001Good evening everyone. Welcome to our meeting for February uh what is the date? 3rd, 2026. You guys know I have a problem with dates when I run these meetings. So, welcome to our board of education meeting for North Ridgeville City Schools. Today's February 3rd, 2026. If you are able, please stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance 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. Dley, >> here. Mr. Hayes >> here. >> Mrs. McCarthy >> here. Mr. Vaka, Mr. Wman here. >> Finalization of the agenda. >> The agenda is finalized for Dumpin. Thank you. We'll move into superintendent treasures report. >> Okay. Excellent. We have
002two brief updates for the board tonight. We will begin with Miss Jackie Vance. She will give you your annual funding uh federal funding update. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> Um so as uh Superintendent Serio mentioned, this is an annual retirement that we report to the community are four main types of federal funding. Um and the four federal funding um types that I report on to you are title one, title 2 A, title 4, and IDA part B. And so title one um is about improving basic programs. Um primarily uh these funds are used um or we are receiving them based on free and reduced lunches. Um uh a basic percentage based on the number of students that we have that qualify. Um the money is used specifically to improve basic programming. And here in
003North Bridge City Schools, as noted, the amount um that we have for this year um shows a slight decrease from the previous school year. And these funds are specifically used for salary and benefits for our title one teachers that are specifically at Liberty Elementary School. Our our title 2A supporting effective instruction. Um this is also based on a percentage um that is divided up for local districts. Um the money is used to focus on effective instruction, professional development is a common use in this area, consultants and workshops. Um in addition to that, our funds are used for a portion of salaries and professional development along with including non-pubs here in our district which includes St. Pete. Here you will see there on the previous I sorry Mr. Heronomous um there is a decrease um from
004the previous year um we went from 119,000 down to 90,000 um for this for the uh current school year. The next is title four which is student support and academic enrichment. Um this is uh funding that is also set aside based on state funding and a percentage um for all districts in the state. Um we support students to encourage academic enrichment opportunities and also 15% of this fund needs to be set aside for use of technology. We specifically use these funds in the district to expand STEM or steam offerings um within the district and you can see there was a slight decrease of this um from 36 to 34,000 um from last year to this year. The final two funds that we'll report on is IDEIDA part B special education funds and that is specifically
005K to2 um for this um it's based on the number of percentage of students that we have that qualify with a disability um and what their disabilities are because each category um provides different funding federally. Um we use these funds specifically to pay the salaries and benefits of intervention specialists throughout the district. Um there is a slight decrease on this one also. All of our um funds were decreased this year uh overall. And then the final uh federal fund that we receive is IDEIDA part B, but this is for our early childhood instruction. So this is our preschool programming. Um this number is always slightly lower um overall um and this one actually had a slight increase um from the previous year um but generally relatively uh the same and we use this also specifically
006to pay for salaries and benefits of the pair of professionals who work at our preschool. Finally, I just provided you a brief summary that shows to you the total amounts that we received during the 2425 school year comparatively to this year and noting the overall decrease that we saw and we had anticipated um based on reports um federally um that there would be a decrease and so I wanted that to be noted um in general for my report. So that is it. So if there's no questions are these number this is showing 25 26 school years. >> So this is our current school year. >> Okay. And then 24 >> 25in last year >> and then they're reflecting a decrease. >> Okay. >> Did I represent it correctly? >> Is it? >> You have 1.7
007for this year, 1.6 for last year. But it should be flipped, right? >> It is flipped. It's okay. I'm dyslexic. I see >> Miss McCarthy. I will correct that. >> I just wanted to make sure we were like I wasn't. >> Yes. No, you are correct. I flipped that. >> Yeah, no problem. Um, and then you said our is it title is it title 2A that we get for >> and reduced? No one. >> Title one is reduced. Have we seen an increase or a decrease in families applying for that benefit? >> You know, I can't I can't answer that exact. >> Okay. >> But I know that it is something that we really strongly encourage families to complete the application for. And I think that sometimes we identify that there is a rollover that
008happens. If you've applied previously, generally that will follow you. So the application process is a little bit easier. >> Yeah. Till October. >> But we do find there are families that assume they're not going to qualify, but they may actually qualify. So we want to encourage families where I think many years ago it used to be the norm that everybody would fill many people would fill out the application and they would either qualify or not qualify. And now I think what we're having is families make that decision on their own. and we really want to encourage them to fill it out because you may actually qualify and not reelect it, >> right? Do we know if that's a cumbersome form to fill out difficult? >> No, I mean you just fill out your students and
009your um income. >> I think that it appears to be cumbersome and small print, but you can do it electronically now, which makes it a lot easier. I think it's just more the >> the time to take that it takes to do that. >> Gotcha. >> Yeah. And do is there a deadline for filling that out? If they don't fill it out by a certain time, >> you have to fill it out prior to the last day of school >> for it to well >> like this year prior to the last day of school >> For fees because it's either free or reduced and so it impacts whether we you get a free lunch or do you get a free lunch and reduced fees? >> Okay. Okay. So if a family wanted to fill that
010out this year for for going forward >> for the remainder of >> if they qualify their their child or children could potentially get a free or reduced meal and free or reduced fees. >> Correct. >> Moving forward. >> Correct. >> If they wait until just before the end of the school year, the only benefit they're receiving is the fees >> potentially for the >> potentially. But the benefit is is that they have the process done and hopefully that that would carry over for next year unless there was a We start them off the next school year. >> Okay. >> Till that till that rollover period expires. >> And then where can they find the form if families want to participate? The form is on the website under food services, right? Yes. >> website. It's in
011the pay schools portal and it there's hard copies in every office of every building. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you for noting my error and I'll fix that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Our next report um is for the board and ask Mr. Print to me talking to you but our public a little bit about the crazy winter weather we have had this January and really how that has impacted us and before Mr. Before I get started, I just want to note that um our communications director Brook Shang has been working very closely with Dana Hoff and the city and the city as a whole um regarding communication. So, not only communication to the residents regarding clearing safe pathways and walkways for students, um, but also communicating when there
012are concerns. And, and one great example was, um, some of the businesses on Center Ridge Road were struggling. Um, and the city did go out quickly uh to address some of those crosswalks to be sure that our kids could cross safely. Um, so we're very grateful for them. Uh at the city council meeting last night, uh Mayor Corbin did speak a lot about the salt shortage that we're also facing that has uh just kind of added on to some of these challenges that we've been facing um with the unprecedented amount of snow that we've received. Uh but the salt shortage right now, he is expecting that the earliest the city will see a delivery of salt um is about 3 to four weeks out, which impacts us because we do get our salt from the
013city. Um, so I know that Seth Perry and Carla Schroeder and the entire maintenance uh operations team are trying um to use what we have very sparingly but in places where we know our high traffic and just being sure um that we are taking care of those areas to avoid any um injuries. So, one of the um other items that the mayor spoke of last night was the city ordinance. And what that ordinance says is that the residents are required to clear the snow from their uh pathways. So, their sidewalks that are uh specific to their homes within 12 hours of the storm. Um and in some cases, uh residents have been cited for that. So just making sure uh that that is something that our residents are paying attention to and also that we
014have a lot of student groups, volunteer groups that are willing to help. Um and if there are residents who are in need of assistance um along Banebridge or along those areas where we have high student traffic um please reach out to our high school um as we do have groups that are more than willing and happy to help our residents in need. Uh so Mr. I'm going to turn it over to you to talk a little bit about calamity days hours and and what that all means to us today. >> Well, thank you. Um, as Superintendent Cerio said, we're having a winter and it's been a little since we've had a winter, particularly one like this. So, I think this is just good information to get out to the community to get out to all
015of you, especially since some of these things have changed in the last handful of years about uh the amount of time students are in school and what needs to be made up and what doesn't need to be made up. So um first thing is the state uses a term calamity and I think that's a better term. We all call them snow days but the fact of the matter is school can be closed for any number of reasons and it be a calamity day. So a lot of our days this year have been temperature related. You close for lack of heat. You close for you know illness. All of those fall under the term calamity. So I think that's probably the the better term and the reason that we're using them. That second point is really
016important. There is no if then that happens in determining whether or not to call a claim meeting. Quite honestly, um it is multifactor. There are lots of pieces that go in. It's not like we look at a special number and say if the temperature hits this or the windshield hits this, we're going to take the day off. Um so it's important to know that there is no if then. And that and that last piece is extremely important. You know, it's our desire that we're open every day. you know, we only have so much time with students and that's something that generally we can't get back. So, if we're closing, we're losing that instructional time with kids. And ultimately, with that being the reason that all of us do what we do, it's important for us
017to be open. Um, when we look at consideration, there are a lot of factors that weigh into whether or not we need to close for a day. So, we've listed some of these factors that we kind of balance against one another. Uh, the first and foremost is always student safety. we can't get students here safely, you know, we're not going to be effective in educating them, you know, when they arrive. Um, we look at a lot of advisors and warnings, see what the weather is looking for. And then we look at that in conjunction with that for well, that that forecast piece. Can we get students to school? Can we get them out of school before the storm comes? Um, you know, what we don't want to do is create a situation where we get
018kids in our schools and then they can't get them home. So, we look at all of those types of things. Road conditions is major and that's not just road conditions here in North Bridgeville, but we need to remember that our staff comes in from lots of other places outside of just North Bridgeville themselves. So, what do things look like in Pal County? What do things look like in Mad Madina County? What things look like in the rest of the rain county? Um, and then obviously the lack of heat, power, and water and phones, those help to make a decision um a little firmer too. That's not to say that if we lose water in a building for an hour, we're going to close the building. We've certainly had uh times this year where we've had
019students and maybe we've lost water for an hour, but we knew it was coming back on. So, in a case like that, you can stay open. It's about again knowing what's coming and making the best informed decision you can make. We look on the right side. We recognize that having calamity dates is a challenge for our families and we need to weigh that against every decision that we make. We know that not every parent has the ability to stay home with a child because a school has decided the books. That second bullet point is extremely important as well. We know that a lot of our students if they're not here in school may not have the opportunity to have a breakfast or have a lunch. Um this is their their sole places to get those.
020So we want to make sure that we're keeping that in mind as we balance all of this out. We look at planned activities. What might be on our agenda for the day? Do we have large groups coming in for maybe outside of the community? And we weigh that into our factors. And then again, we believe that instruction is most effective when students are at first. So it's really a waiting game against one another. So, when we do decide that we need to close, um, our goal is to always let families know as soon as we can because we know that they're going to need to be making additional arrangements for their children in a lot of cases. Um, and that's where the work of of Brooke goes in a long way is getting those messages
021out. um you know from the time that we make that decision to the time that people's phones start ringing or vibrating or whatever's happening you know a lot of times literally minutes uh so we'd like to make those calls as certainly as we can um we don't make these decisions in isolation these decisions are made in conjunction with um roads or made in conjunctions with um other county superintendents or made in conjunction with our own maintenance staff. You know, we knew that we had a big snow coming in last weekend. Our conversation started two days before that with if we get this much snow, how much time do you need to clear the lights? And those things factored into these discussions that we've had. And then obviously we like to communicate using our parent square
022and share it through local media. So I always plug our parent square and if parents don't have their information updated in there, they're going to want to make sure because that's going to be the fastest way to get all that information. So thank you. So when we do have to close um there's a number of things that have changed from what most of us are used to under the old system. Presently we've been closed seven student days. So just kind of put that into perspective for you about 177 or 178 scheduled student days this year. We have had seven closed because of weather. Um in the past and this where things have started to change in the last couple of years. The state required that anytime a student missed more than five days because of
023calamity, they were required to make up any additional time over those five days. The last handful of years, they changed that guidance. And what they say now is that students are not required to make up those days for the state as long as they have enough time in the school year. So then go on to clock hours. I'm going to look at clock hours here in just a minute where we stand in relation to that. So in theory, you know, the state says as long as you're above the minimum number of hours, you're okay. Um we have a slightly different view on that because again, as we said, students aren't here, students aren't learning. That's less time for us to go over standards. Um each district does have the ability to make updates. That's generally
024guided by their negotiated agreement. We have language in our own negotiated agreement that talks about that on our calendar. every year by board policy we identify before the year starts when those makeup days would take place. So if you look at the bottom lefthand corner of any district approved calendar um whether it's this year's or whether it's 26 27 or 27 28 down the bottom left hand corner they will tell you when those calamity days are scheduled and again it's not something we've had to use a ton of. I can think of using those one other time in my career and we all know that I've been here a very long time. Um, but for this current year, those are May 22nd and then the 26th through the 29th if they would be that needed.
025And then for our staff, our staff is a little bit different because depending on which work group you are in determines what happens once you move beyond those five days. In some cases, staff is required to report to work. Uh, in some cases, staff is required to report to work if those days are made up. Um, so it depends on which group you are a part of. This is what your contract actually says in regard. So here is the million-dollar question about school hours and where we fall. So you'll find a couple of things with this. That second category is important because the second category talks about the school day length. So depending on what grade you're in and depending on what building you're in, your school day length is a little bit different. And
026that has to do with both the number of hours in the student day, but it also has to do with the number of hours that count towards your instructional time. So those are a little bit different depending on where you are um by grade level and everything else. And then you'll see actually what the number of hours required is. So if you're seventh grade and above in high school, the state requires you to have 101 hours and a minimum school year. If you are at an elementary level, you're looking at a minimum of 910 hours in a school year. So, where this gets weird for some people is you look at a building like this that's 3 through8. They actually have two different amount of times that students have to be in session within the
027same building. Same issues over at high-tech. So that third column there where it talks about total hours per year. If we miss no more hours this year, that is the number of hours that we would have in this current school year. So that is already backed out those seven days that we have been out of session. And then really the important column because nobody wants to sit and count hours is that column on the far right which is colorcoded for you and it looks at the number of days that could still be missed before we would hit the minimum state hours. per OD. So the group that is closest to that are current seniors because it's current seniors year is a little bit shorter anyways. So they've got just under three more days that they
028could be off before they meet that threshold for middle school hours for the year. The next group that falls in line would be our 9 group 12 at the high school. They're just under seven days for me. And you can see how far that goes um all the way up to, you know, NAC 36 could potentially miss another 26 days of school before they would fall below that threshold. Obviously, at that point in time, you're talking about students missing 30 or 40 days, the equivalent of a quarter. Um not best practice. I think we could all agree with that. So, so where does that leave us for right now? Um we know we've got a couple things happening. um versus far as staff goes, we know that the staff currently uh certified staff has one
029day that they're going to have to make up per their contract. You know, we have not scheduled that yet and that's going to be dependent on do we have additional days from the rest of winter, early spring that they're going to have to make up because that would drive that when we make that time up. And then as of right now, we have made a decision that we are not going to make have students make up any time unless we miss additional time. So right now they're at their seventh day. If we were to get to an eighth day for some reason, then we would go to make those days up starting under the the previous times that we had talked about starting 22nd of May. Um and again for us that's really about making
030sure that our teachers have that time to develop that structure that students have covered their basics so that they're ready to come to the next grade. So lot of information um again a little bit different than what we're used to or what many of us remember coming through the school system. So are there questions that I can answer for you? >> It's not necessarily a question, David, but could you emphasize the you just spoke about in terms of I can see people watching this, you know, later as entertainment and being the part that, you know, their student can miss 26 days and not um be, you know, under the time or over the whatever the time. Um but the if you could re-emphasize the importance of why an aid calamity day would make us make
031that up. >> So when we look at the fact that students have already missed seven days we're talking about students missing 40 some hours of school already. >> You know in some cases we looked at the second semester today but the third quarter itself is only about 42 days long as it is. So, we're talking about the students missing 15 to 20% of the school days already in a single quarter. It's important for us to make sure that the teachers have the time to cover the content to cover the standards that the state say we need to cover or those students move on to their next grade level. Knowing about how many classes that we have, how many subjects we have that just build upon one another, we don't feel like we continue just to
032say it's okay, the weather's bad, you don't need to make that kind of effort. So, we want to make sure that our kids have the best opportunity they can to be successful in the next grade level and we believe that happens whenever you're with our set. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Of course. >> How does that attendance work for personal absences? Like does it vary per student if they have absences throughout the year or themselves? >> So, as far as these seven days, it doesn't count against a student at all. It's as if school never occurred on that particular day. Um if we were to go above that and we were to start to have to make up time at the end of the school year, it would be treated just like any
033other school day. So if a parent had to call off because they had something happen, um it would just count towards that time for the year itself. Um in most cases, if we're talking about a day or so, probably would affect 99.8% of students um because most of them aren't in a in a spot where we need to worry about them being that close to a threshold of tightness. That makes sense. >> Anything else? >> Thank you. >> Appreciate your time. We will obviously keep you posted. Thanks. Thank you. >> Did anybody want to ask about parking? That was a question that >> Yeah. So, I'll just ask about uh the parking for the employer minds in the community. um about the parking passes this year as well as the fees and where that money
034is allocated to news board. >> So parking passes this year um are slightly different than what we've done in the past. So in the past we charged a flat fee for the entire school year. Um this year we actually went to a semester fee and the reason for that was with the construction going on, we didn't know at the beginning of the year what we were going to have for parking. Um, so we knew that what we were initially told was that our student lots, our additional staff lots would not be ready to start the school year. So when that decision was made, that was the premise that we were working under. We were fortunate in that they were able to get those lots done a little sooner. Uh, so we sold those by the
035semester. Starting in the second semester, uh, we have relocated our high school staff over to the pits lot and the students for the most part have moved out of the temporary lots into our paid lot. C and D. Uh we still have some overflow in our in our temporary lots out front. U as far as fees go, those fees are used for a couple of things. Number one, if you remember back at the beginning of the year, we actually added a parking attendant for the first time in a whole long time. So that was a new position that we had to bring on in order to make sure that everybody was where they were supposed to be. And then the remainder of that money then goes into a principal's account. So the principal actually uses
036that money and can only spend it on students at the high school level. So that is how all of that works itself out. >> Thank you. David, while you're there, do you want to speak a little bit to um and I know Roxan, you talked about it too, like the shortage of salt and that kind of thing, but the efforts that our um facilities um crew is making to make sure our paths and driveways and parking lots are safe for >> Absolutely. I appreciate that. So, our our staff generally starts about 4:00 a.m. on a big one of Snow Falls. Um and they have been working overtime and double time and everything that you can imagine. Um you know people think about this building because we have students they forget that we have four other
037buildings in the district also that they're responsible for blowing salting and all of that stuff. So their focus is to hit the critical areas um as far as salt and all that stuff goes. So they're working on all the sidewalks um and all of those pieces. We had some issues last week um and that they got a lot of the snow cleared out. The challenge is that once you get cars in parking lots again, you can't keep plowing them. So, you know, they did their best to get our schools open and they have done that. And then with the time that they've had since that time, they have done some of the cleanup work to make those other pieces happen. Um, they have done an incredible job knowing how few of them are, how few
038of them there are from knowing how many parking lots, how many acres quite honestly, of parking that we have. Uh when we look back to to last year, uh we probably added some parking area for sure. Um you know, I think a lot of our people forget that a lot of our students last year parked on gravel lots too. Um they're just closer to our building. So they've done a good job moving, you know, stu students. Um Miss Schroeder and her team along with high school have done a good job getting students into better spots to help speed that process up and make put them in areas where it's a little easier to maintain. So, it has certainly been a challenge this year. Um, as it has been with most of northeast northeast Ohio. I
039know we did dinner last night where we went to eat. You're still going to find lines in a parking lot. So, it's a challenge for sure. And with salt shortage coming, it's going to be a challenge for a little while longer, right? do have one more question in regards to um student safety and concerns in knowing that all the snow and ice and salt and everything and when students and just people in general come into the buildings and then our floors our tile get gets wet and what are and we have limited resources and our cleaning and our maintenance staff. Are we bringing in extra runoff rugs or what are the steps we're taking to make sure that our floors are not ice skating rinks for students? >> That's a good question. So, so depending
040on the building that you're in, you're going to see, you know, people out there mopping is the first easiest way to get that off. Yeah. >> You're going to see the air movers, you know, blowing air across those floors to get them to dry as quickly as they can. And you will see the additional mats and walkoff mats and things like that that are being brought in. Um, you know, the challenge with any of our school is the vast majority of our students all arrive at the same time. >> So, all of that cracks in at the same time and it takes a little bit of time to get that squared away. So, but I have seen administrators with brooms and mops um right there next to our custodians making sure that they're making it
041as safe as they can as quickly as they can. >> Great. Thank you. Of >> course. Was there any other questions now that we second round of public? >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Trent. acting please. >> Thank you. Superintendent Siri now is announcements and hearing of the public. Does the board of education have any announcements this evening? No. Anybody would like to address the board of education? Seeing no, we're going to move on to the consent agenda and we'll start with a communications report. Mr. Griggsby, >> thank you. It is recommended that the board of education accept the following gifts with appreciation. The uh $420.35 were raised through a dying to donate fundraiser at the Chipotle for the class of 2027. Comb Industries donated $1,500 to the NRHS track
042team. And at the NRHS choir concert, $300 was donated by families and community members. Adam Dar donated 300 plates to the NAC music department. And as always, we thank our community for the tremendous support of our schools and students. >> Thank you, Mr. Dby. We're going to move on to a human resources report. Mr. Haynes, >> thank you, Min. We have several items to consider in the human resources report. Eight, NRAA supplemental contracts. 10 non NREA supplemental contracts. Six unpaid volunteer recognitions. This is the first reading for these items. The second reading for consideration or approval will be on February 17th regular meeting. This con concludes this portion of the human resources report. >> Okay, that will conclude our consent agenda. We're going to move into other board business now and we start with an
043additional human resources report. Mr. Hayes, >> thank you. We have a few more items to consider on the human resources report. One administrative contract, two support staff resignations, three support staff substitute resignations. I move to approve the human resources items in one reading. >> Second. >> Moved by Mr. Haynes, second by Mr. Griggsby. Is there or are there I'm sorry any questions? Seeing none. Roll call, please. Mr. Haynes, >> yes. >> Mr. Griggsby, >> yes. >> Mrs. McCarthy, >> yes. Mr. absent, Mr. Wley. >> Yes. >> All right. And you can round out that report. Mr. Haynes, it's the Mr. Show tonight. >> One more item to consider under the human resources report. >> One unpaid volunteer recognition. I move to approve the human resources items and one reading. Second. >> Move by Mr. Haynes.
044Second by Mr. Wman. Is there any discussion? >> Roll call, please. Mr. Haynes. Yep. >> Mr. Wman. >> Yes. >> Mccarthy. Yes. >> Mr. Call. >> Okay. It is now time to enter into executive session to um discuss the appointment employment dismissal discipline promotion demotion compensation of public employees and matters related to negotiations of public employees. There will be no action to follow. Can make a motion. >> Motion second. >> Moved by Mr. Haynes, seconded by Mr. Wleman. Is there any discussion? >> Roll call, please. Mr. Hayes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Welman. Yes, >> Mr. Griggby. >> Yes, >> Mrs. McCarthy. >> Yes. >> Great. Thank you. 6:30. >> Thank you all for coming. Wish you a good evening. >> Thank you.