001Call to order a meeting for session on April 2nd of 2025. Mr. Mr. Bennington here. Muri here 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. My father's yelling. Um, safety briefing. We're all aware. 2.1 our agenda that talks about the PI levies and redistricting updates and two executive sessions a motion to approve the budget or the agenda. Okay. And I'll I'll second that agenda and Mr. Roll call. Mr. Bennington. Yes. Mr. M. Yes. Thanks. uh 3.1 our permanent improvement levy we are in the month before the election so everyone starts next yeah thanks so we have a letter that will be going out to to voters uh from the district explaining the um permanent improvement
002levy and and what it means I know um in Ohio there's three different basically three different kinds of levies. There's operational levies which pay to keep the lights on to keep the staff um you know in the classrooms and keep the buses on the road. There is a bond issue which is used to to um build new facilities or renovations or additions. And and then there is the the permanent improvement uh type of levy which is used for anything that the state of Ohio considers to be permanent which lasts longer typically than five years. So u that's their idea of permanence. So for us here um we're asking the voters to approve a five-year uh renewal. And I think that's important on a couple of different points. One um it it is a renewal. So
003it's not a new tax. So this is really an important feature. What people are paying today is what they're going to be paying if this levy passes. So this is important. Um so this isn't an additional tax. It's what people are paying today. And it goes to maintain our buildings and and um you know investing in our facilities. It was first approved in 1980 and every five years it's been uh renewed or replaced and um and and of course we know that that amount that it generates roughly 1.7 million doesn't cover all of our um you know maintenance and uh preventative maintenance costs, but it is certainly a pretty big number, $1.7 million. Um so so why this levy is important for us, we want to maintain our buildings. They're an investment uh that the
004community makes and into our our infrastructure and and we need to keep that up and um and it allows us to use that $1.7 million for this purpose. If this $1.7 million goes away, we're now having to pull it out of the general fund, which does fund teachers and bus drivers and and other staff and the buses that are on the road. All of a sudden, there's $1.7 million less of of that happening um for us. So, right now, um it was passed uh five years ago, but right now it collects 1.17 mills. That's the amount of millage that it is uh listed. Again, in Ohio, as for us to raise that specific dollar amount, the amount of millage it takes to do that gets reduced. Um, cost to homeowners per $100,000. Tom, how many
005questions come up with me? In the balance language, it says 1.9 mills. And the reason for that is that's the maximum collect. So the property values dropped the millage go up to 1.9 mill to keep the 1.7 million collection. So people see we're saying it's collect 1.7 but the levy could collect as much as 1.9 if property values drop. So people see the 1.9 though what's the I just want to make sure you understand that. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. the the 1.9 mills the generating about 1.7 and the $341 a month that currently folks are paying is reflective of what's on the ballot per what what Randy had just talked about. Um also because this levy is is uh something that is you know has been on the books and renewed or replaced every five
006years. it is still grandfathered or the homestead roll back discounts still apply to this. So if it were to end and the and the board were to come back with a different those homestead and and roll back discounts would go away which does impact local taxpayers. So the state is contributing a portion of the money that we generate because of this um you know qualification that this levy has uh defeating that and and not only would it lose money but if we were to come back with another levy to to replace that or to to a new levy to replace that uh levy that had been rejected then that's where we would be. Um I think it's important to note just the age of our buildings. You know, last night we were at the junior
007high and you know, it's a 61-year-old building and when you walk through the halls and and you see the condition that it's in, it it's really in phenomenal shape. Uh the the meeting that we're having today, although it doesn't serve students directly, is a 94 year old building. And so, you know, the average age of our active school buildings is is 40 almost 45 years um 45 years old. So, we're not a district that has new buildings, but I think if you were to to talk to a number of residents about our facilities and their experiences either coming in to vote or attending an event or any of those kinds of things, I think they would be surprised at that. I hear that all the time that, you know, I, you know, had no idea
008that the new elementary school is 35 years old. Um, so, you know, and and so that's really important for us, the projects and what we do. I'm not going to go through these, but I think it's important that that people, you know, want to know what those dollars are are going to generate. Um, you know, what what are we going going to do with those? And as you begin to look through those, the only thing that I would highlight is you see things at like this is the Frank page that we have pulled up. It's the first slide that details this. Replacing 20 to 30 year old doors and on your home, your front door or garage door at 25 or 30 years old, you know, probably you start looking at it thinking, you know,
009it might be time, but imagine if you have 900 kids pushing on that door every day. that front door is going to get a little bit worn. So, so when you look at the rekeying the building, um, you know, 30 years old, you know, since we've rekeyed the building, you know, we want to make sure that for safety purposes that we're updating those things. Window replacement, roofs, those are all things that we're scheduled to do. We have a maintenance plan. And I think that's very important that people recognize. And we have a schedule. and and this is essential for us as we outline you know the dollars that are needed to execute that plan and these dollars are a big portion of that. Um so to the same kind of thing that will point out
010you know the the age of um you know the the original um you know uh you know gutters and and this everything that goes with that original when we're talking of building that's um you know 60 years old or nearly 60 years old. Um I think those are um certainly things that are you know we want to highlight as we go to Woodland. you know, one of our newer buildings, um, you know, built in in the in the 70s. Again, you're seeing 25 years old, 30 years old. Um, you know, and that's important. The junior high, the building we were in yesterday, as we were walking out with the rain that we'd experienced. There was a new kind of leak that popped up in the main hallway that we were looking at. Um, and you
011know, we're those portions of the roof are are 30 years old and not a flat roof, which you know, that's the structure that we have. Um, we do a great job of maintaining it, but there's a lifespan and we have exceeded that lifespan because of the care that we've done. But you can see, um, major sections of that roof are dedicated. And again, um, exterior door replacement for safety and age of the doors, that's $400,000 alone in fiscal year 30. in 2030. This gener this this levy generates 1.7 million. So you can see just one project like that soaks up so much of these funds. Um and then the high school again um a building that's over 20 years old, you know, starting to get into some of the roof areas there. Um and then
012across the district, you know, there's there's things that we're doing with instruments are part of this. the emergency contingency funding uh that that we have funds for that purpose. Uh parking lots and then a breakdown of the the costs, the dollars coming in um the dollars that that we look to spend and you know rolling over some of that contingency if we don't get into it, but typically we do. But again, we're we're looking at uh the first this levy first passed in 1980 generated, you know, roughly $1.5 to $ 1.7 million. And in in 1980, um we only had five school buildings in Parisburg. And that $1.7 million that went pretty far and covering the maintenance and costs of those newer buildings in 1980. You know, now we're those those buildings are significantly older
013and we've added three additional buildings since that time. And if we were to do an equivalent of what is in in 1980, what is $1.7 million worth? Today, it would be $6.5 million. Uh so that gives you an idea of the impact that that levy had in 1980. And we're just holding on to those funds um as long as we can and utilizing them and maximizing them. So, what happens if the levy is rejected? We know that the board would have to make some decisions in terms of, you know, what what would happen next. If the levy is rejected by the voters, we know that that $1.7 million we'd begin to have to account for. How are we going to replace the roof that's leaking at the junior high? Where would those dollars come from?
014the safety and security of rekeying the different entries and and doors inside the building, outside the building, the ADA door knobs that that we want to replace. Where will those dollars come from? Because of the things that we have to do, and they would come from our general fund, and you know, that is, you know, now we're we're making tough decisions, which we've already had to make tough decisions. Now that that that $1.7 million and that where does it come from? And now we're talking about what programs go away. Um what types of positions go away so that we can afford to to replace a roof um that that is uh no longer really working well for us. So um we've had lots of um you knowformational opportunities. We have manyformational opportunities ahead. So people
015can understand this if they have questions. We are doing these at the uh different locations so people can actually get into the buildings and see how those dollars are being invested in the condition of those buildings um and and making sure that they can see firsthand the care that we're taking um and uh our deferred maintenance plan and and how it works and having staff there that can answer those questions directly. So there's a QR code to get um information that's there and um you know we're certainly happy to answer any questions. So just wanted to briefly go through this and um happy to answer any questions that folks may have to this point questions that we're receiving from community members covered answer. Um, I think one of the pieces that I always find interesting
016having served on the historic landmarks commission history is the concept that these are old buildings. I think again how they've been maintained and then how they've been updated for current use. I mean there certainly are challenges related to that, but um I think anyone who's ever left this country and gone to a country older than ours kind of realizes that our concept of old is is very relative. So I I do think it's it's amazing um the maintenance that's been done and I do think being able to share that plan the schedule for the maintenance over the next five years and how those funds will be used is really valuable. I um speaking of history I actually went back to 1980 in the um archives of the journal because that's something I do every once
017in a while because it's fun to me. And in 1980 it actually calculated out was um $70 about per 100,000 back then which is over $270 um that this would have cost per year for $100,000 in our in our inflated and we're asking folks for what $40.92 for 100,000 a year. I think it is very very affordable and I think Personally, I'll say that to me that seems like a really affordable way to support the district and maintain these quote historic. Most of them don't even make vintage. We're not selling these any antique store yet except this. This levy does generate new construction generates new money with this. That's why it's up to 1.7. It wasn't originally 1.7. But new construction adds to the amount as a fixed rate levy. So anyway, this is not
018a huge amount, but that's why it's grown about 4.7. Um, I think one of the things we wanted to talk about was kind of our our involvement. Obviously, we have sessions that back on that slide 15. I sent out a doodle and that's more to just make sure as a board member. I think it's good for one of us to be present. We can coordinate with Mr. Hustler. You may want to take a slide to present or something, but to be available, but I also, as always, we need to make sure that we're not calling these as meetings. So, just two of us. So, if you're planning on going to one, if you could make sure you doodle, I think one of the other things that we talked about is um I think I've mentioned
019But I apologize if I haven't whether or not we would want to write a letter of support for this together or if we individually each want to write our own letter and kind of coordinate sharing those. Um I think it's important for us as board members to at least speak to this out in the community and at least explain our reasoning. So I don't know which we would prefer to do. I know we can't ask people to vote for it in this role. But as individual community members, I'd be supportive of of either path on that one. Bring a letter to this uh into a meeting with a resolution to to approve it and go forward as a group or right personally if we don't go that I'd encourage us to go that first way.
020This is that important. And we've asked our feedback I'm hearing the community. You know, I'm hearing good support with this. I'm hearing people get it's not tax. It's $40 a month. the dollars are a year. It's $40 a year that they're already paying. Sorry about that. Yeah. Um and money that is go money that doesn't we saw that chart that doesn't even cover it was a bit of a shortfall from what the actual projects are that are out there. And I still go back to when we were under the bond issue. We had the UFC come out here and take a look at the building and the compliments they gave about how well we're spending the dollars to your point keeping these buildings up. So the dollars are necessary. Those that are paying attention are
021supportive of of this and uh I think it's important our challenge will be to continue to get that message out. So whatever ways I can do that Are you saying that we have to write this letter and submit them to you and you will come to our film or volunteer? I think someone would be willing to coordinate that letter. All right. Um and of course there is a citizen group um raising funds. So I think that group information anything else other than the other piece and I'm not sure I haven't answered to this yet but you do um have that from the last regular you know what door number are we going to take if this is projected which I'm not really sure I want talk about but um uh there is this sense of
022well what is you know what is the cost if this doesn't if this is rejected by the community we had that it could just go as it is again on the November ballot um we could just drop it and say we're going to figure out how to take 1.7 from the budget we offer it in the general fund as needed we could put a new on the November ballot that we hope and roll back discounts and I think normally that's calculated that about 10% of the value addition% um you also could take the same thing lose the funding next year and we could put it on the May 2026. So I when I think about this I think it partly what I would choose to do partly has to do with if it was rejected
023how much I think that would have a significant impact on what I would choose to do next. So I think it's a little hypothetical. I think I'm reticent personally to want to take another 1.7 million from the general fund. So I that's kind of where I am. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's I mean I'm where where you're at too on that thought and I also give a lot of consideration to that homestead exemption that I think is important to keep in in place here in this environment. So say you're going to want I guess I'm saying I'm going to want to take another edit in November without saying but that's what ways in this decision keep once we go back that's 100% help us help you type. Exactly. And I think in light of you know
024the continued concerns about our regular funding um you know student cost funding and that defining the book one it would be nice to get some money from see if we can while we can. But two would be is that um you know losing having that rejected and potentially losing funding state as well. It certainly then becomes along the line of the conversation about how we manage another other questions concerns. Mr. Thank you. Um, so we are well underway in our efforts and um I'll kind of summarize and if anyone wants a more detailed explanation, we can certainly schedule a time and can show you kind of how the the magic works. Um but basically we um have reexported our current data. You know, keep in mind since January there's a a lot of movement even
025within the district, people changing addresses and we've got our kindergarteners placed. We're at 316 kindergarteners registered. Last year at this time we were around 321. So we're right around where we were. We picked up around 32 kids over the summer last year. Um, so we can kind of anticipate that and you'll see in the projections we should have space to to accommodate that with the number of of teachers and sections we've allotted. But basically as we've reexported this data, we also looked at the um updated walk zone policy or the self transport zone policy that has had a first reading and looked at some of those adjustments. Um, so basically as we started doing that, um, we had Frank a little too high for comfort and toast still a little too low. And so we
026were looking at, okay, where where could we make an adjustment that would be like least upsetting to what people are already doing. We didn't want to move people that weren't moving. And so, um, we have a solution and it I think it makes the most sense. Um, so I'm I think it's going to be easiest to show you. So, if you recall, this is our current map. This is the patchwork quilt, and the area I'm going to talk about is right here. So, it's it is um we've got Roachen, 5 Point, Fort Me, and Dixie Highway. It's this blue area right here. So, this area is currently woodland. All of that area based on plan A, this was plan A. All of that area was set to go to Frank. So it's this area right
027here. It is woodland now. With plan A, it was set to go to Frank. So our proposal or the plan is for this area now to go to toe. So it still keeps the boundaries clean and it actually makes that boundary five point roached in or sorry um Roachen, um, Fort Meg's fivepoint road. So, it makes that kind of a clear a clear line. Um, and all of those students were Woodland students. Um, actually except for two. There's two that were open enrolled someplace else, but all the students in that area are Woodland now and they were already scheduled to go to Frank. So, our proposal is to make this change and I email all those families and let them know that they would now go to toe. So it's people that were moving but
028they're moving instead of to Frank moving to to what that does then to the projections. So what this does this is how you can see the the projections even out overall. So much closer um like if you remember currently we have about 185 student between buildings. This cuts it down to about 90 student between all the buildings. Um we and currently we have about a eight teacher difference between buildings. This cuts it down to a four teacher difference at the from the lowest to the highest building. Um and it does keep our class sizes. Again, we have that threshold is 25 and under. It still gives plenty of room to add kindergarteners in throughout the district um before the start of the year. First grade's also an area where we tend to see a bigger
029jump. And so you can kind of see there's there's room enough in first grade too. This hits our target. Remember we wanted to reduce five to six teachers, five to six sections classrooms. This is currently having us reduce six. So we've hit that target. I would like to leave a one teacher cushion. So we may be at five because if you see second grade is kind of my concern. We're bumping up to 25 in second grade at Frank already. Um also close at Woodland. Um, but fourth grade we're not as concerned about because we're remember we're going to allow interd district open enrollment for fourth grade only. So essentially we should be able to even out um and keep those fourth grade classes under 25 by the number of approvals that we can do for
030people to stay in their home building um at some other places. So, we should be in good shape to be able to maintain a 25 or fewer and still be able to do this um keeping out a more balanced um more balanced between buildings. And then if you look at um the other thing I kind of wanted to show you, this kind of shows you then what we did is we looked at the subdivisions kind of coming online that are still under development and trying to look at um with our redistricting plan where there would where those would go. So even though Fort Megs it's it's a little lower than they are now but still a little bit higher than we wanted but they're losing canary and that's going to help them a lot to
031to be able to not grow as quickly. Um Harrison Landing you'll see basically like summer fields that area I was just talking about that's not going to go to toad. Harrison Landing is that whole area behind Kroger. So, we really need to shift some other places away from Woodland and um they're going to take care of some landing because it's over on that side of town. So, essentially, um this is kind of how it shakes out. You can see where those subdivisions currently are and then kind of where they're going. So, we try to kind of even some of that out a bit. Again, these are this is our our best projections we can make with the information that we have. Um we've been working really closely with our elementary principles. Um we are our
032plan is to be able to um email the families directly impacted by this change like hopefully tomorrow. And then we would like to send out the fourth grade interd district open enrollment link um on like Monday. We'll maybe probably send an email Friday saying like the email is coming Monday. We'll approve as many as we can to maintain balanced class sizes. Um, and then that would go out next week. And once we approve those, then we're going to send individual letters to every family moving. And basically, it'll be from all four elementary principles letting them know where their building assignment is for the next year. And then also listing the welcome events and the orientation events that are going to happen to make that transition smooth. the principles have already been creating um a Google
033doc that has all kinds of information, you know, whether a child gets intervention or ELL services or um they've already been working through that and developing that transition process. We've been working closely with our special education department and looking at the IEPs of students and what the case loads would look like and how we need to allocate our intervention specialists. Um, so again, the goal is to basically, you know, by the end of April, all families would have received notice of where they're going, information about the welcome events happening, and we would we would be well underway. Um, it's pretty tedious. There's some roads that aren't We've had kindergarteners in a role on roads that aren't any, you know, now that we have the boundaries drawn is great because we know where to place them,
034but they're not necessarily on our road code list. Um, and so we have, you know, one person that just enrolled recently and they're moving into a house in September that's not on, you know, not wasn't listed yet. So, um, we will update then to the, um, we're planning within our enrollment page to basically put the map and the road code book on that enrollment page. So that way, um, people would be able to to access that whenever. After the second reading of the self-transport zone policy in April, we'll also be uploading a self-transport zone um document on so people can see if their if their child would be eligible for bus transportation. So that's kind of it in a nutshell. Um questions. Look, I was looking at this last night and I was just aruck
035that you guys have this much done for next year for roads that aren't even built yet and people moving. I mean, the whole You said magic earlier. Magic indeed. It's incredible that you can do what you've done. Um, but I'm I'm a little fuzzy about the fourth grade open enrollment. So, does that include all fourth graders or just the fourth graders that have been told they're going to move? Just the fourth graders that would be moving. Okay. Yeah. I mean, yes, it would have a choice if they're if they're at to now and they were told that they were going to get it out. That's okay. And they were told that they were going to move, they would have choice to stay and they would be open. Yeah. We we would essentially send it you
036send it out to to everyone, but like likely if you've been in your building for four years, you're not going to want to go to a different building if you're not moving. Do you know what I mean? Transportation. So in for interd district open enrollment, you transport yourself. Yep. Yep. You transport yourself. So that'll be in the message and that's always been the case if anyone applies for interd district. It's only if we force transfer someone that we have to provide transportation. So like if we've had situations in the past where you know classes are already up to 26 27 in a building. So new kids that come in you know maybe they're spaced at a different building and we say for the last three months we're going to place you here because we're full
037other places. We're supposed to make a good fa faith effort through the negotiated agreement to keep classes 25 or under where we can. Um then we would transport. Um, so that's where the balancing out across the district is helpful. Um, but yes, it would be for typically your fourth grade families that would have to be moving. We are assuming a lot of those families may want to finish out their fourth grade. Not all of them. Some of them, again, since we're keeping neighborhoods together, I do think there'll be people that are like, well, I'm just going to go with all my neighborhood because I get bus transportation and we're all going to this different place. So, we really won't know until we see how many people request it. And we'll approve as many as we
038can. If we have one building that if our approvals would take us to being at, you know, 28 kids a class, we may not be able to approve every single person, but we're hoping it evens out enough that we could be able to accommodate everyone that would want to stay in their home building. Would it be a first? It's going to be timestamped. Yep. It'll be that's why that's why we're thinking we're send an email out Friday letting people know you know the interd district link will be sent at you know 5:30 on Monday evening. So like we'll give people the like the weekend and we would I think that's probably the most fair way to do it to give people a heads up that it's coming and what time it's coming and then send
039it out at that time and like give people a week to do that. Again, our hope is we can accommodate, you know, everybody that wants to, but we just don't know what the interest is. So, you know, if you've got 15 people at Frank and 15 people at Woodland, it's a straight switch. No big deal, right? Um, but we just don't know until we see what what people want. So, yeah, but we want to do that process first before we send the individual letters about placement for the next year. So, I'm trying to I mean, great job on this. I'm trying to put myself in your shoes when when you all realize that, you know, as plan A was shaking up that you had kind of some rebalancing to do. Yeah. you know, you you
040make it sound easy, but what I'm sure, you know, none of this is an easy decision because it impacts people. But I, you know, kudos for finding a way to do it that is going to be as least impactful on the second iteration here. Yeah. As possible and to make it make the most sense. Yeah. We talked about like, do we need to split, you know, a subdivision again, but I think that we can keep that boundary and it still again the map still looks great compared to what we have now. like and those lines are much cleaner. So, it's a lot it's a lot easier when someone is looking at that to say like, "Oh, I live within these roads, so I know now I'm going here." It should make it a little bit
041cleaner. Um, I think there's a a plan to again we want to communicate with all families first. But in May then I believe I'm going to head over to meet with some local reitterers to kind of show them this um to make sure some people are in the loop with the changes. A lot of times the problem is there's some things online like niche has things online and it just shows you the school closest to you which confuses people a lot because they'll come in thinking they're going one place and we're like actually that's not where you're going to go. Um so we we plan to do that in May with um a couple of the real groups I think. So I think also putting it out on the Yes. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to
042put it under our enrollment tab and we'll make it um accessible to people and I think a secretary start to referencing people there when you know when people call it should be easier to find. So where we are team working on this time. I'd like a motion to move an executive session. We have um two purposes. Uh the first is to enter into executive session for the purpose of appointing an official and for the purpose of charges or complaints against an employee. Mr. M. Yes. M. Yes. Mr. Bennington. Yes. M. Yes. And can I confirm there'll be no um business following the executive sessions because I'll stop the recording. Correct. Okay. All right.