Quaker Valley School District officials approve tentative calendar for 2023-24

Quaker Valley School Board approved a tentative 2023-24 calendar during the Feb. 21 school board meeting.

The first day of the next school year will be Aug. 23.

Winter break is planned for Dec. 22 through Jan. 1.

Two key dates that have not been determined are the last day of school and graduation, which assistant superintendent Andrew Surloff said is because of ongoing negotiations with the Quaker Valley Education Association.

“When you have the collective bargaining negotiation, you discuss a lot of calendar-related issues,” he said. “When we know how long the teacher year is going to be, that will help us know how long the student year is going to be. The calendar end date will probably be very much aligned to, or at least within a week to 10 days of, the current school year.”

Last day for students this school year is June 2 with graduation June 1.

Contract talks kicked off in November and a formal negotiation session took place in January.

The current four-year teachers’ contract expires June 30.

“We always work to negotiate and hopefully settle prior to the expiration of the current agreement,” Surloff said. “It’s very early in the process. We’re still very much in the beginning phases of conversation.”

The district has 164 teachers and about 1,878 students.

The tentative school calendar was posted on the district’s website and was linked to the online agenda for the school board meeting.

The president and chief negotiator for the teachers’ union is Jeff Sebastian.

In other business

School directors approved the schematic design plans of a proposed high school.

Plans were prepared by BSHM Architects, Bohlin Cyninski Jackson and Phillips & Associates.

Architects gave a video presentation of the plans at the Feb. 14 school board workshop meeting.

The proposed school is on 150 acres of land off Camp Meeting Road. It straddles Leet Township, Edgeworth and Leetsdale. Estimated project cost is between $95 million and $105 million.

The presentations can be found under the school board section of the district’s website, qvsd.org.

The project would be paid for through long-term bonds and annual real estate tax increases of about 3.4% or less the next five years, according to district reports.

Gianni Floro, school director and chairman of the board’s facilities and operations committee, said he is pleased with the planning progress and there is still more work to be done.

“I’m very excited,” Floro said. “We don’t have any of the finishes selected. We don’t have any of the interior designs completed. It’s really just a view from the top right now. I think the administration and the design team still have a lot of work ahead of them.

“In terms of what we want to do with the site, what we want to do with the infrastructure (and) the traffic issues, we’re moving forward really well. I hope our schematic design is well received by Leet Township. We’re looking forward to working with them to ensure Quaker Valley has a world-class high school.”

An informal meeting between district and Leet officials is expected to take place sometime in March with designs to be submitted to the township’s planning commission in June or July.