001All right, call the order. Let's stand al to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Wow, we got public comment. Recognition better than public comment. Thank you, Mr. So, good evening. Uh, nice to see everybody here. Sorry we only have standing room only, but that's a good thing when we're honoring kids. Good. Finally, we have we have here two weeks we have another can just imagine. We couldn't fit everybody in yet. But here you are. a lot of familiar faces and I'm very surprised to see some of you and I'm glad you also some of you brought your signific others. You know who I'm talking about. Okay. I'll try to be kind in a little bit when I talk about All right. It's about you
002first. Very excited to have all of you here. Finally get to see you. Congratulate you. For some of you, it's been a long time. You won awards. You did things both regionally and nationally. Uh but we're gonna We finally have couple weeks left in school. How many days left? All right. 16 days. So anyhow, I would like to know. So what we'll be doing is I I want to say this up front. So I'm going to say a little bit about the room that you are in. Uh, I will then call you. I'm going to apologize right now. So, you understand? Understand? I will probably aware of it and I apologize although I keep You should be very proud. elementary, some middle school, some from the high school program. And I hope you stick around.
003We're going to take pictures afterwards of the hallway. We will do pictures and uh stick around because some of you are going to recognize tonight. a few people who have been a face to you for a number of years who will be leaving us at the end of this school year and uh that's when I'm going to get a little emotional because some of my person but we're going to let's talk about you first. So we're going to start off with the PMEA. PMEA stands for Pennsylvania Music Educators Association and it's about the music special. Our music program has thrived. See these individuals behind me? This is with the school board. Thanks to them so many years ago, we started things like our strings program. We improved our music program. We did things. We thank
004them. They're the ones you need to thank because they support what the administrators want to do and where they want to go. So, who are these people behind me? They look like we're all nobody to be afraid of. People we want to meet. We're going to skip this guy for a minute. Um, but uh we have Mr. Leaport. school board member, Miss Shaw, school board member, Mr. Hill, school board member, our president of the school board, Mrs. Donahghue, sitting at the top there. We're going to skip the next lady for a minute. Uh, we have Miss Snyder, who is our board vice president. Mi Miss Rahing, who is our board treasurer. Uh, next is Mr. Roso, who's a school board member, and then Mr. Wilson, school board member. Miss Le couldn't be here with us
005tonight, school board member. uh could not be here. In addition, who are the lady all the way up front who I skipped over. Okay, that's um our school solicitor. Okay, Mr. Matthew, she's our school solicitor. She looks a lot better than our last school solicitor. Put in the blood. Um over there is over here is Mr. Subia who is the assistant to the superintendent for operations. In other words, he does all the work and I just look great. Okay? He does all the work and I just walk around and say hi to people and shake hands, all that fun stuff. And actually, the person who runs the school district, she's behind the screen. Okay, a couple more people know uh Mrs. Myers, who is my assistant to the she's my administrative assistant. She's really the
006superintendent, I say. and three individuals who are sitting in the crowd because we don't have enough space. You may recognize Dr. Barley. Dr. Barley is your assistant superintendent for um student achievement. She does all Dr. Hannah who's the assistant to the superintendent for student services. And then the lady you probably see more than anybody else, you probably see her running around your classroom as well. who was our coordinator of communication and public relations. So that's the group that you will see here. So when I call your name up, you're going to shake my hand very proud and proud of what you have done. You're going to go around shake all their hands along with the side and then afterwards you'll take pictures. Easy to say. So the first one, Mr. driveback our music department. I'm
007going to make him say you didn't know that. We're letback say it. I'm going to have him come up here and help me because we're going to start off with the Pennsylvania music educators association professionals. So this year, imagine this. So large, right? Pretty small district. Okay. We had 27 middle school and high school students who performed at 12 different PMEA music festivals this year. 27 for our district. You have definitely put our district on the map for music education locally, regionally, statewide, and nationally. It's the first time that somebody goes national. Imagine that. It's up there. Okay. A little bit further than New York. So, we had two parts for Keystone this year. Uh helping with Nadia's last name. Nadia Dojack. Do Jack. And Nadia could not be here without correct. Yeah. But we
008have the one answer. A lot of you know Nadia. Nadia wouldn't be here tonight, but she became the first student to perform as part of the National Association for Music Education Eastern Division. All Eastern honors mixed choir on songw finally got it all out long long title. She was one of 189 vocalists from 12 states to be selected for this prestigious honor. She performed in late April at the Brushell Performing Arts Center all the way up in Hartford, Connecticut. So let's thank Nadia. [Music] [Applause] Congratulations on And here uh Junior Kmani became the first student to perform in the Western Region Orchestra Festival. She was one of 12 violinists from the region to be selected, placing her in the top 100 violin players in Pennsylvania for the 2425 school year. Um, she performed at the
009Richland High School Performing Arts Center in Johnstown back in February. And that violin program is the orchestra program we began when these students were back in third grade. It was our junior class. They were in third grade. So, let's congratulate Kat. [Applause] Absolutely. Something to add about Nadia, too. I probably have it here, but I don't What do you think? Um, but Nadia was I I know you're good at that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is just one more thing about all these. She was one of uh I believe five Elto2s from the state of Pennsylvania. How about that? Very excuse. Yeah. And so for the third consecutive school year, our district was represented at the PMA All States musical festival. Nadia performed in the All State Chorus also. and the sing and senior beyond [Music]
010[Applause] your bill. I bet should be Too many music teachers. We have three music teachers on last. It's true. It's true. I'm not sure. Congratulations. I let you go. Now we can [Music] [Applause] and also performing at the district region and safe schools requires obviously auditions in each level by instruments are selected for different ensembles among the best in the district region and state. Um do we have any of these other students that are here tonight? Yes, we do. So, I'm going to let Mr. I bet call you up for the work that you did this year uh and and for this is for your participation and I'll let Mr. B what that is for specifically the specific thing is written on there for you. So, okay. Uh [Applause] Ly Andre I don't think Andre
011Kayen Lockardulations Andre local group [Applause] high orchestra. Junior high orchestra. Geneva [Applause] Diamond orchestra [Applause] Martina. Excellent. Good job. [Music] organ. What do you play [Applause] [Music] when I was a kid? [Applause] Junior [Applause] Highest Junior [Applause] [Music] High. Great job. [Applause] And I like the shirt. [Applause] You play for your Thank you everybody. [Applause] It's not here. It's over there. We have MVP. So, our next group is business leader from America. All right. Uh, more properly um SDLA um state conference. This year we had 15 high school students qualify for the Pennsylvania Future Business Leaders of America State Leadership Conference after earning top spots at the region 10 leadership conference. We do have a few of them here tonight and would like to recognize them for their outstanding work they did. Some of them
012couldn't be here. If you are here and we don't have your certificate, that means your common sense is on the other side of the room, but it's here in the room so you don't have to worry about it. So, uh, I don't see our sponsor for the So, I apologize if I [Applause] randomly financial [Applause] remember as a businessman. Good to see you again. Congratulations for conference graphic [Applause] design and uh Pennsylvania FBA conference in Financial Math. Somebody else from Sean O'Brien. Are there any other [Applause] congratul started this year. We are extremely proud of it. If you'll notice behind me here, if you get an opportunity, you'll be able to look at this banner over here. If you remember, all the way back on September 6 of 2024, we were paid a visit by
013the at that time Secretary of Education, the national secretary of education's office who was here, no longer the Secretary of Education because of change in administration in the federal government. in your picture. We began a program that is called Educators Rising under the leadership of Miss Emily Grill who was here with [Applause] us. For those that want to know, I'm going to talk a little bit about it. Uh this is the first year for educators rising program here at the high school. We were recognized by the federal government at that time of getting this. It's a combination of it's being funded and supported by the national education national education association and fine delta cap a member of the national education association yours truly member of Delta administrative and it's a combination of administrators joining with
014our our national teachers association to promote educate promote students to go into the educational field we're very proud that we will be having as time goes on students graduating here quite a number of credits already towards college to go into the field of education. We need more educators. It starts with this lady right here. Okay, here at Key Center and hopefully some of these students will come back someday. Okay, come back to support. So, we're very proud of this brand new program. Um, we have two individuals here. Uh, I'm going to ask them to I think we just have two. Yeah. to do and I know they're here. We have Genevie and Miles Mor. closest. You can come [Applause] up stand here for a minute because I'm going to talk. Uh both Genevies and Miles
015competed in the Ed Rising Moment competition for which they delivered a speech about why they aim to pursue a career in education. For this event, the students had to prepare a three to four minute speech, which I'm sure felt like it was long to uh speech assisted only by index cards or notes. Genevie finished in the top 10 to qualify for the national conference uh that that we had uh there. So, she had finished and Miles also participated in this program. So to both of them, we want to congratulate both of them for a job well done and I hope you stay in this profession because it is a great profession and thank where you Westchester for education. You're going to congratulations [Applause] Thank you. And one of our other students Carolyn I didn't hear
016it given the topic the double sword of artificial Carolyn researched and wrote a 4 to 10 minute lecture presenting the pros and cons of AI and education as well as discussing her experiences with AI. She earned a second place finish receiving a medal and also qualified for the national conference. So congratulations Kevin for being here tonight. [Applause] Congratulations congratulations for starting this program and moving it forward and being a role model for all. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you for Oh my god. So, um, Mr. Mango is uh a sixth grade science teacher over at the middle school. She is also the sponsor, facilitator, supporter, wonderful mentor for our students who participate in the fifth Fairchild Challenge. So, let's talk a little bit about that. Uh we have three eighth grade students who earned first place
017in this year's Fairchild Challenge Middle School challenge 4 looking through the lens title sponsored by the fifth conservatory and botanical garden students were tasked with telling a story through three photos that highlight the influence of nature. Each photo was accompanied by a short paragraph for the student and from the student about the picture itself and the reason why they chose to capture that image. Um, as I said, Mrs. Mango and his middle school science teacher, sixth grade science teacher, encouraged the students in our classes and in the middle school environmental club to participate in the various fair child challenges offered throughout the school year. This is the 12th year that the middle school has participated in the fifth spirit child challenge and I think you actually started up being in it 12 years ago. I
018remember her coming to talked about it when when we you actually moved you started a myrtle and you came to me and here you are. So I'll let you call one of the students and I want to Would it be okay if I showed their photos? Oh, absolutely. Show the photos. Send them around. So, so um and one of them is not here. So, I'll show this one first. Okay. Uh Rihanna Ibero Romano, this is a picture she took in Beach View on a sunset coming out from uh she was working at church that night. Nice. And I do want to say to Mr. Kiaak, who's been so good to us in our club, um we won money. We won $250 last year because we placed second place overall. And so we used that money
019to buy a folding picnic table that we're going to put outside. And we asked Mr. Koviaak if he would help us. And he uh gave bought us three more that we'll have outside so the full class can sit outside and have lunch, you know, class and those kind of things. And we also bought a bird bath and a uh bird feeder with some of our money. We still have a little bit left. So what we're going to try to do, Mrs. Welsh said she would help us is to have these uh framed and put in the lobby of the middle school name and um you can talk about your Okay. Okay. Um this is my picture I took when I I go camping with my family every year and this like and yeah. [Music] Thank
020you. [Music] [Applause] Congratulations. We didn't get to see your picture. Congratulations. [Music] [Applause] Congratulations. [Applause] Thanks for all your support. My grandparents patio. Where do they go? Check it out. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Thank you for everything. Can I come with you to Oh, I'm good. All right. Thank you. How are you? You're welcome. Thank you. Good job. Thank you, Mr. Okay, I hope you can stick around uh for just a couple more minutes. We're almost done. Um, this is the part that I do not look forward to doing because I'm going to uh doing it already. Um, one of the things that uh people um uh you don't for one of the things that I have promoted the last 13 years of being your superintendent here. I work for you. I don't work
021for anybody else. is to bring on people to form a family. Tonight we have some people who will be leaving our family in the next couple of weeks. These are individuals who have made an impact. Whether you have seen them in front of you in the classroom or if they've been behind the scenes, they have made a huge impact. They are part of the family that has gotten us to the level which we are today. We've made a lot of progress in this district over 13 years and will continue to make that progress. These individuals tonight along with individuals that we will honor in January and individuals that we will honor a year from now, we are losing 16 individuals within the next 18 months in history. That is a lot of people and there
022are some big shoes that are going to need to be filled. And so I'm just going to say that because now I'm going to have to stick to the script and I'll look at some of you because it's going to be hard for me to it's going to be hard for me to say goodbye some of you because you've been very close to me. I've gotten to know all of you all except one because they happen to work a custo but um meant a lot to all of us. So, uh, give it a shot if I can't do a joke. [Applause] We have a lot to say about we're going to be here till about 9:00 tonight. Donna, well, Donna has worked as a as a technology integration specialist. We made changes for 20 uh
023for the last four years. Donna uh prior to her time here, Donna taught in a Catholic school for 40 years. And even though she has only worked here for a short number of years, Donna shared that she is filled with warmth and gratitude. These memories have shaped my career and have left an indelible mark on my heart. Uh she shared that her fondest recolle recollections included the camaraderie within the team watching and learning from the dedicated hardworking teachers and the personal connections that she made with students, faculty and staff. Uh in retirement, Donna plans to enjoy sleeping in playing golf. That's good. volunteering for operation troop appreciation, traveling and spending time with family. She gave us a little bit of words of wisdom. Okay, which I would expect nothing less of Donna. Okay, Donna's she
024says her words of wisdom are to quote always be a lifelong learner. Learn from your colleagues as there is so much talent at Keystone Keystone. Stay adaptable and strive to create your own positive lasting impact on the students of Keystone. And I do want to say before I congratulate her that not only that, but I am starting this year, all of these retirees in in the future are also going to be honored at a lunchon on June 2nd on behalf of the administration here. We're going to honor them and have something special from it and another gift. So you're getting more than just a certificate, a piece of paper. And by the way, Donna did not create it over the technology. One day just on I me you know me you always got my office
025sex congratulations I know what it starts with go there you go I know helping Thanks. Enjoy. Thanks. Okay. Um, while she's going to run, uh, Patty [Music] [Applause] Patty, okay, they're out of business for you. Patty Patty has worked as a par professional for 19 years here in the district. Her fondest memory is working with the same student for her first day from that student's first day of kindergarten at Doran Elementary School until that final day that senior walked across the stage and graduated from East High School with a same student from Dormont all the way in retirement. Um, Patty is looking forward to traveling, spending time with family and friends, reading on the porch, and guess what? Not setting her alarm. Okay. Her words of wisdom to all of us were this. Learn something
026new every day. Travel to new places, and always take the time to watch the sun. So, Patty, thank you. like a sunrise. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. They had you for [Music] [Applause] tomorrow. He's the one behind the scenes. And let me tell you, not only him, but all of our custom every day. They didn't take off. They were here cleaning, disinfecting, working day in and day out to make sure at that time you were safe, I was safe and everything. They're the ones that things go unnoticed or they go notice that when you come in that, oh, there's people piece of paper on the floor or this and that. These people behind the scenes are just as important as those front to hold us up and to do what they doing. And you
027saw that Donna Patty was a student and Jamaro 20 years of service with the district. Started with the middle school and high school then moved on to Myrtle. Ended his career at Myrtle. Loved every minute of it. I heard just been fantastic. Yes. And same thing. He says they're nice. You're gonna be next. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you so much for vlogging. for retirement. No, I have to admit at this point I just realized that I'm supposed to do something before him before the next person came up here to retire. I have my long my wrong um ID and thing around here. This should have been my pet um ID around here. As you know, I have my doctor from PE. There's an individual here who started her career at the University of Pittsburgh
028before coming here and her and I when we found out and thank and what's going to be really tough about this one is because she's the only other person in this district along with me felt as though Kenny Picket was the way to go. Understand that. I understand that but it wasn't. So Judy, come on up here. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you. And notice her loyalty to the district. Notice that she the color she has on. That's I would have expected nothing different. Uh Judy has worked with as a teacher here for 24 years. As I said, she worked at the university. She can tell you that story. She spent three years as a substitute teacher before she was being hired full time. She has taught first grade. That's when I first met her. I
029actually the first two people in the community was Judy and Leslie Hol. They taught together first grade and I'll never forget that 13 years ago coming to the district. Um she taught second grade, fifth grade, ELA, math and science. to become our fifth grade math guru at at one. Okay. Uh Judy shared that her greatest accomplishments included watching a child learn how to read, watching students grow confident in their math abilities and being a part of the fifth grade coffee shop which is coming up which is coming up. It better stay and I rearranged my schedule. Uh in retirement, Judy plans to travel and enjoy not dealing with the Parkway East traffic. Oh yeah, she doesn't have to. Guess what? She's not Guess who's not coming through anymore. Her words of wisdom to all of
030us were always remember that we actually learn more from our students and to apologize to your students when you have made the mistake. Thank you for [Applause] all. Thank you. Thank you. If I weren't mine. Oh, yeah. The wig. Thank you. Thank you. And you do that. Very nice. You have your real ID. Now you're doing this track. That's right. Your real ID. I got it. What a track. [Music] [Applause] And I have to say this is a bittersweet time for Mrs. Victoria because she's losing two colleagues also retiring at the end of this year who's with us. So Deb De if you will come up. [Applause] potato here. Okay. Um, I'm going to try to stick to the script that I can go really off. So, I will have to say a lot of
031you know this. So Deb and I have known each other for quite a number of years even prior to me coming to PO I've always been proud to say many many years ago Deb's mom was my secretary when I was an administrator in the law enforcement her mom was my secretary and so and just this past year can I for one second here her son Wyatt and my daughter my daughter played Ariel in musical and her son played there. So they bought to be so perfect. So it's really nice to see them there. But anyhow about this Dev has worked as a teacher here in the district for 33 years teaching third grade, fourth grade, uh math in ELA and all fifth grade subjects right now. I think she's her fondest memories include fifth grade
032colonial days. Uh, Deb shared with us that teaching wasn't just a job or a career for me, but truly part of who I am. I loved sharing my passion for learning and inspiring young children to believe in themselves and their potential. And in retirement, dad plans to spend more time with family, travel, volunteer with her church, and she gets to read more and read stuff that she congratulations bring the cake. Oh, by the way, while Deb's right, she did leave us with a little word my left eye. Deb said, "All a word of wisdom. All children are a gift from God and are special in their own way. The most challenging students are usually the ones that require the most love and the most patience. All right, we have one more retiring. Okay, and this
033one's going to be tough because this is the person who when I came to the district, I met immediately before the assistant, before the high school principal, before everybody else. She laid for me in the lay of the land and told me what happened here. She had my back. Every She is the one person I can say had my back and she knows everything and everything. And when she leaves in a couple of weeks, we're going to lose institution here as an institution. But before I go any further, I know this is going to be this one. They were all Beth Pat and Beth come up. [Applause] sentimental misin so we're going to keep it to the best. So as you know that has been the one who has been here for 35 years in
034the district. 35 years in the district doing the same job. She has seen people come and go. Anybody that could work 18 of those 35 years was Scott Hag. Scott was the former principal. He was the first. Oh no. Oh no. Some of you are smiling and looking. I'm fully aware because Beth has told me to some of the parents here. She chased some of you for this hill. She told me she chased me. She told me she's the one she has told me about everything and anything here. Um Beth um there there's not enough time to talk about that and it wouldn't be fair to anybody else. Um but we don't know when it's time. Beth and I did have an agreement a number of years ago. I I broke it and I'm being
035honest with all you right now. Beth and I talked about that we would retire and we would go out and take care and um I just can't do it because this is my life and I just can't do it. I just can't. Okay. Uh she's gone. She'll probably keep me for but I broke the promise. So probably I broke the promise. I'll pay for it. I know. Okay. But um Beth uh will fondly remember all of the staff and students that she has met along the way in her retirement. She is most looking forward to you ready sleeping in. Wow. That's that I don't care what the weather was and so on and so forth. We kind of first year and so I mean that lives out of state. I'm not going to tell you
036what state we come out 79 as I say that every day after she's 70 and 79 when she has been here. Her words of wisdom will all no matter what's going on in your life. She has said this to me so many times. Treat people the way you want to be treated because it will eventually come back alive. And she's right. And so Beth, congratulations. We're gonna [Applause] Thank you. Was it the blue car? Yeah, the blue car. West Virginia. Thank you for sending us the students that you do. We don't always necessarily get along. We try to do the best we can. We try to support student and do the best. But students are always first and everyone in your class. You make me very proud to be here. To all of our adults,
037thank you so much for all the work you have put into this district. You will always be part of this district. You will always be a part of our family. Don't be a stranger. If you are a stranger, I'll come and find you. Beth already knows I'm going to find her because that lives right along. She's famous golf course. And I know where to find some of the rest of you. So, thank you. I know that this time for all of you to relax but [Applause] mom come to support the teachers Caroline thank you for the Emily thank you for the work you're doing that ring out on us but still okay that's nice wonderful bill but thank you so let the band parents figure out Tell them I said let them figure it out
038themselves. But no, thank you so much. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] Okay. Okay. Yeah. [Music] Did you know that? That's the way I deliver stuff, too. Like I'm totally kidding. I nailed it. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I don't know what's wrong with that. [Music] So there you have it. Yeah. Where's Donna when you come back? That one's fine. Oh my god. You're just going to incredible like if you retire to Yeah. Go ahead. That is But I can totally neighbor one [Music] night my best friend. Okay. And I was like within like one they just think you're sitting there. All right. What golf course were you talking about? Oh god. still alive. I want to make sure we're still running. That's so much better like that. They didn't know how she never um never I
039got married her last year. I four days was too much. I mean I gone. Yeah, that's what I did. I did that. I really have to let her go. [Music] I ran in a car, went to Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. It was so fun. I recommend one. If you do go to If you do go to Grand Canyon, don't take it. It was really nice. It was really long, but it was really It was very nice. A lot of good things happening in the district. Um, up next we have public comment. [Music] Hello. Um, my name is Haley Justice and I live at 26 in PA. I am here this evening to speak about ongoing concerns regarding discrimination, safety, and inclusion at elementary. I am the parent of a special needs first grader
040who currently attends. Although we've had what seems like productive conversations with school administration, I'm standing here today because I do not believe justice is search for our child or our family. The most critical issue is this. Due to several ongoing problems this school year, including lack of staffing, insufficient discipline, and an overwhelming number of communication failures, we made the difficult decision to keep our daughter home during the school year. We did this to protect her wellbeing and her safety. Let me ask you this. Would you feel comfortable leaving your non-verbal child with a staff member who refuses to influence themselves, rolls their eyes when you attempt to hand your child's backpack, and shows physical frustration while interacting with your child? Now, imagine that the staff member is responsible for the safety and care of a
041child who is epileptic, a muscle tend, and visually impaired. Not only did this staff member refuse to assist my child in front of me, but my daughter also appeared visibly uncomfortable in their presence. When I raised these concerns with the principal, I was told verbana. This is all I have to offer. If you don't want to send her, don't. This response was deeply concerning. If the staff members unwilling to carry my daughter's sack test, how will she react when my child needs diaper change? How will she respond during a teacher? Following my interaction, I contacted the special education director who escalated the issue to a superintendent and assistant. Despite our concerns, we were informed that the district would not assign the paraprofessional who has already worked with my child in a positive relationship with my
042daughter. The reasoning they claim there have been no prior issues with the current pair professional. But eye rolling for reactions and refusal to assist my child for serious issues once the administration has failed to acknowledge. Multiple staff members have since have since reached out consulting my daughter virtually. They've expressed concerns about the appropriateness of the assigned pair of professional for my daughter's needs. I was also informed both through an anonymous letter and a report to the district that this paraprofessional is frequently on her phone during the day and has poor communication with both staff and parents and students. My who has been attending my for two years requires thoughtful consistent trans transitions and appropriate care needs that have not been met. The lack of an introductory meeting with this pair of professional created unnecessary disruption
043for our daughter. Sadly, the district made us feel as if our daughter, who bright, loving, and full of potential was viewed as a burden rather than a student deserving support. This is only one of many recent issues that we've encountered and I know we have limited time. So I want to formally request a meeting with the school board to discuss the broader concerns that are affecting our child and our families and within the district including inclusion and issues within the special education department communication issues at Marwell Elementary. It's been an ongoing issue for the last two years and it needs addressed. Thank you for letting me speak. I look forward to working together with the school board administration to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for all students, especially those with exceptional needs, and
044being able to send my daughter back to school safely because she's been Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Mallerie Sh and I live at 813 Kney in Cap Shannon. I am the parent of a first grader at Myrtle Elementary. Uh it's come to my attention that my child has been aloping in school. And the way that they handle it is by putting a smiley face if a child stays in the classroom and a frowny face if the child wonders from the classroom. Don't think this is appropriate. I called for a onetoone or a meeting that I meeting on February 20th for a onetoone meeting. get my child a pair professional. My child has eloped during an afterchool program and one of the teachers at the IEP meeting lied to my face about sorry
045lie to my face about my son aloping. Another parent caught my child leaving the school before I could get him. At this meeting, I was told that it is not considered alopment if my child does not leave school. And the crisis team called right. There was a 9-year-old boy in Nebraska was on the autism spectrum that wandered away during recess and died in a near wide lagoon. How do I know something like this can't happen to my child? There's no precautions to be taken and his lotment issues aren't be being taken seriously. I I I'm would like to formally request a meeting with the board to discuss this because I don't believe that the safety concerns are being taken seriously and it's not just my child. If this is being covered up for my child,
046how many other children are being not taken seriously as well? And it's it's very concerning because children are precious. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, my name is Ben Ky 110 Black Drive. Haley and I are the parents of special needs daughter currently in first grade at Myrtle Elementary. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to express our concern regarding an apparent discrepancy in the recommendations and educational placement. On one hand, we have been told that she's doing very well making meaningful progress toward the goals outlined in her IEP. On the other hand, we recently learned that recommendation was made for her to be placed in a life skills classroom, a significant change that was discussed without our knowledge or our involvement. Additionally, my experience with Ellie's new para profofessional gave the impression that she was
047not only avoiding interaction with me, but more importantly avoiding interaction without these issues have been discussed with the superintendent and the director of student support services. But unfortunately, we had to make a very difficult decision to remove Ellie from the regular school and have her place in a virtual program. So these issues get resolved. We do not feel comfortable or confident that sending her back to the brick and mortal school will be in her best interest. More importantly, the decision to discuss such a major shift in placement without parental input raises serious concerns and appears to go against principles of collaboration and transparency. We believe that we believe this matter must be addressed immediately to ensure that our daughter's educational progress continues in a manner that is supportive, appropriate, and respectful of her rights and
048our role as her parents. I formally requesting a meeting of the board to discuss this. Thank you. We don't comment on student matters but the board has heard you and we will meet and discuss if they want to take any further action. Thank you. Thank you. All right. uh for the board's report, excuse me, next week we will be um approving the board minutes of April 15th um and the business legislation minutes of April 22nd. uh also nominating um for office of treasurer and um looking for the delegate appointments for PSDA the parkway left Mrs. show information. It's just what normally that's just yours looks different. Mine does look Yeah, that's why I'm looking her agenda. Oh. Oh, because I made it into a dock. Oh, I wonder why the form. I don't recognize you
049voting on it. Weird. She put it in a dock. That's right. We're good. Here. Do you want to look up the cavities? No, I'm fine. I get it. Okay. Is this office of treasurer for the school board? What treasurer is this? Yes, for the school board currently it's Rayanne. That's right. Correct. They go on a July. I thought we It's always July. Oh, I see. All right. Um, more information on Miss Shaw, do you have anything from Parkway West? Um, I will pick up on Parkway West next week, but I do want to congratulate tonight the students who are currently graduating right now at the ceremony for Parkway. And um, I couldn't be there because I'm here, but um, congratulations to them. Yeah, great. That's awesome. Thank you, Mr. Rozo. Um, unfortunat I don't have
050a report today. Thank you. Thank you. And Miden is not today. Um any news from the burrows? No. Um election day Tuesday. Very important to get out and vote. Um as for executive session, we did meet prior to today's meeting um for personnel. And that takes us to the super. Uh thank you Mrs. Don Hugh. Uh I'm not going to go through all of these. Uh you have four items for second reading policies. You have uh a number of policies for first reading. Uh item number 10 uh next week you will approve the summer food service program. We will continue with that. Item number 11 will be the approvals of the codes of conduct for students. I sent all those to you a couple weeks ago. So if you have any comments, please let me
051know. And then we have the memorandum of understanding which we have to do every two years with the burrows. Um which is they're they're all pretty much boilerplate. We use the forms from the Pennsylvania Department of Education and that's theus with we have Castle Shannons, we have Dormmonts, we have Mount Leans. We have yet to receive um uh green trees. If we do get it by next week, we will have it on the list. But they're they're all the exact same. They're all the same. But we do have to submit those to PD by July 31st of this year. Um I had a question about the food service program. Yeah. Oh my absolutely. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Um is there is that fully funded as usual or were there budget federal budget cuts? It's fully
052funded as of now because there's a little bit from the feds but a lot from the state on this one. We're still good. Yeah, we're still good on this program, right, Joe? I mean, as of today, as of 8:14 p.m. tonight, yes, we're still good to go. And it's nice that it looks like we're open back up to all three communities. Yes. Was it last year that we kind of went smaller? Uh, no. year before we went um C community eligible were able to provide six weeks one I know the Dormmont pool one is a big hit the green tree the Wilson and the Hamilton is while the wreck is going on for the six seven weeks that there uh item number uh 15 is a student agreement uh I gave information to you in
053a confidential section of the capsule and there will a second one next week. So there will be two. There will be information since I didn't have an opportunity to meet with you beforehand. There's information in my cap. So any questions we will discuss and then we will have and then you know let me know not next week two weeks board meetings in two weeks not next week and then we have two professional developments for the individuals that are listed there and I hold on Bill what is the Golden Gate National where is that the Golden Gate National Recreation Area Dr. Barley could you help me on that one so this is a program was selected as an ambassador for she'll be doing advanced training I've incorporated as part of our gift curriculum um and also
054in the enrichment that um training and kids actually really love learning about national parks because our gifted program based on their interest and they really see a hit. So it's a nice combination that she Where where where is it? Dashian. Well, I know that. But it's only $720. Correct. That's why. Yeah. Correct. Right. What's that? In San Francisco for $720. So, this is just the They're paying everything. Okay, that makes sense. I didn't hear that. That makes sense. Wonderful. Wonderful. I was trying to like rectify that information in my brain and I couldn't figure out how it was. Wonderful. National parks are my favorite thing to do. There's two you need to bond. I have a national park card. Use it. Use it. I had one last year, too. So great. Thank you, Dr. Bar,
055for that report. Uh thank you for the education report. We have some wonderful science books on display. Uh walk don't run to check those out. Um are they on display now? They are in the library. They are in the PD room. Okay. It's easier for crowd control down here. Gotcha. And what a nice place to sit and browse curriculum. That's a joke that'll never die. No, we keep using it every year. Uh flexible instruction days application. Okay. You made me do it. So I made I Okay, so full full disclosure. Uh I made Dr. Barley do it after a discussion with with uh some individuals from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. um we technically do not have to do flexible instructional days anymore given the fact that the uh school code has been changed. School
056code says now that you either go to school 180 days or 900 hours of instruction for an elementary student or 990 hours for a secondary student secondary being 7 through 12. Uh given those changes, we no longer need to be calling in the winter flexible instruction days. We could just go fully remote or not make them up at all. You don't have to. However, I will go publicly saying this. Never quite sure where the Department of Education may change their mind in the middle of these next three years. We're only doing this as a backup. Okay? We weren't going to do this, but at the recommendation of somebody by PTE who I happen to be friends with, have a discussion with them. They said just do it and have it there as a backup because
057nobody can read the crystal ball and know if that'll ever be pulled or be changed. So I just don't want for the future the district to be caught where you can't use a remote day or you can't do do you can't use a flexible instruction with a concept of flexible instruction. This day is actually in state legislation. Okay. But if you call it anything else and by the flexibility error that's in school code and that's totally at the discretion of the superintendent or the CEO or the executive director of the various group. I see our solicitor shaking my head. I've learned very well from her and the rest of them. This is how we learned all. So we're only doing this as sort of as a crutch just in case something changes along the line.
058We weren't going to do it. Um, and I obviously lied to Dr. Barley. We weren't going to do it. And then I that got off the phone and I said, "Can you do it just to be safe?" So that's why we're here. That's history. And it's for three, four years. Yeah, it's good for three years. So we're we're at the end of ours this year. So this will renew us up to three years. So we'll we'll be lack of better words protected. have the abilities, you know, just in case they pull pull something and change that stuff that's in the school code that I just said to you, we'll be good through 2028 to have backup. You know, we have to make it up so we don't have to add days. We all remember I'm
059looking at um Mrs. Welsh on the year that we almost had to do makeup and add onto the school year and throw things off and we had a flood of people in this room. Um they didn't want makeup. So this is also to protect help everybody out. So when we start school and end school start and end time, we're good. She didn't do that. And then we're going to renew the um service agreement with waterfront learning which is our flexible flexible virtual education. So or sometimes it's our cyber program that we All right. Back to you Dr. Stley. Thank you. Um uh quickly. So uh items one and two uh are well no I'm sorry. Item number one recommend u we will be asking the board to vote on the special education plan. It is
060on public display on our website. I did send it to the board. Uh I do apologize. The way I send it to you is exactly the way it appears in the PDE site and when you print it that's why it looks as awkward as it is. It's not it's very Dr. Barley will tell you it's the same thing when we do the comprehensive plan, the blank sheets, the this and that. It's not correctable. So, I just gave it to you basically in raw form. Okay? But if you have any questions with that, obviously, you know, talk with uh Dr. Hannah about that. Uh as we do every year, the next two is the uh service agreement with the Alagany Intermun unit um to agree to services. If the district needs those services, we could we
061could purchase them from them. things like OTP, things of that sort. We can go through them. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't those services. And then the the other item that goes along with them is what they call an addendum. And that's when uh this is for when the services are actually being incured and they're actually being taken care of. The process that we have to go through, make sure we're dotting our eyes and crossing our tees because involved in here with special education, there's federal dollars. So we have to make sure that we're following that. So that's all that basically is. We will follow that point. Um those two are always confusing if you you have to approve them every year. Item three is just our articulation agreement with Point Park University to continue
062offer courses. Um um they just got it to us and yet it's effective January 2nd, 2020 uh 2025. That is correct. Uh but they just got it to us. But oh well we out of it. So that piece uh every year we have to appoint a dentist as part of the uh school code. Uh Dr. Evan Hall will continue to be our dentist at the rates there. He's been for a couple of years now. We will continue with him. Um and then we have some client services to approve agreement with Solen and the district for some services as you can see services for a student at an hourly rate. that's for a particular student. Uh the Adelfoy education service agreement uh that you have listed there for 2526 that's the agreement if we send any
063students there or receive services from them and then the associate occupational therapist inc the addendum that's listed there providing physical therapy as well as occupational therapy Dr. can help me there that first we were just getting occupational therapy from them or I have it backwards OT PT OPT and then also behavioral service they added that service to that so that's why there's an addendum that they have added that service uh to us if we choose to go with them um that's it that's it we what's really nice is we got a lot of these agreements early this year normally they're all piled on us in June and that makes that agenda very much we got Yeah. So, we we got them out there. So, they're they're approved. That concludes my report. Thank you, D. You're
064welcome. Thank you for the personnel report, Miss Snider. Um yeah, this is a little bit shorter than report. So, we have wait till next month. Yeah. Okay, good point. Um so, we have one retirement, uh one resignation. Um, there are going to be two FMLA fees and an unpaid personal. Thank you. And that takes us to the finance report. Mr. Hill, so there will be three items uh brought forth for approval. The first one being the approval of our 2025 2026 proposed final budget. Proposed final budget. Um so we had a discussion on this during our finance committee last week and uh so we have some projections and we'll have some projections for us to look at and so by the time we come together next I guess two weeks from now. Yes, we'll have
065we'll have a proposal uh for approval based on the information provided here. The second item will be the accounts payable for the month ending April 30th, 2025 to include our general fund as well as our food service fund as listed. And then there's a Schubert equipment sales and this is for conveyor gas oven purchase which looks like we're going to pull from the cafeteria funds to cover this. I'm assuming the one is the one we have broker. Uh yes, we had pre-order. Um it's really a pizza oven. Um they've been obsolete. So Mr. Lloyd um went through the state and looked at it to replace it, updated that way we could start serving better pizza here at the high. You're welcome, kid. That's right. Well, let's wait to see how the pizza is and then
066we'll pay. comments. All right. Can't be a MC rocks pizza. Will we be able to taste this pizza? I will have him. Yes, absolutely. Better be served. Um, thank you very much, Mr. Hill and Mr. Leaport with the athletic and activities. Thank you. There's uh two items. The approval of the activities for the 2526 school year and uh the approval of the athletics from the 2526 school year listed that is it. Thank you very [Applause] much. All right, that is the end of the report. Any further public comments? No. All right. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? I'll make that motion. Second. Any final discussion? All in favor? I turn. Thank you much.