001I'd like to call the meeting to order this uh May 19, 2025 of the Parisburg School Board. Mr. Drew, if you would do roll call, please. Mr. Bennington, here. Miss Lmer, here. Miss Minky. Mr. Anderson, here. Miss Roland Miller, here. I invite everyone to stand and we can say the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We welcome everyone this evening to the Commodore and it's always wonderful especially at the end of the year to see such a small uh full room. Uh we care about the safety of our students, staff, families, and guests. Please note that there are exits on both the east and west side of
002the cafeteria. In case of emergency, an AED is located just outside these doors in the hallway. If emergency personnel is needed to be called, we are located at 140 East Indiana Avenue. With our safety briefing, we will move to adopt the proposed agenda as presented. So moved. Second. Mr. Bennington. Miss Larmer. Mr. Juror. Roll call, please. Mr. Bennington. Yes. Miss Larur. Yes. Mr. Anderson. Yes. Miss. Roland Miller. Yes. We have an agenda. First thing on our agenda is our recognitions for this evening. So, I'll turn it over to Mr. Hustler. All right. Thank you. Um, this is always an exciting time of year. not because we're in the final days of school, but there's certainly many things to celebrate and to recognize. So, with that, we'll jump in to the OMA Allstate Orchestra and Band.
003Um, and we have Abby Miles who's with us as she approaches the the um uh the mic stand. Um, thanks, Abby. the um we recognize state qualifiers for athletics, but also you'll see on tonight's agenda um also um all state band orchestra and um and and also uh rowing and other types of activities that that have students achieve at such a high level. So with that, we'll turn it over to to Miss Miles. Hello. Good evening. Um again, my name is Abby Miles. I am one of the high school orchestra directors at Parisburg High School. Um, and this evening I will be recognizing both the all-state band and all state orchestra students. Um, I'll go ahead and call those students up and tell you a little bit about their accomplishments. So we have Vijay Gupta,
004Will Hullenbeck, Kalista McFersonson, Nithia Rajan, and Jacob Xiao. So the students you see before you here um underwent a a audition process in which they were auditioning um against um other students from various regions across the entire state. These students spent countless hours practicing and preparing um their repertoire and the audition materials and were selected to participate in the all-state band and all state orchestra and performed at the OMA state convention back in February of 2025. And at this event, this is one of the highest honors that you can get as a high school musician. So, we're just very, very proud of these students and their accomplishment. [Applause] I don't know what instrument and also behind those students and their accomplishment are very accomplished uh teachers. So thank you and your colleagues for all that
005you do VJ I'm wondering is this VJ? I was wondering what um VJ's instrument was. Oh, okay. Oh, beautiful. Thank you. Just wondering. So, next is Paris Parisburg Junior High School uh state science day qualifiers. So, we have a number of folks to to recognize. Um and then um seventh grade science teacher uh as he makes his way up to the um to the mic uh Mr. Corbin Brangham uh will introduce his team. Um can I have my team up here with me that way? Uh as you can see we had a very successful science today this year. Um it's our largest group ever. Uh this year we had nine students qualify for state science day uh which is triple our previous record. In order to qualify students needed to ask a scientific question and
006answer it using scientific methods. They needed to do f full background research keep records like uh very detailed records of everything they did. They had a full report was about 10 pages or more uh create a visual and oral presentation for judges and then they needed to earn a superior at the regional science day. This year ours was held at Ohio Northern University, but next year we get to do University of Toledo, which is much closer. Uh, so they had to earn the superior to get to State Science Day. Um, from there, students who earned a superior at state science day were invited to a celebration of science event at Ohio State University on May 10th where they were able to showcase their projects and tour the science labs. Uh, we'll start at the end.
007So, Prrenav Pulu uh in his project disinfecting water, he tested a method of disinfecting water using sunlight to see if it was still effective during the winter. Unfortunately, it wasn't, but that's good information to know. At regionals, he earned the SAVE award, which stands for SAVE Science Alliance for Valuing the Environment, which is a local group. Um they're headquartered in Sennsylvania. He was also invited to share his research at the SAVE conference on May 13th here in an excellent estate science day. Next we have Arya and uh Stigda. Uh their teammate Gari would not was not able to make it today. In the project effect of light changes on bioluminescence of dinoflagulates, they studied how changing the dayight cycle affects the ability of bioluminescent algae to glow and disturbed at night. So if you ever
008seen those pictures of like the glow the glowing um ocean at the beach, they were studying those uh algae. They earned a rating of superior at state science day. Uh, next up we've got the team of Tiertha Evnita and Manazvi. In their project titled bananas, sugar levels from raw to ripe. They used a refratoter to measure the amount of sugar in bananas as they ripened. They earned the syrup seropimist award at regionals and a rating of superior at state science day. Then last we have Olivia Boyce. In her project, what food will benefit ants the most? Lettuce chicken or seeds? She studied the effect of ant diets on their ability to dig tunnels. Her project was named best of category in animal sciences at regionals. She earned an excellent at state science day. Then also
009unable to join us today, Ishan Verulu who uh earned the NAMSO sponsored uh award for best project, the award for outstanding accomplishment in environmental engineering and the college savings award at regionals and a rating of excellent at state science day. He created a soil moisture sensor and used it to detect how different soil types held on to moisture. Go and give him a round of applause. [Applause] We had an opportunity to to uh meet and and hear a little bit more about this uh 2025 service and volunteerism award. And um I'll invite Anaisa Williams to come up and and introduce uh the recipients and talk a little bit about uh the the tremendous jobs that they've done and um and welcome. Uh oh. My name is Analisa Williams. I do our college and career readiness
010for Parisburg High School. I have um two representatives for uh the job connections program. You know, as seniors, we graduated yesterday, so it's it's yeah, tough to get people. So, first up is senior Jackson Kazinski and junior Colton Rumley. [Applause] The proverb goes, "Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime." The Job Connections program began as a response to the growing need for schools to educate the whole child. The course focuses on building students character, interpersonal skill sets, and resiliency through volunteering and giving back to the community. This vision supports the overarching district goal of all students reaching their greatest potential. As a district, we strive to help young people develop academically, emotionally, as well as socially,
011educating the whole child. Students with within this program model the core values of a Perryburg graduate. A thoughtful problem solver, purposeful communicator, respectful collaborator, persistent innovator, lifelong learner, and empathetic citizen in the Parisburg community. This group of Job Connection students were nominated and won the 2025 Ohio Service and Volunteerism Award for the state of Ohio. Job Connections was just one of two youth organizations recognized um at the awards ceremony in Columbus in March. These students have volunteered for over 150 hours of service, selflessly giving back to the Parisburg community. The Serve Ohio program continues to inspire students through the guiding principle. We give, we learn, we serve, and we grow. Thank you so much to the board of education for supporting this program. Parisburg schools is one of the leading school districts in the state
012of Ohio for their innovative college and career readiness options. Thank you so much. You know we had to bring all of our stuff. I don't have any stuff. Thank you so much. I know at the Perryburg Heights Center, they were saying they didn't know what they were going to do without the students now gone. So, they've really relied on all of the hours that they've put in there. So, thank you. There's our This will go in high school. our state seal kids. This will go in the high school. Thank you so much. Really? Yes. Thank you. Signed by Governor. That is so incredible. Well done, you guys. Thank you for doing that for us. Well done. with all the different uh volunteer options uh that our students are able to utilize. um we we have
013pretty high expectations that we want outstanding individuals in the classroom but also out in the community doing the kind of work that these students were were just recognized for. Um, when it comes to athletics, we know that we have high standards uh for our athletes uh not only performing but also being good citizens and and good scholars and our our wrestling program has certainly achieved another level of success that uh um not only their success on the on the mats, but also um in the classroom and in the community. So, with that, we'd like to introduce assistant coach uh Mark Evans to come up and and uh talk a little bit about the outstanding program, the unprecedented success they've had, and introduce some of the some of the young men. So, take it away, coach.
014So, I'm assistant coach Mark Evans. Coach Scott Bernett was unable to be here today. Uh but we just have a couple things that we wanted to to recognize. Uh this year our team finished third in the state uh division one. We took uh we scored the most points that we ever had. We had the most qualifiers um in program history and we also had the most the the u most placesers as well. In the district tournament, we were the runnerups in the sectionals. We won sectionals in the NLL. We won the NLL championships again. We had eight individual places with Connor Bagadonis finishing seventh, Aiden Dodd finishing fourth, Gay Bernett winning a second state championship, Aiden or excuse me, Alex Denkins finishing second, Uriah Lopez finishing third, Brody Balman finishing fifth, Kaden Sodto finishing third,
015Marcus Blae winning his fourth state title, Cole Evans winning his third state title, Josh Tackets finishing seventh. Ben SA and Eric Bush both qualifying. So, wow, that's incredible. And then each wrestler was given a uh patch, a coin, and a pin. Those were all donated by uh custodian Robert at the high school, who's been a big supporter of Parisburg Wrestling. That's cool. No wrestling, guys. It's cool. They're not Dundy. [Applause] Next, um, and next up, I I believe this might be the first, uh, first time we've had national championship qualifiers in the program's history. And, uh, so very excited about that. and I'll invite uh coach Ethan Peters up to talk a little bit about his program success. Good evening. I'm Ethan Peters, eighth grade science teacher and head rowing coach for the high school
016rowing team. And I'm pleased to recognize the high school rowing team's varsity women's four who are Midwest regional finalists and are advancing to the Scholastic Rowing National Championship in New Jersey later this week. This boat consists of five graduated seniors, Katherine Cromley, Tatum Tackets, Ava Rantin, Emma Branchshaw, and Tory Grayson. These accomplished young women have made history for our team and school as the first women's varsity four we've ever advanced to the national championship and our first medals at the Midwest Scholastic Championship since 2021. Accomplishing this is no small task. Our regional championship includes 50 teams from 12 different states and includes many many teams that are many times larger than we are. There are no division or schools size-based uh competitions in rowing. Teams of all sizes compete against each other and this boat
017has put in millions of meters over the last four years. They've overcome obstacles and dealt with many challenges and learned from them and have overcome them to accomplish an incredible feat uh just over a week ago. On day one of the Midwest Championship, they finished third in time trials where they raced against the clock and advanced to finals on day two where they sprinted head-to-head against seven other teams. After a slow start, they propelled themselves from fifth place to second place in an exhilarating final 500 meters. The team, families, and coaches were screaming at the top of their lungs from shore as we witnessed one of the most exciting races we'd ever seen. The race commentators could be heard making comments such as Parisburg is really turning on the heat. Parisburg is in third, but
018they aren't satisfied. They're really pushing the next boat, and Parisburg has a lot of grit. And anyone who knows and has worked with these athletes know that this describes them really well. This boat is the embodiment of grit, determination, and passion for the sport. We are so proud of them and all that they have accomplished and are excited for them to represent us on the national stage. They've made our team, community, and Parisburg schools proud. So, congratulations to our women's varsity 4 and good luck to them uh at the nationals championship in New Jersey later this week. Thank you. thing to note. Um, and we always like to say this because it's still always true. We thank not only the coaches, but we also want to thank the parents, the guardians, the grandparents that made
019it possible. I'm going to I I did notice that there is um a brother and a sister that were here recognized today. I mean that that's just double the practices, double the time. Um we know that getting everybody to all the places is a big commitment. And so we know behind each one of these athletes is at least one adult driving them around and getting them to the right place at the right time. So thank you to everyone who supports the students in all their endeavors. Uh so next is the the shining star award. So this is a very uh prestigious award given out to uh a well-deserving staff member that that makes a difference in students lives here in Parisburg and also is a is a great role model, somebody that up uplifts their
020peers as well. So we've talked about some of the great accomplishments that that our our students certainly have achieved. uh but now is a moment to recognize um a staff member who has been recognized and identified by their peers for having those same kind of qualities that we've come to expect in in all that we do here at Parisburg. So, um with that, I'll introduce uh Mr. Scott Buer, principal at Parisburg Junior High to to talk about the Shining Star Award recipient, uh Mrs. Andrea Mannheim. All right. Thank you, Mr. Hustler and the board of education for allowing me to uh present Andrea Mheim the shining star for the second semester. So, Andrea, come on up. So, in your in the board agenda, I know you have you pasted all the the recommend the nominations
021that Andrea uh received, which was quite a few. And so, my task was to kind of condense them all into a little spiel here with her. But, you know, I've known Andrea for years. Um, quite literally, she was my seventh grade health teacher, too. So, I always like to throw that out there a little bit. Um, but also too, I was an assistant coach for her when she was the head girls uh track coach at the high school for many years before I came over to the junior high in the current role. So to to give you some summary on everything that Andrea does, you know, first and foremost, above anything else, she is an incredible leader of people and she serves as one of our counselors at the junior high. Uh which in the
022junior high age, obviously being a school counselor is so important to have uh to support our kids and support our staff. And she is one of the best I've ever been around. And I think if you would talk to anybody in the school district who's worked with Andrea from a counseling perspective, she they everybody would have the same comments uh towards her professionalism with that. Two years ago, she decided for some unknown reason that she wanted to add more to her plate and she is also our junior high athletic director. So when she stepped aside from coaching track at the high school, she approached me went through that process and you know one of the concerns I had initially was how can you go from counseling hat to AD hat and she has done that
023seamlessly and it's been actually a better transition than I ever could have imagined. So her support to our athletic department has been absolutely just fantastic. She is one of our web coordinators. So the list is going to go on and on. So if you you might need to get some water here. So she does a lot for us. So web coordinator um she went got training through the boomerang project which which is a nally accredited program stands for where where everyone belongs and she coordinates along with a team of teachers and then Mr. Decker as well our orientation program for our our seventh graders and a mentorship program for all of our students that way. You know with that in addition a BLT member a crisis team facilitator. She does small groups with students in
024the junior high focusing on different things which I which I'll touch a bit on a little bit later. And in the past she also was a cheerleading coach at the junior high I believe a cross country coach and in 2016 was the district coach track coach of the year. Um, as you go through those uh nominations, you'll see some consistent themes on Andrea, you know, and among those are just the positivity and energy that she has every single day that she comes into the junior high. Andrea never has a bad day. She always has the same smile on her face you see up here. Every single day with that and that makes her a natural person that our students just flock to on a daily basis and our staff members. She's a comforting person. you
025know, when we have many students, like I said, junior high, very tough time, Andrea is the go-to person to many of our students there. She has the empathetic ear. And then also to kind of putting that AD hat on a little bit. She also holds our students to high expectations and high standards with that. And that is such a a hard balance line to find being empathetic, but also having those high expectations and high standards for our kids. with this. What's amazing is if you see Andrea in the hallway, it seems like she knows all 830 kids. She seems to know all their siblings, all their parents, all their hobbies, all their athletic accomplishments, all their extracurricular accomplishments, and she always says something to all the students in the hallway whenever she sees one of
026her students going simply is amazing with that. Her small groups that she organizes focuses on stress, organization, grief, study skills, and friendships. And it's been a safe place for all of our students at the junior high to have that extra support when needed. And but what also too is very special are I kind of made my note here, the impromptu moments. And I know you know Stacy Bunker who's here, one of our school sites, comment to me how often that students come during lunchtimes simply to eat with Mrs. Mannheim because they needed a moment and she's giving up her lunch to eat with those children to make sure that they feel comforted and supported in our in our school here too. So from a staff impact too like I told you it's going to go
027on and on and on with Andrea here. So from staff impact her voice and input means a lot to the entire staff. She has done several professional developments uh leading our staff and it's always a pleasure to have Andrea with her story that she shares. Um and she's never lost sight of that teaching perspective, you know, with her colleagues, you know, with that. Um she has not afraid to have hard conversations with our staff members when it comes to individual student needs, but always comes in in a way of collaboration and being able to to show the different points of view and and to be able to switch on the different lens with our staff, with our kids. um much like for our students, very empathetic yet honest in helping our staff. You know, some
028final thoughts about Andrea and uh I pulled out some quotes from the different nominations in here. You know, one nomination said that Andrea is a strong supportive she supportive relationships with everyone who's part of our Perryburg schools community. She approaches everything with enthusiasm and a smile on her face. She puts her whole heart into work and helps others feel seen and supported. And I think my favorite one through those nominations was she's she's a true light in our community and I couldn't say it better. There's no one more deserving for this than Andrea Mahim. Thank you. Another nominator coming up for the picture. [Applause] Full start. Miss Manheim, thank you for everything that you do for our district. I still remember my son being in track trying to figure out how you guys managed like
029half of the junior high at one time. So we have wonderful coaches that um we will uh move into our fivem minute break which gives those of you who don't want to stick around for the rest of the meeting and a graceful way to leave. Uh we would also uh move into the public comment if there are any after this. Uh but it's 6:14 right now so we'll go for five minutes. At 6:19 we'll resume the meeting. [Music] 19. We're um back into the board meeting at this time. I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Jur for his presentations. All right. Well, thank you. Good evening. um present got two presentations tonight and separated the financial re you know the monthly financial review from the five-year forecast and I want to but I do
030want to kind of all three of these though all three both of these will feed into the presentation Tom and I have after this section so it's it is all it is all connected um but we'll try to be brief but uh give you the information that you need moving forward so the general fund update We are 83% through the year. So, you know, surprises are hopefully are over and we cruise um financially through the next two months. And we're again, we're tracking our cash balance just like we do year after year. And as we'll talk about though, the only surprise here is that we're doing, you know, better than what we I'd expected a year ago or even as early as November, but we'll we'll talk about that later. And again, you can see
031the light green is our cash balance. The dark green is our expenditures. Expenditures are relatively flat month-to-month. And and obviously our cash balance fluctuates based on on um our revenue stream. So, let me start by we're 173 true cash days, which is outstanding. Um from a finance standpoint, this is where I like to be all the time, which is though it's not, you know, really practical. Um, our revenues year-over-year is down 3.6%. Again, not surprising based on obviously, you know, the um the the levy fail um rejection in in November, but we we made up some of it up elsewhere and our expenses are up 7.6%. One of the big ch one of the big changes here is um Tom's computer never likes my that's not a change doesn't like my presentations but um why
032he's pulling that up. So I do this every year in May when I I update the May forecast based on our actual spending trend. I I I could do that almost every month through the year, but I kind of I could wait till May. I'm I'm have a fairly high level of confidence what the next two months are going to be like and so the the financials in here reflect what's in the what's I'm going to present in the forecast. All right. So so just so you know so these if you go back compare this to April I mean March they're not going to they're not going to match because it's been updated based on our spending and revenue trends. And of course like on the revenue you see all these 100% because we don't
033expect in those areas to receive any more any any more revenue. But I don't have it circled here but um the the good news is last year at this time I thought that um fiscal year 25 we would neg deficit spend 3 million 3.2 2 million and we're g and we should deficit spend less than 400,000 and that's but that's you know it's I want to call it's not accidental right the things that have happened and mainly the staff changes where we've we've not filled positions and we've absorbed that pain right the things like not having custodian so eliminating building use so it's it's it's great from a financial standpoint but there's been you know pain inflicted elsewhere um as we've been prudent not filling positions going into the reduction year next school year only.
034So I want to make a couple comments. We're on trend on everything, but one thing and this is just for transparency on accounting standpoint. I'm this year I'm going to be doing something different. we get about May June we'll get a reimbursement called threshold costs for high for high cost um special education dollars and but for last year they're always a year behind and you have an opport as a treasur I can post that in a couple different ways I can post it as a restricted funds or I can re post it as a reimbursement of previous year's expenditure and for visibility standpoint point going forward. I plan I plan to post that as a reimbursement of a previous year expenditure. So that that line you so you'll see the restricted state aid drops because
035of that. But the you'll see every year a refund of previous year expense that will be um that will be threshold costs. I think it makes it a little more transparent, a little bit cleaner, you know, from an accounting standpoint. Um and we don't always have refunds of previous year's expenses. The last couple years we have the ESC we've had a refund where they we've been overbuild because we we we kind of with them we pay based on anticipated services and sometimes for example maybe we have one less parah or something happens and we get reimbursed and then sometimes um workers comp refunds fall into that. So that's just an accounting change. So, you know, the percentages are going to be off year-over-year, but next year it it'll be consistent. So, any questions on that?
036I don't want people to feel like we're, you know, but, you know, in the accounting world, there's more. A lot of times there's more than one way to do it right. I'm trying to do it right that makes the most sense. Um, and then on the expense side, we're on trend. We're 83% through the year and you can see, you know, we're pretty much on those numbers. Um, as as expected. Of course, we're always okay coming in below 100%, but obviously from a forecast standpoint, I'm trying to be as accurate as possible. So, not much. Pretty boring. We're on trend. We're on trend. And now we So any any questions on that? I want to spend just a couple minutes. I put these reports in in board docs. The the auditor of state has initiated
037a new program called financial health indicators. The they've had this program in place for municipalities but not for schools. So it's being rolled out for schools. And what essentially they do is take your fi audited financial statements, run these ratios. those who have been through finance and graduate school, these are standard ratios. There's really nothing. It's just numbers. It's plug and chug and the ratios aren't within a certain range. Um, and the whole idea with this is to help identify districts who are heading towards trouble before they get in trouble. All right, there are 17 total indicators. Um almost all public schools 15 apply and many of us 16 indicators apply and it's red, green, yellow. Um keeping it simple for for us folks. Um and of course the attention early warning for future fiscal
038issues. These reports are up at the auditor states office site website. You can look at from any school district along with our audited financials. But make it easy I've attached them to our to to board docs. So there's two reports for FY23 and 24. So just quickly in FY23 we had 13 green, two yellow and one red. The one yellow one yellow was cautionary due a drop in unrestricted assets. So anytime and mostly cash right if our cash balance which it will be less than it was last year we'll get a caution on it. All they're doing is look it went down. It's not whether it's good or bad it went down. So you got a caution and we have one cautionary and one critical indicator is doing an asset to liability ratio. Oops. What
039that means is in in in Eric's world it's more important on your balance sheet, right? You have assets which includes your physical assets and all your liabilities. It doesn't quite apply in our world because we don't really care about we care but we don't depreciate for tax reasons but we depreciate for real reasons. So our buildings essentially are depreciated right? So we have we have all these buildings but there's not a lot of they're they're not the value out them in the books is not that high. The other thing that's changed as I page forward in here, which I didn't put up here, is that um a couple years ago, the state said, "Look, you guys all participate in STRS and SCS." That is a liability to the school district, even though you're one of
040many who participate in that. So, within our liabilities, we have we have um our our retirement liability, our portion of state retirement. It's so it's it's there. It's not it's not in theory if STRS or STRS went bankrupt the obligations to the employees the school districts would have to make up. I don't know how you do that but that's in theory. Um last year so 24 we had 14 green indicators and um and in the same asset to liability ratios and that'll be there for for forever. This is good. You know they're not looking for one or two yellows. It's got to be significant changes before they start throwing the red flag at us. And just so you know, state budget stuff's going on. I'm not going to we're not going to talk about it
041tonight, but I I I will I would give a kind of a preamble that uh um chances are the five-year forecast will get updated because of state budget. Okay. There's a good chance at this point. We don't know what's going to happen. Our my crystal ball has gotten very very murky. Um but um any questions on that on the financial reports at this point? Okay. So we're in good shape. We're ending the year strong and that strong strength has come on the back primarily of you know really not filling staff positions as well as some other savings that that we've had you know like um LED lighting, propane buses, that kind of stuff which we'll talk about. So I'm going to with that I'm going to run into the five-year forecast. Um, this is like
042a record break, you know, just that little pause. So, the five-year forecast I'm, you know, we went through it in detail at the work session, so I'm not going to go through it line by line. You're welcome, Sue. Um, but I just want to remind the board while semianually May and November, we do the five-year forecast, and the main purpose of that is engage this conversation about long-term planning and financial discussions. The five-year forecast is also our basis for being able to sign contracts. It's that, you know, if we don't have money, as the forecast says, we can't sign a contract because we can't meet the contracts obligations. And then the Department of Education and Workforce and State auditor used the five-year forecast to determine districts at risk. And they're getting much more aggressive about
043this because of the number of districts got in trouble. So, if you're look like you're going that way, chances are you're going to get a letter say, "Hey, you look like you're going the wrong way. What's your plan?" But couple notes. This is a forecast of today. Like I said, the the the state budget is the big thing that's sitting out there that could change that, you know, and there could be other things that impact it, but it's a and it's based on a particular set of assumptions which we've talked about already. I'll talk about some new ones here. not new ones, but adjustments since and there are tons and tons of places out there you can go if you if you really want to go down a rabbit hole with this stuff. So, I
044want this is just a little reminder because a question I keep getting is the forecast doesn't show really like the the the levy falling off as well as the cuts. The problem it does, but you got to pick the right benchmark, right? So our my benchmark if you will is May at this time. And so if you look at this chart shows the forecasted revenue each of the fiscal years based on when that forecast was made. As you can see um last May we expected a little bit higher revenue. We were forecasting that the levy would have been re would have passed right and it didn't. So we see a reduction in there. And if you look at the important here the the expense side this is where this is where what we happened this
045year in terms of not filling positions and the reduction show up. So if you will last year at this time I was forecasting our expenses in FY26 or the coming school year to be 85 million or so and right now we're a little over 77 million. That's $8 million. That's the difference. That's at six million plus what we've saved this year. So, we're actually over six million in terms of in in terms of year-to-year savings. And that that folds into our levy conversation here in just a little bit. So since the work session um I've updated the FY25 based on actual trends and um and we've updated BA B other things based on retirements. We've the change in STS. We have retirements come in every day. Um Mr. Chrissy does a great job working with
046me. He's what do we think we got a teacher retiring at this salary where they're re reimpplaced by a p teacher at this salary and those are up-to-date savings that's captured. So we've we've captured all those retirement savings too and it's very significant if you think about it. Um a teacher who's at the end of their career versus one who's early in their career. That that difference is is very significant. And here's the the biggest change in this from May 7th is and and I was probably overly optimistic on May 7th and did not put anything in the forecast about property tax reform. There is going to be property tax reform. We just don't know what it is. So what I said the best one we know in terms of the numbers in terms of
047calculation is Senate Bill 66. Senate Bill 66 essentially takes all of our levies, all of our operating levies, doesn't include the bond levies, includes inside millage, includes our income tax, puts it all in there and say, "Okay, that's your new base." Like for us, it's like 35 mills, not 20 anymore. The floor, it's 35. So, as property values go up, that mill that effect is going to keep dropping till it hits 20 again, which it it will never hit 20 again because our income tax won't let it. You know, we're trying to get the income tax portion taken out of that, not included in there. But Senate Bill 66 has this the biggest impact on us directly and it impacts us actually on the for outer outer two years 28 and 29. And so this
048is our new basis for a levy conversation. We'll use November for a benchmark because coming off that levy, but from from a um from a revenue and expense side, this is where we're this is where we're going to start. So couple weeks ago, this is what I shared with you that we would um our cash balance without a new levy, we would be obviously $22 million negative in fiscal year 29, which obviously can't happen legally. That can't happen, right? But it did show that this year, next year, strong cash balance 27, not so good. And the revised forecast The first three years are about the same. The difference you see is the last two years. That's the impact of House Senate Bill 66. We'll see the impact of Senate Bill 66 in the last two
049years. And you're going, "Well, Randy, why?" And it's because in next year in calendar year 26 is an update year for property valuations. And I've got forecasted a 12% increase in property values now. and and um Auditor Ostright thinks that's probably a little bit conservative, but if Senate Bill 66 goes through, it it doesn't it's not going to help. It's not going to impact the effective rates, mill rates will all drop for the schools. Won't necessarily drop for anyone else, but it'll drop for the schools. So 30 to four 35% of property taxes are school taxes. they they're subject to the effective rate and they would be essentially go down. That's so that's the biggest change. So again, you saw this, we're not out of the woods yet. Looking better, feeling better about things. Obviously,
050the permanent improvement levy passing is big and it and finishing the year strong, I think shows our commitment to live, you know, to live within our budgets. And now the question is what's the next step? And here's again here's a final thing I want to say on here. True cash days. I'm going to try to we got to look at the the numbers but most of us can't relate to $25 million. But we can relate to having 120 days in the of money in the bank to pay our bills. And 25 million means that's 120 days for us. And this assumes no restoration of staff or programs that were eliminated through reductions. And if nothing's changed, we would next year some point in time, we would get a letter from the aud says, "You're in
051fiscal watch. What's your plan now with the revised forecast?" Well, no, let me back up. So going back to I said we use November as our benchmark coming out of the um levy rejection. I said look we had to pick a number for a levy renewal and I picked 14 million at that time because that would get us through the next five years. So just as a benchmark I've used 14 million in my forecast here. Now this really doesn't carry any weight. What's important is the line above it. But this again, please note I'm using this as a benchmark, not as a recommendation at this point. And if with this forecast at 14 million new levy in November, we'd end the this period at true cash days of 84. Not, you know, not horrible. I
052mean, actually good, but not I don't think um over overkill by any means, but that's in the eye of the beholder, right? um at 131 days you're going that's pretty significant but you drop fairly quickly. And again there's no restoration of programs or staff that we that we eliminated in for fiscal year 26 and we're still deficit spending you know in in the final year of the forecast. So right now we're just waiting the state budget and property tax legislation and so so really the next steps is whatever state comes and then whatever the board's decision and what to do in November. So that's you know right now you know a little bit the the dog is waiting for the tail to wag and we'll see what goes from there and then you know whatever
053we have control of here. Any questions on that? Anyone? And we probably don't remember all the assumptions, but hopefully we'll hit the high points here. Questions? Any comments? Questions? We Okay. Well, thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Jurer. Um, we have 6.4 agenda item 6.2 to 6.3 for approval. So moved. Second, Mr. Bington. I'll go with Miss Mankey for the second. Any other discussion questions? So, we're approving both the financial report as well as the five-year forecast. Again, probably with the understanding that we'll be reapproving a five-year forecast once we get visibility into the implications from the state budget. All right, Mr. Dur. Roll call, please. Mr. Bennington, yes. Miss Minky, yes. Mr. Anderson, yes. Miss Lair, yes. Miss Roland Miller, yes. Um 6.5 Finance Committee minutes. Um Mr. Bennington, Miss Binky, any additional comments
054or discussion? No. Nice summary of the of the minutes are in here um of the discussion. I'll just point out, you know, we had a kind of a I don't even know if I call preliminary, just a general discussion about the levy in anticipation of the conversation I assume we're about to have now. So, some of this was practiced on with the finance committee, I guess, is what I'm saying. Guinea pigs. All right. Well, then we'll move into what Mr. Bennington nicely segueed us into. Uh, number seven, we'll turn it over to Mr. Hustler and Mr. Drew for uh beginning conversation about the operating levy or some kind of version of the future for the district. Mr. Yeah. Well, thank you. Um and uh both Randy and I will kind of take turns um walking
055through some of the information that we're presenting to you this evening. Uh so why is a discussion needed? And and certainly we point back to uh a levy rejection on uh in November. And um and so that is really what is driving us. And with that levy rejection, this is kind of an overview of what we experienced. It's a loss of 17% of our annual budget. That's about 13.5 million a year. And as of January 1 of 2025, 9.7 mills which generated those dollars was rolled off of individuals uh taxes here in Parisburg. So that left a pretty large, you know, gap in in our budget, a pretty big hole. And so we set about how do we fi fill that? Um, you know, it's been widely covered in the media in terms of what
056that plan is, what it does. Certainly, um, at the the board meetings, we spent a lot of time really before the levy was on the ballot going through what would we do in the event that the levy is rejected. And that is something that we worked through um and shared that with the board. So those factors are leading us to where we are today because as Ry's cartoon with the five-year forecast, we're really not out of the woods yet. Uh so so this is really engaging with what do we need to do to get out of the woods and and that's what this conversation is about. So, taking uh cues from from Randy with the going back to the November uh 5-year forecast, um he highlighted this is this is the whole 5-year forecast document.
057Um and uh so we we kind of pulled out a portion of this and and that shows that without a a levy um any new money, we would be running out um very quickly. Uh so we would have um less than $400,000 cash on hand to to pay bills. Uh that would be the end of fiscal year 27. And um and so things looked obviously like we're in the middle of the woods. We're just starting to head into the woods. So, you can see here that one of the things that Randy alluded to earlier, and you can see it here on the November 5-year forecast, is that he plugged in a $14 million number uh to to to kind of guide us as to what it would look like with new money. So, why 14
058million? If you recall in November, we had uh 13.5 million dollars that was on the books and being collected. We asked for an incremental levy that would go up a little bit each year. And um that third that $14 million uh put us back to where we would be uh had the levy been a straight renewal. What's important about that is that includes the $6 million worth of reductions. And going back to June of 2024 when the board sat down and said, "What are our options?" One of the options was to to renew that levy, but we would be asking voters to renew a levy and cutting over $6 million from the budget at the same time and the board felt that wasn't a good ask to the community. Uh so so that is where
059we were in November and and moving forward with that uh projection back in November with the $14 million a year. It it would lead us to uh 50 days cash at the end of the five-year forecast. So, um the the board policy recommends uh 60-day true days cash and for people that are at home, um you should set aside so much money uh in the event that there's an emergency. There's different theories as to how much um you should set aside. And so, the board has said we want two months worth of expenditures set aside. And um and so we would be below that with the $14 million. So I say that's a good point. That's why we're looking at true true cash days because 13 $14 million is a lot of money. It's two
060months, right? So just trying to keep that something that all of us can relate to. You know, I may not need $14 million to get through two months. My wife's Amazon purchasing maybe. But the point is, think about your home life. What are you comfortable with? So since November, we've obviously taken uh taken a lot of steps to to try to uh stop the bleeding. The patients on the table, we want to stop the bleeding. And so we've done that. So, there's been some significant factors that have led to um our current financial conditions, and we just want to echo those because I know Randy talked about those, but the the state uh teachers retirement system changed their eligibility uh from 33 years to 32 years. Each year u we budget for a certain number
061of uh retirements with this change. And tonight, later on in the agenda, you'll see a number of retirements that came because of this that weren't part of the budget anticipated. So that is a benefit when you're replacing somebody at the top of the salary schedule with someone at the bottom of the salary schedule. Uh so that is a benefit. So we experienced um you know significant benefits with that. If you can not fill that position, and there's some cases where that's happened, uh that's even a better benefit uh to the bottom line, not necessarily to the service of what we do, but to the bottom line. Uh so, elementary redistricting was also uh a net savings for the district. Um we had a number of of uh custodial positions and other positions for example where
062um we were going to make those reductions next school year and individuals saw that happening and decided to leave or to retire. and we were unable to attract people to replace them because who wants to leave a position to take a job that will be eliminated in in 4 months. So we had a number of uh positions that went unfilled. Uh we reduced uh how we're using substitutes in many categories. So that was important as well. And with our inability to fill those positions, we had to move the timeline to restrict afterchool activities to right now um versus next fall and that reduced overtime. So there's these kind of cascading things. When we have more propane buses, those are a cost savings. the LED lighting, uh the use of substitutes, not a very popular program,
063but we we have now um requirements as to, you know, how many copies individuals can make in the district. All of those things lead to um a savings in real time. And so investments are are outperforming what we forecasted and then additional reduction through contracted services with the ESC. So if we can keep a student here instead of sending them out for services um and and we've really worked hard to to try to do that where possible. So that results in some changes that that Randy talked about. So instead of a $3 million deficit at the end of this year, we're looking at just about a $400,000 deficit. Um, so with the the five-year forecast that the board just discussed and and approved, um, it's it's important to note that with this, we are deficit
064spending in in each each of the years of the five-year forecast. Uh, so this year it's 400,000. We're wrapping up this year. Next year it's it's 6 million. uh the following year it's 9.3 it's 16 and a half and then 20.3 million in the last year. So those are are our our fiscal cliffs that are lining up that require us to take action and the two actions that we have available are to make reductions to offset each of those deficits. So in in very straight terms, it is cutting $6 million next year. It is cutting 9 million to avoid the deficits. Uh we do have a cash uh reserve uh or cash balance. That's kind of the checking account balance. And you can see that at the bottom and you can see it dwindle to
065where it is um you know you know minus $6.4 $4 million in in fiscal year 2028. So, if we don't change anything and we continue to to operate as we are, um we will be hitting the rocks uh in fiscal year 2028. So, I think that's important. Um if if we look at the future, if we're not on the ballot or if we have a ballot issue that's rejected this year, depending on the size of that, uh we would need to make about $2.5 million of reductions for the next school year. Um so, so this would um you know, certainly be something that we will talk about. Um, and so delaying a levy requires us to go to the voters when we when we do go to the voters asking for a higher amount. Um,
066and if the levy is not uh supported or rejected, then the amount we need to cut will increase as well. So, so taking prudent action now will help in the years to come and we'll kind of break that down for the board. So, kind of focusing on this um with the the the $14 million operational levy that was plugged into the 5-year forecast that leads us ends up with uh 20 84 uh true days cash. That's that's what that looks like. Um and and so that's important. So we wanted to also explore and we talked about this at the finance committee and I appreciate the committee members leading the conversation and they said okay well that that really becomes where we were in November the $14 million mark that doesn't restore any of the things
067that were reduced so those things aren't coming back um those funds aren't coming back and um and so we began to look at well what would happen if we were to do some other things now because of the reductions that we've made throughout the year and because we're we're in a little bit better position today because of all those reductions that we identified that it's happened between November and May and that impacts us every single year the five-year forecast. So we plugged in what would happen if we had an a million $11 million um annual operating levy. So, not the 14 million, but now 11 million. And and so we plug those numbers in, and you can see at the end of the five-year forecast, we're we're left with 44 days uh two days cash.
068So, it puts us under that that 60 days. So, if you you know, you set aside two months of operational funds at your home, uh this puts us a little bit below that. Uh but it certainly is something that given the where we are and the ability to to to um make reductions and fine-tune the budget between now and then um it feels like something that is very doable for us to to do that. So during the uh um finance committee uh there was a couple different options that were explored and they're represented on this chart. the $14 million we've covered, that is about 9.98 mills. Um, and and the question that we asked is when would we be back on the ballot? So, if this were a 5-year levy, we would get through all
069five years without needing to be on the the the ballot. So, that levy will expire in five years, and we'll be going to the voters and asking them to approve a levy or letting it expire. the 11 million levy. We also looked at would we need to go to the voters before that according to the the the five-year forecast and the answer is no. That is a 7.8 mil levy. There's less room for error though with that one. Right. Right. So if you I'm not saying what you should do or shouldn't do. 14 is comfortable. As as Mr. for hostage 11 is doable, but just know when you start getting out fiscal year 28 29, the board's not going to have as much flexibility, but again, you're doing a smaller ask up front. Now, of
070course, things could change. Who knows, you know, maybe someone will get anyway, I'm going to editorialize it. We don't want to go there. So may um also we were asked to look at you know an $8 million levy and that would be 5.75 mills and when would we be back on the ballot and that would be 2028 3 years in or we would have to make um reductions before this levy would expire. So, we would ask voters to approve a levy uh that brings in $8 million annually, and we would either need to make cuts in three years or we would need to go back to the voters before this levy expires. Um, and so that would set up a situation where we're either making cuts midyear or I'm sorry, uh, in the middle of
071the five years or we're asking voters to approve another levy to get us through and then two years later we're coming back and asking voters to renew or add on to this levy. Um, and and so the other conversation that took place was an income tax. So if we were to put an income t a half a percent income tax on that's the equivalent of about 7.48 mills uh and just we we would we would get to 2028. Um and um and and uh that average would be about 7.72 u million a year on average because the way that the income tax builds over time. It's a longer runway. uh the way that it's collected and we would be back on the ballot in 2028. Yeah. Fully collect that's 10 and a half million. So
072it's it's close to the the um 7 the 11 million but it takes so long to collect it. It takes almost two full years before you get full collection on an income tax. And so that's why it's it it has some better has some good long-term impacts, but in the short term it takes longer to to collect. and we've got that we have that modeled if we need to look at at some point in time. So decision guide um all of these do not restore any of the $6 million in cuts made for this upcoming school year. So that's important um that that those $6 million are not part of, you know, any of these calculations and and adding those back. Again, coming back to the analogy that doesn't work very well, but the patient
073is on the table. We want to stabilize the patient. We want to keep it from bleeding out. We're not, you know, putting more blood into the patient at this point in time. We're just stopping. So, we want to do a deeper dive into the 7.8 mil levy. That's that raises $11 million a year annually for your consideration based on the board's board members discussion at finance. That is the the kind of the direction that that we were given, you know, by the board. So, we want to be very transparent. So what we're talking about with this levy, an operational levy on November 4th would be a new levy. It it would be a tax increase. So I just want to be very clear on what we're talking about here. So levy was rejected. Those mills
074went away. That is gone. So anything we're asking for moving forward is is a new levy and it will increase people's taxes. So, as we start to talk about these different scenarios, we we want to put that out there so that people understand what we're talking about. So, what does this mean for homeowners? And again, being very transparent about this. So, the 7.8 mills per $100,000 of of value is $273 annually or $22.75 a month. Um, so that's what we're talking about in terms of what impact will this have on on you. So we do want to because people are going to make these comparisons. So we wanted to take a step and make these comparisons between where things were left off on December 31st, 2024 when those mills, you know, were were about to
075be uh erased and what this levy would bring forward. So voters rejected um the levy that was on the ballot and that eliminated 9.7 mills um resulting in that loss of of funding and we've not collected any of those funds. That that millage is gone. But it was 9.7 mills. That's what people were paying in 2024. Um and and that has gone away. So now, you know, through the conversations that we've gotten leading up to this presentation, one of the options that the board will be discussing is the 7.8 mil levy, which is smaller than what folks were collecting back, you know, or paying back in in 2024. Uh so we heard loud and clear that the tax burden was a concern with the property values rising the way that they have and we think
076that this is a responsible step to to you know stop the bleeding of the schools and give us that sustainability, give us that predictability that we don't have right now. And we'll talk about the impact that that's having on us. Um, and again, this will not restore the $6 million that was cut. So, just to be clear on that. So, a little bit of comparison because we know folks will want to know this information. So, when in 2024, uh, individuals were paying 9.7 mills and that's the levy that expired when the, you know, in the ballot issue was rejected in November. So, that is 300 that was $33,9.50. 50 cents per $100,000 of home value. Again, 7.8 mills, what we're discussing right now is $273 annually per 100,000. So again, it is 6650 less per
077year, $5.54 less than what folks were paying in 2024. So I think that's important. um taking it the next step. We also talked significantly during the the uh campaign in November about the high school uh bond issue that will be paid off. So, beginning um in in um January 1st uh on uh 2026, if this levy is successful and it goes on the books, it'll be going on the books the same time folks are done paying for the high school bond issue. So that's 1.7 mills right now. Um so again, it's it's lining up very well. So that 7.8 8 ms will feel even less than that because of the total tax bill will be reduced by um that 1.7 mills. So how does that really what's the real feel of that? Um you know
078instead of $273 it would be $213.50 per $100,000 when you factor in those two things one going off one coming on. um and that $17.79 um per month. So again, different ways that you can look at this, but at the end of the day, um it is a you know, back back in 2024, folks were paying 1.7 mills, actually a little bit more, and then 9.7 mills. And and you can see where we are from 2024. But again, the reason we're spending time on this is to make sure people understand because this is a new tax. Um, and and it is something that we want to remind folks of where they were and if we're successful in November at the ballot with this particular issue, where we could be. So, um, it's 3.6 mills that
079were being collect that will be collected than 2024. And you can kind of see the benefits there. um where um you know the where we stand with this. We've talked about this theme of not being out of the woods and um and and if the board were to say, you know, we're not going to be on the ballot because of that accumulating, you know, compounding um deficits. we would want to make reductions uh going into to that next school year um to to slow that down because that cliff will be pretty steep and if we don't do that the next ask will be you know higher. So so that would be something that we'll be communicating and working on if the board were to go in this direction. We don't have we don't have it
080here but just the equivalent so the $11 million is kind of it's our benchmark. Mark. I mean, obviously the board hasn't we're not saying that's the answer. It's just kind of as a starting point, but the equivalent ask if you wait a year, if you say, "Look, we're a good cash position. Let's wait a year." November of 26, the equivalent ask is 15.5 million. Okay? Just waiting a year. And that gets the same point, the same two days in 29. We're comparing apples and apples in terms of cash balance in that last fiscal year. So that's so so you ask oh you're good but let's do we do a smaller ask and then of course the risk is higher the longer you wait because of that financial cliff and as as as Mr. Hosers pointed
081out it's like making a reduction in fiscal year 27 it's making small red well say 2.5 million is not small but make a relatively smaller reduction that way if something negative happens we're not making astronomical reduction in in the following year. So take you know just like a little bit of savings today means more than savings tomorrow. A little bit more revenue today means more than revenue tomorrow. So I think um that uncertainty that is really hanging over our heads right now is something that I know certainly the board feels. I know it's certainly our staff feels and I think our community is beginning to feel that uncertainty, the weight of that and and I wanted to share a couple things because this uncertainty is is impacting the classroom. We know the programs and and
082the the staff that have been cut certainly impacts the student experience, but but I think this is something that we wanted to share with you. So, we had a a teacher candidate decline a job offer from Parisburg and instead they accepted and will commute to a a high school in in Sunduski County, much lower performing high school. And and so that's something that we are that that that doesn't happen to Parisburg, frankly. Uh we had an English teaching position. Uh we received five applicants and we are interviewing this week for that. five applicants for a high school English position. Last year for this same position, we had 22 applicants. Um, and going back to 2021, we had 31 applicants. Uh, we have a a foreign language position that is split between the junior high and
083the high school. We have two applicants and one candidate is currently licensed of the two. Um, we had science teacher position. We received five applicants and only one that holds a license for the area that they would be teaching in the fall. In 2022, we had 19 applicants uh for a science position and we had three teachers that were laid off and we were able to recall them due to the retirement and all turned us down because they had found jobs in other districts and because of that uncertainty did not want to come back because we're not out of the woods. So I I think when you begin to to think about that um that is impacting our ability and and we kind of say it here um it it it's impacted our ability to
084you know to recruit applicants. Consider that three high school positions were just highlighted. Um, and total applicants for those three high school positions, 12. To fill a vacant board seat, we had 22 people submit applications to give it perspective. So, people are watching, candidates are watching what's happening and they're looking at, you know, their futures and where do they want to spend their time. And this uncertainty, this is a cloud that is is hanging over where we are today as a district. And that will impact that will impact a student experience here in in Parisburg. Our teachers continue to do great things. There's no doubt about it. And we celebrated some of the great things that are happening in our district. And behind every one of those activities, there was a teacher standing alongside those
085students. and and that's the kind of quality staff that we've been able to attract. And um you know, if you're if you're in a smaller district, and we've done very very well over the years with people that start out somewhere and then they want to come to Parisburg, but those folks are not willing to leave their districts to come here and be first on the cut list and and that is impacting what we do. Um so so again we we've heard about all the different programs and things but this is a concrete example and is that the kind of district you know we we we have had no um and so the future is is you know getting larger and larger in the windshield. uh timelines. We were asked to to provide this information um
086and and if we want to be on the ballot on November 4th, August 6th is the board of elections filing deadline. So that too is getting much closer in the windshield as we travel down this road together. Um also very important is we want to continue to have the the dialogue beyond this board meeting. And so, Thursday, June 5th at 10 a.m. and uh and at 6 PM here in this room in the Commodore, any residents that would like to come and talk about what we're discussing here um can can do so and we will work out the details um in terms of board members being present. But um we want to continue the conversation. Community engagement has been a huge theme in the last year and and that continues. Uh and and so we
087we we'd be remiss in not presenting this information and not having an invitation for folks to continue the dialogue with us because it is important. It's important to our students. It's important to our community. And um you know, so we'll we'll stop there and turn it over for any questions that we can answer. Any I guess first content questions and then we'll move into discussion. All crystal clear. Okay. I mean I'd be interested to hear if there was um additional conversation during the finance committee meeting that would be valuable as we dive into this. Yeah. I don't want to take it down. You know, my my whole thought process that is continuing to evolve and and retrench and evolve again. And I've certainly um been at the can we ask for what we lost uh
088last year with with the um levy rejection. But in the conversation and again revisiting and the slide was up all of the work that the administration has done that this board has done in cuts uh on the backs of our staff and the redistricting on the back of our elementary school families and and to hear about how I'm going to use the word successful in in bringing you know more uh or reduced cost to the community. You know, it started to become apparent that yeah, you know, that's almost a little bit of a of a give back then from all that work that was done. That started to move me off of the in these discussions off of the $14 million more to to the 11 million. You know, the one of the discussion points
089that we did have that I don't know how much it came out here and it's a tough one to gauge is what is that right days cash outstanding number. You know, I love 84. I really love 120. Can we live with 44? I mean, we're at we we were at one point, you know, predicting 52 days in the forecast. So 52 days, the sky isn't falling immediately. It is manageable. It is livable. As Mr. Jurer said, it doesn't provide a lot of room for error. Something can really disrupt you. But if 44 days is something that is manageable and a reduced ask from 2024 fits the bill of what is my favorite levy. It's the one that passes. Um you know that that seems like something to continue to discuss. So again that's not what
090you asked me. I kind of jumped out on the conversation. I apologize. you know, the the the focus in the finance committee from, you know, what I was keyed in on anyway was what is the day's cash outstanding benchmark that we're comfortable with. Um, certainly a reiteration. We also talked about, you know, we don't have to do anything, guys. You know, we could we could sit on our hands and kick the can. Doing nothing is an option. It's a really really bad option. You hear how that $11 million becomes $15 million. um if we wait another year, we're back on the I mean, we know we're certainly gonna be back on the ballot very soon. So, that's not an option. I think there's a theoretical discussion or a values discussion. These these programs that we
091have cut, we've said several times they're not coming back and and they're not coming back. But you we could make the argument on the other end of the spectrum, it's not even 14 million isn't the isn't the max. It's something more to bring all these programs back. But the community has got a lot of challenges ahead of itself economically too. I mean depending on what costs are going to do by November and what the economic circumstances are in the community in November. So again these are all these are I'm rambling now. I'll shut up. You're giving me the hook. So that that was you know not very brief what other items we discussed in in finance. the board in in board docs and the finance committee notes my the presentation that we discussed at finances
092there so it you don't have all the context of the conversation but some of these examples that um Mr. Bennington's talking about, we have them illustrated in terms of true cash days. For example, the half percent income tax leaves us at four true cash days in fiscal year 29. That's obviously you you can't end there, right? That's essentially zero. So, you'd have to do but the point is there's some other illustrations that may if you look at them and you have questions, please, you know, free to ask. We we're trying to keep it this conversation focused for you, but we do have the same illustrations on the things that we've discussed. Miss Mikey, did you want to add anything? I think the final thing to to say on this and to keep in in context
093is is this will remain a wait and see game as we buckle down a little bit more in time with the budget. Um, but unfortunately this is a cyclical every two years issue for boards and it's just like I said, it's a wait and see game. It'll be interesting to see if they step up with Senate Bill 66. Um, unfortunately, we won't know until June 30th at 11:59 and 59 seconds. and it it that has happened before. So, um I think it's prudent to say we we probably really can't make up our mind until July 1st. Is the is the income tax restricted to three years or is that just a modeling decision? You can do an income tax one to 10 years or continuing. So we did we did I modeled five years as
094everything five years with the idea to get through this this forecast period. But the income tax um Mr. Anderson the the key with it is while it collects fully collects 10 and a half million of today's dollars it doesn't get there right away. Right. The if you pass um a property tax levy in November we get that all of that next year. Now, it's split between two school years, but we get it all in the next calendar year where an income tax takes longer to collect and and pay back, which is what's driving the three-year thought is that something would have to happen then in three years to make up for that. So, it's not it's not the income tax falling off. It's the cash driving it timing of the collection of the cash. Perfect.
095So, how do the um you've got 84 days true cash for the 14 million, the 44 for the 11. How does that amount of cash work with that silly capping thing that they're talking we're we're we're well below that. Okay. Now, I would and I'm going I will make one prediction about about the bus about the budget. There will be a cap. I don't think it'll be 30%. I think it'll be higher than that. In the case of if you look at this forecast, this is our best case, right? This is if you $14 million at our current situation, we hit 131 true cash days. 30% cap would hit that year. Okay. So, of all our scenarios, that's the only time it would come into play. So, it it we're really below that cap, the
09630% all the time. So it's again and but there's way and you know and anyway there's some ways around it that that legislators themselves have kind of hinted that we could do to to get around it but why do it at all but why do it at all exactly but I don't think a 30% cap it's a good question but worrying about the 30% cap would be a good problem for us so yeah I and I haven't been you know that's one thing we've talked about on our cash management policy is we don't have an upper limit. And the reason we really don't is because we don't ever expect to be there, right? We're at 173 days today, but that's one month. That's a point in time in the year. That's not our norm, right?
097So, so that's why that's, you know, we're more concerned about the low end and our cash management policy says if we're looking at the forecast and we see 62 days less coming up, the board should expect a um recommendation from Mr. hustler and I on what we do about it, right? Levy doesn't pass, here are the reductions we make to make sure we stay at 60 days. So even so even at that 44 days, we should have a plan in place if we don't pass a new levy or do we have reductions in place or planned on that 180 days has to today has to carry us through the next three, four, five months when we're not going to collect another dollar of revenue. you know, very little, right? Yes. Very little. Yeah. You know,
098look at um and I hate to our friends at Well, they're not they're on the side of the river, too, but Anthony Wayne um they're they're she's borrowing to make payroll this summer. Whoa. Yeah. she, you know, she ends the year at two per at four true cash days or two, you know, and her, you know, you got a $2 million payroll like we do per payroll, it's significant. So, if we do the 11 million, just throwing this out there, we do the 11 million, then we know we've got trouble come 2028. Um, so we're kind of telling a future board either be prepared to make cuts in in what 26 or 27 27. Well, with the 11 million, you're good until through fiscal year 29. It's fiscal year 30 that you're going to be
099concerned about. And to Miss Mkey's point, we don't know what that next bianium is going to look like. I think what I have here with Senate Bill 66, if if I was going to bet on a scenario, this is probably not unreasonable, but we don't know, right? So sue to your point is that 44 true cash days, do I think it's low? And yeah, that's that's four years out. And the question is as a board, you know, that that next board's going to have to deal with that and we're going to have to keep looking ahead, but we would have to have a plan in place for new money going on the ballot, you know, that or andor reductions out there. But at least between now and then, we're stable and you have some time
100to plan and adjust. Well, it sends a signal that there is some measure, there's a great measure of fiscal responsibility over the next five years as well. We're not flush with cash and it's it's two benium budgets in the next five years, too. I mean, we're we're we're sweating the next one. It's the next one after that that could be really tricky. So, I mean, that's the uncertainty with the state and Governor Trestle. That's why I see that. That's why I'm just kind of in theory I'm just intrigued supportive of this idea of not going after what we lost in 2024. You know, reducing that amount, reducing that ask. There's there's a lot of appeal to that from a riskreward standpoint. Um it doesn't it doesn't help the two days cash, but it doesn't help
101in some other areas. Still back on the ballot in 2030. um not making any more cuts, but putting in financial responsibility. It just kind of seems to thread the needle of of um some some some things that'll be helpful in the ballot box. And I guess just to add just to add to that, right, when you look at the expense growth in those out years and the forecast, it's pretty healthy. So I'd imagine between now and 27 28 29, we can work to tamp that down a bit, right? 5772 57% every year is a pretty healthy number. Well, and and that's and and that's going to happen. Why it's just sitting here, right? It's just it's it's because we are, you know, of our um budget what it is, it's it's personnel. and then you
102know we're going to we'll have some time in their new contract negotiations and you know you'll have OBC and the teachers but it's really the it's really the teachers that that drive that and then and the struggle is going to be going back to what Mr. hostel is showing in terms of recruiting. You know, we our teachers are at 2 and a half% where everyone around here is over over 3%. And I'm not saying that's not, you know, I got two and a half built in. So that's if you have any room. That's where it is, right? And but you're going to have to negotiate that. We're going to have to negotiate that when the time comes. And purchase services is just the next well back up. benefits are tied to salaries and of course
103controlling health care costs is the biggest one there and then purchase services the driver is special education costs so we know what the drivers are and in some cases we don't have I say we don't have control we we we make efforts to control but it's not you know turn the spot on and off is not it's not like turn light switch on and off you know special ed's going to provide every child, you know, a free and appropriate education at least restricted environment per the law. And we do a great job, I think, with Dr. Gleser and her staff to to to to make sure we're doing the right thing and not just throwing resources at the at the kids, but we don't always have control over who's coming here. Fact, we don't have
104any control over Yeah. And I think that um you know figuring out the right amount that puts us at the right cash days that's appropriate for this community is certainly our first question and as we you know engage the community as we discuss as a board. The second question is going to be to the community again this is you know off the five-year forecast this is based on what the world looks like now. if this community wants this world of our district to look different, either by adding programs that don't exist yet, programs that were reduced, or if they say it's, you know, that was a nice low amount, looking into the future, if you need more money, you need to cut more, then that's a that's the conversation that that I'd like to have
105with the community. So for my priorities, it's what do we need to do to to maintain where we are now without having to do more reductions immediately. Um and then to talk with the community about, you know, as we continue to um find ways to engage directly with the community to say, what is it that um you know, we've heard that some people wanted gifted back in the budget? Well, let's talk about as we live into um not having a gifted program. What does that look like? and what is missed. Is that something our community is willing to support in the future? And the same way, are there programs that don't exist? You know, we hear more and more about workforce um readiness. What does it look like? We, you know, fabulous program that we
106have right now that won an award. What are other ways that we could be better preparing? Those programs may cost, you know, they're going to cost more resources for us and people um to help lead the students in those. So, I think that's the that's the that's kind of the two-part conversation I have in my head is what do we need right now for the way the world looks like right now? And I realize the state's going to um change that view over the next month, but as of July 1st, what does the world look like? And then going forward, um you know, if this is the way the world looks, do we want the world to change? um and that ways that cost us more or cost us less. Um for now, I I'd
107like to figure out the best way to uh provide the revenue needed for where we are right now. So I do want to say I I think the other thing I I do want to say very clearly I am not interested in any way of delaying this and making it more expensive for the community in the future um or giving us that um not only the uncertainty that comes around hiring but the risk that that puts us in in the future with any other changes uh to revenue or expectations from the community. So, I believe that we need to have something on the ballot in November uh to be really clear about where we're heading. No, no, you're fine. I I agree with you. We have to have something in November, but am I missing
108something here? Is this very myopic? I mean, it doesn't in thinking about the the report from Ken, is it pronounced liner? Is that how he pronounces it? Phonetically, that's how it's pronounced. So, that's how I'll pronounce it. um minor but yeah um what does this do with the demands from those community forums that they don't want trailers? They want us to address the growth which we had done in the levies that we put out there before that were um wholeheartedly rejected. This this is keeping us at a um well shall shall I continue the analogy to me that seems like it's keeping us at a tourniquet modem. Um you can't survive with a tourniquet wrapped around an artery bleed. So what do we do? Are are we missing that planning for the future that we've
109been criticized that we don't do but we did but it was rejected and this doesn't so yikes. What does how do we how do we address the obvious needs of an exploding high school and future trailers that are coming to us that those two community forums said we don't want how do how does that's not addressing any of that right yeah um it's a good point I've thought about this a lot if there was an appetite let's say the community came and said hey we want you to address we let's reopen the building project, whatever whatever shape that is. Under this plan or under this plan, under this scenario, you would have to think about doing a bond and an operating levy together to to to accomplish it. Kind of like what TPS just did,
110right? So, there's no in the in the old with the growth that we had built into the incremental levy that was built in. If you did a new building and did what we had planned that was built the growth was built into that forecast. We've taken growth completely out of say not completely almost completely out of the forecast in not next year but the following years as if you remember from the the May 7th work session we have a little bit of money put in there for growth to adding things like for compliance like intervention specialists or speech pathologists. So we do have a little bit of money in the future years built in there, but it's not it's not significant. So the way and the way it's shaped up, you know, class sizes may
111grow a little bit, right? It's just there's not a lot of money built in to be able to handle that that growth at this point. Yeah. I think the um you know, it's it's the adage, you know, um watch what you do, not what you say. And I think the community has responded, you know, we're not interested in raising taxes. They have responded and said, don't raise taxes. Um, and and you know, the 75% margin I know just a few, you know, a few days ago shows that, you know, that was not a new tax. So, so whatever they say in the forums are what they say in the forums, but what they say at the ballot box, I think is a pretty clear message. They they're not they're not agreeing with one another, but
112one dictates what we can do and the other one doesn't. Well, it's true. And I think it's fair to say not everyone in the community agrees. I mean, you know, it's not nothing past 100% to zero. Um, so there certainly are people that were willing to um, you know, spend more money in order to provide those um, extra classrooms, not have trailers, but the majority the majority, not everyone said no. So I think that that's the conversation again that I think in the future that I think you know both we knew from last year's focus reports as well as the you know the the folks who came to the forum and the report that we received from Mr. Ker that that there are conversations that we need to continue to have and that's part of
113the what do we want to add and what do we want to take away. Um, right now I I'm not I'm not prepared to try to put back on anything that raises taxes like that again just because we haven't heard the support yet. You know, and you guys heard more than I do obviously with the community, but the Monday morning quarterbacking I heard November if you had just asked if you just done a renewal. Now, maybe the people just it it would have passed at 13, you know, no new taxes at that point. I don't know if that's true or not. I don't know if I believe it, but you know, that was kind of that theme out there. And now that it's come off, anything we do is new. So, um, renewal again, the
114renewal again is $6 million of cuts and seven and a, you know, so I mean that the renewal wouldn't have worked. We would have had to have made we would be here today with renewal. Um but we would be stable because we would have that money coming in predictable predictably. Right now we don't have that predictability. Okay. Um Yeah. Right. Yeah. So, Miss Lmer, I'm kind of willing to trade off some of the concerns that you mentioned there for that certainty that that we don't have right now. I don't like it, but I think that's the p that that's the path of um of best success. So, um, based on my really rough count, and someone can correct me after this meeting, but I have that we have 79 days until we have to have
115language submitted for the ballot if we are to put anything on in November. um we have scheduled those you know June 5th times in order to hear from sit with we can talk about kind of the structure of those but um you know we have couple work sessions a retreat and a regular meeting I would assume by about July 21st we're going to have to have approved whatever needs to go on. I don't think we want to approve that at our August 6th meeting the day that it's due. That sounds like a bad idea. Um but it does mean we'll have to have um I would think a tenative decision by early July to get that language um properly aligned with the auditor. So I'm I'm just going to raise that if we if we
116really don't know what the state's going to do until July 1st, we're going to have about a week or two maybe to figure out the final decision. Well, here that's a that's all a great point where my head goes with that that that thought is we're looking at 44 days cash outstanding without knowing what the state's going to do. If we kind of kept with that theory once we know what the state's going to do, if we came into the say the June regular meeting with something with this analysis, it looks like 44 45 days, you know, whatever makes sense or that would continue this conversation. Yeah. And I think again um Mr. Roland Miller's point the process and this is Mr. Anderson Fino there's two resolutions the board has to pass. The first is
117a resolution of necessity. So you defined how much you're asking for what term echoes the county auditor who calculates the millillage and once I have that then we can actually do the resolution to proceed which actually has the ballot language. Legally, the auditor has needs two weeks. Now, practically, we can get it done faster than that, but if and and Matt's good guy, he will work with us on it, but you know, he could say, I I want two weeks to to calculate this. So, you have so you really are probably the resolution of necessity h should happen probably by, you know, early early July, but the regular meeting in July doing the resolution to proceed. Uh that I mean I I don't like driving it that close. Yep. But that's Yeah. Because because the
118other thing is um um it's it's more technicalities, but the the ballot language takes a little bit of work to make sure it's absolutely right because if there's any technical glitch on it, it can get thrown out and there's no doovers. And ask Ottawa Hills. Ask Ottawa Hills. So again, who makes the bill? The state budget is done by it is completed by when? June 30th. By June 30th. Yeah. And I just I just want to jump in for one second. I think it was two bianium budgets ago they they extended the deadline. Awesome. So that I think they did it by two two weeks. Don't quote me on that, but there's been a time where two weeks. Mhm. So don't I wouldn't hang it on and when you do get it at at midnight
119it takes a while to go through the document to see what the real impact is because there's no hearings on the items that they're doing. So there has to be an analysis of well what is it that they actually did. Yeah. So to to Miss Lmer's question on the ballot language, what happens is um our attorney, our bond council will produce the language. The board approves that in in the resolution to proceed. It goes to the board of elections. They take it, they then they take it and put in ballot language. It comes back to me to approve. And then and and I will tell you, I'm a chicken. I have our attorney look at it between the two of us. We, you know, we make sure all the eyes are dotted and the te's
120are crossed and then we sign off on it. Then that goes then it goes back to the board of elections. So we write the ballot language. The board of elections writes it, you know, kind of copies it, but who knows? And then we approve it. So the key is it has to be to the board of elections by that date. There's some work that goes back and forth after that date, but the key is we have it on their doorstep. I and I hand deliver it down there and get a hand and getting a receipt everything to make sure it's right. So, we can continue to talk in theory in June, but setting an amount doesn't happen till July. Well, we're going to have we're going to have some indicators of what's happening, right? We're
121not going to know may not know for the last hour or it could get extended, but I think we'll have some idea what the wind which way the winds are blowing. We'll have some kind of idea. Um, our professional associations do a good job of getting simulations and stuff for us. Um, I think worst case is by the end of the month we should be able to have a couple of idea bracketed ideas by the end of June. by the end of June worst case. So it may not be so we kind of know where we are and it's no it's the attorneys need a few days cost us a little more a few more dollars for their time but they could draft a couple a different resolutions of necessity and then we pull out
122the one that that works. So so that shouldn't hold us slow us down too much unless something dramatically happens. I mean, the the adding in this Senate Bill 66 off the top of my head without looking at all your detail, that was a $6 million change in our five-year cash balance. So, that really does $6 million at this point. If it changed another, you know, I I hope it's not going to get worse, but we know it could. So, it it does have an impact on this. I I'd like to um unless there's something really burning for anyone like to move us in the agenda to our next item if we're all ready and we'll continue to work. I open invitation to any board members you want to sit down and go through our simulations
123some more. You know, I will gladly spend hours more than you probably want to spend on it. But, uh if it helps you understand where the numbers are coming from, I'm happy to do that with you. That's good information for us to continue to review. Um, thank you Mr. Drawer and Mr. Hustler for that. I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Hustler for the superintendent report. Thanks. And I I'll go quickly through this. So, one, we wanted to begin with a thank you to the community. Um, it's 75% approval. Um, you know, certainly a a show of for the voters who showed up. It was a it was a statement of unity. So, we're grateful for that. Um, we know that it protects millions of funding and we just spent an hour talking about,
124you know, the the swings and this gives us that um certainty that we've been searching for in the previous hour. So, we're we're really supportive of that. It it it maintains that infrastructure. Um, you heard the the red light that the one red light that we received from the auditor of states, you know, financial is our facilities, the age of our facilities. these dollars are really needed to to do that. So, that that that shared commitment towards our our our school district, most importantly to our students. We're just very uh grateful for for that. Um the volunteers, their voice made a huge difference. And um you know, we're going to continue to do what we're doing and and work hard with community engagement. And again, it's, you know, don't listen to what we say, but
125watch what we say and what we are doing um or watch what we're doing, not what we're saying because we are um following up on on those important things. So, uh had a great uh graduation ceremony yesterday, so everybody was here attending and um the the graduating class had over $25 million offered in scholarships uh combined total. So, that is incredible. you know, that last uh weeks of school uh are certainly very memorable. Uh one of the neat things that they've done here is uh you know, that after the final exams, they they gather at Steincker Stadium uh for a senior sunset. So, that was pretty neat to see that. Uh many of you had a chance to see the spring musical uh Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. some outstanding, you know, cast and and
126crew and the music and everything. Some just some wonderful individual performances, too. Uh, as well, so uh great uh a great experience to to see so many kids engaged in that uh performance. The walk-athon and dodgeball assembly was a huge hit, pun intended, and uh they they loved to see that and it it it raised uh $5,800 towards the jacket weight program at HPI. Um scholarship time. Um, we wanted to recognize that that local 242, the Oopsy group did their scholarship award and and um you know um uh Maisie she uh Zapeda is um um very active and I'm sure you recognize her from um all of her twirling, you know, not only on the sidelines uh at our games, but also in the community and across the state and nation. And uh she'll be
127performing uh at uh Purdue basketball games. So, I guess that is a big thing in in Purdue. So, we're excited for her. So, um we also had some um a relay jacket runners uh for the the the uh marathon. So, it's great to see um our our teachers out there running and competing. And uh we had a number of student groups that were working water stations. So, they always get very excited when they see their teachers out there, you know, running. So good to see. Uh this was really interesting at the junior high talking about that entrepreneurial spirit and uh so we had a guest speaker Luke St. Ahmad um or a man who talked about his experience on the TV show Shark Shark Tank and what he's done and and uh carried that message
128to some of our students. So Walk for Hope um May 3rd was was certainly the student art show. So um you know this this was something that was very successful. High school Indian heritage club um their their celebration uh certainly a great time for a number of students to come out. French club authentic cooking French bakery uh high calories which is always a good thing. And we've been running a theme of jacket moments that matter where people have been taking time to post different things that are happening. And I won't go through all of them, but if you haven't had a chance to um to to read those, they're really inspiring because it really gets back to the core of what we do and and you know, that relationship between our students and our staff
129and especially our teachers is is really special and uh remarkable. So that is really what sets Parisburg apart and we'll continue to do so in the future. So, so, um, and then just our our annual, uh, or our monthly update. I'll flip to to that. Um, uh, this is the student safety and and staff accountability update. Um, so we have a couple things here. Again, we're doing this because of this commitment to transparency and action. And you know when we talk about the levy and we talk about the things in in the last hour and a half you've heard those words during our conversations we began with transparency. This is what it will cost you. This is a new levy. Um you know and the action you know inviting people in to talk about. So
130this is something that is a theme to to all that we do. Um, so we've had our since the last board meeting, we had our our monthly meeting with those that are responsible for monitoring the the tip line and those individuals are listed there. Since the last meeting, um, we we had um since the last board meeting, we had that that monthly check-in. Also, we did meet with the police chief and the building SRO's uh as a semester meeting to review um all the tips that we'd received and and discuss them and and talk to them about what we're experiencing, how it's working, and receive their feedback as well as as law enforcement. So, that's something that continues. We've begun to um keep track of all these reports so community members can go back and
131monitor um and and hold us accountable to to what we're saying. Are we doing what we're saying that we were going to do? So, this is something that's important. This presentation will be added to that uh to that link after today where people can go and see the presentation and hear the comments. We do have the video that's been shown uh to to our students, the student bill of rights, and we have the tip line. And that's something that um you know is very important to us that we've implemented. And so since the last board meeting, we've received uh three additional reports. Uh they're all from the same complaintant. Uh, one of them was a archived concern from 2019 about uh um a uh a student incident that was addressed at the time through building
132level administration to the satisfaction of the complaintant. No new information was provided but was not happy with that resolution today. Um hiring concern from 2013. Uh this was a decision that was made over a decade ago included information in the complaint about the employees spouse that was not known or necessarily relevant because at the time of employment because there are laws that prohibit us from even asking if a applicant is married. So it is something that that isn't part of what we can ask folks. And then the third complaint that we received on that day from the same person was um a disagreement over support services decision. Uh so um you know so that had been handled appropriately just disagreed with the outcome of that decision. Uh regarding Mr. for henline. Uh since 2000, I'm
133sorry, since February 19th, uh there have been no additional complaints lodged. Um one of the things that we did get into when we met with the the the chief and the police was looking at providing some more clarification to what the tip line is for. And the three examples that we kind of highlighted today sort of fall into this. The intent of what we did setting this up was to talk about specific complaints against staff or following up on a complaint someone had about staff to see where that was or what was done with it or if anything was done with it. Uh, as mentioned today, we're talking about decisions that were made a decade ago over a hiring decision um really begin to fall outside what this tip line was created to do. Um,
134we did receive a public records request asking for information from the tip line. So, we're working with our attorney on that. Um that is a concern to us because we've really worked hard to create a space where people can report things, have a certain level of accountability. Um how you know somebody who is asking for that information that can share that wherever um that is causing us to have some conversations with our attorneys about what we can and and can't share under the law. So we'll have an update on that. Um so but at any rate um you know we we continue to to look over the things we we had our meeting with the police and just a reminder of where folks can go. Uh so that is a quick uh update on on
135that. I think I I would just add to re you know to reinforce maybe what you just raised um especially with the public records requests. I think some people are using this line to um share concerns about studentto student concerns which really should be that chain of command you know who you bring those to the attention of versus reporting them through this line since it is um the issue of public records right now. So I I do think we have concerns about you know what is being reported whether it's appropriate to be reported is is one thing um certainly but if it really was set up about staff issues um more than studentto student uh so I think that's a concern that we have that we're not we're trying to figure out um kind of
136what to do next with that. Yeah, I think it's important from a public record standpoint request for information about staff. It's a completely different than anything to do with the students, right? Occasionally get if if my child, you know, was uh bullying Eric's child and got disciplined, Eric has no legal right to know what the discipline was, right? And people think they have a right to know if my you know these things and it shows up public records request and they and they don't. And I think that's sometimes struggle. I wonder how that kid got punished or whatever. And it's not going to it's not going to happen to a public records request. It's not going to happen from the staff either because a Furpa violation. Any other questions, comments? We'll move on to community
137engagement. Um we have minutes from our last meeting and you also have in 9.2 the uh each of you had already received it but the report is there as part of the agenda. Now um we have certainly within the community engagement committee been looking at the recommendations and next steps that were provided in that report. We're also kind of combining them with the outcomes from the focus uh group reports from February of 24. They're very similar. Um a lot of overlap. So we're we're kind of working through those right now. Um we did have our first meeting of one of the you know next steps that we identified and have uh Miss Mankey and I have been working on is a communications task force. We had our first meeting on Thursday that was 10 community
138members out of the end up being 17 applications uh covering a wide range of different marketing and communication experience professional um jobs. So it's a it's a great group. We had a um good first meeting and we have three more meetings through this month and in through June. um kind of looking at how to focus on external audiences, especially the non-parents. Uh you know, what are our key messages for them? How to we'll be looking at um probably at our next meeting more so how financial needs um are are communicated to that group. and then going forward, you know, the general messaging that shows the value of the educational experience for the students and for the community as a whole. So that um that is underway. Um not sure what Miss Mankey if you want
139to add in. I don't know. Do you want me to add any more on the the task force or Yep. In terms of the conversations? Um it it was interesting hearing from some of the members of the task force just because of um the the varying professional levels there and the fields of communication um especially with the marketing people branding consistency of branding um and really stressing action over just a a static display type of thing. Um, and I think there towards the end, I mean, it was it was nice because we began with just general conversation, but we I believe we did a good job on getting back down to business for the next three meetings and um really deciding that what we need to focus on are not really the parents, but everybody
140else in the community. Um I think the next meeting we'll definitely look at more of statistics with voters um short range goals, long range goals and like I said consistency strategy and the hierarchy. Um I think out of the report conversation and out of our committee disc uh discussion, one of the ideas that came out as a recommendation that we wanted to bring forward and I um emailed to reference this but the idea and this has come out. It's actually interesting to me all the independent voices that I've actually heard this from as well as in the report that people want a highlevel um kind of you know here's the three things we talked about at the meeting. Here's some of the outcomes that may you know may be of interest to you and that
141we as the board would communicate that out to the community after each of our meetings. Um, if that's something that we would be willing to do, I we our recommendation is is that we each kind of take a turn after meetings. I could create a schedule and get that out to everyone, but um we we certainly could work with the staff and we wouldn't have to, you know, come up with everything, but that each of us would take a turn in sending out an email to that stakeholder um stakeholders in the community about what's going on at the meetings. I think you know the video it sounds like what I heard back from not just you know at our meeting Thursday night but from others in the community. We know that not everybody's watching that
142video. We know that the benchmarked emails you know if you want to hear something about this go to this point in the video that that's been helpful. I think this would just be another step to say here um since no one you know heard what we discussed tonight unless you watch the video here are some of the things we discussed that are upcoming. So if that's something that we can agree to we um and I'll leave that for a second just the open forums on June 5th. We really do want to create kind of this open space for people to just come and be in dialogue uh about around the levy. And I think that that to me is just another way to try to engage with the community. We want to continue to find
143ways after that June 5th date to continue to do that. Um I think out of the report the one thing that I'm still not quite sure what to do with is the expectation that seems to be in the community at least with some people that we as a board would be influencing the township and the city and how they develop. And I laugh because we're five people um that really have no power to the city other than the fact that we get to elect or if we're in the township elect the trustees or the council members. So that is one that I'm not sure how we can kind of educate the community more about. But that's there's all these kind of recommendations of we need to create a committee to have, you know, to change
144how development's happening in this community and and I I just don't see how that actually is realistic. So I think some of that's more how are we communicating with our with the district residents about the kind of realities and and who has the power there is is the community does not this board. Well and as I stated at the meeting too the reality that economic development within Parisburg was already set in place really a couple decades ago. It's done and over with. There's minor things that we can push to tweak, but it's not going to get the monetary result that we want. Do we do we still have a district dialogue this Thursday? Is it this Thursday? Yes. Okay. I haven't looked that far on my calendar yet. Yes, we do. Okay. Yeah. And I
145think the two of us are Okay. scheduled to be there. Yeah. And I believe we have a um an end of the year kind of wrap up to the senior class and focusing on, you know, the high school and our graduates, where they're going, what they're doing, how that works to support our seniors. So, I think that's what we're focusing on for part of it, and then it's open for anyone who wants to come in, drop in and talk. So, they don't have to to be there for that portion of it, but that's one of the theme events. Okay. Is that um is the idea of we as board members sending out communications after the board member meetings kind of summarizing our meetings? Is that something we I'm don't know. I'm I'm honestly not that
146excited about it. I'm I don't know how I would do that. I mean I don't I sit here and I make my notes. I do. I'm paying attention. I'm living in the moment to sit here and take notes for somebody else. Um, I know that would be really hard for me to do. Um, and I don't think I would do it very well. I really don't. I I'm just being really honest. Years and years and years of college, it's one thing to sit there and pay attention to something. You're somewhat disengaged because you're busy taking notes. That's not how I want to come into a board meeting is being more engaged in taking notes than being engaged in the meeting. Um I don't know if we haven't have somebody do that with us for us.
147If there's a student that would want to do it, um that would be kind of interesting. Um I don't know. I just I mean, I get the point, but we've got we've got a really good agenda. It just doesn't say it says what we're going to talk about. It doesn't say what was said. Um, I suppose I can see the point of it. I just think I would really stink at doing it. I really do. I and I think the intent is that it's not it that it's very consumable. So I'm literally thinking three bullet points. Here's three main takeaways from the meeting and for this meeting which I was going to assign myself if we want to do this. So everybody else is off the hook except me who would need to figure out.
148But I mean, the fact that we're talking about the five-year forecast, what the, you know, kind of what that is, how the state may affect that, too, is we're looking at needing funding um that would go on the ballot, whether it's an income tax or in the form of a levy and the different scenarios on that. And the third one I the meeting's not over yet, so I don't know what that one's going to be yet. But um I I really don't think when if if I say this needs to be a three sentence email, it really doesn't need to be much more than that because that's the consumable amount that I think people are looking for. So they really want the agenda just brought down into three statements. I mean to me they could
149have just looked at the agenda and gotten a lot more information out of it. They don't know. I think it's it's what's important. I mean, not that not all of our business is important, but what is going to impact them directly as a community member is much different than um you know, what's going to affect staff versus what's going to affect students. This would be focused on looking at what's going to impact the community. Yeah. Think of it almost like a a movie trailer. like it's a two hour movie and it's a you know a minute and 30 second clip music. Yeah. It's finding a balance between listening to a three hour three and a half hour YouTube video and getting the key points that might not be pulled out from the agenda because just
150reading through the agenda unless you go through all the powerpoints it may not come out that we had a discussion about potential levy strategy for November, right? You got to get into the PowerPoints to figure that out or listen to the whole video, which by the way, listen to the whole video. They're exciting. I I um you know, Rachel Zicker has certainly offered to help us with this. So, we would not be flying solo. Okay. I'm not going to go first. I don't know that I'll go second. I'll go first. You can put me in the rotation. December sounds like a good month for me. I will volunteer to go second. I mean I this is getting more intriguing for me now. So okay. I think keeping with the hot topic for the community, the
151the game the name of the game is short and sweet and to quickly explain the why, you know, maybe an educational tidbit on this is why we do that. But yes, short and sweet. Yeah, I mean they can still look at the agenda. They can still watch the three threeh hour video. um maybe less, but this would even if if they don't have time to do that, this gives them that information. So, we can try it. I'll put Sue last and we can kick her out of the rotation if she doesn't like it. We have I can use you all as my tutor. We actually have um right now scheduled 15 meetings between so that's also very equal. Um we have 15 meetings I think between now and the end of the year. each not
152just the main the work session too. They would be shorter because usually we have just one maybe two topics and I I'll take any special meetings. If I call them I guess maybe I should have to write the summary for them. I think it's worth trying. If we don't if it's not received well or we don't like doing it then we can stop doing it. Um other comments about community engagement. I know that um you know looking at the final report we'll continue to work through that and glean things off that for months to come. So that certainly is always an active report that we can reflect on. um move us into 10 for board committee reports or other topics for discussion. Um we've talked about community engagement and finance student achievement. Uh student achievement
153met on May 6. Some some Yep. The minutes are up on the screen. They're really well written minutes. Give you some highlights. Uh so and talked uh about student fees for both the junior high uh high school as well as the elementary and and HPI. Um so we will be uh for 171 approving those student fees. You know again the the the goal of the student fees is to recoup costs on consumable items and a lot of work went into kind of you determining what the necessary increases where the increases need to go if they need if they need to happen. So um the grading policies committee uh met had their last meeting for the year. Uh planning on doing another meeting in June once some you know the new administrative team is in place
154for some good transitions. You know given the divergence of of kind of opinions on how that on on where that should land. Um I think uh Mr. Schwarz Miller said it well. There's a nuance of the conversations that'll require support of the building leadership. So as that building leadership gets put in place more work to come there. Uh so the the high school ELA review process continues. They continue to learn from their first meetings and build upon them as they are the the goal of that process is you know to to really be able to define as books are being chosen you know the the wise and the what'ss for for the reading um that are being selected so that parents and students can understand the wise behind that. U what else do I want
155to pull out of here? Um on the elementary side, uh they in in the again in the kind of the continued, you know, transparency in the district is listening to parents, talked about the ele the new elementary progress reports and got some really good feedback from the parents and made adjustments to those progress reports based off of that feedback and seems like we've got a really good tool in the future um to be able to report uh elementary students progress uh in that area. uh some really great uh great new summer reading academy uh hired a director. Um K1 invites K through one invites have been you know sent out to about 70 students hoping to get around and by now they may already know hoping to get around 30 for that. Um and I
156think I think those are the high points we'll leave it at that but good meeting and student achievement that committee or that that team continues to do a lot of work. I think the only thing I would add that was raised as as a concern there's so much great coordination work that's being done by uh teaching and learning whether it's the grading practices or the ELA review all the above um that they talked about the you can see in 2D the thoughts from the jacketway meetings that there is a concern that's being shared in the that meeting that aggressive behavior is increasing especially um in the younger uh grades with kind of physical aggressive behavior. Older seems to be an increase in kind of verbal disrespect and inappropriate language, but that's becoming a challenge more
157for the teachers of how to address it appropriately. So, I think that that's just something we want to, you know, as a community kind of lift up and say, how can we continue to support parents and students, but especially the teachers as as they're seeing an increase. I'm not sure what the reasoning is, but that there's an increase in this more aggressive behavior in students. And so, jacket way is more important than ever as we look at that. Um, I think that was the only other thing that I that really struck me from the meeting to share out uh other committees that may have met. I think you said that operations. Well, yeah, but I was I was going to cons continue your theme here. Um, because I was at the student achievement liaison team
158meeting. It's called salt. Um and that's uh a statewide committee meeting. Um, one of the things that we talked about and we met uh the night before the board leadership institute um there's another big push going on right now um through state leaders to put to have some sort of student function on the board board seat and the steps that are done to create that student on the board seat. So there was um um and actually a state representative Angela Adams who was talking about uh about this with us and I thought it was pretty interesting. She said a comment that I wrote down that I thought was so important and it just really drove me the entire rest of the weekend while I was down there. you're missing a large piece when someone you're
159talking about isn't present. And I thought, oh my gosh, that to me that was profound. That was one of those sentences that really sticks with you because we are talking about students all the time. There's not a single student in the room. there were for a few minutes, but we don't have we don't have a student rep on the board. And when this came up, um I brought this up when it was brought to my attention at a at one of our uh capital conferences. Golly, Tom, when was that? I just remember the shape of the room because we were more leaning up against that way and I was sitting on this edge. So, we were still faced that way in the room and and I brought up and it kind of didn't go anywhere.
160There were several breakout sessions at BLI that weekend that were on student reps, parent reps on the board. I know TPS has uh one of each and just I haven't been able I haven't had the time to be able to type up all my notes because they're rather lengthy um for you guys yet. But I just thought when we're talking about community engagement, community reach out what we're talking all adults. We're missing our kiddos and and as clearly evident by just the few who are here tonight. We've got some extraordinary young people that we don't have here. Now, do can they vote? Of course not. They're not elected. But they can certain to um uh it was the superintendent from Delaware um who I think her first name was Heidi and she and her student
161named Greta just did a marvelous presentation. Um and I think I think this is um for the July retreat when we talk about governance issues. I think this is something we could add to the agenda for that to I think I think it's would be something that we should definitely consider and talk about. I'll add that to the agenda for that. Thinking ahead. Okay. Any other committee report? Would you like some comments on on operations? Yes. Okay. Um Denise who is our food services manager. She um is looking at PD for a what they it's a state manager certification and and serve safe thing. Person in charge training um that helps when certain people are out and person in charge training is actually more important than safe serve which I find very interesting. Um, we're
162still looking at hiring some custodians. Um, hiring two. Are have we actually done that yet? And we only had two applications. So, I don't know. No. Looking for subs. Yes, we don't have any. Yes, we do, but there's about hundred. Mhm. We sent an employee to HVAC classes and that is going to save us about $45,000. Well, that saved us $45,000 on the first job he did. So, um hopefully that pays off even more as time goes on. Um the class itself was about $6,000 and of that 3,200 was just the software alone. So um but it's what is needed now in in running our controls in all of our our billings. So um the biggest one and I'm sure you've seen plenty on it. the um good old Tik Tok challenge with uh putting
163things in the um in the drive port I think we're up to 31 computers that are damaged. Yeah. Yeah. And some of them doing that. And this is why it's so dangerous. It's really a ticking time bomb because computers have lithium batteries nowadays and the short might not occur until later on when they're at home or in somebody's car and voila, there's a fire and who knows what gets taken out. So, I think that was pretty much it. a little bit um on facilities, but I think the biggest thing too that we were talking about was the number of public records request kind of has people bogged down. And I think we talked about um Brett and I got some software to help us reduce the amount of time him and I spend on on
164particularly when there's email requests and stuff like that. um he had money room in his budget this year to buy a year to see if it makes sense. It it makes sense at the level public records request we have. If it goes away then then not. But it's a I I handled public records request you know can't remember how many pages it was a couple hundred pages and there was and it turned out to be 15 relevant pages and then to redact all the students names out of them. This software allows me to automate a lot of that work. So, we'll see. But email requests and stuff like that Brent can spend hours and hours and then that's that that's just that's just pulling it. That's the redaction side of it. So, so I had
165a question for you about that, Randy. So today I was at the um legislative liaison meeting um and let's see which one is it? HB27 is awaiting a floor vote and that would be that has two major parts in it. One is allowing um our school directory to not be released if there's a personal if there's a records request and it would be based on policy and I was thinking okay now I'm confused. Do we have a policy already that says it cannot be released? No, we have we have a policy that allows certain directory information to be released. In fact, every year we get public records requests from um parochial schools for our um student roster so they can recruit them. Oh, okay. So, it can't be used for our policy does not allow
166be used for commercial use, but it we do have a policy that allows certain directory information to be released and u Miss Zecker does a good job of keeping on top of that. So, right now it would be um I would love it if we had could have a board policy that would allow us to say no. Well, that's what this is apparently trying to do the polic as if I recall I'm I'm trying to remember from memory, but certain for example the armed forces recruiting that directory has to be information has to be made available to them and there's other things like that that you you can't right now you can't opt out of all of it. Well, I could see that for those who are 18 or turning 18 or something like that
167maybe. But and you can set and you can set the parameters of what you consider to be directory information too. Yes. So it could be your address, it could be your home, could be your parents' name, email. I mean, so you can scale that back to a certain point to some. Yeah. But we still do provide when we get the we get public records request. we do, you know, Penta, for example, will do a public records request for s for students, you know, and um that's a little bit different situation, but still. Yeah. Well, it's it's also going to allow districts to or at least there's talk of it about charging for large public records requests. Of course, you know, my first question, well, define large. I mean, that's that's pretty subjective, but there um
168Jan Boststector from Woodmore said that they spent over $26,000 in record requests just for last year for a district like that. That's phenomenal. I mean, that they've had a lot of they've had a lot of issues. So, that's really something that was important to them. And we and you know the law allows us to charge actual costs, not but not personnel costs. So am my time, Mr. Schaefer's time, Hannah or Tom or Don Christie redacting stuff, we can't do that, but we don't make copies anymore. I've done it once and I charge them for the copies. I've had one time where I've had a large um a couple times I've had large requests where I gave them a flash drive and I charged them for the flash drive, seven bucks or whatever it is. Um
169but right now what I we do is for those large I have a Dropbox subscription that I that I can put it in there and say, you know, Mr. Lmer, here's your public records. you have it's available for two weeks and then the the expiration date they can't access it anymore. So it allows me to control it but so we there is some cost in that but we don't make we don't make copies like we like we used to. Yeah that's crazy. It's it's a it's a and it's it's my it's our it's our time doing public records requests and not doing value added stuff. And then there is like with the tip line and other things. We sometimes have attorney's fees because we want to make sure we get it right and we and
170you know we've had a number of those kinds of things. Well, it certainly sounds like one to keep a watch on that. And we've had and we've had as many public records requests up to this point as we did all of last year. So, wow. All right. Any other discussion board open discussion before we move to the consent agenda? Okay. 11.1 consent agenda items 12 through 17. Uh we have several retirements that I'll look to Mr. Hustler to name or recognize unless you want me to. Um sure. So a couple things. Um uh so I'd like to at in in the back of the room we have uh Dr. Justin Folultz who will be uh is being recommended as high school principal for next year. So appreciate Justin being here and also Brandon Decker is
171being recommended uh for uh HPI principles. So wanted to recognize them for for stepping stepping up and we're really excited about all that they're uh doing right now in their current roles but also looking forward to taking on this new role. But we celebrate um folks that are certainly coming, but also this time of year we we want to pause for folks who are who are going and we've been doing that at each board meeting. But um Mr. Best, who is retiring, which uh uh Brandon will be f falling into Scott's uh position, we wish him all the best and in his almost 18 years of service here with Parisburg schools. So we we got hired at the same board meeting. So Oh wow. Yeah. So at that at that meeting there were three principles
172and the superintendent hired that with. So that was a um an interesting time uh to to come on board. So and then Jessica Molina uh principal at Toth is is resigning to pursue some other opportunities and uh we we certainly wish her well and have really appreciated her um all that she's done here. She came as an assistant uh working uh in in uh student services and uh and then moved into to has done a remarkable job and her background at TPS with uh leading the uh Esquea school uh which is a bilingual school um you know really um she really learned a great deal and brought a lot of that to Parisburg. So we're grateful. So we have, you know, Scott Best who literally built from the ground up HPI. They did and that
173vision and uh and and so those two, but uh Valerie Mccanki uh she's a speech therapist, a very familiar name and works does tremendous work. And Tracy Limes, a physical education teacher at Frank who's been here a number of years. Um, Mike Andrews, uh, HPI math teacher, uh, is somebody that, uh, I know is has been a big part of that staff. And Laura Frank, who's the librarian at Parisburg Junior High School, and then of course Scott Schlleer, who is the band director at uh, Parisburg. So many of these folks were planning on being here another year, but when that changed and we talked about that, uh, it it, you know, some of them took advantage of that opportunity. So, we want to just say thank you and I know um there are others who
174are resigning um and we wish them well too, you know, different staff members who are leaving and um we're also recalling folks from from the recall list which is exciting. So, I think by the next board meeting we may have recalled uh every elementary teacher who had been um laid off. So, it doesn't mean those positions came back. So, I want to be clear on that. But what it means is through all of these retirements and changes, we've been able to find a spot for for somebody. So, um, Mike Andrews teaches at HPI, but in elementary teacher is moving up into that position, which creates a vacancy, which allows us to call somebody back. So, that's how that works. So, um, but but at any rate, um, you know, so, so it's it's it's an
175exciting time. Lots of activity. Um Don is certainly earning his keep during this this period. So just thinking that's mindblowing. But we you know many others um you know and you can look through the uh uh the the list here of of teachers who've been with us and are moving on for different reasons and and uh we certainly appreciate and value what they do and and also um you know some some uh Oopsy folks as well. So as um as we look at the consent agenda if there's any that someone wants to pull to discuss but otherwise we would move to a motion. I have a question on um sorry I want to make sure I have this right on 13.3 and hopefully Randy this is for the purpose of maybe heading off some of
176your public records request on the ad administrative personnel what's the percentage for that what do you mean in terms of what's the percentage increase zero zero% okay this is their employment contracts are up so This is just approving their employment contract for the next two years. We separate Yeah. the administrators pay and the exempt salaries from their contracts. The board approves typically annually the handbooks for exempt and administrators which we have the salary schedules in there at that time. And this year with the reductions both of those are frozen. So exempt and administrators are are frozen. Zero. Okay. Any other clarifications? Like to have a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Second. Miss Mankey. Second. Mr. Drew. Roll call, please. Miss Lmer, yes. Miss Minky, yes. Mr. Anderson, yes. Mr. Bennington, yes. Miss
177Roland Miller, yes. We move then to 18. Other item for consideration, non-consent agenda, reduction in force resolution um for non-eing employee contracts. [Applause] This is a required item that we need to um move forward with the reduction plan. uh and uh while we celebrate the coming and goings, this is something that we certainly don't celebrate, but is a necessary step for us to to make sure we have the funds available to operate the way that we um promise the community to. So, and I'd like to point out the resolution developed through, you know, through our attorney to be consistent with the Oopsy contract. You have the resolution in the documentation agenda. There is an exhibit A that's a an attachment to board docs that actually has the names. So you have that that's required in
178by contract but I just didn't we just didn't put it out there publicly. So in the OC final there that attachment it has this resolution plus an exhibit with the names. I move the resolution as presented. Mr. Bennington, can I have a second? Second it. Mr. Anderson. Any other discussion, questions? Mr. Drew, roll call, please. Mr. Pennington, yes. Mr. Anderson, yes. Miss Minky, yes. Miss Lmer, yes. Miss Roland Miller, yes. And we move into 19, which feels a little redundant right now, but anyone think of anything they wanted to talk about in the last five minutes? If not, um there were no um no one signed up for public comment and so if there are no objections, I will adjourn the meeting. None. Hearing no objections, meeting adjourned.