001all right I'd like to call the March 17 2025 Northwest High School or Northwest Board of Education meeting to order we can all stand say the allegiance II to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you all right roll call Mr chill here Mr gburger here Mrs Barky here Mrs Gearhart here Mr Wy here any additions or deletions to the agenda okay we're do y no approved and superintendent updates okay wow already yeah okay um before I begin my update I have I have a bunch first just want to say thank you to each School Board member uh I we have plaques for you that we should have given you last month we didn't do
002that so I apologize for that but uh the biggest thing is we just this it's not an accident Northwest schools happens to be uh one of the best if not the best school district and also our County it all starts at the top with E5 we appreciate your leadership that our students are very very lucky not just our students our students our faculty our staff the community are very lucky to have you five at the home and we appreciate it's very thankless job I know that you guys are getting rich doing this we all know that right but but we do appreciate your effort and your energy and your passion you guys all do uh do it for the right reason we just want to say um thank you so thank you for everything you
003do for our school in the community all right so uh let me move on you guys want hold up your plaque and show it off it's so uh very fancy stuff we got that from osba there you go thank you guys all right let's give them Round of Applause for thank you thank you School Board okay as we mentioned the last school board meeting s har state will be the architect for the uh High School addition project uh after the bidding process for construction service we'll be We'll be asking you guys uh School Board to approve a Regency construction for Services We'll be asking unite to approve recently construction as uh construction manager at risk the risk part is for Harris day and our Core Group to work to develop trans together the at risk
004par as Regency assuming a Max guaranteed cost and construction where they would assume cost should it go over the guaranteed cost so uh we're Steph and I are finding out a whole new world and a lot of uh new language that we're that we're dealing with but uh we're very excited uh we we went through the bidding proc process and actually interviewed three different uh three companies and and the Regency of construction was by far I mean they were very well prepared very ready to go had some really great ideas and we think it's going to be a great partnership for our school district and them and harate so we're looking forward to that so if I can just talk about the uh project very quickly what we're doing is as we're renovating the sports
005anics the weight room and wrestling room addition to the high school a greenhouse to expand our science curriculum for more hand on learning for students um much needed storage space for choir and band is both programs as you guys know that both continue to grow like crazy so we're we need that space um so the final thoughts on this addition project we'll begin meeting with Harris day and Regency to begin develop plans for project as plans hard develop we'll start putting things out to the community we'll start using our uh website we'll use our Facebook page we'll um put it on parent Square to get messages out we're we're going to have several nights we're going to have uh instruction Academy to actually include uh students into the process so it'll be a learning process
006for them as we go through this so we're pretty excited about that but uh we're hoping anticipating to break ground sometime in October of 2025 am I right to say that and we anticipated project hopefully knock on wood it will be ready by uh sometime dur the fall or uh winter of 2026 there'll be a lot of moving Parts I'm still not quite sure how we're going to do this but uh it's going to be a take it's going to take a lot of uh extensive planning to minimize disrupting Student Activities you know we' talked a couple times about discussing the order and how this will go on uh we're still not we're still not quite sure how we're going to do this but we're going to work through that and uh going to work
007through that together with uh pry and and we'll also be looking at replacing the turf in the spring of 26 so all these things are going to be going on at the same time so we're going to be very very visit for the next next couple years okay so I wanted to address very quickly all the things that came up I feel like I've talked to much already as it this and I just want to do that but I did want to talk very quickly about all the things that were brought up uh in the last school board meeting I felt like we needed to do that so I did go to De cite our food director we had a lot of questions about the cafeteria food and uh here's what Deb said this is
008her quote students can get more than one lunch exclamation point uh she said they obviously would need the funds to cover the cost free reduced lunch students may get their first lunch free as they would but anything beyond that they would have to pay for as a Foods director Dev is very interested in selling as many lunches as possible I want to point out that that they are always trying to run in the black they do not want to run in the red so uh for any students who want to more food they of course would be more than happy to accommodate that uh when we talked about that she had checked with all the cooks in all four buildings not one student were asked to buy second lunch that any of them could remember
009recently they did say that many of the students will purchase second entree but no one's tried to buy an additional entire additional lunch none of the ladies in the cafeterias have a problem with selling in fact they welcome it uh question also came about how many nuggets were served right uh I I went and I even investigate that we do serve not three we serve five I I not only did she confirm this I I've subbed unfortunately a few times in the C areia it's not cool it's not fun it's very hard work but I can also test there are five nuggets not three but with lunches we uh it's not just that we also serve uh fruit vegetable snack and and milk so breakfast were also mentioned as being too sugary for students again
010we have I I she pointed this out to me Deb that we have very strict dietary guidelines for sugar unfortunately sugar and junk food no longer part of it I I I don't like that I like to have sugary food and junk food we are very limited in what we in fact even in the morning there are multi-grain Donuts which I don't really get that but uh when they serve breakfast they they do have very strict dietary and not just here it's all public schools throughout the state of Ohio okay the point was also made about bful Guest making donation to help our students we do have students who forget to pay and some families who do run up IOU is for a variety of re and I you know I have no problem with
011any of that we're very lucky and thankful that somebody like bful gifts that they make donations to help support and cover those we're very grateful for their support and um hopefully that will continue um another question was brought up okay about this is completely away from the cafet food so high school students who go to RG dragon particular students wanted to be ban I want to talk about that very quickly all you know all of you know Mr you know that he is very interested in having the band grow in size he's he's obsess with he wants to get more and more C so uh to uh go to RG Drake here here's what the situation was with that um RG Drake students want to be an man has had concerns in the past here's
012what he has experienced all of our kids love being in marching band the fall you're you're performing you're out there and it's it's very very Hands-On very involved he has no issue with this and we we encourage this growth the problems arise the second semester with orchestra band when that dominates this is a co-curricular situation what he has run into as students who are at RG trying to find ways back to school because is a class that goes on during the day so they would even sometimes be late or they wouldn't show up at all because it's not as fun it's not as exciting he understands that he is not opposed I I don't think uh that he's opposed to that I I think we would take it on a a case by case situation
013is there a way for that child to be able to transport himself or herself from RG to be back in time it is a class he does have to assess and give grades so that became a problem um but it's it's a problem it's just not impossible we just have to work through so I I know that's probably not a complete answer um it just has been a problem and he wants to have that band grow so if there was a way for those kids if if they can um make some kind of arrangement for that to make the appearance make that happen then by all means he would he would be off that okay so that's that uh the last thing we discussed we discussed brick and I want to be clear on this
014we are moving forward with our plan to implement that in the fall I want to uh give a lot of credit to uh Mr TSH the counselors at the high school uh they put a lot of work a lot of energy putting this plan together we don't know what that plan is going to look like all right we're still working through that you know that plan is that we would Implement that sometime in the fall but I know that we are all very excited about that uh Mr Tosh had meetings of turn meetings the next couple nights after our last school board meeting and had many many many parents go there and um uh I attitude with the feeling that that uh I would say that Mr TSH God and his and his folks U
015that there were a lot of support for this they were very thankful for this it's been overwhelming support for a plan to do something with this and I want to be clear we're not we're not trying we're not interested in in U directing parents on how to parent that's not that's completely missing the point what we're interested here is helping our kids live in a safer School District that's um given them more opportunities more to bond with other students to work together to actually have conversations and to grow uh not only academically but socially as well and and we feel that this is just another we've done a lot of things and strategy to be preventative and bullying and I'm not naive and I don't think we're ever going to get rid of student conflicts
016or bullying but uh we do think that preventative is is the way to go we do things like we have a behavioral coach we are looking in phoenixing with with uh counseling and and their ability to get way more invasive with students who need that uh all these things and brick is next that we're looking at to to just develop a school district that is more preventative not punitive we do have punitive actions taken when that goes on but I much rather discuss and develop the ideas of what are we doing to prevent these things from from growing from breing and having that be one kid to feel good about West and I think many of them do but again I'm not 9 I know we need to keep working I know we will keep
017working that but but we feel like a lot of credit goes to Mr Tosh for this brick implementation that we'll have something uh formed and firmed up by the time we start the 25 26 year okay I've already talked enough I'm out of gas but uh I wanted to make sure we we had a lot of things we cover I want to make sure that uh that you guys knew uh that we we heard them address them and we will continue to monitor as as time goes by thank you okay I just wanted to take um just a moment um we're we're pleased to welcome Irish manay uh to our meeting tonight uh she's an extremely talented artist who's making a name for herself with neurals that she's done in the area she's done murals
018for Louisville Public Library Hartville West Branch Middle School with the kids I saw the the pictures of that um here in Canal Bolton um over the winter um she created a a incredible mural in the high school comments we really were hoping that we were going to be able to have a meeting in there tonight wrestling's in there for their banquet um and so you know scheduling things happen um as I was writing what I was going to say tonight um I took a look at her Instagram page um and I sat and a I was was watching this plain white wall in the Commons really just come to life um and each time that I've watched the video I've walked in there the mural I I noticed something different about the mural whether it's
019the just the the wood grain p uh pattern that's on the toe path sign or the ovmp uh wall that's in the background or the Stone Arch that was used uh to frame the hallway um it truly transforms the room um I've heard so many positive things from parents um staff teachers um I was at a basketball game where she was actually painting it and um people were coming in to just grab something from the concession stand they were just like stopping and just just couldn't even say anything as they were watching her or pain um and it's just going to be it's so impactful to have something like that in that area um that'll be with us for years to come um and in fact the community felt so strongly about how how positive
020that influence was that um we actually had somebody that donated a plaque so that we can present it to you tonight um but before I do that um I want to thank uh Madison Ross and Madison barbash for you guys really getting this started um you know I had the opportunity to talk to you earlier about your guys's what you guys saw for that and working with with Iris on that um and that's just just really shows like just how dedicated our teachers are to our students and to the schools where they you know see this and and want to bring this stuff to life so I I really thank you guys for that um so we the whole Northwest Community uh thank you for making this transformation happen uh bringing life to the common
021area um and Iris if you would please come up um and accept this plaque uh as a token of the community's appreci for sharing your gifts with [Applause] us and next student achievement Rita Now's the Time to hear what's going on in our schools at the primary students at the primary celebrated Dr Zeus week um to start the month of March they enjoyed a week of theme days and special lessons surrounding Dr Zeus centered literacy State lessons fitting in with the primary's literacy focused instructional practices they saw a continued partnership with the canal F library and Stark Parks these Partnerships involve bringing the Librarians and Rangers from both uh organizations to share their love of reading with the kids at Stinson uh their students and staff are very happy for officer GOI who and but
022they sadden to see him leave the school to become the sergeant of Fon Police Department he had been a resource teacher since 2022 and made a huge impact in that short amount of time he always had a positive influence on the students the staff and the community his calm outgoing and positive demeanor is exactly what was needed every day at the elementary school and he will be missed also spinson raised $1,870 for afcan Children's Hospital annual have a heart fundraiser uh the third grade team won the most money um the fifth grade Count on Me crew continues to be role models for their peers and the younger Northwest students last month they visited the primary and read the book The Love tank to the students to celebrate kindness week and Stinson's very very busy after
023school as well with extracurriculars many of the students are participating in chess club drama club and girls on the run along with the year-long extracurriculars rocks and the after school reading club it's great to see so many students motivated and committed to pursue and try different things in Middle School the power of the pen team recently competed at the regional tournament at Lake Middle School on February 22nd two eighth grade students qualify for the state competition congratulations go to Jo Tim and Sarah Cochran who take their creative writing skills to ashin university on May 21st to represent our school district the Stark County math tournament was held at was mass and Washington High School on Saturday March 1st the top school winners who placed in each category are as follows fourth grade geometry and measurement
024Bas zeros fourth grade algebra hon third place team problem solving Riley wigon Brooklyn wer and Adeline price second second place on mental computation Ariana K first place number sense Trevor o and that's it for the middle school and the high school we have a lot of guests here this evening so I'm going to turn that over to Mr yes so I invited the speech and debate team this evening uh I do not want to take any of Records thunder so I'm going to turn it over our our coach for the spe wherever you want I'm I'm going to be here if that's okay kids would you mind joining me up here the Northwest High School speech and debate team uh got started uh during Co if you'll remember uh so we picked picked a good
025year uh so in year six in year six um we had a team of 16 students nine of them qualified to the state tournament of the nine that qualified to the state tournament we had three state finalists and a state champion uh of the 16 students we have three National qualifiers that will go to De Mo June 14th through 21st and three alternates to the national tournament we have one more opportunity to qualify to the National Tournament tonight so I want to introduce you to who's here with me and talk specifically about some of their accolades um so with us here tonight Lance bowling who's supposed to be here Lance bowling sophomore novice uh was a finalist at the state tournament this year on International extemporary speaking uh in his first year conf competition he
026is also first alternate to the National Tournament in international extor speaking and first alternate to the National Tournament in Congressional debate we took him for two different opportunities to qualify to Nationals and he decided to uh place just short uh so we're going to need one more shot before the years out so Lance is not joining us here tonight we have James Paige here James paig three-year Congressional debater coming back next year in his senior year have big plans for him in terms of leadership next year very excited to have on the team Andrew HRI Andrew HRI decided to join our Nationals team this weekend at the Congressional debate national uh qualifying tournament and he placed fourth at that tournament earning his ticket to De Moy Andrew hric is a sophomore we have miam alabid
027miam was a finalist at the state tournament this year in original spoken word she is original oratory is her primary category uh and she is an alternate to the National Tournament in Congressional debate uh we took her this weekend uh actually to fill in we had a last minute drop and I said Mariam are you up for it she said yes and so she kind of shocked the field and ended up second alternate and Congressional debate um she is a sophomore we have Kaylee feather I'm skipping you to me for a second Kaye FEA she is a national qualifier in informative speaking she is a junior and she will be joining us in De Moine Iowa on the from 14th to the 21st and last but certainly not least we have tamama akres she is
028our she is our team captain she's a three-time national qualifier she will be attending the national tournament in De Iowa uh in dramatic interpretation she was a finalist in two events at the state tournament this year placing fourth in dramatic interpretation and she is the champion state champion in original spoken word future teacher at Northwest too come come back and Coach please so these are these are just our state finalist and National qualifiers um this doesn't happen though without the support of their teammates we have a really exciting group of young people uh doing speeching debate and I couldn't be prouder to be their coach so than [Music] [Applause] [Music] some credit should go to Mr Woods wood a lot of time this all right um I don't have anything for recognition of visitors to
029uh for agenda related items okay then we will move on to treasur report um first item I have is recommendation to approve the minutes from the regular meeting on February 24th so move second discussion roll call Mr tohill yes Mr gbg Mrs barking yes Mrs geard yes Mr Wy yes so the next item I have is a recommendation to approve the attached resolution which is addendum one um authorizing the filing of an original complaint against valuation of real property need a motion still discussion so this is the same property from last year correct yes so what they have told me well I know what they um this is the same property and it did get resolved and that was on the abstract for the 2023 text year when they moved it to 2024 it got
030adjusted back down and so they have to refile would you explain that um I don't know if I know why that I know I don't know why it happened you don't know why there's is that what you're saying I want I don't understand this tax change the complain okay so what happened last year this property was identified as being under value so the county auditor had it on the books and I don't remember the amounts now um but there had been a recent sale of that property for substantially more money it was $1 million for the sale and it was on record at 3.8 yeah thank you so it's like an $8 million valuation difference so that's why up top it says that it's the 10% and 550,000 difference and so I don't think it
031did go up to the full sale amount but it did get adjusted upwards when they move those amounts over onto the next tax year it it got adjusted back down I don't know why that happened at the auditor's office but what legal has told me is the only way to get it adjusted back up to the amount that everybody agreed to was to go back through this process thank you so will it be resolve then once and for all or we going to deal with this every year I can't answer that okay now is there a possibility you said it didn't go all the way up to the 11 cor is there possibility I think he's just asking it to take it to the amount that was agreed upon last year thank you thanks St
032you're welcome anything any other questions okay roll call Mr tohill yes Mr gburger yes Mrs Barky yes Mrs geart yes Mr W yes okay next item um I have a recommendation to approve resolution accepting the amounts and rates as determined by the budget commission and authorizing the ne necessary tax levies and certifying them to the county auditor as presented so move second discussion these are the rates that we've been under for a while right so these are millit rates yes these are our millit rates which then the county auditor determines what they are we are at the floor I know there's a lot of of conversation across the state now about 20 mil floors were at the floor which means that we will see an increase in collections because you can't you can't drop below
03320 m um give you a little more information if you'd like about this sure go for okay um I ask a question okay uh we went to a meeting last week and met the new County auditor and they had some information about all the districts across the county um and when when we look at our numbers I I did us one out of 18 CU Lake had a new Levy and it was clear if it was included or not included um from 1 to 17 one being the lowest we were the third in increase in valuation so on the lower side across the county um and for actual collections we were seven so a little higher but again um based on the numbers average increase to the average the average household um which is now
034at like $217,000 is the average uh valuation of a home uh that would amount to about $300 a year increase clarify we're the third lowest rate increase in start yeah so our valuation uh went up 18.8 5% there was actually two districts that had over 40% valuation increases yeah when you said the seven CL in collection that could just very well have to do with where our home values hit against other home values yeah so our collections are projected to be up just under 15% um but there were districts that their collections were going up in a range from 30 to 40% um so 21 to 30% most of them were into the 11 to 20% range so that does kind of trend with what we put in our 5year forecast and what we uh
035estimated to happen based on those conversations with the county auditor last year last fall anything else okay call Mr too yes Mr gindlesberger yes Mrs Barky yes Mrs Gearhart yes Mr Ry yes all right the next two are the two opposite sides of the coin of the same situation um so we'll do that one at a time but the first is uh requesting authorization for amended resources from the start counting auditor for the 2425 school year questions Mr yes Mr gbur yes Mrs par yes Mrs geart yes s w yes and the next item is uh request authorization for additional Appropriations we start coming sove second questions difference just explain the Appropriations sure thank so what has happened these are federal funds um usually at at least one time maybe two times during the year
036uh OD will either give us a little more federal dollars or sometimes take away um which is the instance on first line um with the idea funds what we're then doing is we're just adjusting the amount of money we think we're getting in for this and then reciprocally the amount of money we're and the county auditor has to certify all of our resources and Appropriations any questions okay Mr Joe yes Mr gburger yes Mrs Barkin yes Mrs Gard yes Mr W yes so resolution approving the selection of the construction manager of risk I mentioned that earlier recommendation to approve the selection of regate Construction Services the best value construction manager at risk for the district Improvement project and authorizing contract of PR Construction Services any motion second and any discussion so I was I did
037do um meet also with the group that was that met with um the three firms um lots of reading lots of numbers I think there was a total of 200 and some out pages that the three firms had put together um lots of lots of really fun things to see that they can do um but I walking out of there definitely felt like renes really really solid choice for us it was it was passina read I'm more excited about seeing PL and drawings yep all right roll Mr chill yes Mr gindlesberger yes Mrs Barky yes Mrs Gart yes Mr W yes okay uh for resignations I'll do one or two together recommendation to accept the resignation can head intervention specialist tutor Northwest Primary and since in due to retirement that'll be affected December 31st 2025
038second one recommendation to have the Nancy Christie librarian of Northwest Primary due retirement effect of May 31st 25 so move second discussion how how early do they have to do this they have to do it like at the end of the first school year so we prep for the next year I'm just thinking Kim heads December 31st Kim has to tell us by April 1 she wants to get she goes that's Contra language okay so that's why you're seeing AR she's going I's a long hisory to that guess Reas for a while any other questions okay roll call Mr yes yes Mrs Bary yes Mrs deart yes Mr L yes so C we have the approval of membership in the Ohio High School Athletic Association recommendation to approve membership the ohsaa uh for the Northwest
039High School northwest mle school for the 2025 26 school year that includes um the total cost for interest $850 any discussion okay Mr yes Mr G Mrs Bary yes Mrs Gearhart yes Mr Wy yes on to the approval of the OSAA regulations and guidelines recommendation to approve the regulations of guidelines of the Ohio High School Association for the 25 26 school year this is pretty pretty much standard Opera a motion second or discussion okay Mr chill yes Mr GB yes Mrs Barky yes Mrs geart yes Mr W yes the last thing we have for tonight e donations recommendation to accept a donation of $1,000 from budget boys production uh they this is the group that Mr T tell us a little more they came in they were in our how long in an hour if
040that couple hours they made a donation say thank you their P I guess you can get about more said us because they're col yeah there's a connection with that's the company that shot up video we do yes need a motion s about that second J all right any discussion fig roll call Mr to yes Mr G Mrs Bary yes Mrs geart yes Mr yes okay so um before we I don't have anything for visitors if there are any visitors that wish to to talk do need to fill out but I wanted to um read a statement um about the meetings and public participation last month we got a little bit sidetracked a little bit derail on some stuff um so we want to bring that back in um so we appreciate everybody's participation in our
041meetings remind you uh no one's able to or be permitted to speak without filling up the form and signing it which means that you have read the board policy on public participation and agree to adhere to it each person will have two minutes into which to speak um and please remember it's not a question and answer session um with the school board um each board member may make comments at the end of the meeting about topics if they wish to do so um and if you need more time to discuss a matter uh we can be reached by email uh or if any any of us would be happy to give phone numbers out um or you can reach out to Sean um at the admin office so that will be going forward will anytime
042we go into the public comment section um we'll be reminding everybody um of that that's it is there anybody that had anything that they wish to discuss okay one more thing very quickly I just would if anybody anybody when they come to me or I would make the suggestion to view as well um that the first question I always ask is to talk to the teacher talk to the principal have they I give myself C out to everybody I do have people call believe it or not or text me questions and things that are going on so I'm very easy to get a hold of if it's not the board office they they contact yourself but the point is that there are many people in layers that we you know we love the chance to
043be able to answer some of these questions that were coming up last month many people we can go to Cy if it's a food question just to go through the proper channels is all that we would ask for you know I mean we won't answers that we didn't that so I would ask if anybody were to come to us we ask them to go back out of respect to the teacher principal the administration to go through proper channels before comes heree that's it okay I just had one thing I don't know if anybody else had anything for end the meeting um actually two things sorry first of all thank you Mr T for putting everything together with the brick initiative I've heard a lot of positive stuff with that I've been meetings and the the
044book meeting that you had really got a lot out of it myself and I know other parents have as well so thank you you and you and your team for everything that you've done on that and will continue to do um and just for the board members um I was looking through some stuff from November we uh indefinitely postponed the cell phone policy at that point we need to go back and look at that because we haven't until July to have one um we have until July to have a compliant policy with the new cell phone law so we we do need to make sure um I'll work on some updates to try to get that sent out so you guys can have some looks um some eyes on it before the next meeting so
045we can discuss that but I just want to throw that out there it's all anybody else okay any a motion to adjourn so move all in favor we go