001like to begin with a pledge of allegiance. Ice to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. The school board meeting will proceed in accordance with schoolboard policy. We had the pledge of allegiance. Uh public comments on the one that you know uh we have Mrs. Mary Frank has indicated that she would like to make a public comment on the beginning of the school year. Um I'm sorry you're usually on this side. Yeah. Um I wasn't sure where on the agenda today. So >> is that a specific agenda item? >> So we we are giving a presentation kind of like what we did throughout the summer. So it may be appropriate if you do it
002at the beginning of the meeting instead at the very end. >> Whenever you want to do it, just you know raise your hand and and we'll let you do it. Okay. We trust you. >> What's that? >> I need to do a roll call. >> Yeah. Okay. Roll call, please. Mr. Chrisman, >> Mr. Fedora >> here, >> Miss France, Miss Husk present, Mr. Van Norman >> present. >> Miss Cop here. >> Miss Snder >> here. >> Miss Williams >> here. >> Mr. Green >> here. >> We have a quorum. >> Thank you. >> Okay, you've all received copies of the school board meetings on the various dates. Our motion to approve those minutes, please. >> So move. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Questions or discussion, additions? None. Hearing none. All those in favor
003signify by saying I. >> I. Oppose. No. And so ordered. Special board meetings. Miss. >> Sure. Thank you. Uh, we did have our July CLIU board meeting. Um, couple quick tidbits to talk about. We did approve our 2025 2026 organizational goals um relative to collaboration, communication, and service quality. Those are posted on our website. They have been uh presented to the superintendent as well for review. A lot of collaboration is um what's involved with our organizational goals this year. Uh so I would say take a look at the what's posted out on the website. You're welcome to go look at those. Um, there's also a new video that's posted. It was for Kid Executive Day. Uh, Anna Menddees was our student leader at the time and did a fantastic video. Had a great time uh,
004introducing the theme that every child is a masterpiece. Um, many different ways that children can kind of go to market when we think about it in that way. and um they do different things and she brought such a great light to it. Um it is again on the website. Please feel free to go watch it. It is fantastic. Um she did ask for a Porsche so I don't know. We'll we'll try to get that in the IU budget. I'm not sure it's going to make it, but it was fantastic. She did a wonderful job. So um again, every child is a masterpiece was uh the message behind that video. And then um as a cabinet member, we did uh hire a new transportation director uh Lucia Malay O'Brien. So we welcome her to the organization.
005So uh when our when our staff reaches out, she is the new transportation director. We do have a meeting in August. Um so we'll see what comes from that. Thank you, Mr. Green. >> Thank you, Miss Husseek. Mr. Mr. Vara, we did not have a July meeting as usual. So, there is no report for July. >> Thank you very much. Anything from the legislators? >> No, nothing to report. We still don't have a budget pass. >> Thank you. Uh, just a couple quick items at at LRYC. Attendance still remains down both in in numbers and in uh uh credit hours. Uh, on the other hand, we we look like we'll finish our year in in an okay position. Uh we're obviously looking for the governor and our legislators to come up with some money because
006if they don't, you know, you started digging that reserve just the school district will have to do. So uh if you see them, please encourage them, not only for the community college, but for all the school district to try and get their act together and get something done. So and that's all I have. Uh you got a bunch of committee reports there and then we'll move to All right, just uh very briefly um on July 29th, the US Department of Justice released guidelines for recipients of federal funding regarding unlawful discrimination. Uh the guidance provides a non-exhaustive list of practices that would violate the civil rights laws, including title six and seven of the civil rights act, title nine of the education amendments of 1972, and the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. Um, two
007of the examples that are cited in the guidelines, um, I think are particularly applicable to school districts, um, one would be, uh, training programs that promote discrimination or a hostile environment, um, including requiring teachers to complete a DEI training, um, or, um, grant preferential treatment based on protected characteristics such as racebased scholarships. So, doing those two items in a school district could result in revocation of federal funding um and or liability for discrimination under the new um interpretations. Questions? >> Any questions? >> Okay. >> Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Uh we're now going to Ger. >> Thank you, Mr. Green. [Applause] This evening, our administrative team has a summer highlights report by department. So, each of our administrators will share um some of the work that we did to finish up the
00824 25 school year moving into the summer and then how we're preparing for the 2526 start. Dr. Link is kicking it off. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Stoker. um had a very busy summer in all of our departments here in Northern Lehigh School District and what we do to kind of wrap up last year and then also prepare for the kickoff of this current school year. Today is actually one of my like top four favorite days in uh being an educational leader and that is when we welcome all the new staff, the new FA faculty to um to join us here at Northern Lee High School District as they begin their journey here with us. Um, you know, some of the other favorite days are, of course, commencement, welcoming back, all of our staff,
009and then also welcoming our students on the first day of school. This morning was one of those ones where um, you know, I I've I've done this now several times here at Northern Lee High School District. I still get excite very excited. I still wake up at like four o'clock in the morning and I still have a little bit of nervousness because I want the day to go very well for these people when they are joining us and starting their journey here at Northern Lee High School District. Um, and I share with them it's okay to be excited. It's okay to be nervous. That's normal. Um, and I'm very confident they're all going to do great things here as part of our faculty. Uh, recently we welcomed our new school board member, Mr. uh, Ryan
010Van Norman. Welcome. And um it's nice to see you seated at the table here for your first school board meeting. Uh we also went through the process this year of hiring a new elementary assistant principal, I should say, this summer. Um who we'll introduce to everyone a short bit later. Um but that is one of those uh processes where we we really really want to make sure um that we get the you know the best person uh to to come in here and join our leadership team. And I'm very confident uh that um that will happen uh moving into this school year. Spent a lot of time this summer and um Mr. Green kind of just touched on this a little bit with the need for our state legislators and the school, I'm sorry, and
011the governor uh to pass a state budget because that directly impacts public education here. Um, I have spent a lot of time this summer meeting with, talking with, writing to, emailing um, legislators uh, from both parties and in both chambers and the governor uh, governor's office directly. Um, spend some days in Harrisburg advocating for not only them to pass the budget, but to also include with that or through legislative mechanisms uh, reform cyber charter school funding. this is missionritical to the work that we're trying to do. Um, and we've put a lot of time into that this summer. My colleagues here in the room, other administrators have also been doing that on behalf of the school district as well as many schoolboard members, urging them to pass reform to the cyber charter school funding. Uh
012if we were to do that, if they were to cap it at the $8,000 recommended by uh the governor, $8,000 tuition cap for students without disabilities attending cyber charter schools. Uh that would save us um about at least $300,000 a year for a school district like us. That's a game chang. That's a game changer for many school districts. That's a gamecher. Um so I encourage you all to continue to advocate for that. We will continue to do that as um your northern Lehigh representatives. Also, this summer um I had the privilege and the honor of sharing a lot of the stories of how we build employee pathways here uh for our employees, whether it's u support staff people uh progressing into supervisory roles or even onto our faculty here or for um our faculty progressing
013into coaching roles or or leadership type roles. and we are very proud of that. Um, and we got to share some of that and re some of those people actually welcomed in our new teachers this morning. Um, everything from an intern that's now leading our food services department to a school electrician that's leading um, our director leading our maintenance and custodial programs to a graduate that became an assistant principal that is becoming on uh, become that is now a principal. Um, and as many of you are aware, Mr. Hower will be moving on from Northern Le High School school district and I would like to think that the place that he's going to is going to be well I know it is going to be so much more better off. Um and we are very
014fortunate for the time that we had with him here and I'm very very happy for him and his family and Dave I wish you nothing but the greatest of success professionally and personally in your new endeavors and we're always here if you need to talk through something >> or just say hi. Um, so we've been doing a lot of celebrating, a lot of advocacy, and a lot of work to prepare for the new school district. Um, and I'm very happy with how it's going. That being said, I will turn it back over to Dr. Stoker. >> Thank you. Um, some of the things that have been going on in my department, um, online kindergarten registration. So, Mrs. Farber is our district-wide, uh, registar. We have transitioned to online registration first grade through 12th grade and
015then this summer we worked on uh well actually this spring into the summer transitioning our kindergarten to online registration as well. So we worked with the team over at Peters. We worked with Mrs. Farber um and made sure that that process was as smooth as we could get it to be for um our new our youngest learners coming into kindergarten for this year. Um this year we actually kicked off our first EF tour. You'll see pictures of that over on the right hand side. We had a group of students uh led by Miss Dunham, one of our teacher leaders, and Miss Merkel went to uh the national parks with a group of students. This was our first domestic trip, first trip ever that we had from Northern Lehi. So very excited about that. Um the
016students and uh teacher leaders had a really good time. Um the next one is summer admin collaboration days. We as a group come together in the summer for about three days spread throughout the summer uh to work on different projects that we have as a team. Uh we dedicate three full days to doing that. Um this year we had the principles association come in and work with us um as a full group. We looked at uh various topics of interest for our entire team getting ready moving into um the upcoming school year. Uh as Dr. Link said, this is new educator week. We kicked off today with orientation. We will have CLIU 21. Uh we're actually hosting them in several districts again this year, our second year at the high school. Uh year one induction
017will be Tuesday and Wednesday. And then any of the teachers who are in their second year of induction, which is a new practice in Pennsylvania, will have that day on Thursday. Um so the IU will be hosting um those new teachers at the high school over the next three days. Uh we will also have uh teachers who are have already been through induction um working in their classrooms doing professional development time with helping teachers uh all sorts of different um activities that they'll be working on as well. Uh then next week we kick off our inservice uh with some days of inservice coming up uh for three days next week and then our students uh return the last week of the month on that Monday. Uh we were also uh able to hire some ESL
018staff um coming from the summer into next school year. So uh we actually just did that uh pretty last minute. Uh hired someone and they accepted over this weekend. So you'll see that um higher on the uh agenda for this evening as well. Um as you know we completed our comprehensive planning process um in the spring of this past year. So that began July 1st. our new comprehensive plan for the next three years. Uh some of those sub plans are for six years, but uh with the changes at the state level and the national level, we've been having to update that more frequently. So probably about three years that it'll it'll contain new information. Um always following the comprehensive plan is then the comprehensive guidance plan process. Uh so we'll be going through that process
019this year and then submitting that um for March of 2026. So those are some of the activities that are happening in uh the department. I really want to thank uh Mrs. Steckel my secretary. She is uh invaluable behind the scenes doing a lot of this work as well business in HR Mrs. Mola Taus. So um we started the um summer working on our new workers compensation provider. um I was able to um go out for bid and we secured a new provider um with a substantial cost savings to the district. Um and through that process we have had um at least three virtual meetings. Um one of them we did pull in our uh HR generalist who will be in charge of filing those claims online and we pulled in uh Mr. man who is
020the lead for our um safety committee meetings. So um through that process they talked to him about um creating check off lists for training people to um uh when they're using the maintenance equipment and making sure that we are not they're being trained appropriately and that we cannot be in harm's way for not having provided the training needing. So, um it's really a good process with this new company. Uh the company is called Mimic and they are actually out of Maine. Um but very very promising. So, I'm I'm hoping to have a couple of years that we're going to be in a a good relationship with them and and be able to save the district lots of money. So, uh was very happy to secure that this summer. Um I always get the question every
021year, do you work in the summer? Yes, the summer is our busiest time of year. We do nothing but process POS so that we can get those orders out and those supplies in for our teaching staff and everybody to return. Um so my business office is very busy processing those payments because obviously they need to be paid and um processing all the the um supplies coming in with the help of the maintenance department and our um our warehouse provider who checks all that inventory in and verifies to us that they've received everything. So, it's a lot of work that goes on on that side of things. And then the other side of the house, which is human resources. Obviously, we've been very busy. If you've looked at tonight's agenda, hiring staff. Um, but again, it
022that's not done in silo. I don't do this alone. There is a team of us that get together and hire everybody across the district. Um, being Paris, we have certain people that do powers. We have certain people that do administrative people, and then of course our teaching staff. So, um I'm if I'm available to sit in, I sit in on them. Dr. Stoker sits in on a lot of them. Um as well as all of our other administrative staff. Um so, very busy time of the year. Um we have done a I think pretty remarkable job of hiring all the positions that we've had open this summer to start the year. Um so, we have one more to secure. We're hoping to do that soon and uh we'll be off to a great start. Thank
023you, >> Chief Jones. >> Evening everybody. Uh I promise to be brief. Uh so what are some things that PD had worked on over the summer? Um we started off with some act five inerson training for those uh employees that find it especially hard to get uh to the trainings later on in the year. We did a special uh summer session for them um so they can be uh certified in their F5 stuff. Um Officer Nicoia, he he put himself through the basic tactical medical instructor training program. That was a free course offered by um the Lehi County Emergency Management. Um that's him in the upper right hand corner there receiving uh some some much needed care. Um but but props to him because he he did this on his own. Um he he suck
024at you know seek out training over the summer hours uh so that he could bring it back here for us. Uh I myself went to the Nazar advanced uh school resource officer course uh that was also hosted by um Lehi County Emergency Management. It was held in uh the Allentown uh fire academy. um was attended by about 25 uh people uh mostly from the area, but we had some as far away as uh Colorado and New Mexico. So, they they came in here just for that. Uh next uh was a a year to to redo the uh uh with our local police agencies. Um, so they were completed and signed off on uh by the end of July by both um Slayton Police Department and the State Police Department for Peters Elementary. And finally, uh
025down here in the in the left is is the new uh office here at uh Slington Elementary. uh with the new hire of uh our assistant principal coming in, it was determined that, you know, office space needed to be changed about the and the uh space I was in for the 24-2 school year could be better utilized this year as something else. So, uh I moved on over to a different space. I want to thank Chris Man and his uh summer work team for furniture moving, for uh redoing and waxing floors, painting walls. They did a fantastic job prepping uh both spaces for their for the new roles. That's all I have. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Special education. Mrs. Dada. >> Good evening everyone. Um so this year we had as usual our extended
026school year that is about 12 days for our students to all come in and work on all their goals so that they don't have a lapse in and regress too much. Um we also I'm excited. I don't know much about botchi ball but I'm going to learn. Um we're going to do the unified botchi ball with our students and it is a collaborative um between the regular ed students and the special education students getting together um and having actual botchi ball competition. So I'm thoroughly excited about that. Um I am truly grateful to our board to recognize that um our students it's it's important for our students to be here at Northern Lehigh and that leads to having the continuum of the emotional support classroom at Sington Elementary and also to the life skills classroom
027at the middle school. So I do greatly appreciate that support from from all of you. >> Mr. Pine, edtech CNI. We need to get room from the school board. First, I want to thank Miss Dada because I was experiencing so much anxiety over here wondering whether or not I should sit, stand, come up to the podium. She set the stage or come out the podium. Uh so, and and Texi and I. So, first I I you know, I want to just remind everyone that we have a new tech integration specialist with Miss Amanda, Miss Amanda Barana, uh filling in or taking the place of Miss Bla Dunham. Uh so, we're very excited to have her. She uh I know the board knows her from the work that we've done so far with the math adoption.
028Uh she's very capable and I'm very excited to work with her. Uh next week we have planned out the final phase of the math program selection process and we are looking to do field testing through probably the second half of the fall so that mid year we'll be able to come up with a solid selection. I think that we're very well on our way. I think there's a lot of energy and enthusiasm among our teachers for the programs that we're looking at. Uh, also updating curriculum documentation for the encore subjects. That's actually still in process. Um, I'm still working on that over the next two weeks in order to make sure that those documents they created last year in our last phase of the curriculum cycle uh look as good as the other ones and
029that we're able to get those into those sort of sheets where everything's well organized and easily accessible. Uh, also over the summer I completed a revision that some started with in the spring in terms of uh the Bulldog Academy handbook and procedures. I know I've shared that with the school board. We talked about that last week. It's on tonight's agenda for approval. Uh that I think are going to really helpful in terms of our onboarding of students, our determination that we need to start talking to students about coming back into the brickandmortar classroom if they're not being successful and then a complete set of supports in between. Um I also presented along with uh Miss Dunham as one of her final acts here as a representative of the Northern Lina School District at the ASCD
030conference in San Antonio. Uh it is one of the largest educational conferences in the country. And so it was really exciting to be down in San Antonio mingling with other school districts and leaders who are very much looking at and I just I'll set the stage for this ASCD and it used to be two separate organizations. One focused on curriculum and supervision uh um and development and the other one focused on technology. And I think much like the position I serve uh the combination of the two now is a recognition of how integrated those two things need to be to be effective. And then I spent probably way too much personal time as well as uh work time working on developing AI tools to support administration and faculty largely within school AI because that's the
031provider that we currently use. Um and I'm really excited to release those because I think they're going to be huge time savers for our teachers and our administration. And I think as I'm presenting about on Thursday at EDCOM, uh I think that they're going to do great things for relationships. actually uh counter to the common conceptions about AI taking people out of the loop. I think that they could do great things to improve those connections between people in the loop. And that's it for the text. >> Thank you. Technology department, Mr. Hill. >> Hi, good evening everybody. Uh some of the key highlights that we did with the uh technology department this summer. Uh first thing was our new endpoint protection roll out uh for device security. In addition to that, we also had a
032few uh training sessions uh for our IT staff on that new endpoint protection uh software. Uh another big project this year was uh upgrading all of our Windows 10 devices to Windows 11. Uh that includes uh uh staff and also we do have some student uh Windows 10 devices as well. Uh in addition to that, we did server operating system updates. Uh we updated uh most of our servers uh throughout the summer uh trying to have as minimal downtime as possible uh during that and uh we received uh new Chromebooks. Uh we have two grades uh that receive new Chromebooks uh kindergarten and fifth grade. So that process includes unboxing uh we have to asset tag them, inventory, then we have to enroll them in our domain uh to get all the apps installed and
033then finally uh the last part of the process is we check out all those devices to students. And then we also uh updated all the existing Chromebooks. Um, and I want to echo uh what Mrs. Molator said. Uh, the IT staff, one of our busiest times is actually summertime. Uh, we have a small staff and our staff actually touches probably close to 2,000 devices in some way uh throughout the summer uh and upgrades, checking in, checking out. Uh, so they really do a lot of work and uh uh thank thankfully we have a fantastic staff to get all that done. So that's all I have. Thank you. food service. Mr. Smith looks like it's me. >> Good evening. Um, so for food service, the first portion of the summer for me is um completing applications
034for the different programs that we run. So, first being our summer program. I know we didn't have a full open site this year like we did in years past, but um we did do a summer feeding program that allowed us to feed the steam camp this summer as well as our ESY students. So, I brought staff in for for those weeks that those camps were running. Um, and then you know a lot of what I do over the summer with the help of uh Jamie in the business office. She's been helping me a lot with um a lot of data entry and anytime we um switch vendors for, you know, our grocery, our milk, our bread, whatever vendor we're using, we have to update all that into our POS system. So just a lot of
035like data entry with ingredients, recipes, nutrition information, allergies, things like that. Um menu creation um t is a process. So I try to you know plan my whole year out in one shot for both our breakfast program, our lunch program and also our shine programs that we run. Um a lot of training takes place for myself. So I utilize this time to take the extra continuing ed. Um, we act I bring in our head cooks because they need extra training as well over the summer. So, they get an extra day or two over the summer to come in and just strictly focus on training. And then we always have the rest of our staff come in um one day the week prior to us kicking off the new school year, open kitchens up again, uh
036utilize that time for training. Um, and then, you know, just prepping for the first day back of school, getting our beginning of the year packets together for the students, any IDs that need to be issued out, you know, for when they come through the line and to make that process smooth for them when they're checking out with us. Um, just a lot of updating of again policies, procedures, handbooks, such as that. So, a lot of busy work behind the computer for me over the summer. So, um, but yeah, and just planning our different meal service styles as well. If we change, again, lunch and learn, you know, last summer was a big one, focusing a lot of time there. So, if there's any schools that are changing how we want to, you know, serve the
037students, grab and go, breakfast in the classroom, all the sorts of ways that we um serve the students to make it more convenient for everybody's schedules. We try to iron out all those logistics over the summer to have it smooth for the start of the school year. So that's just a quick brief on what's going on in food service. >> Thank you, Mr. Man, operations and transportation. >> Evening everyone. Um, so the first on my list is the summer student workers. Uh, you heard Chief Jones uh mention them. I'd like to thank the board for allowing me to have the eight uh young gentlemen I had this year. They were a definite asset. Um I don't think there was a update, a Friday update that didn't go by that they were mentioned. Um they helped
038probably every one of the administrators here from delivering books uh for Mr. Pine. They painted rooms like for Chief Jones and Mr. Snderite. Um they weeded gardens. I don't think there is a building or anything that they didn't do this summer. Um again, I'd like to thank the board for allowing me to have those eight boys. Um I wish uh the seniors um we have two seniors going off to college. Um one going into the Marines and we have another one that's actually taking the Northern Lehigh path. Uh he started off as a student. Um he worked as a summer worker for three years and he is now accepted a position on second shift um in maintenance. Um so that's another pathway like uh Mr. Link had said. Um we're hoping he can be an
039asset in that in that forum with us. Um the high school floors. Yes. On the right hand side there you can see a picture of one of the classrooms. Um I think uh Mr. Link and the high school can uh agree with me. The pictures give it no justice. You you have to go up and see it. Um it's a big big change. Um I think they look great. Um maintenance-wise. I know my custodial staff is is going to enjoy it. Um there's no more stripping or waxing of floors. Um so over the summer they can concentrate on other areas. Um plus it's going to have a savings of you know in my department then with not having to purchase stripper every summer and and wax. Um the next is the the research for the
040geo uh alert. Um Mr. Waker and myself um we did some research with the geo alert. Um that's the software that parents can have to notify them when their uh elementary student is close to their bus stop. Um we had a lot of overages in the busing department due to um just missed buses. Um so we feel that with this uh one-year trial. We're going to see if um if we make a savings with using this on time um and less kids being missed spots. Um if not, um again, it's only a one-year contract. If it if we don't see that it benefits us the way we want it to, um we don't have to go with it the next year. Um next one, power washing. Uh we had a contractor come in and power
041wash the main campus buildings. Um so we had the high school, the middle school, and Sladington Elementary powered over the summer. Um again, I think everything looks a little sharper. Um, they also did some sidewalks um for us. And I think that's about it. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Rush Wallace, athletics and student activities. >> All right. Good. >> Good evening. Uh, we have a new director of athletics and student activities. Thank you. That's me. Um but uh in all seriousness, I want to thank the board for their approval and then also for affording me the opportunity to uh shadow Mr. uh before his retirement. So I'm very appreciative for that. Thank you. Um we were also able to hire a new assistant athletic director with Mr. Tout stepping down. Mr. Jason Reinhardt will fill
042that position for the 2526 school year. Uh baseball and softball fields. Hopefully, we're on the cusp of getting those permits closed out, waiting for Lehigh County to come and uh give us the green light, but they are ours. I know that not only our teams, but NLYAA are also very eager to get on them. Um, and then for baseball and softball, we will have all three levels, so they will be getting a lot of use in the spring. There was a lot of interest with intramural volleyball at the middle school level. We now are going to be able to offer it at the high school level as well. So, we're excited for that in the spring. Uh we have an adviser in place for that. It wasn't it was an unfilled advisor spot already open,
043so they won't need additional money there. Girls wrestling will be able to field a varsity team this year. They've had 10 in attendance over the summer with just open gyms. Um so, I think that's very promising without even school being in session yet. Middle school girls and boys soccer has now transitioned from being a spring co-ed sport to now a winter or sorry fall sport. So it will also be running at the same time as our JV and varsity. So it'll be a little tricky trying to maneuver um six teams and two facilities, but we will make it happen. Uh we'll be utilizing a lot of the middle school field for a lot of our junior high games. And then lastly, I wanted to touch on the bulldog statue. As you can see in the
044picture on the top left, the ground has been tilled up and prepped there for the gravel. Gravel has also been laid by um a very generous donor who wishes to remain anonymous. And phase three will be laying the cement slabs around that. And um our football players have taken ownership in that and helped with the process of tilling up the ground and laying gravel and everything. So that's it for athletics and activities. >> Thank you. Uh we'll transition into each of our schools. So Mr. Schneiderite will give us an update on Peters. >> Thank you, Dr. Stoker. Good evening, everyone. Uh both to the board and the school community. Um it was a very busy summer as you've seen throughout the district. Uh we spent a lot of time hiring. You know, as Dr. Link
045mentioned, today was the first day of uh induction for our newest teachers. Um there were four teachers there for Peters Elementary School. um you know, engaged in um the hiring of support staff as well as um our new assistant um elementary school principal who will be on the the board uh agenda for this evening. Um on top of that, uh engaged in writing the 2025 2026 Title One schoolwide plan that we presented to the board at uh this past Monday's education committee meeting. Um, so obviously that's the end of a long year-long process that culminates with the writing of a new plan with our new goals looking ahead to this school year. Um, Peters Elementary School this summer hosted for the first time in a while uh the Bulldog Blast program which is run by
046the Northern Lehigh Recreation Authority. Uh so, you know, just a week or so into the summer, they were pretty much there until last week. Um, you know, and uh they got a chance to use our facilities. I got a chance to walk around and see a lot of uh current and former Peter's pups uh uh smiling and engaging in those activities. So, it was great to sort of again continue that relationship, but also back at Peters Elementary School this summer. Um just this past week, we ran the 2526 Kinder Quest program. I'll call it the second annual Kinderquest program. Um I'll be looking forward to presenting sort of the entire program in a lot more depth at the next education committee uh next month. Um I'm currently working to gather information from the parents to
047see gather some data to see how successful it was. But um I believe we will all be very happy with the results because obviously the goal of the program is to help ease that transition into school. Um not just for the students but also for the parents of firsttime um you know students of school age that are coming into school. And again I did a presentation for those parents and we welcomed in 69 student participants. I'm sure Mr. Briner will tell you what what his son thought as an incoming kindergartener. Um so again I look forward to presenting that to the board uh for a brief presentation at next month's committee meetings. And finally, you know, this summer it's full of reflection and then taking a breath and then let's move ahead. So we did
048so much planning for this upcoming school year including schedules, class lists, handbooks, professional development um and which we are about to basically culminate as we welcome back the full teaching staff and uh support staff next week for our our professional development. Um and then uh we will see the the full planning come to uh fruition at the end there. Um obviously as everyone's thanking their staff um you know Miss Miss Cyp um is an amazing administrative secretary and um you know uh she just uh you know puts all those POS so that you know the business office has something to approve and um we you know just works so hard to you know do that planning behind the scenes with me. So, thank you to Jana um Autumn Frink, our office secretary, um who who
049does does work work so well with Jana who's in many times copying our Eureka math program and uh getting things ready for there. So, again, so many things that you know I didn't say that are the little things that you know certainly don't go unnoticed by by the administration. So, thank you everyone. >> Thank you, Mr. Briner Leadington. >> After you. Thanks, Mr. Slay Guy. Good evening, everyone. So, I'm going to be covering uh what happened over the summer at Slayington Elementary. And a lot of the things you're going to hear are going to be repetitive. Uh uh cuz as you know, we work as a team and we work as a team in a lot of different things. Um but I think the biggest thing that I probably was involved in this summer was
050hiring. I feel like I was sitting in interviews more days than I can count. Um uh but that's also the one of the most important things that we do is bring um you know the best and brightest to uh to the Norley High School District. So um the first three bullets up there you can see uh you know one of the big things that we did this summer is open up a new emotional support classroom. Uh we're still in the process of getting things together, but we hired new staff and and we're getting that uh moving in the right direction. Uh we hired a third grade and a fifth grade learning support uh teacher and additional paraprofessionals uh and replacement paraprofessionals. Um I participated in the selection of an elementary principal who uh hopefully will
051be approved tonight is on the um the agenda and is sitting in the audience uh tonight. Uh summer is a big time where we put together our schoolwide title one plan. Um so uh a good bit of time where I'm not I wasn't interviewing. I spent um in front of a computer trying to pull data and put data together into the plan. Uh I attend I was able to attend uh some uh professional development sessions um all on or on AI career pathways and uh leadership development. Uh, I want to shout out again speaking of the team, Chief John mentioned earlier that uh, he moved his office and he kind of made it sound like I made him move his office. Um, that is not true at all. Actually, I was planning around Chief Jones
052and he came to me with the idea of, hey, I think uh, my office is a pretty big space and could be better utilized somewhere else. So, uh, thank you, Chief, for doing that. Um, and, uh, thank you to Mr. man and uh his his uh staff as well as uh summer work uh students. They did a lot of painting at Slington Elementary. And when I say a lot, a lot. Um and really quick. I couldn't believe how fast they were moving. Um and so every time I went to see them, I said, "Hey, you want to paint this too or do you want to paint that?" So, um no, they did a great job. Uh I also want to say, um uh thank you to uh Mrs. Belts, uh, Mrs. Karen Belts and Mrs.
053Amber Waker. Um, you know, my administrative assistant and our office assistant who, um, in that last bullet, uh, they're I I couldn't even tell you the amount of work that they did over the summer preparing, scheduling, working, um, helping with communication, um, all the different building shifts that we have, uh, going on and coordinating all that, and just getting ready, uh, for the start of the the school year. Um, I always say that, um, next week is my least favorite and most favorite week of the year. Um, because it's the least favorite. It's the end of the summer. Boohoo. But it's it's the most favorite because it's an exciting new start uh with staff and uh getting ready for our students. So, um, with that, I will turn it over to Mr. Hower of the
054middle school. Thank you. >> Nothing at the middle school. Nothing. Like everyone else, we uh we were very busy over the summer. Uh we did bring in uh several new faculty members, including uh hiring for uh mathematics, uh music, looking to get a choir program in a resurgence uh as we are with all of our music programs at the uh secondary level particularly. Uh and as was said earlier, we did add um a life skills classroom and we also filled our Spanish and uh ESL position pending approval uh this evening. Um the most significant purchase at the middle school is that of new furniture. Uh we did not purchase new furniture for every single classroom. We did have some classrooms that had some newer things in it that was still in good condition that we
055could definitely use, but some of the older desks that that required numerous repairs over the years uh were were surplus and we did have new furniture come in. Um the the tables that we're getting allow for flexible seating, grouping for the math department. We got the white top tables that you can do the math work right at your workspace, which is nice. Um the chairs are in. The tables are arriving this week. So if you're looking for something to do, grab a screwdriver and come join us at the middle school. We'll be assembling cables the rest of the week. Uh we did have a lot of professional development planning for uh the upcoming uh inservice week, schedule development of course, and uh Mr. Williams and I have uh been kind of neck deep in looking
056at our comprehensive plan and strategizing how we intend to uh meet those goals and and plan to meet those goals. We renewed several partnerships uh including with the crime victims council the Lehigh Valley to provide uh some extra education for our students. Our student assistance program liaison, the center for humanistic change, that partnership is up for renewal tonight. And we also renewed our partnership with CFES Brilliant Pathways. At the end of June, I submitted our school of distinction portfolio. I'm still awaiting to hear if we will repeat as a school of distinction. Uh but the person who evaluates it did tell me we are a model school for middle level college and career readiness. So I think that's a good sign. But the official email is still forthcoming. Um Mr. Williams has been working on
057updating uh several systems and kind of uh making some muchneeded innovations in our building including moving to uh smart pass and updating our attendance procedures. Uh and then he has been developing uh some behavior tracking systems uh and supports academically. Um we do have an ELA curriculum uh the Amplify curriculum that is getting a uh a fresh start with our ELA department. So, I've been working on really jumping into that so I can help guide teachers as the year uh starts. We had our summer faculty meeting today. Uh I do an optional summer faculty meeting for teachers and we had probably about 10 people come in uh just brainstorming ways to get the year started uh very smoothly. We'll have our seventh grade and new student orientation a week from tonight at the middle school
0586 pm uh next Monday. And that'll include a presentation from myself and Mr. Williams and then also uh a tour of the building. And one more thing, we're very excited to get our school store uh to its next level of innovation. A few years ago, Mr. Weber opened up a school store as part of our essential skills class. And it was a little cubby in the wall and he did a very nice job. And then when Miss Mrs. Jones took over the class, we gave her kind of half of a room uh in near the cafeteria to take it to the next level. And now we have a full room in the cafeteria uh to go even further than that. So you saw some pictures earlier of some of our summer workers doing some painting
059and assembly and things to uh level up our school store. Um and that is all I have. I'll turn things over to Dr. Bobby. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Hower. Good evening, everybody. Good to see you as always. Um so the high school has been a busy place. I feel like Mr. man is is our best friend. He's over there checking in on us all the time. So, I want to thank him and his crew. Um they've been amazing this summer. So, I had the privilege and honor of um being uh I was asked to go to a Renaissance conference in San Diego. Um and Justin's is a partner with us. They partner with us for you know graduation caps, gowns, um class rings, all of those things. But a part aside of them
060that you don't know um is what's known as Renaissance and it's probably even more well known across the country and beyond. Um and it really has to do with school climate and school culture, school culture because that's where everything starts. Um so I had the privilege of going out there. They they paid for me to go out there and in 28 years it was the best professional development learning experience I've ever had as a teacher, as an administrator. Um and so much of what I I was talking to Dr. Stoker, you know, sessions were till 10:00 at night. You know, if you wanted to go to something, they had it and we were I was exhausted when I got back, but it was it was the best learning ever. So, a lot of what you
061see up here um is the direction we were going in anyway as far as school climate, school culture, because if you don't have that as your foundation, um your academ academic achievement will never be where it is supposed to be. Um, so we really believe and we've been working on that the past couple years at the high school. Um, but we're just going to um, continue to build on what we've already started there. So part of that um, also you see schoolwide positive behavior support revamp up there. Most districts in the nation have a schoolwide program. Um, ours, you know, at a high school level it's a little bit different. You're not giving out tickets. You're not giving out pause. You're not doing that. but you are working really hard to recognize the really great
062things that your kids are doing every day. Um, when our team and we have an IU person that comes in and really takes a look at our schoolwide program, they looked at it and and we weren't as good as we needed to be because kids didn't even know really, well, I'm not really sure what our what our expectations are here. Um, so we did a lot of work in the spring with our kids and our staff, you know, what does it mean to be a bulldog? What does it mean? Um, and really the theme that came out from, I think, 398 responses was we want to be respectful. We want to own our actions, we want to lead with integrity, and we want to demonstrate excellence in everything we do. Um, so, well, be bold
063seemed pretty easy. So, that's going to be our acronym. Um, and and we're kids already know we're kind of rolling this out. We're going to all be standing outside the first day of school welcoming them. um you know, kind of different than we have any year before. They're going to think something's up like why is everybody saying hi to me this morning outside, you know, but but we want them to know how blessed we are to have them walk in our school building every day. Um so that's what that be bold is all about. You're going to hear more about that. You're going to see some major hopefully um aesthetic changes around the building, you know, um just sprucing the place up a little bit. Um and as I said to Mr. man and his
064crew, they've really been helping us to do that this summer as well. Um, you know, as I think the principles mentioned, we reflect on a lot of what we did throughout the year because we have some time to breathe and do that in the summer. Um, we have some very minor revisions of our lunch and learn um, you know, procedures and things we want to do a little bit differently. Not really even differently, but building on the success that we had last year. And I want to thank the board again for for your extreme support in all of that because really I think we're becoming a model high school um throughout the area and you know we have the privilege of presenting at the Edcom Summit um later this this week where other schools can
065see what we're all about and what's happening there. So we're pretty proud of that. So we're doing some as Mr. Hower said um you know Mr. Williams has been integral in you know a lot of our management um procedures. I love the word he said innovation. and Mr. Williams has really brought a different lens to a lot of the things we do um that we can do better and more efficiently. Uh we're especially looking at our cell phones because you know how distracting they can be for kids. So, we're really trying to streamline that. Um the discipline smart pass, it's very similar to the electronic pass we had before, but it's um more fiscally uh it's a better, you know, better option for us. It's cheaper, but it's it brings with it even more things
066than um we had with our previous one. So, we're excited about that. Um we both attended various professional development sessions. That's really what we've been working on a lot this summer is what are we going to do and provide for our staff to make them the best possible instructors for the kids that come in front of them every day because that's our job. So, we're really relying on a lot of the expertise within our building um because a lot of times we have the experts right in front of us. Um it's just giving them the opportunity to share and learn from each other. And that's what um we started to build at the high school this year where you know teachers are able to pick the sessions that are going to make them the best
067educator they can be. So, we're excited about continuing that. Um our new flooring, as you saw, Mr. Man looks great up on that second floor. Um, and we're just so thankful for all of that and our teachers and our kids are going to be like, "Whoa, this is amazing." Um, and then, you know, Mr. Williams has has done a lot of work with our kids um with the parking space senior unity project. You'll see everything that we're doing and I that's the reason I picked that picture on the bottom left is, you know, we're a family over there and um everything we're doing, you know, we do for each other. um we do it to make each other better and you know they have this amazing sense of pride that I've never seen in a
068high school before and I've been around a little bit. So um so this is just an example of something that they want to do um as seniors and and we're really excited for the board support as well. I do want to thank um our administrative assistants um for all their hard work this summer and again for our um Dr. Link, Dr. Stoker, my colleagues, of course, and the school board for your unending support. We we're so thankful. So, thank you. >> That's our presentation for this evening. Does anyone have any questions or comments? >> Excellent programs. Thank you very much for putting it on and sharing with us tonight. >> Yeah, it's a lot of information that we don't see, but it it was great hearing every single part of it. So, thank you. >>
069Great. Thank you. Anyone else want comment? >> Yeah, I agree. Thank you for doing that. I know a lot of those things were in the pipeline. I didn't know they were done. Uh for example, the EF tour, I didn't realize that that that had taken place. I knew we were planning it, but So, thank you all uh at all levels for doing that. Appreciate it. Okay. Uh you're all through then, Dr. Stoker. >> That's it. Okay, >> Mrs. Bolator. >> Nah, no update because we're six weeks without a state budget. So hopefully something will move soon, but nothing in the works right now. >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Link. >> And I integrated my superintendent's report into the entire administrative report this evening. Um, but I would uh again like to thank the administration for
070putting that together. It certainly highlights um that's not even all the work that happened this summer. That is some of the work that happens this summer. And thank you for the efforts that you put into that. Uh and congratulations on a job. Well done. Um, Mr. Green, uh, that concludes my report, but, uh, knowing that we are through the summer happenings report. Now may be a good time to look to Mrs. Frank to see if she wants to, um, I believe your your note was beginning of the school year was your topic. Are you okay if she goes now, sir? >> I said she could have a floor whenever. >> I'm not going to dance. Okay. >> Thank you very much for your presentation. >> Excellent. Um, so I was here. That's what every student
071wants to feel. Uh, that they mattered, that their story meant something. Real learning happens when students see purpose in what they're doing. But that only happens when the systems around them, central office, the board, the teachers, families, and the community work in sync. Think back to when you were in school. You likely don't remember your test scores. You remember a teacher who saw you, a lesson that made you feel alive, a moment that told you you mattered. What you remember is a story that lingers, written by the culture and climate of the school and how it made you feel. These moments don't happen by accident. They happen in schools where communication is clear, consistent, and transparent. Where policies and priorities are shaped with input from all voices. When students and educators are part aren't part
072of the conversation or miss out on opportunities to communicate with those in charge of the decision-making, we lose what makes schools meaningful. Learning is more than metrics. It's about building stories that spark identity and purpose. But when communication breaks down, so does the spark, and stories suffer. So, as we move into a new school year, we must ask, are we listening to the voices that matter most? Are we building a legacy rooted in connection or compliance? And what kinds of stories are we writing together? Schooling only works when we lead with transparency, trust, and shared purpose. Let's make this year one where every student, every teacher, and every community member feels seen and heard. Happy school year. Go Dogs. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> And that was the only uh Mrs. Frank was the
073only person that signed up to speak this evening. >> Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Uh we did have an executive session at 6:15 that was legal and uh personnel items. Uh those are the two things that we pretty much discussed. Okay. Uh anything else from the administration anywhere? You're all all good? >> Thank you. So, we'll move into personnel and and uh I kid it earlier. I said we tried one big agenda item and uh didn't quite go that well. So, there's a couple changes. First of all, item uh C3 should be removed from the agenda. So, C3, uh there's a couple date wrong, couple dates that are wrong in in items D1, D3, and I think B8. uh they should say August 19th uh at least 1920 or 2025 rather than 2024. So that
074would need to be updated. Uh I think I got all those. I would also uh if there be no objections uh ask that item J5 be divided from the question and voted on separately. So having said that is there a motion to approve the personnel items? >> Move. motion. Is there a second? Thank you. Okay, a lot of people there, a lot of names, questions or discussion anywhere. Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Those both no. >> No to uh the softball head and assistant coaches. >> That was soft. Okay. You're okay on everything else? >> Yes, I am. >> Thank you very much. Okay. Uh, any other comments? >> Do we have to There's not a name for number four. >> Sorry. >> Uh, so it was it
075was updated on the online version and that name is for number four is Bart Franta. Uh, so that was updated on the online version that went that went out. Mr. Bart Franta. There any comments, questions? We do have a motion and a second. So all those We did vote on Mary. I'm sorry. I apologize. We did vote. So uh I guess I need to say the motion is approved. So that's where we are. >> Yes. And then we're going to go back to uh item J5. Is there a motion to approve item J5? >> So move. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Discussion or questions? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Oppos? No. Are there any other votes? >> Extension, please. >> Uh, reason Mr. Kocha. >> Bley.
076Thank you very much. So, that motion is approved. And now we'll go to page whatever way way back. Uh, and Mr. Mr. Green, if I may, I would like to acknowledge and welcome our new elementary assistant principal. Uh, Mr. Nicholas or Nick Craic is with us this morning. Nick, congratulations. Welcome to Northern Lee High School District. We are so excited to have you join not only our leadership team, but also to be deeply involved at Peters and Slington Elementary School. So again, congratulations and welcome. >> Thank you, Dr. >> Any comments? >> Uh, I just want to thank the board for um the opportunity. I'm incredibly excited to be here. Everybody that I've met throughout the hiring process has been incredibly welcoming and has such incredible things to say about Northern Lee High School District.
077So, I'm honored to join the team. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Unless unless I'm incorrect, we're going to page 10 policy at this point in time. >> Did I miss anything? No. >> Thank you for keeping me in line. So, is there a motion to approve the policy items, please? >> So, moved. >> A motion and a second. Thank you. Discussion or questions? >> Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. No. And so ordered. Uh we're going to move to curriculum instruction. And if you go to uh what is page conference? >> Oh, did I move? >> Oh, yes. Down the bottom. I'm sorry. I apologize. Uh conferences. We have uh couple of conferences or a motion to approve the conferences. >> So move. >> Second. Is that
078Donna? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Uh any question on the conferences? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I opposed. No. >> And so ordered. >> Now we're going to do quick on the instruction. And on the second page uh on the uh helpers there, there's one that says TBD to be determined. It has not been determined yet. So it's my understanding that that is to be pulled from the agenda. Uh everything else item A through K will remain intact. So is there a motion to approve curriculum and instruction? So >> secondly me motion. Okay. >> Any questions on curriculum and instruction hearing? None. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I opposed. No. And so ordered. I have no old business. Any old business? Anyone? No. Uh, couple
079of new business items there. Uh, items A through D. Is there a motion to approve the new business items? >> So move. >> Thank you, Gary. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any questions? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> Opposed? No. >> And so ordered. Uh financial we have a whole bunch of financial items. I think back to page 15. Uh JK I want to know. Is there a motion to approve the financial items? >> So move. >> Second. >> Motion second. Questions on the financial items. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. No. And so ordered. Uh I have nothing under legal. Any correspondence? Anyone? Okay. >> No. Any correspondence? All from you? No. Thank you. Information. You have the motion of couple
080of meetings there. Uh guess we had your input. I don't know anyone else has signed up. So I don't see anyone jumping up and down. So we'll move past that and we'll move to adjournment. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Move. Second. Motion is second. All those in favor of journ please signify by saying I. I >> oppose. No. And we're done here. Thank you all. Thank you.