001All right, good evening everybody. Uh, call this meeting to order. It's the August 27th, 2025 meeting of the Ontian Board of Education. Uh, Mr. Jenkins, can you please call the role? >> Mr. Lester, >> here. >> Dr. Dabberco, >> here. >> Dr. Wallik >> here. >> Miss Shriber >> here. >> All right. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. >> All right. Unfortunately, Mr. O'Brien cannot be here tonight due to a work uh engagement. Uh but we'll carry on. Uh so >> somehow we will we will make it work. So, uh, so I don't believe we have any amendments to the agenda. >> None.
002>> All right. Hearing none, then may I have a motion to approve? >> So, moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All right. Hearing none, Mr. Jenkins. >> Mr. Lester? >> Yes. >> Dr. Dabberco? >> Yes. >> Dr. Wallak? >> Yes. >> Miss Shriber? >> Yes. >> Moves a lot quicker when there's only four minutes. >> About 20% quicker. >> I was an English major. I'm I'll take your word for it. Uh all right so for the board president's report I have uh two items here. Uh first of all since we uh since we had our last board meeting uh the school has started uh which is very exciting. Uh this is always such a really just a wonderful time of year. Uh and uh one of my favorite events that we get to go to
003is convocation where we have all the staff uh come together and really start off the year right with lots of energy, lots of excitement uh giving everybody a chance to reconnect and and get ready for the school year. Uh this year we had a speaker at the event uh and uh had a number of messages for everybody. Uh but his first one was it it all starts with passion, right? And we saw that passion come through in uh really in everything that was there that day. I mean everybody was was really showing off their passion for education and for what they do. And we've now started to see it as the school year has started. Um I went to curriculum night. I know Dr. Dria was uh at Liberty with me uh last night and
004just walking around the room and seeing everything that all of these teachers have done, all the thoughtfulness that goes into it and just their excitement um for the school year ahead. Um, you know, it it is it is ju just the idea of being a student in this sort of transformative environment where um where teachers are really really engaged in every single thing and thinking creatively and with care and compassion about how to support students um is unbelievable. And and it's not just teachers, it's our aids and our bus drivers and our our maintenance staff and our administrators. A lot of people in this room on on the that heavy side of the room uh you know can really contribute to it. it it shines through in every single thing that we do and we've
005heard this from so many members of the community. Um, so I just wanted to say on behalf of the board, I know all of my fellow board members agree with this. We really want to thank everyone uh for coming and and sharing their passion with us and showing what it means to be the best district in the state. Um, and and really just inspiring our students and families and community members every single day. So, thank you. Um second, uh we uh as as everyone uh hopefully is aware, we have a bond issue that's on the ballot this fall. Uh this is something that we approved at a special meeting in late July that we talked a little bit about at the last board meeting. We'll continue to talk about in our presentations tonight. Um and
006you know, we we've put up a lot of information for the community about the ways uh that this will impact the school district and and what it means for the future. Um, one of the things that I've heard a little bit about as especially as we're talking about what we're calling a no new millillage uh levy, which is something that will allow us to build an elementary school and a high school without increasing individuals tax rates. Is why why are we taking this step now? Why haven't we just done this all along, right? When when some of our other operate or other levies have had some millage impact. Um, and there's a couple things to that. First of all, we have done this before. This is something that we have have brought up before as
007one of the various options that we have um to uh to construct schools without raising the individual tax rate. Um but the other thing is this is not the only solution to our growth. we are growing so rapidly um with 500 new students every single year for the past decade every you know coming for the next decade at least that we know that we're going to have to have uh more space and more more things to accommodate all of that. Um so this is a partial solution but it's a solution that's really born out of this idea that we're listening to the community and the concerns that were brought forward after the last levy of the the financial impact. We're very attuned to that. It is something that we take extraordinarily seriously as board members.
008We are here not because we are employed by the district, but because we're members of the community. Um, but we also know that there's a balance to strike with the needs of the district to make sure that we still are able to to bring that passion to bring those services together. Um, and you know, to do it with as minimal financial impact as possible. So, what we encourage people to do is learn a little bit more about this. Talk to us, go to the website, reach out to the district if you have questions and understand that we're putting this all together as part of a larger growth strategy. Um, the there are going to be challenging years ahead as we, you know, continue to navigate this growth and do it smartly. Um, but I'm very
009confident in the in the team that we have here that's working on it from our facilities group to our administrative team that's really working through it. I know that we could find a pathway forward, but we need the community to be educated about it to to understand what these issues are and then ultimately to to vote as they see fit and we'll adjust accordingly. Um, so thank everybody and uh we will then uh that that's the last thing that I have. Does anybody have any uh committee updates? I don't think we've had facilities met. No, >> no, we didn't meet in August, but we'll be meeting on September 10th. >> Okay. Um, I don't think I've had any meetings, but uh, just to let everybody know, I think I'd updated in the past about uh,
010the Ohio School Boards Association uh, did go ahead and and uh, strike an agreement with uh, Tom Hustler uh, who um, is leaving Parisburg schools uh, to become the CEO of OSBA. Uh, I believe he he visited uh, us in TNG before I was on the board. uh there was the fair school funding summit that was was hosted here several years back and he he played an integral role in that. So um it'll be great to welcome him as CEO of OSBA. >> That's great. >> Just to follow up on curriculum night. >> Yeah. >> Um the place was packed. >> Parents rushed to get there. I saw one of my neighbors from Cyber Reserve. He had 16 minutes to get up from 270 to a cross country match and then get to curriculum night.
011And that's the kind of amazing commitment that our parents have to be there for their kids. Um the research is overwhelming when parents show up for kids. Uh they succeed. So that's what our community does night after night with all these curriculum nights. The teachers, these are not like high school teachers that I had, right? These are professionals in their field. My son's math teacher was an actuary. His his other teacher was a professor at Ohio State. These folks are beyond highly qualified. They are industry leaders. So, it was awesome. Awesome to be there. So, I appreciate what your team does, Mr. Meyer. >> Thank you. >> Good. All right. Well, uh we will move then straight into our presentations. Uh so, first we have our staff professional development plan. So, we'll welcome Miss Schultz
012and Dr. Sander, uh Mr. Schae and Miss Fury and Miss Preston. So, >> yeah. We're excited to be here today. We are going to just kind of come up one at a time um just to kind of not have the crowding around this this particular space, but I'm excited to get us kicked off. My name is Mindy Schultz and I'm the director of curriculum and innovation and I'm excited to share tonight an update from our new curriculum and innovation department. This department brings together curriculum, instructional technology, and strategic partnerships into one unified team, strengthening collaboration and allowing us to be more effective in improving the student experience. As we all know, that student experience goes well beyond the written curriculum, and that's what this team will show tonight. It includes high-quality instruction, purposeful technology integration,
013positive learning environments, and meaningful community connections. By merging these three teams, we're better positioned to ensure every student's experience is relevant, inclusive, and engaging. This structure also strengthens our ability to bring the Tangi Foundations and portrait of a learner to life in every single classroom. At the elementary level, we're focused on high-quality instructional materials and strong instructional teacher support. This year marks year one of benchmark advanced literacy curriculum adoption and year two of the bridges in mathematics curriculum. Adoptions like these, they transform the student experience by ensuring aligned, rigorous content and consistent instructional practices across all of our 17 elementary schools. With our most recent literacy curriculum adoption, I am proud to share that all elementary classroom teachers as well as building administrators have been trained in benchmark advance. Additionally, all fourth and fifth grade
014teachers and administrators received opportunities for training in 95% group which is our new intermediate word study program that complements benchmark advance. Along with training to support the benchmark advance implementation, our elementary literacy specialist under the guidance and support of Ebony Ford, our K12 literacy supervisor utilized the summer months to develop district instructional resources aligned to benchmark advance for teachers, which includes readaloud guidance, vocabulary cards, content area connections, and standards aligned tools tied to the report card descriptors for every single grade level. On top of that, I also want to highlight the role of our dedicated district leaders who have been very intentional in supporting these curriculum adoptions as well. These examples, they only represent a small fraction of some of the work that we're doing at that district level across various departments as well as
015within our own team. So just to share a little bit um tied to specifically benchmark advance alien miracle she is our K12 supervisor of unified arts in collaboration with department chairs and specialists recently met to begin work of designing meaningful connections between the literacy themes and benchmark advance as well as then those unified arts classrooms and the experience students are having in those classrooms. While Eric Gully, our assistant director of English learners and his e department, they are integrating benchmark advance. That's a resource that strengthens language development for our English learners both in and outside of the classroom. This resource directly supports the themes and units of benchmark advance. You can see how we're being really intentional about all of those connections. In support of year two of Bridges, our math curriculum, Erica Boon, our
016K12 gifted supervisor, is guiding gifted specialists to collaborate in elementary math classrooms and leverage Bridg's built-in opportunities for process differentiation, which is focusing on how students think, reason, and problem solve. David Hayward, our elementary instructional technology supervisor, is leading the development of digital math assessments in Seessaw, in which we'll give teachers that more in the- moment feedback, as well as provide parents with immediate access to progress. These collaborations show how our new structure connects expertise and innovation. So you'll see this picture on this slide and this picture was taken at Arrowhead Elementary, but it's a sentiment that has echoed across all of our schools. The Bridges curriculum is changing how students see themselves as mathematicians. That type of excitement and identity shift is exactly what we hope to see across all K12 classrooms across the
017district. And with that being said, we're going to move on to hearing a little bit more about the exciting things happening at middle school and we'll have Shane Schae, our assistant director of intermediate curriculum and innovation to share that. >> Follow you. Thanks. Thanks, Mindy. >> Hi, everybody. >> Um, yeah. So, as Mendy said, and she ended on a highlight with math, I'm going to get to math. I promise. This is something that, you know, I think when I first got hired, Mr. Meyer and I had some conversations about. So, we're excited to share some updates for you in regards to middle school. Um, but actually at your seat, the first thing I wanted to point out to you is I did give everybody um this copy of something that's new and was born out
018of Seeds of Change. So, last year in Seeds of Change, we had a group of dedicated middle school administrators, teachers, and counselors who wanted to create a vision for this period that was formerly known as academic assist. So most sixth and seventh grade students in our district have a period during the day that is meant to be a flex period uh for intervention enrichment um sometimes to get caught up on assignments. And so we took a a look at this period to say how can we make sure that we're leveraging this period to increase and expand our multi-tered systems of support at middle school. So we're going to be doing some more work with that this year with our administrative teams um to find ways to leverage that period. Um the goals of that period
019really are three three different goals. Academic success, which is what it's always been, but as Mindy started, we know that there's much more beyond just that written curriculum. So, we're also looking at personal growth and lifelong skills. So, there's a direct tie to some of the work that Molly Preston is doing with career exploration, and we'll talk about some of that when she presents uh next. So, two other areas of academic focus. Um can we go to the middle school slide? Sorry, that's my fault. I had the clicker. I don't know why I didn't think about that. It's right here, everybody. >> Hey, she handed it right to you. >> I'd like to say because I'm a new dad that I forgot that, but that's not really the case, but we'll use that excuse. All
020right. Um, literacy and the middle school. Um, so under uh the support and and lead of supervisor uh for literacy for the district, Ebony Ford, she and our six middle school literacy specialists this year created a menu of intentional strategies and resources for teachers to support literacy in the middle grades. We all know that no matter what you teach, you're still a teacher of literacy. So, um, we're excited to roll that out this year and continue that professional learning on the science of reading that everybody had last year. um our six literacy specialists are going to be doing intentional work around that with teachers in their building at the middle school this year. And then finally, not that I'm most excited about this, but I'm pretty excited about this. Um let's talk a little bit
021about middle school math. Um something that we've been working on um to provide uh our teachers and our students for some time now is that consistent, coherent, and confidence boosting curriculum. Um you've heard about the excitement in Bridges for a student arrowhead to say that they love math. They're excited about math. They're thankful for math. We want that same experience uh for our middle school students so they can have that success at the high school level and beyond. So, our vision um is to create a math positive culture. Dr. Chris Sander and I have been collaborating on this idea. Um I'll let her speak to that when she comes up, but really we want people to see themselves as math people. Um at the beginning, Mr. Lester, I think there was a math reference and
022I think you said that you have more of an English background, right? I'm social studies and for the longest time I said, you know, I'm not really a math person, not really a math guy. Working with our six math specialists has changed my opinion on that. And some of the collaboration and work that um Dr. Sander and I are doing and the work out of Bridges, we're super excited. So, our vision of instructional excellence, we can't create and and adopt curriculum if we don't know what we want. And so we have amazing teachers, amazing students. And so the vision of instructional excellence that's guided our work is really centered on the NCTM's standards for mathematical practice. We also have Ohio's new plan for K12 mathematics. Um and then our own Tangi school's middle school math
023framework. So we've leaned in heavily to those three. In the spring of last year, we had a team of educators, um teachers, intervention specialists, our math coaches, building administrators, and district administrators. We had a rigorous review of eight different high-quality instructional resources. We narrowed it to four and then ultimately selected two to pilot this year. So, we're excited to announce that we're going to be piloting at all six middle schools uh Carnegie Math this fall and then in January starting CPM uh for 6 weeks at a time and that will be for all middle school math courses. So, we're very excited about this pilot. We're going to collect that feedback from staff and students um and monitor that closely and then hopefully come back for a recommendation to you all for adoption. So, it's going
024to be an exciting year for middle school. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Dr. Chris Sander to share more about the work happening in each of our four high schools. >> Thank you. >> There is a clicker there. >> Gotcha. Appreciate that. Um so, I'm here to just talk about the overarching things happening in high school. So, definitely a 30,000 foot view, right? This is just a snapshot of the work we're doing. And as emphasized by both Mindy and Shane, um, one of our biggest focuses this year is on that math curriculum at the high school. Um, you'll notice on the slide it talks about counted out, math is power. That is a screening that we will host this January for um, the public and we hope you'll be a part
025of that. But the idea is that in our math work with high schools, we're asking the essential question, and Shane stole my thunder a little bit. What if we didn't label people as math people? Um, you know, one of the biggest um or most profound comments I think I've heard related to this movie is none of us come out and say, "Well, I'm not a reader, so I'm not going to do English." Right? We don't say that. But we hear people all the time saying, "I'm not a math person." And we let that be an excuse or a reason for not necessarily engaging in the content. So, with our high school teams, we're going to do phase one of math, looking for gaps in instruction. Um, the ability to try to improve engagement in math
026classrooms. Um some of that is surrounding building thinking classrooms with many of our which many of our math teachers have engaged in. Um but that's a huge piece of work this year in collaboration with not only Shane but Erica Boon leading that. Um we're entering phase two of our work with our ELA ELA department, our English language arts department. Um and you see on that slide a graphic of the five pursuits. That document is a um culmination of the work that they did last year. So, you will see that in an English classroom, at any time you walk into one of our high school English classrooms, you should see the five pursuits in action. Inquiry, expression, reflection, community, and autonomy. And the through line through all of those um is student agency. Um so, we're
027very proud of the work we did with the English teachers last year. That work continues this year not only in reflecting on how these experiences are living in the classroom but also improving our lit reviewed resource list. So um last spring or last winter really it was identified that most of the items on our literature review list were well over 10 years old. Um, so this summer we worked with um a handful of English teachers, added 35 novels to that list and are going to continue that work this year to try to create really enriching experiences for our English students. Um, in addition, you'll hear discussions this year probably are surrounding our world language resource pilots, depending on how those go. if you have any students who are enrolled in French or Spanish across the
028district, we have um teachers engaging in pilots in those um content areas. Um another thing I'm very excited about, my passion is really career teched. I think many of you have heard me say that over and over again. We're super excited that at STEM Academy, we are officially in year one of our biotechnology programming. That is an official CTE E26 program. So again, just trying to increase opportunities for students and one piece of data that impacts Olan Tangi schools is the um collection of work-based learning hours and capturing that data. Um you'll see that when the report come report card comes out this year, prior to me being in this role, that data was not captured. Um so we won't look so great in the workbased learning area. Um, I will write um quality program
029reviews for all of our CTE programs because we didn't capture that data. But the good news is last year we did. Our report cards will be in line with what they should be this year. But that'll raise red flags with you when you see that at first. And I know I've talked to Dr. Blackley a little bit about and Vince about how we'll um tackle that um this year. Um and last, I just want to share that we are in year three of our student agency grant. You know, this is work that Vince Datilio began, but throughout that work, you heard it through our English department and the work that they did with their branding. Um, but we will continue to collaborate to work on student autonomy, engagement, um, and content relevance for all of
030our curricular areas. So, I'm going to turn this over to U. Molly Preston, who is a huge part of what we're doing with STEM Academy, how we're capturing data with work-based learning, and the partnership that we have working together to try to improve these opportunities in career tech and apprenticeships and all the things. So, thank you. >> Hello. I am always happy to be here and talk about all things bridge ed. um going into year three of me um connecting with Tangani schools and of the program we've made a lot of progress and had a lot of exciting things happen. So I'm really excited to share some highlights from last year. So we had previously done state of the schools and state of the workplace at each of the individual schools which was um lightly
031attended um across the district. So, we decided to go back to a single event last year and um ran Bridging the Future um which was a really successful event. Um we had opening remarks recorded from Lieutenant Governor John Huad. Um Steve Dakan provided opening remarks and then we had our community partners have expo and kind of all hands-on experiences as attended by about over 200 people. Um, so we will be repeating that this year. We piloted last year at Berlin Middle School and Orange Middle School career exploration days for all eighth graders. And what that looked like, we had participating partners Robertson Construction, OSU Wexner Medical Center, Columbus State, and then our instructional technology team. So what that day looked like was 8th grade split into two. Robertson construction brought 12 sessions sawing, you know,
032the marketing business aspect plus the actual physical labor aspect of what does a career in construction look like. Wexner Medical Center brought six teams with all of their equipment. So half of the group was going through the sessions at Robertson Construction. The other half was with Wexner along with Columbus State and our instructional technology team to talk about, I love design, what next? So we always want to have the students like not just leave for the day and think, "Oh, that was so cool. What next? How do I take my love of design or what if I want to have a career in construction? What is next?" So instructional technology and Columbus State were there to help assist with some of those questions. So that was a really great experience for both of those middle
033schools. Tech Quest with JP Morgan Chase. Going back to what Shane had talked about um with the student assist time at the middle schools. This was a really great opportunity to think outside of what students could experience. So volunteers from JP Morgan Chase came on site and led activities with coding for seventh graders and then they came once a month for three months at three of the schools. Then at the end of that session, all of the students got to go on site to JP Morgan Chase for a day of career exploration which was really great. Um, as spring capstone project, essential it um, cyber security, AI, all the things. We had nine students participate the year prior that jumped to 15 students. So 15 of our IT students got to go onsite to Asenture,
034meet once a week with a mentor on a coding project for eight weeks and then present a final project um for the very first time after two years of working on a contract with JP Morgan Chase. Two of our graduating seniors were able to participate in an a paid internship at on-site at Chase. We had the opportunity to go on site um take our um team to video and interview the students and their mentor. It was a fantastic experience by all parties. I have got um a debrief call scheduled hoping to continue that um program and grow it. We were um we had so many great candidates. I really called them and said is there any possibility we can have more than two and we had to only do two. So hoping that will change
035um that could change. OSU Wexner Medical Center, they had 29 events and connected with over 2,300 students and staff last year. They are by far I I the if you look at numbers, they have they had a really large number of reach. Um they were able to connect with students for internships, job shadowing, um a lot of student experience. So we had a really great year with OSU Waxner Medical Center, manufacturing day, Honda Liberty Middle School. 40 students got to go on site to Mary'sville to to look at careers in manufacturing Worthington Steel and our business advisory council is really evolving to a space of community members that are stepping up to support and tangi. We invite pupil services um our in our e uh supervisors to really put the call to action to the
036community. What can you do to support Olan Tangi? So, we had a lot of great um feedback from that. Looking ahead to next year, I'm going to to I have a quick little update or story bridging last year to this year. So, last year, um I was contacted by a staff member at Berlin High School saying, "I have got a student that really want is interested in construction. He's a senior. He wants to work construction." So, I reached out to Robertson Construction and said, "Yep, let's go shadow for a day." I do not think this student was out of the parking lot before I had an email from Robertson saying, "We want to hire him immediately." He was that good. >> We could So, our contact at Robertson Construction acted as a mentor for this
037student. He graduated after graduation, started working full-time at Robertson Construction. He is now on the team that is building the addition to Dublin Sciota High School and going into Bridging the Future. Um, Robertson Construction is going to be one of our partners there and he will be representing Robertson Construction at Bridging the Future at our Olangi event. So, I just got goosebumps. I hope you all did too because we talk about the numbers and yes, 2,300 with Waxner, but the single student stories matter so much, too. So, I just wanted to share that because it goes right into this year and bridging the future. So, stop by Robertson Construction and see him. Um, this year we are really excited to have Lieutenant Governor Jim Trestle um be our guest speaker and kick off the event.
038Um, one Columbus will also be there to give economic and jobs data, which is why we're here and why we're doing this work. Um, and then later connecting. So, what is Olen Tangi doing to support all of this data like what's happening in Ohio? Um, again, followed up by exposers. It's they're they're getting wild. They're getting big, they're asking for more space, they're bringing more equipment. So, it's going to be a really great opportunity to get some hands-on um job awareness experience. Um, so that's the flyer that you all have. So, spread it around and ask people to come and register to come. Um, and I won't go through all of these. um you can see what's happening. I think a really important thing to note are the pilots from last year that are now
039spreading across the district. Um our the career exploration days that were Robertson Construction, OSU, Wexner, they did not hesitate when we asked them to do this across all six middle schools. And this is a this is a really big deal because it's a lot of work on their end and it's a lot of work for the schools. But I think this says a lot about our team, our schools, and our students because we got repetitive comments about how awesome our students are. And probably if there were saws and hammering and that were not the case, they would not be doing this across all six. >> So it's I told Tim from Robertson, I go, "You realize you're going to have to give your presentation 120 times." And so and it's because they switch and they
040do it 10 times and 20 times a day. not even a hesitation. So kudos to um Orange Middle School in Berlin for making this such a great experience for our um partners that they're going to be doing this across the district. Same thing with JP Morgan Chase Techquest. They are going to be doing this across all six middle schools. Um the bit the um high school exploration fairs again across all four. Asure they went from nine students to 15 students and they're going to do it again this year. So that is really what we're gaining toward to get that slow move to build these um things that are happening across the district make them s sustainable and something that we can do with all of our students and it's not a small ask with a
041with a size um district that we have new to this year performance Columbus a very new partner we've got our first two students that are going to be participating in a pre-apprenticeship program so they will be going to school for the first part of the day and then on site to get a pre-apprenticeship in auto tech from 12:30 to 3:30 each day. So, those are our first pre-apprenticeships with this partner. Very excited for that. Um, and that is all I have. I will just end as I introduce Jen Fury to talk about professional development and the priority that um Olan Tangi puts on that the career exploration days would not have happened if it weren't for the professional development that Olan Tangi prioritizes. During think tank, which is one of our um PD experiences, I
042led a session with three of our partners and one of them was Christian Robertson, who is the owner of Robertson Construction, and he was talking about something he did in Licking Heights, and I said, I want to do that. Nate Davis was in the front row. I said, Nate, do you want to do that? Yes. So, that's how this whole thing evolved from think tank, from professional development, from Olan Tangi. So that's it's uh proof that that's really a great experience for and glad that it's a priority for our district. So now I'm going to introduce Jen Perry. >> Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight about our professional uh learning focus for the year. So our professional development structure, professional learning structure is um really structured with three district PD days
043that are bookended by our think tank and elevate conferences which are in district conferences throughout the year. We also do building visits in each of the buildings. So, we go out and visit every single building twice a year where we provide teachers with a um about 15 minutes or less a quick tool or a tip or strategy that they can take back and implement in their classroom immediately. It's something they can walk away and use right then and there. Um and it also aligns with our professional learning focus. We also offer, as Shane brought up, we offer um entangi professional development academy, which one of our courses is our seeds of change course and we have a variety of courses that are offered throughout the year that are on a um variety of topics as
044well. So um really for the past few years, we have been very intentional about designing our professional development focus to build year after year. In 2023 2024, we recommitted to our mission. So we took the thousand foot view and we looked at our core documents, our foundations, our portrait of a learner and our mission and really asked what does learning need to look like for today's students? What does it mean to facilitate maximum learning for today's students? Then in 2024 2025 we shifted and we began focusing on um the foundation of instruction and the disposition of purpose. And we um helped students and staff really connect to their purpose but then not just identify their purpose, connect that to the instruction that was happening in the classroom to make learning fun. Because just like learning
045needs to be fun for our students, it needs to be fun for our staff. We've begun to um carry a theme each year. So last year we went on a road trip and this year we're mountain climbing. The theme is not just a theme. It ties to the professional learning focus for the year. We know, although I've never been mountain climbing, um we do know, I'm just going to be honest, um that um climbing requires continuous feedback, um reflection, perseverance, and um ultimately a celebration when you reach the summit, which was what we believe our PD day 3 is. This intentional layered approach has really resonated with staff and um the positive feedback is exactly why we feel confident heading into um this year's focus which this year's professional learning focus is uh resilience and
046assessment. And we're really asking the question of what if assessment was the beginning and not the end of learning. When we believe that when designed with purpose, assessment can promote reflection, growth, and perseverance, which are all essential skills we want in our learners. As a district, we set the frame. Assessment and resilience. Each building then fills in that frame through their continuous improvement plan. One of the metaphors that we've shared with our our staff in our buildings this year is that we're all on the same mountain, but everyone's journey is going to look different because it's based on your individual building goals and your personal goals that you set in your professional growth plan. As you saw in the last slide, our data shows that the approach is working. Last year, more than 96 96%
047of staff said that PD was relevant to their needs and gave them strategies that they could use immediately in their classroom. Collaboration continues to be a um key focus and something that is one of our highest rated components of PD. PD day 3 has become a highlight amongst all of our staff. We will continue this year um the way we structured our last couple of years for PD day 3. We're gonna bring all of our high schools together to one building. We'll bring all of our middle schools together to one building. And then instead of bringing our elementaryaries to four separate buildings, we're going to shake things up and we're going to go big and we're going to bring all 17 elementaryaries to Orange High School this year for one big celebration event. And we're
048super excited about that one. So to kind of wrap this up, we are aligning as a district around a common focus while giving each building the space to to bring that focus to life in ways that are meaningful for them. You heard tonight from each member of the curriculum and innovation team about important elements that are happening throughout the district. By giving them the frame of assessment and resilience, but then allowing them to customize it and put that picture inside the frame, we allow them to pull in those focuses that you heard about tonight. And it's not just something extra that we're adding to the building principles and the teachers plate when it comes to professional learning. It's meaningful to them. And that's what makes, I believe, our success the way it is. Um, we're
049excited about this year's work and confident in the direction that we're heading and we're grateful for the support that allows us to continue strengthening teaching and learning here in Tangi. So, I'll welcome any questions that you have for myself or anyone else on the team. >> Any questions? >> I'm looking at you first. >> Go for it. >> Mine's quick. >> Yeah. Just most of the PD is provided by outside experts flown in from around the world put up at luxury hotels. Who who mostly provides this PD? >> No, it is not. It is provided by Mr. Tilio, Dr. Sanders, Mrs. Schultz, um Mr. Schae, and myself. Um as well as other members of the curriculum and innovation team. We actually were just meeting Dr. Sanders, Mr. Schaefe and I were just meeting yesterday uh
050finalizing. We have PD planning meetings when we come back with all the building principles and the building leadership teams um after Labor Day. And so we were just meeting yesterday as we finalize we create all of our content. Everything that gets um handed out and and delivered to the buildings is comes from in-house >> and that's one of the things that Sorry I cut you off. I'm sorry. >> And the other piece too is our instructional coaches, department chairs. We have classroom teachers. So it really becomes really a unified um professional development experience. >> That's one of the things that helps us keep a below average cost per pupil is that we don't spend money. We have our own experts >> um within our district. So thank you for doing that. >> Yeah. So for
051example, the math coaches this past year spent the whole first year of the pilot. We did have math learning center train all of our teachers initially in that pilot and then they spent the year prepping and planning for professional development that will be ongoing for any new teacher that will join our district. They will get professional development from our math specialists and then as well as continued education for our teachers like we shared you know with Erikica Boon and the work that she's doing with our gifted specialists too >> and nobody knows our people like our own people. It's hard to bring someone out and and customize it that way and it's very expensive. So thank you for focusing on that. Um not a question just a quick comment. Um for everybody in this room
052or anybody listening or watching uh remotely I think it's imperative that everybody in this space be talking about bridge as I mean everything this phenomenal presentation overall but I was recently I'll I'll tell in a bridge version of my story. That's what I did there. Um, >> oh no. >> I was recently uh in a space with maybe 60 plus uh elected officials um and business owners uh from from around from around Delaware County and I was sitting quietly hearing stories of the, you know, workforce readiness and the workforce development and someone said, uh, no offense educators, but but educators are afraid of business people. And I was sitting there listening to all this and I I was able to have a little I talked to about this little mic drop moment where I got
053to brag on our district and what we do that it is an anomaly and this is not what is to be expect. You can't look across the state and see other districts doing what we're doing here and that it it is an early start for our kiddos getting to see these uh career pathways in middle school and and beyond. And uh and the question was then posed after I said what I had to say. Um as the person looked around the room and said, "How many of you, you know, all of you Delaware County residents, how many of you are aware of of this bridge ad that Tangi is doing?" And these people all like shook their heads no. They had no idea. And this is something that's important whether you have kids in the
054district or not because if you're running your business in Delaware County, if you're running your your business within the entangi local school district, it's you need to know about what's what we're doing here. So, thank you so much. Um, so we we're not afraid of business people. We have an assistant director of strategic partnerships. We like business people. >> Well, thank you for that. >> We also we had um members of our team at every high school last night for curriculum nights. We had also um bridgeed materials at all the middle schools to try to spread that word. And you wouldn't believe the traffic um that we each got at all of our tables from the team members that were there at the high school curriculum nights. It was um a lot of really parents
055felt really refreshed too. I had a parent come. He was waiting for me at the table after I had spoke at one of the student uh student meetings and said this is a breath of fresh air and spoke a little bit about his journey and what his experience has been and his excitement for the event. So, thank you to Molly who has been working tirelessly to make that event so exciting. We're going to have robots. We're going to have like imaging equipment. >> It's going to be fun. >> It's going to be hard to work in because I'm going to want to be experiencing it all. So, >> Thank you very much. >> Any other questions? So, um, we get this question sometimes from people like, well, well, what what is the district doing for
056people that don't have kids in school? Um, what is it that that we are offering? And, and I think this is reflecting what we're do. We're not just helping students learn. We're helping to build the community, right? We are taking the lessons um, and then applying them in ways that we get people that are excited about education. excited about learning that are able to um to weather challenges and to succeed and to make those next leaps that are going to make this community great, right? It it all starts now. And all of this is happening not at with super expensive consultants or anything, right? It is all happening in a way that is organic and thoughtful and tailored to the needs and it's what is going to propel this community forward for the next decade,
05750 years, 100 years. I'm sure we'll still be adding 500 new students each of those, you know, those are periods. But but people aren't just coming here because we have great fast food restaurants or or anything. They're coming here because they're seeing this sort of thing, right? It this is it. It doesn't matter whether you have students in school, you are going to benefit from what we are talking about here. Not just the bridgette stuff, but the way that the the leaders of tomorrow um are are um are being trained to be thoughtful and you know curious and kind and resilient and purposeful. Um the the other thing I wanted to just comment on briefly is the the confidence boosting aspect of this. I think it's very easy in a district like ours where people
058have very high achievement to feel like if you don't do well one year you are falling behind and it impacts your mental health it impacts your your ability to see yourself as successful. Um, so when we when we focus on these confidence boosting things, when we focus on tying it into resilience and all of that stuff, we are not just um, you know, helping students achieve, we are helping them um, see a future for themselves, right? Um, that's extraordinarily important. So I I appreciate that that focus and the importance of it to to everything we do. >> Thank you. >> U, good. Any other questions? Okay. Um, great. All right. Well, we will move right into the wellness department update. So, uh, Dr. Barren and Dr. Branson, Miss Norman, and Mr. Stern. >> Thank you.
059Good evening. Thank you for having us. We're excited to share our updates and some successes with you this evening. So, just a brief overview of what we're going to discuss with you tonight. We're going to start with talking about some of the restructuring that we had um from the department this past spring um and what it means for the scope of the work that we're doing. Um next we're going to talk about the strategic plan and how our department supports that. Um then we're going to go over some outcomes and the impact that our programs have and then some some successes that we've had throughout the past year. And then finally we're going to leave you with our strategic direction. So, if you remember last spring, we did have some re restructuring in the district.
060Um, my department was part of that. So, we went from the department of student well-being to the department of wellness, which might just seem like some rhetoric or some change of uh nomenclature, but really is more of looking at a better encompassing of what our department does. Um, we wanted to really take a better picture of all of the different things that the department was doing. Um, we wanted to look at all of the the shift from curriculum to human resources in helping our students and our staff and making sure that um with taking over um with moving student and staff experience um under our umbrella as well that we're supporting both um our students and our staff and making sure that we are supporting all of the wellness because our students cannot learn if
061our staff are also not supported. So with wellness and student and staff experience, the scope of our work is really about alleviating non-academic barriers in order to facilitate the maximum learning. We do this in a lot of different ways. With wellness, we collaborate really with all departments across the district. In wellness, we support students and staff physical, emotional, environmental, social, and intellectual well-being. And in student and staff experience, we ensure that students and staff have a safe, caring, and nurturing environment where they know they belong and they can flourish. We offer universal supports and programming for all students, but also individualized and more intensive supports for those who need it. We understand that students and staff can only be their best selves when their basic needs are met and our department supports those needs and
062it's the core of our being. We wanted to share um some different programs and initiatives through the lens of our strategic plan that we've been doing over the past year. So for our students and our stakeholders, we've really been working on building a sense of belonging and the community building um through our PBIS initiatives as well as our our prevention programming. We also offer individual and group um social emotional support with our um school social workers and our mental health specialists. for internal processes. Um, one of the big initiatives that we have this year is working with the Jed Foundation and the American Superintendent Association District Mental Health Initiative. Um, with that program, we are going to be collecting data through our principles, um, our staff and our students to get a better idea and
063picture of what our district really thinks about mental health access, um, supports and services and then come up with maybe some closing the gap measures that our department might have. Um, as I've talked before, we have our certification which we are continuing and then we're currently working on our national accreditation through the Council on Accreditation which will continue furthering our um movement towards building in um not only just making sure we are doing our mental health services appropriately, having appropriate staffing, um appropriate documentation, but also looking at moving into resource stewardship. Are there more grants that we can be looking at? Are there ways we could move into um potential billing um opportunities for other funding sources and things like that? Um with resource resource stewardship, um we're looking at our community partnerships. Um one
064of those being grants with our Delaware Moral Mental Health um board, but also utilizing our partnerships with Healthline for prevention education. That way we are getting free prevention education, not having to fund those um through different when we have those uh unfunded unfunded mandates uh such as House Bill 123 and things like that where we have to put certain uh education components in but they're not giving us any funds to uh put those curriculums in place. It's wonderful to have partners like Helpline who help put those in. Um also we transitioned um from outside agencies uh contracts to district hiring which did save us a substantial amount of money for learning and organiza organizational development. Um we are setting the standard for mental health care in schools. We've made a huge impact both in the
065state as well as nationally. I've spoken to um people throughout Ohio and then in different places in the state talking about how are we doing this? What does it look like? um and other districts and um both in Ohio and elsewhere are getting on board and doing the same kind of thing, which is very exciting to kind of be a leader in that um with professional development, not only with our mental health staff, but also helping our teachers um learn more about mental health and giving them tools for their toolbox to be able to support their students. And then fostering leadership development um again with our uh mental health staff so that they can be leaders in their buildings. um but also for our administrators so that they are building their MTSS and PBIS uh
066models in their building as well. And with that, I'm going to pass it on to Samantha Norman to share more about our outcome measures. >> I'm clicking and it's not going. [Laughter] I broke it. >> Oh, >> I broke the whole computer >> from across the room, which is very impressive, too. >> There we go. >> Do you want me to click it? >> Yeah. >> Yep, it's working. Hi everyone, I'm Samantha. I'm going to talk with you a little bit about some of the data that we got to collect this year. Uh the two measures that I want to chat about today are effectiveness and satisfaction. We have to collect data for ours certification, but also the data that we collect then informs our programs. It keeps us accountable. It makes sure that our
067services are doing what we want them to do, which is improving our students functioning and allowing them to learn. So our first measure is effectiveness. Uh we started data collection for this last year and we started with selecting a tool. The tool that we selected is the pediatric symptom checklist. This is an overall functioning measure that parents can fill out and then students if they're over the age of 11 can also give a self-report. So once parents have consented to work with our providers, so either a school social worker or a mental health specialist, we provide them with the pediatric symptom checklist to gather a baseline measure of kind of where their students at, how are they doing, what issues are they facing and then periodically we are going to take this measure again so
068that we can see how students are doing. Uh we are going to measure it quarterly. So we started this at the end of second quarter last year, so January and then we took it again quarter 3 and then quarter 4. So the data I have for you is showing a comparison between that first measure in January and the last measure that we took at the end of the school year in May. In the pediatric symptom checklist, a higher number indicates more concerns with functioning. So we are able to see from our quarter two to quarter four that that number decreased which shows an improvement in functioning and that's on both the student self-report and the parent report. Uh so overall we were really excited to see that. We're going to continue to use that measure
069so that we're able to track that moving forward from school year to school year. The other measure that we're looking at is satisfaction on services. So, everyone that's in services with a school social worker or a mental health specialist is offered the opportunity to fill out a satisfaction survey. We provide that to parents and then for our middle and high school students, we allow them to report back on their experience as well. That satisfaction survey is looking at a number of things. uh overall satisfaction with service, how supportive the staff member was, how involved they felt in their goal setting, uh student functioning for their self-report is on there as well. So overall, nearly every response we got on that satisfaction survey at the end of the school year was either an agree or a
070strongly agree, which are positive measures. Uh they also have the opportunity at the end of that survey to do a free response to give us direct feedback. So, I've included a few quotes from there that I pulled out uh that I just think really reflect the great work that's happening and how that's impacting our students in a really positive manner and allowing them to flourish in the environments that they are in. Thank you. I will toss it over to Mr. Peter Stern. >> You have to >> I know. I'm just I was pretty excited about it. Thanks. I'm excited to be here. Um we have our new role of student and staff experience and the first thing I want to highlight is the most important word in that which is student. Um so we're looking
071at a little bit of feedback from our climate and culture surveys uh particularly from the students. Um Nancy Freeze does a nice job of making me focus on the import the good stuff too. As a former principal I immediately go to what's not the best part. Um so I put up here the highlights of things that are doing well. So we do have students that feel challenged. They feel like they belong. Um their classmates feel them make them feel welcome. Um, so I did mention those, but I also want to focus a little bit on what we have to improve upon, too. So, some of the things that we saw was actually kind of exciting because it's a lot of things we've piloted or I didn't know that you all were going to be here.
072So, some of the work that you all talked about um with curriculum and innovation is literally what they're asking for. So, it's great. Um, I'll highlight the first one was expand interest driven opportunities. Um, so we're looking at for students. So, we're looking at, hey, how can we as a team we're going to do a census of clubs and opportunities within each school to say, hey, what opportunities exist for kids? Are there things happening in some schools that aren't in others that we could expand um to make sure that we're meeting those needs of those students? Um amplify student voice and choice is one thing and enhance real world experiences. And um I was going to give a plug to Molly Preston and Bridge, but that kind of already happened. Um but having experienced um
073you know that career exploration at Berlin last year, I was lucky enough to get to to walk through that with some students. it really was exactly what some of the students had said um just in the numbers but also in their narratives that that's the experiences that they're looking for is to connect to those real worlds. So as we do expand those we're luckily already sort of tackling one of the major things that we saw um that students were asking for. Um and sort of the last thing that we saw was they really are looking at some of their mental health and how can we expand um services or look at um conflict resolution for students is reduce stress um how can they access some of the things that are already available. So, we're looking
074at tools that we already have. Um, we're looking at school links. How can we utilize that system to say, "Hey, we have this stuff in place. How can we nudge them or say where these are things that already exist, these are the ways you can access them." Um, for conflict resolution, we already were looking at a pilot, Dr. Davico, at no at no cost to the district. Um, we were able to train some students from um, uh, Berlin High School as a pilot to say, "Hey, how can they work as like a peer mediator and work through some of the stuff as a tier one level before it gets to something bigger?" So, we're really excited about those type of things. Um and yeah and also continue with the agency grant which um and agency
075work that Vince Statatilio has started. So we're really excited about those and again there's a lot to celebrate but the exciting part is the things that students have asked for. A lot of those are already in the works or we've piloted in some buildings. So we're pretty excited about that. Um as far as performance outcomes um as a district one of our values is we can always get better. Um so that's something we'll continue to take data for and try to do um as a team as the whole wellness team. Um you know we've started collecting some outcomes. Our goal is continue to evaluate our effectiveness in order to tie back to academic outcomes. Um for wellness, we're going to look at further effectiveness such as percentage of students who meet their goals or graduate
076from the services that are being offered. Um for student staff experience, we'll look at enrollment and academic programming, access to clubs, discipline, conflict resolution, effectiveness, and these outcomes are going to continue to drive our work. Um we're going to try to continue to align them to our strategic plan and determine what programming our students want and need. Um, and again, we're looking at how we can help every single student and our staff and be the best district we always can be. >> I was going to pass it to Dr. Katherine Branson, but she stepped out for a moment. >> All right. >> Can I ask a question about this slide? >> Yeah. >> So, when you look at student and staff experience and and Mr. Lester, you can gavvel me out if I'm not allowed
077to ask this, >> but >> just go ahead. Just >> and I'm sure this is not a legally allowable question. Um because I'm going to ask you to to make some guesses here. If you added at each high school another five or 600 kids per building in the future, or if you eliminated Berlin's physical structure and reallocated those children, 600 700 per each building, would you expect the um opportunities that you list here and the the feedback that you get, would that change or is that just held constant? So we could put 10,000 kids in a high school and we'd still get the same good culture climate numbers. >> You know, I think one of the best things about Olan Tangent, I think everyone says is we do a good job of making a big
078community feel small. Um, but there are limits to that. So if you know the population within buildings is tough, some of it's just size, physical size. Um, and I think that one of the great things our principles do is create those relationships, create those communities and cultures and and there is a limit. You know, I've been going back to my principal days. principal of a building as small as 300, as big as I don't even remember how big Johnny Cake was when I was there, but it was around 700. Um, and and it is different and I think part of what is unique and even though we do have large high schools, it would be hard to have that same personal touch, um, the same great culture and the individualness that each school has in
079a larger in larger buildings. >> So, the entangi experience would be negatively impacted if we had schools that continue to be overcrowded in years to come. >> I think it would continue to be a challenge. I think we're always up for challenges, but that would definitely be a challenge for us. Yeah, >> very diplomatic. >> I appreciate that effort because a lot of people ask, you know, we asked Mr. Meyer, we're like, "Well, wait a minute. Why didn't the world come crashing down when we didn't start the buildings?" That's because they're hard at work making whatever they have available work for them. So, it's not that the bad things didn't happen, it's that we have professionals that are at the top of their game. I I forget what re resource came out today. four high
080schools in the top whatever of the state of Ohio and and the planet. >> I'm gonna talk about it tonight. >> All right. Sorry to steal your thunder. >> You were leading the witness, but I'll allow it. >> Thank you, Mr. Lester. >> Okay. >> All right. So, just to highlight a few of our successes um from the last year. So, this past summer was the first year that we did our own in-house social uh emotional summer prevention programming. Um, and so our in-house school um um mental health specialists did that. We actually had such an overwhelming response that we had to turn off the um the um the form for people to sign up because we had so many parents signing their kids up for the groups that um we got a little overwhelmed
081and we were going to have too many kids for the groups. um which was a great thing to have, but it gave us some feedback for next year for our planning purposes. Um but we did groups for emotional regulation, coping skills. Um we did a couple um like middle school, just like a visiting the middle school, preparing yourself for middle school groups. Um it was really fun. Um we had representation for 12 of the uh elementary schools. Um and all of the middle schools were represented. Um, so that was a really fun program and we're excited to continue to build then that um for next summer and now that we've moved our high school um mental health specialist in-house, we're going to be able to move some high school programming for next year as well.
082Um, our OSU Coach Beyond was another really big success. We did that with Dublin and we had 75 kids participate in that. Um it is a leadership program for our um athletes. Um really building on athletic mental health and making sure that our uh student athletes and our coaches know what to look for um and help their peer athletes um in that. And so that was a really big success and we're going to be doing that again next year as well. We're really proud of our comprehensive prevention education programming um our suicide prevention in compliance with House Bill 123. Um we do uh some of it again like I had mentioned earlier with helpline um with the signs of suicide program. Um but with the compliance with house bill 123 we had to uh increase
083that programming. Helpline has to do that for both Delaware and Mororrow counties all school districts. And with us being the largest um it's really difficult for them to have to then do grades 6 through 12 in every school district for both counties. Um and so we said, "Don't worry, we have wonderful staff here, so we will take some of that off of your plate." So our wonderful social workers and mental health specialists actually do the um signs of suicide refresher for um well, we do say something for the sixth graders and then for grades 8, 10, 11, and 12. They do the refresher program. So we do that all inhouse. Again, saving um funds for the district. Um we are able to uh mark yes on our report card for our PBIS in all of
084our schools which is an awesome success we have for that. We did our intervention aid training um with the student and staff experience folks um where they were able to provide great deescalation and um resiliency strategies for um those staff to be able to work with some of our students who have some more challenging behaviors. And then we really pride ourselves in continuing to build a um supporting a community of learners with our one community um and then our parent education programs as well. So that's just a few of our successes that we've had over the past year. So then looking forward to our strategic direction, um we really want to continue growing our tier one supports along al aligned with our um MTSS um working with our curriculum team building in both that academic
085and social emotional support in all of our buildings. We're really excited about continuing our program with JED and ASSA to collect that data and build that strategic plan. that is a two-year program. So, we're sort of in the not quite middle of year one yet. So, we're still kind of in the beginning stages of that. Um through our um mental health board committee, we're going to be starting to look at specific populations for more targeted support and then obviously continuing to collect some more data uh to um for our tier 2 and tier three supports to make sure that the programming that we have is effective. and then continue to collaborate and continue to to support our students and staff experience. So with that, I will take any questions you might have. >> So I'll
086note um so um we also and we we have this on the agenda later to approve new members of the mental health committee. Yes. >> Um we so that's a committee that we started three years ago or so um to really try to be very thoughtful from a community perspective about the work that we did. Um we've had a few members just cycle off as happens with a big committee, but we had what a couple hundred people trying to apply to get on that committee this time. It was a large group. >> Yes. I think we had even more this time than than last. Last was like 181. I think it was maybe over 200. >> Yeah. So when we what what's really um the message that I get from that and from people overwhelming
087our system, you know, signing up for this um mental health is something that's very hard for people to talk about. And as we're going out here and we're showing not just the importance of it, but how um how you all the different ways that it impacts everything and all the different aspects of it. We're creating a community that's more comfortable talking about it, more comfortable volunteering, more comfortable, you know, bringing these ideas into everything that we do. That's really a testament to the work that you that you all do and everything. And I want to steal something that Molly said from the other thing, which is a lot of this can sometimes feel a little jargony, right? There's a lot of stuff here, right? There's a lot of things that we're doing. When you take
088it down to the individual level and the individual impacts that you see, those one or two cases, it is transformative. I have had parents call uh call me. I had one just a couple months ago um of a student that had been bullied that Peter had reached out proactively to this family to think about ways to, you know, to address situations more broadly. and they were so unbelievably appreciative of the thoughtfulness and care. Um, they just couldn't get over it. I mean, they had nothing but but good things to say. That is happening on a daily basis. Not the bullying word we're but the the level of intentionality and thoughtfulness that goes into um supporting mental health and getting the community to understand the importance. Um, that's why the work that you all do is
089just it's phenomenal. Right. And again, this is another area where we have this in-house expertise where we're actually saving money based on what we were doing before by by bringing this in and we're transforming the way that the community thinks about these issues. That's that is a big deal. If I'm to steal a phrase from Dr. Dav, that's a big deal, right? It's a big deal. So, um, thank you all for that that work. It's really amazing. >> Um, I just wanted to know also on the climate and culture surveys and the things that students were asking for. I I do see on a building level from a parents perspective that that stuff is coming into the individual classrooms. I was also at curriculum night last night at Olangi High School. Uh my daughter's physical
090science teacher understands and was explaining to us as the parents that you know a lot of kids one don't like getting talked out for 45 minutes and two like have different ways of expressing that they understand content. So she gives them something called voice and choice where at the end of um the quarter or the the subject matter they have the ability to demonstrate their knowledge in a variety of ways whether it's taking a traditional test creating their own test drawing a comic with some explanations as to things. So just really speaking to each individual students interest um I know my daughter is a big drawer and comic person. So, um, you know, I I once she said that, I said, "Oh, that's what she's going to be doing every single test, I'm sure." Um,
091and so just I I the things that we talk about on a district level do come into the classrooms and we're seeing it being um expressed by the teachers and there's so much buy in and she was so excited. Um, and the parents all were, I think, very impressed by the ability to reach in each individual student in the way that they learn and express themselves best. So, um, that along with all the hard work that Miss Preston is doing, you know, I'm really, um, impressed and commend all of you for the hard work you do. >> All right. Great. Thank you. All right, Mr. Meyer. We always do all these right before you get up there, so I'm sorry. It's setting the bar high. that that you know that was a little those were
092a little longer presentations but extremely important because um again when I came into the district we were a little over 13,000 students so right now we're 24,500 and growing again and growing again because what happens is we grow throughout the summer when school starts the first week we'll drop off a little bit and then we get to a point and that point was yesterday that we start to grow again and we'll continue to grow throughout the um >> like a ticker on the wall. It's just surreal times. >> So that's what happens here. But um you know when you you put things into perspective, right? Um so perspective is everything. So when I came to the district 13,000 now more than 10,000 over 24,000 so what's that 11,000 plus students, right? since 2008. And and
093just if you think about it, the the work that we do in the district and the product that we produce in many ways year over year over year over year does not happen by accident. Um we are so intentional about uh the level of um care that we provide for uh students. Number one, and this starts at preschool, by the way, and I was uh I'm torn all the schools. So, I was at um W dot run preschool this morning and it's unbelievable the level of care that our adults show for our preschoolers as they come into school, right? And they they're acclimating our all of our preschoolers to a new environment this year. Um so that's number one, the level of care, but then the alignment that we have in the district and we're
094large 28 buildings. So, we talked about down to the individual student. A couple of board members mentioned that tonight, but um the alignment that we have and how intentional we are prek through 12 horizontal across grade level and vertical through our district. And that's an example that Miss Ryber just uh mentioned. >> We didn't plan this, by the way. >> What's that? >> We didn't plan this. >> We didn't. But you know in it it's alive here because it goes to the individual class the classroom level to the individual students. Um and it's it's so important um that we do that because again at the end of the day that's why we're here for our our students and we want them to have the best student experience they can prek through 12 in this district.
095Um, so you know, as superintendent, obviously, it's just wow. I'm extremely uh proud of the work that the team does. Um, so tonight you heard from uh the curriculum and innovation team and the wellness department and we've done some restructuring again to provide we hope better support um for kids in the organization. So, thank you. uh well done and um just you know extremely uh proud uh of the work that we do in this district. All right, so with that uh a few highlights and I'm just going to really highlight the um you know my f one of my favorite parts of the year, the the start of school, but um this uh was again collab in collaboration with United Way of Delaware County with our uh wellness department and our school social workers. uh
096we were able to provide supplies um space here for uh families to pick up school supplies to start school. Um so over 400 Delaware County students were served uh here in this room where families got to come pick up um school supplies to make sure that they had the equipment and supplies that they needed to start school. So, um, again, I don't know how many years we've been doing that, but it's a great partnership that we have and and service that that we provide. Uh, Mr. Lester talked about here's convocation. So, these, uh, are just pictures from convocation. Again, we were able to welcome now over 3,000 staff members in one day at Berlin High School. and and we're so large so we have to uh do it in uh three different sessions but um
097you can see a picture of the partner expo too. So we talk about partnering with uh the community and school. So, we had close to hundred um uh vendors at um Berlin High School that day. And you can see some of the pictures from uh the first time ever. Obviously, uh coming into the school um we had Berlin uh marching band which uh rocked the the auditorium out that morning. The first ever mascot parade. So, you can see mascots uh there. And um staff members and Mr. Lester mentioned our guest speaker uh for the day, Ross Bernstein. So, just a just a really good day to continue to build on the momentum um in the district leading into the uh school year. Would like to highlight uh one thing that we do every year at
098convocation is um we recognize our staff members of the month. So, the certified employee of the year, second grade teacher, Lauren Wilson from Fre Freedom Trail Elementary. um our classified employee of the year, Chelsea Judge from the human resources uh department and our administrator and this is the first time ever administrative uh administrator of the year um Susan Wilson who is now retired principal Wilson um from Heritage Elementary. So wanted to recognize uh those outstanding educators and staff members. Um also uh as um we got through convocation then the start of school. So believe it or not everybody's excited to come uh to to start school. Parents are excited. Uh students are excited, staff excited. Um so you can see just uh you know I if I if I had to pick one word from
099my tour the last week. Um, so 28 buildings. We've been in 20 I've been in 26 and district leadership team and curriculum department uh have been in buildings, but I've been in 26 of the 28 and we'll finish the last two um hopefully tomorrow. But if I had to pick one word, right, that just summed up my week, it would be pride. Um because uh staff members are so proud to work here. Uh parents are so proud. Obviously, the reason they moved here because of the school the schools um our students are extremely proud to walk through the doors of whatever school um they attend and it it's just abundantly clear in uh um my visits to the buildings and talking with students and talking with staff and talking with parents uh there you know
100just people love being here in Tangi. So again, um I I will uh give kudos to the board of education because it starts at the top and helping create conditions for people to be successful. So you guys uh all support um what we do in the organization is supporting our staff and of course supporting our students. Um and our bus drivers, they get up early. They're at the bus uh centers uh between 5:30 and 6:00. um and uh they were ready to go um the first day of school and again that's these are just some other pictures of uh uh um time across the district as uh we start school. So Dr. Dabrico started to mention this but some more good news for um Tangi and our four high schools. So the US News World
101rankings came out I think it was last week or maybe two weeks ago. Uh so again uh proud that all four of our high schools uh are in the top 5% in the state and in the country um in these rankings. So and and one thing I say about and again this is one data data point we've we've talked about a lot of um uh things that impact the environment and the student experience uh tonight. So this is another data point but um so the US News World Report and uh just want to read so they rank schools um on a combination of weighted factors including college readiness, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, underserved student population, college curriculum breath um and graduation rates. And the breath is important too because it it
102just we we talk a lot about opportunities and student experience and we have students who are interested in a lot of different things but the breadth of what we offer what we're able to offer because the community has supported that um in our schools is is really unmatched. So congratulations to our four high schools but also congratulations to all schools because I say this all the time. our our lower levels from preschool to elementary to middle school help prepare our kids for the next level. Um so our kids always come uh prepared and it's no exception in the high school and then obviously our high school staff does a great job of uh um uh finishing the journey here in Tangi schools with our students. Uh one thing we want to update the board because
103you guys will vote on um the uh personal communications policy tonight. So, Miss Janei is going to give you an update. Um, our uh uh our school leadership team has been really working with our schools on implementation of this new law um and our compliance as a district. So, there you go. >> I'm a little bit shorter than everybody else. Go ahead and put that down. Feel like I need a little box here like Pat Sjack had a wheel of fortune, right? Um so, it's really interesting that Mr. Meer shared one word because one word that comes to mind and we've talked a lot about one words actually is um we also had the opportunity to get through all the schools. So in five days I call it the world tour everyone tangi and we
104got into all the buildings and the word that came to mind for me was joy and it was profound joy everywhere you went and you know I had a little worry this is my first time out of a building and opening in the building or on the opening day. Um but I got to experience that times 27 buildings and then plus 28 in Oasis and Tangi Academy. It was just outstanding. And joy comes to mind because when we talk about um the cell phone policy, we didn't lose the joy. So when kids were in the hallways, when kids were in different places, they didn't lose their joy. And so when I talk about this little bit and what we have in there, I think that's important message to share because we all have our anxiety,
105our worries about it, and where we were going with things. But at the end of the day during the school day learning was happening and joy was still happening. So when we talk about that yeah we had what I would call cohorts. We had our high school cohort uh middle school core and then elementary all the principles where we became together with a cohesive and consistent guidelines and then progressive discipline. And as you can imagine that sometimes can be challenging but it really wasn't challenging for this group. I mean, even when I think about elementary, there 17 administrators coming together to establish that. So, they worked hard, they worked diligently with us and our leadership team as we came together and every single building had a voice as this was developed. Um, through that, you
106know, when you have when you have those things, I won't say that there aren't any challenges. Um, the first couple weeks we are on that remind and reward, remind and reward, you know, and reward isn't like token economy or anything like that. It's just recognizing that students are making the right choices. Um if they are using their cell phone for instructional purposes that they are caught using it for instructional purposes. So that's that reward. Um do we need to work on some more consistency as far as reminders? Yes, and we will get there. Um and but what I what I want to say is it's stronger than what we anticipated and I think that that's pretty good and that will continue to grow and get better. I think the other thing that is important to
107recognize is that um Tanger's on the forefront of getting this out and getting ahead of it so that we can overcome the barriers that might be there for us before that January 1st date. Um so I think that was a great decision by the board and by Superintendent Meyer as we went on that. Um, and the last thing that I want you to know is that this communication has been shared out with parents. And so that's been a consistent message and even the formatting of what we've had at each level has been consistent if you have children across all grade levels. Um, and then just to end with joy because I think that's important as we are talking through this. So, um, I reached out to principles after the first day of school and I
108either wanted them to share a shiny moment with me or a funny story, especially our new administrators to the building. And um I'm going to read the exact quote for you because I think that's important for you to have that shining moment was watching my eighth graders play card games in lunch instead of being on their phones. So I think that that's important that um you know as we were worried and anxious and um wondering what how things were going to go, it's feeling pretty good. I always talk a lot about the 95% rule. 95% of what we do is positive, 5% is negative. And that sometimes is just the loudest. And so I think it's important to celebrate those positives from that. >> I have to tell you, I I told Mr. Meyer this,
109but I my daughters are elementary age and they have little Gizmo watches and they were getting ready to go to school. I said, "Hey, your watches, you you know, they charge. You have them with you." And my my 11year-olds, my fifth graders said, "We're not allowed to wear them to school anymore." And I said, "Yeah, I know, but like can you take it with you? Keep it in your backpack for like after school. It just it makes me feel better just knowing you have it." She says, "We're not allowed to use them." I said, "I know I'm going to be the one voting on it. Thank you for schooling me, fifth grader." But but anyway, so it's it's it's taking root, >> right? And some of that was even in our messaging specifically in elementary,
110right? Because you have a lot of walkers and so parents do want to know and it brings them a sense of comfort. So students can wear their watch on the way to school, put it in their book bag, and then wear on the way home from school. So there there's definitely things that we're putting in place to make it more effective and more comforting for our community. Just if we could very in all seriousness just talk about some of the implementation. Were there any uh medical emergencies from students not having access during study halls and lunches? Anybody have adverse physical effects from not using the phone? >> No, not at this time. But we do have plans and implementations in in the need if there's procedures to follow if a student does need their phone
111or device for medical. There are exceptions. >> There are exceptions. >> And this is the only comment I I got from the first day when I asked um our youngest student in our home. I said, "How did that work out? Were you able to go up and make friends with people that maybe you would otherwise be talking on the phone or messing or whatever they do on them?" And she said, "Dad, this isn't the 80s. We don't just walk up and talk to people." And I said, "Well, yes, you do. go walk up and talk to somebody and make a conversation. And she seriously said that. And um the point is, I appreciate your focus on growth. Like we're going to figure this out together. The the goal is let's start this at the beginning,
112not at January. I don't know who at the state house thought it would be a good idea to implement a rule. It wasn't an educator because you don't start rules in January. And and we'll get through this and and with feedback from parents and and and staff. Um, last thing, Mr. Lester, you can jump in on this as well. We talked to four students and um, the overwhelming comment from them was, "I wish you people would take the blame for this because our our our administrators or our principles keep saying it's not their fault. So, we hereby do solemnly take credit for this policy because that's something board members do." And I think we'll be better for it. I you you talk to the same young folks that I did. >> Yeah. I I mean
113it is a different time and people are more um they have I think stronger uh I don't know if addiction is the right word but they they have a stronger compulsion toward their phone and um it you know I think we have the same thing. There are times where I'm answering work emails till late and I got to set it aside and say no wait a second right I have to engage. I think we will be better for it ultimately. Um it is it is still a level of trying to make sure we're doing it the right way. Right. And I appreciate the sort of thoughtfulness around how we're reminding people how we're engaging with that how how we're doing it because the goal of all this is not to punish people. It's just to
114try to find a positive pathway forward. So we we'll get there and I think they'll eventually you know the 80s are back a little bit so it's it's good. Maybe they'll maybe that'll start to >> 90s in there. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Um I know often in the second reading of these um proposed board policies there's some feedback or comments. Um is there anything that you wanted to share on that? I know that this particular policy is pretty prescriptive based on the statute. So there's not a whole lot of wiggle room. um we have made some choices with regards to like after school activities and things like that that um was a specific choice but um anything else that that you wanted to share from I think we had we saw the comments on Instagram
115I'll say that but >> I don't know about official feedback on the policy itself. Yeah, we haven't, to be honest, haven't had a lot come our way and I think it's because of our roll out and we were intentional of the partnership to create that together. Um, I think we've given the language to principles to use and being open-minded and understanding and caring and so I think we've been able to navigate it that way. >> Great. Great. >> Thank you. Maybe someone raising their hand in the back. >> And again, just uh >> tell them to do public. >> Just another example, our school leadership team just collaborating with the buildings um and uh how we're implementing and rolling out. So, uh thank you for your work on that. Appreciate that. And oh, by the
116way, I love the 80s. Uh superintendent action items. Uh pretty straightforward tonight. Um human resource certified and classified uh staff items. We do h I am recommending renewing the uh contract with the Delaware County Sheriff's Office for Office for School Resource Officers um for a three-year uh term. So uh this year 25 26 26 27 and 2728 and then um just one business management facilities item uh declare transportation as impractical for students listed in the uh exhibit. And then >> before you go on, can I ask a question about that agreement? >> Sure. >> Um, is that something we pay for ourselves? Is that 100% borne by our taxpayers of our school district or how does that work out? >> It's a partnership with the Delaware County Sheriff's Office 50%. So they pay 50%, we
117pay 50%. >> That's half. That's right. >> Wait a second. [Laughter] >> All right. Uh, important dates. Labor Day. No school. Monday, September 1st. I I on my building visits, too, the most common commonly asked question was when's our first snow day? So, uh that's popular with the kids already. >> Yeah. >> Um >> parent technology support night, Tuesday, September uh 2nd at Orange High School. Uh first professional development day uh is Monday, September 15th. Uh Bridging the Future as advertised tonight uh Thursday, September 18th at Tangi High School. uh legends of Vol and Tangi award ceremony. So um the uh we do have award um winners there. So that'll be Friday, September 19th uh 5:30 to 6:30 at Tangi High School. And then our next board meeting uh regular meeting Thursday, September 11th, 6:30
118right here. Okay. >> All right. Any other comments? >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Meyer. Mr. Jenkins. [Music] I know how to work this thing. >> It's not from the 80s. >> Wow. >> He's from the 70s. >> Good evening, board members. um wanted to briefly talk about a couple of the things that are going on uh in the Treasury world and it is with respect to a uh recent refunding that we did and part of the refunding involves a rating review by standard and pores. Uh that would have happened on Monday, August 4th and I'm very pleased to say the district has continued its AAA rating uh with standard and pores. Uh if you think about uh in terms of a private individual that AAA rating is equivalent to your FICO or beacon score
119um everyone knows that the higher your FICO or beacon score is the better rates that you can get from banks uh for borrowing and interest rates. I believe uh you know scores of 7 to 800 or higher are considered very very good. Well AAA is considered uh the top of the heap. It doesn't get any better when it comes to S&P. Some of the comments from the report uh mentioned that uh the rating was appropriate because of a thorough and experienced management team, our positive uh financial results the last four years, robust tax base. Um some metrics that measured for the county uh a county per capita uh personal income that is actually 133.4% 4% of the US average for a county. Uh and then a gross county product which is if you think about
120gross domestic product uh which is the total value of goods and services produced domestically. This would be total value of goods and services produced in Delaware County uh compared to the uh average county. Uh in the United States of America uh we're at 94.4% 4% of that if you break it down on a perperson basis. So pretty incredible uh data here that shows the resilience of our economy uh of of how wonderful a community Delaware County um and Tangi schools and certainly the last point is the continuously growing um assessed valuation of our district. >> Questions about any of the items on this slide? And some of this is not in our control, right? The the county income, that sort of thing. Some of this is very much within our control. Correct. Right. If we
121if we were just going around uh you know, not knowing what we're doing, it would very much impact our rating. So the stability, the thoughtfulness, um you know, the the extraordinary hard work that you know, your office does, Mr. Meyer and team does, it has a very real impact on what we're able to do for the community. We're saving money by being good at what we're doing, right? >> Correct. The first two bullet points really address a lot of what we try to do as an organization. Uh the last three bullet points are more a reflection of the high quality of the community that we all live in, >> right? It just speaks to the importance of um you know, I think sometimes you you look at a district like this and they go, "Well,
122anybody could do this, right?" And it's absolutely not the case. basement is a extraordinarily complex operation and the amount of thoughtfulness and attention to detail. It it's bearing very real results that are that are beneficial for the community. I mean, there's just no doubt about it. >> Y >> Mr. Jenkins, does everyone get that AAA? Is that the participation trophy? Does every school district get a AAA? Does every public entity get a AAA just because they showed up with their lollipop? >> No, they don't. In fact, it is. We're going to look at the next slide. It is the highest of the high investment grade um paper that uh any entity gets and it's not just you show up and you check that box and get a AAA rating. >> So Mr. Lester, you mentioned
123things that could change that outside of our control. Conceivably, if the state legislature, and I know this is just a hypothetical, but if they decided to say you can't carry over any money anymore, we're just going to limit it to to a week or two and and would that conceivably impact our credit rating? That is um our perceived ability to meet our financial obligations. >> Yeah. when House Bill um 96 was considering I believe it was uh 5709 I can't remember I had such horrors thinking about it um 5705.3 something regardless one of the things that um that particular piece of legislation would have done was to limit carryover substantially it originally started off at 25% uh that is one of the most delletterious things that could have happened when it comes to the credit
124rating agencies. As you can see, um they have listed as the second bullet point positive financial results. Um they also uh talk about the fact that you know you have direct metrics that talk about your cash reserves as a portion of not only your revenue but your expenses. So absolutely um if there's legislation that would severely limit um the carryover cash for reserves that an entity like Tangi schools or any public entity needs uh in order to be able uh to meet uh emergencies or other types of uh long range planning and initiatives if those were uh to be enacted. Uh we testified, as did a lot of other public entities, that you could end up actually costing taxpayers a lot more uh if their credit ratings for their public entities were to fall. Uh
125which makes then borrowing um selling debt in order to build facilities far more expensive. >> And and this story is not done yet because correct me if I'm wrong, the state legislature has until when to override the veto. So, the House already did uh voted on the veto. Um the Senate hasn't yet. Um one of the things though that is uh informative about this particular veto is the carryover limitation was not one of the three items that the House voted to override the governor on. So, at least for now, um that item is not one, it is an item, it's not one that is officially up for veto. It is an item that is being considered by the property tax um study committee. Um, in fact, I want to say last week one of their
126recommendations I think they had settled on that a school district should have no more than 100% which would be a full year's reserves. >> And how much are we at again? We're at about right now um because we acted not knowing what was going to happen uh with House Bill 96, we're right at 40%. Uh which is pretty much where uh the law ended up. Um and and not knowing whether that provision of law would stay put, uh we acted accordingly. Um it hasn't been. The governor vetoed it. Um, but right now if you looked we're at we're at the 40%. And if someone said, "Well, what were you before you did that?" We would have been uh this year probably just a little above 50%. >> Safe to say if they put that 25%
127in or anything close to that, we're in trouble. >> If they put the 25% in, it will be exceptionally challenging. Uh it'll be exceptionally challenging to plan for the future. Uh, one of the first things that we could see happen is credit rating agencies immediately saying, you know, your cash position, your ability to be flexible, your ability to withstand uh, some of the storms of life, so to speak, um, has been greatly mitigated, and therefore we're going to adjust your credit rating. >> Yep. >> Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. >> So, this slide provides an example. There's actually three different ratings bureaus, S&Ps, Moody's, and Fitch. They all have, just for fun, a slightly different ratings uh scale. S&P goes from AAA, as you can see, all the way to D. Um the investment grade is
128in the shades of green. Then as you start to move down the chart, you get into non-investment grade. Uh those of you who, let's go back to the 80s, you remember junk bonds. Uh that's exactly uh where that comes from is junk bonds. Uh believe it or not, there's a market out there uh for companies and entities uh whose credit ratings are that low. Um I guess it's kind of like uh you know, there's a market for uh everything in a free market economy. Um and you know, we don't want to be down there though. And obviously it's fortuitous through a lot of hard work that we are uh at the top of that scale. So as we noted uh that AAA rating is the highest rating available. Um you know S&P noted that our
129rating is of the highest investment grade and we have an extremely strong capacity to meet financial commitments. You asked Dr. Dabrico about that cash carryover. Part of our ability to have an extremely strong capacity to meet commitments is that we're not living as the old adage goes paycheck to paycheck. Uh it reflects a consistently positive operating results that the district has had um over the recent uh future and or over the recent future that what an oxymoron that is over the recent past. Um and if you go even deeper into our history uh we have continued to always be fiscally responsible. So the reason we had that rating is we once again have completed a bond refunding. uh that bond refunding we mentioned I I want to say uh last fall that we were targeting
130a couple that could happen this year. Uh we did one in February, saved a little over 3 point I think 1 million and we just completed the second one. Uh what we would have done was we would have refunded and this isn't uh you know me making a mistake and repeating myself. We refunded some refunding bonds. So, we quite literally in 2016 did a refunding of a previous bond issue. We are now refunding that refunding. And it's just a way of saying we now have the ability to issue debt and securities at a much lower interest rate, take those proceeds, and pay off a previous debt issue, and save our taxpayers. as you can see, to the tune of about $2.3 million. For fun, I looked all the way back to 2012. And 2012 was
131when we started generating refundings because, if you think about it, we really started uh having to push the accelerator down, building schools uh in the early 2000s and really haven't stopped since. So, by the time you get to 2012, you've moved far enough down on the yield curve. And I'm not trying to get technical, but just think if you have a long-term investment, uh, people are going to expect a higher interest rate than if it's a shorter term. Well, as you start to move forward in time, you move to the left on that yield curve and you get into interest rates that make it favorable to do a refunding. Since 2012, uh, we have done, I believe, 12 refundings, and the cumulative total of what we've saved our taxpayers is just north of $41 million.
132Didn't all come at once. Uh but ultimately we have been very aggressive in always trying to find where we can save our taxpayers um some of the cost of what we know they have been committed to in building and constructing uh facilities for a rapidly rapidly growing district. So, we continue uh that process, as you can see, we've done two this year, and we're going to continue to analyze each one of them. Uh that $41 million is substantial. And what that means is is if you would have looked at the debt service that we would have paid. By debt service, think about your home. Your mortgage payment consists of the principal, what you owe, and then the interest, which is the charge for using somebody else's money. Our principal and interest payments would have been
133but for these refundings about $41 million more to our community over the next couple of decades. That is again to quote Dr. Dabbero a pretty big deal. >> So let's translate that into what that means for the board. So we look at things in days of operating. So how much does this cost us? So $41 million just the quick math. Sorry, I'm looking at you when I say just the quick math is is maybe a week or 10 days shy of two months of operating we save. Now when we say that we don't have to go to the community ask for it. So I'm thinking 41 million is like six mills in that ballpark. Does that sound about right? It's just a if if you had exactly 42 million, it would be almost spot-on um
134six mills because a mill in our district right now raises about $7 million. >> Yep. >> That's a big deal. >> Yeah. Yeah. And how much would six mills be? Just essentially take 35 time six. Uh so what's that? $210. >> 210. And that would be just on a $100,000 value home. Take that 210 and if you want to scale it up to uh the uh mathematical average value of a home in our district right now is about $500,000. So you're talking over $1,000 in additional taxes that we've saved in doing these refundings. >> And that's every year that we would not have paid that off. >> Yeah. If but for these refundings if our debt service was $41 million higher uh in theory we're we're collecting that much more. Now other factors go into
135it. Uh but that's what we've done. It's correct. >> I I think people don't it's easy to see the costs. It's very hard to see the money that you don't pay. Right. And and it's hard for us to communicate that because you we got to have a whole slide where you we talk about all these things. But this is not the only thing where we have saved the community money, right? There's we're pursuing this across the organization trying to find we heard it in the mental health, you know, may say we heard it in in in uh the curricula, you know, and all of these sorts of things where we're looking for ways to save cost and every dollar we save is one less dollar that the community has to spend. So when you look
136at things like our per student cost and you say geez a whiz, we're you know $2,500 less per student per year than say Dublin, right? That's where this stuff is starting to be reflected is it's not because the law requires us to do all of these things. It's because we're acting proactively. >> Correct. And you you bring up a good point, Mr. Lester, that uh you know, in my own home recently, I switched electric providers. Um, I think I'm getting seven and a half uh cents per kilowatt hour. And my monthly bill didn't go down because ultimately I was right around 7 to 7 12 cents. But had I not made the move, who I had was going to 10 cents per kilowatt hour. So, it's the same kind of concept that I I know
137folks feel like what they're paying isn't going backwards, but what we're doing is as actively as we can, making sure that it doesn't jump in leaps and bounds forward as much as it could if we didn't do the things that we're doing. That's part of the whole no additional millled strategy. By the way, uh we understand that the tax rates won't go up. Someone could turn into, well, the tax rates on your bond collections won't go down. But ultimately, we could be in a position to where without all of the factors we've discussed, which makes the bond issue able to be issued as a no additional millage. But for that, everyone's rates would go up by 1.77 mills. So, while a homeowner might be able to say, "Well, the rate's not going down." If you
138think about where it could go, it is very fair for us to say it will not increase your tax rates. And >> you're not making up that 1.77. >> That's exactly what's going to be on the ballot. >> Math teacher would say 7700s. Um we're that's exactly that's what's going to be on the ballot >> which we have already passed a resolution uh which we've certified given to the auditor that we will not collect one uh tenth of that 1.77. We don't need it. We don't need to collect it. So, the items on the agenda uh for the treasures action items, as you can see, um the minutes from August 5th, uh several I'm always amazed uh at the generosity. We talked about uh the joy with Miss Janei uh mentioned a bit ago about
139the joy of our schools. Uh I see that joy expressed and how supportive our community is of of what our kids are doing in the classroom. As you can see here on the field, uh it doesn't matter. you. We see pop arts, we see athletic boosters. Um, our kids are doing great things and our community is is all for it. Uh, several donations as you can see there to make sure that our kids have the the summer camp activities and the things that they do uh to improve their skills and whatever it is that they're doing uh to be successful in Tangi students. And then finally uh the acceptance of the July 2025 monthly financials. And as I take my seat, um, Miss Julie Fasel can come on up, uh, because she has asked to
140address the board this evening, uh, in the public participation session. >> Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. [Music] >> I picked the right Oh, Julie Fasel, 7636 Holderman Street, Louis Center, Ohio. Um, I picked the right night to come and speak to you because it seems to be we have an 80s theme going and so I'm here to talk to you tonight about Tangi Education Foundation's homecoming. We're taking it back to the 80s, 90s, 2000s and we're going to have a great time. So the Ontie Education Foundation is what I call the PTO or the booster club for the entire district. We enhance students educational experiences throughout the district. In the past, we funded teacher grants that include hosting visiting artists so that students can learn from others in the field, empowering our steam learning through LEGO
141education, and electrifying the Orange orchestra by hosting a professional musician from the Trans Siberian Orchestra. These are just a few of the teacher grants that we have provided over the years. The thing that I like best about the entangi education foundation is that it's inclusive for our entire district and it impacts all of our students. So, we're not just picking and choosing. We're hitting all of the all of the students in all the classrooms. So, I'm here tonight because I want to put the word out to you all about the upcoming Tangi Education Foundation Homecoming. And we have two of the stars of our video here tonight. If you haven't seen it, you got to go to our social media accounts to see it. >> Reenact it right now. >> So, get ready to relive
142your high school glory days for adults only. And this time, it's for a great cause. The entangi Education Foundation is thrilled to announce its brand new fundraiser, Homecoming Through the Ages, taking place on Saturday, October the 11th, at the beautiful Berkshire Event Center in Delaware, Ohio. It's just straight up 23. You take a left where Columbus State is and it's back in there. This unforgettable evening will feature live music from the High Energy 750 band. That's a band made up of community members. If you don't know, 750 is another name for Powell Road. Um they are going to play hits from the 70s through today. But it's not just a party. This is a celebration with a purpose because all of the proceeds from the event will directly support the innovative classroom grants that fund
143our teachers programs and that goes above and beyond what the taxpayers are paying to put in the classrooms. So, please join me in attending the entangi homecoming. We'll have food, a cash bar, the band, photo booths, a lot of fun. We also, everybody who buys a ticket, which is just $75 each, which is a flat rate, $75, um you'll get a raffle ticket to be entered in a drawing for our spirit baskets. We have each high school presenting um they're putting together spirit baskets and um we are going to raise some great money to put back in the classroom of our Tangi students. So, I hope that you will all join me on October the 11th. You can buy tickets online at olentangi um olanti educationfoundation.org. That's my three minutes. >> Are we are we
144allowed within board policy to ask a question of a public speaker? >> Absolutely. >> Mel, just just a quick comment and um then a question. So your work matters. We lost my son's fourth grade teacher a couple years ago and you did a grant for her. He still reads those books and he's driving cars and he's reading Dog Man because those books made an impact on his life. >> And um so this isn't just it really it's it's it's powerful because she was the one that activated him for reading and he he still reads those books. So the second question is I had this from one of our constituents who said, "Haha, I've been looking at your check register. I see that the district is sending money to OEF and then I clarified that with
145Mr. Jenkins that it was something with the state. It had nothing to do with OEF. You don't get money from the district. You give money >> to the district and it saves taxpayers money. Correct. >> Correct. And this year we gave away about $72,000 in teacher grants um that are in the classrooms right now, right when school started. And a lot of the companies that we talked about um through our bridge ed program, they contribute, they're sponsors of our event, you know, they make, you know, they give money to the entang education foundation through, you know, their their donations. So, um you know, it's a we go hand inand with the school district, but yeah, our hand is not in your checkbook. So, I just want to set set the record straight and um we
146just love doing it. You know, if you go into the if the robotics team, which represents all of the the schools, um you know, we have given money to them so that they can buy shirts so that when they go to their competition, you know, that they they all look alike or we're buying them, you know, supplies so they can build these great robots, you know. So, it's, you know, just such a great organization to be part of. Um, because it's going above and beyond and it's not really political. You're just giving away money to deserving teachers. >> Thank you for your hard work. >> Hey, Dr. Dabberco, you want another reason to go to the event? >> I got an email today that I was nominated for the homecoming court. So, just saying I
147think all the more reason >> um I think that goes to everybody. Could I add clarity because of what I say? >> Yes. >> So because there are so many things that have similar names, what Dr. Dabberco is asking is the formula funding that we get from the Ohio Department of Education has always for the longest time been called the foundation funding formula. When we get payments from the state of Ohio, they automatically deduct expenses like contributions to STS or STS uh college credit. Plus, there's several things that they net out of that foundation payment. When we put our check register online every month out of a complete desire to be transparent and open, we had for the longest time coded those expenses as Oland Tangi Foundation deduction. We found out that members of our
148community were misinterpreting that as contributions to the Oland Tangi Foundation and it had nothing to do with the Olan Tangi Foundation. So, we now actually, if you really want to know, we put the journal voucher codes, which if you want to look that one up, that's what those deductions are called, our journal voucher codes, and we put the exact JV code right there so that there's no confusion. But we do not pay uh any money. The foundation, Old Tang Education Foundation supports us. >> But I appreciate people asking the question, right? And that's why we put this information out there is for people to take a look at. And if you see something that looks weird, ask us a question about. We're happy to do it. I mean, this is what transparency is, right? We
149put this up online so that people can check us on it because we're confident that we're doing the right thing. And if you feel like we're not, let us know. >> And that's that's it. Um, I think that's the only public participation we have. Is that correct? I think I saw that you had your hand raised. I'm happy to if you want to come up. >> Thank you guys for that cell phone policy. That's awesome. Awesome. >> Good. >> Thank you very much. >> Wait, is that his Jets hat? >> Yeah. >> Good to see you. >> Yeah. >> Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. Uh, it's good. Okay. Thank you. Uh, so uh we will now move on to the board action items. Uh, the first board action item is uh approval of the policy updates. So,
150these were, as Miss Shriber mentioned, we had these at the policy committee uh a month and a half or so ago. We discussed them at the last board action item. We had our our reading and now we're we're bringing them up for approval. Again, we did implement these because of the beginning of the school year just to make sure that we have it. Um but we're now going to formally vote on it. So, I will now entertain a motion to approve uh fiscal year 26 number one board policy updates. >> So, moved. >> I may have a second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Right. Hearing none. Mr. Jenkins. >> Dr. Dabberco. >> Yes. >> Dr. Wallik. >> Yes. >> Miss Shriber. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lester. >> Yes. Okay. The second board action item is
151approval of new member candidates for the entangi wellbeing and mental health committee which we talked about just a minute ago. Uh Mr. Joel Badonis, uh Miss Liz Papari, Miss Sarah Rodriguez, and students Miss Anna K and Mr. JP. Uh and uh we uh normally we approve new members at the beginning of the year, but we are doing that um now because we've had some people cycle off, so we're doing it in the middle of the year. Uh may I have a motion to approve these uh new members? >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second. >> Uh any discussion? I'll just note that uh uh the adult uh uh adults on here are all parents in the district. Uh and all three of them have significant mental health experience. So, they're all mental health uh
152workers. So, we're always glad. We have a couple people on the committee now, including a pediatrician, including a psychologist. Uh but we're always happy to have people with additional mental health experience. So, that's good. >> Is that new students as well, Mr. Le? >> There are two new students. We do. We have students that graduate and we have to repopulate. We do have a student from each of the high schools, so we're always happy to have them. And and um frankly, the students have been great. I mean, they've just really great uh contributions. Okay, that's a long discussion. Uh Mr. Mr. Jenkins, please uh call the role. >> Dr. Wallik, >> yes. >> Miss Shriber, >> yes. >> Mr. Lester, >> yes. >> Dr. Dabberco, >> yes. >> All right, Mr. Jenkins, the treasurer consent
153action items. >> Yes. Board members, as per usual, um I'm asking for the three items that are on the treasur's consent uh agenda to be adopted by one single motion uh and vote. Uh unless you would like to pull any one of the items out and discuss them separately and vote on them separately. Item A is the August 5th minutes. Item B uh the noted uh donations as a part of the treasures report. And finally item C uh acceptance of the July 2025 monthly financials. Again, these are being presented to you as one single uh motion and action unless you would like to pull anything out and separately discuss and vote. >> Would anyone like to pull any of these out separately? Hearing no appetite for that, I'll entertain a motion to approve them as
154a single slate of consent action items. >> So moved and a second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All right. Hearing none. Mr. Jenkins. >> Miss Shriber. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lester. >> Yes. >> Dr. Dabricco. >> Yes. >> Dr. Wallik. >> Yes. >> All right. Mr. Meyer, the superintendent consent action items. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Lester. Board members, I recommend approving the following superintendent consent action items A through G. A. Specific human resource items certified. B. Specific human resource items supplementals. C. Specific human resource items classified. D. Specific human resource items classified substitutes. E. Approval of students for graduation. Uh we had a few students who graduated here in August. Uh F. recommend continuing the district's agreement with the Delaware County Sheriff's Office for School Resource Officers uh for three years um from 25
15526 26 27 and 2728 and finally G uh business management and facility items which is just one um to declare transportation as impractical for students. I'm asking you to approve these items by one single action and vote unless you'd like to discuss any of these items separately. Would anyone like to discuss any of these separately? All right. Hearing that, may I entertain a motion to approve them as a single slate of consent action items? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. I will second. I think you've withheld your second. Uh any discussion? Right. Hearing none. Mr. Jenkins. >> Mr. Lester. >> Yes. >> Dr. Dabberco. >> Yes. >> Dr. Waller. >> Yes. >> Miss Shriber. >> Yes. >> I feel like an auctioneer up here. It's all right. Uh, I will now entertain a motion
156to convene into executive session as permitted by Ohio Revised Code section 121 uh 1222G8 for negotiations with other political subdivisions respecting requests for economic development assistance where that assistance is to be provided or administered under sections uh 7157940 to 570743 or 373567 to 3735 uh70 of the revised code and involving public infrastructure improvements or the extension of utility services that are directly related to an economic development project. >> Yes, >> you had it right the first time. There was a typo. It's 121.22 G8. I've fixed it. >> Okay, good. There we go. There we go. Uh I'm not going to repeat that. I take that motion. >> Uh so moved. >> A second. >> Second. >> All right. Any discussion? All right. Hearing none. Um I the only discussion on it is we will not
157be coming back to take any substantive action. We'll just be returning to a journ. All right, Mr. Jenkins. >> Movement was Dr. Wallik. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Okay, >> that was me. >> No, that was Yeah, I >> Yep. >> Dr. Wallock second. >> Yep. >> Dr. Dabberco. >> Yes. >> Dr. Wallock. >> Yes. >> Miss Shriber. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lester. >> Yes. All right. Thank you everyone. All right. It is 9:14 p.m. We're returning from executive session. I'll now entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All right. Hearing none, Mr. Jenkins. This >> too fast. >> I know. Mr. Lester, >> yes. >> Dr. Dabberco, >> yes. >> Dr. Wallik, >> yes. >> M Shriber, >> yes. >> All right, we
158are