001Thank you. I'd like to call the uh April 28th uh Northwest High School or Northwest Board of Education meeting to order. Stand and say 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. Mr. Tohill here. Mr. Gberger here. Mrs. Barky here. Mrs. Gearhard here. Mr. Wy here. Any additions or deletions to the agenda? One minor uh deletion on uh on F business advisory committee. It says recommendation to approve agenda minutes for back. It's just the agenda. They're not specific minutes. Okay, Julie, thank you for that. Other than that, I think we're good. Um, I wanted to add under on the last page 9 uh C, just a
002brief discussion on the cell phone policy because we do have to have an updated version of that in effect by July 1st of this year. So, I just wanted to get some uh some discussion started on that so we can have a formal uh policy to look at next. Okay. Anything else? That's it. Okay. Superintendent update. Okay. I have a number of things here. First thing, cell phone policy. I know you're talking about that uh later, Adam. One second. Yes, we do have to approve the agenda. We do that. Yeah, because we made changes. Okay. So, I need a motion. So, move. Second. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Jim. And roll call. Mr. Tohill. Yes. Mr. Kindlesburgger. Yes. Mrs. Barky? Yes. Mrs. Gearart? Yes. Mr. Wy? Yes. Now, Superintendent, thanks for pointing that out. Yeah. We
003have a couple things here to go over. Cell phone policy. Uh, we're viewing several I I know Adam, you're going to speak to this, too. Uh, we're viewing several other school districts and their cell phone policies. This is the direction the entire state is going, which I'm happy for that. um ODU and the government have issued several times they wish for every school district to remove cell phones from public schools. We're looking at different policies and uh what would fit our building best for our kids. So there's several approaches that we're taking a look at. I want to thank Mr. Tosh for his work. He's really got the ball rolling. We appreciate that. Uh we're still still evolving, still working through that. Well, the policy at the May meeting uh with other policy we're going
004to have a lot of policies to discuss at the May meeting. I'm going to tell you that it might be one of our longer meetings, but we'll have policies to discuss that also five-year forecast and and a host of other things, but uh that'll be in May. Uh for discussion, approval in June. Um next thing I want to talk about very briefly, the high school edition, just to let you know where we are with that. We're meeting weekly with Harris Avery to discuss the next step and our plans. There's a lot of plans, a lot of plans we've been going through. As a reminder, we're looking uh to build the following by this fall. We're going to break around hopefully in the fall by October at the latest. New weight room connected to the high
005school, new restroom connected to the high school, storage area for the arts programs. By that I mean specifically excuse me um storage for the choir and the band, a greenhouse to enhance our learning opportunities for our science curriculum and more importantly have science for our science students. The renovation of the sports annex which will be home and away locker rooms. Uh this will also include more restaurants for the guys and the girls and we also have uh will also include much needed storage for all the sports team uh sports teams near the annex when they're in season. Uh as of right now we don't have any official plans. I know we've been talking a lot. I've been sharing that with most of you on the project. We're we're getting close to that point. We've been
006meeting with individual coaches in book. Uh we'll also be meeting with parents and community leaders to share our plans next. We'll also have uh I'd like Harris Day. I've talked with them a couple of times to have them come to a board meeting to present their plans that you know just to have that to be very transparent. As you know, we are uh we are we are getting into a new website. Um and the plan is once we do have those plans to put that on the website too or a link to the to the plan. So, we're excited about that. And um you know, really the the vast time this summer, I'll spend time going around to different groups to show them our our plans for for the school. It's going to be, as
007you might guess, these projects do take a lot of planning. We're going to try and get them uh done at the same time, as close as we can, if we can. We've had a lot of talk about that just to make it the least of it's going to be very disruptive for a while, but we're trying for the least amount of time possible. Um, we're also discuss also uh discussing if during the uh addition if we you know we've talked about having to replace our turf. We're looking at uh likely the spring of 26. um what we're trying to do and I've been with field turf just trying to get them to to comment on that if we can hold off to the spring of 27. The spring of 26 will be right in the
008heart of when we're doing our addition. So um both groups Regency and uh if we go we have to bid that process out but um for the turf u but regency believes at least they they feel pretty strong they can still do the their their work even if we are replacing the turf. So we could have a very very busy uh 26, right? So we're we're being very intentional with planning and and like I said, once we have the plans once we have the definitive plans, then we'll we'll present those here, but we're hoping by uh the beginning of the 26 27th school year, we'll have we'll have it all. We'll have it done. It's been a long time. Okay. The last thing we would uh and we still want to approach local benefactors for
009naming rights. I know we've talked about that. Uh I I'd like to have a policy. We've talked about different policies and looked at that. I would like to suggest that we get something through when we're doing all these policy updates and may maybe we can include that as well. And um and get and then I would like to approach some some benefactors, see if they would be interested in naming rights. We we have had a couple people reach out uh for much smaller amounts, but uh we can approach several that I have in mind. Probably you do as well. And also related to this, we'd like to have the opportunity for any community members if they wanted to, you know, you know, how you you donate funds for different money levels and you have your
010name and we'll have we have a special area planned out for that addition area as well if people would be interested in that. But uh again, we'll talk about that more definitively this summer. Okay. The last thing I have, budget items for Northwest Local Schools, really for the state of Ohio. The budget is due at June 30th. As you guys know, there's been a lot of talk, not many answers. Um, there's been a lot of talk about funding. I I guess I I keep Steph and I spent a lot of time talking about this really just to uh you know, stay positive and let's wait and see what happens June 30th. We haven't had heard anything. Uh we've heard a lot of different things, but uh what that means for Northwest, we'll know for sure
011by by the end of June. So, we'll spend our July meeting talking about that. But, uh, you want you want to take over from there? Yeah, I'll just just a couple things. Just a couple things. Uh, you know, really when we when we're looking at what's happening, the budgets gone through the governor and through the house and those two versions look different. Um, and so then now it moves to the senate and it will most probably look different again. And then somewhere in mid June there'll be a reconciliation process that kind of happens fairly quickly where they um agree to okay I'll keep this if you get rid of that or however that works. Um so that's where we're at really. It looks like three different areas are are could affect us. So, our state
012foundation money um in the governor's bill, we were looking at projected anywhere from eight and a half or $800,000 to a million dollar cut over the benium. That's now since changed in the house version and we are just about break even. There's maybe 40 grand more over the bianium I think. Um but what has happened in that version of the budget bill is that they've basically said they are not willing to fund the fifth and sixth year of the fair school funding plan. And so they basically put that on pause or something to that effect. Um and said no, but nobody's going to lose money right now. But they're not following through with that six-year phase in that was agreed two years ago. Um, and they've also not looked at the overall costs. Um, haven't
013updated those data points since um, 2022. So, I think there will be I know there will be um, I think there's hearings next week and the week after. I know there will be a lot of members from our trade ass the treasures trade association on school school board trade association and and superintendent trade associations. um to try to get that fair school funding plan back into the language of the budget bill. Um just because it's it's best for school districts statewide to have that. Um so I'm not sure what's where that will end. Um property tax reform, I I there's probably 15 different bills out there that affect property tax levies in some way, shape, or form. um anywhere from a minor uh increasing the amount of um relief that maybe would go to um
014folks on retirement um to get rid of all property tax levies altogether. So it's it's really all over the board. Um a couple of them would have a major impact on us if they start playing with the 20 mil floor. Um that would affect us. I'm not sure when. I don't think they can retro any of this, but it's not clear when those will go into effect. So, again, got to keep watching on that. And then the other thing that popped into the bill in the House version was a cap on our cash reserves. So, for years, we've been encouraged to build up cash reserves. Um, it's best practice. lots of organizations even I mean you can look up like US Chamber of Commerce when they're telling businesses their their suggestion best practice is a
015minimum of 25 to 50% of your operating budget should be in cash reserves. the state has now turned around and said, "No, we're going to cap you at 30." Meaning the maximum we're going to allow you to have have um is 30% of your previous year. I think operating budget, we're trying to get clarity of what items are in and not in that. Um, and what would effectively happen is if you have more cash than that, they will not collect your property tax levies the following year until you eat into that reserve to get down to that 30%. What's going to happen with that is there's going to be a whiplash kind of effect on property taxpayers. they might get a, you know, so if you were in excess, you would get a break, but
016then once you're under it, then your bills are going to go back up. Um, so it's, you know, trying to I I I'm not sure. And again, we're trying to watch everything we can watch all the time. Uh, I'm not certain that county auditors association are in favor with that because then they're going to have to explain to taxpayers why their bill went down one year and back up the next year. Um, and it's just hard to understand what what what they're doing. Um, and then there was one more item in there that they want to cap administrative costs at 15% I think, but again they're not giving a lot of clarity on what what they're including in administrative costs. So, um we will continue to just I know we attend every there's another meeting
017just came up this afternoon um Friday afternoon for superintendents and treasures about the state budget. So, we we just continue to sit on every webinar and listen to everything. And I I mentioned to you guys that I was I'm part of a legislative committee group that meets in Columbus every month. And I so I went down last week and and uh I have to back step up on that. There's a lot of questions out there and there's just there's just no answer. So I don't know. I I I don't know. I don't know if the budget being completed June 30th will answer some of these or if it's just going to be a process of moving through and being voted upon and and being a little bit more deliberate because right now they just seem
018to be throwing a lot of things out there to see what sticks and and uh there's no answers yet. So, we just stay positive and keep moving forward and and do what's best for for our kids as much as we can. You good? Is that it? I'm okay. We're good. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh, student achievement closing up the school year. I'm going to highlight what's gone on in April. At the primary school, the first graders visited RG Dre early in April to tour the various programs that they have available. Students enjoy hands-on demonstrations. The first graders will have their annual music program at Puppenburgger Hall on Tuesday, April 29th at 6:30 p.m. And field day is coming up on May 9th. The theme of it is oceans of fun. Students are looking
019forward to new adventures with a day full of exciting activities. At Stinson, statewide testing is now complete and the students are looking forward to some exciting end of the year events. Third and fourth graders will be going on local field trips to Clinton and Canal Falton to visit the Canal Fton Fire Department, the Ohio Veterans Memorial Park. They get to ride the canal boat and spend time learning about the rich histories of both towns. Fourth graders will go back to the Y to follow up their swim lessons from the fall. Fifth graders will be tie dying their annual peace out shirts as they get ready to transition to their middle school years. Students are looking forward to Stinson's annual steam night which will be held May 1st from 5 to 7. This event is for
020all students and parents um and is funded completely by the Betterment League fundraisers providing a free night of fun for STSON families. Families can play a variety of games and activities and enjoy summertime beach food like corn dogs, ice cream, and cotton candy. They can also compete in the cornhole, race in a large inflatable, shop at the book fair, participate in STEM activities, and enter contests and giveaways. But most importantly, the parents can view all the incredible artwork the students have displayed through the school. Mrs. Barnett, the art teacher, inspires the students to create artwork far beyond their years. She has displayed 1,500 pieces of art for this special evening. When families arrive, they will be greeted by fifth graders who will be for performing outside. It's always a memorable year and event for students,
021family, and staff at the middle school. Congratulations goes out to the members of the middle school select choir who once again received a superior rating at the recent OMA competition at Alliance High School. The choir, which consists of students in all three grades, capped an outstanding performance season, including earning the honor to perform at the state music educators conference in February. Great work to our outstanding vocal musicians. Members of the middle school bands competed recently at the OMA solo and ensemble contest with many groups receiving the highest rating award. Congratulations goes to Mrs. Good, Mr. Emler, uh, Mr. Jenkins, and all of our hardworking students on this achievement. Students in all three grades completed state testing requirements this past week and achieved the best daily attendance rate for scheduled testing in the last 10 years.
022Outstanding attendance on testing days goes a long way to ensure that upcoming instruction is not interrupted. A huge thanks goes out to our parents and students for making this happen and to our amazing team of teachers and support staff for managing the testing calendar so well. And at the high school this past Friday, Mrs. Jansen's physics class traveled to the YMCA in Canal Holton for the very first boat regata. The students created boats made of cardboard and tape and that was the only thing they were allowed to use. And when they completed their uh project, the students shoved in the boats and they raced in the wise pool. This culminating activity offers students an opportunity to put their classroom knowledge into practice. Our select wins uh group traveled to the Ohio State University and had
023the opportunity to work with Dr. Nicholson, the director of bands at the university. The students then took a tour of OSU's family school of music led by Northwest alum Mary Pack. Our theater students performed nothing but the truth and pulled off a comedic gem that had everyone in attendance laughing. Our students never ceased to amaze us. Our amazing school counselor, Madison Marcus, was recognized by Northwest and Stark County ESC as the rookie teacher of the year. Congratulations to Maddie. And hot off the press, our Northwest musicians competed this past weekend in the OMA state contest. The choirs took home perfect scores and three state superior plaques. They had some of the highest marks seen from a judge at state contest. And finally, uh this Thursday, May 1st, will be the honors programs for all students
024in the high school. Underassman will be during the day and the senior program will be in the evening. This event is always memorable as we honor the best and the brightest at Northwest. We can rest assured our future looks bright. Thank you. Very nice. Hey, and the latest I heard uh our choir is performing with foreigners. Is that true? Very exciting. Yeah. I didn't know they were sold. What time is steam night? 5 to 7. 5 to 7. And then what time is the honors? 6:00 to 9. 6:00 to 9. Okay. Will the after when will the paper be over? Uh 6:00 to 7 awards portion. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Rita. Um, all right. Before we move on to um visitors, just a reminder that um everybody's who's filled out the sheet gets the
025opportunity to talk. We want to keep it to the twominut mark that's in the policy. I don't want to have to go through and and start doing timing and that sort of stuff. I want to give everybody the opportunity to speak. So, please um respect the two minutes um so that we can let everybody talk and we can we can get through everything. Um Sarah, if you want to go first. You had questions on the handbook. Yeah, I think part of it was covered. Um, and actually I think it relates now to the additional uh agenda item, but I was just curious with if there were any um updates and changes to the handbook and I guess when you uh added the cell phone policy uh discussion on here. So what does that look like
026if there's an amendment made to the approved handbook today? Do you guys vote on the amendments during the board meeting? So this output policy for example, if that's something that gets amended to your voted handbook, is that something you guys will discuss and vote in that upcoming meeting? Or we could not approve the handbooks tonight. Oh, I'm sorry. I just didn't know the process. No, no, no. That's fine. We could do it both ways. We could do the approval of the the handbook and then update it when we do the policy or we could table or not table postpone the uh handbooks until we have the policy in effect for that and then make sure that both of them coincide to be correct. Okay. And reflect with each other. There are a couple other um
027changes within I'm assuming the high school one high school handbook is one that you're specifically asking for. Yeah. if there were any material ones and honestly any of them that the public would like to know about as we go through um when we get to that part we'll point out the the major updates. A lot of times it's minor language but we'll we'll go through that. Great. Thank you. Good. Okay. Mr. Kolani, did you want to you I know you had both agenda and non-aggenda. You want to do cell phone now and then non-aggenda after? Okay. Thank you for your time, Mom. I'm watching the clock. Um, I'm asking you all to be bold, okay? And I gave Mr. Till a draft policy used in a school district in central Ohio. Um, there's also a
028similar one, but it's used in Perkins High School, not the whole school district in Susky. And um, basically what if you take a look at number three on there, the bold part of it is it calls for no cell phones during the school day at all for any student. Okay? Um, Mr. Talsh, I appreciate all the work you've done. Um, I think it's a no-brainer and ironically, prior to coming here, Fox 8 had a news report on the rise in nearsightedness because people doing this. It's through the roof. I saw that. It's crazy. Sorry, Jeff. I didn't stand up in your behind. My fault. But I I think it's it's a no-brainer. Um, not not to delve too much into this, but personally, obviously almost two years ago to the day we had a rather
029adverse situation by a stupid decision our son made, which if this policy was in place, I promise you that wouldn't have happened. Okay? Uh, I think you need to get it done quickly. I don't trust what the state's going to do because it's going to change five times before they actually come out with something. So, you need to make the decision here. It's a no-brainer. uh it would make those folks life a lot easier on that side of the room over there. Uh I I I wholeheartedly believe that. And for any parent that comes into this room and tells you it's a right for their kid to have a cell phone, any legal challenge to that, you will win hands down. I promise you that. It's not a right. And the reason it's not a
030right, and Mrs. Simon alluded to it in this Simon is when you when your kid enrolls in this school district, there's a little final forms email you get at the beginning of the school year. And if you as a parent sign off on that and email back and click that box that you signed off on it, you're acknowledging that any policy in that handbook you're agreeing to. And if you have a cell phone policy in there that says no cell phones during the school day, it throws you right out the window. Okay? It's not right. It's a privilege. So, I'm asking you to be bold and do this because let alone the mental health aspects that Mr. Touch has done hours and hours of research on, there's no downside to the academic part of it.
031Okay? Because a smartphone, it decreases your your level and capacity to think on a macro level in many ways, which could result in test scores being decreased and things of that nature. So, I encourage you guys to do it before the next school year starts. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else didn't fill out form? Okay. Uh, treasures report. First of all, thank you for both of you for what you said. We do appreciate one other thing, Steph, to what you said. the fact that they want to put $600 million in for a brown stick in it, but the budget is ridiculous. So, that's taking away money, too. Sorry about that. Treasury report. Um, the only item I have this month is recommendation to approve the minutes from the March 17th board meeting. Need a motion.
032Some move. Second. Yeah. Any discussion? Okay. Roll call. Okay. Mr. Tville, yes. Mr. Gandlesburgger, yes. Mrs. Barky, yes. Mrs. Gearhart, yes. Mr. Wy, yes. Show a lot more. Next one. All right. Moving on to superintendent recommendations. Okay. Uh, letter A for resignations. We have recommendation to accept the resignation of Kathy Middleton, math teacher due to retirement effective May 31st. Recommendation to accept the resignation of Donna Pelican, fourth grade teacher, due to retirement effective August 1, 2025. Recommendation to accept the resignation of Cheryl Nash, middle school math teacher due to retirement effective no November 30th, 2025. Yes, she'll be here until then of she'll actually start the the new year, new school year. That is recommendation to accept the resignation of Grayson Zer Zervos, first grade teacher effective May 30th, 2025. Recommendation to accept the resignation
033of Hannah Sauier, sixth grade science teacher, effective May 31st. Recommendation to accept the resignation of Kathy Bickett, central office secretary, effective June 30th, 25. Need a motion. So moved. Second. Any discussion? So what? Go ahead. On the on the November 30th. Yes. Is that your question? So, she stays as a math teacher, right? Until she retires. No. Um because of the time that her retirement didn't take effect, state teacher retirement or we're going to replace her with a new hire and she'll just finish out that time. Probably this building is probably math. Okay. You know, only so many of these people are so good at math. These geniuses. We won't use them while we have them. But that that will be the ro she'll sort of while she finish that was the same. Any other
034questions, comments? I think she is retiring. Every time I talk about she starts crying, so I'm not sure she really wants to retire, but she's going to. Well, those that are retiring, you know, we thank them. Well, we thank everybody for their service, but those that are retiring, you know, that's that's the end goal for all of us. So, we appreciate their time. It's good people. Yeah. Just to throw in that's a bit of an anomaly. It does happen from time to time depending on their years of service, what else they might have done that could have paid in for that. And we had that not too long ago with Melody Dman. If you guys remember Melody, she was done in early November. So, she stayed on for a little while as well. Deal. Roll
035call. Mr. Tohill. Yes. Mr. Gindlesburgger? Yes. Mrs. Barky? Yes. Mrs. Yes, Mr. Wyatt. Yes. Letter be nonrenew the following person for the 25 26 school year. Mini Jody Holloway. Need a motion. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Okay. Roll call. Mr. Tohill. Yes. Mr. Gindlesburgger. Yes. Mrs. Barky. Yes. Mrs. Gearhart? Yes. Mr. Wy? Yes. Letter uh C, handbook's recommendation to approve the student handbooks for the high school, middle school, primary, Stinson, and athletic handbook. Need a motion. So moved. Second. And discussion. So I do have a couple of things um on on this um just a couple of things that that I noticed as I was going through. Um, some of it was today because we got some updates um today. Um, I think that um and I was I was talking to to Jeff earlier.
036Um, the cell phone policy uh the violation specifically that section in the middle school and high school. Um, I think we'd like to see that be more parallel between the two so that there's not a change in policy when they go from 8th grade to 9th grade. Um, there is um some differences um in it um just the wording on it. Um and then also um on the current middle school fifth offense, it says device taken and IEP assigned. The other ones say the device is taken to the office and the parent has to pick it up. So in the fourth one, the device is taken to the office and the parent has to pick it up. The fifth one, the device is taken. So part again, what are you looking at? This section, the
037final the fifth um fourth versus fifth offense for cell phone. Hopefully we never get to that section um of it, but just because just to keep that more um uniform between the two. Um, and then the other one that I had was there was a section in the high school that was added about social media and um I agree with the wording in it where it basically says no social media use during school uh based on school computers and that but it's a little bit different between what the board policy says and versus what the handbook says. So again, um it may be an update to the the board policy and we can discuss that because it says when social media is used and the only time that any social media is is discussed in
038any of the handbooks, I think from what I saw was in high school and said you can't use it. So we should probably mirror those up so those go together. Um, and then the last one that I had, um, going to the athletic handbook, um, is concussion protocol. The the policy talks about, um, that an athlete that has symptoms of a concussion, he or she cannot return to practice or game until evaluated by the athletic trainer. That part changed a few years ago and now if there's signs and symptoms noticed by athletic trainer or basically any competent adult, they cannot come back to competition or practice that day. Um, and we can pull up the OC on that to make sure that we're in line with that. I just don't want to have a confusion
039where a parent thinks that they can come that a kid can come back. The only thing the only thing I would wish with all these is that you got you know shared this with me before so we can do this because now I don't I don't know if we can approve this now. I can wait. I think we need to wait because we also have the cell phone policy part that we need to put in. That's fine. So then we'll work on it. Yeah. But just you know future references let us know ahead of time so we can we can address it before we come here. What will we do? Well, is there any other discussion on handbook? Did I cover? Okay. Just lining up the all grades should have the same. Yeah. Procedure. Yeah.
040Okay. Anything else? So, so we're taking out all How do we How do we address that then? It would be You need a table? You No, you need a motion to postpone it to the next meeting to to a motion to rescend it. Motion postpone. of May meeting. Adam, you can table it. Table's only for the meeting. You can table it. Yeah, but table's only for this meeting. Yeah, they specifically said if we don't bring it up in this meeting, then once you table it, you can bring it up in any future meeting. We just postpone it. You're going to talk about next meeting. Yeah, you you do whatever you think is fine. Motion. Yeah. Should I amend this? Postpone it. I'll make a motion that we postpone it until the the May meeting. I
041second it. Okay. That's the handbook, the May board meeting for all the handbooks. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, the motion was from Jim to postpone till the May meeting and read a second. And then we need roll call. Sorry. All right. Mr. Tohill. Yes. Mr. Gindlesburgger. Yes. Mrs. Barky. Yes. Mrs. Gearhart. Yes. Mrs. Mr. Wy. Sorry. Yes. myself. Okay, thanks. Sorry, thank you for that. Appreciate that. So, the next thing we have uh for ABCD. So, it's letter D, OBC negotiations. We're actually um have a document here. Just I just want to let you guys know, be very transparent. We're having negotiations with OC. It's been changed. It was supposed to be a couple months ago, actually, and things got life got in the way. Uh we had to change that date. So, we are actually
042starting exploring Need a motion moved. Second. Yep. Any discussion I noticed the local 229's highlighted? I don't know why. Okay. It's from actually. Okay. Roll call. Mr. Shville. Yes, Mr. Gindlesberger. Yes, Mrs. Barkley. Yes, Mrs. Gearhart. Yes, Mr. Wy. Yes. E. Candidates for graduation. Can't believe we're talking about this already. Here it is. Time for graduate. Graduation. Recommendation. The list of candidates for the 20 25 graduation be approved that they meet all the requirements for graduation. Other obligations of the school district is certified by the high school principal. And how many are there? 130. 147. 147. And I was a little off. That's what I wanted to ask you today when I couldn't remember. Need a motion. I love it. This is my favorite time. We need a motion. So move. Second. Um I saw
043a couple on here were for discussion. Not walking to graduation. That's either choice or didn't meet requirements to walk to graduation. Choice. Choice. Okay, that's fine. What is a junior grad? I'm sorry. A junior grad. Yes, there's a junior grad and then there's a senior at RG that's never been at Northwest. He was a Tesla student and moved and came to this district. Never never came chosen not to walk anywhere. So that means a junior grad junior in the high school who's graduated has enough. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Roll call. Okay. Mr. Tohill. Yes. Mr. Gindlesburgger? Yes. Mrs. Barky? Yes. Mrs. Gearhart? Yes. Mr. Wyatt? Yes. Will have business advisory committee. This is something that we do. Uh I probably quarterly would be the best way to do it. The recommendation is to approve the
044agenda for the BAC in the months of March and April. What that group is is um Stark educational leaders developing a relationship with Stark business leaders. Um you can see on one of the items that's when we met the legislators just trying to develop a relationship with them so we're all on the same page. we're all able to to just connect and uh hopefully strengthen and through the strengthening relationship have better public schools. That's what the whole goal is with that and uh seems to be going pretty well. So uh they asked us to approve those those meetings and that's that's why they're there and I'll do that from here on out. So move second. Any discussion? Okay. Roll call. Mr. Choill, yes. Mr. Gindlesberger, yes. Mrs. Barky, yes. Mrs. Gearhart, yes. Mr. Wy, yes.
045Donations. We have donations to the choir boosters, $3,200. So, we're very thankful for that. The number two, it's pretty amazing. The Trinity Legacy of Canal Fall Chair Mond awarding and Northwest student annually, $3,577.40. that comes from Trinity uh Trinity United Church of Christ from Canal and they closed I think it was during CO is that right was closing during CO and um part of that deal was to uh award students they're going to we're going to do it they've agreed to do this for as long as the money lasts pretty amazing is that in the form of a scholarship it is in fact we had kids how I'm not sure how many applied for it it's it's new so typically that doesn't garner a lot but it's a pretty sizable scholarship. So, Larry, can you
046tell us more about that? Uh, yeah, we we predict that's going to last for about three years. We're going to offer $1,000 scholarship. Uh, and it was one of the scholarships that the kids were eligible to apply for. So, we had about 48 apply for it. Oh, okay. So much for that. All right. Great. Thank you. Okay. So, I need a motion to accept the donations. So, move second. Who did it? Sorry. Read Julie. Yeah. And then roll call. Mr. Tohill. Yes. Mr. Gindlesburgger. Mrs. Barky. Julie. Yes. Yeah. Mrs. Gearhart. Yes. Mr. W. Yes. Okay. Uh, for discussion it lines, we have a couple things. First, I'll hand that over to you. Deborah. You ready? Yep. All right. Um, I shared with you a couple spreadsheets. We this year are looking at elective materials and
047textbooks across the district. Electives can be art, music, PE, STEM, or middle school and high school elective courses, Spanish, things like that. So, I worked with them throughout the year. These are slightly different than a traditional textbook order because traditionally in these departments, they're not looking for a textbook. They need materials that they can use with their students. Um, so our budget came in right around $148,277 for that these purchases. And I will tell you that most of the purchases we have quotes from vendors. For instance, music elementary music teachers wanted a bunch of like instruments for the classroom, drums, um tambourines, xylophones, xylophones, things like that. Yeah. And so we we have quotes. Some of the stuff is on Amazon, and that makes me very nervous considering our current situation. So, I did pad
048by 15% because I didn't know where tariffs would be because you guys will not approve until May. Um, so we are getting things ready. Middle school is higher than all the three buildings, but the music department, the band department had come and ask. We're going to purchase some student instruments that they use for rental with some of the kids that really just had what we had had entered really end of life to where we couldn't repair them effectively any longer. So things like clarinets and flutes, five of each of those, I think one obo, five to 10 trumpets, um some mouthpieces for different other instruments. And so we're going to go forward with that for them. Um, and then a lot of art, music, STEM materials, K5. So you can, if you have any questions,
049you can let me know. Obviously, all of these pieces will not be down at the board office, but I have samples of all that like digital that if families want to see them. The only textbook we are buying this year is Mr. Emler asked for um a book for his music theory and AP level book. um he had used some digital materials this year and he actually wanted a classroom set for the students. So that is the one textbook that we did review because it's AP it is a rigor more rigorous level book but he's very comfortable with it because he's used it now for two years so that should be a normal kind of mix in there. So um if you want me to share the spreadsheets and you can click on things um
050to see them. The other thing for art, music and PE that I did was I asked them not to buy necessarily in the general fund staff gives them or allocates money for consumable things like construction paper and things like that. I asked them to look at things that maybe they wouldn't normally be able to buy. So, some of them um like the two art teachers at the lower level wanted a license to a platform that has quite a few materials for them to get ideas for doing projects with their students. So, I think we're in a good shape with it. Um Steph always likes when I come in under budget, as do I. So, our goal is um we'll move forward in May to purchase and then we will have the Rex ready so that
051at our May 27th board meeting if you approve then right away on the 28th we can start submitting those. So, those materials will start coming in. Um again, the only ones that I'm slightly concerned about is the amethyst stuff and we may have to just be creative or I may have to go back to them if something's out of stock. But all the other things are on quotes that are good through June 30th. So even if their prices have changed, they're locked into the quote that they gave us. So um I just had a question. You have the um instruments 20,495 for the high school and then again for the middle school. Is that the same? It's the same one. Yes. I just because it's both buildings I have it showing up two places but
052it's only included I believe but I'll go back and double check to in the toll it's only high school I'll double check it again thank you so for for Amazon is do we have a school district okay I thought so I was just making sure what's nice about that is with the business There's no shipping. So, and the prices are better. Yes. Usually a couple bucks, but a few bucks got up. And many of the companies gave us 10 to 15 to 20% on their quotes. Um cuz I asked for those in early March before things started changing. So, and asked for them to be good for at least 90 days. So, we're good. Okay. Thank you, D. Sure. Okay. Letter B. Uh, a couple things about this. So, we have a special education model
053policy booklet. I will forward that to you uh tomorrow. It's 60 pages, 65 pages of special ed. It's uh not the most exciting read, but you should have access to it. And this is part of a discussion tonight. We can talk more about that when we meet again in May. uh from from that document we have our policy if you look at the addendum items OSBA is making the suggestion changes and the only reason I'm I'm showing this to you now instead of doing all our policies at once that they're asking us to have this approved by May 30th so have the discussion now with the intent on on uh approving it with your approval at May 27th we are having it May I'm assuming we're having it May 27th we haven't really determined that
054but uh so you can see the changes are minor. They're tweaks to the actual policy that we have from that policy and from the education model. Uh OSBA has asked us to also uh adopt and approve the changes to the document. There are several items from that 60-page document that OSBA is saying that we should delete and ask for your board approval. That's that's the second addendum item. Um, if you look at the bottom of the the page under the resolution to adopt special ed model policies and procedures from page 10, page 14, page 33, page 42, all those things like for example for a Uh I'm sorry for for from page 10 with the destruction of educational records. We're putting that in the in the hands of the parents to determine that rather than
055us. Uh OS OSBA suggested that that be the case rather than have the school be the ones in charge of that. For page 14, independent education evaluation and public expense. Um it it's vague language. which an educational agency may not impose conditions or timelines. We're asking for a specific timeline to be done and there's reasons for that because things have to be done in a timely fashion in the world of of special education and the extended school year page 33. The IEP team should consider emerging skills as part of the IEP process for the children who are exhibiting beginning skill sets. We give uh we give extended time, school time based on on need. We do this already. OSBA is suggesting that we strike that we do this already. And the second page, we're already
056doing that as well. The original message, although not required, educational agencies are encouraged to provide services during short-term movements to assist children with disabilities to continue to make progress towards their IEP goals and prevent them from falling behind. We do this as well. OSBA doesn't OSBA is saying that they there's no reason for them to dictate those when we're we're already in process are part of our policy. It's a very long document. I'll forward it to you tomorrow and you're more than welcome to read through it. I I we lean on Lauren, Mrs. Willis, to interpret a lot of that and follow that. she lives and dies by that policy but um we are also I just make the recommendation that we follow the suggestion from OSBA as well and that's all I have. I
057know it's a lot but we can discuss it more for your approval. So, for cell phone policy, I thought that this would be a good place to have a kind of start of policy that we're going to have for the district that that has to change. There's a couple of different ways that we could um we could take it. Um, we can go with the model that is put out with the um by the state um that hits all the major points in the law. We could go above that. Um, I did send out a a couple examples so you guys could could read that or we could come up with with our own. Um, my personal thoughts on it are um I I do um think that there is value in the prohibiting cell
058phones during school. um with obviously the um there are exceptions for that for medical and and things like that. Um but I think that's that's important to have to have in there especially um you know given the the work that they're doing at the high school. Um and the way that the the governor is also leaning on his policy. Um, so you know, if you guys want to put your two cents in on that, we can kind of get a framework for what we want the policy to look like so next month we can have that set um so that we can do the first reading and vote on it uh in time for it to be enacted for the July deadline. Sean, is this something as we look at this when we make this
059policy specifically, do we need to have the attorney look at it? I would. Yeah, definitely. I never jo. So even if we write something, use something before we approve it at the next meeting, it never hurts. Then we need to have another look at it. Yeah, for sure. Just to make sure that we're hitting all the points that we can hit, but we'll work that in high school and hit the legal side of it. Anybody else? Okay, Victor, where'd you say this was from? Westall local schools. Westall. Wasn't there one from St. Perkins? Say, was the one from Perkins as well? Perkins was just a high school. I can give you somebody to talk to. Per Perkins is relatively the same size ball slightly smaller. They're between like Manchester and us. They had four parents
060that do a gasket and Westfall. That was it. Yeah. I looked at some policies and some of them are like extremely detailed and some of them are more or less the positive affirmation of what the law says. So there's a whole gamut on it. What I can do is contact each one of you, get your feelings and thoughts on it, go from there. All right. And we'll we'll talk about this throughout the month leading up to May. Sounds good. And we'll have something ready to go and discuss more formally at the May board meeting along with all the other all the other things. Okay. Okay. and knowing knowing that this is is potentially a hot button topic for some in the community um instead of you know getting walked up to on the street which
061is always fine but our emails are widely published on the school's website. They're pretty easy to find and I feel like a lot of times we come and we vote on things without really getting a consensus of how the community feels on it. So I I personally would like that if anybody has, you know, feelings or concerns, I want to hear from people rather than us just kind of unilaterally voting without hearing from parents about this. Especially something like this this Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Okay. Just real quick question. I swear less than 10 seconds. I have 10 seconds because it came up. Jeeoff, you brought it up at the last meeting two months ago. Is there going to be like a survey when we're talking about community? I put does the community need to email
062you or is there going to be a survey sent out? I'm just asking. I would say email is probably the best because we won't be able to cap capture every possible question that people would ask if we sent out a survey. Got it. And it's when you have surveys like that, it's too difficult sometimes to weed through comments. So, an email is probably the best. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Uh okay. Recognition of visitors uh to determine other matters which they would like to discuss. Victor, you did have Oh. Um and on a positive note, I hope um other than Mrs. Sinsky, um I my family would like to personally thank you for the last well 11 years because he's been a great two years uh support for our son in the district. Uh,
063I'm sure Mrs. Mariani, you had a few days where you thought he wasn't going to make it. You remember back to those days? Okay. Um, not so much for Mr. Ramos, but no, I I appreciate it. Just kind of a side note, uh, he's made every great period this year as a senior, so that's a positive. And, uh, you guys do great work. I know it doesn't get recognized near enough. So, thank you from my family to everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Ben. All right. Anything else? Not need motion to adjurnn. So move second. All in favor?