001Well, good evening and welcome to this meeting for Tuesday, May 5th, 2026. We could please stand for the Pledge of 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. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Brickey? >> Here. >> Mr. Hanks? >> Here. >> Mrs. McCarthy? >> Here. >> Mr. Baca? >> Here. >> Mr. Wampler? >> Here. >> Finalization of the agenda, is there anything to add on the board? >> The agenda is final as presented. >> Thank you. It is recommended the Board of Education enter into executive session to discuss matters required to be kept confidential by the state or federal law, federal rules, or state statutes. There will be no
002action to follow. >> Move. >> Second. >> Moved by Mrs. McCarthy, seconded by Mr. Hanks. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. McCarthy? Yes. Mr. Hanks? >> Yes. >> Mr. Brickey? >> Yes. >> Mr. Baca? >> Yes. >> Mr. Wampler? >> Yes. Good. >> All right, moving to the Superintendent Treasurer's report. >> Okay, excellent. Thank you, Mr. Baca. I would like to introduce uh Ms. Vance, who is going to talk to us a lot about what our social workers have been doing in our district and overall family engagement and some of the funding that we've utilized for all of the assistance that they've been able to provide. Ms. Vance. >> Thank you very much. So, the reason for um presenting today is it's one of those requirements that we need to do is to do a presentation
003along um uh annually to present how we use our student wellness and success funds. And so um with that to today I thought I would do it a little bit differently. Instead of you hearing from me, um I thought I would invite uh two of our social workers who um represent the usage of those funds. Um Ohio district schools are required to use at a minimum 50% of those funds for mental health services, physical health care services, or a combination of both. Um currently we need to develop wellness um student wellness and success fund planning um in at least one of our community groups. And so community groups that we work with here um within North Ridgeville is our Mars Board um and also collaboration with our Lorraine County Educational Service Center. Um if you
004could go to the third slide. Thank you. >> Sorry, guys. >> Next one? Yeah. Thank you. So, our student wellness and success funds are used 100% to support mental health services through the three staff member um that we have listed up there on the board. So, we have Tanya Coglin and Rachel Layne are both um LISWs, licensed independent social workers. And then we also have Liz Wilianski, who is also an LISW, um an LPCC, and she is our um wellness and prevention coordinator. And so, they do so much in this district. And um you know, previously I presented to you all the different programming we've done. And so, what I've asked is Rachel and Tanya to come and they can come up here. And they're going to just present about a few of the programs
005that they um work on with our students and our families here in the district. So. Rachel Layne, Tanya Coglin. >> Hello. Thank you for having us. You can go to the next slide, please. I know Jackie every year presents uh all of our data, but we just wanted to give a quick snapshot of what March looked like for us. And that So, that kind of shows our touch points and connections through the month of March. Um, but we're going to focus more on the social emotional groups we have ran this year. Um, and then briefly this is our partnerships in the community. Um, the highlighted area shows um, data from this year. Um, Catherine Green, um, the listed there second, that is a nonprofit in Lorraine County that connects hygiene items to girls at high
006school who are on free and reduced lunch. So, they are in quite a few of the schools here in Lorraine County with North Ridgeville being one of them. They also, um, new this year started uh, providing hygiene kits to the fifth grade girls during our puberty talk in their health lesson, and next year they'll be providing those for our boys as well. >> Next slide. So, one of our SEL engagement opportunities, which was very creative throughout the year, were our Rocks groups. You can see listed all the different groups that we've run this year. Um, some of our combined events with the girls were self-defense, a guest speaker who you see in the picture here, who's an author. The Catherine Green volunteering that Rachel referenced. We did a ropes course together, and tomorrow will be
007our county-wide Rocks event where all of our girls will come together with Rocks girls from other districts. We've really focused on kindness this year with our leadership groups, and you'll see a long list of all the things that we've done with them, and I could talk an hour on each one of those amazing experiences our students had, but we have a little video for you with snippet of one of the things that we did. >> Hi everyone. We're the Rocks leadership group. Last month we talked a lot about being kind to others. Today we're going to talk about something just as important, Being kind to yourself, especially with test coming up. >> Sometimes during test, our brains can be like, "This is too hard or I can't do this." But, being kind to yourself means
008changing those thoughts. Instead, you can say, "I will try my best. I can do hard things. Or, it's okay to make mistakes." These are called positive affirmations, and they help your brain stay calm and strong. >> You can also use a growth mindset. That means remembering your brain grows when you try, even if something feels tricky. If you get stuck, you can say, "I don't get it yet." Or, "I'll keep going." The little word yet is powerful. >> Another way to be kind to yourself is to be your own cheerleader. During a test, you might quiet quietly remind yourself, "Take your time. One question at a time. Or, I've got this." >> Encourage yourself. Encouraging yourself helps your body relax and your brain focus. >> Today, we have some slips slips of paper for you
009to write down kind words and positive thoughts for yourself. You're going to add these to the kindness chains we made last month during kindness week. >> Every time you see them, remember you deserve kindness, too, especially for yourself. >> Good luck on your test. You've got this. >> So, that was a culmination of many weeks of preparation and working with Amy Franklin, our school counselor, on the grade three and four side to do classroom lessons with all of the third and fourth grade students, working with them to support kindness throughout the building, and then we reminded them to be kind to themselves, as well. So, in the next slide, one of our other creative ways to engage students is our 4-H group. So, we um this was a brand new initiative. We started the first
010in-school chapter of 4-H in Lorain County with eight students in third grade. And our goal is to continue with these same students and fold in new third graders next year. Now, you might think of 4-H as just animals, but really the four H's stand for head, heart, hands, and help. And so, the pledge you see here is what we say every week when we meet with our students. Our project has been superhero you that we've been working on. And to support that project, we've had a visit with Officer Bush as an example of an everyday hero. We had a visit with Reese the chicken, who you see in the picture there, and the first human, Alex, to learn about perseverance and overcoming obstacles like anxiety and lack of self-confidence. And then, we will be working
011on presentation boards where each student will present to the group about all the things that they learned about being superhero you to yourself, to your family, to your friends, and for your future. >> Both 4-H and Rocks are multifaceted in how they want to teach youth. Um and one of the ways is through volunteering that both groups focus on. So, here are some pictures from when we took our students. Um it was our eighth-grade Rocks group and our 5-6 Rocks group to volunteer at Cathin Greek. And then, this is They also focus on learning through movement. So, the pictures on the left are from our Rocks group um doing some team-building activities together. From the pictures on the right, we were able to take our leadership group to a high ropes course. And this was
012an awesome experience for the girls to actually learn resilience in a active situation. Um we had a couple girls who were very nervous, but were super proud of themselves for overcoming and were able to look up and be like, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe I did that." Um we really wanted them to leave with the concept of I can do hard things. >> That's the smoky hallway? >> That's >> The back wall? >> Just bad lighting. >> I thought you did it like that for a second. Never mind. You're serious now. >> No, it's called the lot marshmallow chocolate river challenge. So, they have to work together to go from carpet square to carpet square where it's in a hallway. Yes. So, learning through doing is another >> area that we focused on and
013these are pictures of our kindness projects we did with our Rocks girls. That's classroom lesson up at the top and then we were part of morning announcement videos where we interviewed students who had received some of the kindness projects and had paid those forward to the next class. Those are our Rocks girls in there presenting some of the kindness they spread and there you see Rachel in the classroom when we were doing classroom lessons on kindness and adding to a school-wide banner. We also focused on learning through others. Again, you'll see Reese the chicken and her human Alex. One of our students and several of our students actually second in his concern was very very anxious about engaging with an animal who might be unpredictable. Through some really great self-talk and encouragement from the human
014Alex, these students were able to overcome that and have a really awesome interaction with Reese the chicken and learn that they can do things that might feel hard and scary. And then there's Officer Trampus with our little 4-H friends who really enjoyed learning all kinds of interesting things about them. So, behind the smile, the students in these pictures and other students we work with face challenges every day like food insecurity, housing instability, insufficient transportation, a lack of resources to meet basic needs, mental health crises, domestic violence, social conflicts with peers, parents who are incarcerated, family members who struggle with substance abuse disorders, living in kinship care, emotional dysregulation, truancy, and more. We are grateful for the opportunity to support them in learning, growing, and thriving. Our goal is to help them become Ranger Strong and
015to have the bright future they deserve and we appreciate the North Ridgeville Board of Education and school community allowing us that opportunity. Thank you for your continued support of our position and for having us tonight. >> And that concludes our student report. So, any questions or >> How does a um student become a member of Rox or 4H? >> That's a great question. So, um it's a combination uh the referrals from school counselors and we've had some student requests as well. So, one of the things that we do try to target with some of these engagement opportunities are students that might have an opportunity outside of school to participate in things. Um we might see some leadership potential in them and we want to give them a platform to really explore that and expand their
016understanding of themselves and give them a role in our school community. >> Good. Good. >> So, seeing what some of these kids are up against, do we continue this through the summer or what kind of connections do we have with them during the summer? >> Through the Through the summer, although Rachel and Tanya do not directly work through the summer, um I do. And so, um as they have if they receive notification of a concern, we do do the program, the Girls in Gear and Boys in Gear um this year. So, we will be doing that and they do participate in that. Um and frequently what we have done is if kids or families or there's something that's reported, I have reached out to them. I use my own resources and also Liz Wolansky to
017support. But, we do not run programming year round. We don't have that capacity. Um but, you know, the relationships that our social workers have formed with our students, you know, it it's making sure they have those supports in place. Winston Counseling does still work through the summer um which is a great um resource for our families who are connected with them. Um and so, we're so glad that we're able to offer that through the summer. >> And Rachel and I in our individual work with students spend a lot of time at the end of the year preparing students for the summer break, talking to them about what activities they'll be involved in, what kinds of things that they can do to continue using their coping strategies. And we also reach out to families to make
018sure that they are aware that we're having those conversations. >> And also our community engagement newsletter. So, they get that information regularly when that goes out bi-weekly. And I definitely have in there for the end of the year, you know, make sure you check out if you have food insecurity, these are our resource guides. These are resources, too. >> And there is actually lots of summer programming being offered by other community agencies that we try to emphasize through the community engagement newsletter. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, guys. >> I have a couple of super things to say. >> Thank you, Pam. Are there any announcements this evening? >> I believe that this week is re- election teacher appreciation week. So, just a shout-out to all of our educators and all the hard work
019and dedication that you put in to supporting our students day in and day out. We appreciate you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Here's an opportunity for hearing of the public. If there's anybody in attendance this evening, you can approach the podium and sign in. Please state your name and address and you will be allocated 3 minutes per participant. >> Okay. Hi. >> Hello. >> I'm Wendy Kim. I have been a school bus driver here for 20 years. Um, we're having a big problem getting the kids loaded and unloaded at the school, especially here at the new campus. And we're really requesting if we could get a school bus lane only. Other districts have it. You can get in, you can get out. The parents are not allowed to be in it. We're fighting our own
020people to get our own kids. And especially when the weather is bad, there's more parents cuz more people want to come and pick up their kids. There's we and we're staggered some of our pick up times because we're short-handed. So, we'll have a bus come in, say the AC here, pick up, drop a load off, and have to come back and then fight the parents to get up to the door so we can pick up and leave. And then we can't get out. We can't get in, we can't get out. They don't let us in and out. They're picking up one kid, we're picking up 50. We just need some help out in the parking lot. And with the new school coming in, too, this would be a great time. We could even do A
021lot of schools do one way in, one way out. Everybody's going the same way in, same way out. There's no confusion. We have to We have to get in to get the kids so we can get out. It's a big problem. Today was really, really bad. We had a driver stuck. He couldn't get out. He couldn't get He's trying to get the kids. And if we could get a dedicated lane over summer, they could paint something. This is buses only. Nobody but buses are in here. Maybe in the fire lane or something. Because it's it's crazy. And then if we call for help, it takes a long time for administration or admin to come out and help us. Cuz they're doing other things in the school. We just want to get our kids and get
022home. We want to get the field trips, get them home. Also, the field trip parking lot over at the cutaway where we bus drivers used to park, that is almost impossible to in after 3:00. They extended the parking spaces so long that we're hitting trees to try to get in there and loop around to pick up kids that we have to pick up in that area cuz different groups get picked up at different places in our parking lot. We're just asking for some help. That could be something that's put on the agenda for for us that could be done over the summer and then you you know when the new school comes it's just like automatically this is buses only. Nobody's allowed to get in, get out. Any questions? >> Has this been presented to
023your supervisor and/or >> Well, we have a brand new supervisor. So I mean this has been going on for a long time and once the schools are getting bigger and bigger you're on our property. >> I get it. And the reason I ask is normally you start with the people that can make those decisions and have a better idea what's going on. So I'm just asking if you started with our supervisors. >> I I'm not for sure if Denise would know what to do with this information other than maybe an email and send it off. So I thought well there's a board meeting today, it's the end of the school year. You know, we're just trying to help our people out. >> No, I understand that. It's just if you're not sure your bus transportation
024supervisor can help. We We're not engaged in this day in and day out obviously. We're not there to >> She knows about >> Okay, that's yeah. So we're going to push this back down to those levels, see what they can do to address this issue. But as far as from the board's perspective, that's procedure, that's policy. We'll follow up to see what's being done about it and how we can address it. Unfortunately, the whole in and out has been a challenge period. Um that we see that challenge, but we'll we're going to kick it back down to Harley and your team to see what we can do moving forward for next year. So we we hear you. What's your >> The five of us aren't there day in and day out to see what you're
025up against even understand. I don't even know what to pick up. >> It's It's It's awful. >> So, we're going to kick it back to where ours and >> you'll follow up. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> So, then it's been a while since my kids have been here. So, when you're playing the parents is it like like in front of the school? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, there's no one out there directing traffic? >> No. I mean, usually for the for the Ann Rack, they line up and the parents are lining up behind behind them. >> Mhm. >> Cuz they're double stacked and and they leave. But, we have a lot of them have to come back and do another run for this school, a second run, because
026we're we're short-handed. And then you can't you can't get in and out, because now you're fighting the parents that have all lined up. And they're waiting and their kids not there, so you You know what I mean? You're like waiting for You know, and at the high school, they fill the whole circle at high school, double stacked. So. >> Yeah, so that was >> Yeah. And then if you have a field trip in the mix of all that, you got to pick school for you You got to pick, you know, pick up kids for a field trip and get out. >> Right. >> So. Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, when you're all together, is there anything else? >> All right. We'll move into the consent agenda. For the moment, the education
027report. >> Who moves? >> We have several items outlined in our education report. This item would be a proposed agreement with the new local schools to provide North Bristol students across access to the Air Force JROTC program. Next is the renewal of our agreement with GoGuardian here today for a multi-year term covering the 2026 to 2029 school years. This platform has been used across the district for several years to support formative assessments and engagement and real-time instructional feedback. We also have the renewal of several service agreements for the 2026 to 2027 school year including the Educational Service Center of Lorraine County Multi-Service Agreement, Winston Consulting and Counseling, Intertwined Health Services including diagnostic assessment, counseling and school-based support, Phoenix Learning Center for K through 12 students with special needs requiring additional social emotional support, Panorama Education
028for survey data and social emotional learning tools, Ohio Developmental Services Transportation for specialized transportation including services for students experiencing homelessness, ABA Outreach for behavior analysis and technician services, the Able storefront lease agreement, Suburban School Transportation and Smart Ride Transportation for specialized transportation services, Steps Educational Group for highly structured special education programming, and the Positive Education Program through the Educational Service Center of Northeast Ohio for special education purposes. Also included is a recommendation to approve the 2026 to 2027 pay to participate and school fees as presented. Additionally, we have requests for supervised overnight field trips for our high school girls and boys basketball teams to ascend to attend summer team camps at Ashland University in June 2026. The girls team will attend June 10th or 11th and the boys team will attend June 4th or 5th
029with all Oja and district being followed. This is the first reading of these items. The second reading and consideration for approval will take place in the regular meeting on May 18th. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Buckner, yes. Um we at one point on our agenda we had an update for handbook. Um but that's been scratched. Is that Was that to include the pay part pay to participate school fees sans participation >> That will include the school fees. It will also include updates from some of these board policies which we will put put before you in the next session. >> Will we get that update at our next meeting? >> Yeah, you get that update. >> I mean will it be presented at our next meeting? >> It can be. >> I just okay. All right.
030>> As long as we have it before students start to uh fill out forms and things like that we're in good shape. So we have a bit of time up there. >> Okay. >> they'll want to send them all over and fill some time in June. So even if we had to push the zoom to be okay. >> All right, thank you. >> Yeah. All school board business for Carson? >> Yeah, we have a first reading of a new and revised set of policies posted by Loyola. Um and as you can see I'm just going to tell you what they are. The name, image, and likeness, athlete and athletics, job related expenses, entrance requirements, grading, class rank, graduation requirements, budget preparation, purchasing and bidding, procurement of federal grants funds, use of credit cards, procurement cards,
031use of district tax exempt certificate, vendor relations, affinity rewards, other discount programs, and artificial intelligence. Um this is the first reading of these and the second and approval will be on the May 18th regular meeting. >> Thank you, Ms. McCarthy. Communications report, Mr. Bigsby. >> Thank you, Mr. Buckner. The it is recommended that the Board of Education accept the following gifts with appreciation. The Veterans Memorial Committee of North Ridgeville donated a DJI Mic 2 with charging case, Manfrotto aluminum monopod, and Manfrotto video head with aluminum tripod for the KNRHS broadcasting class. Victoria Lawrence donated two gently used violins to the music department. Able Not Label donated $982 to the sophomore class. And towards adaptive athletics, Spyder Roofing Service gave $500. The Board of Education members gave $250. GMP Custom Floor Covering gave $250. Colt Manufacturing
032$250. K2 Connor DDS gave $250. Not Shock Ink gave $250. Adam Placido $1,000. Jacqueline Meister $100. RGI Creative gave $100. And Melissa Hill $50. And for the Liberty PTO, they donated $471.33 towards Liberty School Improvement Ranger Strong. $1,092 for student folders for the 2026-2027 school year. And $1,475 for teachers' grants. And as always, we thank our community for the tremendous support of our schools and students. Thank you. Mr. Haynes, human resources report. >> Thank you, Mr. Bucka. We have a number of items in the human resources report. One district nurse appointment. 35 support staff substitute contracts. 79 NREA supplemental contracts. 24 or 25, excuse me. Nine NREA supplemental contracts. Seven summer school certified teacher contracts. Two summer school certified substitute teacher contracts. 21 extended day contracts. Four preschool play-based assessment contracts. One administrative staff leave
033of absence. 11 certified staff should leave of absence. Three support staff leaves of absence. One certified staff resignation. This is the first reading of these items. Second reading for consideration approval will be on the May 18th regular meeting. This concludes human resources department updates. >> Thank you. We'll move on next to other board business. Mr. Haynes. >> All right. Mr. Watkins. >> Say again? >> Mr. Watkins. >> Uh we have a number of items to consider under human resources report. One support staff appointment. One certified staff adjustment. Two support staff resignations. I move to approve the human resources items in one reading. >> Second. >> Moved by Mr. Haynes, second by Mr. Grigsby. Is there any discussion? >> Mr. Watkins. >> Mr. Haynes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Grigsby. >> Yes. >> Mr. McCarthy. >> Yes.
034>> Mr. Rocco. >> Yes. >> Mr. Watkins. >> Yes. >> It is recommended the Board of Education adhere in this regular meeting. >> Vote. >> Moved by Mr. McCarthy, second by Mr. Haynes. Roll call, please. >> Mr. McCarthy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Haynes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Grigsby. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rocco. >> Yes. >> Mr. Watkins. >> Yes. >> I think the motion passes.