Olentangy Schools Board of Education, May 20, 2021

001are we on all right all right i'd like to call this meeting to order it is may 20th 2021 please call the roll mr o'brien here mrs wagner feasel here and dr weiss here uh the meeting records will say we have two members absent can you please stand to say the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right let's see i need approval of tonight's agenda can i have a motion you guys are gonna have to take turns no amendments no i no nothing is amended like make emotion mr o'brien yes dr weiss yes and mrs wagner feasel yes tonight we have um one presentation and uh

002dr jack betty is going to come up in a minute and give us a update on the curriculum but before he does so i'm going to read something take this off so everybody can hear me the mission of the olympia schools is to facilitate maximum learning for every student that is what we expect of ourselves and what our community expects of us our district is committed to graduating students who are purposeful resilient curious and kind we want our graduates to have unlimited opportunities for their future our work begins with students as young as three and as old as twenty-two every one of our students deserves a school environment where they feel accepted and capable of realizing their full potential our students deserve to learn how to think critically and should never be told what to

003think for five years the district's strategic plan has declared our committed our commitment to creating a culture of inclusive excellence by that we mean that every student and every staff member have a sense of belonging within our schools it is part of our strategic plan because it is a tall order there are nearly 24 000 students and adults in our schools every day not one of them is the same but they all deserve fair treatment and a positive experience sometimes these individuals can be unkind to one another so working toward culture of inclusive excellence means taking purposeful action to reduce incivility and increase belonging there is ongoing concern among some members of our community demanding the removal of critical race theory that is a term i had never heard before this school year and it

004is something i have been learning about i am afraid that many parents are confusing old and tangy with schools in new york or california and conflating what they are hearing in the media with what is really happening in olympia in the same way that i reject the claim that our district is systematically racist i also reject the claim that our district has adopted the critical race theory let me be clear there have been instances where staff members have made students feel alienated through sharing of personal political views and that is wrong i accept that we can always do better but anyone claiming that critical race theory has has come into our district in every facet of our organization including our curriculum is also wrong olin tangi does not teach students to hate themselves or to

005hate their country olin tangi rejects the idea that anyone should be judged by their race every student should have strong character and a strong positive self image students should never be identified as oppressors or oppressed olin tangi does not teach students to embrace marxism or anti-capitalism we are not preparing our students to overthrow our constitution or advocate for white abolition these claims have been repeated so often that there are some in our community who believe it is true olin tng will never be a district that values one race over another or that teaches students what to think rather than how to think we encourage those who have experienced or have children who have experienced specific incident instances of concern in the classroom to talk to their child's teacher or principal we remain steadfast in our

006efforts toward our mission to facilitate maximum learning for every student and together with civil discourse and open communication we will be successful in closing let's all live by the golden rule and do on to others as we would have those do unto us dr fetty thank you mrs fiesel i also want to acknowledge mrs mcmurray here our curriculum director as well in case you have any specific questions about curriculum development she will be prepared to answer those um so the purpose of tonight's presentation is to walk you through the process of curriculum development and what curriculum is and what it's not in the district according to the dictionary curriculum is the courses offered by an educational institution it's also known as the course of study in the dictionary according to our board policy curriculum is

007defined as courses of study subjects classes and organized activities provided by the school the plan for learning necessary to accomplish the educational goals of the district these are big definitions and uh curriculum means a lot of things it's a very large word that means a lot of different things as our definitions um explain when i talk about curriculum i've been working in school administration and curriculum for like 13 years now maybe 14 but the uh i like to talk in terms of written curriculum taught curriculum and assessed curriculum and then we'll talk about curriculum resources so i'm going to walk you through each of those here in this presentation we also in the district have always embraced the olmentangi foundations this is one of the things we do when we hire new teachers as we

008walk them through the foundations and explaining the importance of a solid curriculum good assessment practices effective instruction and being responsive to the context of the classroom and the perfect balance of those four things is how we define maximizing student learning when the teacher is meeting all of the needs of all the kids in the classroom this is also a graphic that helps us understand where local curriculum fits within state content standards or state curriculum there are the ohio learning standards which are adopted by the state board of education and then you as the local board have adopted those then our curriculum department creates what we call curriculum blueprints curriculum maps that help teachers to understand what is meant by each of the standards and how across the district teachers are expected to implement those standards

009in terms of learning goals and common understandings and then at the top of the pyramid there is our assessment system which with the ohio state tests as well as our performance descriptors that we've created for our elementary grades and our teacher created assessments so i'm going to walk you through each of those so starting with the written curriculum according to our policy the students the job of the superintendent to recommend to you the board the course is a study that should be deemed in the best interest of the students they should align with the district's mission address the needs of the students and be guided by the state's academic content standards our policy says that each course of study is intended to provide a basic framework for instruction and learning so the board's job simply

010put is to approve of the basic framework and then the curriculum department's job is to help teachers implement that framework in daily instruction and meet the goals that the board has set for the district so when i when i say written curriculum i'm talking about our courses of study which is you know more often than not it's state standards there are some national standards and industry standards for certain courses the state puts out model curricula which are very detailed like unit plans basically we don't you you do not adopt those but they're available to all of our teachers and they are used by our curriculum department in creating our local tools and then we create our curriculum maps and our blueprints and those tools contain a lot of different components so this large slide is

011a picture of a curriculum blueprint i believe this is seventh grade english language arts but you'll see that all of our blueprints start with a long term transfer goal of what the students should be able to do after learning the content then we have cornerstone tasks which are demonstrations of student learning there are big ideas for every course and essential questions and enduring understandings which is a curriculum design process that's been in it's been established for years as a way to break standards down and understand what does that mean and how should we apply those these also include our academic content vocabulary which is an important part of curricula that's identified you've also recently seen our portrait of a learner i would argue that this is a part of our written curriculum as well that

012we want our students to be purposeful resilient curious and kind and what we mean by each of those things so our curriculum department not only creates these documents but then also develops professional development for staff around these and how they can incorporate each of these into their classroom because each classroom is different a kindergarten classroom is obviously different than an ap english classroom it's different than a specialized learning center so we we want these things to apply in every one of those settings and that's the job of the teacher these are our literacy framework in our math framework this is more model curriculum that we've created or more curriculum documents that we've created uh again there are reading standards but like our reading framework helps our teachers to understand how to implement those standards um

013for example um if mrs patrick was here she would certainly mention something about phonics uh when she sees this because she's aware of this document and the standards could be in my opinion misconstrued whereas a teacher would teach phonics as a standalone unit once in the year and they would address phonics for maybe three weeks and never again we adopt a balanced literacy approach that we want to touch on all of those pillars of literacy throughout the year so we take the standards the written curriculum or the approved curriculum and we help our teachers to understand how they're supposed to implement that and then our school principals are the instructional leaders of their buildings and their job is to ensure that teachers are following the expectations here's also a uh another tool we create this

014is called our sequences uh so it's the order of instruction for certain standards we have these for the elementary school here's a grade four second semester so what what is written on there is mostly content standards from the state's academic content standards that we've adopted and when those standards should be and should be introduced and then also some resources that can be useful to the teachers in delivering the instruction so all of our written curriculum is intended to frame what our goal is what this what the learning goal is for the students and what they should be able to to do after the course the teacher's job then really steps up when it comes time to teach the curriculum so we have the written curriculum on paper the talk curriculum is how it's enacted how

015a teacher decides to deliver each lesson it needs to be aligned to standards teachers create instructional units that are comprised of daily lessons and then daily lessons include a number of learning activities these are things as a parent you will see as projects or assignments discussions presentations research homework these are all learning activities designed by the teacher to help the students achieve the standard it's important that the teacher is involved in this process because the teacher's job is to know the students and know the students needs there are districts not many but some districts follow a what i've always called a set curriculum also known as a scripted curriculum that tells you on a daily basis as a teacher what you should teach in every classroom in that building in every classroom in that district

016should be teaching the same thing on the same day in my opinion in a lot of professional educators opinions that's not best for students because it makes it very difficult to meet the needs of students who might be struggling as well as students who have accelerated beyond what that daily goal is teachers need to differentiate their instruction to meet all the needs of all the students to keep them all engaged and on a path towards mastery of learning so we do not have scripted curriculum but we certainly have a lot of written curriculum as you've seen for the teachers to utilize in designing their daily instruction also when it comes to taught curriculum there's a couple policies i wanted to point out to the board one is your policy on multicultural and inclusive education um

017the board designates multicultural education because they want to see harmony within our community stability of success of our nation it says our school curriculum instructional materials and professional development should reflect in an inclusive perspective the goal of an inclusive perspective is to help students understand themselves and others and appreciate and value similarities and differences in all people the the policy goes on to say that the board declares that it rejects all forms of discrimination in schools also that staff should receive professional development to help them to foster understanding acceptance and positive relations among people of different backgrounds so again this is a board policy that's adopted we also have a policy on controversial issues this policy is important because it acknowledges that there is a place for controversial issues in school that there is a

018time and a place where they are appropriate just like there's a time and a place where they're not appropriate but for the purpose of this policy it says a controversial issue is any topic that is likely to arouse both support and opposition in the community and when that happens the teacher is if the teacher is going to be teaching something that is going to arouse support and opposition in the community they need to proactively communicate with their principal to make sure that their plan for approaching that content is a solid plan and they should also communicate with the parents of their class to let them know that this is our intent this is why we're teaching this and if a parent has an objection to that there are always we always accommodate alternate requests alternate

019texts leaving the classroom for a certain period of time whatever it might be our policy encourages open-mindedness and we believe that controversial issues can be pursued in a spirit of scholarly inquiry not indoctrination so then after the top curriculum i'd like to talk about the assessed curriculum which is how do we know how we're doing just like the written curriculum in the top curriculum the assessed curriculum is also aligned to our standards um and there's two types of assessment that we talk about formative and summative formative assessments are often teacher designed and they inform the ongoing instruction of the teacher it's a it's a spot check to see how the kids are doing we might think of it as a pop quiz to see how effective has the instruction been so far what else do

020i need to do to bring all of my students up to where i want them to be summative assessments are the the tests you give at the end of the unit or ohio state test or ap exams they could be in the form of multiple choice tests portfolios we really value open-ended tests whenever possible written open-ended so students have the ability to fully express their knowledge and apply their knowledge and show us exactly how much they've learned and what they know but this is another important piece of overall curriculum and then the curriculum resources so we have basically two tiers of curriculum resources we have our district level curriculum resources which are board adopted they're the primary resources for the class that means they're the first book or the first digital program that the teacher

021refers to when needing a resource for class it could be textbooks or anthologies they could be elementary reading programs math programs and then we have supplemental resources they may or may not be purchased by the district we've purchased some supplemental material district-wide schools sometimes purchase their own individual supplemental material teachers oftentimes go to the public library and if you ever if you remember back to when we were all allowed to go to the library there's usually a person there who's got one of those milk crates on wheels that's a teacher checking out specific books that are going to be purposeful for an upcoming lesson those are what we would call supplementary material materials they're going to borrow them take them to school use them with the students and then return them so there's a lot

022there is teacher discretion in within supplemental resources and our board policy states states that our staff should continually research new sources and types of supplementary materials and explore their innovative use it is not against our policy for a teacher to use a resource that they find and determine is appropriate to meet their instructional goals for their students that resource still needs to be appropriate for the classroom it's still expected that it's aligned to the standards our teachers are qualified to make that determination and if they make mistakes we do hold them accountable here are some of the curriculum district level curriculum resources that have come through the board of education for approval there's obviously many more anything or most of what parents see in the my olsd portal would qualify as this as well so

023their print resources as well as digital resources and then in closing all of the documents that i've sped through here are available on our curriculum website my email address peggy's email address or their parents do call us and ask questions about our curriculum we're always glad to talk about it all of our blueprints are linked on our website so it's a great place to start if you want to learn more about the district's career do you have any questions for me questions dr wise did you okay kevin so i didn't see any reference to 1619 project or critical race theory right we do we do not teach either the 16 19 project or critical race theory um not only do we not teach it we've never even evaluated it like as a consideration for instruction

024um they are newer like mrs feasel statement at the beginning of the meeting said their newer developments in media but they're not something that we endorse or embrace we do not promote any type of divisive anything we really want as you saw our policies are about inclusion and creating a sense of belonging for our students and our staff thank you i have a couple questions of course um so when we hire new teachers that come in you know how do you train them about this curriculum because they've been if they're new grads you know they yet they don't have access to the olympia curriculum sure so how how and when do you do that so at the beginning right before the beginning of every school year we have a three-day new teacher academy where all

025of our new teachers come and our peggy and the curriculum department lead them through an onboarding process for them to understand what is expected of them we start with the olympia foundations we want them to understand our definitions of curriculum instruction and assessment and our expectation for those things they get their curriculum blueprints for their course i know mark and i have talked about this before that you know when he started teaching and when i started teaching you know typically you're handed a textbook you were handed a textbook and pointed to your classroom and told to go get them we spent three days with our teachers to make sure that they truly understand our expectations for them their colleagues expectation for them and how to use the plethora of resources that we have available for

026them because all of those curriculum tools are helpful for teachers and those are things that i would argue most districts don't provide their teachers um and my experience has been that the new teachers are always very receptive to the support we provide because they are craving it and they need to understand what their expectations are and they're happy to know the supports that are available in the district okay so then how do you continue to educate those teachers that might have been here for a while in either changes or maybe they've switched clas you know grade levels or how do you keep up with that so there are multiple opportunities for that we have first of all we have three professional development days been built into the school year every year that our curriculum department

027designs we have collaboration time for all of our teachers to work with their colleagues so if you just changed content areas you're still going to be collaborating with other teachers who are in that content area and they may have you know years of experience that would benefit you we also support cross-district collaboration we bring teachers over here to central office for trainings before school or excuse me during school and after school and in the summer there are we one of the kind of foundational beliefs of our district is that professional collaboration drives continuous improvement and all of our teachers are afforded the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues and give an exposure to the curriculum department i should also mention the curriculum department does building visits is it three times a year or four times a

028year to each building where they go and meet with the teachers during their planning period in small groups to work through a um a set topic so there's lots of opportunities for that okay then um what if a parent you know and i'm i'm thinking of english class you know what if a parent isn't comfortable with a student reading you know maybe an assigned book sure um at the secondary schools we have a literature review process when a teacher is going to assign a class-wide book they have to vet the book they have to read it they have to review multiple reviews of the book and they have to identify alternative texts that would help to meet the learning goals or the standards that that book was chosen to address so if you were if

029as if your teacher is going to read this book and you're not comfortable with that book because there's some language or there is a a graphic scene that you don't want your child exposed to the teachers all are prepared to provide alternative texts to the parents to read something else that are to the students to read something else that can still meet the goals of of the classroom and that applies even when it's not a controversial issue so first of all all the books we we read are um you know within the age band appropriate age band for where we introduce them but um you know in order for books to be interesting sometimes they they include stuff that some parents find objectionable so even if it's not a controversial issue but there's a bad

030word used throughout the book and they can tell the teacher hey we saw that this book has this and we'd rather read something else and the teacher would be prepared to help them select a different book you know just to piggyback on that is because you know obviously the bar what is acceptable or not acceptable and others always respect somebody's uh beliefs of what they find acceptable for their family but i think there's also a level of acceptance that other families may have that are different so it's okay for one child to read a book and another child to read a different book because their family finds that their parents find that acceptable form um i mean i hope obviously the purpose of that we get all we've been getting a lot of questions about

031you know specifically uh critical race theory in the 1619 project in our talk you know our curriculum um i like what you said in your statement mrs feasel about sometimes our teachers do uh there have been some mistakes that have been made that we've had to hold people accountable for maybe some materials that weren't appropriate or properly vetted and you know but i really do think this shows the complexity of of what our teachers and our principals work through to get the results we get and the work we do the collab i mean we've created schedules and you guys have actually you know you supported our staffing levels that that have though you remember somebody used to call them free periods our teachers do the work they're doing during the day and collaboration and curriculum

032planning um you know that all of that is is is very important work and how they hold each other accountable um and that that's a big piece of it and we have that at every level elementary middle and and high school we built schedules with common planning time so teachers have time to do this work together they also do a lot of it outside you know outside of of the school day and the school year and again i know that firsthand because i see it but jack's right when he you know 1989 i got thrown a math textbook and said have at it teach algebra and i started in chapter one and worked my way through no support and we do provide a lot of support for our staff and they they do crave it

033and it's what makes them better and i think it really is the work that our curriculum team and our professional development team do and with the uh and supporting the principals and the teachers is the reason we get the results we get absolutely and um i just wanted to as you were speaking you know my son last night was um very excited because in his fourth grade classroom he recently built a mechanical catapult with a motor attached to it today and tomorrow he's building a um a boat out of empty milk jugs and some kind of a motor to drive through the water this is a fourth grade classroom he's constructed this all by himself or with a partner but this isn't coming from any of our district approved fourth grade textbooks this is something

034that that teacher has figured out a way to engage those students and create a meaningful unit that's aligned to state standards and you know when we look at our own children and their experiences in the classroom in the district i find by and large that our parents are very pleased with how their kids are being taught on a daily basis and engaged and i do feel like sometimes we get worried about things we hear and we forget to focus on what we're actually seeing and you know so i think our teachers are doing great work i'm proud of what our curriculum department does and how they support our teachers and i i think we have a very very strong track record of success with that model any other questions probably got a question more of

035a comment but you know i think it's important that we continue to support you know giving the teachers some latitude in their room on how to teach and how to how to instruct if we go to script-based curriculum you know i think you you sap all the energy and all the creativity out of the classroom and um you know these are professional people that that want um what's best for their students and i think if you try to box them in to you will say x y and z i think that um will take away a lot of what makes old change very successful i agree i appreciate that thank you very much on to my board president's report um well on behalf of the school district i and our school board i want to

036sincerely thank all of our staff students and parents for all of their hard work this year it has been an incredible year i hope i never have to use the word unprecedented again in my entire life i remember thinking last spring when the governor closed all the schools that we would be closed through spring break and then everything would get back to normal after that and boy was i wrong never in my or anyone else's wildest dreams did i ever imagine that we'd still be dealing with the p pandemic throughout this school year but you all did it we did it we made it through there's no going back we are only going forward and speaking of going forward as a board we need to discuss our meetings going forward last spring when most everything

037was shut down by statewide health orders we still held school board meetings but we did so virtually as was allowed by ohio law then as health orders allowed we started meeting in person but with no visitors due to social distancing guidelines i want to be clear our meetings have never been closed closed meetings except for those allowed under executive session are not allowed under ohio law all of our board actions have to be taken in an open meeting in view of the public with the health orders lifting we need to discuss allowing more people to attend our meetings so just like we went through virtual meetings when the health orders restricted us being together the health orders are lifting on june 2nd and at the june 10th meeting we will not be restricted by those

038health orders and we will not have to worry about social distancing our room limitations um so i would like to ask the board members that are here now if they have any questions or concerns going back to so-called normal for our meetings i do not have any concerns i mean i don't i think the timing you know for the june board meeting to be you know more in person opens the public is very consistent with what we're seeing in the private sector in terms of what private employers are doing in terms of allowing people in buildings and folks to meeting you know i mean my personal experience we're still limited to four people to a conference room that kind of thing um but i think more vaccines get out i think we're better positioned to

039be able to get back to normal with our june meeting i know at my place of employment we are still wearing masks and we're still social distancing and um you know we're not using the cafeteria if we're bringing our lunch um but on june 2nd you know those will change one thing i will miss is that the the drive to downtown has been really nice the traffic is going to be coming back um so uh june 10th we will go back to um allowing visitors to come to our meetings um so then i also wanted to put out there for discussion an idea um and it's in we don't we won't decide tonight because we have two board members that are absent by the way mrs patrick she's at the delaware area career center school

040board meeting and um dave had an another engagement we moved our meetings usually we're the second and fourth um thursdays and we moved our meeting to we're on the third so kind of um did some you know there were conflicts to scheduling in there so but i just want to throw this out there think about it lakeisha actually had um this idea if it would be beneficial for school board members if we um kind of divided up the district and so like lakeisha um would have glen oak shanahan heritage or maybe owen tangi and she would be like the representative or whatever you know for for those schools and if somebody had a question they could go to her knowing that lakisha doesn't speak you know for the entire board but she could put them

041in the right direction you know like if someone had a question about curriculum you could say oh jack betty is the person that you need to talk to so so that people kind of have an idea instead of sending us all emails maybe we could be the point of contact um just an idea to throw out there and to think about so did you have anything that you wanted to add i just think that just well i guess i do i'm talking i just think that just kind of helps with that community you know building that that community and and being there okay so we will discuss that um at our next meeting and then finally since our last school board meeting mrs hatfield and i have participated in virtual meetings on school funding and

042actually senator brenner has joined us along with representatives from other school districts senator brother brenner did state on one of the many meetings we were in and i can't even remember which one emily he stated that there will be a school funding formula in the state budget and the state budget has to be finalized by june 30th however we still don't know what that looks like we know what the house's version looks like but now the senate has the budget and they might be making changes again in the house's version of the budget um olin tangi would receive over uh twenty five hundred dollars per pupil when it when the when their version would be fully phased in um that would equate to about fifty five million dollars which ironically is what we should be

043receiving if the current formula was actually working um so the senate is expected to re release their version of the budget somewhere around june 1st which doesn't allow a lot of time for debate because the budget has to be done by june 30th and they never agree with the house and so we'll have to go into conference committee so we will stay tuned and see what the june um what comes out of the senate on or around june 1st and that is my report all right mr rafe what do you have for us tonight before this year well i appreciate mr brenner uh mr brenner's efforts there's been a formula in every budget that's ever been passed true we just don't like it it doesn't help us right right so i wish he would have

044said i'd advocate for a formula that's more in your more equitable and fair to districts like volunteering than just saying yeah there'll be a formula in the budget because there's always been a formula in the budget yes thank you for pointing that out and i have not heard him say yes there will be a formula in the budget that will be more fair to owen tangi have you heard that mistake i have not okay and quite honestly he usually defers it to senator blessing as the individual who's working on it so i there's just not a lot of information coming from the senate at this time to really have an understanding of what their bill might look like no question so what will happen come june 30th there's no budget but then they what they

045have done in the past is they keep the current budget going but the current budget isn't good for all of tanja either or they will pass like um i can't even think what it's called like a temporary budget because if they don't pass anything the state doesn't have money that it can spend um so sometimes they'll just roll over the budget but they'll pass a temporary budget and that's what happened two years ago they actually pat they actually passed a temporary budget um just to make sure that you know the state employees could be paid and the state could continue to operate but um yeah it's a big headache but thank you for asking mr rafe thank you thank you thank you very good stuff so far so i'm going to start as i always

046do with our living the mission slides and last week may 3rd to mace or a few weeks ago i guess now it just seems go so fast uh may 3rd to may 7th was staff appreciation week so we got uh some pictures of cdl staff who celebrate getting celebrated and transportation and some of our buildings so again i just want to reiterate just like you did mrs feazel um congratulations to all of our staff for all of their effort all throughout the district um it's just been amazing that i think of what we've been able to accomplish with all the hard work of all of our people so celebrate it was great to celebrate staff appreciation week um i want to highlight uh three liberty high school students carter beck luke melnick and ethan sipos

047who are really accomplished gymnastics and um they're competing and this is not an is kind of an out of school activity they're not competing on our own individual teams at the time at this time but they they all received very very high recognition at the region 5 championship uh recently so congratulations to those liberty high school students student athletes so um just want to celebrate as we are trying to do as much normal year-end activities as possible so uh obviously they're not completely normal because we still have limitations and with guests and things like that but our elementaries are planning their field days and the fifth grade clap outs and all the different activities that they normally do try to try to get as much fun activity in the year ends typically a lot of

048buildings do there was a birds owls falcons and uh um hawks at uh freedom trail and oak creek this week so there's just a lot a lot of fun activity going on here as we close wind down the last week of the school year um mrs jenegi had uh a great time with her new staff uh got the tour of the building the other day with robertson construction so there you see the shale meadows team she's done hiring for the most part i think we just added another section there but all in all uh done hiring doing a great job uh and she is in the process of of building that team so there's just a lot of energy and enthusiasm about shale meadows um i had the opportunity to attend two of these ceremonies

049at berlin and orange high school we have 15 students oh i'm sorry 21 students who have committed to serving uh our country in the uh the military so do a great job honoring them with a military signing day and obviously that's something near and dear to my heart and um i'm just very proud of those uh those students for for making that commitment i'm starting to get a lot of questions about 2122 uh already people want to know what we're gonna do um and so you know obviously the mask mandate and health orders will be lifted on june 2nd i actually texted governor dewine about five o'clock this evening and asked him if i had the authority to remove the mask mandate and he responded no so i still think it is prudent that we

050continue to follow that order until june 2nd at which time it will be removed so we're going to continue to follow all of those policies through the end of our school year once june 2nd comes and we're done get everybody out of here we will start to discuss with the health district what things look like and we will communicate information we have three board meetings june 10 june 24th in july 8th my little angels on my shoulders back here july 8th that i'll be giving updates and then obviously uh you know so my hope would be that that things are as normal as normal as possible and that you know there'll be options for people that want to have options and uh you know we're going to do everything we possibly can to keep everybody

051as safe as as possible with given their comfort levels but you know right now we want to see how things are are are going to go obviously there's no orders in place and we're not ordered to do anything then we'll proceed accordingly so five five school days left though so let's just get those five days in and we'll start planning for next year i'm gonna be advocating for as normal as possible though so we are coming to the close of our branding project so the high school brand committees will be uh sharing their new imagery with their school communities coming up we've got big reveals planned uh beginning may um well they'll begin sharing their new mascots and logos beginning may 24th and big the big reveals will be wednesday may 26th so we're very

052excited to to bring that project to a close got a lot of action items um on this agenda you see the the uh renewal of administrative contracts that are expiring renewal of all the teacher contracts that are expiring we have two administrators on the agenda uh dr branson was previously on a esc co contract and we are bringing there's no financial benefit to having them on that contract anymore so we actually pay with the esc service charge more than what we would be uh paying uh if we employ dr branson uh on our contract and then leanna ford is a new pupil services uh supervisor who's coming to us from upper arlington um so we have on there the non-routine use of a school bus as we always donate the use of the school bus

053to the fort paul's memorial day parade so very happy to participate in that see quite a few items regarding shale meadows the emergency responder radio system which is that a radio system that automatically notifies the authorities of in an emergency the media center materials the ela curriculum um so those are all on as action items are um first and s first guaranteed maximum price amendment for uh middle school six in the amount of six million dollars jeffrey mr gordon what is that what does that entail that is for the site work and the uh steal for the project since he still has a longer lead time very good thank you thank you um this one the new theater lighting um liberty high school and orange high school theaters have the lighting in them have been

054a problem basically from day one and if you you know you sometimes you guys come to a event uh ceremonies there the the house lighting is really bad so the the the lights are very difficult to replace um they're just hard hard to control so this is one of those ones where we've gotten complaints about this particular issue for for quite a while and i'm really happy we're finally finally getting it addressed so um you see there and finally the approval of uh interactive devices for our classroom displays so we're going through the process of now upgrading uh smart boards and and other other projectors so um kind of that's again that new technology that we had put in at berlin high school so we're starting to bring the other buildings back back to date

055as all part of our technology plan um so then you see here our important dates uh tomorrow we have the senior sunset salute events so thankfully the weather is looking good for those a little warm but but looking good so we will be able to hold those outdoors with our guests our students and our and their guests you see there the berlin uh commencement walk in virtual graduate graduation ceremony so berlin's commencement walk begins at nine and then the virtual graduation ceremony will be released at two o'clock and of course we will be live streaming those events um uh while they're actually happening and then you see liberty is uh on in the afternoon with the commencement walk at two and then the availability for the grad virtual graduation ceremony at six and then you

056see in tangie and orange's time so mr mr o'brien if you want to borrow my pickup truck and load a bunch of people in the back you're more than welcome to use it for for maddie's graduation thank you i'll have it clean for you and ready to go just let me know plans um last day of school is may 27th um we are doing the groundbreaking for middle school six on may 27th as well and then report cards were available on june 4th next meeting's the 10th so questions all right very good thank you very much treasurer's report mrs hatfield what do you have for us a few things to discuss um if i may i'm going to add just a couple of keynotes from the state budget conversation we didn't really discuss about the

057backpack funding that is the type of funding that has been in the news regarding the house and what is that and what does that mean it's another piece of legislation that has been released in terms of trying to help students gain ground and have additional supports when we discussed that with senator brenner he didn't feel that it would be a piece of legislation that would move forward so it's not an item that they are looking to put in the senate plan as we have discussed at previous meetings the fair school funding plan does have supplementary components to the student funding model that it has created but they're not labeled anything similar to backpack or things of that nature we are putting together a press release we worked with miss amanda beeman in the communications department

058and put together some information along with mrs feasel to kind of have some talking points around the fair school funding plan and why it's important to contact our senators and reach out as community members to help ask questions and get behind the funding model so there is connectivity to the fair school funding plan through the treasurer's webpage please feel free to log in and ask questions along the way read some more information and if you would like to reach out to me and ask questions i'm more than happy to take those i'm turning then into the action items we have more than we usually do on any given agenda but it's a busy time of year we have the april financials amended appropriations board meeting minutes um the appropriations and board meeting minutes are before

059the board for approval as recommended through ohio revised code those are standard practices and procedures making sure that the community has that information approved by the board and is available to them donations we had several donations that we would like to recognize we have chromebook and notebook valued at over two thousand dollars donated to glen oak by zion yang ten thousand dollars for technology at ontang meadows from burlington miscellaneous items value just over nine hundred dollars to the berlin high school music excuse me theater program by miss lawrie webb over a thousand dollars for the cross coaching at olympia high school from the athletic boosters and playground equipment totaled just over four thousand dollars to johnnycake from their pto so we're very grateful for all of those donations and all of the donations that we've

060seen in kind around the community we've seen a lot of signs as mr rafe previously showed with community support for the students and the activities that are going on at the year end i'll give you a pause from that information before we go into the five-year forecast but it is on the agenda for your approval along with that comes the general fund budget which shows the five-year forecast expenditures broken down by object code to give the community and yourselves a better understanding of what's coming in those main component lines of the forecast just to reiterate we are not receiving any additional funding for the pandemic we have spent the initial rounds of the coronavirus relief funds and the esser funds and the broadband ohio funds that were distributed at the beginning of the year those

061have been depleted and used we are spending current general funds to continue that support of those particular expenditures we are not eligible for sr2 or s or 3 relief funds so there will be no additional supports coming to the district for that at this time i have not heard um as a legislative matter that there is any movement on taking what the state was given in those buckets or second round or third round of coronavirus relief funds to be distributed to school districts at this point i believe quite frankly it is what it is um so no additional funding in that area for the for owen tangy are there questions about the regular action items outside of the fighter forecast no thank you thank you i'll let you get back to your seat because i've

062got something else to read right next is public participation before krista reads mrs hatfield can you remind everyone what the policy is for public participation absolutely the policy um number 169 can be found on the board of education website is available for those listening in the community to read in totality a couple of key points are that participants must be recognized by the presiding officer which means that mrs davis will recognize the name and address of each person submitting public participation for us via email each statement made by the participant shall be limited to five minutes duration unless extended and the course of the meeting is limited to half an hour per the policy again all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer mrs fiesel no person may address or question board members individually

063name and address will be written excuse me read into record okay mrs davis all right are you ready to go okay proceed cara randolph 6529 lilac lilac lane i would just like to send support to the board administration and staff for their continued dedication to growth in the area of inclusive education i appreciate the hard work that many administrators teachers and staff have have put into creating safe and rich learning spaces for all children i appreciate the work that individuals in schools are doing to educate themselves and take the bold and brave steps to be authentic and have tough conversations as well as finding creative ways to innovate and construct lessons so that all children are represented seen within literature and content area texts i want you to know that your work is not unnoticed

064and is this is these best practices are working to help students feel supported safe and valued within our schools which we know in turn creates an environment for maximum learning thank you and please know that i along with many others in our community support all of your efforts norma kaner 5439 grand ridge drive galena ohio resurfacing walnut creek elementary front backdrop has not occurred since we moved here 18 years ago partial very front and back has been done when will that be finished in total next virginia yoder 2177 ben brush place dear olentangy school board i'm writing in support of the diversity equity and inclusion work that has taken place over the past few years the dear olsd letters last summer were a wake-up call that there were issues in our schools that needed to

065be addressed i was so glad to see olin tianji take action in response with the work of the diversity equity and inclusion team the one community programming has been outstanding especially the most recent one featuring the voices of students from our schools addressing diversity equity and inclusion in schools has been shown to reduce bullying have positive effects on learning and test scores improve classroom management and create a positive school community these issues are being discussed at colleges as well as in the workplace to create a culture of respect for one another continuing this work in our schools prepares students academically and socially for life after they graduate keep up the great work lisa heintz 3457 mccammon chase drive lewis center dear olentangy school board members i am the proud parent of an oohs graduate on

066tng community member of 16 years and an educator in olsd my son experienced some of the best education available diagnosed with autism adhd and identified as gifted prior to third grade there were plenty of obstacles to his school success educators administrators and staff were willing to accept my son just as he was and worked hard to propel him forward with a sense of accomplishment worth and pride bullying by peers was dealt with professionally with compassion just in time teaching dignity and a belief that he would thrive as long as he was in their classes academic expectations and supports were tailored to his cognitive and social emotional needs he had the benefit of an individualized education plan iep a legal document which mandated many of the supports he received as a volunteer throughout his schooling i

067also witnessed his peers receiving just as much attention consideration and goal-driven curriculum as he was afforded in my experience the olsd teachers and staff went above and beyond in countless ways to accommodate the individual needs of all their students regardless of ethnicity ability gender identification religion financial status or mandate all students benefited from this positive inclusive approach this is the hallmark of quality teachers providing quality education this reflects in part what is meant by inclusion a sense of belonging and worth for all students this is the education that all of our students need and deserve i'm aware of parents in olsd who are concerned that critical race theory which is beyond the scope of a k-12 classroom and has been refuted by our diversity equity and inclusion director is being taught they want teachers to

068quote only teach academics and leave the quote soft skills to them somehow inclusive teaching has become one of those quote soft skills teaching is a job laden with values driven teachable moments i believe that most teachers community members and parents can agree that we want our children to learn important soft or non-academic skills such as right from wrong kindness empathy and compassion integrity communication and listening respect responsibility and perseverance critical thinking and other qualities not found in textbooks as a parent and teacher i realize that these types of skills require values and are not taught in isolation they are taught in real life moments when the lesson is brief clear relevant and immediate teachable moments pop up dozens of times every school day and cannot be made a homework assignment to be learned out of

069context at a later time limiting teachers to academics only devalues educators and denies all students the rich whole child education they deserve and we all want for them teachable moments are time and situation sensitive i thank you for facilitating growth by enabling teachers and students to learn about and discuss the many ways in which our differences can be embraced and combined with our strengths to make us all better citizens of a broader world i'm sure we can agree that there is more work to be done in d e and i in our schools and community so that all of olsd can be proud of the diversity accepted within and outside our rather sheltered area that challenging work is modeled by you and facilitated by your support of administrators and teachers please secure a more inclusive

070future for our increasingly diverse district by communicating the value of learning important life skills when it matters most the board would do well to model this by changing the braves name to fully reflect its commitment to d e and i which you have so clearly supported thus far this is your teachable moment use it to make clear and tangible the integrity inclusion and quality this district values there is a large community here supporting real history and real life skills taught in our district next kara stefanko 4575 cascade drive pal ohio i want to talk for just a moment about truth and honesty i think we can all agree that these are two fundamental qualities and that without them we sow seeds of distrust without them we have no bedrock on which to build anything how

071will community ever come together and educate children without these two principles certainly we decide desire for our children to be honest and have integrity even our student handbook outlines consequences for dishonest behavior or the supplying of false information however lies and dishonesty is exactly what this community is getting from this board our superintendent and our chief academic officer we have been told on multiple occasions that critical race theory is not being taught in our schools but that in a nutshell is a lie though you may call it by other names the tenants are present when you use multiple professional development days to train teachers with teachings from hassan kwame jefferies include books for student instruction by robin d deangelo and ibrahim kendy and push social activism into the academics of our classrooms we are not

072hoodwinked one need only to read those texts or listen to those presentations to know that the foundations of crt are already in our classrooms saying that you're not teaching crt or avoiding direct answers to that question is simply dishonest addressing racism in our community and classrooms can certainly be done no one's suggesting that we don't but using the foundations of crt-based models is not the answer these models are based on racism themselves and ask our students to divide themselves into groups based on race or gender or sexual preference thereby only perpetuating racism our students are not a collective they are individuals with individual needs i'm going to assume you already know that in light of the mission statement at olin tangi to provide maximum learning for every student unless of course you're being dishonest about

073your desire to live out that mission like anything in this life you get more of what you focus on if we all if all we focus on is race we will get racism our focus should be on providing equality of opportunity for all students providing equality of opportunity necessarily involves treating all people regardless of race gender religion or sexual preference in ways that support and encourage their individuality and natural gifts and talents crt merely focuses on race and does not provide any solution crt promotes the idea that we must have equality of outcome thus it will never be satisfied and will only water down academics until the very people claims to want to liberate are imprisoned by their inability to compete academically no one wants to deny that we have a history of slavery and

074racism in our country if we're honest about our history it has affected people of many different nationalities black irish italian chinese japanese native americans there are horrible periods in our past where ethnic groups were treated unfairly all based on group identity so let's not repeat it again crt promulgates group identities over which we have no control it makes that group identity the focus race religion gender etc how can that be anything but divisive this is not a good or logical solution it takes away the notion of merit self-determination and responsibility we need to learn from our past and move forward to remain stuck in the past repeating our previous mistakes is an error we cannot afford there should be penalties and punishment for true acts of racism but not everything is racism commenting on strange

075smells of unfamiliar food or being fascinated or curious about hair that doesn't look like your own is not racism it's a lack of knowledge maybe even ignorance but ignorance should not be punished it should be educated so let's educate in a truthful and honest manner that supports the integrity of all of our students that one looks like it cut off it's out of the it didn't it superseded the field so the full one will be available for you amanda clark 3215 mark lift drive lewis center ohio good evening ladies and gentlemen i appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today i have been a nurse for 18 years and nurse practitioner for almost 15 of those years my experience in medical knowledge has been beneficial in understanding the manipulation that is occurring with regards to

076covid mass mandates and the gene modification experimental drug they are calling vaccine i would be happy to meet with all of you to discuss the details of the below statements but due to time limitations i will try to be brief i stand here today to be the voice for our children the same children that you were elected to protect our children are being forced to carry the burden of decisions based on emotion not truth let me begin with stating that in the beginning of this so-called pandemic i too was fearful at that time none of us understood how this virus would impact our lives i had to make the difficult choice of continuing to work in the career i loved while possibly placing my family at risk i would come home from a mentally and

077physically exhausting shift change out of my clothes throw them in the washer and run upstairs without touching or kissing my family to shower i lost countless hours of sleep wondering if my career was important enough to place my family in harm's way that fear motivated me to do my own research today i stand before you as an educated mother that not only understands the hard truths but one that is not going to sit back quietly and allow bureaucrats to make unlawful decisions that are harmful to our children i don't want to hear quote we are listening to the experts because if you think dr fauci the cdc or most of those making these ludicrous recommendations are being truthful that i encourage you to take the time to educate yourselves we did not vote for the

078elected officials of the cdc we voted for you we elected you to make these difficult decisions for our children our children are suffering in the hands of people we trusted to care for them if it's education you your faculty or the students need then i come here today to offer that education if you turn off the msm and listen to the hundreds of experts that are brave enough to come forward with scientific facts it would be impossible for you to justify masking our children one neither cloth nor surgical masks have any detectable effect against transmission of viral infections if you listen to industrial hygienists and ppe experts they will undeniably prove masks do not protect you against the coronavirus not only do they not protect you they can actually cause multiple diseases it only takes

079seconds to minutes for your body to become oxygen deprived creating an acidic environment bacteria viruses and cancer cells love an acidic environment dentists are seeing horrible oral bacterial infections in our children we are requiring our child to wear a mask that will undoubtedly increase their risk for infections in mouths that are still losing teeth growing teeth and many have braces did you know that fauci wrote a paper in 2008 stating that more people died from a secondary bacterial pneumonia than the virus that was responsible for the 1918 spanish flu he concluded that masks were likely the cause of this pneumonia his story changes to fit his agenda not science two the so-called pandemic has been inflated by statistics and promoted by fear as if that isn't horrible enough we have a propaganda machine lying to

080the public about the safety of this quote vaccine none of these mandates can be justified based on science from testing asymptomatic people to misuse of the pcr tests statistics have been and continue to be falsely elevated even the definition of pandemic was changed to justify calling this a pandemic if we were really in a pandemic why are we not stepping over hundreds of dead homeless people that often have a lifestyle that certainly doesn't promote healthy immune systems why why are the amish seeming and it cuts off there all right next lara crotler 5585 catch street lewis center ohio to the leaders and board of olentangy schools i want to thank you with all my heart for the time and effort that has been put into diversity equity and inclusion at our schools this year nothing

081is more important to our family than living in a school district where differences are celebrated and children can feel safe supported and truly flourish diversity equity and inclusion have always been very important to me i'm a member of the local community group's parent diversity network and women for embeddement we want continual improvements in diversity equity and inclusion at olentangy schools so that children from all races nationalities sexual orientations genders ability levels and walks of life can feel safe supported and able to thrive i also rate the lewiscentermom.com blog and have been both a strong supporter and a harsh critic of olsd i still still feel strongly that olsd must change the ohs mascot and team name to something that does not offend and disrespect the native american community but that's not the purpose of this

082letter the purpose of this letter is to thank the olsd diversity and inclusion team and the alum creek elementary team for all that they have done this year to make school a safer and more supportive place for my child you see during this school year my fifth grader came out as non-binary and gay this was on top of an already stressful and unprecedented year for everyone due to covid you can imagine our feelings as parents having to navigate an entirely new reality on top of already living in a new world due to covid it was a lot the actions of olan tangi's dni team as well as the alm creek principal counselor and teacher we interact with every day and who are copied above made all the difference our child knows that if they face

083difficulties or discrimination during a school day they always have a safe place with trusted adults like mrs wirth and mrs walker who have their back in addition as parents hearing the voices of student leaders like parker who spoke about being transgender during the one community conference gave us hope and strength seeing the district's commitment to make making incremental steps forward to be more equitable diverse and inclusive meant the world to our family i realize there are voices in our community that oppose diversity equity and inclusion i can't personally fathom how anyone could be against these positive values but i understand and recognize there is a vocal minority who come from a place of fear and tolerance hatred and refusal to change i am sorry for the difficult position this puts you all in every day

084i want to thank everyone copied on this email for standing up to fear and intolerance in our community i implore you to continue efforts to move toward equity inclusion and celebration of differences now that i have a child who is part of a marginalized group i feel even more strongly that we're in the right school district our family will continue to do everything we can to make olentangia a place where our child can feel safe supported and truly flourish thanks for your time in reading this and for all of your work to further invite the good fight if i can be of any help to any of you as leaders of voluntangi schools please let me know next david ruggieri 5583 jeffries court westerville ohio as the father of two high school students i'm writing

085to express concern about the curriculum changes in district classrooms that were never shared with parents i send my teens to school to learn academics but this year the district's equity and inclusion team and some educators are placing greater emphasis on divisive social justice issues than academic content quote culturally responsive teaching quote critical race theory or quote equity and inclusion no matter what you call it is an injection of radical politics into our students lives here are examples some 10th grade teachers are using the book stamped by ibram x kendi a writer who states that stated that white white people who adopt children of other races are using their children as props so that they can be perceived as white saviors all the while stripping the kids from their culture as the dad of two adopted

086guatemalan children i find this comment insensitive racist and offensive i object to teachers claiming this author as a social justice expert when he's actually a prophet driven activist who bashes capitalism and emphasizes that skin color defines identity one of the district's equity and inclusion team members posted a passage critical of abraham lincoln from this book on social media with the hashtag truth this is a direct endorsement of candy i'm teaching my son and daughter that merit matters and that they are more than the color of their skin should educators be allowed to contradict our family's truth second there's a bulletin board in my daughter's high school promoting the 1619 project an error-filled proclamation that america's revolution was designed to protect slavery therefore condemning our country as being systematically racist do you all agree with this

087third your board endorsed professional development speaker dr jeffries promotes crt 1619 and blm and has taunted and blocked ohio families on twitter who have spoken up against school districts paying for his services fourth some teachers are abandoning all classic literature important for ap and state testing and instead only teaching rigor lacking i think young adult literature filled with racially charged narratives finally teachers in various buildings are wearing black lives matter t-shirts passing out blm coloring pages and promoting a movement that has criticized the nuclear family endorsed violent and destructive protests and promoted socialism over capitalism through all of this there has never been any communication with parents about the injection of these materials into our children's lives nor has there been any balance of ideas my family and i believe that black lives matter we

088believe that more work needs to be done to build understanding and appreciation of asian and latino cultures we believe in cognitive dissonance and strong democratic debates and just because we do not endorse crt does not mean that we are denying that racism exists that we are having a moment of weight fragility or that we have internalized our bias we do not want to send our teens to schools to be indoctrinated bullied or coerced into assignments that are rooted in radical politics which is exactly what is occurring in some of our classrooms too many parents in this district are being silenced because they fear retribution we will not stand by and be patronized by those promoting equity and inclusion while denying equality and the u.s constitution we urge olsd leadership to acknowledge this issue consider parental

089concerns and rethink its equity platform we're asking you to turn down federal dollars that require equity and inclusion instruction we're at a crossroads and we need assurance that you will rethink your one on tng platform otherwise you will be disenfranchising the people you serve and dividing the district you say that you want to unite we are asking you as parents and taxpayers to listen to us please listen next karina turner 265 tara glenn drive delaware ohio dear board members i want to publicly thank our amazing principal mr spinner at berlin high school as you know we had an unfortunate incident where our beautiful building was treated as a sounding board for discontent mr spinner and our amazing head custodian dewey and other others unknown but appreciated quickly removed the graffiti rallied the kids for a

090double blue monday and hung a large banner echoing our berlin culture that berlin pride is forever i am grateful daily that my daughter gets to attend a high school where the principal and staff truly care about our children claws up i also wanted to let you know of a forum that was hosted by the berlin student association for cultural awareness this was an event where the group invited african-american police officers and a firefighter from delaware and columbus as well as our berlin resource officer deputy scott gaines they met with students and had hard conversations i was so impressed and proud of the advisor tanisha murphy and the students and law enforcement for doing this i was not there in person but was able to view the recording i wanted to bring these moments to your

091attention so they get the applause they deserve and the district families can hear about the positive things happening in our district thank you karina turner next margot seabolt 69 6922 st minions street lewis center it is unfortunate that someone else is reading this public comment for me because the school board and the superintendent chose to keep the board of education meetings closed to in-person attendance a large number of people are asking why these meetings are so close to in-person attendance likewise a large number of people in this district are asking why an in-person graduation was denied to our olintangi students in fact over 11 110 people signed a petition asking for an in-person graduation in other words over 1 110 people do not want a pandemic style graduation many of those signatures are those of

092actual seniors who are patriots braves pioneers and bears i'm margo sieboldt i have lived in the school district for almost 18 years i've been an active participant in my children's education since my oldest son attended preschool and olsd beginning at age three and a half that's almost 15 years of spending countless hours in classrooms reading books being a room mom volunteering at parties attending performances helping with show choir chaperoning school outings organizing super games fundraising and attending sporting events at schools around the district while i only pay 48 dollars more tax dolla 48 more dollars in taxes per year than the board of education president julie wagner fiesel who no longer has students in this district i believe every parent in this district pays enough taxes to expect the members of the school board to

093remember they are elected to be public servants which means they are to represent the voices of district citizens they are elected to respect us and not mock us they're elected to put themselves in the shoes of parents and students and think about the impact the decisions the superintendent and staff make in regards to education budgeting extracurriculars and to live up to the inclusive culture you promote to our students and community members through advocating for an in-person graduation for my son and every other student i discovered the school board and superintendent had no other intention but to treat this year's graduation as another pandemic style event interestingly enough every other school district and over a 30 mile radius is managing to offer a real-life in-person graduation marysville schools are allowing six guests per graduate desales high

094school in franklin county is allowing 10 guests per graduate next justin d board 217 weather burn drive pal ohio as i prepare for my son's graduation this weekend i cannot miss the opportunity to express how disappointed i am with superintendent rafe all the principals in the school board and not holding a traditional graduation you can point fingers at each other all day long like keystone cops but you made the decisions that we are having to adjust to you made it for reasons we that we still don't fully understand osu offered the 22nd to go along with the 23rd the money was never really as much as you told the public and even now your communications director went on abc6 and did not tell the truth when she said audio and visual expenses were extra you

095have embarrassed the district and you should be ashamed of yourselves we are not the only central ohio district that is not having a traditional we are i'm sorry we are now the only central ohio district that is not having a traditional graduation and held a bush league formal with no dancing we're supposed to be leaders in the ohio educational system for excellence results driven outcomes and vast course offerings all we lead in now is being the laughing stock of columbus and a merry band of amateurs what a shame and laughing stock you have all become our children deserve better and you do as you want regardless of how it impacts the very people you are supposed to serve next laurie moore 990 dale ford road delaware superintendent rafe and members of the olentangy local school

096district school board i am writing you to express my concern about what is being taught in our schools and what professional development the employees of the district have been required to do i have been a resident of the district since 1997. two minutes left overall we moved to olsd because of the academic excellence the district promised unfortunately the focus of the district has changed since 2010. i want to share my personal experience with you i was a teacher at a prominent private school for 24 years i resigned in october i felt terrible leaving my students at the beginning of an unprecedented academic year but for my own sanity i needed to do it the school was forcing critical race theory on the faculty i got to a point where i was questioning my own belief

097system how could i be an effective teacher when i could not make sense of the information and activities that i was forced to participate in i was made to believe that i was given privilege because of the color of my skin i needed to apologize for it i had to read writings from ibm candy and watch oprah winfrey documentaries there were facilitators that demanded our participation we were told we would feel uncomfortable and that was fine i was way more than uncomfortable it shook me to my core and affected every aspect of my life one minute i went down a rabbit hole that i'm just starting to come out of thanks to the special needs students i now work with one on one fundamentally i could not make sense of it my grandparents were immigrants

098they came to america in a boat with the clothes on their back and change in their pockets they entered the usa the legal way and had to teach themselves english nothing was given to them they worked for everything they had my grandmother worked in a factory until she was 88 years old my parents grew up poor the only christmas gift they received was from the charity newsies they all they along with my grandparents taught us to work hard and be kind to others this is the key to life they also taught us moral court courage to stand up for our beliefs the last straw for me was when my employer sent out an email with a link to defund the police this was sent in june at the height of the riots my husband the

099police officer was in the middle of the riots we felt like we were on an island critical race theory equity social justice diversity and inclusion and culturally responsive teaching are all ways to push the agenda of separating and dividing people based on the color of their skin it's time do you want to do were you finished with that one no go ahead and finish that one do you agree to finish that email that's fine kevin go finish this one one of the four dispositions of the olsd is kind learners bring out the best in others quote and quote they respect different points of view and demonstrate empathy for people both inside and outside of their community students are encouraged to explore diverse perspectives become increasingly open-minded solve problems alongside people who are different than themselves

100and make decisions that benefit society of a of a whole this along with purposeful resilient and curious are the portrait of an old tangy learner how is this possible when the district pays the speaker to address the faculty and staff to judge people by the color of their skin apologize for it and say they will do better this is exactly what sent me down a rabbit hole if i if i cannot make sense of it as an adult how are children going to make sense of it please take the time to examine the curriculum and what agenda you are pushing the hearts and minds of our children and grandchildren depend on it get back to academic excellence thank you next on our agenda we have our discussion items dr feddy you have some student fees

101to discuss with that ask the board to approve our fee schedule the fee schedule that you have in your exhibit is virtually unchanged from the current year's schedule the only changes you see are to accommodate for new course titles or new courses i believe do you have any questions about those no there i was surprised at how few there actually were thank you very much um next um emily hatfield with the second reading of the five year forecast hello again so we are back let me take that off so i don't sound like i'm gonna drive through i apologize this is a really heavy mask um back to discuss the five-year forecast the previous presentation was done at the end of april that went through most of the details of the five-year forecast and we

102had our large discussion about those items before you i just wanted to bring back the purpose objectives and methodology that we use for the five-year forecast um i won't read through that again but it is available for those who would like to understand more about how we compile the five-year forecast to recap this is what we are looking at for the spring of 2021 the results of the five-year forecast we have had improved revenue largely due to some of the state catch-up or returning of funds to the fy levels we also had our 2020 property valuations are now being collected which also brought forward a timing increase that came from our tif revenues as we now had a full collection on a tiff area in the polaris region so that came on giving us higher

103revenue our expenditures were under budget in a couple of categories we didn't spend all that we had anticipated through the pandemic use of additional substitute teachers in some of our field trips so that helped reduce not only staffing but also fuel and other consumption of materials um so with that we are ending the five-year forecast with an estimated days cash cash on hand at 65 days our informal cash policy is to have two to three months cash on hand at the end of a fiscal year that's when we start earmarking and looking at our next levy opportunity as it stands with this five-year forecast and looking at the information we have before us we will definitely meet our three-year campaign promise from the 2020 levy campaign and exceed that by at least a year possibly

104two we also have our risk assessment that is important to this forecast to discuss and talk about items that might cause that outcome to change one of the components that we've discussed several times is the current enrollment and what's driving that enrollment growth and actually slowing it down so our preschool and kindergarten enrollment was lower than anticipated for this academic year it's really uncertain as to how the economic suppression and overall pandemic will keep that suppressed we don't know if those students will return this coming calendar or academic year or the year after but we will continue to watch that through actual enrollment for the fall as well as an updated enrollment projection in the fall real estate valuations present a risk as we talk about overall economics we talk about the economy for our

105commercial properties in the area and also board of revision cases the law changed as to the components and timing of when our commercial properties can challenge their valuations so we are anticipating some more change in this regard than we've seen in previous years as we've discussed before the state funding and legislative changes continue to come pretty rapidly and with uncertainty from the senate component so we will continue our advocacy for fair school funding plan and additional funding for the district by the state to help balance the local support and the state support of the education of our students we do have four associations um within the community these four associations of in previous meetings have come forward and we have worked with a one-year extension or rollover and then our fourth union has has settled

106and so we do have stability in the next year knowing what those salary and benefit changes may cost us but going forward after that time it creates a area of risk for us as we negotiate and complete those contracts after the next academic year our escco contracted services are an item that we usually bring forward because it is a large component of our other expenditures of course that is the contracted services that we use for our preschool programming it is our preschool teachers some administrators and also the ots pt's and psychologists that treat or service excuse me not treat but service our preschool students and students across the district um so with that i will take your questions um regarding the five-year forecast any questions um i this is kind of related to the forecast

107but we also are approving the budget yeah one year budget which is uh over 280 million dollars so can you just briefly um tell people how you take the individual budgets to roll them into this budget based on your based on the five-year forecast absolutely thank you for that question so we um have actually started the budgeting process in late january we send templates to each building and department supervisor and or administrator of that area and ask them to complete their budgets let us know what their needs are what their projects might be for the following academic year and then we take that information and compile it to create the budget that you see in the items that are labeled 400 to 800. for salary and benefits we use the information that we have through

108our negotiated agreements the approval of salaries that we have through those items those create the personnel costs we also take a look at our enrollment projections and understand how many new students are coming and how many new teachers we will need to onboard to help service those students those also add to that personnel service line of the five-year forecast benefits are associated with those personnel so not just general operating increases from raises and such but it's also additional services we have also coming on board a new elementary school of course we've discussed shale meadows will be online so that's new staffing is included we have middle school six scheduled for fiscal year 24 and then potentially elementary 17 and fiscal year 25 so all of that new staffing brings a new cost to the personnel

109line as well and then the associated benefit costs for retirement which are paid by state statute and then traditional health insurance so those costs are estimated to create the 100 and the 200 object codes that you see on the budget items and then 400s 500s and 800s create the purchase services supplies and materials and other expenditures that you see within the five-year forecast so each group or code of 100 200 etc lines up with the actual expenditure line item of the forecast great thank you you're welcome i don't have anything else i hope that made sense that's a lot of data to roll up and condense down to four lines yep thank you is there more information i can give you okay thank you thanks we'll let you get back to your seat because you're

110up again moving on shaking tonight okay are you ready okay you want to present your treasure action items please yes please i would like to present treasure action items a through g for approval please do i have a motion second any further discussion on those it includes the the financials the appropriations the minutes of our passport meetings um donations the five-year forecast and our general budget okay call the role please mr o'brien yes dr weiss yes and mrs wagner fiesel yes thank you superintendent action items what do you have for us tonight mr reed yes ma'am i'd like to present superintendent action items a through o for approval do i have a motion any further discussion on those okay um can you please call the role dr weiss yes mr o'brien yes and mrs wagner

111feasel yes thank you and now we have our chief operations officer coming up to present um the loan action item under this good evening i'd like to present chief operations officer action item 1381 uh for approval building leadership team supplemental for catherine rafe do i have a motion any further discussion on that okay call the role please mr o'brien yes dr weiss yes and mrs wagner fiesel yes thank you so the last time we'll have to do that because your her coaching career has come to him comes to an end not coaching anyone after uh about 16 years she's coached two sports she always said yeah i'd like to wish all of our graduates good luck as they graduate this weekend be safe and