001thank you call the meeting to order stand for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all public comment s thank you then the next item on the agenda is recognition of one of our teachers Kevin Gallagher Dr Stratford thank you Mrs light and so um [Laughter] but anyhow back in the fall apart and hopefully those just online in one year tomorrow is awesome YouTube can hear me that's what I'm headed to um but back in the fall the National Education Association Foundation named Kevin as a recipient of the California casualty award and Kevin was selected by psea that's when he is Association Association for this award it was one of
00245 Educators from across the country to be recognized for his excellence in their practice advocacy for the profession commitment to equity and opportunity commitment to engagement and Leadership of professional development responds a lot like some of those other stuff that we have in our strategic plan so in November the National Education Association Foundation announced Kevin as one of the five Educators to be recognized as a recipient of the Horace Mann award for teaching excellence uh one which is one of the nation's highest honors perhaps for any public school educator and as a recipient of this award Kevin was honored at the National Education association's annual salute excellence in education Gala which was just this past weekend in Washington DC in his wife his wife was able to attend uh with him and as a part
003of this award the Nea produced a video about Kevin and we're going to show you that video right now so everybody can see it so um so Sarah you want to go ahead and I'll get out of the way and how they did a little more range one of my favorite things about computer science is the world of creativity my classes right now we are building what I would call Atari games very basic games that kind of get students interested in moving once it gets back to 100 just so you know that maybe not everybody's going to be a programmer but everybody will have an opportunity to sit at the table with a programmer regardless of what field they go into computer science is going to help them open those doors one of the greatest
004things about Kevin is his commitment to diversity equity and inclusion do you have issues that you're trying to tackle so it's one of the people you want on your team he doesn't say I can't do that you don't hear Kevin say that Selena yeah girls who code adds to me bringing Equity to computer science the goal is to over represent those groups that are underrepresented in computer science as a minority myself and I mean like outside opportunities [Music] going on so welcome everybody it is a computer science education week last night they had a night of code which families came in there was over 200 people here and girls who code decided to sponsor the events girls are in charge basically have to facilitate the event I think these nights are important to come together
005as a key setups family let's go together and I think he's pretty much made it his goal to open it up to everybody for them to come in you have a night a family night that you bring all those people together now you have a system in place where the kids start coding in kindergarten and it's so exciting to see five-year-old six-year-old seven-year-olds knowing that they're going to continue to grow over the next seven eight years by the time they get into high school day break well I feel like if my work impact other people throughout the state and throughout the country my children will have a place that's more comfortable for them where they can grow I want to be a teacher because my dad too and he's a good teacher I just they
006came once and 16. he was like that with football always like that in the middle school it's just a drive within him I certainly hope that most teachers could see how he's committed to what he does and Kevin's commitment to these his students I grew up without [Music] fun inspiration with me when I first had him and I would always be late in class where he found out what made me sick and what made me think and never really gave up on me it wasn't for him I probably would have never graduated high school each one of those has five values average it's a graph of an average I see kids who may have been struggling starting to succeed I've seen the kids that succeed start to excel to other levels that they never thought
007of that's your paycheck that's where it really makes you feel like you made the right decision that you're in the right field and that you continue to make a difference over your own career so as you can see Kevin's commitment also to our philosophy here of personalized learning and meeting the future needs and everything else so Kevin on behalf of this is really two things that you really didn't know uh we don't want to hear that Kevin on behalf of the school district myself and I see anything I want to say is that video would have had so much more power and value they needed to interview Dr Farley Mr Cuban [Laughter] [Applause] congratulations [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] that was a great job that's a nice little video yeah will that be on
008earth website for people um I know she's in the hospital trivia out there yeah I know it'll be part of the minutes and part of the you know here so let's call your daughters okay that takes attention to the review of reports um we will be uh approving the minutes nomination for office of treasurer and we will be discussing a resolution regarding um Senate Bill 180 and Hospital 180 and I would like to ask Mrs Donahue to please um tell us about it so that we're informed before we expose on it tonight oh right now sure I'll do that okay so um I'm not great with all the names and everything but there's a Senate bill and a house bill 180 going through um at the very first stages of um of whatever you know
009how a bill becomes a law and they are trying to extend and make permanent these School meals the free meals for all that was happening um during covid and they want to extend that um permanently and the one of the people who is on writing the Bill said uh that it was about one percent of Pennsylvania's entire state budget so it's not a lot of money to the state but it's something that will support our students here um you know by getting food to them which we know is you know the fuel they need to to be using at school to get you know everything that's into those brains so that was not eloquent it was not a nice way to you know really put the you know put the school meals for all into
010everybody's hands but that's what it's about I did send everybody information on it I'm not sure if you went on to the Snapple website um uh but what I'm requesting uh is that we uh the school board approve a resolution that supports those bills that way they can take that to you know Harrisburg and say all of these districts are supporting this they feel that it's best for their District and sort of help those bills along there are quite a few schools in the area who have already approved Bethel Park is one of them um I don't know the others but I know that Mount Lebanon and other districts around us are also discussing this during their maybor meeting so it's something that a lot of you know districts are finding to be important um
011as I'm sure parents and students do too thank you if you have any specific questions that I can't answer I can always reach out to my friend who let me know about it so thank you and get some answers that way thank you it sounds like a a win I I agree um the resolution that we would be talking about really lays out why a school district might you know want to have these free meals for all and one of them would be in Mr kubiak's favor that there would be a lot of less administrative work behind those meals and the lady won't have to keep calling me telling me that my daughter is well behind on paying her school meal bills so so we would save some money you know all around and just
012see your point we've seen an increase in breakfast since the state has breakfast and the numbers are actually doing very well especially at the elementary school so it's always good to see there's kids coming in and getting those free meals where when they aren't free they're not really using that service and they're supporting English I think you know same with our College historic coven which is good to see kids getting the food and not being afraid to go up and get food even if they're brought a lunch and they're still hungry well they can go get that and make sure they have you know you know right and the poverty levels you know might say some student gets a meal but somebody just over that threshold doesn't get a meal and they might be hungrier
013than the others so it really provides an equity piece as well thank you I just have one question so would the board like for us to change for discussion only for two weeks actually be a passing the resolution yeah okay so we'll move that we'll move that to change to a resolution and maybe what we could do is enter the resolution into the minutes so the public can see what exactly it is the one that that's pre-written sort of that I sent you um to review that would need to be filled in with the information about our lunches here at school and any changes made you know for a Keystone Oaks to it we'll we'll fill that in we'll put it on for two weeks thank you you're welcome thank you um Mr Shaw is
014not here so we will if somebody else has something about Parkway I wasn't there okay I I was uh where was it yeah when I was in Sun City I'm sure yeah but yeah I would say well she usually holds anyway until the voting meeting um Mr roza anything on Shasta good evening to everyone um I don't have a report this time uh they did have um I think what that breakfast blanket I couldn't attend I had some other thing on my agenda uh that I heard was pretty nice to um this week do we have any news from the boroughs Hamilton Park is closed for summer and duck they're doing construction at Chestnut park for the Pavilion so apparently uh you can use there as the basketball court there's a lot of construction through
015the whole Borough so be uh cautious that's all I am okay thank you um I think Greentree is still looking for um summer employment anyone interested in summer employment or um I think Public Works possibly also Life Starts I think dorm unplugging for lifeguards as well and I think they're the best paying in the area too gotta keep that pool open um we did meet an executive session prior to this meeting um to discuss matters of personnel and confidential legal issues superintendents report Dr strathke thank you Mrs Lyden don't for next week there'll just be a few items on their first readings of the policies that you have seen there so you know take a look at the policies if you have any questions let uh Mrs Shaw or myself now and um happy to
016report this is just for information only one to let the board know that the district is applying to host the Pennsylvania music educators association's Junior High Orchestra festival for next year so we are flying to be a house right yeah okay that's the one that was at Mount Lebanon yeah so we are applying to be a host I will find out a little bit more information I might mean a formal approval from you I just needed to find out from our music department but I think as long as everybody's okay with this we're going to move forward with it and we would really really like to host this showcase the district showcase the program and um I I am going to brag just a bit to let you know that after this past year and
017with the great hires and what has happened with our music department our music department is starting to be recognized Statewide Statewide so uh who knows in a year or two we might be recognized as one of the best communities for music education okay kind of figures because we are removing in that direction and doing very well and as you saw with we had both Caleb and Ben go all the way to 108 state so yeah so we're very proud of it but that concludes my report thank you yes um we will be um looking at the common threads memorandum of understanding are looking to approve that between common threads and Keystone Oak High the high school and this is in-person lessons that are provided by professional chefs for a family and consumer science class and
018the chefs will have all their clearances that are necessary to come in so that's a great opportunity for the students here [Laughter] and also um it's recommended it will be recommended that the board approve the textbooks um for the math program K through five we did um in the education committee meeting review all of the things um you know there was a presentation about it it looks like a great program um especially excited about the number Corner that they're putting in for third through fifth grade and also basically free because that will come from the Esser grant that we need to spend on these classroom materials what did you like specifically about the Foreigner uh the numbers corner is a lot like a cat like a calendar time so you know you get to first
019second grade I guess really in calendar kind of goes away we're not dressing the bear but we are still bundling numbers and getting that number of cents it does a lot with number sense but it also revisits material constantly so if something if you had a concept in September you'll keep seeing it over and over again in number one but it's a little routine right it is yes generalization of the skills that they've learned today yes and the whole program is based on so this fits in very nicely and it has a lot of manipulatives as well so that's very helpful yeah thank you that's all I have thank you and back to you Dr stropke for pupil Personnel thank you uh items one and two are just what we do every year it's the
020service agreement between the district and the Allegheny Intermediate Unit in the event that we would want to use some of their special education services and people services not that we have to sometimes we don't you know but it's it's just the agreement and the addendum that we do every year and then we have an internship agreement with Slippery Rock for an internship um we also have a approval asking for approval for the services agreement between the district and the day school at the Children's Institute for one of our uh for students for next school year um the Allegheny children's initiative agreement that is the group that now works with us with our students assistance program we have to approve that every year and so something through the county so that's good is this the same
021as we had last year yes yeah same group yeah yeah you're very limited on the numbers that you can pick now remember last year they changed things so they only give you a couple way agencies you can actually choose from they change things around and then we did receive uh the uh border did receive the agreement between Carlow University and the district to offer college in the High School uh program so we have received that I will say that Carla has changed some of the requirements they have beefed up the program so yes uh it was an agreement that I had not seen sometime it's on the level of what we received from rmu they had to they were they were all put pressures on the states obviously I've reviewed it and I'm I am
022fine with it um and so and so forth so things look good so a lot of this is for next year so we're only talking about that so um that concludes the people personnel thank you the um Allegheny Intermediate Unit um comes in handy when when you have low incidence needs right yeah because it's not you can't hire somebody for that it's not cost effective correct correct so it's good to have that available sure that takes us into Communications report Miss Lindsay um we are going to have one board action item requested this is uh parent Square that's um the just the communication it covers every area that we're formally covered by can't see Sarah from here covered by different areas um so this is something that we're hoping is going to help with communication
023at all levels for parents so it will be replacing other methods of communication we've been using yes okay Sarah could you give a quick summary if you would please thank you um hi um so there's a PowerPoint in the communication folder on the board if you want to go through the whole thing but just really quickly parents learn to communication that allows you to consolidate like full messenger the newsletter other platforms or apps that are usually reminds Class Dojo it looks very much like a social media piece it's really intuitive but we can give access to classroom teachers or psos club and activity sponsors coaches and they can post and share information and then parents will have one spot that they can go to where they can see everything whether it's district-wide voting wide or
024even down to like a team or club that their student is involved with as opposed to having you know to dig through emails or if you look at different apps and figure out where that message came from that's one thing that we've been hearing over and over again from families is there's just too many places where the messages go and then when I'm looking for it I can't remember where you know where I thought it was it Facebook was it a newsletter was it an email um so this would allow to consolidate those platform I have presented also to the doctor striking superintendent parent liaison group and then I that was to the pfos separately last week and all the appearances together seem really excited about it because they were struggling with engagement because their
025messages also get lost and they don't necessarily right now have access to all of the email addresses or all of the parents and there is a student component to this as well if the students would be able to see that information um as well okay thank you thank you Miss Lindsay thank you um Personnel report um we have two resignations we have an appointment for um activity activity sponsor for next year um extended school year staff sabbatical leave to approve Family and Medical leads and extended leads not one not plural that takes us to finance Mr Hill have two items for or discussion and approval on the 23rd first one being the approval of the proposed final budget but the final budget to come in June so the next two weeks we'll have a series
026of finance committee meetings to talk further about this as well and then the second item will be approval of the accounts payable listed at eight hundred three thousand for the month of April that is it thank you buildings grounds and transportation Mr rozas thank you Mr President we uh have two items on the agenda in two weeks versus the sound system and um the number there it says twenty thousand five twenty uh we had our building and browse meeting we looked at that and we've seen another number and we were like sticker shots so I'm very happy with this number and uh and with the box truck uh we're trying to acquire a new box truck for the districts so that'll be on the agenda in two weeks so to come back and with that
027said uh that's all I had this line thank you and we're still on track to have the sound system in before graduation yeah and can can we just confirm that the next building and grounds meeting will be at Dorman Elementary that was a concern okay yeah mobile Furniture delivered today wait why are we having to describe as a walk through uh the classroom design flexible classrooms yes uh they're they're redoing the classrooms in elementary schools starting at Dormont right well it's K through two next year at all three Elementary five the reason the flexible classroom is being constant Dormont is that Mr Warner the only one was an available room there was much talking for the furniture but he has a space that he won it won't be exactly what we are getting but it'll
028be kind of Representative and we're having our professional development for the elementary teachers there in the afternoon on May 16. so all the elementary teachers they would walk through and we'll be meeting there on Thursday Mr Kubiak I will be negotiating and I just want to add that this furniture is not because this is blending and this is going along with our strategic Planet moving forward with a future focused classroom that also in addition will help us me and the beginning next year with the help of Dr Farley working on an instructional design model to lead us into the future of what construction needs to look like with the engagement so we are finally really digging in heavy I remember a couple years ago Mr Russo asked about when we going to start to see
029things with the Strategic plan well during copen and all that other stuff it wasn't the right time to do any of this new stuff now is and that's why you're seeing all this comment a lot and and a lot of the stuff you're hearing about before you asked yes it has been budgeted for it works into the budget so um Mr Kubiak has worked his magic in some way shape or form but it works into the budget so so thank you to Dr barley thank you that Mr Kubiak thank you to the committee because there's also a committee of teachers that have been looking at this stuff so it's not like they went out pet there is educational research going behind why we're getting looking at the furniture that we're looking to help change the
030instructional design and the delivery of the lessons there's a lot of research into this so it's not the entire day on Friday on Flex furniture that was there in what they call their inspiration space is what is now a dorm life it's is there a plan to move that up to the high school middle school high school straight up okay all the way K-12 I was just meeting today with the Middle School uh student council first thing out of their mouth well you think it was Dr Shroff we don't like these desks we don't like this furniture we need something else and I just laughed I said it's coming you just got to give it a while because it's not conducive to the type of learning that we should be seeing it's conducive to learning
031that we were teaching 200 200 years ago in the country it's not what we it's not how you teach and approach teaching anymore so you also can do something one of the speakers that we heard on Friday Phil Strickland his message was that which kids look around the school of everything they see should be and the furniture we have is serving of you [Laughter] but that's not for the students and when is the um when is that meeting 25th I believe thank you in case anyone else wants to join who might not be already scheduled to go committee cookies and furniture that takes us to activities and Athletics Mr LaPorte one we have a couple things here one is a competitive event uh you ought to see the mindful competition level three and Michigan State
032University formations listed below athletic for winter and spring 23 24 year information is listed people but the inner Scholastic Athletics for 23-20 years from the policy that's listed there and that actually it shows all the support and the same for the approval of activities for 23-24 24 school year that policy and and the information is always there um do we have any that are new in there yeah our two new Governors a secla at the high school which is failing Pacific time and then there is a robotic that's the Middle School assessment there so that's a good thing nice I come back yeah and did we lose any um we lost some that didn't run last year this was just the last professional year um again this year because there were a few however they
033did the last three years so they're not well attended anyway Joe could you correct me is there a blotchy club yeah that's not a club yeah yeah that's sponsored by a specific organization correct and it's for um like all abilities right it's right it's your exclusion it's called unified yeah correct we host that yeah tournament um and then that takes us to um public comments and thank you so much for allowing Mr Gallagher to get his award before speaking absolutely my name is Jennifer Taylor and I'm I have three students in the district I have attended for an 11th grader and two daughters one in ninth grade and seventh grade and aside from what I had here I just want to um this is Welsh presented the pyramid square at the middle school PFO meeting
034and we're all very excited to see that we all as parents as an organization said that that was a great tool and like seeing everything in one place it can take place from our sign up Geniuses and has a lot of functionality that we thought we would get a lot of views out of so but what that's worth from our perspective it looks like a good something to put in place um two things that I wanted to speak on tonight um one was on behalf of the Middle School TFO and the boys soccer team that I am affiliated with and the other group has provided feedback on the policy relative to the parent and boost organizations we wanted to thank the board and the members that took the time to listen to our concerns and
035our feedback on the proposed changes that you were making to that and when I reviewed the current policy and we had looked at it it looked like a lot of that conversation on the love those changes got incorporated into what is now the policy that will be voted on and we were just really appreciative and appreciated did our feedback Was Heard and that it was a nice dialogue that we had with Ford thank you we'll let Mr Shaw know since she was leading that um secondly and this relates to busting for field trips I'm aware that the district is not okay doesn't pay anything for the class field trips that take place k through eight each of those field trips is actually paid for by the pfos in the elementary schools and the middle schools
036they allocate different portions I'm familiar most with dormant because I was a Treasurer there for several years and I would like to ask the board to consider covering the cost of those field trips going forward and I'd estimate that to be about eight thousand dollars annually to cover the busting not the actual admission costs um I had actually planned to attend the finance and budget committee meeting in April and that got canceled so if there was other meetings I'm happy to give more information or more of a different dialogue at a committee level if that's more appropriate the district pays for athletics they pay for the fifth grade event 16 for curriculum related trip and I feel that these things can be tied to this curriculum the fifth grade dealership that Dormont that go to
037the meadowcroft and a historical Village and type in with our social studies kindergarten classes have gone down to our classrooms and different nature trips that ties into their science curriculum the fourth grade ties into a couple of the programs they do and even the 8th grade field trip that we just paid for is Middle School TFO pay for the busing they go to see it play downtown and that ties into their eoa curriculum and their playwriting and the things that they do in 7th and eighth grade so I think that the um the experiences that they get are just as valuable and archives and curriculum and I'd like to open the dialogue and see if we can get the field trip covered I wouldn't expect at least the busting portion of that okay thank you
038for raising your concern and I'm sure that's something that we can put on an agenda for discussion at a finance committee meeting which would be the appropriate place and your projections um or estimations are K to eight correct K to eight okay I think Dormont was about two thousand and we have about 1800 at the middle schools and I was just estimating for Aiken and Myrtle because I don't have their figures but I know that their student account is lower than Vermont okay in there too just think about it is um you know clubs are included in that as well so if there are clubs that want to do activities that require busing they have to fundraise for those as well so that goes all the way through 12. right right well this I think
039I was looking at because there are a lot of things um you know the Odyssey of the mind coming up where the board May fund for that those are for only seven students you know and that's an expense of almost six thousand dollars benefiting those kids which is amazing and I highly would love the board to cover those expenses for those students like the students about to go to pmea you know and some of those expenses were covered this would benefit all of the students k through eight that take these trips and in some situations in Dormont we allocate ten dollars a student for a field trip so if the blessing and the admission cost exceeds ten dollars the student needs to subsidize that because we have a four thousand dollar budget at Vermont to
040pay for that and that's so then families are potentially missing out on a trip it doesn't seem like a lot with our families who don't have the extra five dollars or eight dollars to allow their student to go on this trip so if the bus thing were subsidized through the district that allows the pfos to spend their money to Maybe cover all the admission costs and see that all those students get those experiences thank you yeah I remember making those payments when my kids were in elementary thank you thank you do we have any other discussion or comments from the board I just wanted to say thanks to Sarah for all the organization that she did in third grade and I know um I had to turn around because I had a a nine o'clock
041Zoom with a national uh group and I had to be back and the only way to do it back it was ten after eight and I said Joe we have to turn around Greentree Road was a mess this morning so it sounds like Sarah wants to be a cruise ship director now they're not PR so she said things off the chat Starbucks Sarah one thing to have said while you were off they had asked that the video that we solved Kevin will that be on the website yes okay they had asked him I said I'm gonna assume but I didn't want to speak for you so yeah absolutely okay but thank you to the board for allowing us to do that for the employees I know Aiken really appreciated it I'm sure the rest of
042the building will throughout what we do it's not a great start to there today tomorrow is dormant if I can't get the dorm one original yeah I mean like if I can't get the door like I can walk the dorm one but if something happens like like I'm done I had wanted to come to that one but now that morning has been squashed as well so unfortunately I can't come to help this week the only other thing I want to mention doesn't build the district but what sort of the is this Thursday uh representative Dan Miller is having his mental health Summit and we have somebody here who's speaking about it and I have been asked to speak at the event and be on a piano and I will be on a panel in front
043of a number of legislators um once again you don't know this and sometimes I don't shoot the horn and I probably should have um Keystone Oaks has been recognized to be able to survive and also we are being given kudos for being one of the only districts in the state and they want to hear about us how did we add mental health therapists and the counselors and doing the things that we're doing but they've never heard from us like how are you doing it and making it work because most of the times they go places and everybody's saying I need money I need money I need money and money and so they have asked me to come and be a part of that panel how did we do it and so I will be speaking
044as part of the panel uh on Thursday on there I think I think my part is like an 11 o'clock or something 11 to 12. I will be there because I have not missed one of his events I'm jealous I'm pretty upset it's on a Thursday it's always during the week yes if that's the synagogue about Lebanon yeah um conference right off the conference right off Concord yeah thank you I want to recap [Laughter] it's always it is always a good event a lot of good information and we usually do have speakers of that from KF C almost every year we've done a number of years a number yeah she's taking a break I find that since she nominated me she's taking a break and I'm going out on the road again good for her
045um if there's no other um comment or discussion do we have a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion all in favor aye aye opposed