it's our job to prepare kids for for the world. And uh, it's not just math and reading and writing. it's now this major major sector major lifecher in artificial intelligence. So um that said that concludes the presentation and I'll be happy to answer any questions uh if there are any. Well, thank

076you for all of this information that we get to think about for a bit and hold on to. And it's it's really clear that the community and the culture of the school is what will lead to successful adaptation over time. It's not the it's not the tool, but the people who work with the tools. So, um that's that rings clear for me. Um so, thank you. Thank you. Let's uh move to item actually I think I skipped a page. Yeah. 8B. What was that? >> You want to talk about dates? >> Yes. It's just uh number two under district update. Just these are proposed uh 2026 uh board meeting dates um which would begin in January. So um as we do each November proposed dates to the board for you to review and provide feedback.

077We would not vote on this until December. So, we certainly there's no vote on this tonight, but please uh when you have the chance, take a look at those dates. If there are any questions, feedback, concerns, let us know. We'll make the appropriate uh and needed adjustments and then we will present the official uh list of dates to be voted on at our December meeting. >> Thank you. And now the the next item is B. >> Yes. Uh B, this is also standard with the act one index resolution as far as the the schedule uh leading up to our our budget adoption in June, which is sounds, you know, sounds a little bit bizarre. We're already talking about budget, but this is the calendar for it. And so, um what we are essentially asking the

078board to vote on tonight is approval of the act one index resolution. Um we have a listing of the schools that was attached to the agenda. Um 3.5% is this year. Um the index it would be the ceiling that the school district could raise taxes to. Um if you look in that list of schools, there are districts throughout the state that are significantly higher than that if they choose to to raise their taxes. Our maximum would be 3.5%. And all that we're asking the board to do tonight is to vote that we would not raise taxes um beyond that. We would not look to seek any of the available exceptions. >> Thank you, Dr. Razo. Mr. Lambert, would you read the motion? [snorts] >> Sure. I move that the board adopt the act 1 resolution

0792025-11-03A certifying that the school district will not raise taxes for the 2026-2027 school year beyond a rate that exceeds the index of 3.5% as calculated by the Department of Education. >> And I second the motion. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? >> Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. >> I. The motion carries. We'll go to C, the approval of resolution regarding the purchase and finance of real property. Uh, Solicitor Kramer and Mr. Burchil. Thank you. Um, this resolution is required. Upper St. Clair is one of 12 joint districts for Parkway West CTC. Parkway West um was recommending moving forward with the purchase of real property. the all of the jointure districts must take a vote on that proposal. Um unfortunately at this point in time the majority

080of the other jointure districts have voted not to approve um moving forward but in in order to for Parkway to fulfill its obligations under um its intent to purchase we must take official action tonight on this on this resolution. Mr. Burchil, is there anything else you'd like to add? >> Uh no. It was my understanding that it needed to be um not a voice vote, but an individual roll call. Correct. >> Yes. I will do a roll call vote. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Mrs. Snider, would you read the motion? I move that the board as a jointer school district of the Parkway West Career and Technology Center adopts the attached resolution regarding the purchase and financing of real property for Parkway West Career and Technology Center. >> Mr. Lamber, would you second? [clears throat]

081>> I second. >> Is that how we're supposed to do it? It's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? I'd like to answer. Would you start, please? >> I I just wanted to say that I am very honored to serve as the president of the jointure committee at Parkway West. I've held that position for several years and it is a wonderful institution. Um we have attracted more and more students as career ed has become vital in this day and age. Um it's there are a lot of things that the kids learn there that are not going they're will be helped by AI but those kids are not going to be replaced by AI and um I we have outgrown our space. We're going to have to do some renovations to the existing space and

082unfortunately the process to buy um the Pittsburgh technology the Pittsburgh um technology college um is hampered at this time by the financial aspects um in in the in the country. Um, you know, we know our state hasn't even passed an education budget. So, asking our joint districts to um donate um dollars that we need for education here is is a big ask. Um, so I um encourage everyone to vote yes in principle for the support of Parkway, but I understand that in the practicalities of this world, um, there is a heavy weight to to vote negatively on this. Um, but I think that all of us will continue to support Parkway and its endeavors and when the future ask does come for enhancements to the existing property um uh and and increase the facility for

083the students that are there. I hope that we can make a a positive contribution to that activity. Thank you. I I would actually agree with majority of what you said, Mrs. Peterson. I think Parkway West has done a tremendous job with our students and I would will continue to support the programs. Uh this resolution itself for the real property, I cannot get behind. But I don't want this vote to make anything change in the way we look at Parkway West as a as a whole. And I think this district is going to continue to support them any way we can that makes financial sense. Any other discussion? >> Yes, I have some comments and I guess as a I have three members in my family that one was an electrician, one one was a part

084carpenter and one was a plumber and the carpenter actually taugh t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t taught until he retired at a vote school. So, and I own my own miter saw, um, coping saw, reciprocating saw, and I I enjoy very much working with my hands. And I I very much support what Parkway's dream is. I believe it's a dream for every parent, that their child succeed, but also be happy in what they do. What I have a problem with is the process, and I hope that we have more information sooner. I after hearing some of the discussions earlier during um since

085this was a real estate matter regarding process and the exact financial implication long term I think we need to have more information on this. I believe there are air there are ways that other people can be helpful in the process and how we go about capturing what's best for our students and the programs and and to um talk about ne necessary renovations that are going to be needed. Um I think as as a district that's participating and has a what I would consider a you know a significant financial interest in it and not only that we value mostly most importantly what our students get from Parkway that we have um that we are more aware of what's going on when it's going on um as we move forward to consider the renovations. Maybe there's alternatives,

086maybe there's other partners that can be involved. Um because the ultimate goal is we want to do what's best for our students. And I think how the process evolved maybe kind of put it took us off track for a while. So um I'm a process person. I'd like to see more process. I I am not going to vote for this because of the process. However, I strongly support the continuation of excellent VOTE education for our students. >> Thank you, Mrs. Bolus. Any other comments? >> Yes, I'd like to make a a comment if I Is it my turn? Sorry. Is somebody else speaking? >> You No, go ahead, Mrs. Shore. >> Um, it's similar to Mrs. Bolus. Um, in my mind, like regardless of how any of us vote on this resolution, it will not

087and it in fact cannot take effect or move forward. Um, so like given that, um, I'm going to vote no on it just because that makes the most sense to me. You know, the resolution, we haven't had really time to discuss it. It was dead in the water before it arrived to us and I haven't been able to really evaluate it. Um, but Angela, with that said, I really support Parkway. I'm going to continue to support Parkway. I want to foster that relationship with Parkway because it is so wonderful for our schools. Um, and then if a future resolution comes to us that involves actual financial commitment from the district, you know, I I will really evaluate it carefully at at that time and favorably for Parkway. But it just doesn't make sense for me

088to vote yes on this when it doesn't, you know, have any impact at all. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. >> I don't know if clarification the to go forward this vote did need a a yes from every participating joint or district and you know just to clarify what Mr. Schnore was saying um six of the districts have already voted no. Um so that's why there can be no future action. I mean, it's it we we need to vote so that there's closure so that um the real estate deal can be voided, but that's what Mrs. Schnore was getting to that a yes vote doesn't move anything forward. So, you know, just so so everyone understands, five districts have voted yes, six have voted no, and it had to be a unanimous 12 in order

089to move forward on a real estate purchase. Thank you. >> Okay. Roll call vote. Dr. Wetszel, >> no. >> Mrs. Schneider, >> no. >> Mrs. Schnore, >> no. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mr. Mosscarero, >> no. >> Mr. Lambert, >> no. >> Mrs. Hannah, >> no. >> And Mrs. Bolis. >> No >> motion fails. >> I do want to thank everybody. I know that you are supportive of Parkway and this was a kind of a backwards procedure unfortunately because of um the nature of of the beast and uh but I I thank you all and I'm very happy that uh the students that go to Parkway are getting an excellent education. Thank you for your service there, Mrs. Peterson. And now it is time for our administrator's report with Dr. Razo. And actually, we're

090going to hear the staffing resolution from Dr. Fender. Okay. Um this evening we are requesting um an [snorts] increase in a 1.0 district bus driver. And just some background information, as we know, Dr. Angelo and Mr. from Mansfield over at the transportation department work diligently to make sure our students have safe transportation and consistent transportation and despite efforts to um cover some contracted runs that we found out very close to the start of the school year that they were unable to be covered and we added Malacer last month. We continue to have some difficulties covering those runs that are typically done by our contractor providers and in addition also on the personnel listing coming next. Um you will see that there are also some unanticipated leaves in the transportation department for bus drivers. So in

091order to continue to provide the best transportation possible to our students, we are requesting this district increase. >> Thank you. Mrs. Hannah, would you read the motion? >> I move that the board approve staffing resolution 2025-24 as listed above. >> I second. It's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> The motion carries. >> We'll go to the approval of personnel listings with Mrs. Mack. >> Good evening. Um the attached personnel listing is brief um but reflects our ongoing recruiting efforts to welcome additional substitute teachers. Um good news we have a bus attendant um and a custodian. Um additional other good news by early December um we anticipate being fully staffed within our custodial team. So thank you. >> Thank you. Mrs. Peterson

092would read the motion. I move that the board approve the personnel listing as presented subject to all required pre-employment history reviews and clearance requirements. >> I second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Motion carries. We'll move to C with Mr. Burchil. >> [clears throat] >> Annually the athletic department provides a list of the boost organizations and club sports for approval uh by the board. Uh you know they maintain the compliance with board policy. So this is the recommendation from the athletic department uh which is before you tonight. >> Mr. Mascaro, would you read? I move that the board approve the recognition of booster organizations and club sports contingent upon compliance with board policies. >> Second. >> It's been moved

093and seconded. Any comments or questions? >> Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. The motion carries and we go to D. >> Good evening. This is a renewal of uh or or our annual um approval ofUS with the Alageney Intermediate Unit for some translation services um functions. One is over the phone and one is an AI portal that allows us to um kind of immediately translate some some documents that don't have personal student information in them. >> Thank you. Mrs. Bolis. I move that the board approve with the AIU for trans perfect remote inter interpreting to provide access to written translation through an AI port portal and an annual fee of $500,000 to begin January 5th, 2026 and to provide telephone voice interpretation at race rates listed on theou for a

094term of February 10, 2026 through February 10, 2027 subject to final terms and conditions acceptable to the superintendent and solicitor. >> I think that amount is $500. Um, sorry. >> That's okay. That's okay. Just wanted to clarify. [laughter] >> Yes. Thank you. >> Up every now and then. >> So, Mr. Mscar, would you second the motion for that $500? I will second the $500. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say hi. >> I motion [clears throat] carries. We'll go to E with Dr. Media again. >> You made me nervous there for a second, Mrs. Bis. Um, so we >> and I read that three times. >> [laughter] >> Um, we are required under ESSA and educational stability um, laws to provide transportation services to

095children in foster care on behalf of the county um, Department of Human Services. And this is basically um, identifying us, renewing us as a contractor to provide those services on [snorts] their behalf, which then we can bill back to the county. >> Thank you for that explanation, Mr. Lambert. I move that the board approve the renewal transportation contract with Alageney County DHS to provide transportation services to children in foster care on behalf of the county in alignment with the current ESSA/Federal program requirements through June 30th, 2027 subject to final terms and conditions acceptable to the superintendent and solicitor. >> I second the motion. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Motion carries. We go to F with I think

096Dr. Media again. >> Yes. Um on behalf of Dr. Andler Plovic, um this is an addendum with Presley Ridge for our current contract, but with updated rates for both the 2526 school years and 2627 school years. >> Thank you. Mrs. Snder, would you read the motion? I move that the board approve the addendum with Presley Ridge to extend the current contract with the new rates which are outlined in the addendum for students being served under an IEP for the 2025, 2026, and 2026, 2027 school years subject to final terms and conditions acceptable to the superintendent and solicitor. >> I second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. Motion carries. We go to G and that is with Mr. Wilson. >> Okay.

097From AI to federal programs. This is an exciting switch here. Um so, uh item G is related to title one services for non-public schools. Um so essentially, South FET or excuse me, St. Louise de Marilac um is where some of our non-public school students go and we um are required to coordinate with the title one funding uh in their allocation. Their allocation goes toward um AIU provided services. So that's what this agreement is for. It's a standard agreement that goes across any districts that are or any districts that have these types of uh situations with uh non-public schools. So, just a standard agreement here that I think we do annually as well. >> Mrs. Hannah, >> I move that the board approve the title one contract with the AIU for the AIU to provide the

098district with services to support students that reside in the district but enroll at a non-public school for a term of July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026 subject to terms and conditions acceptable to the superintendent and solicitor. >> I second. It's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Motion carries. And now we go to the next item, which is the approval of acceptance of consolidated federal grant agreement with Mr. Wilson. >> Okay. And this is the consolidated grant application combining all the title one through four funding sources. in uh in what we have here in the district. As you can see, the number of uh just north of 155,000 is significantly lower than what a lot of districts do have. Um but

099this is the allocation that we have uh prim primarily related to title one funding. Um but it goes beyond. So that's what uh this is related to. >> Thank you for that, Miss Peterson. I move that the board approve the consolidated federal grant agreement for the acceptance of federal funds in the amount of 155,043 on terms and conditions required by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. >> Miss Hannah, >> I second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. Motion carries. We go to item 12 with Mr. Burchil. >> Uh treasures report for the period ending September 30th. Um the general fund. Um as you can see, state revenue is 20% less than last year. Of course, because there is no state budget,

100so we're not receiving any state funding. Uh expenses slightly higher than last year related to if you remember, we are buying our way out of the technology leases. So, uh, we purchased the technology equipment outright this year. So, that's that's an increase. Of course, salaries and benefits increase year-to-year. And then some timing differences on debt service payments between the two years make up the difference. Uh, food service pretty much in line with last year. Capital reserve and construction. Uh just a reminder, the construction uh money is uh the anticip it's anticipated to get us through next construction year, which would be the end of next summer. Uh so after that, we pretty much will be out of construction money for future projects. Budget transfers in the amount of $19,128.15 are presented for your review and

101approval. And the bill list is included in the supplemental financial report for your review and approval. Any any questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Mscaro. >> I move that the board approve the supplemental report including approval of the total bill list and check file listing as follows. Fund 10, general fund 2,382,77.88. Fund 32, Capital Reserve Fund, $15,9442. Fund 39, construction fund, $656,443.16. Fund 50, school lunch fund, $191,92428. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? I just have um as I was reflecting on the state budget and the implication of that and we invest our monies in multiple places some short-term some longer term um hey have we and the longer term yields more interest as I recall so are we having to um hold off on investing any of our funds

102in the longer term more more investment return due to the state budget impact yet or is that kind of off in the future? it hasn't impacted my investment strategy at this point. I mean, we're always I'm always hedging against the future. Um, you always have that layer of money that that you can use, but then you also target, you know, um, funding, you know, as far as revenue starts to slow down when you get into the spring. So, you you want to make sure you have enough money to get you through the summer. So, not at this point. I I you know, a lot of the schools like Dr. Barzo spoke of that receive 80% of their money from the state, you know, they're really struggling for us. We're we're missing out on some investment

103opportunity, but but not a lot at this point. So, >> okay, that's what I was wondering. I mean, I guess I I kind of >> it it hasn't impacted anything that I'm doing at this point. So, >> okay. >> Yeah, just just uh just a little less money to invest because we would have had this some of the state funding, >> right? >> The pieers reimbursement, some other things that we would have had to available to make some investment income. We've lost that opportunity. >> Yeah. No, I know you and I talk every now and then about this kind of thing. >> I know. And I I I keep in touch with RC. We use that cash vest. They they help us to try keep an eye on, you know, cash flow and and trending

104and and they also help bid out CDs for me and so on. So, and all our money is fully collateralized. It's required by law. So, >> Right. Right. Yeah. Some some districts are a little bit more aggressive when that comes, but I I appreciate the fact that we're more we're more conservative and protective of where our money goes. >> Sure. >> So, thank you. >> Okay, it's been moved and seconded, right? Yes. All right. So, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Motion carries. Thank you. We'll go to B with Mr. Burchaw again. >> Uh this is the joint purchasing resolution that we approve every year uh to participate in the AIU joint purchasing program. Uh the three programs that we uh participate in are the electricity consortium, the natural gas

105consortium and then also the gasoline and diesel fuel consortium. So um asking for your approval. >> Mrs. Bolus. >> I move that the board approve the AIU joint purchasing program resolution 2025-11-03B and participation in appointment of representatives to the AIU joint p purchasing program for the 2026 2027 school year as attached. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Motion carries. It's now time in the agenda for committee reports. Mrs. Bolus. >> Thank you. Um PSBA is going to be doing a number of training sessions and one of them is going to be on some of the Supreme Court decisions that are going to be shaped into law during the their October 2025 term. And one of the major

106rulings that um they're following is the um title nine and equal protection arenas and also just because those kinds of decisions can influ influence public education nationwide. Um and the webinar is available on my PSBA and there's also continuing education opportunities for legal legal people that are attorneys here on the board. Um again they're reminding us there are opportunities available to earn a certificate in school safety preparedness and there it's going to be ongoing in February and March of next year and that's on our PSBA my PSBA program. They've also announced student scholarship applications that are opening up and one I'm going to highlight because um this is a a program that is going to be offering scholarships. is going to be the HH Quimbley Scholarship Honors students who have served as a student representative

107to their local school board during their high school academic year. So, make note of that that would be an opportunity. And the Feric Scholarship is going to be um to somebody who is pursuing a bachelor's degree in education. The Marcus scholarship is going to be awarded to a senior who is pursuing a degree in public safety, criminology, forensics, or other law enforcement and safety major. And the last one I'm going to list is one that's going to be the Swope Scholarship that recognize students planning to pursue a bachelor's degree in the arts. And these scholarships are going to be 2500 or $500 to graduating seniors in the PSBA member districts. And the deadline to apply for the 2026 year is going to be March 13, 2026. >> Okay. So, Isabella, this is for you. There's

108a there's a scholarship opportunity for for schoolboard reps for high school students, and it's due in March. So, we'll all workshop with you [laughter] to apply for this. It's very exciting. Thank you, Mrs. Bullis. And then another item, the PSBA has been visiting Germany to study educational systems and developing recommendations for Pennsylvania school districts to significantly enhance district academics, operations, facil facilities, and cultures. And that is going to be um going to be happening next year. And the deadline for that, flipping over to the next page, is November 26, 2025. um a significant amount of the cost is covered. Participants do have to pay part of their um own way and their reports that have been published to date are available on the my PSBA resource library. So they send a significant cohort. So we

109when we hear about competing with folks internationally um this is something that PSBA is looking into and how they can better inform on what's happening internationally. Thank you. Any others? All right, [clears throat] Dr. Razo, >> I have no no additional items for this agenda. >> I did want to say that uh an executive session was held at 6:15 today um on Monday, November 3rd for personnel negotiations and real estate issues. And now, may I have a motion for adjournment? >> So moved.