001Francis Mrs Irwin Adams here Mrs mcginness here Mr cook Mr McCully here Mr ROM manowitz Mr Pacifico Mr papis okay um before we get started I'd like to announce that we had an executive session before the meeting to discuss Personnel issues um moving moving on uh our National Merit Scholarship program winner is not here this evening so we can go right to uh uh recognition of our PA Classic State Gymnastics Champions first place in the gold division again so have at it Mr ricko on up here team Co thank you uh it's my honor and privilege to be standing here before you in front of this amazing coaching these amazing young women as for the second year in a row they have won the uh Pennsylvania State Gymnastics title and Championship this year was at
002Huntington these girls are phenomenal athletes and extremely hard workers um they're great to be around they have great leadership and uh we're all very very proud of them they have you have the trophy down down there you have the trophy I'd like to turn it over now to our head coach coach Mark pelli thank you Phil uh I'd like to thank the school board for having us I'd like to thank Phil and the athletic department uh and also Chris hman without them we wouldn't be able to do our job and also we had a fantastic trainer this year with Ashley she worked with the girls we had lots of bumps and bruises and she kept them active so thank you I'd also like to thank the parents we have some here I almost forgot don't
003want to forget the parents all right uh I'm going to wear Julie's glasses because I left mine in the car all right this team started out it was a new team we lost a lot of we lost quite a few of good athletes last year and we had a few good athletes coming and I didn't know what we were going to get so we had to fit them together and it took a little while to get get moving as a team team but they did well during the season they ended the season nine nine wins and zero losses they won their uh League Championship then we went on WE qualified for the gold division which is the highest division in the state competition not easy to do they averaged about 140 through the season I
004was a little concerned because I knew they were capable of much higher scores and uh we went down to the state meet it was in Huntington this year which was fantastic it was nice to have it on this side of the state I try to make it short got to the meet we started off in the vault we're pretty strong in Vault I knew we'd have to score somewhere around 36 or above to win the championship we were competing against Baldwin Thomas Jefferson and Central Valley Baldwin's always a good team and so is Thomas Jefferson you'll have to excuse excuse me my voice is a little okay so I knew we'd have to do that we started in Vault we scored well in Vault we got a 36 okay then we went to bars and
005for some reason they always score us a little lower than I think they should in bars and we scored a 45 or 30 35 on bars and we got to beam if you hit beam have a good chance of winning beam is a key competition Bella got up there on beam and I I'll introduce them in a minute Bella got up there on beam and did a perfect routine the lead beam person sets the pace for everyone else and I don't know if I've ever seen this before in a championship meet every one of them stuck their beam routine stuck their beam routine and on beam we scored at 37 and then we moved on to floor I I said that backwards I no I didn't and we moved on to floor and they nailed
006floor this team nailed that meat it was the best meat I've seen all season and it was one of the best competitions I think I've seen my entire career coaching which has been a couple years okay and they scored 146 points I do believe that's a team record I have to look about last year to see what they scored and they were fantastic I'm very proud of these girls they did a great job and uh they won okay step out a little bit we got Emma bwe she's our team captain one of our team captains she took the lead and she did a fantastic job with the girls keeping them moving and I'm really proud of her lene heaser okay Bella Bella Bush Taylor Neer uh Melissa Rosa I get names sometimes Zoe Weaver and
007Taylor lenee fantastic job girls Rich melli real quick how long have you been at it we we were debating this yeah what year did you start believe it was 1982 but I won't swear to that it it it I graduated in 82 and you were here when I was here so it was at least 82 okay I I kind of lost lost track over the years it's been a while congratulations two back-to-back state championships is like un unheard of um you make us very proud we've had a very uh successful winter sports season and you are at the Pinnacle of that so thank you very much for being wonderful student athletes and representing Altuna in the Altuna community at the finest and highest level thank you would any of you guys like to talk captain
008are you sure public speaking opportunity nobody that's unusual now if we ask them to Tik Tock us or or send us a they'd be all over that though they know how to do that how many are back next year oh all right we got another shot all right great we've got some good girls coming back and I'm not sure who we have coming up I know we have a couple but we always have to wait and see okay all right congratulations okay from that to just really exciting stuff um we'll move on to the rest of our agenda um before we allow public comment we have two things to take care of um we have a uh resolution for the board of directors uh Administration recommends approving the 2025 2026 iu8 general fund operating budget
009that was reviewed and recommended for approval by the general operating budget superintendent committee on December 10th 2024 and was approved by the Appalachia Intermediate Unit 8 board of directors on February 27th 2025 um I serve on that board um Brad you participated in the December 10th meeting um the next is just um Administration recommends approval to participate in the Cooperative bidding program coordinated by Appalachia Intermediate Unit 8 and that's for what buying paper predominant yeah okay um so we have two things to vote on here um the general fund operating budget for 2025 and if I recall they haven't up the the the school um our school's contribution to that budget in forever like 30 years yeah most of their budget is uh based on grants and and fees that they collect from schools school
010districts from providing them services so um very minimal obligation from um the Aluna School District as I recall um so do I have a motion to approve items 3A and 3B do I have a second would anybody like to discuss either of these okay all in favor please signify by saying I I I I anyone opposed okay motion carries Now we move on to hearing from citizens um I'll spare reading uh the instructions unless we have anybody who would like to speak no citizens to step up okay uh please state your name and if you're within an organization and and where you're from are you now tuna citizen so forth hi I'm Karina Griffith I'm a graduate of 2010 so it's first time actually being in this building I am actually going to be running
011for school board so I thought I'd come out meet everybody see the faces see who I might be going up against say hello um make it at least hi everybody and hi out there um just wantedly say hello make sure I got to talk to somebody um I do have one concern though um it was brought to my attention I actually work for a local Counseling group and um it's this actually a friend of mine but her son was recently having issues with bullying and she brought this up outside of the counseling field but as a counselor kind of bothered me um her son was assaulted while on school property and from what I was explained the child was followed for a while was struck at some point and then defended himself and received three
012days in school but the other kid received I believe 10 days out is that still the policy or how does that work because she is a very ey rate mother and I want to be able to support her and give her the resources but I'm like I'm not sure on this policy so could somebody give me some more information on that so I can maybe pass it along sure I mean without knowing the details The Who and kind of everything that went into it um you know essentially if there's an altercation a mutual altercation between two students um there there would be a consequence on both sides again it depends on the details the situation that you described there was clearly an one one was more of an aggressor than the other one correct that's
013what she said at least to me do you know I don't know what level if it was Junior High Junior High junior high I would encourage that person if they had a concern about the disposition to contact Mr Harrington who oversees our our secondary programs or contact myself okay and we are more than willing to meet with them to go over everything um we would have to go through we'd have to collect all the information and data to really give you you know to to give them a solid answer right but we are always willing to have those conversations so I would encourage any parent or any Community member that had a concern to reach out to the appropriate administrator or Personnel it's always good to start at the building level um I would assume
014there have been communication with the principal you know after the incident or if there are concerns prior to that that a counselor a teacher or the administration would know about what you know what was going on so again if I would encourage any citizen any parent to reach out to the administrative level at the building and at that point if they are not satisfied you know with kind of how that went and typically we know about the major incidences that go on in the schools um to let us know and that we could have further conversation okay and then I know I'm not to cut you off for anything but there is a helpline as well here at the school now that you can report things correct we have a couple different options so there's
015one through the Attorney General General's office called safe to say we get those notifications I just got one as we were sitting here um that we and it's an anonymous type platform we also have bully boxes within the schools and we have a reporting system within each each of the levels of schools for students to either directly report or a friend to report or for a teacher to report whatever it may be there's a there's a mechanism um there's also a tip line called 946 tips which goes directly to our school police and if there would be things that go into that they would then liaz on with the building level to to try to investigate and address the concerns that are going on we want to be as preventive and as proactive as possible
016um and again the more information that we have the earlier we have it the the the more likely that we can prevent things from from continuing right thank you very much thank you thanks for your time nice meeting you yeah and um I appreciate you stepping up and making the commitment to run for school board and um if you would like to uh reach out to any of us I'm sure any of us would be glad to talk to you and share some experiences um little more time than anybody led me to believe in the beginning um so more than happy to uh you know my already emails are publicly available and If you would like to reach out and have a discussion more than more than glad and again thank you guys for stepping
017up okay um anybody else like to get up and speak you come on up good to see you familiar faces here my name is Brian Gelman so this will be my fourth time running I just want to introduce myself to everybody so I am running for Schoolboard as well um I made it on the ballot so it is incredible to run against you and you as well Kelly I know you're not here but it's incredible to run against you as well so I'm very excited for this opportunity um I thought there would be a little bit more candidates seeing only six of us but you know I think it's great that you three are running again um I notic you weren't running again but I uh take creditability for you even being on Schoolboard I
018know it can be difficult but you have served your time and I think that's great and I think you did a wonderful job so thank you for that um and I think that's pretty much it I mean some of you remember me when I ran for mayor uh city council and state representative as well um this will be my final opportunity to run for a certain elected official position um and I think it's very important to get out there to meet folks to connect so I'm very excited so thank you guys so much thank you my wife will be rooting for both of you um to unseat me as Dave knows anybody else like to step up and share anything with us okay and thanks again for your stepping up and doing what you're doing
019you know whoever wins uh you know you're going to work with uh some really really good people I this this board is probably you know I've been around 30 years and this board board probably is the best board I ever worked with great personalities and and people that really care about education with no agendas just caring about the kids so good luck to you thanks daeve okay moving on um I'm seeking approval from uh our board meeting minutes of February 18th 2025 lot of pressure here because we don't have many people sitting right here so um a lot of people going to be making motions and seconding them do I have a motion so moved do I have a second second way to jump up there Justin would anybody like to discuss uh I'm still
020here okay anybody like to uh offer any changes okay all in favor approving the minutes from uh February 18th 2025 please signify by saying I I I I anyone opposed motion carries next we'll move on to finance um several lists of payments that are were all available to us to uh review um uh some a list of uh drama honorariums um you can see them listed there in the amounts and then lastly under C Administration recommends approval to extend the lease agreement between the alun are school district and Goodwill of the Southern alanes for a term of one year the lease is for 4,175 square ft of space in the Aluna Area Public Library building at a rate of $11.90 per square foot or $4,140 120 per month um do I have a motion to
021approve items 6 a through C do I have a second okay would anybody like to discuss any of these I'll do my standard uh routine um Cyber Charter School this time around this month um I tallied up about almost $379,000 of payments to Cyber Charter Schools from our taxpayers um again there's a big push to to alter some things in Harrisburg to uh even the playing field um that represented about 6 and a half% of our spend this particular month um and again I'm still stunned that there's really no barrier to seeking Cyber Charter School you don't have to be approved you could just decide to do it um and as I mentioned before it continues to uh Rob us of some of our best teachers in in in person in Brick and motor schools
022although I saw that we had two come back um this very uh agenda so that was good to see um that being said does anybody else have anything they'd like to discuss or share okay all in favor of approving item 6 a through C please signify by saying I I opposed motion carries we move we will move on to number seven policy um we have several policies that everyone can see there uh um these are the final readings um organization Employment contract board resolution purchases subject to B bid quotation uh purchases budgeted Federal fiscal compliance opioid antagonist uh I don't think there's anything too controversial amongst these policies um seeking a motion to approve item 7A do I have a motion do I have a second second would anybody like to discuss any of these
023policies that made it through the policy committee by the way okay all in favor of approving uh the policies listed under 7A please signify by saying I I I opposed motion carries we move on to eight education we have quite a few here uh under a uh request approval for the outon area Junior High School to host the 2026 Blair County Chorus Festival on February 9th and 10th of next year um request to have the Aluna Area School District's K through2 guidance plan for 2024 and 2025 approved um that that guidance plan is pretty significant is it 120 some pages I mean if if any of you had the time to read that I I give you credit I'm gonna that's one I'm gonna have to assume you guys did your work on yeah um
024under 8C request approval for the Aluna Area High School summer school plan for 2025 this summer D is Administration requests approval of the attached affiliation agreement for an academic placement site between aasd and Point Park University uh we have a small list of volunteers to [Music] approve a list of elementary field trips that are listed to approve a list of secondary field trips to approve and um graduate credit reimbursement from Mr Mark Harrington for his course education 608 to be taken in the spring of 2025 um looking for a motion to approve items 8 a through H do I have a second would anybody like to discuss any of these issues just just one thing sure did kids really see an open heart procedure yes well i' would have been on the ground yeah that's
025impressive we a Project Lead the Way program our bioengineering or biomedical engineering program that's one of the extensions in community outreach um it's an amazing opportunity and that program continues to thrive and grow with a number of Stu we basically Max those those sections every year nicely done boy congratulations thanks okay all in favor of approving items 8 a through H please signify by saying I I I anyone opposed motion carries ju just a quick acknowledgement Drew is here in the back um Drew is our our counseling department chairperson who spearheaded uh the development of this plan uh ton of work so when you see that number of pages I can tell you that that the hours and the leg work that went into it along with um Carl's daugh in-law and a number of
026other counselors throughout the district uh it was a lot of work and they put in a ton of time so I just want to thank you while you're here um for the work that you put in and continuing to do a great job thank you drew thanks um move on to nine Personnel Personnel agenda items um to approve um do I have a motion to approve items on 9A do I have a second all right I just want to say that there's some Hefty retirements on there so we definitely owe them a a world of thanks for their years because there's some some big losses on there I saw that and um Mr Kaylee at the top of the list uh from the junior high school um who else Stephanie oh my God yeah yeah
027so some huge voids to to fill here some we're losing some really good and talented people um thanks for bringing that up any anybody else okay all in favor of approving items item 9A please signify by saying I I I anyone opposed motion carries we will move on to 10 um one item uh Administration recommends alary School District to contract with Dr Steven catch katchmar to conduct an independent educational evaluation for student ID 85178 um seeking a motion to approve that agreement I will second to keep things moving would anybody like to discuss anything in this agreement okay all in favor of approving item 10A please signify by saying I I anyone opposed motion carries we will move on to uh 11 business operations under a we have a list of uh repository bids B
028uh Administration requests approval of the following amtr bus drivers for the 20242 school year contingent upon receipt of all required clearances and forms U Mr Denny Newberry is the only one listed uh to approve the capital project list of payments and I believe there was only one for the retaining wall in last D under business operations Administration requests and recommends approval of Transportation contracts for the following par parents Guardian Roxanne Lamer um do I have a motion to approve items 11a through D any of our Zoomers all right go do I have a second second all right would would anybody like to discuss anything under items 11 a through D seeing no one um all in favor of approving items 11 a through D please signify by saying I I anyone opposed motion carries Ju
029Just a tidbit the wall project is coming in close out soon at approximately $250,000 under budget um so we did really well with that and again I want to remind everyone that we had almost a half a million dollars in in uh in grant money that we have to match that was a condition of the grant so we'll be utilizing that for other designated projects the balance of that uh within the district that we're possibly going to have to come out of capital reserve but uh did a really nice job they they're finishing the pointing right now and with open you know thoroughfare for for the church patrons as well so once we get to the spring warmer weather we'll get the uh railing and some of the the cleanup done but uh very successful
030project want to thank Trevor and his crew for overseeing that piece and coming in that far under budget is is is a very nice that's good thank you Matt I didn't see you writing taxpayers would like to hear $250,000 under budget thank you um under 12 new business uh we we have a retroactive request Administration recommends retro approval for the Logan Township Police Department to use the Aluna area junior high school gymnasium running track Fitness Center on Saturday March 15th this past Saturday from 10: to 12 uh for the purpose of physical agility course um under B athletic use of facilities we have a couple um requests the Aluna Elementary wrestling program to use the Aluna High School Fieldhouse on Saturday April 26th for the purpose of hosting the uh P usaw freestyle Greco Roman
031or Greco wrestling qualifier um and two the East End youth baseball Little League to use the Logan Elementary field for practices from May through August of 2025 and certificates of insurance have been provided in the rental agreements are attached um and C we have uh AAS board members to vote for nominees in all regions on the uh 2025 iu8 board ballot the term begins July 1st 2025 and ends June 30th 2028 do we individually yeah yes every Board number needs to V vote individually and please write the words yes or no next to the candidates so we do we exclude that from this from a motion and vote because we're going to vote individually that's probably a good idea yes okay I'm on the board um I think with most of these people I would
032give my endorsement to most to the ones I know I don't know that they're all I think several of them are already on there um so being said c will be for us to vote on individually um I'm seeking a motion uh to approve items 12 A and B I moved do I have a second okay anybody like to discuss anything okay all in favor of approving items 12 A and B under new business please signify by saying I I I anyone opposed motion carries moving to uh 13 committee reports do we have any committee chair reports board president's report that would be me I have nothing to report and that leaves it for one of the best parts of our evening our student representative report thank you good evening March has been another busy
033month for students in the district 10 student Journal IST Advan to the Pennsylvania state school press Association and competition at Penn State University scheduled for April 1st eight mountainline television students and adviser Mr Michael Baker traveled to Point Park University to accept the program's first myON cope award in the best high school broadcast of live sports category students from all across PA as well as some from Ohio and West Virginia schools were invited to participate many high school students also travel to elementary schools to participate in read across America this Nationwide celebration of reading takes place the first week of March every year on March 6 Juniata Elementary hosted a book Bingo family night that worked to Foster Community involvement and promote literacy among students we are also very proud of our winner Sports finalists
034like the girls basketball team the girls gymnastics team indoor track members Branson Adams Mary stolz Brooklyn Weaver Briana Adams Ashley no Emerson snare Jill long Triumph Co Martin wrestlers Luke cypes Braden Weaver Gavin Kent bully and swimmer Trevor Wilson There are also a lot of upcoming events uh students in the community should look out for such as the rotary uh career fair which is scheduled for April 24th this event invites sophomores to explore various career paths students must register by April 1st to participate the AHS Performing Arts Club is s set to present Disney's The Little Mermaid from April 3rd to the 5th at at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium leading up to the performances a themed te event is planned where young attendees can meet the characters enjoy refreshments and participate in games students
035are also set to begin taking the keyston and AP exams in May so reviews are beginning thank you okay thanks Miss josa um Mr hatch do we have a superintendence report just to kind of piggy back on Gracie's report there are so many amazing things that are going on with our faculty and staff and students daily as we head into the spring Sports season with all the different activities that are now coming up um after celebrating an amazingly successful winter season you know two Fridays ago you know if you were on campus here you couldn't find a parking place um we had our girls competing in the state tournament at the Fieldhouse we had a pmea regional Festival going on here at the high school and we had our Junior High School production going on
036all at the same time and it really was a special time to see the talents of our students and our faculty and staff if you've not had an opportunity and I highly encourage you to come out to see the High School Musical here in a couple weeks it's going to be amazing um but just all of the concerts and all the different pieces that we have going on watching our athletes excel at the softball fields volleyball baseball track and field I it's really it's impressive to see what our community supports and what our community is able to to put out um so that being said Gracie thank you for always doing a great job of representing our F our students and and really highlighting all the wonderful things that they do one final thing and
037we'll do a more formal um presentation and and acknowledgement next month um but a team of us had the opportunity to go to uh Hershey on Wednesday to celebrate our technology director who was the first technology director to ever be awarded the highest uh Honor by pa uh P pasbo pasbo which is a Pennsylvania School business organization that that's usually reserved for business managers and other pieces all of the work that he's done with Pete and c and pasbo and all the other organizations um in addition to sharing his exper expertise and knowledge with his colleagues in the rest of the state was honored and recognized in what maybe I'm not going to commit maybe his last full year of employment um here in public education but congratulations goes out to Bryce and our entire
038team we had an entire team of Business and Technology officials that were presenting at the conference and sharing all of the wonderful things that we are doing here um and building those networks across the state so Bryce Round of Applause congratulations I'm still on okay we'll move on to 14 other comments do we have an employee unions response no middle management no Mr solicitor try to make it quick um had an opportunity to go to uh pasbo uh Adam KAC and I presented on uh Title 9 sort of uh where we are and where we're going uh one of the spin-off issues that we're going to encourage all school districts where our firm serves as solicitor special counsel uh take a look at your uh handbooks when you start to go into next year when
039you start looking at them April or May for the start of next year only because the artificial intelligence policy exist and also because there was an interesting addition to the uh crimes code that became effective December 29th I believe it's uh section 3331 but in essence it creates a uh new section the crimes code where people can be charged with misdemeanor ones or even misdemeanor three uh wherein they use artificial intelligence to take a body of of an individual uh put pictures on there like make them nude and then take their actual face or head and put it on there and of course it creates a lot of instances where bullying intimidation and people need to realize that that can ruin your chances going into the military you can lose an athletic scholarship you can
040be criminally charged in your whole life you know as a young adult can be destroyed as a result of foolishness uh so we're going to address that in our educational law report and I was also privileged to speak uh to the Department of Labor and Industry their secretary under secretary and all the mediators in the state on 55 years of perah which is the uh really act 195 on bargaining and mediation on Friday which which was good because it gives us a little more ins it as to what's going on locally with who's going to be at our table in our set of negotiations with us and that's it thank you thanks Carl um we're to that point where I will seek a motion to adjourn this meeting do I have a second all in
041favor please signify by saying I I anyone opposed meeting is adjourned