001There's a lot of costumes. Yeah, I know. I'm sure she's scared. Thank you. [Music] I just press button. So it works. [Music] That's right. Good evening, Blackhawk. Uh, welcome to the May 8th regular work session of the Blackhawk School Board of Directors. We're thankful to have so many people here tonight. At this time, would you please stand and say the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible. Mrs. Klein, would you please call roll here? Mr. Dr. here. Mrs. Manel, Mr. Show here, Dr. here. Mr. Vans, Mr. Wner, Mr. Z here. Five out of nine. Thank you very much. This evening, there was an executive session prior to the meeting to discuss personnel safety and legal matters. Uh, Mr. Shakro, we'll
002turn it over to you for any solicitor's report. I do not have a report, but thank you very much. Thank you for passing the mic. Thank you, Mr. Walker. My only report is that I'm a proud Villanova grad and I know this is a non non uh religious institution but I'm happy to report that the new pope is graduate of so um at this time we will move to the administrators and superintendent update and start with the 2025 2026 budget presentation. We may not start with the 2526 budget presentation. We may circle back around to that. So, we're going to punt, you can go first with our student representative report. Thanks, Aubrey. No problem. Last Friday, May 2nd, the high school watched a presentation by Joel Feldman from the endistracted driving organization. Mr. Feldman emphasized
003the risk of phones and other distractions while driving and answered questions from the students. Tomorrow is prom. Grand March will begin at 5:00 PM and the prom will be taking place at the New Englander in Newcastle. The prom committee and Mrs. Telman have worked super hard putting this event together and I'm sure it's going to be great. Students at Highland participated in the Kits of Steel program. Throughout this program, they met weekly to do exercises, activities, and goal setting. In the end, we had 56 students and family members attend the Pittsburgh Marathon events over the weekend. The eighth graders are taking their annual Washington DC trip this weekend. The trip will have our students experience the Smithsonian Museums, the White House, Kennedy Center, Lincoln, Vietnam, and Korean War Memorials, the Capital Building, and so much
004more. The annual fifth grade outdoor education experience will run next week from Monday to Thursday. Students will travel to Camp Connley for a week filled with fun in the outdoors. The fifth graders always have a great time here, and so do our high school counselors. In the elementary buildings, they have wrapped up kindergarten registration and are excited to welcome in the new students next school year. The fourth graders have been preparing for their transition to the middle school next year in fifth grade by having the fourth grade parade and move up day where they get to visit Highland. In addition, our Patterson second graders will be visiting Biz to meet the third grade students and teachers helping them to prepare for their transition next year. And some fun upcoming events happening at the elementary schools
005are a drum nexus interactive music assembly coordinated by Mrs. Bonar and connected to our world of work program. The third grade wax museum is happening. Field day and the PTO start of summer activities is coming up all this month. So thank you. Thank you very very much. Can I ask you a question as well? Do you know what I'm going to ask you? I think you do. Did you make a decision yet? Yes. I'm going to George Washington University. And your major? Political science. Excellent. Well done. Very good. Thank you. Okay. I think I think that's okay. All right. So, uh, our finance presentation, um, as we go through our budgeting, um, this may be a little redundant for some of you who were here in April, um, but as we go through, I continue
006to whittle away at these numbers. So, um, we have the state aspect. Uh, we also will then go into the current year as well as proposed. All right. So um there has been some talk on the state level regarding charter reform. Um this is something that um we are constantly keeping our eye on and um there I believe that there was conversation at the legislative level or sometime state level. Um today did you there was an education um committee meeting with local folks in Straburg where they were talking about cyber cyber charter reform. tried to watch it, but the YouTube was blocked. So, but hopefully we'll have an update from FASO. Yeah. Tomorrow. Yeah, that that would be great. I know that they've asked various numbers as far as um if you have your own
007cyber charter program, what is the attendance on that? What is your graduation rate on that? Um which is very telling. I like that they're asking those types of questions regarding own districts, how they're responding to students who are choosing that option. um and comparing that to maybe some other um cyers that may not have the successful rates that we have. So, that's good news. Um unfunded mandates. Remember, an unfunded mandate is a requirement um from a state or federal level that requires um districts to take some type of action. Um however, they're not funded. So, this impacts the district um financially. There are approximately 71 unfunded mandates. Um and this is you know a series of those aspects. The state of special education um education special education continues to increase. Um IDA mandated that in
008the mid70s. The federal government did not propose cutting this if you have heard some other news on that. However, you can see that there are significant increases in total expenses um up to 86% um which does hit us. Our special education population is around 19 or 20%. Um so that does uh impact us greatly. Now remember the lesson that we gave last month on you know state and local shares and funding. Um you can kind of find us on this map. Remember, blue is local, green is state, and white is federal. And um we have a little tinge of blue. Um and then we're surrounded by some green. So federal funding, right, that's a relatively small amount for Blackhawk, about 5%. State funding contributes to about 38% national, which is much lower. National average is
009about 48%. And the rest of our funding comes from local, which is about 53%. Now, there are some disparities with this. We talked a little bit about this last month. The reliance on local funding in Pennsylvania creates some disparities between wealthier and poorer school districts. Wealthier districts can generally raise more revenue through property taxes, leading to more substantial funding. Also, districts with thriving business commerce, a business corridor. they don't necessarily have to rely upon homeowners as much for local revenue. And we talked a little bit about Beaver, Montour, West Alagany. Um that is not an area that we have a a very huge, you know, considerable um funding source comparative to the to those other other school districts. So there has been some underfunding. You've probably heard about um the system being criticized for inadequate
010or inequitable funding gaps in Pennsylvania. So in 2023 they said well you need to create a different funding formula. So now we have adequacy funding and adequacy funding is where the state came in and said we will fund additional school districts. We'll give you extra because of this inadequate funding formula that the state indicated that we have. So, Blackhawk does receive adequate funding. But you have to be careful with this because if our millillage is too low, the formula determines that less funding as in theory is needed from the state because the districts can cover those costs internally. So, it's a very fine line that we need to walk with this. Um, I know there are some districts um that receive no advocacy funding. So that brings us to where we are in millillage and
011I'll get to that in one second. But as we get into our local budget and our local millillage, we always want to remember what guides us in making these decisions. We have our mission, we have our vision, and we have our core values. And these are very very important because this is how we make our decisions. What do we want to make sure that we are achieving with our students? What do we want to make sure that they are modeling when they graduate and go off to their post-secary institutions or whatever job or career that they choose to go into? So, our strong partnership benefits our shared community. So, we want to start out we want to thank the board for their collaboration. We have to put a tremendous amount of effort into this budget
012and falling as close as we possibly can with our guidance allowed by PTE. We've made a lot of gains in a pro positive trajectory and continuing to partner. We provide opportunities. How many CHS or AP credits do you have? Do you have any idea? Um probably around like six or seven, I would think, like courses I've taken. Courses that you've taken. Um those are the six or seven courses or six or seven credits. Just curious. Probably courses. Courses. So let's just pretend on average that those six or seven carry two to three credits. It's 18. So that's a semester. Yeah. So you could potentially graduate a semester early for that. I'm sure your mother knows your tuition cost. So that's gonna that's always very helpful. So congratulations again on that. So we are very proud
013of those offerings that we have. So the rankings help us. These accolades that we receive help us because that puts us on the map as a wonderful place to be and that in turn helps our budget for grants, for funding, for other ways to look towards this. So our strategic plan, we want to make sure that we keep these educational opportunities. We want to make sure that we have safe and secure learning environments. We want to make sure that we are supporting the well-being and social development. And we want to create comprehensive communications to all of our stakeholders. So we have about 2350 kids give or take free and reduced. You can see that we went up a little bit here. Our special education percentage, you can see 18%. I said 19 or 20. And
014then our 504 that we'll send to that as well. So that's who our makeup may be. So some historical information. Remember I was talking a little bit about adequacy funding in millillage. Again, you study the past. You can define the future, right? So, some militarates and budgets. If we go back about 14, 15 years, you can see that we've had some highs and lows through our budgeting here, but there's definitely been um some issues that we need to address. We've had a history and a pattern of some deficits over the past few years. So, how can we get out of that? That's the goal is to ultimately come out of those aspects. our millillage, we're bottom middle. So I caution us to slide lower than that because that may impact our funding as well. So
015we want to kind of be middle or at least at least that I'll leave it at that. And this is a projected forecast scene that Aaron worked on. Um this is a very important slide as well. Now there are some aspects that we want to take into we had to make some assumptions here but the assumptions again are increases. The assumptions are steady. The assumptions take current contractual obligations into into place. But you can see that if we do nothing moving forward that our fund balances and projected surpluses will continue to to fall away. So, we want to make sure that we're keeping our eye, you know, on this as we move forward and make decisions here. Okay. 2425. Um, we were projected um with a deficit of about 843,000. However, we did end with
016a very healthy surplus due to a almost $2 million transfer, onetime transfer of the of the health fund there, which helped us We have from that been able to establish a capital uh projects fund which we haven't had previously. Remember one of our strategic goals was safe and secure and learning environments. So these are five six I'm sorry aspects um that our facilities department will be working on moving forward. Grants we've received about $2.2 million in grants. That $2.2 million helps our budget tremendously to stabilize various projects to add um to what we may want to do. Um so this is this is a phenomenal thing. These are grants. These are donations to the district. Next week we will have an event to celebrate these donors and these opportunities that are provided to our teachers
017and our students. And we are very grateful for that. So, where are we in this process? All the way at the bottom. We're in May. Our preliminary draft. So, we will be um voting on that this evening and then June uh will be that final vote. So, our revenues are here, our local, our state, and then our federal funds. Little reminder about act one. Remember, we switched to that um that type of verbiage. Act one is an index rate that the state provides annually in the fall as to where districts can go to. Since we had a reassessment last year, that index is even more important because we don't speak in millillage points anymore. We speak in index aspects, proposed expenditures per object code. Again, you can see where the lion share of our expenditures
018come from. and then various areas of evaluation. Um there are some aspects that we really are digging into to see healthc care increased um higher two points higher than it did last year um to an I will say unprecedented 19%. I think that's extremely high. Um and I know that Erin and I spoke about that and it's I would like to not go any higher ever. Um but that is something we are keeping a very very close watch on and looking at various aspects um to try to get that much lower. We are always looking at evaluating and renegotiating committed contract costs, substitute services, insurance services and we have found some great savings in that throughout the year. Just two examples. Um budget manager reductions looking at that needs and wants and then is evaluating
019um our practices of staffing as uh diligent stewards of district finances. So our projected revenue, projected expenditures, and projected deficit um we've gotten down to about a 1.6. So what do we do with that? That is now the question. Where do we go and what do we do with it? So these are our options. and anywhere in between no index to the index 5.4. Um expenditures obviously don't change but you can see the projected deficit does change dramatically. So what does this mean? An index increase of 5.4 means that our millillage will go to 10.6. It's 10.1 now correct 10.1 10.4. 24 and then obviously Lawrence as well to 23.6. Um you have the increase gross in net. I asked Aaron I said why can't I use the gross number instead of the net number
020when we calculate this and she so articulately explained because the gross isn't really what you get. So we have to figure out um delinquent taxes. So there's a various rate. We don't have a 100% collection rate. If we add 100% then she would say fine, use the gross, I'm assuming, but since we don't, she likes to be accurate with her numbers. You know, I guess it's just the accountant in it. And um that gets us that. So a tenth of a mil, that's sort of what that equals if we want to try to break it down into house. We had some talk before. uh the Blackhawk board voted to stay within that index and not to exceed um that index and that vote was in January. I believe you guys voted on that. Our projected
021fund balances um you can see this chart here. Um we have a restricted account and then we have our assigned account at 5.4 and you can see the four different areas that that is assigned. So you can see that went up because of that uh capital projects transfer or creation and then we have an unassigned which is sitting around uh 2 million. So millage options again to have that increase um it would increase that millage there of and reduce obviously that 1.6 deficit. So silver lining here, remember there's this great silver lining that we will continue to moni monitor funds, but there is the potential of additional state funding. We will not know about that until the fall. Correct. Usually the the state budget is supposed to be approved by the end of June, but
022rarely is. So more likely September, October. Okay. Um, but that would impact us greatly because we have the potential of looking at around $700,000 deficit, which was less than what was projected last year by about 200,000. So that would give us um potentially a $200,000, which is a heck of a lot closer than we've been in a long time. Um, so that's, you know, a testament to a lot of a lot of people's hard work and and it's greatly appreciated for the health and stability of our district. And if it wasn't for that healthcare going up, an additional two, it would have been pretty balanced. So, there's some slow and steady progress. We are slowly and surely chipping away um at this and making progress. And I'm I'm proud that we're moving in that direction.
023So, how does this impact uh property owners? you can see our where our current mill is and that approximate annual household school tax. Um the millillage impact would increase that um by approximately $10.13 a month. Remember there's property relief information um for those qualifying um for those 65 and older. I highly encourage you um to fill that out to go there and obviously disabled uh veterans relief as well for tax relief options. So over the next month we will continue if anything changes um to sharpen our pencils with this and whittle away. But in closing um you know we thank you for that. We thank you for your attention. Um we have tried to prepare this. It's commonly a needsbased budget. It reflects our priorities and our strategic planning and we're grateful for your support
024um and the community support to provide for our students and our staff and our schools and um it will go on public display very very shortly and be on display until the adoption or the vote of the final budget June 12th. Any questions on this? Uh, I just wanted to clarify that tonight we are voting to put the budget on display for the public and then on June 12th we would be required to vote correct about the budget. Correct. With the um with the revenue, correct? Either staying the same or increasing. Correct. Yes. I have several questions for you, comments, what have you. Um, first of all, up there you listed that we had 2350 students and I also noticed that we spending a million dollars on cyber school etc. How many kids are really
025in the district total because prior to co we were like 2450. So I'm just curious who accounts for that $1 million or how many students is that? How many students do we have in our our private parochials cyber and charters? Um, I'd have to look into that and get get that number. I I would want to say the 70s off the top of my head, but that's just trying to parse out some quick math really fast. Oh, I mean 70. You mean 70 to 110? I mean, they're because they're going anywhere between 13 to 30,000. But this you also have to think about other out of district placements for students with exceptionalities. Yeah, because I'm trying to figure out also we had a had a feasibility study and I don't know if you were on
026board then Rachel in 2019 somewhere near there maybe Barb I can't hear you so I don't know what you're saying um that study that was done in 2019 that gentleman who stated basically he didn't think that there'd be a lot of growth he calculated we might gain over a decade maybe 70 students total that's not a lot so no we seem um we seem pretty um consistent in in our trends with averaging probably about 175 per class. Um, Mr. Ford, how many's in this graduating class right now? 216. That's a big one. That's a big one. And that's the last class that I have seen over 200 K1. Yeah. Well, co changed everything. And I'm just curious how many, you know, a lot of people did a number of people left the district. I'm just
027curious, you know, what do we actually have here? Um, also you had placed those five projects up there a bunch of different directions. Are were you pri they all going to go at once or you prioritizing say the asphalt driveway as opposed to something else? Um, I'll have to speak with Mr. Flehman on how he is prioritizing that, but some of them can be done at multiple times. Um, the you the rooftop units on the high school, for example, those need to be fixed. Um but he may not be doing the work on that himself. So he could be managing the projects but it may not always be internal. Yeah. Because like that chiller, he's been talking about that for quite a while. Yes. Curious. Yeah. So that's probably the biggest project out of all
028of those, you know, the resealing of the parking lot. You know, I mean that's not that's not a complicated project. Um, and I think even those rooftop units, the high school, um, over various areas there, that's not a huge project. That's, you know, more of a repair type aspect. The chiller will be a big one. That'll obviously go through bidding and all of the the proper procedures for that. That's it for questions. I'm just from my standpoint, I'm a little hesitant on the millillage going at five. I know where you're at. Just I also got to think of the community as a whole. And we got a lot of seniors here. Um as of 2030, five short years, we're going to have more people at age 65 than you're going to have 18 and under,
029which there's a demographic problem. When Social Security first started, there six to1 was the ratio of workers to a retiree. And this is what I think is upsetting Washington. I'm not here promote Trump or Biden or anyone else for that matter. So, but I I do take seriously, you know, what you stated about education department being eliminated. And I think they're looking at this thinking, oh boy, we're going to get crunched Medicare because I'm sorry, older people vote. So, I there's going to be a budget mess. And my from my standpoint too, when you look at like social security, they're getting an increase of 2.5%. this coming year and you're raising that 5.35 or what have you. You know, that's that's where I have issues and then that's coming from PTE, not you and nine.
030I I understand that. That's my issue with them. They're always staying above basically inflation rate, which I don't know. I I just I have a problem with that. I'm not saying not to raise taxes. That's not where I'm coming from. But I'm kind of like a tweener. It is it is tough. Um that's why I really want to emphasize the one slide regarding um the senior citizen tax relief. Uh I don't know how many of our community members utilize that option that the state gives as and as well as for veterans as well. Uh I think that's very important to apply for that. Um I I hope that it's still there. I you know I would want to take advantage of it if I had the opportunity to do so. Um, and then also you
031remember that 5.4 isn't fine. Say it better if I if I don't. You want to just say it for me? Yeah. Okay. The increase is applied to the millage rate, not the assessed value. Right. So yeah, the millage rate goes up by 5.4%. But I also have another piece of good news. Mill is 0.54, but as a percentage of like if I paid out of the thousand dollar taxes, it's going up. 053, which is 5.35%. Right. I I we do have another piece of good news, which is in the property tax reduction allocation that we get from the state. I don't have final numbers because I don't have information from the county yet as far as the number of homesteads, but if you apply for the homestead exclusion, the amount that we've been allocated is
032almost $200,000 more than we received last year. We're just under 1.5 million total for that. Um, so that will also help those people who have applied for the homestead exclusion. And like the other opportunities, I would encourage people to look into that if you're have not applied for the homestead exclusion to to participate in that because it is a a real tax reduction. Um estimating $300 um per per homestead. So that will help. It was Yeah, it was about $200 last year. 270 I can't remember, but it is higher than it was last year. So, that's also something for people to look into. Um, the that the budget is on display, um, should any board members have questions, is it okay for them to reach out to one of the two of you to talk
033further about any misunderstandings or questions they can? Yes, I would welcome any questions because um, when we present it on June 12th, we need to have it pretty locked in. Thank you. So the next opportunity that we have, Mr. Ford um from the high school team has been working hard this year on something called portrait of a graduate. And um I will you just have to direct me what you want me to to do with this. And how about you got it? Um before I get into the portrait of graduate um I want to commend and I want to thank uh Aubrey for her service. This will be her next to the last meeting as our student representative. I feel she has represented Blackhawk students K to 12 exemplary this year. So Aubrey, thank you
034so much for your service. Next meeting I will be asking our junior rep to come to introduce you uh to her and she will take over in August. Um and I'm currently in the process of scavenging the sophomores for my junior represent next year. So but once again, thank you Aubrey for every you everything you've done. Um before I get to the portrait of Brad, um it's a very busy month uh across the board. I just want to touch on some key things that hopefully people want to be aware of and and attend here in our district, more specifically to the high school. Um this week started like our gamut of testing, our AP test started. Uh next week our Keystone exams all start. We have three straight weeks basically of test, test, test. Um
035and we finish up right before the end of the year. Um today I had the privilege of eating lunch with all the students uh that had straight in straight A's for the for the whole year um for all three lunches grades 9 through 12. Um next Wednesday is our annual academic excellence ceremony 7 p.m. in the auditorium. Uh we don't allow the seniors there. It's 9th, 10th, and 11th. We honor the seniors um at graduation. Um, next Friday is one of the best days of the year is our senior awards assembly at the high school. Um, from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. It's great for community support and community involvement. Um, Balariat is scheduled for Wednesday the 21st. Um, I when I met with the seniors, I said it's the first time that they get to
036put on their caps and gowns in an official capacity. Sure, they've tried one trackers on yet. Not any. um for for that evening for the seniors. It's the first time that they get to to dawn their their caps and gowns. Um a an activity that started in CO is as Dr. Mo Makoszi just said, some things have changed. Our senior parade is Tuesday uh May 27th and that was a tradition that was started in in COVID starts at Biswick Parade down Blackhawk and there's some great activities uh that evening. And then the last but certainly not least, uh, Friday, May 3rd, we get to have our commencement and send off our class of 2025. Uh, right now it's slated for 700 p.m. in Blackhawk Stadium, Mother Nature. Um, as in past years, we will make
037that decision on Wednesday of what the location is. If there's any chance of Brian, I've already shared with the seniors, we will organize and set it up inside and just run with it. but it will take place on Friday, May 30th at 7 pm. So, those are just some things coming up in the high school. All right, so portrait of a graduate. It feels like I was just here in October for my my presentation that I talked about. We're going to start this and look into these things and it's been pretty scheduled and pretty systematic through the year. We've worked on something every month. uh whether whole group, small group, teachers with kids, teachers with teachers, me with teachers and I feel like we have a very good grasp and just as a reminder uh
038a portrait of a graduate is what are our kids leaving with beyond their 24 credits, their GPA, their accolades, how are we preparing them for life? So this is based on the 21st century skills. So at the beginning of the year, I cut my teachers loose with their departments and said, "Here's multiple resources. Look at them and determine which of these skills are your departments instilling in our kids or were they getting from your classrooms?" So I have 13 departments at the high school. So they had a meeting day. They went through it and they sent their top three, just their top three as they talked about examples and things. And before you are our top six from the high school, critical thinking, informationational literacy, communication, collaboration, technology literacy, and leadership. And when you look
039at the numbers, out of the 13 departments voting, nine of our departments elect or identified critical thinking. That's powerful. seven for informationational literacy, six for communication, and then collaboration, technology literacy, and leadership all had four. So, we determined our top six, but we also had votes for didn't make the cut for our our layout here, but creative thinking, media literacy, productivity, problem solving, flexibility, initiative, and social skills. All important things, but we had to narrow it down to the top six. So, what what I'm going to share for you today is is live. Um we are working with our new website there will be a link that this will constantly go to but it will be a living and breathing entity as we get new teachers there's new projects there's new activities this can be
040updated annually it can be updated semianually so when we look at these this is a is a live website so Dr. Dr. Bernette, if you would click on communication for me. So everything is interactive and this is one thing that my teachers thought was important because when you look at other ones, it's a static document. It lists the great things which which we do, but we wanted to take it one step further and showcase. So on the collaborate or the communication one um there list all the skills to the top left that our teachers identified of how they show communication and in some of them now they all don't have the video but I don't know if you have sound but if you click on the play button for the porch of the graduate one
041of the things that we do annually is the senior exit interview is a project that all seniors do as a graduation requirement for high school. is a project in which kids work on some components during their English course. And then the last part of it is that they come in and present their project kind of like a job interview in front of a panel of teachers sometimes community members and once it's completed they get an evaluation. So some of the pieces of that they students begin in their English courses or even with their English teachers. They students create a resume that discusses and highlights some of their accomplishments throughout their years at Blackhawk. And from that they also create a PowerPoint that also discusses their strengths and weaknesses, their future plans for college, some influential
042people that have inspired them throughout their years at BCOM. So why do we continue to do this project? to do this project because it gives students an opportunity to really look inside themselves for strengths and weaknesses and it also gives them an excellent opportunity to practice skills like interviewing for a job interview. So even students who aren't going to college that may be doing an apprenticeship trade school would still need to have those skills to be able to be a functional adult. And a lot of our faculty also really enjoy seeing the students and being on the panels to just hear about their reflection and the things that they're going to do in the future. So the theory all of them eventually will have some type of a video attached that the project at the
043bottom we tried to grasp as many but as you see from the busyiness Mr. Watkins, Mrs. Equals, Mr. Men working behind the scenes as they're gathering. So, this will constantly be changing and being updated, but this will be something that will showcase Blackhawk. It's not just, hey, wonder what Blackhawk is. When they look at that, they're going to get a very unique snapshot of what our kids are getting and getting exposed to over the time. And I do believe when we talked as well K to 12, this can be something that filters all the way down that these six could be easily identified in any of our K2 uh eighth grades as well. So, I just want to send a special thanks. I mentioned Mr. Watkins. He was I would like to say I could
044build this thing, but he really took it. I gave him an idea and he said, "Let me show you." And every day that he would come to me, I was like, "Wow." Like I just wanted something like to pop up and see it. So, he did a great job and most of the videos were shot by Mr. Maul's uh digital video class. Um they did all the editing. They met with the teachers. They they took and ran with it. So, I'm very fortunate to have a staff and a building that jumped right behind this and we're ready to go. I'm very I'm very proud of it and I think it will showcase what the high school offers for years to come. So, that's our fortune uh graduate. That's excellent. Thank you so much. This is
045really funny story with this. When Mr. Ford sent this to me, um I looked at the this layout. Wow, this is great. but he did a great job and uh these skills are phenomenal. 36 hours later I realized it was a website. So I was impressed with it just sadly and then even even more so when I realized um that it was completely taken to a different level. So you guys you hit it over the park with this one. Um and these are all things that are embedded in all the classes and everything that they do. Um, and these are things that we all know you you need moving forward in in the workforce and in life. So, very good. And then I think lastly um there's another item and um that's on the agenda
046and I asked Mrs. Baron I said let's speak a little bit about this so we understand um about parent square and link it. Remember another area of our strategic plan was communications and um we've tried to really streamline this as to and look at what options we have to make our communication um as clear as possible. So I'll be your Vanna just tell me what they so we're very fortunate to work in a district where parents are so engaged in their children's education and they really crave communication between the teachers and we're blessed with teachers that foster that communication regularly. Unfortunately, our communication tools are somewhat antiquated. If we want to send district communication, we have two options. We can send a Skyward email or we can send a global connect call. I think we
047all know that the main form of communication today is a smartphone and an app. So, Parent Square is really a one-stop shop for communication within the district. Some of the major aspects of parent square is we can use it for mass communications. Any email that we're sending to an entire school, to an entire district, and that includes emergency communication, which allows us to fund this through the PCCD grant. Teachers can use Parent Square in the same way they would use the apps they're using now, Remind, Class Dojo. um there and parents are able to access all of those classrooms through one app. Um an additional opportunities we have for parent square is that our coaches can use it. It can be used in activities and one of the most important aspects is it provides translation
048for our elelll students. So our elelll teacher just attended a webinar from the state. You would be surprised how many items have to be translated into a student's home language. Well, Parent Square provides that because this parent is allowed to sign up in their home language. We can also use this tool for payments, um, permission slips, sign conference signups, all the things we've used a bunch of different options for before, uh, we now can use in this one tool. So, some of the communication challenges that this addresses is that parents do want communication on an app. And as the former elementary principal, you know, we have parents that are 25 years old starting school. They don't read emails. That isn't their form of communication. Um, so it this provides a great opportunity for that. Um,
049parents can choose to use the app or they can use the traditional email. There's a page that they can go to from their computer or on their smartphone. The other issue is our teachers are so great about already using communication apps and our coaches because this is how they want to communicate. Well, we don't provide them one. We say go out and find one. Most of them are free. But if you're a parent and you have multiple kids and do multiple activities on my phone, I have class dojo band. Now it's all one and they can access everything from that one tool. And again, the translation protocol, we do have ways to translate documents, but this is going to make it uh much more seamless. I am thankful that we have a few teachers, including
050Mr. Rickiardi, that is offered to pilot this little bit at the end of the year. Um, it's actually very teacher friendly. Very little training involved in what teachers need to do, but I think that it really is going to be an opportunity for us to improve our communication and just have a better system all around. I did speak to uh a local district that used it. They love it. They're using it now. And a lot of the teachers that I've worked with are parents at Mohawk and they have it as parents and they report great success. So I think it's a really great opportunity for us especially that it's funded through the PCC grant. And the next opportunity that we have for you is a data warehouse called link. Um one of our commitments uh
051Dr. Vanata and I's commitment is to increase our use of student data to improve our test scores. So Lincoln is a data warehouse. It provides analysis of data from all the different sources. Currently, um, we have access to many different websites that provide us data. Linkit combines that all into one resource. So, teachers and administrators have this tool to analyze the data. We can look at that data and reflect on our instruction and determine if we need to make changes. And it provides some really great reporting that can be provided to parents as well and parent conferences to say here's where you are and this is um how we can help your child best. Um it also connects with IEP writer which is important because it gives our teachers an easy way to access student
052IEP information. So, one of the hopes of using link is that we are hoping for more efficient data analysis. And again, as the elementary principal, I can tell you we've been collecting data for a long time. It's on a spreadsheet. It's on Excel. The teacher get Mrs. Sprinker was involved in that. We send out a spreadsheet. The teachers go to the various websites, input that data in the spreadsheet, and then we analyze it as groups. But it certainly is cumbersome especially most teachers don't love Excel. Some of them do most do not. Um so this would provide a more efficient way to collect that data and analyze it. We also have another uh opportunity with using the IEP writer information. Currently regular ed teachers do not have access to IEP writer. So this is a
053place where they can click on a student name and see those documents very quickly. And of course, if we want to improve achievement in the district, we need to do small group instruction and flexible grouping. And this makes it very easy. That's all I have. Very good. Thank you very much. Thank you for those presentations. Uh before we move on to public relations and communications with Mrs. Klein, I'd just like the minutes to note that Mr. Vanzel is here and we are, I believe, six of nine. Great. Okay, thank you. Thank you for all those nice presentations as well. Black Op is very proud of our students achievements and we encourage the extracurricular activities that happen in each grade. Please visit each school's website for updates and happenings in our buildings including holiday events and
054concerts and public comment. Let's see. So, I have three people who have signed this form. I'm not sure that all of them are actually for public comment, but we'll go through the list here. The first is Barb Brown, and uh she's speaking on agenda items 9.1, 9.3, 9.4, 10.3, and 14.7. Matt, can you help me again turn this one off? Is this not the one that powers it off? It's great when it works. just because you may want to watch just like the slideshow. You could show Oh, thanks. I didn't know you had Go ahead, Mrs. Brown. Thank you. My name is Mark Brown. I live a bunch of comments tonight. My first one is about 9.4 in the act 93. Most of the agreement seems to have very standard language, but I was wondering
055if you could clarify the portion on the July salary adjustments. What are the below career and at career wage referring to? Is that referring to an entering principle and that principal who's been here for a long long time? In last month's presentation, it was stated that administrators are in very short supply. I believe that was in your presentation, Dr. Ben. Yet, this appears to make it less likely that our long-term administrators would stay here. We may have maxed out their salary scale, which was not included. They would get less of a raise for being proficient and distinguished than an administrator that has not reached the salary cap. Is that what this chart indicates? I'm not an administrator or administrative expert, but it seems like most jobs take a while to get to the top of
056the pay scale. And now with this document, looks like we'll pay the older top of the pay scale administrators less. That kind of seems like age discrimination that might cause a problem. Next thing I wanted to ask about was blanket. Um, as the person who for many years managed the majority of the programs that we collect data in and dealt with the majority of the issues that we had. All of them that are indicated on the bill or the invoice say that you know PSSA, Keystone, CDT, Star, Dibbles, they all have the link data collection built in to their programs. So when you buy their program, you get their data collection for free. So is it a problem that we don't know what we're looking at? We don't know how to interpret that data. I
057don't understand why we would spend $16,000 to put it all in one place because you don't use it all at the same time. And the actual breakdowns are included in the software that we currently have. Weaknesses, strengths, actual scores, information, and suggestions on how to perform uh improve your student performance. All of the programs generate reports on their data. If we can't use the data we already have effectively, putting them all in one place is not really going to help us. Maybe we need more training on how to use the data that we get and interpret it more efficiently and correctly. I find this also to be true with Atlas and that's software that we also don't use to its full potential and it's sadly lacking if you go there and visit the website. Um
058the other thing about it is their contract seems to indicate that they have hours of 8 to 6 on Monday through Friday if there's an issue. As a person who has spent literally thousands of hours in tech support on the phone with some of these vendors, 8 to six probably is not a long enough amount of time. Our next comment is on 9.3. Are we hiring a service or a dire or a tech director? Is it all one thing? And is it a 10-month contract or a 12-mon contract? What is the plan this for 9.1 for replacing the teachers that we have lost? I think my current count is somewhere around nine for for next year. Class sizes are already larger than optimal. Not replacing these teachers would make class sizes go from 23 to
05925 probably to 27 to 30 or larger depending on the subject. We all know class size matters. To date, I have only seen one ad for one teacher for our district. Can you explain what we're doing about hiring? Are we just not replacing these teachers? And if we aren't, why aren't we? Thank you for creating a team for curriculum writing over the summer. Some of the curriculum has been on the back burner for a long time. I also appreciate the teachers that are willing to serve that over the summer. And my last comment is 14.7 on policy 903. Could someone please explain what the red paragraph means under guidelines whenever issues identified by the participant are subject to remediation under policies and procedures of the board. They shall be dealt with in accordance with those
060policies and procedures and organizational structure of the district. It kind of just seems like it says whatever the policy says is what we're going to do, but I wasn't really sure. Thank you. Oh, will graduation change this year? Yes. Thank you, Mrs. M. Next on our list is Ryan Riardi. Teacher Hi everyone. I just want to introduce myself. My name is Ry Charity. I'm a teacher in the district and I'm the new uh BEA president. So, you'll be seeing my face with you like if not over the course of the years. So, uh if you need anything, please just ask. Thanks. Next on our list is Christa Antonus. I apologize. That's what I thought. Very good. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much. Um and no report for uh PSBA tonight. Is
061that correct? Thank you. Um I do not believe we have reports for um the Beaver County Career and Technology uh program um or from the Beaver Ballet Intermediate Unit. So, we will move to 7.1 and ask for um a motion to approve the board meeting minutes from the April 10th, 2025 board meeting. I'll make a motion. Thank you. Do we have a second? I'll second. Thank you. Do we have any questions or comments on the minutes from April 10th? Okay. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Finance committee. Uh, Mr. Ch. All right. This is a big one. So, uh, what I would like to do is, uh, we have to do a roll call vote on 8.2. So, I thought we could do the other ones. Um 8.1 which is the exoneration of
062two what is that? Oh that's okay that's why 8.1's information um so 8.3 which are uh tax levies compensation rates for tax collectors um exoneration of taxes on a property that um 8.4 four um and Patterson and then 8.5 is the monthly bill payments. Um I'd like to make a motion to add those to um the agenda for our voting session next week, the May 15th voting session. Okay. So that was 8.1, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, and 8.6. Yeah, I guess 8.1 is technically doesn't have to be on there. So you have 8.3, 8.4, 4 and 8.5. Okay. So, um we're asking for a motion to move 8.3 through 8.6 to the voting session agenda for next week. Um are you making that motion, Mr. Yeah, I'll make that motion. Thank you. Do we have a
063second? Thank you, Mrs. Klein. Do we have any questions or comments on this motion? Okay, we will move to a vote. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Uh motion carries and Mr. Sch, we'll move back to 8.2 at this time. Uh so 8.2 uh before I read my statement here, I just wanted to uh formally thank uh Aaron Blueorm for all of our hard work that she has done on budgeting. Um when we had this meeting last year, we were in a very different position. um we do not have nearly the information and complete um I would say view of everything that's going on uh financially with our district that we do now. Um if you see this giant binder that she has, which we were giving her a hard time about earlier, um she's
064been carrying that around and and uh it's it's uh I I really do appreciate your thoroughess and um and analytics that you put into preparing the budget for this year. So, thanks again. Um, so that said, um, I would move to approve the proposed final budget for the 2025 2026 school year in the amount of 44,627,50 with a real estate tax rate of 10.683 mills for Beaver County and 23.669 mills for Lawrence County. The secretary of the board is hereby directed to make copies of such proposed budget available for public uh inspection in accordance with the requirements of the school code at least 20 days prior to the adoption of the budget. And the secretary is hereby further directed to not give less than 10 days notice to the public of the meeting at which
065the final budget shall be adopted. Such meeting is set for Thursday, June 12th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. Such direction shall be ratified by the adoption of the resolution for authorizing proposed final budget display and advertising. May I have a second? Mrs. Klein is a second. Um, we're going to move into questions or comments. And um before we move to the vote, I would just like to clarify that the mills listed on the um motion are placeholders and not a final approval. That's not what we're voting for tonight. So those are placeholder numbers that the budget will be on display for the next 30 days. Is that correct? Um or until June 12th. And then at our meeting we will then finalize those mill numbers and approve a budget. Is that correct? So in order to
066put the information into the state system, we have to have everything in place. So I have to have a millillage. I have to have all of these things in line. um in order to approve the budget on June 12th, we need to know what those should be. So if there is a an objection to those, I would recommend we have an executive session or some type of feedback prior to next week so that we can make adjustments and have a final budget that you folks would right potentially approve in in June because if we wait until June and it's not approved then we have some problems certainly I do understand I just wanted to clarify that this is not the final decision the final budget this is the proposed final budget correct I have a
067question I was always under the impression we had 30 days to make that decision and you're saying 20 No, you have to have it on display for at least 20 days prior to the final budget approval and you have to provide notice to the public that part. I know it just I was always under impression. You have to approve the the preliminary the proposed has to be the proposed has to be approved 30 days prior to the final being approved. What's our meeting date? June. Is it the 12th? June 12th. So we have to have 30 days between this day and June 12th. Is that actually session? We just having one and then it gives and then 20 days. So the state gives a little bit of leeway a 10day wiggle room to get it
068on display, but there has to be 30 days in between 20 days on display. Any other date aspects that I missed? That that I'm just listening to make sure that we're that's correct. Yeah, we're we're we're in compliance and Dr. Sprinker, you're correct. This is the proposed budget. The final adoption of the budget will take place at the June 12th meeting or provided that you have five votes for it. Thank you. So, I do believe we have a motion um by Mr. Shopee, a second by Mrs. Klein, and right now we are still in the point where we are asking questions or giving comment. So, I'll pause for another minute before a vote. Okay, we will move to the vote. Um, all in favor of roll. Sorry. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Vanzel, would you please
069do a roll call vote? All right. Thank you. Uh, Mrs. Klein. Yes. Dr. Makoszi. No, because I will have some objections on some items on the budget. One of those we'll get to later on. No, for now. All right. Mr. Sh. Yes, Dr. Sprinker. Yes. Uh myself is a yes. Mr. Zachitz. Yes. Okay. Um five out of six here. So motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Vans. Um next we have personnel. Um and we will um defer to um Dr. to point out any um sorry computer's a little delayed here. Uh um if there are any questions or comments on the personnel report certainly so um HR report pretty standard but a little lengthy uh with some summertime aspects there. um driver's list the director of technology um service agreement. So we are re recommending Mr.
070Robert Hixie is here with us this evening. Welcome um for our new director of technology of Mr. Foley's retirement. Congratulations Mr. Foley. and um his services there. Um it is a 12-month position that he will be with us. Um and um and moving and shaking and filling big shoes, I'm sure. The act 93 agreement um is also on the agenda, five-year agreement. Um various aspects in it. And um that's it. That's it. Any questions or anything specific? Are we voting for him tonight? Because it's okay because it's at May 12. I'm curious. Voting meetings next week. So, all right. So, just for um we're going to ask for a motion to approve con the consent items 9.1 through 9.4 for today. Um is there anyone that would like to make a motion to approve? Well,
071hang on because I got the 94 on the act 93 which I want to get to. You want to pull that up? Yeah. Well, we don't have a motion yet, so I think we should have the motion in the second and then we can Okay, I'll make the motion on the other items. That's I'll second. Okay, so we have a motion um to approve 9.1 through 9.4. We have a second. And um now, do we have any questions or comments um or further discussion? All right. a nine a 94 specific day act 93 you my objection to it this is saying this goes back to even the teachers contract it's the healthcare I don't have an issue with people's credit all right let's look at the standpoint of basically this is for your administrators $3,000
072salary increase that's fine right when you think when I'm looking at the health care cost you mentioned you raise 19% %. Do you know do you know how much that is? Basically, it's anywhere from $2 to $3,200 per person. Okay. Now, let's look at that $3,000 raise. I I don't have an objection with us having Cadillac plans. All right. But I think people should be contributing more towards it. Okay. Right now, prior to this contract approval, they pay 1.75%. So 1.75% of that $3,000 comes out to 5 5250. You're going to raise this to 1.85%. So they're going to go their contribution is going to go from 5250 to 5550. Three bucks for the year. That's it. All right. A lot of these people make $100,000. So basically their cost for the year rise rises
073from $1,750 to $1,850. I look around. I've dealt with a lot of people in common. I you work at the hospital, right? Okay. I know what your health care plan is. I'm sure you're I know you're not paying 1,800 is not what's taken out of your paycheck. And I'm not going to Yeah, it's a lot more down in the courthouse. Courthouse employees. In fact, I checked with one last night. Basically $600 a month. 300 per paycheck at the hospital. As crazy as this is going to sound, the emergency room physicians do not have healthcare plan than we have here. So, like I said, I'm not objecting so much to the Cadillac plan, but there ought to be more contributions required to use that because we're taking the taxpayers taking a hit of anywhere from 2,000
074to $3,200 per plant times 160 teachers plus other employees. That's a lot of money. Now, the only the only other way around it is yeah, you you have some options. Maybe you change the deductibles and the co-pays to lower the the cost to us. Like I said, if you want to have that cat plan, that's fine. I could tell you Beaver High School does not have your plan. Opo is very similar to what we offer out here. Beaver does not. Believe it or not, comments. My my comment to that would be, you know, when we're hiring teachers, we're not competing against physicians in my in the hospital. We're competing with the other school districts. So, I understand where you're getting from. Like I I I'm not I'm not a huge fan of Catholic plans either.
075Like I I I'm not a big fan of like chiropractors. Well, well, the thing is we're taking a hit as to what we're paying and that that's part of the tax increase part of the budget that's necessary to run this district. you know, when you rise $2 million a year, that's not all salary. Part of that, too. Um, whenever that's fine if the act for anyone they want that, but when your contributions are rising basically.1% a year, that's not I understand your So, that's where I'm coming from. That's what I get. Dr. Mahosseie, so thank you for your comments. At this time, what action would you be proposing with regards to the agenda? I Prior to her predecessor, we had discussions at that time of going to 3%. Overall instead of trickling up 1.75 prior
076to what transpired in May or June of 2023, we were going to raise things at 2.25 25 of course the contract because the other side of this issue is too is I see that like 1.85% 85% is going to remain the same throughout the length of that contract. Well, guess what? Your rates are going up every year. It's not going to remain static. It's never remained static. And I don't want to get into the political fight over this, but um part of what's going on in and this is in in the country as a whole on the medical side on the dental side exonerating myself or the dental profession period. But on on the dental side, I don't have to take Medicaid. So I'm not obligated to treat Medicaid patients and I don't have to
077take government money whereas the medical side, they do. So the bottom line is if someone can't pay their bill, doesn't matter whether they're a poor person, illegal, alien, what have you, if they can't pay their bill, that hospital has the right to push off, that insurance company has a right to push off that money on people who can. So that's why premiums keep raising year after year after year. I don't like the system, but that's what it is. Thank you for those comments. Um, do we have any other questions or comments? We have a motion. We have a second. Um, any other questions or comments before we move to vote? Okay. So, I I do believe at this time we have a motion and a second to approve consent items 9.1 through 9.4. All in
078favor? I I. Any opposed? I take 9.4. Motion carries. education leaison Mr. Vanzench. Okay. So it looks like we um uh we have the I used to look at paper now because and other things. I'm sitting here like a pilgrim and you guys have tablets over there. Um, do you want me to help you? Do you want me to you can help you out or you Yeah, help me out since I reading off the paper over here. Certainly. So, um, in the, uh, education we have in the education leaison um section. Um, we have the updated district calendar. We have some student handbooks, the link software license agreement, the parent square agreement, the college and high school agreements, student teaching affiliation agreements, the annual safe school required. And I believe that we are going to
079ask for a motion to move these items 10.1 through 10.7 to the voting session for next week, which is May 15th. So, would we have someone to make a motion um to move these items to the voting session for next week? I guess I'll make my motion. Thank you. Motion from Mr. Vanzel. Do we have a second? I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Sche. Any questions or discussion about 10.1 through 10.7? What did change on the district? So, we have a professional development day on October 13th. That was the only the only modification. Um because our hours were where they needed to be. We did not need to swap out a day. So it was simply u making that day a professional development day. I believe there's a countywide PD event that we needed to modify
080the calendar for. Any other questions or comments on 10.1 through 10? The middle school handbook um is omitted from here, but if the board is in agreement, I believe it should be ready by next week. I will be able to add it to those for review if that's okay. But there won't be changes to any of the other attachments. We will just be adding just I could make it a separate if need be. I don't Does anyone need it to be separate? I think it just be added and we can review it. Okay. Okay. Um any um any other questions, comments? We will move to the vote. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Um Mr. Vanzeling, uh the support service, um committee, um 11.1 is the Glade Run Lutheran, I'm sorry, the Glade Run
081agreement. Um I think we are just going to ask for um that to be um moved to the May 15th voting session. Would you like to make a motion for that as well? Yes. Thank you. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Zakowitz. Any questions or discussion? Move to the vote. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Um section 12 um with Mr. Whisner. We don't have a report tonight for athletics and activities. Um we'll turn it over to Mr. Zachitz. Any report for buildings and grounds? There's no report. Thank you very much. We will move to the policy section of tonight's agenda and I'm going to turn it over to uh Dr. Vanetta to to talk us through some of the um the changes, the retirements, the additions to the policies.
082Thank you. Certainly. So, um I think we're trying to we're finally getting a little pattern here with this. Um so, I'll look first um towards theformational items. So, the memo that has a table listed there, you can see there are um several policies in the six and 700s which have been reviewed with no modification um listed at this time. It's 14.2 14.3 um those recommended for revision as listed. So we'll kind of go down the list for that and um Erin I'll defer to you at various times to to speak with some of those. 603 uh is our first one here. So budget preparation. Do you want to give us just a high high level view of modification on that? So there was some unnecessary verbiage included in the old policy and we added a
083reference to the index for the year. So that's in the policy. Um 604 uh budget adoption. There was some there was some lofty language through that. Could you speak to that one? Yes, we added definition of index. We expanded the definition of respon delegation of responsibility um to include the director of finance and updated the authority section to comply with the PSPA recommendations. In uh 605 tax levy, there were some revisions due to school code. 607 tuition income. Um some minor verbiage to correct some things there. 609 that was a lofty one as well. Do you want to speak to that one? Yes. So this was basically replaced with the PSBA recommended language. Um the investment of district funds language is much more robust in the definition sections and in the guidelines. And there was
084a lot that stayed the same, but because it was so much in different places, it just made sense to me to just replace the whole thing. Moving on to U 611. Again, um purchases budgeted. There are some revisions due to school code there. 612 was pretty minor title change. 616 came in the bills, just some process and minor verbiage. 618 again that was that was a pretty minor one. 619 had some bullets that were struck through it. So my question for you, Erin, on 619 with those bullets being struck through, does that then mean um that the public has access to those items? No. The public records are subject to the Sunshine Act and so the policy does not need to list what is or is not subject to public record. Um 620 uh fund
085balance we went from five to three. Do you want to speak to why we may have done that? The minimum unassigned fund balance is not something that is regulated by PPE. They regulate the maximum amount that can be in your unassigned fund balance. And having the minimum be 3% allows the district more flexibility with assigning those funds for various things, capital projects and whatnot. So then 621. Um again, there were some there were some minor school code verbage and minor verbiage there. Uh 622. Um Gazi statement 34. This one made me giggle because this was an interview question of yours. So why did you revise that? Again, it it is really to replace it with PSBA recommended language. Um a little bit more robust in in the definitions and explanations. 625 um title change. We
086don't really have credit cards. They're procurement cards. Um so maybe this is the you know the semantics in in my brain. I just didn't like um I didn't like that verbiage. It's a procurement which is a different a different type of responsibility required. So that was modified throughout that one. Uh facility planning. Um this is pretty minor here. Um and then um 706 property records. Is there anything you want to speak to on that one? Again, it's the PSPA recommended language. And then uh 709 um there is some dated for eviction there regarding keys and u pretty procedural also it that kind of hits safety a bit. I don't know if we really want in policy who gets what and um what are the you know the permissions for everybody in there. Any questions on
087revision recommendation for the 6 or 700s? There were no new policies in that section. Um recommendation for retirement uh petty cash. Um as Aaron has mentioned to unique times she wants to deal with cash as little as possible just because of the paper trail and the responsibility of it. Um so she recommended retirement of that one. Um the athletic fund account um not necessarily policy needed on that one as it's covered in others. Vandalism um that's a criminal matter. Uh there's some language in there that isn't necessary um as well as the policy. And then um 715 use of fax machines just outdated um technology. We may not need a policy for that one. Okay. Shifting then to 800s and 900s. So similar process. Um there were plenty of those that were reviewed with no
088recommended modification at this time. that there were a handful um that had some revision recommendations. So, get myself in order here. So, um 805 uh rewritten uh for safe schools compliance. Back in 2006, safe schools uh didn't have all of the the statutes and regulations that it has now. So, that policy needed to reflect that. Um, food services had some procedural aspects in 808 that we wanted to make sure we were following what the policy sets. We updated that for such um transportation um student health information and evacuation drills needed to be updated there. And 810.2 again updated verbiage on video cameras and school buses. 8:13. Um, there was some updated verbiage within that aspect and some unnecessary language that we wanted to make sure that we had included there. And uh, in 8:14, same
089thing with copyright material. We wanted to make sure that um, our copyrights was it was relevant, verbage. Some of it um, was just no longer relevant and it was we just didn't have those things anymore. um acceptable use. Uh we went through with PSBA's recommendation for acceptable use. So um that was a pretty much clean sweep and making sure that we had what uh PSBA recommended there. contracted services in 818 um was looking at various programs there and making sure that we had um criminal history, employment history um mandated requirements within our policy for contracted services. 8/19 uh we modified for act 71 verbiage. We need to update that um title change and other things again driven by safe schools. 823 the uh minor revision there. Um there was mainly some some formatting and and
090other issues throughout that one that we needed to update 901. Um very very minor revisions within that one. And then same thing with 902. Just clarification there on um the purpose of publication programs and who's doing what. Um public complaints. Um same thing, just making sure that we have a general complaint procedure um and that is spelled out um for anybody who may need that. We wanted to make sure that we included federal programs as well. 903. Um, again, modeling PSBA and making sure that we have various aspects in there. Sometimes PSBA puts in some language. Um, that's a little odd, but we try to follow it for that. So, I think policy basically is stating that there are procedures within it and the board follows those procedures. So, you may have hit the nail
091on the head with that one. also um what the presiding officer um may have the opportunity to do whenever there's are issues throughout the order of meetings and 909 clarification with safe schools as well. Um making sure we have that in there. 916 volunteers um we are looking at that Mrs. Spiron and I are making sure that our volunteers are um meeting the state required requirements and also that's being communicated clearly. So, we're going to be looking at that over the summer um and within the next month and that will come back to you. So, I wanted you to just to know that that's on our radar. So, that's why that was left in revision although it's not it is not here this evening. Some new policies. Oh, I'm sorry. Any questions on the revision?
092ask one question about one question about 8:15 acceptable use of network and internet access um do we require um yearly sign off on that handbook? Yes. Um is it um students and adults? It's a student. Yes, Mr. F is saying yes. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Um So, new policies here, records management. Um, we had a few that were required from PTE. In fact, all four of those. Uh, I even questioned it, the school bus drivers, since we contract our drivers out. However, it was recommended that we do so. I did also um send them to Marters for review just so they were aware. Um, school security personnel, that's another required aspect. uh we now have SRO's so and mentioned it's mentioned in there and then uh data governance and storage and security there
093some retirement um drug and alcohol um testing covered drivers that was covered in 810 an anti-fraud program that was covered in 702 and 828 and then district report cards the majority of this was talking about when schools got report cards. And this was a common thing under No Child Left Behind. It was no longer applicable. We will still continue to issue student report cards. That that stays the same. Any questions on any of that? Thank you for reviewing all of those policies with us, Dr. Vanata. Um, and we are going to be looking for an an approval um of policy items for 14.3 14.7 14.8 and to add I'm sorry, let me let me back up here for a minute. Um, so we're going to be looking for a motion to approve the first reads
094of policy items 14, 14.3, 14.7, 14.8, and to add policy items 14.2, 14.4, 14.6, and 14.9 to the agenda for May 15th for the voting session. And those would be the second readings. Is that correct? Sorry, that was a mouthful. It's a lot of numbers. I apologize. Okay. So, I would just make that motion. Um, do we have a second? Thank you, Mrs. Klein. Any questions or discussion about um policy um policy numbers 600 through 900 that were presented this evening? Is that the end? Were we done? I thought I overwhelmingly approved. We have one second. That is Mr. Show, we've nominated you to be the policy leazison for the 2020. Can I one more time before we feels good to though give that all a very fresh review and we appreciate your eyes on
095that and um the consultation that you've done with not only PSBA but other law enforcement and the bus companies and and the other administrators that have helped you with that. We really do appreciate it. Okay, any other questions or comments? Okay, we will move to a vote. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. We will move to additional business at 16.1 with public comment on non-aggenda items. Hi Rick for Chipa Township. Um just for clarification, there was a lot of dialogue for in agenda items nine. Did the act 93 agreement get approved tonight or did it get approved to be on the consent agenda agenda for next week? It was approved tonight. It was approved tonight. Thank you for that clarification. Thank you. Any other public comment? 16.2 school directors. We have a couple
096things. Uh first, um big shout out to uh the elementary team for uh the kindergarten registration. Um, it was like a welloiled machine. Uh, so it was it was a good experience. Oh, I I imagine the only downside is and this is completely uh my side's fault is uh is my kid didn't get to get on the on the bus and stuff because we were we were late getting in because we're one of those people that don't read emails. Um, so we went to the wrong place. Uh, so good good job there. Um, and the other thing that I have, and um, I don't know if this needs to be a policy or not. Sorry, Matt. But, um, I want to see if I can see if we can have more discussion about AI between
097like now and the next school year so we can try to plan something for it because, you know, we were going through the the port of the of the graduate and, you know, I love that that whole that whole program, but it did highlight a couple things that that came up like the whole tech literacy, media literacy, and critical thinking. Um like I I know that uh AI does give us some um some benefits in like the tech literacy area. Um but there's also concerns in the med media literacy area because you know AI can lie to you and we need to make sure our students are aware of that. Um, and then additionally when it comes to critical thinking, I I feel like that there's a an issue that's coming up where too many
098students, especially going to college, are kind of offloading their critical thinking to to AI. Um, so just kind of making sure that we're keeping a close eye on that to make sure we're doing the best for our students. So, fun fact, um I had an opportunity uh through the Greyel Foundation um and through my connections with the National Network to be funded to go to Google headquarters um just last Sunday and Monday and um listen to some great minds there and also at Stanford uh University. It was a great experience all about AI um and and what it does. So, fun fact, how much cheating do you think high school students did prior to AI? So, let's go 2015%. What do you think that the percent overall was? 99%. negative not only 65 to 70
099since AI what do you think it is it's a trick question so I'll say yes sir you know it's a trick question 65 you said so AI is not being used to cheat you on the spot it's being used for to help with homework to help maybe to clarify or to give prompts for something. Um, when Tik Tok was going down right over the winter, uh, my freshman came to me and she was very distraught, not because Tik Tok was going down, but because the app that she used that helped her with her homework, the AI app, was down because it was associated with it and that's what helps her. So, think Khan Academy. So there are other versions of Khan Academy that help move them through it. So it was enlightening. Um when I
100went and they said, "Are your board meetings on YouTube?" And I'm in a room full of hundred other educators and they yes, great. We're we're going to put one up. I thought, "Oh my goodness gracious." They used this um an AI feature called Notebook LP. and notebook LP took a link to our board meeting and summarized it, gave highlight areas over it. It even made a lovely podcast about it. Um, but there are features and I thought, wow, I wonder if our community would like that. Instead of watching all of this, you can see a highle view. You can even engage and ask it questions. Um, so there are some good features. So I bring bring that back. I think hm what do we need to do with this? because our teachers need to know
101how to use it and how our students need to know how it can be helpful and what guidelines can we put around it. So here let's encourage you to use this as a productive tool not a destructive tool and what are the rules around using this um and if they fall within that it you know it should be okay. So, I would be more than happy to have more conversations with you about it, but it is something that definitely is here and now and we can look into. Yeah. And that's what I was getting at is like there's there's the there's the media literacy aspect. Okay, I' got to make starting out the technology literacy aspect versus we got to make sure that you know that people are able to use the tools that are
102there um and and be aware of the tools because they are they're they're staying around. There's no way around that. Um but you know what like I like I was saying I I've seen um at least from the from the um university level where there's a lot of uh uh professors that are just really concerned about the level that some of their students do um kind of use it to offload their critical thinking. Um and just making sure we put those guardrails in place to ensure that we are getting the access of the tools that they need while not kind of making them rely on it as crutch. Yep. Very good. Thank you. Question. So in in the AI summary that was done, you you can keep which board members, community members, and administrators made
103it and who didn't, but who is filtered out as not important versus who is important. Just kidding. I'm sure it would summarize all of those policies for Matt to read through. Again, I'm the only one who could hear. I think they could hear me clearly. Mr. ship. Were you going to make a comment? No. Okay. Are there any other uh comments from school board directors? Our next meeting will be next Thursday, May 15th. And as a reminder, I do believe we have a celebration following the meeting, celebrate Blackhawk here at Highland Middle School that we're very excited about. So, please come to the meeting. Uh stay for celebration Blackhawk. Should be quite a a wonderful evening celebrating teaching and learning here in our schools. Uh, do I have a motion for adjournment? I have a
104motion. Thank you, Mr. Show. A second. Thank you, Mr. Van Lynch. All in favor?