001school school directors meeting to order. Let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Brad can you roll some roll call? Mrs. Anderson? Here. Mrs. Binsay? Here. Mrs. Bowman? Mr. Briegel? Here. Mr. Camilletti? Here. Mrs. Chaudhary? Here. Mr. O'Neill? Here. Dr. Payne? Mr. Taylor? Six members present. Thank you. Any superintendent comments? I'd just like to move into the celebration of excellence please. Excellence in Education in Peters Township School District. Thanks for a great school year. A guest from the Da Vinci workshop visited second grade at Bauer Hill. Students were in the makerspace learning all about electricity, how it works and gets all the way to our homes. Students each had a chance to create their own circuit to see if they could bring electricity to their mini light bulb. Many thanks to the Bauer Hill PTA who
002sponsored this visit. Bauer Hill and Pleasant Valley Elementary hosted our newest district families for kindergarten orientation. While our new students sang songs, colored pictures and took their first ride on the school bus, their parents met the staff and learned more about our schools. May 9th was farm day for kindergarten at Bauer Hill. Dressed in their finest farm gear, students rotated through stations where they got to try their hand at painting a barn, shearing sheep, planting crops, milking the cows and more. Hard work is fun when you're in kindergarten. In fifth grade, students on Team Starlight had the opportunity to try several hands-on colonial crafts to supplement their ELA in social studies curriculum. Students have written with a quill and ink, made cross-stitch bookmarks and created decorative window hangings by tin punching. Most recently, they made
003corn husk dolls just like the one treasured in their novel. Our students used real corn husks, felt yarn and buttons to create and dress their own dolls. First graders at Pleasant Valley had their first school musical and shared a lot of fun farm facts in How Does Your Garden Grow. At Bauer Hill, the first grade performed their musical as they encouraged their new friend the bear to go all the way to the top of the mountain. They also learned that sometimes the journey is even better than the destination. Many thanks to Mrs. Viola, Mr. Tupper and our first grade teachers for all their work in preparation for the shows. Congratulations to the students from Western Area Career and Technology School who have been inducted into the National Technical Honor Society. Among the 20 new inductees
004this year are Peters Township students Sabrina DeCheques and Zachariah Myers. Pleasant Valley teacher Hannah Dillon was recognized as a recipient of the Apple Award from the National State Teacher of the Year Pennsylvania Chapter. Ms. Dillon was recognized for her exceptional efforts in teaching that support educational excellence in our schools. The award is designed to honor teachers who are making a positive difference in the lives of students in our school community. Students from Peters Township High School attended the Stars Prom held at South Point last week with students from around our region. They got a big send-off with some photos under the PTHS arch. Four students from Peters Township earned first place titles in the state level of the National History Day competition. The students above were among 22 Peters Township students who took part in
005the event and they will now move on to the national competition in June. History Day is an opportunity for students to present historical papers, exhibits, performances, documentaries and original website designs pertaining to an annual theme. Entries this year focus on the theme of rights and responsibilities in history. Students in Mrs. Neff's AP Physics class put their skills to the test to determine the weight of Officer Malloy's police car using tire pressure and area measurements. Fun fact, the actual weight was 6,400 pounds. The crew from the high school coffee tree roasters visited the admin building this month with some free coffee for everyone. Their timing was perfect as the visit took place on Administrative Professionals Day and we were honoring our dedicated support team. This month the coffee crew visited each of our buildings with a
006special treat to say thank you for a great school year. Our first graders at Pleasant Valley had a visit from the wild world of animals. Students learned about the habits and habitats of a wide range of furry, feathered and not so fuzzy creatures ranging from a turtle to a sloth. Many thanks to the P.T. Fire Department who visited Bower Hill to allow our students to tour their fire safety house. Students learned how they can be safe in various rooms of their homes and even had a chance to practice climbing out a window. Good news to the cast and crew of the spring play this murder was staged. The hilarious murder mystery marked the final performance for our thespians for another amazing school year. Please join us as we congratulate our Pay It Forward winners from
007the Peters Township Education Foundation. More than 230 nominations were submitted by students, parents and colleagues to recognize staff members making a difference in the lives of students in our community. The winners will each receive a $100 Visa gift card for use on items for their classroom or department. The high school EnviroThon team competed in the Washington County EnviroThon led by senior Lily Goldbach. The team placed third with 370 points out of 10 local high school teams. Teams competed in five categories, current issues, soils and land use, wildlife, forestry and aquatics. Members of the team are listed above. All right, always good stuff. Thank you for that. All right, public comment on agenda and other items. It's all in accordance with Peters Township School District Policy 903. As a reminder, we do value parent and community
008engagement speakers who signed up in advance. Per the policy, 903 will be allotted a maximum of five minutes for public comment. All other speakers will be allotted a maximum of two minutes for public comment. The rest of the policy is there written in the agenda. We had executive sessions on May 5th, May 12th and immediately prior to this meeting to discuss personnel litigation and presentation of the annual school safety and security report among other items. In terms of old business reconsideration of the March 17, 2025 board vote, the draft 2026-2027 school calendar and that's in your all's attachment. Anything we need to do with that or just move on with life? Actually, what is the process with that? Are we making a decision on reconsidering that vote? I guess I'm asking the solicitor. So what
009happened is the last month, the board made a motion to reconsider and then tabled it. And so it is automatically back onto the agenda because really the motion to table is a motion to postpone to a time certain, which is why that item has been placed back on the agenda, which was the board's wish. So now it is time to consider again, the same exact item that was voted on in March, that attachment, that motion, it is reappearing on the agenda for your consideration. If that motion fails, then the superintendent will take any suggestions for changes and there will be an item or items depending on what comes out of tonight added to the agenda in June. If it passes, the calendar stays as recommended by the superintendent. So the motion in question is to
010approve that calendar. That's right. It's the same exact motion you voted on in March. OK, thank you. And I guess I'm the one who asked that this be back on. So I did finally get a chance to read through all of the emails and there were certainly plenty of people who worried that other families, if they still took their traditional time during spring break that they would miss school. But I didn't see any emails where somebody said they personally were planning on missing school. One of the things that I did not think of was, I guess this current calendar has spring break split across two different calendar weeks. And they pointed out that was sometimes awkward to do in terms of booking reservations if they were going to go out of town. But in a
011couple of weeks, I'm going to wrap up my 28th year as a Pennsylvania public school teacher. In that entire time, no student has ever come back from a break and said to me, Mr. Briegel, that break was too long. I wish we'd come back sooner. Typically, students would like another day or so. And we can't always give them that. But and yes, I did vote in favor of the longer winter break, shorter spring break. But based on the feedback we got from families, I think I made the wrong decision. And I certainly want an opportunity to go back and change that if I could. Certainly, I would defer to the teachers for their input on how it affects the education. But I would defer to parents for their comments on how it affects their families.
012When we first moved to a week long spring break, and Ms. Anderson correct me if I'm wrong, I forget if that was the first year I was on the board, if it was before then. It's been a while. But I don't recall any emails complaining about it. But then as soon as we shortened it, we did get a few emails, people. And some people just said, hey, I support it. I would just like to know why the change. But a lot of people did request that we move back. So anyway, that's why I wanted us to reconsider this. But I think anything else. So we need a motion and a second and then we can have more discussion. Oh, I'm sorry, I thought the motion had been made. In that case, I move we reconsider.
013Just the second part. Move to approve the draft 2627 school calendar. I'd like to repeat everything I just said. Reopen for discussion. Okay. I mean, I pretty much echo what Mr. Bruegel said. I agree with that assessment. From my perspective, we've faced, we and we've caused probably much pain and agony for the administration. How long we've drawn this thing out. I would say from my perspective, I'd rather just stay the course of what we have done in recent years and have the week spring break. So basis is calendar. I propose taking December 21st and 22nd and March 30th and making those three, having school those days and not having school on the March 22nd, 23rd, 24th to have the full week. That's just, again, my perspective on this, you're never going to make anyone happy,
014but we've kind of beaten this horse to death. And I'd rather just follow what we've done in recent years just to be consistent for families. And it's my understanding that because this would be a change in the agenda, we would have to vote no to approve this calendar and then have another calendar proposed next month. If that's okay. Is the calendar technically part of the agenda itself? So if this calendar is modified, it's not a de minimis change. Yes. So, and the purpose again of Act 65 is to give the public ample opportunity to provide or to participate publicly in the meeting. And because the subject matter is actually the dates of the calendar, I think not having that in advance 24 hours in advance to allow people to come and give comment kind of
015flies in the face of that legislative its intent. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And so the motion is to approve the calendar as presented, just like you voted in March. So if it fails, then you go back to the drawing board and next month, if the board members have suggestions or requests, that information can be shared with the superintendent. The superintendent will then bring forward the appropriate motions in June for you to consider a revised calendar with a revised attachment. Okay. Any other discussion? Are we ready to vote? Okay. So we are now voting to approve the draft 2026-2027 school calendar. You want to do a roll call? I don't think we need to. All in favor? All opposed? No. No. Okay. Yeah. No. I oppose. No. I am a no. Okay. Okay. All right. The
016motion does not pass. Sorry. Is there any public comment? All right. The motion does not pass and we will get the much more improved school calendar on the agenda for next month. Okay. If I could just say quickly, I appreciate the public's feedback. I think it's helpful to have that information. So to everyone who emailed, thank you. And I think it was nice to have an opportunity to read those comments and help us a lot. All right. Moving on to new business, Brad, business office. Oh, wait, what's asking the motion? I'll make a motion to approve the recommendations. Second. Sorry. Any comment? Any public comment? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. All right. Moving on to committees. I will do my best Dan Taylor impersonation. Okay. I have a motion to approve
017a memorandum of understanding between Peter's Township School District and Peter's Township Federation of Teachers on terms and conditions approved by the solicitor. Second. Any discussion? Public comment? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. That includes my personnel report. Buildings and Grounds, Alex. Recommendation, move to approve a three-year HVAC preventative maintenance service agreement with combustion services and equipment, CS&E, at an annual cost of $41,733. This is an annual decrease of $217 from our current agreement with TRAIN. Second. Any discussion? I'd like to thank TRAIN for the decrease. CS&E was the decrease. They were the low. I'd like to thank CS&E for the decrease. Duly noted. Any other discussion? Public comment? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Anything else, Alex? That concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you. Rolf, education. Thank you, Mr. Camoletti.
018We had an education meeting last Monday, May 12th this year. I move we approve the following course name changes for the 2025-26 school year at the high school and math department from linear algebra to CHS intro to matrices and linear algebra. And from algebra 2A foundations to algebra 2 foundations. I'll second. Any board discussion? Public comment? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. I also move we approve the following materials for the initial presentation at the elementary schools, kindergarten through 5th grade elementary language arts, the McGraw-Hill reading wonders program at a cost of $484,189.32. And on the various grade levels and ISBNs are listed in the agenda. At the middle school, 6th grade math, math and U, I'm not going to read all the details here. They're in the agenda. At a cost of $43,520.
019At the high school, AP physics C, electricity and magnetism. Physics for scientists and engineers, 10th edition. At a cost of $6,270. AP environmental science. Environmental science for the AP course, 4th edition. At a cost of $18,998.10. In AP calculus AB, calculus of a single variable, 12th edition. At a cost of $18,810. In AP calculus BC, calculus for the AP course, 4th edition. At a cost of $6,207.36. In CHS intro to matrices and linear algebra, linear algebra, a modern introduction, 5th edition. At a cost of $2,916. And in CHS marketing, marketing, 21st edition. At a cost of $11,575.80. Is there a second? I'll second. Any board discussion? Not so much discussion, but a question either for the board or for the school. Would it be useful to have the numbers of books that we're buying listed
020in the agenda or is there a reason not to do that? The reason I ask is because some of these prices are far large than others but we're also buying a whole lot more books so would it be useful at all to point out that those higher price tags are for more books or for how many? For me personally not because there could be online stuff and all that. To me it's is it filling the need but I certainly if folks want that I could support it. I guess I'm wondering from the school from the directors do we want that and would that help the public and for the school is there a reason that that would be awkward if the numbers were published in case they change later? I also do not want to
021create a burden on the school. You all do enough? No it's not a burden. That's what we use to develop the quote. We should we certainly could. It's also available if anybody were to come and actually look at the text in the textbook adoption form. Okay. It lists what we're adopting with the number for each. I mean we can do whatever. Okay. I was not necessarily asking it to be done. I was kind of looking into it so at this point if I want you to later I'll ask. Had we not gone through it at the education committee meeting I would agree and I don't know that we hit on exact numbers but I think we talked in round enough numbers to know. Yeah for I think at that meeting for some at least some
022of them were some numbers. I don't know that we asked about all of them but. It was exact on it would say like 30 books or 10. Okay. For linear algebra we didn't present about that it's 10 books. All right. Okay any other discussion from the board? I'd just like to note that the title physics for scientists and engineers for a high school student is awesome. Okay. Any public comment? All right. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you Mr. Cameletti. That concludes my report this evening. Thank you for the great education report. Finance. That's me. Finance committee meeting was held on May 5th. I'm gonna move make a motion to adopt the proposed final general fund balance for 25-2026 school year in the amount of $86,418,631. Second. Any board member discussion?
023Yeah I just like to say you know it was a a good process to understand our numbers. You know I know none of us around this table take raising taxes lightly and I know that everything we do is to try to continue to keep things low and we'll continue to do so but the numbers you know are what the numbers are. Any public comment? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes and that concludes my finance report. Lisa policy. Recommendation move to approve the second reading and adoption of the following policies listed in the agenda. Policy 005, 113.1, 113.2, 202, 217, 234, 236.1, 254, 805.2, and 823. Second. Any board member discussion? Public comment? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Recommendation move to retire the following policies 820 administering naloxone and 829 electronic
024records signatures. Second. Just the discussion on that 820 can be removed because 823 talks about opioid antagonists in general and we found that we had two policies that referred to electronic records and signatures so we're keeping the one that makes most sense to the district. Okay thank you for that context reminder. Any other board member discussion? Public comment? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. That concludes policy and if I might I'll move on to PSBA. Recommendation move to approve the purchase of the Pennsylvania School Board Association Inc all access membership for the 25-26 school year at a cost of $18,208.46. This is an increase of $334.83 from the 24-25 school year. Second. Board member discussion? I'd like to immediately move to table this recommendation until the next voting meeting. Is there a second?
025Second. Board member discussion? The reason I'd like to table it is some board members individually approached me to try and maybe reduce the cost. I'm on my soap box saying let's not get rid of the PNN ever but there could be a way to save money by opting out of the required training for school board members so I'd like to have an opportunity to ask the administration to see in the event that we had four brand new board members who needed required training how much that would cost because it's not included in the standard membership so it says standard pricing apply so I wanted to have that information available to all board members so that we can vote on that next month with all that information. Okay thank you. Any other board member comment? I
026gotta tell you that's the way the process should work so again in line with the previous comments just a few minutes ago scratching and clawing for every opportunity to save we're going to make sure that that expenditure is right or we're going to shape it appropriately. So it's the motion going on tabling say what going on that's a vote on the motion yeah but don't I have to open up for public comment first? Any public comment? All right all in favor to table the motion? Aye. Opposed? Tabling the motion passes. Thank you that concludes well I will mention some PSBA trainings that are coming up May 21st from 12 to 1 is a zoom on better leading with civil discourse on May 22 there is a seminar from 12 to 1 also on zoom on
027pieces liability and understanding it that's the liability we have for retirement for all professional staff and on September 17th there is a school safety summit which will have school personnel law enforcement officers and security experts so if anyone is interested in attending that and need a link just let me know thank you. Thanks Alisa could you preemptively email all those to us? Sure. All right thank you. Sure thank you that concludes my report. All right perfect and Kathleen Westrin area career and technology center. First I'd like to thank Mrs. Bowman who attended let me move my phone I did do that last time Mrs. Bowman attended the last meeting on my behalf and for us so I'd like to thank her. Last week there was a completer ceremony at the high school so we it
028was at our event so we had a lot of schools represented there and there were 24 students at graduation from Peters Township high school and it was just a beautiful ceremony all the students came up onto the stage and they were able to like oh oh thank you it was a beautiful ceremony I'm not going to say more because I have more to say I did bring the program so I'll pass it around you guys can take a look but it was wonderful from what I understand to I think there were years that we maybe only had two three students per year and now we're up to 24 so that was something to celebrate okay this is Mrs. Bowman's report at the April meeting an update was provided for the shop expansion project the boring
029samples have been taken and funding authorized for development of a cost estimate bids were open for a surface grinder and a vertical milling machine both funded by a supplemental grant bids were open for a patient simulator funded by a special program grant bids were open for cdl equipment funded by a pa smart grant awards were authorized the relationship with ccbc is developing the first welding class is underway and ccbc is scheduling a second rotation discussions are underway regarding the creation of an emt class the joc discussed whether or not to join in the nation-wide school district lawsuit about abusive social media platforms a decision will be on the may agenda mrs bowman joined with two other attorneys to provide a class to seniors regarding the responsibilities of turning 18 the national technical honor society induction
030was on 5 2 the completer ceremony was held on 5 15 at peters this is a wonderful event each student wears the graduation robes of the sending school you can really get a feel for the range of sending schools i particularly want to celebrate that peters now has six students in co-ops cosmetology two carpentry auto mechanics two and electrical occupations are all represented and thank you mr cameletti that concludes my report thank you for that and uh for sharing uh that awesomeness there all right janine over to you thank you requesting action on certificated personnel items number one through four so moved second back to the quick question on number two the newly created position is that just because of grade level um growth sorry are we on yes it's enrollments there's enrollment so there's
031increased enrollment at thank you that's the word i was looking for appreciate it well if that's the case and it's a surge year will that teacher essentially follow the students in that class for a few year shuffle around so we have several sorry we have several years following that that had the same uh number of rounds so at least for three more years possibly four okay so we know we need this position yes god okay any other comment actually yes what would happen if after those few years we no longer need that position we will continue to look around the district and if we need to transfer teachers based on you know seniority we would do that very well thank you any other comment okay all in favor aye opposed motion passes requesting action on
032non-certificated personnel items number one through seven so moved second board member comment all in favor aye opposed motion passes and requesting action on extra duty personnel and programs items number one through three so moved second any comment all in favor aye opposed motion passes requesting action on professional conferences trainings and trips one item only so moved second comment all in favor aye opposed motion passes and requesting action on educational programs and student activities items number one and two so moved second comment all in favor opposed motion passes and requesting action on other items numbered one through 21 so moved second any comment uh first i guess i'd like to thank everybody for the for the donations it looks like the ptsa the various branches that's what about seven and a half eight and a half
033thousand dollars thank you for that that is much appreciated and also from the giant oaks garden club special olympics of pennsylvania and the peter sandship swimming and diving boosters thank you all for your support of our programs i also had a question about number 18 the agreement with seton hill and i'd have to find it in my stack of papers here but somewhere i seem to recall it talked about the which courses it applied to but then i didn't see those courses listed is that just because they fluctuate from time to time or because they're still being determined i thought we had determined the courses uh let me just check i'm looking i don't have the agreement um the courses would be i believe at seton hill it's our world language courses so it'd be
034french german and spanish okay thank you and maybe we do have a and i'm uh mr rigo i can tear through this but i have a feeling it's just their standard dual credit agreement and we pick we approve the courses please don't waste time going through that just uh one other comment want to thank the administration that's a huge win on item number 21 for the uh the grant for the greenhouse so great work on that i know this since it's other a different category i didn't want to recognize and express my sorrow for denise hitchens that she passed away that she was a wonderful teacher i had a question about number 14 um this the um the mou for the outpatient mental health therapy services is this for students that are at the iu
035or is this for students in our buildings it's for students in our building and there's no cost to it because the pay through the parent's insurance okay so how does student get referred to this this program guidance through the guidance office and for medication management as well no they don't medication this is just therapy okay thank you any other board comment yeah i agree lots of good stuff in these 21 uh points here uh kudos to the ptas and uh certainly uh to echo what i think alex said on the uh grant for the greenhouse with that all in favor aye opposed motion passes are you good okay uh any uh board information to pass kudos to the administration on another job or another year almost entirely finished but i'm assuming we'll be well done
036thank you a few days left alex go ahead did you have something or no he's just picking on okay public comment on agenda items only okay jocelyn solicitor's report my report was all executive session items and it was well done thank you all right all right so upcoming uh upcoming board meetings we have the june board meeting which is slated for monday june 23rd and no scheduled meeting in july are there any committee meetings that need scheduled any other saved rounds with that i will entertain a motion to adjourn so moved all in favor aye opposed motion passes were adjourned