Upper St. Clair superintendent hosts community Q&A session
Upper St. Clair Superintendent Patrick O’Toole and other district administrators opened themselves up to questions from the community Nov. 8.
Hosted by the USC Parent Teacher Council, the semiannual “Open Mike” welcomed about 20 parents and community members in the theater at Boyce Middle School.
“This is a good opportunity to answer questions but also a great opportunity for us to hear feedback, comments, suggestions and be able to clarify things,” O’Toole said.
Questions were submitted to O’Toole prior to the event, with the first topic being school lunches. O’Toole said the dynamics surrounding school lunches have changed since the federal government increased regulations on school lunches in 2010.
“Changes in school lunches is heavily regulated by the federal government because we do receive money from the federal government for school lunches,” O’Toole said. “We have students who receive subsidies for free and reduced lunches. … We’ve had to increase prices for lunches as part of (those restrictions).”
A parent asked about the health of the choices at lunch, specifically referencing the frequency of pizza as an option at lunch.
“We’re looking at the foods that the kids like, but they still have to be healthy by the federal guidelines,” O’Toole said. “This has resulted in fewer choices for kids. The kids say there’s too much repetition in the choices. That’s what we’re going to do moving forward so we’re not repeating the same options.”
Another topic of the night revolved around capital projects in the district, specifically the renovation of the stadium at the high school.
“It takes a long time to do a public works project from the time it starts to the time it’s finished,” O’Toole said. “We have one more hurdle before we go out to bid the project. We have a request for a modification with the township … which they will act on at their Dec. 4 meeting.”
After a parent asked when the target date is for the project to be finished, O’Toole said, “If all goes well, if we go out to bid in December and we have no construction delays, we hope to be up and running in August of 2019.”
The final submitted topic was about Title IX and the district’s social media protocol.
O’Toole, who is also the district’s Title IX coordinator, said that while Title IX is known best for gender equality for sports, it’s much more than that.
“We look at the data and information to find out what might be in the environment and in the experience that might tell one particular group or subgroup that they’re not welcome there,” O’Toole said.
Sharon Suirtsky, assistant/deputy superintendent, said social media and the divisive political culture is making being an educator and a parent more difficult.
“Everything is so complicated on how to handle things. We’re just in the midst of such a challenging time,” Suritsky said. “We need to be cognizant that we’re in the midst of this and that things are complicated. Whenever you watch the news or watch TV there’s a new issue that’s tough for students to understand.”
Suritsky said doing what’s best for the students is the only thing on everyone at the district’s minds.
“As educators, we know we’re in this with families. We can’t ignore the fact that kids come to school every day hearing and seeing disturbing info. We have to be unbiased ourselves, and we have to help students process that and figure out how we can support them as they continue to learn those things,” she said. “We’re not doing it perfectly. No district is. But we are focused on doing it as best as we can, and we are going to continue to have dialogue on it.”
Amy Pfender, director of student support services, said improving the consequences for social media infractions is something the district is considering.
“We are trying to make consequences meaningful,” Pfender said. “We have our handbook we follow, but we try to tie research and understanding to why the infraction is something the child shouldn’t be doing.”
Several parents asked questions near the end of the event, with some inquiring about the possibility of the district implementing standing desks.
Suritsky said a handful of district administrators spent three days in Grand Rapids, Mich., at the Steelcase Education headquarters, which specializes in school furniture.
“That’s going to continue to be a focus for us to give kids access to move throughout the classroom,” Suritsky said. “Steelcase is in love with the standing desk and standing table, so hopefully we’ll be able to see more of that.”
O’Toole said he is balancing the increased cost of standing desks with the health benefits for the students. The next PTC “Open Mike” event will be in the spring.