001want to say welcome uh everyone to our April 15 2024 Oakwood Board of Education meeting we are very excited to have you and if we could uh get the roll call please Mr rers mzo Miss kaai Dr Milton here and Mr Wilson here would you all please rise and join me in our Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I got a motion to adopt tonight's agenda please okay my apologies Dr Middleton hi M kaai mzo hi Mr Wilson hi and next can I get approval of Oakwood Board of Education regular meeting minutes of March 11 2024 please Miss D Renzo hi Dr Middleton hi Miss kaai I
002and Mr Wilson I next up is uh 2 a new hires good evening uh we will be voting on them later but we do have two staff members that uh uh for some open positions that we've had we go through an extensive process with uh committees and interviewing I appreciate uh Mrs couch and and the team the principles uh for their due diligence and I'm um happy to bring up and to have them uh come up to the um Podium and they're going to introduce themselves and just tell a little bit about themselves um but if I could first have Logan Baker uh go to the front um again we'll be talking about him in a little bit as far as the voting goes but um you'll see later in the agenda that U he
003earned his bachelor's degree in Middle Science Education from my University where I attended so congratulations and uh he'll be uh at the junior high teaching social studies FP it on um just super excited to be here um you know I was able to work here for a little while I was in college as an administrative assistant I was able to here for a couple years um and two or some kids get some commun service hours in while I was in college and um this place was just it was an awesome opportunity for me to uh get an idea of what the education was like um and you know once I told everybody the the state of Excellence here is it's unheard of and everybody that talks about Peres and so when I told people that
004I might be able to be a teacher here everybody oh you're big fancy um but you know it's just because they know they know the the requirements you guys have for your teachers and students it's just really exciting to be a part of that um and I have a really high expectation myself I know you guys do too so um won't let you down and thank you for the opportunity and just really excited to get started thank you [Applause] and the next person I'd like to uh ask to come to our Podium is Mr Benjamin with by Ben Moore um he is going to fill in some big shoes for Kelly Owens our high school counselor and Ben comes from other previous districts but also has a University of Dayton degree that he was able
005to get his masters from and uh again going through the process heard great feedback on him um seems very even killed with the going in with the expectations uh of how we help support our students on that longevity as they enter towards graduation so welcome and and congratulations we'll be Ved on a little bit later in the agenda would youd like to introduce yourself a little bit so nice to meet you guys so yeah Ben Mo um yes so I went undergrad and my masters at University of D and then I was a teacher for actually eight years at high school social studies and in the school counseling so I've been doing that for four years at the high school level um so yeah I'm just super humbled and excited to be here honestly uh
006it's one of those things that when I started off teaching you said I would end up I'm like yeah right so uh it's uh was very exciting the whole process was amazing and everyone's been so kind and nice and so um really I'm just so excited to get to know the students I me that's my favorite part of the job and then the amazing staff that I've heard great things about and then obviously just the community um I live like a mile away just right outside Oakwood um with my wife and daughter she's two so um yeah I'm just very excited can't wait to get [Applause] started on a lookout for our two high school students I think may not be here for our principal superintendent advisory update um so I'm going to go ahead
007and have Ellie come up to our Podium to uh give a an annual report this is something as part of our partnership between Oakwood schools and the Oakwood inclusion Coalition um is that uh she's been able to go and given up this update to the city and is there anywhere else you went actually I was uh lean and I were at the W Memorial Public Library just earlier this evening yes making the rounds absolutely so welcome we thank you for being here um she oversees uh the Coalition as far as uh championing kind of you know keeping us in lined and and helping us to think through things and again this is this is the annual update and that she's been here last year at this time also and they're just going to provide some
008remarks for us thank you Dr GTA I'm Alan iy I serve as the chair of the oak inclusion Coalition which is a citizen Le organization that was founded in late 20120 with three pillar institutions the O City Schools being one of those the city of Oakwood and then the wri Memorial Public Library so many thanks to those partners for really serving as a foundation if you will of that that important framework of this citizen Le institution so as a result of that relationship it is Our obligation to come to you every year with a very brief update and I have just a handful of slides I'm I go through um first of all uh uh of course just from a management perspective things are are going well um our website which you can see listed
009up there is of course where all of the latest information is available and I am very pleased to share with you that we also have a an e newsletter email newsletter that's at least monthly sometimes even more frequently and we've got 440 subscribers to that newsletter so um and I see a few heads noding so a few of you must be receiving this as well um which is a great way to promote not just things that are happening in our own Community but throughout the entire region of course as uh members of the OIC this the uh leadership team and then just general members that 440 subscriber list participate in a number of events some of them throughout the region and the photos that you see the very top there is the annual Martin Luther
010K King Jr uh Memorial March which of course is always on his birthday in January always a balmy day of course um and then uh the photo at the bottom is the uh crowing inclusion entry that the OIC uh created for the Scarecrow roow uh just this last fall so very proud and happy to be part of of most of Oak Wood's uh Signature Events as well as involved throughout the region in addition we have uh produced programs some of them in partnership with the wri Memorial Public Library and I will say uh wow the library has just been so incredibly supportive and so helpful the uh braver Angels Workshop was a particular event that um was an all day Saturday event bringing members of different political U uh philosophies together to talk to each
011other and learn more about each other and um I really appreciate the uh chair of the right Library board Randy Haner suggesting a co-authored oped piece which he and I uh developed together that ran in the op register but then braver Angels also picked it up as did the League of Women Voters so again uh part of being part of the larger Community um we are H happy to report that we are in sound uh fiscal uh status again thanks to the Dayton foundation for helping us set up a fund that uh is much easier for online giving and I just will close by again thanking the three pillar institutions the schools the city the library and uh where would we all be in Oakwood without the Oakwood register to share the good word right
012so many thanks to all of our partners uh thanks to Leanne fulford uh for joining me today Leanne is one of the OIC leadership team members um I think Dr Gupta was uh giving you printed copies of our annal report it's just a three-page uh document and I will point out we had four members of the leadership team who had to resign for various all important reasons and I again shout out to Healey Jack Jackson Who of course was elected to the city council Dan turban um Mike Miller and uh Jackie howel so many thanks to those four individuals for serving on the OIC team thank you very much and happy to answer any questions if you have any all right thanks thank you uh for the board members in that M folder have you've
013got PowerPoint slides plus the annual report that she referenced in there thank you thanks for for sharing with us the annual report I I truly appreciate that um we're going to go to uh Destination Imagination our students uh let them out first they've been waiting very patiently and I know that we've got two uh people for public comment and we'll come back and get them um but I just appreciate that our students being here Dr L would you like to introduce I you really enjoy the Showcase tonight I invited our two imagin are stud and um I'm mallerie BR I'm the um we work together the gis at har together so we're gonna kind of do a quick overview of what di is for our team our teams a lot of pictures of our wonderful
014teams that participated this year and then we actually have a group that's going to show you what they have year which is be my favorite part and this so this is a photo of almost every kid that we had um besides some younger ones at the regional tournament at s year they were all wearing shirts and waiting for awards so destination isation a Project based learning program the students spend from August through competition in March creating a performance the performance is kind of based on the parameters they've been given by di they get to choose which challenge they want from scientific to engineering to even Service Learning and they spend that entire time preparing for the um actual competition in region here in so um Destination Imagination Ur you might may hear us say Di
015um it's open to all K through 12 students so we have the rising stars all the way the little tiny ones all the way to we had a group of five singer boys this year that performed that have been in it for a while so uh the teams uh we kind they sign up and some of the teams they kind they group themselves and then some teams they some people sign up singly and we group them based upon maybe what school they're in or um their age anything that we can work with um so up to seven people on a team uh they work together to develop a solution um so we have Team managers and those are the parents so the parents will typically sometimes it's a grandparent um you know there's something like
016that but they typically will manage the team like they're the coach of the team for the year um and they keep them on track and they assist and guide and teach them but they interfere or offer suggestions to their challenge I know that's a definite hard for team managers so as we said di takes place from earliest as we can in the fall so we open our registration for super early in the summer so that teams can get a jump start um they actually already have an idea of what the challenges are going to be for next year's competition so we have learned the earlier the better so they have a chance to be as prepared as they can um like Valerie said the most challenging is you're not coaching as you would in like
017a sport team where you're actually showing them how to do something you're only kind of guiding their thinking and really the students are the ones that do all the work all the teamwork and creativity it has to come from them so it's super unique thing if you ever get an opportunity it's you can help the first weekend in March at stair to go down and watch it's absolutely amazing to watch what the kids put together um and you can see how much passion they put into it and how much love they into their performances and then also third grade in up that's the competitive stage the rising stars will be the cave one uh they participate for fun and to get experience and then the third grade in up they um qualify for State uh
018tournaments and then also locals so in Kansas City Miss we actually have four teams that qualify year we'll show you in a minute and of them are so it's kind of twofold it's twofold that they will make a team or they create a Team Challenge and that challenge they work on all year long and then they do an instant challenge an instant challenge is also super unique they're given this problem that they have to solve and it might be stack of things like paper clips coils straws and index cards and they have to create something that flies at least six feet um and then they use that part of their other points so our we actually set 15 teams this year we started with 17 and we unfortunately had a team with a medical issue
019that could not but we had 15 teams both and of those 15 five Horizon Stars they have the K2 teams they did fantastic they were Ador adorable you'll get to see all their great little pictures um and then of our 10 teams that competed nine wi to St so it was a great year and then of those nine four qualified for so that's fantastic and then three of them are choosing to then go to Kansas City for globals so on each slide you kind of see whether they qualify to State and if they're going to go to globals and then recognizing those team managers without team managers di cannot run um the team managers are putting so much time and effort and energy um into their team into these kiddos into learning the process which
020is just as difficult as actually being team um and so without them this program would not run so we have a shout out to every manager on these we're not to go we're going to go through all the teams you can see pictures and but so this is the first team we have up the rising stars this is um the the non-competitive group and I think we have a rising star in that picture here today two of them yes we do we have two so a lot of times families kind of join Di and then the sisters and the brothers and they see that you know how much fun their siblings are having in di so you know we have a whole family of di so yeah you guys want to [Laughter] and then so
021they were the turtle Travelers if you can see their costumes they were super creative and adorable um so SE new so you'll see a name we mention that there's a name at the kids cre so Turtle Travelers is the name they created from that one this is the red pickle FS how they create them I never know but I do seeing them and that's how we refer to them once they've been created another Rising Star team with ciller for C Ryan Waton and uh this one also the enchanted sea creatures and the rising stars their part their process was uh with they were going to a different place they were traveling together in the SE as sea creatur so they kind of have that kind of a se but that they were managed by AIG
022that was actually our smallest team um ch ch Infinity G with Kelsey Quinn and Stephie and this is um a group of fourth graders out of Smith they're creative Phoenix feathers they actually were a team last year as well they uh the regional competition they got second place in their category was fine arts uh Jason and this is the Egyptian CS second place scientific and also attended State and manager with the kiddos that going to show us CH and then Lucy C uh this was we also have a we did somebody in that photo another family member um they did the scientific challenge as they uh know the sisters were that so this was imagineers this is the team mixed team from Pari we bought Eric overell was their manager they also went to State
023this year thir place on this is one of our teams that um got they got third place in the technical challenge at third grade boys they are moving on they move to States at third place for Global so if you'll see the gf4 that means they're going to globals and oh yes name so the home Busters was a Smith team Elementary LEL Tech Challenge uh this was one of our middle lobal teams they're also going to globals uh they got first place improv at the state competition they actually won a Renaissance award for outstanding um skill in the area of design engineering execution or performance there performance so they're also going to and they middle level third place impr went to State the tiny team the three there only three of them as well actually
024third place technical engineering Jam they go to yes brogs another one of our teams going to globals this year they had second place in service learning um and then tied the first at state and they actually got first year our senior high Voice team CES who uh they qualified for globals but unfortunately with uh graduation being a week after it's it's tough for them to go so they're not going but they went Global um so they've been to globals multiple times but they were to attend having seniors and it being right before graduation um they were first place in at Regional and state with BR this was the only team that was not able to unfortunately perform at regionals but they were able to put the performance on for their families which I thought was
025fantastic with cheese boys and they worked at elementary level heroes with katus and Casey Davis and those stay together next year they're already also we had as Tristan prer has um was awarded the scler family scholarship he wrote an essay and they chose his as to be the winner of their and state we also had col State who also won a scholarship now we have the Egyptian cow and they're for f what they get and come a very Des my kids my wife yeah so while they're setting up we ask to just kind share what our role is what we do is coordinate through weic team managers team managers and we set the teams up and then we do uh support the here we hold an instant challenge day where we do a practice instant
026Challenge and they come in and um we just give them feedback then we do a dress rehearsal day at Herman and they come and present their solution and just kind of get the Jitters out the week regionals typically and um weenes it's 3243 scientists complete your this year we'll have our annual scienic [Music] it's 3,28 years old that's a long time I'm Charlotte SCI [Music] know let me introduce you this is myd I [Music] think she gave us thumbs up you can very how did you do that [Music] thanks for sharing the US [Music] [Applause] I so the girls spent from basically August through March creating everything you see the script they memorize scrip every piece of art even your everything they've done themselves and I think that's what's the most incredible part of di
027is that the kids really own and make this beautiful creation the memorization of the script and the writing of the script so [Applause] good job thank you very much thank ni [Music] like okay all right next up we have public comments and our first public comment is [Music] from not sure officially I can file that act so you know thank you for letting me give me some time here I appreciate it 48 minutes but I'm only going to take three okay um the uh I I wanted to just share a few points on um just the matter that have affiliation with much um but a strong feeling about something and um uh there's an issue that happened within the the this the district and and uh I know that um there's a lot of people
028who have a passion about it in one way or another and want to speak up and my my one message to you folks is a lot of people were going to speak and either declined or backed out just they felt some retaliation happen next time we go to dorsy Lane talk to me but I hope uh that I don't know that um there's a feel real feeling there and uh I just want you to know that and um I do feel like uh transparency is key um to any situation that has such an impact on the community U so with that I I I don't I'm not familiar and won't speak to anything specifically about a case that led to Falls removal um for the time being of his day-to-day responsibilities and I hope the
029decision-making process will um will the outcome of that will be what's most appropriate um and let everybody know uh the that's in the best interest of of everybody involved it's a sensitive matter obviously when you're dealing with children or or minors as well but um Al Paul I I did have the privilege of knowing him since he entered the as a principal as my kids two kids were there I think his first year and uh I also coach um sporting team uh water team here which I've probably had 150 students come through the program Jun well actually Elementary all the way through high school over the last 14 years um and many had comments as we move to go to games and practices and whatnot in my own kids observation the the feedback on Paul
030Waller has always been extremely positive The Experience um that people have had with him I do feel like and I'm I I just highly supportive of him and uh I would say that my observations um the students and counselors have always been positive to reflect on Paul and I do feel like he's supportive when it matters um he's accessible and engaged and serious and thoughtful and uh and empathetic in in key situations that I've observed my wife was on the PTO and it's been a um it's a tough it's a tough one to to swallow and is it three minutes oh so I will end on this that uh I think that um I really do support him and I will also say I'm a POS on a note here that um somebody mentioned to
031uh Dr gupa that I was interested speaking to him and he reached out and called me so I I want to say that um you know don't to reach out and to make your voice heard and and have that because um I thought he didn't have to and he made that he he made a phone call to me we had a great discussion um and I respected that a lot so thank you very much for that I appreciate it thank you Mr all right uh next up our second public speaker public comment excuse me is Margo Hadley and I didn't say this before I appreciate that you recognize that it's a three minutes public comment thank you very I appreciate I appreciate that you pretty rare hello thank you foring me OPP to speak here
032today to support our 15 or ten high school principal Dr Paul my husband John and I had kids in the open school system continuously since 2004 so 20 years I don't think there's manys say they've been a witness to and have children in thect in these buildings for 20 years that John and I have and also feel sorry for us for 20 years and we still had one jior left to go um you know we hope in your eyes it gives um our opinions some credibility and unque perspective been active in the community and schools during this time for the district a few years ago and gave me appreciation and respect for the teaching I'm currently a PTO committee chair at the high school my husband John served on the Oakwood school's business advisory Council
033for several years and volunteered as Finance for the O schools Foundation from 2021 to3 we believed in and wholeheartedly supported the out School District in our hearts and through our actions so finally here tonight to stand up and support Dr Paul Waller Dr Waller is one of the most talented and dedicated employes I've ever come across in the 20 years that I've been here he has an extraordinary way to show empathy for and professionalism all students combined with a great sense of humor that makes him approachable he's able to connect with students in a way that does not intimidate them a calming manner that is obvious to everyone who we don't really need to speak on his talent and ability to lead up with high school the tracker for itself news and Report sorry US
034News report ranked opena high school as a number one high school in the area there are also many other impressive accolades which are all listed on the district website I'm sure you're aware of this a few years back the whole Community cheered when Mr Paul Waller became Dr pauler cont of hisor in education role model for students in true Paul fashion that you're never too old to set new goals and be a lifelong Lear there are otheres call that really shine into student interactions his one for the ages tweets which soon became his signature tagline or legendary not to mention his stin as Elvis that he would always say at graduation that that Year's particular graduating class was the ultimate one for the ages like a parent who would tell all their children that he
035or she was and he would close his comments with you will always have a home at high school and I will always be this chok me up and brought tears to my eyes every time I heard it his warmth and sincerity was undeniable so as easy is I just okay I'll try to wrap it up and I'm just gonna email a copy of this because I do have to say I email it to the board hopefully and Dr you can read it but I just want to we're really concerned about the impact of the length of this that he been placed on I think there was a r to judgment it seemed unprecedented given that he did not have any prior issues as far as being put on some kind of suspension or or anything
036like that before and we're also concerned about um as a taxpayer with fiscal implications we understand we don't answer any questions tonight but we're wondering very much what is the total cost incurred by The District in terms of hours bill by the outside hired attorney and investigator how much has been paid to date to principle it is 73 days counting as of April 15 today was any guidance or timeline set by the dist final thought if he's terminated what could a very strong case of wrongful termination not covered by any kind of insurance so we just want to say and again it takes a lot for me to get up here I've never spoke at a board meeting I love it with schools but we just find ourselves having great doubts school district is doing
037what is best for students regards to this issue mission statement we have supported unequivocally for the P thank you missy yes and please uh email that for that the and I believe next up is is a oh is a commendation accommodations from superintendent good evening I'm gonna go ahead and um do the district highlights from here first and then I'll then I'll roll into the um survey results from our two surveys that we did with the community so again I think about the three buckets of High student achievement safe School environment and efficient effective operations and so over the past month uh first and foremost I just want to make sure everybody understands or knows that uh this week is devoted to uh military appreciation week uh today was purple up day and so this
038is this is the uh the logo the um that that we have across Oakwood and uh it was today's theme was about your program so just appreciative of our Junior High in high school I did I was over at Harman today military kids club over there and got to see students during lunchtime I am proud to say that um and there's been great work um previously at Smith and Haron with going through a state application process what I learned was that 16% of our students are connected to military families 16% and I think that's very significant we know that that's a large reason why people decid they move here because of the school district and um Smith and Herman a while back realized that wanted their their schools to be places of inclusive communities and
039went through an application process deemed by the state uh to re receive that designation they had to do a certain number of things in order to get that and um they were successful they've had that designation previously you keep it for three years um this all Lang Elementary School the junior high and the high school submitted their applications and I'll say that we're just uh announced last week on Thursday that they received the the same award so now we can confidently say across our district all five of our schools have a designation of being military friendly I'm just really proud of that we're going to get some banners ordered uh it'll be at the next May board meeting that we'll hopefully have them here in time to present them uh actually you'll get to present
040them to to uh the principal of Representatives of each of those schools and we'll hang them proudly making sure that our families know that we see them so I think that's a great Happ the other one is um we we were notified um last month that um we have to go through also a um program review on our preschool and uh so it's called the preschool program for step up to Quality and it's an intensive process that has to take place the criteria is based on our learning environments our professional Dev staff and family engagement um haly Goodwin is the one who writes that application and you got to submit artifacts to go along with that and uh we rece five stars on that so we that's the highest rating of our preschool program and
041we're Again by the state and very proud of that our Academic Decathlon team earned their 14th consecutive State title 14th 14 um and I'm so appreciative of that they're going to be heading um it's actually later on the agenda that they're going to be approving their travel to go to the Nationals competition in Pennsylvania um our speech and debate uh team they received overall accolades of fifth the state competition and then it's an individual where some of them uh receive first place Awards or second place Awards and a number of them are heading to Nationals also uh they were able to have their banquet end of season banquet uh last week and got a chance to kind of see and just appreciative of how they connected with each other and again lots of hard work
042just like what we saw with um the academic for our Destination Imagination you're really together for you know months together working on certain things was tremendous The Destination Imagination just say again that 10 teams Advanced to the state three are going to Nationals Junior High and high school yearbook staff uh they receiv received an all Ohio rating on the Ohio scholas media Association receiving an outstand of all categories so that was tremendous that we're able to to go up and get anward for that our Junior High School math team finished seventh at the state math Council competition and then we just had young and art last weekend or two weekends ago um it's just really appreciative of our our um collaboration and communication with our students our coaches our staff our advisors our relationship with
043the Ohio Fine Arts Oakwood Fine Arts boosters there was a dedication ceremony to the o o schools Foundation uh for the partnership with BR Jane hers Wing so it's was tremendous um on a safe School environment front um we we didn't have school last Monday uh for the eclipse I I'll tell you that just to get ran smoothly I'm hoping parents were appreciative that we we took in consideration student safety um I I think also for me and this was a byproduct that I underestimated was just was a neat opportunity for families to get to witness that and see that together I was just appreciative of being able to kind of watch families and be able to do that when I was outside at the library also this is important and some great work is
044our lunch menus on our website um have been updated to provide information to families to support Pro allergy awareness so the it used to be just a PDF document and it just tell you a pizza or tell you you know what the men was now you you click on a link maybe not as pretty um because it doesn't have uh something you could maybe put on on the refrigerator that I'm aware of but what it what it does do and especially unsensitive to our food families with students with food allergies it takes you right to the exact ingredients and then gr can make an informed decision about that that a saf environment efficient effective operations there strategic plan process that we're in had two meetings down we got one more to go and uh we'll
045be coming forward um in the fall uh our staff opening day presenting um maybe a new mission statement and uh some just broad broad areas that we're going to take a look at that are going to be our road map for the next three to five years and then um just thankful for athletic boosters we did a fun spring fundraiser and uh we were able to just celebrate and raise funds and and for student athletes in our programs finally last last week the governor gave a stateof the state address and uh there were a number of State education insights that I just wanted to share with you um some of them is that these are all things that he shared in in words no Pro um plans have necessarily been put in place or we
046don't have a framework of exactly how it's going to get executed uh so we'll have to kind of see and wait and see how the things are going to happen but first one is require all Ohio schools to adopt a smartphone policy that will minimize Ohio usage by students in the class and make those policies available to parents and communities um so a great concern of the effects of phones on students and obviously what they control be doing the day C a new law that is informed by the concerns expressed by the judge in his Federal primary injunction ruling to ensure the new laws Constitution will accomplish the goals of the original social media um parental notification act the third one is a principal apprenticeship program at the Department of Education Workforce to allow inspiring
047principles to watch Ving principles in action through Hands-On in school training that will provide better um supports for them on the challenges of the job the next one is requiring Freer planning to be inserted into the existing graduation plan pathway so every final student leaves school on a career pathway so those are just some updates along with some great highlights that we have from our students and our staff go ahead and turn it over to uh the survey we'll be working it getting this presentation onto our website permanently we're actually going to put a uh a Blog that's going to go out uh tomorrow to all the night4 people that have subscribed to the blog uh but we'll get that also pushed out to to social media so I encourage people to take look for
048that and obviously sign up for future blogs if they'd like that um but again we'll get the the link to the surveys also on our website um hopefully by the end of the week uh if not sooner um so taking a look at this survey and board members you've got uh the actual slides in your midle folder if you want to look at it either on on the you know in front of you or on the screen so okay so F research f is the company that uh we we contracted with as a research firm Oakwood School say used them in the past uh to provide a representative survey uh there were 352 responses um this was uh either a phone or a text that that uh community members received to fill up the survey
049or complete the survey uh and then in addition to that I was a little bit worried about uh people that may want to give responses and maybe didn't get a chance to get that lucky phone call or text so we put similar questions um onto our our uh website I use the word similar questions because um and a statistical approach that found research uses uh when they give let's say a list and ask people to give their number one reason why um that that that they believe to be importance of what we should be tackling first for example they give six suggestions they're looking at your most they want your number one reason and that's it on the on the um online survey we went ahead and set it so that they could click as
050many of things as they wanted so you won't be able to necessarily match up word you know number for number the percentages if may not match that way so uh they they talked about that I would probably also say that the F research was um they they actually based on representative part of the community so that they were trying to get similar demographics um and age ranges and things that mimic what the community is uh the online survey was an open non representative group and we had 88 responses for that but again both surveys will be will be shared here's the themes um that I would share that that were kind of overall op would residents love living here um schools are the driver of why people move um or move back to Oakwood and
051uh residents are overwhelmingly satisfied with the quality of Education being provided Oakwood residents are eager for information this gets into communicational share a little bit later few indicated they were dissatisfied with the schools and then some were unsure about key area priorities um IND a need for more targeted communication and I'll explain what that looks like a little bit so these slides actually come from the Fallon survey so we we left them for integrity uh Fallon Paul Fallon was able to come and and talk with our administrative team a few weeks ago um just due to his schedule there's only one Paul Thon and he already locked in going to other board meetings to do the presentations District he contracted with on this board meeting night and one in May I was a little bit
052worried about having him wait until come in June so asked him to come to our principal meeting which worked well anyway gave us a chance to look at the data and talk with him and uh so some of these s things you you'll see are obviously based on um the interpretation the lens that that he shares with us so uh I know this is hard to read so I'm going to go ahead and read it for you talks about the opinion research data that was gathered through a combination of the live telephones and the interviews 352 adults that were um 18 years or older and had valid uh residential boy for the cellular telephones uh the interview took place between feary 12 and March 1st and uh talked about a little bit of sampling bias
053or error that could take place within a 5% error and again Pro statistical approach um they did talk about weighing the estimates based on demographics they talked about opinion polls um do it increase that idea of error such as other unintentional bias or warning or questions and their their Hope was to remove as much of that as possible and just the disclaimer that not results May add up to exactly 100% some people may have opted not to answer a certain question and um they also decided because it was a phone or text survey and they worry about fatigue so the questions were um asked in different order person to person question number one wasn't question number one to the next person the next one is the opinion environment um so this one talks about whether
054people were satisfied or dissatisfied with the quality of life in open schools this is a general question about op o sorry the Oakwood Community not Oakwood schools uh they wanted a softball question kind of to kind of warm people up so first of all are you satisfied living here you know in here in general you'll see 85% uh we strong you'll see to the right talks about parents versus non-parents you'll see it slightly stronger for nonparents as far as satisfaction goes um for that and um for comparison just for a comparison sake I'll do this a couple times uh for comparison for timeline I'm not going to go back and forth between found research results and the online results I I'll talk about them anecdotally for this question just to give comparison the online survey
055had a 93% satisfaction to this question so then the question goes into what was the biggest reason you moved to education or move moved to oid uh people number one ranked in the quality of the schools you'll see that the parents in that that call out box 69% said um uh the quality of schools was their reasoning 49% under the age of 65 so the schools is by are the number one factor that people decide to move into schools so turning to the question about um satisfaction or or uh dissatisfaction with the schools they asked um the the question about this one this is Oakwood schools not not with the Oakwood Community you'll see it's 62% there um s dissatisfaction 18% parents being 67% and then you'll you'll see to the right other demographics that
056are there one word of caution this was very important to me was we we was taking the 18% unsure to be negative and I was kind of adding that into the negative category and I I appreciate that Paul F said be careful of doing that unsure means unsure so you almost have to take that out of like don't think of 62% out of 100 you almost have to take the 62% out of 82 sort of thing if if you probably think that way they they don't have an opinion for that it could be that they don't have and again was able to talk about nonparents in there too talking about that 50 59% we don't have right there the idea idea about unsure but again data just says something there um we did ask him
057about um as he talks with other school districts and does This research what does 62 how does that Rank and he said very high that is very high for a school district to have satisfaction that way so again that context matters the online survey had 80.7% satisfied um it appears that nonparents and possibly ERS aren't aren't sure or they're unsure and don't have an opinion either way and the researchers showed that 62% like I said was was strong so then he asked the question about um the idea of what does gen General satisfaction look like you'll see that they they this was an open-ended question onen they let people respond and you'll see that they they categorized them in what way that they were able to group them in and you'll see that the quality
058of Education came out at number one uh and then child U being happy or succeeding in school came out number two and so forth um the highest remarks talks about the great work of our staff I do want Spotlight that you'll see that a little bit later we have amazing staff I'm going to read a couple satisfaction quotes uh to share with you uh this is what what some of the respondents said they said the commitment to high quality education the quality to teachers in a lower St students and teacher ratio the academic level in communication from teachers and constant communication and everything is walkable teachers are accessible superintendent principal stand in front of the school in the morning to talk to some parents and students the next one talks about dissatisfaction 18% um said
059that that it was um which was number one and this was misspending finances and taxes number two was the political social matters in school and then third was po leadership Administration teachers being 13% one thing I want to caution is that insid remember I said that there were 352 respondents the end in that bottom box says 52 people um responded back that they that they sorry 62 responded back that they were dissatisfied and gave a reason for it so when we say 18% it's not 18% of the 352 it's 18% of that 62 which is um about 11 people or 3% of that overall so just being careful that you know looking through some of those things I had to kind of spend a little bit of time thinking about that as I was putting
060that into context still something that we should be aware of still something we should monitor but the context matters dissatisfaction some of the open-ended uh responses included too much focus on inclusion and other issues instead of Education a lack of diversity disrespectful comments from elementary students about people who are different and the lack of appropriate intervention services lack of support for students who are neurod Divergent the lack of opportunities for students with disabilities to shine their to show I'm only I'm only reading how it's written to shine their show their strengths to find out what they're good at to feel included to feel a valued part of the school team cohort to receive praise from teachers so now we talk about the rating of the school um you'll see that first of all that it
061ranks it in three ways there's among all among the parents and among uh the nonparents this question talks about uh the top priority what should be the top priority so again here's an example of um they were actually the found researchers looking for the number one out of out of those choices that you see the online survey said you click more than one in this situation the quality of education is something that should be top priority for us and it seems pretty consistent across the board 34% 33% 35% interestedly same thing happened roughly with number two and three in that respect of student mental health and well-being being a priority and then District finances um I do want to point out that um yeah I talked about that my notes I'm tracking right all right
062overall how would you rate the quality of Education be provided by the oak with schools you'll see that they they gave an excellent good 80% on the quality of schools you'll see that is is high amongst the parents on the right in subgroup and then 79% it's pretty close uh so they're pretty similar uh again they talked about that this is uh found for context said this is very high compared to other districts when they work with them the next question um talks about diversity Equity inclusion I've kind of talked about this like Goldilocks um is it um um too much too little or just right sort of thing and you'll see the percentages in that Circle of um do we um the question being is is what we're doing in the school district too
063little tooo much or just right when it comes to diversity equity and inclusion the online survey uh said that um uh that too much was 20 20.5% 20.5 the right amount was 26% and then the two little was 5.2% and the unsure was 18.2% so again in that situation the highest uh percentage was the two little and then the just right um U the right amount being 26.1 so mimic the same I guess um hierarchy of on this one is is on number one being too little um 49% of the nonparents are unsure about this work um this could be about the lead to confusion and misunderstandings that's something that we proba have to clarify when we think about Communications is that's a significant number and 40% for example are unsure could be that they're
064unsure because they're just not attuned to the work that's happening right there and and again we'll have to lean into that as far as how we communicate what do we communicate to our community next one talks about how we rate the jobs U have done to prepare students for uh the future after they graduate uh you'll see that 68% is in an excellent or good category when you take a look to the right you'll notice that the percentage increases with the age groups so the parents currently say 63% for in that uh excellent good but you'll see at the 65% or older given a much higher reading at 77% the next one they talk about the idea about the district managing its budget for finances 41% have the the um excellent for good the online
065survey for context has 59.5% so um I I think that that's also pretty WR you'll see the 65 point 65 and older age group uh have it much higher also at 54% um again it's worth noting that the 28% unsure does not imply negative means that we probably need to do a better job of communications So speaking of communications uh this question asks just how are they currently get information or how much they're looking at information following the school district uh somewhat closely being 52% and then very Clos 30% not closely at 15% and then 3% for the unsure this is a double-edged sword uh because sometimes no news is good news and they're not following it because they're um don't feel that that it's important it could just be that they believe and trust
066in the schools and so again sometimes good surveys lead to good questions and you want to prob a little bit farther into that um man has talked about just the idea about we go into kind of things with like focus groups we think about idea about community relations and Community engagement on this question about how do you get your information the number one um but not not far behind but number one being reading the Oakwood registered newspaper we had to explain to F this comes out once a week um but talked about the importance then of making sure that we are connected with them and doing that you'll see that the higher marker goes from among all that 27% the parents is 3% and nonparents is 40% so um one of the data points that
067I found was 60% of our community are empty ners and so being able to use the open register they're not going to go to that blog that I submit so take a look at other ways to communicate and engage them um but also the emails schol the emails and newsletters play an important role next one talks about the oid register and um their thoughts about it as far as how often that they read or access it 57% um is there but again the 65 65 and older group had a 74% comes along the that how would you rate the job that this does the school does in communicating with parents and Community 54% uh for this uh overall and then uh the parents uh for 60% and then you'll see that the frequent open register
068was use paper readers also at 60% on the idea of facilities um just to bring to your attention uh as far as top priorities this goes along kind of as as we think about our master plan for phase two addressing Smith and Harmon so again we we're feeling uh there's priority that goes along with that Matt C stadium also looks at that um I'll be honest we're taking a look at Matt com Stadium not necessarily from an aspect of turf I'm not talking about Turf I'm not talking about doing anything with that we're just talking about things about the safety aspects that come along with that for our students and our visitors and so we'll be taking a look at at those and and be thinking about that for our future uh taking a look
069at the the school buildings and security measures now I want to make sure that I um you know we did the fin look security looks like it's interesting that sometimes we can talk about the actual physical structure of it we could also talk about um our processes processes and practices this isn't always money related sometimes it's just making sure that we've got good practices that come into play so we'll have to dig into this one more we got excellent and good being 48% and then the subgroups U being 62% for parents and 41% for nonparents we talked about the idea about um where do you get your information from uh number one in this situation our classroom teachers our classroom teachers uh my guess is obviously if did our community knows that they bring a
070high quality of instruction are our trusted source and so making sure I would say that the takeaway from me is making sure our our teachers have Clarity on our priorities and our work and if we do then we're going to be able to uh you know state that out into the community properly and you'll see other parents in districts superintendent recent graduates fall after that from a conclusion standpoint our key findings um I just want to just kind of talk and I've said this before eye satisfaction of the education and our staff I want to make sure that that if anything else gets spotlighted because our staff very hard the second one is that um we we received very high sentiments um that were consistent among um our spectrum of various subgroups and the third
071one is a need for continued inspection or communication regarding facility plans our EDI or our di diversity Equity inclusion and then our finance which we'll continue to do our thinkabout um we're going to think about uh for the future the idea about how we can continue to uh think about the the satisfaction and share the good news stories uh of what's happening in our schools I think it's a great example of our Destination Imagination making sure that uh community members and presidents know that um the other part is transforming uncertainty into support So taking a look really that unsure percentage and F out figuring out ways to engage with so engaging with maybe um empty nesters um maybe some young families that their kids haven't started school yet and talking about some of those different
072areas and then the idea about financial trust and through transparency we'll look at that and think about ways that we can do that we're contining to do that um already with how we communicate regular Oakwood scene uh information our website uh stays vibrant we're going to continue to kind of look at that but we want to make sure that um our community knows that we're we're trying to be forthcoming and then the last one is just expand avenues for Community dialogue this is a picture of a community cofy that we recently had and we'll continue to have one each month throughout the rest of this SCH year I guess this this month and next month and then the idea about maintaining brain consistency that we want to build trust we want to reflect our professionalism
073and we want to provide that Community Trust that comes along with it um so with that like I said take you I'm sure time to process really here's why I really look at this what was my my goal or my end game this is a baseline this is a baseline uh we're not coming up before a levy we're not coming for a facility we're not coming up before something else and so my hope or my goal is that if we do this um every two or three years um we'll be able to look back at this and start looking at some comparison and hopefully if the the numbers should look like they're getting better in a positive way and if not we'll lean into it and we'll be able to say there's something there right
074there because now it's the same Community years P numbers went down in a certain area let's take a look into it so that's kind of what the so thank you Dr the board may have some questions appreciate your presentation to the board I have a question for it and as you went through and looked at that data you have one or two data points that really jumped out at you and what was your response to that sure I think for for me it was that percentage on the diversity Equity inclusion and I know that that that gets mixed results and um you know I I think we we how we communicate and and make sure our students feel safe seen heard and valued um will obviously hit at different places and so we'll never necessarily
075I think come to a mutual understanding or agreement I'm not sure if we will I might might be my hope um but I just know that uh we're able to be in a place that hopefully we can share our story and then clarify the things that we're doing so because maybe some of it may be a Mis and maybe a misconception of what might be what that actually feels like looks like and I think our our goal then would be able to share what those things are and hopeing the community can rally around other thoughts or questions from the board thank you thank okay we have finished uh accomodations public comments curriculum showcase any of you folks that are here please don't you will not feel bad if you decide that you want to get
076up and leave it's already 8:15 it's way later than we usually go so stick around we' love to have you but also if you dip out you are perfectly okay right I'm looking at you again you're good yes you are all right all right thank you so much for coming in we appreciate you all right next up is board reports we have okay so I heard that from Smith Haron and the junior high high school and just have some fun things to report some highlights so as far as Smith PTO they just finished their readathon um was our first readathon and it was a success um the students collectively read for 117,000 140 minutes and raised to um Smith part back wednes morning 8:15 students can come and get some energy out on blacktop before
077school students that arrive before 805 and participate get FP charm to collect and um the PTO hosted a family movie night last Frid um and then they also are having a BAL house to get out more energy um after school energy um on April 19 from 315 to it's for unimited jumping and can buy their fourth graders are performing national anthem and fifth graders will be singing just a couple more highlights from Smith um the teachera appreciation committee sweet and salty bar last week and Ice um as far as Harman PTO um Harman PTO is recruiting board members and committee chairs um so anyone um they also an event with Dr in March and those that came were very appreciated very much appreciated um they also approve funding to complete a display case about the
078history apartment that Harrison is put together um they'll be hosting a fundraiser at Cramer on Wednesday April 24th from 5 to 8 um and they are also looking forward to all the upom events um and then finally the junior high high school PTO um so that they also have been busy the last couple months with various events most recently they the cul night which was well attended and they provided a deal um to the teachers and refreshments to parents um they also are wanted just to note that they're thankful for their partnership with the OSF um that enables them to collaborate on grants enh classrooms um in addition to Grants already given this year they also provided funding to bring speaker iy gu discuss the book um what made MD run and the importance of
079mental health um and this initiative underscores their commitment to supporting the wellbe of of students and raising awareness about mental health issues um they did meet yesterday and are finalizing their budget for next year their next do Zoom meeting is on may9th and they two are looking for volunteers um for committees and chairs committee chairs next year um and then they also wanted to say support any any the board reports all right next up is item five budget and finance item a is the proposal approval and then and now certification and this is for um the greenhouse proposal 22229 and that is for prosent and they did work at the greenhouse over early summer get a motion for item 5 a the Miss kaai Miss D lenzo Dr Middleton and Mr Wilson I item is
080the March 2024 monthly financial report uh we briefly went over this in the work session and it's there for informational purposes any questions presentation was quite cleark next up the unfinished business before the board the new business before the board uh item eight is Administrative reports and superintendent recommendations number number 8 a um this is just informational you'll see that there's the junior high and the high school student handbooks and the student fees uh this is essentially a first read uh will'll come back at the May 13th board meeting for the adoption but this gives you an the community a chance to take a look at things first letter B is the field trip uh for that academic Decap academic Capon going to Pittsburgh uh later this month April 24th 28 I did U look
081at the perform everything's in order and we'll be ready to go to send off 21 students that be traveling here with competetive Nationals going into to number nine I'm going to take a through C under one motion uh I'll go ahead and read them first though letter a is to accept the resignation of um our our volleyball coach U you'll see a letter in there letter B is um a teacher um sorry um the custodian at the high school and then um we'll see that letter C is a recation of the teacher at the third grade Smith Elementary School so if I can get a recommendation for items a through C all right I get a motion for items N A through C please R Dr hi misso Miss kaai and Mr wi hi number
08210 person items number 10 a through J I'll take under one motion I'll go ahead and read them letter a is to rec recommend to employ Mariah pius's custodian at Oakland High School level one ending completion of and verification of the different checks she's been a subtit teacher with us letter B is um employee Scott yansky he's been working with us for a while he's uh now will be heading from the high school junior high high school to um Smith Elementary School for a v can see there letter C is to employ Mr Benjamin Moore as the counselor at Oakwood high school and uh letter D is to employ Logan Baker as the social stes teacher at Oakwood Junior High School letter e is um the continuing contract there's a process that um Mrs C
083had worked with you to inform you of the process and then sharing kind of the information feedback M County teacher at Oakland High School socialized teacher um completed the requirements for continuing contract for this recommendation and then letter F is for Matt deers assal teacher also at the high school uh with all the completion and submitting work that that he's done letter G is the supplemental contracts and volunteers for the 2324 school year letter H is the recommendation to approve attached list of substitute teachers um all requirements um pending all requirements and then letter I is a recommendation to approve the following flexible supplemental contracts for the 2425 school year we'll see names and positions to that and then letter J is the recommendation for approve the following supplemental contracts for volunteers again for the
084positions that are posted all right can I get a motion for letters a through J please Ro miss miss kaai Dr Middleton hi Mr Wilson hi next is we're going to move into executive session for the specific purpose of considering investigation of charges or complaints against a Public Employee official ly or student can you get a motion please to enter executive session R Dr midd Miss kaai Miss dienzo hi and Mr Wilson hi