001All right, I'd like to call the Northwest Board of Education meeting the March meeting to order. Uh let's start by the Pledge of Allegiance. >> [snorts] >> 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. Mr. Englefritz. Here. Mr. Togo. Here. Mrs. Gearhart. Here. Mr. Lyon. Here. Mr. Kilgore. Here, on time. Uh any additions or deletions to the agenda? No. Um superintendent update. Okay, I have a couple of things to go over very quickly. We've been talking about the these days supposed to surrounding schools. I'm weird yelling inside, but these days are surrounding school districts and us were very conscious that we are living within our fiscal means. Uh one way
002of doing this what I what we have discussed and and I'd like to make this public uh is absorbing positions. You know, the the sign of the school that's in trouble is when they reduce uh and make a reduction of course to rip teachers, let them go, uh you run the danger of um killing morale, sending a message to the community that the school is struggling. When you when you absorb positions of retirement, that's a way to save uh money for the school district and taxpayers, but also maintain good morale moving forward when that's warranted. So, and I and and maybe I should have prefaced that by saying it's we're not doing this uh due to strict financial restrictions. We're doing I I hate to knock on wood I guess that that we're we're doing
003okay financially and we want to maintain that. But we also in order to maintain that, we have to look at enrollment, K through 12 enrollment. We spent Deborah Steph and I spent a lot of time looking at enrollment year after year. Uh and what we have noticed is that uh you know, we're not exploding in enrollment. Uh we're not we're not losing kids by by the by the busload, but we are dropping somewhat in enrollment. Okay, so we have to start paying attention to that. So, uh for example, the K through 5 is the focus 25 through 26. Uh I'm sorry, 2025-2026 K through 5 we're at 728 students. By 2028-2029 we're projected to have 651 students. So, that's a drop and and right now we have six teachers uh per grade level. This that
004drop warrants us taking a real look at maybe someday by 29-30 looking at five teachers per district, which would be a tremendous savings for taxpayers and the community, something that we really have to look at. We don't have to do it all at once. We do it gradually with retirements. It's a sound financial step in the right direction. And I will say this that if we would explode in growth, we have a lot of land still. Someone buys that, turns it into homes, and we end up having uh you know, 100, 200 kids move in K through 5, then we'd have quite a different conversation obviously. So, we're not doing this because uh we are uh you know, that we are a broke school district. We're not, but we're doing the smart thing. I think
005we're doing the smart thing just to watch our funds and watch taxpayer money and and have that be in in effect what it warrants. So, we'll be working on that. I'm we're starting actually the primary schools already absorbed a position or two with retirements. Uh we're going to continue to do that with uh K through 5 very soon. Anything else? Yes, very quickly our facilities update just so you guys understand that. Probably you've seen that. We've broken ground out here there's a gigantic hole in the ground uh getting prepared for the wrestling uh room and our our new weight room. We've broken ground in the back for our arts addition, so we're very happy about all three spaces. They're they're ahead of Regency is ahead of uh they're ahead of schedule, which is good. They
006can kind of plan for hey, in case I mean, I guess we still this this weather, you don't know what you're going to get. We don't know what I mean, yesterday it was a little warmer than today, but uh but they are ahead of progress and that's a very good thing. I want to invite the school board on April 7th to come out at 1:00 if you're willing and weather permitting. I know some of you guys are here you're not some of you all of you are very busy people, but if you're available, we can do that and I can give you an up close look at where we are. We can do that anytime. Doesn't have to be April, but we'd like to do that. You're more than welcome to come out. It was
007April 7th at 1:00. April 7th at 1:00. Also, we still have in mind for mid-May uh with your approval, we'll be using AstroTurf. That's another example where we were able to save quite a bit of money. Uh we were budgeted for a little over 500,000 for a turf. All right, with your approval, we'll be going with AstroTurf and it's not just because it's it was the most cost effective, but they also have an excellent product. Uh they are coming in at 422,103 dollars, which is awesome. We're about 100 grand less than than one company and 200 less than the other. So, I was pretty pleased with that. This company, they turf places like uh many locally, but also college. In fact, Jeff and I were talking about that today. Uh they uh do sports on
008the school turf. Apple Apple did you Apple Vision Stadium, did you? Marshall University. Iowa Iowa they did a bunch of the Marshall? Yeah, Marshall. Yeah. They did a bunch of the fields for Ohio State. Liberty, I think. Not the stadium, but their baseball field and their soccer. Yeah. And we also went out [snorts] and talked to Apple. They were very gracious. We had a long conversation with with their people and they have a brand new, which is amazing, they have brand new softball, baseball turf fields that haven't even been used yet. So, the dugouts are still pristine. That won't last for much longer, but but uh great shape and their football uh or their stadium not football, football and soccer and anything else they want to use that for, band concerts, band shows. Uh that
009has been around for a couple years. They're and and it looked like brand new. I couldn't believe it'd been there for a couple two or three years. It was in pristine condition. So, and we're and they got the same uh the same fiber that we're looking into. Um Yeah, so we're pretty pleased with that. We're excited about that. We're we're going to be working on that by mid-May. It should be done I'm guessing uh not guessing, we'll be done by when States by the end of June. Yeah, complete date is June 29th. It'll be before that, but that's when it has to be done. Yes. And that's what I have. So, the last thing I have just if I can get a plug, we've been working on strategic plans for the next three school years
010starting next fall. Uh we are going to invite parents to uh come in and uh with Stinson in the primary April 7th, high school and middle school April 9th that evening. We'll have Mr. Sandel facilitate like we did years ago, do the same thing. We've gotten a lot of data so far. Uh we appreciate everybody who's who's uh had input with that and we'll look at that right when we come back from spring break. And I'll put a message out to the parents. Thank you. Question, what what do we decide to do with the D's? We are not going to do the D's right now. That might be turf. Are we going to have to do the D's We're not right now. You tell you tell me. Right now with the plan was just the
011turf itself. Okay? That's a conversation for another day I think. But I mean, I it just added in quite a bit of it added a big cost to having the D's done or not. We didn't feel comfortable about that. Those those are currently still natural. Yes. Okay. Anything else? We're good. Thank you for your time. All right. Rita. I just wanted to Nice to see everybody here. Uh Northwest students and staff do so many amazing things throughout the year and they don't often get noticed. So, this is a time to highlight some of those wonderful things that are going on. At the primary, inclusion day was celebrated on March 2nd at the primary school and throughout the school district. A multitude of activities took place throughout the school to highlight successes and celebrate all of
012our learners. The entire school celebrated Right to Read Week, which incorporated multiple reading focused activities in all the classrooms. And finally, first graders celebrated their 120th day this past week and this is a key standard in the first grade curriculum. At Stinson, Stinson students once again proved that no contribution is too small to change a life. For nearly 20 years, Stinson students have been fundraising for Akron Children's Hospital. And this year was absolutely amazing. They raised 2,550 dollars for Akron Children's Hospital. Mrs. Mann's, Mrs. Gilson, and Mrs. Kirkbride's classes raised the most money and those kids got a chance to have recess in the >> [cough] >> area. Have a Heart Week always coincides with Kindness Week and we appreciate all our students and families for being so kind with their donations. Mrs. Mann started
013a lunch bunch last year for all fifth grade students interested in learning Mandarin as well as more about the Chinese language and culture. Over 50 students signed up this year to participate in this exciting learning experience. Mrs. Mrs. Mann uh has a degree in Chinese studies and studied abroad in Taiwan. And she enjoys sharing her knowledge and bringing new experiences to the students. On March 7th, Stinson had 15 amazing fifth grade math students compete in the Stark County math tournament. Over 750 fifth through seventh grade students from Stark County participated and Stinson had several winners um get awards in different categories. Uh Stinson is very proud of the students >> [snorts] >> who spent many hours practicing and preparing for this event. This couldn't have been done without the teach- teachers volunteering their time to
014prepare the students for this tough competition. Thank you goes out to Mrs. Skerl, Mrs. Bruner, Mr. Mac- Macko, Mrs. Mains, and Mrs. Bob. Congratulations to all those fifth grade students who participated. At the middle school on Saturday, January 17th, Northwest Middle School students competed in the Northwest District Spelling Bee which was held at the primary school. Sixth grader Ariana Shearer and seventh grader Natalie Winland prevailed as champions. Natalie then rep- represented Northwest Local at the regional spelling bee on March 7th. Congratulations goes out to the members of Northwest Schools Power of the Pen, a creative writing team, who advanced to the regional competition held at Lake Elementary School on Saturday, February 21st. Advancing team members included Max Reckow, Aubrey Essel, Lila Colgar, Bella Servance, and Natalie Winland. Congratulations to eighth grade student Lila uh Lila
015Colgar who qualified for the state tournament in May at Ashland University. A big thank you to our coaches, Mrs. Eberly and Mrs. Abledorn, for their time working with our future writers. Sixth and seventh grade uh county math tournament members competed in the annual competition on March 7th at Massillon. Northwest placed in the top seven in many of the events including second place winners William Melton, Preston Shuffler, and Dolan Tubbs. Our solo first place winner in the middle school competition was sixth grader Jake Seats. Jake took um the top overall spot in geometry and measurement. Congratulations to all those math champions and thanks to the coaches who were led by seventh grade teacher Miss Amber Clark. And at the high school on March 6th and 7th, our band and choir programs competed at the OMEA district
016competitions. All three choirs, the chorale, the men's chorus, and women's chorus, competed in the highest category and received perfect scores advancing all three groups to state competition. Only Northwest and Jackson are going to the states in this category from our district. Our band also did extremely well receiving overall score of two in the district competition. Contrat- Congratulations to both our music departments for their hard work this year. Eight talented speech and debate competitors recently competed in the state competition. Hayley Pepperall, Andrew Patrick, Lance Bowling, Owen Badami, James Page, Maryanna Albie, and Shelby Davidson, and Izzy Powell. Andrew was crowned the 2026 OSDA state champion in congressional debate. And Lance and Andrew both have already qualified for the national competition this year and they get to go to Richmond, Virginia. We get to add one more
017to that. Okay, there is one more and James Page also qualified this weekend to join them at the national uh competition. Awesome. So, we have another one. Our speech and debate team is amazing. On April 30th, we will be holding our annual honors banquet where we'll be celebrating another amazing class of Northwest seniors. This year, we had 70 students who have earned the status of laude, magna laude, or summa laude. That accounts for nearly 50% of our graduating class. So, great things are happening in our district. [clears throat] Thank you, Rita. Yeah, I didn't see any, but let me just mention if we have recognized any visitors who'd like to speak to an agenda related item. If not, I would like to just read a statement from the Board of Education. Uh thank you for
018joining us tonight. We want to begin our meeting by underscoring our commitment as your Board of Education to delivering an excellent educational experience in a safe environment. We will show with our actions that the safety of all students, staff members, and visitors in our school is our highest priority. Working with Superintendent Raymond, we are respond- responding to last week's incident at our middle school with a rigorous examination of our safety practices, policies, procedures, and training. Our core values include commitments to an active partnership with our parents and community and creating a safe learning environment and we will live up to those values now. As Superintendent Raymond said in his note that he sent over the weekend, effective school safety requires a layering approach involving the entire community. We were encouraged that our philosophy is "Say
019something if you see something" worked in relation to the middle school incident as a troubling note was reported to the school administration and Canal Fulton were then informed and involved. We want to remind all of our families about our "Say something" anonymous reporting system which can be found on our website. As we said in our note to the community on Friday, we are moving forward with a thorough investigation of all of our staff, administration, and the Canal Fulton police and we will be reporting back to you. We appreciate your continued support and we will always welcome your feedback. Thank you. All right, Steph. Treasurer. All right. Um I have a recommendation to approve the minutes from the regular meeting on February 23rd. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call. Mr. Gindlesberger. >> Yes. Mr. Toepper.
020>> Yes. Mrs. Gearhart. >> Yes. Mr. Wyatt. >> Yes. Mr. Schilling. Yes. Uh the next item I have is a request uh authorization for amended resources and appropriations from the Stark County auditor for the 2015-2016 school year. Need a motion. So moved. Second. Any discussion? So, on the bottom the negative on that, that's those are coming out, not extra. No. So, basically I'm reducing our projected expenses in that fund and a majority of it is due to us not contracting um for the annex portion of the improvement project. That's what I meant when I said it that way. Sorry. Fine. Any other discussion? Roll call. Mr. Gindlesberger. >> Yes. Mr. Toepper. >> Yes. Mrs. Gearhart. >> Yes. Mr. Wyatt. >> Yes. Mr. Schilling. Yes. All right. And my third item is recommendation to approve resolution
021accepting the amounts and rates as determined by the budget commission and authorizing the next necessary tax levies and certifying them to the county auditor. Need a motion. So moved. Second. Any questions? Any changes from last year? No, it's the same. It This actually is uh just slightly higher than the projection from last year. Again, uh I don't know that they've gotten updated information from the state about how to incorporate all the legislative changes into those numbers yet. Do we think that that's going to change? Depends. Well, I don't think it's going to change except for what What I My understanding is the change will come on the second half tax. The district should still receive the same amount, it just won't A portion of it won't come from the taxpayers, it'll come from the state
022as a reimbursement. So, overall for this year the numbers the the revenue will be the same. It's just where it's coming from will change. So, the big change will come the following, correct? From what you had talked about last month. Yes. Okay. Yeah, you don't need to explain more to us. Okay. Roll call. Mr. Gindlesberger? >> Yes. Mr. Toe [clears throat] Hill? >> Yes. Mrs. Gearhart? >> Yes. Mr. Wyatt? >> Yes. Mr. Schilling? Yes. Dr. Braden? Okay. Um for letter A, authorization of advertising and receiving bids for school bus chassis and bodies, the the statement is just enabling us This is a Stark ESC statement that we have to make. It enables us to gives us the ability to purchase bus if need be. We are not looking to do so right now, but we
023continuously check the inventory to make sure if you we are going to do that, you will you will be well aware of that. That said, let me read this. Whereas the Northwest Local School District Board of Education wishes to advertise and receive bids for the purchase of two to 77 passenger conventional integrated bus school bus units. Therefore, be it resolved the Northwest Local Board of Education wishes to participate and authorize the Ohio School Council to advertise and receive bids on behalf of said board as for the specifications submitted for the cooperative purchase of two to 77 passenger conventional integrated school bus units. All right. I need a motion. So moved. Second. This is something we do every year, correct? Yes. Correct. And it's just receiving bids. It's not the right way of purchasing. Correct. See
024where we're at. Correct. We we will have lots of conversations. If we don't do this, then we're not If we need one, we're not going to get We'll have lots of conversations with this. We're looking to purchase bus right now for future ship. Okay? Any other discussions? Roll call. Mr. Gindlesberger? >> Yes. Mr. Toe Hill? >> Yes. Mrs. Gearhart? >> Yes. Mr. Wyatt? >> Yes. Mr. Schilling? Yes. Letter B, resolution to approve a contract with AstroTurf Corporation. Recommendation to approve a resolution for contract with AstroTurf Corporation for synthetic turf to be installed at the stadium for $22,103. Any motion? So moved. Second. Have we decided on a design? Do we have to decide on a design right now? Is this >> uh you mean like the colors and all? No, we we have been discussing
025it. I I want to get your input on that. I talked a little bit about that with a couple of you. I What I like to do is uh you know, lessen the red edge where we can uh just because over time it it fades in the sunlight. Yeah, so uh we're trying to find a design that would suit that, but we'll I'm talking with these guys quite a bit. I'll I definitely want your input on that. I'll share it with you as well. Okay? Any other discussions? Roll call. Mr. Gindlesberger? >> Yes. Mr. Toe Hill? >> Yes. Mrs. Gearhart? >> Yes. Mr. Wyatt? >> Yes. Mr. Schilling? Yes. Letter C, appointments and assignments. Uh we have two and they're both here with us tonight. Number one, recommendation to approve the hiring of Alexis Myers,
026science teacher Northwest Middle School with one year experience on step two effective August 18th, 2026. And number two, recommendation to approve uh hiring Ethan Douglas, math teacher from Northwest High School with zero years experience on step one effective August 18th, 2026. Need a motion. So moved. Second. And then wave so we know who you are. And then wave. Yes. Hey, you. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Admit one moment. Yeah. Roll call. Mr. Gindlesberger? >> Yes. Mr. Toe Hill? >> Yes. Mrs. Gearhart? >> Yes. Mr. Wyatt? >> Yes. Mr. Schilling? Yes. All right. Can we all say it at once? Welcome. >> [laughter] >> We can all say it at once. We'll get everything in the right order. Letter D, resignations. I need one letter from you. Yeah. You You don't You want to go or you can
027stay through this riveting meeting. I've been told to >> [laughter] >> We all so Okay. Welcome. Have a good evening. Thanks, guys. Letter D, resignations. Uh number one, recommendation to accept the resignation of Madison Liska, guidance counselor at the high school effective June 1st, 2026. Number two, recommendation to accept the resignation of Megan Fowdy, ELA teacher at the middle school effective June 1st, 2026. Number three, recommendation to accept the resignation of Jordan Ody, first grade teacher at the primary school effective June 1st, 2026. Number four, accepting the recommendation to accept the resignation of Janae Jobingo, uh route nine bus driver for the afternoon shift effective March 1st, 2026 and the morning shift effective May 30th, 2026. All right. Need a motion. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call. Mr. Gindlesberger? >> Yes. Mr. Toe Hill?
028>> Yes. Mrs. Gearhart? >> Yes. Mr. Wyatt? >> Yes. Mr. Schilling? >> Yes. Letter E, salary position adjustments. Recommendation to approve uh hiring Ryan Alicia Eberly. She was hired to uh tutor at the middle school as an ELA teacher at the middle school with three years experience at step four, bachelor's plus 150 effective August 18th, 2026. Recommendation uh number two, recommendation that the following administrative supervisory contract be approved. That's Deborah Clark for three years from 2026-2027 ending with the 2028 school year. Need a motion. So moved. Second. Deb, can you wave so we know who you are? She's been here for And Alicia has been here. Welcome. Although you've been here for a while. All right, Alicia. Admit to group. Um roll call. Mr. Gindlesberger? >> Yes. Mr. Toe Hill? >> Yes. Mrs. Gearhart? >>
029Yes. Mr. Wyatt? >> Yes. Mr. Schilling? Yes. Deb, I can I can ask after since we approved that. Any thoughts? Is this three years? Well, no paperwork. My license is good through 2028. >> We've been friends since we were like 18. >> [laughter] >> I [clears throat] really haven't decided. Don't worry. What? We like to stay. Thanks. You can order a cake too early again. All right. Okay. Uh letter F for volunteers. Recommendation that the following person be approved as volunteer for the 2025-2026 school year contingent upon criminal background checks. You can see those choir volunteers going to Orlando in the last background checks have been turned in. We appreciate that very much. And Sam will pay Doc, track volunteer also granted uh request. Need a motion. So moved. Second. Any discussion? How many total
030volunteers do they have going on that trip? A lot. I don't know the number. That's a good question. We we had quite a bit last There's a good I mean it's a lot of people going. A lot of volunteers going. That's really good. Lots of volunteers. How many plus one do we have? Roll call. Mr. Gindlesberger? [clears throat] Yes. Mr. Toe Hill? >> Yes. Mrs. Gearhart? >> Yes. Mr. Wyatt? >> Yes. Mr. Schilling? Yes. Letter G, for the approval of membership in the OHSAA. Recommendation to approve membership in the Ohio High School Athletic Association for the Northwest High School and Northwest Middle School for the 2026-2027 school year at $850. Any motion? So moved. Second. Any discussion? It's approval. Yes. Roll call. Mr. Gindlesberger? >> Yes. Mr. Toe Hill? >> Yes. Mrs. Gearhart? >> Yes.
031Mr. Wyatt? >> Yes. Mr. Schilling? Yes. And letter H, uh this this tied in with that membership, the approval of OHSAA regulations and guidelines. And this is a yearly thing, too. I didn't clarify that. Do you know that? Recommendation to approve membership in the OHSAA uh Ohio High School Athletic Association for the Northwest High School and Northwest Middle School for the 2026-2027 school year. I read the same thing I did. I'm sorry. Pardon me. Recommendation to approve the regulations and guidelines for the Ohio High School Athletic Association for the 2026-2027 school year. Pardon me. Any motion? So moved. Second. Five five. Yep. Any discussion? Roll call. Mr. Gindlesberger? >> Yes. Mr. Toe Hill? >> Yes. Mrs. Gearhart? >> Yes. Mr. Wyatt? >> Yes. Mr. Schilling? Yes. We have donations. We have several this time. Recommendation
032uh to accept donation of $100 from Master Table for the primary for inclusion day that was celebrated. Number two, recommendation to accept the donation for $100 from Harris Pharmacy for the primary for inclusion day as well. Number three, recommendation to accept the donation of $100 from Mirror Mirror Hair and Nail Salon for the primary for inclusion day. Number four, recommendation to accept the donation of $300 from Big Mike's Towing for the primary for inclusion day. And number five, recommendation to accept the donation of $500 from the Legacy Christian Church for the primary for the Strengthening Families program. And I I mentioned this to a couple of you already. That's in conjunction with our our care team. Also with our behavioral coach working with families. Funding these donations to feed families and then work with the
033families on on how to help kids uh help them help their children get their their education and and live at their their fullest or highest highest possibilities. It's going to be awesome today. Need a motion. So moved. Let me just I know it goes without saying, but a big thank you to all these groups Yeah. for supporting our school and our Yeah. and different things. That's awesome. Very thankful for all of you. Oh, I'd like to put a plug in to you guys if you don't mind. Uh the special needs Olympics day is May 8th. We do that We've been doing this since Clark County. It's an amazing thing. With Clark County, we've been doing it for 25 years. It's always been at Perry schools. This year uh it is at Massillon. I think Perry
034was just they were maxed out. So Massillon is a larger town than they can handle. This will be the first time not at Perry. So uh pretty pretty awesome [clears throat] day. Yeah, it's on May 8th. Is that an all-day event? All day. Yes, it's a great day. Mr. Brogan. Mr. Gindlesperger. >> Yes. Mr. Chiofallo. >> Yes. Mr. Gearhart. >> Yes. Mr. Wyatt. >> Yes. Mr. Schilling. Yes. For discussion, the last two things I have here on policy approval first read, which is supplied to us these I can't believe it's not four at this time. It's only four, but these four are to be read and discussed [clears throat] next time we meet April for your approval. One is the restraining foods and cultivated uh protein food products, procurement and administration of overdose reversal drugs,
035entrance age mandatory kindergarten, and artificial intelligence is the last thing. So read through that. If you have questions through the month, throw them at me. I'll I'll look it up. If I don't know the answer, I'll find it. And then we get ready to discuss it and and look for your approval when we come back in in what month? April. Letter B, student wellness and success funding uh and disadvantaged people impact aid. Uh we have to make this part of our discussion. I think we we get moneys from the state with very specific uses for that. You can see it's a it's pretty heavy sum. We received 247,645 and 40 cents. I don't know why 40 cents, but there it is. And uh these uses go to things like nursing, counseling, uh reading intervention, uh
036what else? Home instruction, credit recovery, things of that nature. We have We have very specific uses for that, which the state makes sure we use it correctly. Okay. Thank you. All right, before we get to um number 10, let me just uh remind everyone we have a public participation board meetings. Um we we are open to this um in this sense. So we allow I've got a couple of people who want to speak. I can we can give you 2 minutes. Uh that's what our policy states. Um and then we can go from there. If you would like to say anything, please fill the sheet out and give it to me um before we go. If anybody needs to leave, feel free to leave if you need to leave. But um Keith Flowers. Oh, wait
037a second. We'd like to recognize visitors and the community other matters that they would like to discuss. Keith Flowers. All right, thanks guys. I'll make it super quick. I know politics isn't the business of this board. It's kind of my business, but um I wanted to make parents and the school administration aware that city of Canal Fulton is considering legislation paving the way for campus suspension. Regardless of how you feel on the topic, I feel like it's probably not the best for our community, probably not the best for our youth. Um probably not the best uh for long-term impact. So I guess I'm encouraging the board, the administration, and any parents present that uh feel the same way to reach out to the city, attend the court their uh meeting on April 7th at 6:00
038um in city council, speak out um you know, share your opinion. I don't know that we don't necessarily need this in our community regardless of how you feel about the the situation overall. Um I can just share with you guys or whoever wants uh this is a letter that I addressed to the city of Canal Fulton council outlining my points um in my finest northwest uh you know, abilities. So uh anybody can distribute my points there. Um but that's all I got. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. And just so you know this, I will be at that meeting. Okay. I appreciate that. The 7th at 6:00. Yes. Uh April 7th at 6:00. Yep, at the fire station in Locust. Oh, excuse me. Fire station. It's in the basement of the fire station.
039Thank you. All right. Thank you, Keith. Second one I have is Courtney Miller. Um I am standing here as a mother and as an alumni because I feel defeated by a system that I thought was in place to protect my child. For reference, my child was one of the students who turned in the note last Thursday. And I'd like to give you guys a timeline of events of what happened since that hasn't been made very clear. And I would like you to know what her experience was. My child texted me around 11:40 during lunch to tell me that they had found a note threatening me very specific acts of violence, and they reported it to the principal. When they called after school, what I was told gave me very little confidence. When these children tried
040to turn in this note, they were denied access to the principal, vice principal, and guidance counselor. The secretary read the note and dismissed these children back to class. Arriving back, these children were reprimanded for taking too long without being given a chance to explain what had happened. Instead, there was an announcement made restricting students' bathroom breaks moving forward. When our children followed see something, say something, they were refused an opportunity to talk. At 3:45, when I had not received a phone call or seen a post, I called the middle school. When nobody answered, I called the elementary school. The secretary declined my ability to talk to the principal since he was already gone for the day. I told her my middle schooler had found a note, and I was cut off and told that the
041middle school that the principal and the SRO were already aware, and it was being handled. A parent square was posted at 3:56 that evening, but the accompanying email did not arrive until 6:43. After reading this post, I called the superintendent by 7:00 p.m. to ask how he considered this an unspecified threat or or a thorough investigation since my child was in the bathroom, found this note, and was not spoken to. At least not until today. I was brushed off even though I reiterated my issues multiple times and was left with, "You may keep your child home, but I think it would be a good day." So I have questions I want you to ponder as you move forward with this investigation. What do we do about these children who followed see something, say something that
042were dismissed multiple times in a day? And why when the superintendent was notified of specifics and cause of the investigations, were the parents dismissed as well? Thank you, Courtney. Courtney, is there is it possible for us to have a copy of that so we know specifically your questions? Absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate that so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Thank you. Anyone else would like to say anything? Listen, as always, we want to thank you for your comments. We do want to thank you for your I want to say your sincerity and and the honesty and for our district, I mean listen, as an alumni, this place means the world to me. Um and I appreciate that you came forward as an alumni and as a parent to
043speak to that team. So and Keith, thank you so much as well. Um anyone else? If not, I would like to make a motion to adjourn. I can't make a I can't make a I need a motion So Second. Second. Uh two and I was first. Before before we adjourn, let me just say this. Um Come on. Yeah, before we adjourn, let me just say this. Listen, we are looking into this just so you know this. As as our statement said at the very beginning, we will let you know where we where we stand. Uh brogan. So we're back. I know I'm not following you guys, but this is a quick question. Is there a procedure in place currently that the schools are following when there is a threat like this? Like documenting? We We
044I mean we have a safety policy, correct? So yes. Okay. Brogan. Mr. Gindlesperger. >> Yes. Mr. Chiofallo. >> Yes. Mr. Gearhart. >> Yes. Mr. Wyatt. >> Yes. Mr. Schilling. Yes. Thank you all for coming.