001from grade two and grade four respectively as our pledge leaders this evening to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing for a brief moment of silence. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, guys. >> Mason and Tyson, thank you so much. >> All right. Uh, [clears throat] some meeting announcements. Uh, an executive session was held on December 15, 2025 between or at 6:15 for personnel and legal discussions. according to title 65 section 708A15 in the administration conference room. A board meeting was held on December 15th shortly thereafter at 7:00 in the boardroom. A workshop meeting was held on January 12th, 2026 at 7 p.m. in the boardroom. An executive session was held on January 19th at 5:00
002PM for personnel discussions according to title 65 section 708A1 in the administration conference room for collective bargaining agreement negotiations. And finally, a board meeting is being held right now January 28th at 7 o'clock in the boardroom. Janine, may I please have a roll call? >> Sure. More present. Mr. David Bradley >> here. >> Mrs. Boy Fry here. >> Mr. Jeremy Glou >> present. Miss Dennis Hartley >> here. >> Mr. William Howland >> here. >> Mr. Alex Matika >> present. >> Miss Heather Kn and Mr. Timika >> here. >> Thank you. My introduction. Uh next we have uh some presentations. Um so first we have uh school director appreciation month. So, in in recognition of school director appreciation month, we thought it would be a great idea to have some students work on something to show
003the appreciation of what it is that we're here for and what it all comes down to. So, I'm not going to say anything more. We do appreciate the service. It's it's a thankless job uh that you spend countless hours on and uh it is it is greatly [laughter] appreciated. So, without further ado, Everyone, my name is Phoenix and I'm part of the new student leadership team here at our school. Did you know that January is school director appreciation month? We wanted to make this video to say thank you to the people in the Heights area school. You guys do so much work behind the scenes to make our school awesome and we just and we wanted to take a minute to say thanks. Hello, my name is I know that being on the school board
004is a volunteer job. That means spend a lot of time in meetings at night when you can be at home relaxing or spending time with your family. Thank you for giving up free time to talk about things that make our school a better place. It shows that you really care about every student in Lehi and that's really cool. Hi, my name I just want to say thank you for making sure we have great places to learn. Because of you, we have safe classrooms, technology to use, and fun stuff like music and sports. I love coming to school to see my friends, and I know that the school board helps make all that possible. Thanks for making sure we have we have what we at is actually really fun. You get to learn cool stuff, make
005great friends, and be part of the team. Thank you for working hard to make our school a place where we can feel happy and safe. It's awesome to know that there are people like you cheering us on and helping us have the best school year ever. Hello, my name is Penny. We are learning about leadership right now. So, we know that being a leader means making important choices. Thank you for always thinking about what is best for kids like me. You are helping us build the right future. >> Leadership team and all students in the >> right. [clears throat] >> Please thank the kids for putting that together. Obviously, they're the reasons we we do what we do. So, >> may I also comment that it's school choice week? All right. Um, so do we
006have uh any public comment um only on the board's proposed approval of the agenda as presented or as modified? Moving on. Hearing none. Um approval of agenda. Uh can I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented or in the alternative? >> So moved. >> A second. [clears throat] Comments, questions. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. Public comment. Uh, do we have any traditional public comment on any agenda items? We do not. All right. Hearing none. Uh, reports. First, we have student board representatives. We do not have any present. We have we have several events going on. So I'm not sure if they are involved in any of those. >> Jeez, who picked Wednesday for meeting? >> Uh superintendent report. Sure. So, we have a lot of information coming up
007in this uh and we'll we'll kind of turn to that in a minute. But just very briefly, some other updates before we get to some mid-year data. Uh first of all, I was asked a question about cursive writing in the district. And and so to answer that question, um we begin cursive writing instruction in the fourth market period of the second grade, but then continues into the beginning of third grade and and kind of goes runs its course throughout that that school year. Uh that really has not changed in Lehigh over the last who knows how many years. There have been no shifts. there was never a shift away from teaching cursive writing. Uh but I know there is a a bill that has passed the PA House is currently sitting in the Senate I
008believe uh and that would require cursive instruction comprehensive cursive instruction uh by the end to occur by the end of fifth grade. So uh even if that passes we're in good shape. This has been in place. We have not we have not really altered course over the last several years. [laughter] Do do children produce homeworks in cursive? >> Are are written homeworks >> are we requiring children to submit homework >> students in cursive >> or is everything electronic now everything? Uh, not everything is typed, but I don't I don't know that we necessarily require students to submit things in cursive either, >> but I know that there is instruction occurring. Um, Mr. at that grade, >> is it a grade requirement? Is it graded? >> I I guess to piggy back off Joyy's comment, if
009they're not grading homework, are [snorts] they are they corrected or graded on it so that they know that they they're aware of what you know of [clears throat] the curse? >> I'm sure that and and I can't speak for >> I remember I was back in the days of >> Sure. I can't speak to all classrooms in the elementary center. Um, but I'm sure especially during instructional times that when a teacher sees that a student is not doing something correctly in the practice sessions, which would equate to homework as well. Um, that there is correction going on if there's instruction going on. Uh, is it technically graded? That probably varies from classroom to classroom. >> So, it's not like spelling. It's not >> No. Jason, isn't is this not what first of maybe I'm trying
010to go back there, you know, 20 years some years ago, but if I'm correct, when I was in school in elementary, we started in first grade in first. I could be wrong on that, but is there is there a difference between starting in first grade or kindergarten versus starting in second grade? >> Uh, probably the fine motor skills necessary. uh because in kindergarten you really start with letter naming and letter identification and letter formation which is done in print. Um and so students would have to be secure in that and then have the fine motor skills and be able to put those two things together before they were actually able to learn to write in cursive. So um I don't re I don't recall what year I learned cursive writing. I I just I don't
011recall. But whether it was first grade, >> I know my daughter's in second grade and they have not started, you know, I mean, but we're not >> I can tell you right now at the high school level um for my lab reports, the kids if they're going to handrate them, they have to do it in person. Um if they do it online, it's nice. But if they do it on paper, printed and it has to be in person. Are students often opting to do things handwritten or >> some it's really on their their personal preference if they don't have like a home or anything like that and some just like >> any other questions monthly safe to say report. If you recall, we did uh the beginning of the year through December at the last
012board meeting. Uh since that time up to today, here are all of the account all of accounts of safe to say tips and the category under which they fall. So you see suicide suicide ideiation being the most recurring for four instances of that this month. Um, with threats against the school being two of those, obviously what I will say is in terms of the threats against the school, none were deemed credible that were reported. >> So when we see a high number, but I mean four is a high number. When we see a number like that, do we offer it's you know do we know okay maybe we need to offer specific program on on suicide prevention or do we do we do does that become a focus I guess not necessarily a a focus
013individually [laughter] but I guess you know suicide is one of those things where it's very hard for a person to talk about and when we see that high of a number making it a group discussion or not an individual is more you know people tend to be more willing to discuss it. Is that something that that we do at at this at when we see something like this or do we already do it? >> We we already do and I I would say um you know built within the health health core curriculum across different grade spans it is approached in different ways. Um, and I I actually think, you know, now I don't know the specifics. This could have been four people reporting the same potential risk, right? I mean, that we don't without digging
014into the names of who's who's it being reported by. I I would actually say that there is something that is assuring that that's a high number given where we are in mental health in our country. Personally, I would say the fact that our students are aware enough and sensitive enough to know and to recognize that even if the student that they're reporting it about isn't actually suicidal, the fact that there are people paying attention is is a little reassuring. So, I know that number seems high and you go, my gosh. But again, without peeling off the layers and we don't necessarily know, but I think there's something reassuring that >> it definitely is. I mean, unfortunately, mental health in general and especially in in younger children is something that we probably don't identify or deal
015with in general and that's why I'm asking the question because it's just something that [clears throat] >> is becoming more of a focus and I and I just was wondering how we focus on it because it's it's it's a difficult focus. mental health in general and suicide is even more difficult. >> I know two. So I I mentioned the health curriculum. We also have now lessons going on across K through8 in second step that is you know really a lot of those lessons are really geared towards mental health awareness. So there are certainly conversations being had. I can attest to uh my daughter who's in the elementary center having had an appropriate lesson on these kind on these kinds of things. She wasn't she didn't go into a great amount of detail, but she came
016home talking about it. So I I think that I can attest that there are conversations happening across across the schools. >> That's great. That's great. >> Do we know year to date what these numbers look like? Does that keep track? Yes, we do. So, we will begin now that we have basically one half of the year, we will put a cumulative result on on the website and then we will add to that cumulative result after each month. Are we going to know and not necessarily I don't know if that really makes a difference to the general public but I think it makes a difference to the school and you as an administrator in the board to know specifically are these issues at the elementary level are they at middle school or they high school and
017where does that focus need >> we do know that we know a drill down by building >> so you know based on those numbers now where those instances >> occur is this may I ask, is this something that we're seeing in the high school or is this something we're seeing in the middle school? >> Uh, I would say that I I'm speaking anecdotally here, so without breaking it down, I I think that probably middle school sees the highest number of safe to say tips. >> Is that something that you believe as the superintendent of this district that this board needs to address? I I don't think there's any one thing that has jumped out as being, oh my gosh, we need to look at this particular I mean, we're we're constantly looking. Our our administrators
018are threat assessment teams go in if anything. I think and when I say threat assessment teams, that's not just for threats against the school. That's for if a student is reported as being potentially suicidal or expressing some suicidal ideiation. the threat assessment is to to dig into that. So, we have our mental health professionals, we have our administrators, we have our school counselors who really dive in on a case-by case basis. Um, I don't think there's any one area that jumps out as being [snorts] um they're all serious. Obviously, they're all serious. I don't think there's any one that says >> is there something specific that jumps out that says that we need additional services maybe in the middle school um more so than we need in the high school that this board needs to
019address. If I being if anecdotally again without looking at those numbers in front of me um safe to say has to be combined with other data points and when I do that in my head anecdotally I come to vaping um it's it I would I think actually vaping and I see nods here from the Strawber who's here uh you know is isn't a relatively new thing. it is in terms of the accessibility that students have to vaping materials, the different forms that it takes, whether that's through uh nicotine or whether it's through even THC. Um the accessibility that students have to it is kind of mind-blowing to me coming from a time period when it was rare for parents to provide nicotine products to their kids. There were some when we were kids that that
020that did that and now, you know, so many times it's they got it from the parent or they stole it from the parent or something along those lines. And the concealability of vapes probably adds to that probably adds to the problem in terms of how it presents itself because um just the sheer number of students who are using it and that either face some sort of disciplinary action or it's reported is is kind of astounding to me quite frankly. So do you think that the that there's maybe perhaps an underlying issue maybe the stress maybe Mr. proposer. Do you think maybe that there's an underlying issue that we need to address with those stu that students that maybe that [laughter] we can look through from a standpoint of data maybe in a anonymous questionnaire as
021to why they're using this and maybe it seemed to could try to address some of those un guessing here ledge But I'm going to guess that it has to do with anxiety. I'm no expert, but I'm I'm going to take a lot of guess. >> Have to do with what? >> Anxiety. >> Are these tips or are these incidences? >> These are tips. >> Just tips, not >> these are reports. Yes, these are reports. >> So, we have a report for incidences >> that that [clears throat] have risen to the level of um I don't have one right now. >> That goes to the safe to say that or even to our safe schools reporting. >> Yes. >> That we're doing. Yep. Yep. It clo once they once those once these tips get closed out,
022they either get unfounded or they become >> correct. Correct. >> And they can be founded and still not be an incident that gets >> reported to safe schools. Right. >> Understood. >> Okay. Moving on. Uh I want to introduce uh Mrs. Foster, Mrs. Strawber in a minute here. They're going to be going over uh our midyear norm reference data for for kindergarten through 8th grades. Um we we we have started to present this this data regularly this year. Uh it it's critically important that we look at at norm reference data because PSSAs are a criterion reference benchmark tests that do not tell us a whole lot about a student. They don't tell us a whole lot about how successful a student or a teacher is throughout a given year because it all depends upon where
023that student started and where they ended. What norm reference data does for us is tells us how that student is growing academically throughout the school year uh in a much better way than than a benchmark test does. Benchmark tests are important but they cannot by themselves tell us the full story of of a student. Uh so what we look for and I what I have what I have tried to stress not only with our administrative team but with teachers as well is that ultimately achievement is a result. Achievement is is the end game. But what we actually have a great deal of influence over is growth. academic growth from when a student starts with us at the beginning of the year to the time they leave our classroom at the end of the year. Whether
024you're teaching them one subject as in middle school or high school or whether you're teaching them multiple subjects as in the elementary center, what where that student begins with us and ends, we have a great deal of influence. Uh it really does measure our effectiveness as as as an educational system. And I gotta tell you, I you know what you're going to see and hear from these ladies tonight is some really promising data. Uh we have really just kind of begun focusing on norm reference data throughout throughout the whole system. Uh with kind of a renowned, you know, we're we're we're really kind of hyperfocused on this. And it's not because we're chasing test scores. It's because we want to do our best from day one to 180 with each and every student. And so
025what you're going to see is from a grade level perspective in reading and math, what I need everybody to understand is that teachers have information and are working with information that drills down into their classes and individual students. And so it it's helpful when we start talking about instructional planning when I have 23 kids in my room and they're all at different points, right? What does whole group instruction look like? And then what am I going to do for this group over here who has very particular instructional needs while this other group has very different particular instructional needs? How am I going to manage that? getting the data into teachers hands and giving them time to look over the data, to discuss, to collaborate is critically vital if we're going to be successful going through.
026Uh I'll have some closing remarks, but I want to turn it over to Trisha and Tiffany to kind of go through what they found with our midyear data for grades K through eight. Start with reading All right, good evening everyone. So, our vision is pretty simple as you just heard uh Mr. Moser speak about. Um I'm I'm a huge passionate person for instruction clearly. So, I hope tonight I'm able to share with you the amount of celebration that needs to be recognized this evening from our staff. I am so proud as Mrs. Straberger is as well to sit here and just honor the work that teachers are putting in. Um, we lead with growth as Mr. Moser said because growth is what does ultimately create achievement. It is the ultimate outcome. That growth is really
027the process and we know that throughout that process we have many different things that happen. Um, today though we aren't looking at where students are today. What we're actually looking at is we're measuring how fast they're actually moving toward grade level expectations and growth and achievement. Um, you're going to see several things that we're presenting to you. Acadience, for example, is primarily used in kindergarten, first and second grade. This is a foundational reading achievement test. Map growth, which we'll talk about, is given to grades two through five. that is mostly showing growth of reading over time through comprehension which is the ultimate goal actually and I ready shows us math growth and progress towards the standard together these tools really tell a full story of the momentum that we're building here in heighten and that
028we're so proud of. So it's not just proficiency that we're working on. The momentum is real and every single teacher if they're listening they need to be proud of the work that they're doing. But there is a paradox, right? Two things could be true at the same time. So as we are seeing this powerful growth, we also know that there are still some students that aren't meeting those grade level expectations. But the way to do that is through the process of growth. And so let's look at kindergarten right here. As you know, we did start with them a little bit later. We gave them some time to come in and learn how to be learners. Um so their be their benchmarking began a little bit later and we will do their mid year actually in
029February that's coming up and so this data though is the starting line and the strength of this year and what happens next I can tell you our kindergarten teachers are intentionally planning and moving students forward through a whole structured literacy evidence-based instruction um and early intervention so that those gaps don't have a chance to widen. Can I ask you a question? >> Sure. >> The comprehension reading skills, do they have a separate test or a separate measuring mark or a special way to measure for children that have dyslexia? So when you have a nationally normed test, it's against all kids nationally with every single you name it abroad. You're >> right. I understand that. But do does a child who has dyslexia have additional time to take the test? Do they have >> Yeah, that
030would be written >> that would be written in their IP. >> Yeah, that would be a definite accommodations written into their >> actually aadian stibbles is also used as a universal screener. >> Okay. So when you see a student who is well below or below it that's the starting point because if you just say they're well below or below and don't do anything with that or dig any deeper it's kind of useless right so in terms of a flag being raised it would probably show up there and then there are >> and that kind of answers my question that's kind of what I was was looking for because unfortunately dyslexia is something that a lot of times doesn't get recognized or or realized and so this seemed like a good way to recognize I I
031should have already started with that. No positive. >> Yeah, thank you for bringing that to the forefront because it is and this is where exactly the Aadians test because of the subtesting there are different hurdles if you will that you have to get to before you can reach comprehension and those are flagged immediately and hence why we want to keep those gaps closed and you know give that support to children early because as the gaps widen as you go up it's harder to do that. Great. What is so when students below or well below when that flag is raised call me call me in here into this process I don't know but I want to know what happens to that student and what is that process in which we sure to find out whether they
032are dyslexic or there's something else going on with that. >> So I would love to answer that question maybe it will be answered as I continue to go through this but if not I will stop and make sure we talk about that. Can I just keep going? You might you might have that answered out here. Thank you. >> Um, so first grade if we Oh, so did you have any other questions about that slide? >> No. >> Okay. Okay. >> I just want to make sure the 129 on the bottom. >> Yes. The number of kids. Yeah. Yeah. >> All right. So, when we look at first grade, we're looking at This is so exciting. So, okay, let me just scroll up so I'm I'm with you guys on this. My screen's a bit smaller.
033Okay. Um, so let's look at historically what first grade looks like. In 2023, 24, and first grade, we had a 13% decrease in the overall percentage of students who were at benchmark or above benchmark from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year with assessment. In 2024, 2025, and first grade, we had a 19% decrease. So that's a concern, right? We're looking at this overall percentage of students. what is happening in first grade that we're seeing these numbers not trend in the direction we were hoping for. And so this year between the beginning of the year and the middle of the year, we saw a 1% increase at the benchmark um at or above. So historically, we've seen these drop, but this year we've actually reversed that trend and we're holding steady.
034Um, it's even it's even though it's a small increase uh for students at or above benchmark, this tells a wonderful story. This tells us how strong our tier one instruction is, it talks about early interventions and how we're stabilizing and catching kids early and closing those gaps. And instead of letting them slide backwards, we're really projecting future achievement. So, this is really great news. And again, >> I I'm gonna I'm gonna do a little adlib commentary here. I had to talk Trisha off a ledge when she saw only a 1% [laughter] increase because if you don't have the context of what was happening in prior years and you you see a 1% increase, you don't feel great about that. But when you see the context of the same thing happening over and over again and
035we reverse that trend or at least stop it, we're moving in the right direction. >> That's fantastic. >> And it, as she said, I I think we got her there. It is [laughter] much better results than at first glance. >> Yeah. All right. So, if we move then to second grade um again historically in 2023 24 we saw 1% decrease in overall students at at or above benchmark. And then last year we had a 3% increase. So that was great. And then this year we're proud to say we had an 8% increase at a benchmark and above. This is one of our strongest growth indicators, especially walking into second grade. Seeing that 8% increase in students at above, that kind of movement doesn't happen by itself. Um, again, if teachers are listening out there, they
036should be super proud. This reflects phonics instruction at its strength, highest strength. Um, tighter groupings. We're being very, very um specific and targeted planning and explicit direct systematic instruction. uh progress monitoring is a lot more intentional sec especially at second grade because they're in that transition where they're going to have to read to learn heading into third grade. Um so this is how how achievement really starts to rise. So awesome awesome news. So you're probably wondering what did we do? So this is everything that we want to think about when we are making these instructional shifts and I kind of like to talk about it as an instructional facelift. We have looked at the um schedule and we have a 150 minute protected reading block every single day. Um when a sub need is needed,
037we have sub plans that continue to stay in place to protect that block. We have homogeneously grouped kids across grades one and two. We flooded that entire block um with instruction support, eight teachers, five paras, the RISE team which consists of three reading specialists and interventionists. um pair of professionals like I said are supporting in there. Um we had ample amounts as you know previously our professional development sessions happen every other week twice a twice a night. Teachers are really attending the they're just upticking. They're taking the time to come in and do the work. Um our reading specialists are going through an evidence-based program right now called letters training down in Bucks County. We are um signed up for the science of reading training and we are meeting weekly to look at data and
038inform our instruction. So the result is just not better lessons. I don't want us to think that like this is literally an overhaul to make faster student growth especially for students who are historically declining. So if we move on to map growth, this is >> back up for just one second. >> Yeah. So, I'm doing the math. The the uh slide before you had 129 students. You have 19 physical adults in front of them. >> 20. >> Almost 20. >> 20. >> Am I missing that? I did the wrong math. [clears throat] >> 8 + 5 plus three and three. >> Six. There was six on the rise team. >> Six on the rise team. >> 19. >> It's okay. Close enough. >> Yeah. >> We got 18 or 20 in there. Sorry. So we're
039talking basically a six to one teacher to student >> pretty much. >> Yeah. So when we homogeneously group those kids, we get really small groups. So we can target them so well. So you have your kids that are well on and ready to read, they're reading and the kids that are still working phmically are getting what they need for up to like 60 [clears throat] strong minutes of >> instruction. Seven. Yeah. six or seven kids per >> I'll point out to that point >> if >> there are a lot of board members who were here who supported this >> and it hurt at the middle school level there was some [clears throat] unhappiness but the idea was what >> re reallocate reallocate positions >> Dave wasn't here >> from the middle school to the elementary
040center where class sizes were actually the largest in the district >> correct >> and so we moved six teaching positions which is how We have the actual personnel to flood those K12 at the most critical years >> for learning >> for learned. >> Yeah. And we are able to go into tier two, tier three because those people are available. So it's just it's it's working for we're very much appreciate you know appreciate that. So >> um so now on to math growth. This is such an exciting slide. Um like Mr. Moser had spoken earlier. This map growth is compared to national norms. So the top bar that we're looking at there shows growth compared to again national norms. Math map compares each of our students to students across the country who started at the same
041academic level. So here you're going to see that our median growth was at the 66th percentile nationally. That means the typical student across grades through two through five at Arley Heighten Center is growing faster than about twothirds of their academic peers across country. Now looking at the full bar, we see that 57% of our students are growing at or above the national average. So if you take that green and blue, now remember the paradox I shared earlier with you. Just because they're green and blue doesn't mean they're actually at benchmark or grade level. It just means their growth is really growing. Um, students can be higher than their peers in growth and showing achievement based on how low their peers were, but they could also be showing achievement but not higher growth. Okay? So, I
042want to make sure that's really clear for you guys to see. So, even when some of these still students are still grow below grade level, this growth tells us that we're on the trajectory for promising proficiency. Um, the gap is shrinking. We don't see a decrease. we're only seeing an increase in in growth, which means we're not staying the same and it's working. >> Just like to point out on that quadrant, the chart, that corner where all grade levels and each green dot represents a different grade level and then the one that's kind of an open circle represents the school as a whole. That quadrant of that chart is exactly where that's the ideal place to land. high growth and high achievement scoring well on both axes. So that's critically important. As you go through
043the rest of the presentation, I just wanted to take a second to make sure that we have a firm understanding of that. >> Yeah, I mean that I I have to, you know, add on to him because that right there tells you your instruction tier one is working. Um your gaps are closing, everybody's in the way and that's just exceptional. So really proud. So if we look at second and third grade, same thing. If you pay attention to that top line, um you're going to see that our median achievement in the fall was so sorry if you look at the lower go to the lower bar please. The lower bar was currently sitting again relation to grade level expectations. We in the fall were at 49th percentile nationally and winter we bumped up to 72nd
044percentile. Um so that's a 23 point gain in what 90 days of instruction maybe less than that six I don't know 60 whatever mid year um because students are growing really fast though this is the connection um their achievement is going to continue to rise right so we want to keep that connection this shows that the gaps are not just being identified they're closing um and so what we're doing when we're looking at this data is we're looking for a lot of patterns and not just percentages right not we're not chasing numbers We're not chasing scores. We're saying identify what instructional practices and um progress is the strongest. Replicate that growth, share it, you know, um talk to each other about it, and then make sure those practices are aligned across the classrooms, especially vertically.
045We all have to share that common language and make sure we're aligned. So, this is how we, in my opinion, turn this isolated success into really a systemwide instructional lift. All right. Um, and then if we move to fourth and fifth, same thing. Look at those numbers. Um, just went out on me. Sad my eyes are >> Oh my goodness. This is terrible. Um, so where am I here? Third and fourth. Yeah. So again, if we look um our achievement, we were at the 52nd percentile. We went up to the 62nd in fourth grade, which then put us in the 61st for growth. And again in fifth grade, we see a 57th to the 58th. So, we're still still closing. Again, though, I want you to keep in mind, even though that's only a 1%
046up, they're so much harder to close gaps when we get up there. So, this is why we put such emphasis on kindergarten, first, and second grade. So, historically, in a couple years, we hope to show you that this won't be an issue as we close gaps down here. Um, and that's all I have up to fifth grade. So, I turn over my colleague >> [clears throat] >> uh, sixth grade and I say thank you first. Thank you for your presentation and thank you for everything you're doing for the students. >> Absolutely. >> Yes. >> It's a huge team effort. There's there's Yeah, we have an amazing team. I mean, you're looking at a lot of us in the room already, but thank you for that very much. I do want to say that, you know,
047it's it great to see that we were able to get this through, vote on it what, last year. Last year. Yeah, last year. And that you've made such tremendous progress. It's really not that we voted on it that needs to be applauded. It's the fact that you both have implemented this so well and the teachers, of course. Um, it's great to see gaps being closed and that's exactly why we we were here on the board is to make sure that happens. >> Thank you for that and thank you for the extra bump because teachers are they are working really really hard. >> Agreed. Really good. >> Get a measuring results which is the whole key of having a real entry. I mean, all this came out of some depressing reading scores as I recall. Jason,
048we said, "Hey, why don't we hire an interventionalistic?" [laughter] Good plan. So, sixth through eight also did the same Matt Broke um ELA assessment. And you can see we're also lying in that upper quadrant, that ideal space. Um, we're definitely we're very excited for the mids because we feel that it tells us if what we're doing in the fall is sticking. Um, and we're really happy to say that we are school is also in motion. Um, just like the elementary center. Um, again we said that you know in NWA they expect 50% of students to meet their growth targets. Um, and 59% of our students overall right now are hitting those marks. Um, so they are significantly outperforming national averages. Um it tells us our classroom instruction is effective and our students aren't just showing
049up. Um but they're moving forward faster than our national trend. Um we are achievement moved from 49% to 51% overall. Uh while 2% might look small on paper. Um but it's also very critical to note that a majority of our students over half are performing at or above grade level. This is a direct result of the growth, the 59% growth that we're seeing. Um, but it also tells us that the remaining 41% um, you know, growth isn't always the same or the same rate for everybody. Um, some of these students might hit their growth in the spring. Uh, but seeing um, you know, the growth that we have, we're confident that by looking at our interventions, looking at our instruction, focusing on those 41% um, that spring goal is definitely achievable for them. Um it
050is important to note um you know Mr. Moser says this a lot to us as admin that achievement is a lagging indicator. It takes time for a student to go from a below level up to an on level um and growth is our leading indicator. So because we have 59% that are growing at an accelerated rate um we look forward to keep climbing as we reach those spring benchmarks. Uh the next slide takes a closer look at all three grade levels specifically. Can I can I just take you back to the last slide? >> Sure. >> There's a red dot on there means that >> the red dot >> Oh, that's the school. >> That's the school specifically. >> Each of the greens are each specific grade then. >> Okay. Okay. Very good. >> Okay.
051So, then we go on to all the grades. All three grades are exceeding that 50% national norm. Um the sixth graders are kind of our steady climbers. They came in with a 56% growth rate. We started at a 49% in the fall and are now at a 52%. Um they're showing consistent and healthy progress. Um and the majority of them are on grade level content. Our seventh grade team is kind of a high growth paradox. Uh they started out they or they had a growth sorry at 59th percentile. Achievement started in the fall at 50% and is now at a 49%. Um, this is a very important data point to look at closely because you'll notice the achievement dipped by 1%. Yet, their growth is strong at 59%. U, this just means that our seventh
052graders are working incredibly hard. They're making significant gains, but they haven't quite cleared the fence onto the next achievement level. Our students are moving fast and we expect that uh speed to translate into higher achievement scores for the spring. I kind of think of it I tried to relate it myself when I kind of saw a little dip there and I thought about track and field um sort of we're training someone for a high jump in the fall maybe they have to clear four feet that's their achievement um and then over the winter they work really hard they improve their technique they grow but now the competition bar is 4 feet 6 in so even though they might have missed the jump this time um they're still jumping a lot higher than they were in
053September and now our job is to make sure they they're in the spring. Uh 8th grade is um kind of our growth leader for the for the winter. Um they are our accelerators. Uh they came in with the 64th percentile of growth. They started an achievement at with a 47 and are now at the 53rd. Uh so they definitely twothirds of the class are outperforming their learning targets which was a big burst of growth for them in 6% jump in achievement. Um and we kind of really want to pull out what what was happening there in eighth grade and now kind of spread it on to our sixth and seventh to continue to help that those students out as well. Um our next slide is just kind of some of the shifts that we've been
054trying over the last uh month and a half. We're taking kind of carving some time into our schedule. We're calling them remediation Fridays to get some more time to focus on the students and not have all the time a one-sizefits-all. We're going to be data driven and use the time to kind of close those gaps instead of letting them widen as the curriculum continues to advance on them. Um, we're having collaboration days with our ELA department as well as our math department to allow teachers a time to not feel like they're solo teaching and kind of have a collaborative ecosystem where they can share strategies and um, tools to help each other. Um, professional development has been happening in the middle school two times a month. Um, basically allowing teachers a chance to learn more
055about evidence-based practices. Um, we've already done our academic vocabulary. We had one canceled with the snow day. Uh, rescheduling. We worked on some memory challenges for reading comprehension, professional development. We've been going to TDA training. Um, and that's slowly building um, popularity amongst the staff. Um, as well as I think it's important to note that professional development for admin has been increasing as well. Um, a lot of research, especially from the Wallace Foundation, confirms that principal effectiveness truly contributes to student achievement. So, I think it's just as important that I continue to grow and help others, you know, spread that with the staff. Um, and looking already to next year, uh, we want to kind of mimic that homogeneous grouping for ELA for next year and really craft our schedule in a way that really
056helps what's student base what they need um, for the future. So that's where we're headed. >> What what's what is missing at the middle school? I mean, I get that there's growth. I don't argue that, >> but I feel like there's a missing component here that we hone that down in the data to really see what we have to do in those. Do we have to replace those six instructors or seven that were moved from the elementary school to middle school? >> Well, it's tough to say. I mean, we haven't gone through the whole year yet. Um, our teachers are doing a lot of great things. Um, I think a big thing is schedule. I think we need more time for ELA, especially because they're struggling. I think we need to be able to dedicate
057more time to their instruction. Um I think we need to get continue to help with tier one and to have you know um I think every teacher in the secondary level needs to consider themselves in some way or even future because it's not just happening in the ELA classroom. So I think building the confidence and the mastery and the the ways they can learn it not just in ELA but also in science and math and social studies. Um, I also think that at the middle school level, we have to build buyin with kids, too. I think they need to know where they're at and they need to see that their hard work is paying off and what they need to work on. So, um, the next slide kind of tells you where how I want
058to move forward with that. >> I was going to say your next slide kind of >> Yeah, [clears throat] >> kind of answered his question a little bit. Yeah, I really want to f focus individually with the teachers with their specific data, you know, and celebrate their growth and what's working and and collaborate with our staff, but also have student chats with them individually. Um, show them where they're at, um, where they're growing, help set some goals. Um, and then I want to work on alignment amongst the grades. I want to make sure that we have the same amount of rigor in each grade. you know, like does what sixth grade consider a B level quality is the same in seventh grade? Um, and then I also want to, you know, highlight that growth, keep
059studying it. Um, and just keep on working on on that growth. I mean, our students are doing a lot of great things. Our teachers are doing a lot of great things. And I just think we need to establish that culture of growth. And I think oh well um I think goes back to what Jason said at the beginning is these are that we have to remember that this is an overall that you're going to be taking it back kind of like what you're saying here and looking at it by class and then focusing on what the student in that classroom needs. So although we may see just 1% that 1% may be in a specific classroom and and I don't mean that as a positive or a negative but we're we're looking at it as
060an overall right now but you're going to be looking at it more individually and really drumming down I would say and I'm sure there's a better term but >> drumming down to see where you can benefit that particular student or in that particular area. >> Yeah. I mean, these these reports will drill down to the specific uh area of ELA that that particular teacher was strong in or maybe was weaker in. And sometimes it's not really that they're weaker in it, it's just that maybe they haven't gotten through that whole whole content or that whole unit yet. Um and just kind of differentiating within their classroom and then drilling it down then to the students that they have and from there their strengths, their weaknesses and going from there. the the outlier in the reading
061trajectory actually because and both both Tiffany and Trisha mentioned this in that and we we know this to be true and it was part of the reason why we made this move. The older students get the harder it is to close gaps. And so this actually ties in with your question. Eighth grade's the outlier in that they had a tremendous amount of growth late in the game. um when we're going to start seeing the tide turn is when we have fewer gaps to close. And so as those students who are currently in kindergarten, and I wrote this down right now, 89% of our kindergarteners on or above benchmark at the beginning of the year, I don't want to hear demographics. I don't want to hear things of that nature because the reality is is in
062kindergarten 89% of our students came to us after a couple of weeks of instruction on or above above benchmark. So now we keep that momentum rolling and really focus early and you're going to start to see those scores whether it's achievement you're not going to have to see as much growth in order to start closing achievement gaps as those students metriculate through. So part of the answer to it's late in the game at the middle school level to close gaps. It's late in the game. >> So my question now to you Mr. Moser and to you Mr. Traber is we took seven or eight personnel from the thing moved to the elementary and I don't disagree with that. I don't disagree that it shows the data shows the question but I'm getting what I'm getting
063from Mr. Strawber and from the data points that I'm seeing and maybe some of the board members agree here that we need to replace those seven staff members until we get through a full cycle to eighth grade and then we can reevaluate. >> I don't I don't know because we don't have data like this to compare from previous years. >> Well, you just gave me three years three years of data did you not from 2023 to >> that was for kindergarten first and second because we had a consistent measurement in place. There was no me there was no measurable assessment in place that was norm referenced at the middle school level. >> So why would we allow the middle schoolers when we're trying to close the gap gaps late in the game? Why wouldn't we
064replace the seven staff members that we put the elementary to attempt to close those gaps with the eighth graders so that when they're moving into into the high school, we don't have those we're not having those recurring problems that we can correct. Now, that's my thought process in this versus and I'm not arguing with you that you're wrong that you moved them down. I see what you why you did what you did and made those moves. But what I'm saying is that we're trying to close gaps late in the game here. We need those seven evident personnel for whatever whether they're pair professionals of support or interventionalists for those eth graders so that they're not falling off the trend in 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th and getting a subpar education. But I maybe I'm looking
065at your your numbers incorrectly if I am correctly. But I mean what I'm seeing is like eighth grade is having a very good growth and it is achieving success >> and and and I don't I don't see that taking those six or seven individuals and I wasn't on board at that time so I can't talk about that but what I can see is you have started your eighth graders at 47%. They obviously had success in the winter and gained and continued success. And when you look at the the red and the and and and the orange and the and I I kind of don't do colors, so I'm sorry, but what I'm seeing is that these students are growing and I I what I'm hearing you say is that growth and and and pulling that
066gap as they get older is harder. So you're not going to see and this is my understanding of your numbers. So bear with me guys, >> but you're not gonna see a huge number. So what you're wanting what what what I believe you're wanting to see is a huge number percentage. >> No. >> And no, just bear with me here. And I don't think you're going to see that because that's not what we're looking for at this age group. Am I am I missing >> kind I think I think to support Jason's mo u mention of what's going on and and for what you're trying to aim for I think you're confusing the the correlation with the causation right so it might not be correlated and they not then extra staff might not be the
067cause but once we get more metrics we can then determine that and then we'll all know better and that's what you're aiming for and you're currently getting growth >> well why would why would we take that metric out of the game because now we're basically giving use a false data point. So, we're basically taking a false data point because getting here you transferred eight people to the elementary school. six six the elementary school and now we're taking data with six less people in the middle school and trying to assess that data when the flagship no I think you're you're deciding what players are on the team and what position they're playing and you have a lot more offense in the younger grades and that's where the >> I'm not and I'm not arguing that but
068I'm saying there's still a deficiency in the middle school that needs to be addressed and it's not fair to the middle school to the middle school administration to take those six people out of the the middle school, not replace them, and then say here, >> Mr. Bowman, Mr. Bowman, the student to teacher ratio at the middle school is still far lower than the studenttoteer ratio at the elementary center as of today. >> Still far lower, >> but still it's not fair from a data point. If you're using data, if you're using data, let's move, Mr. your your elementary is the number of staff and it's not >> and I don't disagree with you Jason that there's an ele there was a thing at elementary center where the staff are moving down it was absolutely right
069I I see that but I think if we're going to give fair a fair data point to the administrators in the high in the middle school to have fair data so now they have the opportunity to have data to look at we have to put those people back into play yes unfortunately it's going to cost and if we're going to bring the BHA students back from BHA into the district, I don't see why it's not justified. >> So, Ryan, you offered a lot of what I think are helpful comments and thoughts tonight, but we've been very lenient with policy 903 and allowing public comment. So, in the interest of time, let's limit further public comment to the designated area on the >> I have children in the school district, Mr. Matik, and last time I
070checked, you don't have children in the school district. Am I correct? Am I correct? correct that that's not policy 903. Let's move on. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I >> Okay, moving on to math. So, I want to open this slide up with saying that we are very fortunate to have I Ready. I'm actually falling more and more and more in love with this program for several reasons. Um, first of all, it gives us everything. I almost want to call it like the salad bar of of like evidence-based strong resources material PD embedded in the I Ready company has been amazing to work with. Um so what you're going to see here I just believe is right uh our teachers are only as good as their resources. This resource is phenomenal. Um so if
071we go up and you look at again this um the quadrant you can see that K through five we're sitting right on the line. We're right there and sixth grade is right on the line and that middle dot I'm not sure what the other one is on there. Um >> both high growth though >> Both high growth. So if anything when you're looking at that we have high growth which you guys know the outcome at this point is better achievement. [clears throat] So in math I want us to make sure we're understanding that when we measure progress toward typical growth um and I'm getting this right from I Ready. Again I just want to show how great this program is. Typical growth is the average annual growth for a student at this grade and baseline
072placement level. Okay. So when they come in, they take a placement level test and it gives us their annual typical growth that they will see. Um, it also measures what's called stretch growth. And this is where this program gets exciting because when you think about planning strategically for children and this goes to your dyslexia question. This also goes to the dyslexia question. This gives us every resource we need for kids. And I know that you're saying it's not reading, but number reversal, all of those things are a real thing. >> Dyslexia and numbers actually is. >> Yep. It's a it's a related but people think it's a reading thing. It's not. It's across the board and again you need to read really well in math anyway. Um this gives us strategic [clears throat] placed students
073according to what their growth measures are into groups with the resources and stretch growth is either going to support them on growing grade level gap closures or moving them actually into higher level achievement. So, it's pretty exciting that that we have a program that allows us to push students on the path of mathematics this way. Um, across grades K through five, we're going to see students move significantly closer to grade level expectation. This tells us our focus. Again, we have a DI block. Um, that's another thing within our schedule that we created was a 30 minute DI block. So, they're getting 90 to 60 to 90 minutes of math instruction with an additional 30. Um so again, math and reading in the elementary center are are huge protected blocks. We do not touch them for
074anything. Um this tells us again that this built-in intervention time is creating academic momentum. So if you look at our kindergarten here, I believe that's kindergarten. Yes, this shows one of our strongest growth stories. Students moved dramatically into one grade level performance. So this reflects again, look at our tier one instruction. Um, and if you look at the bottom, it says that the grade level at or above went from 13% to 60% between the beginning of the year to the middle of the year. Um, the medium percent pro progress towards that typical annual growth was 84%. Um, and what's cool about I Ready, which Jason um enlightened me with this thought when we think about our training related data, you know, this is definitely one of those criterion because it's standard based as well, but
075this is a national enorm test. Like this is against peers and it's a standard. So, it's kind of one of those in between tests. So, this is like great news when we see this. Um, 50% of 57% of kindergarten students have made at least 60% of the progress toward their stretch growth. And that stretch growth again is based on their grade level placement and how they need to continue on that path to proficiency on either side. So wonderful. >> So you're measuring that against 100% stretch growth. >> Yeah. Like all of the kids. Yeah. They all fall within that same thing. >> A little more than half of them are making 60% of the 100%. >> Yeah. Great. >> Good job. >> How many%? >> There you go. >> Did anybody got it? Yeah, there's
076there's and um that's the cool thing again he asked the question was did anyone make 100%. In I Ready they give you this per student a detailed report so parents have access to this at any moment in time and it will show you the percentages of which kids met their growth. So then to your point instructional decisions can be made based on what that looks like. Um first grade at on or at above grade level went from 8% to 35% between beginning of the year middle of the year. The median percent progress towards typical annual was 75% and then 47% of first grade students have already made at least 60% of their progress toward their stretch growth. We go to second grade um we went from again on or above grade level went to from
0778% to 31%. The median was 62% 26% of second grade students have made at least 60% progress. And remember, it's just like it's just like reading. Math is a little bit more black and white and it's a lot more foundational and it builds on top of each other where reading skills are a little gray here and there. Um, so this is really important again that we catch them super early down in these younger grades so that they have foundational skills to do higher applicable math later on. um third grade um they went from six to 6% to 21%. Their median was 35% for typical annual growth and they had 13% of their second uh third grade students sorry have made at least 60% towards their stretch growth. fourth grade 13 to 31% we had 52%
078of them make typical annual growth and then 19% at least went or 19% have made at least 60% of their progress towards stretch growth and then fifth grade we went from 14% to 36% the median percentage there was 66% and then 27 of 60% % made their progress toward their stretch goal. >> And then we >> sixth grade you can also see is also growing that green. Um in the fall 27% of our students on grade level but now in the winter we are up to 40%. Um in one semester we moved 13% of our total students into that proficient category which is a big jump improves our core instruction gap. Um it also shows a lot that we've done for our vulnerable students that are coming out of the red zones. Um some of
079those kids that are up to three grade levels be below have gone from 20 down to 19%. [clears throat] Our kids that are about two grade levels have dropped from 17% down to 11%. Um and our yellow group is shrinking from 36 down to 30%. Um median progress halfway through is 71%. um and uh which shows that our students are growing faster than the national average. Our stretch growth is 54% um showing that uh we are closing those gaps and um over half of um in this range means that they're on track to hitting those big ambitious targets for the school year. Seventh and eighth grade did the math um as opposed to you know the elementary grades. Um so in achievement um again that's shows how they are on average compared to other students
080across the country. In the fall they started at the 54th percentile and um in the winter now they are up to the 69th percentile um in achievement. Basically um they have moved from being in the noble path um to now um more than just keeping their pace. they're gaining ground um compared to their peers across the country. But growth is the really most exciting part about this report for for middle school. Um again, it shows how much they have improved compared to growth goals that NWA set for them. We had an 82% growth percentile, which means that the students grew more than 82% of the students um at their same academic level. Um so this is more than just good growth. This is exceptional growth um for the math department in grade seventh and eth.
081Uh we're really at a really nice sweet spot. Um we started at 54. Our teachers pushed. They were very aggressive to get progress [clears throat] instruction and the result was the big massive leap um overall um up to a 69% in achievement. So looking at our individual grade levels, seventh grade had a strong foundation, a lot of steady gains. Uh they started out the school year our highest achieving group in the 58th percentile and they've now increased up to the 67th percentile in achievement. Um as for growth they are in the 78th percentile which is a excellent indicator of strong instructional health. Um 8th grade had rapid rapid acceleration. Uh the group showed the most dramatic progress over all the grades jumping from the 54th percentile in the fall to the 70th percentile achievement and
082um a really big celebratory number was the 88% uh growth percentile um for growth. Uh definitely confirms that the eighth grade curriculum and the interventions are working phenomenally um and they're definitely closing proficiency gaps um even more so. very strong trajectory for them as they head into high school. Next steps for math, very similar to what I said with ELA, I plan to do the very same thing with data chats, customized with the teachers, celebrating their growth, having the kids have customized chats with their teachers, and really start to tighten down on our tier 2 kids so we can get those kids that are, you know, in that bubble group, focus on the strands that they're the weakest in, and continue to show that growth. But I also want to incorporate some more incentives. Um,
083displaying their growth, you know, in simple hallway, you know, displays. Get some incentives. I thought of something like pizza in the park. You know, they hit their goals, we can go to the Grove, we can get them pizza. Uh, I think that will be something real simple that middle school kids would enjoy. And and you know, we have assemblies around sports and all kinds of other things. Why not have assemblies to celebrate growth and work, too? So, >> yeah. Uh, in conclusion, I just want to I want to thank both Tiffany and Trisha for the the putting the work into this. Um, but I also want to express sincere gratitude to all of you teachers. Um, we we've we've asked we've asked a lot and I will recognize that and I will, you know, certainly
084appreciate the fact that um, overwhelmingly we are stepping up stepping up to the challenge. We're getting the job done. Our teachers are working incredibly hard. Our administrative administrators are working hard and we're starting to see that hard work across the board pay off in student growth. Um we've not arrived anywhere yet. >> We've not arrived anywhere yet, but um to see these growth scores overwhelmingly positive, incredibly impressive in a short amount of time and we hope to really truly keep that momentum going. But I do want to thank everybody who was a part of it. Our students are better off for the work. >> So, thank you so much for sharing all that. THAT'S >> all right. Uh so, next up we have our uh business administrative report. [clears throat] >> Thank you very much.
085Um over the past month, we've wrapped up our audit. I anticipate having the auditors um present for report out on the audit at um our February workshop. Um additionally, we've continued our work on the budget preparation for uh 2627 um working on gathering that information from departments and buildings, starting meetings about their budgets as well as um looking at um you know staffing projections um [clears throat] as part of that that budget process. Also, you'll see on the agenda tonight, we've received reports from tax collectors that have reconciled up for for the prior year. So, those um formerly current collections will go over for um the collection with or >> uh LRC Dave. [laughter] Well, first and foremost, um I'm requesting your support for our budget this evening. I see it's on the agenda, so
086I'd be remiss if I didn't uh put in a plug for that. Um and there is no increase for the 14th year for the 13 schooling districts. And that's despite a little history that we spent $11 million this past four years alone on capital projects and they received 5.4 million almost half of that from external external uh sources and grants and private donations and those kinds of things. So, um, a lot of those things are in our budget and with our strategic plan, but, uh, we've been able to maintain our facilities even without, uh, any increases [laughter] and as, uh, was discussed at the workshop, late night's contribution this year shows a slight increase. So, that will be helpful. Uh, another important item is the atlarge uh, trustee position will be vacant as Mr. Bastic
087from Allentown will be coming off the board. And what that means for you is each school uh, board member can nominate a candidate and then you each get one vote for those candidates. And typically those guys have been uh from the Allentown area due to our large contingency of students, a substantial number of businesses and of course our Donnelly center there, but that's not to say that they can't be from Garvin County. So just wanted to to share that information. Uh as far as the process goes with that, um in December, um they ask the incumbent candidate if he's going to, you know, stay on the board and then the first week of February, you'll be getting a memo about this. You'll be prompted with all the information. So telling you what to do. Uh
088mid-Marchch nominations will be received. First week in April, a memo be sent to the secretaries of the sponsoring school districts. uh requesting completion of the ballots. So really nothing for you to vote on till April. But in the meantime, if there's somebody even if it's not from Carbon County, if you know people in Allentown, you know, business people, past educational people, anybody at large can serve on our our board. So wanted to share that with you. Um we had a presentation at our last board meeting on our marketing group. uh they do all the campaigns. You see the big if you drive through a long time, you see the big electronic boards and [clears throat] they do a lot of the social media stuff as well. But one of the key points in their presentation
089>> [snorts] >> um was that the research re their research shows that face-to-face contact with potential students compared to social media or AI equals better outcomes because they feel the students feel a better connection and sense of belonging. So it makes a lot of sense. But u reason I bring this up is our guidance group and is an extension of us in recruiting and and sharing with the students and and certainly the community. We have a lot of adult learners as well at LRYC people that go back to school after high school get married what have you. Um so that's very important part of our our recruiting and our uh guidance uh does a tremendous job here. they they're very very good about sharing the information that we send out. And lastly, um I included
090in your packet an annual review of the heightened students this past year. I know I've gotten some questions how many were in, you know, early college, dual enrollment, those kinds of things. So, u you should have that packet if you have any questions, but it gives a nice summary and and honestly as many many years now uh our school is well well represented down there you know for our size compared to you know Allentown school district or something like that. So, uh, we do a good job and that, uh, concludes my formal report, [snorts] but I did want to comment on one thing. Uh, the discussions on safe to say and, you know, questions about how we address those issues. I serve on the the community guidance committee, which meets twice a year, and I
091got to tell you, this this guidance staff and the resources that the school uses from the county does a phenomenal job. They addressed every one of the comments and issues that came up about what do we do about it and how do we handle it and do we have, you know, if we bring it up, how do we address the kids? The this staff is is I mean they're right on immediately and they're constantly moving forward looking for better programs, tracking systems, and things like that. So, I just I didn't want to chime in during the discussion, but I thought I'd share that. Thank you. >> Thanks, A for sharing that. All right, CLIU. >> Uh, there is a meeting going on or maybe concluded. [laughter] I have absolutely no update for this month as
092well. >> Thanks again for your flexibility. [laughter] No problem. >> Uh, CCTI. Um just a few reminders. March 1st is the deadline for the upcoming 26 27th school year um applications and CCTI prom is going to be held on Friday, May 8th at Blue Mountain Resort. The cost of tickets is $56 per guest and the CCTI students will pay $28. This concludes my report. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Library, >> we had our first meeting last night. Um, >> thanks Denise. >> All right. Uh, next up we have u the minutes. Uh, so can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the December 15th board meeting uh as well as the January 12th workshop meeting? >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. All
093right. Next, we have financial matters. Um, starting with consent agenda. The consent agenda consists of items 2.2 through 2.7. These are the act one resolution, the line of credit authorization, vert one act 80 compliance uh ptd pentella data and the CCTI budget for 26 and 27 as well as the LRC budget for 26 27. Uh can I have please have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Second. >> Any questions, comments? >> All in favor? opposed. >> Hold on. Does this have to be a roll call? >> Is there contract? >> Contract. Yeah, >> nice catch. >> Do we have to pull then? >> Roll call. >> So, it would be just a roll call for >> for the whole agenda. >> Sounds good. Can I please have a roll call? >> Sure. >>
094Mr. David Bradley? >> Yes. >> Miss Lorie [clears throat] Fry? >> Yes. >> Mr. Jeremy Glaus? >> Yes. >> Miss Denise Hartley? >> Yes. >> Mr. William Powell? Yes, >> Miss Heather. >> Yes, >> Mr. Smith. >> Yes, >> Mr. Oers. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Al. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. The eyes have [laughter] all right. Um, so next we have the CLIU budget for 26 and 27. Um, this was pulled out from the consent agenda. Um it appears that there was an error in uh the original budget that they had sent over. Uh and I I think it sounds like they had used the wrong year's estimates. I think the prior year's estimates instead of for 2526 data. Um previously the budget compared to last year um showed a slight decrease. I
095don't have the number off the top of my head. Um it is now an increase but a modest increase of $220 uh from the previous year. Um [clears throat] so with that can I have a motion to approve resolution of the 2627 CLI21 general operating budget of1,786,06 with a district contribution of 20 $23,888. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any questions, comments? All right. All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. >> All right. [snorts] Next, we have some donations in local grants. Uh we have a $500 donation from Chris and Pamela [clears throat] for the high school science olympiad. We have 154 boxes of tissues to the elementary center by Pastor Mike Poulson and the people's EC church. And lastly, we have a $300 donation from Griff Ale House and Grill uh to
096be used for the Title One reading program. Uh can I please have a motion to accept the aforementioned donations? >> So move. >> I'll second that. >> All in favor? >> Oh, sorry. I got to make two comments. I got to ask this question. So >> really appreciate uh Carissa and Pamelu for the Science Lipia. That is a fantastic personal donation to a government agency and I'm sure it'll be appreciated. Um, what is our current amount of money in our fund, Mr. Matt? Roughly plus or minus a million dollar. >> In what fund? >> In our general fund. >> As far as how much money we have in the bank that we're not currently using or is budgeted? >> So, cash in the bank would be what we've reported on the treasury report, which is
097about that. I'm going to give you the correct answer. So as of the end of December total for everything had uh the 21.7 million 21.7 million. Fantastic. very glad to hear we have plenty of cash in the bank in the event that we need tissues for our students at which point I would highly recommend that this board whereas we can graciously accept tissues from uh the people's BC church there's probably more needy people than a 27.1 21.7 million school district to donate issues to and I'd like us as a group to realize that whereas we appre appreciate it. You don't want to look as though we need and I'd rather have them give it to people that are truly in need. And that church has a great constituency that I'm sure can recognize. And I
098know whereas we have the most pool of people in our school. There's still probably families or people that that would benefit especially in this time. And on a similar note, um we have a couple athletic programs and a couple other uh handbooks that um restrict us from taking donations from um drug and alcohol related businesses, whereas Chris's a house is also a wonderful contributor and has been for years. I don't know if you want to affiliate accepting money from a bar and grill for a title one reading program when we have 21.7 million in the bank of the government. Are we taking this money just as advertising for them or are we taking this because we need it for a title one Jason? I mean we we short but did we do we reach out
099and say hey guys we're short we could really use a nice donation >> may chime in because I I within the last year learned why Grips does contribute to us it is something that they do solely on their own we do not reach out one of the owners she's either the owner or the spouse of the owner um is a former title teacher from might even be another state if I'm remembering correctly and so when she moved here she just is very passionate about the title program and just wants to contribute and so this is how they >> I I appreciate it. I don't know if the board can accept from a um L house. I mean if we got a $300 donation from the and pick pick the fund that you don't like, would
100you accept it? and part of our school policy characters as a board. Should we be accepting bar and grill money within our school district for title one when we have plenty of funding? They could also whereas I really appreciate the generosity and many people are very generous whether they do it anonymously or not. There's probably a good place in this community when we have so many people of um that are on like our food program that really could use to help. We should guide them towards maybe going towards one of those and even talk to some of the churches that would try to help them gear their donation to a more needy entity rather than just graciously greedily taking $300 from someone who's doing a great job. And we really appreciate that she wants to
101do this. >> I don't think $21 million from them. I think >> they're giving it. >> Yeah, they they're giving it. They're donating. >> They want to give a gift. >> I'm sure they do. It's a gift. It's a wonderful thing. I don't think that taking the gift from somebody when you have $21 million in the bank is really all that needed. I think you should focus them and say, "Thank you for the gift. It's noble. We would really like you to donate it to someone else." There's a reason. I'm going to interrupt you for a minute. I keep hearing you say that, but there's this word called donation. That means that person has no right to make a donation to who they feel is right. She's already explained, I don't need to. She's already
102explained that they're doing that because that title one means something. The same with tissues. very little kids that made that decision at a Sunday school. I know I used to go to Sunday school. We would vote and you know kids use tissues and so we would make a decision for tissues to donate to the school. Were they needed? Probably not. Did it make the little kids feel good to bring tissues to donate to the school? Yes. So why do you want to ring on the church's parade? >> Neither. >> But that seems to be you want to tell people what to do. It's [clears throat] a donation. Let them make the donation. >> Boards are steered many times by providing donations, including to a library, to tissues, to needing things that the board should consider
103strongly before accepting a donation. What the purpose and best use is. We're a member of the community. If our community needs tissues, we should make sure that the people in the community have them first because we're taking all their money. We got $21 million in the bank, right? Those are the people that probably need the tissues. However, I respect your point and I completely agree and as a good uh uh Sunday school kid, we used to make crosses and give them out and sometimes you can take them, sometimes you can't. Sometimes it's considered religious. I get it. But that's not what this is. This is just tissues. Alls I'm trying to make the statement of is we should not be advertising that we need things by accepting them and we should pay it forward. >>
104We weren't advertising. you accept this donation instead of saying no thank you we appreciate it please find a better source people might realize that they should find a better source >> Dave at the workshop I believe Jason said that we definitely don't need >> but the fact that they're donating >> and if we needed them we'd go buy them you got plenty I don't we don't need we shouldn't be taking something from someone else just because someone is offering it >> right I mean if someone offers you a gift >> and you don't need it you can always say please thank Thank you. Pay it forward. And I think our board should do that in this situation. >> All right. Thank you for every comments. Um my personal point of view is I'm I'm not
105in the business of saying no to a donation that could potentially help our children at some point. >> Um with that, um all in favor? >> Opposed? I'll take a nay on that. The eyes have it. Tax collectors reporting. Uh, can I have a motion to approve the annual tax collectors report for Mahoning Township, Franklin Township, Perryville Burough, Lee Heightenboro, Wesport Burough, and East Penn Township? >> Second. >> Uh, questions, comments, hearing none. All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. Next, we have uh budget transfers. Um, so we have $30 uh transferred for the cost of supplies for a salt spreader part. We have about $37 being transferred for a rolling cart. Um, can I please have a motion to approve the aforementioned budget transfers? >> Are these Sorry. Do the motion first.
106>> Second. >> Okay. Are these transfers because the budget line item is empty and they need to be moved or these leftover dollars in a area that are trying to be moved just to account for them? These are to make sure it's put at the correct function. So for example, because the spreader is relating to the athletic field, it goes down to that athletic area on the function piece on the rolling card. That's a clarification with the PDE charter accounts. >> Kind of goes to what you explained to me before, right? It's it's the number when when somebody asks for it and then the number has to get changed to go into the correct department, etc. >> Yep. So, it comes out of the the first line like it's deducted, it gets added to the
107the second line. That helps. Any [clears throat] other questions? All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. [clears throat] Next, we have uh some food service transfers. Um can I have a motion to uh approve the following transfers from the general fund to the food service fund [snorts] as per reimbursements from the Commonwealth? We have the NSLP lunch federal, NSLP [clears throat] breakfast federal, NSLP state lunch, NSLP state breakfast, CACFP child care food program, and local foods for schools cooperative agreement. >> So move second. >> Questions, comments? >> Hearing none. All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. All right. Next, we have Greens Communication. Um, can I have a motion to approve the purchase and integration of Motorola 2-way radios from Greens Communications in the amount of $58,619.77. Uh, as mentioned at
108the workshop, this purchase will come out of the safety budget. >> Second. >> Questions, comments? This is this is not bid at all. Correct. >> I'll follow I'll follow up. So actually there uh the reason you have we have to go through greens because it's proprietary programming. So we even called Motorola. They're like >> I know how it works. I just wanted to make sure everybody understood. >> You got you got to go to green. So unfort it's like if you have seaman's alarms you got to call Semens. Um, so we are if we if we're going to move forward, this is kind of or else we'd buy the machine somewhere else and we'd have to send them to Greens and probably pay the same amount. I just want to make sure everybody was really
109aware. It was a sole source contract for $60,000 and you were held captive because of the proprietary nature of what Carbon County 911 Digital Picked. It's a byproduct. Y >> thank you for elaborating on that. >> Yep. >> Any other questions, comments? I don't know if this was asked during the workshop. Right now I'm a little foggy because of this head cold. Um are they going to take care of uh you know possibly if there's any problems with the machinery or anything they want to fix? I don't see anything on this. I mean I would I would assume that it's only with whatever is covered under warranty. Um, I do believe that servicing anything with the actual programming would obviously be the only ones that can do it. So, uh, we'd have to send it
110there. >> It would be nice to see some kind of like guarantee that when they come in, they're going to work and they won't charge us again if it doesn't work properly. But I guess that's not in >> Well, if they don't work from the start, >> well, >> we'd be covered. >> Yeah. >> But if they if they fail going forward, then I I don't believe I I don't I'm not I'm not actually aware of what the uh what the guarantee is. >> We need to carry these devices around with the utmost care for this expense. >> Is there a service agreement with these at all? Is that separate? basically as >> there is no service agreement with this and it would have to be a separate but it has to still go back
111to greens >> but what >> but it still has to go back to greens >> yes because >> I think we should dial in that service agreement >> any other comments um >> are you suggesting we table motion >> no I just think we should dial that in you're you're captive Yep. >> But you should have it dialed in in advance of the problem so everybody knows what it's going to be which will also contribute to the let's take care of these things because this is what it's going to cost us when we don't. >> We'll get a service agreement before we pay the bill. >> Yeah. >> Perfect. Okay. That would be awesome. >> That's actually a great idea. >> Thank you. All right. So under the understanding of a service agreement uh being
112completed um all in favor >> Yeah. roll. Yeah, roll call. Can I please have a roll call? [clears throat] >> Um, Mrs. Glory Fry, >> yes. >> Mr. Jeremy Blush, >> yes. >> Miss Denise Partley, >> yes. >> Mr. William Helman, >> yes. >> Miss Heather Neck, >> yes. >> Mr. Timothy Tech, >> yes. >> Miss Joy Beers, >> yes. >> Mr. David Bradley, >> yes. >> And Mr. Alex, >> Yes. Thank you. Right. Next, we have uh protective fencing. Um and so um as discussed at the workshop, a fence is needed to protect the orchard uh at the high school from deer infiltration. Uh the funds will be allocated uh from the high school capital budget. Um Mr. Cook was able to go back and get a few more quotes um on more standardized
113uh materials and fence plans. Uh, and it sounds like the um company at this point that's favored is the LB fencing. Uh, and so I believe looking at these I guess do I wait for I can wait for >> LB is the cheapest. >> It's the cheapest of the four, right? That's >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. Okay. Great. >> Uh the there's a slight difference in with the service team is significantly higher. Why? Because um they're put into concrete where that's how they do things. They don't just pound them in. They put everything in concrete and that's kind of standard protocol for them. That's why it's a little different, more expensive. So, >> um, can I have a motion to approve uh the proposal with LB fencing in the amount of $6,765 for a protective
114fence for the high school orchard? So, moved. >> Second. >> Any other questions, comments? Yeah, I'm I'm actually rather appalled by some of the things I' I've seen on Facebook over this. I mean, we're spending money to try to assist the program, assist our students with actually learning how to grow things. Um, a lot of people said, "Oh, why don't you get somebody in here to teach them to to to protect it without a fence to natural ways of pro protecting it?" Others were saying, "Oh, I want to get people on the you get give them guns and let them shoot the deer." I mean, th those were kind of funny statements, but the fact is, if you have better ideas, come to the meetings. Um, posting on Facebook, uh, you know, against us helping
115the community, helping the children. Um, we're trying to put a lot into our agricultural program and this is a step in the right direction. Maybe there are other ways, but we'll figure those out as we go along. And honestly, it's really not that much money in in the overall scheme. We spend a lot more on our sports. Couple thousand dollars here for fencing really is not a bad thing. >> I think it's more about the safety of the students and their programs than anything. >> Well, that too, but I mean it was just it was really just disgusting to see some of the comments on Facebook and I know I probably shouldn't. So I I asked about the I asked about the fencing and and I think >> what I want to say is yes
116I saw the comments on Facebook and they were very disturbing and the thing that I think people are missing is that our students are grafting and I'm probably saying this wrong so please bear with me but they are growing apples and they're growing the trees from the beginning and it's a benefit for them to see that. So, this fence is not just a fence to keep the digger out. It's a fence for our students to be able to see their accomplishments. And I think that's the bigger part to take from this. I mean, I I know I I questioned the fence. So, I can say that, but I think what I got from hearing the discussion [clears throat] was what we're allowing our students to see by putting the fence up is the accomplishments. right
117now that accomplishment is not is easily seen and you know to Jeremy's point we're growing the agricultural program >> so yes literally um [laughter] questioning it is one thing Denise and that's what we're here for supposed to question such decisions um and I think we even got better did we get better pricing we question exactly we got better pricing for questioning it that's all that the LD was not on my radar. It wasn't on um Evan Bond's radar. It was not on anybody's radar here in the district to my knowledge. Um so there again, I saw that the the Facebook posts too. Um and they said, you know, talk to uh you know, why don't you talk to sellers and drinkers and blah blah blah. Well, we did. And they all said, you need a
118fence, number one. Um and then Chris Bch and Jeff Cern both said, try LB. They're probably going to be your cheapest one. Um, and also to the Facebook um, comments, why don't you try different strategies like human hair and >> and we have I want to make that clear. We've tried these methods. They work for a little while. Either the rain comes and we have to keep it reapplying. Nothing is physical [clears throat] like a fence will be. Um, so it will be that 8 ft high. uh that will keep out 90% and chances are you're not going to get um you know a lot of deer jumping over eight feet on a hill. >> Yeah. I mean one of one of the points basically is just we're damned if we do, we're damned if
119we don't. We're trying to help the students here and I think it's a great thing that we're doing. So hopefully we all go for this. >> Yeah. And thank you for all your efforts and stewardship with this project. >> Thank you for grab and openness about explaining it. I mean, I think that once again, that's the part that people are missing in the community is that it really is a beneficial program for our students. It's not just there's some apples out in the yard and we're putting a fence around them. There's grafting, there's growth, there's development of not only trees, but of our students. And those are the things we need to focus on. So, I appreciate you for answering the questions, finding other options obviously that allow us to move forward. So, I look
120forward to to seeing that. >> Janine, can I please have a roll call? >> Sure. Mr. Jeremy Glover? >> Yes. >> Miss Denise Hartley? >> Yes. >> Mr. William Helen? >> Yes. >> Miss Heather? >> Yes. >> Mr. Timothy Tech? >> Yes. >> Mr. Years? >> Yes. >> Mr. David Bradley? >> Yes. >> Miss Gloria Fry? >> Yes. >> And Mr. Alex? Yes. >> Nice. Thank you. >> Thanks again. >> All right. So, next up on the >> next up on the agenda, we have per capita occupational tax exemptions. Um, can I please have a motion to approve the exemptions uh from the per capita andor occupational tax for January 2026? So, move. >> Second. >> Questions, comments, concerns? Hearing none. All in favor? >> Opposed? Good job. >> The eyes have it. Next, we
121have per capita occupational tax refunds. Um, we have one. Um, can I have a motion to approve the following per capita andor occupational tax refunds? Uh, Gary Kiss 2024 and 2025 occupational tax $490. It's retired. So, moved. >> Second. >> Questions, comments? Do you want to give everybody's back? All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. All right. Next, we have the uh activities funds. Uh can I have a motion to approve the Heighten area high school and the Heighten area middle school activities funds for December 2025? >> Questions or comments? All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. Next, we have a few reports. Um, we have from December 2025, the condensed board summary, the expenditure report, the revenue report, the treasures report, and the fund summary. Um, with that, can I
122have a motion to approve the aforementioned reports? >> Second. Any questions or comments? >> It's good to see $21.7 million in the bank. >> Hard to disagree. [laughter] Uh, how much of it can we get back? It's a good question. All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. Next, we have payment of bills. Um, so can we can I have a motion to approve the following payment of bills January uh in the total amount of 5,418,5618? >> Second. [clears throat] >> Questions or comments? Hearing none. All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. All right, get past a lot of hyperlinks printed out. Uh, next we have the consent agenda. Uh, under personnel, um, the consent agenda contains items 3.2 through 3.5. Those are job descriptions, resignation for retirement, resignations, and professional development.
123Uh, can I have a a motion to approve the AFOR mentioned consent agenda items? >> Second. >> Questions or comments? Hearing none. All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. Congratulations, Mr. Acres, retiring. >> Yes. >> Thank you for your service. Absolutely. >> I bet you he was happy not to be here during this snow. [laughter] >> Retire just in time. >> Snow. Let me dictate. >> All right. Uh, next we have a pair of candidates for employment. Uh, can I please have a motion to approve the following candidates for employment in accordance with the respective contracts? >> Did we do the professional development? [laughter] >> Yeah, that was the last one in the consent. Um, we have Patricia Trine, uh, 12-month secretary at the elementary center at an annual salary of 30,995, prorated
124for the 2526 school year and effective January 27th, 2026, pending any necessary documentation. Additionally, we have Darlene Shannon, pair of professional high school at an annual salary of $21,021, prorated also for the 2526 school year and effective also January 27th, 2026, pending any necessary documentation. >> So move second. >> Questions, comments? Hearing none. All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. Next, we have English language arts long-term sub. Uh, can I please have a motion to approve the attached memorandum of understanding and the appointment of Kathy Goth as English language arts long-term sub at the high school at a master's degree step one with an annual annual salary of $55,835 prrated for the 2526 school year and effective January 27th, 2026 pending any necessary documentation. >> So moved. Second >> questions, comments. >> Yeah,
125I I just this is a unique circumstance here and Mrs. Goff serves currently as a par professional was I I I want to say the only qualified applicant for this particular position to actually submitted all materials. uh but had some hesitancy about giving up full-time job with benefits without some sort of assurance that that would be honored should the long-term substitute position expire. So we want to definitely promote people taking a shot at at something in service to the district and service to our kids which is why theou made sure she wouldn't lose any benefits should she not move on to a full-time teaching job in the future. So, >> would this be a roll call? >> I would do I would do one for because it's anou. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions or
126comments? >> All right. Jean Denine, can I have a roll call vote, please? >> Sure. >> Miss Denise Bartley. >> Yes. >> Mr. Willie Helen. >> Yes. >> Miss. >> Yes. >> Mr. Timothy T. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gears. >> Yes. >> Mr. David? >> Yes. >> M. Glory. Yes, >> Mr. Jeremy GL. >> Yes. >> And Mr. El Smith. >> Yes. Thank you. >> All right. Next up, we have uh the candidates for the substitute list. Um can I please h have a a motion to approve the following list of requested candidates for the 2025 2026 substitute list. Again, pending any necessary paperwork. We have um seven guest teachers, Erica Couch, Colin Hansen, Craig Millard, Devon Dunwoody, Annne Hmel, Alexander Danielson, Terry Janie. We also have substitute PAR profofessional Harmony Burke and substitute lunch
127aid Susan McClos. >> Second. >> Questions, comments? Hearing none. All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. Next, we have candidates for athletic coaching and manager or extracurricular activities. We have Justin Linger uh for varsity track and field assistant coach. Reminder, he's currently approved as the middle school track and field assistant coach. Uh we also have Jennifer Kungl for assistant middle school track and field coach. And we have our 2026 2027 fall coaches. Cross country Eric Erica Pagato girls soccer Carl Walter field hockey Jen Labasso football Tom McCroll and golf Mark Mahal second >> questions comments >> and Jason I noticed there's a couple coaching spots missing for the fall. I guess you're still in interviews with that. >> Yep. >> Good. They actually haven't started yet. So, they're being scheduled. Yeah. So, for
128head coaching positions, the board would be invited to final interviews. >> Oh, okay. Hopefully, we have some great candidates. >> They're I know one in particular, one pool in particular, it's is pretty healthy. >> Good. Thank you. That's all I needed. >> Other questions, comments? Hearing none. All in favor? Opposed? Okay. The eyes have it. Next, we have acknowledgement of FMLA leave. Um, we have four employees here. Employee 1850, employee 1804, employee 1386, and employee 644. U, can I have a motion to acknowledge the FMLA leave for the aforementioned employees not to exceed 12 weeks? Some move. >> Second. >> Any questions, comments? All right, hearing none. All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. Next, we have item 311, pre-approval of employee continuing education courses. Uh we have uh 13 different courses uh
129with a number of employees. We won't go through every single one of them. We have employee 675, employee 1241, employee 1184, employee 1845, employee 1783, 1753, and employee 501. Um, so can I please have a motion to approve the aforementioned requests for pre-approval of courses/program of studies uh for employee continuing education? >> Second. >> Questions or comments? Hearing none, all in favor? I >> opposed. The eyes have it. All right, moving on. Uh item 4.1, consent agenda. Um this is consent agenda for uh agenda items two, 4.2, and 4.3. Um they are the first and second reading uh of uh approval for policies uh respectively. Under first approval, we have standards for persistently dangerous schools, standards for victims of violent crimes, diabetes management, student discipline, weapons, terroristic threats and threat assessment, and under second reading,
130we have tobacco and vaping products, controlled substances/p paraphernalia, tobacco and vaping products, and controlled substance abuse. Um, can I please have a motion to uh approve consent agenda items 4.2 and 4.3? So move >> second >> questions, comments hearing none. All in favor? >> I opposed. The eyes have it. So that takes us to item 4.4. That's policy 012. Uh do I have a motion to approve the following policy for second reading and final approval? So >> moved. Okay. >> Any questions, comments? >> Uh, I have a comment. Um, I was in contact with the administrative assistant from Upper Peromoman School District [clears throat] wanting to know how boards having free reign worked in the school district. And she said to me that um they no longer do that. They had to stop doing that
131because it was um interfering with students and interfering with teachers and also it brought up several um security issues. So they stopped >> did they stop? >> When did they stop? >> What year did they stop? >> Uh she didn't know the year. >> But they did it before. >> They did it before. Yes. and she said that the board members have access to getting into their ed building which is like our administrative building. Uh they can come in to [laughter] the foyer but then they need to be addressed by someone to go further into the admin building. So >> I apologize. What school are you talking about? >> Um Mr. Bradley had brought up about Upper Perky perky young men having free range and they don't do that anymore. >> What was the name
132of the person you spoke to? >> Michelle Miller. She is the administrative assistant to the superintendent. >> Yeah. >> Sorry. >> No, that's okay. >> So, so my statement was correct that they did do it. You said they >> Oh, yeah. They did do it, but they stopped it. >> Okay. because of the interruptions and the security problems, >> but lawfully they had it and it was available and they could do it within the control >> in the past. Yes, in the past. >> Okay, good. >> Any other questions or comments? [clears throat] >> All right, hearing none. Janine, can I request a roll call vote for this one? >> Sure. Missette, no. Mr. Timothy Tech, >> no. >> Mr. Joy Gears, >> yes. >> Mr. David Bradley, >> yes. >> Miss Lloyd Pride, >>
133no. >> Mr. Jeremy Cloud, >> yes. >> Mr. Denise Hartley, >> no. >> Mr. William Holland, >> no. >> Mr. Alex, >> no. Yes. Six. >> The nays have it. All right. Next on the agenda, we have policy 620. Um, can I have a motion to approve um the affformentioned policy for second and final reading? >> Um, you'll notice, if you haven't noticed already, this policy attached uh just [clears throat] contains the clerical corrections from the policy that was approved back at the November meeting. Um, I know there was a spirited discussion about this one and again, I appreciate certainly everybody's insight. Um, you know, at that time I pulled the board and in terms of what are our thoughts on, you know, the voter referendum and and I I certainly think there were good
134points on both sides. Um, didn't include that piece uh in terms of resetting the policy essentially. Um, hopefully that is perceived as you know the new folks who came on the board don't have any intentions of building anything new. Um, and hopefully that can can provide some reassurance. Um, so that's my only comment on 620. Again, just the the revisions from from November. >> But this is really just a a proper publishing of the approved. >> Correct. Correct. >> We're not ready to approve anything. It's already been approved. It's just you're instructing the superintendent to correct the error on the website. >> Right. But yeah, just that we will not we won't pursue at this time any corrections or or further modifications. >> Am I saying that right? we're really doing. >> So, in November,
135the version that was um passed contains some errors and so actually the version that's on um the website right now is actually preemptively correcting. >> Okay. >> So, this is >> solidifying those. >> Correct. Correct. >> No problem. >> Yep. >> Any other questions, comments? All right. Um, all in favor? >> Opposed? >> The eyes have it. >> All right. Next, we have program of studies. Um, can I have a motion to approve the high school program of studies for the 2026 2027 school year? >> Some moved. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? Hearing none. All in favor? I >> opposed. The eyes have it. Next, we have some school enrichment journeys. Um, can I have a motion to approve the following school enrichment journey requests? We have education center fifth grade Ron Ravenald.
136Um, I went through all these at the say at the workshop so I won't repeat myself. Um, but we have nine requests and I believe them to be the same as the workshop. Um, so can I have a motion to approve the aforementioned and discussed school enrichment journey requests? >> Some move. >> Second. Questions, concerns? All in favor? >> Opposed? >> The eyes have it. >> All right. Next, we have use of school property. Um, we have one request um, from the Lee Heighten Area Soccer Club, Brandon Fry and Ashley Moser for Saturdays and Sundays April through June of 2026 with times to be determined use of the outside fields for U13 and U16 soccer games. Um, so with that, can I please have a motion to approve the use of school property for the
137aformentioned request? So move second. >> Questions, comments? >> Hearing none. All in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. Next, we have uh disposal of surplus property. Um, can I please have a motion to approve the disposal of the attached unneeded surplus, unusable, and or obsolete property from the district that is consuming valuable storage space in accordance with policy 706.1. >> Second. >> Any questions, comments? >> I have a question, Jason. This is just a proven Justin to move forward with disposing this. It doesn't mean we're going to give it away. >> Correct. Any any what whatever we do with it after this point would actually have to be a board motion. Whether that's put it on a municipal bid or make a donation. >> Okay. >> Any other questions, comments? >> All righty. All
138in favor? >> Opposed? The eyes have it. Um, no old business or new business for discussion. There were no director concerns submitted ahead of time. I didn't receive anything. >> I just want to ask Jason a quick question. >> Jason, how did the salt shed work out with all this weather? Because we didn't really get a chance to test it over the last couple years. >> Uh, in terms of how it held up or was it accessible? >> Was it accessible? My understanding is our my understanding is that [clears throat] removal and cleanup was as smooth as possible >> gi given how much it was agree it was a lot >> salting was held off on until >> yeah until today because of just the >> well yeah >> I'm just wondering because you know
139we that was another thing that we kind of put in motion there and >> hoping it was >> one thing that has worked out well is being able to store a certain amount here, but we've also made arrangements, you know, when we went out to when we went out to purchase >> uh to pay a rate for X amount, but have them actually hold what we can't store here. [clears throat] >> Really? That's awesome. >> And and we didn't pay any more per ton than what we were. So very >> Yeah, I thought that was a neat thing, too. >> That's a good arrangement as well. inventory. >> Yeah. Did you And you paid for it in advance. >> Paid for it in advance. Yep. Prices are skyrocketing again. >> All right. >> Um, any
140final public comment? >> I'm sorry I came in late, so I didn't fill out a form. Am I able to just address two things quick? >> Sure. >> All right. So my first question is um the message we received yesterday about the school being cancelled and the makeup day being June 10th. As a parent of a senior, is that going to do we know affect graduation? >> At this point in time, uh we would have to I was to do the math when we were back into we'll get that answer out as soon as we can. um they seniors have to have a certain amount of hours and so I don't think at this point in time without having done the math yet >> I don't think it will >> but >> they're all concerned
141>> but it's only late J. [laughter] >> Um and then my second one is um just going back to policy 012. So it did not pass tonight. I just want to clarify. Am I correct in understanding that without having a policy in place any schoolboard member has access to go to any school right now as they >> wishing through Jason? Right. So it's not unfettered. You can show up when you want. It's coordinated through the superintendent. >> It's not what the law says though. says the law says that any of these directors as a fiduciary for this school district can walk into any building at any given time. There's nothing you can do. And if you did, there would be probably [clears throat] if you read it, it says shia. That's why I wrote the
142email I wrote tonight to the board because and that's why it probably wasn't passed. You don't need the policy. They they are the fiduciary. You are a fiduciary. You have access [laughter] to any of these buildings at any given time. Yes, if there's a confidential issue with students, yes, that is a totally different thing. but limiting access to the directors to the actual premise in a school building. No, I don't think that you have any right whatsoever in trying to supersede Pennsylvania law in saying that you as a director have to ask Mr. Moser to have access to a building. You have access. If there's an issue that comes up and you get an email that there's a water pipe that's busted, it's going to cost thousands of dollars. Absolutely. I would expect you or
143any of these other directors to go investigate it if you're able to. You have that right. That is your job as the fiduciary for the school district. At the end of the day, it doesn't fall back on Mr. Moser and anyone else. It falls back to you as a director. And the law is very clear. It is command. The word shall is command. That is what is used in there. You have unfettered access to this school district at any given time. The classrooms is a different story. Student confidentiality is a different story, but trying to say that a school director has limited access to a building for a number of visits is absolutely preposterous. And I would encourage that if that policy was passed that school district directors challenge that in the court of law
144because that would never hold it. That is absurd to even even put that on the table. >> Same with access to records. same with access to financials, same with everything else that already went through the courts. >> I I think her concern and and I'm not turning to words in your mouth. I think her concern is board directors entering schools and the hold to court and inappropriateness and and not just walking in and being disruptive to students and education and learning and I'm not I am not opposed to school directors having access to the schools. I believe it is your job to do it. But I do believe I I don't like the line the the terminology in here that they could either have the superintendent or a designate. We don't know who that designate
145would be. Um or if they have their clearances, you know, in the wording, if they have their clearances that they could come and go with the I just believe that without having the policy, anybody here can walk in schools and do what they please. put on >> whether they're going to do that or not. I I'm I'm happy to hear that they're calling Mr. Moser and and scheduling it, but they don't need to. So, by having the policy in place, it puts that extra bit of >> protection on the schoolboard member and the students. >> Sure. Um, so for me, I would like to see the policy put into place a little more restrictive than what it's written as because without it, there is no policing of what's going to what could happen or what
146will happen. >> Sure. And again, we obviously appreciate your concerns. If you recall from the workshop meeting, one of the discussion points is that we are also looking to neighboring school districts and again, not reinventing the wheel. the work's already done. Finding something that's reasonable access without [clears throat] allowing for overreach. Um because I totally agree that >> I think the best way is for the board that if and I'm going to use this because I know this policy is is is towards Mr. Bradley. If Mr. Bradley goes into school and his decorum with either teachers or administration or students is outrageous. Okay. The board has a absolute right to censor him and put a restriction on him, but it has to be very clearly justified if that is the case. And I don't think
147uh that you know you have a high threshold in that thing just like the Panther Valley did with uh I believe his name was Mike Nikki years ago giving out confidential information on the internet on the website and they centured him and took him to court. They certainly do have that right, but to say to any director that sits on this board, you have to be limited and you need an escort. Um, I think there's there's there's question there because you have access to that building at any time. And that's your job. That is your absolute job sitting on this board that if there's something in question, you get something and you want to go investigate, you have that absolute right to walk in that building and say, "Okay, I want to know what's going
148on here. explain to me what's going on here. [clears throat] His neph you've done that before. Am I correct? >> What? >> Entered the schools and looked at stuff. >> I called Jason. Jason arranged it. I met with Jason and we went to the school with the proper administrator that was at the school. >> I think having a person with you, honestly, for me, I mean, I'm just going to say for myself, you know, I would not want to enter school by myself. Um, there's a lot of gray in the world. We we live in an area of what could happen could be. There is a lot of gray. There is a lot of mis misperception of reality. I think is and not and I'm probably not using my wording proper. I would much prefer
149to have somebody with me so that if something got questioned or if I wasn't sure about something, I had a peer to rely on. Um because unfortunately at times what someone does can be questioned and you may not have meant any harm by what you said or you did but people misinterpret things. Having a peer because I consider board members, I consider Jason a peer with me to look at that is a positive and I would would think that as a parent, you would want us to have a peer with us to make sure that if there was a question of an interaction or if there was a question of something that occurred that there would be two interpretations of that. >> Wasn't that a part of this policy that it actually codified that? Because
150now Autumn's right per state law, we can just go in. >> I mean, as long as we have our clearances, I mean, from what I understand, if we have our clearances, we can ask for a car key um to the buildings. Now, would I would I do it? Probably not. Because right now, as I said, I think in my argument at the uh workshop meeting is that right now we have an administration that is cooperating with the board, but there are rogue administrations as we had prior a couple times prior. Um, if you have that, they're going to hide everything. So, why wouldn't you have a policy like this that would allow to to make it so that, hey, look, we have the policy right here. You can't stop us now. They can stop us
151now if they really wanted to, but we could then go to the state and we could take it all through the legal wranglings and everything like that. Waste money, waste everybody's time when we could have just put it in the policy. We could have done it. I could have walked up to Jason said, "Jason, I need an escort down to the high school. Go down to the high school. We hang out. We do our thing. We leave." Would have been in the policy. Would have been passed tonight. Could have been passed tonight. isn't could have just rewarded the policy, but we all just took a partyline vote and we saw that it was knocked down. So, it was the point of the policy was to put a control factor on it. Now, there's no control
152factor. Will we do that? I don't I I don't foresee any of us really doing that. >> I think we're looking at other policies to consider other policies. >> But then we could have left that policy just sitting there. We could have just said, "Let's let's leave it. Let's table it." But no, we took a hardline vote and we proved who was gonna say yes and who was gonna say no. >> But but I I hear what you're saying and I'm not disagreeing with you, but that's not what Pennsylvania say. >> I understand that. >> That's not legislation intent. >> I understand. >> The the issue here is and I don't think anyone can argue this and I've said this a thousand times and say a thousand more times. The Pennsylvania educ school education code
153is antiquated. It is old. It is outdated. It needs to be revised on on many levels here. But that is the the the right as a you want access to that school building or to anything in this school. You have that right. [laughter] At the end of the day, if something goes wrong, you can try to point the fingers at Jason Board all you want and it's not going to work because you're going to be nine pointing back at you because the nine of you sitting here are responsible for the disclosure at the end of the day. So that is why the legislation gave you the intent that it did and saying you have access to what you could what you oversee and the law doesn't say that you have to have a policy that
154limits access. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be badged in. I'm saying yes, you should be badged in. And yes, school administration should know that you're in the building. But if you if if lawyer wants tomorrow morning to go to the elementary school and she wants to walk around the elementary school just to see how the building is and and to see how the kids are doing or whatever, she has that right just as Mr. Tac or Joy anyone in this board. And that's how the law is written. If you don't like it, I don't think the issue is here developing a policy. I think it is an issue to take up with uh state representative. So just to summarize and conclude uh I'll repeat what I said that this doesn't mean we will not
155have any policy. It just means we will not have policy 012 as written. Are there any other public comments? >> I have one done. Just going back to the produce question about um snow days. Um I was just from here on out, are we adding on to the end of the year? >> Yes. Okay. >> That's where we're at. >> Okay. >> Unfortunately, that's where we're at. >> So, and and I I'm going to ask this question because >> we graduated in a year this happened. Um there is a special stipulation if you wind up with your school that with your snow days and a graduation day you can ask for a stipulation of the hours. Correct. If you wound up in that situation it's a very rare occurrence but I'm saying for the seniors
156that are concerned there is an option to do that if you would need to do that. >> There are some scenarios where you can request waiverss so on and so forth for seniors. There's also some other ways that you can creatively accumulate the hours should you hit a a really sticky situation. What's um >> I I just know as a senior that that graduated in a time where it snowed more than it did snow that it becomes concerning and this year happens to be that. So, >> and I I don't know about other schools. I only know my son's college orientation is the 7th through the 15th. >> He has to pick one of those those days. [laughter] Well, there's educational field trips, too. >> Doesn't want to miss graduation or [laughter] is there a
157reason we're not doing a virtual correct? >> Yeah, I'll answer that one. I I mean I philosophically um we saw what happened with virtual days during during the school closure quite frankly I think in a widespread manner. Um I don't believe that it provides a quality education. I think you were checking a box and the board was very supportive of that stance. >> We stop we stopped doing the virtual days when Dr. official group was here and the reason was was that they didn't seem effective. I mean it's it's like a blowoff day. I mean it's it's the the students aren't learning. >> Okay. >> As long as there's a position I just was curious for the parents. >> I mean if if if your thing is we want to make sure my child get
158education I support all 100%. I just wanted to know because this one's normal. we should do virtual things so we don't have to you know lose our summer. >> I I I don't like I mean you you saw you know we spent a lot of time talking about teachers working and and students student students working and students growing academically. Um and I I think uh quite frankly and I don't want to be critical of my colleagues. I certainly don't want to. I I think if you were going to execute virtual days effectively, you need to have a lot of preparation, a lot of professional development or else it is literally checking a box to reach hours and days. So the other element was not on the staff side but the fact that not every student
159had a quality um internet at home and so then even if the staff were ready, willing and able to broadcast a teaching session, not all the students could receive it. Then it turned into a day of like doing worksheets quietly by themselves. It was also stressful for multif family, not multi family, multi-child homes where one kid would be sitting at one end of the dining room table, the other kid would be at the other end and they'd be trying to talk and they couldn't really do it because they're talking over each other >> or parents aren't there at all. That's I mean if you have if you have working parents >> that >> I'm of the opinion if it's a snow day children should be outside >> unless it's in the negative >> building snowmen.
160>> Oh by the way Joy uh Dawson volunteer to come show me your driver. >> Great. I'll let Greg know be really pleased >> when you're when you're done. >> Any other public comment? Yeah. Well, yeah, I'll be quick. Um, I received um public comment and I couldn't get it answered, so I'm going to try here. Um, it was alluded that there is staff members that are on their payroll but are not attending the school buildings or facilities and are they just working remotely? Do we have remote employees? We do not have any remote employees, >> but do we have employees that are on the payroll that do not have a time sheet coming into the building and have not been signed in or out? >> Maybe. Can we look into that? >> Yes. All
161right. I appreciate it. And then the other one was um right before the meeting um we were sent this uh picture [clears throat] from Wall-E Zamlovich who's a very dedicated and agrees with a lot of uh the understanding that um our students need as much protection as possible especially in sporting events and light of the related issues. Does this guy work for us? >> It's our varsity boys basketball coach. Okay. Is this still being looked into or Okay. Thank you very much. >> I have a minute. >> You got a minute left, so take it. >> I'll use one by two. >> Go ahead, Dave. I don't want >> No, I said I'll use one by two. Okay. Um, no, I I what I was going to say is I think tonight's meeting we had
162it from the presentation we have a great eighth grade class and we are going to have great freshman class it looks like and the dedication of our teachers to find fencing for our students and just in general it's just it's great to see the dedication of our teachers. That's what I wanted to say is a thank you to our teachers cuz they're they're really you can see they're really coming out and they're really [laughter] putting [applause] the effort and it's notable and I think you know I just want to recognize them because it's a hard job and it definitely deserves being recognized. >> Let's end on that positive note. Yep. Move to >> All right. Um we'll call this meeting to adjournment at 9:20. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? Second. >> All in
163favor? >> Opposed? The [clears throat] eyes have it. Meeting adjourned. Thank the computer. [clears throat]