001Call this meeting to order. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance preceded by Amendment of Silence. 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? Mrs. Anderson, here. Mrs. Bensey, here. Mrs. Bowman, here. Mr. Briegel, here. Mr. Cammoletti, here. Mrs. Schotary, here. Mr. O'Neill, here. Dr. Payne, here. Mr. Taylor, here. All members present. May behave in an unusually strange fashion this evening because there's this creature sitting here looking at me, otherwise known as an owl, and it keeps catching my attention, so I apologize if I do something squirrely. Superintendent's comments. I would just like to move into the celebration of excellence. Excellence in education in
002Peterstownship School District. If you thought last month was good, take a look at this. Members of our High School Media Department attended the Myron Cope High School Athletic Communication Awards, hosted by Point Park University. We are pleased to announce that our students above received eight awards of recognition for their work. In addition, work from the high school's new media television sports production class won the best show category. Board member Dr. Sherry Payne was on hand in her role at Point Park to congratulate our students. It was a wild morning at Bower Hill when our first graders were visited by some friends from the wild world of animals, following up on their lessons learning about the habitats of different animals. They visited with turtles and tortoises, snakes and lizards, sloths and falcons, and were even serenaded
003by a kookaburra. They heard all about what makes each animal unique in our world, what they eat, and how they protect themselves. Third, graders at Pleasant Valley worked with Mrs. Calligan to program the Sphero's robots. Students are learning block coding to program how fast, how far, and how many degrees the robots will turn to follow a specific path. Congratulations to the wrestlers above who earned honors at the WPIAL and PIAA level this season. Seventh grade students took part in an assembly called LEAD that educates students about social media, cyberbullying, alcohol, drugs, and inspires change by showing our youth how to achieve their goals by making responsible decisions. Thank you to Judge Ron Arnone and Brad Kilmeyer for making this important message possible for our students. We are proud to announce that both of our National
004Merit semi-finalists have advanced to finalist status in the National Merit Scholarship Program. Senior Kaitlyn Shrine and Kritin Sharma are among an elite group of students from across the nation being considered for these scholarships. They have been selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies. Hader Soundship resident Rick Freeman visited with students in Mrs. Fox O'Kelly's fourth grade class to talk about his experience running the Iditarod Trail in Alaska. Yes, running. Pulling a sled with 35 pounds of gear with no dogs for help. Freeman is an ultra runner and he shared details about his experience eating moose, his gear to get through temps of 46 degrees below zero, and the people he met along the way, as well as the character traits of grit, determination, and perseverance that
005made it all possible. Students in the class wrote him notes of encouragement that were received at a mail drop along the trail. Congratulations to these members of our swimming and diving team who took WIPEO honors and earned a spot to compete at the state level. Members of the Middle School Best Buddies Club took their first ever field trip this month. Students went to the Pittsburgh Musical Theater to see a performance of the Spongebob musical Youth Edition. 17 seniors from Peterstownship High School signed national letters of intent to continue their athletic careers at the collegiate level. We are proud of these students and their accomplishments on and off the field. Please join us in congratulating these athletes. Students and staff celebrated another amazing read-a-thon at McMurray Elementary. Overall, our fourth and fifth grade students read for
006360,182 minutes during the event. The fundraiser earned an impressive $11,792 for PTA events at the school. The top readers across each grade level were honored during a special assembly. Congratulations to our student readers and thank you to our PTA and staff who supported this event. Congratulations to our high school unified bocce team who took second place at the regional unified bocce playoffs held at Geneva College last week. We are so proud of our partners and athletes for such an amazing season. 30 middle and high school students competed in their regional National History Day competition. Our students were among more than 300 entrants participating in the event where students present historical papers, exhibits, performances, documentaries, and original website designs pertaining to an annual theme. Entries this year focused on the theme of rights and responsibilities in
007history. 12 of the 15 entries advanced to the state level of competition to be held in April. In addition, two students were recognized with the Rebecca Bowman Award for Excellence in Research. The award is given to PT students who showcase the most impressive pieces of research. Students in Mrs. Miller's classroom at Bower Hill are reading and learning about construction and building. So what better project than to build their own house? We caught up with these students as they were painting their construction project last week. High school staff and students took the Polar Plunge this month at Acresure Stadium to support Special Olympics. Our crew raised more than $1,800 for this wonderful cause and had tons of fun doing it. This month, middle school students staged Beauty and the Beast Jr. for sold out audiences. Congratulations
008to the entire cast and crew on another wonderful performance. Later this week, our high school thespians will open the curtain on Mama Mia in the high school auditorium. Congratulations to our boys basketball team who are WPIAL runner up and our girls team who are in the title of WIPEO champion. The girls are now headed to the state semifinal this weekend. High school freshmen taking personal wellness this semester are completing their CPR, AED, first aid instruction units where they learn how to administer CPR to adults, children and babies through the course. Those who demonstrate the skill have the opportunity to become certified through a partnership with the P.T. Fire Department. Personal wellness is a requirement for all freshmen at the high school. Anything else? No, thank you. I do want to clarify one thing. The research
009award is not for Peter's Township students. It's for the best research at the competition. It happened to go to Peter's Township students this year. Okay. Peter's 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 minutes 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 the microphone, as in turn it on, when making comments so that they may be heard by those of us in the
010room and those watching online. All speakers are reminded to state their name and resident 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 and action. Is there any public comment on agenda and other items? Seeing none, an executive session was held immediately prior to this meeting to discuss personnel and litigation. Is there any new business? Seeing no fingers approaching buttons, we will move to the business office with a recommendation to consider a motion to approve business office recommendations Items 1 through 10. Second. I need a motion first. Oh, sorry I thought you moved it. We'll toss it up
011there. Okay, thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. We go to the Personnel Committee. Mr. Taylor. Mrs. Bowman, there's no personnel committee update today. Thank you. Mr. O'Neill, Buildings and Grounds. One recommendation, Ms. Bowman. Move to approve a three-year agreement with Bob's Landscaping for Grasscutting Services at an annual cost of $48,399. This agreement will be funded by the operating budget. I'll second that one. Any discussion? Any public comment? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Anything else, Mr. O'Neill? No, that is it. That's my report. Thank you. Mr. Briegel, Education. Thank you, Mrs. Bowman, but I have no report this evening. Mr. Camilletti, Finance. Yes ma'am, I'd like to move to accept the 2023-2024 school district audit including the single audit report prepared
012by Hosack, Speck, Mutil & Wood, LLP for fiscal year ending June 30th, 2024 as presented. Second. Any discussion? Only to commend the business office and Mr. Rao specifically for another clean audit. Hear, hear. Any public comment? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. That concludes my report. Thank you, Mr. Camilletti. Ms. Anderson? Yes, a Policy Committee meeting has been scheduled for March 31st at 6 30 p.m. That concludes my policy report and I'll continue with PSBA. There are quite a few seminars coming up. There is an AI in Education Symposium on Tuesday, April 1 from 8 30 to 12 30. That's a.m. to p.m. and that these are all virtual. Spring Legal Roundup where there's a review of all the legal rulings that relate to education. That's on April 4th
013which is a Friday from 12 p.m. to 3 30 p.m. There's an ethics webinar, How to Stay Out of Papers and Trouble, and that's on April 14th at noon and the spring advocacy day. If any board member is interested, that's where board members travel to Capitol Hill in Pittsburgh. I mean in Harrisburg. That's Tuesday, May 13th and they set up meetings with your respective representatives and speaking of advocacy PSBA is pushing some advocacy for funding reform for cyber charter schools and they have set up a special website with a lot of data and talking points. If you're interested, just let me know and I could point you in the right direction. Thank you. That's my report. If you could distribute that, that would be great. One of the things that they have there are formatted
014letters that are subject to edit that you can use to reach out to your representatives if you're not in a position to run over to Harrisburg for the day. So please, if you aren't able to go to Harrisburg, do at least consider taking advantage of that option because if they don't hear from us, they assume we don't care. And couple that with if they don't hear from us, they may not know. And I think this is the second year in a row at least that the governor has recommended a flat fee for cyber charter students, which would save the district a lot of money because I think we're still upwards of seven hundred thousand dollars. Would you say that goes more a year that follows Peters Township students to cyber charter schools? And this would
015significantly save a lot of money because I mean, there's lots of reasons, but one of the main reasons are that the the money that is received by cyber charter schools has absolutely nothing to do with the cost of educating a cyber charter student. So they spend millions of dollars and advertising and those sorts of things. And a lot of people, including me, think that that money could stay in our district and be better spent with educating the students. And let me just clarify those millions of dollars they're spending on advertising are our dollars. Yes. OK, just want to make sure that was clear. Anything else? No, that concludes my report. Thank you. I attended the West. I attended the Western Area meeting on Mishodari's behalf and I've got five things to share. I'll do quickly.
016As we've reported before, we are developing a new AutoTech DieselTech facility and the contract for site survey services was approved in that meeting. We had a wonderful, exciting thing happen. A Peters Township student, Eva Sebrone of Cosmetology, was student of the month at Western Area. She was unable to attend because she's also a cheerleader and she couldn't miss cheerleading practice. So hopefully she'll be able to come in February. But we want to celebrate that we had a student of the month. And in all the years I've been at Western Area, I believe that's the first time. So that's cool. We also had thank you from Western Area. Peters Township video media students processed and produced some promotional videos for Western Area and they were extremely pleased. So they wanted me to extend their thanks. And
017I'm not even sure I'm allowed to do this, but no. Ness? You can. Okay. All right. The SkillsUSA program is not the Technical Honor Society. That's different, but it's a celebration of special employment related skills for our Western Area students. And they are having a fundraiser this Friday and prepared by their culinary students. It's a spaghetti dinner from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. So if you are fatigued with fish fries, feel free to go down to Western Area for the spaghetti fundraiser. And that concludes. Let me just double check. Yes, that concludes my report, which takes us to Superintendent's agenda. Thank you, Mrs. Bowman. I'm requesting action on certificated personnel, items number one through eight. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, I'll in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Motion carries. Requesting action
018on non-certificated personnel, items number one through eight. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Motion carries. Requesting action on extra duty personnel and programs, items number one through four. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Motion carries. Requesting action on professional conferences, trainees and trips, one item only. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Yeah, I'd just like to point out there's, you actually have four teachers that are selected to be AP readers, which is absolutely phenomenal. It is indeed. I come from a long line of AP readers at my household, and to have four from one school district is extraordinary. Unique, really? Okay, cool. Unique. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Requesting action
019on educational programs and student activities, items number one and two. So moved. Second. Any discussion? I did have a question. The music department's trip to Pocono Manor, I noticed under the details that there are four students going with one adult. The students are on a shared regional bus, but the teacher's driving the teacher-driven car. I'm not necessarily complaining, I'm just wondering. There are events where they have to usually judge to be part of it, so they have to be there earlier or stay there later in the day and don't want to hold the students up from getting back and forth. Okay, that's reasonable. Do our students need any kind of supervision? There is an adult that goes on the bus with them. All right. Thank you. Any other discussion? Aye. Seeing none, all in favor
020say aye. Aye. Any opposed? I'm requesting action on other items numbered one through eight. So moved. Second. I was waiting for you to say any discussion. Mrs. Bellman, could you please separate out number eight of other for the vote, please? Can, indeed. Thank you. Would you amend the motion one through seven? Amend. I amend the motion, but could they want to say it? Okay. Second? I'll second. Okay. Any discussion of one through seven? Number two, McMurray Student Council. Are they their own nonprofit or club or something? I don't understand what's going on with this. The Student Council, they have fundraisers. This particular one was Sarah's Candies, and this is part of a larger donation that they made last year. The Student Council gets together and they think of different things that will benefit the school
021and all students. So they did things like ping pong tables and fun things. This took a little bit longer because of technology needs. We had to figure out wiring and purchasing, so it's just delayed. We're doing it now, even though it's part of that package. But the Student Council will raise money and then donate it back to the school. That's really great of them. Why does the art room need this technology stuff? Mike might know more details, but the children decide, and they decided art benefits all students, and this is something that they wanted in the classroom. This is an opportunity to display and to show students how to do a craft or to do one of their art experiment, art crafts, so they can see from their places. Instead of her having to go
022in the center of the room and kids gather around, they can see it on a board. OK, thank you. One question on item one, the calendar. We will submit this for comments, correct? What will happen now is Mrs. Belcher will post it, and it's just anybody who wants to have comments on it will let us know, so we posted it in advance. Will the comment include that the spring break is shorter than normal just so people actually look at it? I don't know if we're looking at Mrs. Belcher. We can put a, when she posts it, I don't know what the format is that you put it out. If it's going to be different than how we've done it for the past several years, we might at least want to drop people's attention to it.
023We will, yes. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion to approve one through seven passes. We now take up item number eight. Need a motion? So moved. Second? Second. Discussion? Seeing none. Any, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Motion carries. Any board information? I have the mic, so I'm going to say something. I spent all day Saturday and Sunday down at the Heinz History Center judging the Regional History Day. It is tremendously exciting that we have 22 of the 30 students Peter sent going to states. That's like amazing. We haven't had a team that big in a long time. And some of the presentations knocked my socks off. So it was a very exciting weekend. It is amazing what our students can accomplish and the depth of
024research and the creativity of research and the funky topics they come up with. It was just a really positive, uplifting experience. I will be representing Peterstownship as a judge at the state competition in Scranton and also at the national competition in Maryland. So I will be, I'm not a formal chaperone. I can't be because for the same reason as the car driver for that other competition I have to be around. But I will be able to follow our students as they move through the whole process. So that will be exciting. I just, oh yeah, I just wanted to follow up. It was a joy to get to see our students win so many awards at the COPE Awards. And I do have to clarify. I was not a judge, nor did I know what the
025results were in advance. So it was thrilling and exciting to be there and to be able to see so many of our students winning. And one of these was a new class, right, that we put on the schedule just last year. So it's thrilling when your personal and your professional lives converge. So thank you. Congratulations to all the students. Also, I want to say I got the chance to see the middle school musical and they did such a fantastic job. Congratulations to all the students, parents, and the teachers that participated. It was just, I mean, gosh, they were sold out every night. Fantastic. Great job. Any other board information? Public comment on agenda items only? Seeing none. Solicitors report? My report was all executive session items. Thank you, Madam President. Correspondence and matters of information.
026We have a policy committee meeting on March 31st. We have a regular board meeting April 22nd and a regular board meeting May 19th. Is there any call for scheduling other committee meetings between those in that time frame? Not at this time? Not at this time. All right. Seeing no fingers moving and heads shaking, I will accept a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Thank you very much. Motion carried. Motion carried. No, all in favor. There we go. Now motion carries.