001It's just >> close enough to try. That's the only one. The rest of them is [clears throat] I >> think she did want to join. I texted her to see if she does want to >> if that's okay with you. [clears throat] You am I your Vanna? Am I presenting for you? Trisha >> Mike got awesome. You're good. Trisha, are you good or do I need to present for you? Me. Got it. She's >> I'm going to put you on speaker and we're and we're about to start the meeting. You're welcome. [cough] [clears throat] >> Good evening. I'd like to call to order the February 5th, 2026 regular work session of the Blackhawk School Board. If everyone could join me in uh rising to say the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance to the
002flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] >> Mr. Melo, our solicitor is going to take roll call for us this evening. >> Thank you. Uh Mrs. Klein >> here. Mr. McMillan >> here. Mr. Sh here. >> Miss Smith. Dr. Sprinker. >> She's on the phone. >> Dr. Sprinker, are you here? >> Here. Thank you. >> Thank you. Mr. Van, >> Mr. Wy >> here. >> Mr. Whisner >> here. >> And Mr. Zakowitz >> here. There's seven present, two absent, and we do have a quum. >> Yep. There was an executive session prior to tonight's meeting uh to discuss personnel, safety, and label matters. Do we have a solicitor's report this evening? >> No report. Thank
003you. >> Thank you. All right. First order of business, 2.1, an elementary presentation by the principal at Biz and Patterson, Mr. Abigast. >> [laughter] >> did have to show. >> That's okay. I have it if two of you need to use mine. So, good evening everybody. Um, sorry about the Yep. Sorry about that. I'm Mike from the elementary principal and um I want to thank you for the opportunity to getting a chance to give some highlights of what we've been doing in the elementary. so far this school year. Um, so I think I know a lot of u just about everybody up here in case I don't. I started working in the district 2002. Um, I taught here and then I became uh administrator in 2013, 10 years here at the uh middle school and
004then I was the assistant with Jody um and up until last year whenever she took over as funny as her new role I took over for her at the end of the year. This is really my first year going through um the a full school year. So, some of the stuff that we've done or some initiatives that we started this year and some of the other stuff is stuff that I work with with Jod and we're just continuing to hopefully improve on. So, um when we look at BIS Patterson, we have around 850 students K4 and it's actually 852 students. And what we try to do is across both of them, although they're two separate buildings, we really try to function as one elementary system. It allows us to align curriculum, share the expertise of
005our teachers, so they can meet even though whenever we are grade level meetings, they will meet have teams meeting from one building to the other. So we're all doing the same thing. They share common collaboration time and just uh try to maintain consistent expectations for students and families. And so as we go through tonight, I'll just highlight a few of the things that we do um throughout the year through some of these pictures. So one of the things we did earlier in the year, Mr. Ael had his red ribbon week. So that's the picture on the left um where that's drug awareness and supporting good decision- making, making good choices. And on the right, I've mentioned this in some of our previous meetings. Whenever I give page some information, we have this is from our
006last um accelerated reader or reading incentives. So we have different levels where students can reach um they read so many books in K to 2 or earn so many points they can earn some incentives there. But the initiatives that we looked at at the start of the year, we implemented a new math curriculum. We uh used a new data system to collect our data and link it and then parents square was a very important one for us that actually went through quick but I'll explain why it was important right in the beginning but our new math curriculum last year um this decision followed the needs a whole needs assessment where we had teacher surveys programs aligned a uh meetings and we wanted a resource to support um our students throughout and align it through kindergarten
007through 8th grade and the teachers as we implemented this they have had ongoing professional development. We start the beginning of the year before school. We just finished the professional development midy year and then we'll follow up at the end of the year to make sure that we're seeing the implementation of the new curriculum through and also aligned it with our atlas. So we are pacing and making sure that you know when we talk to teachers we're following and getting through the pace that we need. Um the science of reading this is something that Mrs. Rooney gets the credit for. this started. She and our teachers have done a tremendous job on just looking at the best practice to teach reading and they go through um a program in UFI. And the reason that I bring
008this up is that over the past couple years, they've been teaching this reading program, but a new program that we started this year through our teachers is Project Read, and it's an AI system, and it aligns with UFly. And what it does is it utilizes AI. So, it can look at a a student. Um, it can see how they just recently finished their assessment. and it gives um just any type of um it gives feedback and any remediation that they need. It tells them exactly what they need to do to improve. So this is a new program where kindergarten teachers have used it. They really liked it and now we just actually over this past break with those days off they opened it up for everybody to sign up for it for free. So our
009teachers have so they're all more or less piloting this year. So we go forward with uh project re uh linking. So we have many benchmarks dibbles star math and reading bass firefly and then obviously the PSS. So what this allows us to do is this allows us to gather data and then really analyze it pretty quickly by putting together different pods. Um, so for example, we beginning of the year, middle of the year, and end of the year data. And this one up here that I have is the fourth grade ELA. And I just kept it very, very general because I didn't want to have any students um information up there. But it's just a snapshot looking at some ELA, where we compare ESSA, Firefly, which Firefly is um a practice assessment that allows us
010to follow the standards and see how well we're doing. And Russia be doing our major Firefly assessment coming up. And then we have our beginning of the year start and our midyear start. So you can take a student and you can put in all of their benchmarks. You can line them up and you can really analyze to see uh where their strengths are or where they need any type of help and intervention. [snorts] Parents aware I said this [clears throat] was a big one because we really have with our youngest learners we really have to communicate early and often. So, um, our teachers have always communicated they've used class dojo or class tag, something that's free. But whenever we went to districtwide, um, it was very important that they learned it and they learned it
011quickly because we needed to have this ready to go at kindergarten orientation, first grade orientation, and we just really got the training a few days before, but in the summer, they um, we're prepared. they're ready to go because even before we start that first day, kindergarten teachers are reaching out to letting the parents know the expectations for that morning and then talk to them how that day went to be in touch with them. So, it's gone very well. The implementation, it's it's kind of behind us now and you can see that going forward, it's just a system that has has really been utilized. We've had 35 over 35,000 direct messages between the two buildings and 3,500 posts. um teachers post and I I can say this have a first grader and a fourth grader in
012this and I get posts every single night from all of the teachers. Um we have a lot of different activities for the kids and I won't mention them all but I feel like this is an important one. Our Veterans Day concert and breakfast uh third grade puts this on. They have an evening concert and uh it's a a way for them to honor um and support our community. We have our students actually are able to invite um any veterans that they know in and they have breakfast with them get to spend the morning and it's a very nice sponsor. Those are just some photos um from that. Um so Ryasc and the world of work this started last year and Ryasc has been around for a while and it really is interest based more or
013less if you find out what you like and you pursue a career that way um things just tend to get better for you. Um, and then the world of work just starts to look at careers. And our teachers have done a very good job and they each have a plan on how they're going to go through this. And sometimes we'll bring in speakers and there's also a whole lot of activities that they can do. And and when you look at these pictures, the first one out there kindergarten, officer, he's part of it. His police officer is part of it, but that was for um police officer recognition day. and get her own class. Picture below the paleontologist in the picture to the left is beekeeper. That's one of them. And then our third grade went
014to the courthouse. Really nice field trip. All we did do was provide transportation. They were able to go down there and they were able to see a lot of different. Um this was new and I think is that actually you page? >> I think I'm in that photo. whenever whenever [laughter] Mr. sends me I actually global scholars um picture to put here and this was from the high school and this was really um a great opportunity uh Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. five reached out uh they wanted to bring our language students over to teach our students um give them a little introduction into uh foreign languages. So, French and Spanish came over and [clears throat] um they were able to teach. There was really positive feedback from the students and the teachers. I hope that
015you guys had a good time coming over, but you guys did a great job. Um it was just really well put together and we really appreciate it and it was just a new opportunity this year for our students. Um, and then in closing, we're just going to kind of keep moving forward. We're going to keep going. It's a very busy place, just in Patterson. Um, we have the NEP test that's coming up next week. That's the one that I mentioned to you last meeting. Um, it's randomly chosen school. We're one of 184th grade classrooms that were chosen across Pennsylvania. Um, you were lucky to be able to do all that and it's 50 [laughter] 50 randomly chosen um students and they'll take this test in two sessions. So that's next week. Then we'll get into
016our grand days which will lead into we'll have the Easter break going into PSA testing and then we'll be into the final part very exciting part of our um our play but this is our kindergarten registration. This was a video that is not playing right now but um kindergarten registration is very important. If you were online you could saw this but these are our kindergarten students. Um and kindergarten registration is open. Um we've had um a lot of students already register and when you look at milestones and I know graduation is a big one but this is a really big one too when students and the first time and their families become a part of the blackout community. So I want to thank you again for letting me talk a little bit about the elementary
017and um sorry the video wasn't but it's just >> it's a really good video. It's on social media too. Yeah, >> little kids are are jumping to Van Halen and kindergarten registration. >> Thank you. Thanks. Very good. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. Great job. >> Thank you, Mr. Roberts. >> Okay, next 2.2, we have uh Dr. Houston, our director of student services, and she is going to be giving a presentation on student services. Okay, I think it's it's there. I'll continue to tinker to see if I can get a full screen if not, but >> All right. So, good evening everyone. I just wanted to take a few minutes tonight to discuss everything that's been going on in our student services department. Um, so as with everything, you'll see the first slide. Uh, we always
018tie everything back to Black Rock's mission and vision. >> Sorry, a little fast. >> [laughter] >> Um so hopefully towards the end of this presentation um it really shows how we truly are empowering all of our students every day. So as we go through some of the um you know more logistic updates it it won't show towards the end usually you'll see how inclusive our school is is really becoming. So looking at our school nursing updates um I just wanted to give a quick report. Our charge report was submitted this past August. We did receive the reimbursement and that total amount of $43,000 um this November. Um looking at our office visits, I did ask our school nurses to um calculate just their totals as of January 21st. Um so they also wanted me to
019point out that does not include um during days there would have been substitute coverages for different that's kind of how the office visits are currently standing. For the sake of time I'll go ahead and skip the counseling updates because our counselors are going to give um an overview of all of those programs. So I'll skip to the special education updates. Uh currently we have 396 students with IEPs. that is now that's as of December 1st that is down a little bit from last year we have now 411 um not enough to change our percentage wise but that's that's just down a little bit uh currently 61 students with GI 2164 ELS uh some recent highlights uh professional in November seem to be a big hit professionals for each um given $5 of the community and
020how are they going to pay it forward. Um that seemed to be a big hit within the community and within our professionals. So I would continue that tradition. Um our sen event in December was our highest um attendance rate so far in our third year. Um for those of you that don't know, we have our students um with special needs come in to a sensory therapy um event. if they don't want to smell Santa's lap. We find a creative way that picture that um the students don't even know that they're actually seeing Santa. So, that's a great event. Um the next one down is looking for crowds. This one actually was supposed to post last week. Um so, now this is resettled for March. Um so, we are in a partnership with Ambridge um and
021Rochester with the Moonshot brand to do a Noble Coffee Park. Um so we literally are putting um the carpet on the horse in this one and giving our student training before we actually have a mobile card. However um we are hosting the crowd PSU extension giving our students safe serve certification with that. So that will be um our school students and we're talking about some other uh students that are interested in like the business model aspect of that. Uh coming up with Polar Plunge is on February 21st. We will be back at the Bridgewater Marina this year. Um we decided that Noble Polar Plunge, which was a big event last year, will be every other few years because that was a big undertaking. Um so we're hoping to bring that back maybe next year, maybe
022two years. Um so I just wanted to share some, you know, celebration, success stories. Um it's very humbling for me when I get sending pictures of our current students, previous students, um out in the community, um you know, at SOPs, carving pumpkins, whatever it may be, and they're they're including their peers with special needs. So that that really warms my heart. So I just wanted to kind of touch base on some of the great things that are happening. That picture there was of um the tail best. So looking at that um actually tomorrow night the best buddies is hosting a time audience. Um we are also hosting the Beaver Best Buddies Club. So we're hoping that will be um a very well attended event we're having our cosmetology students um [clears throat] hair makeup all
023of that. Students all have uh wonderful gowns, students ties. They were very specific about what they wanted. So um our team went out and and did it all. students are decorating tomorrow. You know, we're really looking forward to that. Um the hockey game here section, some of our our students um do play hockey and [clears throat] they always have two sections that that come on. Um I did highlight some of our community based instruction trips. Um I did want to send a shout out thank you to your wild fire department. They're going to be visiting us for um like basically a pizza party after our long community trip. So, I just wanted to say thank you to that. Um, looking at our unified sports and classes. So, we now have a unified watching team at
024Highland Middle School as well as um the one that is the state champions here at the high school or at high school. Um, we have a robotics team that is Highland High School today. They actually had a competition at West Creative. Awesome. um unified basketball [laughter] opportunities. So last year we had the opportunity to go to Robert Morris and Clevelanders came in and did um in partnership with Special Olympics. Um I reached out to Andrew Lee who's international Olympics for PA and he wasn't sure if they would join that opportunity again and I said well black would obviously be excited to post an opportunity. So, I haven't heard any more of that. Um, but I kind of offered if if there would be something um, you know, basketball team in my family. So, I of
025course like let's do everything we can for that. Um, and then our unified PE course at the high school that is going very very well. Um, we have students that are signing up with that and that is just pairing regular ed students with our special ed students that require that scholar studying class. So looking at the next slide, um this is just a highlight of our um the grant that we have through PD for our developing future special educators. Um our computer connections positive prevention of future special educators. Um Black has announced that PE conference in February. So at the end of February, we're announc um to present to highlight our practices. Um Pat reached out to me and said, "Hey, I think you guys are doing amazing things. We'd like to have you on."
026So that's a highlight. And looking ahead, um the guidance plan that the customers are going to be speaking on tonight, that does need to be submitted by March 31st of this year. Um I believe will be that timeline. Um with the 28 public notice registration, as Mr. already stated. Um this is again the highest early in highest early intervention number in this year. Um I saw parents said the same exact same thing last year. Bug County just continues to see and really all over continues to see just high rates of students with need. So Black has a high number of um EIS coming again. Um the annual SH report will need to be submitted again next September. um propos you can get that you know submitted by August again and then both the special ed
027plan and mento next year so any questions right thank you >> thank you Dr. Right. [applause] Item 2.3, we have a K to2 guidance presentation given by our school counselors. >> Give me one sec, please. One second, guys. I have to switch it from Dr. Houston's to yours. Okay, perfect. Okay. >> Good evening. I am I am the guidance counselor of the high school. My last name is Lucy and um this is our team introduce themselves. >> I'm the other high school and last name again middle school counselor. This is my 20th year. >> And I'm Bob. I am the elementary school counselor at Miss Patterson and I got a deep one. since my 29th history. >> So, we're here tonight to present the chapter 339 comprehensive guidance plan and thank you also for giving
028us this opportunity to present. Um, the purpose of the plan is to ensure comprehensive K12 school counseling program. Um, and when we say we're going to implement this, this isn't just us. It's everybody in the district. [clears throat] It's our um teachers. It's our staff, it's our principles, everybody helps with the 339 plan. It's aligned with the counseling service of the PA career education work standards. It provides equal access to academic, career, and social supports and it demonstrates accountability and program design and seeking out impact. Um, Mr. Ael in the Patterson primary, Patterson primary biz, he has about 852 students. Mr. in the middle school has about 716. Um myself and Mrs. camps have a total of about 350 and we split them with our last names at the high school and we try to
029align the 339 plan to um you know the mission statement that we have and our mission statement is through leadership and advoc advocacy school district school counseling program relevance and relationship among all students providing a comprehensive preventive and developmental um program. We stress the importance of academic support to maximize student potential, career exploration, exposure, and experience. We do strategies for help with decision- making skills and social and personal competencies. Um in this collabor collaborative effort among all the black high school districts counselors, teachers, parents, community members, administration will ensure that all students have equal access opportunities to succeed in establishing well-being. I'll take you to the next slide which is the cougar's core values which you see there. Um C and S kind of match together. you know, so often we're doing things to give
030back to the school and community, but also the community supports us and we support each other. So, that has been a very important connection between both places. Um, you know, giving the giving back is really something that I've enjoyed seeing the years I've been here. ownership. You know, if you're a good counselor, we take our ownership for our actions, for learning, for what I'm teaching um students as we as a staff are doing that same uniting. We try to support each other as a team whether it's through K through 12, as the counseling unit or as the teams at our schools with our teachers and our parents and the rest staff administrative also. Um growth every day. We are looking to keep the growth going for students you know academically, socially, other as many different
031ways as we possibly can to see that growth so that they become responsible um citizens once they graduate. Um you know set bar high the achievement is there. You know we want to make sure that they can reach those goals and then celebrate those accomplishments that do come up. And there are so many, even the tiniest ones that you might think are small are huge for our students. So, we love to celebrate them. And then finally, respect [clears throat] constantly every day. I mean, I'm even thinking in my lunch groups today, there's a couple times I'm saying, "Guys, we need to show respect to each other. Let's go. Come on. Treat others and yourself in the environment with care. How you take care of things, how you make sure things are okay. Then our education
032counseling framework um our program is grounded in the ask model. So this model provides framework so all students receive consistent support while also allowing flexibility to meet individual needs. Um this is broken down into a tiered system. So we have curriculum which includes classroom lessons that reach all students. So this includes career awareness for secondary readiness. um responsive services which would be small groups, short-term interventions for students that have identified needs and then individualized planning. So our one-on-one supports which focus on goal setting or planning postsecondary options for um transition planning collaboration with families as we know counseling services are most effective when families, teachers, administrative administrators and community partners work together and then our integrated career planning for smart teachers in E. So our smart futures that's embedded into our counseling curriculum can help
033our students to explore interests, strengths and career pathways. Um and that which we'll talk about in the next slide also ensures every student develops a personalized evolving plan connected to coursework career goals and postsecary options. So again um looking deeper into the individualized career and academic plan. It's a living K through2 portfolio that follows each student throughout their school career documents both academic and academic progress and career exploration and help students connect what they learn in school to life after graduation. So, we're prior under the Tasmanian chapter 339. Um, and it just truly focuses or helps to prepare students for career readiness and not just make sure. So, these um activities are included through smart futures world of work along with reflections to help them understand their interest strengths, possible career paths and then over
034time hopefully um identify future career goals. It also assists in course selection and then it concludes with our senior X interview where students demonstrate readiness by discussing their experiences, goals and plans for postsecary education training or so. One of the components within the 339 plan is a program calendar which gives a month-by-month breakdown of the guidance services and guidance programs that are offered throughout the school year and like said not just in terms of what comes out of the guidance office but all the programming that um teachers bachelors offer that kind of hit that those career standards um you know that we're required to have. [clears throat] So um if you look at the that plan you'll see that calendar much structure of the lesson to small groups individual planning individual class that's offered um
035they all meet the standards that are required at the state level. Um and then how we decide kind of on our programming what offers you can vary year to year [clears throat] needs of the students on the students from the teachers that we know of um kind of [clears throat] our offerings for what we hope has impact on the students um through this plan that our education and career programming is on them have awareness this is K through 12 be prepared um for you kind of what's out there as together changes. So we can't say, you know, this is going to be what's available to you, what's going to change. So our program and our offerings to change with that. We want to make sure our students um are emotionally ready for whatever comes next.
036That's developmentally [clears throat] age appropriate. So you know what we do at the elementary level and level different level. We want to strengthen their academic organization for study and the readiness. So looking at how do I become a better student whether it's you know for schooling for looking at the the workforce looking at college like how do I become more prepared for whatever the requirements are going to be for my career path um and again just a clear pathway [clears throat] to work whenever comes after high school meeting every student's different so their paths are going to be different so we need to make sure that we're kind of meeting the students where they're at and not preparing everyone for you know a one one thing because we the right. >> Now, we'll get into
037the highlights for each of our buildings. Um, at Patterson and Biz, I know um you see some pictures there. You saw a couple of pictures from Mr. Argast presentation ribbon week and the like. We teach so many different things to try to help them. Mr. Aras talked about the first point in the world of work foundations. Our teachers have not like like we mentioned before this is a whole school thing. It's not just four of us. It's the whole school and they really have bought into Ryas world of work. They've done a really nice job. The kids love it. They love the presentations. They love all the different things that are going on. We also do a lot of other career exploration. We talked about a little bit with Smart Futures. We start smart futures
038off with these kids in elementary school. So much of it is tied into risecure surveys that are based under the same um principles um in the early foundations of um smart futures. Kids seem to love it. They enjoy it. We also have our career days every year. This year will be a regular career day in March at both Patterson and at Biz. Um we do our other career days in March as virtual career day next year. um which ties also with car costume day and then I always save it till May when it's hopefully career fair. We have a lot of special lessons that go on to as far as with social um interactions, social lesson, social skills. I really emphasize that it's so necessary at this level. We should be getting a long program
039in kindergarten with the kiddos to learn the basics. There's a lot of coping skills we're working with with these kids. And when you get mad, you get upset, you're sad, how you handle, what are you going to do? And then of course the coping skills to tie into anger management. Um, currently doing something called zones of regulation, which is basically recognizing in your heart. Okay, I'm getting mad. I'm getting nervous. I'm really unhappy. But and then the other last part is the collaboration with parents through career activities. Okay. I even had a parent contact me this week who's doing career day and say, "Hey, how about uh are you guys still doing stuff as far as reading across America?" So, a lot of the things that we're doing in other areas, you know, they're connecting
040in to all pathways in the academic realm at the elementary level. the middle school level. Some added to our smart future program which we talked about already. Um again that's K to 12 but we spotlight that at the middle school level of work. Um we talked about that a few times tonight. Um we have a speaker coming in next week to talk with our seventh eighth graders. Um so we've been doing that bringing in professionals kind of give that person experience that you know oneonone experience where students kind of learn more about different creative opportunities that are out there. Um we do some post post middle school planning do some high school transition. So there's middle school there's a couple big kind of transition years where the fourth graders come to fifth grade whether the
041sixth graders go to seventh grade when they have that true middle school experience our eighth graders are moving on to the high school. So we do a lot especially the eighth grade year to get them ready for the high school level. Um and again we provide those academic support for well our students and this year through our positive behavior schoolwide positive behavior plan we really focus on social development which is crucial that development and then um at the high school some of the highlights for freshman seminar 0.25 credit based course um for our freshman that we schedule all of them into for their first semester. This helps with just adjusting to high school. They have some lessons organization, opportunities to work one-on-one with their teachers. And then this is also where we integrate our smart
042future lessons. Um during that time postsecondary thing we hold our annual career fair at the high school every fall which hosts over 50 colleges, universities, um military branches, places of work, trades and then uh we also hold financial aid nights to assist families with filling out the FASA or planning financial aid for postsecary um plans. And then those financial aid evenings are in collaboration with FIA. And then our senior exit interviews, which I mentioned previously, this is just a really great day for our seniors to showcase their accomplishments during their time at at Black Rock and um just showcase their future plans in front of a panel. So this also allows opportunity for them to brush up and practice interviewing skills and receive some feedback from their teachers. And it's one of the things that
043I oversee um with a co-sponsor and it's one of my favorite days of the year. It's also one of a lot of the staff overseen the days of the year just to see you know everything come to fruition with these students and um where they plan to go with their next steps. And then the students assistant student assistance program helps identify and assist students in overcoming any barriers to learn. So the next steps will be to review updates on our chapter 35 plan and make sure that's good. Um we do talk to all the other stakeholders, community members, um teachers, staff to to get improvement or suggestions or updates with the guy's plan and we want to continue aligning the state district's priorities. Do you guys have any questions or anything for us today? Thank
044you guys. Very nice job. So fun fact through 12 8 through 12 guidance plan and the chapter 339 plan same thing different terminology um from just different times when it has come out. Um so sometimes educational jargon gets mixed up that way but that may just want to point that out. All right, item 2.4. We're going to have a financial presentation from Turnley and Associates. Thanks for my name. Currently, I'm partners. Since I do annually, I like to meet with the board over the results of the most recent audit this year for the 24 25 fiscal year. Uh I in front of all of you seeing a back of the actual report itself front cover after the front cover I put a a document there. I'll ask you to follow along with me this evening.
045Uh it's basically an answer letter that summarizes the highlights of the audience analysis. That's the one called uh firstly before I just want to comment about the overall annually we issue school district opinion the independent auditor's opinion on results of the audit. this year similar to this prior year what is known as an unmodified opinion the old days they used to call the clean and basically what that means is that the information contained in the body have a report is presented in conformity with the rules and regulations of our profession and there are no departures so lay terms that's a good [clears throat] thing that's type of report that you want to be able to send any third party agency request audit especially the bonding agencies who break your bond on an annual basis. find
046this board jump back into this management letter and again as I go through this if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask um on the first page and for the most part this presentation I'll be talking about the largest fund lot of money in the district main operating fund is the general fund on the first page I give you a fiveyear history of the general fund's overall fund balance or the remaining any concerns heading into the next fiscal year. So when you look at the last two calls or two rows, you can see that the final fund balance as of 6325 is 5,923,000 roughly the same as last fiscal year about $130,000 increase. Keep in mind this is the overall general fund balance. I want to talk about the component parts of that
047fun balance. When you turn to page two, [clears throat] the first component of that overall fund balance is known as the unassigned. And just by its very name, unassigned basically means it's of that overall fund balance. This is the amount that the district uh has available for general operating expenditure going into the next f this year not reserved for any particular purpose. So you can see that number as of the end of 630.5 2,80,000. The reason this number is important is because the state looks at this number annually and determines from a percentage standpoint what this number is percentage of your overall general fund budget and that's the year you're in. So we do the calculations for the board in that first paragraph and this number 2,80,000 is approximately 6.4% of the budget in the
048current year the 2526 year. Why is that percentage important? Two things. If you have your own fund balance policy here in the district and that fund fund balance policy says this kind of sign fund balance that percentage should be no less than 3% and no more than 8%. So you can see at 6.4 you're in compliance with your own fund balance policy. But just as important if not more important is the states threshold rule. The state says when you have a budget the size of black that you unassigned ballots, if you ever wanted to raise [snorts] your millage above and beyond the annual index that the state gives all school districts on an annual basis, you ever had to raise your mill beyond that, you have to pass a budget whereby this unsigned number is
049at or below 8% in your budget. And as you can see at 64% you're being conforming with the state's regulation with regard to that threshold requirement. You know we get a question a lot what's a good fund balance what's a good overall fund balance what's included assigned fund balance there's an organization in our profession it's government finance associated GFA and they study a number of financial aspect of government organizations but one is fun and what they like to see is for an unassigned fund balance this is not always achievable based on PE mandates things of that nature they would to see you have in around on average two months of expenditure general fund expenditure to be around. So again in that second paragraph I do math for the board and you can see that calculation
050is about 7.8 million. So that's what they look for balance. The problem with the GFO formula bill is they don't take into consideration that 8% mand so I like to look at uh their recommendation compared to your total fund balance and so they're at seven 7.8 8 million. If you look back at the first page, you see the overall fun. They're below their target bill for that just for informationational purposes. I have schools that are much below that figure. I have schools that are well over that figure, but although depends on the annuality needs and every school district is different. I just wanted to put it in perspective for the Black Rock School. Now, I've been talking about one component of the overall fund balance. The other largest component is the assigned component. At the
051very bottom of page two, I just give you a breakdown of what you have um as as managers have assigned a portion of your general fund balance 3 million for debt service cyber charge development. So those are monies that are earmarked for particular purposes not necessarily available for general operating uh costs going forth in the upcoming fiscal year. Still staying with the general fun page three I give you a fiveyear history revenues at the top and the expenditures at the bottom of the school district and you can see the last two fiscal years we've had a pretty large increase in revenues compared to the other three years. So I've ask both of those last years just for the state of the board. Um for this first current year you see the increase of 3.6 million
052in the second asteris I just noted the board there for that increase in revenues. One was um and the most significant one was 1.8 8 million that actually came in house. As you may recall, you had known as internal service, but you may have had your own medical dental vision plan in house district and then subsequent to that committed to another health insurance consortium and you had excess money left those funds at 1.8 million and that money was transferred into the general fund close. Uh so that was kind of a windfall of money that became available inhouse to the district and as you'll see when we talk about expenditures it was provenly turned around and transferred to a capital project fund to the tune of $1.9 million. So that was uh that was a win-win
053for the district with regard to that. The other notable increase in revenues uh you would receive ready to learn foundation fund which was due for this year 24 25 years to the tune of about 750,000. So those were the two main reasons for the increase in revenues. When you drop to the bottom, you look at the expenditures. Again, the last two years, you see an increase in expenditures and the percentage. Uh with that, I put a first again revenue to explain that in the most recent year, the $2,789,000 increase. If you turn to the top of page four, I just give you an explanatory note why that was the one with the two [clears throat] that I just referred to. Uh the main reason for that increase was once you got that internal service fund
054money transferred into the general fund and then as I said an improvement they transfer that to an another inhouse fund capital project 1.9 million which obviously now be available for the board if they need necessary for capital projects uh in need here in the school. So fun. Um, another area I like to look at is how you did budget versus actual uh for both revenues and expenses. And these numbers might be a little skinned this year because of those two items money coming into the internal service fund and then going back out with general funds. Those were unbudgeted uh numbers and they were significant. So you might expect budget first action but general fund actual revenue is the first bullet point uh exceeded budgeted revenues by 3.9 billion uh and I give you the reason
055underneath that and the most significant you can see it's three. insurance fund, but you did well in local being over budget. Those are your taxes and your state source subsidies, one of which I talked about the reason for overall increase. So that all makes sense why we need budget in that particular area. The second goal we're going to talk about expenditures in this particular case tax expenditures exceeded by the re the main reason for that as I mentioned it's the 1.9 billion that was transferred to the general capital project which was unbudgeted but it was offset again that funal service so again I [clears throat] just wanted the board to understand that budget for that smaller fun which is important on page five of the food service operations. I give you a look at the
056last two fiscal years. If you look at the second [clears throat] line under that table change acquisition system profit loss year and you can see this year a $235,000 gain as compared to $187,000 last year. for this year class and the main areas that go into that excess revenue over expenses I list below and they'll they'll be reaching quite excess revenue maybe more than last year your food operating uh revenue money charged students almost the same as last year not not too much of a notable change operating expenses were down by about 65,000 and federal and state subsidies they down about 31,000. So the difference when you factor those funds is why your profit is supposed to be increased from last year to this. And once again, these are all numbers, not a lot of
057detail, the purpose of seeing. Uh those of you that have been on the board uh have heard me say in the past in your audit report in addition to these deposit money that I've been talking about general fund capital project food service fund governmental standards require [clears throat] you almost have another set of financial statements within that audit somewhat similar to a corporate balance sheet and unlike the general fund the other funds where we look at it on annual basis budget an annual basis This corporate balance sheet takes into consideration all of your buildings, all of your property, all your equipment, vehicles, things of that nature, and [clears throat] also takes into consideration the long-term debt that you have to have. But most not notably all school districts are required to include in that corporate
058balance sheet. Three items of debt that are calculated not by us but by actuarial firms that are a liability on all school districts but are not offset by an asset like bondage bond buildings. These are liabilities require addition on that corporate balance sheet. I just wanted you to see the three most notable ones where I have pension. I know we have a lot of teasers that the Pennsylvania state employ,283. Once again, this is a projection in time. U postmployment benefits for health and then the district's ter obligation. Those were like your collective bargaining agreements that you promise to pay certain health benefits after the person retires. Those are significant benefits. And the good thing about these is it's not something that you have right for $44 million. This is just an act tells you over
059time. This is the build up of that obligation that will need to be paid over time. And again, the good thing about all three of these is you're funding them annually when you do your budget for significant pension cost every year toward reducing this comment at the bottom of page five or comments that I've made to the board in the past. Just recommendations to the board to consider um be your leisure. Um I think for the most part those are the highlights of the audit report. Um, if anyone have any questions or they have any as always, thank you for which members everybody questionnaires or samples questionnaires answer your superintendent your solicitor comes into play legal action for district and most importantly your business office and her staff work very closely with on an annual
060basis. We work hard with them and we need their help making sure that the accuracy accuracy. [snorts] >> Thank you very much. Any questions? >> Thank you. Thanks. >> We'll move along to item 2.5. We have um our student representative, Paige Bren. Um for the high school, the girls basketball team just won their game. Just won their game the other day and they're currently undefeated in their game in their regular season before they go to playoff day. Um NHL have moved to the end of the month on Wednesday at 6 days coming up and it's 21st cycle and today middle school a bunch of students partnered up with the national junior in middle school and they watched a film about about African American women named Jus and I'm sorry please please ignore her name who
061had to overcome many challenges throughout her her academic and career and And then after the movie, we were able to participate in a Zoom call with with her. Wow. And asked a bunch of questions and that was really cool to see. And then after Zoom call, they participated in several exercises including different people and access. >> Thank you very much. Do we have a superintendent update this? >> Um, not very much to update. I just want to thank everyone who presented. Mr. Argos, um, Dr. Houston, all of our school counselors did a phenomenal job with that. H, you always do a great job. Thank you for our auditors as well. Um, so that's Thank you. Good. Thank you. All right, moving along to 3.1. Blackhawk takes great pride in our students achievements and in the
062extracurricular opportunities available across all grade levels. For the most up-to-date information on school happenings, please visit your school's website. And I did not see that there was anyone who had signed up for any kind of uh public comment on our agenda items. So, we move along. No report for PSBA. Um any report for Beaver County Career and Technology? Mr. >> Report >> Beaver Valley Intermediate Unit. Mr. Vangelen is not here and I don't believe he's given anyone a report. Um, all right. We'll go on to the approval of minutes 7.1. I'd like to make a motion to approve the board meeting minutes for January 15th, 2026 voting session. May I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any oppose? >> Okay. Motion passes. All right. Mr. Sh finance. So,
063it looks like I got a long It's all finance tonight other than all the presentations by the administrators. So, um I'm going to give you the microphone to talk about um the first one, Aaron. Uh and that is the topic of charter school tuition rates. You got a couple comments. >> Okay. So this year, as part of the state budget, PTE made some revisions to their form 363, which is the district's calculation for charter school tuition rates. Um they added some deductions and changed some things. So it benefits a lot of districts um across the state and it makes it more fair for what we're paying to these charter schools. um based on what we pay to educate our students and then what they require to educate students through the the charter school. The biggest
064change was in the cyber charter um because they don't have the facility the infrastructure that normal districts do. They allowed us to deduct a lot of our building costs um that previously had not been allowed as deductions. So, the biggest change that we saw was in our special education cyber charter rate. Uh, that dropped about $4,000. There were small deductions in the others. The regular the non-special education student rate for cyber charters dropped about $1,800 [clears throat] to $2,000 per student per year. So all told, given the enrollment that we currently have in the district, it's going to save us about $80,000 this year. It is retroactive to the beginning of the year. So the payments that we've been making uh were overpaid for some of these schools, but I sent in our new form
065that'll be posted on PTE's website. As soon as they post it, the cy the cyber and brick and mortar charter schools will update their records and the invoices will reflect the new rate once that gets posted by PTE. They have not posted it yet. I just checked the other day. So hopefully that happens soon. I am looking at the invoices that come in. So we're not going to be in a situation where we're overpaid for the year. I I won't let that happen. Um so good news. public savings. You may have any questions. >> It is good news. I'm I'm glad that that has occurred. >> And I know the governor um has proposed some additional reform to this process again in his address just this week. Uh so we'll see what happens when the
066budget gets passed. Thanks Aaron. Hey, and so next I wanted to just highlight some other very good news that we have uh in the form of many grants that we have been uh we have received to the district. I'm not going to get into uh all the details of all of them, but I just wanted to call them out because it really is uh awesome that we get this support from all these different organizations. So the first one is the Beaver County Educational Trust. Um there were several mini grants uh donated and I also wanted to highlight that usually in order to um get these grants it requires effort by um the teachers and the administration to you know basically submit right they have to submit like a plan for what they want to do.
067They granted these funds. So um I think it's awesome that we take advantage of those programs and I want to thank the Beaver County Educational Trust. Um the next one is agency by design. Um that is a very nice grant for $2,200. Um Alliance Church um donated uh or gave us a grant for uh the Blackhawk High School Clothing Closet um and the Greyel Foundation. So we we get um this is another grant from the Greyel Foundation for reimagining the high school little bed grant for $1,000. Um in addition to that did we want to table 8.6 still >> we did yes if we could I you know uh look at 8.6 there is a typo on that u so that will be up for your uh review on the uh our next meeting but
068I would recommend tableabling that if possible. So, are we including that in the consent item to approve it next week or will we just review it and then >> I would um pull out 8 I would pull out 8.6 um and you can go 81 through 810 minus 8 cents and um we would revisit that next week. >> So, just it wouldn't be a voting item from tonight. >> Correct. Right. Right. [clears throat] Uh, and the rest of these are just um audit reports and financial reports. Aaron, [snorts] did you have anything [clears throat] you wanted to say about any of that? So, >> okay. So, should are we are we going to do full I guess we're not full consent. So, uh, I will make a motion to add the approval of items 1
0698.1 through 8.5 and 8.7 through 8.10 to the February 19th voting session. We don't need to approve anything. >> Do we have a second for that motion? >> I'll second. >> Mr. Zachitz. All right. Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? [clears throat] Motion passes. All right. Uh nine, we have a human resources report and an updated Marter's driver's list. U Mrs. Smith is not here this evening. So, we will go ahead and and uh make a motion to approve per personnel consent items 9.1 and 9.2. May I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Seconded by Mr. Wisner. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes. And then we have um items 10.1 and 10.2 two and I will ask um Dr. Vanat if she'd like to make
070any comment on any of those. >> Certainly. So 10.1 is our K12 guidance plan parenthesis chapter 339 plan. Um this is on um the agenda as Dr. Houston mentioned um for 28 days on public display. It'll go on our website. It will also um be in in central office for public display for that time. Um there are various there. Um Dr. Dr. Houston and I were saying, well, there's the um the the pretty presentation and then there's the state the state form as well. So, if there are any questions on that, you know, I feel free for anybody to reach out and ask. I'll do the best that I can. Our school counselors also can assist with those questions too. Um, and then the program of studies, uh, Mr. Ford, if you want to speak
071to any aspect of that. >> Absolutely. Good evening everyone. the program studies I like to think of it's our unit for our kids for next year um we have worked through it until today Dr. And I said I said singular. She says it's singular. So we did make that adjustment on this one. So I think we'll continue to think mislabeled. We get that taken care of. Um there'll be minor changes in the program study this year but we are working with Point Park University and I think this might piggy back on this in a second that we do know right now we have three more additional college and high school classes that are going to be accredited. We still have that final class um child development with the parish um cat 2 in our teched
072world and a Spanish for we have already been approved but we still have some other classes that are in the approval process through point. So this is going to be very similar to last year. This time we didn't think our physics AP physics one or physics 2 or CHS by the time we got to school they went through the accreditation process about that. So the teachers are aware students about scheduling they will be aware that it would be CHS optional for them. It just won't say that in a bit. It's pretty neat that now push us to 17 CHS classes and with a couple more later we might get closer to 20. um for our kids. That's that's really the big change. Nothing set in stone. Um this is the start of our scheduling process.
073Once the kids get out, once we get the numbers out of public departments, guidance from Dr. Nativity to figure out what classes we will offer for the 26th 27th school year, it's kind of exciting. It's kind of nerve-racking because it's a busy time of the year. Um high school actually, Mrs. dance. She says that the first thing to be done was scheduled by May 1st before testing starts. She is raising test. So honorable that we have teacher schedules done and student schedules done hopefully by the time they leave for the summer break this year. Does anyone have any specific questions that I can potentially answer now? And I do apologize. Come on, man. So we are working in in very preliminary stages with Point Park. Um Dr. Vanata had an amazing connection there. We had
074a meeting with them and they in another district in the area they have a teacher academy where uh students who want to be teachers take lots of college in the high school that they've approved. uh they do some virtual learning and then they graduate from their high school, go to Point Park and become a certified teacher in two years. So, they're very interested in starting that with us or in Beaver County perhaps if we don't have enough students. But, um again, just really open to college and the high school. We've sent them a bunch of classes. Uh it's the high school teachers have been phenomenal in getting that ready. They all had to submit a resume, which was really fun. We've had some uh fun making resumes. Um, thankfully our teachers don't have active resumes.
075That's a good sign, but I just want to thank Mr. Ford and the staff for their cooperation. I think it's going to be a great partnership. So, interestingly enough, um this opportunity came about and I I thought about it from a student who's now at Gettysburg College during her senior exit interview mentioned that you know what can we do to further collaborate and help our students who want to become teachers in CHS classes and things. So, I was thinking about this and then I happened to be at a workshop with uh someone who works at Point Park pitched this idea and the professor and now assistant dean, I believe she is now said, "Oh, well, we're doing this at another another school. Let's chat about this." And that's how this evolution came about. So, thank
076you the two of you for for getting it off the ground as much as you did. Great job. >> Thank you very much. All right. All right. So, I'd like to make a motion to add education item 10.2, Lockhawk High School program of studies for 2026 2027 to the agenda for the February 19th building session. May I have a second? >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Shopee. Any discussion? [clears throat] Hearing none. >> This is >> Yes. Um, I just wanted to clarify that the motion was that it would be pending the minor typo or corrections. >> Yes. >> For next week. >> Correct. Yes. So, the pro Yes. Will be pending. Mr. Ford already made that correction, but if if the board approves >> I just thought maybe we should add that to the motion.
077Thank you. >> Thank you. So that has been the correction has been made on his end, but we couldn't um we couldn't make the correction on the agenda because it was already public. So if the motion could be whatever you choose to vote pending the modification to to the typo. >> Do I need to restate it or are we a good idea? So uh I'll make a motion to add education item 10.1 uh to the agenda pending the revision of the title. Okay. >> 10.2. Sorry. That was my own type. That was actually a typo on here. We won't go there. >> Right. >> Um for the February 19th, 2026 voting session. Could I have a second on that again? >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Ch. Any discussion now? Hearing none. All in favor? >>
078Any any opposed? >> The motion passes. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Klein. >> Oh, you're welcome. Thank you, Mrs. Bricker. or Dr. Schmer. Okay. Items 11.1, 11.2, and 11. Yeah, 11.1, 11.2. Uh Dr. Vanat, if you'd like to speak to either of those. >> Certainly. So, we work with the prevention network uh contracted services to help um with various aspect training for our staff um and mental health services with our students as well. Uh their contracted services fortunately is funded by a PCCD grant. Um, so this is just the um contracting services for the 2627 school year. >> Thank you very much. So I'd like to make a motion to add support services support services consent items 11.1 and 11.2 to the agenda for the February 19th, 2026 voting session. May I have a
079second for that? >> All right. Thank you, Mr. McMillan. Um, any discussion? Okay. >> Hearing none. All in favor? Okay. Any opposed? All right. Motion passes. All right. We are on to uh 12. Athletics and activities. Mr. Wisner. >> Okay. Um so there's three field trips. Uh the baseball field trip, district band field trip, western orchestra field trip, and uh sponsorship amounts for the uh school board media. Uh yeah, I'd like to make a motion for to add uh athletics and activities consent items 12.1 to 12.5 to the agenda for the February 9th, 2026 February 19th, 2026 voting session. >> Do I have a second? >> No, I'll second. >> Thank you, Mr. Zeus. All right. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor? I >> Any opposed? All right. Motion passes. 13. Buildings and
080grounds. Mr. Zachitz. >> No report. >> Uh policy. Mr. Wire. We have a school wellness revision policy. Just brings the school district up with current state recommendations. Dr. I didn't know if there was any specifics of that that you thought important to go into. >> Sure. Um, so we have a school wellness policy. Uh, we've had this for quite some time and we just want to make sure that we bring it up to PSVA um code with that. So there's a lot of markings in there. Um, it goes back a few years, but um, we just want to make sure we do our due diligence and um, make sure that it's it's up to date there. >> It looked like it was pretty straightforward. So, so I'd like to make a motion to approve the
081first read of policy 246, school wellness. >> Is there a second? >> Thank you, Mr. McMillan. Any discussion? >> Okay. All in favor? >> Any any opposed? >> A motion passes. All right. Um 16. Any public comment on non-aggenda items this evening? All right, school directors. >> Yeah, I just had a quick comment. I know we've already had a really long meeting, so I don't want to be lengthy about it, but um I do appreciate the long presentations and in-depth presentations by all the administration and seeing the amount and u I mean it's really hard to wrap your head around all the stuff that we have going on here throughout our entire population. Um, I certainly also very much appreciate all the college and high school additions that we have made. Um, and I I
082for those of you who have younger kids someday you will really really appreciate that. Um, those of us many of us here have kids that are in college who are uh greatly benefiting from that and uh anything you know the whole school program or future teacher program thing sounds fantastic. So I do I know there's a lot of work that goes into just putting these presentations and slides and stuff together. So I I do u think that that is a testament to you know how much work we put into everything we do here. So I really appreciate it. >> Okay. >> Thanks. >> Thank you Mr. Shep. Anyone else? >> All right. I just want to say thank you um to all of our staff, our administration for all of the hard work last week.
083That was a challenging week that we had with um with the weather and related events. But most especially, I'd really like to thank our building and grounds crew. I learned that they, you know, Sunday when we were all kind of enjoying that snowstorm, they were out plowing our school that day, our schools, and I that was a lot for them to come out that day when the weather was so bad and for them to have done it, I think two or three times that day. And that's just really appreciated all that work. So Darren, please pass on our thanks and thanks to you as well for for for all of that hard work. Okay, anyone else? All right. Our next meeting is February 19th, 2026. That'll be a voting session. And do I have a
084motion to adjourn the meeting? >> A second. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Whisner. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. >> Thank you. Good. [clears throat] Ask really good questions.