001Test them out. How are you? >> Check one, two. Check one, two. >> Check one, two. Please 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 meeting. The board reviewed confidential student matters that if discussed in public would lead to the disclosure of confidential information or information protected by law. The board also also reviewed with counsel information or strategy in connection with pending litigation matters and/or issues with about which identifiable complaints may be filed. Mrs. Anusk, will you please call the role? Mrs. Cooper >> here. >> Miss Dad, >> here. >> Miss Finley >> here. >> Mr.
002Frank >> here. >> Mr. Good >> here. >> Mr. Hamilton >> here. >> Dr. Hasselhorn >> here. >> Mrs. Lynch >> here. >> Miss Zitch >> here. Nine members present. >> Thank you. Dr. Rjack, could you please introduce our guests? >> It is my pleasure to introduce our guests. Uh this evening, Hartwood Elementary School principal, Dr. Rachel Fishbaw is here to introduce a Hartwood Elementary School staff member, our teacher, our students, um many several uh many third grade students who will be talking about the JAM Be the Kind Kid program and also who will be honoring the school board for school director recognition. I'll turn over to Dr. Fishbot. >> Good evening to the board and to the audience to our um Hartwood Elementary School parents. Thank you for coming this evening. I have the
003pleasure of introducing Mrs. Papsunic. Mrs. Papsunic is Hartwood's computer science teacher. Also, she has implementated implemented our GM club on her own time. Under her leadership, students have demonstrated kindness through their donations to charities. Thank you to Mrs. Papsunic and our third grade GM members can see stand. Okay. Thank you for the opportunity for us to be here. We have six students. one um at the last minute wasn't able to make it, but we have our students here from the GM program um who would like to express the gratitude for all that you do for the students here within the district um and the staff as well. So, the JAM program really is built upon the concept of spreading kindness and helping others. Um, so they'd like to share some ways that our program lines
004up with the pillars to success as well as um matches the attributes that you demonstrate on a daily basis for them to kind of follow and and make down to a third grade level. So, I'm going to turn it over to them to express some gratitude and thank you for your support. Okay, good. Step here so they can hear you. Thank you for recognizing that students have different interests and needs. >> Thank you for private providing opportunities for clubs and organizations within our schools. >> Thank you for supporting the development of the whole child. >> Thank you for demonstrating by by dedicating your time and efforts to the students of our district. Thank you for showing up to support the teachers and students. >> Thank you for encouraging all members of Fox Chapel Area School
005District to help us grow in word using the pillars of success as a guide. >> The Jam organization supports the district's efforts to build a learning community based on the pillars to success. We appreciate that you the board members have have provided us with the time and resources to bring such an important program to our school. We have modeled the nature of giving and supporting those around you with the important work you do for our jam community. In a similar way, the jam organization provides us with the same with the chance to support and give to people in our school and community by spreading kindness and supporting local charities. We know that every day you are faced with making decisions for our school community. JAM allows us to use our voice to help make decisions
006within our organization. We have the opportunity to help select the projects that we complete as well as the charities that we support. The members of the group learn about entrepreneurship and engage in maker opportunities and ultimately find ways to spread kindness. Like the passion each of you show for ensuring that the Fox Chapel Area School District continues to grow and thrive. The members of our group have a passion of using their creativity to spread kindness and help the others. The 46 members are dedicated to helping those around them, even giving up recess once per week to attend the group meetings. The board has established many ways to build safe and supportive environments for us to learn. Our jam-packed closet provides an additional resource for our Hartwood family by providing basic necessities for anyone in our
007building who may need them. The support available for students in our district to experience building connections in the community provides kids from kindergarten through 12th grade the chance to see how they can impact the world around them no matter how old they are. Our jam program has connected with all these organizations in the last four years. This year we will be supporting Light of Life and Zip with us with the profits from our jam sale and apparel sale. This year we have a special project in the work thanks to a Little Buds grant that we will be awarded by the school district. With the help of this money, we will be able to host an evening event inviting our parents or guardians to help make snack bags for the family staying at the Ronald McDonald.
008Then we have an opportunity to go on a field trip to the Ronald McDonald House to deliver the bags in our pull tab collection and learn about how our donations support people utilizing the house. >> Thank you for helping to provide this amazing experience for the students in our organization. On behalf of the JAM organization, Hartwood Elementary, and the entire Fox Chapel Area School District, we want to say a huge thank you to our school board members. >> We see how much you care about our school, students, and teachers. Thank you for being leaders who show us what kindness and generosity looks like. By challenging us to always do our best, you are helping us grow into the leaders of tomorrow. We are so grateful for everything you do to make the Fox Chapel Area
009School District a place where we feel safe, supported, and ready to learn. >> As a token of our appreciation, we would like to share with you a few of the projects we are working on in preparation for our jam sale at the end of the school year. We hope you will place these items somewhere special to be an ongoing reminder of how much the students of Fox Chapel Area School District appreciate all that you do. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Adorable. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Thank you. Well, I know that the Jam Be the Kind Kid Club at Hartwood is an active organization and when you walk in the halls of Hartwood Elementary, you can just feel the kindness and the sense of community that our students uh under the
010the guidance of Mrs. Patsunic and our entire staff really um give to the building and to everybody else and we are so proud of all of you for coming and also for spreading kindness as much as you do. I wonder if any board members have any questions or things for them. >> Just thank you. Your group sounds wonderful and keep up the good work >> and assure you that we will of course keep your gifts. I have many from past years. I have a >> box with my face on it. I mean, you know, they're really they're iconic. They sit. >> This is really special. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Well, and I not only appreciate our students for coming and their families for bringing them and our staff for being here, but I
011also want to just say that how much I appreciate our board of directors uh and our board members. You know, every month, every month, they have public meetings where they invite members of the public to come. Uh they seriously talk about business that matters to our children and to our school community. Uh they make hard decisions. Uh they try and gather as much information as possible and they work as partners with our district's administrative team and uh do a great job of representing our community. And so, uh, I think it's important that we celebrate not only our board of directors this month, but the local democracy that happens in action every single month, day in and day out without fail um, based on the work of our board members who work tirelessly uh, in a
012volunteer position and um, make a difference for our children. So, I want to say thank you as well. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> All right. And that concludes tonight's guests for Be the Kind Kid. We have more later. >> All right. Next up, we have the Fox Leadership Council representatives Grayson Patterson and Kelsey >> Th. Okay. Uh, good evening. I'm Kelsey Tom. and I'm Carissa Dobby. Uh I'm a senior here at Fox Chapel and I'm in my second year at AW Batty Career Center. Uh I'm the Batty representative for the Fox Leadership Council. Um and next year my plans are to attend Dukane University to study health sciences on a premed track. I am also a senior here at Fox Chapel High School and I attend AWBD career center as a third-year senior in
013the cosmetology program after my recent relocation from Alabama. Uh so AWB career center is a great uh opportunity for Fox Chapel students. It's a career in um technical school. Um there I'm a part of the surgical sciences program. Batty gives students like us the opportunity to start learning stuff that will help out in our future careers or in college. Uh for me, I'm learning things like anatomy and physiology, transfers, transport, medical laws, instruments, and a ton more. Some of the things that I've learned so far, I will not even learn until I'm out of college into the workforce. So, it's really beneficial for me to start learning this now. Being a part of the cosmetology program has given me the chance to build a career as a young high school student. I work hands-on in
014the salon every single day doing haircuts, hair colors, perms, relaxers, facials, nails, and everything beauty under the sun. Having the opportunity to work like this at a young age has helped me to find what I truly love to do. Working in the training salon has given me the confidence to go out of my comfort zone and even work in a salon outside of school. I'm beyond passionate about my career and very grateful to have this opportunity. As as a program, we attend road shows, give back to our community with events in the salon like free veteran haircuts and senior citizen discounts. In the upcoming weeks, sophomores from the district will have the opportunity to come tour the building and explore the many different programs we have. Also, in the springtime, we will have our spring
015open house with more opportunities to explore our programs. Yeah, our spring openhouse is definitely something for anybody to check out. Actually, I know my classroom does like a mock surgery there and the foods class hands out food. So, that's a great um thing to check out. Uh, and outside of the programs, we also have many clubs we can participate in. Uh, one I do myself is called Skills USA, and it allows us to take our skills outside of the classroom and compete against other schools. We also have programs that help us comple connect with employers. One that's coming up is called Partner Up. I'm also participating in this. Um students can take classes to help them with interview skills and um learning on learning skills to help them like connect with employers. Uh we're also
016guaranteed an interview with uh many different employers across the Pittsburgh region. Overall uh us and other Batty students we have talked to uh feel that Batty is a huge asset to students and helps them prepare for the workforce or secondary education. So many students students have gotten great jobs and opportunities as a result of going to Batty. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. I think it's great that you that you presented those facts for the general public. The board has been there se um on multiple occasions to to see some of the things such as um EMT programs, etc. And several of us uh do represent Fox Chapel on that JOC board there. But it's great that the that the community learns all the assets that uh are there. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr.
017Jack, could you give us the superintendence report? >> Yes. Well, this we started the uh day by talking about one of our third grade clubs and now we have uh continued by talking about our programs at AW Batty and we're going to just finish out this round with students to talk about a lens on learning. And so I'd like to introduce something else that happens at our high school that's also hands-on. So you see a theme through all of these clubs tonight. Fox Chapel Haryia High School business education teacher Kim Hollerin and junior Aiden Ducker are here to talk about the high school's business education seal of excellence and I'm going to turn it over to them to explain just another facet of our academic programming. >> Hi, thank you. Um yes, in our business
018department we have something called the business seal of excellence. And the business sale excellence is designed to recognize a student that has taken numerous business courses and a variety of business courses. So we our goal is to provide students with a curriculum that provides them not only just one area of business maybe law but they have to take different pillars in order to get this business seal of excellence. So, they have to take um there's a little bit of a of a guide. They have to take four and a half business credits or six business classes. And those credits and classes have to encompass um different areas, different pillars we call them. So, some of them have to be under technology, they have to learn some software, and some of them have to be maybe
019law or marketing, general business. Um, so it really does, our goal is just to provide them a good foundation for when they go to college. So what we did was we looked at a lot of the colleges that our students go to to study business, Penn State, Pitt, Dukane, um, Michigan, Indiana, and we looked at their curriculum. And so we lined ours up to reflect their curriculum. And every year we get students that email us telling us, "Thank you so much for the foundation in business that you gave us." And it's such so rewarding. But for a while we were getting a lot of emails and the kids were saying, "We loved your class, but we wish we would have learned more of Excel or maybe we wish you would have taken law." So we
020thought by making this business of excellence, we could make it more well-rounded for the kids. So that's when I teach accounting. So I'll say, "Well, law goes really well. If you want to be a CPA, there's a whole section on that exam. And if you want to learn Excel, because I do do a little bit of sheets, but there's so much more." So, I think the kids do get a really good foundation for just learning um to take to the college with them. Uh like I said, we get emails all the time and I even ran into someone in Costco, a whole family on Saturday and it was so rewarding because the girls at Penn State right now and she said she's so far beyond her peers just from the education she got here in
021our business department at Fox Chapel. So, that was so rewarding to hear. um they receive a little um lunchon at the end of the year. The students that um apply for the program um we have it in here and they they play games and they just get a little reward for doing all their hard work. They'll wear a cord at graduation. Um but Mr. Yanuzes is pretty picky. He some people will try to come and get those cords and if you don't meet the requirements, he is not giving them a cord. you know, he feels like it's really a reward for taking academic electives. And we have a student, Aiden, who is an uprising business of excellence student. He's a junior. Most of our um most of our participants are seniors just because we figure
022on his way. He's probably achieve that by next fall. But we wanted to tell you a little bit about what he has experienced in our business. Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Miss Hollerin, and thank you for letting us speak today. Um, my name is Aiden Ducker, and I'm a junior at the high school. So, after hearing about the the SEAL excellence program, I kind of wanted to talk about the business department as a whole and how it has shaped my high school career. So, throughout high school, I've taken intro to business, entrepreneurship, accounting one and two with Miss Hollerin. And next semester I will be taking uh college and co uh financial essentials as well as personal finance and investing. And each of these classes goes far beyond actually definitions from a textbook. They focus on
023how the material actually applied to the real world both in college and beyond rather than just learning for a test. Um, students absolutely need strong skills in language arts, history, and STEM programs, but being financially literate is equally as important. Knowing how to manage money, understand investing, interpret financial reports, and make responsible decisions in their adult career is something every person needs to not only succeed, but also thrive. The business classes give students those skills early so they're not learning them the first time after graduation. That's exactly what the business field of excellence program represents. It recognizes those students that have taken the extra step and commit themselves to financial literacy and business education. They take those courses and they prepare themselves for the real world. I'm currently also in the process of applying for
024the business field of excellence. Fox Shapel business uh depart the the Fox Shovel business department not only teaches business education but also builds confidence, independence and real world skills that stable students long after graduation. The business department and the business field of excellence create meaningful opportunities for students and I encourage all students to take advantage of them. Thank you. If you have any questions I'll be happy to answer. Thank you both so much. So, tonight we've heard about kindness. We've heard about our AW Batty program. We've heard about the business program. And the last thing I want to leave our families with is uh the district was recognized officially in December as a Purple Star School. So, we received this lovely uh plaque which we will display in our district office. Uh and the Purple
025Star School recognizes the district for its support of military connected families. And so it's uh an application. We were one of five school districts in the state of Pennsylvania recognized this year for committing to support military connected families especially as they transition as their orders change. And so as part of that uh there is information on our website that will help military families. Uh our liaison is uh uh Stephen Steven Edwards, Dr. Steven Edwards as well as Miss Susan Nichols. and they will help to pave the way so that it is as seamless as possible if somebody is moving in or out of our district and is connected to the military. So, we want to um congratulate our entire team that reorganized to make sure that we had the processes in place so that the
026there's uh as little anxiety as possible for those that are serving our country and so that we can welcome them in and get those children learning as fast as possible. So, we've have a lot to celebrate tonight in our superintendent report. We have more things coming up, but I don't know that all of our children and family are as interested in the financial reports as maybe the board is. You're all welcome to stay however we recognize if you may have other plans on this Monday evening with a I don't know, maybe a football game or something. >> Or you can stay for the report. It's very exciting. >> Thank you. >> Speakers don't have anything on this. >> No, not at all. auditor or Steelers >> playoff smiling. >> We were so pleased to receive
027the purple uh star award and we were pleased that Dr. Similey was able to represent us. It happened to be a day that everything was going on in our district and we had to find somebody who was uh available to be able to be uh representing us on our behalf and she did a lovely job. So >> great. >> Uh under the superintendent report before we move into our financial reports, there's one other thing I do want to uh recognize is that in the uh board's agenda and in the materials for the board meeting and on our website is the proposed 2026 2027 school calendar. uh it is uh out there with uh the opportunity for people that have questions to ask us those questions and it will be recommended to the board or our
028final recommendation will be for the February meeting and so I just want to call attention to that so that it doesn't get lost for our community. >> Thank you. Y >> and next we uh actually have um our presentation of our district financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025. I'll ask uh Mr. Van Cherry from Hosak Spec Mutil Wood to uh give his presentation this evening and uh speak with the board and answer your questions. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Rojack. Um no better way to clear a room than save out an audit report, right? Or financial stuff. So that that worked pretty easily. Um, also with me is Taylor, uh, uh, who is the manager on the audit that while we were out here. Uh, so I just going to
029touch on I think there's a handout that I think that you had received sort of summarizes the audit report as opposed for the 100page report. We try to put it into two into two pages there. So I'll just touch on a couple items that are in there that I think that are important, but feel free if there's questions as as we're going through there to uh to stop and I'll be more than glad to answer them. Um, so the first thing you'll see in the report is our independent auditors report. So that's the opinion that we're providing on the financial statements. That's what you hire us to do is to provide an opinion on the statements. Uh it states in there it's an unmodified opinion. It also states we audited in accordance with generally accepted
030auditing standards and generally accepted government auditing standards. Uh because the district does expend over $750,000 in federal funds. So that's what the other standards are. Excuse me. Uh looking at the first couple of the statements, uh the balance sheet for your governmental funds, just looking at your fund balance breakdown for the general fund, it's broken into four different categories there. Non-spendable, uh that's really for prepaid items, mainly prepaid health insurance that was paid in June, but is for July, so it's considered to be non-spendable. Uh the committed fund balance of 6,821,000, that's for two different items there. One is a retirement increases in the future of about $6.8 million. And then there's a little bit left in there for some arts grants of $16,000. The assigned fund balance, two categories there, too. Uh the total
031of the 14,161,592. 14 million is for future capital improvements uh throughout the district as as they incur. Then there's a little bit left in there for the athletic activity. Uh that's the money that was been left over that you've been distributing funds from the half of the athletic sales goes into that fund and then is being expended over the years. That's the balance of it. Uh then your unassigned fund balance is $10,763,000. And looking at that from a percentage as a percentage of your budgeted expenditures, which is one way to look at is whether the unassigned fund balance is the right amount, you're at 9%. Uh average what recommend recommendation from GFOA is between 8 to 10%. So you can see your unassigned fund balance is right within the guidelines of what's recommended for for
032governmental units. The other fund you have is the capital project fund. Uh so in there there's $9.3 million. Obviously it's assigned for capital projects. Uh that's the balance there at the end of June 2025. Then looking at your statement of revenues, expenditures and changes in fund balance. Looking at your total revenues 118 million expenditures 114 million. Then other financing sources and uses, the majority of that is transfers uh to the capital project fund that were approved uh during the budget process or subsequent as a as a budget transfer. So your net change in fund balance, meaning that your revenues exceeded your expenditures, that number was $2.6 million. And the reason where that number comes from is you can see your revenues when you look at your revenues compared to what you budgeted for 2425. revenues
033came in $197,000 over budget, which is.17% on $120 million budget. So that side, obviously there was the ones that were over, there was under, but in total you were right there. Uh then on your expenditures, your expenditures did come in under budget. Uh just a little bit over $2.9 million. Uh but we're there again, that's only 2 and a.5% from where you were. So that's where that change in fund balance comes from uh from what you anticipated. Then when you look at your general fund revenues are broken into four categories, local, federal, state, uh, and other financing sources. As as you expect, the local sources represent 78% of your total revenues. And of those local sources, 80% come from real estate tax. So you can see that's where the majority of the funding for the
034district is coming from. Uh, your federal number in the general fund is only $1.3 million. Uh, state 24,352,000. Then when you look at your expenditures the breakdown there from the different categories as expected the instructional cost uh is the majority of your expenditures 60% and then support services which would be guidance principles business office those types of things uh represent 29.6%. Uh debt service is only 4.8% your debt service costs for the district only 4.8% of your total budget uh that's the amounts that are being paid for principal and interest. Then the other fund that we talked about earlier, the capital project funds, uh revenues in there were 483,000. Majority of that is coming from interest income. Expenditures for the year, 2.9 million. Uh almost that whole amount is related to the HVAC project at
035Hartwood. Okay. I know you have another one going on this year, too. So, uh so that's the 2.9 million. And like I said earlier, the general fund did transfer some money over to that fund uh to continue to fund that as you move forward. Um the other fund which is a business type activity fund is your food service fund. Um you can see the change in net position for this year fiscal year 63025 was 119,000 positive. Prior year was $173,000 positive. That slight change and some of that is due to the federal funding that was received in 2324 uh for supply chain assistance that was not a recurring grant revenue that was coming from COVID funds. Then the last the next section of the financial statements or the footnotes they go on for about 40
03650 pages. So couple items just want to point out there. I know we've talked about the pasers uh the pension fund for the district and the net pension liability that's reported on your governmentwide statements. So your share of that net pension liability is $133 million. uh it's down from the prior year and the one of the reasons for that is the total pension liability net pension liability in Pasers is down about $3 billion from the prior measurement day. So that number did come down obviously that number is just measured every year. Some of it depends on where the market's at with the investments you contributions are and so forth. Your percentage of that is a very minimal amount. It's less than less than 1% of the total total liability. uh other post-employment benefits. So you
037do have other post-employment benefits through the district uh which is under the various contracts of the district that that you provide to retirees as they retire. That liability is measured by the actuary and that number comes to $16.8 million. Also within peasers there's a portion of the benefits that are being paid for peasers that go to uh post-employment benefits for retirees. Also that's also measured annually. Measurement date 63024. it's always a year behind. Uh that number is 5.6 million. That's your share of that liability. Then looking at your debt, so you have some general obligation bonds. Your total general obligation bonds outstanding at the end of the year 53,700,000. Uh total principal paid on those during the year was a,960,000. Obviously, that was just a principal. There was interest due on those two that was
038that that was paid and reported. um lease liabilities at the end of the year. There was no lease liability. Uh you did enter into new contracts effective 7125 for new copier. So that will be recognized and we'll see that in 2526 financial statements as a as a liability uh along with the assets associated with those. The last section is the single audit section. Like I said earlier, since the district does expend over $750,000 in federal funds, we are required to audit in accordance with general accepted government auditing standards and also under the uniform grant guidance. Uh so the summary of those results, there's a couple different letters uh in that section that provides opinions on internal control on compliance with the with uh with the federal programs. Uh your total federal programs in total for
0392425 were $2.9 million. Uh the program that we did test uh as a major program for the year was a child nutrition cluster uh which was total of $963,000. That's the money that you receive from donated commodities, monies you receive for school lunch and school breakfast programs u which is about 33% of your total federal expenditures. Uh the results from the testing of that state that there was no m we noted there was no material weaknesses in internal control over the programs that we tested and we noted no items of non-compliance with that major program. Um one thing we'll change for next year the threshold for single audit is going from 750 to a million. I think you'll still be subject to it based upon the size of your school lunch program. Um so that's
040a real quick summary. Hopefully it was somewhat informational uh informative. Uh but if there's any question be more than glad to glad to answer anything from anybody. >> Does anyone have questions? >> Um just in terms of OPED um change, I was a little surprised to see that it went down. uh given that we've had more early retirements uh does that just mean more people are coming off of uh it as well or than than they were added? It >> it could be that and it's also the change in the assumptions the discount rate they use change. So the higher the discount rate the lower the liability would be. So you know that so it's based upon a couple different things the assumptions what their assumptions are for healthcare increases and so forth. Um, so
041that's where part of that comes from. >> And then, um, a concern we've been watching, I just wonder based on your experience with other districts you work with, you're seeing similar trends, is that we usually have an increase in our real estate, uh, revenue and we are essentially flat a little bit down, which is very unusual, but it's because of the the common level ratio changes. Uh, is that what you're seeing generally? And do you guys have any insight into where that might be going and what we need to watch out for there? Yeah, we have seen some of that come down with refunds, especially going back for prior years also. So, um, so you see some of those aren't recorded right against that revenue, but the current year changes with assessment changes have occurred
042in 2324, but also are still occurring in 2425. They seem to have flattened out a little bit like they're not projecting as much going forward. Um it's hard to tell but uh you know some places it depends too whether there's more commercial buildings in some places compared to residential. So where there's you know you can see some places where there's more commercial there's a larger decreases in that revenue because of the because of the uh change in the assessment values. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank Thank you very much and I appreciate the opportunity to look work for the district and I look forward to working with Ryan also as uh as your new business manager. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Take care. >> Thank
043you, >> Miss Dad. The last thing I have under the superintendent's report is just to recognize our Fox Chapel Area School community um for its work with the district's teleathon. uh the district's teleathon for Fox Families Care raised 101,0001 and I believe 95 cents if I'm not mistaken but uh for the teleathon uh through the teleathon efforts of all of our students in K through 12 as well as those of our community uh and it was really a joyful month of celebrations with a lot of creative things but uh to be able to give back to our community at that amount is is something that we should celebrate and I just wanted wanted to recognize that um since it's our first meeting since the teleon. >> Thank you. I appreciate you sharing that number and
044great job to all of our students and faculty who helped with that. >> Okay. Solicitor's report. Mr. Jafrey, >> no report. >> Thank you. Uh, could I have a motion to approve the minutes of the reorganization meeting the combined agenda study session and regular business meeting dated December 2nd, 2025? >> So move. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments on the minutes? Mrs. Anus, will you please call the role? >> Mrs. Cooper, >> yes. >> Miss Dad, >> yes. >> Miss Finley, >> yes. >> Mr. Frank, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Good. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hamilton, >> yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynch, >> yes. >> Miss Zitch, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. It's time for our first public comment period. We do not have anyone
045signed up. So, we will keep moving. Under old business, the academic committee report. Mrs. Cooper. >> Yes. Uh, the board academic committee will meet on January 13, 2026. That's tomorrow at 6 PM in the staff development room on the lower level of the district office. The committee will receive an overview of student services and engage in discussion regarding the perceptual data collection currently occurring in the district. The committee will also explore one of the survey tools that may be an option for the board to consider in the future. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments? What was the perceptual data >> like what what is it >> the how things are perceived by the district? Some might say the climate by the district. >> Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. >> Any other question? >> Ed
046lingo perceptual data. >> Well, no. I just wasn't sure if it was like the climate the climate >> could include that, >> But we don't use that word. We use >> perceptual. We're currently gathering information through some of our curriculum work. We're also currently gathering it through our comprehensive plan and through some leadership teams across the district that involve students, involve staff members, as well as uh some community organizations. And all of that information is going to help us to understand not only how people are thinking about our district, where we may be going in the future, and then may also inform what may be a more uh regularly occurring uh climate survey or something to that effect. >> Neat. Great. Thank you. >> Any other questions? The governance committee report. Mr. Frank. >> The
047board governance committee met on January 6th, 2026. The committee discussed the plan for regular policy maintenance and determined that the policies would be reviewed as required due to legal changes or as needed in the future. The committee then discussed opportunities that they could work on, including engaging with the PSBA platform, drafting a board self- assessment process, creating board goals and or generating a board member handbook. The committee decided to to create a draft board member handbook during its future meetings. The committee finished their meeting by reviewing the perceptual data questions that are being used in the district's comprehensive plan process. The committee brainstormed ideas for additional questions and determined that the current list of questions was a good list. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments? >> Okay, Miss Zitch, the projects and
048planning committee report. >> Yes, the projects and planning committee will meet on January 20th, so a week from tomorrow at 6 p.m. in the staff development room on the lower level of the district office. The agenda is still being finalized. We are entering budget season which usually preoccupies us a great deal as well as um updating and reviewing capital projects etc. But we will also be discussing a needed HVAC and domestic water project at Fox Chapel Area High School. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments? Okay. On to new business. Uh Mrs. Lynch, could you please give us the facilities and transportation update? >> No actions requested. Thank you. Mr. Hamilton, could you please read the finance items for us? >> Yes. We have seven items to approve this evening. I I move on the
049following. Uh item one, dispersements from fund 10 for November 2025, general fund dispersements from fund 10 in the amount 10,448,64410. Item two is fund dispersements from fund 31 for November 2025 capital reserve fund dispersements in the amount of $249,486.92. Item three for dispersments from front fund 10 December 2025 general fund dispersments from fund 10 in the amount of 11,449,239. Item four finance report for November 2025 is acknowledged and filed for audit as attached. Item five, budget transfers for 2025 256 are approved as attached. Item six, the 2024 2025 audit report. Approved the audit report submitted by host expets mutual and wood LP for the fiscal year ended June 20 June 30th 2025. This report is available for the public on the district website. Item seven, resolution 2026-1, election not to increase the tax rate above
050the index. Approve resolution 2026-1 as attached, electing not to increase the tax rate over the index in the 2026 2027 general fund operating budget. I move on items 1 through 7. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Hamilton. Never mind. Correct that it's 3.5% for the um >> I believe that's correct for the act one index. >> For the act one index. Yes. >> Okay. Any questions or comments? >> I did have one question on the finance report. Um there's a between October or yeah between >> November. Yeah, this is the November report. So between October and November, there's an additional 1.5 and other uses. 1.5 million in other uses the change uh in the finance report which wasn't in October. I don't recall. I assume that's a transfer to capital probably but I don't recall
051for sure and I don't remember why we would have done it in October to November. Do we know >> you said it was 1.5 >> 1.5? Yeah >> in o from October to November. >> Yeah. >> I'm not sure. I'll ask Mr. Manzer if he happens to know. I have a fund 10 transfers to MSIP annually at 1.5 million >> that was >> to what >> something called MPC cip >> sorry >> but that that would have been a budgeted transfer though >> it should have been a change to the original budget in October November >> I don't know that >> pardon me >> yes I don't know that either of us knows that off the top of our head but we can certainly um get back to you on I had a I had
052a silly technical question which is that I hadn't noticed this in prior dispersement reports for the for the general fund dispersements. This budget code that's just the number 10 and isn't along multi-digit code as many others. There are a number of transactions that don't seem like thematically aligned. And I was just curious if that's a coding error or if it's an artifact of >> Can you give me where you're looking at it? >> Sorry. So, um anywhere, um electronic pages starting, um like the I guess the PDF page count is page number 23 and the printed page count is page 35. There's just a large number of these um >> Oh, I see. >> budget units that have the number 10, but no other numbers. And it's toward the bottom of page 35. >> And
053that that continues on across multiple pages. And I'm curious if those are like to be coded or they're all general funds, other recoverable dispersements. Okay. >> Do you mind do you mind coming up to the mic so that people online can hear what you're saying? >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Sure. So those are all balance sheet accounts. So if you look at the fifth column over the rest of the account is there. >> So these are summations. These are some amount up to that level. So for instance, um the American Fidelity is uh paid through a balance sheet account. So that's an employee withholding. There's just not an expense account. The expense accounts are the longer digit numbers and the balance sheet accounts have a shorter code. >> The account code is long when
054I see when the budget unit is short. >> Interesting. Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. Mr. Hamilton, are you going to feel comfortable voting on these reports without the answer to the question that you had? >> Yes. Is that clear? We can always adjust it. There's a issue with that. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. Mrs. Anus, will you please call the role? Miss Dad, >> yes. >> Miss Finley, >> yes. >> Mr. Frank, >> yes. >> Mr. Good, >> yes. >> Mr. Hamilton, >> yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynch, >> yes. >> Miss Sitch, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cooper, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Mrs. Cooper, could you please read the instruction item? >> I will just be moving on one items um one item to approve the stipulated
055adjudications as presented. Move on that. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments? Mrs. Anusk, will you please call the role? >> Miss Finley? >> Yes. >> Mr. Frank? >> Yes. >> Mr. Good? >> Yes. >> Mr. Hamilton? >> Yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lynch? >> Yes. >> Miss Zitch? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cooper? >> Yes. >> Miss Dad? >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Mr. Frank, will you please read the legislation and policy item >> under policies revised? The second reading and adoption. Number 100, comprehensive planning. Number 101, vision, mission statement, beliefs, shared values. Number 143, standard standards of persistently dangerous schools. 309 assignment and transfer. 312 Performance Assessment of Superintendent/Deputy Superintendent 316 Non-Tened Employees. 335 Family and Medical Leaves 338.1 Compensated Professional Leaves 706.1 Disposal of Surplus
056Material Property I'm sorry, property and obsolete equipment. 718 Service Animals in Schools. 9007 school visitors 911 news media relations 913.1 small games of chance I would move all those items. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments about the policies? Okay. Mrs. Anus, will you please call the role? >> Mr. Frank, >> yes. >> Mr. Good. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hamilton, >> yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynch, >> yes. Miss Zitch, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cooper, >> yes. >> Miss Dad, >> yes. >> Miss Finley, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Miss Zitch, will you please read the personnel items? >> Uh, yes. I'm moving on the following items. Item one, resignation professional, the resignation of Kristen L. Bashforth, elementary teacher at Kerr Elementary School under the retirement plan
057as outlined in the 2023 28 Fox Chapel Educators Association collective bargaining agreement. The resignation of Daniel Z. Kirk, English teacher at Fox Chapel Area High School under the same agreement. The resignation of Mary E. Leler, gifted support teacher at Dorseyville Middle School. Under the same agreement, the resignation of Thomas Dean Mule, science teacher at Fox Chapel High School, under the retirement plan. The resignation of Noel M. Noel, math teacher at Dorsyville Middle School under the retirement plan. The resignation of Peter J. Shiner, science teacher at Fox Chapel High School under the retirement plan. The resignation of Jill R. uh Tabis Tabis, um, business education teacher at Fox Chapel High School under the retirement plan. The resignation of Lawrence G. Thomas, science teacher at Fox Chapel Area High School under retirement plan. Item B, custodial maintenance.
058The resignation of Michael W. Eeling, 10 month 8 hour for day custodian at O'Hara Elementary School due to retirement. The resignation of James C. Moore, 12-month 8 hour for day maintenance employee for the Fox Chop Larry School District due to retirement. For supplemental contracts athletic, the resignation of Amber Jones, cheerleading middle school head, fall due to personal reasons. The resignation of Amber Jones, cheerleading middle school head, winter due to personal reasons. and the resignation of Elenni um McGrath, Lacrosse Girls High School First Assistant due to personal reasons. Item two, appointments, educational support. Jonathan Powell is approved as a personal care assistant at Hartwood Elementary School. For custodial maintenance, James D. Bern Bernick is approved as a 10-month 8 hour per day custodial employee for the Fox Chapel High School for a probationary period. Brad A.
059Gothier is approved as a 12-month 8 hour per day custodial employee for Fox Chapel School District for a probationary period. Michael P. Ventrice is approved as a 10-month 8 hour per day custodial employee. Andrea M. Yorio is approved as a 10-month 8 hour per day custodian um for Fox Chapel School District for a probationary period. Item C, supplemental contracts athletic. Jeannie Kirk, a lacrosse girls high school first assistant. Ellen Elenny or Ellen McGrath, excuse me, lacrosse girls high school first assistant. Um supplemental contract is approved for Justin Patterson, crossc country high school head. supplemental contract non-athletic um for Jennifer Elcuda English High School department head item three leaves professional Heather R. Fontana elementary teacher at Fairview Elementary School is approved for a second semester medical sobatical Ashley L. Penny Elementary teacher at O'Hara Elementary School
060is approved for childbearing and adoption leave. Item four, leave replacement professional. Taylor R. Trasadi is approved as a second semester leave replacement elementary teacher at Fairview Elementary School due to the medical sobatical of Heather Fontana. Item five, change of status administration. Laura M. Miller, EVD, program principal at Dorsyville Middle School is approved as a principal at Dorsyville Middle School effective July 1st due to the retirement of Jonathan Naw House. Um for homebound instruction, um item six, a teacher Ellison C. Francis is ratified as a homebound instruction teacher for 2526 school year. Item seven, extra innings instructional assistant, uh Rebecca After is approved at Hartwood Elementary School. Item eight, substitute athletic trainer, Jen Janelle Wolf, is ratified effective January 12th as a substitute certified athletic trainer. Item nine, volunteer athletic, um Brad Kashinsky for is approved
061for wrestling high school. I move on these nine items. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments? >> I'm I'm I love science in its best. >> I think we're all in that moment. >> Yeah, we're I'm very interested in um how how we're going to address this very large gap in our science um team >> and math and math. >> What is what is the size of the department at the high school? Maybe start there. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Uh science 13 I believe in the department at the high school. >> Okay. >> Um obviously mathematics is the middle school but >> that's why I'm working with Dr. Rejack. I recommended and she agreed to we normally we got started earlier than we have before because of the uh the two physics positions
062in particular. Also, we had difficulty. We're still looking uh for mathematics at the middle school. So, we want to get the process started so that we can get through site and teams approved. >> What sort of new uh recruitment practices might we incorporate for these positions? >> Well, It's been a while since we've had to to to bring in the sciences. Um, I was going to do the initial posting as early this week to see what kind of initial uh interest we get in a number of individuals and determine if we have to do something differently. Uh, the physics is a concern because there's so few that are graduating every year. So, >> like a handful. >> Yeah. So, >> I'm not I know we don't typically need to have this conversation, but do we
063consider alternative or sim simultaneous certification for highly qualified educators who might have advanced degrees in physics if if they're not yet fully educators are on their path to educating? Like, do we have a pathway for people to become certified while teaching in Fox Chapel Area High School? >> Uh there is a pathway in the state for emergency certification, but we don't hire permanent positions that are not yet certified. I see. um because uh that we we you have to prove that you cannot hire a certified teacher in order to access an emergency certified pathway. So um you would have to have zero certified people apply um to be able to do that. So I know uh Dr. Mccommens and I talked it was his suggestion that we bring the retirements a month earlier than we
064usually do to give us a longer amount of time to be able to do this. Um I know Dr. Mccommens uh and I have been in contact with our higher education partners notifying them of the larger group um individual people. I know Dr. McCins was at the University of Pittsburgh last week and there was conversation about that. I've talked to to people at Point Park and other places. So, we're looking to make sure that we recognize that, but it's going to be a challenge and there's no way around that. Um the state of Pennsylvania graduates with physics certifications less than you know 10 some years less than 20 for the entire state and um uh Pennsylvania does have some reciprocal certification from elsewhere in the country. We have tried that tack before to to uh
065go out outside of the area. Um Dr. Mccommens I don't know a lot of that happened before I came and then early when I came. I know when I was here we didn't have success. I'm not sure if we had success prior. >> We have not had success with that. Now, >> what were the states where there's reciprocal certification? >> I'm sorry, that's specific. >> What states? >> What like where else do we where where where are we able to uh welcome certified teachers from other states? >> Well, there's a nobody can just move without automatically. There's still some things they have to do here in Pennsylvania, but there are states that have uh easier um transitions whenever you come into Pennsylvania. And so, >> so it's not even full reciprocity. >> No. No. >>
066Yeah. That's what >> like I moved here from Massachusetts >> and they have reciprocal certification, but I still had to take another test and do all sorts of paperwork to get Pennsylvania certification. >> you mentioned working with local universities. Are we allowed to use professors or bring in sort of that level of individual? >> Only if we cannot find a single certified teacher. whether they uh meet our our interview process or not, you have to prove that there's no one certified in the state of Pennsylvania to teach in order to access the emergency certification as the option. And I want to be clear, we do have emergency certified people from time to time in certain areas, especially in hard to fill areas. That is something that this district as well as most districts like ours
067have never had to do until the last four or five years. But the decrease of over 60% of people going into the education field across the country and Pennsylvania um graduating less teachers than it needs every year has caused very interesting times. Uh so our hope is that with a longer runway for us to be able to recruit, we have a little bit more opportunity to be able to see that through and find the right candidates for us. Um, and just to add a little more stress to this, the science standards have recently changed. It's a sort of a new level of upheaval in a science department. I think if they're also looking at new teachers and new curriculum and new standards. So, I think there is reason for concern here and I I would
068urge the board to give our full support to whatever needs to happen to make that department um what it needs to be. I mean yes please shop has a long history of very strong science >> two physics teachers is a problem >> maybe a meaningful question would be how can we help >> well I think one of the things that all of us can do in our school community is realize that education is a very wonderful profession for people to be in and and I mean that with all sincerity and I know I chose it I know many of you chose it but uh we need more people to go into the education field there are pathways in universities ities to be able to have people who have college degrees that might be in the
069sciences who don't have a teaching certification to earn those in a compressed time frame. It's one of the reasons that we have been hosting MAT students or masters in teaching students uh from the University of Pittsburgh to showcase and build relationships before they're even embarking on their program. So, we have many people in that program that are working professionals that are changing careers. So, the state of Pennsylvania has that option. we would be happy to help talk to people about those options and different programs uh or connect them with our partners in higher education. I think the other thing that we can do is to contact our networks of people who may be interested uh and those maybe who are out of state that may want to relocate back to the Pittsburgh area. Maybe we're
070originally from this area or may choose to work here because it's a great area to live and um that always is helpful. The more word of mouth the better. We find many of our positions because somebody reached out to a colleague somewhere or a contact and notified them that there is the position. Dr. Mccommens and I have regularly for just about every position notified our like peers not just in this region but AC really anybody we knew uh that's in our contact list um across the state and uh even into other states. And that has sometimes proven may not be the person that we reach out to, but they may know somebody else. And so that's been a really positive tack for us and um a really great step that we've taken. And I think
071that we we recognize we know that this was a concern. We've been looking at this concern. We've been looking at that flexibility for that department. And so um we we will we will look forward to trying to solve that problem as a team. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Mrs. Anus, will you please call the role? >> Mr. Good. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hamilton, >> yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynch, >> yes. >> Miss Zitch, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cooper, >> yes. >> Miss Dad, >> yes. >> Miss Finley, >> yes. >> Mr. Frank, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> I do have one more item. Um for tenure information, the following employee is eligible for professional employees contract tenure effective January 23rd 26. And that's Alex Alexis
072Hurlbut. That is a non I don't believe it's a motion item. I think it's just aformational >> congratulations Dr. Miller. >> Yes. I was just going to say before we move on, congratulations to Dr. Miller who's here tonight. >> Congratulations. >> Okay. Uh Mr. Good. Could you please read the operations and cooperative services items? >> Yes. I have two items. The first is to ratify the agreement as a task between the Fox Shoper School District and Benjamin Bliss for Coral Program accompany accompanist accompanist uh I can't say that word. Services at a total cost of $3,000 effective September 8th, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. This is a renewal of services. Number two, approve the following student teaching affiliation agreements as attached. Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Western Penest University. I move on those two items.
073>> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments on those items? Any chance those student teachers are in the science department? >> Unfortunately, no. >> They never are. >> And I work with student teachers at Dukane. So, I will um talk to people at Dukane about uh our openings in the science department. >> Any other comments? >> Okay, Mrs. Anus, will you please call the role? >> Mr. Hamilton, >> yes. >> Dr. Hasselborn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynch, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cooper, >> yes. >> Miss Dad, >> yes. >> Miss Finley, >> yes. >> Mr. Frank, >> yes. >> Mr. Good, >> yes. >> Motion carries. Thank you. It's time for our second public comment period. We do not have anyone signed up. So, next up, Fox Chapel Educators Association,
074Mrs. Macken, she's hurrying so she can get home to the game. >> Good evening, happy new year. Uh just want to quickly following uh from Hartwood. That was wonderful to see those students presenting uh for all of you. Uh just on behalf of FCA and all of the teachers in the school district, we want to thank you all uh for the we know how much time and dedication you all put forth on behalf of us and the community. So thank you all for that. We also want to welcome and congratulate uh Dr. Miller as she takes the reigns uh at Dorsyville. We we are excited to have her as the new principal and we wish Dr. House well in retirement and we uh will miss very much uh the long list of teachers that will
075be uh go moving on to the next chapter uh with their retirement. Uh it's it's shocking to me to see so many of those names as many of those teachers were mentors to me when I started. Uh and we are thankful for Dr. Rjac and Dr. from commons and all of you looking forward uh to knowing how important it will be to be looking now to hire for the future and go Steelers. Okay, board comments. Mr. Hamilton, >> uh just one comment. Um this uh next Wednesday, January 21st, uh our state representative Mandy Steele is hosting a town hall on cell phones and schools. I think it's a very um important topic. uh one that she's seeking feedback on because that she has sponsored and has bipartisan support for a bill HB1814 which would uh
076be essentially a what they call refer to as a bell to bell ban uh on cell phones uh which some school districts have adopted others have not um and uh she's looking for input and feedback on on that topic so um I'm also interested and will be attending. >> Thank you. I will also be attending that. Dr. Houseorn, >> um I just want to congratulate the early graduates who will be having their ceremony this week. Um sometimes they don't get the pomp and circumstance that happens in June, but it's still a huge accomplishment and we're very proud of them. >> Go ahead, M. >> I forgot to say what time where. So it is at 6 PM at Seagull Library. >> Yes. Thank you, Mrs. Lynch. Um, I just wanted to say I was happy
077to hear about the Purple Star School recognition. Um, as a spouse of a veteran, I know that not only do our military members make huge sacrifices, but our families do as well, and supporting them through those transitions can be a very big deal. So, just wanted to uh say I was proud to hear that the district had done that work. Thank you, Miss Finley. >> Um, just wanted to say, uh, thank you for everyone who came and presented to us. I especially enjoy the keychain and the magnet. I think they're extremely cute this year. Um, and happy new year and good luck and see you next month. >> Thank you, Mr. Frank. >> Yes. U I'll skip a couple of the notes I had previously made about a group of excellent educators that that are
078on that list and and we're going to lose and I also had made made a notes that um it flies in the face of savings on early retirement plan but maybe we should be approaching some other districts I'm sorry maybe we should be approaching some professionals from other districts who we know are excellent to uh to entice them to come here and perhaps some of the Penn State branch campuses who have educated ers that will be um furled or laid off might be an area we could tap as well. U but that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Mrs. Cooper >> was also going to mention the cell phone in schools town hall. Um just a reminder there is already a legislative body that makes school district policies. Um and yes, these are adorable and
079Hartwood really stepped up the packaging game. Like I want to save the bag. >> So very cute. Thank you, Miss Zitch. >> Yes, this is going directly on my keychain. It's wonderful. Thank you. Thank you to the teachers who have made our science department so strong who are leaving. We we will miss them. Um and also congratulations to our teleathon team. Um that's really a massive accomplishment. I know that Fox Family Cares does um incredible work in our community and I'm grateful to them for that service. So, I'm happy to see it going um right back to our own school community. Also, there's a February 11th blood donation drive. So, please come give a squeeze. It's an important time of year for blood donation. Um, so that's all I got. >> Thank you, Mr. Good.
080>> Just want to say happy new year and um also mentioned the teleathon which uh you know I had the honor of participating in at the very end. Um it's great to see all the work that goes into that and the great accomplishments from it and all the fun that that everyone has. Thanks. >> Okay, thank you all. Could I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Second. All in favor? >> I. >> Meeting adjourned.