001Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance 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. The board met in executive session prior to tonight's public meeting to discuss with council information or strategy in connection with pending litigation matters and other issues on which identifiable complaints are anticipated. The board also reviewed information related uh and discussed an employment matter and district business that if conducted in public would lead to the disclosure of information or confidentiality protected by law. Mrs. Lynch, could you please call the role? >> Uh Mrs. Cooper >> here. >> Miss Dad >> here. Miss Finley >> here. >> Mr. Frank >> here. >> Mr. Good >> here. >> Mr. Dr.
002Hamilton >> here. >> Dr. Hasselorn >> here. >> Uh Mrs. Lynch, myself, I am here. >> And Miss Sitch >> here. >> Thank you. >> Nine members present. >> Excellent. Thank you. Uh Dr. Rojack, could you introduce our wonderful guests? >> Actually, this evening for our guests, we don't have any guests. They're going to be speaking during the superintendence report, but we I shouldn't say that. We have lots of guests. However, they're going to be speaking in the next section of the board agenda. So, >> Got it. All right. Our Fox Chapel leadership rep, Amelia Tedesco. Hello. I am Amelia Teresco. I'm a sophomore and secretary of the diversity council. The diversity council is a part of the Fox Leadership Council. We have over 10 clubs that foster diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Today I along
003with Today I along with six other students had the pleasure of attending the eradicate hate student summit at Aushshshire Stadium. We got to share ideas, promote equality, hear from speakers, and collaborate with 27 other local high schools, all in the name of eradicating hate in our region. Furthermore, this week we are celebrating multicultural week. Each day, multiple clubs will be promoted by selling food and sharing about their respective cultures. In addition, on Wednesday, March 11th, we are hosting a multicultural night here at the high school, which will be showcasing the studentr run clubs and groups. There is a $10 Swagot buffet and various cultural performances. Multicultural night is open to the public and we hope to see some of you there at 6 p.m. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right, Dr.
004Railjack, superintendence report, please. >> Sure. Well, the first thing I would like to do is say thank you to Amelia and to all of our student leaders for the diversity club and for all of the work that they're doing, not only for multicultural week at our high school, but what they do all the time for um making sure that we are celebrating as well as uh being as inclusive as possible and helping to make a place where people want to belong. Their work with the Eradicate Hate Summit, which is an international summit that has a student component right here in Western Pennsylvania, is notable and I'm really proud of them. So, I do want to just acknowledge that. Thank you. Next this evening we do have lots of guests who are going to be sharing
005um a little bit from our lens on learning. Uh this evening we have Fairview Elementary School principal Susan Kite who is here to introduce some wonderful Fairview teachers who are going to be talking about a unified arts crosscurricular collaboration that illustrates work taking place in art, computer science and library. And we are also so excited to have some first grade students here who are going to be introduc they will be introducing so that they can share a little bit more about their learning experience. I'll turn it over to you Mrs. Kite. >> Good evening. Tonight we are very excited to showcase a collaboration between Mrs. Everest, Mrs. Amato, and Mrs. Dixon. Their goal was to bridge our unified arts program, showing students how different disciplines like library, art, and computer science interconnect throughout their school
006week. This project moved from a literature appreciation in the library to color theory and assemblage in the art room and finally to engineering and design in computer science. By walking through the full design process from imagining to planning and building, our first graders saw their ideas come to life across three different classrooms, building their passion for learning. Several of our students are here tonight to walk you through that journey from their eyes. So, we'll be joined by Haley, Maggie, Canon, Emma, Skyler, Billy, and Arlo. Haley, you ready to start us off? >> Okay. >> Hello. Hello. We are first graders at Fairview. This year, we started a famous author and illustrator named Louis Aert. In library we learned that illustrators have many ways to tell stories. Louis Aaylor makes collages made from found objects. That
007means she that means she compares different items, combines different items to make a bigger picture like a puzzle. We read the book Leaf Man. It inspires us to work work in groups to make our very own leaf animals. In art class, things got sticky. We used glue sticks and colorful tissue paper to make our leaves look beautiful. We used warm colors just like fall leaves. Finally, we went to computer science. We used make do screws to connect different leaves together to build our animals with movable parts. We had so much fun being and Wonderful. Thank you so much. >> Great job. >> They were able to show a couple things you saw here was the book that inspired the work, some of the planning phases along the way. They showed you some of their movable
008pieces of their final products that use the make do screws. So there's a couple of them there and these are the actual students who work collaboratively in groups to create those specific projects. So it was just neat to see our unified arts groups come together and be able to design something across classrooms and extend it across the day and across the weeks um as these students saw that kind of all come to fruition. So that was great collaboration by our team. Thankful for the teachers and the hard work they put into it and for our courageous students who got up here today to share their voice and their work. >> Awesome. >> Thank you kids. Thank you. >> And I want to thank our students for your amazing work, not only in your classes, but
009also here to share your learning with us. It's really exciting to hear what you're learning. And I can't wait to hear what you're learning next. And thank you, too, to all of their families who were kind enough to bring them here and support them. uh and we hope that you get lots of pictures and and and celebrate that moment because it's uh very exciting to see student learning in action. So, we appreciate everybody that's here for our lens on learning. Uh there were just two other things that I wanted to bring up. Uh first thing was uh I wanted to celebrate not only we've celebrated multicultural night and now we're celebrating learning here, but I also want to celebrate uh we have our uh winter sports ended and we still have some teams that are
010in winter sports. We want to uh our swim team is is still uh working. Our girls basketball team did uh lose the first round of the playoffs, but we want to uh wish all of them good luck as well. It's learning, but in a different way, but it's also very important. And then uh the last thing that I have before the end of the superintendent report is just to congratulate uh one of our district's administrators who will be moving on from our district. I want to congratulate Dr. Matthew Patterson. He is our executive director for secondary curriculum and instruction and he has been recently named as the superintendent of the Bethl Park School District. I think uh Mr. Hamilton said that last week as well and we are um sad very sad to see him
011leave but very excited and know that he will uh he has impacted our students and our staff here in the district and we know he will be going on to impact them in Bethl Park as well. So uh I will continue to have uh Dr. Patterson as a colleague in a different way, but we do wish him all of the best uh in his future. And that concludes the the superintendent's report. Everyone is welcome to stay for our meeting. Uh but we also recognize that if you have other things that you need to do, uh we will not take that personally and uh we do recognize that. >> Don't rush to the door too fast. >> Good job. Oh, so cute. >> I was I was feeling Okay, Mr. Jafrey, do you have a solicitor's
012report? >> No report for this meeting. >> Thank you. I am asking for a motion to approve the minutes of the regular business meeting dated February 9th, 2026. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions, comments, corrections on the minutes? Okay, Mrs. Lynch, could you please call the role? Uh, >> Mrs. Cooper, >> yes. >> Miss Dad, >> yes. >> Miss Finley, >> yes. >> Mr. Frank, >> yes. >> Mr. Good, >> yes. >> Mr. Hamilton, >> yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn, >> yes. >> Myself, yes. And Miss Sitch, >> yes. >> Uh, nine yes votes, no nos. >> Thank you. All right, it's time for our first public comment. We don't have anyone signed up, so we will go to old business. Mrs. Cooper, could you please give us the academic committee report?
013>> Yes. Um, the board academic committee will meet on March 10th, I believe that's tomorrow, at 6 PM in the staff development room on the lower level of the district office. The committee will receive an update on the K through5 English language arts pilot and a recommendation for adoption. Committee will also be provided with the district data overview. The committee will continue to discuss perceptual data collection updates and discuss whether they wish to recommend a survey tool for the full board's consideration in the future. >> Thank you. Any questions for the academic committee? >> I look forward to attending. >> Not really a question, but >> are you attend? I this there's so much good there's so much goodness in here. I can't wait. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh Mr. Frank, could you please
014read the governance committee report? >> Yes. Thank you. The board governance committee met on March 3rd, 2026. The committee, which was joined by board members Mr. Good and Mrs. It discussed advocating for a countywide and statewide property reassessment and the steps that they plan to take in order to prepare a resolution for the full board to consider. The committee then discussed ways to capture the board's culture and norms to include in a board handbook, deciding to include a preface statement outlining culture, norms, and an annual update that would outline accomplishments, concerns, and future actions. The committee also discussed the district's policy update process and a request for future student representation at board meetings. The committee identified additional information that would help them to consider the students request. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any questions or
015comments? >> Okay, Mrs. Zitch, could you please read the projects and planning committee report? >> Yes. The board projects and planning committee will meet on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026, on Tuesday, at 6 p.m. in the staff development room on the lower level of the district office. The agenda is still being finalized and will be posted on the district's website prior to meeting. Stay tuned. >> Okay, any questions about that? Okay, moving on to new business. Uh, Mrs. Lynch, facilities and transportation. >> Uh, no action is requested. >> Thank you, Mr. Hamilton. Uh, could you read the finance items, please? >> We have five items tonight or six items, sorry. Um, first item is dispersements from fund 10 in the amount of $6,754,347.99. Item two is dispersements from fund 31, capital reserve fund dispersements in the
016amount of 107,33.96. Item three, finance report for January 2026 is acknowledged and filed for for audit as attached. Item four is the budget transfers for 2025 2026 are approved as attached. Item five is the subsidies to Fox Chapel Area School District Public Sports. Approve the request of Box Chapel Area Fencing for a subsidy in the amount of $3,000 for the current school year and approve the budgeting of an annual 2% increase in the amount of approved subsidies to Fox Chapel crew Fox Chapel area ice hockey Fox Chapel area fencing beginning in the 2026 27th school year and continuing until further action of the board. And then item six, AlghGany intermediate unit 2026 2027 program of services budget approved the proposed 2026 2027 Alagghany intermediate unit program of services budget in the amount of 2,431,488. The
017Alageney County School District's total contribution to the budget is $2,42,623 and the Fox Chapel Area School District contribution to the program of services budget is estimated at $111,224. will be determined by the Pennsylvania Department of Education sometime after July 1st, 2026 based on the district aid ratio and weighted average daily membership. I move on these six items. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions? >> Thank you for the language uh adjustment that we discussed last week. I think that works. >> Yes. on the uh on the subsidies. >> Just to refresh my memory, could you just tell us the the current subsidy amounts for um the existing clubs? >> Yes. Uh $3,000 for fencing is what you're approving and um >> Right. >> 5,000 for crew and 8,000 for hockey. >> And
018that's an annual >> That is an annual. Sorry for my I it's been a little bit since I looked at those. >> No, that's fine. That's fine. I just just as a just to I know we talked about a little bit last last week. I just want to have it all >> and just so so the board is aware and also everyone else those are different based on a per pupil amount uh and and uh there is a little bit of an escalation for hockey based on the expense of the um the sport that has happened in the past and so um but it is it is a similar per pupil amount for crew and for fencing. Great. >> In fact, it's the same I should say similar. >> Thank you. Yeah, I've been the
019past extracted great joy from looking at the number of dispersements for different student groups because they're they're so diverse and so outstanding. Um, and I think the dollar per learning value is just extraordinary for those groups. So, I encourage everyone to take a look. >> Yep. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> Mrs. Lynch, will you please call the role? >> Uh, Miss Stad, >> yes. >> Miss Finley, >> yes. >> Mr. Frank, >> yes. >> Mr. Good. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hamilton. >> Yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lynch? >> Yes. Miss Sitch? >> Yes. >> Uh, Mrs. Cooper. >> Yes. >> Nine yes votes. Motion carries. >> Thank you. Mrs. Cooper, could you please read the one instruction item? >> Well, you you stole my lead in. I will be moving
020on one item today. Um, it is to approve the required Fox Chapel Area School District comprehensive plan for submission to the Pennsylvania Department of Education as attached. I move on that one item. >> Second. >> Do we have any questions or comments on the comprehensive plan? >> I would just like >> just like to say thank you again to all of the families, parents, um, community members who took the time to participate in that process. It was there were some really outstanding voices, very knowledgeable, outstanding input provided. It was neat to see. Thank you. >> I echo that gratitude. >> Yeah. I was say something similar and also that um I think that the I was really had more time this week to actually look at it in detail and was impressed with the conciseness
021and clarity of both the analysis and the recommendations. And I I did want to I thought it was worth uh Dr. I was like, could you just speak to the there's a couple recommendations, one around ELA and one about absenteeism, especially absenteeism has come up a number of times and I thought it was uh it's a very good illustration of uh looking at data and I think also getting feedback from the community. So, if you just want to talk a little bit about those two recommendations because those are areas we're still working on. >> They are areas we're still working on and and uh they're reflected in this plan and then there will probably be additional things reflected in a future operational plan or strategic vision that we may do in order to implement this
022um the district has, let's talk about attendance first. We have relatively high attendance. We exceed um meet or exceed the state performance standards for all of our buildings. But one thing we have noticed is that we have less buildings exceeding the state performance standard. They're meeting it, but not necessarily exceeding it uh than we have in the past. And so although there are some small pockets of concern in in in all buildings in certain groups, uh Fox Chapel Haria High School's attendance was the one that we really started to focus on a little bit more robustly, especially since the pandemic because we noticed that we didn't see the rebound of attendance after the pandemic. But additionally, when we really looked back even pre- pandemic, it wasn't that much different. And so, um, right now, the
023Fox Chapel High School has 83.2% 2% of students who are not considered chronically absent and chronic absenteeism is about 10% of the school year. Uh that means though that about 225 students are chronically absent. They're meeting that definition. And so that's something that we looked at now across all of our buildings as to what those numbers are of students that have missed 10% of the school year at whatever point in the year that might be. Uh but throughout the whole year it would be 18 days or more. And so we looked at those chronic absenteeism numbers, but then we also knowing that that had been a focus of ours, we embedded questions in our comprehensive planning process with focus groups to try and gather more qualitative data. For example, we asked how are you do
024you feel connected to school? What are some of the ways that you feel connected to school? Um how do you uh feel that how can we improve those who um are are having issues? How can we communicate differently? So we embedded some of those questions to try and get some qualitative feedback and um so as a result of the quantitative feedback and then the qualitative feedback we were able to get a bigger picture of what might not only our problem be but then some solutions uh because nobody wants to be punitive in an attendance conversation. That's really not the point. We're required by law to do some things, but the point is really to remove barriers so kids come to school and whatever those barriers may be, whether those are academic or social or, uh,
025if they're transportation, whatever barrier it is. And so, um, that's one of the things that you see reflected in here that will expand in other ways. It's work we've actually been doing for about two years in some pockets, but we thought this was a great opportunity to memorialize it and then put in action steps that we're going to do and you'll hear more about that in the future. Um, anybody have any questions about the attendance uh work that we've been doing? >> Can you for the students who are chronically absent, is it excused or unexcused? Does it matter? >> Doesn't matter in chronic absenteeism. So, one of the things we found is that we certainly have students who will have significant health issues and and and be absent. There there always cases that that require
026students to be absent for various reasons. We also have some students who are absent on a rather regular basis for choice reasons for travel or for other things um that are going on. And so, some of it is calling attention to the things that may be controllable. You may not control if you have the flu, but you may be able to control when your dentist appointment is. may be able to and so um so we're trying to call attention to that. Another thing we're trying to do is we've shifted our letters and we're continuing that's that's a work in progress. So it's happening across the district um to be instead of the statutory language that everybody has in their in their letters, you know, here are the things we're noticing and here's what we'd like
027to do to help you and here's how we can help you. Here's how you we need you to tell us what else you need or what your child needs. We're also looking at putting comparators in. Sometimes a parent doesn't know that their child is absent at a significantly higher rate than others because you might not have a comparison and we do. And so it's just providing that data and then trying to get to the um relationship building in enough to get to what is the the sticking point. Is it just that we do have a child that that is absent for a lot of health reasons? That's a different kind of support perhaps than a child who is um struggling socially or struggling academically. Um it may not be. So, >> so do we have
028um data then that would tell us more accurately what our truency rate looks like the numbers that we would be concerned about outside of being on a trip with your family? >> Yes. So, those are all public data numbers. Um they we gather them throughout the year and um then they're reported those are all by just to be clear chronic absenteeism and truency are all state definitions. um and they don't all actually it doesn't really matter even for truency what the reasons for those absences are. Um and so what we're trying to do is is is respond earlier and and build up things in an earlier fashion. Um some of the things that we're doing administratively is is I've charged uh Dr. Edwards with uh regularly pulling data of attendance and he's created some heat
029maps so to speak where he puts absenteeism data in and then color codes it accordingly so that the building teams the counselors don't have to pull that data but we're also looking at the data based on a district-wide metric as opposed to each building making decisions. Uh and then that data is used by the principles and the counselors along with our district support team to be able to uh respond and look are there patterns that we see is there a certain population we see is there um you know an area uh that of of bigger concern that deserves more of uh support from our perspectives. >> Right. I think that's what I was getting at is are we breaking it down and not just looking at unexcused absences as >> Yes, we are actually. I'm
030glad to hear the letters have changed uh as well. I think that I have heard from community members in the past that getting a letter about magistrate involvement when you have a sick child is an odd choice. So, I think having some actual um ability inside the letters to be more responsive to our families makes a lot of sense. >> And that's something we're continuing to try and and adjust. It actually came out of some um some professional learning that Dr. Edwards and I did together. And uh it was actually not about attendance whatsoever. It was about communication strategies. And as we were sitting there and listening to a an analogy about a court system communication change, we saw an exact way to uh apply that to a school communication change. And that's continuing to
031grow. Uh in fact, today Dr. Edwards was sending out information that we're going to share with our incoming kindergarten students and families this week about how you how you can think about attendance and uh it's very parent friendly. It's not punitive. It's it's more of this is the importance of it. One thing we're really concerned about is the cumulative effects. So when a student misses 20 days of a school year every year, it is very soon that they have missed a half a school year if not a full school year of education in their career. And that that matters quite a bit for that cumulative effect. And certainly uh children sometimes are ill and there are things that require kids to be out for significant amounts of time. We just want to try and minimize
032what we can control and then support appropriately what all of us are trying to manage families and uh schools together. >> I know we're going to dig a little deeper in our committee tomorrow, but um has it been looked at how many of these students have IEPs? >> Uh I don't have that information right now. I'm not sure if that's been pulled directly. Um it's certainly something that we can start looking at. It's it's not as um >> that would be not be something that shows up in any of the state data. So >> we've looked at some other population groups. Uh and and we've also looked in in each individual like is there a grade level that we see that more frequently? Is there um a transition grade level that we might see it
033more frequently? And it's not consistent in some places and others. >> Sure. I know from various high school families, especially dealing with different neurodiversities like autism and things like that, sometimes getting kids to go to schools directly related to their particular disability and some more support maybe around there. I I mean, I think it would be interesting to look at if you're looking at ways to support families. >> Yes. >> Yeah. And something else that I struggle with with the state data um because it's it's uh it's all accumulated annually. It's very difficult to see if anything that we do triggers a spate of absenteeism. So if there's a strong like you know a schedule or a bell change or a major traumatic event or um disciplinary action or a strong enforcement for something like
034tobacco use. Sometimes those types of like sort of cultural like you know zeitgeisty changes can trigger these these preventable increases in intruency. Is that something that we'd be in a position to look at with Dr. Edwards's? >> We've looked at some of that data actually whenever we have a a hypothesis that something could affect our data. We did that frequently during COVID when we changed um formats of schooling and we looked at that. Most recently we looked at it when we had virtual days. we actually found that we had rather high attendance for virtual days um based on the definition. uh so it didn't hold true for that but those are things that we do keep an eye on and um often uh the half days and things like that that we have we may
035see changes in attendance and then that's something for us to consider how do we how do we support that uh and it it's it's not consistent yet that I could land on a trend that I see uh because I just think we haven't looked at it with that kind of level of scrutiny um as as regularly and so now it is something that I've required our administrators to look at I've I've charged our district office team to look at differently and um we're talking about it in a very overt way not in a way to be punitive. That's really not our point. Um but I do want to make clear at times we are forced to be punitive because that's our legal requirement. But our goal is really to just get kids to school and
036help them to be successful and happy in school and help families who may need our assistance to help get their kiddos to school as well. And so to that point, if students are removed from school for expulsion or suspension, would that constitute a true like those would count as true in C days? >> They count as absences. >> Yeah. As absences. Okay. Because I think that's an important confounding factor too is I'd be interested in lining up some of this >> um with those disciplinary outcomes to make sure >> that is one of the reasons we have a it as a goal for for at least the next three years to really look at that and and see. Uh, one thing I do want to give credit for is one of our educators at the
037high school level really looked and noted that students who were um, uh, Miss Riley actually looked and said students who were absent in the first 20 days of school had a higher percentage of being truent um, and chronically absent as the year goes on. that bears out in national data, but it also is is true here because one thing that we're looking at is our attendance is not bad, but just at the high school level, 225 students are chronically absent based on the definition and there are similar percentages in other buildings as well. Uh the least is probably at the elementary level and um so there are lots of factors that could go into that. If 10% of the students at the high school have been chronically absent, how many have been chronically absent across
038multiple years? Because you mentioned the >> a very small percentage of those, but we do have some. And that's a different we're looking at those as different. They may have there may be different needs if someone is chronically absent multiple years in a row than if it's one year uh or if it's a health issue reason or what it may be. I think that's what what I wanted to quickly mention is is having been on the academic committee, we saw a little bit more about this process than maybe the board as a whole. But I but the comprehensive plan is really just like a legal requirement that's a document that has to be uploaded by a certain date. So I've appreciated um the real strategic thinking and collaborative planning that went into this both with
039wpping in community members, wrapping in the academic committee. Um, I think it's one of those things that could easily be just lost as another bureaucratic form to fill out. But I'm happy to hear that that um even though the document has been submitted, the work is far from done. And look forward to hearing more about how this gets figured out. Attendance. I mean, it's like if you can figure attendance out, you've you've figured out how to save the world. So, well, and I I was pleased uh we were participating. We I was working with Arizona State University and some researchers from their centers who have done research on a national basis and I was pleased I was asked to um present a session with them at a recent conference where we had uh 120 superintendents
040in a room to talk about what we were doing and uh although I said that nothing that we're doing I think is is earthshattering the fact that we're doing it seemed to be a little bit of an anomaly from the conversations I had with some in that we're really looking that granularly at some of the data. it's easier to do too when you have um uh when you've identified and are are watching your attendance in a a more granular way in the first place. So um we we haven't figured everything out, but it's certainly a worthy uh endeavor for us. >> The other thing that is helping is PBIS, our positive behavioral intervention and supports. Um, nobody wants, it seems that when we do, uh, you know, reward days, no one is missing. Um, unless
041they're absolutely so ill that their family says you must stay home, mom or dad says you must stay home. Uh, and so that is a a good sign and that's part of why we want to engage our students in in helping to determine what those things are because we want it to be meaningful. I know you had also asked about um the English language arts and the English language arts school that's in here is really about growth data and we've talked about that at the academic committee as well. Uh once again in English language arts we have high academic achievement across the district. But when we looked a little bit deeper into the data, we noticed that there were two of the district's six buildings that didn't meet the growth standard as it's defined by
042Pennsylvania. And academic growth is not the same as achievement. academic growth is that you've grown one year in one year's time. And so it's it's a mathematical calculation. There's lots of things that we could spend hours on, but essentially we noticed that although we may be achieving, we may not be growing at one year in at least two of those buildings. Um, specifically, we're looking at uh some of our middle school uh grade levels as well as our high school. And um we see some declining percentage of of students that are scoring in an advanced category. And this once again is not about an assessment at all. It's not. But when you see students that are achieving in an advanced category for multiple years in a row and then it declines, then that's something that
043we would want to dig a little deeper in. And so um using that data as well as some of our focus group data that we had um and uh having some dialogue with some of the stakeholders, we really honed in on English language arts. And specifically in the comprehensive plan document, you see that it's it's uh focused right now on high school. There are a few other grade levels that it's focused on, but it's on growing in English language arts and making sure that we're um giving students an appropriate level of rigor. We have the supports in place and we have the enrichment in place to help them to grow. Uh and so, you know, we're designing that goal accordingly. And part of the things we're looking at doing is continuing to use that data
044as part of our instructional response model that we do internally with our educators. Um that planning model is not only what educators do to respond to the students in front of them in their classroom and our principles are doing, but then our principles and our district office are looking at what are the trends across the district. And then I will direct district office um resource people to help at certain buildings in certain areas where we see that there could be additional supports needed. And when I say support, I really do mean support. Sometimes it's that we have educators that are looking for materials that will meet a group of students needs and we'll take care at the district level of finding some material options for them. Giving those to them so that they can choose
045the materials takes them away less from needing to uh look for materials and more about deciding materials based on what they know as educators and for their students. Um, another thing that we put in here as a strategy is to intensify coaching for educators through peer-to-peer. And that might be like a mentor teacher to a a newer educator, through school leader to teacher, and that might be our district resource staff to a teacher or a principal to a teacher. And then also through other coaching models and we we call it instructional verification. It's verifying that instruction is taking place in a way that is supporting the district's goals, what we say we're going to do, and at a high level. Um, and uh, the the real goal of that is to provide feedback because we
046know based on learning science that adults and children respond best to feedback. And when you have feedback that's supportive and regularly occurring and specific, you get better growth, whether that's with children or whether that's for any of us as adults. And so, um, our goal is really to support our students and support our educators and at the district resource level to support our, um, principles to enhance practice. And I think this is a really important one. Right now, we have about 20 to 25% of our district's educators, especially at the secondary level with less than five years of experience just based on retirements and things. Uh, and so growing in their craft. And 70% of the district's principles uh are also new in their positions uh next year. Uh and so uh or newer in
047their positions, less than five years, not three years of experience. And so knowing that, it's changed how we at the district level are supporting our students and our um educators and our administrators uh to to try and make sure that uh we know that the most successful organizations not only welcome people that are of a high quality, but then they help them to be successful in what they're asked to do and set up the structures that are not person specific, they are structural that will continue to perpetuate. And so um what that looks like is collaborative classroom visits. looks like um some different coaching practices suggestions that are pretty direct. I was looking at uh instructional verification data um this morning that an educ that an administrator had given that was very specific and and
048talking about practices that need to continue that an educator was doing in their classroom that are high quality that we want to continue. Um we were doing some like just in time uh training and professional learning especially for our new teachers on a um a new uh foundations maybe uh for our new teachers. Uh we're doing them this week on uh online testing tools that PE has uh and trying to to provide everybody with what they need in order to be successful and listening. I'm really pleased that we have such great relationships with our educators and our principles that we sometimes hear we need help with. can you help us with this? And um that's a perfect thing for us to be able to to then say, what do you need and how can we
049help? And that's um helped us to to be successful. We're hoping that that will help our one year's worth of growth. We're not sure uh that that's the only strategy that we need. Mind you, we have all kinds of things, but that's a little synopsis of that. >> Are there any questions about that as well? >> I think so. All right. Thank you very much for the explanation. >> And just to give the board and the community another uh piece of of information, this is the state report as as Dr. Hassorn said. So it'll be submitted if the board approves uh to PTE, but we are not stopping. We still have some uh additional analysis of the I think we're up to almost 30 uh focus groups that we had and we'll be presenting more
050information to the board and the public in the near future. >> Great. >> All right. Well, let's vote on the comprehensive plan. Mrs. Lynch, could you please call the RO? >> Miss Finley? >> Yes. >> Mr. Frank? >> Yes. >> Mr. Good. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hamilton? >> Yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lynch? >> Yes. >> Miss Sitch? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cooper? >> Yes. >> Miss Dad? >> Yes. >> Nine yes votes. Motion carries. >> Thank you. Mr. Frank, could you please read the legislation and policy item? >> I will move to approve for the first reading of the following revised policies. Number 105.2 exemption from instruction. Number 204, attendance. Number 218.1 weapons. 247 hazing. 61 610 purchases subject to bid quotation. 611 purchases budgeted. 626 Federal Fiscal Compliance, 626 Federal
051Fiscal Compliance Attachment Procurement, 805.1 Relations with Law Enforcement Agencies, and number 805.2 school security personnel. For the first reading, I move to approve those. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments on these policies? >> I would just like to request that we revisit 8051. I'm fine passing this now, but I think that deserves a longer conversation in committee. >> Is there something specific you would >> Yeah, we spoke a little bit about this last time. Um, but just that it a the changes within it. Um, although I understand these are now part for the course from PSBA's recommended legislative changes. um they reflect a a um an ambiguation of what law enforcement falls under this particular policy and our coordination with them. And I think in um current times I think there's the
052expectation that we manage those with more intention than that. Um, so sort of making plain or clear under what circumstances and and with which sort of types of law enforcement um, we engage in like specific collaboration and when. I think we're very grateful um to our local law enforcement outfits. I think they're critical part of maintaining student safety. I think it's the kind of thing that like these policies have to exist for school districts and in fact many are required by law. However, um there is this sort of tendency to leave very open the sort of arena or the context in which we um engage with those law enforcement agencies. And in previous iterations of this policy, I understand that this specified local law enforcement um which is something I'm a little more comfortable with
053than law enforcement generally. Um, so like I said, I'm I'm comfortable passing this at this time, but I would encourage us or our governance committee to to look carefully at 8051 um uh in the future. That's all. >> Would we Paul um legally can we put in the word local law enforcement? I don't think we want to do that right now. >> So, if the state police show up with a with a warrant, if the county police show up with a warrant, we shouldn't cooperate with them. A judicial warrant. The PSBA language, I think, is is good. >> Relations with law enforcement extend to more context and situations other than that. It can also include information sharing, policing expectations. It can include a lot of things. And I think I'm not I'm not suggesting that
054we don't abide by state and federal law. That would be bad. Um that's not my implication here at all. Um I'm just recommending that we um think about treating local law enforcement collaboration differently than federal or state law enforcement collaboration. That's all. >> Yeah, I mean it's it it is worth taking a double uh check checking that again. Uh, I mean the way the way that I see it reading here, it it does say law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction over school property of the school district. So that may be clear enough uh to meet what you're saying. Um, I don't know. It seems seems worth looking at again in the future. >> Thank you. >> So are we going to go forward and vote or we are? Okay. Any other comments or questions about any
055policy? >> I would suggest that we pass it. We get a second, we pass it. And if if Ariel wants some adjustments before the second reading that we should that we'll consider it at the next governance meeting. >> Yep. I'm in complete agreement. >> Yep. That seems fine. >> Yep. >> That's okay. >> Yes. >> We're on the same page. Thank you. >> It all that all sounds good. >> Okay. I just wanted to make sure I was doing what everyone wanted. Okay. >> All right. Um, Mrs. Lynch, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Frank, >> yes. >> Mr. Good. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hamilton, >> yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn, >> yes. >> Vanessa Lynch, >> yes. >> Uh, Miss, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cooper, >> yes. >> Miss Dab, >> yes. >>
056And Miss Finley, >> yes. >> Nine yes votes. Motion carries. >> Okay. Miss Sitch, could you please read the personnel items? >> Yes. This week I'm moving on six items. Um item one, resignations, administration, the resignation of Matthew J. Patterson, PhD, executive director of secondary education and instruction for the Fox Chapel area school district due to personal reasons. Item B, professional, the resignation of Marilyn A. Hall, literacy teacher at Dorsyville Middle School due to retirement. Educational support, the resignation of Jessica I. Albert, instructional assistant at Kerr Elementary School due to retirement. The resignation of Courtney L. Andring, 12-month building secretary at Hartwood Elementary School due to personal reasons. Item two, appointments, educational support. Katherine M. Kelly is approved as a 12-month building secretary at Hartwood Elementary School. Um, excuse me. Uh, custodial maintenance. Jason T.
057Elrich is approved as a 12-month, eight hour per day custodian for Fox Chop Area School District for a probationary period. Diane M. Kefir is approved as a 10-month, 8 hour per day custodian for the Fox Chapel Area School District for probationary period. Item three, leave professional Allison E. Dator Elementary teacher at Fairview Elementary School is approved for childbearing and adoption leave. Item four, employment agreements. The following employment agreements are approved as presented. Application system manager Mary B. We Wisman, EDDD. Director of ancillary services, Daniel Brewbrights. School psychologist 12-month Megan L. Edwards, EDDD. Item five, summer programs. Elementary, Rebecca L. Grisbeck is approved as the Fox Chapel Area School District Elementary Summer Learning Academy program facilitator. Sophie Anderson is approved as the Fox Chapel Area School District Elementary Summer Learning Academy Program Assistant Facilitator. Following individuals
058are approved as instructors for the Fox Chapel Area School District Elementary Summer Learning Academy. Julia Arlia, Sean Baldis, Adam Danielson, Carrie Ferguson, Anne Hook, Alexis Herbbit, L N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N Luchano, Alexandria Lucard Howell, Tracy Plans, Julia Pantil, McKenna Robinson, Emma Stanovic, Claire Walters, Haya Weise, and Katie Want. The following individuals are approved as substitute instructors for the FCSD Elementary Summer Learning Academy. Jennifer Lance, Kirsten Shro, Miranda Zarino. For food services, Laura M. Heretic is approved as a food food services employee for um Fox Chapel area Fox Chapel area school district elementary middle school summer learning academy and for
059high school Lisa R. Gibson is approved as a Western PA learning academy director. Item six conference attendance for the superintendent approve the superintendent's attendance at a national conference as presented. The superintendent received a full scholarship and grant for all costs related to the conference. I move on these six items. >> Second. >> Okay. It was Katie. Oh, sorry. A little surround sound. >> Um, okay. Any questions or comments on these items? >> When do we know the sort of full enrollment for the summer learning academy? >> Uh, I believe it's being finalized right now and, uh, so we should know probably closer to March, the end of March, beginning of April at least, what we're anticipating. It's always a little bit fluctuating until we get started though. >> Okay. And is it usually capacity limited?
060>> Uh, it usually is at capacity. However, if we have more students that we wish, we'll make sure that we are still at capacity. So, we will we will add capacity accordingly. >> That's helpful. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's good to know. Okay, great. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Mrs. Lynch, will you please call the role? >> Mr. Good. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hamilton, >> yes. >> Dr. Hasselorn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynch, >> yes. Miss Sitch, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cooper, >> yes. >> Miss Dad, >> yes. >> Miss Finley, >> yes. >> Mr. Frank, >> yes. >> Nine yes votes. Uh, motion carries. And >> I also have a personal information item, the salary crossovers. So, this is item seven. There will be no motion, but um, the professional employees
061listed below were eligible to cross over on the salary scale for the 2025 2026 school term based on verification of additional credits earned. This change is effective as of March 1st in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement. um Joshua Brian Branker, Bailey Katona, Melissa Lauderbach, Rachel Metador, Rachel Pard, Julia Pentill, McKenna Robinson, and Ethan Wagner. All of their from and two steps are as indicated here in the agenda. Congratulations on additional educational credits earned. Thank you for your continued learning. >> Thank you. Mr. Good, could you please read us the operations and cooperative services items? >> I have five, excuse me, I have five items to move on. First is to approve the agreement as attached between the Fox Chapel School District and Interstate Studio to furnish individual portra portraits and provide other photography services
062to the district for students in pre kindergarten through grade 12 for the 2026 2027 school year with the option to extend for the 2027 28, the 2829, the 2930 and the 3031 school years with no package price increases throughout the term of the agreement. This is a renewal of services and there is no cost to the district. Second, approve the agreement as attached between the Fox Chapel area school district and in community magazines incorporated for the fall 2026, winter 2026, spring 2027, and summer 2027 issues at the cost at a cost of $7,000 per each quarterly issue effective July 1st, 2026. This is a renewal of services. Number three, approve the amendment to renew the service agreement with the care solus as attached to provide a web-based navigation system to assist its school district clients
063and the district's students and parents in locating and connecting with mental health treatment providers and community- based social services effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30, 2027 at a total cost of $14,000 pursuant to the service agreement that was approved January 10th, 2022. This is a renewal of services and will be funded by a Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency School Safety Grant. Number four, approve the agreement as presented between the Fox Chapel Area School District and Moblcom for the purchase and installation of safety and security equipment effective March 9th, 2026 at a cost of $8,950. This is a new agreement. And number five, appointment of solicitor. The appointment of Paul J. Trfrey Esquire as solicitor to the Fox Chapel Area School District pursuant to 24 PS4 406 for the period July 1st, 2026 through
064June 30th, 2028 is approved as attached. And I move on those items. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments on these items? >> In community magazines go to every household in the district. >> They do. They go to every mailing address in the district. >> Okay, great. Um, okay. I would just be curious. I I don't know how that cost has changed over time. Shall I assume that it is the cost of production plus the cost of additional homes? >> Uh, it's yes, it is. And, uh, we provide the content, but they do all of the layout. We provide obviously direction for that layout, but uh, that is a service that's included. >> Yeah, it's outstanding. And I recommend everyone read it because there's a lot of really good data in it. It's
065a it's a data publication as much it is a a warm and fuzzy publication. Um and then my other question was um speaking of data about care solace. This is a service that I'm really pumped that we provide. It's something that a number of our um board members have advocated for. Do we have a sense of its use over time? Like where I want to make sure it you know it's a nice idea and I like that we provide it, but I'd be curious if it if we're still confident it's being used. Yes, actually we get monthly impact reports that we review uh not only to review for usage but also to review if there are trends. Just to be clear, any reports that I get or any of the administrators that um don't have
066uh uh unless you're involved in a warm handoff, which means you've entered the information yourself, which is really our school counselors, you don't receive any identifiable information. Uh we see age ranges. We don't see what what what building or things like that. So, it is um very aggregate data uh to protect privacy, but we do monitor that every month. And um it would be my recommendation that we see enough use that it's it's a valuable tool and one that's being used. One thing we we see is how many uh people care solace reports that have had appointments into care. What we don't always see is the number of anonymous searches that may have also resulted in care. We see how many searches there were. But um the the beautiful thing about Carousel is if you
067don't want to involve us or you don't want to involve Carlus, you still have access to the same set of resources that you can do independently. And so it really provides the most flexibility we can to try and um break down any uh concerns or barriers or time barriers that people have. >> Great. >> And correct me if I'm wrong, but anyone in our district area is able to access. >> That is accurate. Uh it's not only our students, but it's also our students families whether or not they attend the school. It's all of our staff members and their families whether or not they live in the district. So it's really anyone in our school community or associated with it that can benefit from it, which is another wonderful service. We do get aggregate data
068based on if it's a student or if it's a family reported, but these are self-reported. We we you know don't know particularly. We do see usage of all of our groups. >> Great. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Okay. Mrs. Lynch, will you please call the role? >> Mr. Hamilton? >> Yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lynch? Yes. Miss Sitch? Yes, >> Mrs. Cooper. >> Yes, >> Miss Dad. >> Yes, >> Miss Finley. >> Yes, >> Mr. Frank. >> Yes, >> Mr. Good. >> Yes. >> Nine yeses. Motion carries. >> Thank you. It's time for our second public comment period. I think we do have someone signed up. >> Okay, Mrs. Owens, you want to come on up? You'll have three minutes and I'll let you know when you have one minute left.
069>> Hello. Good evening. Um, my name is Netty Owens and I'm a parent with two daughters currently enrolled at Fox Chapel Area High School. I'm here tonight uh because of something that happened in the school that c that I feel caused real harm to the students and I believe the school board deserves to know about it and to respond. um you my understanding is that other parents have written um letters uh and I'm glad to know that but I felt compelled to come here tonight. On Thursday, February 5th, the Fox Chapel Area High School hosted a Rachel's Challenge Assembly. Students were told it was about mental health and suicide prevention. And what they actually experienced was a graphic step-by-step reenactment of the Coline school shooting, complete with video footage, audio of the massacre, images of
070grieving parents, and emotionally manipulative storytelling that left several students sobbing and other students described as traumatized. When it was over, students were simply sent back to class. No debrief, no counselors, no acknowledgement that what they had just sat through was anything other than a normal school day. I've pro provided each of I will provide here you go each of you with um a report that documents my concerns in detail, but here are some of the headlines. Rachel's Challenge has been operating in schools for over 20 years. The message that kindness matters is not the problem. The methodology is. The organization's own records have acknowledged that most of their impact data is anecdotal. There's no peer review, no randomized control trial showing that a one-time emotional assembly produces lasting change in high school students. In fact,
071the research shows the opposite, that one-time awareness presentations at a high school level have null or potentially harmful effects. And this points to a larger um problem than just the Rachel's challenge um presentation. >> One minute. >> Our students are regularly asked to bear witness to some of the most devastating events in human history. The Holocaust, the Vietnam War, September 11th. Teaching it is important, but there's a difference between educating students about a traumatic event and immersing them in the horror of it. When we present the atrocity without context, without analysis, and without any meaningful discussion on how those events came to happen and what could prevent them in the future, we're just traumatizing our children. We're asking students to absorb pain without giving them the tools to do anything about it. The question of
072a history lesson should answer not only what happened, but why did it happen? Who had the power to stop it? And what can we do differently in the future? Rachel's challenge didn't ask those questions. It asks the students to feel intensely and then to go on to second period. What the research does support is sustained emotional learning integrated into school culture by sc by bystander skills training multidisciplinary threat assessment teams progressive programs like KA. >> Your time's up. >> Okay. >> Sorry. >> That's no problem. >> Thank you. Okay, next up, Fox Chapel Educators Association. Mrs. Boast have comment. Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. All right. Board comments. Mr. Good. >> Uh, no comment. Thanks. >> Okay, Miss Zitch. Um I just want to thank again the student leaders who attended the eradicate hate summit.
073Um that's a wonderful thing to do. It's important to do that in in community with students from other schools. Um and that was outstanding as um I also wanted to um say thank you for hosting the lunch or um brunch for seniors this weekend. >> Um I hope that as many folks can attend as do um do attend as can and um I look forward to hearing how that goes. >> That's it. >> Thank you, Mrs. Cooper. Um yes, tomorrow is our academic committee and we'll have the very exciting conversation on data. Um we started this conversation a few months ago as a committee and shortly after there was a study released that was done in October 2025 and I emailed the committee with it in November. Um it was a early literacy study of
074course. Um it was done with 250,000 students, 14,000 schools in 43 states. Um and in the end basically the the summary was the earlier that students get intervention um the the more likely they are to catch up in reading which I think feels like a nobrainer. Um but it also talks about the importance of those early assessments. Um just for example about half of the students um 51% if they're if they're at risk and below reading expectations in kindergarten, um about 51% will not be caught up. Um by the end of third grade, first grade that jumps to 71%, second grade, that jumps to 82%. Um at the beginning of third grade, that jumps to 95%. Um when I sent this out back in November, I asked if we can kind of look at our
075data on uh early reading through that lens. um again to kind of advocate for us doing those assessments on students in K through two um to catch those um students and there's national data here to say that that can make a real difference in a student's life. So just want to sort of bring it to the attention of all the board members. Um of course you're welcome to come and talk about data uh tomorrow as well. Um but I just want to keep that in the forefront of everyone's mind as we had lovely first graders reading very well to us earlier today who are brilliant and great. >> Thank you Mrs. Lynch. >> Um I would just uh second the early intervention and screening. I know that that is actually true on the gifted end
076of the conversation as well, especially earlier we were talking about a year worth of growth data and that can be significant at those early ages when some readers are reading chapter books from the beginning. So I think that that becomes important across a lot of our different um parts of our school. So um would lean into that a little bit. I will also say um acknowledge that I have had community members and uh students reach out to me as well about Rachel's challenge and have shared those concerns with Dr. Rejack and and sent them on to uh to our administrators uh so that we can assess um whether or not this is a program that we want to use in the future. Um, I don't, well, I'll speak for myself. Kindness does matter and it
077is important, but I do think there are a lot of much more powerful mental health interventions that we need to be focused on when it comes to um, violence in our schools and I've spoken for a long time about how important the work that we do with mental health with our students is. So I will continue to talk about that and I will continue to say that that is the most important thing that we can do and um to advocate for that. So >> thank you Mr. Hamilton. >> No comment. >> Dr. Hasselhorn, >> congratulations to the high school speech and debate team who've had some great results from their tournaments um recently and um the kids who went to the calcul math competition. I just like highlighting the academic awards because it's they don't
078get the the harrah that they will be here in April, I believe. >> Um yeah, they do. >> And then again, another thank you to everyone who participated in that comprehensive planning um process, volunteering their time so generously to share their thoughts and to um even coming for public comment at a board meeting. I think sometimes we forget that, you know, folks have come and sat for an hour and and shared a a lot of of their time and and that shows the commitment and care to to the students in our schools and I I appreciate that. >> Thank you, Miss Finley. >> No comment. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Frank. >> Yes. Just a quick comment. um very unscientific but but we as a board approved hundreds of of uh clubs and activities and
079sports after school. the impact of those situations, whether it's robotics or chess club or inter murals at every building or high school sports, middle school sports. Um, girls flag football means those kids come to school every day because they have to be in school in order to in order to participate in practices in games and competitions. And so the impact on attendance because we support all those clubs and the faculty support and the parents support those clubs, the impact on attendance is is uh probably immeasurable. But I've I've heard hundreds of times, what time do I have to be at school tomorrow because I know we have a game. And so they'll they'll have to be here before 10:30, you know, to you know to clock in at 11 to to participate. So the impact
080besides mental health, physical health, etc. is is it helps the academics. Thank you. >> Thank you. Good point, Mr. Frank. Um, and thank you, Mrs. Owens, for coming tonight and giving public comment. Could I have a motion to adjurnn? I >> move second. >> All in favor? Meeting adjourned.