001it's the mission of big one at local schools to inspire and guide each student to his or her maximum potential i'd like to call this meeting to order the pledge of of the allegiance states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all mr crowl here mrs doris here mr fuji here mrs lee here mr schneider here and i think miss smith might be giving tours right now join us a little later all right sounds good item six one it's recommended the board approved the november 11th 2021 regularly scheduled board meeting minutes could have a motion please so moved thank you steve's there a second second thank you any discussion or comments on eleven eleven make a wish mr fuji yes mrs dorsch
002yes mr crowl yes mrs lee yes mr schneider yes item six two it's recommended board approved november 18 2021 regularly scheduled board meeting minutes have a motion please summon thanks sherry is there a second second thank you leanna mrs dorsch yes mrs lee yes mr crowl yes mr fuji abstain miss mr schneider yes that brings us to the superintendent's report thank you um and i know it's under my report but i'm actually gonna ask jeremy to kind of help me out a little bit because he was able to do some investigating with uh tammy on the board members being able to be compensated for meeting supporters scheduled i'm gonna like because i think that was a concern that we shot up on the proposed agenda the last time yeah and and as i i shared
003with the board last night um or yeah i think i sent it out yesterday um while we can add something to the the bottom if we would like to say that it um that all all board meetings will be paid upon policy um what i asked osba and kind of looked through that because i know it was a concern that um the way that their interpretation was of the statute is that because our policy is kind of the equation for when we're paying a board member i believe it states that we are we pay for meetings attended and then meetings are described within other areas of policy that they are special meetings regular meetings work sessions all of those it was the understanding is is that the board is paid to the max allowable or
004up to the max allowable within our policy uh by statute which is currently what's being paid so any change in meeting if we called extra special sessions or um cancelled a meeting it's only those meetings that are attended that we're paying for um so it it is not my belief nor was it osba's that there should there would be a concern that if we added extra meetings that they would be unpaid so i know that was a concern and i did want to just kind of look into it and make sure um if if the board would like we can definitely add at the bottom of that meeting schedule that will continue to pay based on policy which is up up to the max allowable by statute for meetings that are attended so just wanted
005to share that because i know it was a concern sure that's a that's a good point sure so just a reminder um the new board wants to add or delete we can it's just kind of a starting place just want to make sure we're on the same page with what we're recommending ohio revise code 333 13.8 uh within that it reads that the treasurer of the board shall canvass the members of the new board no later than december 31st to establish the day of the organizational meeting prescribed by this section i realize that's probably never nobody's ever seen that but it is in there so you might want to check in on that okay all right next up um we do need to have a public uh discussion of the draft calendars for the next
006two school years and like the invite our assistant superintendent up um he is the one who runs the calendar committee so i'm sure he can answer any questions the board members may have but um we've been just as a reminder the last couple of years we've only done a year at a time because we weren't sure where we would be with construction schedules in the past we've typically do done two years at a time just kind of help families with planning so we're trying to get back into that cycle with that mark did you have anything to add no this the these two calendars have been drafted with the input of our unions the only union contract that requires it is our teachers union however we do invite all four unions to be a part
007of it and these next these two calendar drafts actually fall right in line with the last couple of years of what we've done and have seen it working pretty well they will certainly be able to provide some input this is just the first reading tonight of these drafts and then we'll open it up to public input as required that'll be posted on our website of these drafts i want to stress that these are drafts because sometimes people print them off and then if something gets changed they've already made arrangements for next year's vacation so i just want to stress that until the board approves these in january these are just drafts so those will be posted for any public input as well as any other input from our four unions that we work with any
008questions that i can answer for you yeah i know we moved to a semester schedule to get it done by the holiday break previous to now uh and that we have tried to align that to other delaware county schools at the sake of trying to assist our delaware area career center students so they would have a more uniform schedule do these reflect that or is this kind of the testing period for that as well yeah these go right in line as well with some of our other county districts it's always kind of a little bit of a staggered approach because one district might have just next year is approved another district might be going through the process like we are one district maybe two years ahead having already approved their two years so we do
009look at those as well as you know get just any contact that we have with them making sure that as much as possible on the same page that we're helping out our career center with their scheduling as well and just as a parent of somebody in the graduating class of 2023 the graduation kind of time and tentative that follows with what we've done before in terms of may 20th i see and then the other one was may 18th the days get in there was a question look at you well done you must have a student in that grade range as well uh there was a conversation i remember two years ago around senior days by that point and this fits that criteria as well yes we are able to stay within those those limitations or
010allowances thank you those are mine any other questions for mark all right again we'll have these posted on the website and we'll bring them back to you in january for approval thank you mark okay next up we will have um kate miss kate thoma one of our directors of academic achievement with a brief update for the board hey everybody good evening good to see you again from high school to here my update's really quick it's on our november 29th flavor day i kind of alluded to this professional development day for staff it was really exciting we were able to as a district work on our eagle profile and by grade band we looked at what is a successful student look like with this evil profile characteristic so we kind of defined that with different groups
011and then we also worked on rubrics for those different characteristics those will all come back to our instructional leadership committee for us to take everybody's great ideas and try to put them into one master plan that i'll bring back to you guys next steps include then working on how does this fit with things that we're already doing in the classroom making sure that we give students that feedback and figuring out how we're going to keep our parents and community informed on our progress it was a really productive day we did have a survey that went out at the end of the day and we had 122 staff members that responded favorably to the day so we were really excited and i want to give a big shout out to the members on the instructional leadership
012committee who read through every staff survey feedback from our first waiver day applied it and helped in the planning of this favorite day so it was really exciting to see their ideas kind of come to life it was a good day thank you any questions all right thanks kate so i you know next up we have the construction update which we always look forward to hearing from mr sword i'm not sure if he's back from the new buildings yet okay i figured he might have gotten tied up over there so um i'll do his construction update and that is that the building will open on the fourth for our high school kids and been a great uh dedication and open house tonight thanks to savannah for helping with that thank you and uh we're really
013super excited to see our kids as we come back from break on that tuesday and that's about the best construction update we can have today all right i don't know if we'll get a chance to comment later but i've um just randomly run into a couple different staff members and i've heard it's a move but considering that it's a move um a lot of um accolades for the coordination and the organization and the assistance to be able to do that so at least it sounds like from a couple of staff members i talked to that they're appreciative of the efforts to try to make the physical move as uh as seamless as possible so i thought i'd share that back feedback thank you any other i guess you were all just over there with us
014as well but any questions on construction [Music] all right um next up is just a moment so last week it's kind of interesting because we moved the dedication to tonight and it's the last board meeting for two of our outgoing board members and so we typically like to take a moment to recognize them back in my other town um so we did a little continental breakfast last week to kind of take a moment to celebrate but on their last official meeting jeremy and i went to take a moment just to say a few words um we do have a card there from jeremy and mark and i that was not purchased with district funds so um i want to just take a moment to thank you both first individually and then just kind of make
015some comments about your time here um brad is actually the longest serving board member up here in eight years i spent the last three as president and the institutional knowledge that he takes with him is going to be a huge loss to this board really appreciated brad your steady leadership through the craziest times i've experienced in my career i think that everybody can say whether an administration or board that's been very challenging in the last couple of years and you've kind of been the one to keep things under control in this room and just really been great at seeing different perspectives what i really appreciate about brad is he doesn't have any issue in having a discussion with anyone you don't have to agree with somebody you're probably one of the best people i know
016about um just because i don't agree with you doesn't mean i hate you and we can still be friends and and shake hands and move on so i think you do a great job modeling that um and i just have really appreciated as superintendent the last seven and a half years um and also working with you as the assistant superintendent for that just your leadership um your ear when i need to talk and just all the things that you've done for our kids i can honestly say that your decisions and comments are always about the kids and you put the kids first when you make decisions and i appreciate that i think that makes a great board member so thank you angie just said and interesting enough i think brad is the the last member
017of the board that that hired me and it may be the same thing for for angie so uh um you've been one of those constants in as i've grown in this district as well um and i i appreciate the opportunities that you and i have had to uh you know talk uh your perspective on things you always ask good questions and whether it's a when you're trying to understand a topic that's on the agenda asking good questions there so you're prepared and opportunities that we have had on the insurance committee those have been conversations around that and just your help uh in some of those opportunities as well as when we've looked at economic development and you're just you're a great sounding board and i i think angie would would echo that so appreciate your
018leadership uh and and we'll miss you well thank you um a lot of a lot of nice things there um it's definitely bittersweet um you know there's some things that kept me from being able to seek a different uh another opportunity but also in that same token though too i also think it's healthy in a community when there's more people floating through than lassen so well i'll certainly miss you both and um i appreciated the opportunity to serve i guess i would encourage everybody whether it's sitting in a chair like this or whatever find a way to serve it changes your perspective you know your community better you make connections with your folks and um whether you're crazy enough to run for this office or something else find a way to get out there and
019serve because it's it'll just change your view on everything it has for me so thank you both for your for your kind words and then leanna just finishing up over three years on the board has served as our vice president um but leanna was no stranger around here before that because she has donated so many hours of her time over the years primarily helping with our levy and bond campaign um over multiple campaigns over the years um and even in her role as board member as we were on the ballot just really continuing to be a leader and helping the committee in that way and as we um look at that gorgeous building that many of us just got a chance to visit um both lyanna and brad played a huge part in those getting
020built i thank you for that um one of the things i'd say about lyanna that really stands out about her is that she's really a huge advocate for all kids again makes student-centered decisions like they said about brad um lyanna really gravitates to all kids not just the ones who share her specific interests or beliefs and i really respect that about her she's very involved with academics again the ballot campaigns and supportive of all the different opportunities that we provide our kids whether it's athletics or music so that they have an opportunity to really get that well-rounded whole child education and i just appreciate how she stands fire principles even when people have been nasty i appreciate your class and character so thank you for that so over the last three years i've gotten to
021know lyanna much better than i knew her before only knew her by name and um one thing that i definitely know about lyanna is her her passion for education passion for our community and for our schools it's it's all apparent and what she what she does as a board member but also in the community um i know she loves big walnut has served in the library prior to with the schools and her involvement on the board is one way that she's been able to serve but as angie mentioned helping out in schools far before becoming a board member and just again serving in this community in different capacities one thing that will always stick out to me is just her real passion for kids of this district and um i hope you continue to stay
022involved we'll miss you thank you i'm um i'm not quite as good as brad i have to write down what i was gonna say so but um i'd like to thank my fellow board members in the administration um my time on the board serving the school district and and community um has probably been one of the most rewarding professional experiences i've ever had i never consider myself a politician only public servant for our kids and with that goal of always putting students in their needs first i'd like to extend special thanks to former board members andy wacker allison fagan and especially mindy meyer for sharing their experiences and expertise as i navigated those first few um meetings as a new board member um you think after running a levy campaign serving as a volunteer on
023two other loving campaigns running a bond campaign oh yeah i know how to be a board of education member i've sat up here for three and a half years and i still have a lot to learn every day and um i it it's been a great experience um i'd also like to say a special thank you to brad schneider for his leadership during my tenure i'd also like to thank jeremy for his willingness to explain complicated financial reports in terms that i could easily understand i spent a lot of time in his office learning about all of those reports and finally to angie hamburg i just like to say thank you for your leadership of this district during what can only be described as the most unusual of times you have always been committed to
024putting kids first and focused on the best interest of the community and i'm proud to know you and to have served on this board [Music] [Applause] thank you jeremy who's over to you for the treasury before okay uh really just two things to know as i've shared in the last couple months um a couple areas to bring your attention to on this month's report is still the unrestricted state grants and the restricted state grants that really is the school funding formula um so that will i said december we got our final payments underneath i think the final payments underneath the what is the current formula and uh we'll hopefully in january begin to to see what that looks like so um you'll see that uh we are under in those areas but still as a
025whole on revenue we're basically spot on and then expenditures the really just the two things to bring to the attention is that uh we are slightly under still for the the uh the year and uh did see a little bit overage in our our personal services and retirement um and that can just it's just based on plan and what happens we've been over or under the uh three months before and you'll see that we're still under as a whole so um in line and and still looking good so that's really all i have to to share about that thank you very much that'll move us to item 11 and board members items of interest sherry will so that's why i was a bit late i was still showing people around but no you're fine it
026has definitely been an interesting week for our students the first semester is coming to a close so this week was exam week we have all been working so hard to solidify our grades for this first semester and overall has gone very well for our students next semester we will be in the new high school building which is sure to be a very exciting transition as teachers finish packing students are wrapping up tests all of that good stuff we are very excited to make the move in january as for extracurriculars on the rage cage has been coming out to support basketball and girls basketball beat belle fountain recently so congratulations to them also the girls bowling team won their first tournament championship in the history of the program so that was very awesome for those girls
027they worked really hard to get it swim season has just started on the german program donated canned goods to one of our local organizations student council made a one thousand dollar donation to the neighborhood bridges program and for the holiday season student council also donated 150 meals to the hope house which is the organization in columbus that we had been working with that's all i have tonight thank you very much cheri um so first i just wanted to thank mrs lee for suggesting at our last meeting that we joined hundreds of other school districts in ohio and of course in opposing the um backpack bill hb 290. this plan takes money away from public school districts which are accountable to community members and governmental agencies and distributes it to private charter schools many of which
028are for-profit and are not accountable for how that money is spent among a host of other issues this completely undermines the constitutional requirement to provide a quality education to all students and once again those that would suffer the most are the most marginalized amongst us i also want to say that i am very pleased that we've decided to get our superintendent's contract in line now before hiring season in january we've been through a completely unprecedented time the last couple years and this community is beyond blessed to have had mrs hamburg at the helm of this district as we went through the craziness of the past few years at no point has this been easy but angie has been steadfast in making sure that our students have been in the classroom and that the rest of
029the priorities of this district were not shut the side i'm not so foolish as to think that any district searching for a superintendent would be eager to hire angie and i want to make sure that she knows that we respect and appreciate her for a job well done and wholeheartedly support for leadership in the district for the coming years and then finally i just want to extend my deepest gratitude to both brad and leanna for all of the work that they have done for this district to improve the educational opportunities for every student in this community my hope for the next two years is that i can exhibit even half the dedication and effort that leanna has shown me in this board role and that i can learn to distill all of the stuff in
030my head into a no-nonsense straightforward statement like brad i have an incredible appreciation for his ability to just cut to the chase i will miss working my head is a dangerous place doug would you like to go the only thing i have is uh i am surprised that once we concluded an election that the attacks haven't stopped there was an accusation made on social media that a board member breached confidentiality that is a very serious claim i would suppose that the person that made that statement was pointing to me so for the record number one i am not the administrator of bw cares and not once in the four years on this board have i ever breached confidentiality if somebody has a reason to make that claim and they have evidence by all means bring
031it forth if you don't then you're lying stop it that's all i got thank you doug see you put me in the festive spirits thank you i spent my comments last week expressing gratitude for our transportation department and everything they do uh mr mcclure and uh and every driver that we have as a hero uh my comments were based on the local news that uh local districts uh have been deep uh and i'm sorry my comments last week were based on local news reports that local districts have had to adjust schedules for student learning based on driver shortages [Music] certainly big walnut is not immune to that we've had to adjust schedules once in the first semester uh and i think that it's high time that we certainly express our appreciation to those drivers and
032that transportation department for everything they did in this first semester and then last week our district had an accident dealing with buses while data such as 109 square miles in this district and common sense should prepare us for such for such incidents i'm grateful that children largely walked away unharmed and that our district followed protocols on working with first responders to provide first aid and triage students certainly there are things that we can learn from the incident but i hope that all around appreciation for bus drivers is articulated i've shared with this board and with this community before that when my children used to buy uh winter break presents uh for folks the first person that they used to purchase for was mr jean on bus 18. you know the way that someone starts out
033their day by climbing on that big yellow bus as an elementary school student matters and those folks many of our staff many of them are neighbors have gone above and beyond in everything they do and i just really want to be able to articulate not just last week but again today tonight my appreciation for them next to iterate my gratitude to our educators last week this board approved a teacher contract in public session uh with a very conservative two percent increase in their base pay i happened to be on a flight to chicago later that week and i had the chance to read a new york post article about inflation i'm certainly glad for everything that our teachers do and i'm proud to have voted yes in support of that contract they have gone through
034things within their professional careers in the last 24 months that none of them anticipated and to know that we have that locked up as we continue our service for this district and this community as a board should do is more than appropriate and appreciated in addition you know they have a winter break coming up too savannah and i bet i would wonder who might be looking more forward to this winter the students or our staff so i i also want to say to them thank you next our high school uh it was fantastic this evening to be able to be in that high school and think about uh the amount of work that went into this uh i have a lollipop anybody interested in telling me who the board president was in 1991 mr schneider
035when that when our when 555 south old 3c was dedicated phyllis taylor so it's it's really neat to think that that sorry i don't have an answer it's really that's okay phyllis taylor well done it's really neat to think that that facility will last that has lasted us for 30 years now this year 1991 to will continue to serve into the future as our next middle school thank you uh in addition to that you know i saw the plaque this evening it kind of made me excited and maybe even a little bit sad that dr martin was a superintendent in that moment my friend chuck workman uh was the principal another friend jim hildreth was the vice president on that board 30 years ago the idea that this uh that actually you guys have referenced
036and mr wecker has stated in the past that we tax ourselves responsibly and spend money and our resources respectfully i think it continues to this day and i'm excited to think about what the future of that facility that we are all just in this evening provides moving forward that if it's another 30 years before this district has to maybe consider something else and that building stays in service for another 30 i think that will be fantastic next we talked about winter break i certainly want to say to everybody uh not only in this board meeting that might be attending elsewhere or listening elsewhere i hope you have a good holiday uh whether you celebrate christmas or hanukkah or kwanzaa i hope it is merry and joyous finally board comments when this board reconvenes in january
037we'll do so with newly elected members that will constitute to your point uh president schneider the next iteration of whatever this board of education is in the military i saw master chief mazzy walk in retired master chief mazzy walk in but in the military we call something a hail and farewell that before we can hail the new newly elected folks to their leadership position we must be farewell and best wishes to those currently in service so to you madam vice president from my seat as 105 i want to say thank you i want to say thank you for your steadfast voice for all students i want to say thank you for your engagement to every member in this community you've been incredibly poised and dignified in your role and i have a tremendous amount of
038respect for you and hope only the best in your future you have led this board and our work as in evaluating both our superintendent and treasurer during my two years on this board you are a key voice in this community as it pertains to successes in levies and stewarding good will for every child thank you president schneider from my seat i want to say thank you for your leadership you have led with clear understanding maybe a bit more succinctly than me you have clearly articulated financial issues related to tiffs bonds developments and community partnerships i value valued your strategic insights as i come to terms with my own understanding of various issues you sir are the epitome of class and dignity you've presided over this board judiciously and with the quorum thank you i will
039miss that it does my heart a great deal of pride though to know that you are both in the community that with your institutional knowledge we will be able to call on just a phone call away as you both depart i admit my concern is with the institutional issues of this district eight years can't be replaced you both possess a deep knowledge of past events and that is intertwined into today's efforts uh as i choose to be optimistic when it comes to our hailing of our next board members uh and their role i'm choosing to be excited to get to know mrs nix and mrs graziosi better as they strive to continue this important work of this porn until that day farewell i wish you both the best that concludes my comments mr president thanks
040steve i guess i can't change my cell phone number now leanna um i just i kind of made my comments earlier but i'd also just like to say wow that new high school um i am just so impressed incredibly proud of this community for stepping up and voting back in 2017 that this was something that was needed for our kids and walking in there tonight i immediately burst into tears because i'm prone as i'm prone to do um just out of sheer joy of seeing what a fantastic facility that is for this community and um just the credit to that eagle pride community of volunteers who got out there and educated the community on why this was so needed i am so grateful to you i am grateful to angie and mark and doug for
041pulling all of this together and just i mean it's just wonderful i'm so excited congratulations thank you um i guess to kind of continue the thanks um you know i appreciate all of my current board member peers as well as the ones that i've previously served with it's been an honor getting to know you and being able to serve with you and jeremy the same with you and angie as well as well as well as your predecessors um probably the biggest thanks though that i want to give is to the people that probably paid the most for my service which are my family members um for the innumerable baseball or basketball practices my children had to wait for me to be done talking to a community member after or the phone calls that i would
042get dealing with a particular issue or trying to make sure that things were in line and whatnot that pulled me away or the holiday parties that became discussions about things happening in the district and my perspective on those things that took away from the time and attention that my family absolutely deserves i thank them for that and i look forward to being more of a pain in the rear to them than i have been on at least thursday nights and thursday mornings for that matter so um and i want to thank honestly um you all in the community um you know angie said i am i am one that is really willing to take on any discussion at any particular time and i try to model the notion that we all have different perspectives and
043all those perspectives have value and whether that changes my mind or not it doesn't mean i respect that perspective any less and it doesn't mean that your perspective is any more valuable than mine and so hopefully you experience that with me and if there's anything that i could kind of leave to the community stepping away from a role i hope the spirit of that kind of gets left with you all that we can have conversations we can be friends we can be community members we can really disagree about kind of how to do things or or of the ways we want to get things done as long as we're all in the same boat around trying to do the best thing that we can do for our kids in our community and so i guess
044the the biggest piece that i would leave with that since i can soapbox for one more minute anyhow i should have made you guys hold me to three minutes that would have only been fair um you know i think that one of the greatest appreciations of that i have of this community or the pride of the people that have built it up to what it is and the ones that currently live here and just reminding everyone that we all have a voice in this community and so whether you've been here one day 100 days or 100 years that it's important that we continue to try to be in touch and connect with all of our community members especially as they continue to come and join us as the growth around here is not going to
045change and if we do that and we stay connected together this will be the community and will continue to be the community that we all wanted it to be and we were all looking to join when we came here either by birth or by choice so thank you all for that opportunity that brings us to public participation number 12. this is a meeting of the board of education in public for the purpose of conducting the school district business and is not considered a public community meeting this is the time for public participation during the meeting as indicated in the agenda please reference the criteria for public petition participation which is attached to the agenda jeremy what do we have tonight uh we have we have seven okay so first person is kendra borer one five
046zero six seven uh woodtown road in sunbury talking about the superintendent contract renewal and curriculum and in all fairness alice nix was had turned her slip in first somehow mine got on top of her so if she wants to go first i don't want to take that away from her but if she doesn't i will that's fine then you may go first is this is uh alice nix uh one zero nine three three vans valley and galena and um talking about being a newly elected board member analyst before you begin if you wouldn't mind just to remind everybody the process real quick so if you're new to us speaking first tonight we allow everybody three minutes i'll set the timer i'll give you a little wave around 30 seconds remaining and once again at three
047minutes and those of you seen me and know me i'm not going to start the oscars music at 301 but i do want you to kind of wrap it up around three if you could so please go ahead thank you brad good evening my name is alice nix and i live on vans valley road in galena mr president and members of the board first let me give you my disclaimer my message tonight is not about mrs hamburg nor is it about me my message tonight is about you the board with the exception of one member the plan to vote on the superintendent's contract tonight is a move to disqualify the incoming board and the generous community and the parents this community and the parents generously funded the construction of our new high school and then
048you turn around and dismiss their input of the last election if we are trying to respect our generous community and parents this decision to ignore their chosen representatives is the opposite of respect i hope that they will continue to support this district however a decision to enter the new board into a long-term contract is sadly not respectful of anyone as a newly elected board member i find this decision as a means of taking away the rights of the incoming board members any contract that is written for five years will take away the rights of the new board for their entire term of four years the taxpayers spoke very clearly this past november and these are the same taxpayers who voted to pass the bond issue for that new high school that we just toured i
049strongly encourage you to reconsider the plan to vote tonight on the superintendent's contract and give the new board the right to make that decision thank you so next will be uh kendra orr and i've already said it so i won't repeat thank you hi i don't know if you remember but you we all met back in october so i'm not going to go into all the formalities and i'll try to keep this one brief um i'm here tonight because um the board has on its agenda to renew the contract for the superintendent for another five years i'm neither for or against our superintendent i don't know her i don't know anything about her views and her opinions on things to do with the district so this has nothing to do with her personally however i
050am here because her current contract isn't set to expire until july 2022 and historically the board doesn't normally bring this to their meetings until january of the year the term expires and i wonder why we're rushing it it looks from the outside looking in that we are rushing it because it's an attempt to get the current board preferences in place and to take the power to decide out of the hands of the community and the newly elected board members also one last thing i told you i was going to keep this short just want to reiterate from the october meeting the board needs to do their due diligence on all proposed curriculum changes whether it's an addition or to add more stuff to the curriculum or whatever you need to be curious you need to
051do your research you need to read that curriculum ask questions don't wait for somebody to tell you oh yeah i've reviewed it and it's good and then vote on it and sign off on it do your due diligence because there's things getting slipped in our curriculum that a lot of the parents are very angry about and i think as a board it is your responsibility to try to prevent some of these negative things from seeping into our schools that's all i have to say thank you next is teresa white and i'll have to have miss white provide her address because she did not put it down it's uh one zero eight six one state rock pot twenty one very hello um i'm theresa white i've lived in the district for 33 years my husband 47
052he's a big walnut graduate we have two kids a 2009 and a 2011 graduate um i i'm not meaning to be disrespectful or vindictive but i have to say something the rumors and the gossip that are spreading through our community are petty and mean when rumors and gossip catch my attention i try to inform the person or people it pertains to so tonight those people are you the board the last four member or about last board meeting you approved the teacher's contract which surprised me that they were negotiating so early tonight agenda asked for approval of angie's contract it's nothing against angie you know her contract goes to i thought august of 2022. there's three union contracts that will expire june 2022. here's the rumor and gossip and you know i'm just gonna say it
053and it's you probably heard it the teachers negotiated before the bad board starts in january because they're going to start reduction force the other gossip rumor is the current board wants to approve angie's contract before the big bad board starts in january what is that for our community be talking about this is what is being said whether it's right or wrong i don't know but if you haven't heard it you need to know again i'm not saying this out of spite or hatefulness i just wish all the board election red versus yellow would stop thank you next is annette mcmurray 3690 worthington road in galena and issues pertaining to the schools um so i did not plan to um bring this forward but i don't know if you guys are aware of the um tick
054tock that's recently going around okay um as a board and just so that everybody is aware um on december 17 tomorrow is being the american shooting day from tick tock and other social media some of the larger districts have made public statements regarding this and are i mean some schools are even i guess closing um i just became aware of this so i'm just curious if we're going to take some steps and actions that worries me because a lot of these tic tac things do come to fruition um i also worry about safety i visited the new school too today um it's a beautiful building but the first thing i kept thinking about as i walked through that building was safety safety safety safety um one thing that i like about our current high school
055is the sign of light or uh i cannot say the words right line of sight that we have in the hallways um versus the new building seems to be very compartmentalized i heard another parent say that oh that's a really good description and then all the glass and everything so that was just one of my concerns and then i read this so that was not my prepared topic or comments tonight but i just want to make sure that this is being addressed and being addressed seriously by our school district because it is worrisome and it's also worries someone i think forward to the new building that our kiddos will be in um but i too wanted to talk about the approval of angie's contract i really sincerely believe that that is something that historically has
056been done in the new year we have a new board coming on and i think it's something that the new board should be allowed to participate in um we don't need to rush anything i i feel like a lot of times we find ourselves rushing because that's the way we are as a world is we want an instant gratification we want a decision right now i don't think this is one of those instances i think we heard our community speak loud and clear that some changes need to occur i think it's important that we recognize that and recognize the fact that we do have new board members coming in um tonight at the dedication of the school the the the ceremony that took place um neither of the new school board members were asked to
057be a part of that um but two political action committee um members were asked to sit up there and we're actually asked to speak um so i just found that a little bit disheartening that our new two board members weren't included but a political action committee or members were so um i just wanted to share that and again um i hope that we're doing something to address the tick tock so thank you very much and brad and lianna thank you guys for your service i know this is a tough job and we appreciate you guys thank you very much next next is rachel snyder one three four eight zero robins road in westerville and just a thanks and positivity i'm a teacher myself and it's kind of weird being on this side of me because
058i'm just talking to kids all the time um take a deep breath we're all childlike i know i was like i'm getting nervous i'm not it's not my normal thing um i grew up here i graduated from here my kids currently go here i am a new teacher who entered the parade last year in cobit um and i'm just want to say that i'm thankful um a couple different things here for the board for the grace that i have seen um it has been a crazy time there are teachers leaving mass exodus there are board members that are leaving that have quit in the middle we've had teachers on my own school who have left in the middle of a school year and it's i hate the word unprecedented but it really is even as
059a new teacher myself i see the changing landscape as somebody who's lived in the community i've seen our schools change i worked at the high school for a little bit um i did my student teaching there with the social studies department which by the way is phenomenal we teach the constitution we teach everything that goes with it and people may snicker people may do all that but sometimes you have to trust the people who are teaching our kids a lot of them have been here for years they have they live in our community they have kids in our district as well and i feel like sometimes we have to remember to trust the people who have been working for our kids people move into this district because um and i apologize i'm kind of getting
060off the things um but i worked with members of the social studies department and they are phenomenal they care about the students um even if you look at end of course exams which everybody's like testing the levels for um american government american history at big walnut are the highest we and on that test there is the constitution there are the amendments everything that's covered whether your kids remember it or not that that may come to whatever but um but thank you to the board and i'm hoping with the new board coming in um there'll be such grace and remember that um whether people voted for you or not or whatnot whether you've lived in the district for 20 years 30 years or it's been a year there's so many people moving in they are part
061of our community too i think that gets forgotten with somebody saying that oh they've been here forever i moved away i came back again because i knew that my kids had an opportunity for good school i was given a home i'm a single mom who went back to school for a teaching license and things haven't been easy but the schools have done a phenomenal job i have been the beneficiary of the was it transportation for gifts at christmas and my kids had no idea that the community has supported them and so i'm hoping the community whether you've been here for 30 years or not um you just keep supporting the students they are all different my kids are very unique that we could go into a lot of that but okay sorry no you're good
062you're right i'm in about 20 seconds and then my last thing is for miss hamburg i realized that things have been crazy i think this covid year has been whether people give you credit or not it has been great my kids got to go to school last year they survived mask and they have their ups and downs but i think you've had a big hand in that and i appreciate that my own contract is coming up i think february they do it earlier because like i said people are leaving but i appreciate the service that you've done the outcome board members and then welcome to the no board members thank you sorry thank you [Applause] and uh the superintendent contract that's a full three minutes are you up right now i know i'm i'm worried
063superintendent hamburg treasurer kirk president snyder members of the board thank you i came here tonight to focus and i'm going to read everything because of what you just said the timing uh the departure of brienne of brad and leanna their exit creates a huge gap in the success of our district and the loss of institutional knowledge so i'm going to apologize to both you first for reading a watered-down version of what i wanted to read this evening because of other topics that i have now i wanted to take this opportunity to thank both of you for your time while on the board of education brad and leanna's willingness to do what was necessary to advance our district will stand the test of time their strong experience leadership led to excellent decision making based on the
064best available information at the time and what was best for the district which drew the admiration from both internal and external stakeholders their work ethic and contributions to the big walnut school community goes back over a decade from volunteering in buildings being part of ptos volunteering to work on levy and bond campaigns countless hours of working on construction projects and board meeting preparation are just a few of the duties that brad and leanna gave of themselves for the greater good the positive impact they had on our district will have a lasting impact on the school and community again their institutional knowledge and commitment will be missed the newly elected board members have large shoes to fill and there is so much work yet to be done for our district that we not even know about
065as we stand here today it will take some the same dedication work ethic and focus that brad and leona had to make sure things get done in the right way and to continue to secure the future of our schools from the community that owes you both a debt of gratitude i thank you for myself and for all the others congratulations and thank you all right so now a couple other things i saw the resolution on the house bill 290 on this agenda i want to thank superintendent hamburger hamburger i've never done that hamburg treasurer buskirk and the current board not the board coming on but the current board uh for the consideration i know it supported people like andy brenner and some elected folks that are even sitting here in this room tonight but it's
066bad for business and bad for our schools so i appreciate what you're doing with that secondly and doug addressed this tonight uh i'm concerned that i saw items that are on tonight's board agenda posted on social media the day before the agenda was to go live i'm concerned about how that gets messaged out i appreciate what you said but it does make one thing to how something like that would get out finally seeing the recommendation for the contract of superintendent hamburg and was wondering what is taking so long and why the need for an executive session beforehand this is a no-brainer and should have already happened my contract so you're incorrect my contract was renewed early and at the time when folks were coming onto the board and others were leaving and it was a
067five-year contract why would you wait for folks that have zero working knowledge of her and would only have six months to work with her before it's renewed that would be like president trump waiting for the next administration to appoint a new supreme court justice but we all know what happened there angie has served his district in contemporary fashion for the last seven plus years she has she has and continues to lead the district to the worst pandemic that we have seen in our lifetime not to mention the bond issues which led to the building of two beautiful buildings which will serve the district well to the future all this while keeping our curriculum standards high and being viewed as not only one of the premier districts in the area but also in the state as
068the executive director of human resources for the 11th largest district in the state that's me and someone who has been involved in several superintendent and treasurer searches i can tell you you're not going to find a better person than angie hamburg and for that matter jeremy buskirk it's time to recognize the work of this outstanding leader thank you you can wrap it up please thank you [Applause] we have greg armstrong 14913 east state route 37 uh regarding the superintendent contract uh i don't think mr mazzy and i are gonna have coffee after this um this is not meant on a referendum on miss hamburg one way or the other i don't know her i don't work with her daily but the board does and her contract is not up until july waiting one more month
069is not going to make a difference the community voted two new members onto this board recently and they should have a say why is there such a rush to get the superintendent superintendent's contract done now the newly electric board should have the opportunity to vote on the contract waiting until january cannot have any negative effects on the process i implore this board to table any vote on the superintendent's contract until january when the new board can vote on it if you proceed with the vote tonight you are taking away power from the newly incumbent board as a voter a taxpayer and a parent i find it highly concerning thank you thank you and our final uh one for tonight is tom andrews 3034 ravine point in uh columbus contract in houseboats unity good evening members
070of the big walnut local school board my name is tom andrews and i appreciate the opportunity to speak with you this evening free speech is still alive and well in many important places in america such as this if you don't mind i'm going to read my remarks so i cannot be misquoted by the press or anybody else i learned this technique when i served and sat where you are on the big walnut local school board uh of education my last year of service was the school year of 2007 2008. does anybody remember what happened that year big walnut won a state football championship out against all odds i must start out by congratulating the current superintendent angie hamburg was it miss pollock at one time no no when i was here the two retiring board
071members leanna lee and brad schneider thank you for everything and the two returning members douglas crowl and mr steve fuji and congratulations to the two new board members you have big shoes to fill but i know you can do it how big are these shoes well you have all skillfully and successfully guided big walnut schools through a never-ending growth surge we did it too a pandemic and the normal everyday challenges of running a school district and through it all big walnut has remained a top statewide district academically for the school year of 2018-19 schooldigger.com that schooldigger.com shows big walnut ranked as the 126th best school district in ohio out of 823 districts and that was an improvement of 42 spots over 2017 and 18 school year so big walnut was better than roughly 700 other
072school districts in ohio and i think that deserves some applause thank you the reason for my appearance here tonight was two issues i saw on the board agenda for this meeting the first issue was the introduction of a resolution to not support hb 290 the backpack bill and no mr mazzy and i won't probably have coffee either for those unfamiliar with the backpack bill it allows a certain amount of tax dollars to follow each student to whichever school the parent wants to send them to why would a parent send their child to olin tangi if they lived in the big walnut district probably because the parents are unhappy with some aspect of their child's education could be from teacher skills to unwanted social issues being pushed such as critical race theory and gender fluidity this
073is not a republican or versus democrat or liberal versus conservative issue this is parents issue exercising their responsibility over their child's education this bill has bipartisan support very good chance at passing but won't be ready for a vote until maybe mid to late 2022 or early 2023 my suggestion to the board is instead of turning your back on it prepare for it give the majority of parents with the children in the district what they want and not what they don't want keep improving on those proficiency scores and challenge parts of the system that affect school resources like paying for busing a big walnut resident to st paul's school in westerville or genoa baptist in other words don't give parents a reason to leave with those tax dollars please thank you we're just a little over
074three so if you can't wrap it up okay thank you got one more paragraph yeah all right second issue uh is what everybody else has spoken about tonight is the contract extension of mrs hamburg while she may have the stats to earn an extension and probably deserves every penny of it i believe that should be an issue that the two new board members have a chance to vote on mrs hamberg's contract doesn't expire until middle of 2022 a contract with that much taxpayer money at stake should not be voted on by two members with only a meeting left in their terms of office it's legal but it's it's it's legal but is it right it smells of political trickery and gamesmanship and big walnut local school district is better than that thank you thank you
075and i have to apologize um i had one stick to another one in uh tara shelby 1507 centerberg road in uh sunbury and just uh thankful for our superintendent you sure you want to be our superintendent anymore i don't think i want to be all right i just wanted to say i have a couple things to say to take a little turn um but i'm not going to suck the joy out of what a wonderful evening this is so thankful to have angie mrs hamburg as such a wonderful human and superintendent a mom a parent the ultimate eagle fan someone so involved from the ground level up it's not easy to sit here and be the subject of such negative comments over and over and over again when people don't even know who you are
076no one is going to do everything right everyone has an opinion with social media nothing seems to be off limits or sacred anymore i will stay positive things that you have done and this is what i can say we are the top ten in central ohio while spending two thousand dollars less per student for the other nine in that top ten we passed three ballot issues including a bond we built two new schools as we toured tonight opened during an active pandemic kept schools open and held two in-person graduations during covet people are moving here by the neighborhoods so i would say you've got to be doing something right everybody wants to be a big wanted eagle i would like to remind everybody angie is a wife a mom a daughter a sister an aunt
077a friend as well as an educator your words hurt we always talk about being kind i feel like we should be kind if you don't know her i really don't think you have an opinion about her you haven't been about her job but not about her i also would like to bring something else to attention um we'll say this first then i'll say that brad and lianna thank you for everything doesn't seem thank you doesn't seem like a big enough word for everything that you've done um thank you for always answering questions explaining everything over and over no matter how many times we ask um also lyanna you know that we also want to be like you when we grow up um i guess to say something about speaking tonight um hurts a little bit
078home like i said the joy's not gonna get sucked out from somebody saying that we weren't allowed to speak crystal and i and danielle and stephanie and a lot a lot of other people worked very very hard on this along with everybody in this room well but two new board members were never ever around for that so it's not their fault they went around for it but a lot of people didn't do the work that everybody else did so they probably weren't asked to speak because why would they have been so i'm sorry if they felt left out but they could have asked you were asked to speak to lots of people so yes this political action committee if this is the new bad word that we're all talking about eagle i didn't start it
079eagle pride community is something that that's how you get money for schools we're not a private school where public education in the public sector it's how we raise money it's how we build new schools how we're going to have an amazing opportunity for our children so if you want to come at us again like that that's fine but help next time there's always room anybody else jeremy that's it all right thank you all very much how the agenda for this meeting could have gotten out in public is because blue sky was open to the public until monday generally speaking that's how i i don't log in if i want to click in see what's quick on the agenda it's always been available what wasn't available was documents those are confidential so it's very easy for
080somebody to have gotten the agenda off a blue sky but that's not what was claimed against me so i hope that answers your question mr steve of how somebody could have got it so i just wanted to say thanks for you all keeping it close to three minutes and of all the school board meetings that i've seen on the media over the last few months thank you for not making me a youtube star i appreciate it seriously though i appreciate the fact that we can do that in olson decorum process so i do thank you though seriously adam 13-1 it's recommend the board of points and i think we need to nominate a president president pro tem poor for january 13 2022's board's organizational meeting can have a motion please so thank you steve is
081there a second second all right then i'll now open is there a second okay are there any other nominations i know steve was there a second we could go without a president pro tem this might be interesting all right jeremy whenever you're ready i think we've got to vote for the name steve this president from mr fuji i think i have to abstain on that actually i think you can vote for yourself i'll choose to abstain on that sure um miss storsh yes mr crowl yes mrs lee mr schneider yes miss smith yes thank you miss smith i have thirteen two is recommended the board approved the amended appropriations for fy22 to be submitted to the county auditor's office so thanks team for a second one [Music] yes so it is uh our custom once
082um specifically once we've approved our five-year forecast if there are changes to that that we now put our appropriations in line with that as i shared last month we did see a decrease in our appropriations or in our five-year forecast so we really the main change to our appropriations recommending to the board is a a reduction of approximately 2.2 million dollars as again i kind of explained through the five-year forecast so that is the the main change to the appropriations that are being provided and recommended tonight in addition we have seen in our building fund the zero zero four which is the bond funded fund that we've been using for uh construction of our facilities uh we did receive some e-rate from some of the items that we purchased there um that those go back
083into the fund for which purchases were made and in addition to that we do have interest that has come in over what had been anticipated so recommending a 100 000 increase to the appropriations in that fund and there are some other minor adjustments but those are really the two two major ones that i wanted to bring to your attention so but these adjustments are were reflected in your forecast um the the one fund uh the general fund is matched to the the five year forecast that's correct um one other thing as always continuous improvement one thing that was noted as part of our audit is that there was uh for federal funds specifically the coronavirus relief funds and the esser funds that as part of i just wanted to have on the record that in
084approving this we are stating as part of uh having and receiving those coveted funds in house bill 481 as amended by house bill 614 and as is required by federal law to set aside those funds and that is we have created as part of this appropriation and other appropriation resolutions to set those aside to be used by for the appropriate purposes as applied by law so that was a recommendation um just in conversation and wanted to make sure that we had that on the record just to uh make sure that the board and community as well as the documentation that we we are we have created those funds and are using it for the appropriate purposes as established by law so um other questions okay um mr fuji yes mrs lee mr crowl yes mrs
085dorsch yes mr schneider yes miss smith yes item thirteen three it's recommended the board approve the resolution to express opposition for the passage of hp 290. you can have a motion please thank you do you have any comment on this one it actually has my name on here but um i'm going to turn it over to lyanna since you kind of did some of the research on this with what other districts were doing and i just think basically the comments that i brought up this last board meeting um that seeing that the number of schools that have um expressed opposition to this and um that diverting public tax dollars away from public schools to charter schools as well as private schools that are not accountable to taxpayers of ohio is very concerning to me and
086i believe that the backpack bill does not support public education and will as i think sherry eloquently expressed this evening ultimately be tremendously detrimental to already marginalized students any additional discussion on this item just a question and again it's not i'm not looking for the exact formulas obviously but uh having some knowledge of um public schools that have kind of open enrollment and the challenges that that requires with regards to average daily attendance and average daily membership in the five-year forecast situation what does it look like or how does potential funds being diverted away or to former board member mr andrews comments being brought into the district how does that impact your ability to forecast if this were to become the law of the land i think i would have to do additional research on
087the backpack bill and how it would possibly apply to us but if it was you know widely open that it may it could definitely cause challenges but um to to to provide a a good answer for you mr fuji i think i would have to kind of do a little more research and yeah and maybe my the onus of my question was a little bit more basic in terms of every may and november when you do a five-year forecast that forecast is largely based on daily membership and students that are in school the opportunity for that revenue to be there and then how you plan for that revenue and the expenses not to mention in the teachers and the fte moving forward uh what the challenge is just to that type of thing might be
088yeah i mean i i think it would be a challenge in in staffing which you are correct is driven into the five-year forecast specifically from a school funding model it could mean less or more dollars depending on what students came in so um anytime that there are additional variables it complicates things thank you that was my only wonder my question is somewhat simpler it has the backpack bill has no effect on local tax jobs correct as far as removing any to to my understanding of what the the backpack bill is is that we would still continue to receive our local funding yes and then um in effect that it would be at the state at the state level that's my understanding so uh we're we're one of the districts in ohio that's fortunate or not
089fortunate to be a growing district so we really wouldn't have a reduction in the state funding compared to a school district that has a negative enrollment again i think i think we're trying just you're trying to have me pull out a crystal ball and speculate and i i don't know so well it's there's already uh there's already five programs that allow the state funding to follow students if my research is correct yes and the backpack bill will alter combine three of them in those will go away uh i just don't see how it impacts us on local taxes which is one of the claims well i guess my perspective on it is this is any dollar that doesn't come here from the state is increasing the burden on us locally for me personally right and
090i agree that you know we are fortunately unfortunately less state funded than many others so maybe that impact is less than us than say hey difference there i think for me the the challenge that i have with the bill as well as all the other funding pass-throughs that exist today is treat everybody equally in terms of their expectations for how they perform and how we measure them if i'm personally fine with your money or my money or anybody else's money going wherever their kids are going if we're evaluating everybody the same way and that just doesn't exist in ohio and so that's my personal hang up with what exists today as well as being proposed if we're going to measure and require everybody to perform at the same level whatever that level of measurement is
091i'd be happy to support something like this all day long but as long as there's one set of standards for one group and a lower and relaxed set of standards to another group i struggle with supporting it or you mean group you talk about charter school school versus probably i just i look at it as that fund the state fund the primary goal of our endeavor is to educate the kids so no matter where the kids getting educated that should be our goal i don't necessarily and i understand there's a lot of people that don't like charter schools or competition but the bill is like one page long that's the bill the resolution is three pages long our resolution so i think it's and it's stuck in committee i don't even look for it to
092come out because the speaker of the house doesn't want it to be passed so if it's basically dead i don't know why we're taking a political position when all i heard for two and a half months was school boards aren't supposed to be political that's all i've got to say i guess i don't understand how it's political when it directly impacts our funding because the people that are in charge of house bill 290 is a general assembly if we speak if we pass a resolution condemning it to them then that's our political speak as a board it's their business not ours but it impacts us i think we have a voice what does this resolution mean in the grand scheme of things absolutely nothing all this says is this current iteration of this board doesn't
093like the bill as it's currently designed well i understand what i understand the position once again but uh i really don't see anywhere where it does impact us so that's my position any other comments mrs lee yes mrs dorsch yes mr fuji no mr crowl no mr schneider yes adam 13 4 is recommended board approved the following big one on high school course editions modifications beginning with the 2022-23 school year this includes multimedia game design marketing principles marine biology introduction to engineering honors anatomy digital illustrations you want to conditioning for life principles for engineering coming up to but this is a typical process that we go through every year as we're getting ready to schedule believe it or not and you won't be part of this next year but um when the kids come back
094from break it's time to do schedules already for next year and plan so um these are courses that our staff members and meeting in their departments have put together proposals on that then go to mr jados for discussion and approval and go up to kate and then we're bringing them here for your approval tonight um and i'll kind of let her share a little information on those and the one answering questions um so i'll go through the modifications quickly first the multimedia and game design is really just switching the name multimedia one to multimedia and game design and including some game design opportunities into that course the honors anatomy is switching from anatomy and physiology to just honors anatomy this is going to provide an additional science honors opportunity the students and i think the
095staff too felt like the rigor of that class deserves the honors title and the work that comes with it so they were looking for that conditioning for life is a modification too it's a course that exists but they're taking out some of the weightlifting and physical components to more health and wellness related providing a different lens to physical education um introduction to engineering and design i saved this one to last this um this is only adding an opportunity for ninth graders to take it it was previously 10th through 12th grade so they're adding ninth grade into this opportunity in the hopes that they can grow the program because one of the additions is the principles of engineering so again looking to expand the opportunities from the dacc and expanding that engineering program so that is
096a new course so i'm switching from modifications to adding additional courses marketing principles if you were at the school you were able to see that beautiful school store that is in the corner so an opportunity for our students to i guess take ownership of that store and really bring it to life and it also would combine that if you're familiar with deca which i know my high school back home bowling green had and everybody loved that opportunity so this is a program that teaches students marketing finance hospitality and management and then being able to have a school store right there would be an incredible opportunity for our students and i would just add to that that we did previously have marketing and i know mr fuji's aware this is a position that we cut during
097the recession and our intent over the last few years has been in designing that new school with that store that we would bring that program back at that time marine science is adding a science elective the there's well marine science is a very unique thing to study and something exciting to bring to our students but it also um is a science opportunity that doesn't have an emphasis on those higher level math courses at some of the high science classes require and then digital illustration one and two is adding to our visual arts options um really excited this is a growing field just like gaming and coding and all of those things the world has moved digital so providing some additional opportunities within visual arts for students to be drawing digital illustrations thank you any questions
098okay um the principles of the engineering would that also be a dacc instructor yeah and the plan helped me here on where i'm not sure the answer to that i do um and once again all these classes only will be offered if we have students that sign up for them so you know we need obviously a certain amount to make that run with the the principles of engineering course i'm sorry the uh intro [Music] um so where we are this year we were four and one we had four at the middle school one at the high school original playing was three and two middle school high school but the numbers weren't there that's once again that feels that with the middle school students coming up ideally their plan is going to be to have a
099teacher of both as we continue to grow that but they feel that probably it'll be a 3-2 split for next year we think and as that continues to grow it'll have the following year the year after hopefully we could look at having two instructors once the middle school one of the high school but that was the other reason to have that move for the ninth grade and also the students that took the intro course this year if we don't offer they don't have any workouts any other questions on the course changes mrs lee yeah mrs doris yes mr crowley yes mr fuji abstain mr schneider yes miss smith yes adam 13 5 it's recommended the board approved the following 1860.50 three cents to gre from the gre sixty donations pto principles fund thousand dollars big
100wanna food services donated by arthur valentine to the food service fund and three thousand donated middle school day by youth service of america for the mlb day and gysd 2022 font have a motion so moved sure thank you doug thank you all for your generosity if there's no questions mr fuji yes mr crowl yes ms yes ms lee yeah mr schneider yes miss smith yes item 141. it's recommended board entered executive session to consider the public excuse the employment appointment of a public employee or official motion please so moved thank you steve i'll second thank you jeremy mr fuji yes ms storsh yes mr crowl yes miss lee mr schneider yes miss smith yes all right so we're going to go into executive session now i think we're going to convene jeremy in your office
101if i remember correctly right so you all can welcome to hang here if you'd like to stick around we'll come back and resume the rest of the agenda after that savannah if you want to go okay do what teenagers do on a thursday night i didn't go to bed i had two exams today so fair enough sleep well thank you [Music] how are they item what 30 degrees [Music] wayne are we back live all right our official exit time was i think i was reported at 9 46 and backing session at 9 50. thank you very much bring this to item 15 the human resources report mark do you have an update most things are pretty self-explanatory this evening i did want to just note a few items in here first off looking at item
10215.4 i just really appreciate and continually try to point this out every time but our volunteers and in this case three volunteer swimming coaches and how important they are to our community and helping out and so really appreciate our three volunteers and certainly any coaches at this point um really helping our kids to keep things moving and to certainly give these opportunities to our students so thank them for that i also wanted to point out under 15.5 the request for an increase in the current hourly substitute rate for our bus drivers to 16.50 per hour it is currently at 14 per hour we've taken a look at several area districts and try to kind of find a good balance with funds as well as making sure that we are trying to stay up with retaining
103current subs i don't anticipate this really giving us additional subs as we've not seen that with any of the other districts that are raising rates we're really looking at just trying to retain and keep some from moving to other places i will say this is not the only area though i have pointed out and noted to you that we are looking at our separates across other areas as well and potentially we'll have more things for you here in the next month or two other than that i think everything else is self-explanatory but certainly if you have any questions i can respond to those right now the bus driver contract talking about the subpay um and the equity across the region in terms of attracting substitute bus drivers i apologize i haven't asked this question before
104now but as my board member item of interest this evening was relative to bus drivers they must just be top of mind for me um are we competitive with where we currently are with our drivers as well as far as the uh current not the substitute i understand the substitutes are on here it spurred a thought for me so as you said full-time drivers currently yeah what you're speaking to yeah i think it's something that we look at um certainly as we come into contract negotiations and we'll with that group again this coming spring okay so that'll be a conversation as well and then 15-6 football tournament is just the playoff games that we played in addition to what we normally have budgeted for correct and so these are in this case these are tournament
105funds that come from the ohsaa for covering stipends for covering for those positions so it's more i don't want to say it's a flow through but it's essentially a flow through and i'm sure jeremy can speak to that as well but these are stipend funds that come through the ohsa they gave up part of their ticket revenue not much god bless them not much very little they're taking a lot bigger think about the gate for oh i know i had to have one more dripping sarcasm comment before i was i'd expect nothing less all right thanks for clarify that's what i thought that was but yes all right there's nothing else for mark okay thank you item 15-1 it's recommended mr president i move that we uh active earth act on consent consent agenda for
10615.1 through 15.6 inclusive there's a motion on the floor for a consent on 15 1 to 15 sec six is there a second okay thank you when you're ready jeremy mr fuji yes mrs dorsch yes mr crowl yes mrs lee yes mr schneider yes item 15 7 it's recommended the board approve a five-year administrative contract for angela hamberg superintendent effective august 1 2022 through july of 31 2027. have a motion please thank you second so back in at least for myself i know i wasn't the only person in conversation but i know back in june i had a conversation about working on a new contract um for our superintendent and at that time she had felt like with an election coming up and things of that nature that she didn't want to make that contract
107as part of a um a potential distraction related to an election and as i go through that that's kind of typical of a lot of things that i think she's done from a sacrifice standpoint both personally and professionally to help us as a district navigate and manage through things through at least the last couple years which have been definitely not in the superintendent's training book i would assume for anywhere you go to get trained to do that all while continuing to improve ourselves academically and really refocus our vision for really helping to personalize and address learning for students where they're at and helping students where they're at and not necessarily teaching it to the way that it was going for everybody else and for me personally it's been exciting to observe that through this past
108contract and even the initial contract of how that positive change has impacted our district and our community and everything from what we do in the classroom to the performance stages into the athletic fields and how i've seen that philosophy get adopted throughout and um for those reasons i would support and i'm excited to be able to bring forward this contract to extend her through july 31 of 2027. i don't know if there's any additional comments or thoughts from the rest of the board mr president i had moved the table there is a motion to table item 15-7 is there mr president from my perspective in the last three months this board has finalized contracts with our treasurer come to a tentative agreement with our certified staff to retain needs uh to retain the talents uh
109and now the conversations tonight about our superintendent in fact additionally tonight we we approved literally curriculum within this agenda in my mind mr president this is how a board should operate for those that believe something nefarious is at hand i don't hear the the accusations relative to curriculum and usurping a future board or a tentative agreement with certified staff and usurping the future board and uh as i do in this conversation ultimately a high functioning board with the opportunity to keep students top of mind and thinking about this community in terms of stability a high functioning board has to retain a treasure and superintendent for the operations of the school district truthfully i uh i understand when there are questions about this the discussion that uh a previous contract was acted on in november and
110previous to that we heard a former superintendent say that a contract was operated in december those types of timelines are within the purview of a high functioning operating board an email that i'll quote that i received a couple of days ago this referring to the superintendent superintendent contract is grossly premature and extremely inappropriate they will have to work with the incoming board will have to work with sorry that's the thing we'll have to work with the incoming superintendent and should have a say in who that person will be they may opt not to keep angie hamburg and seek other candidates i for one understand the concern and believe that the demonstration of conversations like this are important and therefore are part of the decorum necessary for a board with an appropriate level of respect i
111i understand that these individuals simply don't understand and i can respect that i would ask that actually to uh to a community member here tonight who referenced the term staying curious i valued that great i'm happy to address those concerns and have conversations about them the the bottom line is this i've only been on the board for 24 months this being the completion of that 24th month and for 22 of those months we've been in a pandemic and i've witnessed literally from six feet away mrs hamburg your leadership excellence i've witnessed the opportunities for many of those things to occur in this district that others are envious of and i'll talk about our in-person model i'll talk about our educational model with every child i'll talk about our academic success i'll talk about our fiscal
112transparency and your efforts to keep everything we do within our budget i think that to bring this forward is the responsibility of a responsible board to the uh to the conversations about anybody who is concerned in reference to are we operating appropriately our treasurer has said that this is within what was proposed in the five-year forecast literally the line of natural progression in her current contract is exactly where we're finding ourselves right now we have superintendents around us i know that we are not the board of superintendents or districts around us but we have districts around us that that demonstrate that this is absolutely within what would be considered market value the idea that this is underhanded or shady is what i don't respect i mentioned what i do respect now let me say what
113i don't respect this is how a high functioning board operates there is nothing underhanded about this conversation in fact the members of the incoming board were actually part of parts of these conversations the superintendent has an opportunity to talk with this board about her aspirations relative to her contract i applaud that and will again say what i believe to be demonstrated excellence in leadership on a completely personal move i've been approached by other districts at various points in time over the last year who have been envious of those things that i mentioned and talked about and let's add to that what we saw earlier tonight in terms of prairie run elementary and the opening of a high school i can only imagine that if people are having these conversations with me they're absolutely having them
114with you and with our superintendent the discussion ahead of us is what do we do for the students in this district and our learning community moving forward we have an excellent superintendent the conversation is we are an excellent district and this is what boards do we acted on curriculum that will take place next year we acted on a treasurer's contract that will take place next year we acted on teacher contracts that will take place next year all in the open forum that is required of us and to the benefit of what is financially responsible for this district i really have no concerns with a position here to support what is educational excellence and stability moving forward the pride that we should have in this district uh in terms of what we have in front of
115us should be applauded and our superintendent is a large part of that and for her i say thank you any other comments mrs lee yes mr fuji yes mr crowl abstain mrs dorsch yes mr schneider yes item 16 schedule the next board meeting organizational meeting is slated for january 13 2022 7 30 a.m right here next regularly scheduled board meeting is immediately following that january 13 2022 right here and like some of you i'll probably be streaming you might be um before i just close things up and uh put the uh adjourn out there again i just want to thank you all for the support and the opportunity to serve this community and i wish nothing but the best for the new board it's not an easy job but keeping our kids focused and front
116of mind top center usually is a good guy close to making decisions so i wish you all the best of luck item 17 mr president yes i recommend this board move into executive session for the purposes of and i don't have i don't have my language called up i'm sorry it's the one relative to school safety just concerns of protection might be 121g see now if you have that if i'm going to fact check you if it is 121g i'm literally wow i don't know what it is but whatever that language is i would move