001Yeah. Hi everybody. Welcome to a special meeting of the New Philadelphia Board of Education. I'll begin by reading the mission statement. New Philadelphia City Schools will provide all students the opportunity to achieve their highest potential to become educated, self-sufficient, and responsible citizens. We are committed to providing every student a diverse, quality education within a safe and secure environment through a dedicated, innovative, and highly qualified staff in partnership with parents and the community at large. Please stand and join me for the dual allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Call the roll, please. Mr. Rickly? Present. Mrs. Schrock? Here. Ms. Fontana? Here. Dr. Bachman? Here. Mr. Zimmerman? Here. We have a
002quorum. Excellent. Next up, approval of agenda. Do I have a recommendation to approve the agenda for the special Board of Education meeting? Additions or deletions to the agenda? So moved. I'll second. Any discussion? Call the roll, please. Mr. Zimmerman? Yes. Mrs. Schrock? Yes. Mr. Rickly? Yes. Ms. Fontana? Yes. Dr. Bachman? Yes. Motion carries. Okay, item three, approve the letter of intent to purchase land on State Route 39. Do I hear a motion? >> moved. Second. Right. Discussion? Anyone want to I I was just going to go around there. Do we want to Okay. Go ahead. Um I just before we vote on this matter, I and I apologize, I'm I'm not you know, ad-libbing here, but I just wanted to share a few thoughts publicly about how this came about and why I'm supporting it.
003We've tried to get new facilities at two current sites, but both were turned down due to the traffic congestion on the south side and not wanting to lose homes by the high school and middle school. Recently, we were made aware that a family farm was available for purchase, and it was enough land to house an entire campus similar to Strasburg or Sandy Valley. Many of the sites people keep proposing, Howden Buffalo, Kent State, the mall, etc., aren't for sale or have other issues or limitations. So, we're very limited in what we can do. I know this location is not downtown, but it's close enough and the land is big enough that we can build all that our kids need now and in the future. In addition, we have contingencies in place to make sure the
004land is suitable. Otherwise, we won't buy it. There's no retainer with it, and we only buy it if the levy passes in May. If I'm being honest, I don't think we will ever get everyone to agree on how to fund the buildings, where they should be, and every other little nuance. But we are really trying to listen to the community here and still help get kids new facilities, and I think this land gives us the opportunity to do just that. Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman. Anyone Amanda, did you have any I just want the record to reflect that as a board, we have taken everybody's questions, and we have really taken them to heart, and we've really done our due diligence um answering those questions, looking into those questions from all different angles, and it's really
005important to me personally to make sure that we're listening to the community, and the community has told us multiple times um that they do not like the site um that was originally um chosen for uh the original plan from the community, and I want our community to know that we're listening to them, and when we were provided with another option and the ability to look into that, and now we have the ability to provide that option to the community so that the people can decide if they like this idea or not. I feel it's necessary that we give that option to them. I don't think that we should forward the option. I think that the the people have the right to choose whether they want this or not, and um I totally trust that the
006board has done everything. We've all been a part of those conversations. Um done everything to look into every single issue that may have been a point of concern, and I really feel strongly that um the people spoke and wanted another option, and this was the other option. And so, we let the people speak. Ms. Fontana? Mr. Rickly? >> Yes. I just want everybody to know that I am totally for a new school. I'm totally for the need to get the community behind a new school for our students, our teachers, and our administrators. I thought long and hard for many days, weeks, and put in a lot of hours of researching, and I just want to state facts of my findings in researching this property. Uh the $35,714, I feel is too much for the property
007without our uh mineral rights being attached to that. I understand there is a premium when you're looking at property for this type of project. I don't have a problem with that, but I believe at $35,714 an acre, we should get mineral rights. Information and maps have been provided to each one of you from Ohio Department of Natural Resources, cuz that is who I contacted. The individual I spoke to with ODNR is Marissa Lautzenheiser. She is the Ohio Abandoned Mine Land Program Administrator. On those maps you have, those maps show the present of deep mines on the property, a mine opening and a vertical mine opening, 12 ft in diameter, and 4 to 6 ft deep, located on the property. In addition, a soil survey completed by the Natural Resource Conservation Services show the soils are
008rated as a very limited soil, which means soil has one or more features that are not favorable for the specific use. The limitation generally cannot be overcome without major soil reclamation, special design, or expensive insulation procedures. Poor performance and high maintenance can be expected. The information that I received from Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the soil survey is free to the public viewing and can be found online at ohio. dnr.gov and nrcs.usda.gov. In my experience, I've been on many projects, many hurdles to jump over. There isn't engineer anywhere, and they have all said, "We can overcome any obstacle we can. It just takes money and a lot of engineering to get those pieces of property to pass to build on them for our needs." Thank you very much, President. Thank you, Mr. Rickly. Dr.
009Bachman, [clears throat] do you have anything you'd like to add for the discussion? Um I agree with um Amanda and Andy's sentiments about how we've arrived at this point with this land. I think we all agreed that we weren't comfortable going back on the ballot with the same plan that we presented previously. That's what our community told us. That's what we listened to. Um I I'm also comfortable with the contingencies in the plan behind this. Like Andy said, there's no retainer. Uh there are soil and traffic studies that will be done. My understanding with um soil studies is that there are different types of studies, and and the ones available from ODNR maybe show uh a portion of that, but maybe not the whole picture of what uh is really in the soil and how
010they can work with that. Uh plus, I know this is a large area. We wouldn't be building a school on every acre of it. So, my understanding of this property is that it's doable, it's workable, and we have lots of safeguards in place from now until we, you know, go to vote or even go to build that will tell us a lot more. And some of these things are not possible to know until we go through some of these steps. So. Thank you, Dr. Bachmann. Okay. Well, I just want to thank everybody at this table. Um everyone has worked very hard, and this has not been a process that has just been thrown, you know, in our face. We have all taken a lot of time and done our due diligence, and I just want
011to acknowledge that I appreciate serving with every one of you. Thank you. Ready to vote? Julie, when you're ready, will you please call the roll? Mhm. Mr. Ricklick? No. Dr. Bachmann? Yes. Mrs. Schrock? Yes. Ms. Fontana? Yes. Mr. Zimmerman? Yes. Motion carries. Thank you all. At this time, we are going to stop the recording. I'm going to go ahead and excuse Mrs. Wentworth.