001the August 18th meeting of the Kesoga Valley Board of School Directors. Uh I want to welcome everyone who's here in the room and those that are joining us online and will you please join me in the pledge to the flag. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> Have you any announcements? >> Announcements. >> Okay. Mrs. Martin, may we have attendance, please? >> We have eight school directors. We have eight school directors present tonight. Mr. Hurst is absent. >> This is our general meeting, the second meeting of the month, where most official votes are cast, many of which are listed on the consent agenda, which include items which are routine or have been discussed
002at our work session last week. Our meetings observe all legal and policy requirements to the best of our understanding and ability and all agendas and available related public documents are posted on the district website. Are there any changes to the agenda? Any deletions, additions or corrections? >> There are not. If not, could I have a uh motion to approve the agenda? I move to >> approve the agenda. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. I. >> Any n or abstensions? If not, >> the agenda is approved. We will start with board commendations with being early in the in the week. If I can find my copy. Oh, there we go. Thank you to the following educator induction committee members for a welcoming and successful 2025 induction week. Mel Upton, Tony Santa Maria, Sean
003Campbell, Jill Saltz, Patty Cardina, Amber Lizac, and Natalie Nyas. And congratulations on another successful induction week. Congratulations to the first elementary student student Noah V for competing at least 240 minutes of this summer in imagine language online learning surfware learning software program. Imagine Language challenged students to utilize its language and literacy tools over the summer. And if they completed at least 240 minutes of work, they were entered to win a prize consisting of a solar powered backpack filled with back to school essencils. And Noah was one of the lucky grand prize winners. Congratulations to all of our other students who also reached the 240 minute benchmark. And as the year goes on, we will have a lot more commendations, I'm sure. Mrs. Martin, do we have any um correspondence? >> We do not. >> If
004not, then I'm going to ask Mr. Smith to join us for a via report. >> What? >> Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. See, I told you I rely on you people to watch me. Doc, >> Dr. Hartman, >> I thought we just mixing things up a little, I thought. So, >> it's usually ladies first, but in this case, >> I'll be brief, so you can you can get going. So, u miraculously, we have no new staff to uh to introduce this evening. So, we do have one new hire on the agenda, but she was unable to uh to make it this evening. it was a last last second long-term substitute hire who she actually is going to be relocating uh from the Pittsburgh area to start the school year uh but was unable to make
005it tonight. So, I do want to point the board's uh attention to if you notice in the superintendent uh my superintendence report, we have 21 teachers uh who are being recommended for tenure. I don't know if in my career I have ever seen that many in one year in a school district this size be recommended. So, must have been a really big hiring year about three years ago. Uh but congratulations to the 21 21 teachers who will be uh recognized for earning tenure. And uh also wanted to give a kudos uh to an individual. I should have mentioned it last week when we were approving uh Mr. Hawkins as our new athletic director, but I really wanted to give a shout out to Janet Hints, our administrative assistant in the athletic department. She really uh
006has been a busy individual this summer in the absence of an athletic director. she really stepped up and for for uh really did two people's job for for a good portion of this summer. But uh I know when we had Frank in last uh week after he was board approved uh and we were giving him a tour of our athletic facilities and getting him set up in his office with Dr. Fox and myself showed him around and he had a chance to meet with Janet. Uh and when she told him all the things that were already in place and ready to go to start the school year, he was sort of taken aback and was like, "Wow, everything's done already." So kudos to Janet for her dedication, all she's done. And uh obviously this is
007the first week of school, so we are we're ready to go. Uh teachers were in today for the first day. There's a lot of building level activities happening. Tomorrow is our district-wide opening in service uh where we'll have our all staff meeting in the auditorium and then students are back on Wednesday. So we are ready. We're ready to go and uh excited to have students here on Wednesday. So that concludes my report. of any board comments on district activities. I will just uh add to what Dr. Hartman said that by our next meeting, the school year will be in full swing. We've had all of our kindergarten and uh and new school orientations. Uh athletics are about to start. By that time, SATs will have started. Uh so it it doesn't take long for things
008to get in full swing. And now, Mrs. Smith, it is your turn. And you will be in full swing too. >> We have been in well I have been in full swing since July. Um yeah. Um good evening. It's good to see you all again. You all know me by now few years. Um I did graduate from Koga Valley in 1984. And so I do have a business administration degree from Elizabeth Town College. I graduated in 1988. Mrs. Upton is here this evening joining me. She is my administrative liaison and um we work together a lot to keep Vaia rolling and just kind of keep everything in line and do everything we can to just make VIA keep just chugging along. Um I have three years of hours to review. 22 23 it was 6252.
00923 24 was 6,1778 6,77 we are finally I think getting back from co took a little while but we did it but as I've done in previous years I have I've met with everybody I'm done I've hit all the principles andor assistants um I started in July this year we started early people had vacations scheduled and things and they said, "Hey, I want to go with you. Can we do it like early July?" I'm like, "Sure." So, uh, we we meet to see how we can better serve them, see if there's anything new coming up um that we need to add for VA, and we do all that. I do especially want to thank Katie Odell and Marilyn Martin. They do a lot of things behind the scenes for us that nobody sees. Um, they
010help us get a lot done and assistance. If we didn't have their help, we we couldn't do everything that we do. So, we want to we want to really thank them. And finally, the big thing, VA is 50 this year. This is our year to celebrate VA. Um VA as an organization doesn't exist anywhere else in the county. You know, no other school has an organization like us. So, we want to really promote VAIA and honor anyone that has volunteered with us these last 50 years. So, to that end, uh, Miss Mrs. Updo and I have met with Katie this summer. We're going to promote via every month on this district social media and we are also going to um try to get some local media coverage for VA this year. Um, So hopefully you
011all will see that as well. And we hope that this will encourage more people to volunteer with us, but also lead to a greater turnout for our via breakfast in April. Um, and you all have a list of our meetings for this year that includes the date for the breakfast in April that is held in the high school cafeteria. So we hope that we can see many as many of you there as your schedule and if you want to come to one of our meetings, feel free. We will be happy to have you. Dr. Hartman is scheduled for our September 4th meeting. >> Any questions or comments? Everybody knows who you are, knows what fire does, and we we run out of words to thank you enough. >> Thank you. It it does keep me
012busy in July, August, and September, and then it kind of calms down. I'm kind of happy when it calms down. >> Is there any is there is there anything different in the types of requests that you have for what they want done, or is that pretty much the same from one year to the next? >> It's pretty much the same. It's pretty stable from from building to building. Lots of copying, lots of laminating, >> occasionally new events that didn't exist before. >> Yeah. Yeah. Back to school nights like next door at Smoke Town. We have a table over there. We have a table at all the kindergarten registration nights in the spring, you know, trying to drum up support and help more help for the for the classrooms wherever we can get it. >> Okay.
013Well, as I said, >> the uh on theart G M is >> the lowest by far. >> Yeah. >> Is that because there's a lack of volunteers or just because they're like you guys? >> I >> Yeah, I I would say that uh it's not so much there's a lack of volunteers, but there's just so much support already within the school because of the teaming aspect, I believe. >> Yeah. So they, you know, they can sort of um create the help that they need right there because of those connections and they do rely on us for certain things like cruise the halls and you know things throughout the year. Um but I I think it's just more of a infrastructure that allows for that collaboration within the the building itself that sometimes means that they
014don't necessarily need the outside. >> Yeah. Now we do for them something that we don't do anywhere else. um when they started having the middle school student section at the football games. Um we do have people come in to sell football tickets to the middle schoolers on the Wednesday and Thursday or just the Thursday before the football game to so that because they have to have a ticket or a a season pass before the game. They can't buy a ticket at the door unless they are with a parent. >> And those sorts of items are the ones that that we'll get called in to help with because it's outside of the pod itself. >> Yeah. Because they sell those during lunchtime >> over the over the three lunches. So, we come we have parents come
015in and help to sell those tickets. >> Yeah. I don't know that you're looking for more work, but I was once at a meeting at the high school and they had um the president of every club do a presentation and they many of them if not most of them talked about their fundraisers and how hard it is to find people to work them. Uh I don't know if you want to try to make a connection with their advisors uh that maybe VIA could help those clubs also because those kids don't know anything about the connection. >> Yeah, we we've talked in the past about having some of those like clubs come and speak and they kind of on our list for like future suggest make sure they're on the list. Okay. Well, thank you >>
016and happy 50th. >> Yes. >> Is there anyone from the public that would like to address an agenda item? Is there anyone here from CVEA to address us or any other employee group? If not, we'll move on to the consent agenda. We have items A through R. Are there any questions or concerns before we address it? >> Yes, I have a question on item E, the TSI plan. Um, so the TSI plan, as we learned last week, is pretty exclusive to um students with IEPs. Um, and that really falls under that people services umbrella. So there was no mention of people services in that plan. So I was just looking um to see kind of get more details on what their role would be in that plan. >> Yeah. So, we um and we definitely
017should have highlighted this. >> Excuse me. From back there, you'll need to speak up. >> Yeah. Would you please? >> There we go. Okay. Um we should have highlighted this better for you last week. So in the development of the plan, Dr. Hum was right alongside Dr. Fox in the data analysis pieces. Um really looking at that self assessment of special education practices within the high school. So Dr. H is working with the pupil services consultants. We have two PPS consultants at the high school who will actually be the ones who are overseeing the day-to-day action plan. So when you saw in there the professional development, the co-eing things like that, the pupil services team will be putting that professional learning together, helping to track the effectiveness of that, support the teachers in the implementation
018of those models along with um the sections for data analysis and the ongoing review of the um progress monitoring for the students with IEPs. So, they will absolutely be a really key piece of the implementation and the day-to-day of um making sure the action plans are carried out as written. That's a great question. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> There any other questions for an issue on the consent agenda? >> Good. Thank you. >> If not, I will accept a motion. >> Motion to approve consent agenda items. Second. >> A roll call vote, please. >> Dr. Martin. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Fischer. >> Hi. >> Mr. Hurst. >> H. Sorry, he's not here. Mr. Tally, >> hi. >> Mrs. Capka. >> Hi, >> Mr. Gensel. >> Hi, >> Mr. Eie. >> Hi, >> M. Trobridge.
019>> Hi, >> Mrs. Grath. >> I They all passed unanimously and we will move on to the first reading of district policies. Uh, we've gone over these previously, but are there any other questions or concerns about those policies? If not, I'll take a motion to approve them or I'll wait forever till I get one. >> I make a motion to approve the policies as present. >> Thank you. >> I second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Any nays or abstensions? If not, we have those approved. Next come uh the next set of policies. And I'm not sure if all of you were here at the very beginning of when PSBA started reviewing these for us, but just to bring us up to date, uh the catalog they gave us used to use
020the phrase, we've rewarded it. We found out much later that rewarding also meant deleting sections. What they deleted were things that didn't universally appe uh uh apply to all school boards. Uh the one they got the most feedback on was the um uh responsibilities of board officers. Uh when um when we had this in our policy the last time it was four pages long and that's what they've shown us again this time. Four solid pages uh replacing everything that was in that's in the school code which is a couple different places. This list is just the basics and basically says the same thing. Uh I I uh I sort of filled this out as I went through the year and and had different things to do to make sure we understood that the president was
021supposed to take care of that. Um I I then gave it to uh to Dr. Martin who rewarded some things. Those are in green. So what I need to know is are you satisfied with the way it reads and with the edits or the original? Just let me know. And what we will do is uh with all of these we'll get them written up uh in proper form uh for next month. So we'll start with um the responsibilities of uh officers. Do you have any concerns about any of that? >> I have a I was just curious as to why we deleted perform tasks at as the board requests. The very last one on on 17 has been rewarded a little bit but doesn't say >> and that's under what? Presidents. >> Yes. >> Mhm.
022>> Well, that was a that was a um >> Oh, I didn't see the rest. >> An edit by uh Dr. Martin, so perhaps she could explain why she felt that needed changed. >> Sure. I just um felt like it needed a little bit more clarification as far as from like from a board perspective what the expectations should be for the president and like really outlining that communication piece and coming up with solutions like when when appropriate. So it's just clarif clarifying language that's all. >> Okay. So um but the president is still free to perform tasks as requested. >> Sure. Yeah, sure. Yeah. >> Well, had do you wanted that phrase as requested put back in? >> I don't know. >> Oh, >> I don't I just >> Well, if you don't know, I
023don't know. >> I just question why it was removed. >> Okay. It wasn't so much removed as rewarded to to give a different clarification. >> Right. Right. But it didn't um it didn't say it didn't address tasks. So >> well if you want we can add that to the end after uh where it says communication or solutions when appropriate and perform task as the board requests. We can put that part back in if you'd like it. Would you have to tell me FGS what you want? I think I felt like as the board requests it like that read to me as in like the president would have to do everything that the board requested whether it was maybe appropriate or not given a certain situation. >> Okay, >> that was why I took that particular
024>> wording out. >> Somebody has to make a motion to let me know how they want this approved. >> Anybody So, nobody knows why that was put in in the first place. >> Why was it? >> Mhm. >> Uh, well, since I wrote it, I just felt if the board member if the board as a whole needed something done and asked the president to do it, then he or she would be obligated >> to listen to their board. That's all. I have a um I kind of want that board request back in because it's the board as a whole, not one individual because that goes under communications and solutions. But if the board the entire board is requesting something, then it needs >> Yeah. >> Do you all agree that that that phrase uh and
025perform tasks as a board request should be added to the end? >> Can we write the board as a whole? I performed as a board as a whole, >> right? >> Maybe I interpreted this a little bit differently like I wouldn't want like one board member coming to the president and saying I want >> I guess I took the the word to mean the whole board but we can be we can be specific. Uh so we'll add and perform task as a board as a whole request. >> Well, I don't know when it says as the board that is the the board is all of us. Well, some of us >> individual members. I mean, I would think that if we're going to >> It was just a simple interpretation. >> I think we're arguing
026semantics here. >> Yeah. One SES term board says it, the other feels it needs put in. Doesn't hurt to put a couple more words in, >> right? >> Got to make it. >> Well, this is >> easily to interpret. No confusion. >> Well, no. This is a job description for the officers, >> right? Not the whole >> but if none of us are here and people are referring to this. >> Yeah. >> They're not going to go back and look at today's meeting to understand the the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law. They're going to look at the letter. You know what I'm saying? So that's why I'm just saying a little bit more specificity to cover everybody. >> I'm fine with I don't think it it hurts to add that
027especially if we we specify. So, is that your motion that we accept as this with that one correction? >> Yeah. >> Okay. I have a motion. >> There you go. >> I need a second. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed or abstaining. Okay. This will be uh on I'm not sure which of our meetings next month, but it'll be in for first reading. Uh parliamentary procedures. again. Uh I found out that uh I don't know if any of you have a copy of Robert's rules. It's you know this thick. And um a couple of years back they added a section for small boards that's uh as few as 20 but definitely for uh 10 or 12 which is us. and they got rid of a few things like
028you don't need a second which I'm not crazy over getting rid of but what I tried to do is to make sure that no one could try to confuse any of our meetings with some of the multi-layered motions that that exist in parliamentary procedure and then I found out that a lot of districts do have added to Robert's rules a simplified version >> I always think it's important if we all know how things are done and basically what I did was I said we'll take one amendment to a uh a motion. If we get more than one amendment, we're not ready to vote on it. You know, there's too many things. So, we stop at one amendment. Uh I did continue to require a second because my feeling is if you can't get a second,
029why are you even talking about it? Uh a second does not mean you agree with the motion. It only means you agree with voting on it at this point, >> which some people miss that that slight difference. >> But I think if we all understand that that there's no traps here, this is a basic barebones parliamentary procedure. If we come into anything else, we have to resend or whatever, we can go back to, you know, the rules in Robert's rules. I would never put them aside. But they were written for large uh legislative groups and they c they can become cumbersome. >> So I just felt this was a simpler way to do it. It's a resolution. I'm not asking you to put it in um in policy but it's just an internal board resolution
030as to how we function. Any questions or concerns? A motion to accept the resolution. >> Motion to accept the resolution on parliamentary procedure. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> Any oppose your abstensions? If not, this is the last time you'll have to see it. Okay. Unless you want a review to it. >> The next one is the revised uh it used to be 405. That was gotten rid of completely. And in uh doing that, they eliminated one one section on um staff input during uh during board meetings. I'm recommending that we put that back in. It may not be the I I don't know who wrote that. It's a little cumbersome, but I think it basically gets the point across. Uh, any questions or concerns about adding that back in to
031what is now 304? >> Can you specify what it is you're >> You're right. I'm I'm one off. I I'm at 9:03. We We'll do that one. >> She's at 93. >> See, you have to watch me closely. >> Could I have a motion to accept it if you're okay with it? Motion to approve 93. >> I'm sorry. >> I said motion to approve. >> Approve. >> Is there a second? >> Second it. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Okay. That too will be put in as a first reading. Okay. Back to uh 304. Uh, this one we're going to have to be specific about. Um, in um in >> I'm missing 304. >> That's 40. >> 304. >> 903 is public comments of board meeting. 304 is employment of different
032staff. >> That's where I am back. uh in trying to decide if I needed to give a recommendation, I uh I got in touch with um with PSBA who made it perfectly clear that uh if you look at the book that they give you, you know, uh essentials of board off uh board service on page two, which specifically says you do not uh interfere with recommendations from the superintendent on hiring administrators. Point blank. Uh I even spoke to Jeff Litz about it and he agreed. Uh it it's there in black and white. That's something we're not supposed to be doing. However, uh we can make exceptions for cabinet if we'd like require that there be a meet and greet. Uh although I don't know if that have would have to be in policy once a
033finalist. Some some schools do that when they have a finalist they bring it to for the board just to introduce them. So, I don't know exactly what you want to do, but you need to let me know what you want to do. >> I like some of the positions how we did it with the director of the AD um the athletic director where board members who were available could sit in on the interview. So, we're not wasting time trying to get all the board members for a meeting and the candidate and we lose candidates. So I like that normal during the normal interview process that they're doing anyway if a board member can sit on some like the supervisor managers AP those positions. So like you know it doesn't hold up the works or anything.
034>> Any comments? >> I um I would have to make a disagreement with that. um that does fall under interfering. My question is why do you want to be there? What purpose does it serve if you're not part of the interview other than the fact that you're simply looking over the superintendent's shoulder and watching what he's doing? >> That's not what I'm saying. I'm doing like we're actively asking questions in those interviews and then we all say okay this candidate has these pros and cons this has these pros and cons but the decision was still with the superintendent and whatnot >> but you want to ask questions during the interview you want to participate >> well that's what we have been doing >> well not not until this lately because there seemed to be a
035uh a gray area right now where some board members wanted involved, some of us felt we shouldn't and the superintendent was trying to accommodate all of you until we could come to a a specific policy. Uh my feeling is it's not our job. It's specifically uh noted that that's not our job. We are not qualified to evaluate or to even understand the most appropriate questions uh for a uh a principal. We're not educators. We're not administrators. And I see no reason why we should put our nose in the superintendent's business. That's management. That's not governance. And I understand there's an interest and a curiosity, but being nosy about something isn't a reason to put you to be there. That's and I I feel very specific about that. And I know Dr. Hartman bends over backwards
036to accommodate all of what you want, but that doesn't make it right. >> I would agree with you because I was in that meeting and I did feel like I had no idea what I would ask this person. It was interesting to see how the other principles and people did the interview. Um, as a board member, it helped me feel confident that we certainly have principles and superintendent who knows how to ask the right questions, but as a board member, yeah, I didn't feel qualified >> to ask. >> Well, being interested would throw a really broad net. It would be interesting to sit in on the superintendent's cabinet meetings. It would be interesting to sit in on faculty meetings. That doesn't mean it has anything to do with governance. >> Yeah. And I would I
037agree with that. >> Anyone else? >> To hear from the superintendent. >> I'm sorry. >> I'd like to hear from the superintendent. So, I've I've been in different organizations that have handled hiring of administrators different ways. Uh, if we're looking at what used to be in policy that we're sharing here, super uh I I would I would not recommend going that route. Just uh the way this reads to me, it reads uh superintendent's not making a recommendation. We're we're picking finalists and then having the board interview those finalists to make a decision. I've not seen that in practice uh anywhere or would recommend that. Uh I I I think if you know our hiring practices especially when it comes to administrative act 93 positions but but even for other professional positions as well uh we
038do have a pretty thorough interview protocol that that we go through. It starts with ident anytime we have a highle position become available. Uh we really look at it we evaluate the position description. uh we look at uh we we develop what we call an ideal candidate profile where we look at what are the skill sets, what are the characteristics, the personality traits we're looking for for this moment in time, for this position based on what our district needs are. Uh and then from there we develop we we meet with focus groups. uh like when we hired a recent elementary principal uh one of the first steps was getting a group of the the staff together running a focus group to help us develop that ideal candidate profile uh based on feedback from them based
039on our observations. Uh so there's a thorough I there is an art to to hiring uh that I think we pride ourselves on. Uh and I think a part of that process is stakeholder engagement. Uh I think that stakeholders can be a variety of people. Uh when it comes to hiring somebody, especially a position that has a lot of interaction with the public, we involve usually parent representatives, staff representatives, when it's appropriate, student representatives. Uh I with saying all that, I'm not opposed to to ever saying that that a board member can't be one of those stakeholders that's involved in the process, but that's just part of the process. It's not uh to Diana's point, not really making a decision. Uh so I think as a you know I wouldn't recommend that for all admin
040positions but but if the board is comfortable with saying they want to be involved with a cabinet level position if a CFO is leaving yet you know there's a lot of interaction between a school board and and the CFO would we want to create an interview protocol or a hiring protocol in that instance that made sure we had some board representation on the stakeholder panel certainly. Uh so uh I I don't I personally wouldn't recommend what was in policy formerly of us recommending finalists to board making the decision. Uh but I'm not opposed to board being part of the process. I've worked in districts where they're just like we have a policy committee. There's been a a personnel committee made up of school board members and their one of their main tasks was being involved
041not being the decision maker but being involved in the process. So I'm open to entertaining the the conversation. I I don't I I uh I I I do want to be careful of that governance versus leadership management breakdown. Uh but I also think we do involve stakeholders just as a best practice in any hiring. Um and I think there are times where it might be appropriate to to have a board member as a representative as a stakeholder amongst other stakeholders if that makes sense. >> I I guess what I don't like is having it in policy that has to be a board member. >> Well, that's when I finish one thing. One thing I do completely agree on, I think when it comes to cabinet level, we could write a paragraph to make sure that
042the board is involved in that interview because that is uh those are positions that we do have interaction with. So cabinet, I I would uh I'd be willing to include that. Uh they're for assistance to the superintendent, the assistant superintendent if we ever have one and the CFL to to me that would be appropriate for us. >> Yes. >> Educational ones. >> I agree. Like the board member the board is a we've been forgotten and left out of. we are stakeholders and that's why this came about years ago is because the board was left in the wind for some hires and we were hemorrhaging staff and that's why we got back involved so I my point is we should be part of the stakeholders not the decision makers not the reviewing the resumes and whatnot
043no that's their job that's what we pay them for but we are stakeholders we're parents we're community members and we're board members. So, we absolutely are part of that stakeholder. >> Uh you have to make up your mind what hats you're wearing and you can't wear two or three hats at once. Uh if you are there as a board member, then you're not there as a parent, >> right? >> Okay. And uh but my point is sometimes that happens is board members that are parents often when they use a board position to be involved in the principal pick when they ought to be there at best as a parent. That's why uh I don't think it's a good idea to to make this a part of the policy. Uh I agree with with Dr. uh
044Dr. department when he says uh he can make the process and that would be a process he develops and since it might be an administrative directive we can take a look at it and approve it that stakeholders would include a board member but it doesn't belong in policy because policy um I I will read you uh what uh PSBI I called um I called uh Will uh Smeltzer who turns out is no longer with PSBA with his rep replacement. Um, and and this is what she wrote me. The board is not involved in the day-to-day operation of the district. This applies to interviewing and hiring staff members except for the superintendent and assistant superintendent if applicable. You can find supporting this principle in the essentials of schoolboard service on page two. Another reason it's recommended
045the board be separated from the interview process concerns their role as a potential neutral party in discipline or grievance procedures should the board need to make a ruling on a staff member's employment their over involvement in the hiring process could muddy the waters of their position. uh and I I looked that up and in in that handbook uh it says uh it's helpful to define the boundaries of what school board should not do and point three is influence the administrator's personnel recommendations or engage in nepotism. Um I don't know that I agree that we were hemorrhaging administrators because we weren't hiring good administrators. Uh often times we lose very good administrators uh for a variety of reasons. their career uh geographically moves them or their spouse's career moves them uh or they're looking to advance
046their position above principle and they found a position in the cabinet at another one. Uh when you look at the reasons which we reviewed at the time, the reasons we were losing a lot of administrators never had to do with how satisfied they were here or how satisfied we were. It's just it especially with assistant superintendent, they move on. We don't have enough positions to keep all of them here all the time. And this becomes cyclical. Sometimes we keep all of our administrators and another year we can lose three or four. Uh and it doesn't reflect on whether or not they were a good hire or not. It's just the way things were. So what do you want to do? Uh we can put this back in. We can uh I I get the feeling
047we need to write something uh to cover uh the cabinet. Can we agree on that much that when it comes to uh the cabinet and above that we should be involved? The question is how far down do we go and are we willing to allow the superintendent to write uh guidelines where a board member would be there along with stakeholders. Were you going to say that? >> Actually, before you said that last part was sort of my question was are we looking to add something about cabinet in the policy or or do we want as I'm reviewing admin rags already for personnel that that is an admin rag I planned on writing. So um >> well whichever it was in policy we could put in policy uh as I remember uh the way it was
048in policy the superintendent was required to bring us two or three recommendations. We weren't there at the beginning. We were there at the end of the interview process where they did uh the screening and we were and we were he was they were required to bring the board two or three finalists uh for us to help make the decision on. If you want to leave that final choice even after our recommendation to the superintendent, he can put that in administrative reg too too sticky to put into a policy. So maybe that's the question. Do you want this in policy or admin rags? >> It makes more sense to me to have it in admin rags. Policy, but that's just my opinion. >> I'm going to have to go around and ask each one of you.
049>> Julie, how about you? No, we can come back. >> Different places. Okay. Then we will leave the policy the way it is now and at some point when uh because I know Dr. Hartman is currently going over all of his admin rags when he gets there. Uh that one at least we know we would like to take a look at um public comment at board meetings. uh we've decided to put back in that one section, right? >> I have one other piece of board meetings that I don't know that we're ready to uh discuss now uh when we start our new whatever your cycle on um on policies. We're probably going to start with triple O. We we will see these again and this is something if you want we can put off until
050then. Um I had spoken some time ago uh with Jeff Litz and uh the issue came up about uh public input the public's input at board meetings and he recommended that we have signin sheets. Uh we've never done that. We've also never limited and we are allowed to limit the time. We can put right in policy that we will give 30 minutes to it. We can limit the number of people say we will listen to 10 people. What we can't do in good faith is change it at the beginning of a meeting. Like if you show up at a board meeting and there's 30 people sitting out there that all want to come to the mic, right, Mike? Mark, you remember those days? Um this board has always taken the attitude we will sit here
051as long as we have to to listen to everyone. >> I have changed my opinion >> however long it takes. Uh not all boards do that. They limit the number of people or the time they will give to it. And I would like your input as to whether or not you think we should reconsider that. Diane, were you going to weigh in on this? >> I'm sorry. What was your direct question? >> My question is, do you feel we should have signin seats or a limit of time or number of speakers that we are allowed to do or should we leave it the way we've been doing it where it's just open? Whoever shows up is allowed to speak. >> It's only because I might have like a little PTSD from CO. Like I do
052think there needs to be a time limit. I don't know whether that should be a total time limit, which I don't know if I'm necessarily about that. >> Well, that's what we're talking about because everybody's got three minutes. >> So then if Okay. >> Everybody has three minutes. >> What we don't have is if we have 30 people, 30 times three minutes. So, >> and do you think we should >> remembering the attitude of the public when they show up to speak and don't get to speak. >> So, >> that's what scares me. >> So, currently in policy 9003, it does state public comment sessions at the beginning of the meeting may be limited to not more than 30 minutes. >> So, that first >> Yeah, >> but that's just based on the agenda. Second
053public comment may be limited to not more than 30 minutes. It also goes >> but if it's a hot button topic that was just reviewed last 30 minute before the meeting even starts before if you have like 300 people they each have three minutes so they're going to pick and choose who has to go up to the mic but like groups can talk five minutes so they can get together and be like >> yeah so like as a president you can cut it. >> That's totally fine. >> Yeah that's I mean that's how >> I'm not going to ask for a decision on this tone. I think this is something we need to think about. So the question is, do we want to have signin sheets that require them to sign in to speak? Now
054some districts have signin sheets and if they only have one or two people that signed in, they'll then say, is there anyone that didn't sign in that would like to speak? That that's not unusual. Uh the reason there's nothing there for the second time is because that allows uh anyone from the public to weigh in on something that happened at the meeting which they wouldn't have known beforehand. That's why it only exists one place. I think this is something you have to give a little bit of thought to. I understand the PTSD from CO >> it doesn't happen often, >> right? >> But the effect on the public that doesn't get to speak is not small. >> Yeah. But we we made the decision to listen to everybody no matter how long it was. But
055we had four-hour meetings, three-hour meetings during that time. >> We allowed everyone to speak more than once. >> They're only allowed to speak once. topic until everyone else >> exceptions. >> I don't think we've had a problem with that. Not that that doesn't matter. >> Yeah, we we had a couple. >> Did you get up twice? Did you get up twice to speak during >> He had some certs in his head. >> Okay. In my defense, at least I was entertaining. >> Hey, we let you do it. >> I was entertaining. Okay, >> that doesn't matter. >> No, but I would say >> I I this is no this is no small issue. It's >> there like it doesn't matter tonight and next week, but believe me, when it comes up again and it will
056come up, we'll do something that gets people >> I need to rely on those of you who were not on this board during co because I do feel like my I'm very skewed like >> Well, I was going to say as as a person who is now sitting on the other side and who is usually extroverted enough to want to speak out at most things, I appreciated the process you had in place during co although it was quite taxing for the board. I do appreciate the process many of us did because it did give us a chance to be heard during a very very frustrating time. I think that needs to remain. I like that the words may are in there because at least it gives us some flexibility to say listen we have a
057packed agenda. We've really only have 30 minutes for comments. So if those of you that have come in groups, if you can kind of pick a ring leader to speak for you, maybe we can do something like that when we know ahead of time. >> If they pick to speak for several people, they get five minutes. >> Yeah. And they get a longer time. So >> uh I I will tell you this, I have been through those long nights three times. >> Yeah. >> And uh once this there were I think that may have been the purpose of war. There was suggestion they were going to limit it and the uproar from the audience was deafening. They did not like it. And the last thing you want when you have something I feel that's that
058controversial, the last thing you want to do is close off input. >> It doesn't happen often. And I know to sit there for an hour or longer uh can be taxing, but uh >> was there I did have one question from a legal standpoint. the sign-in sheet was that taken away because of >> we didn't take we've never used >> I thought PSABA had recommended not to do that because of a legal reason or no >> I don't remember I don't remember that >> there's there's uh some opinion about uh asking for people to disclose their specific address >> is is a little bit of a slippery slope there's nothing illegal about requiring a sign we have a signin sheet it's not for speaking but for guests >> the signin sheet often asks uh did
059you check off to verify provided you're a parent or whatever. Um whether or not you're speaking for yourself or a group so that we know to give three or five minutes and your topic. >> Okay. >> To make sure you're in the right order. >> Gotcha. Yeah. >> Uh I don't know how much time there is once somebody gets here to fill out a sheet and get it to the secretary. you, you know, we like it. >> I would like I would like to give us some time and make this decision when we do that that review. I mean, right now, I think we're pretty safe. >> We'll be creative. We can do like five minutes and then let the president make the decision. If we want to grant an extension or if they start
060repeating themselves over and over again, then it you just cut it off. >> You mean given five minutes? >> Three minutes, five minutes, two minutes. >> Well, right now we're at three minutes. And what we what I've done I think most board presidents do they watch the three minutes when they get just about there they just remind the person that their time is up would they please you know quickly finish so they go go a bit over >> but when somebody's up there with four or five tight pages and they're on page two >> you do have to close it down. >> Sure. uh in in the sunshine law, what it says is that we're to remember that this is a meeting where the purpose of it is to do the district's business and uh
061allowing the public to speak. Uh although important is not to take away from the fact that it is a business meeting and we often have to remind people, excuse me, those that come thinking they're going to get the questions answered. It's not a question and answer uh session and it's not a town hall. >> It's a they think public meeting means they they have to do what they want. It's a meeting in the public that can be watched in the public. >> Um I I I think we need to take some time to think about how we want to handle this. That's why I didn't plan on doing this this evening, but uh we will get back to it if you want to give it some thought. Uh the other things that I gave you
062before to do uh are minor and it can be taken care of when we do our regular review. Uh did you want to talk at all? Oh about the uh the policy review that we will be starting right now. Uh our policy says that we will review um all policies at least once every five years. That and we we've done it. Do you want to change that? Are you happy with the five years? >> Well, originally Dr. Hartman had showed me a sample that was three years and I thought that was too much. That was like going to PSBA. yet. Um, are you still planning on on working on the on the five-year? >> Yeah, I have a five-year draft. Um, and I'm trying to design it in a way that I think will kind
063of alleviate some of the concerns because, you know, even if as much as you want to try to stick to a cycle, things happen, laws change, and you you have so I'm trying to coming up with a fiveyear cycle is not the issue. It's I'm trying to come up with a cycle where within each year of the cycle at different there's different times for uh regular review but then also maybe every other quarter is a time to review policies unexpected things that have come up related to policy. Uh, so I'm trying to to hammer that out, but I would recommend a five-year review cycle, but with the flexibility that we're still carving out some time annually for unexpected uh revisions on policies that weren't in that year to review that for whatever reason, PSBA is
064making a recommendation to to update or something locally changes that we feel we need to uh go outside of PSBA recommendations, whatever it may be. >> I will say in the sample that Dr. Hartman showed me uh every year the total number of policies to be reviewed changes considerably. But then as you remember some of them there's nothing to touch. It's basically school law. So at first when I looked at it I thought it was out of balance but then I thought well that you can't tell. It depends what those policies are. Okay then we will stick with the fiveyear cycle. We won't change that. the ones you have asked to change will change um for one I'm not sure which of our two meetings we'll have a done for we'll have a first reading
065of an actual policy uh and the resolution will simply stand as a board directive okay in that case um I guess we're ready to go on to federal funds did I skip I certainly hope not. >> Finance and operations curricula. There's no report for those. >> Yeah, >> I put everything on top of my papers. So, >> and federal funds, just a quick update, uh, was able to sign off and submit our consolidated application. So, thank you to Dr. Koser and her team for finishing their writing all their title grants and we have those submitted to the state. So, we're good to go there. >> Thank you. Okay, I'm back on my agenda. Um, I have a question even though there is no finance and operations report. I have a question for uh Mrs. Huninger.
066Um, c could you um could you tell me um and I don't need this answer right now. I've asked you before. I just wanted to bring before the board where all of our reserve funds sit. There are many different departments that have reserve funds. And my other question was you always give us uh transfers budget. Isn't there a point and I can't remember what month it is after which we're not allowed to do transfers. >> We're not allowed to have any budgetary transfers during the first 90 days of the fiscal year. So the budget transfers can't not begin until October. And then for the year end budget transfers that I think you're referring to um that typically is presented to you and approved in October of each year uh when we're wrapping up our audit
067report. Then in your request about having some update on all the reserves, all the different funds and fund balances, I was thinking of doing that in October. >> Yeah. And we don't we don't get we used to get a huge detail that I don't think we need, but I just wanted to show all of these transfers you give us are all within the same section of the budget. Right. >> The best that we can. Yes. >> It's like if the library had money for new books and instead used it for magazines, that's fine. But we don't take money from one. >> We're trying the best that we can to keep it in the same categories, the same department. >> Yeah. >> Sometimes. >> Okay. I I just didn't know if anything had changed from um
068the way those rules ran for transfers. It's been a long time since I've reviewed that. Okay, that's it. Uh federal funds, administrative policy review. Do you have anything for that? I think we covered covered policy enough tonight. >> Okay. Uh the IU report is attached. Um I don't know if there's anything especially interesting there. Uh the one thing everyone cares about is uh the budget and that's going nowhere. And I have no idea how long that's going going to go. Everything I I read and the legislative report I got at the IU suggests that nobody has budged. Everybody has their heels against the wall and they're not moving. And as Dr. Hartman mentioned uh last last meeting, we're okay. I don't know how long we're okay for. Uh some districts are not, but that doesn't
069mean we shouldn't be pushing them to to make a decision. The part that bothers me the most is that two of the three things that PSBA has focused on wouldn't cost the state a dime. If they would give us a flat rate for um cyber schools, that doesn't cost the state anything. To give a sunset to some of the mandates doesn't cost them anything. In fact, it would probably save the money because they wouldn't need the staff to go over all these reports that we send in. So, two of the three things don't cost a dime. And even on those, they're bulky. I don't know where the sense is to any of that. It just doesn't doesn't uh drive for me. Uh we did not have an IU meeting uh in July, so I have
070no report, but I will tell you we we we've hired a an assistant executive director. And uh one thing that did happen that was really pleasing that I'd like to share with you is you all know how difficult it is to maintain special ed teachers and how difficult it is for speech and language and uh and therapists. This year the IU had every single one of its uh speech and language teachers, occupational therapists, and physical therapists. every single one returned. They didn't have to hire anyone. They can't remember when that happened before. And uh I can't go into some of what they do uh outside of executive session, but I will share that with you later. The Lancaster County Academy is moving tomorrow is their final moving day and you have been invited I think
071I have listed on the 24th for an open house if you'd like to if you if it's down uh off the food court tucked in the corner at Park City if you'd like to see what they're doing. You're you know you're invited to attend that. >> Is it near where it used to be? >> Yeah, right where it used to be. What happened was when we moved out, they turned it into storage and it was a disaster. But uh they they put a lot of time and effort repainting and cleaning. I mean they the academy staff put a lot of time into painting and cleaning and uh we've only uh renovated one small section because it's much bigger than what we need right now. and uh Mannheim Central and Lampreer Strasburg donated so much furniture
072we don't have to buy any. So we had a $15,000 moving budget that we have to take care of the renovations. So it's it's done well and so far uh the students all seem perfectly comfortable with going as long as they can get a bus there. They're happy as long as they can get there. So um so that's going well. Well, we won't have a CTC uh report. Obviously, the construction team, do you have anything to tell us? >> No, the report meeting before last week. Well, things have proceeded just >> Isn't it scary to have a construction project going that smoothly? >> The norm. So, >> anyone have questions on a construction project? >> No, we will do we are going to do a board tour of the I >> think we're gonna wait.
073Were we gonna >> do it with our retreat? Is it? >> Yeah. >> I thought we were going to try line that up with >> Do it in a little bit once it's cooler and hopefully the paving is done and everything so a little easier. Oh, and I actually made a request that they wait till the hallways. >> I'm sorry. >> There's no giant bulk in the hallway so we can get around a little bit easier. >> I made that request. So, >> okay. You going to move in in the fall >> if it's done early? >> No. >> Or is that still being debated? >> It won't be done. It won't be. >> What? It says your Janu what? January. But it's never done in January. >> I think the completion will be in
074January, February, and then moving in after that. >> But that's what March, April, middle, >> are you thinking about just waiting until the fall or >> Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. >> Just let it move. We need to start moving stuff back because keep in mind we got a double move that's probably going to happen with >> with Fritz. Okay, >> now starting. So >> that'd be smart. >> So we want to be ready to right when the school year ends get that cleared out so we can get new stuff in there. >> All right. >> Does the vice president have any reports or comments to add? >> That's me. >> Are there any other reports from anyone that was at a committee meeting? >> Is there anyone from the public who would like to
075address the board on any general issue? Welcome back. I want to uh comment on public comment since I'm here all the time and I've been here for no I'm fine here. Um in the more than 25 years I've been coming and literally you know I don't miss uh you said three times and I can remember the three times. One was a popular principal who was uh had some employment issues that brought out a ton of people. The second time was redistricting the boundaries of the elementary school. >> Oh, I skipped one. There was block scheduling >> and then I really think your current policy works fine because as a general rule, this board has focused on governing and not managing, which is why we don't have a ton of people here. And if you can
076keep doing what you're doing, you should be fine. Well, I'm glad to hear it. Thank you. Yeah, you're right. You're right. I've sat through that four times. I forgot about uh I forgot about the principle. >> How can you remember what the other one is then? >> Yeah, that that was block scheduling. >> Oh, well, yeah, that's true. >> Block scheduling brought everybody everybody had an opinion and we sat and at one time I think that was the one with the board president said, "We're going to limit this to half an hour." the whole room went up and >> Yeah. >> And so they backed off of that. >> It's rare and keep it rare. >> Yeah. That's your job. >> Well, keep it rare. >> Yeah. I It's something I've always been proud of
077that that we make sure everyone gets to be heard. I think I just think that's important. Okay. Um board comments or announcements. Um we have a self-evaluation coming up. That's all I want you to know. We'll have that in September. Uh the dates, our next meetings are September 8th and 15th with our retreat on the 29th. With that said, unless someone else has an issue they feel they need to address. Uh I need a motion to adjourn to executive session to discuss a real estate issue and a legal update to safe to say and CBA guidelines. Move to executive session. Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> We are injured.