Board Of Education Meeting 1/13/26

001Uh, good afternoon or good evening everybody. Uh, 6 o'clock. We're going to go ahead and get started. I want to thank everybody for showing up here. Uh, I know it's a little chilly outside, getting a little bit warmer, but appreciate everybody making it time to make the first full meeting this year. Mr. Dley. >> Okay. Roll. >> Roll. Uh, Mrs. here. >> Mr. Salazar >> here, >> Mrs. Learnie >> here, >> Mr. Kuyak >> here, >> and Mrs. Go is absent. >> All right, if you'd please join in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Thank you. All right. So, this is a meeting of the board of education in public for

002the 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 the meeting as indicated in the agenda. The Buckeye School mission statement. Buckeyes local school district's mission is to empower students to excel in a highly competitive society. Do you have a quick board member update, Mr.? >> Yeah, thank you, Mr. Salazar. Good evening. Good evening, everybody. I want to make sure the board and the community is aware. We've got an update. uh we related to to our board of education. We held an organizational meeting on January 3rd. That's you have to do that every uh every January. One of the main tasks of an organizational meeting is to swear in any new or reelected board member. Mr. Celich is a

003new board member. Miss Pavari as a as a reelected board member were sworn in at the organizational meeting on the 3rd. Mr. Kuya was not available for the meeting. The district has 10 days from the organizational meeting to swear all board members in. Today is actually the 10th day of that. So, we were in that window. However, given the uncertainty of weather in Cleveland, given the uncertainty, you never know what's going to happen. I was a little bit uncomfortable leaving that to to to tonight. So, I reached out to Mr. Kuyat and asked him if he would be able to come in and and Mr. Donley would administer the oath and take the oath. So Mr. Kuya did do that. Um on Thursday, January 8th, Mr. Donley um swore swore Mr. Kuya in Mr. Salazar

004is our vice president was there to witness it. So just information for the board, information for the community that as of Thursday and the organizational meeting, all of our board members are now appropriately sworn. That's the just a quick board member update. >> Thank you, Mr. Stanley. Okay, moving along. Uh, approval of the minutes. Uh, Mr. Tomlin. >> Uh, I need a motion. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, >> so moved. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Any conversation? >> Okay. Mr. >> Mr. Kuya. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Barti. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cecilich. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Sal. >> Yes. All right. Number three here, uh, modifications to the agenda. Uh, Mr. >> I Yeah, I have one addition to the agenda from the public agenda. The we were able to hire over the last

00548 hours the new head mechanic. So, um, that was put in the agenda that went live on Friday as a placeholder. uh this evening the gentleman's name is is included and um with your you know with your approval later on this evening he will be hired as our head mechanic. So that's one addition that I have. >> I have two additions um two additions from the treasur's office tonight in my financial statements for December. Small modification when I do a comparison of the reconciliation last month, this month and last year at the top of last year, I had mislabeled it December of 25. It should have been December 24. It's corrected now, but that's one change. The other change is uh the presentation that I plan on doing about the new tax bills, House Bill

006129, 186, etc. I met with the county auditor's office today and other county uh school treasures and there's a lot of information in there and there's also a lot of unknowns. So I changed the presentation around what you'll see tonight is the current presentation but I I but if you read it in the board docs it's it's different because it included numbers that I can no longer say yeah those are the numbers. So I had to change that. >> Good. Any other changes or modifications? Okay. All right. Moving on. Uh consent agenda. Uh with recommendation that we approve the consent agenda as today's presented. >> So move. >> Second. >> So I have a question. Can I ask a question? What do we That's something >> um all of the items that are labeled as

007>> approving that we're going to look at >> approving that we vote in with for them as one section. Is that correct? >> Yeah. Um >> one group >> consent agenda uh Mr. So is generally routine routine items uh that generally don't c don't have much discussion. Of course, they can have discussion, but the idea is to move routine items quickly through the meeting. Um, so that that's what would be that we can take action on a consent agenda. >> Thank you, M. >> Mr. Chair. So, Kim, it would be it looks like on the agenda today, it would just be the treasurer action items, which is item eight, >> section eight. So there's December financials and the certificate of records disposal. And then it would also be the items under number 11 which is

008approval of board policy, approval of athletic sponsorships, personnel donations and that would be it. So it's only those agenda items today are lumped into consent. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Mark, you had Mr. Kuya and Mr. >> Yes. I have a first and a second. You ready for the role? >> Yeah. Any No further conversation? Good. Yep. Go ahead. >> Okay. Mr. Kuya. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kari. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cecilich. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Salazar? >> Yes. >> All right. >> So, we're on to public participation section number five here. Uh so we are at the time in the meeting for public participation. Anyone who wishes to address the board is welcome to do so. Questions for the board are to be addressed to the board president

009or writing officer and superintendent or treasurer and not to any one individual board member. We ask that all who wish to speak if signed in to do so and when you speak first state your name and address. Each speaker has three minutes to address the board. We ask that no person speaks more than once on the same topic until others have also had the chance to speak to the board. No participant may speak more than two times unless given permission by the board president or presiding officer. Is there anyone who'd like to address the board? Looks like we've got one. Um, this will probably be two three minutes. So, stop me and restart me or just do six minutes, whatever. Um, CC Hinger, 7463 Center Road, Valley City. I have a few comments. the busing

010situation. A few months ago, an employee who is now retired spoke spoke glowingly about our transportation department and said that there are mistruths about that department being spread. I'm not sure what mistruths she is referring to, but I do know that department isn't retaining employees and I'm not talking about the retired ones. These contracts you are being asked to approve tonight leaves many questions and I'm hopeful to hear some good discussion about them. Um I am also hoping if any contracts are approved they are considered only as temporary meaning 3 to four months. There is a there is much problem solving to do in that department and these proposed contracts are merely band-aids and short-term fixes. I would also like to bring your attention to Ohio Revised Code 3327.10 qualifications of drivers. It states, "No

011employee shall be employed as a driver who has not received their certificate." I have seen three times, including today, this board approving the hiring of Buckeye drivers who in fact are not certified drivers. Not only is this deceiving, it also seems it may be illegal. You are not hiring drivers because they are not certified as school bus drivers according to law. I believe this should be rectified. uh Facebook, Instagram, and social media. I will share my opinion with you about your recent announcement of now having Instagram for Buckeye in which I posted on Facebook. I stated, "That's just what we need. More time, money, and effort towards social media. It's a waste of time, and money. There's absolutely no reason for a school to be so heavily involved with social media sites." I will also

012voice my opinion about the board meeting recaps presented by Mr. Stanton. They're edited and fluffed up pretty recaps of meetings that are free to the public to attend and to watch on video or read in minutes and it's a waste of time and money. I recall Mr. Stan's comments about not being able to afford a full-time communications director and I wholeheartedly believe these are steps in the direction to say in the future we need one. You are systematically laying down the groundwork now to justify the need in the future. Speaking of social media sites, I made a comment on the Buckeye Facebook page about a January calendar picture post you had. I asked, "Why isn't the board meeting highlighted on the calendar?" Immediately, I received a private message from Buckeye Reading. Thanks for messaging us.

013Buckeye local schools Facebook Messenger is not monitored. Please email your building principal directly with questions. I responded, "I think that's a lie. And why wouldn't it be monitored if it's quote the official communications page for Buckeye local schools in Madina? I would like to know who's in charge of this site and who has access to the site," which I have asked several times before here and on that site. I I never did receive an answer. I also find it peculiar that Mr. Kuyat spoke so passionately about staying off social media and other board members seem to share that thought. Yet here we are with multiple and growing sites. >> Mrs. Okay, >> I'm sorry. Thank you. I apologize. Uh Miss Hutter, that's three minutes. Um and for everybody else, I apologize as well. It's my

014first meeting uh leading so uh little couple. Go ahead. Okay. >> Yeah. She's the only one, right? Marking the >> Yes. Yes. >> Yeah. This is my last comment. It'll be short. The money transfer. I'm not sure why the money transfer of over a million dollars needs to be filed with the state in the courts. So, I want to say for the record, I think this excess money collected from the taxpayers should be returned to the taxpayers. About 25 years ago, the taxpayers voted on collecting money to build a new elementary school. The taxpayers have kept their end of the bargain funding that project and extra proceeds should be returned to where they came from, the taxpayers. Taking the excess and applying to a new high school project that was voted down three times by

015the taxpayers is wrong and not the original intended use of the money. Not listening to the will of the people is neglect. Please make sure the attorney filing this case is aware of my public comment exactly as I stated it in this situation. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you for your participation. Certainly appreciate it. >> All right. We'll continue moving. Next section is superintendent information. >> That's good. >> All right. Good evening again everybody. Let me catch up with my notes. There we go. Okay. Uh good evening. Good to see everybody. We are uh at at the part of the meeting that's the best part of the meeting, right? We're going to celebrate students. So, uh January students of the month. We will start with Mr. Snook. Good evening, Adam. Come on up. And

016>> Oh, I miss eyes. You know what? I knew that too. I'm sorry. I apologize. Cyrus, do you want to come on? You ready? >> Sure. >> Hi everybody. I'm Ellie Eisman. I'm the assistant principal of Buckeye High School and this is Cyrus Tansy. He's our student of the month for Buckeye High School. Um we're committed to raising standards and exceeding expectations and we're here to recognize Cyrus because he really goes above and beyond to achieve that commitment every single day for us. Um, he stands out as one of the most thoughtful, original, and intrinsically motivated students in his graduating class. With a 4.54 GPA, he ranks near the top of his class and has consistently challenged himself the rigorous corso that includes multiple AP courses across math, English, social studies, and psychology. His academic

017accomplishments include recognition as the AP scholar with distinction, entering academic letters for three consecutive years, and teachers consistently describe Cyrus as mature, mildmannered, and highly respected by both his peers and the staff. Cyrus also embodies many of the qualities outlined in our portrait of a buck. He is an active member of the academic challenge team in mock trial where he demonstrates leadership, preparation, and critical thinking. Beyond his own coursework, Cyrus gives back to others by serving as a math tutor. Thank you so much for that. And helping fellow students build confidence and succeed academically. What truly sets Cyrus apart is his unique blend of intellect and creativity. Outside of the classroom, he is a dedicated musical artist known to many as Cyrus the Virus Tansky. He wrote and produced his debut album, Anb, which is

018available to stream on major platforms. This accomplishment reflects not only his artistic talent, but also his discipline, persistence, and technical skill. He is already working on his second album, so stay tuned, guys. And he is continuing to balance creativity with academic excellence. Um, Cyrus, you're also so introspective. You're authentic. You're quietly confident. Whether you're assisting your classmates, supporting your family, or contributing to the school community, he consistently demonstrates humility and a willingness to help wherever needed. His goal is to pursue a bachelor of business administration while maintaining space for creative and personal fulfillment, which really speaks to your sense of maturity and your grounded outlook on success. Cyrus does credit his favorite teacher, Mr. Serio, for inspiring um him and making him incredibly knowledgeable and gives a special shout out to Mr. CE for recognizing

019what makes him unique. He also extends heartfelt gratitude to his mom who continually pushes him to be the best version of himself. Cyrus, you elevate every environment you're a part of and we are so lucky to have you here at the high school with us. You truly represent what it means to be a student of the month and we're really proud of you. Congratulations. >> Nice job, Cyrus and Miss Eisen. Just a reminder to everybody, our education foundation uh supports this program with the with the signs and and with the plaques. And for everybody that is here, I would ask if you can hang for us during the student presentations. We have three more. We will take a break. When we take that break, we'll give everybody an opportunity to come up and take some

020pictures with your family and stuff. And then if you want to stay, you can stay, but you don't have to. Okay? And then we'll proceed with the rest of the meeting. So, all right. Thank you, Miss Eisman. That's a great start. Mr. Sour, good evening. Our junior high school principal, Chris Sour. >> Good evening, Carson. Come on up. All right. It is my privilege to announce that Carson Perkins has been selected Buckeye Junior High School student of the month for January. Uh, his English teacher, Miss King, who's here tonight, uh, nominated Carson for his outstanding character, noting that Carson is a conscientious student. He is always trying to do his best. Uh he's a very respectful young man. Carson is a good communicator. He always asks and gets clarification if he does not understand directions

021or concepts. He is a mild school citizen at the junior high. In addition to that, Carson excels in advanced math and advanced language arts. Uh though his favorite subjects are science and project leadway, he loves to utilize his talent for problem solving. He's equally active outside the classroom, balancing football and baseball, snowboarding, swimming, biking, chess, and even baking cookies. Uh his goal is to attend college and pursue a career in the medical field, possibly as a doctor. Uh so Carson is on a fantastic path. We are proud to have him as a model citizen at our school. Nice job, Carson. Thank you very much. >> Mr. Wilson, good evening. >> Hello, Mike. >> Wilson, our intermediate principal. >> Good evening, everybody. I have the pleasure of having uh Fallon up here with me and she

022is one of our uh prek students. Um for those that don't know, I have the intermediate building is uh 456 and prek um the configuration of the building which is awesome cuz any time that I need a break from uh what I'm doing all day, I go down to the prek room and I'm just like this is the best. Then I get to leave the prek room and be like y'all have fun. I'm um so a couple of things first from uh Fallon's teacher. Um Mrs. Wrench said this. She is proud to recognize Fallon consistently showing stewardship, positive behavior, and love of learning. She comes to school ready to participate, follow class rules, and try her best during activities. Valum is kind to her peers, listens respectfully, and sets a wonderful example for others. your

023positive attitude, amazing outfits and effort make our classroom happy and welcoming place. Congratulations. Um I also had a chance to talk uh to Fallon for a little bit and since um I was able to talk to uh Fallon's mom and so a lot of this overlaps so I'm going try to do my best of not saying too much of the same things but um our conversations today with Fallon I was you will find out that we have matching glasses. I have a pair like that at home. Um, and then is her favorite. She loves to um crafting and doing letters in class. Apparently, she loves to do her site words, which is fantastic. Um, she said so far I'm her favorite principal. To be fair, she has Miss Rivera next year, so I think I'm

024going to go second on that list pretty quickly. Um, I asked her which parent is her favorite, and she said both. I couldn't trip her up with that one. I tried. Uh she loves to play games with her family. Um her mom says that she brings excitement and joy to everything that she does. And she's the youngest of three girls. Um but she definitely loves trying to keep up with her older sisters, trying to do new things. U Fallon loves to dance. Uh I asked her what she'd like to do when she gets older and she said perform on Broadway. Um, she also said that she really liked going to Disneyland and if it's not too difficult, she would like to go again since she was student of the month. She thought that be that

025out there. Um, she loves to help in the kitchen. Uh, she told me that she really loves steak. Um, and that she's having steak for dinner after this meeting. Don't know if that's true either, but you know, we'll get there. And that her easy bake oven is one of her favorites. um and that she was planning on bringing us cookies. So, you know, I have nothing to look forward to. Um she loves art and creating new things and, you know, doing stuff with her sister um Farah and her best friend Charlotte who lives next door. Uh let's see what else. And then she really likes YouTube and playing Roblox on I asked her if she had a phone yet and she she said no. She's like she I don't need one of those. Um, but

026ultimately I think her favorite favorite favorite thing of all was the gymnastic bars uh that Santa bought and she gets to practice on those at home. So, you know, stewardship is all about um taking care of what you've been giving um giving back to the community, thinking of others before yourself and being a good citizen and talking to her teacher, you know, sharing emails with mom and even talking to her family today on my office. I can tell that she's a great citizen. She has such a promising future and with that part of stewardship taking care of what you have, she is the next generation of Buckeye. And so she has been put in place to take care of her her fellow students and to take care of her school um and you know really

027push us in a positive direction. I cannot wait to see what she does over the next several years. Um we're just so proud of you. Congratulations. Nice job. >> Okay, Mr. Rivera, good evening. Sarah Rivera, our primary school principal. Hey, good evening. I'm so excited to present Emmy Cllingfield for you tonight. So, in the primary building, we focus on one competency at a time to try to help our students really understand what each one means. And in December, we focused uh our portrait of above competency with stewardship. Students practice being good community members and thinking of others before themselves. And Emmy displayed outstanding stewardship qualities. Emmy is currently a second grade student at Buckeye Primary. She loves being in school and especially going out to recess where she enjoys playing on the swings or playing

028tag with her friend Callie. Math is her favorite subject in class because it comes easy to her and she really likes it. She looks forward to PE because they play lots of games. And when Emmy is not at school, she enjoys playing house and school with her little brother Ty. She stays busy with extracurricular activities such as basketball, soccer, and softball. At home, she lives with mom and dad Nolan, Cole, Laney, Ty, and their dog, Rosie. Being a part of her family is special because in the summer her family travels to Topsale, North Carolina with her mom's family. They rent a big house with a pool and they swim in the ocean even when it's a little cold. She loves spending time with her family, especially going to Cedar Point. Her favorite meal is cheesy

029potatoes and tacos. And if she has a chance to choose a restaurant, it's going to be Chipotle and Dairy Queen. Same. When Emmy grows up, she wants to be a teacher just like mom and dad. So, Miss Herb is her teacher and she's here just to tell you a little bit more about her. So, Emmy shows outstanding character for our portrait of the book competency stewardship. In school, Emmy is responsible with her school supplies. Her desk area is always clean and organized. She's responsible with her time and become and begins work right after directions. She shows how she cares for others when she allows others in line ahead of her. If she sees someone by themsself at recess, she invites them to play. Emmy is active in softball, basketball, and soccer. If a teammate is

030hurt, she is quick to help them and make sure they are okay. Emmy does not focus on herself. Instead, she focuses on others. >> Congratulations, Nice job, baby. Chipotle and Dairy Queen. That's a weak combination. Like I'm hearing steak. Chipotle. That's all right. All that is good. All right. Congratulations to all of our students of the month and their their parents and brothers and sisters that are here. um always the best part of every board meeting. So, so thank you. Um we're going to take take a break. When we come back, we're going to get into a series of presentations. So, not to scare anybody in the crowd that remains. Our board members, myself, Mr. Donley, are actually going to sit in the front row as the presentations go on. And the first presentation will

031be a presentation stuck our eyes principal. All right. So, we're going to take about a five to a 10 minute break. families, please. We'd like to get pictures of all of you up here and uh we'll take a break if that's okay. Mr. Mer 66. >> Okay, we're just going to go right from here. We'll start the rest of the meeting from here. As I said, we're we've got some presentations. Our first presentation this evening is actually going to be led by Mr. spoke our high school principal with a amazing opportunity with us uh with partnership with K County. So Adam, good evening. >> All right. Uh good evening members of the board and everybody who chose to stick with us um for the remainder of the evening. Uh, I don't often like to read

032off of a script that I was given strict instructions by the team to not steal their thunder. Um, and truly they deserve all the credit. This team right here and Miss Isman as well really deserve the opportunity to share something that is truly going to set Buckeye High School apart from everybody else in the county and many many and across northeast Ohio. Um, so I'm not going to steal the thunder. I'm going to let them do that, but I am going to read the script so I don't get >> I was going to say you didn't read the script yet. >> Um, so again, uh, thank you to the board, district leadership, and and Mr. Stanton for the opportunity to share an an important and exciting update, uh, this evening. The Buckeye High School team

033in collaboration with our most popular CCP partner, TRIC, um, is proud to present uh, two strategic future enhancements to our college credit plus program. For context, College Credit Plus uh was introduced in 2015. Um it was designed to expand access to college coursework to students grades 7 through 12 at no cost to the student. As access to those courses has grown, we've closely monitored uh the performance engagement of our students engaged in those CCB opportunities. We've tracked the data and we've identified many many many areas where our students have been successful. We've also identified areas where our students need additional support and have identified a new standard of support um for the students is our responsibility. It's their home district. Um and we're we're going to do that. We're going to provide opportunities for our

034students to be successful in CCP classes um here on campus. So, beginning in beginning in the 2026 2027 school year, we're going to be introducing a CCP lab course for all students engaged in the online CCP class to be able to provide supports to them because many of our students and the trend is showing that this is not not uh reducing in numbers. Our students are learning from home and that's really grown in numbers since the pandemic in 2020. and our students who are learning from home have areas where they where they struggle to self-monitor and time manage. So, we're going to make sure that we provide those supports to them so they can truly be as successful as they possibly can be. We're also going to talk briefly about an associates pathway which will

035provide our students the opportunity to not only graduate with a Buckeye High School diploma but also an associates of arts um degree from TRIC by the time they graduate from high school which is not something we haven't had students do before but we're looking to open up that opportunity to even more students in the future. So I'd like to just quickly introduce our Buckeye High School counseling team, Amanda Hogue and Jen Wish and a special applause for Ellie Iceman, our assistant principal as well, who has been a great connection with TRIC as well as Dr. Janice Taylor from TRIC. So I'm going to stop and turn it over to the screen. >> I think Vicky will move it for you a minute. >> Um, so we have two parts we're going to talk about. Um,

036I'm going to start and kind of talk about probably the less exciting um, but definitely needed an important part. It's our CCP lab class. And then I'm going to hand it over to um, Jen and Janice to talk about our associates academy pathway, which we're really excited for. So, what we have found um, with our students who do CCP is that a lot of students opt to take an online with no set meeting time class, also known as um, which works for their schedule. We have more students than I've ever seen who are working um at least one job, if not multiple jobs, while also being a multiport athlete, helping with younger siblings, helping at home. Um and so taking these asynchronous classes gives them more flexibility in their day, which is great. Um, but

037a lot of them jump off from being in a classroom for for seven hours a day with a teacher in front of them, progress book, Google Classroom, all the alerts going off, all the reminders to an asynchronous class with a professor who's not there in person. Um, no set meeting times, no daily reminders and a college level expectation to complete work and deadlines that are deadlines. Um, and so the struggle has been that these students can fall behind. They don't know how to catch up. they have not really had to email with a professor before. Um, technology can be an issue. Sometimes TRIC uses obviously a different platform. There's no progress book. They use Brightpace. Um, and so when students hit these roadblocks, even if they're typically, you know, a pretty strong student, they tend

038to freeze. They don't know where to go. They don't know who to ask. They ignore it. And then we find out typically a little too late um to either drop it or remediate it that they have struggled in the class. Sometimes they fail, sometimes they get dropped from a class for not attendance. So if they don't log in enough, TRIC has it built in that they will drop them at no penalty. Um or we find out that that they did not complete the class successfully. So one way to kind of work around this and still keep these students connected to us at the campus and allow us to assist them is a CCP lab class. So this is a no credit class. It'll be a small group supported study hall where our CCP students who

039are taking these asynchronous classes online will be in our building for one period for 42 minutes. It'll allow them to work on it. Um it'll be staffed by one of our staff members, but it'll also allow them a more comfortable environment to ask for help as they hit those roadblocks. They can come see us. They can work with the staff member who will be in the room with them. We um we cannot contact TRIC directly on their behalf. When our students enroll, whether they're 15 or 18, because of perpa, they are considered a college student. I cannot call TRIC C and say so and so is enrolled in this class. How are they doing? Their parents cannot call TRIC. Again, there's no progress book. There's no grade check. We have to work with the student.

040We can call with them. We have coached many a student on how to email a professor appropriately. Um, but we're there to support them, answer tech questions, work with Mrs. cash in the library or our tech department who's been great and help them solve those problems so they can continue to be successful, not have an F on their transcript, not start college that way um and still take advantage of the program. So, what this will look like is our ninth group 11th graders um who are taking an online class again are going to have a CCP lab built in. Our ninth and tth graders typically if they have an online class already have a study hall. Again, this will just be a little more supported, a little more specific to what they need as a

041CCP student. Our 11th and 12th graders are really the ones who've taken advantage of the more flexibility. Um, but unfortunately, even for for our upper classmen, who you hope at at 17 and 18 kind of have those skills. They're not always quite ready to face the challenges of college. Um, and so we've we've seen a trend just in those students struggling. For our seniors, they will only be required to have this lab if they are below a 3.5 GPA. um if it's their first time taking CCP or if they're put on academic probation. If a student while taking a college class falls below a 2.0 at TRIC C, they're automatically put on probation. They have one semester to bring that GPA back up. If they don't bring it up, they're actually put on CCP dismissal.

042Um so we're trying to avoid that. We don't want our students on probation. We don't want them dismissed from the program. We don't want them to start a college transcript with anything really, you know, below an A or a B. um because we know that they're capable of of achieving those high grades. So again, this shows the change. Um when I was hired way many years ago, um it wasn't CCP. It was still post-secary and the requirements for the state were much higher. We really didn't have many students participating. Um you really had to be a senior with a pretty high GPA and a lot of motivation to do it. As CCP has grown and the restrictions and and the challenges have changed, you can see the big increase. This year alone, at least from

043first semester, we have 173. That is actually more because we have students who have jumped in. This semester, we're well over 180 students who are taking college classes either with our staff here on campus, which is awesome. Um, through partnerships with MCC, they partner with Lorraine County Community College, or we have students who are again taking these classes online. they're going to a Tri-C campus. Um we also have a handful of students who drive to the University of Acra to take classes. So the online class um access has stayed the same if not increased. Again, our students really do like the asynchronous classes. They enjoy the flexibility. They like the freedom to sleep in, to not have to be here by 7:28 a.m. um to work, to do what they need to do. However, as

044these numbers have increased, so have the increases of our drops, our failures, our students who are getting C's and D's and are not able to move on or be successful in the program. >> I want to make just one quick point to what Amanda said is as these students are taking these college level classes, when they get it, when they receive a D or or an F, that that grade stays on their transcript forever. It's not something that if they retake it when when they go off to another university that that grade drops. That that grade that they earned as a 15 or a 16y old stays with them on their transcripts forever. And we want to make sure that we are providing every resource we possibly can to ensure that our students are going

045to college with the best possible grades that they can. That way they don't have to retake these classes. Additionally, if a student does fail a CCP class, remember I said it's at no cost to them, it then does become a cost to them and their family when they do have when they don't pass that class and have to retake that class. So, we're really trying to help families avoid that situation. >> What percentage of students are failing classes through CCP? So, of that 170 or 180 from last year, what percentage of students failed the class? I'd say less than 5% honestly. This past semester, this fall, I think we had four students fail classes. Two of them fail two classes. And then we had a couple late drops. So that's withdrawing after um after the

046deadline. So it's not it's not a gigantic number, but we would prefer it zero, honestly. And so things like this are put in, you know, we're trying to put in place to prevent that. But it's not it's not an astronomical number. >> And again, a lot of these students are are your typical AB type students, but when they're going to take a college level course, they're often scoring significantly lower than that. So, we want to make sure that they are transitioning into these CCP classes, succeeding in these CCP classes, and then going on in the future, being successful with our help. >> A lot of what our our CCP students start with too are like the the 10 classes, which are prerexs to move on. So when they do pass with the D, they might

047get the credit for the class, but they're not able to move on to that next section because typically you have to have a C or higher. Um, so we again run into that issue where now we're in a second semester trying to scramble to find the rest of their credits because they can't continue with CCP, but we're halfway through the school year, you know, >> so online classes, do you have to be in some type of a learning environment or can you do those at home? >> That's what I thought. You don't have anybody watching them? >> Nobody. >> That's where you guys go. >> That's where we're changing it. Yeah. >> If I may as well, I've had some of my kids that have done this as well. And I think having that structure,

048it is a big jump when you go from 7 to 3, right, Monday through Friday to nobody's looking over my shoulder. I can be here for a period of time. So, this certainly adds a little bit more structure. I like the idea, right? Because you're still getting that that environment that they're used to with the higher level classes. Can you talk about drops for non-attendants just real briefly? >> Yeah, those are those are always a surprise for us. Um Jen gets an update from TRIC C throughout the semester weekly. Usually, yeah, about the first couple weeks it's weekly and so we always kind of cringe at that two week point when we see drop for non-attendance because again we don't have access to monitor who's logging in when and um that's always a shock because

049then we're adjusting schedule in some cases bringing them back to high school classes and a couple weeks in and it's it's usually a shock to us and the student um who wasn't aware that they needed to log in x amount of times per week and that tr is tracking that and now they're not in that pass any longer >> and essentially with this lab that number should go to zero. >> Yes, >> we'll be able to be there to help them monitor them from the time in. >> So, jumping over to the associates academy, this is um another opportunity that another opportunity we're going to provide to students and this is for students who are looking to earn their associates degree. So this number has grown also especially I mean CCP in general has grown

050um but the number of students who have that as a goal and are working towards that has also grown. So um we meet with TRIC every year to kind of look at where our um where our gaps are any classes that we can bring into the building um where the trends are and as a team we talk about that all the time. So what we've noticed over the past couple years especially is we have a lot of students who are looking at those 1010 classes that um Amanda mentioned. So, Psych 1010, so 1010, those ones that get their general education requirements out of the way. And so, a lot of what we're going to look at here for the associates academy does that. It takes what our students are already doing at home sometimes on

051their couches and brings it into our building and kind of uses our resources as well. So, it um can factor in some AP courses that they're already doing here for college credit and kind of do a hybrid or a mixture of CCP, AP to get that associates um degree. So, what this will provide is an opportunity for our students in grades 10 through 12. So, CCP itself is for grades 7 through 12. Um, we don't have a whole lot of seventh and eighth graders to participate. I can think of one right now off the top of my head um for this year. In the past, we've had, you know, some students do this, but this opportunity we're putting for our 10th, 11th, and 12th graders um because they're ready for that challenge. So, we're looking

052for um students to jump in in 10th grade. And you might be thinking, well, 10th grade feels a little early. But when we're looking at the credits that they need for an associates pathway, we're going to be looking at some AP 9th grade, some CCP classes, 10th grade, and then springboarding from there. So that's why we've we're looking specifically at the 10th through 12th graders. Um, for next year in our first roll out year, we're really going to be looking at our current 9th graders who are rising up to 10th grade um to get this started. So it's designed with high school students in mind. So that means we're taking that college rigor and bringing it back into the high school so that we have that supportive piece. So Amanda described the CCP lab who

053is that's going to be more for like our casual CCP students who's taking one or two classes. This is also going to have a lab component to it. Um and that's going to look a little bit different because not only will that be a time for students to work on online classes, but part of the structure of this is that students will be taking classes here at the high school. they'll be taking online classes and hybrid classes. So that lab time is kind of a flex time for them sometimes to be working on online and sometimes um a TRIC instructor will be coming in um to do some of those hybrid course work with them. We're going to have a lot of different supports available for associates academy students. Um our associates academy lab class

054is what I just described. It'll be built into all 10th and 11th grade associates academy student schedules where they'll be here in the building. They'll have time to work in their online coursework. Sometimes um a professor from TRIC will be in here um for 25% of their class. We will have high school advising. So that's the typical um advising that we do with CCP students. It's a little bit different because um Amanda and I are kind of piecing together the TRIC part or the CCP classes and how that fits into our standard framework and we do have an outline of that but for every student it looks a little bit different. Um TRIC academic advising students will have access to meet with the TRIC academic adviserss and that'll happen within our academy. So those academic

055adviserss will be coming here to meet with them to um plan out their coursework throughout the associates academy and beyond. Um, TRIC has an amazing transfer center. So, I mean, you could probably speak to that way better than I can, but when we refer students there, they have partnerships with programs um so students can springboard from that associates pathway to a 4-year college um seamlessly. So, they'll have those resources as well. And then the um testing center services, our students will um have to do placement tests in order to be a part of the associates academy. um by and large especially our 10th graders just to make sure that they're at that college ready um standpoint. So testing center will be um a part of that their services will come here to help support our

056students. So we're kind of wrapping around um students with all of the supports that they'll need. Program requirements for this year um well in prep for next year they'll be entering 10th grade. We might have some 11th graders in there if there's space available. Um, students must turn in the appropriate CCP paperwork. So, there's forms that have to be turned in by April 1st. That's a general CCP rule. Um, for the state, we're having an Associates Academy information night on February 12th. So, anyone participating needs to attend that because we're going to go even deeper into all of the ins and outs of this with those families so that they can make an informed decision if this is something that would be a good fit for their student. And then they must apply to and

057gain acceptance into TRIRC, which as um an upcoming 10th grader, that would include placement testing into English and math. So this is a sample um pathway. Might be hard to see, but we have 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade kind of planned out. This is not the only pathway or the exclusive pathway. This is going to be look look very different. We have some students, for example, in nth grade who don't take high school algebra 1 because they've already taken it in eighth grade. So, we're going to have to adjust and pivot as we go. This will be very individualized. But, we use this as a rough outline when we were meeting with TRIC C in order to make sure we were able to map out all of the high school requirements and that married

058with the TRIC associates um pathway requirements. So, this is um if you're looking at this, it kind of we divides it out throughout the years. The highlighted courses are those um that we do not have an in-house teacher to teach in a CCP way or um in an AP way. And um so there's some some hybrid options. We also um have some AP options that could go in here as well. So for example um in 10th grade students could take AP US history and that would substitute in for a different course. So there's a lot of moving pieces that go along with this. Um, but we wanted students to have a typical ninth grade experience to kind of get set with high school and then this would be an opportunity for 10th grade. And then

059we just have a sample schedule of what this could look like. Again, this probably won't be what anyone's schedule looks like with the period and classes exactly where they are, but it shows how we can integrate our existing classes here, what we already have available through CCP, through AP in order to accomplish um a daily schedule for our students that makes sense and gets them through the requirements um not only for high school graduation, which is our first and foremost um priority, but also to get them through the classes they would need for their associates degree. We have Dr. Janice Taylor from TriC to talk a little bit more about their part of this. >> Wonderful. Thank you and thank you for having me this evening. This has been a wonderful partnership. Um we have

060been working together for 15. The wonderful thing about this partnership is that they really provide us a lot of feedback in terms of how we can improve what we do. And so, um, I was so excited when they came to me with this idea, um, to say, "Hey, you know, with everything that you heard in terms of what some of the challenges and opportunities are for Buckeye students, what can we create that uh, would benefit most of our students here at Buckeye?" And so, thus, the academy, we haven't come up with a real name yet. And so that's why you see a different name on these slides. But if you can go to the next slide. I am not going to go over about the academy because my colleagues over here did a really great

061job. So we're going to go to the next and I have notes to keep me on track. So, um, but I what I would what I really I do want to add is, um, what this represents and what it represents is that it continues to strengthen our partnership with Buckeye School District, but more importantly, it strengthens the connection between secondary and higher education. And um what that h what benefits come out of that in return is that there you will see as um was presented by my colleagues is that there's going to be more alignment of coursework um to really um support students making a seamless transition to whatever their postsecary um goals are. uh will be sharing resources. Um even though although the students will be here um at the high school, they will

062still have access to all of the things that any other tri student has access to. So we do have some robust services that are online that they can take advantage of. Um and they'll have more support here on the ground in terms of helping them to access those services. um the Buckeye uh University, excuse me, the Brunswick University Center is 12 miles away. So, if they ever needed to go there and use that facility, they can do that as well. Not to mention even with the teachers having access to all of the resources that any other faculty would have at the college. And so again I mentioned they'll have um their TRIC IDs and so they will truly have a college experience. It it will be as if this was another campus. Okay. So, um

063I also want to talk real quickly about the post high school benefits. So, sometimes we have some students that are so close to earning that associates degree, but they may have a couple of credit hours um to take in order to receive that associates degree. Well, what we the strategy that we're offering at TRIC C, I call it plus one strategy, is that students um a counselor or an advisor will and a trans and a transfer specialist will work with them to help them to map out their plan towards completion of their associates degree and transition into um whatever balorate program they um are choosing to move into. So um for the first three consecutive semesters they will um they will have their uh tuition at a 10% discount. So whereas they won't have the

064same um discounted rate or the school won't have the same discounted rate. So that cost is p passed on to the students but it will still be a discounted rate for the students and their families. We uh pride ourselves on having the lowest uh tuition in the state. And so that 10% discount on top of that um will easily get them towards completion. And so um lastly, why TRIC and why this model? This model, if you look at any of the research on dual enrollment, and that's kind of the national term for what in Ohio we call college credit plus. they they will point to towards all of the positive outcomes associated with this type of model, this type of strategy and approach to um college credit plus or dual enrollment. We um in terms

065of TRIRC, we have one of the most comprehensive ecosystems when it comes to dual enrollment and offering opportunities for students to gain college credit while they're still in high school. And so therefore, that's why we were it was easy for us to um to join into a partnership like this. Uh and then lastly, we know at TRIC C that this is not just about a student earning a college credit. It's about advancing their future, advancing um the um the e, you know, the uh their economic mobility um way beyond the time period that they're here and the time that they spend with us at TRIC. So again, we thank you. We thank you for allowing us to continue to be that partner. And so I'm really excited about this upcoming school year. I guess I

066guess in conclusion, >> last year when the four of us before we reached out to you were talking about this, it was, "Oh, wouldn't that be nice to be able to do that?" We moved into the 2526 school year. we we asked ourselves why can't we do that? It's really the partnership with with TRIC and and and TRIC being on board um that has allowed us to go down this path to be able to provide these incredible supports uh to our students. And just as a as a quick note um you know I I wake up every day and when I when I think about what is you know in the very near future for our students I sometimes have to pinch myself a little bit because this is a reality that is really really

067truly exciting. Um, so much so that last Friday I was in a meeting with all the other Madina County principles and I and I shared this. We're the only school in Madina County that will be doing this. And I don't know about Northeast Ohio, but I think we're going to be among the very very few uh to be able to provide these supports both with the lab and the associates pathway to our students. Um, and the other Madina County principles principles want to know how we're doing. they're going to track this and they want to come in and see how we're doing this because this is going to be something that I think we are going to be on the forefront of for students across Madina County. So, >> board of education, thank you, Mr.

068St. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Yeah, before we get let me comment and then I'll turn to the board members. First of all, thank you doc. Thank you, Jen and Amanda. I mean, this is great. Ellie, thank you. Your team got did a great job, right? Right. I mean, the challenge is always provide opportunities for our kids and support them, right? That that's got to be the mandate. We we've got to continually do that. Um and also an opportunity to lead with yes, right? This idea comes and okay, there's all kinds of reasons to probably find that we can't do this, but let's figure out a way that we can do this for our for our students. So, so thank you. We're excited about this. It's so easy to support from from the

069superintendent level because it's good for our kids and it's providing more support. It's interesting, Adam. I know when you were at the high school Madina County principal meeting, I was also at a superintendent's meeting at the exact same time. Not the same place. They won't meet at the same place we will. I don't I don't know why, but I got a phone call later in the afternoon. Hey, Jeff, what's going on with you and tri? So from your meeting went to the superintendent and I I hung up. No, I >> Thank you. Thank you. And board members, please. Questions or comments? >> Maybe just one quick thought here. I think the uh the partnership that we've had for years has been terrific. I know I've bumped into quite a few recent graduates over the last

070couple years. Um and I'm really impressed that they're going to four-year universities down Balden Walls and they're graduating actually a year early through this partnership. Right. So that's that's saving their parents and the students $25,000 at least right there. So it really is terrific. So thank you for putting this together. >> Uh how is it going to be rolled out to the students? >> Um so we're going to start with the parent meeting on February 12th. Um which I believe has gone out already in our monthly newsletter >> already gone out and it'll go out a couple more times. So will they hear about it before then that parents to go? >> So they will. Yeah. We um Jen and I starting in February hold one-to-one graduation plan meetings with every student enrolling. Um so

071as part of our conversation for our students who are kind of tracking this way, we'll have information to give them. Um Jenna is a Campbo wizard. Um and I'm sure we'll create something beautiful that we can staple right to their schedule. But we're going to have those individual meetings with not just all of the freshmen um currently, but but any student currently in here both about the TRIC Academy um and for some of our our students, it might be a little bit of a a sad conversation that they have to be here for the CCP lab so we can keep tabs on them, but they'll all know um along with the information that'll go out in all calls and social media and our um we have grade level Google classrooms that we utilize since all

072of our students are comfortable with it and we put out probably too much information. it turns into white noise. But we also have our annual CCP night on January 28th. So we'll preview a little bit of information, but we're not going to get into the weeds in that because that's just where I stand up there and go over all the rules about CCP for an hour. And um so we'll introduce it there a little bit, but we really need parents and students to come to that February 12th meeting to kind of go over all of all of the information about it. And what tends to happen with both the CCP night and I'm assuming this meeting is we'll have a large turnout because everyone's excited and they want to hear about it. And then, you

073know, it kind of dwindles down a little bit when, you know, then there's testing and there's requirements and there's paperwork and things like that. So, we're just going to encourage students who feel like they're ready to kind of follow through the process and, you know, do that testing and make sure this is the right opportunity because it's not just about, you know, putting students in seats in the academy. It's about putting the students who are ready and who are going to be successful. >> Do you have a goal? How many students you hope? >> Yeah. I I I think in year one we're we need to be arriving probably 25 30 probably at at tops in year one. If we get there great if it's a little less than that that's fantastic but probably at

07425 to 30. >> How many of the Buckeye teachers also will be TRIC professors in this program? >> We're we're really lucky for the size of our school. We have quite a few teachers and Mr. Call is one of them. I made eye contact with um who are already adjunct professors through TRIC. So we offer um multiple math, English, communication, Spanish, science. Um we have a couple teachers who have already approached us and are interested in working towards getting the extra 18 grad credits needed to do like an intro to psych. Um which is probably one of the most popular classes our kids will take online. So we're going to hope to increase that. But we have a lot more in house than than a school for our size. >> I think it's phenomenal. I

075applaud you guys for being innovative. And I love the idea of keeping kids on our campus to continue with that kind of social and emotional growth that sometimes they don't get. And I love that our our teachers can participate as professors. I think it's I just I think it's a tremendously innovative direction. It's good for us. >> Absolutely. I love the support. for for some of the kids that that really need that support and that structure and that just the connection. I appreciate that very much. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you. >> You want a copy? the treasure. >> All right, everybody. Um, I so apologize. I am actually going to use the podium and there's probably a joke that this is the better view of me anyway. So, you know, instead of this

076view, but I do need to use the podium. We're going to go over the following profile. So, I apologize. Okay. So, um, tonight I'm going to pres present the quality profile for the district. And I think I started off with answering exactly what is a quality profile. That is not a typo up there. The quality profile is a report based off data from the 2024 2025 school year. QPS always run a school year in in years. Um the public the publication is designed to give another avenue for our community to get a clear picture of the exceptional education that's happening in our school district. Um I was surprised actually that we don't have a QP here. Every district that I've been involved with prior to here has a quality profile. We will always have one

077from from this point on. Uh been working on this for a little bit of a little while. Okay. I'll go through this relatively quickly. This will we will have uh if you can go to our next page. There you go. You got it. Okay. And I know it's it's hard to see this. This will be on our website tomorrow if we can get it up that quickly. Um and we will send it out via social media as well. Okay. So from the first page of the quality profile, you know, we first want to talk about our mission. A reminder, our strategic plan says, "Our mission is to empower our students to excel in a highly competitive society." And our vision our vision for the district is to prepare our students for academic excellence um and

078a deep sense of purpose. The competencies that we talk about, we talk about all the time in our portrait of a buck, right? They are to be a critical thinker, a great communicator. We want our students to persevere, social, be socially aware. We want our students to have integrity. That's important. Respect, stewardship. It's interesting to note that none of the things I just talked about show up on a state report card. All right? They're not measurable. But yet, we all know that these things are incredibly important. These are the soft skills that we want our students to have when they graduate and actually when they move through the entire school district and then ultimately graduate. So what were our strategic plan goals? Our our strategic plan goals where you see them up there both internal

079and external communication. Of course we need our students and want our students to achieve uh academically and always enhancing our technology. Facilities is a major issue in this school district. And we're very fortunate that we're moving forward with a program with with a with a facilities plan to build a new high school and to make this school ultimately into where our junior high school students are and and move probably to a middle school type of uh configuration, which also will give more room for preschool at our elementary voting. And certainly we always want to be concerned about safety and security of our students and staff and the community. Finances are part of are part of the the uh quality profile and we're always working on climate and culture and our business operations and we're in

080the business of human beings right so human resources is always a part of what we do and identify it in the Q. Okay. So, a quick uh you know, you can't see everything on here, but some quick items from facts and figures of of our community. Our enrollment in 2425 was 2069 students. Our enrollment is relatively stable, okay? Over the course of the next 10 to 15, 20 years. We're not expected to lose a whole lot of students. We're not expected to gain a whole lot of students. So, that that will be that will stay pretty uh pretty standard there. Obviously, we we have high standardized test site test scores in this district. We are a high achieving school district. Always recognize the purple star. The purple star is the commitment that the district has

081with military families and every one of our schools has been identified as a purple star uh school in the state of Ohio. And that is not an easy accomplishment to get. other things that are are here. Obviously, curriculum is going to drive uh everything that we do in relation to our students besides their safety, the enhancements to to technology, safety and security. And again, we have facilities on there. The next slide is just a quick snapshot of our academics and I'll start with the, you know, the beautiful picture clearly of the class of 2025. But to the right, I want to bring everybody's attention to our overall rating. And I gave a presentation on this at a previous board meeting a few months ago. Our curriculum director, Mrs. Elias, gave a presentation as well, but

082this is important information to have the the the profile on the right hand side. It shows that, you know, we're a high achieving district, but but we're not satisfied with that. We want to continue moving forward because if if the if the goal on this measure is to be five stars, we want to be five stars. All right? And you see a five on there. you see some things that trend very well. I I mentioned a little bit before our our standardized test scores, our ACT scores, our SAT scores, those are going to come up. We we always score higher than than the average. Uh but we want that to achieve even more. I want to point out the progress component and and I mentioned this before progress component up there is a two and

083we are not happy with that score. As as I mentioned before, we were surprised by that score. We have um spent a lot of time this year and even the end of last year focusing on where that score is and where we think we need that score to improve. And again, that is progress monitoring. And what we think we we established here in the district is for a long time we were probably focused on achievement. And we absolutely need to continually be uh uh focused on achievement. But but we slipped a little bit in progress. Um we we are dedicated a lot of work in instructional focus and working with our teachers, our building principles leading this to to make certain that our progress monitor, our progress rating uh continues to increase because that that

084is not an appropriate score for us. Some other academic things. I mentioned these before. Obviously, CCP, you know, how how can you have a better presentation than the one who's before me? We offer a ton of AP classes, honors classes, uh, foreign language here, college and career readiness, a big focus of what we do here. Thank you. Okay. And as we go through all the other items that are on there for all of our students from a preK12 perspective, right, all of our co-curriculars, all of our fine arts, all the things that that we do here. And then I I'll I'll mention, you know, a little bit of our co-curricular and our extracurricular activities as well because, you know, Amanda or Jen mentioned in the last presentation for the size of a school district, we

085are the offerings that are available to our kids. I say the same thing here from a co-curricular and extracurricular perspective because of the success level that our that our students and our staff has. uh in some ways this the current year that we're in right now has been record setting in in the co-curricular extracurricular um area which is certainly something we want to consider athletics talked about this a little bit uh maybe maybe I was a little premature on that but we've had an incredible amount of success uh for athletics and I'll give Mr. Myers was here. I'll give him some credit. One of the items that John has been very much focused on is getting more of our kids involved in athletics if they want to be and supporting them and also looking at

086programs that maybe aren't traditional programs here, but programs that our students might want going forward. An example would be girls lacrosse that we're running as a club. An example potentially going forward might be flag football for our girls, right? things that are not usual kind of athletic opportunities for kids, but things that kids are saying to us now, hey, we might be interested in these things. So, we're very happy about where we're at from an athletic perspective and hoping, you know, that growth continues. From a finance perspective, I promise Mr. Donley all the time I am not going to be the person talking about finance, but but we have this page in our QP as well. I think it needs to be there. Um I am always intrigued by the performance index because the performance

087index index is comparing the success of our students with the amount of support that is given by the district but basically through through local monies and not money coming from the state. Okay. The rest of the QP really is just information on who our principles are, how you can reach out to the district, all those type of things. and you can just take us through the end. Okay. So, the QP is simply another resource for the community to see what we do here, some of the successes we have and even some of the challenges we have. Look, we there are things on the QP that we could have left off and we wouldn't have had to discuss them, I guess, but there are areas that that we are certainly looking uh to continually improve. So,

088that's quality profile. I will have a quality profile updated for the school board and for the community every year from now on. Um I think it's a nice uh it's a nice piece of information in addition to the other pieces of information um that I share that I have shared, you know, in the time frame I've been here. You'll notice on the bottom connect with Buckeye Local Schools. We have a Facebook account. We have a um an Instagram account. We you you name it. I I am not an expert in social media as all at all. Um I don't follow a lot of that stuff myself. Uh but but I I know that these these areas of communication have been appreciated by the community. And that's the quality. Mr. >> Yeah. Yeah. Overall nice document.

089You mentioned we're going to share this online which is good. Um we know that not everyone's going to be able to find that as well if you don't seek it out there. I know some of the feedback we've heard over the years, right? need to continue to improve and increase our communication >> is I think it's worth the discussion on how we share this. Do we I know we do some mailings every year. >> There's probably a lot of overlap between what we're sharing here and that being able to combine that might be something for us to look at. >> Yeah, I think there's nice nice sound. I think there's an opportunity to combine some things. I also think you know we we haven't we haven't set that out yet. So, uh and working with

090our experts internally on communication. look at Mrs. Austin and also the experts that we that we that we contract with the impact group. I think there's a way we can do exactly what you're saying. Yeah, there's the more communication we can do the better. Okay, questions. Anybody questions? Mark questions. I stay away from the findings. All right. Um I I also I'm going just do these things. Stay where you're at. Mark's got a presentation coming, please. Um, I'm going to finish up my part right from here. Uh, my next thing is just a quick facilities update. Um, we are working continually through the facilities update. We are meeting as a core group. Uh, those meetings are bi-weekly. They will continue. I am planning on bringing a more formal facilities update to the board at the

091work session here in a couple weeks. Uh, I think you guys will enjoy seeing that, but I didn't think four presentations in one board meeting was a good idea. Um, we also, our visioning process begins this week. We're really excited. We've got 35 to 50 people coming, a combination of students, community members, parents, staff members, staff members who live in the community that will start walking us through the visioning process. We actually, the first visioning meeting is actually uh Thursday. And I'll have an update for the board here in a couple weeks. Um, just a general announcements before I turn over to Mark. uh a rem a reminder and a thank you to the board members. January is schoolboard recognition month. So when you get back to your tables, you have a a nice little

092uh certificate from the state there. Also, I gave everybody a pin. All right. So, thank you, Mrs. Ken. You were the person behind that. So, uh good. I'd like to wish good luck to uh to our marching band. They're going to Walt Disney tomorrow morning. So, we want to make sure they're safe and have a nice weekend down there. A reminder that tomorrow is an early release as well. We have no school on Monday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King uh Jr. Day. Um a thanks to Mr. Lutman and and Mr. Z. We will begin getting our board meetings on YouTube again. That was done once before. It's kind of gone away. Ben, thank you. You and Adam have that taken care of. I was actually going to mention to one of our students,

093did you hear? She's a YouTube fan. Yeah. >> But she just wanted to go home and get steak. excited. Uh, and we've got and we've got Instagram going too. Okay, I said three presentations. That was two. I'm going to turn it over to Mark now for facilities or for >> actually on your board agenda if you're following. I know we're on number six. We're going to jump to number nine just to get the presentation out of the way and then board seats. Um, >> and this is a four-page presentation >> just for clarity. There's no vote on this, right? This is just information to to share forward in the community some some updates on all stuff we've heard about House Bill 129, House Bill 186, House Bill 309 335, all the property tax changes and

094what they've been doing. And I wish I had really good information for you, but if you want to know the truth, between meetings last year, end of the year, I was at the county auditor's office today at 1:30 till 3:30 going over what this means to us. And their explanation to us is the state department of trans taxation is still working on a lot of this. They're still working on it. They have tax bills prepared based on last year's information even though things have changed. They're the state issued these new laws, but the implementation wasn't quite exactly thought out. So, we're they're working through all that. And the best information is I know some things are going to change exactly what gets applied during which tax year and which credits to get applied during which

095tax year. They're still working out. There will be some revenue loss for the district. There's no doubt about it. It's just a matter of when and how much. But let me just go over real quick. You could go to the second page. House Bill 129. This will include fixed sum levies, emergency levies in the 20 mil floor calculation. Up until now, we have past levies that without going in the house with money 20. As home values go up, effective rates were millage goes down. We're at the 20 mil floor for assessing taxes on our property taxes throughout the district. Things that have not been included in the 20 mil floor are permanent improvement levies from the in permanent improvement millage from the inside millage. We have one mill there. And also we have a emergency

096excuse me emergency levy which raises about $3.2 million a year. It's emergency uh nomenclature is going away. They're going to call them fixed sum less. It's really a better name. I'm not sure where emergency came from but it's not an emergency. It was just what the state u name for it. maximum of 10 years. The new fixed sum levies are only a maximum of five, but anyway, they're going to be included in the 20 mil floor for calculation. So, you're going to have all this these 20 mills, but now the emergency levies are included, which will basically lower your effective millage on your other levies. Not right away. Takes a little bit of time to get there, but it's basically going to lower our revenue stream. By how much and when, we're not sure, but

097it it will happen. Um the slow revenue growth uh this will slow our revenue growth and what kind of world will we do the 20 mil floor because of the emergency levy will bring us above the 20 mil floor. That means our reappraisal bumps we received three years ago and we expected to receive this year will go away. We will not receive those because we're not at the floor to get them. The state right now is struggling with implementation concerns. the Ohio Department of Taxation, the ODOT, does ODOT, excuse me, the Ohio Department of Taxation and the County Auditor's Office are both looking at each other for guidance. What are you guys doing? What are you guys doing? They're not quite sure. In fact, they're really concerned about the software that's going to do all

098the calculations to create the credits that the state in instituted in the new law. And they're not quite sure how that's going to happen or who's going to develop the software between now and April. Um, so there's there's a lot happening. I wish I could give you better information, but I'm giving you the best I have up to now. Next page, um, House Bill 186. This is an inflation cap credit. The the value, excuse me, our our levy um, increases were tied to property values in the past. And if the property values went up 20% and you're at the 20 mil floor, we got those prop we got increases equal to 20% of value at the 20 mills, they're going to cap those increases. It's not going to be the increase in property values, it's

099going to be the last three years worth of inflation growth. For instance, if it's 3% 3% 3%, the maximum growth we'd get is 9% total, not the 20% increase. Now, if we get a 3 or 4% increase in property values and they've got a 3% 3% 3%, they're only going to give us the actual property tax growth. They're not going to give us the inflation. We get the less of it. But that is going to cap our growth on our inside millage and our other levies we've passed. In the past, we haven't come to the voters as often because with this growth, we didn't need to ask for additional funds. There's a little bit built into the system. Now our revenue may be rather flat. >> Mark, what isn't that how the system was built

100to do just that? >> The system was not exactly because of the 20 mil floor. Once school districts reach the 20 mil floor, that happens because over over time, if you don't pass additional levies, the effective rates of your levies you do have out there go down. And once you hit 20 mills, now when the property values go up, your revenue goes up. I think back in 1976, the thought was we want to at least give some minimum level support to school districts so they could run their districts and have a little bit of increase because they they realize costs go up. But if our revenues are flat, the only way to increase would be to go to the voters. If the voters constantly say no or the state constantly says no, how do you

101cover those costs? And you're going to hurt your educational system. You can cut so far, but once you're cutting into the bone, you're hurting true education of kids. So, >> so the 20 mil floor when it was created was part of it was to assist school districts who have a traditionally difficult time in passing >> Yes. >> operating >> levies and we we had we are one of those school districts and we when we hit the 20th floor that assisted us. >> It it did. >> Here's one thing. In the past when if you're at the 20 mil floor and they're just your standard property value increases those are 6 8% a lot of people okay my taxes went up and it wasn't a big to-do when they go up 20 5% 20%. That you

102feel that in the wall that everybody feels in the wall. So now it's like hey we got a problem and there's a big uproar and the state legislature did something right. I don't want to call it a knee-jerk reaction because I doubt we're going to have those kind of increases going forward, but we probably won't have it for many decades in the future. But this is >> because we have to get back to >> this. Well, the 20 mil floor in effect is going to go away. And I can get into a long discussion and I don't think people want to hear it right now, but by capping growth, effective rates could go down. And if we only allow increase by the amount of G the inflation growth, we could be collecting less than 20

103mills just the way the new law reads. Um anyway, this inflation cap, it caps revenue increases to districts is based on the inflation rate. There's some state the state will provide help for some districts, but I think that's referring to the districts who went to reappraisal two years ago who really get hit hard in this process and maybe last year. Since our reappraisal was this year, I don't think there's any help coming out of it. That interpretation is the question still unanswered. Also, this could have a significant impact. So, I like I said on the numbers, but I'm just letting you know we're I'm trying I'm checking with other treasures. I'm checking with county auditors, looking for the state. There's meetings and and there there's budgeting meetings I'm going to doing everything I can to

104gather information so I can come up with an accurate forecast which I got to present in two weeks. Uh, next page. There's a couple other House bills that are passed. House Bill 309. This is increases the authority for the county budget commission. So, the county budget commission can't override some of the levies that approved. They can say you have too much successive and decrease the amount that's levy. I don't think we're there anymore. Um, we might have been there in the past, but with our new capital project, we are moving money towards building a new high school. We are not going to be in that situation where they would say we have excessive revenue, excessive cash. Um, this has the potential to override over approved increases the first year. No, but beyond that, the county

105budget commission can say, "No, you don't need all that money. You have a whatever." And I think it's subjective based on what their feeling is. There's no guidelines saying 100%, 40%, there's no number. It's just whatever they feel. Um, how this going to be implemented for that county is unknown because it's brand new. And I think you can work real well with the budget commission, which is the treasurer, the auditor, and the prosecutor, but those elections and those people change and we just don't know where you're going to end up. Next page, House 33 or House Bill 335. This caps growth on the inside village to the same inflationary factor um uh raised, but that's not going to be implemented until calendar year is it calendar year 2028? >> Next re. Yeah, next re-evaluated information.

106So, our inside knowledge can grow for the next few years. That's a little bit of saving graces. It's not much, but it's something to help save us as far as total devastation on our revenue increases. But those kind of increases help us cover increasing costs. Our electric bills go up. Our employees deserve races. Our medical costs go up. Just, you know, in general, life happens. We can't if we have flat revenue, you somewhere along the line, something has to get. But I don't know if there's any questions on all this. I'll be happy to entertain them. But I'm basically telling you there's so much out there. I don't know. And I and I've got questions with do you know and I we're working on it and I'm trying to find out as much as I

107can. But there's a lot happening. As soon as I know better probably midappril I'll have some information. I may do a five-year forecast update in uh May just update the community on you know what now what I see what we expect in the future. Any questions? So the go. Yeah. >> So when you say there might be a significant impact on buffet, what does that mean? >> Um we could lose millions of dollars in taxes based on how they apply it and when they apply it. And if it's applied um based on certain calculations that the county auditor says they're thinking about, but they don't know how they're going to implement. Um, and because there's so many different hospitals that they all seem to work sort of the same way, but once we're above the

10820 mil floor, some of these things don't matter to us, but they will matter once we uh go back down the 20 mil floor. It's property values are our effective breaks to the bill. Another question. >> I was actually going to ask what do you mean by significant? >> Yeah. Well, um I I cranked some numbers out worst case scenario and it looks like we could lose up to in two years. And this is part of our emergency levy falling off, but we could lose about a million half dollars more than was on the last um fiveyear forecast. I mean, I had us going down because the emergency levy going away, but maybe a million half dollars more in that same year and the next year even lower than that. Um just because of the

109inflation cap to our growth instead of the actual growth. >> So you're saying in two years where the emergency levy falls off at 3.2 million plus a potential 1 to one a.5 million so you got 4.7. >> That's that's a possibility right now. I'm I'm I'm going to guard that comment and say I truly don't know. Um and the county auditor he said he didn't know. The only thing he knew for sure the inflation cap for inside millillage won't be applied for three more years to the next three years. He says everything else he goes it's up in the air because the implementation when they pass the state all these new laws they say this is the rule implementation is usually a big piece. It's they leave it up to the department of taxation or

110county auditors to figure it out and uh one of the big problems they have is the software to do all the credit competition. Mark, um, thank you for putting this together. There's certainly there's a ton of variables I don't know all of those yet. I think as we go through, I think I would agree with both questions here. We need to understand the impact to fun and how we need to adjust or pivot forward. Right. >> And I know this wasn't much of a presentation, but I wanted to let you know I've been looking into it and just to give you an update that I don't have an update, right? I I but I've been asked a lot of what's going on. What's going on? And we're asking what's going on and I was there

111with all the other county treasuries today schools and um Wadssworth was there talking about how how many extra emergency levies they have and they're going to they're under fiscal watch or caution or whatever term they're using. Um and there's different things that are going to happen to different districts based on their revenue streams and their expenses. Um we all have concerns and none of them have the same concerns. Some of our districts are in multiple counties and they're going to get hit with different uh rates applied based on that. Uh we don't have that issue, but there's it's going to be very interesting in the next couple of years and I hate to not give true true numbers and whatever. I love to have the numbers but um I just want to let you know

112I'm working on I just don't >> we certainly will have the numbers and it can take a little bit of time. I think we know that we were in pretty good shape over the last couple years through fiscal responsibility for a long period of time. Changes to the state are going to impact us. We'll just have to begin to figure out what that best path is. We will lose some revenue. It's just a matter of how much will we lose and what do we need to do to survive it. And just to be clear, cash we have, the cash we spend, and the cash we bring in make up, you know, how we manage our district. I'm looking at all three angles on that. you know, are there ways we can cut some costs? You

113know, there's there way we can re increase revenues, um, all that stuff. But as picture becomes clear, I'll bring additional information to the board for presentation. >> Thank you for your time. >> All right, I'm going to recommend that we come back up to the table if that's okay. I thank everybody for continuing to stay with us. We still have some work to do tonight. Um, I know we're running long, but appreciate everybody hanging with us. Whether the financial pres now that was section N correct? >> Yep. >> Non-consent. So, treasur action items. Mark, this is you again. >> Okay. Um, the first item under the treasur's non-consent item in which basically I'm telling you we need to have an individual vote on this. This is our annual tax budget that has to be prepared

114and sent to the county auditor. Um, it needs to be ready for examination by our organizational meeting which was on January 3rd. the um the information had to be prepared based on what I had available to me in uh December. Our meeting with the county auditors as they realize they're not going to be to the penny accurate. Um submit what we have and then we will work our way forward um the best we can. But I do need approval from the board by law must be submitted and filed with the county by January 20th. Is there any questions about our tax budget information that's on the agenda? Okay. So, I'll take a motion. So, move. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Mr. Puya. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Bartie. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Sage. >> Yes. >>

115Mr. Sabar. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um the other item tonight which actually got brought up in public comment is a resolution to um transfer money out of the bond retirement fund O2 to the capital projects fund 070. Um and just to give an idea of there there is 1 million $14,000 in that account and people could say well how did that end up there? What happens for almost all municipal bonds, all school bonds, county auditors will assess taxes so we can pay our debt, but they don't know about delinquencies. So if you do the math, that million dollars over 25 years works out to a little over $40,000 collected per year. Considering our payments are a million and a half and they used to be higher before they refinanced, that's 2.5 2.6% 6% extra collections

116per year to ensure we don't default on our loans. It's a process followed all across the state by all county auditors to ensure we have enough money to pay our debt. So at the end of the bond payoff, every school district when you pay off a bond will have some money left. The money that is left since it was collected to pay for a capital project debt, the funds can be used by the district but they must be used on a capital project. You can't turn the lights on. You can't pay salaries with it. It has to be capital projects. That's the law. In order to get it approved to put it into a capital projects fund, we it is required that we have a a vote of the board. And it does require twothirds

117majority, which in our case requires four positive votes. Also, um it requires the the county to approve this as well, the county court system. Um, and last summer when we were putting together our capital project plan, we looked at cash reserves. We had cash we had coming in and what else is available out there. And this million dollars was sitting there. Well, not it wasn't sitting there yet, but when we knew it'd be somewhere between $900,000 a million dollars based on what was currently in the account, what was going to be collected in the first half of 20 first half of this fiscal year. We also looked at the PI money that's coming in. We looked at the sales tax money that's coming in and also dollars that were sitting in those accounts and the

118general revenue, general fund revenue. And all those different sources are what's going to help us get to our $40 million uh bucket of money to use along with a cop's load of 23 million to fund our capital projects. So, we have these dollars. They are allowed to be used by state law. And I just asked the board to consider approving the transfer these funds from the O2 to the 070 capital projects fund. Are there any questions? >> Yeah. How what do we have in the capital projects funds? How much money do we have right now? >> Um the exact amount is 32,800 some,000, but I don't have it to the penny. Um we want to reach 40 million by the end of the year. We were accumulating interest throughout this year. Um this million dollars

119plus about 2.5 million between the PI money and the uh capital, excuse me, the sales tax money. And there was going to be roughly $3.2 million transferred from the general fund into capital projects to get to that point. However, I am thinking that maybe we don't need to transfer 3.2 million. Maybe it's 2 million to get to that point and allow the interest to accumulate in the capital projects fund to get us to our $65 million budget to keep a little bit more money in the general fund. Um, we need to take a good look at that and maybe, you know, just go back to the drawing board a little bit to make sure that we have everything we need for capital projects and make sure we we are our general fund has plenty of

120money in it, too. So this 1 million has to be put into the capital projects. It cannot be put in just to the general fund. >> No, it cannot be general fund. It has to be spent on capital because it was collected and assessed initially for capital project debt. >> So I I have I have it pulled up because we I looked at this earlier in the year about some other questions that came up. It's actually Ohio Revised Code 5705.14 related to fund transfers. It's also Ohio Revised Code 5705.15 prohibited transfers and then it's also in the Ohio Constitution under article 8 section 2F. So some of this is in essence what it says uh 5705.14 says uh allows transfers of unexpended bond funds to the bond retirement fund or to a specific permanent improvement

121fund. uh 5705.15 says generally prohibits transferring proceeds or balances from bond issues to other funds. Uh and then Ohio constitution states that remaining funds after bond retirement are disposed of as provided by law often staying within the bond fund for future debt or specific uses primarily capital improvements. So, it can't be used anywhere outside of, you know, something to do with construction or bonds or things like that. Um, >> yeah. And and another point I didn't make earlier, the idea of giving all these dollars back to go back over 25 years worth of 7,689 parcels and all the owners that had them and tracing back how much they paid and how much considered overpayment. If you just averaged it out, it's like $528 per year per parcel. And the the logistics of doing that and

122trying to give it back to the people who paid it, you'd use up so much staff time, you'd probably use up half the bond funding that you try to get back. >> I mean, I would I would challenge that it would be illegal, Mark, to be honest. >> Well, exactly. But it is illegal. But if it were legal, it'd be logistically a nightmare. And I think that's why they put it into law on how to resolve the the overcolcted dollars and what you can do with it. And I quite frankly since we have a capital project the perfect fit, >> right? >> I have no problem. I I for 25 years I voted for it. I've paid for it 25 years. I don't need the money back. I just don't know if the taxpayers wanted

123it to go to a new school. That's my point. I mean, I guess we can't put it anywhere else, but um you know, obviously the bond was turned down three times and now we're taking taxpayer money and putting it into the school that we didn't approve. >> Yeah. So, I move to transfer the funds into the 070 account as described by Ohio Revised Code and Ohio Constitution. Okay. a second then second >> any further discussion at this point we would have >> okay Mr. No, I'm sorry. Any any further discuss? We would have another point for discussion here, right? >> I think we've already discussed you've made a move. We we talked about it ahead of time, but we have a motion. We have a second. So, there's an opportunity for further discussion if you

124want. >> Okay. Good. Is there I I mean, as far as I try to give all the information, all the details I have, but Seth, thank you for having the actual legal verbage. Um, this this is a great use of funds. has to be used on a capital project. For a capital project, we really need to accomplish. Um I would love if if the board could authorize this. >> I mean, I I would just say to Kim to Kim's point, there's nothing else we can do with the money. The board then the board can then have a discussion at future meetings on what we do with it. I mean, but there's no alter I mean >> we also have refinanced this debt as well, right? >> Yeah, this debt was refinanced at least twice before.

125what we're paying for it now. It's just part of what we have paid for was the final payment on a I think the second refinance. >> Okay. So that ultimately that saves some money as well, right? Which helping obviously. >> Okay. And then uh just for reference at 8 the next one of the next items we got 3287. >> Okay. >> I know you were close. >> Oh, so we got a little Okay. Uh Mr. Puyat. >> Yes. Mr. Mrs. Bvard, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cilich, >> yes. >> And Mr. Salazar, >> yes. >> Um, I have two non-consent items. Um, they're pretty standard on for ADA. Our December financial statements and also I have a certificate of records disposal form. Um, now that we approved this at organizational meeting, there's several items that we

126would like to uh that's been said for disclosing and shredding. Um, any questions on either of those items before we move on? >> Mark, the financial statements, anything? It all looks pretty standard. >> No, there there is one item. Thank you for bringing that up. We did not get our medical bill in December for January. So, there's a $400,000 uh lower expense for um benefits that will double up in January. It should anyway. It pay two $400,000 bills in January. So, it there's e and flow of these kinds of things, but if you look at our expenses for benefits, they they're much lower in December uh than what they should have been. Okay. So, this was >> already done. >> Okay. All right. Anything else Mark? >> No, I'm done. You're probably tired of hearing.

127>> That's all right. We've already completed nine, right? So, we're good there. So, we're going to go into superintendent recommendation. >> No, we need a motion. >> Oh, there's a consent. >> We have more consent. Okay. Thank you for keeping me check. I only screwed up twice. >> All right. >> Okay. Wait, it's me. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you very much. Okay. Again, thank you everybody for hanging with us. A lot of important stuff tonight and uh I appreciate uh everybody being here and and sticking with probably what has been a little bit longer of a board meeting than we usually have. Okay. I have some uh uh two non-consent items this as well. Each will need an individual vote if they come up for a vote. Uh but before I get into

128those, I want I want to discuss transportation somewhat with the board um and also with the community that's still here. And I know we're on video, so certainly the general community. First, I I want to thank the parents, our students, our teachers, our staff, our administrators for their work really all year long, but primarily since mid December through even today in trying to get our transportation, in particular, our bus routes working more efficiently. Rene is here. Thank you for all your work. Karen was here earlier, John. Um, and and really a whole lot of people trying trying to help out here. Um, the what what happened to us recently here, sort of kind of after Thanksgiving and into mid December, we had a number of personnel changes that were impacting our daily driver ability um,

129and availability. And what that path had us on was we were going to be out of compliance with the state. We are not permitted by law to be out of compliance with with the state uh expectations and we were going down the road of having to cancel numerous routes. We can't do that, right? So we have to have a plan to attack that before we get out of compliance. So what we did was we we we rerouted uh the bus routes. Okay. Now, as we did that, we knew that we had to get back in compliance. But anytime you are changing and altering times, you are altering the times for the students, for the staff, for for the parents. It's not something you do lightly. But but we really had no choice because we didn't

130have enough drivers from a daily basis to supply the need and the want that we have in relation to transportation. The problem is the problem. We don't have enough drivers. Okay, let's not mix any other idea into this. We need more drivers. We need to retain our current drivers. We need to recruit and retrain retain more drivers. So, what have we done to address this both short-term and long-term? Okay, obviously we adjusted the routes. On Monday, we came back from Christmas. You know, the routes were the routes were tough. I mean, we were getting kids here later than we wanted them here. We were having kids here later than it wanted to be. We have kids on the buses much longer time that than we're comfortable with, but it's gotten better every day. And I

131would give a an example to almost like the beginning of the school year. When the when the bus routes are are there for the beginning of the school year, in the first couple weeks of the school year, it is always a little bit of of of difficult to get things going where you want them to be. The experience we've had this week and today and yesterday has been very similar to the experience we have in August before Labor Day getting things moving a little bit more efficiently. Okay. But we still don't have enough drivers. So, we adjusted the rate the routes to keep our current drivers. We're once again asking for the ability to raise the bus driver hourly pay. I am working with the union leadership to to take that request to them. Um,

132that request will be given to the membership u as as early as this week because we want to retain our drivers and and certainly pay uh is a way to do that. We continue looking for new drivers. We've been looking for new drivers for the three and a half years that I've been here. We will always be looking for new drivers. We have new employees that are being hired tonight that will hopefully that will be able to offer some help in the afternoon very soon. We have drivers in training. We're hopeful hopeful they're going to pass and begin driving for us soon. We had drivers in training over the course of the past few months that either didn't get through the training, they're still in it, or in one case there was somebody who was

133working through the training and took a job somewhere else. Not a job driving a bus, took a drive somewhere else, took a job somewhere else. So, we we had some expectations we thought were coming through that didn't come through for us. We also had some personnel items in our own department with with drivers just not being available for a short amount of time. We also have some new staff me some staff members, interestingly enough, this week that are interested in becoming certified bus drivers as almost like a second job here for the district, which which was interesting and certainly something we're going to follow through with. What are the parents toys? Parents have been very supportive of us, very understanding, but they're also very clear with Jeff, how do you get this solved? You know,

134what do we do? We've been talking about transportation for for a while now. So shortterm and long-term, how are we solving this? Because we need to do better. We're trying every day. However, without more drivers, we may be in a position, Lord, that sometime in the very f near future, we're going to have to probably take a look at transportation as a whole in this district and maybe take some consideration to some very drastic changes that we don't want to go on to because we don't want to follow because we don't have enough drivers. So, the goal has to be retain our drivers and get more drivers. What are we trying to do? Trying to retain talked about that. But we need to provide transportation that is requested by our parents and our students in

135a safe and efficient manner. Now I I am not an expert on routing. Okay? I leave that to to to Karen and John and Renee and to the routing service that we we use. Trust me, I there are an awful lot of people in the community, rightfully so, because they've been they've been negatively impacted that are telling us how the routes need to be, right? So, I I respect that because the routes aren't what they want them to be, but they we do we do route for all of our students with the safest routes to and from school and to the most efficient. We don't want our kids here too long. We don't want our kids on the bus too long. What are our drivers told us? Our drivers have told us very clearly, get

136us some help. We need more bus drivers. Help us do that. The the drivers have also been very clear with me, okay? Maintain our fleet. Don't privatize us. We want to work for Buckeye. We don't want to work for somebody else. We love working for Buckeye, but get this impressed. So, that's the transportation update. I thought this was the perfect time to to offer that. Um I I have two items for your consideration tonight. But before I ask to move forward on those non-consent, I guess I would ask the board members if they have any comments or questions for me related to anything I said or related to transportation. >> I I do. So So I I know my family was impacted. I I I played bus driver for a week with grandchildren and their

137neighbors. And uh with with these contracts that um that are on the agenda here, I'm concerned about our current bus drivers. Um they're they're great folks who work hard. They come in. They do a tough job. They do a tough job that I tried for a week with three kids and I struggled. Okay. So, I I know what they're doing and I can't tell you how much I appreciate what they do every day for us, for our kids. How are they with this? And and and and I know in one of your communications you said to acknowledge them, how how is that feedback with them? >> Yeah, obviously V has a great question. Um I I I love our bus drivers. Love all of our employees, but I love our bus drivers, right? They're they're

138just they're just fantastic, right? Um I I I meet with them. I don't meet with them as frequently obviously as Karen, Renee, and John do, right? >> But but when I meet with our bus drivers, what I get a sense of every time I've been with them, the entire time I've been here, is the culture is outstanding. They they are teammates. They work together. They are inherently interested in only making certain that we are providing safe transportation for our students every day. Okay. It is incredibly important to me that we continue that culture with those with those people and I I really have nothing to do with it. That culture is them. That culture is Karen and Renee and John, you know, and and Dave sort of leading that that area of operations for us.

139Um, so I really appreciate the question and the comment. I will also say though, our bus drivers are tired. >> Sure. >> Our bus drivers are overworked. >> Our bus drivers are not asking for more hours, >> right? >> They they want more bus drivers. So they have the ability to take a sick day. >> Yeah. I had a bus driver tell me yesterday in a meeting, Jeff, I'm sorry that I had to call off because I was sick. As as a leader of an organization, for an employee to say that to you, that's that's gut-wrenching. >> Yeah. >> Right. But they come every day. They do the job. They do the job with heart and and love and with a lot of passion and expertise. So, I appreciate the the question and the comments.

140um they're looking for some help and I was very transparent with the things that we are I'm asking the board to consider tonight and their only request back to me was you know don't privatize us. >> Yeah. >> You want to work for Buckeye? >> Yes. >> Don't sell our fleet. >> Right. And find us something. >> And that has never been >> It's never been No. You just have to be >> Okay. Well, thank you. >> So, I have some comments. Um, I think going to Denise's point, I worry about the division for bringing in a new company. I worry about our lo our our loyal bus drivers and I would just want the bus drivers to know that we appreciate you. We really do. Job that I would never do. You couldn't pay

141me enough to do that job. Um, and I have not at the best job either. So, um, that I've talked to a bunch of people. My husband is kind of an expert on this on CDL drivers, and everybody has told me, including bus drivers from other uh, school districts, money is the number one. Now, you're going to bring in a company that's going to pay their drivers $25 to $27 an hour for this year. And our bus drivers, whether or not it passes tomorrow, I don't know. But I personally would like to see Buckeye the top pay um for bus drivers in the county. And that's how I have been told does it. They don't cancel routes because they've always been the top pay. They've always had enough bus drivers. Obviously, this is an issue

142that's gone on more than long enough. And then if we brought in the other company, I'm not sure if we're voting for both of them tonight. I would hope we'd have separate votes, but I don't know. The Michigan company um is going to actually advertise from what I've read on our website in our schools um out on the street. They're going to have um hiring events at Buckeye, which is what we can do. Why can't we do that? Why can't we put a bus out front, put $25 an hour hiring bus drivers? I'll sit there. I'll have, you know, they can give applications to me. I think our focus needs to be pay these people what they deserve. Horrible job that they do so well. I mean, can you imagine going out at 5:00 in

143the morning, driving these streets? It's hard enough for me to get to the hospital, which is 15 minutes away. They have all these routes. They come all the way back and then they have another route that they have to do again. These bus drivers, I'm sure, are stressed. And I've seen that a few of them have decided early retirement because of that. So, I think we need to just support our people that we already have, go out and hire because that's all Met's going to do. They're going to hire people from our area around here because they're in Michigan and they're going to pay us a service of 30% uh service fee for that, plus pay the people $27 an hour. So, I'd like to know what we're going to do to help Buckeye. >>

144Sure. Uh, thank you, Mr. Sich. Great, great questions. Um, I'll start with the question you asked regarding uh paying our employees uh more. And I agree with you. Um, I think, you know, you got to look at market uh value. You got to look at supply and demand. You got to look at, you know, competitive wages. We want the wages to be competitive for every one of our employees. Okay? Um, we are under a collectively bargained agreement with with not only our teachers, the teachers union, uh, but our OBC employees. Um, I do not have the authority to arbitrarily raise or reduce pay rates. Okay? That that is something that can only be done with the approval of the union. And that is what we're trying. So, I can't I would love to give every

145one of our employees Mark Mark's getting nervous as I say this to I would love to give every one of our employees, you know, significant raise. Um but but we don't we're not legally allowed to to do that. We have to do that with with with the union. So, that that's question number number one. the, you know, the second thing you brought up regarding like recruiting fairs and things like that. All I would say is we've had a little bit of success. You know, we had to sign out there. We, you know, we didn't do a bus uh, you know, uh, advertisement like like you described. I know they've done that in a couple other districts with not a whole lot of success. Um but but we we really haven't been successful recruiting in the

146things that we've done and the company that that you know I'm asking the board to consider working with this evening um is a company that has had some success in that area. Okay. The other reality for us is you know we don't have dedicated staff that is their job is to do nothing but recruit and ret recruit our employees. Um, but your your your point's well taken. I mean, there are certainly measures we can take as a district um to recruit more. Um, I'm going to talk about one of the things we did when we get into the actual events. Um, but you know, we we haven't had we haven't had success in those things are >> two suggestions. Number one, um I think we owe it to our our parents. There's no way that

147any probably any of us can um at the you know 7 o'clock in the morning try and find routes for their kids to get to school. All right, that's I think that's we're getting an F in that. And then number two, we have the impact group. Why can't they do some marketing to hire some go out there put out signs whatever exactly what Mets is going to do? Why can't the impact group do that? That's a marketing company for us. Well, I I think the issue is Mets and the other company can be more successful because they have the ability to pay the drivers the what the going rate is. They don't have to work underneath a union to do that. We've asked our union twice now to approve pay raises for our bus drivers

148and it has not been approved >> once. Mr. Second request is now. Maybe to interrupt you. So the board has an obligation twofold. To meet the needs of our staff and support them, but primarily our job is to make sure kids get to school on time and get home safe. >> Right. And if the feeling of this community is we need to pay our bus drivers more to be able to meet that need, as a board, we are doing everything in our power to try to provide that um to our bus drivers. We have to have the union's partnership to be able to then ask the impact group to go advertise um to pay our drivers more. We're not legally allowed to pay our drivers more. It's out of the board's hand. >> Not necessarily

149because now you're talking about that was something that should have been done with contract negotiations last time. Buckeye's always >> Buck's always been at the bottom level. They could have, you know, obviously, you know, put more money into it. >> Yeah. I I think we got to be really careful about talking about collectively bargaining agreements in in a public forum. I would say we don't do that. >> Okay. Maybe a couple comments here. Um, it is two votes, Kim. So on on each one, right, we voted for each case. I'm weren't sure if there was one or two. Um I I agree with you as well. I think pay is important. Um and I I know that we have been recruiting for quite some time, right? So the the results have been spotty. Uh be

150it online or having a bus, I know I've seen that as well. But ultimately when it comes to the where we are today, right, we we can't ignore where we are and we have to figure out that that path forward. So >> I have a few comments on Midwest on on METS. It's Midwest Education Transport Transportation Services just just for the board's knowledge and and the community's knowledge. So So how did we come about, you know, reaching out to to Mets? Okay. It was a it was a a a company that uh Mr. Donley, myself, and Mr. Justice started working with in October, right? So this has not been something that we did yesterday or December 21st about look what what can we do here? I view this as more of a long-term solution. Okay,

151here's what Mets wants to do. Mets wants to find drivers for us and have us employ them. Mets doesn't want to be the permanent driver uh or per permanent employer of our drivers. They want to turn them over to us. They are a bus driving hiring firm. That's what they are. Okay. Um we tried uh in the 2023 2024 school year. We tried with AB staffing if you remember. >> Yes. >> Um that is a local company. Uh the owner of that company, his children go to school here at Buckeye Lives Park. We weren't successful with that. Through an incredible amount of effort from from Adam and and and his company, we we didn't find any success. Their goal is to recruit, train, and hire bus drivers with the goal for those bus drivers to

152become bus drivers for us. I view METS as more of a long-term solution. When we get into the next um recommendation I have for you this evening, I think that's more short term. >> Okay. So, we do have we do have uh a couple things to discuss here. So, that was just general transportation. We're still >> Yeah. So, um it's it's a nonconsent, Mr. Salazar. So you would need to um >> we would need a motion, a second >> and then discussion >> then discussion. >> Okay. So we are intending men's agreement. Make a motion to move. >> I'll second. So, can you walk us through the contract, Jeff? Just as primarily related to what do we owe Mets if they're successful and what the term basically what are the terms of the contract? >>

153Yeah. Uh term length of the contract is two and a half years. Okay. Um and again, I look at this more long-term than short term. Okay. They are a Michiganbased company. However, they are they are breaking into the Cleveland area and they have a they have a local rep. Okay. So, the local rep lives in is from Stoke. Okay. So, so we have we have a local connection there. Um the hourly rate from from training all the way up to when a driver would be driving for us for a number of years ranges between $18 an hour and $27 an hour. Okay. Um there's administrative fee service charge that ranges between and 32% through through the length of the contract. Um the the goal is to transfer the drivers to us. If the if the

154drivers decide to work for Buckeye, which is what everybody's goal is, um we would then owe a transfer fee to Mets because they found that the drivers and that transfer fee uh is between $1,500 and $2,500. Okay, that is all based on the amount of drivers that they find for us and you know how long they would work for us, those type of things. This is also something that we don't pay until they deliver. Very similar with our arrangement with AV staffing. You know, they this has to materialize into something. We've got to we've got to see something out of this before before we would pay. Okay. What does Mets wants to do? Mets wants to find bus drivers for us. There's no doubt. Mets also wants to break into the Cleveland area in Ohio.

155They have been very successful um in Michigan and they are looking to expand and you know the information came to us and and we followed through and the meetings have been productive. Um, I will tell you in October I was hoping that we weren't going to have to bring this to you because, you know, if we would have had five to seven or three, heck, two, but a number of more bus drivers, I I'm going to bring this to you. Uh, but that that's kind of where we're at. So the so just because I think it's important for everybody to understand I'm in support of this the commitment we're making when you look at the hourly rate plus the admin rate which will go to Mets for the the leg work it's a 30% um

156on top of their gross pay. So the hourly rate we would pay would be about $32.50 50 to $3510 per hour. Um that is with the hourly rate for the driver at $25 to $27 per hour. My assumption knowing employees relationships with the person who writes the check is no driver that Mets hires is going to leave Mets to come to work for less than $25 an hour. >> But wait a minute, they're not getting benefits where they're at. They come to us and they get benefits. >> Okay. talk about. >> Okay. But I just as as we continue this conference, again, I'm in full support, but I think the understanding has to be to the to the community members that we're we're taking a step as a board to do all we can knowing

157it is at a expense to try to solve the problem which we have, which cannot be solved in any other way other than find more drivers. >> But Mr. K, it's really interesting. The point you're on right now was the subject of probably hours of meetings with Mets. >> Explain to me logically why somebody would take a pay cut, >> right? So to then drive from it doesn't make any sense, >> right? That's not something if this is a short-term fix, it's not it's not going to help us. The response has been, you know, bus drivers, their experience has been a lot don't have benefits. They're not benefit eligible. So, they'll be benefit eligible that they like working for a school system, right? There's some benefits to that. Um, there's some benefit to joining a

158union, right? So, their experience has been that hasn't been a problem. Okay. We were also very clear with Mets that we're we're not looking again. I'm repeating it, but we're not looking for for Mets to continue employing our our drivers. We want drivers for weapons, right? >> I mean, it's in their their it's Mets temporary to permanent drivers. So, their model works when the drivers transition into permanent employment with the with us. >> So, I've got a couple questions. Um, what I read of the agreement was for MITs it was $25 to $27 an hour. I didn't see anything about $18 an hour. We pay the holidays, we pay uh PTO, and then we're going to pay a 30% service charge on their gross salary. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, and what's to stop our

159drivers for going to work for them? >> Mr. So, as I answer this question, please, I'm not trying in any way, shape, or form to be smart when I say this. Okay? We can't stop any of our employees from changing their employment decision. Okay? I would tell you what it what stops, I think, is the culture that we have here is wanting to work for Buckeye. Is what I see every day with our bus drivers. And I I believe that when others come work for us, they will feel the same way. But I but to your point, we can't stop anybody from saying, "Hey, I I don't want to do this or I want to do this somewhere else." >> So and maybe you see this I'm sorry to interrupt, but maybe at the hospital

160you see this as well, but in manufacturing it's we have temporary services as well and you don't typically see somebody go from full-time to temporary because you there's a the benefits that usually they're looking for, right? All of us need health insurance or one health insurance. So, I think that's to your point, Mr. Stain, I think that's a decision everybody's going to have to make, that's usually preventing happening. >> I just think it's going to cause a division with our drivers. When you're making 20 bucks an hour, whatever they make, and you have people that come in and make $27, I just think it's a division. I just don't know why we would do that. But on top of that, my next question is is we're going to pay $15 to $2,500 for a fee

161if they want to come work for us. How long do they work for meds before they can come work for us? >> Um, yeah, it's it's one year, two year, and three year. Okay. So, once they finish the training, they can work they can become our drivers immediately >> for meds. >> Yeah. >> How long do they have to stay with Mets before because you said they're transitioning into being Buckeye employees. Is that correct? >> Yeah. I don't believe there is anything limiting when they would become our drivers. >> And then we would just pay a fee. We would pay basically. >> Yeah. We would go I mean the idea here is training, get them working here and then get them working for us. >> It's good. >> Maybe a few more thoughts as you

162think about this and I I've read through this as well. Right. We obviously need drivers. We need drivers now. Um the recruiting again I appreciate the effort over the years but it's been spotty. We've taken a couple steps forward and and more steps back, which is how we got here. The Mets program, this seems to be to your point, as you've mentioned, Mr. Stanton, it's it's a long it's a it's a midterm to long-term solution um that helps us out. Uh but we also have set this up from a contingency standpoint that we only pay for what we use. So, it appears it's it's a multi-phase approach, right? This doesn't prevent us from continuing to recruit and and look at our current drag recruiting staff and how we can continue to retain them and and

163make changes. So, I just want to reiterate that we're paying them what is it 3250 an hour for bus drivers. >> Just putting it out there. >> Nonbenefit bus drivers. Just saying. We spend a lot. >> I'm sure we have non benefits too. Well, they do get benefits because we're paying for their PTO. We're paying for holidays. >> Medical the biggest life insurance, retirement, lot more benefits besides PTO. Any thoughts or comments? >> Y. >> We have a motion in a second. So, Mr. Ready for the roll. Y. >> Okay. Uh, Mr. Kua. >> Yes. >> One second. Focus my eyes. Uh, Mrs. Bart. >> Yes. >> And Mrs. Silich. >> No. >> And Mr. Salah. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Okay. Okay. Uh, next thing is also a non-consent agenda item. I'm going to

164put this in a category of more shortterm. Okay. We have not been talking with GGC transportation for for months. We've been talking to them for for a short amount of time. Um, we we were recommended to this company by the state transportation expert who's been working with the district. Uh, we we work with that person through the Ohio Schools Council. Um, so our immediate issue right now, right, everything I just talked about, you know, in the last 10 minutes about needing bus drivers right now, right? So, we were given this reference uh earlier this week said, you know, there's a company working out of out of that that may have some bus drivers for you. Okay. So, we reach out um the this is a short-term solution. Okay. GGNC Transportation has been the independent provider

165for the Yria City Schools for years. Years ago, the Yria City Schools privatized their bus. GGNC is the company that provides school transportation for the Yria City Schools. So when that reference was given to me to call them right out of the gates when I talked with them and John as well, John and Mark were in the conversation as well. We were very clear in no way, shape or form do we want anything from GGNC other than do you have bus drivers for us >> Right now because right now we don't have enough bus drivers. >> Yeah. And >> the answer was yes. >> Okay. So immediately and it's a it's an expense. There's no doubt about it. This is a private company, right? But they have available bus drivers for us right now. They

166have two bus drivers that can immediately start working for us. They are very confident that they will have four. Okay, four additional drivers to what we are dealing with right now takes all the pressure, the immediate pressure off of our school district. Okay, that's probably going to allow our our our our um our supervisor not to be driving, Mr. Pora, our transportation supervisor not to be driving unless they have to and and get some relief for our students, our parents, and our staff. >> Yeah. >> The reference that I had with Ayria, I am I I know the Ayria superintendent very well. She is a lifelong professional and personal friend of mine, a wonderful wonderful leader over in Ayria. She had nothing but great things to say about their work with GGNC transportation. Um they

167have immediate bus drivers for us. They can provide two now and as I said possibly four this school year. The cost is substantial. The cost is 300 roughly $380 per driver per day. That is what the cost is. Okay. The contract for this is only for the remainder of this school year. So here we go. As we continue recruiting, as we continue trying to find, as we continue having hopefully bus drivers make their way through the training, as we continue to hopefully have bus drivers come back from leave and be clear to come back, all of those things, there is an opportunity in front of us right now. It is expensive. I understand that there is an opportunity for us right now to get two and possibly four drivers working us for the remainder of

168this school year for day school transportation. also for some additional help for our athletics and after school. We have been working with First Student. First Student is a busing company that a lot of people are familiar with. >> First Student has not been able to provide any support for us. Why? Because First Student doesn't have any available drivers. >> Okay. I reached out to GGNC. The references were good. It's incredibly expensive. The fact that I firmly believe we have an immediate issue right now. we need to solve. I've got parents rightfully saying, "Jeff, get this solved now." I have staff saying, "We got to get this solved." Everybody, we've got we've got an opportunity to immediately solve some of our some of our issues for right now. So, that is my summary on where we're

169at with GGC transportation. >> And we don't pay unless we need the traffic, right? >> Yes. But the difference is we need their drivers. >> No, I understand that. But it in a month from now, if we only need one of their drivers, it just reduces down to 37 ft. Eight them. >> Okay. Again, I'm not trying to be a smarty. I would love that problem. Okay. But I don't anticipate that's going to be >> I understand, but we're not locked. I guess what I'm trying to establish here is we're not locked into hiring four of these drivers. If we were to hire four drivers for the next 15 weeks, it's at a cost of $121,600 for 15 weeks for four drivers. So, it lights a fire under us to get out of this agreement

170as quickly as we can by hiring more drivers. To Kim's point, we'll set up a picnic table with a sign out front that says we're hiring drivers and see if anybody applies. But in the meantime, this will help solve the problem. Yes. So, it helps our families. It helps our our our own bus drivers in in many ways because there's there's trust to the max right now. >> It also keeps us in compliance, more likely in compliance with state expectations. Exactly. >> Because we are not permitted to cancel rides. >> So, going to So, first off, it's $63 an hour. I really don't have a problem with that because we do need bus drivers today. We need to give the parents some sort of assurance. But my question goes to Seth. It says we can

171get two to four drivers. Do we call them like at the beginning of the week and say we need two drivers this week or are we gear or are we on a contract that we have to have? They're going to be sitting in the bus garage. Two drivers. >> Yeah. They would come here every day, Kim. They would they would come. They would >> So where there is a contract that they're going to have two drivers? >> That would that's the proposal. >> Okay. And the new um maintenance, the new mechanic, is he going to be CDL? >> Um John, I'm going to defer to you. Is he? Yeah, >> he is not, but we plan to get him. >> You're planning to. >> And then you also are planning to the people that were

172interested in getting CDLs that already work for us. You're working on that. >> I am. That's a nice problem to have, Kim. I would just say they also have full-time jobs for us. So, these are people that these are people that are leaving their jobs at 2:33 saying, "Hey, >> I can drive an afternoon run." Now, that's, >> you know, you you know, I mean, there's it's going to take some time. >> Yeah. >> Right. They don't have CDL. It's going to take some time. >> I really don't have a problem. I mean, it's I, you know, I've discussed people that I work with um that have kids and it is what it is. This is the the situation that we're at right now. We have to fix it. So this is the bullet we

173have to bite in my opinion even though it's very expensive. >> Thanks for your comments. I would agree. I think uh you made the point but when you look at the timing realistically uh even if we find a great driver today and you put them through training it's it's months right for for training. So it's going to take a while. This is the reality that we're in right now. >> We do owe it to our parents. >> Yeah. this is an option that we have where we have a solution that we can implement now, right? So yeah, the choices we continue to suffer again while we continue looking for drivers on our own using Mets. Um so I think that we can parallel path all of these. >> I move to approve the contract with

174GGNC service agreement. >> I'll second. >> Okay. So I think now is when we have discussion, right? So we may have gone a little out of order, but >> we got a lot of further. >> Yeah, that's we're we're good. We haven't violated any state law. >> Okay, gotcha. Any further conversations, comments? >> No. Thank you. >> Yep. All right, ready for the roll. >> Okay, Mr. Kuya. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Silich, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pavari, >> yes. >> And Mr. Sal, >> yes. >> All right. Thank you board members. Thank you for that um passion discussion. Important topic. Okay, let's go into consent agenda items. I promise these will be quicker. Okay, first ask consideration this night. This is a second read for approval of policy 8451. This is pediculosis uh our headlice

175policy that we had first read for um last month. >> Yeah. >> Uh next I have these are consent. Next I have uh two uh athletic sponsorship agreements tonight. Cynic family Dental $2,000 agreement. That's a one-year contract. U and then a nice uh Synynic is very nice as well with Bright Side Restoration. This is a three and a half year contract. Uh $10,000 agreement with FX sponsorship. Myers uh as always, nice job in getting these going forward. So ask for your consideration for those two two this evening and certainly thank Synynic Family Dental and Bright Side Restoration for their continued partnership with us. Let's jump into personnel. Um very happy to see this. this was the the reason for the change um in the agenda earlier today. Um we have found a head mechanic uh

176very experienced head mechanic so happy to see that Mr. Curtis will be joining us on January 20th pending your approval tonight and uh Mr. So, it's very very good point on the CDL for a position like the head mechanic. Absolutely. Okay. Continuing personnel, let's go certified. Um, I want to make a special note here. You know, Miss Spencer uh is is uh retiring. Uh Kristen, second grade teacher. You know, she's been with us since 1994. Okay, that's that's that's says something. So, she's not retiring till the end of the year. We'll take ask for your action this night. uh tonight. Um if you ever walk into Kristen's room, um and most of you know her better than I do, but is she's a Disney fan. >> Oh, yeah. >> Right. And uh she's got that

177she's got that that sign in her in her room. I I hope I don't screw it up. I'm doing it off memory, but something like welcome to the most um not magical place, but magical classroom on earth. Something like that. It's really cool every time I see it. So congratulations to Kristen and you know she'll be with us the remainder of the year but but retiring and and thank her for all of her work. Also we have a resignation. Miss Venadia was our new district prevention coordinator. Um she has chosen to to to take another job in the mental health uh field that she felt uh was something an opportunity she she had to go for. So sad to see Leah Leah leave. She's been a good employee for us for a short amount of

178time. Uh but she is uh she is asking for her resignation as of January 16th. Uh we've got some FMLAs in there for your consideration for this evening. Some people either coming back or going out. Uh this is subs for the Madina County ESC as always. Let's move over to classified. Uh we have two resignations there as well. Unfortunately, these are both bus drivers. Uh Miss Guyire has has has uh decided to resign. uh as have as has Miss Miss Porter. Uh as you see their effective dates there. Uh we're going to bring Miss Guyer up again here a little bit. So you see the resignations there in transportation. New hires. Uh we have uh an opportunity to hire an intermediate par professional monitor. Thank you Mr. Wilston for for walking through that opening. Uh

179we're also excited about Mr. Dgo who is coming. Mr. Drago is a cleaner for us and or will be and an added bonus, Mr. Drago is also a bus driver. Okay. So, Mr. Drago um will will be able to run some afternoon runs for us. He will not be able with his with his other job with us. Will not be able to help in the morning, but pretty quickly when Fred starts driving for us, he is aware of this. He will help us out in the afternoon. So, that was a nice bonus for us. Um you see a return of a medical leave of absence for Miss Guyire before she resigned. Uh that's after our last board meeting. So we had a mark of that as well. And uh Miss Markley is moving from district

180grounds and cleaner to second shift primary custodian our custodian up at the primary school at effective as of January 1. Bus drivers. You notice that I on there that I had Mr. Drago on there. has talked about that. Miss Guyire, although she has resigned as a day driver for us, she still is interested in subd driving for us. Um, and Angie takes a lot of our athletic trips and our weekend trips. So, of course, we we will we will certainly, you know, if she wants to keep working for us in that capacity, you know, we we will certainly ask her to do that. Um, and then you see another subd driver there, Mr. Morell. From an athletic perspective, um, spring's not too far away. Uh, you see some baseball, softball, and track coaches there. Um,

181as per the recommendations of Mr. Myers. >> Mr. Stan, you passed over item one. >> Who what did I miss? >> Wrestling tournament. Ticket taker. >> Oh, I did, Mark. Thank you. Yes. Um, I'm sorry. I looked right over it. So, yeah. Um, ticket taker wrestling tournament. That's going to be at $15 an hour effective. That's a effective back to November 1st, 2025. >> Just understand generally they work three hours at a time, but once in a while because of situations, they work a little extra. So they they asked to make it an hourly rate. >> All right. Thank you, Mark. Good job. Okay. We have a number of donations this evening for your consideration. A $350 anonymous donation to Key Club, a $1,420 anonymous donation to the high school Sunshine Fund. Uh just an

182awareness for for all of you probably know this but Sunshine funds generally are the funds that all principles will have. We have one in the board office for, you know, flowers if there is a few if there's a death in a family of an employee, uh, birth of a baby, those type of things, right? Uh, this is a really nice donation to the high school sunshine fund. It's it's an anonymous donation. Uh, but I'll be honest, I don't know in my entire life I've ever seen a sunshine donation that so good for Mr. Snook and his and his staff. >> We have anonymous donation of school supplies for the ele elementary school. another anonymous donation for the high school student advisory panel. And then finally, one that's not anonymous, uh the Valley City Fire Department,

183who are great partners with us, $500 for the holiday meals, ham, turkey, eggs for school. Those are our donations and that's going to end my recommendations for your consideration, Mr. S. >> Okay. So, that uh comes to the end of it. So, we have the approval. Can I get a motion for the approval of the consent agenda which would be items 8 A and B and then 11 A through D. >> Can we discuss or do we have to approve or do we have to do that first? >> You should take a motion first and a second and then discuss if that's okay. So move >> a second. >> Now we're good. >> I just have a question on the athletic stuff that never happened when I was on the board before. Um, where does

184the money go? >> The, uh, athletic sponsorship, >> it goes into the general athletic uh, student activity account for uniforms, balls, all the equipment they need throughout the year. Um, there's never enough money for athletics. Uh, in fact, the general fund supplements, you know, paying salaries and there's a small fee or small fund for um, just other miscellaneous fees and stuff that the sometimes the revenues from athletics don't cover. We do well with football and basketball revenues, but all the other sports get very little revenue and therefore these kind of sponsorships help in general for things. Now, some of the athletic sponsorship money goes to pay for the logos and stuff they want to put on wrestling mats or the baseball uh field fence or things like that, but generally the the revenue will just

185cover other expenses needed for different equipment throughout the athletic world. We have a very vibrant athletic uh list of activities with, you know, all kinds of very competitive kids in our district. There's constantly stuff going on. Um, uniforms, things like that are constantly being purchased. So, John, you probably give a better description. >> Yeah, I would say in addition to that, uh, some of those dollars have been used to purchase. Uh, we have a new scores table in the gymnasium, a new sound system in the gymnasium. Um we have put up in the gym there is a now a wall of champions that recognizes all of our state champions in school history. Our uh soccer programs we've gotten they have a all weather shield that they kind of sit in uh in um the vinyl

186that had wrapped it was all ripped tattered and torn. We used athletic initiative dollars to to purchase that. We have an outdoor sound system that we can now use at baseball softball. So um in addition to those um expenses that would be uniforms and things like that things to improve the athletic experience uh is a lot of the things we use our sponsors for college for as well. >> Now where can I go? Is there is it on the web page that I can see who our sponsors are because I know it had gold and different classifications and it's on the athletic. >> Yeah. So on the bottom of the athletic page it'll say our sponsors. All of the logos are there. Uh it wouldn't say the logos that are there won't say who's gold,

187silver, and bronze, but all of our sponsors are at the bottom of the application. >> Okay. Thank you. >> John, can I ask a question? I think it's a great question from Kim. Can you provide that in addition to in that format? So, can you provide for me that I can give to the board exactly what what Kim asked? >> Yes. >> Yeah. I mean, you have it. Yes. >> Right. So, take it out sheet, get it to me, and then we'll appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments, thoughts? >> Okay, >> take a roll. >> Yep. >> Okay. Mr. Ky, >> yes. >> Mrs. Die, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cilich, >> yes. >> And Mr. Salazar? >> Yes. >> Okay. We're getting close to the end here. Board comments. >> I'm done.

188>> Coming towards the end. >> I do have one thing to say. Mrs. Spencer, um, Mrs. Spencer. I was at Old Liverpool uh working when she was hired. I think she hired in as a title teacher back in the day and I think she had two of my sons for for I think she was a first grade teacher for one of them and then maybe second. But I wish her the best. Um I honestly I I can't believe how the time has has gone by so quickly. But uh bless her heart. I I'm happy. And you're right. She's a huge distortion. >> And I don't mean to because I know we're we're maxed out on on our our meeting here, but can you just give us a real quick on these um visioning? >> Oh,

189yeah. >> I mean, 10 words or less. >> I can't. >> Okay. opportunity opportunity number one on Thursday to not only from a curricular perspective or let me say it this way not only from a facility perspective but from a curricular perspective start the vision of what new Buckeye High School will be and what this building becomes as a middle school junior high. So incredibly exciting. I think that was 18 words. It it is it is it's really exciting and and I'll just throw this in real quickly like 20 words or less going to varsity indoor events for my granddaughter and going to all of these different schools. Holy cow. I walk in and my husband right away goes, "Here we go." Because I start noticing all of their all their different areas for for

190student collaboration, for student learning in different different types of settings. And I start pointing out, you know, this, this, this, and this. Then we have community the the community space here. We have the performing arts here. And I get all excited. And actually the last the last uh I think it was one of the last ones in December, Barb and I and Chris walked in together and uh and she and I are just d talking about these high schools. And it's I am so excited. I really am for what our kids will have. It's It's very exciting. >> So, yeah, it's just my 20 words. >> I wasn't. >> Yeah. >> I just want to say thank you to everybody that supported me. I think things happen for a reason. I think I'm sitting here

191for a purpose. Um, if you have any questions, any comments, you can always email me. Um, kayullic cece liceschools.org. Um, good luck to the uh the um Disney trip uh for the band. I did it twice. Good luck to those parents. It's a long trip and thank you all again. >> Now, I uh I want to say thanks to the district as well uh for a great start to the year. We have a ton of and we talked a lot about it tonight, but we have a ton of positive momentum with facilities, with projects, um certainly finances. We certainly have some headwinds as well, right, with transportation. I think we took some good steps forward on that and Mark, you shared some of those changes to the state that we have to be aware of,

192but we'll continue to adjust and and find that path forward for continuing to improve the district. >> All right, so that's a wrap on comments German. Anybody want a motion for that? >> Motion. >> Thank you. Can I get a second? >> Yes, I'll second. >> Roll call. Yes. >> Mrs. Sich, >> yes. >> Mrs. Levari, >> yes. >> Uh, Mr. Ku. >> Yes. Mr. Salazar. >> Yes. >> No one ever coming. >> Thank you everybody for hanging with us.