001Welcome everybody. So glad you are here in person in attendance to our board meeting today, Monday, uh, August 4th, 2025. Uh, Miss Sber, could you please call the role? >> Miss Dorenzo, >> here. >> Miss Kawaii, >> here. >> Dr. Middleton, Mr. Mr. Ryder Garcia >> here. >> Mr. Wilson >> here. Would you all please rise and join us in our pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Could I please get a motion um to adopt tonight's agenda? >> Second. >> Miss Saber. >> Miss Kawaii. >> I. >> Miss Dorenzo. >> Hi. >> Dr. Middleton. >> Hi. >> Mr. Writer Garcia. >> Hi. >> Mr. Wilson.
002>> I. And could I also get a motion to approve the meeting minutes of July 7, 2025 regular board meeting and work session? >> Second. >> Miss Saber. >> Mr. Ryder Garcia. >> Dr. Middleton. >> Hi. Miss Dorenzo. Hi, >> Miss Kawai. >> Hi, >> Mr. Wilson. >> Hi. Next up is item two, uh, reports and public comments. >> Yes. Good evening. Um, first before we, uh, I begin my my, uh, superintendent report, I just wanted to specify that an agenda item um has been added as 7C. Uh, so uh, if you'd looked over the weekend, uh, we had one update. Uh with that, I'd like to report uh that we had our our new staff training last week. Um I'm very excited for the new school year. There is probably no better way to
003start a new school year off than than bringing in our new hires. Um really appreciate the work of Alison Couch and her new administrative assistant Carrie Kiss for leading the hiring work. And then uh for those two days, it was tremendous. Um also in that continued part of celebration, um summer is not a time that's off. Uh there's a lot of work that happens on our campus. Um there's summer workers. Uh we have summer school teachers. We've got principles and administrators that are closing out one school year preparing for the next one. Our technology department um and staff members are uh getting devices prepared and ready. Um and then we've got our custodians and our grounds crew. So just appreciate their hard work. Um I think sometimes we take for granted that we are sometimes
004hot inside a building in air conditioning and uh they work really hard. Um even today uh we still had some high school workers that were were doing some lifting of of some things getting uh the rooms ready and just appreciate their hard work and and positive attitude that comes along with it. Uh the next one I want to report on is uh that something called the portrait of a learner. Um this evening I'm excited to share that Oakwood schools is beginning the process of creating what's called a portrait of a learner. This will be a shared vision developed together with our staff, our students, our parents and our community that clearly define what are those attributes, those skills, mindsets, dispositions uh that we want for every Oakwood graduate um to have by the time that
005they leave our schools. While strong academic achievement will always be our priority, we also want to make sure that our students um are critical thinkers, creative problem solvers, effective communicators, and collaborative team members who can adapt in a rapidly changing world. And so the portrait of learner will will help us to create a roadmap that's going to guide our work and prepare our students for future success. Um we are we are partnering with a national consultant Marlin Styles uh to lead us through this work. It's going to be collaboratively locally driven process. Uh so this fall we'll form a diverse uh portrait design team uh that will help to gather ideas and feedback through different surveys, listening sessions and forums so that the portrait will reflect specifically our values and aspirations here in Oakwood. Um
006our goal is to be complete sometime in March and uh once it's in place then really the work begins. It's not about putting something on the wall. It's an opportunity then for us to have it uh those dispositions and mindsets and skills uh be embedded into our classrooms, our programs, and our culture. I'm looking forward to the opportunity uh to keep the board and the community updated um in in this important step. Um and then finally, I just want to give an update to our facilities. Over the past few weeks, we received positive news from the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, the OFCC, uh that will directly impact um our facility plans for the next several years. We find ourselves in a very unique situation. When our community approved the MA the phase 2 master facility
007plan bond uh back in May, we anticipated moving forward with the Smith and Harmon projects. now receiving those state credits for those projects uh that were um approved by them and then accessing state construction dollars somewhere. They kept telling us between 2030 and 2035 sometime when we were going to get ready to complete our phase three. However, however, after speaking with the state, we've learned that Oakwood is eligible now to receive those OFCC dollars. So because other school districts are not ready to use their share of the funds and the state had some additional funds available, Oakwood has moved up on the list and so we're now eligible for our share of state construction funding about 29% of eligible project costs as early as next year 2026. Uh so this is a significant opportunity for
008Oakwood schools. Receiving this funding years earlier than expected allows us to complete more work sooner, reduce the risk of losing funding in the future, and increase what I'm going to say is our buying power before construction costs rise into the future, which we know it will. Um, here's what I need you to know as a board and what our community needs to know is to qualify for the funding, we will need to pivot our OFCC eligible projects, including Smith and Harmon, until the 2026 approval process is complete. So, we'll continue to work closely with OFCC and our facilities core team and keep the community informed through board updates, blogs, and newsletters. And while our timeline changes, the outcome is a major uh win for our district. This is truly great news for Oakwood Schools, and
009we're excited to work with our state, our board, staff, and community continue to continue strengthening the maintenance and infrastructure of our school facilities. Um so, we'll we'll continue to keep you apprised of that that as we move forward. Uh that does conclude my report. >> Okay. Um next up is public comments and I will remind everybody who's making a public comment, you have three minutes. So uh we are very excited to have you here. Um Miss Saber will be keeping time. So first up we have Miss Rose Lounsberry. Well, thank you. Hi, I'm Rose Lounsberry. I'd like to start by thanking the board for your consideration as Oakwood Advocates for Public Education has talked to you about vouchers for the past six months. You've listened, ask questions, and on behalf of my committee, I am
010grateful. In June, a Franklin County judge ruled in favor of the voucher turtle Ohio lawsuit on three counts, meaning Ed Choice vouchers are currently unconstitutional. However, two weeks ago, Attorney General Dave Yos announced he will appeal, meaning the lawsuit now heads to appellet court and likely the Ohio Supreme Court. This is good news for public schools. We've won round one of a three- round fight. But it's also bad news because Oakwood is watching this battle from the sidelines, allowing over half of our fellow districts to fight for fair school funding while we watch and wait. With all respect, I ask, what are we waiting for? Public schools are under attack at all levels. In DC, the administration is dismantling the Department of Education, the body that oversees student loans and ensures equal access to education
011for kids with disabilities like my own daughter. At the state level, we see the gutting of the fair school funding plan and a legislature that tries to quote unquote stall the property tax crisis by punishing districts like Oakwood from carrying over fiscally responsible cash reserves and prohibiting us from putting certain types of levies on the ballot. In short, we're feeling it in our nation, our state, our local districts, and for families like mine, our homes. Some might argue, Oakwood's not guaranteed more funding if this lawsuit succeeds. So, why should we join? I have two reasons. First, throughout my kids' time at Oakwood, there's always been an emphasis on doing the right thing to help others. Never once did a teacher tell my kids, "Yes, do the right thing, but only when you stand to personally
012financially benefit." That's not the message we send to our students. Sadly, it is the message we are sending as a district every day that we stay out of this lawsuit. Stopping the flow of public dollars to private schools is the right thing to do. It helps all of us whether we directly financially benefit or not. Second, I mentioned the recent property tax relief measures passed in Ohio. These measures will hurt Oakwood by forcing you to ask voters for more levies more often. One might ask, why does the legislature create property tax laws that punish schools? Well, it's because many of our fellow districts must constantly ask for levies because they lose money to vouchers. If those districts weren't losing that money, they wouldn't be asking for those levies. Therefore, the legislature wouldn't be making laws
013that harm all of us, including Oakwood. Again, what helps all of us helps all of us, which makes it sound like those Oakwood teachers who told my kids to do the right thing to help others, we're on to something. In closing, I'm grateful to this board for your time and attention. And now I'm asking you to take action to protect our schools, all our schools. It's time for us to get off the sidelines and join Vouchers Hurt Ohio. Thank you. >> All right, next up, next up is Rob Ross. >> Thank you for letting me speak tonight. I'm speaking about education and large language models which power technologies like chat GPT. I really wanted to frame the problem. So I'm going to spend my entire three minutes building an intuition around the power of the
014technology and I'll come back next month if you let me and talk about what we can do about it. Um but just framing the problem. So large language models are significantly transforming the education landscape. According to Pew, 26% of students say that they use large language models in their assignments. as of January. My college faculty friends assure me that's closer to 80 to 90% of their students. And if you try the tools, you'll immediately see why. Um, so here's some prompts that I tried recently. I'm trying to understand how to balance equations for my chemistry class. Can you teach me that? It gave me a detailed step-by-step explanation starting with motivation section. Why do we balance equations? And then continuing with the steps of how to do it. It took me on a side quest
015to teaching me about least common multiples. And it ended up with tips and tricks like balance the metals first and balance hydrogen and oxygen last. And it ended by prompting me, would you like some practice problems? I can give you some answers to those practice problems or I can walk you through them. Prompt number two, my child is starting seventh grade math this fall and I'd like to refresh their memory. Please create a 20 question math worksheet for this. That's great. Here's a worksheet. It covers operations with integers, fractions and decimals, proportions and percentages, geometry, word problems, and the response ended by asking, would you like me to create an answer key as well? Fascinating. Now things get more problematic. I have an assignment to write a book report on Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
016The report is supposed to be five pages long. Can you write it for me? After providing a really solid essay, it ended by asking if I would like this formatted as a PDF or a Word document. That's fascinating. I responded, "This looks good, but it looks too good. I'm in 11th grade and I'm not that good at English. Can you put in a few typos to make it seem like I wrote it?" It responded, "Sure. Here's a slightly tonedown version of the essay with a few realistic typos, simpler vocabulary, and mild grammatical quirks that a capable but not perfect 11th grade student might use. The ideas are still strong, but the execution is a little more natural for your level. And sure enough, it wrote me a simpler essay, complete with a few run-on sentences
017and a lower vocabulary. Here's a photo of my math assignment. Upload photo. Can you answer the questions for me? I uploaded a typical kind of advanced algebra 2 assignment or might be beginning linear algebra assignment where the student is asked to calculate the determinant of a set of 3x3 matrices. It gave me the answers. It also gave me the Python code that it used to calculate the answers in case I wanted to use the Python code. It also offered to walk me through how you calculate the answers in case I need to write down and show my work to the teacher. I'm out of time. All right. Right. If you haven't tried Chantion BT, you really should go home and try it tonight. Uh or come find me and I'll show you how you can
018use it. I'll come back next week to talk about what's next. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you to our for our uh public comments. Next up is board reports. Are there any border reports this month? >> No. Okay. Um we have we we talked about um in work session a little bit last month about uh the vouchers uh in Ohio and the Ohio vouchers. One of the things I was reminded today um that the group that is actually bringing on the lawsuit uh about the vouchers is the same group that brought about the lawsuit um the Dough lawsuit uh 30 years ago. I can remember hearing about the Dough case when I was I think right after college, but also uh in the very beginning of my education career um and the importance of
019that case in really bringing to light the inequity that was happening um in schools across Ohio. And I especially remember um the stories that were coming out in southeast Ohio of um down in Athens um Ohio in that area of like literally uh sections of some buildings that were slowly moving away from the rest of the building where you may have an inch, two inch, three inch gap um uh and and things were slowly getting worse. Um, and I don't know if it's a direct response to the dough the rough case, but I know there has been um legislation over the last 20, 30 years to try to address some of those um inequities. Some of that is the school funding model in terms of facilities model that we see today. So, if you're ever
020going to a a track meet um or crosscountry meet, often in other district, typically it's it seems to be like a smaller rural district. you may roll up and see, holy smokes, these schools have these these districts have all new buildings. How is that possible? Well, that's possible because of um the Ohio school uh funding program that came out and is meant to address those. And those kinds of fundings are on a sliding scale fee according to levels of poverty and things like that in the community. Well, those kinds of things um typically don't happen because of um legislators do that on their own or come up with that on their own. A lot of time it's because they are fought for um in the courts. Uh and DA Roth is an example of that
021and the current voucher program is um uh from the same organization that has done that. All right, that's so that's a thought that I've had recently about the about the the vouchers. Does anyone else have any thoughts or want to have anything to share? Not that you need to. >> Thanks. Um, I think just in general as we've listened the past couple months and I've done some of my my own research or kind of digging on the side too and some of the main kind of concerns that I see are one just kind of the overall defunding of public education here and and obviously you know I think public education is one of the the bedrocks of a strong community and so that is one of grave concern. Um, two, looking at kind of where
022when we see the defunding happening, where it's going to or where other places are increasing funding and with that being the the voucher program and coming from the same line item in the budget. So, a dollar less for public education is a dollar more for the voucher program in the same line item budget. So obviously that's a concern too and seeing the public education funding decrease from the state while other uh programs such as the voucher program increases uh from state funding perspective. Um, part of the difference with that too of what also gives me concern um is that the the value of students are very different in terms of how much the state or how much school districts receive um for each student and then comparing the numbers for voucher receiving students. Uh the
023state values those students by assigning a larger um dollar figure too. So it's I think it's around $6 to $8,000 for each voucher receiving student and a public school district receives about 2500. So it's a pretty vast um difference. And when I think about if more funds are going towards the voucher program, fewer are going towards the public education system that we have here, it means there are decreased resources, programs, quality instruction. and all of the opportunities that people move to Oakwood for and choose Oakwood schools for is because of all of those quality opportunities available that often aren't available in other districts or in other places. So, just a few thoughts that I wanted to share as well. [snorts] >> Yeah, of course. >> I think I think there are so many things to
024be said about this topic. I mean, one reason I wanted to serve on this board is because of because I support public education. Oh, yep. Oh, hello. Hear me now. Um, I'm here because I support public education, period. And it's to me, it's essential for our community here, but it's also essential for our country. Um, to me, it's sort of one of I've heard this said before, one of the great great equalizers, right? It gives all children a chance. All children. And one of the things that concerns me about vouchers is when those vouchers can go anywhere and those private schools don't have to take everybody. They can be selective in who they take. Um that so the equity is a huge concern of mine and taking away funds even if it's not in our
025district but taking funds away overall is a huge concern of mine too because it undermines public education. Those are my the two top concerns that I have. >> I would echo that. Sorry, just to add another comment, but I think that's very poignant as well, just thinking about the the kind of the quality and guidelines that public education or public districts are really not only forced to follow, but because we believe it's a public good, we we want to follow them as well. And so something like welcoming all learners who are there regardless of race, cultural background, sexual orientation, ability, status, right? all of these things that any um private or religious voucher receiving school does not have that same obligation. There is not the same oversight that like a board of education has in
026a public school district or um other other requirements that the states place upon a public school district. They vary very differently when you look at private or voucher receipt schools. >> So I think it's a great point. >> Yeah. And just uh uh to echo your point, Dr. Middleton, is one of the most concerning things is when the public money is going to private schools, there's not the nearly the same level of requirements and expectations of um of educating students, especially the most challenging students um at those districts. There's just not and there's not the same reporting requirements uh that are happening at those schools as well. So public schools are receiving that money with one set of expectations and requirements >> while private schools are receiving that money with far less of those expectations
027and reporting requirements. Um and so I I get concerned about um yeah the responsibility and how is that money being spent. >> Okay. Okay. So, at this time, if there's no more comments or questions, um uh is there anyone who is willing to um be a part of a twoerson, one or two person committee that is willing to go out and begin to uh assemble maybe uh reasons why this board may join um that um the lawsuit and the organization. >> I would love to take part. Yeah, I Yes, I would love to. >> Yeah. And Laura. Okay. All right. So, thank you. So, Nathan and Laura, would you be able to come, Dr. Middleton, would you guys would you two be able to come back and uh next month and uh bring some talking
028points and some if uh reasons why if we were to join this case, um what those would be in terms of for us, the board of education on our behalf. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. That ends number three. And that moves us on to number four, budget and finance. >> Technical difficulties. Sorry about that. Good evening, everyone. Um, your normal uh financial report that you typically see uh listed as letter A. We did not include today because it's only August 4th. Um, so it's very early in the month for us to have our board reports ready. So, we will make sure that next month you have that normal report. um and we'll get that all caught up uh by next month. But I do have two items for approval tonight. You can take
029those together. The first um is the original uh certificate of estimated resources for f fiscal year 26. That is um a standard uh document that we have to file with county auditor uh at the start of every year. And then the second item is we made some amendments to our appropriations um as well. >> Can I get a motion for items 4A through 4B, please? Second, >> Miss Sabre, >> Miss Dorenzo, Miss Kawaii, Dr. Middleton, Hi, >> Mr. Ryder Garcia, Mr. Wilson. >> I takes us to item I'm sorry, you know, that's correct. Takes us to item five, uh, new business. Any new business by the board? >> Item six is administrative reports and superintendent recommendations. >> Yes. For number six, uh, letter A, making a recommendation, uh, to adopt the attached title one grant
030resolution. >> Can I get a motion for item 6A, please? >> Second, >> Miss Aubber, >> Mr. Ryder Garcia, >> Miss Dorenzo, >> Miss Kawaii, >> hi. >> Dr. Middleton, Mr. Wilson. >> Hi. >> Uh, number six, letter B, uh, recommendation, uh, to approve the contract 26, uh, sorry, 2026.01. Can I get a motion for item 6B, please? >> So moved. >> Miss Auburn. >> Miss Dorenzo. >> Hi, >> Mr. Ryder Garcia. Hi, >> Miss Kawai. >> Hi, >> Dr. Middleton. >> Hi, >> Mr. Wilson. I. >> Number seven, personnel items, resignations, non-renewals. >> Yes, I'll take uh items A through C under number seven uh under one motion. Letter 7 A, recommendation to accept uh a supplemental resignation uh for assistant boys soccer coach uh for the 2526 school year. Letter B is for
031sending a supplemental contract uh for a student council advisor. And letter C is the approval uh to to approve the attached resignation of Andy Keading. Andrew Keading, a physical education teacher at Smith Elementary. >> Can I get a motion for items 7 A through 7C, please? >> So moved. >> Miss Aubber, >> Miss Lorenzo, >> hi. >> Miss Kawai, >> hi. >> Dr. Middleton, >> hi. >> Mr. Rder Garcia, >> Mr. Wilson, >> I >> Oh, I'm sorry. Number eight, personnel items recommendation. >> Yes, we'll take uh number eight, items A through A. A through E under one motion. Letter A is a recommendation to approve unpaid leave of absence for Christy Zavino, the art teacher at Oakwood Junior High and Senior High School. Um effective August 25th, 2025 through October 10th, 2025. Letter B
032is the recommendation to amend the hourly rate for the attached seasonal workers effective June 1st, 2025. Letter C is the recommendation to amend uh an attached administrator contract for the 2526 school year. Letter D is the recommendation to approve the list of substitutes for the 2025-26 school year pending completion of all required documents. Letter E is the supplemental contracts. Um it's a recommendation to approve the following supplemental contracts and volunteers for the 2526 school year. Can I get a motion for items 8A through 8E, please? >> Miss Sabre, >> Dr. Middleton, >> hi. >> Mr. Ryder Garcia, >> Miss Dorenzo, >> hi. >> Miss Kawawaii, >> hi. >> Mr. Wilson, >> hi. >> Takes us to And let me just say that's an incredible number of substitutes uh on that list. I mean, it's amazing.
033It's just a I think a um reflection of our community because I'm sure many many of those are community members and how much they would like to support Oakwood School. So, it's appreciated. Uh and also those folks who are not necessarily in our community. Um next up is item I'm sorry. >> Great. >> Yeah. Um uh yeah, item 8F. Yeah. Uh number eight, letter F. Uh recommendation to approve a supplemental contract for the 2526 school year assistant boys soccer coach. >> Uh this is or can I please get a motion on item 8F? >> Second. >> Miss Aubber >> Dr. Middleton. >> Hi >> Miss Dorenzo. >> Hi. >> Miss Kawaii >> abain. >> Abstain like what's the word on Mr. Mr. Writer Garcia, >> Mr. Wilson. >> I And that means we are moving
034to adjourn. >> All right. And so could I please get a motion to obser uh uh we will not move into executive session. We are just adjourning for the night. Could I please get a motion to adjurnn? >> Second. >> Miss Sabre. >> Mr. Ryder Garcia. >> Hi. >> Miss Dorenzo. Hi. >> Miss Kawaii. >> Hi. >> Dr. Middleton. >> Hi. >> Mr. Wilson. >> Hi. Thank you everyone for attending. Glad you were here and we will see you next month.