001Good evening. I'd like to open the Board of Education meeting. This is a regular meeting of the Buckeye Board of Education. It is Tuesday, April 14th, and it is 6:00 p.m. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Kuya. >> Here. >> Mrs. Cecilich. >> Here. >> Mr. Salazar. >> Here. >> Mrs. Pevarchik. >> Here. >> And Mrs. Gault. >> Here. Please join me in 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. >> This is the meeting of the Board of Education in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business, and is not to be considered a public community meeting. There is a time for public participation during
002the meeting as indicated in the agenda. The mission of the Buckeye Local Schools is to empower students to excel in a highly competitive society. Item number two, approval of the minutes. Approval of the minutes of the March 10th regular and special meetings and the March 23rd special meeting. May I have a motion, please? >> I so move. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? Roll call, please. >> Mr. Salazar. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kuya. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cecilich. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Peverly. >> Yes. >> And >> Gump. >> Yes. We operate on a consent agenda for a lot of the usual items. And um the item is to recommend the Buckeye Board of Education approve the consent agenda as of April 14th. Uh any additions or corrections? >> Yes, Mrs. Gump. We have
003one addition this evening uh board members. Uh we have our FFA forward a field trip to Columbus at the end of this month, April 30th and May 1st. Um all details we didn't have when the agenda went live. Mrs. Norris got the got the information to us uh this Monday yesterday. So we put it on the agenda so the kids can go to the FFA. They go every So for our consideration. >> A motion, please. >> So moved. >> I'll second. >> I'm sorry. First is Mrs. Okay, thank you. >> Any comments or questions? Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Peverly. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kuyat. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Silage. >> Yes. >> Mr. Salazar. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Gump. >> Yes. Uh we are at the part of the meeting for public participation. Thank
004you. Uh David Kessler. Am I saying that correctly? >> It's Messler. >> Messler. >> Miss >> Messler. >> All right, thank you. >> 3540 Columbia Road, Medina. Um I get this from Buckeye once in a while. It says here, according to Mark Donnelly, "I encourage our community members to stay engaged, ask questions, and continue participating in these important conversations." Um this don't mean nothing to me. Because we've had plenty of people participate, okay? It's just that, you know, how it is. First off, I want to say at first levy one of you all said that everyone could afford an extra $500 added to their taxes. And everybody could afford it. Last month, somebody else said it only cost $250 added to your taxes. I'll tell you what. That's right, you don't have to answer that
005question or any other questions because the people out here asking questions, if you are not part of their clique, you don't get questions answered. I've been asking questions for 10 years, and I know two people that are staying or in this board right now that kind of tried to contact me, but they never did. They took my number, but never called. Since 2017, my property taxes have gone up over $1,300. In 1 year, from '24 to '25, my taxes have gone up over $280. You don't have enough enough money yet? I know this because of the greedy county commissioners that keep raising property values. There are two of you that have been on this school board for 10 years and have done nothing to have maintenance plans for these buildings. 10 years ago, the people
006of the school district passed operating levy. Yet, nothing was done about maintaining these buildings. And I think you know who you are. Then you said it's for the children to build a new school. That's an outright lie. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 says, Paul says, "Remember that there will be difficult times in the last days. People will be selfish, greedy, boastful, conceited. They'll be insulting, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, and irreligious. They will be unkind, merciless, slanderers, violent, fierce. They will hate the good. They will be treacherous, reckless, and swollen with pride. They will love pleasure rather than God. They will hold to the outward form of our religion, but reject its real power. Keep away from such people." When I see Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists, and Methodists sitting there as our representatives at this school treating people
007out here who ask tough questions, and then sit there and treat your own as you treat others like garbage by locking people out of the meetings from last month because she was a few minutes late. And you call yourselves Christians? >> Sir, your time is up. >> I'm asking for another one, too. >> Is it another topic or same topic? >> Different topic. >> All right. >> Jesus told to his disciples that when the Pharisees and the Sadducees teach the law of Moses, listen to them, but don't act like them. This is what we have here. And Jesus called them hypocrites. Now, we all are sinners in this room. We are all children of God. True Christians do not act like this. True Christians, according to Jesus, number one, ask Jesus to come into your
008heart. Number two, confess your sins and stop sinning. If you have the Holy Spirit within you, you will know your sins. Repeat every day when the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin committed. This was brought to me by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ. I was supposed to come up here today because I know that. Thoughts that he gives me and the things that I read in the Bible and the people are getting treated like crap around here. I hope you all take to heart because these people out here behind me, when they get their awards, they don't stick around to see what goes on. And I wish they would. >> Thank you. Next is uh Susie Hodinger. >> [clears throat] >> I have also two statements. I'll stop after my first one and then
009start my second one. Susie Hodinger, 7463 Center Road. In regards to the recent social media resolution uh last month in March that you passed, what is the policy of our Facebook page? I have asked who is in charge of it, who makes the posts, who makes the response, and I have never gotten an answer. I would like to see our policy about this uh regarding this. If indeed a policy is not in place for this page, it should be taken down until one is. Otherwise, no person has the right representing Buc County as stated similarly in the resolution just passed last month in March. I still have no answers about finance committee that I asked for last month. There's three of them. One, I would like to know from our finance committee exactly how they
010are planning for our anticipated losses and an exact breakout of where our $8 million is coming from for this capital project. Two, I would like to know how the finance committee plans on future repairs and maintenance for the current high school that will remain standing and the elementary school. Third three, I would also like to know who are the members of our finance committee and when do they meet? There really is no justification for not having answered my questions. I find it highly disrespectful to residents who show in person for information and get no response, yet anonymous people get better responses as evident with your social media resolution. Mr. Ku stated at the March meeting, "We have been talking since about 7 years going about being in a deficit spending around 2026 and 2027, which
011we see by our financial reports is true." But at the February meeting, just a month prior, he also said, "Years ago we were in good financial standing, we were in good standing financially, making us able to do this new building." So, which is it? The county budget commission seems to think we can give back 2.5 million dollars to the taxpayers in a rollback. You are reaping the benefits of both increased property values and our emergency levy that brings in 3.2 million dollars a year. Which one do you need? The increased property values or our emergency levy? It's my first time. So, if you'd like to restart the clock, I'll start another one. Or I'll stand here for 21 seconds. >> You may go ahead. >> I am aware the budget commission approved their budget. Congratulations.
012I'm wondering, is the board considering returning the two and a half million since they are getting much more money than they were 6 years ago. I am guessing not because it will make the project fund short for the new building. >> [clears throat] >> I need to make sure you understand. I submitted a misappropriation of funds and fraud complaints against the board with the state auditor. Based on ORC, I believe the board has no legal right to put the 32 million and counting to a capital project when the money was collected on operating funds. Knowing there is an active complaint and investigation, this board should not move forward with any more action or spending on this project until the matter is settled. Although Mr. Kuya stated that you had gotten verbal approval by others, that
013does not supersede an investigation. The 32 million question by the budget commission did not just disappear is a very active issue. The project should be put on hold until fully resolved. Continuing would constitute malfeasance and misconduct by the board. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, moving on. We have some informational items from Mr. Standish. >> Yes, good evening Mrs. Dalton and good evening board members and everybody in the community that's here. I appreciate you being here. We have a lot of exciting things on the board agenda tonight. We've got a lot of students that are going to be recognized. It's always the best part of the board meeting and then, you know, some typical business and and and some some non-typical business. But, we're going to start off with our April students of the month.
014So, uh let's start there and besides the fact that you are here to see me representing the high school, I will explain a little bit later why Mr. Slook is not here, but good evening and I will start off with you. >> Kai is somewhere in this audience. Hello, Kai. Come on down. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Ellie Iceman. I'm the assistant principal of Buckeye High School. Kai Knobb is our student of the month for April 2026 and it's my distinct honor to present him as such. Kai was selected due to his exemplary academic achievement, his community engagement and proven leadership he displays daily both on and off campus. As a tri-enrolled student at Buckeye High School, Cuyahoga Community College and Medina County Career Center, Kai excels in a wide range of challenging scholastics including
015but not limited to advanced placement, college credit plus and industry credential classes. Kai has taken AP pre-calc and calc. He has taken AP English literature and language, AP US history and government and he also found some spare time for Earth Science and Physical Geography through Tri-C. Um Kai says his favorite AP class to date has been AP US History due to the riveting content in Mr. Harris's teaching style. Kai recognized Mr. Harris at our top scholar event this year for these reasons. Kai has garnered meaningful workplace experience through the Medina County Career Center for their Automotive Technology which is an ASE and NATEF certified program. He has also served as the Auto Tech program president for his junior and senior years and he has been awarded an AP top scholar for his honors recognizing an
016average score of 3.25 on all AP exams taken with a score of three or higher on four or more of those exams which is a really incredible feat. Kai leads with purpose through several community and school-based groups. He is currently an Eagle Scout and the patrol leader for Boy Scout Troop 500. His Eagle Scout project consisted of constructing bird towers through the Medina County Park System to provide eco-friendly homes for native avian species. And he has also served as our academic challenge team captain for both his junior and senior year and he answered the most questions correctly out of anyone on the team according to his advisor Mr. Hall. So if anyone needs an extra person trivia night, this is the person that you want to talk to. Uh Mr. LaGuardia, our mock trial advisor,
017has said that Kai played a pivotal and intense role of attorney for the past 4 years and was recognized as junior year by the mock trial panel to receive the judges award for best attorney. He also led the group to regionals in 2024. Kai is a dedicated employee through his experience at Cast and Well and his own landscaping business. And when discussing future plans, he is looking forward to continuing his educational studies at the University of Akron next year, so go Zips. Um and it is also just to be noted that Kai is a kind, caring, and calm presence on our campus, taking the time to engage with his peers positively while setting out to accomplish the task at hand for the day. Mrs. Cutty, Kai's AP literature and language teacher, shared that this is
018her third year having Kai. He is such a thoughtful and introspective scholar. He is really intellectually curious about the world around him. And Kai has always been prepared for class and willing to participate in any lesson, no matter how challenging. I will always remember his personal essay about how he didn't know if he needed to go to college. It was a very well-written reflection about how much the career center had provided to him and how college might not be his route. Even though he has decided to pursue college at this point in time, he was willing to imagine the possibilities of pursuing a different road. So Kai, thank you for all you do each day to make Buckeye High School a great place to be and take part in educational success. Your dedication to raising
019our standard and exceeding expectations brings us all great joy and we are really excited to see you continue to excel at Akron. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Congratulations, Kai. That was a great start to this this part of the board meeting. Thank you. Uh Mr. Sauer. Good evening. How are you? I just started being your high school principal and there we go. Thank you for bringing up Wyatt. >> Wyatt, you got a tough act to follow. That's right. Still have time to build that resume. All right. Uh it is a genuine pleasure to officially recognize you as student of the month um at Buckeye Junior High School. This award is reserved for a student who go above and beyond their academic and personal conduct and your performances here have been has been nothing short of
020exemplary. You were nominated for this honor by Mr. Conrad who joins us tonight uh who spoke very highly of your character and your presence in the classroom. Uh in his nomination he shared, "Wyatt is the epitome of what every every teacher looks for in a student. He is kind, caring, and respectful. What strikes me the most is his decency. We can always count on Wyatt to do the right thing, to help his classmates, and to show up with a strong attitude. I know that Wyatt will continue to do great things and I am honored to be one of his teachers. So, thank you, Mr. Conrad. Uh it is rare to find a student who balances such strong work ethic uh with genuine kindness. Whether you are sharing your talents in choir, expressing your creativity through
021drawing, or unwinding with some video games, uh you bring a well-rounded and positive energy to our eighth grade class. As you begin to look forward to your high school and your future goal of attending college and perhaps becoming an engineer, uh please know that this foundation of integrity and decency uh you've built here will be your greatest asset moving forward. Uh congratulations on this well-deserved achievement and keep leading by example, young man. Congrats. >> [applause] >> Thank you so much. >> Absolutely fantastic. >> Nice job, Wyatt. Thank you, Mr. Sauer. Uh intermediate principal, Mr. Wilson. Good evening, Mike. >> Hello. >> All right. We asked you to come over here so you could So, I have with me here uh Tara. Uh Tara is a fourth grader uh at the intermediate school. And this past
022month, we talked a lot about critical thinking. So, I'm going to share a little bit about what her mom said and what her teacher said and wrap it up with a little bit about critical thinking as a fourth grader. Um from mom, Tara is a loving and affectionate and caring um youngest child in the family. Um she loves the water. Everything about the water. Swimming, it doesn't matter if it's a pool or a lake. Um I don't know, maybe jump in the ocean when your family takes you on vacation. >> I'm trying to encourage her. >> Um swimming is really her happy place. Uh followed by four-wheelers. So, that's kind of the best of both worlds. She is uh >> [clears throat] >> Excuse me. She is properly embarrassed when mom sings and dances at
023the grocery store, which is fantastic. And then from Mrs. Sarmiento, she says that Tara stands out as our student of the month for her strong critical thinking skills, especially in mathematics. She approaches problems with confidence and flexibility, uses a variety of strategies to find solutions. Rather than relying on just one method, she explores different approaches and is willing to adjust her thinking when needed. Just as importantly, she openly shares her thought process, helping others understand not only the answer, but how to get there. She's an independent thinker who's not afraid to ask questions to deepen her understanding. Whether she's clarifying a concept or wondering about a new approach, her curiosity drives her learning forward. She reflects on her work, learns from challenges, and consistently strives to improve. Her willingness to think for herself, takes take
024risks, and engage in meaningful problem-solving makes her a wonderful role model for her for her peers. She says, "Well done, Cara." And she's sorry she couldn't be here. You know, critical thinking was our focus uh for March, and as a fourth grader, critical thinking is important because this is the time you take experiences and knowledge and creativity, and you start to analyze that uh situations differently. And then you take that information, you evaluate it, and then you act upon it. At this stage, we're moving on from just memorizing facts. We are really trying to dig into what we're doing, and ask a bunch of questions. It's the how, it's the why, and it's the what if. Um and to explore new and uh to explore new topics. Um as a fourth grader, to focus on
025creative uh critical thinking, you want to encourage creativity, curiosity, and open-ended questions. Cara represents all of this. And when I interviewed her, I was able to find out some cool facts about her as well. Like she's a straight-A student. Um she loves the movie Home Alone. And according to Mom, you like K-pop Demon Hunter as well. Um we also talked about the love of swimming, but loves winter, and especially loves winter because there's no bugs. All the other seasons got to go away. She loves winter, but she refuses to do the Polar Bear Plunge. I don't understand why. I think it'd be really fun. Uh her favorite food is mac and cheese. Um her favorite teacher uh growing coming through the grade levels is Mrs. Fantauzzi. I almost didn't present this one, but her favorite
026principal, I thought it was a shoe-in. It was going to me. But, it is Mr. Rivera, right over there. Um and her favorite subject is math. And when she gets to the higher grades, she definitely wants to participate in some kind of debate class, possibly mock trial, cuz she wants to use that as she moves through college and becomes a lawyer. The most interesting part of our entire conversation, though, was the one question I asked. I said, "What's something that you live by? Maybe some words of wisdom?" Or, you know, and as a fourth grader, not all of them have this. And she summed this up perfectly. And she told me, "Don't let fear hold you back." And I was like, "That is pretty insightful for being in fourth grade. Don't let fear hold you
027back." So, everything I've talked about her, everything I've talked about with critical thinking, is really summed up in that phrase, because she wants to know the how, and the why, and the what if. So, we're so proud of you, and we look forward to seeing you do great things. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> It's awesome, Tara. You couldn't see it, but when you said when Mr. Wilson said, "Don't let fear hold you back," everybody went, "Yeah." >> [laughter] >> It's all right. So, congratulations. Ms. Rivera, good evening. >> Okay, we're saving our gem for last. Okay. This is Samantha Glenn, the primary student of the month. We two focused on critical thinking. Samantha is being recognized as student of the month for her strong critical thinking skills, and her love of learning. She enjoys challenging herself,
028especially in math, because she knows it will help her grow stronger in the future. Samantha is also an avid reader who especially enjoys books by Beverly Cleary, Beverly Cleary and Bad Kitty. At school, she's excited to continue building her skills, particularly learning how to multiply two-digit numbers and read and spell bigger words. Outside of school, Samantha stays busy with many activities. She loves creating art and spending time with her family. She also enjoys building imaginative worlds on her tablet. Samantha is very active and participates in Taekwondo, cheerleading, and basketball. >> [laughter] >> Showing her dedication and energy in all she does. Samantha lives with her mom, dad, her guppies, her two underwater frogs, hermit crabs, a beta fish, and her dog Berry. She loves being part of her family because they are always there to
029support her. Some of her favorite family activities include watching TV together and traveling to Blackwater Falls, West Virginia. She especially enjoys when her parents make steak and mashed potatoes, green beans for dinner. She also looks forward to special outings at Fiesta Jalisco. When Samantha grows up, she hopes to become a teacher and a babysitter because she enjoys working with younger children. Her curiosity, her kindness, and her determination make her a wonderful role model and a deserving student of the month. And this is Mrs. Burgess, her third grade teacher, and she has a little to say about her. >> This was an easy one for me to pick her for this critical thinking for March. I would like to recognize one of my third grade student, Samantha Glatz. Samantha has been selected for her outstanding critical
030thinking skills both in the classroom and throughout her school experience. Samantha consistently demonstrates a thoughtful approach to learning, taking the time to ask meaningful questions, make connections across subjects, and carefully consider different perspectives before arriving at her conclusions. Samantha shows a level of curiosity and determination that sets her apart, often going beyond the surface to truly understand the why behind what we are learning. Whether she is solving a challenging math problem, analyzing a story, or collaborating with her peers, Samantha approaches each task with focus, creativity, and confidence. What is especially impressive is her willingness to take risks in her thinking, to share her ideas openly, and to learn from both her successes and her mistakes. Samantha serves as a positive role model for all her classmates, encouraging thoughtful discussion, and inspiring others to think more
031deeply. I am incredibly proud of her accomplishments, and I'm so excited to see how she continues to grow as a learner and a leader. >> Samantha Glenn. >> [applause] >> Congratulations, Samantha, and all of our students of the month and their families that are here this evening as well. So, thank you. And our board trustees. Ms. Vera, I know you were heading over to a kindergarten kindergarten information night tonight, so thank you for double uh >> Of course. >> double duties. Okay, I'm going to suggest that we make an adjustment to the agenda tonight just because we have so many students that are here um and their and their families, and I have a feeling a lot of the students would probably want to go out maybe enjoy that amazing weather that's out there. Uh
032so, I'm going to ask Mr. Myers to to do his athletic update. For those of you that maybe haven't seen this before, after every season, we ask our athletic director to give the board and the community an update on what has happened with our student athletes from previous uh season. So, tonight will be the night for John to do that. Uh and I think it's a good time to do that when this is when he's finished with this, we're going to take a break. You will get pictures of all of our students of of the month. We get pictures of our athletes of the year. And then about 5 minutes after that, we'll go to the rest of the meeting. Is that okay, everybody? Good. I probably should have asked you first. But, okay. Thank
033you. Mr. Myers, good evening. >> Thank you. Um at this time, since uh I do have a big group that is with me, can all of the athletes that are invited come stand up front and then when I get to recognizing you, you just step forward instead of calling you one by one in the crowd. >> You're all coming this way with such enthusiasm. >> [laughter] >> Put them in a stadium with a thousand people watching. >> Exactly. >> Um Again, uh it was uh another season of growth and accomplishments. Uh our student athletes have really represented the community uh and the school with a lot of pride in competition and in the classroom uh while maintaining a relentless pursuit of excellence. Uh tonight we'll highlight uh our student athletes, their accomplishments, as well as
034our teams. Our The first that I'd like to recognize and that is all of our student athletes. Um their performance in the classroom. Our academic GPA for our student athletes, we had a cumulative GPA of a 3.48. That is not just this group here, that is all 147 winter sport athletes that we had. Uh the average GPA or cumulative GPA of that group was a 3.48, demonstrating their commitment to the classroom as well as competition. And then uh additionally, we'd like to recognize the girls basketball team that had a team GPA of 4.02. This is the second consecutive winter season where the girls basketball team has led the athletic department in the winter with their GPA. At this time, we'll recognize our student athletes who qualified for a state competition. To put this in perspective,
035only a small percentage of athletes ever reach the state level. Depending on the sport, you're talking about somewhere between 2 and 5% of athletes in Ohio high schools are able to qualify and compete at the state level. Again, a credit to their preparation that they put in throughout their career and their ability to perform under pressure. So that the group knows when I call your name, you guys can just step forward. In bowling, we have Aubrey Router qualified for the state tournament. Aubrey is the first district champion in school history and the first state qualifier in school history. Gymnastics, we had Miranda Pestel and Neveah Seker. Miranda qualified as an alternate and Neveah qualified and competed. Neveah is one of two gymnasts in school history to ever compete in the all around. Indoor track, Ellen,
036Brady, and Demetri qualified individually as well as the 4 by 8 relay team of Brady Salazar, Demetri Brsanic, Gavin Weibel, and Nolan Ryan. And then in wrestling, Colin Bartos, Blake Bartos, Logan Letner, and Brody Zuhl all advanced to the state tournament. Again, this level of representation for our athletes speaks to the strength and the depth of our athletic programs. Additionally, athletes that earned All Ohio recognition. All Ohio is a little bit different depending upon the sport. In our individual sports like indoor track and wrestling, it is determined upon your finish at the state tournament. Uh in basketball, it's voted on by the coaches and the media. In indoor track, Ellen Steppenbacker has earned All-Ohio honors for the second time in her career. And Brady Salazar has earned All-Ohio recognition. In basketball, Turner DeLata was named
037All-Ohio for the second time in his career. In wrestling, Calvin Bartos had earned All-Ohio honors. And Blake Bartos finished his career as a four-time All-Ohio. Earning All-Ohio recognizes our athletes and their ability to compete at the highest level. A couple teams that I would like to point out while a couple teams are not here, we had a conference championship in gymnastics this season. Uh they had a team score of 132 at the uh conference meet. This program continues to do things the right way. They represent the department with class, consistency, professionalism, and have established a standard for the teams to follow behind them. Girls bowling was the North Shore Shore Bowling Conference regular season champions uh with a record of 17 and 0. This is They are back-to-back regular season champions with a record of
03833 and 1 in the past 2 years. And they are the North Shore Bowling Conference tournament champions for the first time in school history. They were the first sectional champion in school history. The second team to qualify for districts. This group has built a program of success uh and created a foundation to build upon. Our wrestling team, they finished the conference record with 7 and 0 in duels. This is their sixth consecutive undefeated duel season. They were the sectional runner-up, fourth at districts, and placed 10th at state. This program is defined by its relentless pursuit of excellence. Where the conference success is expected, and they are determined to compete at the state level. School records. And we didn't have a lot of school records that were broken this year, and we'd like to recognize those
039student athletes. In basketball, Zach Stahle had a single-season record of 44 steals. And Austin Higher had a single-season three-point field goals of 59. In swimming, Abby Barrett set a record in the 200 IM, the 200 free, the 100 free, the 100 back back stroke, and the 100 breaststroke. The 200 free relay of Zarabel, Krieger, Dahlquist, and Abby Barrett. Maddy Krieger set a record in the 100 butterfly. And Noah Barrett set a record in the 200 free, the 50 free, the 100 butterfly, the 100 free, and the 100 free, and the 100 back. In gymnastics, Neveah on the bars, they scored 9.3. And in track, Ellen on the pole vault of 12 ft. And Brady in the 800 m. Um these records are now a mark for our future athletes to aspire to. Some career accomplishments
040I'd like to highlight. Turner has eclipsed 1,000 career points. Has ended his career with 1,239 career points. As I mentioned, a two-time All-Ohioan. Was the CWC conference player of the year coming off last season being the offensive player of the year. In wrestling, coach Mike Tecco was the conference coach of the year. Coach Tecco continues to lead the program with consistency and high expectations. In wrestling, Brendan McKee has eclipsed 100 wins. He is a junior with a record of 103 and 38. Brody Zuhl has eclipsed 100 wins with a current career record of 102 and 30. Logan Letner has a career record of 138 and 31. And is committed to wrestle and play football at Baldwin Wallace University. And then Blake Bartos, who has eclipsed 150 wins, has a career record of 168 and 12,
041101 pins, 202 near falls. Is a four-time JC Gorman champion. Is the first wrestler in the 67-year history of that tournament to win three time most valuable wrestling honors. The fourth was because Eddie Nightenbauch, fall wrestling, was one of that that one year that prevented Blake from contesting being a four-time. Blake is the first four-time state placer, three-time finalist in school history. He is the third two-time champion and is committed to wrestle at the University of Wyoming joining Eddie Nightenbauch. These accomplishments represent the long-term commitment and the required talent that it is to perform at the highest level. And then, um as I mentioned records in the athletic department, um we've taken uh an initiative to really audit the records that we have. Um there was um for whatever reason, there has been a gap
042in our sports historical data. And working with our coaches and working with the Gazette, um and we've now posted on our website and then on social media, um any individual that uh potentially has set a record or really just to verify, um we have about an 8-year gap that we've been trying to piece together to be able to have record boards that are uh displayed in the high school for all of these records uh to be displayed for our student athletes in our community to see when they come to school. That is currently missing. Um before we go ahead and actually have record boards to be able to hung and displayed at the school, we want to make sure that information is is accurate as possible. Um so, if you are curious for for that
043information or want to view that information, it is on uh the athletic department's Facebook page and it's also on the athletic department's website. If you see athletic department's website, if you wanted to go to it directly, it would be buckeyeathletics.org. It is linked in three separate spots. You can go forms and links. It'll say athletic records. You can go inside athletics uh and it will be listed there or fan zone and it'll be listed there. Those will be the three places you can view uh the athletic records uh in culmination. And then, uh would like to end with a thank you to our athletes, thank you to the community, thank you to the coaches, thank you to the administration. Um this is one of my greatest honors to be able to celebrate our athletes and
044all that they do, uh and I thank you for allowing me to do. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Good. Do we need Does anybody need to get a picture of the whole group? >> Yes, so we're going to do Sorry, Don. Can't see you. >> [laughter] >> So, there's some big guys in front of me. If you were this way, I couldn't see the whole group. Uh yeah, we're going to take a a full group. So, so we'll get pictures of all of you with the pictures all of our all of our students of the month. Thank you. Let me take about a 5-minute break. Miss Asmar, are you taking pictures or is it what? >> And and Mr. Wodtke. >> Okay, Mr. Wodtke. But yes, Don, they're all right here. So, this will be
045a really good picture. >> Yes. >> Yeah, that's it. So, 5-minute break for us all? >> [clears throat] >> All right. Wow, a little bit smaller group, but thank you for staying. Um we are still on the superintendent's. I am >> Yes, we are. Thank you, Mrs. Gaultman, and thank you for everybody who's staying. That was a nice celebration of our our students. Um just some upcoming events. Uh just district testing has has begun. Uh educators in the room or parents in the room, you all you know what I mean. Standardized testing season is going on right now. Uh we started here right after spring break. We will uh but grade pretty much grades 3 through 11 in the month of April. We will have AP testing in the month of May. Uh great job
046by our principals, our teachers, our students, and our curriculum director um Mrs. Elias for for for organizing and running that. So, testing is going on. Uh tonight, this is actually the reason our high school principal, Mr. Snuk, isn't here. The top scholars banquet is happening right now up at the career center. That is where the top scholars of all of Medina County Public Schools meet for a real nice night of celebration. They get to to bring their most influential teacher with them and their families as well. That is happening this evening and both Don Kuchanic, our student services director, and Mr. Smith are there with our top scholar. On April 23rd, we'll continue in our in our celebration of success for our the class of 2026, our Buckeye High School School Night of Excellence will
047happen 6:00 on April 23rd and that's at Grace Church over in Brunswick. We have a Board of Education work work session slated for Monday, April 27th. And on April 29th, our high school vocal spring concert and solo night will happen. That will be here at the high school as well. That's it for upcoming events for the next few weeks. I'm going to transition to a couple updates from me before I turn over to Mrs. Elias for her curriculum update and the math adoption. But I want to start off with I've been pretty regular in doing this you know, for a while now. I want to give a transportation update and then I'll also give an update on facilities. But I'll start off with transportation. You know, our arrival and dismissal times, as we thought they
048would, have drastically improved over the course of the last 6 to 8 weeks. They're still not where we want them to be. I mean, the issues still remains. We we need more bus drivers and as we get more bus drivers, things will even improve even more. But but as we are are into the end end of April, middle of April, I I I should find some wood to to bang on here because man, things have really gotten better. You know, our morning times, pretty much all the buses are over at the elementary here by 8:45. Our afternoon times, we're we're departing with the exception of one bus by 3:45. So so things have gotten much better. We also understand that is because a larger number of our parents are choosing to drive their children. So
049I I get it, but we we have things have gotten significantly better here in the last 60 days. Why? Well, we have more drivers that are working for us. Um some of our drivers that were on leave have come back. That has helped. Um we we have more sub drivers and as you know that we we are contracting drivers as well. Um so yeah, we we have more drivers. Right right right now we're running with about 13. Our goal is 15 drivers. That that's where we want to be. Actually, we would certainly take 18 to 20 as well. Uh but you know, we have to have 13 to start next school year. We're hoping for 15 and hoping for more. We are still using GG&C. We have three drivers working with us for the remainder
050of the year. We have no intention of currently using them next fall, but they will work with us for the remainder of the year. Um our engagement with Mets um is we have one driver hired through that process. We have another in the hiring process. We've had many interviews and interest from the work they have done. Um we we haven't seen as much as much circulation of bus drivers uh to to jobs yet for us, but we're certainly hoping that continues. Um but we we find more drivers through our agency. Uh we are working on routes and pick up changes. Um as as I've said many times, when you are changing transportation, you really kind of have to change that at the beginning of the school year. So Mrs. Golden, Mr. Justice, Mrs. Warren, myself,
051Mark Donnelly has helped with this cuz Mark's got a background in operations and and transportation as well. We are looking at how we can make changes on pickups and things like that as we go into next school year just to just to enhance the time a little bit. But, you know, again, it comes down to bus drivers and we're working hard to find more. But, congratulations to all of our bus drivers. They're such hard workers and we appreciate everything they do everything they do. That's kind of my update and then I'll take questions on all of this later. We're transitioning to a facility update. Since our board meeting, I won't I won't go much further past our our March our March board meeting. Um the core core facility group still working on schematic design. Two
052board members are are are certainly part of that work. School administration plus our architect GPD, construction manager CT Taylor, and Westfield Consulting. Um the work right now continues to be the internal high school building and the facility in general, but most of the work has been, you know, certainly talking about what the internal internal part of the building will be. As I mentioned last meeting, we will expand that conversation to our junior high school and our sixth grade staff and students as we get input from them probably more into next school year as we remember a big part of that project is also bringing our junior high school students our sixth graders to this building as well. Um traffic flow has been an item that we've been discussing the last two meetings. You know, any
053facility plan should drastically improve traffic flow on any any campus and we're working on that. That that's not easy. That that's not easy. That that's that's that's a that's a hard puzzle to to solve and we're working on that. We've done some surveys. Um we have a student survey that 163 of our students answered in March. Um we have a community survey out there right now that we're in the neighborhood of, you know, 450 to 475 responses uh right now. Some of the things that we've heard from our students so far, you know, and this isn't going to surprise anybody. This is a lot of our visioning work is reflected here as well. But our students consistently mention, these are high school students, but, you know, the importance of natural light, the importance of openness,
054the importance of flexibility, improved seating, windows. We joke about not having a whole lot of windows in this facility. And there is there is importance to that. They talked about the importance of common learning spaces in a in a new design high school. It's pretty interesting the feedback from the students on lockers. I would use the word polarizing. On the one hand, a large number of our students are saying, "I got to I got to have a locker. I got to have a locker. I got to have a locker." And then you dive into it, they say, "What's in your locker?" And they say, "Nothing." Right? How many times do you go to your locker? Once. Right? Lockers are are polarizing. Lockers, from when I was in school, and I would say probably most of
055us when we were in school, what a locker was versus what a locker is now are very different. It was It was just interesting to see that feedback from from the students. They're constantly asking for for flexibility in space, improved seating. You know, what are their favorite spaces? Their favorite spaces now in this school are the common areas. What are their least favorite spaces in this in this school? And this was this was disappointing for me to hear. Our students told us their least favorite spaces in this school were the classrooms. They didn't say the teachers were the least favorite. They didn't say They didn't say the classrooms because they're small, the tech is difficult, there was no windows, and all that type of stuff. So, it was interesting to to So, that's some of
056the feedback from the students. I'm looking forward to the feedback from the community. Um, and maybe the the survey is still open through the 15th. We might even extend it a day or two, it doesn't matter. We can extend it. Um, it's in the newsletter, it's on the website. I have sent the link out. So, please, if you haven't taken the time to fill the survey, there are QR codes everywhere. Please, please do. Okay, one more update from me before I you know, turn this over probably to uh the supplies. On March 13th, um, we had a pretty significant storm blow through the campus. And you know, listen, everybody that's in Northeast Ohio, certainly in the Tri-County area, they're all going to say the same thing. But but that storm did some damage. And I
057wanted to give an update to the board and community as to what happened and what we're working on um, because there there are some things here. Okay, the district sustained a lot of damage in multiple areas across our campus on March 13th. Immediately, we started looking at the damage and try to coordinate with our insurance carriers um, you know, what what we were to do here because we knew there was going to be an exhaustive claims process. And I'll give credit to Mark. Uh, he he is kind of he's the the person behind the scenes. He's certainly with John Justice, our operations director, helping us work through this. The most immediate concern that we had was the I-beams over on the softball scoreboard. You know, the softball scoreboard, you know, is is a newer scoreboard.
058The I-beams sustained damage that required the immediate removal of that scoreboard because the I-beams were damaged. We didn't want the entire scoreboard to be damaged. So, we had to take the scoreboard down. We were able to quickly work with a vendor that that that we know and trust. We got the I-beams reinstalled and the scoreboard is back up in time for the season. So, that quick action avoided actual damage to the scoreboard. And you know, again, kudos to John. You know, I know you're in the back of the room there, Mr. Justice, uh for for getting that work done pretty quickly. The other areas of campus that sustained significant damage, we had roofing concerns in the elementary school and the maintenance building. We had soffits, gutters, and downspout concerns in the field house and the
059board of education office, maintenance building, and and the bus garage. The fencing around the football stadium and the bus ground garage compound itself, fencing was damaged. The football stadium took took on some damage. We had um two sets of portable bleachers uh sustained some significant damage, so we're looking at that. The ticket booth on the southeast corner sustained major damage. Um that that has now been taken down. Um and two light posts of the four light posts that are in the on the football stadium have have significant concern. All the information is provided to our insurance carrier, and we are working with them closely to find out what the adjustments are going to be and determine coverage. We think there's certainly going to be some coverage insurance, but I I can't tell you what I
060believe everything's going to be covered, but we will get some coverage here. To put it into finances, and Mark, I apologize, I'm doing something I know you don't like when I do, but I'm talking finances here a little bit. Um but, you know, the roofing damage right now is estimated just a shade over $66,000. Um the portable bleachers are just a shade under $21,000. The fencing is going to be roughly 97 uh 9,600 or so dollars to fix. The demolition of the remaining ticket booth uh was just a shade under $5,000. That scoreboard work uh that had to be done $27,183. Um again, we don't know what's covered by insurance yet, and we're working through this because these are things that had to be addressed in And here's here's the major concern. Uh two of
061those light poles over at the football stadium are going to they have to be replaced. Um and if we're going to replace two, you know, we we really need to be looking at replacing four. Um and if we were to just pay for that cost right now, we are estimating that to be just a shade under $400,000. But if you go out and look at that football stadium, you will see the two visiting football um light standards. They are leaning. And and uh that is going to have to be addressed, and we're going to have to address them So, I wanted to bring that up to speed of you all up to speed on that. Um certainly there's I'm sure there's a lot of comments and questions on that. I probably don't have a whole
062lot of answers, uh but I wanted to give an update um to everything that happened um from a facility damage perspective back on March 15th. Um I'm sure there's going to be questions on a lot that I I gave. We'll hold off on questions on all of that if that's okay so we can move on further in the um in the meeting. I know you you're all writing your questions down. My last comment tonight before I turn this over to Reggie for our math adoption is just a thank you. I want to thank Carl who's here tonight. Um I don't thank Carl enough for the work that he does does for our tech director, Mr. Walker, who's here. But the reason I'm individualizing and thanking him tonight, Carl has been behind the scenes for for
063the last probably 6 to 10 weeks significantly updating our strategic safety platform for our students and staff. Um you know, and when Strategic sends something to me saying, "Hey, Mr. Superintendent, would you like to update your security platform for your students and staff?" I say, "Yes." Right? And then I say, "Carl." Um the amount of work has been amazing, Carl. You you have continued to work through it and I want to thank you for that. I know the work's not done, but knowing you were going to be here, thank you on behalf of our students and staff for continuing to make sure that we're safe through the city. Okay? So, um I am going to suggest that we hold the questions, okay? If that's okay with everybody. I think you all probably have a lot
064of questions. Um at this stage, I'd like to turn it over to our curriculum director, Mrs. Wallace, who has a an update for us on the math adoption. >> [clears throat] >> Hello. And I'm going to have Mr. Paul come up with me as well. All right. This is a little different configuration for me, so I'm going to figure out how I'm going to stand. >> Okay. >> Um so, um thank you for having us. Obviously, this is Neil Paul from the high school. Do you want to introduce yourself as a I always >> Neil Paul, mathematics. >> There you go. So, he always introduces himself >> Mathematics. >> I would be disappointed if I didn't hear that. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. So, um we're here tonight to talk about the math adoption that we're
065proposing for the 2026-2027 school year. Uh this is for grades 6 through 12. And um our goal here as a school district is really to raise our standards and to really um have our students have a rigorous education with regards to math and to align ourselves to the Ohio learning standards and so forth. So, we had a team of teachers from grade 6 through 12 come together and be able to look at different vendors and different curricula throughout uh the state of Ohio. And um we came up with these different uh curriculum resources that we would like to ask for you to consider. Uh so, our first one is called Envision Math and this is through Savvas and this is for grades 6 through 8. The next one is Big Ideas for grades 9-12. And
066advanced calculus, there's an advanced calculus series. And that Big Ideas and the advanced calculus series are through Cengage, which is a vendor that houses both of those. Again, everything here, the whole team came together. They were very excited. All of these resources have really wonderful key features that are common for all. Uh they're hands-on, which is a really exciting way for our students to learn. Uh students have an intuitive approach to the math curriculum. Everything is assessable. It's aligned to our Ohio learning standards and aligned from one grade to the next. Everything is analytical. This is top-tier learning for our students. Again, raising our standards and our rigor. It is affiliated with STEM, which is real-world learning. Again, rigorous. And all learners are going to receive a top-tier education. Then also, what does the program
067What do the programs offer as well? Uh there is a digital platform for each of these programs. And this means that it's continuously changing and evolving and being updated uh to adhere to the standards as well as uh different types of modalities with work and so forth. Uh there is a consumable text that is affiliated with each of these. So, that gives you that balance, not just with digital, but also with the print uh program as well. So, students get a physical consumable copy of a book. And then they are able to work through those plans and so forth. But then the digital aspect gives teachers some opportunity to change things and move things around if need be. Uh everything is differentiated for our students to reach all types of learners, whether they are needing
068some types of intervention or enrichment. To go into the Envision math program for grades 6 through 8, they do follow three instructional models, and this is all about critical thinking. And that's one of our standards that we one of our competencies that we are obviously very we feel is very important in our school district. So, some of the areas that they use in these steps to make sure that our students are achieving that skill of critical thinking is we have project-based learning that will be in the Envision math curriculum, where students are able to investigate and use problem-solving skills, visual learning, and in the visual learning they'll be able to build from one step to the next and be able to apply that knowledge. And then there's the assessment and the differentiation assess each of
069the areas of the math math curriculum, they'll be able to target instruction and differentiate accordingly. What is very exciting also is the student engagement that's affiliated with the math adoption. This math adoption really gets students excited about math, which is what we want for all of our students. This is something that Neil talks about all the time trying to, you know, get our students as excited as the teachers are. But, one of the things that we feel is very exciting about the student engagement is the three-act model, three-act math model, which really poses some real-world problems and allows students to actually build models and apply that knowledge in problem-solving. Then there are also our some project-based learning opportunities that are affiliated with this program that are aligned with choices with STEM, creative arts, and even
070there are even community focused problems or project based learning opportunities as well. And then the last part um that really is exciting about these student engagement is students can walk into a classroom and there's what they call the math talks and data talks concept. They'll come into the classroom and they can have like a a bell ringer type of a question where students actually are able to connect those real world applications on a daily basis. Next um the program offers a digital adaptive tool for teachers, which is also very exciting. Uh teachers are able to customize their lessons, they're able to customize um assessments, and so forth for their students in this digital platform. Uh they're able to adapt their lessons so that students are able to practice and problem solve, and reinforcement and enrichment
071is also a part of that adaptation. Uh integration, there's some tools in this program that are integrated. Um I think we all recall, maybe I'm talking about aging some of us here, but we had to bring our little graphic paper and all of that. Well, this is um integrated into the digital platform, but in the digital platform you can also print those out. So, if you want to balance things out a little bit, that's also exciting. Calculators are in there and so forth. Um and again, there's that engagement piece that I talked about before. Uh now the high school level. So, Cengage is again the the vendor that houses the different programs. Uh the curriculum that will be affiliated with the high school and actually eighth grade up because we do have algebra one for
072the eighth grade. Um but the program uh Cengage will cover uh algebra one, geometry, algebra two, precalculus, calculus, and advanced placement. So, the first part um that uh the curriculum will cover is Big Ideas Math, and that's for Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2. And what's really exciting about this is again there's this balance about the conceptual knowledge of math, and we're going to make sure that students the whole curriculum is vertically aligned through this particular program. It is again very rigorous. There is a technology linked to that real-life STEM applications. And then finally the assessment data-driven piece where we're able to assess our students, be able to really provide targeted instruction for students who are going to grow at all different levels of the math curriculum. So to go into this a little bit
073further, Algebra 1 is our first course that would be exposed to Big Ideas, and there would be a focus there for transitioning to that symbolic reasoning, which is part of Algebra 1. The key concepts or topics that would be covered in Algebra 1 Big Ideas would be linear linear I can't even talk linear equations and inequalities, exponential functions, and quadratic quadratic functions. And then the goal here is again to have algebraic fluency and the ability the ability to model real-world scenarios with functions. Then we have Geometry, and I might even have you jump in because you can talk Geometry for many years, but the focus here is to get understand the geometric properties through transformation and formal proofs. Then the key topics would be congruence, similarity, trigonometry, and coordinate geometry. And students would then be
074able to master those deductive and reasoning visualizing and reasoning visualizing mathematical relationships in space. Anything you want to add? >> Yeah, I would add for the Algebra 1 and Geometry with the state testing applies the math hasn't changed for a few years. But the the approach the has changed in the last 10 years. The standards of course have been more focused since some of these have first come around. And then the teachers looked at the materials, actually like the workbooks that they can work. Do example on the board, kids have the workbooks and get right into it. There's opportunity for differentiation as you mentioned, so that is they like that feature of it, too. And I like having a program that has the vertical alignment. So you have opportunity for review, but not a forced
075repeat of something where you have to go through skip sections or something like that. >> And then you can spiral back as well. Nice. Yes, thank you. And then Algebra 2 is on the same realm as Algebra 1. Again, they're extending those function the function knowledge and introducing complex mathematical systems, and you can see the key topics. And again, our goal here is really to align this to precalculus and college level STEM course work. >> And the Algebra 2 being the required course for graduation, it's nice to have the series. So you you you they're kind of familiar with the process and they can succeed all the way through the three. >> And so now we have um the K-12 WebAssign, which is precalculus, calculus, and advanced placement. So here we are again streamlining, we
076are making sure students are prepared for the AP courses, prepared for um the college board exams that are at the end of the year. Uh we're really trying to provide that rigor that's affiliated with beyond high school, whether it is college career uh or college or career readiness. And >> Yeah, the the calculus was kind of my focus for this one. And our textbooks that we're currently using are still pretty good. Uh they were from 2009, and the AP testing has they kind of they have trends they follow and do certain things more than others different years and we just kind of gotten a little bit away from what the the trend now is or the the trend's gotten away from where where our books are focused. We have additional material from the online AP
077websites but uh the books will have the current the future book uh will have more AP level rigor questions built into it and so we don't have to bring in any exterior external sources as necessary for this course. >> And uh just went into a little bit more here about again precalculus and precalculus AP. Again, the foundation again our whole goal here is really to provide that rigor really to provide kids with that opportunity to just show what they know and to challenge them. Again, if we're able to give them those problem-solving opportunities in our high school experience, we just don't know where they're going to go from here. It's so exciting to to have something a little bit more adaptable for our teachers to use and our students to really be exposed so that
078they really know the why and they're going to use that information in everything they do with precalc and uh precalc AP. Um one other aspect that we are going to add to this particular uh math adoption is we are going to have a class set of the uh Fast Track to a Five for precalculus for AP precalc uh and this is um a a technique or a workbook that really provides um practice exams, practice uh problems uh and it really helps students really prepare for that AP test. >> And and we've been AP precalculus is relatively new. But the AP calculus has been around a long time and we've over the years gathered some of these books and and they're great uh resources but like I said, there's more the newer versions that have uh
079focus on things that the AP focuses on. So, it's nice to have a new book. a new set for sure, especially for >> And then a little bit more about the calculus aspect. Again, this is again our gold standard for high school advanced placement courses. And again, we'll conjunction at any [clears throat] time. It is truly aligned with our AP assessments. There are instructional tools in here for our teachers to utilize and really have our students have interactive interactive modules and tutorials available to them. They have personalized learning that really does help motivate, but it also helps break down and really gives us those multi-step problems that students can be learn on their own, but at the same token have their teacher to work with them. There are so many assessments and analytical assignments in
080here that are helpful for our students to really be on track. They can see the real life response They can see quick responses to the their submissions. Things are graded for them. There's examples. There's There's explanations involved in all of this. So, it really does help students prepare them for more of a college type of experience. Again, AP AP style practice exams, high rigor, conceptual clarity, the concepts, the high quality visualization, they have 3D aspects to it. It's very exciting. And then again, having things aligned to step is so appropriate practical for real life experiences. Anything to add to that? >> Yeah, our our current precalculus and calculus doesn't have an online option or a functioning online option. And this would be nice to have another just another resource for the the teachers and students
081for the separate book. Uh as well as uh is if you were to research I did the research on my own for the the the rated AP calculus high school and this Larson book is the author. Uh is is the highest rated one. So, that's the first place I looked and then comparing it to our current one. Our current one is actually pretty good. Still second or third. Uh this one's pretty good. >> Very good. And just to end and conclude here again with this um proposal for our math adoption. Uh again, we are looking at something that is very accessible for our students uh using Envision 6-8, Big Ideas 9-12, and the Advanced uh Placement Calculus series. Uh we are really feel that these are this this is so accessible to our students. They
082have the hands-on opportunities, very intuitive for our students. The rigor is awesome. It is aligned with our high learning standards and aligned in keeping our students on track for much bigger opportunities beyond high school. It's analytical. That top-tier learning is exactly what we're seeking. And then again, affiliated with STEM. All learners will be able to we can meet them where they are and and raise those standards so that they can actually achieve further. Uh it's differentiated. We have enrichment opportunities and we also have um opportunities for students that might be struggling so we can get them intervention. And then lastly, we talked about how this program allows us that digital component component with the balance with that print component as well. So, we do believe that this is a um a worthwhile program for our
083students. We're very excited to to give new resources to our high school and our junior high and intermediate uh teachers and students so that they can obviously flourish in math as well. So, uh we will um hopefully get your um your affirmation for this uh for first read, you'll have an opportunity to look through the materials until our next board meeting where we would ask for a potential approval. Any questions? >> You know, this is what I just said. I think what you said there at the end is really important. The process is without processes later on in the city. We ask for the board's approval. If in essence you do a first read, right? This was a presentation and and you look at it tonight and not only you as board members, but the
084community has has a chance to take a look and comment on it and then we'll bring it back in May, hopefully for a second read, so to say. You know, as as I as I listen to the presentation, thank you Mr. Paul. Thank you Mrs. Elias. Um you know, there has to be a commitment. There has to be a commitment if we're going to provide the appropriate resources for our students. There has to be a commitment to do the work. There has to be a commitment to provide the resources. There has to be a commitment to make certain that the curriculum resources that we have for our students are the best available. And there has to be a commitment for professional development of our teachers in order to provide. >> And we have the professional
085development being placed accordingly when everything's been adopted. >> But it's also a model of >> It is. And our teachers were on >> And our teachers for the work they're doing, compliment to you for the work you've done. Thank you for both of you for being involved in this. This is this is exciting. And I'm social >> I'm excited. I'm English. >> [laughter] >> Mr. Paul, I'm not coming to your conference class. >> You're welcome. >> No, no, no. You would not embarrass me. You don't do that. You can easily embarrass me. But thank you both. Again, you know, I don't want to take away any questions the board may have. But this was this was what we needed to do tonight to get the presentation and and ask for your approval later. >> Yeah,
086I want to say thank you to Mrs. Elias and Mr. Hall. I just want to teach math again if you'll let me. It's very exciting. >> Well, they would love to have you come in as a guest. >> Not calculus, but anything else. That's it. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay. There were There were an awful lot of superintendent updates for you there before we move away and I'm you know, move over to the bottom. You know, on anything I presented, if anybody has any questions or comments, I know we have time for board comments at the end of the meeting, too. But, I presented a lot. I know all of you were writing some things down. If anybody wants to ask questions or comments now, certainly I'll take them
087or >> I have a question. As far as everything that you said, the storm damage, somewhere around 500,000. Is insurance covering that? I mean, they should, right? >> Yeah, well, as I said, Kim, you know, we don't Yes, we don't know the amount. Right? I mean, that that's what we're working through. I mean, you know, the storm blew through everywhere. So, there was all kinds of insurance claims. I know, you know, Mr. Justice and Mr. Donley have been working on this. Of course, we want everything to be fully covered. I don't think that's going to happen, but yeah, we're working through it. Mark. >> Yeah, just Sorry. Yeah, um because two of the four light poles are damaged, the $400,000 max we can get would be half of that. The other two really aren't damaged,
088but it it wouldn't look it wouldn't have a great look with the telephone poles and the older light fixtures. Also, that since the light poles did come down, percentage of what they would have would pay for may be very minimal. But, we do have an issue to take a look at those poles leaning. I don't know if it's 10 years down the road or what, but we have to address this. And I don't think 10 years we have to address them. I think it's 10 years or whatever. They They got to change. >> You You take a look at them and really make It's in the best interest of the community and the fans. >> Yeah, we're going to have to make some decisions. I mean, there's probably ways to not replace them. There's ways
089of how we replace them, you know what I mean, but you know, the reality is, you know, joke, it's April, but it soon will be August, September, and October. >> Absolutely. >> Listen, I'm not an engineer. I know we've had some engineers come out and look at it, give us a formal opinion on it, but to their meaning, but take a look at them. They're leaning. And that That's not going >> One One more thing to add. Jeff kind of gave me a little bit of credit about this whole thing. When I talked to the insurance company, John and I talked to him three or four times. John was all over this. I think very smart of this. John, thank you for everything. >> So, I'd like to make another point. Just this one storm
090here is 500,000. A couple years ago we had a tornado that came through here. I don't think it did much damage here, but my house is 5 minutes away and it took down a bunch of trees and damaged our home and everything. I think storms are getting worse. So, I just want to make sure that we know that this storm right here is somewhere around $500,000. We have to make sure that we have that money in our budget cuz nobody knows what's going to happen. Our budget supposedly is so tight that, you know, we can't give that money to the to the community or anything. But, um we have to make sure that a storm can come through and do $500,000 worth of damage. And then I have a second question. I know that you
091said that there were some cars damaged. I I just I don't know anything about that. >> Um yeah, Kim, I'm sorry. You're You're correct. I didn't have that. We did have We had um we had a number of people that were in a car line when that storm I think developed here. Um we had I I I'm going to say minimal and if your car was damaged, that's not, you know, you don't think it was minimal. Uh but but there was certainly some damage. We'll We'll work with those families. We've been in touch with those families. Um I don't know where that where that stands. It really we had I mean there's there's nothing funny about what I'm going to say, but what happened back there is we had some portable bathrooms that blew over.
092And those portable bathrooms actually hit the cars. So, that's what happened. So, you know, and we had some We had some parents that were actually in the storm moving the portable bathrooms so they wouldn't hit other cars. Um but yeah, we did have some I apologize I didn't put that in there. But we're, you know, we're working with those families as best we can. Um That's an insurance claim. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Good question. >> Thank you. Any other questions or comments? >> All right, thank you for uh your patience with all my updates. A lot of that was good student stuff, so that was great. And thank you again to Mr. Cole and Mrs. Elias. At this stage, I will gladly cede the microphone to the treasurer. >> Okay. Um tonight I My
093first section are non-consent items, which each of these items will require separate vote by the board. Um the first item, I'm asking for the vote of the board to approve a motion to transfer some funds. They're student activity funds that are inactive. They They're sitting there in the account, they've not been used for a few years. And we're talking about the Stand By Me Stand By Me account at the high school, that's $1,816.42 in it. And the SADD account, Students Against Drunk Drivers, has $805.82 in it. I'm asking the board to approve transferring the funds from those inactive accounts to the Hope Squad, which is the the student activity account that more closely aligns with their purpose than any other student activity account. And that would uh require a motion and a vote. >> So
094moved. >> I'll second. >> Any questions or comments? >> Yeah, this Hope Squad, is this something new or is there any money in there? >> I don't know about new. It's been here since I got >> I might only speak to the 2 and 1/2 years I've been here, but Hope Squad is is a school-based organization that's been around for >> I think it's students helping other students who are have issues with depression, etc. And I I mean, we operate there. I think students help other students. >> Mark, you're correct. It It's also significantly suicide prevention. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Roll call, please. >> Uh Mr. Kuhlau? >> Yes. >> Mr. Salazar? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Sillich? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Gilmartin? >> Yes. >> And Mrs. Gordon? >> Yes. >> Okay.
095Second item I have tonight is this is simply an athletic sponsor uh list. If you look at the uh item Is the fee sheet in here? I don't see it. >> It is. >> Okay. The The The fees are uh because they're fees charged by the board, the board should approve all fees we charge. Um just like you approve lunch fees or pay-to-play fees or things like that. And since the the uh athletic department has very active uh list of sponsors and all sorts of opportunities for many, many different uh sponsorship plans such as banners and I don't know, logos on uh wrestling mats and all kinds of things. We We felt it was important that they had a established list, so everybody pays the same price if you're sponsoring uh baseball team or whatever
096banner on the fence. Um and also they should people know what they're being charged up front. There are vendors who want to sponsor at a different level and they negotiate an individual contract which that's all written out and that would have to be approved by the board as well, but just for a standard fee list for sponsors, this is being sent to the board for your approval. So it's a it's established now. >> So moved. >> I'll second. >> Any questions or comments? >> Yeah, I have a question. >> I'm sorry. Excuse me. Go ahead. >> I just wanted to verify again, where does this money go? And I know you answered last time, I think. >> These funds go into the athletic uh excuse me, 300 fund because there's an awful lot of expenses
097for team uniforms and balls and bats and everything else we provide for the students. Um John, you can probably be more specific, but it just helps supplement the athletic fund. >> And someone else had a question? >> Yeah. Um I just every year this sponsorship form gets better and better and I just wanted to say it's very well done in my opinion. I mean, I don't look at a ton of these obviously, but nice job. It's really well done. It's We used to not ever have anything nearly like this. So this is nice cuz it's organized and it's really equitable across any business level so that it's not you're not playing favorites in any manner and I really just appreciate >> And then one last thing is I I know I asked for I think
098Mr. Stanton asked for a list of who we have. Is that possible? Just to get a list of who's sponsoring the kids? >> Yes, if it wasn't I thought it was on the original email with all of the things that were used in the end of the athletic commission of account. If it wasn't, I will resend it. And then also on the athletic website at the bottom it says our sponsors and their logos to scroll through. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh roll call, please. >> Uh Mr. Cuellar? >> Yes. >> Mr. Salazar? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Silage? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Babarchi? >> Yes. >> And Mrs. Guckenberger? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um third item on the agenda, it appears very similar to the first item, but it's way different. It's another transfer, but what
099this is, this is a series of funds that are grant funds or whatever that They they the grant amount is limited. When we spend, sometimes we overspend the amount of the grant, so funds go into the >> [snorts] >> So, I'm asking to transfer $6,300 and $6,300.43 into a whole list of different funds that are slightly in negative due to different grants and things that just happen in the in the natural order of things. Um Just as an example, if you take payroll coming out of a grant, a federal grant for title one or special ed. If if someone earns $2,000 in payroll, but the grant only has $1,000 left in it, we're going to overspend the grant by $1,000 and have to make it up in general fund anyway. That's not exactly what happened
100here, but it's similar, where we just overspent the grant. And now this time of year we fill in those gaps. So, I'm asking the board to approve the transfer from the general fund into all these uh the food service fund, uh local grants, uh OSHA athletic uh funds where we hold tournaments and we spend a little bit more than what we're provided, as well as some uh federal and state funds. >> I so move. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? Roll call. >> Uh Mrs. Guckenberger? >> Yes. >> Mr. Cuellar? >> Yes. >> Mr. Salazar? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Silage? >> Yes. >> And Mrs. Babarchi? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> thank you very much. Um Can I move on to my consent items? >> Please do. >> Okay. Uh I have five different
101items under the consent agenda tonight. Um I have the standard monthly financial statements from the month of March, uh which will be posted to the website if they're not already posted to the website. Um They show a wide variety of financial information including our bank statement totals, etc. So, if you're curious on our financials, please visit the website. Um Also, uh we have a broken overhead projector with a piece of glass on it that's busted. It's currently under repair. We're asking uh to dispose of that uh overhead projector. Um I also have a certificate for the rates and amounts that the budget commission has authorized our taxes for the fiscal '27. We have to approve the rates and amounts that they've authorized so we can send it to the state. And finally, there's two items,
102the updated estimated resources and our updated amended appropriations. Um the resources basically is our revenue streams, but it's not just revenue. It's cash on hand at the beginning of the year plus revenue. And this year includes transfers. And all if you look at that total on the estimated revenues, there's almost $10 million in transfers in there because of all the different things that I've talked about previously in the ordinances. But also, the estimated of the amended appropriations, that's updating our budget to show expected as expenses, and actually slightly more because if we budget too close and we spend just a few dollars more, we spend more than our appropriations, and the auditors don't like that. So, I am I'm asking the board to approve the amended estimated resources and amended appropriations. Uh are there any
103questions on any of those five items? >> I have questions. >> Sure. >> Um on the the form that I'm looking at, it's going to this auditor the dining audit. It says we have 98 million 879,712 dollars and 3 cents. >> Okay, that's >> That's everything. >> That's That's not what we have in cash. That is our beginning cash with all funds plus the revenues projected to receive for the year plus transfers. Transfers are money we already have. We're just transferring it out of the 016 into the general fund. That happened earlier in the year. That was 3.8 million dollars because the 016 fund was going away. We had to move all the money into the general fund. It looks like revenue, but it's money we already have. Also transferring money from the general fund
104into capital projects fund. We're taking money from sales tax dollars and 003 PI dollars and transferring those into the 070 account. It looks like revenue because it's a transfer. It's money coming in. But there's 10 million dollars worth of transfers roughly. That it looks like we have 98 We did the same thing next year without all the transfers, it'd be closer to 80. That's beginning cash plus all estimated revenues from all funds. So, you're talking student activities, you're talking athletics, you're talking all the grants we get, you're talking state grants, you're talking reimbursements we get from the state. And the state reimbursements, excuse me, the state foundation payments. And our our property taxes of course. But it's it's a wide variety of items. In the cash report that is part of the financial statements um
105the different columns show starting cash month to date received, year to date received month to date spent, year to date spent, and then fund balance. And if you Yeah, I It's it's to go through, but if you went through that and dive into it, you'd see where all those numbers come from and where the $98 million is. It looks like we have a lot of cash, but we don't have all of that. It's like I said, some of it's transfers. It's simply moving money between accounts. >> All right. And then I had questions on the capital projects fund. I know we have This says we have $47 million. I know we have $32 million that was transferred. Then we approved the 1.9. So we have about 33.9. >> Okay. >> Where Where is the other
106money coming from? >> It does the 003 fund. It's capital projects. 071 is also capital projects. We started the year with money in the bank plus the revenues coming in. That's That's where the total comes from. Um I can I can sit down with you and go over it, you know, line by line and show you all of that, but it's it's all three of those funds. Beginning cash plus revenues plus transfers. >> There's an extra $6 million. I was just wondering where that came from. >> Um extra six >> Yeah, let's see. Uh 32 Let's see what we have. So we got the sales tax, we got the PI. Um We have eight that eight million 420,000. What is that? It's in the capital projects self fund 070. >> I can show you I
107can show >> I don't have it. >> I have it I have it flipped over on that. >> Um right here. Capital projects self fund. And then this is a where did that come from? So, that makes 40 40 million. >> That was that was the projected amount of transfers and uh interest earned. So, there's going to be $2 million worth of interest earned, roughly. There's going to be million dollars going to be bond fund transfer. There's going to be 2.4 million between the 071 and the 003 total going into that. And 3.2 million 3.2 million more was projected to go in there. Because of what the state has done to our property taxes and interest to keep our general fund balance well funded, I I have with moving that back to 2.2 million instead
108of 3.2 million just to keep money in the general fund. We'll still have money for our building. Instead of 63 million in the bank at the end of this uh fiscal year, we'll have 62 million. But, that kind of money will raise at least $3 million over a 3-year period, probably four or four and a half million. >> So, the 3.2 is the emergency money. >> It's not the emergency money. It's general fund money coming in. General fund is consisted of many many things. >> Okay. So, this 8.4 million, are we voting on that or is that automatically going in? >> Um those transfers are voted on as I as we schedule but then we've transferred the million already. The other transfers will be coming up in the next month probably as all of our
109final collections are made probably in May or uh series of transfers from over there. Through you and approve if they choose choose to do so. >> And then one last question that the budget commission um said that we we should they wanted us to voluntarily give back 2.5 million. Okay, that's not going to happen anymore. I just want to know when we decided that when we discussed that as a board that we weren't going to give the money back to the people. >> What what the what the budget commission was looking at their their task is to approve our fiscal 2017 budget. In our fiscal 2017 budget, as I explained in my letter, we are showing a surplus of that in fiscal 2017 of only 1.3 million dollars. To give back to 2.5 million would
110put us in a deficit spending uh And I'm not sure that how the county budget commission sees how schools operate or not, but we rely on cash carryover to keep us off the ballot. For every extra year we're not on the ballot, that's a win. We don't want to have to run the ballot. Taking away money from us now makes us run the ballot sooner in the future. So, the the the budget they were approving would have intentionally put us in a deficit spending situation, and that truly is not the purpose of the budget commission. >> So, we as a board though never discussed the 2.5 million giving it back. >> No. >> And I'm assuming next year it's going to be the same type of thing though. That seems to be the trend with
111the budget commission. >> the budget the tax budget is submitted to our board to be approved in January. And our board approved it this tax budget, which the my my board didn't ask me to reduce the tax budget. They approved it as is. So, I submitted it to the county for their approval. >> Thank you. Anything else from anyone? Okay, thank you, Mark. Um we're going to move on to the superintendent's recommendations. >> Yes, thank you again. This is document Thank everybody for hanging with us. Uh just a few a few more items to get through here this evening. I'm going to start off I've got I've got two non-consent agenda items, so these will all require uh individual motion and hopefully an approval by the board. The first one is uh you have an
112opportunity tonight to approve uh agreement with us and with Rush Truck Center to purchase transportation fleet safety cameras for our buses, 20 of them. A portion of this purchase is being covered by the Ohio Department of Education Workforce Workforce School Bus Safety Grant. So Elias, thank you. You have been our grant guru for the years you've been here. So that obviously the grant came to us through your hard work, so I appreciate that. So you will see that this is upgrades for 20 of our buses for safety arms, safety harnesses, camera system upgrades for 20 of our buses. So I would ask for your consideration of that tonight. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? >> I just want to add on how impressive it is with the grant writing capabilities and
113the success rate. It was not a small grant amount. And when you look at it across the state of Ohio, it's significantly more than a lot of the other districts. So I don't know what you put in that application, but it's awesome. Thank you for getting that. >> It's impressive. >> It really is. Kudos. >> And I I just want to agree with what Mr. Kliangan says because I've written grants before. It is not an easy process. So that's a great skill for you to have and we certainly appreciate it. Thank you. Um roll call, please. >> Sorry. I mean should we know I I think it's important cuz I'm sure it'll make it somewhere out you know into the community, but the grant amount was for 45,000 412. So just a little over 45,000
114and I think the invoice for Rush is >> 44,600. >> So over half the cost of updating everything. Yeah. >> Yeah, about 40%. >> Now roll call. >> Okay, this is for Mrs. Gerhart. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kuhlman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cecil. >> I'm sorry, what are we I thought we would have to >> Oh, this is a non-consent item. Just for the fleet safety camera. >> Thank you. Yes. >> Uh Mr. Salazar. >> Yes. >> And Mrs. Gunkel. >> Yes. >> Thank you. My next non-consent item this evening is no cost to the district. Uh this is a cooperative purchasing program, another one that we would like to get involved with. So, I'm asking you to approve the attached membership for us, the school district to participate in the state of Ohio cooperative
115purchasing program. This is a furniture cooperative uh that we're looking um actually for some high school furniture. Um and there's a cooperative out there that will reduce the cost for us if we're a member. So, I'm asking for your consideration tonight to become a member of this cooperative. >> I so move. >> I'll second. >> Any questions or comments? Roll call. >> Mrs. Gunkel. >> Yes. >> Mr. Salazar. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kuhlman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cecil. >> Yes. >> And Mrs. Gerhart. >> Yes. >> Okay, thank you. I'll keep going. We are now on the superintendent recommendations for consent agenda items, so we will vote on these at the at the end of my recommendations under consent agenda. The first one is for your consideration to approve the Buckeye preschool Frog Street curriculum.
116This is a preschool curriculum. It was presented last month as first presentation by our teachers uh and Mrs. Kishman uh presented that with us. So, I ask for your consideration for that tonight so we can get that moving. So, that is the second reading. Next thing I would ask is for the uh approval with Goodwill Industries out of Akron. This is an agreement for a work experience for our special education students uh to get some work experience at Goodwill. We've got a great partnership with them for years uh and I would ask for that to continue. This is for the 26-27 school year. Next is policy 7540.09. As we've talked about for a while, we are required by the state of Ohio to have an artificial intelligence policy in place before the beginning of next
117school year. We had a first read of it last month. This would be the second read. We had no public comment on it. Kudos to our teachers. And again, Mrs. Wyatt, you are getting complimented today as you should. You led the article the artificial intelligence committee along with a number of our teachers and you looked at model policies in the state of Ohio and compared and that is what we are approving this evening with your consideration. So, thank you, Bridget and the committee. The committee did a very good job with this. Carolyn, do you have a question on that tonight? Okay, next our cooperation with the Summit Educational Service Center for Kids. This is our Tops Extended Year Program. This will allow two of our special needs to attend 2026 Kids First Tops Extended Year
118Program this summer through our students. Next I ask for your approval of a contract between us and the Summit County Educational Service Center. This is for audiology services for 2026-2027 school year. Based off the needs of our students, we are asking for 17 days of service through Summit County ESC in audiology. Mrs. Kishman is the person who orients the students to the district. This is the next one is also through special education. This is positive education program through our partnership with the ESC of Northeast Ohio. This is educational purposes for our students that might need help services in the 2026-2027 school year. For a for an idea, the range of the cost of this ranges between on the low end 320-325 per day to 480-500 dollars per day. This is for next. Uh next is
119our our day books, our student handbooks for Buckeye High School students. Later on tonight, we will do a first read of the actual information that's in the day books. Tonight is your my request of you to allow 500 of the books to be purchased at a cost of about $1,500. These would be obviously commissioned and students of the Buckeye High School. Next is our annual update with uh Suburban School Transportation. Uh this is for again pupil transportation that that we need that we can't provide for us through our transportation services. This is usually special education students uh specific students student special education service transportation. We've partnered with Suburban for years. Um this is This is an expensive venue for us as it is for all school districts, but it is required. Not only is it
120the right thing to do, it's required by law for our special education students. We need to um make sure that And last, as we as mentioned earlier today, we added to the agenda the uh Future Farmers of America overnight trip that will take place April 30th and May 1st with Mr. Flores and his amazing students that will go down to Columbus on the on the end of this month. We're going to move to personnel, and I'm going to start by asking Dr. Robert Winton to join us at the front. >> Welcome, Dr. Winton. Good evening. Okay. Uh members of the board, we're kind of saddened Treasurer Downey. I just wanted to take a second to um extend my thanks and gratitude for being considered as the next curriculum director here at Buckeye Local Schools. I
121know I have some big shoes to fill, and I hope to continue the work that Mr. Elias has currently done. >> Hey, Robert, let me set you up. >> Yes, sir. >> Very good. >> [laughter] >> All right. Thank you for being patient. Take that. Very good. And Mrs. Winton, thank you for hanging with us, too. All right. All right. So, I want to talk about the process that that brings Dr. Winton to us. Then I want to talk a little bit about, you know, some of his background and makes him, I believe, the the next candidate for us or the next person for us to be our principal. Robert, thank you for being here this evening. We're very happy that you are here. The process itself to replace our our principal record, um you
122know, whenever you posted, you know, a very valuable and important job like this, there's always, you know, there's there's a little bit of fear. You don't know what the market You don't know what the pool of candidates is going to be. Um and and we were very very pleased, once again, that to have a very viable and outstanding candidate. Um you know, we created a committee that was consisted of administrators and teachers throughout the entire district. Um our our our teacher union leadership was was part of the committee. Um and we ended up bringing in 20 looking at reviewing 27 applicants that I would use the word viable. And by viable, I mean that not every person who applies for a job is viable. You got to match what you are looking for um for
123for for the job itself. There are 27 applicants that I would consider viable. Um it was an outstanding pool. Why? Because this school district continues to be a place that is attractive for people to come to school to and and to work at. Okay, and that is a compliment to the professional staff that works here and a compliment to this district. Um we brought in eight people uh for interviews. We we had a robust first round. All eight of those candidates were absolutely qualified to be our principal. All eight. Okay. From that eight, we came to four. And we had four what I would call semifinalists, finalists round. Uh we took care of that. Once we got through that very difficult interview process, and uh Dr. Winton and I maybe you agree or disagree, I
124would think that would have been a very challenging interview process ourselves. Okay? But, the the committee unanimously said Dr. Winton was was our choice. And for them to say that with the talents of the candidate pool is extremely impressive. So, from there we started going on conversation with Dr. Winton as to see whether whether, you know, we could find a find a fit for him here. Uh that really was kind of taking place Friday afternoon even into the weekend, I think. Um every reference checked on on Dr. Winton was was out was outstanding. And to to kind of summarize, I I would just say I had multiple people say to me, "If you have the opportunity to get Dr. Rob Winton to come to your school district to be your curriculum director, you absolutely have
125to do that. He he is going to be an outstanding hire for you." For Dr. Winton himself, a brief background on his back on him before he comes here, he is currently an administrator in North Ridgeville Schools. Um prior to that for 10 years, he was a principal of Rocky River High School. He would be the head principal. Under his leadership, although we are clearly not hiring a high school principal here today cuz we have an outstanding high school principal in in Mr. Stover. Um I want I'm going to talk a a lot about Rob's leadership while he was the principal of Rocky River High School. Under his leadership, uh Rocky River High School was a top performing high school in the state proficiency test scores in the nation for students in 2024 according to
126a US News & World Report. In 2022 and 2023 under Dr. Winton's leadership, they Rocky River High School was a top performing high school in Ohio performance index. Rocky River High School was in was identified as a National Blue Ribbon School while he was the principal there. Dr. Winton was nominated as principal of the year and it's interesting I found something out. I knew Dr. Winton was nominated as principal of the of the year because in my former life I was in very involved in the OSSAA as a as high school principal myself. Um and and I dug into this a little bit because I know the director of the OSSAA very well, Dr. Freeman. And I talked to Dr. Freeman and I said, you know, Dr. Freeman I I believe Rob was the principal
127of the year and Dr. Freeman said, "Actually no, he wasn't. He would have been but he actually asked for his consideration to take it out." And the reason for that, I don't want to speak for you Rob, but the reason for that was Dr. Winton was a board of director um for OSSAA and he didn't want that look of you know, being recognized at for organization that I am one of the leaders of. So, I thought that was that spoke a lot about him. Um because when you are recommended for those type of things, you are not self-recommended. That's somebody that recommended you for Dr. Winton has a doctorate in education and his dissertation is on and focus was on student safety and active shooter mitigation, which was certainly a different dissertation as I as
128I read through it. Rob, I can't tell you I have read the whole thing. I I did read through a good portion of it but but to see a dissertation of that subject and the importance of that subject to be so As I mentioned, he is a past president of OSSAA, board of director. He's an educational advocate and he's had the opportunity to speak with the Arkansas representatives on behalf of public school in the state of Arkansas. And he is first and foremost a student and staff, you know. We are very pleased that to to have Rob potentially be our curriculum director. That I'm glad you came to say that because >> I I I appreciate the introduction. You kind of talked about all the things I was going to cover, so um I'll I'll
129briefly just uh talk a little bit about my family since I come from a family of educators. I want to thank my wonderful wife for sitting next to me tonight. She is a uh physics teacher at the Bayfield City School District where our three children go. Uh and then child fifth grade, third grade, and first grade, so they're in the thick of it. They have fun. Um both of my parents were teachers. My dad was a teacher and basketball coach at Bayfield Riverside. My mom was a teacher at Menomonie. And my in-laws Kathy and Jim Borgerding were uh elementary paraprofessional and a custodial and maintenance worker high school worker for their career. So, I come from a uh family of educators. It's a passion of mine. And uh it's something that I focus on every
130day. Uh I also believe in really trying to work with teams in dynamic settings and getting results. And I believe I've been pretty effective at that in the past, and I hope to be effective at that here. So, um again, I just wanted to extend my gratitude for the opportunity to be here tonight, and thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Dr. McDonald. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay, I'm going to keep going. This is going to be a little bit. That's okay. We've got some Yep. You're good. Okay. Thank you. Sorry if I stepped on you there, Barb, a little bit. Okay, um the rest of this stuff is is pretty normal personnel information. Uh to start off, we've got some some renewals of our principals, and I'm always glad to see
131this start off. This is Mrs. Rivera. We know Mrs. Rivera was here earlier tonight, but she's over doing kindergarten registration seeing. Uh Sarah's been with us for a number of years, and I'm I'm pleased that she is going to be with us um suggesting that that we offer her a 3-year contract um and uh so so Sarah will remain the principal of Bayfield Primary School where she has done a great job for us. Second uh principal renewal this evening is for Mr. Wilson. Mike is here this evening. Again, Mike, thank you for being here. Mike is uh has been here with us for 2 years, and I am recommending that we continue on with Mike and and the good work he is doing over in building and we offer Mike a second a two-year contract
132this evening. So, Mike, thank you for your job and what you do every day. It's great. I appreciate it and we're glad we're going to continue working with you. Let's move into certified world. You see a number of one-year limited contract recommendations. These are for our teachers that are not on a continuing by or not expiring contract. You see those listed for your consideration this evening. Um along the lines of a continuing recommendation, you also see that we have Mr. Wollstein and Mrs. Schrader that have earned the right to be considered for a continuing contract and Ms. Soukup as well. Rachel's in there as well. So, three people are for your consideration this evening. The next thing is standard operational procedure for this time of year. You see our three title teachers. Um they will
133be they're on expiring contracts. So, annual [clears throat] thing that we do is we will not renew them until we know what our title funding is and our needs for the following year. That is a standard April Board of Education action that I'm asking for this evening. So, we continue on with personnel. We see some FMLA items in there for people that have either returned or going out on FMLA >> [cough and clears throat] >> in the course of the next month. The next item is always happy yet sad. Um we have some some resignations and retirements this evening. I'll start with the retirements. First of all, I want to talk about Ms. Ax, Michelle, has been with us for a number of years and has done so many different things. She is currently teaching
134at our junior high school in health and PE. Uh Mr. Sauer, and she she is one of the the most positive influences here in Bowling Green. Chris, and I know that you're shaking your head yes. Um you know, we we are are so going to miss Michelle. We're happy that she's retiring. Yeah, she's she's ready to retire. She's excited for her. We're going to miss her. In the time frame that this axe has been with us, she's been she's done so many things, right? She has been a fifth grade teacher. She has been ELA teacher, ELA teacher at the at the junior high. She's teaching health and PE at the junior high now. She was a school counselor for a while. So, she's been with us a number of years and we wish her all
135the best going forward. In addition to that, Mrs. Christopher is has indicated she is also going to retire at the end of this school year. Diane has been a fourth grade teacher. She has been with us She's I I believe pretty much her entire career all the way back before I think like 1998. It's been been that long. So, primarily Michelle or Diane has been teaching fourth grade for us. She also had taught a little bit of fifth grade. So, again, I don't know that I saw this one coming. So, I was a little surprised when when when we got this notification this week. And obviously I reached out on on behalf of the board and myself to thank her. And then we ask for for that consideration for for today. And then you also
136see one of our high school math teachers is resigning. Miss Stevens is resigning. She has been offered a job where she graduated from school. So, that that's why she is always a draw to come home. Okay, keep moving through personnel supplementals. You see two there for Miss Bloodwood. One is to continue to have let her be our gifted talented coordinator for next school year. And one is for her to be our safety town director for 2026. I don't know if safety town would exist if Vicky was not the safety town director. But she does a great job. We're glad she wants to continue doing that. There is a stipend tonight. That is for Miss Rivera. Miss Rivera has been involved in in OLI for principals improvement instructional improvement program since last June. She volunteered to
137be in this, you know, OLI forward. Um, this is a silly term. You can either volunteer for OLI forward, you can also be voluntold for OLI forward. Uh, Sarah was not voluntold. She volunteered for this work. Uh, it's an inclusive instructional leadership cohort. And when you get to be complete the work, uh, it does come with a stipend. So, there's a $300 stipend coming back for for for Sarah. But, we have to take action to accept it before we get to it. Uh, we have one substitute, uh, a new substitute that will be a certified substitute that we work with as part of our partnership, uh, with the educational service center. Very glad that Mrs. Lemperis with us. Uh, she's an exempt employee and she is our prevention coordinator. So, uh, ask for her approval
138with a 2-year contract, uh, this evening. Let's move into classified personnel. And you see that, uh, we have offered Mr. Cook a cleaner position. This is a 1-year limited contract effective on the 15th for your approval this evening. Uh, we have an FMLA, uh, adjustment for you there as Ms. Simmons has returned to work and we're glad to see her back and healthy. Uh, we have a substitute there. Ms. Sites, uh, is joining us as as a as a substitute secretary. Supplementals, uh, Mr. Myers presented the fall a number of fall athletic supplemental supplementals this evening for your consideration. You see see see those. We have a correction two corrections there for Mr. Dawson, uh, who's our softball coach. And for Mr. Stephen Backer who is track, right John? Yes. Yes, track. Very good. And
139then we had a resignation, uh, Mr. Lingle resigned as assistant softball coach. The reason for this, um, Mark thought that he was going to be able to be here to be an assistant softball coach and due to an unexpected change in his work site. Um, he cannot get here in time to to be a softball coach. So, uh, Mark put his resignation in uh, because of that change. Our volunteers, man, we have a large number of volunteers. We have a Washington D.C. trip coming up on April 29th through May 1st, so you see all of our teachers that are going. Thank you, Mr. Sauer, for getting our third teachers to go and for you making the trip as well. As a veteran of those trips, I love them. I'm glad you're going. And I'm glad
140the kids are going. Um and and parents are are are going there as well, too. Um I think we might have a board member. We might have two board members. One board member. We have one for sure that's got a child going. >> Where are you going, eighth grader? >> No, I'm not. >> No, that's right. I got an eighth grader. >> Okay. Uh we see some parent volunteers, also some staff volunteers there for the Onslow Nature Field Trip that's coming up April April 8th 28th through 30th. We've got a Buckeye High School Music in the Park activity day taking place on May 8th and May 9th, so you see volunteers there. You see how how how how farm there uh >> chaperones on May 11th. >> Um we see our kindergarten chaperones going to
141the Akron Zoo on May 14th. The FFA Convention Center, we've talked about that chap trip and you see an addition uh from Mr. Cosgrove there. Um I'll move out of personnel and into donations. We do have two donations for your consideration this evening. Uh the first one is a donation of $280.41 from our friend Mr. Wagner over there at FIT. Uh this is uh for busing transportation for the third grade field trip and and I know Mr. Wagner and everybody at FIT love when our third graders go there. It's such a such a great trip. I went one year and saw it. It's it's amazing. So, thank you to Al at FIT. And we have a $500 donation that was given by Josh Westland and the West Agency. Uh this is National Honor Society Senior
142Top Scholar event which we just had uh last week and Mr. West that continues to be uh an incredible sponsor and supporter of of our of of our high school and then our school district. So, we thank you thank him for that. Uh that is going to end my recommendations for your consideration this evening. >> All right, thank you. So, we need a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> And any questions or comments? >> I have a question and what is the difference between the limited contract recommendations and the continuing recommendations? >> Yeah, limited contracts are expiring contracts, Mrs. Soch. So, these are going to be people that have not earned a continuing contract. These are usually our teachers that are in your first that are in their early
143years of their careers. By law in the state of Ohio, you you have to have worked up to 7 years with the appropriate evaluations before you are eligible for continuing contract. Uh that would be in certified world. It's a little bit different in the non-teaching world. Uh you can have a limited contract for a shorter amount of time, but we would follow the agreement that we would have with OAPSE that determines that. Uh but the continuing contract, once you earn that and a lot of people that that is called tenure in a lot of places. Um you know, what that means is the contract is not have does not does not have an ending. >> Okay, thank you cuz I see a couple teachers that have been here for a while. >> Yeah, they have
144You know, there's a possibility they they have they don't have the educational background for that. They may be not a master's degree or something or maybe they haven't been here for the full, you know, 7 years. Uh but yeah, you could have some veteran teachers that have you know, that that are not eligible yet for continuing contract. That can happen. >> Any other questions? >> I have a comment. Am I allowed to make a comment or you want me to wait until we >> No, you can make a comment at this time. >> Okay. Um I had some concerns on our new curriculum uh candidate. Absolutely nothing to do with him. It's his background. Um, I wanted to have a an executive session. I contacted all our board members asking for an executive session just
145so that we could discuss it. Um, that that fell through. Um, I had talked to Mr. Stanton on Sunday about my concerns, voicing my concerns. I also had talked to Barbara on the phone, too. Um, Mr. Stanton said that if I was going to vote no on this candidate, he would be withdrawn and we would be going to the next person. >> I know, ma'am. I did not say that to you. I did not say that to you. We had a conversation about what you were actually doing and then I gave you the background on on Dr. Winston. And I shared with you um, the process that we are using tonight. >> So, you said nothing about he would be withdrawn and we'd go to the next person. >> I did not. >> Okay. >>
146I did not say that to you. >> So, I said that if we weren't going to do this is this is the dysfunction of this um, this group here. If we weren't going to do an executive session, which they did a million executive sessions last year, the years before, but this wasn't anything. So, I said that I will just express my concerns um, at the board meeting. And once again, this is nothing personal, but our um, our new curriculum you know, uh the the curriculum director. In his resume that was sent to me by Mr. Stanton, it says 2015 to the present, he is the um, the principal of Rocky River High School, which he's not. >> Okay, Mrs. Susage. You know, okay, you >> I I I'm I'm This is my comments. I I
147I told you that I was going to say this. >> But, but then I gave you the answer as to why that happened. Dr. Winton gave >> It's a professional It's a professional resume for a very important job in this district. >> we have. >> Okay. Let's go on to the next one. >> And you know this, Kim. You know how I answered this question. You do. >> You answered the question after you talked to me on Sunday, after you talked to him. And supposedly there was another resume, but that's the resume that you sent me. >> No, ma'am. There was no supposedly. It was in the system. I did not talk to him about this. I looked into the system and the resume was there. >> Okay. I have the email. I have the
148text. You sent me the text. >> Okay. So, let's move on. Um This candidate was the principal at Rocky River in 2000 uh 21 and to 2023 when six teachers from the high school were uh resigned or uh retired and one retired because they were sending texts of a female student. Some sort of a picture. It was on the news. It's not I'm not making this up. Um some sort of a picture that was sent um and the teachers were discussing a student. Uh further on, I guess at at some point they were discussing uh female staff, too. To me, that's the culture. That's the culture of him as a principal. When you have six teachers To me, it's disgusting. It's completely disgusting that any teachers that are they they're here for the students. They're
149educated, they're certified, and they have something like that. That's I mean, that's beyond ethics or morals or anything like that. So, that tells me that's the culture of Rocky River. >> And then the teachers were still there they were released >> They were released in '23, I believe. >> Okay. >> Yes. Well, they didn't they weren't released. I think they all resigned. And one one um retired. >> Sometimes people resign instead of getting terminated. >> Oh, exactly. Six people, that's a lot. All male teachers. And then the third thing is this candidate is actively suing the Rocky River Board of Education for breach of contract. I don't know all the specifics, but I do know that he from Mr. Stanton that he um was owed a severance and they did not honor his severance. So,
150he's actively suing suing the Board of Education, which is what we are. And I do not think that's something that we should delve into. Um obviously he left Rocky River for a reason. So, my I as I talked to Barb, the reason why I don't like this and I'm so upset is we have such a history at Buckeye of having we have two principals that Barb knows of cuz we discussed it. Two principals that were way beyond ethical conduct. And once you hire people, you can't get rid of them. This the last one that we had, we couldn't get rid of until he decided to to leave. The first one, I was on the board. As soon as I found out what he was doing, he was placed on administrative leave and he never came
151back. I I just think out of 20 people Oh. 27 applicants, you have eight interviews and I don't have anything against you, sir. I think that there's certainly could be somebody else that's got a lot clearer record for Buckeye schools that has a history of some pretty unethical hiring. >> [snorts] >> Um I Is that it? >> Yep. Are you >> Well, we have a motion on the floor to accept or to vote on the consent agenda. And go ahead Mr. Donley roll call. >> Okay, Mr. Pavarotti. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kuyak. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Salvage. >> I'm sorry, no. >> And Mr. Salazar. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Gunkel. >> Yes. >> Um, for future reference Mrs. Salvage and um if you were going you are voting no on the entire consent agenda because
152you just voted no. Um for future reference, I would suggest that you if you have one item, you know, that you disagree with, that you would ask that that item be removed from the consent agenda in the future. >> Oh, is that how we're going to play that? >> That's the law. >> We're not going to do a executive session to discuss it so that we can discuss it amongst the five of us, but we're going to say that I should have taken it off the agenda. >> If that was your feeling >> Okay. If that was your feeling, that's how we handle it. >> Noted. >> Okay, going on to new business. >> Yes, thank you. Okay, two items for new business for this evening. We have a for your consideration, we have a
153first read of the handbooks. These are the handbooks for 2016-2017 for the preschool, the elementary school, the junior high school, and the high school. So, all of that information you have, so if you want to do some reading between now and next month, there's all kinds of handbook information. >> I certainly have. Thank you. >> There you go. Thank you, Mrs. Pavarotti. And then first read of the presentation that Mrs. Elias is going to call it tonight for the math adoption. So, those are two items for new businesses here. >> All right then. Board comments. Any final comments for this evening? >> I've got a couple. Yeah, so number one I want to thank Mr. Justice. I think over the we talked about some of the additional repairs that we had from the windstorm. I
154know that we're working through those. Mr. Staley, I appreciate your transparency on this as well. I know Mr. Justice, you've shared multiple times the the millions of dollars of maintenance and upkeep and even upgrades over the past 2 years that we performed on the campus. I know I know we've we've worked to communicate this in a way that the public can understand and how we can share that best. But between the geothermal units, the elementary school roof, the high school roof repair, the junior high roof repair, the sidewalk, playground, fences, bus garage, fuel containers, that's just a couple that I remember. But tonight I went back to the track complex and I really appreciate the pavement. I know the public does as well. I saw an elderly couple with a walker going through there so
155that they could attend what I assume is their grand their grandchildren's event. With the stone, that just wouldn't have been possible. So, it's it's great to see people safely navigating through those. It's It's not um gosh, it's not a million dollar cost savings project, but it it it gets us the fundamentals that we need here. So, thank you for that. Um and I also wanted to to thank Mr. Snook and the team. I know last Thursday they hosted the NHS banquet and staff recognition. I'd say in this day and age, it's easy to get drug into what is not working or maybe a negative opinion of something, but this was just truly a positive event, right? You're recognizing your top scholars. And for if you haven't attended, it really was it really was special, right?
156Because those students those top students that have been with us for so long, are recognizing the staff or the teacher that made an impact on them over their educational histories, over 13 years. So, we had I may ask for a little bit of help here, but I I saw like a second grade teacher, certainly some staff members, um but a bus driver. Bus driver, yes, yes. So, it was it was really special. Um and when you think about students um talking about the people that have impacted positively impacted their lives, it was it was pretty special. So, I thank you for for that. Um I'd also like to thank Mr. Winton for joining us, um sticking around this evening. Um certainly and looking at your background, you've got an outstanding performing record as an educator
157and a top talent. We're certainly on the cusp of some exciting changes here at Buckeye with the new facility and that is I think the perfect opportunity to review our curriculum and then ideally um if we could replicate anything that you've done from from some of the accolades that Mr. Stanton shared, that would be outstanding. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> I just want to also just welcome Dr. Winton. I had a chance over the last several days to reach out to um Jeff and he answered a lot of my questions. I had a chance to talk to some Rocky River parents and some other Rocky River educators. They all spoke extremely highly of you. Um so, I I think it's just exciting to to get your classroom knowledge, principal knowledge, your your background
158um across the board in school districts. Rocky River is very very uh highly regarded um you know, from the outside looking in. I was excited to see somebody from Rocky River uh apply for the position and we're just I'm glad to have you here regardless of the shoes you have to fill you know, I think you're joining a very strong team that's excited to advance the district um to Royce Point facility wise a lot of excitement and obviously when you have an opportunity to design a new high school curriculum is the guiding light. Um so it's just great to get we'll get you some orange and brown clothes and get some gear on you and get you ready to go but welcome aboard. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate it. >> I just have
159a couple of things. Congratulations to our students of the month because that's always the best part of the meetings. Also to our athletes to achieve excellence we need it's just high level excellence and then as as Mr. Justice I'm sorry as Mr. Myers had indicated the the high level of academic achievement that our athletes have it's it's it's so impressive. Um I'd also like to congratulate Mrs. Axe on her retirement. I I am I I meant to tell you she was a brand new teacher down at Liverpool. She was a sub at Liverpool before she was married and I worked down at Liverpool so it's making me feel a little bit old that she's retiring now and I know your junior high is going to miss her. She is a shining light at Buckeye Junior
160High School and with the kids and the staff she's she's incredible. Also Mrs. Christopher congratulations to her. I'm happy for her and um Let me see what else do I have here and welcome. Thank you Mrs. Dr. Winton. Thank you. Welcome to Buckeye. Appreciate that you're coming here. I think that's it Barb. >> I have a lot of notes but I think I hit them all. Um Denise just said everything that I wanted to say so but I did have the opportunity to work with Michelle Axe and Diane Christopher when I was curriculum director here. Two very fine positive people. Um so they will definitely be missed. Um and welcome Dr. Winton. I know most recently you were at North Ridgeville, but when I pulled in and saw the Rocky River buses here, I thought,
161"What? Did he bring everybody with him or what?" >> [snorts] >> But um we certainly look forward to working with you in the future. >> I just wanted to say um thank you all for coming. Um Mr. Myers, I think you have a fantastic job because Buckeye is really built on athletes. We really have strong background with the wrestling and everything else. So and I love the presentation. Like to see the kids come in anytime because that's what it's all about. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Um I wanted to just say one thing about team team player. I tried to I try and get involved. I try and um spend time talking to these guys. The four board members have nothing to do with me. Fine. You can obviously see why. Um as far
162as this last uh hire, uh I think the right thing to do was to go into a um executive session to discuss amongst ourselves what was going on. I think that would have been the professional thing. And I will stand by Mr. Stanton what you said to me. >> It's fine. I disagree with you. >> Mr. Stanton, I disagree with you. >> Yeah. And you know, Kim, I thought we had a very productive phone call. I thought I was appreciative of the phone call. Uh but we have a very clear disagreement on one point. >> And if I may add as well, I know we've had the same conversation on sunshine laws and that we do not have conversations with more than two board members at a time. So >> Well, that was the whole
163idea of the executive session. >> Right. And and I know you've also shared that the executive sessions are too much. Um I think Mr. Stanton um is the CEO of this district. And as the superintendent, and is in charge of of leading the district and the hiring. Certainly have a a deep background of human resources. We just extended his contract. I think he's doing a great job. I appreciate that and you have my full trust as well as the the hiring committee as well. >> I have a lot longer history with this district and I have seen a lot of bad things that happened. And I think as a board we should recognize that and be a little more proactive. >> Okay. >> And I look forward to working with you people. >> More than
164just words. You have to actually take that action as well. >> And And what would you suggest that I do? >> Well, we can talk You know we'll talk about this afterwards. >> All right. So then I will entertain a motion for adjournment. >> So moved. >> I'll second. >> The roll call. >> You guys are quicker than I had. Hold on one second. Um Was that boy? >> I second. >> Okay. Mr. Kuya? >> Yes. >> And Mr. Salazar? >> Yes. >> Uh Mrs. Selich? >> Yes. >> Mrs. DeBartoli? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Dumler? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Have a good evening, everyone.