001Please rise for a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. 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, may we have a roll call, please? Mrs. Anderson? Here. Mrs. Bence? Here. Mrs. Bowman? Here. Mr. Briegel? Here. Mr. Camoletti? Here. Mrs. Schotary? Here. Mr. O'Neill? Here. Dr. Payne? Mr. Taylor? Here. Eight members present. Superintendent's comments. Yes, I just have one quick announcement before we move into the celebration of excellence. I've put out my my notice to the board that I'll be retiring at the end of this coming school year, and I just want to make it public or make it public my gratitude for the board and all the
002support and guidance and encouragement that they've provided over the years, and I'm looking forward to an amazing final year. So thank you. The board will open up a search for my replacement. Pronto. Pronto. So yes. So again, thank you. And again, thank you for your support and your guidance and your continued support throughout the rest of next year. Thank you. It has been a joy to serve with you. Thank you. Excellence in education in Peters Township School District. Thanks for a great school year. Bower Hill second graders held a special ceremony in recognition of Flag Day a little early. Students shared information about the history of our flag, said and signed the Pledge of Allegiance, and welcomed some very special guests. Mrs. Haneck stopped in her role as Betsy Ross to share her part in
003the making of our first flag. Members of the P.T. Fire Department were on hand to accept donations from the class, and the Murray VFW post 764 visited to share information with the students as well. They gifted the second grade with red poppies and a mini flag to take home. Our final group of seniors from Peters Township High School signed their national letters of intent to continue their athletic careers at the collegiate level. Overall, we have had 39 members of the class of 2025 signed to play at college. This is double the national average. We have many great athletes to be proud of in Peters Township. Please join us in congratulating these students. Students in our Applied Engineering and Innovation class presented their final projects to their industry partners. This year's industry partners included Claire Baer,
004founder of Yoga Innovations, and our own Office of Pupil Services. Students worked with professionals throughout the semester to find solutions to problems faced by their businesses. Artists from the Manchester Craftsmen Guild visited the high school to assist our ceramic students with a raccoon firing. Raccoon is a firing technique where clay is removed from the kiln when glowing hot and placed in a container of combustible materials such as newspaper or sawdust. When these materials ignite, an intense reduction atmosphere is created which affects the glazes and the clay itself. Bower Hill and Pleasant Valley presented their third grade musicals for students and parents. Pleasant Valley celebrated their Pittsburgh Pride and Bower Hill honored their American history. The shows were organized by teachers Bob Tupper and Barb Viola with the help of the third grade staff. Students at
005McMurray raised more than $2,700 for the Highmark Caring Place during the color run in May. While they were having fun and getting very colorful, Highmark matched the funds for a total $5,400 donation in memory of Peters Township teacher and parent Casey Doran. In their 2025 annual guide to schools, the Pittsburgh Business Times has ranked Peters Township third in our region and fifth overall across the state. This is the third consecutive year for the regional ranking and the second for the state level ranking. These rankings are based on Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington, and Westmoreland counties. Congratulations to our third grade spelling bee winners. The annual event sponsored by the McMurray Rotary was a great success with so many talented spellers. Our top three spellers at each school received a certificate and a Barnes and Noble
006gift card from the High School. Students and staff speakers reminded them to set goals, work hard, and to learn from their mistakes as they move through PTHS and beyond. Special awards were given out to students who showed exceptional kindness to their classmates, a student citizenship award, and a teacher's award of excellence. It might have been a once-on-look at all aspects of running a farm here in our community. Our elementary students celebrated the end of a great summer with a day full of fun at each school. Whether they were enjoying Kona Ice, dunking their teachers or parents in the dunk tanks, or having fun on the playground, it's safe to say a good time was had by all. A special thank you to our MTA volunteers who were on these days of success. On June 6th,
007we celebrated the 324 members of the First Township School Class of 2025 in our commencement ceremony. A special event included the PT tradition of honoring our 50-year graduates with 22 members of the Class of 1975 in attendance as well. We congratulate our students and wish them well on their future plans before our staff and students headed out for the summer. We honored our district. Each of these individuals has shared their time and talents with our students and community and will be missed. Anything else? Thank you, Mrs. Bowman. Peters Township School District, that seems really loud. Okay, Peters Township School District values parent and community engagement. Speakers who signed up in advance per policy 903 will be allotted a maximum of five minutes for public comment. All other speakers will be allotted a maximum of two
008minutes for public comment. Part of our communication effort involves taping and sharing videos of our board meetings to help our community stay informed on matters before the board. Any guest speakers or members of the public who are taking part in the meetings are reminded to come to the podium and use and turn on the microphone when making comments so that they may be heard by those of us in the room and those watching online. All speakers are reminded to state their name and residence status for the minutes. The public comment period of the meeting is not a question and answer format between the public and the board. The purpose of public comment at board meetings is to allow the board to learn the thoughts of the public prior to board deliberation. Executive sessions were held
009on June 17th and immediately prior to this meeting to discuss personnel, litigation, and other items. Is there any new business before the board? Turning to old business, who reads these recommendations? Shall I? Okay, recommendation, huh? I could do number two. Okay, recommendation number one move to approve the draft 2026-27 school calendar. We will approve the calendar that has the most affirmative votes. Option one is a draft calendar with a longer spring break and option two is a draft calendar with an early end date. Remember that this is the 26-27 school calendar that we're looking at. So, second. Okay. It has been seconded. I believe this should be a roll call vote if you wouldn't mind Mr. Rao. Mrs. Bowman, could I comment quickly if possible? Sure. I just wanted to point out option two is
010my suggestion just for the public, anyone that is there tonight. While this calendar does have an early end date, it still has a week-long spring break. Thank you for that input. Roll call vote. You'd be either choosing option one or option two. Mrs. Binsett. Oh, no, I'm sorry. Mr. Camilletti. One. Mrs. Schotary. Option one. Mr. O'Neill. Option one. Mr. Taylor. Option one. Mrs. Anderson. Option one. Mrs. Binsett. Option two. Mrs. Bowman. Option one. Mr. Briegel. Option one. Option one passes seven one. Recommendation number two. Move to approve the purchase of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association standard membership and policy maintenance option for the 25-26 school year at a cost of $16,568.29. Second. Any discussion? I just want to point out that last month we tabled this because last month we were selecting and voting on
011the option for the all-access package, which was $18,543. We confirmed with PSBA that members with the standard membership would still be allowed to have online training, just not in-person training. So that will be good for the new board members coming in and also we have selected the policy maintenance so that there is a savings of $1,975. As a matter of clarification, would we be able to purchase participation on a case-by-case basis for in-person? I believe so. You just have to pay a fee to do that. So we're not cut off from it? Correct. Okay. Any other discussion? I'm hoping that what they told the administration was correct because some of which conflicts with what is on the printout. Because on the printout, it says that the required training, standard pricing applies for in-person, virtual, or
012online. In any event for new board members, I'm wondering if the savings won't be 1,975, but we've been told that online training is included. We won't find out until after the election and when people go to do their training. It is in writing on the back that says includes a required school director training course, some microcourses with credentialing. Right and they said that verbally. The only thing that will happen is if it isn't, you could bring that to their attention and hopefully they will allow the new board members to do that required training without payment for fee. Any other discussion? Any public comment? Seeing nobody scurrying to the microphone. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any opposed? Motion carries. Second. Now we get to our board. Thank you, Mrs. Bowman. Recommendation one move
013to approve a five-year collective bargaining agreement between the services international service employees international union local 32bj and the peters township school district effective september 1st 2025 through august 31st 2030 on terms and conditions approved by the solicitor. Second. Seeing none all in favor say aye. Aye. Recommendation two move to approve salary adjustments for act 93 employees per the current act 93 agreement as presented. Second. Aye. Recommendation three move to approve salary adjustments for confidential secretaries independently contracted employees and non-represented employees as presented. Second. Aye. Recommendation four move to approve the substitute part-time wage rates for teachers secretary paraprofessional custodian maintenance and transportation aid substitutes. Second. Aye. I Recommendation five move to approve reappointing andrew thomas as assistant business manager for a new five-year term on terms and conditions set forth in an appointment contract recommended
014by the superintendent and approved by the solicitor. Second. Aye. Recommendation six move to approve discipline resolution for employee number 012425. Second. Aye. Recommendation seven move to approve the separation agreement for employee number 072425 on terms and conditions approved by the solicitor. Second. Any other comment? All in favor say aye. Aye. Mrs. Bowman that concludes my report. Mr. O'Neill that takes us to building and grounds. Thank you, Ms. Bowman. Recommendation move to approve the renewal of a one-year preventive maintenance and HVAC controls agreement with Siemens for an amount of $20,749 represents no change from the previous year. Second. Any discussion? I appreciate the no change. In this day and age, absolutely. Any other discussion? Any public comment? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. I just said motion carries. Second. Any discussion? Actually question. Why
015are we having two preventive maintenance and HVAC controls agreements with two different companies? Is it just different equipment? Okay. Roger that. Thank you. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Briegel, education. Thank you, Mrs. Bowman. Recommendation I move to approve the following materials and there are a lot of them. In the elementary schools, kindergarten through fifth grade, elementary language arts, McGraw-Hill reading wonders at a cost of $484,189.32. These materials will, as listed in the in the agenda, will apply for kindergarten and first through fifth grade. At the middle school, sixth grade math, math and U at a cost of $45,560 at the high school. In AP physics C, electricity and magnetism, physics for scientists and engineers, 10th edition, AP edition at a cost of $6,270. In AP environmental
016science, environmental science for the AP course, fourth edition at a cost of $18,998.10. In AP calculus AB, calculus of a single variable, 12th edition AP edition at a cost of $18,810. In AP calculus BC, calculus for the AP course, fourth edition at a cost of $6,207.36. In CHS intro to matrices and linear algebra, linear algebra, a modern introduction, fifth edition at a cost of $2,916. In CHS marketing, marketing, 21st edition at a cost of $11,575.80. Second. I want to point out if anybody wondered that AP physics C is a course that would be taken almost exclusively by students who are pretty sure they're either going to be in the sciences or they're going to be engineers. So that's not a wild and crazy title for AP physics C. Any other discussion? Any public comment? All
017in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. I don't know if it's worth mentioning that the various texts that we just approved are lined up over there on the table against the wall in case any member of the public would like to take a look at them. And I believe they're going to be there for 30 days if I'm not mistaken. No, they already did. Already done that. We already did that? Well, just reminding everybody then in that case that concludes my report and I'll shut up. That takes us to finance. Mr. Kameletti. Mrs. Bowman, I apologize. There was a conflict this evening. I was hoping to stay on as long as I could, but I have to keep up. Okay, thank you for your participation. Thank you. Mr. Kameletti. Item 11 recommendation move
018to adopt the general fund budget for 2025-2026 school year in the amount of 86 million four hundred eighteen thousand six hundred thirty one dollars. The proposed final budget amount adopted in May was 86 million four hundred eighteen thousand six hundred thirty one dollars. Second. Any discussion? Any public comment? All in favor say aye. Aye. Alex? Mr. O'Neill? Let me get to mute. Okay. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 12 recommendation move to approve resolution number 2025-06-23 alpha establishing a real estate millage rate of 16.28 mills for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. This is an increase of 0.62 mills over the 2024-2025 millage rate of 16.66 mills. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Raul, can you remind me is that? Yes, that would be just under the index rounding wise. Okay, just under the index. Okay. Thank you. Any other
019discussion? All in favor? Motion carries. Item 12 recommendation move to approve resolution number 2025-06-231 providing a credit of fourteen thousand two hundred and two dollars of assessed value. Any public comment? Item 12 recommendation move to approve resolution number 256-234 of separate records. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Mr. Raul and his efforts. Thank you again, Mr. Raul. It got a response from the superintendents. It seems like it's school districts from a percentage standpoint and an ability to pay. So just thank the delegate. But my personal prediction would be that it will not get a yes. So what percentage? I'm sorry? What percentage of the students that attend are our students? I'm sure it's well less than 25 percent. Seventy-three out of 800 I think. So yes. Ms. Bowman, I guess one question I
020guess I'd ask is do you foresee, and I guess either you or Michelle would read it, at any time in the future do you envision us having some leverage to try to renegotiate those terms? You could withhold something we could do to try to renegotiate some better terms. Well, shall I tackle it? If we wish to be brutal we could simply withdraw from the JOC. I'm not sure that's in the best interest. I don't think it's in the best interest of any. I would agree with that. All school districts are required to provide career and tech education. That's 4.31 of the school code. So withdrawing from any CTC does not totally alleviate your financial obligation to provide career and tech education. So that is something to consider. You would also want to look at the
021Articles of Agreement, which I'm happy to do, or our office is happy to do, to determine what if any withdrawal provision stands, if that is something that the district wants to consider, but you would have to look to the withdrawal provision for that. For example, some CTCs have a withdrawal provision that requires the vote of all other sending school districts in order to allow for withdrawal. I haven't looked at Western Areas Articles of Agreement, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the language that was within that. So in order to negotiate any one portion of the Articles of Agreement, you would have to look at that. You would have to open the Articles in their entirety in order to make any of those updates. But certainly that's something our office is happy to look
022at just in general from a financing perspective and what steps that the district would need to take. So I just want to, there's a couple of points I want to make here. One is what you're telling me is we have to spend our time on the financial side of things. We have to spend our time on the financial side of things. So I just want to, there's a couple of points I want to make here. One is what you're telling me is we have to spend our taxpayers' money and even if we say no, it gets taken. That's already... Well, we're obligated to pay. We're obligated to pay for it. You're saying that there's a possibility that we couldn't leave if we wanted to, right? This sounds like a great agreement, first of all. My
023other question is there are other career and technical centers around, right? And I don't think it's necessarily the best thing, but it's an idea to explore. If there is someplace else to send our kids, that might be something we want to look at and understand what our exit provisions are because we're 100% being held hostages. We have, as directors, as a community, we have no say in this. You're telling us we can't leave. I mean, this is pretty egregious in my... So I would like to understand what the exit provisions are and I would like to understand what other options there are out there because those, if you're going to join somebody else, you might have the opportunity to maybe negotiate a better deal. In the event, like, do you want to spend the legal
024money to do that now in light of Mrs. Bowman's comments that even though we would be obligated to pay the money that we don't want to pay, the other districts are not in a position to pay either, so wait until it comes closer to... We could pay for that, or we could just take the contract and read it, and if there's ambiguity, then we have a lawyer or two on the board, don't we? Yes, we do. We could have some people that are free that could be reading that and just saying, yeah, this is your office, and if there's ambiguity in it, then you pay for that. That's typically what you do with a contract. You read it, if you don't understand it, you get somebody who does. I think we need to understand that
025because this seems like a real hostage situation. I do have the articles of agreement, and I have read them all, and they are very, they originated with the origin of the CTC. I will distribute them to the whole board. Thank you. There have been a couple addendums to them. I'm sure that I have them all. I did try it. I have all the relevant ones. We're talking about $1.6 million, and we're looking to try to figure out how we're going to fund capital projects, and we're going to fund capital projects for... I think it's a good thing. Don't get me wrong. I just think it's unfair the way that it's being charged. Right. No, I agree a thousand percent, and I think you have to be a member of one or else. You have to
026be a member of one or else. We have to do that ourselves, which, you know, that would not be possible. There are options. I don't know if there's any good ones, but we should start looking for good options. Is there a short answer to this question? How often does Western Area engage in new construction? Because it seems like that's really what this applies to, new construction only. They engaged in new construction when they built the welding studio, which I believe was 15 years ago. So not that often? Not that often. Okay, thank you. Not that I'm happy with the arrangement, but... I did want to clarify something that I heard as Ms. Schotary was reading the report. In terms of the current auto repair shop, it is so crowded that they store cars up on
027the lifts so that they can work on the cars on the ground. The agreement seems okay. Done. Ranting. Anything else, Ms. Schotary? I'll take action on professional conferences training. Information I heard somebody say in August. In August.