001call meeting to order for March 10th 20125 roll call please M bear here Mr benck Mr Brown here Mr chossy here ran kuster here Mr Johnston here miss Lugo here Mr stori Mr vaski [Music] here pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and Justice please remain standing for a moment of silence please before we before we have the moment of silence I'd like to remember Eugene pone who was a coach up in Cambridge Springs young coach who um tragically passed away this past week thank you thank you [Music] good evening everyone we're going to enter into our committee of the whole time and we'll begin here this evening um with cambrid Springs Junior High student Ella
002um come and share with us please good evening I'm your host Ella Maria and this is cambri speaks is tell Ella everything Schoolboard Edition that intro or at least something like it should sound familiar to you if you follow Cambridge speaks on Spotify and tune into to all of our podcasts this is another great way to find out what the students in Cambridge Springs have been doing to get to know them better last week I interviewed Royal Reno Goss the first Cambridge Springs girls wrestler to make it to state playoffs the whole school then flooded the Halls to send her off she is one of our death students and we congratulated her and sign language down the hall this is congratulations spring sports are starting up very soon which we're all very excited about as
003we go into New Seasons the Key Club asked the school for donations last week of old t-shirts in order to make dog toys for needy puppies there was a donation bin in the lobby and a few adorable posters up in the hallways last Friday all of the students enjoyed a donut and juice for ex exting for exhibiting good lunch behavior two weeks ago was business week at here at cshs all Juniors had fun in the winning teams led by CEO Brandon Hoover and CFO McKenzie Mulligan whose company was custom kicks went home with a little more happy and a fresh $100 bill in their pocket next Friday March 14th or 314 you know 3.14 meaning p day to celebrate some of Mr mum's higher level math classes will be traveling to Penn West Edinburgh in
004order to learn more and do different math games and learning activities in front of you you can find the Pitchfork the latest edition I think it's one of our best personally so check it out and continue to keep up with us on all social medias at Cambridge speaks and see who the mystery lefor con is on the front cover and if anybody else wants one we have an extra thank you thank you paa representative Debbie [Music] Miller good evening pest stakeholders school board members Administration faculty and Families my name is Debbie Miller president of the pencrest area Education Association let me Begin by taking a moment also to honor the life of Eugene Pavone a Cambridge Springs High School grad my former student and a coach in our boys basketball program as well as others
005over the years I've seen him volunteer in so many different capacities in both the elementary and the high schools and even in the community I know there will be a big hole in the Cambridge Community and in our hearts it got me thinking of how much month after month we see the list of volunteers listed in our agendas and that we should be so grateful for these people like Eugene who selflessly give us elves for the betterment of our schools and the families that they serve I would also like to thank the board and Mr Ford and Mrs fely for the new direction of communication by implementing the community engagement nights with the first rendition hosted by Cambridge Springs High School it was refreshing to start the evening with a look at as Mrs coper
006stated what makes Cambridge Springs special it is such a turning point to have our district looking at the positive things taking place in our schools I am certain that we will all end up hearing about amazing things happening in each attendance area and following the presentation I appreciate the open dialogue that was provided for for the community to ask questions and bring concerns to the board's attention so often in the past community members could speak at the board but that communication was a one-way Street we all know that little gets accomplished when dialogue is one-sided let's just call it what it was not not dialogue but statements none of which could be verified and certainly not resolved so I sincerely applaud this board for making a huge step forward with a place for open and
007honest conversations I was recently talking to a community member who asked what's going on at those board meetings these days to which I responded actually much is happening with a focus on leading our district back to the top and the board has faith in who they have entrusted as Leaders they really don't spend much time if any on the bickering and the nonsense so it is with this refreshing change that we move into the difficult and somewhat tense budget season as I mentioned last month I hope for pest to be ahead of the game with the changes at the federal level and to put ourselves in a position to obtain the maximum funding from the state at a recent pres presentation from our region president for PSA Jan Pearson she tallied the amount of funding
008for just title one from the federal government that would potentially be lost by the elimination of the Department of Ed 25 million in the northwest region that's just our little corner of Pennsylvania and more pointedly pen Crest will be losing potentially $821,000 it is is not likely that the federal coffers will just spend send that money earmarked for our students it will go through another filter in the Pennsylvania government so we need to act now to align our district to be awarded those funds and finally as we budget we need to hold true to our word of not negatively impacting class size again instead let's vow to improve that by moving in the opposite direction and decreasing in it our students win when class sizes are small and students get more attention from the skilled
009professional in charge of their learning it's simple math and trust me I'm an English teacher so I'm no good at math but if you divide the attention of a teacher by 30 or you divide it by 20 kids get more when class size is small budgets are tough but let's vow not to balance it on the back of our students I'm confident that if we listen to the St stakeholders and as my dad always said the boots on the ground this can be done as I always say your teachers your educational Specialists are here to help include us in that dialogue even if it's the budget thank you some of the updates that I have first is the for the board is the calendar um you see the proposed calendar there for next year want
010to see if there were any questions any concerns on that calendar um couple of the highlights of the calendar uh First first day of Stu first student day would be Wednesday August 27th last student day would be June 5th um which be a half day um The Christmas break just the way it falls this year will be a long break for our students um um and so that will begin on the 22nd for the students and they won't come back until the um Monday the 5th and so will be a long break um just just some contractual obligations that we have to do to meet that so um so that's that's what it looks like um after bringing up a couple ideas last month I got clear direction from the board we're not to go
011so we made made sure those are in there and so um any questions on anything on the calendar okay um the you'll see under new business tonight you will see the Crawford career um The Joint operating Committee of the Crawford County Career and Technical Center um approved and is recommending um the masero Corporation to complete the um Demolition and the construction of the outer shell of the Crawford Tech Annex including the improved Alternatives outlined in the bid specs um in the amount of $687,000 part of their bylaws and their processes for each of the sending districts to have to approve that what what we are not that is not a cost to um pen Crest that's just the cost of the project and they have the they have the fund set aside for that so
012that's not costing us but we still have to approve that so I wanted to make sure everyone was clear on that before we vote on it tonight I'll explain the reason why they do that they don't have a school board like we do we send three members Car offord Central sends three members in Cate school that makes up their school board they don't have an elected board like we do so that's why they have to bring it back to our district to to get the approval any questions on that um the next thing I have you'll see under the actually the calendar was under the education part um you're going to hear it from Patty a long time tonight because Patty has the biggest section so um but one other thing under there that I
013just wanted to draw your attention to was the mo the the memorandum of understanding um that's a pastoral me memorandum um and with the with the district and as we have um utilized other outside agencies that's what this memorandum is it's a it's an agreement um and it's it's it's to support our students it would be completely voluntary um the parents would sign and agree to that um and it would just be another option to assist our students going through um difficult times or struggling or there's something going on in the community that that's what that's what that would be there for again parents have to sign off it's an agreement between the parents and the pastor all right and then we're just allowing we allow the space for students to meet um and so
014um it'd be similar to other other approvals we've made with M um with other organizations so just wanted to go over that with you to make sure um you're aware any questions you have for me on [Music] that um it's a busy time in pen crest um the one thing I I I had the opportunity to go up to Cambridge Springs and and they had business week last week um and and saw some great projects and I believe it's going on at Sager toown this week and coming up at Maplewood and so if you if you get an opportunity um and you so desired to go out and check out the business week as a board member it's it's pretty impressive what the students do during that week I was I saw a little bit
015last year at Seer toown then seeing going around and seeing the projects that were happening up at k I just came away so impressed with the creativity with the critical thinking um it really is the type of education that we want our students engaged in and so um I I I I applaud um not only our Educators who are doing this the students um the community volunteers we have community members coming in giving of their time some the whole week and so I I just um I just applaud that so um we we finished up here winter sports season um with wrestling here this past weekend um we're into spring Sports it actually feels like spring outside tonight um so this week looks pretty nice and then next week when the games start it starts
016to get 40s and 50s and and back to a little rain but that's Sor right that's um we'll take a little bit of this um I know I'm smiling a little bit more than I have the last few months so um it's been a busy time um I'll let Mrs fely talk about the bot too you can fill that in them on that a little bit too so um at this point I'm going to turn it over to Mrs fely to go over the education report great we have a lot of items on the agenda for approval um this month starting with um general student travel we have some um band and chus students heading to Regional and we have volleyball teams and uh seon volleyball team and the Maplewood softball team heading to um
017other um the softball team's headed to South Carolina and the volleyball team is headed to Northeastern those are on the agenda um we have a lot of speakers again our teachers are doing a great job of bringing community members in um and Volunteers in to speak with our students um so you'll see a list of them again this month as well as some donated books um for both um Seager toown elementary school and then a list of books for Maplewood Elementary's um title one night um we'll be asking the board for approval to run our extended school year program this summer and this is the start of that process so once we get approval for that then we can start planning and then we'll bring forward the number of sections we need once we have
018our our full enrollment any questions on any of those so far try not to go too fast um you'll see an agreement for the alternative education for disruptive youth that's an annual agreement we do with Bethesda um pest has 10 seats in the program um we've been maintaining that for at least the past 15 years and well before that um you'll see tonight on the agenda our 2025 26 secondary program of study there were minor changes made to the program of study we were able to add to that um program an option an elective option for Theater Arts um after talking with staff that was one of the areas we felt we had enough staff to be able to offer that as an option and included in our schedule with our current um Staffing at
019each building so that that's been added we updated also um some of the science progressions and changed what grade level biology the biology course will be taken it'll now be in grades nine or 10 um it gives us a little more flexibility that way instead of everybody taking it in ninth grade um you'll also see on the agenda an exciting opportunity for pit dual enrollment so this starts the process where our students can roll enroll in some courses through pit and get three graduate credits at an extremely reduced rate um and then we'll also be looking into um an opportunity for some of our teachers that teach courses that pit offers already to our students so it would be our teachers teaching our students and our students getting three pick credits so it's it's a
020great opportunity for all of our students and families any credits you can get towards that degree is a huge money savings and pick credit will transfer just about anywhere so it gives them a lot of opportunities outside of that so um we're also looking you'll see on the agenda the our units of study in grades three through five we're about three years out on our literacy full curriculum adoption so um mossflower has updated the grades three through five units to become more in line with structured literacy and the science of reading so um we're able to get in because we're a partner School we already have them as our curriculum it's a total cost to the district of $1,500 for all of our 3 through five classrooms to be updated with the new materials so
021that approval item is on there as well um we have a spack which is our state Title One conference where each district can send one family to the title one conference and that family they provide child care for the children while the adults go to sessions about a variety of topics and education it's a it's a great opportunity for them so we have a Cambridge Springs family that has volunteered to go so we'll be paying for that out of our Title One funds um lastly this isn't on the agenda but it's an information item and I did send you all an email earlier tonight our special education plan is due um so it has to be up for a 28 day review process so I've sent you what I will be posting on our website
022and in our buildings later this week it'll be up for 28 days and then next month I'll bring it back to you for approval so then we can submit to the state and lastly um this afternoon our Maplewood High School unified Bachi team made it to Regionals they played at Geneva College Unfortunately they lost in the first round to meetville they did win um in the consolation round but um they did a great job had a fantastic performance and we look forward to where that program will grow in the future did you say bot B yes yes we have a a unified bot team so it's fantastic Mark you wanted to talk briefly about the wide area network service agreements it's on there tonight yeah there's a yeah there's an item on there it's our
023weigh connections that's our connections between each building back to se town then from SE toown back to the IU that is our basically our backbone of our Network so that agreement with the IU is on the agenda we are actually increasing that bandwidth from 1.5 gig to two so we're actually getting more bandwidth between the buildings and up the IU so that should help and um it's funded by eate tier it's category one and I believe we're 85% 90 90% funded on that so not only are we only having to pay 10% of the total cost we're also increasing our bandwidth so the cost of the district will actually to fiveyear agreement over the five years it's actually $80 less per month than our current agreement so we're actually saving money by going and we're
024getting actually more bandwidth for five years and it's actually incremental so in the future if we need more bandwidth we can actually we're not locked into that too we can actually get more bandwidth out if needed at any time during the five years any questions for Patty I I will say thank you to Patty and the team for this special ed education plan it is a it is quite an undertaking it really is a whole year process um a lot of information has to be gotten from the buildings there was a it was it was a team led by Mrs fely and um I appreciate that that's a lot of work I did this I did this last year in new boys and so um yes thank you Mrs SP for the for the good
025work there um facilities Transportation uh Mr Luke um you wanted to go over yeah about the vehicle for tonight we have on the agenda so uh from a facility perspective we're we're looking to purchase a new vehicle for our Fleet um we talked a few months ago that we had some items we put up a municipal bid to kind of get rid of some of the older equipment in our Fleet um over the last 12 months we've we've gotten rid of some of our 80s and 9s uh maintenance vehicles and we've got into the 2000s and replaced some of our half ton pickups with uh bigger size pickups that are capable of doing plowing and kind of multi-purpose Vehicles so uh we have the opportunity to buy a um a 3/4 ton pickup truck with
026low mileage and we'll be able to add that to our Fleet and get rid of a an older uh truck that we're no longer using so you'll see that before you tonight thank you out of curiosity what do you know what we generated off of the stuff from munici bid on the about 26,000 did we really okay yes all right wow yeah oh another gu yeah it wasn't either I'm trying to remember what all was on it yeah we had a bobcat um okay that and that went for it was it was older '90s Bobcat was in rough shape but it went for about 13,000 so it was about half of what we made I forgot about yeah yeah I was think like 10 right we did pretty good yeah was a big day and
027we may be looking to do a summer cleanup of a couple more pieces you know that get together so it's I mean it's a definitely a benit to clean that now as we get update our trucks which I agree they're well past that are we going to uh like fluid film or something to try and get the frames in the B yeah we're kind of doing that now with all of our equipment but it's certainly part of our maintenance plan is an annual UND spray of all of our vehic before the winter starts yeah the second part of this one comes or before more of this winter comes well yeah well it's going to be tough right now but right yeah absolutely no that's good thank you thanks thank financial report okay uh you'll find
028the treasur reports um every month um with our current balances listed on there um the dispersements again nothing new there um all the the list of dispersements that we've done in the current month um and for today um the iu5 budget book is on here if you would like to look through it I have it here um the main summary of that book is um like Bob had mentioned the IU is made up kind of like the votch um we have a representative on their board so we have to approve their budget to take back um so then they can um put their budget in PD so it's similar to the vot how The votch Works um Bob is our our representation um um from pinrest on the iu5 board so we automatically give them
029um this year is and um but within the book you'll find all of our programs so we house um the Bethesda program so those are like passrs um we received money from other districts for those so the rough uh estimate of the pass through funds is about 615,000 um that's in our budget again we get the revenue side from those other districts for that which offsets it unless we have students in those programs then um we pay for our students in the program um and there's about 500,000 in special ed um money that we'll pay to them them through the Consortium for um speech death of heart hearing life skills um all the special uh needs classrooms um so that's the gist of the budget there um we have a couple donations um so we
030would like you know thank the community for these um equital advisers is donating um 100 to 300 for the PBIS programs at each one of the schools so we should be getting those checks if you guys approve them next month Parker Lord made a generous donation for $8,000 and again that goes the PBIS program um the class of 1966 at Sager toown is donating a wall decal for ,000 um originally I think they wanted a scoreboard um but then they changed their mind when they realized how expensive scoreboards were um Special Olympics uh we had a check for The Botch ball team at $151 34 and that was for uh the Polar Plunge that they did out at Maplewood the budget will be presented um next month for the public uh the board has the
031expenditures if you have any questions on there just let me know um before the presentation next month that's all I got any questions questions at this point we're going to do a quick five minute break um and then we'll come back and start the voting um part of the meeting okay number three um don't believe there are any registered citizens comments this evening number four approval of the minutes resolve that the pen Crest Board of school directors approved the following minutes February 10th 20125 which was a regular school board meeting so move second motion and second any comments or questions hearing none all in favor say I I same motion carried number five policies you'll see um first reading under policy 008 organizational chart 103 discrimination title 9 sexual harassment affecting students 104 um which
032is the same um as 103 except for staff 121 student travel 236.14 the Federal fcal compliance all of these we are updating names in these policies so there's no content change in any of these policies we are updating positions Andor names in all of in all those policies as as I've indicated for policy approval is all that the pen Crest Board of school directors approved the following policies policy 006 under meetings in policy 254 educational opportunity for military families move second a motion in a second any comments or questions hearing none all in favor say I I I oppos same motion carried now I have a real quick question on the policies and we've changed it so much moving around uh the library books where are we at on Improvement in the last list of
033library books take the purchase is that that was tabled and when will we bring this back up though I mean it's great we tabled it but does that mean it's done or no no what was I thought our plan was bring it up like this month or next month I think it's NE is it next month with poliy I can't remember I can't either I have to look at policy April when it was but I think the question is the list that came initially was actually for this this school year 2425 and we said we was going to move it back so everybody had time to get it purchased on this budget season and with the way the policy was redesigned for the 25 26 orders those could be coming in starting next month so
034what we Ted or what you Ted was the orders that would have been for the 24 25 school year okay so next month we're going to have goes at that right I think a board member has to bring that back right Jordan yeah that's right and what I'm hearing is that you have Mr Brown's requests him to take that off the table so he can put it on for her next month okay okay okay thank you do we want to do that under uh new business here later so it's part of record Jordan Jordan can we uh go ahead and take the table off tonight under new business yeah that's fine Sean is that all right I'll okay then we'll do then we'll do that tonight [Music] uh number six the educational report resolved that
035the pen Crest Board of school directors approved the consent agenda education items B through Q as we presented earlier this evening so move second Motion in the second uh any comments or questions hearing none all in favor say I I post same motion carried new facilities and transportation read these separately um under a resolve that the pest Board of school directors approve the listed contracted student transportation drivers at the contracted cost Mo second Motion in the second any comments or questions hearing none all in favor say I I oos say motion carried B resolve that the pen Crest Board of school directors approved the purchase of 2008 Ford F250 for $188,000 some Move Motion in a second any comments or questions hearing none all in favor say I oppose same motion carried number eight the
036financial report resolve at the pen Crest Board of school directors approved the the consent agenda to the financial items B through e as presented Move Motion this second any comments or questions hearing none all in favor say I iose same motion [Music] carried under the Personnel report number nine resolve that the pen Crest Board of school directors approved the consent agenda Personnel item B through I okay Motion in the second any comments or questions hearing none all in favor say iose same motion carried under your new business a the Crawford County um resolved that the thest board of school directors approve the attached board motion for the Crawford County Career and Technical Center to detained the M Corporation to complete Demolition and construction of the outer shell of the Crawford Tech Annex at a cost
037of $687,000 so move second have a motion in a second any comments or questions he none all in favor say I I oppos same motion carried and then uh under new business I like like to untable the library book for put on for next month's agenda so we have a motion to untable the we made a motion we just need to second I just I just repeating it make sure heard good you're uning that to come back next month yes for okay second have a motion and second any comments or questions car done all in favor say I I oose same motion carried and then under new business uh this has been brought to all of our attention especially at Cambridge Community meeting there but uh received a lot of uh request about it and
038that's our senior early release time uh it's it's become kind of a situation in some areas uh I forget who last or last month was talking to me but they had a great idea back when my girls went to school they had senior projects they had to complete every year part of the graduation uh those senior projects lot of them did uh Sports they had Sports Camps for younger kids which would also maybe help get younger children or younger students involved in sports uh I don't know if this is something we could look at to help with the senior release time if we could introduce senior projects back into our curricul uh give the kids something more to do uh it could be more of uh you know volunteerism whether it's uh having Sports Camps
039or working with volunteer fire department or something like that uh instead of just going home or not doing something it would give them incentive to do something more important so something to think about yeah I mean it's definitely not this year probably won be next year but something that we could think about and we've been pattied I we've been talking about that talking um um actually we've had conversation Mrs Miller we've been looking at various ways to structure that and so it's it's on our radar right so um it just I know a lot of parents are kind of frustrated because there's nothing more for them to do we've taken away stuff uh this would be a way to put something back that would help the community and like I said I know the Sports
040Camps were great kids loved them the kids really love doing that stuff so I think the volunteer fire department that's a good idea too like you mention cuz they're you know they're struggling all of them it's a good to introduce people every day twice a day at 7 in the morning at 7 at night I get a text from the 911 center with a list of anywhere from a dozen to 20 departments that are either limited service or out of service so all the Departments are hurt unfortunately my Department's not one of them but well like I said it's not that kids want to do that but it's an it was just an an idea option right but it's something to get gets interested maybe absolutely and one one of the things I don't like
041is with with senior release where kids are just getting the go right they need to be involved with something and doing something and so that's what we've been trying to figure out I mean even going to elementary school and volunteer and help with reading programs or something any but just no free passes thank you number 11 um our announcements the board met for executive session on February 24th 2025 for personnel and legal matters also the board met for executive session on March March 10th 2025 for personnel legal and confidential student issue Sean can I say one more one thing I had uh three parents from Sager toown that came to me in the last like month on just bullying in itself so I don't know what the climate is in Sager toown Elementary or high
042school but it was unusual for uh for me to get those comments especially in public which I don't like to hear um I just want to bring that up with with you I know it's kind of a surprise I didn't say nothing to you but I've had three parents um just come up to me in the last probably three weeks and said their kids are getting bullied in sacr toown high school or Elementary so both or both yeah okay [Music] yeah citizen comments for non items I don't [Music] believe this time I'll turn it back over to you see if any unregistered yeah I any unregistered I looked at and see yeah sure my name is Jeff pfield my I have more of a question than anything is what is it looking like for the
043federal subsidized programs as you're trying to put a budget together you know they're saying they're not going to give nothing want to do with education I've got where a couple three of the programs are going to probably switch to another department like special education may go into the health and whatever but are you getting any notion of what you can do because the state wants you to be done by a certain time and if they're not even going to be ready when they get money I mean what kind of ying and yang is going to happen on this okay we'll touch more of that on that next month in the budget presentation um but again I I'm not hearing any uh additional information that's not out there for the public yet so we just kind
044of have to wait wait and see but we're hoping more will be released um by the time we present next month so right now I have it as status quo those are all forward funded programs um so right now they're not affected it would affect next year um if it if we did have uh decrease funding or if that went some and if you get on the website they do say that that it should not affect anything this year corre and all the all the programs that are currently funded are going to continue to be funded they're just going through the different we're getting away with a lot of Bureau bureaucracy and they're going straight straight to state to the district time in between is when try clean no this year I think this year
045status quo the way I understand the way I read it the way I understood this year's status quo okay and by next year it's going to be different I and I don't know what that that's it I mean we need to start talking to our Representatives like from Pennsylvania hey when you get this other money you know this is well our Representatives they should be on top of it yes it wouldn't hurt to get in touch whatever it oh no no I agree I'm just saying it should be on top of if they don't hear from you then they don't know where you stand right well they should know they should be able to figure this out unfortunately we're Bound by law with our budget we have to have ours done by June 30 but
046the state and the rest of them no so much so yeah thank you the uh need a motion Tove say [Music]