Fox Chapel Area School Board Agenda Study Session (6/2/25)

001Call meeting to order. Please welcome. Could we please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation with liberty and justice for all. Roll call please. Mrs. Cooper here, Miss Dad. Miss Finley here. Mr. Frank here. Mr. Good here. Mr. Hamilton here. Dr. Hasselhorn here. Mrs. Lynch here. Miss Sitch here. Eight members present, Miss Dad absent. Just as an announcement, prior to tonight's public board meeting, the board met in executive session to review a personnel matter and to discuss agency business that if discussed in public could lead to the disclosure of confidential or protected information. During the executive session, the board also discussed with council information or strategy in connection with pending tax litigation matters. And finally, the board reviewed

002information that if discussed in public could jeopardize the infrastructure or the effectiveness of a safety or security measure. Dr. Railjack, could you introduce our guests, please? Sure. It is my pleasure to have so many wonderful guests here this evening and to celebrate many great things that have happened with our students and our staff. Uh to begin this evening's presentations, I would like to welcome Fox Chapel Area High School art teacher Joan Marangoni, who is here to introduce some art students who won awards. Good evening board, and thank you guests for coming. I have some incredible news to share about our art students and some activities in our art department. There are three specific honors in recognition um tonight. So, I'm going to go through all three and then invite them up. Mera Owens is a

003junior and a member of our National Art Honor Society, and she had a piece of her artwork called Reminiscence chosen as one of 129 selected pieces out of 25,500 submissions in the 2025 National Art Honor Society Dre Exhibition. It is on display on the NAA website from March 11th to August 31st. Um, the exhibition showcases talented students who are members of our organization and chapters in our schools. There are also three students in our art department who have uh received gold key award-winning recognition for the Pittsburgh region for the Scholastic Arts Awards. 11th grade Raina Guzman, 11th grade Mera Owens, and seventh grade Samuel Edinger from Dorsyville. Students from 42 schools participated in the regional competition and artwork is on display was on display at the Carnegi Melon University from February 26th to March 9th.

004There was a ceremony that was held on March 9th to recognize them. Uh last we have junior Nora Kelly who won a divisional award in the drawing and painting category for her piece titled Feline's Feast as part of the 2025 Youth Art Month ex exhibit. Youth Art Month is sponsored by the Council for Art Education. Her work was one of more than 300 students on display virtually with a ceremony held on March 14th. Um, it can also be viewed on the Pennsylvania Art Education Association web page. So, I'm extremely honored to be their teacher, but also to say that they are very dedicated, diligent, and show an incredible work ethic. So, please join me. Students, Mera Owens, if you're here, Raina Guzman, Nora Kelly, and Samuel Edinger. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Thank you. [Music] [Applause] Thank

005you so much. It's now my pleasure to introduce Fox Chapel Area High School principal Dr. Mike Hower, who will be introducing several high school students who won writing awards. And I'd like to also call uh Dorsyville Middle School program principal, Dr. Laura Miller, who is going to also introduce middle school students who won writing awards. I'll let Dr. Hower and Dr. Miller organize that. Good evening everyone. I have privilege and honor of recognizing seven Fox Chapel Area School District students who won first place awards for their submissions in the 2025 Pittsburgh Regionals Scholastic Writing Awards. Gold Keys were won by high school students and also middle school students. In particular, hundreds of submissions spanning a variety of different genres of writing were received from students in grades 7 through 12 across Alageney County. The local

006competition is sponsored by Point Park University and they the students were recognized uh at a ceremony in March at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. From Dorseyville Middle School, I'd like to recognize eighth graders Kai Gallert, Celestial Hugh, Brooke Nelleno, and Carly Fate. If you are here, if you could please come forward. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] And to build off of those recognitions, I would like for the high school students who have been recognized with this distinguished recognition to come forward. This would be Gabriella Hample, Hany Zang, and Alania Wellman. If you're here, please come forward. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Also, I would like just to take a moment to talk about Gabriella who was not able to actually to attend this evening. Um, she has won a special award. Uh it was through the American Voices. She was

007a nominee for the Pittsburgh region with the highest award that can be given in this competition. Her piece titled My Museum was submitted in the personal essay and memoir category. And she's been invited to read an excerpt of that at the regional at the regional recognition ceremony. So again, congratulations to her uh for that accomplishment. That is fantastic. Dr. Dr. Elj said I'm on a roll so I get to keep going because we have uh we have several students that we'd like to recognize and shift gears here to science to the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science. I've had a pleasure to work with them for several years uh as as one of the sponsors and I will tell you that this group of students uh really uh exemplifies uh the hard work and dedication and

008the type of inqu of inquisiveness that you would like to see in all of our students. So, I'd like to be able to recognize them because they all received first places at the high school to go to that in the regional competition which then qualified them to go to the state competition uh where they all placed as well. And then we have some special awards too that I'd like to be able to recognize. So with that uh seniors were Omar Albbat, Anna Vle O' Connor, Janji, Roit Valikar, and then sophomores Heidi Stiger, Kam Thewani, and Rachel Kim. If you're here and can please come forward, that would be fantastic. [Music] [Applause] Congratulations to all of [Applause] them. Also then just a quick recognition for Roit who is just up here and for Janjing and for

009Anna Delellio Connor. They all received the perseverance award for competing in the PJS competition uh for at least five years. So again that's a fantastic demonstration of their dedication. So with that, I'd like to say congratulations one more [Applause] [Music] time and then introduce my counterpart for PJS if that's okay, Elizabeth Feldman. Thank you. It is my pleasure to recognize Rashad Krishna for his outstanding accomplishments at the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science of Science State Competition. Rishi presented his project titled, "Can crowdsource weather monitoring work? An innovative study that explored whether inexpensive homebased weather stations could supplement or even replace costly mezzanet networks used for professional weather data collection. His research involved collecting and statistically analyzing a large volume of data to compare accuracy and reliability between various sensor types and mezanet sources. His conclusion

010showed that with advanced techniques and data fusion, crowdsource weather monitoring could be a viable and sustainable s solution, especially in the face of declining public funding for traditional weather networks. For his exceptional work, Rishi earned a perfect score, a first award, and was honored with the special award for junior high excellence in Earth and Space Science presented by the Pennsylvania Earth Science Teacher Association. Additionally, Rishi received a first place award earlier this spring at the Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair for his pit project titled Robots Filling the Human Void. Rishi, if you could please join [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] me. Fantastic. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Well, now it is my pleasure to introduce FBLA sponsor Christina Congolton, who is here to introduce high school and middle school students who won awards at the

011FBLA competition and that was quite an extensive list. Okay, good evening everyone. If you're here for FBLA, if you could go ahead and line up on the wall. It's quite a few students so I can't have them come down. So, as they're they're lining up, um I would like to to say good evening to everybody. Um it was an incredible year for both our high school and middle school FBLA chapters. Um I would actually like to start with the recognition uh for our med middle school members. So, if all the middle school members can get ready when I say your name, if you could just you take a step forward to be recognized. So, our Dorsyville Middle School came in third place for most FBLA members in the state out of 35 middle school chapters.

012We had a total of 16 students placed in the top five at our state leadership conference. And I would like to recognize the following middle school students. Uh, Rishi Krishna Murthy placing third in financial literacy. Annayia Shazad placing first in exploring parliamentary procedure. Zoe Lou placing second in career exploration. Maya Vias placing second in business etiquette. Brooke Naleno placing second in social media concepts. Khloe Pick placing third in business etiquette in Celestial who uh placing second in computer concepts. Please let me know if I missed any middle school students. Okay. All right. So now on to uh our high school. So our high school chapter came in ninth place out of 260 schools for most members with 148 students. We had 110 students place at the regional leadership conference this past December and qualify for

013our state leadership conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania. 26 students placed in the top 10 at the state leadership conference this past April with eight students qualifying for the national leadership conference in Anaheim, California this summer. So, I'd like to recognize our high school students. So, Matthew Beg placed first in regionals in economics. Zoanne Chiro and Rachel Pegger. They placed first in business ethics in the regionals and sixth at the state leadership conference. Kai Edwards placed first at regionals in future business leader and sixth at states uh for the same event and he placed sixth in microeconomics at the state leadership conference. Aaron Chung placed first at regionals in financial [Music] math. Greta Ernner Nner placed first at regionals in healthcare administration. [Applause] Ella Goolum along with her teammates Julie Cessna and Paige Dugan placed first at

014regionals in introduction to social media strategies and sixth place at states. And Ella did earn a big 33 community service award as well as three levels of our business achievement awards which are advocate, leader, and contri. [Applause] Ensley Good and Noel Foron earned first place at regionals in introduction to business presentation, first place at states, which was unbelievable. And they are headed to Anaheim, California for nationals. Anley also earned the contributor award for our business achievement awards. Kada Kamotzu earned first place with his partner Eli Ramirez in broadcast journalism. Michael Costello earned first place at regionals with networking infrastructures, second place at states for the same event and he is headed to Anaheim, California for nationals. He also placed second in introduction to financial technologies, sixth place in the FBA creed and seventh place in

015current events at the state leadership conference. Elizabeth Pacan, she earned first place at regionals in introduction to public speaking. Simron Sonnie earned second place at regionals in social media strategies. Nadia Bole earned second place in graphic design. Tina Dong and Aspen Smouse as a team earned second in marketing management. [Applause] Braxen Bowski earned second place at regionals for introduction to business procedures and fourth place at the state conference and he is headed to Anaheim, California for nationals. Elias Ziner in second place in cyber security. Lucas Ahern and Matthew Wang partnered up in entrepreneurship and they are in second place at regionals. Andrew Den earned second place at regionals in introduction to business concepts and he also earned a big 33 community service award. Audi Hapold earned second place in journalism at regionals. Perva Patel earned

016second place at regionals in personal finance. He also earned a big 33 award and placed fourth in the fundamentals of artificial intelligence and sixth place in financial literacy at the state leadership conference. Fernando Ki earned third place at regionals in advertising. Sydney Gel earned a third place regional finish with introduction to business procedures and earned a big 33 community service award. Aiden Ducker earned fourth place at regionals in introduction to event planning with a first place finish at the state leadership conference and also a big 33 community service award as well as the contributor level for the business achievement awards. Luke Kaiser earned fourth place in aggra business and Joanna Lee earned third place at the state leadership conference for her website design and she is also headed to Anaheim California. Did I miss did

017I miss anyone? All right. I just want to say how proud I am to be your advisor. I also want to thank the board for your support and also to the parents. You have fantastic children and I love them so much. So, thank you so much. Thank you. You may all go back to your seats. Thank you. I'd like to welcome uh again uh Dorseyville Middle School program principal Dr. Laura Miller, who's going to be introducing some Dorsyville Middle School students who placed in a math competition. Good evening again. I have the honor and privilege of recognizing a Dorsyville Middle School team of seventh graders who ranked first out of 30 teams in Pennsylvania in the Purple Comet Math meet. The team members were Moxley Chu, Samuel Edinger, Shang Fang Fay, Akil Mavala, Louis Vanipel,

018and Brian Ju. In addition to being the first place team at the state level, the group ranked 16th out of 298 teams in the United States and also received an honorable mention designation for being given an overall international rank of 38 out of 10,047. The Comet Math Meet is an international team um that is designed for middle schoolers and high schoolers and it has been conducted annually since 2003. In 2025, there were 4,613 registered teams from 80 countries. So, this is very impressive. Um if my middle school students could please come forward, Moxley, Sam, Shang, Fang, Akil, Louie, and Brian. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] If I could have Heartwood Elementary School teacher Aaron Weatherall who is here to introduce students who won first place at a book competition. Good evening. Tonight I

019have the pleasure of recognizing five exceptional students who have truly exceeded expectations this year. These young individuals are hardworking, well-rounded, and deeply passionate about learning and personal growth, especially when it comes to their love of reading and writing. The first group of students joining us this evening earned first place at the Children's Choice Awards event which is sponsored by the Alagini Intermediate Unit and it was held this year at the Cyber Charter Academy in Homestead in April. In preparation for this competition, students were assigned eight additional novels to read on top of their school curriculum and content. To participate this year at Heartwood, our minimum requirement was to read five. Impressively, each of these students exceeded this expectation, showing remarkable dedication and enthusiasm in preparing themselves fully for this event. At this time, please help

020me in recognizing the following students for their outstanding accomplishment. Fifth grader McKenna Anderson. Fourth grader Eli Holmes grader Henry [Applause] Smith. also like fifth grader Modri could not be here tonight but she was also a member of their team. Thank you. Thank you. And if Miss Weatherall wants to be joined also by our Fair View teacher Kristen Boast and current principal Caitlyn Tooff to introduce students who won awards in a writing contest. [Music] Good evening everyone. On behalf of Mrs. Megan Glee, Amina's first grade teacher in the Kerr community, we're so excited to congratulate our first place winner in this year's WQED writing contest from Kerr Elementary. First grader Amina Seight used her writing skills to create a wonderful story about a girl who dreams of the Eiffel Tower, loves sweet treats like macaroons, and

021has a soft spot for a furry feline friends. Amina's silly future in Paris made us laugh, dream, and maybe even crave croissant or two. Let's give a big round of applause to our talented winner for first grade for creating a story as sweet and magical as Paris itself. Congratulations, Amina. Come on up. [Applause] from Fairview Elementary. Also placing first place is Teresa Ziggler. Um Teresa is new to the Fox Chapel Area School District this year, having moved back to the area with her family last summer. She has been a wonderful addition to the Fairview family and has adjusted incredibly well both socially and academically. Teresa is always excited to learn and continually seeks out opportunities to challenge herself. She asks thoughtful questions and never shies away from difficult tasks. Her determination and curiosity are truly

022admirable. Her story, which was titled The Case of the Missing Guitar, was fabulous, and her classmates really enjoyed listening to her share her story. I couldn't be more proud of her writing accomplishments and I know that Mrs. Krite and all of Fairview feel the same way. Teresa, if you're here, come on [Applause] down. Hello again. This is working now. So, um, a second congratulations is in order for Hartwood kindergartener, Laura Phillips. Laura participated also in and won first place in this year's annual WQED Writers Contest. She authored a delightful story entitled Doggy Dreams. The first line of Laura's story reads, "When I grow up, I want to be a green dog with light green spots. I went to Fairyland and I ate a magic lollipop that turned me into a dog. If you want to

023find out what happens next, you're just going to have to read it for yourself at wqed.org. Laura's creativity and imagination are truly something to celebrate. So, let please join me in celebrating and congratulating Miss Laura Phillips. I do want to uh next introduce high school teacher and head track and field coach Tom Mole, who is going to be introducing members of the boys and girls track teams who qualified for states. Sure. All right. You want to face the audience? Thank you for this. It's always a it's always a nice thing to be able to recognize such accomplished, you know, young young uh student athletes. Um it's a fun group to work with. Uh they they just they really had uh had some success this year, but they're also hardworking, good people, good teammates. Um, and

024that that's that's kind of what we say. In order to be on the track team, you have to be a good teammate, hardworking, and coachable. And they they are that. So, it's a obviously a testament to to their their their families. Um, so let me just uh introduce. So, um, the girls 4x800 meter relay team uh finished fourth at the at the Whipio meet and qualified them for states. Um, they just had an astounding astounding uh race. They they they're an interesting team because they're they're all four classes are represented. Uh we have um Ella Chevchuk is a freshman. You raise your hand there. Uh CC wrestler is a sophomore. Uh Marin I is is a junior. And then our anchor leg uh leader is is Maya Deep Pasquali who who's who's who's a senior.

025And uh just just just gutsy four uh girls who went out there and got it done at Whipio meet. Super proud of them. Um the boys uh 4 by 100 meter relay team also uh finished in the top top group at Whipfields and qualified for states. Um we've never before had both relay teams make it. So it was it was a nice thing for us to be able to to have that accomplishment this year. So um we have uh uh sophomore Nolan Gwyn. You want to raise your hand there, Nolan? Uh we have junior Michael Costello. Uh and uh senior David Black who's not here. um and uh senior Ethan Vaughn who who also uh placed second at the um at that same meet in the 3200 meters uh and uh coming off of a

026whipfield championship in in the fall across country. So super proud of those guys as well. And last but not least, we had uh uh uh Claire Kai on the end over there. She she placed third in the shot put and um she was a whipfield champion in the discus this year and and uh that's the the second time we've had a thrower uh win win win the whipfield championship but uh the first time we've had a a female thrower. So um she she had quite quite you know she's all time already elevated her as one of the all-time great. So uh thanks to all these guys thanks to to you all for listening and uh thanks to the school board for this recognition. [Music] Next, I would like to introduce Fox Chapel crew coach Stephanie

027Minard, who is here to introduce members of the crew team that placed first at regionals and some that qualified for nationals. All right. So, this is uh the largest group of athletes that we've had placed so successfully at our regional Midwest Scholastic Championships, which takes place in Milford, Michigan every Mother's Day weekend. So, there are 48 teams in the region that come from 11 different states. We had, as I call, you can step forward. So, our women's novice four took first in a nail-biting race. There were 26 votes in their event. And that boat was coxed by senior Addie Rossi and then stroked by freshman Vita Mets, followed by freshman Elelliana Walman, junior Leila Gola, and freshman Emily Shaw. Now, this so this category novices is anyone in their first year of racing and the

028highest they can progress is regionals. And then our other three boats that are represented up here uh meddled at regionals and then also qualified to go to Scholastic Nationals which was held in um Pensaken, New Jersey over Memorial Day weekend. So we had our men's junior quad took first of 14 votes and then finished third in their heats at Scholastic Nationals just missing qualifying for finals even though they had the fifth fastest time of the day out of 16 teams. And those are juniors Nikico Vpedek, Gavin Wyn, Qataro Inada, and Ian [Applause] Wman. And the final two boats are women that competed in skulling events. So, smaller boats, they had two handles. And these two boats were a large part of our women's skulling team taking second in team points this year at regionals. And

029they're also our first two women's boats to make it to nationals since 2015. So we had our women's varsity quad took third of 14 and finished at nationals with the seventh fastest time. We had seniors Noel Dick, Kate Banas, Amelia Bowling, and junior Nora Kelly. [Applause] And then our women's junior double took third of 24 votes at regionals. And then they finished with the 11th time at nationals. And those at regionals was juniors Sophia Thai and Nora Kelly. And then and then with regionals you can compete in two events. At nationals you can only compete in one. So Norah Cully was in the varsity quad. So Marlo Schmidt was our bow seat in the junior double at [Applause] nationals. Thank you all for this recognition. [Applause] And I have just two other recognitions to um

030provide. One is I do not believe that any members of our boys varsity tennis team were able to be here. So if you are here, if you were able to come at the last minute, but I I do want to recognize that our Fox Chapel Area High School boys varsity tennis team won the Whipfield class 3A section 3 title. and we are very proud of them. We know that it's a busy time of year, but we wanted to make sure that we recognize them. And my last recognition is uh something for really everyone that's in this room and something that I wanted to share on May 20th of this year. Uh the Pittsburgh Business Times released its 2025 guide to southwestern Pennsylvania schools and featured its public school rankings. And it is my pleasure to

031announce that for the second consecutive year, the Pittsburgh Business Times ranked the Fox Chapel Area School District in the number one spot in southwestern Pennsylvania and also in the number one spot in Pennsylvania public school district rankings. And the rankings are determined by performance on multiple years of standardized assessments. So, it is my pleasure to congratulate our students, our staff, our educators, our administrators, our school board, our parents, and our school community on this recognition. Uh although we know that class that rankings are only one measure of our success, uh we've also seen a whole lot of measures of our success this evening with all of the recognitions for arts, for athletics, and for academics. Uh but we are proud of this and that is uh a lot of people working together or to use

032a crew analogy rowing in the same way in the same boat. Uh so I am pleased with that and I wanted to make sure that everyone was able to be recognized for that. So [Applause] [Music] [Applause] congratulations and Mr. Frank, I do believe those are all of our guests this evening and our guests are certainly welcome to stay for the rest of our meeting, but we also recognize it is the last week of school and you may have other things that you have to attend to. We won't take that personally. Wonderful accomplishments kindergarten through senior year. Congratulations. superintendent report. Sure. Uh I don't believe that we have our Fox Leadership Council representative here, but I do have a lens on learning and so I know we're in transition right now. So, um we'll give everybody

033a moment, but we have a really great lens on learning to share. I want to introduce Deceville Middle School literacy teacher Andrew Shaw, who is here along with a few students to talk about the district's first ever unified esports tournament that included competitors from four area school districts. And the tournament brought together students with and without intellectual disabilities and included games and great prizes. So, Mr. Shaw, I will let you explain it a little bit more. Yeah, thank you for having me tonight. I've watched many schoolboard meetings from the comfort of my own home in Shaylor, but this is uh the first time I'm I'm at one, which is kind of cool. So, like Dr. Rjick said, I'm Andrew Shaw. I teach ELA uh advanced English at DMS, and I'm the co-ach of our middle

034school esports team. About a year ago, Dr. Miller approached me in the morning with a question that no administrator has ever asked me before in 17 years of teaching. Do you like video games? I wanted to tell Dr. Miller that the Nintendo 64 was the best Christmas gift I ever received. that I waited in line for 10 hours to buy the Nintendo Wii the night it came out, that I still own every major video game system from the last 35 years, and that Ocarina of Time, after being out for almost three decades, is the best video game ever made. Instead, I nodded in the affirmative, "Yes, I like video games, and that began our esports journey at DMS." Put simply, esports is video gaming in a social environment after school in both competitive and cooperative

035games. Instead of students playing video games at home and chatting with friends online during matches, they come to our esports room, hang out in person, and play games together. With the funds from a remake learning moonshot grant thoughtfully penned by Dr. Colette, DMS was able to purchase six Nintendo Switches and two large TVs. We had additional TVs and monitors donated and repurposed DMS's old TV studio for our purposes and needs. Games were generously donated by the National Players versus Competitive League. Our DMS esports group met as both a club and competitive team three times a week. The group included students from sixth to 8th grade and is inclusive in the sense that we have students of all educational profiles and abilities. This year we saw 80 students sign up on our schooly page, had 20

036kids regularly attend meetings to game after school, and had 18 kids on our competitive spring Mario Kart team. As Dr. Dr. Rjek also said we we also hosted a unified esports Smash Brothers competition on May 8th at O'Hara Elementary where 62 kids from five different schools, Freeport, Beaver, Pittsburgh Public, and Fox Chapel, ranging from sixth grade to 12th grade, competed in a single elimination tournament. Seeing the level of sportsmanship and kindness of this competition was truly inspiring. Whether they won or lost, students were smiling, shaking hands, and making new friends. Uh the picture the pictures being projected are from that tournament. Thanks to Bonnie and Jill for that. Next year, we hope to revamp our gaming space and will continue to expand our competitive and club teams and would like to host another tournament. I'd

037be remiss if I didn't quickly mention my DMS cohorts who assisted us with our esports journey. My co- coach Matthew Mursac was invaluable to this endeavor, as was our DMS planning team, Dr. Miller, Mimi Leler, and Kathy Gilner, and my amazing student teacher, Emily Janosco. Still, none of this would have happened without the interest and dedication of our awesome students. I brought three courageous students who will briefly discuss their experiences with the group. Glenn Story, Jackson Horowitz, and Grace Cooper. I remember the magic of being a kid myself, sitting cross-legg on the floor, way too close to the TV, playing Mario Kart 64 with friends. There's certainly a magic to video games and enjoying them in person with others. And I think that these students realize, capture, and epitomize this joy. Hello. Thank you for

038having me here. I believe that esports is probably some of the most fun I've ever had in anything at school. It's some of the best time I've ever spent after school and school in general. It's just fun to get into a room with a bunch of people who share similar interests with you. In general, everybody was nice, caring, and generally supported each other. It's all nice to just get together with somebody with common interests and play a game that you all enjoy. There's a level of sportsmanship I don't think I've seen almost anywhere else. And with it, it's just general fun. I hope that it continues and I hope that it gets continually better. Thank you. [Applause] I really enjoyed my time in the esports club and I and especially the Super Smash Bros. Invitational

039in O'Hara. It was very enjoyable. My friends were cheering me on. Participants would go stations with Nintendo Switches and play three matches. It was single elimination. I practiced very hard and was able to get second place out of 62 people. I highly recommend playing in the invitationals if you enjoy the game. [Applause] Well, hello. The club element of the esports group is a friendly after school club. Typically, once the final bell rings, students find their friends and they file into the uh esports room. Um pe people um play friendly matches of various games such as Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. This opens an inclusive environment for people to make new friends with a common love of video game. The club is open for anyone who would join whether they have zero gaming experience or

040not. Thank you for your time. [Applause] Well, I want to thank our students uh for coming. I had the pleasure of joining uh the great esports tournament at O'Hare Elementary. It was hosted here because there's the best space to be able to have a lot of people and it was um an exceptionally fun night and what was just competing next year too. I I realized that if I compete, I will be eliminated in the first round because all of you were amazing. Uh and it was quite a bit of fun, not only to see the competition, but what was even more fun was to see the friendships and the sportsmanship. As you said, uh there was quite a bit of sportsmanship. So, I want to congratulate our students. Uh thank our families for letting them

041participate. Thank you to Mr. Shaw for answering that question uh that Dr. Miller posed to you in the affirmative, Dr. Miller. And I also want to thank uh Remake Learning who provided the moonshot grant. Dr. Klette helped to write the grant uh along with some support from our uh uh from me and from uh I know from our building but also uh it provided that opportunity not just for our students but for students in the region and that grant is funded through the Greyel Foundation and the Benedom Foundation. So we are uh Claude Bennington Claude uh Worthington Benendom Foundation. So we are very pleased to be able to do that and thank you all for coming. I don't know if any of our board members have any questions about our esports. Well, thank you. You

042guys were [Applause] [Music] fantastic. And next, I would like to introduce um Miss Polish uh who is our business manager. she is going to provide a quick overview of the 2025 2026 general fund operating budget. So, Miss Polish. All right. Good evening everybody. So, tonight's presentation is going to be a relatively brief um summary compared to the previous budget presentations that you have all heard over the past few months. Um so the presentation of final budget which is for adoption next week it recaptures the same figures that were included in the proposed final budget that was presented last month. There have not been any substantial changes between the figures that were known last month compared to what is on for adoption next week. So therefore I present to you the final budget um reflecting revenues

043of $120 million. Oops, excuse me. 120,79,693 and expenditures of $123,187,421 which does include um funds that are held in budgetary reserve. This presents us with a negative net change for the 2526 bull year of -2,477,728 which will be balanced um via various draw downs from our plan fund balance. So this final slide here lists those various budget implications that we've been discussing throughout our entire entire budget season both this year and in previous years. So how does this final budget lead us into future budget years relating to these implications that are listed? First and foremost, it is addressing the district's needs and funding for capital improvement projects. So that includes um expenses that are direct budgeted directly in the general fund budget as well as the fund transfer to our reserves funds to cover um

044various projects that will be completed in those um capital reserves funds. Those projects include a continuation of our Hartwood HVAC, Fairview window project, the high school waterline project, stadium lights, tennis courts, as well as standard building maintenance that is done continually every year. The district will be looking into potential new bond issues as well as refinancing current bonds in relation to these capital projects. Um, there's actually going to be a presentation shortly thereafter mine on those items. However, that won't directly impact the 2526 budget as it is presented. It'll actually be used um for future budget years in terms of our debt service as well as any available funds for those future projects. This budget also addresses um and adds revenues to accommodate the assessment reductions that we have seen, rising health care costs as

045well as rising piecers costs. It's and then finally it's in line with the district's um increases that we have previously seen that were below the act one index um which accounts for any inflationary and contractual costs but still able to be accomplished below that approved act one index or allowable act one index. So, as the year progresses and when we begin to enter the next budget cycle, the district will continue to monitor, plan for, and adjust plans relating to those budget implications as well as any other areas that may arise. Um, so even though this 2526 budget is on for approval next week, that it does not stop the planning process. We continually monitor and adjust throughout the year. Thank you. Any questions? Any questions for Miss Polish? I think I think all of my

046questions are about the bond thing, which really relates to this future budget, it sounds like. Um, then I'm more than happy to pass the microphone. Well, then I I will uh introduce next uh Alicia Henry who is from PNC Capital Markets and I know Chris Brewer is here also from Densmore and Schaw and uh uh Miss Henry actually came to our resource planning advisory and I know some of our board members are part of that group and felt that it would be really helpful to have her explain some of that same information, in fact a little more information actually to our board tonight. And so we're so pleased to have you here. Thank you for being here. And I'll let you explain this part of it. Thank you, Dr. Rolljack. Thank you for the introduction.

047And good evening, uh, ladies and gentlemen of the school board. It's nice to see you again. You might recall everyone was here except uh, Dr. Hasselorn. Uh, we completed a super successful bond refinancing at the end of 22. Um, does everyone have a handout? Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Kim. Uh before I get into uh the real reason I've been invited here, I thought it'd be nice to just quickly review the existing debt service of the school district. It's a nice refresher. Uh the district has two series of bonds outstanding, the 2017 and the 2022 that just recently refinanced the 2013s. PAR is a fancy word for principal and bond terms, so don't be alarmed by that. Um and then the fiscal year 25 balance outstanding. The district currently has 55,660,000 uh of principal outstanding.

048The final maturity on the 2017 bonds is 2042. And that bond issue will be callable uh February 1st of 2027. And like the 2013 bonds that had a similar call feature with the 90-day look back, these bonds will be callable by the end of 2026. Um so it will be something that can help you with uh your future budget. And then the series of 2022 which was a refinancing the final term is 2030 and the call date is 2033. And uh your existing total debt service budget and a bar chart below. Um plan con reimbursement is still eligible on all your existing bonds. Those were before the plan con moratorium. So the state is supporting those debt service payments in some manner. But the bar chart below you're going to see um the gross debt

049service that Kim has to budget for. And then the local effort is the uh yellow bar chart and the difference between the blue and the yellow is plan con monies that are embedded in your state uh revenue budget. But what I want to um just express that the refinancing did is you'll see a slight step up and please know that that was just caused by the refinancing because the 2013 bonds did mature in 2035. Any questions on the bond summary before I flip to the new money uh proposition? Okay, if you could flip to the next page. As Dr. Beljack mentioned, I was invited to the resource planning committee to explore some ideas from a capital markets perspective on how to maybe handle a punch list of capital projects that could be um uh reviewed

050over the next couple years. Uh I introduced a topic called bank qualification. All the bonds the district has issued before have been over $10 million. They have not been bankqualified. due to the the needs of that capital project per se. But a bank qualified bond issue is defined as a borrowing of $10 million or less and in a calendar year, not a school fiscal year. So January to December and that bond issue will provide you with a more advantageous refunding feature. All of your bond issues, you've been locked out of a refinancing opportunity for 10 years. With bank qualified bonds, you uh receive a more favorable refinancing feature of 5 years. If you sell bonds in 2025, they'll be callable in 2030. Um they'll be callable before the 2022 bonds we just sold. Another um

051exemption that could be pertinent to you right now is a small issuer exemption. And because short-term interest rates for now are still a nice uh interest rate in a way that you could invest your bond proceeds, any school district that issues under 15 million um will not have to arbitrage. You have unlimited earning potential during construction. So in essence, because bank qualified is 10 million and the small issuer exemption is 15, you'll get both of those privileges with the bank qualified bond issue. And it's nice to reference the school districts get that privilege. Any other issuer in Pennsylvania, the small issuer exemption is only 5 million. So that is a special granting to school districts. Um the bond issues were also able to wrap around your existing debt service um to make a budgetarily friendly

052impact for the new debt. And I would like to continue to commend the school district. Not only are you excellent in the education, you're excellent with your bond rating. The district maintains a double A+ rating and that was last reviewed um in June of 2022. The funding of a bond issue takes anywhere from 75 to 90 days. And the federal tax law generally requires a commitment to spend 5% in 6 months and 85% in 3 years. So, if you could flip to page three, this is an example of what a new money uh bankqualified bond issue would look like. Your existing debt service in dollar figures is in the first column of the light green uh title heading. your total existing debt service I want to point out because of the refinancing is roughly 300

0533,745,000 and then in 2035 I do want to bring your attention to the debt service jumping and again that's due to the refinancing of the 2022 bonds because of state uh regulations I'm not allowed to sell bonds that create an increase for a future bond a future board. So, what I have to do is sort of fill in where I created savings and then I can wrap around the existing debt service. I'm not allowed to have an increase after year two of over 5% year-over-year or 10% in any one spot from top to bottom. So the middle column, the series of 2025 proposed debt service, I'm allowed to fill as long as I do not exceed 5% jump. And then if you look in 2036, that's a complete wrap. And then in 2042, the middle

054column, that's where the bulk of the bonds would uh amortize. And that's why it's called a wrap. I'm allowed to fill in where your existing debt service is to create a generally level debt service um in the perform a debt service. You're going to say to me, Alicia, that doesn't look super level, but I guarantee you um there is no increase between 35, fiscal year 35 and 36 that exceeds 5% and no larger increase from top to bottom than 10%. Chris and I are going to continue to look at that to see if there's a more budgetary friendly way we can do that. But I think we're we're hitting this right on the head as far as budgetary impact. And we're also not looking to extend your debt still past 20 years. This would be

055a very short uh still horizon compared to uh peer districts. Again, the assumptions on the right hand side, the par amount is $10 million. Uh the uh projected project deposit would be somewhere around $9.8 million. Uh the data date, this is just for example purposes in September. Again, the assumed rating double A+ the budgetary impact because I do have to put principal in there to meet the DCG test is 670,000. the all-in cost. I'm being very conservative because I'm trying to set realistic expectations for the board. So, I am being overly conservative with at least 25 basis points of interest rate cushion. Um, we don't perceive any interest rate cuts maybe until the fall. I've been told that there's zero percentage of any rate cuts in June or July and the largest potential of our

056first quarter cut could come in September. And there's a lot of time to go to see how the tariffs and the budget deficit unwind to see if perhaps potential cut in December remains a possibility. But I don't try to profess anymore to school boards that I know what the Fed is going to do. So you know everything that I know. But timing a bond issue in September, should you so choose, seems to be aligned with the best information that I have available to share with you. Any questions on the financial portion of this presentation before I turn it over to Chris Brewer, your bond counsel? And just for reference, the whole uh debt profile for the districts in the back just as a takeaway. So just to make sure I understand several of your points.

057So, the budgetary impact listed here is a total budgetary impact over the life of the loan or is that an annual increase in It's a one-time increase. It's a one time increase. Yes. Okay. Great question. Thank you. Sorry, I didn't make that clear. And this makes no assumption about change to the current bonds. No assumption to the change of the current bonds, but I think it would be nice to point out that all the principle on the bonds that I would refinance at the end of 2026 would address the step up that I'm leaving in the bonds. I should be able to level out the bond issue completely. If you look at the sage green highlighted column, the refinancing should allow me to uh level that out completely. And for those of you, I don't

058know how many people were on the board in 2013 and 2017 when we you only had two bond issues outstanding. I did the 2013 bonds and the 2017 bonds wrapped completely around it. So there's no bonds overlapping in those places. So, um I think this approach, uh me filling in a little at the front will allow me to do the refinancing and completely uh level this out when those bonds become cullable. That does make some assumption about what rate like that that there would be an advantageous rate for refinancing at that point. Yes. Yes. If I could sell bonds today uh at our current interest rates, there still would be very nice savings. Okay. Okay. That's helpful. If that's helpful to think that we're in this market that we're in now and that refinancing would

059work today, I feel confident that hopefully we'd have a strong refinancing candidate. We'd start talking about that probably the summer of 26. Okay. So, assuming sort of this either a rosy or pessimistic refinancing schedule for this $10 million, how much additional cash over the life of the loan would the district pay for that $10 million? like what is the the actual lifetime cost of that money? If you look all the way down at the total the 17 million uh 582 and you subtract the $10 million of principal you got that's $7.5 million worth of interest. Perfect. Thank you. You're very welcome. Yeah. Obviously, I could shorten this amortization to to a different term that would cut down on the overall interest, but it would also increase your budgetary impact. I guess I'm not sure who

060to address this next question to. Um, what how did we come to $10 million as the assumption for this proposal? $10 million was just the assumption because that's the maximum bank qualified to hit the two triggers uh the advantages of tax ex bonds. So bank qualification is a $10 million max per calendar year and then in essence because the small issuer exemption is $15 million $10 million is the bond issue that would meet both of those two advantages. I see. So this doesn't necessarily reflect a need that was conveyed by the district. No. Reflects the sort of sweet spot of bond benefits that we can that we're entitled to due to the amount we're borrowing and who we are. 100%. You could borrow $10 million or less and still have those two advantages. Okay. Thank

061you. Very welcome. So at the $10 million of borrowing, Dr. Eljac, can you give us an idea of what the capital projects would require beyond that? Yes, that is about onethird of the capital projects that we expect to do in the next 10 years. Uh so if you want a very the next project after we finish the Hartwood project and all of the things that Miss Polish mentioned in her um presentation that we currently have on our plan is Fairview Elementary's HVAC system. So considering Hartwood's HVA system is at 8 million, Fairviews is slightly more complex. So it would be and it would be a few years from there. It would be probably um supporting that. That of course is subject to change based on what happens with the buildings. So there's about 20 million

062that we will need to generate for ourselves inside of our budgets in this plan. Correct. And that's over multiple years. I'm sorry. I'll let I'll let I forgot. Um let me chime in on that. So that 10 million is a third of the outstanding total projected cost of those projects, but it's about half of what we um recognized as needed funds to bring into the district. We do have some funds already available that are being used for some current projects. We have about 12 million currently that are earmarked for those capital projects and we had about 20 million we were looking or needing to fund. So this covered about half of that need. Okay. So 10 million that we need to make up for in the Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for correcting that.

063Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah. And as a just as a reminder, this came up because we've been talking about all of those needs and also the effects of inflation as every project we've looked at as tends to have I'd say virtually every project comes out a little more expensive and they seem to get be getting more expensive. So that 30 million if you can when you look at the increase in budget that we're looking at for paying interest if we it's in theory offset to some extent by what we would end up paying if we put off these projects in terms of higher cost of the same project especially if something breaks and we are forced to do it do it in a less financially planned way uh which we've occasionally had happen when things

064break we have to do them right away to keep the buildings open. I'm not sure where my questions I'm not sure who my question is directed to either. Um, two things. So, one, you mentioned peer districts. Is there any information you can give us that's publicly available that can help us contextualize ourselves amongst other districts in the area about our debt service and help us think through this? Absolutely. Well, one I can mention your your A+ rating. So, your rating agency, S&P, thinks that your leverage is in complete proportion with other A+ school districts, which are very, which there aren't many to compare to. [Music] Um, 20 years is sort of sort of the sweet spot. I could give you not off the top of my head, but I work with nearly 100 school districts.

06530 years is usually the max school district. So by extending your debt service just a couple years to accompate accomplish your uh capital projects plan is not overly burdening to your your leverage ratios um or your debt to to revenues ratios but if you would like I could send some uh comparisons to Miss Polish. Right. And the other thing, again, not sure who can answer it best. Um, what obligation are we as a board under, if any, to to talk to other banks outside of PNC? I know we have a long relationship with you, but is there any obligation to do that? I don't believe so. There's no legal obligation. U banking and law services are professional services and so you can contract with and deal with who you wish and who you like. uh

066that doesn't mean you can't explore but uh you're absolutely right. Uh PNC's been your banker for significant number of years. So there's some institutional knowledge here. And I'm sorry, what is the what is the direct cost that PNC charges for administering the service or issuing helping us issue our bonds? Like what are how how much money do we issue to PNC? Our standard uh underwriters discount has been $6 per bond. Thank you. [Music] Well, I'll go ahead and start the the legal part of this presentation, although I do so with my tongue and cheek because as Alicia is explaining, the financial part of the presentation, the fact is almost everything she touched on is born of some legal restriction or requirement. Public finance is much of an omelet. It's it's all mixed together because sometimes

067it is a legal restriction requirement that then spawns a market reaction and market reception that um you know directs us where we're headed. And that's true of this issue of bank qualification. Historically, and I'll be real brief about this, the Internal Revenue Code allowed banks to both lend on a tax basis to governmental units, pay no income tax on the interest they earned on those loans, and yet also deduct as a business expense their cost of funds, the expenses they pay out to borrow money from others to to make those loans. uh in the 80s that that dual uh opportunity for banks was was restricted, cut back a couple of times and in ' 86 it was going to be eliminated entirely. The outcry that came I wish I wish I knew how to time

068when that was going to happen. The outcry that came was not so much from banks but from the governmental sector that said you're making it more expensive for us to borrow money and conduct our business. And so Congress in its inent wisdom said fine we'll allow this extra benefit to be afforded to small governments defined as those who issue $10 million or less in debt in any calendar year. But if you're the city of New York or the state of California, you don't get this. All right. So, it has then evolved that uh for our school district clients such as yourself, if you can borrow at a 10 million or less level at times, we recommend you think about doing that as an option, especially here where you've got sort of a list of projects

069that you're already beginning to start, but you haven't the need to get them all done tomorrow and they'll sort of follow each other. Um because then what has also happened at least you mentioned the term call which I think you are familiar with but I sometimes tell clients think of it as your right and opportunity to prepay your right to bring that debt back and pay it off and refinance it. The Internal Revenue Code was also amended in 2017 to take away your right to refinance your debt except when you get to that term at that point in time when you can bring in and call or redeem the prior debt. Previously, we always had at least one opportunity if the market would allow it to refund your debt even though the old bonds were

070still in existence and hadn't been returned. Uh but now again, as Congress and the Internal Revenue Service, you know, don't like tax and bonds. They feel that, you know, an unbridled um expense for the federal government. They took that away. In your last two issues, you were already over a $10 million limit based on what you needed to do for this issue. We can keep you at 10. And then that brings the benefit in the market as market investors react to the to the sale of the bonds and the opportunity to buy the bonds. The market will afford you just a five-year period uh before that call. So the plan here is to start to put a little more flexibility in your dev portfolio now that we can. That's what that's all about. So, if

071I'm in finance, I'm sorry, you were into law, but the two work together. Is that helpful? Mhm. All right. So, then that brings me to the other legal uh requirement or restriction that I want to let you know about. And this is a resolution we have in your packet for adoption next week. If you all need a hard copy, I've got some extras I think Kim had distributed electronically. As I mentioned, the IRS is not fond of tax and debt because they feel it's a a privilege and and one that they don't have much control over. And so over time, they think they've spotted abuses and and things they want to restrict. And one of those things that they spotted years ago and wrote a long regulation about was the idea of a reimburse so-called

072reimbursement bond. They felt they were seeing issuers who might be running into cash crunch, budgetary needs, other things suddenly say to themselves, geez, we never did issue bonds to pay for XYZ project. Now is a great time. We ought to borrow for that and pay ourselves back. And so this notion that you sort of dream up a reason to borrow money was something they were offended by. Therefore, the regulation suggests that you draw a line in the sand and that you make a, you know, public declaration of your plan and of your intent. And if you do that, then you have really an open slate to handle your finances as you wish. You can plan to go ahead and as you might be already doing with some of the more minor projects like the like

073the lighting and so forth, you can go ahead and spend some of your own cash if you wish, but know that if you should determine it beneficial, we can borrow and reimburse you back for that. Okay? In fact, Alicia and I have been working with one of the one of our mutual clients here in Alageney County that borrowed a bunch of money, spent some of their own cash at the beginning, but then now that it came in at the end of the bond issue, found they had some extra cash left that they're going to reimburse themselves. So, this resolution we've drafted does not bind you to do the project, does not bind you to do any borrowing for it, but it's a good housekeeping item that will give you and keep for you all of

074your options about your management of your funds. so that if this gets on the books, we've kind of put the flag out there for the IRS that that we're looking ahead, we're planning, we're not borrowing for something in the history, we're looking forward, but depending on when we get to market and when the uh all the financing comes together, we have the right now to pay ourselves back for any prepaid expenses. In terms of the timing, as Alicia did mention, I think well, um nobody expects to see interest rates move much here in the near term, but we are still hopeful to see an improve market over time uh this year. And so the thought is is that we will have for you as your bond counselor if you're prepared for it a bond resolution

075to be adopted at the August meeting that would lay out a so-called not to exceed amount for borrowing. And this is the way we've done them before and the way that boards always do them now. It would specify maximum amount maximum rates but with the restriction that we plan to borrow 10 million or less final number to be determined when we actually go to market. But maybe borrowing a phrase from a different part of the marketplace like a shelf registration. Getting the documents in place, getting the resolution passed and on record then gives your administration and your banker freedom to start to judge the market, see what's happening, get through the rating process, and rather than being tied to your next available board meeting, planning to go forward with a bond issue when circumstances allow

076and and are advantageous, but not without full communication back to the board and to the administration as to what the plan is and what things look like. So you may see us again at the same time or you'll certainly see me again in August to pass that bond resolution and there then from there we'll just start to see what uh what the market affords us in terms of opportunities. One last thing I forgot. Uh all these IRS restrictions. When you borrow money in the tax marketplace and you get to uh borrow it at lower rates than the regular marketplace, you also can turn back around and invested at the higher available market rates and hopefully make a little bit of a spread, also known as an arbitrage. The IRS watches that as well. However, in

077um now I'll forget which year I want to think 98, the tax laws were were fixed and amended such that if you are a small issuer for this purpose, there are other definitions of small issuer. If you are a school district spending the money on school construction projects, you can borrow up to 15 million and not have to be concerned about rebating that profit. So again, something we work with you, your banker does, and we as your bond council, if in fact we borrow the amount of money that you're looking at or under, um hopefully Kim's able to get it out there cranking for you and we'll figure out a way to get to keep it. Questions for either of us? So I know that we have on the farther end of our horizon some

078capital improvement projects um that relate to whole building renovations. Um, and those are the types of projects that one would typically invoke a bond for, right? These ve like fairly large single expenses that we know we're going to receive value for those purchase, you know, for that construction for 10, 20, 30 years hopefully. Um, does does you know issuing this 10 million now essentially restrict by virtue of some of the rules that you've just described our ability to bond say a high school um in five years. If you're talking about your legal debt limits, I'd have to double check and look at those again, pull those up, but I think you're well within those. Okay. Um, and I guess in terms of potentially eating up some of that that individual step ladder restriction on the

0795% over year over year. Um, because I know that the wrapping strategy makes a lot of sense to me, right? In terms of like maintaining a debt service burden consistently over time. I love that we're not like allowed to saddle future boards with sudden increase in debt service, but if we're sort of are we using up that buffer now in a way that would limit our ability to bond a future project? Well, and again, I should turn it over to Licia. If you want to look at other scenarios, I'm sure PNC can can run those and you can examine them. I mean, an argument can be made that it's also advantageous to have a natural cascade to your debt service that each one issue might be, for example, on a level payment basis, 15 or

08020 years, so that over time one thing was rolling off and another's space is available. Mhm. Um I don't think your wrapping structure that's being proposed is nearly as extreme as some we've seen. We have seen districts really I think what you're alluding to is almost shutting themselves out of the chance to borrow more money for an extended period because they've just stuck so much debt out so far. Um those can all be examined um and discussed. I mean, yeah. I mean, like right now, if I'm correct, we're extending our current debt service. We're extending our debt service window by just three years, but in those three years, that looks like our debt service is only half of really what we're paying now. Okay. So, we would foresee if we were trying to maintain a

081debt service, sort of a stat somewhat static debt service, that we'd be looking at um yeah, not really having that window up open until 2043. No, I really appreciate I don't always get to have this type of dialogue with the school board. So, thank you. But we were pretty um I was specific about leaving room because there has been talk about maybe 3 years from now you do another $10 million and that would still leave your debt service at $20 million with a place to wrap. Um but I'd also like to just tell you, so I think it's great for a board to have this information. you uh you are legislated by illegal debt capacity and that's your last three years of revenues averaged and then multiplied by 2.25 2.2 and then you subtract the

082debt you have outstanding. So I I think you're going to have the legal standing to borrow. I think it's always the budgetary pressures that would control the ability for a larger project and leaving your debt where it is. Um, most large scale projects do go out 30 years. You'd have 10 years to talk about that. But I could I could wrap tighter and make this bond issue a year shorter. But I I really like the 20 year cut off and leaving you future flexibility, but again, as Chris mentioned, I'm happy to run anything else that would make this um easier for the board to see. I think even just speaking to the flexibility is helpful for understanding the decisions you made in this. All very great questions. Thank you. Yeah. One of the problems of

083this practice area is that general assembly never sat down to write comprehensive set of rules and regulations and laws about tax and borrowings or public financings in Pennsylvania. So as a result uh and I actually testified before some of the house committees whenever they were looking at the plan con reforms. It's the you know principle of unintended consequences. When act one was passed, I think the general assembly felt we're going to watch what school districts do. We're keep them from taxing and we're going to hold you guys in check. As a result, uh districts almost universally choose wraparound bond issues because it's tough under act one to get the index or to move up uh given the index and and get the debt service in place. So we have a lot of districts we work

084with who are actually doing a few other things, you know, along the way of working their way to the right debt service levels because the index is so restrictive. So you're you're in a as you talk about peers, you guys are like great to work with. I mean, you got a lot of things going your way. Um, not that you don't want to be, you know, frugal and thoughtful and all that. Thank you. Can I ask one more quick budget question apologize? Um, the final budget proposal still includes the 2.3% recommended increase from before. Like that's the same. Okay. All the figures are are still the same as the proposed final. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Is that the end of your report? I

085believe that is the end of my report this evening. Thank you. I still know you. Thank you all. Solicitor's report. No report this evening. Next week we will uh vote on approving the minutes from uh May 5th. Uh first co public comment period. Dr. Gibb, you're up. Do we have a volunteer to uh keep time? Dr. Gibb, you have three minutes. Your item is is on the agenda. Your the item of your of your talk is on is an item on the agenda, I believe. So, yes. Okay. All right. Thank you for the opportunity to speak again here today. Uh my name is Grant Gibb. Uh the Department of Education statistics have shown that the most effective districts in our state are spending less on a cost per child basis than we are. The pandemic

086recovery scorecard is very clear that administrative personnel in general are making very poor financial decisions. In fact, they went so far as to say better academic outcomes would be achievable if financial decisions were dictated for them. The author of this data attributed good outcomes to community attributes. The board would like to believe that we are somehow an exception to these statistics. We are not. Even if you compare us with districts in the area, we are not outliers. For example, Pine Richland has not increased property taxes for several years, including this year. I don't necessarily agree with how their board is run, but prominent national reviews over the years have placed them on at least par or sometimes uh better than Fox Chapel. You can make the same or similar comparisons with others. Upper St. Clair,

087um, Hampton, St. Peters. If you adjust for the expense per child, you will find that we are paying roughly $16 million more than them. Yet, this board can't figure out how to balance a deficit of just 1.6 million. I'm sure you'll hear the board try to make it complex like that our busing is different or that we spend more on student activities, but we only spend just over a 1 million more on student activities than them and they actually pay more in transportation. They have higher special education enrollment, too. The board might say they have more residential construction going on, but their current proposed budget shows a decrease in property tax revenue just like ours did. And that's what they're approving. The property tax changes are not the cause of this. They've just brought overspending

088problems to light sooner. In our district, there are children learning better from resources outside of what the district offers. Yet, they are included in the district's success statistics. This is what we are seeing and reading about from the Pittsburgh Business Times. According to non-biased, nationally respected reviewers, the district uses curriculums that do not meet expectations. And yes, we find these reviews accurate even after supplemental material and interventions are applied. You have one minute. When the board says they are slowing contract growth, look at the data yourself. They are eliminating teacher contracts and giving administrators hefty raises. After asking each board member, no one could provide data showing what the superintendent had done to earn the one of the highest salaries in Western PA. In fact, all the pandemic data they have used previously cited the

089community for the success we've seen. When these individuals vote to increase property taxes, they are admitting to such wasteful spending in the past, even up to possibly $16 million that they have no choice but to increase taxes over 6% in just two years. When they say that this is a healthy disagreement, just know that they are disagreeing with statistics and prominent education researchers that other more successfully nationally recognized districts are following. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Old business, we have none. Well, we'll have none next week. New business, Mrs. Lynch. Uh, next week, I'll be moving on one item. Uh, Unif customer service agreement. approved the customer service agreement as attached between the Fox Chapel Area School District and Unifats and shirts to the district for the period of July 1st, 2025 through

090June 30th, 2028. This is a renewal of services. Any questions on that? Thank you, Mr. Hamilton. Next week, finance. Next week, finance. We'll have 10 items before we get to the budget related items. Uh we'll have the fund dispersements from fund 10 for $7,172,158. We'll have the fund dispersements from fund 31 in the amount of $262,86. We'll have the finance reports for approval as attached. We'll have the budget transfers as attached. We'll have the interfund transfer for uh inter fund transfers from fund 10 to fund 32 capital reserves fund in the amount of $30,66. And we will have uh insurance uh for 2025 25 2026 the insurance policies as listed in the agenda effective July 1st 2025 through uh Jul J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J

091J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J June 30, 2026 that includes workers compensation, general liability, cyber protection. Item seven is uh CSM Consulting Incorporated contract for -ate compliance services will approve the agreement as attached between Fox Chapel Area School District and CSM Consulting Incorporated for -ate services effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026 at a rate of $3,000 plus the an amount equal to three and a half% of category 2 applications submitting submitted during um the term of the agreement. This is renewal services. Item eight. Uh we will be approving the 2025 2026 Fox Chapel Area School District food service budget as attached for 2,136,600 and we will be as we just heard appointing uh passing resolution

092of appointment of the investment banker and bond council. The statement of that resolution is uh in the agenda for your reading pleasure. Um and item 10, the reimbursement resol resolution for the bond proceeds uh for it'll be resolution 2025-5 approving the uh the the resolution 2025-5 is attached for the bond proceeds. Um so uh I'll pause there. See do we have any questions on those first 10 items? I guess um before we I um thank you for reading those and I do I do have a question. Um before we look at the the bond um and sort of moving down the path of the bond, is there you know are there's is there a specific set of expenses that we're hoping to target with that money? I mean like is it is it meant to

093be just a sort of a broad underwriting of our capital improvement plan or are there some of those expenses that we view as like more or less bondable? I know that in the past this board has had discussions related to the sorts of or types of expenses and the nature of those spends that might be more worthy of um debt as opposed to strategic budgeting. So in the conversations that uh happened at the resource planning advisory and the board members that were there certainly if if I'm not represented correctly please let me know. um we were really talking about a way to be able to jumpstart uh another set of facility projects at a borrowing rate that would not outlast the length of the project. So some of the projects that we need to do

094like HBAC systems likely will not um they will they will uh likely need to be replaced in 30 before the 30-year bonds uh that you have typically done. So we're looking at a shorter term, shorter amount of money that made more sense and as Mr. Hamilton had said, we were looking at the escalating costs of completing some of those and that was really what is being projected for. So it would be specifically for capital projects in the short term that we needed to do. Uh and at that meeting uh as well as at the school authority really the next and and and the projects and planning committee the next set of projects is at Fair View. Okay. Okay. So, we are really focused on Fair View like I guess in our current plan and I'm

095saying that only because we are completing many other projects this year in other buildings that we didn't plan. So, it certainly could change but that would be something that the board would you know determine which which the next projects were based on that recommendation. Okay. Sure. Yeah. I think like yeah that seems like the type of discussion we would want to have around the approval of that process. Does Kim have something she wants to add? I was sorry. I was just going to agree with you as well that I think but at the point when we get close to wanting to full on that we will definitely I want to specify what exactly it's for. I don't think we have to do that now but it makes total sense that if I could actually chime

096in it's actually in the the resolution the reimbursement resolution 25-5 there is a listing there because we had to provide possibly what expenses we would reimburse ourselves with through if we go forward with the bond proceeds. So, it's actually the second paragraph. It includes um anything without, but it doesn't just include this. It's also could be potentially some others. High school tennis courts, field lights, fieldhouse, Fairview elementary renovations, um some high school and Dorsyville renovations, including Boiler rooms and O'Hara. So, there are some projects specifically laid out that may be used in relation to that bond. And this kind of gives us the ability to as we're moving forward with paying that, if we go forward with the bond, we can reimburse ourselves with. So this kind of captures what that bond could be used

097for. Okay. Um and it I guess remind me what the sort of oversight is downstream of how I guess how these bond funds are restricted to those uses. So like is it in terms of where those monies go, which fund they go into directly that restricts their use to ensure that we don't accidentally pay salaries with this stuff, right? Yeah. So that's actually um great. We this board has not actually had to deal with it's called fund 33. Perfect. Um which is the account where we place our bond proceeds. Okay. So it's another capital expenditure account. It's another capital expenditure fund. That is where the bond proceeds 100% go. So there is no way to accidentally spend bond proceeds from general fund or from another capital reserves. They are earmarked in their own fund and

098um expenses will go straight from there. Perfect. I I did know that there was no way that could happen. I just wanted to hear the fund number. So that'll appear as dispersements. It will it will appear as fun 33 dispersements. Awesome. If and and when we have those bond proceeds, it would create its own kind of kickstart that fund again and have its own completely separate bank account as well. Perfect. Thank you so much. Did I misunderstand the bond conversation earlier? So, he was saying reimbursement bonds are not allowed. So, this $10 million would have to be earmarked for future moving projects, not projects that are already started. There can't be any reimbursement in that process. Is that not what he said? Not quite. I'll let Oh, no. That's why we have this reimbursement resolution.

099If we did not have this reimbursement res I don't know what is setting us off. If we do not have that reimbursement resolution, then we would not have the ability to reimburse ourselves. But by approving and adopting this resolution, it gives us that ability. Thank you for clarifying that for me. It's a lot of financial and legal jargon that all went happened tonight. So, I get it. No, that was really helpful. Any other questions on the first 10? I have a question on the food service budget. I know there was um some questions had come up before about if we're getting reimbursed for certain things and it looks like there's federal and state reimbursement amounts on here. So, I don't know if we got some answers or We do not have answers. I think you're

100referring to what the federal reimbursement may be. We do not have answers as to if that will be the same or change. Uh the federal budget however is uh done in a calendar year. So it would span the calendar year. We would start with our budget and it could change of course. Um we also do not know what there could be from the state. So, um later on in the agenda is actually setting meal prices assuming we don't have uh a state fund or um any changes in the federal but uh and the meal prices won't change but what happened this year is they were actually less expensive based on the federal and state funds. We just so they they're not going to be more expensive unless it would come back to the board for

101an approval for some unusual circumstance, but they could become less expensive. So great. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Number 11. Number 11 and number 12. There were two additional items related to the budget. Uh item 11 is the final 2025 2026 general operate general fund operating budget resolution 20-6. Approve resolution 2025-6 as follows. I'll read the key paragraph here which is a proposed final budget in the amount of 1283187421 uh dollars as uh presented with a 20 with 22.0076 mills of real estate tax and to continue all other uh taxes without change was preliminarily adopted on May uh May 5th 2025. The budget was advertised and made available to the public for review and comment for the past 30 days. The board of director school directors and the administration have reviewed any comments of the

102budget. A budget in the amount of 123,187421 is presented for final approval. So um the rest of the resolution is as you see but all other taxes remain the same. And then the um item 12 is the homestead and farmstead exclusion resolution 2025-7 approved resolution 2025-7 as attached regarding the Fox Chapel area school district homestead exclusion. Any questions on those two items? So I'll I'll be the first to say I didn't realize that the number really didn't actually change at all since May. That's impressive. Um I know though that like some of the some of those numbers are are are like truly living numbers for example our projected revenue. Um and since they are living and they will certainly change um should we can we make any assumptions or understand a little bit about where

103the cushion will be if we have f further revenue shortfalls before the official start of the new new budget year fiscal year. Sorry to keep getting you up. Um I I would say actually the numbers that are in there based on our previous trends where we typically are at the final budget stage. Um it it would really be a small window of variance either way. Um, so maybe I believe my presentation showing what that variance was, it was about a $200,000 swing. Okay. Either way that it could go. Um, but again, there's we have one less than a month left of most collections, but we do still have two more months of collections for some of the different taxes like earned income tax. Um, so with those taxes, they're they're really hit or miss. And

104so at this point, I don't have anything more than that $200,000 swing. Um, as the summer progresses though, I will definitely have sharper numbers on that. Thank you. I will say we are on trend with where we have previously been though. Very helpful. Yes. Thank you. So um I just wanted to make some comments about uh some of the comments that have been made about the budget both here and in social media. Um last month I made a comment uh just to um highlight the fact that you know what what one of the things that we watch very carefully is obviously our expense growth and I pointed out that over the last several years since 2019 budget year um our expense growth has been significantly under the rate of inflation and you can calculate it

105I've calculated it two different ways uh and uh either way you look at it our growth is uh is is quite quite under control. So from that perspective uh I I think we have de demonstrate demonstrated our level of responsibility. I think what the other thing that um has been uh you know pointed out is you know the costs per student and there's a it's a really difficult thing to compare given the differences in services. But we and uh me personally did raise that concern when I first ran for election and uh certainly raised the the concern about some of the contracts that had been made. And this board has consistently we we only get a chance to redo contracts every few years for each of the different bargaining units and for administrators and uh

106and for individual professionals. Um but in every instance we have given the instruction and succeeded in bringing down the rate of growth in each contract. What we have not done is slash and uh maybe there are some people out there who want us to do that but that's not been the direction of this board. That's certainly not my desire. What we've done is bring down the rate of growth notably so that we will bring some of those uh expenses that um may be high relative to other districts um into in in into alignment and uh you can see those numbers. They're publicly available. Uh in terms of the expense rate growth, we have a a a result this year that is rather extraordinary of a 1% personnel growth growth in personnel expenditures. That is really

107a result of the decisions made by this board over multiple contracts to uh especially with the teachers contract to enable the early retirement incentive. uh so that we could bring down uh bring down salary costs because we have a highly experienced teacher core and to the extent that teachers are interested in earlier retirement that helps us uh balance our distribution which has skewed towards a very highly experienced uh teacher core uh to a more balanced where we'd have some more newer teachers who are at the lower end of the pay scale and that is one of the things that has influenced our our costs uh significantly. What's driving this year's tax increase uh and the expense increase is not personnel at one at under 1% growth. What what is uh driving it is uh benefits

108costs um have gone up uh far far higher than inflation. We have a new busing contract that is over a million dollars higher after uh um several years of having an extremely uh favorable contract. We we that contract was ending and we had to come back you know negotiate and come back to Newton bargain uh come back to uh market rates and uh and the property tax issues as we've all talked about that for the first time in a decade virtually I think yeah it's been about a decade it's first time we've seen a reduction in our property tax uh revenue so that hasn't happened before and that's accounting for I think roughly about a quarter percent uh quarter and a half percent of um of the increase. So those things considered, uh, those are

109things that largely are out of our control. Um, you know, there's been some information shared out there. I think it's fairly selective information. U somebody out in the public compared our said we had a very high millage rate and I looked it up. Our millage rate is the 17th lowest out of 45 districts. out below the median uh in terms of millage rates. It's not a particularly good metric, but uh if you want to use it, uh we're not particularly high on our millage rate. Um it the people often make it sound like uh raising taxes some sort of extraordinary uh thing in school districts. Last year, 34 out of 45 school districts raised their taxes. Um it's uh the way act one and budgets are structured and property taxes are structured, it's uh it

110is more common than not. The average tax increase last year was 3.5%. That's including all the zeros for all the ones that didn't increase it. If you actually look at the ones who actually raised taxes, they were significantly higher. Many of them were at 5 6 7% last year. We were at 3.7 75%. Um and that has been the philosophy of this board uh to try to keep those tax rates increases low and not have a big jump in taxes in any particular year because that's usually what happens when you have a 0% year. And I did look, you know, there's been a reference to a particular school district uh that is in our region. Uh I'm not going to pick on them uh by name because I don't think that's every board has its

111decisions to make and I fully respect their decisions and every board's uh right to make their decisions. But the the 0% tax increase, how does that happen? It happens by drawing down their fund reserves in that case. Uh they're bringing it down below. It looks like two years in a row they're going to be below 2% which is below the policy that that district and ours district and uh has set as the minimum unassigned fund balance. So that's not some place we've been willing to go to go that low on our unassigned fund balance. The other thing that district is different on is that they do do not um excuse me they um have nearly twice the debt load that we have. We have an extremely low debt load. We've tried to pay for pay

112as we go as much as we can. We were just talking about a very modest uh level of uh additional bond that would not even bring as close to where a lot of comparable school districts are. So um we the district in that I'm referencing has a 8% over 8% of their expenditures are on debt financing whereas ours is uh about 4% of our financing. So, um, when we talk about financial responsibility, I think, uh, we're doing pretty well there. The other thing, last thing I'd mention is some of the services that we offer that other districts don't offer. For example, preK, full-time kindergarten. A lot of our comparable districts do not offer full-time kindergarten. We have police in every building. We have a very high number of AP courses. Some school districts don't have

113busing. We do. uh and we have a high percentage of in uh IEP and gifted uh uh and special ed kids. So, um there's a lot to consider when we're comparing budgets and school districts. Uh and as I said, um we uh you really need to look at the details and not, you know, just select cherrypick statistics. Um when you look at our expenditure growth over time, it's well within the rate of inflation. We're not raising taxes to fund uh you know excessive spending. We're bringing down the rate of growth in a lot of our expense key controllable expense areas. And um I'm very comfortable with the uh increase we're requesting this year. Very well put, Mr. Hamilton. Thank you. Any questions? Just to put a finer point on that 1% personnel cost growth. Can

114you remind us what percent of our budget is spent on personnel each year? About 2/3 70 70% of our budget. So just to be clear of the things that we can control 70% of our budget is personnel. We have kept that to a 1% personnel cost growth. We have made huge strides on those contracts and with much thanks to all of those bargaining units and their willingness to work with us and to be good partners in being fiscally responsible. Two other facts that I pulled from some of uh Miss Pachek's earlier u uh things she uh distributed. student transportation in our budget is 5,657,000 and 4.3 million is is attributed to tuition. Um, so a lot of those issues are are outside of our control. So anyway, Mr. Hamilton, thank you for those comments. I'd

115like to address one more misunderstanding that I heard on social media, which is that all of our contracts that are of a substantial amounts are competitively bid and that includes that transportation contract. So, we do we do our due diligence as a board and administration to ensure that we are paying um an appropriate fee for the services that we contract. Thank you, Mrs. Cooper. Instruction. Yes. Um I'd looked previously. I think it's 10. Yep. 10 items. Um I'll be moving on next week. The first one um is textbooks and resource materials. um to approve the following textbooks and resource materials. There's a high school social studies US US history interactive reconstruction to the present. Um, and then there's a Dorsyville Middle School math uh connected math project for also u for resource materials elementary school

116science open sed uh resource materials for science kindergarten through grade 5 at all the elementary schools. Uh number two is to approve the professional services agreement as attached between the district and the depal school for hearing and speech for services to students for the 2025 ESY program effective July 1 through July 31 of 2025. This is the renewal of services. Uh number three is to approve the professional services agreement between the district and depal school of hearing and speech for services for the 2526 school year effective August 1 25 through June 30 26. This is also a renewal of services. Number four, approve the agreement as attached between the district and MHY family services for services to students at Longmore Academy for the 2526 school year. This is a renewal. Number five is to approve

117the educational services agreement as attached between the school district and the school at McGuire Memorial for the 2526 school year beginning August 2025 through June 3026 and the 2026 ESY program beginning June 29th through July 10, 2026. This is a renewal of services. Number six is to approve the agreement as attached between the district for the district to participate in the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services School-based access program for school age children for the 2526 school year effective July 1 25 through June 30 26. This is a renewal of services. Number seven is to approve the waterfront learning services addendum as attached pursuant of the Alagany Intermediate Unit 2526 comprehensive services agreement for flexible virtual education options effective July 125 through June 3026. This is the renewal of services. Number eight, approve the memorandum of

118understanding as attached between the district and the Alageney intermediate union unit for participation in the title three consortium for the 2526 school year and authorize the superintendent to execute it. This is a renewal of services. Number nine, approve the master services con agreement and software services addendum A as attached between the school district and navigate 360 LLC for PBIS reward subscription services for the period of July 125 through June 3026. A total cost of $16,442.50. This was renewal of services and will be funded by the PA Commission on Crime and Delinquency School Safety Grant. Number 10 is to approve the contractual agreement as attached between the district and Christine Oros to provide special education evaluations to students identified by the district for the period of July 125 through June 3026. Any questions on those 10

119items? I I do have a question. I think uh in the very first one, it's my understanding that the the map is new and it's under an updated copyright of current textbooks uh heading. I think in the academic committee that was like a a new thing that was being brought in, not an update of a current one. We could check that and um verify with I'd like to verify with Dr. Patterson just to yeah um verify but we can move that if it needed to be. So I think Mr. Dutell came in and talked about it and things right. Yeah. I'm looking at my other academic committee people. Right. I I remember that but what I don't know is if this is an updated sometimes when they update the copyright the book names change as

120well and I just want to verify with Yeah. No, that's that's fine. I'd like Yeah, I guess we'll figure that out next week because I don't think pre-alggebra had a textbook previously. Correct. We've been talking about that for a couple years on academic committee. Yes, I believe you're accurate. I just would like Yeah, no fair. Appreciate your double check. Yep. I'll just note that I'm I'm really excited to see the PBIS rewards program continued. I know that is a really powerful program that's spoken of highly by many families. Yeah. And the the science curriculum is a particularly neat concept. So, and then um and this would be for the resource material so teachers could could do all the cool free ideas, right? Any other questions? Legis, there is no legislation for next week. Personnel, Mrs.

121Sure. Um, next week I'll be moving on the following items, including food services, a resignation of George J. Law, food services worker at Fairville Elementary School due to retirement, her supplemental contract non-athletic, the resignation of Aaron E. Witherrell, student government Hartwood sponsor due to personal reasons, the resation of Carrie L. Harris, instructor of the Steam Camp at Fairview Elementary School due to personal reasons. For appointments, professional Hannah M. Clark is approved as a special education teacher at Dorsyville Middle School um, due to the retirement of Heather Flynn. For Mary C. Cousins approved as an elementary teacher at O'Hara Elementary School due to the retirement of Amy Zatala Zatolla, excuse me. Um, Dena J. Debaldo is approved as an elementary teacher at Hartwood Elementary School um, due to the retirement of Katherine Frederick. Emily L. Duca

122is approved as a French teacher at Fox Chapel High School due to the resignation of Nadesh Flint. Caitlyn F. Dodd is approved as a librarian at Hartwood Elementary School due due to the retirement of Kristen Mohler. Amelia A. Jaffy is approved as an elementary teacher at O'Hara Elementary School due to the retirement of Regina Cornet. Item seven, um, Alexandria E. Lucer Howell is approved as a special education teacher at Kerr Elementary School due to the expanding special education programming there. Alysen S. Mularski is approved as a physical education teacher at Fox Chapel Area High School due to the retirement of Dave Batista. For leaves, item number three, professional Jessica J. O'Shea, a math teacher at Dorseyville Middle School, is approved for childbearing and adoption leave under article 11. Nicole A. Streets, elementary teacher at Fairview

123Elementary School, is ratified for ch childbearing and adoption leave. Also, and Cara Elus, elementary teacher at Cur Elementary School, is approved for childbearing and adoption leave. Under custodial maintenance, Rodney W. Staten, a 10-month, eight hours per day custodian, is ratified for special sick leave and workers compensation, leave replacement professional. Natalyia Aeen is approved as leave replacement school counselor at Hartwood Elementary School due to the childbearing adoption leave of um Jaclyn Kissinger. Change of status educational support. Melissa E. Whitfield, 12-month building secretary at Fox Chapel area high school is approved as secretary to the director of athletics at FCASD. Um effective date to be determined. Purchase of service agreement health services. The purchase of service agreement for the sub for substitute nurse services um between Kristen M. McWney and the Fox Chapel Area School District. to

124the purchase of service agreement for substitutur services also for Kimberly L. Rosenberg and for Elizabeth A. Scholes at FCASD homebound instruction teachers um Stephanie S. Really is ratified as a homebound instruction teacher. Extended school year program 2025. The following individuals are approved um as full day instructors for FCDesy program. That's Clara Barnes, Marie Chur, St. Clair Oliver, Abigail Wentling. Um, following individuals are approved as half-day instructors at FCDSY program. Frank Bako, Carrie Bako, William Bane, Gabriella Benelli, and Maria Swatzbog. Um, Swatsba, excuse me. Bradley SJ Zeriscoco is approved as a substitute um substitute instructor for FCASD program. The following individuals are approved as full day paras professionals, excuse me, for the FCASDY program. Sean Aken, Rebecca After, Emily or excuse me, Emma Carney, Rosalind Living Good, Kelsey Mcani McGawi, McGawi, um Eileen Miller, Amanda Shiko,

125Sishko, Amy Trotzo, Karen Whitehead, Autumn Williams, and Leanne Zatola. The following individuals are approved as half-day pair of professionals at FCACY program. And that's Britney Sora, CaraQatara, Amy Funk, Teresa Kefir, Colleen Lazaro, Grace Shelley, Heather Week, Bike, um, Angela Wilhelm, Emily Wilhelm, and Melissa Zos. Steam Camp. Gavin Smith is approved as an instructor for the Steam Camp at Fairview Elementary. Um, advanced placement exam proctors include Taylor Clawson and Martha Freeze. Um and then the following compensation adjustments um for the nutrition center. The wage scale for food service employees is approved as indicated here in the agenda. I'll move on these 11 items next week. Um there is one um edit to this um and that's item nine under um appointments. That item will be removed in next week's agenda. Any questions? Any questions? Mr. Good.

126Operations Cooperative Services. Yes. Next week I'll be moving on uh authorizing uh the approval of change orders so that um uh bills can be paid during the summer. Authorizing payment of construction invoices uh for a similar uh similar reason. Uh reappointing um Miss Zenusk as a school board secretary. Uh approving the dental examiner. uh approving the renewal of the uh professional software for nurses. Uh we'll be approving the budget for Batty. Uh we'll be approving the meal prices um as listed. Uh we'll be approving quotes uh for camera upgrades from Dustinino Electronic Services. and we'll be approving the agreement and lease for YMCA before and after school child care program. Any questions? I've seen a push for KUR again for a before school care. Do you anybody have an update on numbers for that or

127I mean I I worked closely with uh Miss Toth last year. Yeah. uh sent out multiple surveys and uh they set the minimum requirement of having 20 pe 20 families committed or students and even with the multiple attempts we didn't get there. I mean we can definitely try again. Uh but unfortunately we've not been successful. People generate interest but when it's not time to commit we're not Yeah. I think it's hard. There's been kind of a culture shift and people are finding other so it's Yeah. Thank you for continued efforts. So for the free breakfast, this one really bothers me because it's breakfast is a big deal for a lot of our kids. Are we expecting that we will just get late notice about this? Are there things in the works that we're just waiting

128to see if it will all fall together or should we be planning on no more free breakfast? We have no idea. And so I I wish I could give you a better answer. I'll tell you what we do know. We do know that um right now we have two buildings, Kerr Elementary School and Hartwood Elementary School who uh fall under the community eligibility provision and all students in those two buildings receive free breakfast and free lunch under a federal program. Students in all of our other buildings who meet um income qualifications also benefit from free or reduced breakfasts and lunches. Um we there is um there are proposals at the federal level that would change the percentage of students before you could qualify for a community eligibility provision which would likely eliminate Hartwood and in

129some proposals I've seen could eliminate Kerr from those uh from the federal community eligibility provision. That would likely not be for this upcoming school year. It would probably be for the following school year. Uh last year the state of Pennsylvania provided additional funds that essentially financially backfilled what the reduced prices were for students who qualified under the federal program. Pennsylvania paid the difference to school district for breakfast so that all students could have I'm sorry for lunches and provided funds so that all students whether or not there was an income uh qualification could have free breakfast. that we have not received any guidance saying that that has changed, but we've also not had any guidance saying that that will continue. And um we know that the state government is wrestling with their budget as well

130and it is not going to be uh likely approved before we have to approve our budget. So, in trying to determine based on when our school year starts that we have to declare a price um we have these prices in here because those are the the prices that it would be if we have no other um opportunities for state funding. It is unlikely that they will change in uh the federal world for this school year. That could be a future issue. um as to whether the state the the legislation as written said it would be they would put money in the fund until it were expended. But if you don't put money in the fund then there's no money to expend. So we just don't we don't have any better information. I wish I could

131give you more information and I share your passion for u free meals for our students. And maybe just for public knowledge what what is the ballpark amount and you can tell us next week if if needed what it costs to do the free breakfast in our district. what it costs to do the free breakfast. If you mean our cost, what what is not what is the money that's been provided that it costs you? I can get you the exact amount. Um, if I and I had that last year when we spoke about it, I'm thinking it was something like 1.8 or $2 million a year, but I I don't I'm just remembering that. So, let me get you the exact amount. Any other questions? Second public comment period. No one. Fox Chapel Educators Association. I

132just wanted to extend our sincere thanks to the board, the administration, and all of the staff and teachers for the incredible work throughout the school year. The time and effort and dedication of everyone involved are evident each and every day and are reflected in the remarkable accomplishments of our students as we clearly saw here tonight. Um just an early um with only a few days left to the class of 2025. I wish you all the very best as you take your next steps. Go forward with confidence, follow what brings you joy, and continue to make yourselves in the Fox Shaw area school district proud. Um, and I hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable summer once we get to that point. Thank you. Board comments, Mrs. Finley. A quick future congratulations to everyone who

133will be graduating on Sunday. I look forward to seeing you all. And uh, the dinner coming up this Thursday to the top honors of the class of 2025. Um, congratulations to everyone who was here today, everyone's hard work, be it teachers, athletes, students, doing academia. Good luck. Enjoy your summer. Thank you, Mrs. Lynch. Uh, no comment. Dr. Hasselorn. No, not today. Mr. Hamilton. Yeah, I just wanted to um reflect on the um phenomenal number of awards and accomplishments that we recognized this evening uh from all of our students in all different realms from athletics to the arts. Uh uh it was uh truly impressive and it reflects the efforts of this district to provide um a well-rounded whole student oriented education. Um, we also noted our number one ranking in the Pittsburgh Business Times, both

134state and regional ranking. And I would wanted to point out that another um change that this board made um that was not probably widely noticed but um was discussed among ourselves in course of uh contract negotiations and discussions was to not make uh test scores as key or central a part of uh some of our contracts that we have uh and our incentive plans. um that was a very central or testing was very central to some of the previous uh contracts um and as a performance incentive um and we have we deemphasize that and yet we still perform uh have outstanding performance. I think it goes to the point that you don't have to uh if you're doing the right things as a district holistically across the board curriculum uh activities engaging students um and

135hiring the best teachers and professionals and administrators that you can uh you can get outstanding results without resorting to just uh a very narrow focus on tests. And I I um think we over as commun as a society overemphasize test scores and test results but they are widely and easily accessed by wide swaths of the public. So they do matter uh and they do reflect some some important aspects of education but uh so congratulations to everybody who was involved uh from the students to the teachers to the administrators who uh it's a community effort to educate uh over 4,000 students and to get these kinds of results uh and the parents certainly uh most of all probably uh and to the community for supporting uh this outstanding school district and this is result. Thank you,

136Mr. Good. No comment. Thank you, Mrs. Itch. Um, yes. I just want to recognize once again the Future Business Leaders of America program. It's truly outstanding the program we run here, both in numbers and achievement, and the number of students that spoke um also about the um the esports, which is a new endeavor for us, but it's clearly creating belonging and a sense of place for a lot of students um and that that sense of community that we pride ourselves on in Fox Chapel. and I was just really happy to hear um about that in our lens on learning. So, thank you for that today. That is all, Mrs. Cooper. It's hard to believe another school year is wrapping up. Uh thank you to all of our educators for another great school year. Um it's

137because of our educators that our students have all these opportunities that we get to hear about so often and excel um and these extracurricular kind of things. Um also want to thank Mr. Hamilton for his always willingness to deep dive in comparative statistics and data um and explain that in a in a concise way. Thank you. I I I echo the this the uh the comments about our success and it is truly just a collective success across the district between staff, parents um and students. Just to switch gears for for one second. On Saturday evening, the Fox Chapel area school sports hall of fame honored this year's WPL champions and state place winners, current athletes. They also inducted five deserving inductees into the Hall of Fame. Uh you can see them on that board that's

138in the high school hallway if you want to, that video board. uh honored Mary Joe Dunlap for her wonderful community service over several decades and also awarded more than $20,000 from the Fur family, the Lodge family, the Livingston families, and also the Eddie Bole Foundation. Uh just as a note, the Frank Fur family fund uh foundation has donated $300,000 over the life of the Hall of Fame, which is 27 years, um to to deserving student athletes. inductees and guests traveled from as far as Oregon, uh, Los Angeles, Miami, Florida, and Virginia to join the celebration. So, thank you very much. Could I have a motion to adjurnn? So, moved. Second. Sec. All in favor? I. Thank you.