001All right, welcome everyone. Glad to see all of you. Today's Monday, December 8th. This is our regular board meeting. Miss Aubrey, will you please call the role? >> Miss Dorenzo, >> here. >> Miss Kawai, >> here. >> Dr. Middleton, >> here. >> Mr. Ryder Garcia, >> here. >> Mr. Wilson, >> here. Would you all please rise and join us in our pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Could I get a motion please to adopt tonight's agenda? Second, >> Miss Saber, >> Dr. Middleton, >> hi. >> Miss Dorenzo, >> hi. >> Miss Kawhai, >> hi. >> Mr. Rder Garcia, >> hi. >> Mr. Wilson, >> I. Next up, uh, item
002E is approval of the O approval of the Oakwood Board of Education work session and regular session meeting minutes. Can I get a motion, please? >> Some moved. >> Second. >> Miss Saber. >> Mr. Ra Garcia. >> Hi. >> Miss Kawawaii. >> Hi, >> Miss Dorenzo. >> Hi, >> Dr. Middleton. Hi, >> Mr. Wilson. Uh, next up item two, reports and public comments. >> Yes, good evening. I would like to uh ask Tyler Rous, our athletic director, to come to the podium and uh he is here to share uh some of the highlights that happened with our fall sports. All right, good evening. Uh like to report uh on our fall season. Uh we had a very successful season. Uh I've shared with some of you that uh it's probably one of our most successful
003fall seasons that we've had in school history. Uh collectively, um every team that we had that participated was above 500 this season. Um off top of my head, I think we had six uh teams that were swivel champs and eight that had at least one individual participate at the district level or higher. So um incredible fall season. Uh on top of that which uh just you know the excellence of Oakwood we had 133 I think it was students that were scholar athletes um which is over 90% you have to be a varsity athlete for that. So it was over 90% of our varsity athletes um that were scholar athletes. So excelling in in both which is awesome. Um with that uh we have um some of our student athletes here this evening. Uh these athletes
004are athletes that participated at the state level uh this past fall. Um I know not everybody is here, so I'm going to go through my entire list and then uh we'll get a group photo um I think with everybody here and then I will give out your certificates in the hallway like we've done in the past and get some more photos. So um first with that uh Mila Gelbert um she qualified uh in tennis the state tennis tournament. She uh qualified as a singles player this year. Um last year she went uh as a doubles player. This year singles, won her first match, so she finished in the top eight in the state of Ohio. So pretty cool. Um boys cross country finished third as a team in the state uh this past fall in
005November. Um and a little shout out to Cameron for finishing ninth overall as an individual. So again, excellence. And then girls cross country state champions. First time in school history as a team that our cross country team has been state champs. So an incredible fall season. Um I also have written down here that Evelyn finished 10th overall and Delaney finished 11th overall individually. So spectacular season. Round of applause. So I think we'll do How do you want to do photos? if you want to get with the board um and our athletes up front here first and then I'll give out certificates and do all that. >> Awesome. So athletes, don't be shy. Come right up here. Everybody rows. That's not bad. Awesome. So, if we can just do a quick round of applause for I
006would be remiss if we didn't give a round of applause for you know I REALLY he does not like the applause but to be honest with you I know maybe just a little bit of like a little sliver of the hard work that he does and um you know he's straddling two seasons with with the fall season as we kept going when you think about all that arranging all the the things that have to come along with that plus getting ready for the winter sports and he does it with such humility and grace hard work that comes along with it just kind of you know tries to sometimes I think too much in the back but I appreciate your work and you can get a picture you're snack. Wait. >> Okay. And in addition to
007our our fall sports athletes and all the things that we have with our um athletic side, on the academic side, I just wanted to share and it's all in the newspaper. So I but I just want to call attention to our speech and debate. Um I got a chance to go to New Albany um couple weeks ago now and uh they they placed really well. We've just got a lot of students that participate in that and um there's just a lot of competition that happens as far and sorry practices that that occur in that off time that I think sometimes people don't see that. Um if students aren't in speech and debate, they're academic decathlon at the high school and again very very busy time for them. Uh they're taking tests all day long. I
008I kind of summize that by the time they are ready to sit down and take the ACT test, that's no big deal compared to the amount of tests and the amount of work that they do for uh just the academic decathlon. Um and so if you're at the library at right library or you happen to be at Starbucks, uh it is not uncommon for to see our students studying and uh being a part participate in that. I recently stumbled upon I think I knew that we had a quiz bowl, but I really didn't understand it to be honest with you. What caught my attention the Oakwood Register a couple weeks ago was that they had already qualified for nationals. And so it it gave me a cause to pause to reach out to the adviser
009Ian Ken and ask him a little bit more about that. And um I just didn't realize how long there's been quiz bowl that now there are some crossover of students between academic decathlon and and speech and debate and quiz bowl. Um but um I mean they have a season like right like like I said they've already had some fall competitions. January 15th they are hosting a dual competition here at Oakwood High School after school. So um and I asked is is the public allowed to be there and he said yes and so just a great chance to see see our students compete that they they do have a swivel competition. So you know just like our athletic have conference uh titles they have the same thing and uh I think he said they weren't sure
010about if you know how they would go about going to nationals. It's just a it's just a busy time for them in that in the spring. I it happens around graduation weekend. That was that was the big kicker. So, um so just want to share about that. Uh talk to you about our update with Portrait of Learner. Uh we had our third meeting uh with the core team last week. Um we've got some feedback from our cabinet. We're going to get some more feedback from them uh on later this week. Remember that it's our mindsets and dispositions that we're looking for that we think will students will be successful for while they're in school, college, career, life. And um we're excited to uh unveil that um at our March state of the schools and be
011look on the lookout for a survey that we're going to have by the end of the week to gather some more feedback as we continue to refine that. Um I have a key communicators meeting. Uh we we have a a group of um community members that I meet with uh every other month and uh we've got that later this week. We're going to talk about the portrait of a learner um our state of the schools gather some feedback for it and um some other things around facilities and the other one about the Rubicon house update. So uh the Dayton Daily News had talked about that or put an article last week and just again wanted to share because uh this was shared at at the last board meeting but about now three months ago uh
012we I made a decision to temporarily relocate our district office from 20 Rubicon Road. um it was a direct response to immediate health and safety concerns uh that made the historic house in an unsuitable work environment. So in addition to treating those immediate concerns, we also talked about this uh significant long-standing challenges of that house, including the increasing maintenance costs that come along with it, the historic home structural and accessibility limitations that are not ADA compliant. Um there's currently one floor jack in the basement supporting the sagging first floor. And we would be potentially looking at additional two floor jacks that should be added to make sure that the um support uh for the conference room uh takes place. And so that just gave us a cause to to talk about um you know, we're
013trying to set our money for some longer term uh efficiencies that come along with that and supports. Um please know that it's more than just the superintendent's office space. The district office serves as the primary point of contact for many essential services. Um it's an it's a hub for our district administration. Um it provides background checks for our visitors and staff um our volunteers and staff. Um employment processing and volunteer registration. It offers workspace to the um Oakwood Schools Foundation and alumni staff and a conference room for district level meetings. And we've got a lot of meetings that that room gets used for and uh we're currently looking uh always elsewhere to to look for that as we're in this um interim space. So currently our 12 um district personnel, we're operating out of two
014classrooms at Smith Elementary School. Uh we also use uh space in other buildings uh for meetings um as well as in our community. Uh we use the library and the um Oakwood Community Center. They've been uh helpful for that. Um so while that is helpful for the short term, we have experienced uh disruption to our efficiency and it's just not a great long-term plan. So over the uh past few months, we've also been looking for a more permanent solution. We evaluated some several options which did include renovating the Rubicon House um and other spaces uh in the city of Oakwood and after consulting with our architect to determine our needs, it became clear that renovating the Rubicon House would not be a wise investment. The building still has underlying structural issues that require significant uh
015and costly repairs. Even after spending that money to address those areas, we still wouldn't have an office space that um functioned well for our needs. So, one of our top priorities is always to use our school funds uh to support our schools of student instruction and safety. Yet, we owe it to our community, our visitors, and our district staff to provide a permanent office space that's safe, fully accessible, and efficient. Uh so, we did we looked at other available options, and last month at the November 10th board of education meeting, I recommended and you the board approved a seven-year lease of office space at Sugar Camp. Um that space will provide a more safe, secure and ADA compliant and efficient environment for staff and visitors. And at this time um it allows us to also
016uh assess our school facilities um you know for a more per permanent location in the future what that might look like. So based on the approval uh we're in the process now of transitioning to the new space. It's going to take some time and uh we're looking at the spring for that to take place and we'll communicate it once we're fully settled in. But until then, if there are any needs from our community, uh, we could be reached at the Smith Elementary School if there are any district level questions. Um, so that that concludes my report for superintendent updates. >> Am I allowed to jump in and make a comment? I just as a >> just go ahead and unmute. Yep. And you're fine. >> Okay. I just wanted to say for the sake of
017transparency and communication, even though we don't have much of an audience, but that like uh Dr. Gupta pointed out the board did approve this at our November board meeting and it was not a decision that I think any of us took lightly. We understand at any time a big decision like that um is before us that we want to make sure we have all the information we you know did our due diligence of making sure we knew what all the options were that had been explored and that we could you know stand behind um that decision. So, I just want to put it out there to whoever, you know, is listening or watching that that was um something that we felt was necessary given the circumstances, you know, surrounding the Rubicon building not being a
018feasible option to uh continue working in. That's all. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh next on the agenda 2B is our curriculum report. I'll uh ask Jenna Hill, our curriculum director, to come to the podium to introduce our presenters. >> Okay. Good evening. Thank you so much for having us. I'm very excited to welcome one of our junior high absolutely amazing teachers, Rachel Judge. Uh she is going to tell you a little bit about a program that was started about four years ago uh to raise money to put directly back into a program focusing on job skills um and uh just essential needs that her students have. So welcome Rachel. I also want to point out her shirt was designed by a student as well to advertise for this program. >> Oh wow. Okay. Well, I
019would not say this would be my favorite thing to do. This is not um part of what I am comfortable with, but I am excited to share with you guys. Uh my name is Rachel Judge. I am the intervention specialist um at the junior high for our self-contained um special needs unit. Um and this um Jack Snacks is part of our um an elective that I created which um is vocation and transition based. So really kind of working on those skills of daily living skills, communication skills, social skills, work skills um that our students need kind of before they reach that high school level. Um so we make cookies and popcorn twice a week um as part of the elective class. Um and it's really led by the students um kind of based on our
020student needs. We have varying levels of supports. Um so each year it kind of looks different based on kind of where our students are. Um it's really a win-win. My students really love the valuable and meaningful work that um they're doing. Um the students really look forward to it. I feel like each year we get kind of like more buy in and this year especially we've really embraced it. I know like Jenna mentioned um I wore my Jack Snack shirt because we had a student like design. We they submitted different designs so they made us cookie specialists. Um so our students and then Mr. Thompson um graciously donated us um shirts for our students to wear. So, we wear them um when we are running the business twice a week. Um and the students just
021really look forward to buying the cookies. Um it really has um opened up a lot of our students communication. Um they're working on money skills when they're selling. I mean, we sell it for a dollar. We're not The thought was not to like make a big profit. Um we've found that cookies and popcorn are highly motivating for our students. Um so, we have like I really was just looking to kind of like have it be self- sustaining. Um, but it really has kind of turned a profit. So, at the end of each year, we um kind of look at what we're needing. So, we've gotten to buy all new appliances for our kitchen. Um, this past year, we bought all new adaptive cookware. Um, we also cook once a week as part of our curriculum.
022So, it's been really neat to kind of find these like adaptive things that our kiddos can use. Um, we've bought a lot of different games for our club that we have um for our students to kind of work on those social skills. So, it all goes back into kind of what we're doing. Um, I've got a video. So, Mr. Thompson also made a video um kind of advertising and showing the process of Jack Snacks and we showed it at the beginning of the year in all of our advisories. Um, so it's just really the kids really loved making it. I mean, they loved being able to see themselves as part of the school. Um, sometimes we are kind of so separate. Um, so it's really been nice to kind of like bring our students out
023in the open. Um, you'll see a couple pictures and then just like a really short snippet of one of our students who um loves to market when she's out there and so it's just like 10 seconds, but I just felt like I needed to share it because it's so cute how she sells it. And I mean the kids are just so patient out there. I mean we sell just in the four minutes in between class periods. So it is not like a lot. It's very quick. Um, but the kids are so patient and like, you know, letting our kids count out the change and letting them do it. Like I'm there, but like trying to step back so they can take kind of as much ownership as they can. Um, and it's just been really
024awesome to see kind of like how our peers have really embraced it. So, hey, Heat. Heat. So, that's all I've got. It's just a really It's awesome. And I'm looking forward to maybe like in the future kind of seeing how this has worked and rolled out like maybe introducing coffee cart to staff. I don't know. I have other ideas but um it's going really great so far. So thank you guys. >> Yeah. >> Uh next up is uh public comments and seeing there are none takes us to board reports. Seeing as there are none, that takes us to item four, budget and finance. >> Good evening. Uh three items on your agenda tonight. Uh item 4 A is just the normal uh financial report for November. Uh it'sformational only. So um we're running uh pretty
025much right on collection with our revenues and budget with our expenses. So um we track that monthly for you as you're well aware from each board meeting. Um, but feel free to reach out with questions on that. Um, items 4B and 4 C uh are for action. If we could do those separately, Mr. Wilson, that would be great. But I want to explain to you what they are. Um, I'm actually going to talk first about 4C. Uh, that is the bond uh resolution for the sale of our bonds in January. You already did approve a bond resolution uh back in June. Um, this is just uh a little bit of an update because of uh the fact that we pushed our bond sale to January from this past summer. Um, we're just getting all the
026language and everything just updated. So, that's just an update resolution. One of the things in that resolution is reference to 4B, which is a bond refunding. Refunding is really the same as refinancing. So, if you think about um I always like to equate it to refinancing your home for a better interest rate. That's what we're looking to do. And this is with some of our existing bonds. They're already out there. We have an opportunity while we're at market selling the bonds for uh the levy that or the bond issue that passed back in May. We have an opportunity to get a better interest rate um on about $6 million worth of um existing debt. And so that that one is item 4B. And then the bond resolution for the $40 million issue is 4 C.
027Can I get a motion for item 4B, please? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Miss Sabre. >> Miss Dorenzo. >> Hi. >> Miss Kawaii. >> Hi. >> Dr. Middleton. >> Hi. >> Mr. Ryder Garcia. >> Hi. >> Mr. Wilson. >> I. And could I get a motion for item 4 C, please? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Miss Sabre. >> Mr. Ryder Garcia. >> I. >> Dr. Middleton. >> Hi. >> Miss Dorenzo. >> Hi. >> Miss Kawaii. >> Hi. >> Mr. Wilson. >> I. Takes us to item number five. Any unfinished business before the board? Seeing as there is none, any new business before the board? Seeing as there is none, that takes us to item seven, administrative reports and superintendent recommendations. >> Yes. For number seven, uh no uh nothing for vote. Uh but
0287A is just aformational. It's a field trip. Uh Smith fifth grade to Glenn Helen. It's their yearly trip. I looked over the paperwork. Everything looks great. Uh they'll be going to back to Glenn Helen in Yellow Springs March 4th through the 6th and um in the next month or two we'll we'll get the Harmon one. They'll be going on their same trip also. Uh so that's 7A. 7B is a first read essentially. It's for the junior high school and the high school program of studies. Uh and we'll go ahead and uh get formal approval for that at our je January 7th meeting. Takes us to item eight, personnel items, resignations and non-renewals. Yes, we'll take uh items number 8 A through G under one motion. I'll go ahead and read them. Letter 8A is the
029retirement of Patricia Ryman um from her position as fifth grade teacher at Harmon School. Letter B is a retirement of Brian Ellis uh for his uh position from as intervention specialist at Oakwood High School. Letter C is a reg resignation or sorry retirement. A, B, and C are retirements retirement of Paul Stone um for his retirement slashresignation um as position at math teacher at Oakwood High School. Letter D is a retirement of Karen Ladderbach. Uh her retirement uh resignation of her position as a math teacher at Oakwood Junior High School. Letter E is a retirement of Amanda AR. Um her position as social studies teacher at Oakwood High School. And then uh letter F is a retirement of Scott Gouty um for his position as sixth grade teacher at Harmon School. And then finally, letter
030G is a retirement of Joan Fisk to accept the retirement resignation um from her position as administrative assistant at Smith Elementary School. >> Can I get a motion for items 8A through 8G, please? >> So move. >> Second. >> Miss Saber. >> Miss Dorenzo. >> Hi. >> Mr. Ryder Garcia. >> Hi. >> Mr. Miss Kauai. >> Hi. >> Dr. Middleton. Hi, >> Mr. Wilson. >> I takes us to item nine, personnel items, recommendations. >> Yes, I'll go ahead and take number nine, letters A through I under one motion. I'll go ahead and read them. Letter A is the employment of Liz Fendo. Uh, recommendation to employ Liz as a health assistant RN for the 2526 school year effective November 19th on an as needed basis up to 50 days. Letter B is the employment of
031summer braiding. uh the employment is her as a health assistant RN for the 2526 school year effective November 19th on an as needed basis up to 50 days. Letter C is the employment of Karen Ladderbach um to employ her as a math teacher at Oakwood Junior High School at Mast's 45 step 9 for the 2627 school year uh pending required documents completion completed um she's been with the Oakwood schools for 29 years. Letter D is the employment of Paul Stone. Um recommendation made to employ Paul as a math teacher at Oakwood High School at a masters plus 15 step 9 for the 2627 school year pending completion required doc documents. Um he's been with Oakwood schools for 31 years. Letter E is the employment of Amanda AR. Um recommendation is made to employ her as
032a social teacher at Oakwood High School at Mast's 45 masters plus 45 step 9 for the 2627 school year pending completion of required documents. and she's been with Oakwood schools for 30 years. Letter F is the employment of Scott Gaudy as sixth grade teacher at Harmon School at a Masters plus 15 step 9 for the 2627 school year pending completion required documents. He's been with Oakwood schools for 29 years. Letter G is the recommendation uh to approve the supplemental contracts and volunteers for the 2526 school year. Letter H is the employment of seasonal workers uh based on the approved approval of the attached sheet of seasonal workers uh pending completion of required documents. Then letter I is a recommendation to approve the list of substitutes for the 2526 school year pending completion of required documents.
033>> Can I get a motion for items 9A through 9 I? Please move >> second. >> Miss Sabre, >> Dr. Middleton, >> Miss Dorenzo. >> Hi. Miss >> Hi, >> Mr. Ryder Garcia. >> Hi, >> Mr. Wilson. >> I And that takes us to item 10. There is no executive session tonight. Second, please get a motion to adjourn. >> So move. >> Second. >> Miss Kawaii, >> I. >> Miss Dorenzo, >> hi. >> Dr. Middleton, >> hi. >> Mr. Ryder Garcia, >> hi. >> Mr. Wilson, >> I thank you all for coming out tonight. That concludes our board meeting and we'll see you next month. >> All right. Thank you.