001Good. How about you? >> Be really unfortunate. >> Gosh, it's just one thing I just don't want to try to >> last until I got here. Do you have allergies much >> saying like these weather changes? dog. >> He doesn't have a ton of allergies. He was for like a week he was like sniffing when it got warm like those couple days. >> I used to get nose bleed a lot when I was >> Oh, really? I think just being dry, dude. Sorry. Maybe. Good evening everyone and welcome to the January 15, 2026 regular voting session of the Blackhawk School Board of Directors. Mr. Van, would you please call role? Mrs. Klein >> here. >> Mr. McMillan here. >> Mr. Sh >> here. >> Mr. Smith >> here. >> Dr. Sprinker >> here. >> I'm
002here. Mr. Wire >> here. >> Mr. Wner >> here. >> And Mr. Zachitz >> here. >> You have nine of nine. >> Thank you very much. At this time, would you please stand and say the pledge of alle I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. There was an executive session prior to tonight's meeting and we'll move on to the solicitor's report. >> Uh, no report this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you. We'll move on to the second section of our agenda this evening, our administrator superintendent update and 2.1 a finance update. Please go a little out of order if we may. Um we're going to swap down real quick to recognitions because
003I think we have a few recognitions. So for this certainly so we're going to swap down to recognitions because we have quite a few here this evening for that recognition. Um so if we may I think is going to kind of help to facilitate this. For those of you who may not be aware January is um school board director recognition month and um I always like to try to do something a little individual and special for our school school board directors. It's not always the easiest job. Um, they volunteer their time, their service. They serve on a variety of committees. Um, not always, you know, to to their knowledge, they they get there's other committees that pop up here and there. Um, so I appreciate their time. The district appreciates their time and their guidance.
004So, thank you everyone uh for all that you do. So um we have a small token of appreciation this evening um and some students to give that token of appreciation. Um so however you would like to start Mrs. Bernie help us out with that. Um and thank you so we all see it's kind of service that matters. So spoke to you each and every day. >> So obviously so if you could introduce yourself um and obviously you were giving it to to Mark. So >> my name is McKenna. >> Hi McKenna. >> And I believe you have some relation right to him. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So your father it's your father. So when you come up, if you could um just state your name and which schoolboard director you are giving to and maybe
005the name of the book. We'll find a theme here this evening. So, >> I do not have a relationship other than talks, shorts, long talks and talks. You listen, you learn. You all talk or talks small talks talks that we make choices for school teach for all that you do for the time moment. also has Mr. Wires for Mr. Wire where you need us here where you meet us with kindness and show that you care. You meet us in meetings you meet us at school. You make your decisions to help as a whole. You try and you try when the works tough. You don't give up when they say this. Well, we like what we do. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And about that. soon. No matter how small your voice is and stand
006up for kids and share that promise and follow that many people. I like this. My name is Okay. You know, >> do you actually And that's your dad. You speak for our kids. You speak for the wild. Your thoughts grow and listen. You care about our schools. Each choice that you make, you think of the future in every step. Like reminds us and you show us daily. So here is this book with a thank you for caring for kids and all that. This is by Dr. Good job. One board member, two board member. Thank you for 18 board member listening. You know, schools succeed. You make great decisions to guide us. Some days, some days they're wrong. But you keep going. You keep us strong. So here's a small thank you for caring for kids
007from one child to childish with appreciation. Excuse me. us again. We believe in our future again. I show and I hat the captain change of life. We're here to thank you. We help our schools. We guide with care. We make big choices that are always there. Some days are tricky. Some days are fun. We work for the kids till the day is done. So here for all we do to make our schools. >> Very good job. away. That's true. We don't know anything about this. So, just pause and we'll >> we will Yeah, we'll go back. We'll return back to it. >> Okay. >> Oh, this would be typical of my life. We will return. >> They got the email. I will say that they got the email >> and and specific conversation. >> It's
008it's it's all good. >> We'll get there. So, um, at that point, um, I believe you do have a finance update. We can switch back around to that. Um, but was there any other aspects that we wanted to discuss before finance update? Um, >> I think, um, >> I think we can move into that. >> Okay. want to allow people to leave if they would like or >> of course any of the any of the students who came. You're more than welcome to go. We thank you so much for doing that. Obviously, we had a Dr. Seuss theme. >> That was really cute. >> Um the uh board members have a harder copy, a card stock copy of their poems um based to your specific book um in a folder right right in front of
009your seat um if you you know care to to do anything with them. But thank you guys for coming out in this very very cold day. Ah, you're right up front and center. My name is um I start with you. I thank you for caring caring for leading the way for helping our schools get better each year. You journal it all from tiny ideas to plans that stand tall. So here thank you inside our dream of future because we circus care for child care for every child and seek help. Thank you buddies. >> Perfect. Excellent. >> Thank you everyone. >> Sure. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Would you like to come in? >> Yes. Right. >> Yes. It Yes. So if any of you would care to care to go, you're more than welcome to
010do so. Um, Levi, you're to leave now if you want. So, thank you guys. This is Leo. All yours. >> Okay, here we are. January 2026. Just a quick overview tonight for the board and and the public here. Talk about our audit next year and the budgets for next year. for our audit. We did complete the audit finance side. Um I filed the AFR in November which is the unofficial extended deadline. So we did meet that deadline. Um the auditors are finishing up and they'll be here next month to present. Um, we had a surplus of about $130,000 which was compared to our budgeted loss of $840,000. The big drivers of that surplus, you can see here it's mostly on the revenue side. We had um the healthcare account closures which was about $1.8 million.
011We offset that with that transfer to the capital fund of 1.9 million. So other than that, we had higher than anticipated tax income, $900,000. Our subsidies came in $400,000 over. Um the subsidies for social security and retirement were high by 600,000. The ready tolearn grant, we had that adequacy, the first round of the advocacy funding, we almost 400,000. We had positive interest income 260,000 and then some of the other things that were in the budget did not come through um access plan on safe schools grants those are all estimates obviously I was not here to do the 2425 budget so I'm not sure what went into some of those numbers but overall it worked out where we had the positive um outcome. Some of the misses on the expenditure side was in CTC tuition that
012was off by half a million. Cyber charter tuition 230,000 uh private tuition for regular education those are some of the placements that we have throughout the year uh 135,000 and then tuition for our special education students. So those were the the big misses on the expense side, but overall positive outcome and that good news for the district over the year. The forecast for this year is looking positive. Um we're going to look at these columns here separate columns. So the first column projected revenue. We're looking at about 45.3 million in projected revenue compared to our budget of about 44. So we are looking to have $1.3 million over in revenue. Most of that is in two areas. The ready tolearn block grant. The state came through with a really big advocacy adjustment this year. We
013got an additional 630,000. Um I think when we talked toward the end of last year we were looking, you know, maybe that was 400,000. We ended up with 600. So that's great news. Really positive for the district. Real estate taxes are also coming in. Our collection rate is higher than we had budgeted for. So that is good news. Couple other smaller ones. Just wanted to let you know that we did get a little bit more on the basic education and special education subsidies. Those we always budget at the current year actuals. So when the state budget came through finally in November um we did end up with about $100,000 more between those two and then we're doing that round of interest income again this year. Now the middle column is our expense side. This is
014very very very very high level. I don't want anybody to hold me to this number because it is so hard to predict at this point in the year. We're only halfway through. Um, I am showing it's a little bit higher than what we budgeted. Um, that $318,000 miss, that's 7%. So, it's not it's not anything extreme. It's not anything that is going to really hurt us at this point. It will become more refined as we go on in the next couple of months. um February is typically when we cut off spending. So we'll have much more accurate numbers after that happens and we get all of our requisitions in from from those holders. So then in the third column, this is just looking at the net projected surplus. So we are looking right now at
015a surplus of about $200,000. Our budget deficit, if you'll remember, was about 770. So that swing is $980,000. That $980,000 is basically your ready to learn block grant increase and the real estate taxes. So all else be equal, we are about where we said we would be. Just a look at our 2627 budget timeline. In January, we're doing our our board update. Uh we have the act one resolution on the agenda tonight to be approved and we are going to be conducting department budget reviews this month. We'll be back again next month to give you more information. Um and we'll just keep working on the budget until we get it to where we need it to be. Again, the dates in May and June that uh are important votes for the board. May 7th for
016the proposed and June 11th for the final. The act one index, I think we mentioned this before, the base rate for 2627 is 3 and a.5%. Our adjusted rate is 4.7. So, we cannot increase the tax rate by more than 4.7%. That's part of that act one resolution that we'll be approving tonight. Um, that's our max. That means that the maximum millage for next year would be 11.1851 for Beaver County and 24.3259 for Lawrence County. It's important to note that our assessed value for the county um for our district, our assessed value decreased by $35 million year-over-year. That's due to appeals from various residents and corporations within the district. Um you know, after the reassessment, taxpayers have the right to appeal that assessed value. Unfortunately, to this extent, it does hurt us. If we had
017no rate increase, that would mean a loss of $338,000 in tax revenue. A full rate increase would net us an additional 510,000. And then when we talk about increases, we generally now talk in tenth of mills. Um 1/10enth of a mill nets us an additional 170,000 for 2526. I've done a preliminary budget for revenue and it's about 44.9 million. That's a $900,000 increase over last year. Again, um the bulk of that is going to be bringing up the ready to learn block grant with that new adequacy amount to um the new base. So that's a $630,000 and then the potential $500,000 in real estate taxes by decreases in in some other permits. The proposed revenue does include the 4.7% millage increase. Again, those are the rates that we'll be looking at. Um, the expense budget
018is being developed. As I mentioned, we'll be meeting with our department heads and we'll have everything more locked down in February to get a better forecast which will help in the budget process. Anybody have any questions? Awesome. Thanks. >> Thank you, Mrs. Blueorn. At this time, we're going to keep moving out of order a little bit and we're going to move to the student representative report if that's okay with you. Thank you. a lot to talk about because there's a lot going on tonight. Thanks. So starting with our elementary schools with and recently a group of students got a chance to listen games which provides the students with opportunities to join teams and in addition to that we just finished weeks on Tuesday and many students are able to vehicles. And before the break students
019took part in a world of work career exploration activities experiences included visitologist and also student is remaining focused on building Their positive data program TBI TV focuses on working hard to stay positive and be kind. Students continue to recognize their commandments to help many. They are also during the program by establishing school incentives behavior and partnering with NHS in the degree students as a leadership and piece of the program. Then finally with high school this students just finished their first semester of the school year and the next game is Friday. They've also there's also been patients throughout the week including the English and they will not be back until 5 and then looking forward into the next January 28th. That's all. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Lots of great stuff going on. Okay,
020next we're going to do superintendent update and um Dr. Vanetta, as you get started with your um updates for this evening. Um the board has requested that you give an update on the middle school allstars program as well, please. >> Of course. Thank you. >> Of course. >> So, um there are of course a lot of things going on through all of our buildings that Paige um spoke to so well. Um as we're coming back from break, the high school is gearing up for scheduling. um we're going into various aspects of spring. Um but I think that to go into you know details of the allstars um that'll sort of take the the cusp of of my report. So I want to thank you for bringing this up. Um, this has been a topic that
021we've been talking about for the past week or so, and I'm not one to give credence to social media, yet when people bring um specific concerns to our attention, whether that's email, whether that's in person, whether that's via the phone, um, I greatly appreciate it and that gives us the ability to look into that. So, I can't stress that enough. If there is a concern, please, you know, let us know with that. Um the the crux of it is we didn't offer an opt out for a long-standing program and we should have and we have to be better than that and we have to do better than that. Um I'm a mom. I get it. And um that's the lion share. But to kind of go into things a little bit more and provide maybe
022the the wise to that Mrs. Baron and Mr. Possess and I have been talking, you know, a lot about this and if you look at our leadership, and this isn't justification for it, but we have a team that would looked vastly different to three years ago than it does now. And unfortunately, um, leadership transitions in the absence of clearly defined procedures, um, followed systems, uh, create conditions where communication breakdowns and policy violations can occur. And unfortunately that situation um this situation reflects those challenges. You know, you guys know me well enough now um that I have been closely examining how we can strengthen our systems, how we can strengthen our processes and procedures. Um while this is highly regrettable that this has occurred in this capacity, it's actually quite fortuitous and um it provides us
023a great opportunity. We're in the midst of looking at our K12 guidance plan. Um, this is a plan that's due to the state every three years. Um, 2326 was the last time. So, in the spring, we're going to be circling back around. That will be brought to your attention. So, it gives us an opportunity to comprehensively look at all of our programs, all of our systems um, within our K through2 guidance program, their purpose, and how they align with state standards. that then if we follow that plan with fidelity, we know with curriculum cycles, there's a lot of processes that we've been putting into place that should mitigate and ideally prevent situations like this from occurring. Um the allstars program at a glance it's it's been here for about 15 years now and Mrs. Bernie
024will speak to that a little bit more. Um historically an opt out has been given and um the absence of communication appears this year to be the core issue and unfortunately that step didn't occur. Um the oversight's unacceptable and um I sincerely apologize for that lapse and corrective measures have been put in place. They've been implemented to ensure that notifications and these programs um are consistently completed moving forward. we want to talk a little bit more about the program. Mrs. Baron, I think, is prepared to do that and what it is about. Um, and then perhaps Mr. Fusk as well, but I'll kind of turn it over to Mrs. Baron with that. >> Um, so as some concerns arose about the content of the programming, I really wanted to dig into what it was about,
025what our history was with it. Um, and I started with um, Kate Lowry. If you know Kate, she's a a district resident. She's a lovely human being, but she's also in charge of drug and alcohol for Beaver County Behavioral Health Farm. And she's helping. We've had this program since 2010. Uh they have presented it to the board twice, once when it started and then in 2013. Uh Beaver County Behavioral Health receives the grant from the PA Department of Drug and Alcohol Program. All districts are required to provide drug and alcohol education. This was just an opportunity used with them to use their funding. So we don't pay anything for the program. Beaver County Behavioral Health contracts with Keystone Wellness who purchases the Allstar curriculum. So when I looked into the curriculum and I called Keystone
026Wellness for some more specific details, um I was thinking of when I read the questions on the survey and some of them were questions like have you smoked in the last 30 days? Have you used heroin in the last 30 days? So, in my mind, I'm thinking this is a drug in information like this is what a cigarette is. This is what marijuana is. This is the effects. That really isn't what the program is. The program is about choices. And the the unit that they present when they present to districts and they've offered to come and do that. I just want to read to you. It's um lesson three. Uh what does your ideal future look like? How do you reach that ideal future? uh discuss futures you'll strive for and what you will avoid
027and think about how to achieve these futures and then it encourages students to talk to an adult about the future. So there really isn't a lot of drug education. It's more about making choices about that those situations. So I specifically asked about the survey and uh there was a concern that the survey wasn't anonymous and it kind of went back and forth with the woman and he said essentially it isn't anonymous in the fact that they need to match the pre-est and the post test with the student. One facilitator is able to do that. Students given a number. They're given an envelope. That information is destroyed before any of that data leaves black. when they get in the Keystone office, it's just numbered. And the purpose of the survey is twofold. First, they're required to
028provide that information for the state. They have to hold it for three years. They're determining if the Keystone Allstar program changed kids attitudes about these things. The the second aspect is for Keystone or Allstars to determine the efficacy of the program. So, none of this data comes back to Black Lab to say these students are doing this. It's actually kind of difficult to ask to find that historical data. I'm digging into that. I've asked for that um from the company itself. Can we see the historical data of that? But there's no no one here at Blackout gets that. This student answered this or this student answered that. But I do understand and even even the woman at Keystone agreed it is essentially not an anonymous survey in that sense. It's not a blank piece of
029paper that you turn in. You do have to match the pretest and the post test. But she assured me they never see any names in their office. It's just kind of an accounting issue. Um, from there I think the one thing takeaway for me when I consider this program and I've looked at all the correspondence through the years that we've given a big change for us from 2010 to 2015 is we've really learned a lot about trauma and trauma informed practice. And probably what we've said in the past did not adequately meet that need. We need to tell parents that these kids are taking a survey specifically about drugs and alcohol. We have several children that have lost parents to overdoses. We have some children that have lost both their parents to overdoses. So we
030of course want to provide that opportunity to let parents grandparents know that this is the kind of topic so they can allow that. So I think even our past practice of the communication could have been improved because when we know better we do better and I think that we can do better with that communication in the future. >> Thank you. I think that again it's it's always a learning process. The fact that we can you know always do better and we're learning you know through that aspect. Mr. Posus, is there anything that you wanted to add you know to this? >> Yeah thank you. I'd like to address unfortunately I think we regret her and sure last time after the We sent a letter before giving them opportunity to follow any questions concerning anyone still
031has any concerns looking ahead partnership with the building work with them for a potential evening parent presentation so that we set up details to pay for I want to also share that the wellbeing of our students working. >> Thank you very much. Um so I appreciate Mr. J's time looking into this Mr. Puss's time that he's taken. If there are any other questions or concerns that anybody has and feel free we can discuss that now you can speak you know reach out to me individually of course you know same thing with with any parents just to call and if there are questions call you know ask um we can't address it or fix it if we don't know so that's that's the important part so I thank everybody for their time with this and any
032other comments or concerns that we may Thank you guys. >> Uh thank you very much for that update Dr. Vanetta, Mrs. Brown, and Mr. Post. We really appreciate it. >> Okay, let's move on to uh recognitions. Mrs. Fle, >> thank you. Black takes great pride in our students achievements and in the extracurricular opportunities available across all grade levels. For the most up-to-date information on school happenings, please visit your school's website. And I don't believe there was anyone that had signed up for public comment. Um, has anyone changed their mind on any agenda items? >> And u, Mrs. Klein, did we have a PSBA update tonight? >> No, we didn't. >> Okay. Thank you. the Beaver County Career and Psychology. >> There's no report. >> Thank you. >> Beaver Valley Intermediate Unit. Mr. Pench. >> Uh,
033no report yet. >> Thank you. Um, at this time, um, we are going to move into agenda item number seven, which is the full consent agenda. And I would like to move that we move um 8.1 through 15.3 to that open consent agenda for voting purposes. Have a second. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Mr. Zakowitz. Um and at this time, we'll have discussion on any items 8.1 through 15.3. And I'd like to start by um asking for some discussion and see if there's any questions that the board might have for ours regarding the um the the resolution for new horizon section. I know last week that we had shared some feedback, some concerns, some questions that have been clarified over the last over the last week. And so if you could just maybe share
034a little bit more with us about what has been changed or added or clarified in that document so that we understand exactly what we're working on tonight. >> Yeah. So, um, just to make clear to the board and and to the public, uh, this resolution, uh, uh, authorizes or acknowledges that the BVIU, um, is going to be, uh, borrowing money for the new Verizon project. It does not obligate the district to any borrowing. Um, it's simply that the BVIU uh, will be taking out a loan for that project. Um and and that's clearly stated in the resolution and and and and clarified in the language that's in the resolution. >> Um another question regarding that specifically that um that 9.1 um we have been um informed that there have been other finances applied to this
035project or promised to this project. um one for example um the commissioners of Beaver County. So curious as to will that change the borrowing capacity for the BBIU I'm sorry for yeah the BBIU as they move forward. >> Yes, that's correct. And there's language specifically in the resolution stating that you know any uh grants, gifts, donations made towards the project will be deducted uh from the uh amount and from the uh uh contribution of each district towards uh uh their percentage of of costs in terms of the operating budget of value going forward. in terms of uh district participation with regards to monitoring, accountability, decision-m, can you talk to us a little bit about what we can anticipate in February and moving forward for Blackhawk specifically to have representation at the table to talk about
036this project? >> Yes. So there will be an additional resolution related to this project in February for consideration uh by the board of school directors. Um and that again will be a resolution that all the districts like this resolution tonight that all districts in the county will have uh for consideration. And that resolution will be to um uh revive uh the authority that uh owns the New Horizon school. There's a separate authority separate from the BBIU that actually owns the school. Um and in that resolution will be to revive that authority um in order to update the lease with BVIU relative to uh the school. And to just confirm that I'm hearing this correctly, um, Blackhawk would then have a spot at the table on the authority that will be monitoring the building project. >>
037Yes, the authority is is made up of every district in the county um is a member of that authority that um and the authority owns the school. So yes, Black Blackhawk along with other school districts is a member of that authority >> and that would be in addition to our representation on the BBIU board. Be a secondary yes smaller authority. >> It would be separate from our representation on the on the IU board. um it's a separate legal entity uh from that >> and so um board of directors will need to be um thinking about and considering that as we move into February um and to identify um a board member from our team who would like to participate on that because I think it's very important that um we participate with the accountability for
038that project. So be thinking about that as we know next. Okay. Any other questions or discussion on any of the items on the full consent agenda, including that 9.1 resolution? >> Okay. Hearing none, we will move forward with the vote. All in favor? >> Any opposed? HR. Are we okay to keep moving on? >> I just like to congratulate all of the new hires and just welcome them to the team. >> That's great. Thank you. At this time, we'll move on to uh item 16, which is additional business. And at this time, I'd like to invite the public to make any comments on non-aggenda items. 162, this is a time for our school directors to make any comments. 17.1 The next meeting of the Blackhawk School Board of Directors will be on February 5th um
0392026. And at this time, could I please have a motion for journment? >> Thank you. Do we have a second? >> Second, >> Mr. Whistler. All in favor? >> I >> motion carries. Have a great night. So I believe we do this to >> sign it board members.