001Third time's the charm. We are usually much more organized than this. The one night we have people here. Alright, let's all stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Rao, roll call, please. Mr. Adrian. Here. Aminist. Mrs. Binse. Here. Mr. Briegel. Still here. Mr. Cammelletti. Here. Mrs. Schodry. Here. Mrs. Kennedy. Here. Mr. Lynch. Here. Mr. O'Neill. Here. Mr. Soder. Present. All members present. Thank you. Moving into the superintendent's comments. Moving to the celebration of excellence. Okay. Excellence in education in Peter's Township School District. Take a look at all of the fun things we did this month. The high school students above were selected by audition to represent
002our district in the PMEA Region 1 Choir Festival on February 19-21. For three days, students from throughout our region will rehearse and prepare for a public performance. Audrey and Ava represented the high school last year in the event as well. This month, our Reimagining 12th Grade Committee met with the high school students for a collaborative brainstorming session to identify the high school's areas of strength, growth, and need. Guided by Dr. Bart Rocco from the University of Pittsburgh, the discussion generated valuable insights about the high school and set the foundation for future planning. Earlier this year, the committee met with a group of students, parents, staff, and community members. And this month's plan included a session with the high school staff as well. High school and middle school teachers and staff members were recognized by members
003of our Boys and Girls basketball teams this month. Team members selected a teacher who has made a positive impact in their lives and wrote about why they were chosen. Prior to the game, each student athlete was announced with the teacher they had chosen in a brief ceremony to show their thanks and appreciation for all that our teachers have done and continue to do for our schools and community. Mrs. Hemingsen and Mrs. Tucker recently challenged their students to take on reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and pass the AR test, a book that is a grade and a half above their fourth grade level. This month, 35 students who met that challenge celebrated with a special Harry Potter-themed lunch, complete with butterbeer, chocolate frogs, and a sorting head. Students ate their lunches in a Hogwarts-themed
004room, played word games writing with a quill, and competed in Harry Potter trivia with their house, after sorting from the hat, of course. Our fifth graders from McMurray Elementary visited the high school to see and hear more about the music programs that await them. Visitors were treated to short performances from the orchestra, band, and choir, and then had the opportunity to hear from high school students about their experience being part of these ensembles. A week later, Room 100 visited our eighth graders at the middle school to talk more about music opportunities at the high school. Freshman year scheduling for eighth graders starts later this month. On February 5th, we welcomed a representative from the state police who spoke with parents about online safety related to gaming and social media. More than 60 parents from across
005the district attended this informative session, which highlighted today's most popular video games and social apps, along with potential risks for our kids. The officer also shared practical tips to help parents stay informed and support their children in navigating these platforms safely. In February and March, members of the FBI will be meeting with students in grades 6 through 12 to talk more about online safety. Either Southship High School students who attend Western Area Career and Technology Center recently took part in Governor Shapiro's announcement of a $3.3 million investment to expand workforce development across Pennsylvania. The funding supports classroom to career pathways, hands-on skilled training, and exposure to in-demand industries like manufacturing and the skilled trades. The students and their programs at Western Area are listed above. February 6th was Pittsburgh Day at Bower Hill following our
006third grade social studies unit on our region. Students celebrated our Pittsburgh traditions with activities like Pittsburgh trivia, polka dancing, painting in the style of Andy Warhol, and they even made their own homemade pierogies. This month our music boosters held their annual Meatballs and Music event at the high school. The annual spaghetti dinner welcomes community members for a wonderful homemade meal and performances throughout the day from all of our music groups at the middle and high school level. The high school was packed that day with parents, family, and community members coming out for this special event. During this month's red, white, and blue day at McMurray, students in Mrs. Kashak's class made poster murals to help celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. As our nation celebrates this milestone, our PT
007staff and students will mark this important event with activities throughout our schools. Representative Natalie Mihalik and Senator Kamara Bartolotta recently visited the high school to honor our fall sports teams for their outstanding accomplishments. Members of our field hockey team, football, boys' golf, girls' golf, and girls' volleyball team were in attendance for this special recognition. Congratulations to our fifth grade enrichment students who recently took part in the Science Bowl at Carnegie Museum of National History with their teacher, Tina Burnett. Competing against teams from across our region, McMurray swept the competition, taking first, second, and third place honors. Congratulations to the teams above. This year, the Peters Township Education Foundation will provide more than $6,200 in funds to support classroom projects. Since 2012, the foundation has provided more than $126,000 in funds that support education at all
008levels in Peters Township. This month, the foundation members surprised our winners with big check presentations in their classrooms. Family game night at Bauer Yowell was a huge success, filled with fun and friendly competition. Despite the cold, 400 attendees came out to enjoy an evening of games with their families. A big thank you to our bingo callers, the PTA Family Game Night Committee, and the National Honor Society students for helping everything run smoothly. January 30th, more than 250 middle school student dancers were on their feet for six hours, all to support the Children's Home of Pittsburgh. These students have worked hard for months, raising pledges, taking part in fundraisers, and dancing all night. And when the total was revealed, the gym went crazy. They set a lofty $26,000 goal, and they crushed it. The middle school
009students, staff, and community raised $41,311. We're so proud of all their hard work and for their spirit of giving back. Our Peters Township Dance Team recently competed in the UDA National Championship in Orlando, Florida. Our varsity team earned an impressive top five finish in the event, and our junior varsity team came home as the national champions in the junior high hip hop division. A seventh and eighth grade students competed against the best dancers from across the nation and came home with the title. Tonight, we welcome the team and their coach to be recognized by our board. Thank you. Congratulations. Good. Moving on, President's comments. An executive session was held immediately prior to this meeting to discuss personnel matters. New business. Any new business before the board? Business office. A recommendation to consider a motion to
010approve business office recommendations as follows. Second. Any discussion? Public comment? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion passes. Board committees, personnel, and machotery. Recommendation, a move to accept the resignation of Brian Geyer, athletic director, effective April 10th, 2026. Second. Any discussion? We'll miss you. Yes, I would agree. And I do want to comment, too. He has seen me through four high school graduations and so many football games that I've lost count. On my way here, I tried to count how many he was in charge of, and I'm just very grateful first time. He made it look easy when I know it wasn't. So I just want him to realize how much we appreciate him. Any public comment? All in favor? Regretfully, aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. There is no buildings and grounds report this month. Mr.
011Briegel, education. Thank you, Mr. O'Neill. Pardon me. We had an education committee meeting on February 9th to discuss all the wonderful test results from Keystones and PSSAs and all kinds of things. Very good news. We are looking at hosting a meeting, I think, and I wanted to go in a little bit into what we're doing and why. Do you want me to do that now or do you want me to do it at the end when we schedule meetings? Now is fine. Sounds good. What we wanted to do is have another discussion about how devices are used in classrooms. I believe our hope is that we can have teachers here to explain to the public what they're doing briefly, and then if people have any questions, there's something welcome to ask. I don't know if
012we need to go into too much more detail than that. We do want to let people know what's going on, and I think right now we're planning this for, is it March 2nd, Dr. Murphy? Do I have that date right? And I think because the teachers will be here and they will have had a long day and another one after, we'd like to start at 6, but we are planning on that meeting here. Yes. Yes. Not first of all. No, we're talking about their use in schools. All right. Thank you. Dr. Murphy, did I miss anything? No, I think you got it all. Okay. Well, that's first. Still looking for Monday, March 2nd. Yeah, Monday, March 2nd, 6 p.m. Got it. All right. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes my report this evening. Thank you,
013Mr. Regal. Ms. Binsay, Finance? Recommendation moved to approve resolution number 2026-02-17A for the 2026-2027 Intermediate Unit 1 general operational budget in the amount of $549,552 with Peter Township School District contribution of $67,651.62. Our contribution for the 2025-2026 school year was $67,346.07. Second. Any discussion? Public comment? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Ms. Kennedy, Policy and or PSBA? Alex, real quick. We're going to ask for a finance committee meeting to go over the auditors going to come in. I think we're going to try to do that in conjunction with policy. Maybe we can discuss at the end because I may be up against when the auditors coming in. Okay. All right. Sounds good. Thank you, Ms. Binsay. Ms. Kennedy, Policy, PSBA? Yes, thank you. So recently we put out to the community for a cell
014phone working group and this will go over cell phone policies that we may adopt as a school district and we wanted community involvement. We were lucky to have at least 130 participants, which is a great input from community. We did choose randomly 36 of these participants. We choose them 12 that were in favor of not having cell phones, 12 that were neutral, and 12 that wanted cell phones in the building. Those emails went out to all the participants last week. Our first date for the cell phone working group is going to be March 16th at 430 and that's going to be before the next board meeting, so March 16th at 430. And I will be in communication with the board members that did want to participate. I believe we all can do that because I
015think there was only like four of us, so I think that's a fair amount. And then, as you stated, we were going to do a combined policy meeting. We thought March 9th, but that's up to finance and when they're capable of doing a meeting. We will have agenda things, but it's basically our first meeting most likely will be a group session of just ideas that are thrown out on a board and then we'll collect those and then the next meeting will be more structure. But we will get more of the agenda to you guys, ASAP, and to the people who are participating in the cell phone working group. And Ms. Kennedy, do we have a location for that meeting here, I assume? Yes, that was the intentions. Okay. All right, thank you. Western area, Ms.
016Schotary? Okay, the next Joint Operating Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 25th, 2026. Thank you in advance to Mrs. Benzai, who's going to attend as the alternate. The report from the last meeting, January 28th. The JOC is exploring the potential rental of adult education building space to CCBC and is reviewing related details, including equipment requirements, rental rates, and scheduling. And basically the rental would come back to operating expenses for Western area. Second, along with administration, three Western area students, and I thought there was one from Peters Township, but I think there might be two from Peters. Elena and Andrew that were in the Celebration of Excellence, they met with Governor Josh Shapiro at the JA in Bridgeville to discuss skilled workforce expansion. And the third, the administrators are continuing to work on grant
017submissions. And Mr. O'Neill, that concludes my report. Thank you. Moving on to the superintendent's agenda. Thank you. I'm requesting action on Certificated Personnel Items number one through seven. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Oh, I sure have to comment on this. I actually get a little teary eyed. Two of my children had all four of these teachers who are retiring. And I texted them over the weekend and they, like Mrs. Kendrick has written the recommendation letter. Mr. Lacey is wonderful. Mrs. Kent, like all of them are amazing. So I'm so grateful for them and how much they've helped not only my children, but so many hundreds and hundreds of students in our district. It blows my mind how much impact they had. If they had that big of an impact on my four, imagine what they've
018done for thousands of kids. So I'm very grateful for them. I'd like to echo that. I don't know if any of my three kids had all four of these teachers, but I certainly recognize the names and remember those discussions at home. Exceptional educators, sorry to lose you, but we certainly appreciate everything you've done for our students and our kids. And we wish you the best. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Requesting action on non-certificated personnel, items number one through four. So moved. Second. Discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Requesting action on extra duty personnel and programs, items number one through four. So moved. So moved. Second. Discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. There are no professional conferences, trainings, or trips this month, and I'm requesting action
019on educational programs and student activities numbered one through three. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Just one, probably. I'm sure I don't have to ask, but the very first one, tattooed a teacher, is that going to be in an okay spot? So I asked that same question. Okay. Yes. Okay. All right, good. It'll be held at the middle school. And those are prominent tattoos, correct? No. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, motion passes. By requesting action on other items numbered one through three. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Very grateful for the donation of the full cylinder glass aquarium, even though I don't know what it is. I'm assuming it's literally what it sounds like. It's a glass aquarium that's in a cylinder. Okay. But thank you very much for that. All in favor? Aye. Aye.
020Opposed? Motion passes. Any board information? Tom, Alex, just maybe we could firm up that March 9th meeting with policy. Brad, do we know what time the auditor is coming, or is it flexible? It would be flexible. Okay. Do you want to get in and out? Excuse me. So maybe do finance first. Is that okay? Yeah. That's fine. Policy shouldn't be too long. So is six o'clock too early? Yeah. It works. So finance at 630. Policy immediately to follow. Oh, I'm sorry. Six. Six immediately. Yeah, that'd be great. And that's on the 9th? Yes. Mr. Briegel, you had three, two? We had the second. Education also at six? Also at six. With the education date, I have something firm that I can't get out of. We actually looked at three dates, all of them bad. This
021was the least bad of the three. Got it. I'll do my best to call in if I can. Certainly. I'm in a similar situation for the second. Any other committee meetings? I don't believe so, but double-checking. Okay. Public comment on agenda items only? Actually, sorry. Can I read it back? Go ahead. Kathleen, do we need a personnel meeting at some point? Not between now and the next meeting. Okay. We have the one set. Yeah, we have the meeting March 11th of the board. But not a public meeting quite yet. Public comment on agenda items only? Do you have any questions? Do you have anything to add? Please. Yes. Hi. My name's Julie Serenny. Yes, I am a resident. Question on the cell phone working group. You've got 12-4, 12 against, 12 neutral. Do you have
022a cross-representation of grades? Yes. We did elementary school, middle school, high school. We emphasized middle school and high school a little bit more. But when I randomly picked the numbers, we made sure that there was a cross-reference of grades. And are you getting input from kids? We might bring that into one of our things, but that's not going to be part of our first meeting. And there will be a meeting every month following or before our board meetings, so it'll be in collaboration. Are those working group meetings open to the public if you're not on the working group? No, I don't believe so. But we will have a reference of everything that we've gone over in the working group, and I'm going to display it to the public. Thank you. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Solicitor's report.
023Just to follow up on that, if there were to be a quorum of the board present at any one of those meetings, they would be advertised, and then they would have to be public. So if a quorum of the board is participating, that is a public meeting, meeting. So, you know, keep an eye out for that. And Jocelyn can correct me if I say this wrong, but we did discuss the idea of making it open so folks could participate who weren't chosen as part of the 36th. And while we certainly see merits in that, we thought it would potentially limit the conversation, so that's where we landed. There are only four board members who are on that committee, correct? Yes, yeah. And to back that up, a lot of the groups are going to be
024individually done, so we'll split up four or five people, and they'll throw things on. So to record that would be, I don't think anyone from the public would be able to see too much. It would just be a lot of noise. So we'll just collect data and make sure we make it open to the public. And then after committee, we'll likely have a policy meeting or a voting meeting, report back on the details from that subcommittee. I do like the idea of getting the input from students, and maybe that's something that can come out of the first meeting. Maybe there's a way we can do that with some degree of participation. Yeah, we were planning on, throughout the meetings, hopefully getting student input, but also teacher input and some things like that. So we were
025going to bring in a skew of people. Okay, cool. Actually, Mr. O'Neill, because we can't have a fifth board member at some point, can you please let us know which of the four of us are going to be there? Yes, of course. Thank you. Correspondence and matters of information, our March board meeting is on Monday, March 16th at 7 p.m. And our April board meeting is at April 20th, 7 p.m. And Solicitor's report, did you? Sorry. The rest of my report were all executive session items. Okay, great. Thank you. Entertain a motion to adjourn? So moved. I'll second that. All in favor? Aye. Thank you all for coming tonight.