001Check. One, two, one, two, three, four, five, six. Thank you. Call the meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. I aliance 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. Prior to tonight's public meeting, the board met in executive session to discuss several topics. The board reviewed confidential student matters that if discussed in public would lead to the disclosure of information protected by law. We discussed matters related to school safety that if conducted in public would be reasonably likely to impair the effectiveness of the safety and security measures or jeopardize the safety and security of a resource, infrastructure or information storage system. We reviewed agency business which if discussed in public would
002violate a lawful privilege or lead to disclosure of information protected by law. And finally, uh, we discussed with council information or strategy in con in connection with pending tax or other litigation matters. Mrs. Anusk, will you please call the role? >> Mrs. Cooper, >> here. >> Miss Dad, >> here. >> Miss Finley. Mr. Frank >> here. >> Mr. Good >> here. >> Mr. Hamilton >> here. >> Dr. Hasselborn >> here. Mrs. Lynch >> here. >> Miss Zitch here. Eight members present. Mrs. Lynch present via telephone. Miss Finley absent. >> Thank you. Dr. Railjack. Do we have any guests this evening? >> We do not have any guests this evening. >> Thank you. All right. I'll move on to the solicitor, not solicitor, the superintendent report. >> Sure. This evening there isn't any official report. We
003will have some students joining us next time and we'll be introducing a lot of their accomplishments and and learning a little bit more about what they're doing in classes. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Uh Mr. Jafrey, a solicitor's report. >> No report for the public meeting. >> Thank you. All right. Next week, we will need approval of the minutes for the combined agenda study session and regular business meeting dated September 8th, 2025. Does anyone have any questions or comments on the minutes? Okay, it's time for our first public comment period. We do not have anyone signed up. All right, under old business, we have our committee reports. Mrs. Cooper, could you give us the academic committee report, please? >> Yes. Um, so the board academic committee met on September 9th, 2025. The committee received an
004update on the progression of work taking place in the high school English department and information about a pilot taking place in nth grade English. The committee also reviewed information about the secondary novel vetting and selection process and ongoing work to review novels. Based on the wishes of the committee, the superintendent provided an overview of perceptual data gathering that is planned in conjunction with the comprehensive plan process, the high school middle states accreditation and with other opportunities throughout the year. >> Thank you. Mr. Frank, could you give us the governance committee report, please? >> Yes. The governance committee will meet tomorrow, October 7th, at 6 pm in the lower level of the district administrative offices. Excuse me. The agenda includes policies from multiple sections of the policy manual, including these zeros, the 100s, and the 900s.
005Thank you. >> Thank you. And Miss Zitch, could you give us the projects and planning committee report, please? >> Yes. The board projects and planning committee meeting um was on September 15, 2025. After discussion at the meeting, the committee asked the district to review the recent cyclone energy report, make required redactions, and post it on the district website with the August 11th board meeting materials. The committee also asked that to include appropriately redacted slides from the presentation if not proprietary. Additionally, the committee received a capital projects funding summary update that included funding projections from February 2025. This summary will change as the district revises its plans to reflect its $10 million bond. After being updated on recent district projects, the committee discussed potential near-term projects for the district's facilities. >> Thank you. Okay, on to
006new business. Um, sis, since Mrs. Lynch is on the phone, Dr. Hasselhorn. >> Oh, sure. Uh, >> could you read facilities and transportation? >> Okay, so for facilities and transportation, there are two items. First, additional school bus drivers for the 2526 school year. Ratify hiring the additional ABC transit drivers from the attached list effective for the 2526 school year. All required licensing clearances and all other essential employment requirements for school bus operators under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have been verified. Number two, change orders for Hartwood Elementary School HVAC project. Approve change orders GC00001 at a cost of $14,974. GC00002 at a cost of $2,384. GC00003 at a cost of $43,87. GC00004 at a cost of $16,179. PC00002 at a cost of $1,851. PC00003 at a cost of $4,653. in HC00002 at a
007cost of $42,397 as attached for the Hartwood Elementary School Hback Project. Um, >> thank you. >> Do I not read the red part? I guess not. Okay. >> Um, any questions or comments on these two items? >> Do we expect these to be the last change orders for the heart projects? >> Uh, they may or may not be the final ones, but they're we're getting close. Yeah, the understanding at the authority board meeting was that these were pretty gosh darn close to the final ones. Um, one thing I do wish to point out just so the members of the public were watching and everyone else on the board is that um most of these related to conditions that were not foreseen that existed and were safety critical conditions in the building. >> So these weren't
008discretionary expenses. These were essential for bringing the this building up to contemporary expectations related to safety and that's very important to this board and the and the district. So um and they were discussed at length with our authority board and with multiple members of the board present. Um so um these were I you know I I think good good changes good change orders. Yeah. >> Yeah. Specifically in the parts that were touched. So it's not >> we're not saying that all the parts I think they said that if they if there were future changes to other parts they may have similar necessary upgrades. But of all the things that they saw this brings it up to fire code I believe. Yep. >> Yep. >> Any other questions? >> And then every time we see school
009bus drivers on the agenda, someone has to ask how are we doing with staffing? >> Uh we are still short uh for the total number of uh bus drivers needed. Any fluctuates between six to 11 bus uh drivers short a day depending on who's might be ill on top of that. But uh we are working with ABC Transit to uh collapse the the runs as needed in order to to get our students to and from school. >> Thank you. >> Anything else? >> Okay, Mr. Hamilton, could you please read the finance report? >> Yes. Uh there will be four items on next week's agenda. Item one is the fund dispersions from fund 10 in the amount of $10,684,294.40. 40. Item two, the capital reserve fund dispersements from 131 in the amount of $661,539.86. The finance
010report will for August 2025 will be uh acknowledged and filed. The budget transfers for 2025 2026 will be approved. Um and of note, the um budget transfers appear to include our new bond sales. There's a large number there, but that's from the bond. Thank you. Any questions about these items? >> Okay. Mrs. Cooper, could you please read the instruction report? >> Yes. Next week, I'll be moving on four items. The first one is to ratify the college partnership agreement as attached between the school district and Satan Hill University for the period of July 125 through June 3028. Um, this is a continued partnership. Number two is ratify the sitebased academic services agreement as attached between the district and Wesley family services for sightbased education services and academic programs for the period of July 125 um
011through June 3028. This is a new agreement. Number three is to ratify the master services agreement as attached between the district and MGT impact solutions LLC to provide title one services to Christ the divine teacher academy for eligible title one students residing within the school district for the 2526 school year. This is a new agreement and number four is to approve stipulated adjudications. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments on these items? Can can you explain the MGT one because we've already been providing title one funding, right? Is this just a new All right, go ahead. Go explain. >> Sure. No. Uh this is for title one funding. Uh public school districts serve as the fiduciary agents for the title one funds that are uh dedicated to non-public students who would have normally attended our
012public school. And uh the decision as to how to provide those services um is done in cooperation with the non-public school. So it can take any form including us sending our own educators which can be much more expensive and not as um efficient for the non-public school or different agencies. And so this was through agreement with the non-public school for those um title one services. And I do believe they've started at least some of that uh information but it might be the screening still. I don't know yet exactly when the service has started. >> Okay. And do we include any additional classes with Satan Hill or are we >> We are including some additional classes and this was really our college and high school agreement needed to be renewed and um Satan Hill has been
013a good partner with us and we actually anticipate having a few more of these kinds of agreements coming forward to the board to add more college and high school classes. So >> that's great. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Any other questions? Okay, >> Mr. Frank, could you please read the legislation report? >> Next year, uh, next week, I'm sorry. Next week, it will be moved by somebody on the board. Uh, number 234, pregnant parenting married students. First reading of 247, hazing. Number five, number 252, dating violence. Number 317, conduct, disciplinary procedures. Number 317.1, educator misconduct. Number 320, freedom of speech by employees, which is just a name change. Number 626, federal fiscal compliance. Number 626.1, travel reimbursement, federal programs. Number 914, relations with intermediate unit. Number 917, parental family involvement. And number two, retired. Uh
014we would approve retiring the following following policy as attached. Number 919, which is district school report cards. This policy is no longer necessary. And number three, board operations guidelines revised. Approve the following revised board operations guidelines is attached. Number 003- BOG-0, statement of financial interest. Number 003- BOG3, filling a board vacancy. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments on these? Are there changes on the board operating guidelines revised? Like I didn't see anything highlighted or >> Yeah, I didn't I didn't see any markup there. I was curious. >> So yeah, >> I'm sorry. I I didn't >> on the um sorry the board operation guidelines those two. Are there any actual updates or are we just like approving that they were looked over? >> We were just approving that they were looked over. We were
015already using the forms. Yeah. >> That they were recommending so there were no changes. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah, that's I didn't see anything, so I was like, >> yes. No, that Yeah, thank you. I'm sorry I just couldn't hear you. >> Any other questions? >> Are are there any uh highlights from the policy changes that uh you wanted to point out? >> No. Okay. >> They were pretty easy. >> Okay. >> Most of them were were semantics. >> Okay. Can I I have a question related to those semantics for item 317, the conduct and disciplinary procedures. Do we I guess two questions. When does that apply? That that applies to all collective bargaining agreements as well. Is that correct? >> For policy 317. >> Yeah, it just you know it describes um sort of
016the procedures related to any termination of employment or demotion or dismissal. And so I was just curious how this I guess maybe a better question would be how does this interact with our collective bargaining agreements or is this only apply to those outside of that? No, it applies to to all employees because it's what's in the law that public school employees need to follow. >> Oh, go ahead. >> I'm sorry. We made one change in in the language that was suggested by um >> by the school boards association um in to make sure that it did that the new language did fit with our collective bargaining agreements. >> Outstanding. Great. >> Because it was was not in that original original language from the state. >> Okay. Okay. Great. That sounds like a great change. Thank
017you. >> Any other questions? >> Okay, Miss Zitch, could you please read the personnel report? >> Yes. Next week, I will be moving on the f following items for resignations. Administration, the resignation of Kimberly M. Polych, business manager of the Fox Chapel area school district due to personal reasons. Educational support, the resignation of Christine M. Harper 12-month building secretary at O'Hara Elementary School due to personal reasons supplemental contracts athletic the resignations of resignation of James Hastings faculty manager high school and due to personal reasons James Hastings faculty manager high school 7% um Caitlyn Paul volleyball boys middle school assistant resignation of Brendan Erso basketball girls middle school assistant for appointments educational support primal primolatha is ratified as a personal care assistant at her elementary school for food services. Christine Pepper um is approved as a
018permanent part-time food service employee at O'Hara Elementary School Cafeteria. For supplemental contracts, athletic, Matthew Harris, swimming high school first assistant for supplemental contracts. Not did I say the sport? Swimming high school first assistant, excuse me. Um for supplemental contracts, non-athletic, Joshua Brian Branker, overnight camp counselor. Brienne Klaus, um overnight camp counselor. Wendy Donaldson, overnight camp counselor. Marine Johnson, overnight camp counselor. Joshua Mariana, overnight camp counselor, leave replacement, and Matthew Mercle, overnight camp counselor. The following non-athletic supplemental contracts will be ratified. Timothy Capalo Allen, bus monitor number three for O'Hara Elementary School. Item three, leave professional. Kayla M. Wnoha, computer literacy teacher at O'Hara Elementary School for Children and Adoption leave. Change of status food services. Deborah L. Thompson, a permanent part-time food services employee at Fox Traveler High School cafeteria. Purchase of service agreement. Um
019item five, athletics operation coordinator. The service agreement for an athletics operation coordinator between the Fox Chapel Area School District and John J. McGee, PhD is approved um will be approved for effective date October 14th through June 30th. Student worker athletic Michael Gmenico is ratified as a student athletic worker for correction. Um from last week, Megan G. Snee for educational support previously approved as a personal care assistant at Hartwood Elementary School is ratified or will be ratified as a personal care assistant at Hartwood Elementary School. Um with salary based on the state starting wage for personal care assistants. So I'll be moving on those seven items next week. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments on those items? >> What is this a new position? Athletic operations coordinator. Yes, that is a new position uh for
020the increase in number of events that we're hosting as well as the number of um teams that we've added. We had talked about that as a board um in a previous uh meeting. >> What's the amount on that agreement do we have in the contract? >> The amount what >> the amount for that position? >> The contract was sent. I just have to look. The contract is for $25,000, I believe. >> Can I ask a little bit more about how we arrived at that sum? I know that since it it doesn't sound like it's quite an hourly contract. >> It is not. It's it's to cover a number of hours uh that we need. We sort of estimated the number of hours and came up with an amount to purchase service. So, it's an annual
021it's just a one-year contract and it's to um help out because we have just so many different events going on. And we uh are also needing our trainers to do a little bit more because there's not as many supports uh for trainers in the region through uh UPMC and through AHN even. And so we're kind of reallocating who's doing what in that area. >> So this is a trainer position. >> It is not a training position, but our current assistant athletic director also does some training as a as a trainer for us. >> I see. So this is >> this is to sort of supplant the additional time that individual is spending doing training with this alternative. Um and is this so is this role being compensated equivalently to the existing assistant athletic director? >>
022No, this is a separate >> Okay. It's a separate role. It's not >> this is not an administrative role. Okay. This is just a purchase for a year. >> Okay. And this does not fall within any existing contracts. Is that correct? Okay. >> Is it auto renewing? >> No. >> Okay. So, it's a one time. Is there a reason to think that this need won't will or will not exist next year? >> I I would like to see some data as to how it's used to be able to make that determination. Uh that's why we were looking at doing this for a year. Uh so that we can collect data and see does this make sense in the future? Is there a different arrangement that makes sense uh or is it not necessary? Yeah, I'm
023I get a little nervous about a position that is potentially not necessary being contracted at anything other than an hourly rate only because the value, you know, sort of the efficiency of those dollars will change based on that person's utilization. Um, can you talk about why we didn't set this maybe as a capped or a minimum mcap and then hourly contract and like a you know kind of a I guess it's on an open contract but um >> we followed how we do other contracts of this nature for the district. >> Okay. >> So, >> okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Oh, >> I had a question. >> Go ahead. Uh it looks like we're estimating that we would use 20 hours per regular work week of this additional person. Is that accurately how much
024extra coverage we think we need? >> Yes, that is our anticipation. >> Any other questions? And will this person be located on site or are they remote and or brought in for events? How does that >> be on site during events at the high school or the middle school? >> Okay. And was this sort of was this position advertised? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Mr. Good. Could you please read the opera operations and cooperative services report? >> Yes. Next week I will move on four items. The first is to approve the district's comprehensive emergency management plan uh which replaces the basic emergency plan is in and is in compliance uh with the state and federal emergency guidelines under FEMA under the national incident management system and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. Uh
025that has and this plan has to be approved annually. Uh we'll be moving on cyber security services agreements ratifications. Uh we'll be ratifying the safety incentive program um for district employees at an estimated cost of $8,000. Uh and we'll be accepting um an anonymous donation of items to the Dorsyville Middle School Orchestra and the Fox Chapel Area High School Bands. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments on these items? Okay, it is time for our second public comment period. We do not have anyone signed up. Fox Chapel Educators Association, Mrs. Mackin, >> no comment. Okay. All right. It is time for board comments. Mrs. Cooper. >> Oh, sure. Hi. Um, it was really great to be here. um at Batty uh Tech. It was a really cool program we got to um look at and
026I'm always just really impressed um to see when there's highlights of what our students do here. Um it seems to be like this is nationwide the trades are more in a demand here. So, it's great that this is something that our area already has. Um I would love to have more discussion on it like as there are plans for growth. I'm sure there is a demand uh for more spaces for students and um it's just a really exciting hands-on um unique experience that we have here. So, I'd love to talk about advocating for some things or or where this is heading and what we can do to support it. Thanks. >> Thank you, Miss Zitch. Um no comment. Okay, Mr. Good. >> Yeah, I'd like I'd also like to thank our hosts here. Um especially
027uh uh getting the little tour that we had of the uh emergency um training. Uh very exciting to see the energy here and the high quality uh the high quality uh results that that come out of it. Um that's it. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Hamilton. Uh, no. Thanks. >> Thank you, Dr. Hasselhorn. >> Yes. I also really enjoyed my first visit here to Batty. Um, and I've always really valued career and technical education and and hope that we can advocate to our community how important it is as well. Um, I know there's an open house next week that high school families are invited to, so I hope they take advantage of that. Um, and that as we talk about this school, we're thinking of it as an extension of our school community because
028it is and it's a really vital part of our programming. >> Thank you. Mrs. Lynch, do you have any comments this evening? >> No comments. >> Thank you. And Mr. Frank, >> I echo those comments and uh especially the the staff members from Fox Chapel, Kathleen, who helped make this possible and and also uh the culinary students and staff who who made dinner for us and and uh and showed us showed us how how great that that area is of of the school. And also homecoming this week. Um I hope everybody joins us. It's a great great community event where it pulls everybody from every walk of life and every area of the district together. Thank you. >> Thank you. I'd also like to thank the culinary students here at Batty for making us a
029very delicious dinner tonight and uh for the tour that we had of the emergency services um classes that they have here, which was great. So, thank you to everyone at Batty. Could I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Meeting adjourned.