001development into a few short hours. Their dedication, creativity, and commitment to our children shine through every single day. But they are working within limitations that are not fair to them or to the students. With a full-day program, these outstanding educators would finally have the time and space to do what they do best, give our children the strong foundation that they deserve. Looking ahead, my daughter will start kindergarten in the fall of 2027. We are sincerely hoping that by then Abington Heights will have transition to full day. If not, like other parents, we will be forced to make possibly other arrangements, maybe enrolling her elsewhere because we know how critical these early years are. It's un it's an unfair predicament, though, because we moved here specifically for this school district. It's also important to recognize the
002impact on families. Both my husband and I work full-time. A half-day program is not just academically limiting, it's logistically challenging. Parents are forced to rely on expensive child care or patch together complicated midday pickups. That is not sustainable for working families in our community. There is also what I see as a viable plan for how we can make this change more feasible knowing that I don't know everything. Please, so just know that this is one recommendation for consideration. Um, but the administration building that we're in today, you know, it would be great to maybe consider housing all of kindergarten in this building. It would free up muchneeded classroom space for the other schools so that they can expand into what they need might need to do in those schools. They can grow and reorganize without
003overcrowding. It seems like a practical way to minimize disruption while implementing full day kindergarten. Again, knowing that I have no idea of all the nuance that goes into that. It's just one recommendation. Right now, Abington Heights is the only district in our area still offering half-day kindergarten. This puts our children in our district at a disadvantage. Families considering where to live and raise their children often look at educational offerings and full day kindergarten is becoming the standard. I know there are financial and logistical challenges in making this shift. But this is not just an expense. It's an investment. And as taxpayers, we deserve to have a say in how that money is spent. This is an investment in our children's academic readiness, in equity for working families, and in the long-term reputation of our district.
004Other communities have made it work, and we can, too. I also want to acknowledge several members of this board who ran or expressed publicly in favor of full day kindergarten as part of their campaign platforms. I appreciate that support and hope that together we can follow through. In closing, knowing that several of you have already expressed support for full day kindergarten gives me hope. My ask tonight is that you commit to a timeline for moving forward using the admin administration building space possibly as one way of doing that and making sure families like ours don't have to choose other arrangements when it comes time for our children to enroll. Thank you for your time and your commitment to the students of Abington Heights. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Is there anyone else
005who would like to address the board? Okay, then let's move on to the action and discussion items. The first item would be the treasures report and reviewing the approving the the uh report for the month. Ready? We began the month with a cash balance of 111,58,31825. We took in monthly revenues of $7,686,000441.15. Our net dispersements were 6,26,754.98 for a cash balance available of $12,718,442. >> I apologize. Sorry about that. I had I had a thought as you were midsent. >> Yeah. >> Didn't want to lose it because I got older. >> He doesn't realize it'll be gone by the next two minutes in this year or not this year. >> Any may I please have a motion to approve the treasures report. So >> moved. >> Second. >> On the motion. >> Roll call, please.
006Mrs. Henderson. Yes, >> Mrs. Hillibbrand. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Karum. >> Yes, >> Mr. Robson. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Tierney. >> Yes, >> Mr. Abdullah. >> Yes, >> Mr. Azar. >> Yes, >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. >> 8 Z. >> Okay, Dr. Dr. Schaeer. Uh so I I I I appreciate our our our uh community members coming out to talk about full day and I didn't and and while this is a a public comment session and not uh it doesn't necessarily have to be a conversation, but I I I just wanted to say a couple uh things about that because you did spend a lot of time and I appreciate your uh your your comments and and your thoughts and and You're right. It it it it it's very complicated and um while it is
007not my job to speak uh for the board, I can summarize things that I've inferred from them. How's about that for ambiguity? Um and and and that is that uh you know everybody here uh to my left and right is is is supportive of the students and wants nothing but the best for the community and the students and and that includes full day and you know there's there is a lot of research out there uh and and and I don't necessarily agree with everything you said on that that that research although if I were in your spot I would have used that research. Um but what I can tell you is that um behind the scenes my job is to explore all sorts of of of different options and and talk to the board and
008I have uh talk to board leadership about uh what that exploration entails and I know that um um I am I am being vague and I am purposely being vague because there's a whole lot of things to um consider and as an example example that I can say you wouldn't be the first person that would that said to me why don't you just use this this building and there's not enough fingers and toes in my body to tell you all the different things that um are a challenge um with with this building we spent um roughly 3.1 million and $2,000 the dollar has inflated about 2.5% every year the last uh 25 years if we look at something like that then we're looking at to convert this back from a business because that's what that
009we converted from a school to a business right this is a business office to convert it back if you just use some of the figures I use now it's five you you know five $6 million but I know that that's not accurate because construction fees have um gone up over 100% in the last 5 years so as I do this exploration is there a way to do something you know that that's that $10 million for just a facility and I'm not including the seven other teachers that you would need at about $800,000 in total after controlling for PERS contributions uh and benefits and things like that. So, um I I I understand uh the energy and rationale behind it and I just um want you to know that um you know the board has tasked
010me with exploring options. They didn't say we're going to do this 100% and nobody's said to me 100% we're not going to do it. But my job is to do a lot of research and uh put as many options um that uh are are feasible. Some are um actually scratch that. Uh none are feasible without discomfort. Right? if if if there was an easy decision, uh we would we would make it. Um if just like building a new middle school, that would be the easiest decision, but unfortunately like cost gets in the way. So I just wanted to uh uh um you know mention that to you and I have heard uh air conditioning um and I won't bore you because I do look at longitudinal weather charts and things like that. So, I could
011tell you exactly how many days that I turned on the air conditioning. Uh, and the board knows because this is something that we had to take a look at as uh an entire group when we discussed projects. And, you know, air conditioning is currently running about uh, you know, $60 a foot. We had, you know, quotes as high as $20 million just for air conditioning at at at the high school. Now, that's not to say that there aren't other solutions out there. So, I want to make sure that I acknowledge um you know what what you've said and that you know we are working on it and I don't think there's anybody here that wouldn't want to grant every single request. Um we're just trying to figure out um the best way to go about
012it. So, I I I just want to thank you um um um for your comments and uh I I I I totally understand. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Now, roll call. >> Yep. >> Did we do roll call? >> Roll call for the >> We did roll call for the treasur report. >> Yep. Yeah. >> Mr. Aker ask the board consider a motion to approve the personnel report as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. On the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Hillbrand. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kum. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney? >> Yes. >> Mr. Abdella? >> Yes. >> Mr. Azar? >> Yes. >> Miss Mrs. Henderson? Yes, >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. >> 8 Z. >> I notice in here that there are
013one, two, three, four, five teachers that have been awarded >> tenure >> professional contracts. >> Yeah. Or tenure. Tenure. Completed three years of satisfactory service. >> Congratulations. I think uh another age related deficit uh is that I forgot to uh respond to another question. Miss Swah I'll just blame that on age. Um you you uh made a request for a fence around uh CSE. I couldn't agree more. Um, and that is something that we'd be getting quotes on. Um, and the board has just finished the project at Waverly. We put the fence in. We uh and then we put some fencing uh at at Newton Ransom. And so now we would So we're we are working our way. We are working our way there. Uh that that's a lot of linear feet. So just letting
014everybody know that in advance. I'll I'll let you know after the meeting's over. That's usually when it hits. >> There isn't there isn't enough medication in the world. >> Um so, Mr. Aker, this time I'd ask the board uh consider a motion to approve the volunteer list. >> So, move. >> Second. >> On the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Karum. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney. >> Yes. >> Mr. Abdullah. >> Yes. >> Mr. Azar. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hillibbrand. >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. >> 8 Z. >> Mr. Aer ask the board consider a motion to approve the agreement between the Scranton School District in Abington Heights for students 41A and 45A. >> So move. >> Second. >> On the motion.
015>> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Robson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney. Yes, >> Mr. Abdullah. >> Yes, >> Mr. Azar. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Hillbrand. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Karum. >> Yes, >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. >> 8 Z. >> Mr. Aer ask the board consider a motion to approve the settlement agreement between Abington Height School District and student 23X. >> So moved. >> Second. >> On the motion. >> Call, please. >> Mrs. Tierney. >> Yes. >> Mr. Abdella. >> Yes. >> Mr. Azar. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hillbrand. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Karum. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. >> 8 Z. >> Mr. I could ask the board consider a motion to approve the settlement agreement between Abington
016Heights School District and student 24X. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abdella. >> Yes. >> Mr. Azar. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hillibbran. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Karum. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney. >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. >> 8 Z. >> Mr. I could ask board consider a motion to approve the settlement agreement between Abington Knight School District and student 18X. >> So moved. >> Second. >> On the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Azar. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hillbrand. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kum. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney. >> Yes. >> Mr. Abdella. >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker. Yes. >> 8 Z. >> Mr. Eard ask
017the board consider a motion to approve an addendum to the professional services agreement with the Nobo Graham Group uh originally approved on August 20th, 2025 to clarify that the total amount payable under the agreement shall not exceed $40,000 inclusive of all fees and expenses. >> So moved. >> Second. >> On the motion. >> Uh yes, I do have a few questions. Um Dr. Dr. Schaefer, can you explain what the $40,000 will be used for? >> Sure. On um August 20th, we we put the original professional services agreement in there. So that would be inclusive of uh newsletters, uh social media, and uh work towards uh the creation of a alumni uh database and and group. So, how will the um alumni be um is it is it going to be advertised? Will will this group
018go out and and and research and send information to alumni? So, the the goal here is is to do more of an outreach to to to find out who our alumni are and to and to um get in touch with them and learn who they are to to support the district. >> Yeah. in part. Um, so the you are accurate in saying the first thing is, you know, one thing I know for sure is that I I run into a lot of um, uh, Abington Heights alumni and I know that I don't have them captured anywhere and I know that I would like to communicate with them. Um, you know, I I can sit here and and and you know, look around the board and I and I know where everybody went to school. I
019know what your interests are. I know what you love to do. I know what you don't like to do. Um, and you know, I would, you know, love to be able to, um, use you to network with students. Now, imagine that when you're dealing, um, with a large alumni network, um, that could uh, support our students um, relative to their their ambitions, whether their interest or their professional. um certainly um you know giving back in the form of donations, giving back in the form of internships, giving back in the form of interview skills, things like that. So um we we we don't have that. Um, and that's something that I would I I would be uh uh taking uh a lot of uh ownership on because the first thing I you know we'd want to
020do is cast that net out there to see what we can bring in and then uh you know work from there on how to best um work with those alumni. And fortunately, we have a lot of post-secondary institutions around here and folks that we could rely on in in in development to let us know some of the things that that they do. >> I think um you've established an outreach committee. Will this committee be working in conjunction with this consultant to um reach our alumni and and try to get more awareness of Abington Heights out there? >> Yeah. I if I would if I give like this kind of like the metaphor like a visual metaphor I I I you know um when I was a little kid growing up in the snow belt, you
021know, we got just tons of snow. I lived right near Buffalo. I mean, tons and tons of snow. And so we go out there and like, you know, make the make the snowmen, you know, and we get it we get it pretty big and and it it' be like really hard to push, but after like a couple of us get behind it. Once that ball gets rolling, it just it just just goes, right? Um and that's how I look about the communications because at some point in time, um we did have a communications person in the district. We don't have that. So, we need assistance in getting it off the ground and then it's, you know, giving it over to our outreach committee to figure out, you know, how we're able to kind of establish
022that, you know, on our own, but we just needed to get started and get started in the right way. >> Thank you for mapping that out. >> You had two questions. You said you're good. Okay. Anyone else? Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Henderson. Yes, >> Mrs. Hillbrand. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Cam. >> Yes, >> Mr. Robson. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Tierney. >> Yes, >> Mr. Abdella. >> Yes, >> Mr. Azar. >> Yes, >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. >> 8 Z. >> Thank you very much. Okay, the next item on our agenda is information. Is there any additional information for the public? Is there any unfinished business? Any new business? >> If not, I would ask for a motion to >> I have I would like to say something. something on a lighter note. Um I
023don't normally um watch the Emmy awards um but I couldn't help in the newspaper the next day thinking that one of the awards was handed to a show called the pit. So I was happy to hear that Saturday the pit is being used for the senior day for the football team and the cheerleaders, the flag girls and the most spec specifically the marching band. So, I'm happy to see that The Pit is still used and The Pit is used to win an Emmy award just to lighten up the day. >> It's a great show, by the way. >> Okay. Fantastic. >> Oh, it's fantastic. >> What's it about? >> It's a hospital. >> Oh, it's a hospital in Pittsburgh. It's like, you know, >> it's it's really great. >> Yeah. You look If you love
024Noah W. >> You know what? If you love Noah Wy and ER, you're going to love Noah Wy. Remember when he was a kid? >> He was a star. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay, different pit then. >> Can we please have a motion to adjourn? >> Where we digress? >> Thank you, Mr. >> Talk about saying elsewhere. Anybody? >> Great. >> Now, if you want to talk about television show, The Pit.