Mount Lebanon board hears midyear strategic-plan update, district outlines enrollment, tech and facilities priorities

The Mount Lebanon School District board heard a midyear update from the superintendent and executive council at its Jan. 26 virtual meeting, covering winter-weather decision rules, progress on strategic-plan goals, plans to implement a district volunteer system and several curriculum and technology initiatives.

Superintendent (name not specified in the transcript) said the district balances road conditions, National Weather Service advisories, police reports and municipal road crews when deciding to delay or cancel school for winter storms. "Our priority is to get kids to school, but to make sure that they get there safely," the superintendent said.

Administrators reported that 6 of 32 yearly strategic goals are complete; the district is tracking other tactics on a publicly available dashboard. Among initiatives highlighted was the selection of Raptor as the districtwide volunteer-management system. Officials said data conversion is under way with a target implementation in spring 2026 and staff training to follow.

Elementary-school updates included reading and science program implementations, work on a districtwide induction program for staff and a new kindergarten webpage. The assistant superintendent for elementary education, Dr. Shullo, told the board the district has streamlined Schoology pages and will launch centralized kindergarten registration on Feb. 2 for the 2026–27 school year.

Secondary-school leadership described standards for device use and enforcement. The assistant superintendent for secondary education, Dr. Davis, reported phone-policy enforcement totals this year of 29 violations at Jefferson, 27 at Mellon and 39 at the high school; staff said devices are stored or limited in classrooms according to grade-level rules and teacher direction.

Technology staff described web-filtering and app-vetting practices: the district uses GoGuardian and has blocked YouTube Shorts at many grade levels while preserving access needed for approved educational apps. The district said it now uses 1EdTech processes to vet third-party apps for data privacy and compliance with FERPA and COPPA.

The facilities director, Mr. Kaiser, summarized recent capital and maintenance work — including water-line and emergency-equipment repairs, LED lighting retrofits and camera installations — and said a 10-year facilities capital-improvement plan will be presented to the board on Feb. 9. He also noted the district co-applied with the municipality for an AFIG alternative-fuels grant to purchase a Ford E-350 electric transit van.

Finance and operations staff reviewed the district’s fund balance and budgeting work. The business office reported a 2024–25 unassigned general fund balance of $7,500,000, representing 5.99% of budgeted expenditures; the district's stated target is 8 percent. Officials said they implemented a midyear budget freeze on nonessential purchases to rebuild the fund balance, and that PNC Capital Markets has been selected as the district’s bond investment banker.

Communications staff previewed a redesigned district website targeted for early July with improved ADA accessibility and multi-language support and said the weekly district newsletter has an average open rate of about 86 percent.

The administration also reminded the board that the comprehensive plan will be posted for the required 28-day review period before further board consideration in the next steps of the PDE submission and alignment process.

Next steps: several of the initiatives described — including Raptor implementation, presentation of the 10-year facilities plan and kindergarten registration rollout — were given target time frames (spring 2026 for Raptor, Feb. 2 for kindergarten registration, Feb. 9 for the capital-plan presentation).