001Oh my. All right. Uh, welcome everybody. We are glad you're here. Today is Monday, September 8th, uh, 2025. I'll try to speak quietly. That is not my usge, but I'll make it happen. Um, >> just leave. >> It just got even louder. All right. And if we could please call the order. >> Miss Dorenzo >> here. >> Miss Kawawaii >> here. >> Dr. Middleton here. >> Mr. Writer Garcia >> here. >> Mr. Wilson >> here. Will you all please rise and join us in our pledge of >> allegiance? All right. Uh, could we please could I get a motion please to adopt tonight's agenda? >> Second. >> Miss Aubber. >> Miss Dorenzo. >> I. >> Dr. Middleton. >> Hi. >> Miss Kawawaii. >> Hi. >> Mr. Raider Garcia. >> Hi. >> Mr. Wilson. >> I.
002Okay. And can I also get a motion for the approval of the Oakwood Board of Education work session and regular meeting minutes August 4th, 2025? >> Some moved. Second. >> Miss Sabre. >> Miss Dorenzo. >> Hi. >> Miss Kawaii. >> Hi. >> Dr. Middleton. >> Hi. >> Mr. Writer Garcia. >> Hi. >> Mr. Wilson. >> Hi. Next up is item number two, reports and public comments. >> Yes. Uh to begin the superintendent report, I'd like to welcome Tyler Jacobs up to the podium. as Tyler uh goes up to the podium uh just to introduce him as our new uh Smith physical education teacher. Uh he's uh started for us. Um off to a great start and just really proud of him for uh just I guess put putting his name in the hat to come
003and and uh be a candidate. Um he's done already a great job. I've got to visit him a couple times in classroom. Um and so usually we do this before somebody's hired and and that sort of thing just to do the timelines and and things like that. uh came and helped us out and so we're making it official now. Uh so if you just want to turn it over just to say a couple things. Uh we'll be approving you officially or I'll be recommending you officially uh later in the agenda, but if you'd like to say a few words, we'd appreciate it. >> Sure. Uh first of all, I'd just like to thank you guys for all being here tonight. Um thanks to the school board. Thanks for my family that is here tonight, my
004wife Callie, and my oldest son Tyson, Kora, and Cooper. And we're missing our youngest son Turner who's playing soccer tonight. Um, uh, it's been a great transition to Oakwood. I've, uh, been teaching for 16 years at Graham local schools. Uh, I've been teaching PE for 14 of those years and it's been a great smooth transition over to Oakwood City Schools and, uh, the kids seem to be having a great time and they're enjoying having me and the staff has been awesome. Uh, so I'm just very happy to be here and pleased. So, thank you guys so much. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Okay, as promised, I'm going to let you go out and celebrate early. So, my recommendation is to hit graders on your way out. The black cherry chip happens to
005be the favorite raspberry chip. Raspberry chip. >> So, >> okay. So, perfect. So, yeah, feel free to go and enjoy the evening. Thank you. >> All right. Bye now. Okay, as they're filing out, uh, next I'd like to just share some exciting news that, uh, hopefully you've already seen out on social media, and that is that, um, Oakwood Schools has earned the outstanding recognition in the 202526 US News and World Report best high schools. Um, in their rankings, we secured number nine in the state of Ohio and proudly standing as number one in the Dayton region. Uh this um momentous achievement places our district among the very best in Ohio, underscoring the strength of our academic programs, the dedication of our entire community. Um in these latest rankings, uh just to give you an idea,
006there are nearly 24,000 public high schools uh that are ranked and um about 18,000 of them make it at the this state, national, metro level. So again, number nine is pretty good. Uh this recognition is a testament to the tireless efforts um of our educators, our support staff, our administrators, the families and of course our students um who persevere and have passions daily. Um obviously this is a a a best high schools award and it is in recognition to our high school uh teachers, but I'd be remiss if I didn't say that, you know, they also are elementary and and junior high teachers also had a lot to do with that too. We have a great tradition for that. So, um, this honor belongs to all of them also. So, um, hopefully we'll be able
007to continue to to recognize and and celebrate that in, um, weeks and months to come. The next one is, uh, Eva Mihan. Uh, if you've seen that, uh, she's a senior here at Oakwood High School. She's been named an academic all-American by the National Speech and Debate Association. Uh, that places her of the 141,000 students in the top 1%. Wow. uh get get a recognition like that. Um and it's obviously meant for students who excel in speech and debate while maintaining high academic achievements. Uh to qualify for that kind of honor, students must have completed at least five semesters of high school, earned the degree of superior distinction in the association's honor society, met rigorous GPA and test score standards, and have shown outstanding character and leadership. Uh this award is is definitely um from
008what I know of um Eva just uh the the awesome accomplishment that that she does on a daily basis uh in the classroom and also on the speech and debate team. Uh the third thing I wanted to share was just an update for the portrait of a learner. Um a lot's happening with our portrait of a learner initiative that we have uh going on this year. Um, it's an opportunity for our Oakwood community to help define the dispositions, the mindsets, the attributes that we want for every student uh in Oakwood as they progress through high school um after graduation and then to um not just vocation or college or anything like that, but just life even life beyond. Um we'll be sending out a community survey uh in the coming weeks to collect initial community
009feedback on those dispositions, feedback, mindsets um that go along with that. Um we also have uh later this month a full day planned. Uh we have a facilitator that Marlin Styles that'll be I'm sure coming to a board meeting in the near future and um but he's coming uh to our campus and he's going to uh we're going to go on the on the road f all five buildings. We're going to interview students to gather feedback from them. We've got a staff meeting that after school and then we've um sent out um an invitation for a kickoff meeting that night with to about 56 people that we've invited uh to learn more about it and gathered their initial feedback. And then uh we we've identified a core team of we have about 40 45 community
010members, students and staff members that have also been invited uh through a series of meetings uh that will still gather feedback and and uh work with them. also uh survey the community more as we go through that process to help isolate what are those four or five definitions or attributes that we have here for Oakwood. So pretty pretty exciting. Then the real work begins after we identify those things because it's up about making it real uh to the lives of our students. Uh the next one is um an OFCC introduction which goes to our master facility plan. Uh last month I posted a blog about a recent good news about the master facility plan. So based on the May bond that we had, we intended to just provide targeted work at Smith and Harmon with
011some work to our other schools and our athletic facilities taking place. So similar to the 2019 bond, we partnered with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission to seek future credit for work that is eligible under those state guidelines. We were told uh in 2019 and last year that Oakwood Schools number would be up um around 2030 that we'd be able to access funds to help complete one or more of our schools. Well, the OFCC notified us this summer um after the main ballot that our number came up. That's great news. So, we can now access 29% of the funds to complete the Smith and Harmon schools on state eligible items. That means in addition to the work that that we had promised to our uh community based on the May bond, we'll be able to do
012that and more. Uh we'll also be able to use state funds to attend to other items at Smith and Harmon such as windows, flooring, and furniture. Additional forms and processes need to be completed in order to access these funds funds which will delay some of our work. Um but you will see work next summer on some of the projects at our other schools and our athletic facilities but we'll need some additional time to plan a more comprehensive project entailed now at Smith and Harmon. So at this time I'd like to introduce uh Tyler Palmer. He's from the uh Ohio Facilities Construction Commission who came here tonight. He was at our work session also to share more about this great news, how it happened and uh some of the timelines of what we can expect in
013the future. As uh good evening as already stated, my name is Ty Palmer. Um I am a planning manager with the Ohio City Construction Commission. Um I've been working closely with uh Superintendent Dr. Neil Gupta and his uh his team uh for for some time now and appreciate their efforts uh to provide oak with the best facilities possible. Um they asked me to attend today to to answer some questions uh that has been uh arising and uh also address uh you know where this uh the school is at this time. Um first question was um uh how Oakwood school's number got called earlier than anticipated. Um our application approval process is to review our current active planning list of districts and uh project when the district will be offered a CFAP funded project. Um when
014reviewing Oakwood at the time of the ELP application, it was projected that the district would be outside of the two-year timeline requirement of the approved ELP uh project. Um however due to unforeseen circumstances of districts that were ahead of Oakwood um either deferring to another year uh in the CFAP offer or failing at the ballot to obtain their local shares. Um Oakwood moved ahead much sooner than anticipated and this allowed the OCC the opportunity to provide Oakwood with the CFAP offer ahead of the anticipated original time frame. Um, another question that has arose, um, what, so what does Oakwood get? Um, they would be, uh, with the previous Elf project locking in the state and local percentage shares, uh, the state would be funding 29% of the planned CPAP project. Um, our CPAP requirements do
015include, uh, ensuring all scope and standards align with the OSDM, which is our Ohio school design manual. Um and also any items that are above and beyond the design manual will become locally funded initiatives or LFIS. Um uh the next question that has arose also is uh next steps and timelines. Um so the next steps in the process is first to determine the scope uh for the CFAP project. Um and it would have to uh basically be uh completed by beginning of October. Um uh we will want to ensure this step is uh uh completed for our NOA package to be provided to the school district and um that would be in uh anticipation of a January commission meeting um and fe February controlling board. Um and then the next steps after that would then
016of course be be impurement design uh next year. Um but I can speak for myself as well as the UFCC. We look forward to continuing to work together uh with Oakwood on these future projects. Thank you. >> And that that that concludes uh my superintendent report. All right. Next up is item 2B and that is public comments. We have one public comment today and that is Ashley Tolman about vouchers for Ohio. Yeah. And just as a friendly reminder, there's a three minute window for you. Okay. >> Yeah, I noticed that. >> I noticed that. >> You can't see me. >> Yeah, they didn't pull off. >> Yes. Sorry about that. >> Yeah, you could pull it. Yep, that's perfect. Thank you very much. >> Is that better? >> Okay. Hi, my name is Ashley Tolman.
017I live at 366 Wonderly Avenue. I'm a former public school teacher, current sub at Oakwood Schools, and a president ammeritus of Smith PTO. I'm a mom of four Oakwood kids. I'm here on behalf of Oakwood Advocates for Public Education to encourage the board to join vouchers Ohio. We were heartened at the A August meeting to hear some members discuss the impact of vouchers and that two board members would form a committee to study the issue. For the past seven months, our group has consistently advocated for this issue in a variety of ways. We've attended every single board meeting since March where you have heard testimony from a diverse group of community members. We've met individually with Dr. Gupta and every member of the board to answer your questions and provide information. We've organized concerned citizens
018to send letters to the editor of the Oakwood Register showing their support for Oakwood joining the lawsuit. We formed a Facebook group to educate the community about the threat of public schools, the threat that public schools face from vouchers. We even hosted a community information session last spring featuring a panel of experts including John Patterson, the Ohio legislator for whom the Cup Patterson fair school funding plan was named. We have done everything we can think of to inform the board and our community about the very real threat our schools face from Ohio's voucher program and why we believe Oakwood should stand alongside the over 300 of Ohio's 600 public school districts that have already joined. We realize that as a board you must balance the opinions of all citizens outside of a couple Oakwood registered
019letters to the ed from individuals. There has been no organized oppos opposition to the board joining the lawsuit. We've been showing up for seven months and we're committed to showing up as long as it takes for this board to make a decision. We know you all care deeply about the future of public education in Ohio. As such, we urge you to join the lawsuit while there's still a public education system in this state to save. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Tolman. And that moves us to item number three, board reports. Um, do we have any any board reports in addition to the one that we asked for um last month. Okay. Uh with that said, if the um the members of the uh committee that we asked to put together on vouchers hurt Ohio,
020if you would go ahead and uh present your findings. >> It's on. >> Yeah, it's written down. >> Oh. Oh, I see. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. President. And yes, so to reiterate, um, after last month's conversation at the board meeting, we decided to organize a committee, which is Dr. Middleton and myself, to do some additional research and investigation into um, additional findings or uh, additional information around the voucher program funding and its impact upon public education. So, I do have some prepared remarks that I will go ahead and read if you'd allow me to do so. So, in June of this year, Judge Paige of Franklin County Common Police Court ruled Ohio's voucher program unconstitutional on three counts. One, by providing public or private schools with over $700 million in
021public funds through the voucher program, the state legislature created a separate system of non-public schools that unlike public schools do not accept all students in violation of the state constitution, which authorizes only a single system of common schools. Count two, by not fully funding public schools while simultaneously spending large sums in vouchers, in fact providing private schools with greater state per pupil funding than public schools receive. The state legislature failed to secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools as required by the state constitution. third count. The court also noted that the voucher program provides state funding directly to private religious schools in violation of the constitutional provision prohibiting religious and other sects from controlling state school funds. In addition to receiving direct payments from public funds, these private religious schools are free to
022discriminate against students on the basis of race, religion, LGBTQIA plus status, or disability. Residents across the state are deeply concerned with their tax dollars being spent on an unconstitutional program that negatively impacts public schools. Public education is one of the bedrocks of a strong and healthy community, and highquality public education requires adequate resources to sustain and continue innovating to meet the unique needs of learners in today's world. The state funds a relatively small amount to districts like Oakwood with the bulk coming from property taxes. This means taxpayers are left to bear the brunt of the financial burden as districts then have to place levies on the ballot and ask for community support. We are all tired of increased costs year-over-year. Community residents have made their concerns clear. The current state of public school funding is
023not sustainable and is unfair to taxpayers. The voucher lawsuit seeks to represent residents across Ohio and advocate for fair school funding. Vouchers are funded from the same budget line item as public schools. So when the state chooses to increase voucher program funding and not increase crucial public school funding, it's a hit to public education in Ohio. Many Ohioans here locally and across the state have significant concerns with how the state values public school students versus students who take vouchers. The state attributes public and private school students at differing levels of funding per student. Each Oakwood public school student receives $2,479 in state per pupil funding. In contrast, each high school voucher student receives up to $8,47 and each K through8 voucher student receives up to $6,165 in state per pupil funding. The state values public
024school students significantly different than voucher students. If the state were to increase funding for public education rather than increase funding to voucher programs, public education as a common good would stand to benefit. Additionally, with the expansion of Ed Choice universal vouchers in 2023, there's no longer a lowinccome requirement. So, before the income requirement was removed, families living at or up to 250% of the federal poverty limit qualified. That's $75,000 for a family of four. And today, anyone qualifies for private school vouchers. Families living at 450% of the federal poverty limit or below qualify for the full voucher amount. That's about 135,000 for a family of four. For families making above this amount, they receive pr-rated amounts at a minimum of 10% of the voucher. Voucher utilization has grown across Ohio. Even in Oakwood, V even
025in Oakwood, voucher utilization has increased by 1575% from four families in 2023 to 67 families fiscal year 25. 63 or 94% of whom are not low-income qualified families. Based on the explosive growth over the past three years alone, it's safe to assume this number will continue growing in the years to come. Of note, public schools must adhere to stringent legal requirements and guidelines with a commitment to deliver quality education to all learners regardless of their background, language, learning style, disability status, health condition, religion, identity, or other any other demographic characteristic or lived experience. Private schools don't have to follow the same standards or state requirements, including financial and academic accountability. What's being dubbed the school choice appears to be giving the choice to private school operators who have the power to choose who and who
026not to allow into their school. We're not the first district considering joining this lawsuit. In fact, over 300 school districts across the state have joined the lawsuit in advocating for a more fair school funding system to date. Even though Oakwood hasn't joined yet, there is still opportunity to stand in solidarity in supporting public education in Ohio. It's also important to note that there are vouchers exempt from the lawsuit, including the Autism Scholarship, John Peterson Special Needs Scholarship, and the Cleveland Scholarship. This lawsuit applies only to Ed Choice Universal Universal Voucher Program Expansion Act, which was passed in 23. If Oakwood chooses to join the lawsuit, it would cost $2 per student, totaling $3,868. This total is less than half the cost of one high school voucher. As a public school district, Oakwood is invested in
027and benefits from a strong and vibrant public school system across Ohio. As such, Oakwood joining this lawsuit demonstrates we as a district are invested in public education and also that we stand in solidarity with other public school districts across the state. Although the judge ruled the voucher program unconstitutional on those three accounts mentioned above, the legal battle is far from over. The state indicated they will appeal the ruling immediately following the court's decision. In the meantime, Oakwood will continue working with our local state legislators to advocate for positive change. So, I'll leave those thoughts with you and welcome any additional comments or uh sentiments from Dr. Middleton or others on the board. >> Are there any other comments and thoughts from other board members? Any discussion? >> I have a few comments. Okay, first of
028all, thank you Nathan and Laura for your work on, you know, bringing all of that to us. Um, as Nathan mentioned, the current model not only has been ruled unconstitutional, but it's not sustainable or fair to taxpayers. Um, I feel like public education, not just in the state of Ohio, but in our country right now, is facing a lot of challenges and is being privatized. Um, and so I think you know I am a graduate of Oakwood public schools. My kids attend Oakwood public schools. I am a huge advocate for public education and as such I feel like you know that requires advocating for fair school funding. So thank you for sharing your thoughts. I think that community schools are um they're one of the last few institutions that really bind a community together. So,
029and you know, 100 years ago, it was you know, we kind of all went to church or whatever uh religious institution we went to in the community that we lived in. Um we went to work for the most part in the communities that we lived in. Uh everything was right there. So there are all kinds of institutions that were binding us together, but the one institution that truly is left is our public schools. Um, and the more that we fragment our public schools and privatize them and students are going all over the place, I think we lose that last bit that holds a community together and and those communities especially um that have a lot more challenges in them uh need a lot more resources rather than being defunded. uh need a lot more resources
030in addition just to the resources going to the public schools. But I think the the last thing we need to do is to be um reducing the the support that we give to those public schools especially. >> I'm I kind of feel like I've already Thank you for reading kind of what we've sort of put together. Um, and but I will just add just as I said last time, the again I'm here because of my support for public education and it's for all. And I think that's the main thing. Public education is for all. There is no discrimination in who can or cannot attend. If you live in the district, you attend. Period. Um, and so to me, to take resources away from public education overall is doing our entire society a disservice. All right.
031If there are no further comments, uh, Miss Sabre, would you for next meeting, would you uh write up some language that would put this um up for a vote? That'll give us another month to think about it and then we'll be ready to vote on it at the October meeting. >> Yep. We'll get that on the agenda. >> All right. Thank you very much. Thank you everybody. Appreciate uh the report from uh the committee. Next up is item number four, budget and finance. >> Good evening everyone. Um for your um just I guess viewing is item A. That's the normal monthly August financial report. Uh next month I will bring to you the forecast uh for your approval. We're on a little bit of a different timeline of on that. So instead of waiting until
032um November, we'll be approving that in October this year. And I'll go over those timelines with you next month. Um item B for approval tonight. uh we uh invest um in various uh pieces that are allowed uh investment pieces that are allowed by policy. One of those is called uh commercial paper and bankers acceptance. And one of the requirements to investing in that tool is to report to you the interest earnings on that. And so um for your consideration and hopefully approval tonight is item 4B. >> Okay. To get a motion for item 4B, please. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Miss Saber. >> Miss Dorenzo. Hi, >> Dr. Middleton. >> Hi, >> Miss Kawaii. >> Hi, >> Mr. Ryder Garcia. >> Hi, >> Mr. Wilson. >> I Item number five, is there any unfinished
033business before the board? >> Item six, any new business before the board? Item seven, uh, administrative reports and superintendent recommendations. >> We're going to jump to eight, personnel items, resignations, non-renewals. >> Yes. I'll go ahead and take items A 8 A through D under one motion. I'll go ahead and read them. Letter 8A is amending the retirement date. A recommendation is made to amend the effective retirement date for Jay Lane from June 2nd, 2025 to May 31st, 2025. Letter B is a recommendation to accept the retirement resignation of Kathy McCriedy from her position as kindergarten teacher at Lang School effective June 30th, 2026. Miss McCriedi has been with Oakwood School since May 1998. Letter C is the resignation of Abigail uh RLE. Recommendations to accept her resignation from her position as district nurse effective September
0345th, 2025. Miss RLE has been with open school since August 2021. And finally, letter D is recommendation to uh made to accept the following supplemental resignations for the 2526 school year. We've got a assistant junior high football coach and a assistant girls basketball coach. Can I get a motion for items 8A through 8D, please? >> Miss Auburn, >> Miss Kawaii, >> I. >> Mr. Ryder Garcia, >> Miss Dorenzo, >> Dr. Middleton, >> Mr. Wilson, >> I. Item nine, personal items, recommendations. Personnel items, excuse me, and recommendations. >> Yes, we'll take uh number nine, letters A through K under one motion. Uh letter A is a revised uh Ellen Gold Ellen Golden recommendations made to amend the hourly rate for uh Ellen for the 2526 school year effective August 1st 2025. Letter B is Angela Bolan
035recommendations made to amend her hourly rate for the 2526 school year effective August 1st 2025. Letter C is the employment of Tyler Jacobs uh uh as the PE teacher at Smith Elementary School uh at Bachelor Step 9 for the 2526 school year. Letter D is the employment of Shannon Shannon Mackey. Uh recommendations made to employ Shannon as the district nurse at Bachelor's Step 12 for the 2526 school year effective September 8th, 2025. Letter E is employing um Eileen Epley. uh recommendations made to employ employed August 1st, 2025 for testing coordination and district rep services at her daily rate. Letter F is for extended time. Um it is for Linda Miller u uh paying for individual for extended time for the 2425 school year effective June 18, 2025. Letter G is extended time uh for uh
036three individuals uh to to pay them for extended time services for the 2526 school year effective July 30th, 2025. It's for Emily Nave, Linda Miller, and Chris Picket. Letter H is a unpaid leave of absence um to recommendations made to approve the unpaid leave for Rachel Stern, sixth grade teacher at Harman Elementary School effective October 16th uh through November 5th. Letter I is amending supplementals. Uh two supplementals. Uh one for uh Brian Connor um level five assistant football coach to level six um at five years and then for Maddie Quinnland uh junior high athletic event supervisor from level four and zero years to a volunteer. Letter J is uh supplemental uh contracts and volunteers for the 2526 school year. Letter K is u substitutes um approving a list of substitutes for the 2526 school year
037pending completion of required documents. >> Can I get a motion for items 9A through 9K please? >> Second >> Miss Aubber >> Miss Dorenzo I >> Miss Kawaii >> Dr. Middleton >> hi >> Mr. Ryder Garcia Mr. Wilson. >> I And that takes us to We are already in executive session. That takes us to number item number 11 of German. Can I get a motion to adjurnn, please? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Miss Aubber, >> Miss Dorenzo. >> Hi, >> Mr. Wright Garcia. >> Hi, >> Miss Kawaii. Hi, >> Dr. Middleton. Hi, >> Mr. Wilson. I thank you all for being here. That concludes our monthly Oakwood Board of Education meeting.