001I'd like to call this meeting to order Madam treasure would you please call the roll Mr Alec here Mr Gephart here Mr starfin here Mr Hauser here Mr sequin here would everybody please stand and join us I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you and welcome to the September 20th 2023 Board of Education meeting I'd like to introduce our group up here to my right as board member and vice president Mike Gebhardt to his right as board member Elaine sequin I'm Greg ellick to my left is board member Annie carstaffin to her left is board member lenhauser Donna further on the left is our superintendent Ann slash and all the
002way down in the end is our Treasurer Colleen okay we um do have a sign up today um or we do not have any presentation but we do have visitor comments um so Dawn is signed up and Dawn if you'd like to come down and uh I think the microphone is on we're all ready for you oh yeah can you hear me a little bit um honestly the first thing I wanted to start with is more of the economic and finance as part of this um obviously I said something last year that we should be smarter you know tighten budgets like really look at things and and consider things with everything that's coming and I think a year later I don't think things are much better from last year I think they're worse than last
003year I know that that's not maybe what everybody's saying but that's not the way things feel I think everybody's feeling the pinch everybody's paying more everybody's taxes everybody's Insurance everybody's food costs everybody's everything is going up and I think we all feel it no matter what anybody says so I just want to talk about that because I know the financial report is coming out soon and I know that you guys said that in the next few years that we're going to be coming up short um even if the levees do pass so again do whatever we can to mitigate what we know is coming even if like I said it's hard for me to even conceptualize our country having another Great Depression because I can't even even though I can see everything happening and I
004can understand it like I still just can't believe it it's just really hard and I want you to know why it's not just the news is why I know this is happening it's because in the last one like I said employee this is like deja vu it's kind of it's different because it's worse this time but it is deja move and I know it because the neighborhood I talked to you guys about in Chicago I ran a building there for almost 10 years my uncle put it into Hawk like everybody does you know take a lot of money out of your properties when times are good and everything's worth all this money they tell us and and you do that and you spend it and you have a real good time and then boom so
005I got the Boom the back taxes the building falling apart you know the mess so for 10 years I fought and struggled and you know did what I could and the week that my refi was coming for the balloon mortgage what they just which they told me I had they told me I didn't have it and they said that I had two options to pay the 650 000 blue mortgage which I didn't have not even close or sell the building so and I think that's the position they put a lot of people in they get as desperate they get us needing money they we refine money we lose things and really that's his fault and that's not the point of this it's the point that what the debate did behind my back is the point
006of this speech is they shot my building before it was ever even for sale they knew that they weren't going to give me the loan even when they told me they were going to give me the loan and the reason I know this is because one of the men owns the grocery stores and some restaurants and some laundromats in my on the same 26th Street he's a very very rich man on our block and he was one of the ones looking at my building in the winter when it wasn't for sale until summer and I didn't know that until we had a conversation I said well that's interesting because it wasn't even for sale back then and he kind of just looked at me and said oh because you know that's so like I said
007as everything happens and people maybe lose things or lose everything I just want to say this as well money's not really that important and I know this sounds like a sad story but honestly I'm very grateful for that um it taught me a lot and it's why I see everything that I see now that some people maybe don't see or I'm very grateful it made me a simple person it made me not materialistic it made me simplify life and not care about that it also made me a person that would never take a mortgage from a bank in my life so I think these are the things that we need to teach these kids today which is why I talk about finances and I talk about the financial um you know part of the education
008that we really need to teach these kids better because they don't they don't know and they don't understand the history until they're 30 40 50 years old and they've been through these Cycles a few times like we have and we've seen the same thing kind of repeat itself every you know decade or so so I just wanted to say that and just do what you can with your budget because hard times are coming and whether believe me it's hard for me to see it too but I just I know it's coming whether I want to believe it or not and as hard as I pray that it doesn't I think we just need to be ready the second part I wanted to talk about was from last week I just wanted to add a few
009comments to the gentleman's speech last week about the LGBT history month and all that type of stuff because I think everybody kind of made them seem a little bit like he was a little disheveled with his comments and I just wanted to like maybe help clear that up a little bit I really don't care like if you want to take hormones if you want to have surgeries if you want to you know everybody can do what they want to do I don't care um but when your student last year made a speech and he made a few comments and he talked about the 40 percent um suicide rate amongst the transgender LGBT community and I didn't say anything about it then but in my head it struck a chord that like yes that's a true
010statistic but it needs a little bit more explanation around it um a lot of that number tends to be in larger cities you know party atmosphere drug atmosphere that's just Chicago New York that's just I don't think that's just an LGBT thing I think that's just an everybody thing you party more when you live in the city you just have more access to things and I can't tell you it's not a lot of fun I love Chicago I really do um I was actually there for a month and a half this summer and it's hard to see what's happening to it but at the same time I loved being home it was just it was home um so my point with the 40 is like I said a lot of it has to do with
011that which I think has to do with lifestyle um choosing being smart with how many partners you're with if you're doing drugs if you're doing a lot of that type of stuff so and also with the 40 suicide rate I think we don't consider the other other side of transgender surgeries and stuff like that which is some of the horror stories that people go through as a result of these surgeries um because that's kind of the side I've started to hurt everybody has two sides of the story some people are very happy with their results and other people are disfigured for ever and there's nothing they can do about it at that point it's just done they've been mutilated and you all know plastic surgery doesn't always go the way that we wanted to so
012I think that also contributes to a 40 suicide rate because if you're disfigured or you're defecating out of what's supposed to be a vagina or you left the one from what I know I'm trying to be as less graphic as I possibly can to keep the opening opening for a male you have to keep it dilated and if you don't do these things then it closes up and you have nothing so you didn't you just have nothing so again I think this has a lot to do with you know mental health and this is that and a lot to do with that 40 suicide rate so before we you know do the lgbtq history month or any of these things I think we talk about if we ever talk about these things or Implement these
013things into our school because I'm not sure that we have that we talk about the whole story and we talk about the whole side of what can possibly be the outcome of the situation because I think a lot of people go in with big hopes and dreams and some people's dreams get shattered and that makes suicide happen and that shouldn't happen to anybody no matter what um so yeah I just want to kind of to add that to what he was saying because I think it's important like I said you guys had a former student last year talk about it and he mentioned the 40 and I just wanted to elaborate on it a little bit more to that it's not like people are just going out there and blatantly hurting people because they are
014a certain gender Association I don't think that's it I think everything has more than one side to the story so I just wanted to put that out there too thank you okay great thank you okay um so that is it for the visitor comments we'll move along on the agenda um the August 2nd 2023 minutes have been posted hopefully the board members have had a chance to review do I have a motion to approve the minutes as posted so the motion by board member Gap Hart do I the second second second by board member State Court any comments or questions with none Madame treasure would you please call the roll Mr Gephart aye aye Mr aye motion carries a man of Treasury have action items for us this evening I do I have the monthly
015financial statements to approve Student Activity purpose statements to approve and a couple donations Auto thank you a hand St Jude parents they donated school supplies so for one was for the communication department and one was for Special Olympics so thank you for that okay do I have a motion to approve the treasurer action items so moved I have an emotion by car stuff into our second second second by board member house or any comments or questions with non-madam treasure would you please call the roll Mr starkin aye Mr Hauser aye Mr gebhard aye Mr sequin aye Mr Alek hi motion carries okay my Treasurer you have some Appropriations for us this evening yes I have the permanent Appropriations for approval transfer and transfer funds those have been two items okay do I have a motion
016to approve the two treasure other items some of the motion by board member Gebhardt a second second second by board member car stop comments or questions I'm Madam Treasurer would you please call the roll Mr Gephart aye Mr sarfen aye Mr Hauser hi Mrs Seguin aye Mr Alec aye motion carries any other reports for us this evening Madam Treasurer I have a small report but an important one the district finished their refinancing and the refunding of the bonds and with the new series 2023 we had over a million dollars savings for the taxpayers one million 3976 dollars that will be collected less taxes and internal B savings to the taxpayer great that's outstanding always good news when we hear those sort of numbers so great nice job on that so we appreciate all your help
017on that okay that's it for the treasure we'll move along on the agenda to the superintendent Madam superintendent you have action items for us this evening I do thank you so much first of all to declare the impracticality of providing transportation to the following pupils uh also to approve the overnight field trip for our I can't believe we're talking basketball already but for our boys basketball team for a scrimmage and Finley to approve the interagency agreement for the 23-24 school year as detailed below or in the enclosure and that concludes my action items okay do I have a motion to approve the superintendent's action items I have any motion my board member in a second by board member of car stop any comments or questions with none Madam treasure would you please call the roll
018Mr sequin aye Ms christophen aye Mr Gebhardt aye Mr Hauser aye Mr Alec aye motion carries uh Madam Treasurer uh you have Personnel action I do first of all to approve the retirement of the following certified staff we have three teachers here uh Chris Pecos Laura Preston and Deb breaker they all have 33 or 34 years of service so we wish them well they've all been wonderful members of the pioneer team also to approve the unpaid leave of absence for the following certified staff members to approve the appointment of the following certified staff and we just so you know are getting um quite a few calls about sub teaching with the addition of our associate degree or 48 Hours of um post-secondary how many are we up to 44 with a number I'm still in
019the queue for background checks and permits issues so good there should be more on the next board meeting yeah great that's good news also to approve the supplemental contracts is listed below to approve the revision of the one athletic supplemental contract to improve the cancellation of the following supplemental contract and to approve the resignation of the following classified staff members to improve the retirement of the following classified staff and Isla had 24 years in in the district to approve the appointment of the following classified staff and that concludes my Personnel action items okay do I have any motion to approve the superintendent's Personnel action actors so moved there psyched by board member yeah any comments or questions motion carries okay Madam superintendent do you have a superintendence report I do first and foremost uh kudos
020to the communication Department as you can see our new calendar is out and gosh gotta love that right up front right yeah but it's just a a wonderful collection of students which we all love looking at and seeing and and kudos to Amy and her team Marty and and Adrian they do a phenomenal job in putting that together um also yesterday it's just one of those days you just love to go see the unified athletic teams but we we were at Amherst High School watching our our team do a pretty good job putting the rest of of the team's uh out of commission we had our flag football so um if you look on social media you'll see some of it but just so great to watch the smiles on their faces and and wonderful
021experience also applefest 600 dozen cookies went very quickly um kudos to Aramark and especially DD and to the Colleen and Courtney who delivered all those cookies to us but um wonderful job and earning money for students we we put that money right back into student needs oh also the Apple art winners we had wonderful collection of artists that are art teachers I think Mr Rainey presented Awards to them and and great great um Apple Arts also it was a very busy weekend we had the Special Olympics golf outing we won't say who won and also the the parade of bands on Saturday so both very very nice turnouts I think 28 teams 28 foursomes out at Carlisle and also the parade of bands there were seven bands they are from around and it was a
022very I know Elaine you were there it was a very nice show um kind of chilly but very nice and then I wanted to mention our cross country team we're we're hearing a lot of accolades um I am have on my schedule to go on September 30th to go see them run but um a lot of Youth and and the team is is growing and they're doing a phenomenal job a lot of uh uh placers so look forward to what what's to come with uh um our cross-country team and Mr chismar and I think Grace Latham from the high school are the coaches so kudos to them and uh that is all I have right now okay great thank you madam superintendent it came along and the agendas here the Board of Education items uh
023one announcement we just want to state that the publication for Windsor is officially is at October 10th right October 10th and that will be led by a I believe our attorney Howard Lane will be handling that and I believe there's been notices in the paper and everything that's required for that correct and that is the only property being auctioned at this time because the Windsor property okay um quick question here um I I've been approached a number of times asking about the trees at Eastern Heights I don't know if Mr Gebhardt has too um so we were talked about getting a second um opinion there I think we already did we did and we sent an email right from the arborist yeah so are we um planning planning more and doing something in there what's
024is there a plan or anything for that at this time or no no the current plan was just to remove the diseased and damaged trees and that's done okay getting the stumps ground out the current tree canopy coverage of the property meets City requirements so they did not require any additional okay trees to be planted and we have not discussed anything further so at this time there are no plans correct correct okay all right on that note I walk over there all the time it doesn't look as bad as I thought it was going to be the trees are spread out enough that you don't really notice are gone okay well that's good because I was asked a couple of times in the last few weeks if we're going to be planting new trees over
025there so any other uh board comments or items really good I just have one question I had a former student that matter of fact from the very first class of prospect that wanted to know uh if we were giving away bricks or she cried so I was I told her I would definitely find out if there are bricks for a Prospect Elementary no bricks nothing there no I thought they were set out um I'll have to find out more information thank you okay any other comments I read somewhere that um the kids had to take a personal finance class is that something new we've always so there's just a requirement it has to be taught in isolation and it can no longer be part of the economics course good thing is the Larry already did
026that so no change for us okay good any other questions any other comments okay moving along on the agenda then the last thing we have is an executive session request an executive session to confer with attorney for the Board of Education currently concerning disputes involving the board and possible litigation that are subject to pending or imminent Court action is authorized by a higher Revised Code section 121.22 with possible action to follow aye Mr Gephart aye aye motion carries we are off to Executive session