001welcome everybody glad to have you here this is Monday March 10th in our regular board meeting for the Oakwood Schools Board of Education uh could we please oh well that's our welcome could we please call the role Miss sber Miss D Lorenzo here miss kawhai Dr Middleton Mr Ryder Garcia Mr Wilson here would you all please rise and join us at our Pledge of Allegiance iedge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands naice can I please get a motion to adopt tonight's agenda Miss saber Dr Middleton Miss Lorenzo miss kawhai Mr Ryder Garcia Mr Wilson hi can I also get a motion to approve the minutes from February 10th 2025 Miss saber Mr Ryder Garcia hi Miss Kawai hi Miss dorenzo Dr Middleton Mr Wilson hi next up
002with reports and public comments yes good evening everybody um we we got a long uh list of under the superintendent reports I'm going to begin by inviting our athletic director Mr Tyler Rus to the podium to recognize some of our winter sports athletes at the time of inviting students to the to this board meeting we knew that we'd have to have additional winter sports athletes still competing so we'll make sure we invite them back for part two at our April board meeting Mr rhus all right good evening um we have I think our swim and dive uh Team here a lot of them so I'd like to take a moment to recognize them uh can I have our three divers come up first I think you guys are just going right up front here front
003and [Applause] center so we have Nick Pennington Caleb weatherley and Mila gelbert uh all three qualified for the um State diving uh this year uh Mila as a freshman got to go to State and uh finished in the top 25 so as a freshman very impressive uh Caleb um going off top of my memory I think was uh this is your second state trip and finished 11th in the state this year so uh quite the accomplishment there and uh Nick this is your third year in a row three for three and uh fourth this year um on the podium so big round of applause for these [Applause] three let's have our boys and girls swimmers come up front please as you can see we had quite the group uh returning to State this year um
004we've had quite the tradition uh where we uh send several swimmers um to State and uh this uh fine group here continued that tradition and had another uh great season um so we have Truman Brun Matilda prer Elliot Simon zahan Chen Henry James Grant Xiao will sty Paige Simon Cali Hayes Audrey Hilla and eie Thompson Round of Applause [Applause] please so I won't uh single kiddos out by going through the entire list but uh a few highlights uh through this um our uh girls 200 medlay qualified for State girls 4003 boys 200 medlay boys 4003 uh on the girls turn medlay was Cali Hayes Matilda prizer Paige Simon eie Thompson girls 400 Matilda prer paig Simon Cali Hayes Evie Thompson Boyce 200 uh medlay tuman Brun Elliot Simon Henry James zahan Chen in the 400
005free was Elliot Simon Henry James zahan Chen and Truman Brun again uh Truman uh will be going to Xavier to swim and was fifth or sorry was fourth in the state in the 50 free and seventh in the state in 100 free uh Matilda prizer finished third in the state in the 500 and uh 11th in the 200 free and Paige Simon also uh was at State for the 100 butterfly and the 500 free and we'll be going to Ithaca College for swim so quite the [Applause] group and I think at this time C me if I'm wrong but we're going to go to the hallway for photos and that's what we'll give you your certificates so um swimmers and divers let's head to the hallway and we'll get some photos real quickly congratulations again
006there's a lot to celebrate but we'll give go ahead and give them a second to get out and uh get a picture family members are with them also this is great okay A little later in the board agenda I'll be making the recommendation to applo Jenna Hill as our new director of curriculum instruction and assessment a dedicated educator and administrator with more than 4 years of experience Mrs Hill brings a deep expertise in curriculum development instructional leadership and student achievement as well as a strong connection to Oakwood where she previously taught for nearly a decade Mrs Hill began her career at o Oakwood high school where she taught social studies for nine years including AP European History American history world history psychology and sociology she L later transitioned into Administration serving at B Brook Middle
007School for the past six years four years as the assistant principal and then the last two as the head principal these leadership she displayed um a key role in districtwide curriculum adoption and implementation ensuring that there's alignment with state standards in new legislation uh she's also helped lead the integration of evidence-based literacy practices in the science of reading equipping Educators with tools to enhance student learning um she is in attendance tonight with her family and I asked her to come to the podium just to share a few words before you vote later Mrs Hill if you'd please come up okay thank you so much Dr gupa and Board of Education I'm absolutely thrilled to be here tonight 15 years ago just uh coming up here in the next couple months almost to the dot uh
008I had the privilege to interview here and uh luckily the administration took a risk on a very young um teacher a fresh out of college but it was a wonderful nine years of teaching here um I even have had some of your your kiddos in my classes uh and then it was a very very hard decision to leave uh but I'm very grateful for my time at belbrook and everything that I have learned um Oakwood has truly shaped me into the educator I am today um I actually met my husband Ryan he was a baseball coach here uh we actually met in the west gym at the uh spring Sports banquet uh much to the joy of my softball players and his baseball players uh uh and my very last year of teaching I was
009actually pregnant with my daughter Elsie and then JD came along they're all here tonight and I'm very grateful for that so it does truly feel like I'm returning home uh and I cannot wait to serve the community parents students uh and teachers in the role of curriculum director so thank you so much thank you thank you in addition to making this recommendation I'll will also be making a recommendation to hire Jennifer Keys as our new special education supervisor and principal at Lang Elementary School Mrs Keys served in various capacities with Centerville City Schools gaining extensive experiences in elementary education curriculum Development Special Education Services and instructional leadership most recently as an elementary special education coordinator she worked closely with teachers School psychologists and related service providers to ensure students receive the individualized support they need
010to thrive her background also includes overseeing IP compliance she brings experience in driving professional development for educators as well as building strong relationships with students staff and families uh Mrs Key's educational background combined with her leadership experienced positions for well to guide both Lang Elementary and our special education program um Mrs keys if you'd like to come up to the [Applause] podium hi thank you so much I'm so excited to be part of a lumberjack family as the next uh special ed supervisor and Lang principal it was really clear through the interview process that you all live out the mission of together we are here to um help all of our students succeed everyone's been so kind and so welcoming and I'm excited to be part of the tradition of educational Excellence here in Oakwood
011I can't wait to meet everyone and work with all of you to continue on that tradition of success for all of our Learners and I'm excited to be part of the family so thank you for the opportunity I look forward to meeting you thank you [Applause] okay to keep with the good news before I do share a concern I'm thrilled to share that the oood schools Foundation is fully funding the flourish campaign uh for the auditorium uh it brings significant enhancements to our Junior High and High School auditorium this generous support is a testament to the unwavering dedication of the OSF forward and staff whose hard work has made this Vision a reality also want to express my sincere gratitude to our staff students parents and community members who've contributed their time talents and resources
012to this project because of this incredible partnership we can begin and hopefully complete these improvements this summer ensuring that our Auditorium continues to be a space where our students can learn create and perform at the highest level and I'd like to thank you for your commitment to our schools I'm gonna have I think Amy Martin come up uh to the podium to share a few words um after that they they'll give the presentation for the check I I know it may take a couple seconds I would like the board all the board members to come uh up front also and we'll get a picture together good evening on behalf of the Oakwood schools Foundation Board of Trustees and fellow flourish Campaign Committee members Greg lauderbach and Kevin Jones we are thrilled to be presenting this
013check to the Oakwood schools for flourish Phase 2 enhancements to the Oakwood High School auditorium we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to our donors near and far who love and support support our schools as well as the former Oakwood schools Foundation trustees who laid the groundwork establishing the foundation as a trusted partner to our schools and donors in making this flourish campaign possible it was just over a year ago in February of 2024 that Community Support helped us realize phase one the opening of the Rick and Jane Schwarz Performing Arts Wing where we stand now this vastly improved practice rehear and event space for our choir band and Orchestra classes gives our student performers the space they need to play sing and rehearse the funds raised for phase two will be used for Auditorium
014enhancements including updated theatrical rigging to quickly and safely raise and lower lighting and scenery Shades to block unwanted light updated electrical systems to meet the needs and requirements to work with new sharp El Sharp colorful LED lighting and an engineered sound system with wireless microphones and speakers all controlled from a streamlined operating board the revitalized auditorium will put our students talents and hard work in the spotlight we would like to thank the Oakwood Schools Board of Education Dr Gupta Frank Eaton Tim badenhop Matt sier and the junior high and high school Arts teachers for your collaboration and ongoing support as we partner to enhance Arts education in our school thank [Applause] you board members would like to Mrs Brown I'll let you kind of get everybody situated e [Applause] okay I have one more update
015to share from my seat before I I stand up go to the podium and and share our state of the schools um and that's a concern that I have and uh we've been tracking this in Oak with schools for now for the past couple uh weeks as Ohio state budget process moves forward we're closely analyzing its potential impact on Oakwood schools the governor's current proposal includes a reduction in state Foundation funding which would result in a loss of a $314,000 in FY 26 and an additional $313,000 in FY 27 this shift places more financial responsibility on our local taxpayers and threatens the FI funding guarantee that has provided stability for our district like ours for districts like ours predictable and sustainable funding is essential to maintaining high quality education supporting our students and planning for
016the future our treasur Mrs sober and I are actively engaged in discussions with legislators and our state associations to advocate for a fair and balanced Ro we are urging policy makers to ensure that school funding reflects the true cost of educating students and does not penalize districts for stable or growing enrollment while Oakwood schools does remain strong in its financial position if this budget is passed as proposed we will need to make financial decisions to ensure that we can continue delivering the quality education our community expects we'll keep our families and stakeholders informed of this as this process unfolds uh I wrote a Blog and and uh published it uh put it out there on on uh the different social media PL platforms that's on on my Oakwood schools uh blog website on our district
017website and just ask our families just to kind of keep track of of how that evolves and and uh just contact and and make sure you're just aware it is a significant cost uh that that would uh be a detriment to our schools um so with that I'm going to go ahead and reposition myself uh for the state of the schools okay so am I good to go yes all right Welcome to our second annual state of the schools um I'm Neil gied the superintendent for Oakwood schools and tonight is truly a celebration of the incredible staff our inspiring students and the supportive families in the community that we have our schools Thrive because of our hard work our dedication and then our passion a testament to what's possible we dream big and work together
018recognizing progress envisioning future possibilities so we're going to celebrate the achievements and continue inspiring one another I want to thank you for being part of our journey so our our mission and vision uh for 2024-25 uh we began this school year unveiling our new mission and vision statement if you remember back last spring we we ran a community engagement process and through that we created uh through collaboration with our student staff and our families a new mission statement together we learn together we achieve and together we prepare students for tomorrow together appears in our mission statement three times and it's intentional we realize in Oakwood what makes us unique is that success comes from collaboration our mission underscores our partnership and our success comes from collaboration tonight's focus is our students in our staff living
019out our mission daily and Beyond the mission we've got three guiding principles that guide our decision decision-making processes and they are high quality learning a safe secure and welcoming environment and transparent and effective operations these priorities Drive our decisions they focus on Student Success and continuous Improvement they emphasize the idea of collaboration and our success depend depends on us working together um effectively our strong Partnerships also is essential as we work not just with our Educators and among our Educators but with our families and our communities working as one um I'm going to start out uh by talking about high quality learning um and it's best demonstrated uh for me to share about this by a moment that happened last summer we were at at our district office and uh Dr Lang had had uh
020notified me that we had a few teachers uh that were over at uh Smith Elementary School receiving some professional development some professional summer learning um I had a little bit of break in my schedule that day and I decided to go there and um I was just completely blown away when I walked in and saw saw over I think about 40 teachers sitting in the library our elementary principles were there also along with Dr Lang as they were going through uh our new wit and wisdom uh curriculum literacy curriculum they were learning through that I expected a small group of of uh teachers there and this just went beyond what I I thought to be what our dedicated uh teachers uh just do and they do this on a regular basis the collaboration and energy
021filled the room uh teachers were exploring they were sharing they were generating excitement they loved the new resource that was there uh binders were all over the place manipulatives that that kind of helped share the resource and for them to try to figure out how they're going to fit everything into their classroom physically how they were going to fit all the resources in their classroom um I was inspired to see these lessons come into action and uh so I knew I had to actually wait till the school year began wait for a couple weeks to school to get underway and then reach out to one of our teachers to actually see it in action and so now I'd like to introduce one of our teachers Emmy King our third grade teacher at Smith Elementary um
022to talk firsthand about what I got to witness and and what she's able to share about her experience with this new literacy curriculum Emy would you please come up thank you Dr Gupta um again my name is Emmy King and I'm a third grade teacher at Smith Elementary I have been so impressed with what I have witnessed with my students in the classroom this year implementing our new Ela curriculum wit and wisdom has been a game changer the curriculum includes a number of different texts pieces of art articles videos and so much more to fully immerse the students in the content and to give them a great deal of background information and understanding On Any Given topic the students are gaining deep insight and understanding of real world experiences for example when learning about how
023people explored space we covered topics ranging from Galileo using the telescope to discover that the Earth is not the center of the universe um to johnf kenned we choose to go to the Moon speech to the Apollo 11 Mission and everything in between to do this we read articles dissected pieces of artwork read poems watched videos of speeches and media coverage of historical events and read many books one lesson that the students and I really enjoyed was when we were learning about the Apollo 11 Mission we read a long book full of facts then we read a newspaper article covering the mission in the first moonwalk finally we watched a video clip of the media coverage of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren walking on the moon we discussed how all three gave us similar but
024varying details of the same event students shared that while the book gave them the most facts and the greatest detail watching the video of the news was the most impactful when I asked them how a three-minute video could show them more than a 50-page book could they all agreed that seeing the news anchors tear up and get emotional showed them how Monumental that event was in history this curriculum also Fosters communication and collaboration skills it encourages student discussions known as Socratic seminars and the importance of using respectful language when agreeing and disagreeing with others ideas to sit back and listen to third graders use language like I see where you're coming from but I think this or I respectfully disagree because is honestly rewarding beyond words I have seen such an increase in confidence among
025students students want to participate and share their thoughts and ideas knowing that their ideas will be heard and respected we have had very passionate conversations such as whether you would return to the ocean after a shark attack or would you choose to be the first to go the moon where students are sitting on the edge of the seats eager to share their ideas but despite their excitement they pause and wait and listen and reflect on what each other says before diving into their own opinions it's an amazing thing to watch unfold not only are students gaining impressive communication skills and are able to discuss and talk about their learning but their writing is also flourishing I have been so impressed by the rigor of this curriculum not only are students reading difficult text and having
026these discussions but they are also learning to write and defend their reasoning when wrapping up our study on the Apollo 11 Mission the third grade students each wrote a four paragraph opinion essay about whether they would want to be an astronaut on the Apollo 11 Mission here are a few excerpts from their writing one student writes the first reason I would like to go to the Moon is because it would be exciting in moonshot it says Armstrong is calm but on Earth they cheer I would like to be the first person to walk on the moon this is one reason why I want to go to the Moon another student concludes another reason I wouldn't want to be an astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission is because you only have one chance for example in
027one giant leap they talk about how failure means death the rocket could not have gone up and they would be stranded on the moon many people dream about going to space I'm not one of those people the moon seems fun but I know I wouldn't want to go a different student shares another reason I would be an astronaut is because I would like a challenge but I would have one shot for example in one giant Le it says they know one thing only failure means death the astronauts feel scared and proud I would like to feel this proud someday in their essays students referenced books that we that we read in class poems speeches and media coverage to provide evidence for their reasoning these are not only great skills to Foster as students but also
028skills that will serve them well as they go on to higher education in their adult lives as you can see I'm just proud of Emmy I'm proud of all of our teachers um it takes a lot work it doesn't just happen by just kind of opening one book right now they're going through multiple resources um a greater look into our classroom instruction uh is also with the science of reading really means about meeting all the needs of our students literacy uh skills and and uh we really look at the idea about core instruction for that but I want to also share that we've got other resources or tools I guess and strategies through our tiers to help students that might need additional supports so we have a foundations curriculum which uh is in its year
029third year and it's a multi-sensory research-based phonics approach for our K3 students um and that's really done at the tier one tier two level so it's all students and then in um some small group settings and really it it talks about or looks at the idea about hearing seeing and doing when you think about all the different things that have to happen as students learn how to read and then um go from there tactical strategies that also help to close learning gaps hegerty is another resource at uh the K to1 it's pheic awareness program that builds strong literacy foundations uh there's something that we have called the win time wiin which stands for what I need and it's a daily uh supports 30 minutes uh each day uh a block that helps to reinforce classroom
030instruction uh curriculum it supports and enriches every student at every level uh Wilson Reading system is a tier three intervention uh we have certified teachers that provide a systematic phonics instruction uh support students with significant reading challenges including dyslexia and builds confidence and Independence in Reading um our goal is clear every student deserves the tools supports and instruction to thrive in literacy and Beyond well in addition to literacy and the things that we do there uh when we think about the idea about high quality learning um we are continued to be a leader in academic Excellence uh we continue to be a festar rating on our Ohio report card which reflects our students success our performance index score uh continues to be at the top among the highest in the state and as a for
031math former math teacher I am enjoy numbers so I'm going to share one that stands out and that number is 20 that's the average class size it's an a Hallmark of Oakwood it's valued by our families and it's valued by our prospective residents that come in knowing that they get a a better education we also provide diverse academic opportunities through advanced placement classes college credit plus options and then Career Technical Pathways uh on the US News and World Report we continue to be number one in our rankings uh in Dayton at the junior high High School level and now I'd like to uh actually bring a student to give his perspective uh Joseph Hong he shares what an Oakwood education is meant to him as he prepares for his future Joseph [Applause] welcome um thank
032you Dr Gupta um for the honor of speaking um in front of you today um I'm very honored it's one of many students that have benefited from The Amazing curriculum here at Oak schools and I can't speak to um how much that the curriculum itself overall not including all classes including AP honors and CCP has done to be beneficial but I like to speak specifically about um three things on why I think that the curriculum has been so amazing and the first thing is that the curriculum is just so broad um there is a very wide variety of AP classes that has been offered throughout Oakwood high school and many of my peers and I have been able to take full advantage of that because it gives us exploration into many different fields of study
033especially when we are considering our future and what we want to study in the future and being able to take classes from a wide range of different topics such as AP biology to AP govern comparative government in econ or CCP International politics it gives all of us a very wide array of topics and expl exploratory paths for us as we move into the future and secondly I also think that what's great about um how invested our AP and CCP um program and curriculum is is that starting at really since in the first year of high school it really develops in us a great sense of work ethic um I can recall my very first year as a freshman um I took I I signed up for AP World History and at first first year into
034high school I was very I was very daunted by the fact I was entering this new stage of my life and especially taking an AP class um which I advanced placement seemed very um frightening to me however the amazing teachers all around especially my apold teacher Mr deers introduced and discussed Advanced topics and teaching us Advanced methods of analyzing history in a way that FR that little freshman me could understand my peers and I could all understand while having an eagerness to learn and continue to take more of these classes and not be discouraged if it was difficult or not and I and that really brings to my last point of really what's really great about this curriculum and the all that Oak schools offers is the teachers themselves um the teachers they do more
035than just teach the class they Inspire us to go and explore and ask deeper questions and to go beyond what we would typically even see here and explore even into further paths um I can say specifically um I I plan to personally I plan to um study chemical engineering um next fall at John Hopkins University and that three years ago that really would didn't really cross my mind until I had really given myself the ability or give myself the opportunity to explore different science classes and various other engineering classes under amazing teachers um for example I would say um Mr reberger the AP Chemistry teacher and Mrs Edwards the AP bi biology teacher are more than just teachers in the AP classroom but they give us lots of different resources and opportunities such as giving
036us um not notifying us of internship opportunities and self-independent research opportunities and they really Inspire us to look Beyond and really give us a bit of sort of peace and a little of stability going into the next future of Our Lives by helping us find our passions and helping us find what we want to do in the future and I I just like to end on that the AP curriculum really is built on the backs of these amazing teachers and countless teachers I haven't even mentioned before and there's so many of them it's really great and I'm yeah I'm just really glad to spent my four years here so thank you you can tell Joseph is in in speech and debate hey it was all it was all off the top of his head so
037that was perfect thank you um Joseph interest Joseph's interest in chemical and biomolecular Engineering is a great example of what we do here in Oakwood with our stem uh program and uh I can tell you that that stem is alive here in Oakwood um stem's happening daily um it's still we're still defining what our work is we we note that um most of the time our teachers because are doing a great job just like Joseph said they're not even aware that they're actually doing it it's not something that you a curriculum out of a book sort of it's a way of thinking it's a habit of thinking and I think just because of of how the curriculum and the instruction is embedded into um just what the bring the teachers bring every day into their
038lessons uh they're constantly involving and uh bringing that to life and so um some of the things that we're doing uh to help kind of I guess expand our work with stem is through strategic Partnerships and Investments uh we partnered with Jason learning a national stem organization that is helping us you'll hear a little bit more about that they're helping us to assess our stem work against their framework and it's providing going to provide us feedback as we create a road map for the future and so uh We've introduced stem Champions at every building uh they're working together you see their pictures uh uh posted right there we have step M St staff members that are are receiving specialized training and they're leading the efforts right now to gather those artifacts against that framework that's
039going to help inform our future work um I'd like to uh welcome one of our stem Champions uh to to the podium Jody Allen who's going to share specifically some of the stem training and her work at Lang School [Applause] that down thank you Dr Gupta for allowing me to come and speak tonight um as he said my name is Jody Allen and I'm a kindergarten teacher at Lang Elementary and it's an honor to talk about the new and exciting stuff that we're doing with stem our school district particularly in the field of science technology engineering and math um as we continue to work towards shaping our definition we're trying to make sure that it evolves around education and then also goes to the Future to make sure it evolves with the definition and what
040we're doing um over the past few months like Dr Gupta said there's a group of us that have been attending uh training sessions and these sessions have provided us with insight and practical tools that are helping us um integrate stem Concepts new and meaningful ways in our classrooms um stem has the ability to Foster curiosity problem solving and creativity skills that are essential for the challenge of tomorrow um there's a few pictures there our bridges curriculum um also has a lot of manipulatives and it is very nice to see them collaborate as soon as a student realizes how they connect pieces together there's other students that are like oh my gosh how did you do that so it's so nice that they have the ability to work together um what has also been enriching is
041the opportunity to collaborate across all levels of Education as you saw Dr Gupta with the pictures we have a stem Champion every building so from laying to the high school we've come together to share ideas strategies and best practices this collaboration has created a sense of unity and excitement within our district stem brings people together to tackle challenges think innovatively and learn continuously by working together we are ensuring that the stem framework is not just a buzzword but a comprehensive comprehensive approach that reaches every student we are laying the groundwork for future innovators thinkers and leaders and it's exciting to see how this momentum is growing one of the examples is our new curriculum wit and wisdom we read the last stop on markets Street and I challenged them to create a new building to
042add to the street it was so nice to see them first we drew it out they got to pick the exterior of the color and then the next day we had all of our materials and we had the color to match what they wanted their new building to look like and as they got going some kids had like flat buildings and some had 3D shapes so it was nice to see them collaborate like hey how did you get yours to look like that or what did you do to get that so it was really nice to see them collaborate and then when they added the roof we had some Dimensions some flat so then they were actually like sharing here's what I used to make it 3D here's what I made and then somebody added
043a chimney and you would have thought that was the greatest thing ever so then it's like how did you get a chimney what did you use and we had all kinds of materials so then when it was over they were so excited they wanted people to come in and see their buildings and then I took a picture of their drawings with their buildings so they could see how they match together so I want to thank you guys for allowing me to come and speak about St [Applause] great thank you Jody um in addition to our partnership with Jason learning we're partnering with aasa the national superintendent Association uh we're benchmarking best practices to refine our districtwide stem plan I've had numerous uh webinars and and just being able to talk nationally against other schools that
044are embedding stem on a regular basis they're a couple years ahead of us and just also being able to give us uh insights on Lessons Learned uh we continue to integrate new and emerging Technologies we prepare students for future careers um in our Hands-On stem experiences students engage in coding Robotics and Engineering challenges and the really hope is that we focus on creativity and problem solving um one one District had quainted the phrase of re repurposing stem from science technology engineering and Mathematics to calling it strategies that engage Minds really that's what we want to happen we want kids to be thinking deeper and being more Curious our second vision statement the first one was high quality learning the second one is safe secure and learning and welcoming environment uh this is about educating the
045whole child we think about the idea about um how we bring our best selves to school every day uh thinking about masso's um hierarchy of needs uh we want to make sure obviously their physical needs are met we want to make sure that their social emotional needs are met in order to really um access all parts of their brain and so the academics plus the supportive environment is how we're going to make that happen um we have something that we uh uh unveiled I guess this year the three Rs ini which is be respectful be responsible and build relationships and now it's embedded across all schools I've been in school districts where I've seen it happen in one or two buildings but not across the whole District like I've seen here and it's just a
046testament to our teachers and the hard work that's happened our key leaders in the work our Bridget fiori our oural interventionist and Amy saski oural coordinator their dedication was jumping in over the summer when we heard that we wanted to do something like this and take it to a whole new level and so we have a video that Amy and Bridget pre-recorded that's going to share the work and the progress that we're seeing the three Rs be respectful be responsible and build relationships have existed in various forms in Oakwood since at least 2010 in 2024 the three Rs were reintroduced as a district-wide initiative to promote system atic academic growth behavior and wellness from prek through grade 12 the three Rs provide staff and students with a common language and framework for districtwide expectations it
047also provides a lens through which our staff can conduct restorative chats with students when addressing opportunities for improvement we believe the three hours lay the foundation for a Student Success and connection from day one to graduation we are excited about how the three Rs have taken root in each building highlights from Lang include signs in every classroom and throughout the building the staff at Lang worked hard to create pictures that visually support the message of the three Rs all students have learned a three R building motto and monthly lessons have been geared around respect responsibility and relationships as ways to retach and reinforce their importance at Harmon and Smith both both elementaries have embodied the importance of the three Rs with schoolwide PBIS systems visual signs around the building Community agreements within classrooms shout outs
048on announcements rewards for behaviors that are respectful responsible and relationship building and Timber lessons that reinforce each concept at the Junior and Senior High students and staff have worked together to create three r-based Community agreements in classrooms and advisor iies and they posted their agreements in rooms and shared spaces students who model the three Rs are celebrated with three R electronic student shoutouts there have been three art driven advisory lessons freshman challenge experiences and Junior experience sessions and the junior high celebrated and no one eats aone day to promote relationships and belonging restorative work when needed for discipline is founded in the three are goals as well around the district dist the three Rs themes have been evident in the districtwide Fun Run and mentorship provided by High School members of Our Hope Squad bold
049little buddies and student mentors working within our elementary schools updating our families and community in the 3r initiative has been important to its growth and success information on the three Rs have been shared through building newsletters the monthly seal newsletter and the superintendent blog we'd love for our community to continue to support the three are initiative by purchasing t-shirts for their students and families via a shared link that's coming soon look for that information seeing the energy around the 3 hours this school year has been fun together we can make Oakwood schools a safe secure and welcoming environment for everyone okay a huge thank you to Amy and Bridget for that video um another way that we we create a safe secure and welcoming environment um is just how we how we treat um our
050our groups of students and one group in particular is our military connected students and our families I'm I am so proud that last spring um all of our schools became purple star designated and uh we continue to to just uh um just appreciate our families and um I know for me I I think about that we've moved I think four times and I you know imagine when when elementary school kids are talking about more than 10 you know times and uh how they just come in here and have a group of friends and have have a place uh that they feel comfortable in um each school has a designated liaison that supports the military families and we do have out active military clubs uh at at especially our our elementary ones and then they're not
051called kids ones at the junior high and high school um I'd like to uh show a video of Michael WM uh Harmon school counselor that uh oversees the one at Harmon Elementary School um he does amazing things as a school counselor overseeing multiple clubs and activities I think this one's um obviously near and dear to his heart as he shares about uh his impact and uh what he's done with the group hi everyone I'm Michael watm the school counselor at Harmon or as the little ones sometimes call me the feelings teacher or as I like to call myself sometimes the vibe curator uh first I want to thank you thank you for the opportunity to talk to you today about my favorite part of my job which is creating safe and welcoming environments for our
052students and because we know how profoundly important positive relationships are on emotional and academic development we work very intentionally on ensuring our students have as many opportunities as possible to establish these relationships one of the things we're especially proud of is our military kids club as you may know approximately 14% of our student population comes from military families and many of these students are only with us for two or 3 years at the most they arrive having left their friends and what they've known from various parts of the world this kind of Lifestyle can be as you imagine quite difficult which is why this club exists to help ensure our military students have a seamless transition and are given additional opportunities to find their place here before classes even begin incoming military students are welcomed
053at our new student orientation and are invited to our first military kids club meeting the first or second week of school and at that kickoff meeting all of our military kids meet each other they share stories about their previous adventures and establish connections with each other we eat together we play games and talk about the variety of the year's activities that are designed just for them including a field trip to the Air Force Museum a Field Day picnic with Smith's military kids club and special military kid of the month features on our school newspaper and on our video announcements not only in April which is the month of the military child but throughout the whole school year through the solidarity of their unique shared circumstances and experiences our our military kids are able to flourish
054in a way they might not otherwise be able to without a group designed to support them in this way which is why we take such pride in this particular group in addition to military kids club a few other staff members and I along with several Oakwood High School seniors run 15 other student clubs at Harmon with several goals uh to facilitate positive student relationships obviously uh to practice social and emotional skills like teamwork communication confidence creative thinking to learn technical skills like Athletics art writing ology or language acquisition and of course to make Harmon a safe and welcoming place to be so our students can actualize their potential and last but not least I'm also exceptionally proud of Harmon's house system a few years ago as an extension of the classroom lessons I teach in
055fifth and sixth grade I began this preventative Tier 1 PBIS intervention to help reinforce positive behaviors student leadership peer collaboration effective communication and relationship building throughout the entirety of their fifth and sixth grade years students who demonstr these things are awarded house points and recognition for their efforts after being invited into one of our four houses on the first day of fifth grade now in its third year the related arts and classroom teachers have rallied around the project and are all participating in some way as a consequence of this project new things have Arisen like all School quidditch games dodgeball tournaments field trips and service projects students are initiating collaborations with each other and helping each other out in and out of school it's truly become a part of our culture here at Harmon adding
056to the POS positive and welcoming environment we work so hard to create I want to thank you again for giving me this chance to share this with you if you'd like to hear more about any of it I'm a phone call or email away and please also feel free to come by and visit us here at Harmon or come watch any of it in action you too are safe and welcome here at Harmon anytime okay I'm going to go ahead and start a list on who wants to go back to school who's who's ready like to I'm like ready to sign up um so in addition to all that and and what I most again appreciate is that things are happening at at all of our buildings but also um all five of our Oakland
057schools received the Platinum award uh from the Montgomery County school of excellence and prevention and mental Wellness uh recognizing dedication to student mental health leadership development and drug-free environments uh programs that Foster a culture of caring culture of caring our freshman challenge hope Squad and a little buddies club and the whole goal is that we ensure that students feel valued heard and supported throughout their Journey I think you you heard that in addition to that that social emotional health and that sense of belonging that we want our students to have um on that idea of self um of safety and and uh safe welcoming and uh um environments is that we also have the physical uh structures that go along with that and so uh we have enhanced our building security we've transitioned to keyless
058entry systems uh Stu staff can either use key fobs or their cell phones for Access we have stronger safety protocols uh as uh encouraging and having an expectation for staff to to wear their ID badges and we've even had stranger in the building drills uh that we've had um uh somebody plane closed uh Oakwood Public Safety go through the building or actually one of our staff members a new staff member go through our building and uh the hope and the expectation is that they get stopped because they don't have a wearing a badge or a visitor badge and I can tell you luckily that we've had a lot of Staff members that have stopped them and it's helped to kind of you know Foster that uh environment uh We've also upgraded are um upgrade we've
059conducted upgrades to ensure security offering Peace of Mind of parents and students through added layers of safety that we continue to do our third one our third vision statement is effective and transparent operations um again I I believe that our job is um to to be uh to manage our taxpayer dollars with responsibility we are uh stewards of those financial dollars and we have a $ 31.1 million budget and proud to say that 71.1% of those uh goes directly in for classroom instruction um we're in a strong financial position uh we have the auditor of State Award with distinction that our Treasures Office completes and and we received that award and we're also a able A2 Moody's credit rating uh which is also uh shows signs of strength uh major initiatives this year is obviously
060executing our Master facilities plan in January uh through board approval a 4.74 mil bond issue uh was placed on the ballot for the May 6th 20 25 ballot and with the potential to generate $40 million for facility upgrades um the plan improvements are are focused to Smith and Harmon uh with HVAC systems electrical mechanical and plumbing uh similar to what happened here at the junior high and high school we also have safety enhancements across all of our district facilities the preservation of our iconic facilities to meet the modern learning standards limited work at the Junior High in high school through uh HVAC at our freshman hallway the cafeteria and the weight room enhancements and then matcom Stadium uh home stand safety upgrades and turf replacement at Lane Stadium uh the estimated cost uh for taxpayers
061is $165.9 uh per $100,000 of home value um and that's just something that that um you know we'll see what happens where we have factual information uh that we've posted on our uh website and um also I've shared earlier about the potential impact on the state revenue loss and we'll continue to keep uh a part of that and keep you apprised of it finally um just want to thank everybody uh especially the Oakwood schools foundation for spearheading the flourish campaign um obviously the Rick and Jane Performing Arts Wing what we're in today open last year if you think about it it feels like I've been in here forever and it only just um you know has been on a little bit more than a year that provides more space better sound for our students in
062band Orchestra and choir our Visual Arts uh classrooms were relocated uh we moved to the the previous Choir in band room for that uh for improved space and our future plans then will look at the enhancements that go into the auditorium which we're going to have but also those Visual Arts rooms um want to really talk about the idea about uh uh communication being a part of this vision statement and um a lot of work that has been done by our community relations coordinator Amanda Brown obviously the state of the schools couldn't have happened without her um if you've taken a look at our website that we launched in November um it's been overhauled I if you haven't been on the website I I encourage you to go and just check it out um it's
063vibrant it's easy to find uh information uh that's there um it enhances our our communication that's what our board of education has asked us uh to do as far as um um more Community connections and being able to be more transparent in that process our features include updated brand intuitive design and the centralized districtwide calendar the the calendar alone if you haven't checked that out instead of going to all the different types of uh websites to get information it's almost a One-Stop shop and it puts it all in one place um all of this happens just at the very end of how I want to uh share to conclude this is how I began this and it's all this idea about a collaborative effort there are many people on our staff that do a a
064hard job every day we just had a few people come and speak today uh but we could just keep doing that all night long into the morning and into the next day uh for all the things that we have that that's amazing um I appreciate our administrative team that's here tonight uh they continue to push me they continue to uh encourage me when I'm tired and want to take a break uh they're they're they're running it so I've got to you know get up and I've got to keep running alongside with them uh but they do uh great things for kids every every day um so with that I I'll go ahead and conclude uh our our uh presentation for our state of the schools and I just want to appreciate your time and our
065continued support uh to learn achieve and grow together thank you [Applause] thank you Dr Gupta and uh thank you Miss Brown for a great presentation um lots of multimedia in there the videos and everything was really helpful to really get to capture and get an idea of what's going on uh in all the classrooms and all the extra things that are going on in Oakwood schools it really is um a great place to get an education U next up is we have public comments we have two public comments tonight and first up is I don't I didn't get the name the list of who is first up Rose uh first up is Rose lsbury come on up thank you Rose thank you so much um I'm Rose Lounsbury I live at 222 wonderly Avenue um
066as a former public school teacher a daughter of two retired teachers and a mom of three Oakland kids I believe that public education is our greatest common good and as such I am deeply concerned about the threat that Ohio public schools face from vouchers and I'm here today to ask this board to join the vouchers hurt Ohio lawsuit vouchers hurt Ohio is a coalition of school districts that have come together to sue the state over the harmful private school Voucher Program half of Ohio's 600 school districts have already joined Oakwood should be among them and here's why vouchers drain1 billion dollar from Ohio's public schools and two years ago the legislature removed income caps to create a universal Voucher Program meaning that now any family regardless of income can receive a voucher as a result
067Oak Wood's voucher use has exploded increasing 1,575 per since 2023 according to the Ohio Department of Education so who's using these vouchers the lowincome families that they were supposedly meant to help no in Oakwood 9 4% of vouchers are given to families who do not qualify as lowincome only 6% go to actual low-income families this should concern and anger us like all districts Oakwood relies heavily on property taxes to fund our schools and when the state gives $1 billion dollar to private schools that's one billion less for public schools and when Public Schools don't get enough money from the state to operate what are they forced to do ask the taxpayers for another Levy as we see in Oakwood literally right now some people think Oak Wood's levies are the result of a board that
068doesn't properly manage funds that couldn't be further from the truth Oak Wood's levies are the result of a state legislature that has failed for decades to adequately fund Public Schools as Dr gupa spoke about tonight this is why Ohio has more school levies than any other state in the nation and now the state is making the problem worse with a billion dollar voucher scam that will do nothing but Force Oakwood to ask us for more money more often blaming our board for levies is kind of like blaming the stock boy at Kroger for the price of eggs if anyone here is upset about the levy you should call our state senator Willis blackshire or State Rep Andrea white the people who actually vote on the budget that funds schools the cost of joining vouchers H
069Ohio is $2 per pupil per year that's less than $4,000 for Oakwood total a pittance compared to what we're spending on private schools I urge this board show the courage and Leadership to join V herd Ohio the first step is to pass the Joiner resolution which I've emailed to all of you I want to thank you all for your time and service to our community [Applause] thanks thank you Mr lsbury I do want to correct what I said I did receive the message in terms of the order that they were in it was the order that they were in the second our our second uh public comment is from uh state representative Andrea White good evening my name is Andrea white and do you want me to give my address okay um I am honored
070to represent Oakwood as part of my district um it includes the city of Dayton kering Oakwood and now Olive Riverside and so tonight I wanted to be here because we are in the budget process and I have enjoyed meeting with superintendent Dr Gupta Laura the treasurer to kind of get a briefing on where's oid at where are we going what do we need um and we have been meeting as an interested um legislator I'm involved in a working group meeting with the Ohio Association of superintendents the Ohio Association of school boards the Ohio Association of business um treasures and business officials along with many others who are concerned about how we can advocate for an Advanced public education in Ohio so I just wanted to brief you very quickly I only a couple minutes um
071but a couple couple quick things um in the budget we do have a, child tax credit that the governor has proposed that we are trying to preserve for families of children under six years old um there's also um in the education budget um career Pathways centers to put more money and more emphasis on Career Pathways and Career Education in our districts um one thing that you may be interested in my first exposure and working with Oakwood schools was many years ago through our South Suburban Coalition United for alcohol and drug for Youth and so out of that the Bold groups were started in five area high schools and I know prevention is very important in this District so we have mental health substance use resiliency training and these things are embedded in the Department of
072Mental Health and addiction service budget where they will be working on a prevention curriculum um to highlight all of these areas and make this free of charge for any school in the state that wants to use it and they'll be surveying our schools and trying to find out more um additionally um you know there's a number of little issues in the education budget that we have a lot of amendments from our Schoolboard Association and other groups to try to fix clarify and make sure we don't have residual harm from some of these amendments and I'm happy to share those with anyone and have further conversation um the governor's budget um as you are aware includes for the first time in many years taking away the guarantee for school districts that they will not lose money
073that they had had in the past which is the result of why the proposed budget contains that decrease for schools like Oakwood and so um one of the things I am committed to is um working with others to do what we can to ensure that that guarantee is restored if you are a district that has lost significant numbers of students that's one thing but oakwoods enrollment has stayed steady and we need to work to preserve that guarantee so we are working on amendment to ensure that we can do that I hope we can get the support that's one of many amendments we are working on um a district like Dayton of course has dramatic Transportation costs um group home crises and many other issues as well so we've got a lot of um irons in
074the fire part of the problem for those that maybe not are quite aware about the formula is it was started in 2017 the discussion started and we had all the groups that I talked about um the treasurers the superintendent bipartisan legislators many public comment meetings and this formula was created and how it works of course is 60% of the state's share is based on the district's property tax valuation 40% on the district's income and then on top of that we have added amounts for do I need to stop yeah you're I know I only a few more minutes three minutes okay um so that formula because Oakwood is has very high property values 42% increase in the last few years $99 million in one year and then we also have um High income 10th highest
075in the state as far as average median federal state income so these are things that contribute to Oakwood not getting as much as other districts that have a higher um lower income and not as much property value so again we're working to look at we don't want the guarantee to go away we want to ensure districts like oood are protected so you are not losing money and and if you have any suggestions for me or if you want to meet or talk on the phone I'm more than happy to accommodate that and thank you for the opportunity today thank you representative white for coming in all right uh next up is uh board reports do we have any okay sorry um as the Lea is on for the Oakwood F Arts I just want to
076plug the musical this weekend uh it starts Thursday night um it runs Thursday Friday and Saturday 7 PM every night um there's a 1 pm matina on Saturday as well and you can purchase uh tickets in advance um Oakwood schools has shared on their social media a link to that um to buy online but you can also buy tickets at the door so that's all I have uh thank you we had a little bit of extra time um during our work session of the board uh of Education meeting and so we went and we looked at the auditorium and it looks really cool so if you got an opportunity I think it's going to be good next up is item number four budget and finance Miss saber good evening thank you um on your agenda
077tonight item a is the monthly financial report that you're accustomed to seeing uh at every meeting but I did want to take this opportunity just to mention and remind everyone that um in May uh on that election we do have phase two of our Master facility plan the bond issue um is issue 12 I actually just found that today on the board of elections website so issue 12 uh it's a 33-year bond issue for 4.74 Mills which Dr gupa talked about during um his uh state of the schools but I did just want to uh just remind everyone of that factual information um Item B on your agenda is um just a a slight change to our classified manual it's it's just a title change um updating a title of associate of District facilities to
078associate for District Operations just to make that category a little more broad um so that's the first item for approval tonight can I go get a recommendation for item 4B please miss saber Miss kawhai Dr Middleton hi Miss dorenzo Mr Ryder hi Mr Wilson hi thank you item four C tonight is accepting the donation from um the Oakwood schools foundation for the $680,000 for from the flourish campaign for the enhancements to um The High School auditorium can I get a motion for item 4 C please so miss saber Miss dorenzo hi Dr Middleton hi Miss kawhai Mr Ryder Garcia hi Mr Wilson Hi and then finally for my section of the agenda item uh D is uh the amounts and rates resolution for tax year 2025 26 um this is a standard um item that
079we uh are required to approve um from the county auditor's office it's just affirming um the levies that are in place um and again this is just an auditor requirement that we're uh supposed to do every year in March can I get a recommendation for item 4 d please miss Auber Mr Ryder Garcia miss kawhai miss dorenzo Dr Middleton Mr Wilson hi next up is item five Unfinished Business by the board seeing there is none do we have any new business by the board excellent next up is number seven administrative reports and superintendent recommendations yes number seven letter a is just informational it's the field trip um just notifying you that uh at receive the paperwork for Harmon Elementary fifth grade to go to Camp Joy this will be for next week uh just to
080remind you that uh the Smith uh field trip form came in maybe last month or the month before it was on the board agenda uh they're going to Glenn Helen later this week and so we'll have both groups out this week and next week um looked at the paperwork everything's in order uh number seven letter B um you'll see that this is the winter uh updates uh the Neola policies our uh board subcommittee met um this is a first read so this is just informational you have the attachments on on the board agenda uh for for your review and uh we go from there um we'll go ahead and vote on those formally at the next meeting number seven letter C are the Fall updates uh you saw these back on February 10th um from
081Neola and uh our our team reviewed them and U made edits as necessary so here I am asking uh or I'm bringing a recommendation to approve the policies including the Fall updates as presented at the February 10th board meeting can I get a recommendation for item seven C please miss Auber Miss D Lorenzo Dr Middleton Miss Kawai Mr Ryder Garcia hi Mr Wilson hi 7D is the recommendation is made to approve the attached resolution authorizing membership agreement for the Ohio purchasing Council uh the the abbreviation is top C then I asked before the the call to vote uh for treasurer saber just to give a little bit of insight on what this is Topsy is a purchasing Council um what this organization does along with organizations similar to the Southwest Ohio um educational purchasing Council
082the EPC you've heard us talk about the EPC is um those organizations go out and bid things um on a broader scale and so they work to get the best price um that they can it fulfills our bidding requirement um but we can uh purchased uh and and enter into contracts and on what would be referred to as state term pricing um and so being a member of this top C allows us to then when we get to the next item on the agenda after we become a member of topc um to uh enter into a contract that has already been bid in advance of it it's just been bid for us so it takes that piece of the the bidding process away from us can I get a recommendation or I'm sorry can I
083get a motion for item 7 D please miss saber Mr Ryder Garcia Miss Kawai Miss dorenzo Dr Middleton Mr Wilson I number seven letter e is the recommendation is made to approve a resolution authorizing agreement with Prodigy Building Solutions at LC for the Oakwood High School auditorium project can I get a recommendation for item 7e please second Miss Auber Dr Middleton hi Miss dorenzo Miss Kawai Mr Ryder Garcia Mr Wilson hi finally number seven letter F is a recommendation U be made to approve a resolution authorizing agreement for uh consultant for the master facilities plan phase two abatement design can I get a recommendation for item 7f please miss saber miss kawhai Mr rder Garcia M lenzo Mr Wilson hi next up is letter or number eight Personnel items resignation non-renewals yes I'll go ahead
084and ask uh for I number eight letters a through e under one motion I'm going to go ahead and read them um each though uh letter a is the retirement of Jay Lane uh uh asking the board to accept his retirement resignation uh for his math position at Oakwood High School effective May 31st 2025 he's been with Oakwood since May 1998 letter B is a retirement of Pam Pamela Maro um asking for the uh to accept the resignation retirement of Pamela Maro for her position is an intervention specialist at Oakwood Junior High School effective June 30th 2025 she has been with Oakwood School since August 2005 letter C is retirement of Tammy Parker uh recommendation uh is made to uh accept her retirement resignation uh from her position at second grade at Harmon Elementary effective
085June 30th 2025 she's been Oak with Oakwood School since June 1995 letter D is a resignation of Alyssa Joy Casto uh she's um intervention specialist um part-time at Smith Elementary School effective August 5th 2025 um she's been with oood school since June 2021 and this that's a resignation and then letter e is a res resignation of Jessica Wright um the recommendations made to accept the reation of Jessica Wright for her position as an intervention specialist halftime point5 at Smith Elementary effective August 5th 2025 she's been with Oakwood since July 2022 that's number nine sorry number eight letters a through e can I get a oh yes can I get a recommendation for items 8 a through 8 e Miss Auber Miss D Lorenzo hi Dr Middleton hi Miss kawhai Mr Ryder Garcia Mr Wilson I
086next is number nine and uh Dr Gupta yes um be asking for number nine letters a through F under one motion uh number nine letter a is the employment Jenna Hill uh as um our uh director of curriculum instruction and assessment uh letter B employing Jennifer Keys as our special education supervisor and Lang School principal letter C is the employment of Abigail Smith as our payroll and benefit specialist at at the board office letter D is a recommendation to approve the attached list of substitutes effective March 10th pending completion of required documents letter e is the supplemental contracts of ters for 20242 um and uh We've listed uh four positions there letter F is the employment of seasonal workers uh the recommendation is made to approve the attached uh list of seasonal workers effective February
08717th 20125 letters a through F under number nine can I get a motion for items 9 a through 9f please second Miss Auber Miss D Lorenzo I Dr Mr Middleton hi Miss kawhai Mr Ryder Garcia Mr Wilson hi next is uh executive session it is recommended uh that we enter an executive session for the specific purpose of considering the employment and promotion of a Public Employee or official can I get a recommendation for item 10A please who who was the first who okay Miss saber Mr R Garcia Miss D Lorenzo Miss Kawai Dr Middleton Mr Wilson hi thank you all for coming out uh we're GNA enter into executive session we don't anticipate or plan on any action uh by the board after we adjourn executive session thank you all for coming out good night