1/22/26 Board of Education

001Hills School District on January 22nd, 2026. Elena, can we do a roll call, please? >> Mr. Nye >> here, >> Dr. Simmons >> here, >> Miss Wazooi >> here, Mr. Ward >> here, >> Dr. Strickler >> here. Our third item is the pledge of allegiance. And I'm so excited. We are going to be led by Turpin student Tyler Hassan. 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 so much, Tyler. >> Thank you. >> Item 1.4 is a safety briefing briefing, excuse me. So, just an awareness that there are exits up at the top and the bottom of the stairs as well as over here should we need to exit

002the building. Item 2.1 is a motion to adopt tonight's agenda. Can I get a motion, please? >> So moved. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Dr. Simmons? >> Yes. >> Miss Wazooi? >> Yes. >> Mr. Nye? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ward? >> Yes. >> Dr. Strickler? >> Yes. Item 3.1 under the esteemed direction of Lynn Poffenburgger. We have the Turpin Orchestra here for us. So, we're excited to hear from you. When Mosart was just 16 years old, he spent time in Milan, Italy, where he wrote a set of six string quartets that are now known as the Milan Quartets K 155 through 160. Each of these quartets has only three movements, and in four of them, the middle movement is written in a minor key, giving the music a darker and more

003dramatic color. One of these works, K 159, includes an unusual surprise. Instead of the calm, slow movement you might expect in the middle of a quartet, Moza wrote a fiery sonata allegro, full of energy, contrast, and youthful brilliance. That exciting movement is the one we'll be performing for you today. We will also be performing this music for the Ohio Music Educators Association's Silo and Ensemble event on Saturday at Anderson High School. >> Very nice. >> [music] [music] >> Louise. Wondering. >> [applause] >> Thank you all so much. That was that was fantastic. Thank you very much. It absolutely warms my heart to hear the fabulous music that our students are creating. That's amazing. And I appreciate the reminder about OMA Solo and Ensemble because it's being hosted by Anderson and they are in need of

004volunteers. So if anyone is free on Saturday and interested, let me know and I'll connect you. So thank you. >> Thank you all. >> Excellent. [snorts] >> All right. Item 4.1 through 4.3 are the approval of the minutes from the special meeting on December 9th, special meeting on December 10th, and regular meeting on December 17th. Could I get a motion to approve items 4.1 to 4.3? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Dr. Simmons. >> Yes. >> Miss Wazooi. >> Yes. >> Mr. Nye. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ward. Yes, >> Dr. Strickler. Yes. Item 5.1, Forest Hills Teachers Association report. Mr. Preston. >> Well, it's kind of tough to follow that our kids. >> Are you going to sing for us? >> Uh, >> I did actually play the violin through high school, actually. Little fun

005fact. >> Next time. Sure. Sure. dust that thing off if I even still have it. Well, good evening to you, the board. Uh, I have three brief topics this month. First, I want to welcome you into public service for our community, parents and guardians, staff, and the students served throughout the school year. The Forest Hills Teachers Association looks forward to continuing to work towards the success of each learner in our classrooms. Second, as I reported to the board last September, our building and district advisory committees have been working this year to provide vital channels of communication between our certified staff and our administration. Those structured conversations both at the building and district levels help to ensure topics of concern that can be raised and resolved constructively. The Forest Hills Teachers Association appreciates the district's continued

006support of these advisory structure structures which reflect our shared commitment to collaboration. Third, our staff and students have returned from winter break ready to engage in the work of the new semester. As our teams go forward, we strive to make each moment matter in our district for our students. Last, please stay safe and warm this weekend as no one truly knows how much snow will descend on our city of Cincinnati, >> apparently. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Item 5.2, Forest Hills Foundation for Education reports, Stacy Gillard. >> She's gonna make it down in her big boots. Good evening. Well, first on behalf of the Forest Hills Foundation, I'd like to welcome Jeff and Aaron and Jeremy to the school board. Um, we know that this is a very selfless role that you play, but

007a very important role you play in our community. So, thank you. >> Um, and happy new year. So, it's like I feel like January is almost over though, so it's not really happy new year. Um, moving on. Thank you for the slide transition. Um, couple things. every month um we love to highlight what we call our mission moment where we can showcase um when you support the foundation where donor dollars are going. And so last week at our board meeting we had two students join us specifically talking about STEM um resources provided to Mrs. K Miss K um at Nagel Middle School. And so it was great to hear from the two young men that were with us that night and talked about how they really enjoyed how these STEM resources are hands-on. So much

008of what they do is they read or they sit on a screen and how much they valued the fact that they got to get their hands um dirty and like make robots and spheres and all these things like work from a STEM perspective. So thank you for all that continue to support the foundation. I did want to give a quick shout out. The orchestra was amazing and a couple years ago again the Forest Hills Foundation because of our donors actually gave almost $10,000 to orchestra clinicians. Um so I love to just showcase how we touch so many different parts of the community um when you support the foundation. So thank you. thought it would be helpful to share as we kind of round out the end of the year, but then also I think highlight

009some of the focus areas this year on the Forest Hills Foundation. First and foremost is to in increase student engagement. We know that's really really important. We want to continue to make a significant difference in the lives of students in addition to increase alumni engagement as well as identify new and recurring ways of funding. And lastly to increase organizational effectiveness um and really being mindful as a board, as a staff, um that we want to be below the standard of 30%. So 30 30 cents of every dollar goes directly um back to the kids and also enhancing our endowment because we actually do have an endowment since the very beginning. So tonight I just wanted to highlight two specific ones. Um was the increased student voice. We believe it's really important to engage them. Um

010it's if you go to the next slide Arden. Um right now um grants are available for students that they can apply for. They are due February 12th and they will be awarded in mid-Marchch and over we budgeted 25,000. We may be able to even give some more. Um but we believe it's really really important that we listen, engage with our our students and if they have projects going on inside the classroom, outside the classroom, um we also will have students participate on the review committee um because we believe again their voice is extremely valuable. So, for any parent out there, anyone that knows if a student, my kid even said something to me, um, that they want to finish a project or they're working on something but just can't do it because funding is, um,

011not available, this is a great way for them to apply through the the studentled grants. >> Stacy, can you give some examples of some of the past ones that have been done uh, past grants that the students have gotten, the projects? >> Sure. >> Um, way to put me on the spot. >> I put you on the spot. I'm sorry. Yeah. >> Um, no, it's okay. I um I love to I one that comes to mind that we gave like two years ago is we had a group of parents and students come together with Mercer and we were able to provide additional playground equipment for all ESC students because we know that so many of those students are at Mercer Elementary. What I loved about that is the key to that was that these students

012can be out there on the playground the same time as the other students. So we were able to support a very dedicated population um in that way. We have supported students um that I know like Eli Beerman actually Wendy's son um he created this path saw a need that's what I always love to see where's the need and then how can the foundation help you with that um the path from the parking lot all the way into Turpin High School. So if you park in the church parking lot there's a path there. Um, another example is our very first year, which this is probably my one of my favorites, is that there were Nagel students that came four or five that came to the foundation and asked um about wanting to bring back bring back

013recess and how having time outdoors is really important for their well-being. Um, and so we were able to work with the Nagel PTO as well and provide outdoor um recreational materials. we helped with like the tables and chairs out there as well as the basketball hoops. So, those are just some examples. And the last one I'll mention is that there's a Anderson newspaper student group that requested funds um to get more and updated computers. Um and that was something we supported last year. So, it's it's a variety. Um and I would also say there's no age limit. So, we know I'm know all of you too. I having younger kids, they have great ideas, too. So, while we sometimes hear a lot from Nagel and and the high school, we know that we would love

014to hear from elementary students as well. >> Wasn't it Mercer who got the different lunch trays with your guys? >> That was through like a district grant. That was a district grant. Okay. So, um, but yeah, we just we are, you know, our mission is about providing resources and opportunities for all Forest Hill students and having the students have an opportunity to request and identify what that money should go towards. We're really proud of that. >> So, any other questions? >> Um, Stacy, some of the student grants from last year, there was a Nagel cooking club. >> Yep. >> There was a dance team. Yep. >> Um, there was some after school programs, I think a Spanish program, if I remember correctly. They had a speaker come in and a band that came in >>

015right >> at Turpin. >> So, so all sorts of different things whether they're programmatic or some infrastructure ones like the uh the motor yard at Maddox, they they touch every aspect of every school. >> Absolutely. Thanks, Jeeoff. You just showed me up by the way, but that was good. >> I've got my notes from the committee. >> Um I'm just kidding. [laughter] Um so anyway, so student grants available. Um we've talked to all the principles. Want to make sure parents and other leaders know that this opportunity is available. The next thing that the f the of the the foundation is really focused on right now is our alumni engagement. Um, one of the things I learned when I first came into this role is when you work at a public instit at public education, um,

016it is we don't do always a great job of keeping with our alumni once they graduate. Um, and so we are currently in a project with PCI, which is alumni directory project that will be completed in about the next two months. Um, so for those that maybe are alumni and gotten an email, phone call, um, know that that it is legitimate, um, that we are working with this company, um, because the goal is is we want to have more contacts for alumni so we can keep them engaged in all the great things happening within our community. Next is oh, Forest Hills 5K. Um, so just save the date. Um, the 5K this year will be on Saturday, May 9th. Um, I also wanted to give a quick shout out. I will have way more details.

017Actually, other people are going to come and share details next month. Um, Jeremy Steves, Megan Wolf, Jen Shreger, Laura Dino, Amy Dunvy, Stacy Foreman, Lindsey Whitider, and Mana Hail are the whole team that puts together this incredible event. Um, so just wanted to say thank you. They're actually meeting tonight. Um, so lots in the works and we look forward to a great event on May 9th. And then um also we're seeking out business sponsors. Um always can reach out. I mean we have a lot of really great partners in this community. Um and if you want to go to the next slide, I love to showcase that last year and we hope even more this year. Um it's a great opportunity through the 5K to actually um support not only the event but also the

018students um at the 5K. And then let's see. Oh, last thing. We are always looking for individuals that are passionate about supporting students um want to maybe get their interest in joining the foundation board and or volunteering that may be in an event or a short-term volunteer opportunity. Um but we're really seeking some new people because new people is always good. So if you have anyone that you know or someone that's interested, they can outreach to me. And I think that's it. So thank you. >> Thank you Stacy. Stacy, I just had one clarifying question. Sorry, and I may have just misunderstood you, but when you're talking about the finances and making sure the money is back in the the community and with our students, you were talking about the administrative fees of 30 cents

019of every dollar. So 70 cents of every dollar goes back into our students. >> Not 30. Thank you, Wendy. >> Wanted to make sure the large >> and really we run about like 27 28 um percent. So then it's a little over 70% but our board and our leadership is very diligent about making sure that overall our overhead and our expenses don't exceed that. In addition, the main goal is to provide more funds to support kids. So that is our mission. So any other questions? Thank you. And I'm going to have to be ready for this board. >> Have a good day. >> From the staff side, thank you. Thank you for what you do for the teachers. >> I just want to say thank you from the staff being on the receiving end of

020this. It's a huge help and I appreciate it. Thank you. >> That's awesome. All right. Item six is public commentary. The board is con committed, excuse me, committed to conducting the meetings in a productive and efficient manner to asssure that the meeting is completed in a reasonable amount of time while also recognizing the importance of fair and adequate opportunity for public input. In order to conduct an orderly and fair representation of expression, the board will provide a period for public participation per policy PO0169.1 at every regular board meeting. Public participation will be a total of 30 minutes. Each speaker will have three minutes. If there are more than 10 speakers, individual time may be adjusted down to fit within the 30 minutes. The board does not discriminate based on the individual content of the speech

021or viewpoint of the speaker. If several people wish to speak on the same topic, the time limit may be adjusted at the president's discretion. Speakers should be prepared to respond to questions from board members seeking to clarify the issue. Our first speaker up tonight is Kimberly Olaf and on deck is Shawn Martin. Those are our two speakers. >> Hello everyone. Kimberly, Royal Woods Court. Um I have a couple of questions for you guys. Um, regard I'm just curious if there are any policies or administrative guidelines that are um, currently in place, norms of communication regarding timelines for important events or topics to be communicated to all of the people that are necessaril necessary to be notified, especially under circumstances like we've just experienced where like a week it has been um, allocated for something that

022is or approximately a week that something that's been allocated that is a pretty big event. Um, just working professionally myself, we usually had some pretty strict communication guidelines that governed um, how long it was that we had to notify XYZ teams so that they could start executing what it is that they needed to do. Um, so I imagine that an event with um the federal executive branch involved um that there are quite a few parts that need to get moving in order to get that um like get the policies followed because as we all remember after diversity day was canceled, policies were put in place that that dictated um who and how things had to be reviewed so that they could be um propped up against the controversial topics and have everybody communicate be have

023that communication ated to them what is in there and um and then also make sure that organizations that are involved are vetted, content is vetted and then getting information to the parents so that they can opt into um an event like this because previously it was if I remember correctly was removed as an opt out that it's always an opt-in. Um additionally curious as to whether or not there's any policies that govern who can initiate something like scheduling a speaker or event with the school. Are there people who um are legal agents or that are outside of the immediate administration that can initiate having um a speaker or presenter come in or even a program that um that does involve the students? So, I was just curious about how that happens. We have obviously an

024idea of how some of those events on more of the um the micro level happen at the classroom, but from a district standpoint, especially for something like such this as big of an event as was proposed, um just what the process is and um who can initiate. Um, additionally, not for you guys, you already know, but for PE, anybody that's listening that um we understand that the board would have had to cancel this event had it been finalized publicly and at a at a um at an event such as the board of the meeting tonight. So, we do know that you guys did not in fact cancel this. It was not it's not possible for you to do so without doing so publicly. So, just for anyone who did not understand that, that is how

025that works. >> Thanks a lot. >> Thank you. That was a lot of questions. We may have to get back to you with specifics. >> Hello. Uh, I am Sean Martin, 1113 Shanganger Drive, and uh I am coming to uh I I didn't have anything planned, but I wanted to uh uh there there's a lot of misinformation going around and I've noticed that a lot of the people that uh are spreading it, all the all the Sarah's and Linda's and Cheryl's and Andrews, they're they're not here tonight. Um, so for their b for your benefit first of all because I'm addressing the board and then for their benefit and for all of the uh students that are definitely not watching this meeting um I would like to go over uh some of the uh uh

026some of the rights that students have. Uh and this is uh from the ACLU. Uh, can my school discipline me for participating in a walk out? Because the law in most places requires students to go to school, schools can discipline you for missing class. But schools cannot discipline you harsh more harshly because of the message or the political nature of your action. Uh, kind of like uh public uh public commentary. Um, and I'm sure there's a policy about how many days you can miss of class. And I'm sure the students that plan to participate tomorrow uh had their parents call in and uh and uh give permission for their students to leave school early. Uh the let's see the punishment you can face will vary by your state, school district, and school. If you're planning

027to miss a class or two, uh look up the policy for unexcused absences for your school and your school district. If you're considering missing several days, read about the tru read about truency. Also, take a look at the policy for suspensions. If you are facing a suspension of 10 days or more, you have the right to a formal process that and can be represented by represented by a lawyer. Some states and school districts require formal processes for fewer days. you should be given the same rights to make up work just as any other student who missed classes. And uh I I guess that leads uh to my uh to a couple questions. What are the uh policies about missing school and unexcused absences? Um, and does that uh um and does that pertain to uh

028uh students who received their parents' permission? Um, and I also had the same questions that uh Kimberly had. So, uh uh looking forward to hearing those answers. Thank you. >> Thank you. I think some of that will get addressed probably as we move into the superintendent update which is next item 7.1. Thank [snorts] you, Dr. Strickler. First of all, Ohio in Ohio, January is schoolboard recognition month, and the school board members exemplify local control and decision-making in education. Too often, I think we forget the personal sacrifices that board members routinely make. They volunteer many many hours and an an immeasurable amount of energy to ensure that our schools are providing the best education possible for the children of Anderson Township in the village of New Town. These men and women are elected to provide the

029framework for our public schools. They represent you and they take this responsibility seriously by attending lengthy and sometimes challenging meetings. Our school board is more than is one of more than 700 such boards across the great state of Ohio. These boards enable us to have local control over our public schools. Control that is in the hands of people we know, people like your neighbors. In the tradition of a representative democracy, schoolboard members are our connection to influencing how our public schools are governed. With the advice and counsel of our educational professionals, the school board has an impact on virtually every aspect of the Forest Hills schools. The school board is also responsible for assuring the public that the money allocated to public schools is providing a good return on our investment. to Dr. Wendy Strickler,

030Dr. Jason Simmons, Mr. Jeff Nye, Miss Aaron Walsuski, and Mr. Jeremy Ward. I wish to thank each of you for your dedication and civic responsibility and your willingness to serve our community. I have provided each one of you with a certificate of appreciation. And to all listening, I'd ask that you please make a special effort to send a kind letter, email, card, just say thanks. Um, the next time you see them out or next time they're at Kroger's or wherever you run into them, >> don't go to Kroger's today. [laughter] >> So, I appreciate you and I would ask that you join me in a round of applause for men and women of the school board. >> [applause] >> Um, a couple of quick things I I wanted to make sure that you are aware

031of. Uh, we just received word um that all nine of our schools received the Purple Star award designation from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Um this is really kind of a recognition of uh military families supporting military families and there's quite a bit that goes in to doing that. We have to have a liaison at the building. Uh there's required training that they have to go through. Um it's just and actually got a website up there. You can even Google it. you can see the the things that uh people have to do to get this award. And what I will say is I've been in districts where one or two schools get it and have had it. I don't know of any larger school district that has multiple schools like we do or

032all nine of them have got it. And that is an amazing accomplishment. And that's there's a committee at every building that works on this. And that's that's pretty cool. That is pretty cool. Um, as we know, military families uh get uprooted very quickly and have to move and sometimes can get isolated pretty quickly. And this is just an important part of what we do. Um, I just wanted to recognize that because it's it's just I'm not really sure. Do you know anybody else that has a school schools of our size? Not a sing a small school, but a bigger school that I'm not aware of it. So, this is I'll keep looking, but this is pretty cool. This is pretty neat. So, congratulations to all of our uh principles and the groups and staffs that

033put this together and worked hard for this. This is important to them and so thank you for that. >> Larry, that's great news. Um, are there other things that you want or that more resources you need to provide additional support to military families in our district? Is there anything else that's on your wish list that we could do? >> Um, what have you what have you Bob's way behind me? I can't see. I mean, you know, probably works with the uh principles a lot on this. Uh, but we can certainly find out if there is anything. Um, and if you need, you don't need to answer now, but if there are other ways that we can support, just let us know. >> Absolutely. This is, this is one of the coolest things. Really is. Yeah.

034And, you know, I I just I remember, like I said, I've I've been where I've had a school or two get it, but not everybody. I just That's blows my mind. That's really cool. >> Outstanding accomplishment. >> Yeah, it is. It really is. It's pretty neat. Um, [clears throat] okay. Moving right along. Um, just coming off of spring break. Um, not spring break. You see what's on my mind after I heard the weather report. Spring can't get here fast enough. >> Sorry. Um, but after winter break, um, it was really cool. Uh, Nagel, I just threw this in because again, just uh, Miss Tiffany has done such a fantastic job at Nagel and that whole staff. Uh, they had a a globe pep rally, you know, and and really just trying to um make a

035culture of togetherness there at that district, at that building. As you know, that's a big building. You know, there's a lot of bodies in there and it's really hard because you got kids that are coming from smaller elementaryaries going into a large large building and probably if you look at the numbers that is our biggest building far as student population. That's a group of kids that are also trying to figure it out. You know, [laughter] I'll just leave it at that. You know, we've all had junior high students maybe. Um I know I have. So I I it's that was just always an awkward stage in time and it was so great that they do these things um to develop a unity and a positive environment for those kids and I just wanted to call

036uh call Nagel out for it you know performing cheerleaders just student competitions just a great way to welcome them back you know after they've been away and so thank you again to to Nagel for what they're doing with our kids. That's a that's a big part and it's also in it's in our strategic plan about transitioning and stuff and you know we have a big transition from sixth grade into into the junior high and then from Nagel out into the high schools and so I'll talk about that here in a in a second as well. Um, just a quick announcement there as well. If you're incoming seventh grade parent night, this is this is a big one, okay? Next week, um, 7 just about 7:45 at Nagel. Um, and really this is really important because

037I know parents, especially if this is your first one going to Nagel, you know, it's easy to get nervous about it. Your kids growing up, it's it's classes, just the whole thing is is different. They do such a fantastic job or helping these kids adjust and get into it. So, just I want to get that on your radar. Information is going out from from Nagel to the students. We we invite sixth grade students up. Uh all this happens during this semester. So if you find out that your your sixth grade students gets invited up for lunch, you know what's going on. It's just so that they can see what you know, it's really pretty cool. We have ambassadors. We have people that help our kids uh feel comfortable. And then we send teams out to

038the to the all the elementaryaries. And that happens usually in February. Uh we we send our kids out um again counselors, administrators, [clears throat] and talk about what, you know, classes are going to look like, opportunities to be in organizations that they've never had opportunities to be in, you know, and and while they may be involved with a lot of stuff, you know, there's all kinds of pee-wee stuff and going on and and church activities and and scouting and whatever. there's a whole another whole another plethora of events that now become school sponsored uh that they can get involved in. And so we really try to help help them feel comfortable. Uh so really be watching you're getting start getting quite a bit of information if you're if you got a sixth grader going into

039seventh grade. Okay. And finally the family open house in March, you know. So we don't just do a oneand done. We try to keep it going so that um our people feel comfortable. They know who to talk to. They have a connection there. Uh at Nagel again uh trying to make a big building small feel small. Um just some quick things we needed to know. Uh moving right along. Larry, before we move on, are does Nagel do anything for sixth graders who might be at elementaryaries outside the district who might be coming into middle school? Do they have an opportunity to come have lunch tour building? That kind of thing. >> Well, if we know, we we contact the principal. We'll set up tours. We'll do all Yeah, we can do that kind of thing.

040>> Um, we don't like reach out to any of the >> that we don't know of. >> Okay. >> But do we still have web? It's been a few years since I've had a middle schooler. if web still exists right the first week of the year they would be involved in that kind of introductory entry point too I would think >> I didn't know if something chang if there's anybody that's coming let's say from um a private school elementary and they're going into that they simply contact the the junior high we'll set up a time we'll show them around we'll get them involved we'll give them these dates as well and so um there's multiple ways that we do it I just wanted to get some stuff out there so people can see. Um, kindergarten

041registration very quickly. Again, it's honest. Yes. For next year, kindergarten registration and the law has changed. So, it's important to understand that a child has to be five on or before August 20th, which is the first full day of school. That's what basically the new law says. So, just wanted to make sure we got to get that out and we just got to keep pushing that out. Again, not all of our kids go to our preschools. In fact, the vast majority of our kids don't go to our preschool. They're out and about in a variety of of avenues. They whether it's they are at home with with a parent, grandparent, or they're in some other >> Larry. Does that date change yearly with our first day of school? >> It can. Yes. But it's always

042the first full day of school. Yep. So, we'll keep pushing that out and uh we'll have the first full, you know, I think we have a couple of years on our website, so they'll should know, but we'll push this out every year. Try to make sure people know. So, um, preschool, there's a peer model lottery because we we have to service our kids with special needs and then we have to have a certain amount of number and we usually get more than what we need. So, there's kind of a lottery. Parents are aware of it, but we keep pushing that out. But, I do want to mention this. All six of our elementarymentaries are are also hall of fame schools as recognized by the Ohio Association of of Elementary [cough] Elementary Administrators. So, it's it's

043pretty cool, too. So, the you're coming into a quality school district uh at kindergarten. So, we're excited about that. So, we'll always toot that horn for our people. step up the quality award is a big that's the big one for preschools and we we get we've got that gold award and we're gonna keep it you know it's just an important thing that we do. So um our whole staff really works hard at that. Okay so moving right along I wanted to get those things out of kind of key things out there. I also wanted to mention um our strategic plan. I've we've sent that out. We've updated that. The the entire strategic plan is out there with goals and metrics. We have a lot of them. So, for me to be able to go through

044all of those and go into great depth may be a challenge. So, I've met with Wendy. Um, we meet and we'll meet and talk about this a couple of times a month. Um, but for like the next one, I can tell you the information will be probably around um, I ready results between what we got in the fall. We just did our winter ones. We just got the data. In fact, I was downstairs earlier today and and uh, Bob Buck was talking as well as Chuck with the uh, with Nagel people um about the results, what did it show us? >> So, they're they're just getting that information. So, they're diving into what they need to do, what does that tell us, what options, and how we're going to improve it. That was actually one

045of the questions. I I heard Bob talk about it. I I sit down and I listen to see what they're um going into. But this is we talked about this one because I met with this group. This is my um uh superintendent's leadership council. It's made up of a group of kids uh recommended by their principal as leaders in their schools. Um we've got great grades uh seniors, juniors, sophomores, freshman, um seventh and eighth grade students. And then I go to the the elementarymentaries physically and I go to the student council and talk to them. But really what I do is I spend um a little bit of time maybe five minutes or so just talking about leaders, what leaders are and pick their brains on what they're doing. And um this is a sharp

046group of kids. They're really they're fun to talk to. Um as a matter of fact, that's what we do. We spend a little bit of time talking about uh what it means. Um today uh that particular day uh we talked about how you have to be adaptable and adjust. You know good leaders have the ability to see something and have to I got to switch. This isn't working. So what does that mean and how do I do it? Um and so uh that's really and we don't spend a lot of time but we spend a little bit of time because it's important you know and now next next time we'll pick another little subject within leadership just you know sharing and talking how's it what's it look like to you and then we start talking

047about an area of focus and we spend more time on that which this this time is uh was about workforce development ment college career exploration and future planning which is again part of the strategic plan if you excuse me. Um and so some of the survey questions we talk to the kids about um is helping them understand what it is they're thinking about. Are you looking at anything? Do you feel like you've got an idea? Most of them do. Most of them really did, especially when you start talking about juniors and seniors. And um I was 100 well 100% of them agree that they have goals for their future. Um they feel very confident about graduating. So this is all of them. uh they feel good about um finding a good job. Um one of

048the areas and the biggest area of improvement that at least I got out of this and um was our older kids seem to be aware of it and really good and really invested in their time. Uh Zello used to be the package they use. We uh abandoned that >> at the high school level because kids weren't using it. Um so we use a different package now. Um and most of the kids have really gotten on it. Uh not as much when you go down younger. When you get into the ninth graders, um not so much. They had, you know, maybe a little bit. So that's concerning because I think we have to expose our kids quicker. I think that's one of the big things with when you start looking at career developments, you know, and

049this program does a lot of surveying of their what do you like, what do you, you know, what do you feel good about, what are you strong at, what do you and then they starts opening up and starts talking about different professions, different ideas. Uh but one of the things that caught my attention when I was talking with them and then looking at the the survey was it was I don't want to say left a chance. It just didn't seem to be as we need to really dive in and say okay let's let's let's lead this. So the question becomes okay when do we do it? Do we do it take it out of a partial class? Do we do it during a um home room type thing and and build it into our schedule?

050Because I think once they got on, I want the thing I liked about it from the high school perspective is the kids liked it, which that's good. Uh what I didn't care for was we just didn't have, you know, they exposed them to them and then they, you know, during their um homework home room time or, you know, they would would spend time on it. And then kids, it got motivated as juniors and seniors because then you could start seeing which colleges had strengths in these areas. Maybe I wanted to go into business. Who are the best business schools in the state and in the area? And so it would help help them as they look uh to their future. So I think one of the big things that we have to look at here

051is how do we get our kids more of our kids earlier into the system so that they can see and use this program. Uh as well as at at the junior high level. Um they still use Zello a bit there but not very much. And so, um, we need, again, we're not expecting a kid in junior high to say, you know, exactly what you're going to do, but you got to be exposing kids. We have to be exposing kids to what's out there. What kind of what's the job market look like? What does that mean? You know, if you want to be in health care is the only thing I can be a doctor. Oh my gosh, there's so many different avenues within health care. Um, so being able to do a better job that's

052that was the brief snippet that we got in this. We will be asking a lot of these same questions to our to a broader group of kids later, but this was just my student leadership council and a lot of times I get a pretty good snippet of information um, real quick on them. So the survey that you did here with 100% response, was that the that was surveying the leadership council specifically? Yes. And how many kids are on that? >> Uh probably 20ish, >> right? I see. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. >> Ballpark is fine. Yeah. >> 15, 16, 17 in there. >> Okay. And have they self- selected to be part of the group? >> Uh well, yeah, they >> principal nomination. Yeah, I would imagine with 100% it >> sounds

053like a highly motivated group. >> Motivated group. >> A highly motivated group. Yeah. >> And then to your point, just so that I can understand how this fits with the strategic plan. It sounds like you were saying that the goal is to get more kids involved. So are you doing then it sounds like a train the trainer model where you are training the students on the student student leadership council, excuse me, superintendent leadership council and then the idea is that they go back to their peers and help spread the word. Well, that's part of it, but no, we I think the bigger issue here was I think we need to make sure that we have an avenue where our adults are getting kids exposed to the program, >> right? So then beyond beyond you with

054the 30, what is the program for getting kids exposed to it? What is the plan for getting kids exposed to that? >> Is well that's what we just started talking about. >> Got it. that just that just happened. And I I want to see if this holds up with >> when we survey our inter entire well, we'll I don't think we go all the way down into the littlest kids, but we we're going to survey a bigger number of kids and see if this is accurate, but no, we're going to talk right away this spring about, okay, how do we how do we get more kids involved in this because I think it's also going to impact our Excel group, you know, our uh workforce development group as a whole, which was one of the

055areas on our report card that I think we have to really continue to to press, >> right? >> So, >> because it's all part of the this bigger strategy around fostering greater student ownership of their education. So, this is one piece >> of that. I can't remember. Can you remind me what is the new program we got when we stopped using Zello at the high school? >> School links. Thank you. Larry, how young do we go with this council? Do do we get to like seventh graders? >> Oh, yeah. >> Okay. >> Um Yes. Yes. Seventh and eighth graders. >> So, seven up through 12. >> Yep. Got it. And then um it's not as detailed, but I'll go into the all the elementaryaries as well. Um and usually it's fifth and sixth graders. Um,

056I kind of leave it up to them if they want fourth graders in there. But it's there's a point where I want to have those conversations of what they like, what they don't like, what's what's going well, what how could what makes it better here, you know, and they're pretty honest. >> I'm sure kids are kids can be. And in a typical superintendent leadership council meeting, what's the rough breakdown of the time that you are giving information to them versus they are reporting back to you or reflecting or doing some of those those goals? >> You mean the on the day that I do it? >> Just through the through the program, is it mostly them receiving information? >> Oh, yeah. I I like like I said, I'll spend just a little bit of time

057talking about leadership in general because I think that's that's what's makes them this this particular group. That's kind of the the common denominator. They've all been recognized, you know, and so I just continue to try to to help grow that in them. >> So there's just a small amount of time of you talking and then the majority is >> Oh, yeah. I don't spend a lot of time. No, a lot of times just asking questions. >> Great. >> Getting getting them to talk. It's pretty chatty group. So [laughter] they get they're not afraid. And and the good news is some of them are here from last year too that went up and they're still on there. So we had a new group in and we had some that went from Nagel to the high schools.

058So that's pretty cool to see the changes in them. And um everything I've heard is that the kids like it, enjoy it. Um we usually have pizza or Chick-fil-A or something. Not trying to push anything one thing or another, but we try to feed them and and do it at a we bust them over and we get them back and we take care of them. So, good opening. Good. Um, >> as we look at the goals for this group, I know in the strategic plan we still had that the information was coming. Is there a plan to kind of quantify that? Like if the goal is to grow student engagement with Zello and school links yes earlier then how are we going to quantify and be able to see whether that's happening? >> Well I

059think we have the ability to do that and I think the the new system that we're we're looking at um helps helps us uh what's the name of it? The one that um we're just now going to get started on. Yeah. So, um, as we get the this information, as we get it, we're going to pull it from a variety of places. >> Okay. And actually be able to quantify it so we know what questions to ask in terms of whether we're on track. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yes. >> Yeah. And that's awesome, Kevin. Those are both on here. I recognize that as well in terms of the school connection survey piece being two other pieces of this. It's just if based on that feedback, we're setting a goal of increasing engagement with the system.

060I just want to make sure we're thinking about how are we actually going to know if that's working. >> Well, you know, I'm a data person. >> The first one is just getting how many kids can we get exposed to it >> because I'm not not sure we're getting a ton. um the younger, you know, under the with unless you have dedicate some specific amount of time, whether it's in a class or whether it's in a home room or some type of arena other things. There's just so many other things that then it doesn't happen. >> I agree. So, I think we're going to have to >> just from this initially, the first my first thought is we're going to have to have >> a system that we're able to get in front of the

061kids, all kids, not just our our leaders, but all kids to get them exposed to this and it's just too important. >> And that's what you're in the early stages of planning. >> Oh, yes. Yes. This was our sneak peek into it. So, >> so I think um for the community as well um for those that have been paying attention for a little while, the strategic plan is something we had been working and um asking Larry and his team to provide since uh early last year. And we had an opportunity in December to meet with uh both Larry and Elena to go through the um each strategy. Each strategy has multiple priorities um one of which Larry had provided up there and then there are indicators or uh tools with which we're able to look

062at to determine the extent to which we're meeting those priorities um data and desired goals are provided also so what are the benchmarks that or the thresholds with which we are comfortable saying we succeeded in reaching that priority so one of the things that came out of the December meeting was asking for more aspir operational goals of what would we like to achieve, what would we like to hit. >> So, one of the primary functions that we have as a board is progress monitoring. And so, the idea with this strategic plan is to have something to tangible to be able to come back to of not not a a vague like, well, we're trying to put kids out in the workforce or, you know, progress kids, make sure they read, but like, okay, but how

063like what are we doing specifically? um and what do we want to achieve? So, this will allow the board to better monitor progress. I think it'll allow the district um administration team to stay focused and um um be more efficient and effective with resource allocation and I think it aligns with the strategic plans from the individual schools. So, what we've done is ask Larry and his superintendent updates to um connect back to components of the strategic plan each each month as we get some of these progress updates and we'll flesh it out a little bit more and we'll we'll get a better sense of what we're looking for and we have these work sessions that um we'll talk a little bit about uh coming up where we're able to dive a little bit deeper into

064some of these as well. But that is kind of what >> why this component is included in the superintendent update and and the intent on our end. >> Thank you. Um the other piece I wanted to pull out because we just we just have gotten some data in initially from this uh and this has to do with uh 3.1 which is supporting students through tier one PBIS aligned experiences exemplify the values uh expressed in our culture blueprint. Um what we've got is first we tried to use a common first semester fall fall tried to look at um some discipline pieces um office referrals we realize that office referrals they're not always exactly the same you know what what a kid gets referred or the tolerance in the classroom etc. But you can kind of see

065numbers um as those relate um to u I think these are secondary. Yeah, January secondary. Um but the other one on there is recommendations for expulsion. Obviously, those are numbers that to be recommended for expulsion. Those are typically going to be more severe type instances or an accumulation over time, you know, repeat offending kind of things. >> How do those numbers compare to other districts? I I understand it would be a percentage, but how do we compare? >> How do we compare? I think we compare very well in terms of I think it's it doesn't seem low but my experiences I've got a couple in of other people that have got other district experiences and from what I understand from my experiences as well. Obviously, we still want to do whatever we can um to

066help, but it is interesting what one of the main ones are and that's the next slide I want you to be draw your attention to and that is vaping. >> Can I make a request before we go on just in terms of looking at the data? Um often the way you'll see the PBIS data looked at to be able to get that comparison is what percent of the students have two or less office referrals and the expectation is the large majority would right like 80% or higher is the expectation based on public health research. So if we looked at it from that perspective and could see what percent of our students are generally avoiding the office as a rule based on the supports we're providing, I I feel like that might help provide a better

067way to benefit some >> those were just total numbers >> because one thing about our kids and our kids learn quickly if they get a lot of times that's all they ever see them then they're done you know which is Like I said, I I was trying to draw from experiences of other others on my cabinet that have other district experiences as well as my own. That's good. But the thing that bothers me and I think and this is also going on everywhere. Um, we've got a problem with vaping in our society in here. Um, and you can see a little bit again tried to find a common point to pull some information. We put vape detectors in which helps locate problems, helps us get, you know, to where kids are. And obviously the one

068that concerns me most is the THC vaping. Now, just so you know, vaping of any sort is not good for you, but vaping in general, access to vaping materials is pretty easy. Um, and I think people know that. I think there are people that are trying to to deal with that from the law enforcement. The other piece that's going on with with THC components um is you also have THC vapes that are legal in the sense that uh they have been chemically altered so that the molecular uh arrangement of the molecules that make up uh THC is different such as I don't know what they call the delta 8, delta 10, whatever. There's some other pieces that we're seeing come in uh that we're finding through when kids get caught with this. Um so we're

069connect we're we're finding where it's being abused. The next steps is how we are addressing it. We have to find um v cessation programs that work. You know, we've put it out there. You know, we've said you got to come back and and give us a test and you know, prove that you've been clean, but we're not getting to the root problem, which is always going to be an issue in society is how do we how do we help kids because Obviously, I'm again I'm stating the obvious to you guys, but vaping is very addictive and if you're doing vaping with tobacco, the the nicotine levels in in vapes are so high. Um so the question becomes and this is the next thing uh this Ali Moore our director of student services is really reaching

070out to a lot of people about is there anything out there that's working? Are you seeing results? Because >> that was going to be my next question. >> We can try anything. We can try anything. The question I want is does it work and do we know if it does? Um, I think this is what's in front of a lot of school systems right now and it's it's a tough one. >> Those numbers are the total vaping violations for each of those school year or for each of those fall semesters though. >> If you go in the fall, yes, >> just in the fall. >> Yeah. Now, those are THC. >> Oh, just for THC. >> Yes. Okay. >> And those typically involve uh a recommendation for expulsion, too. >> So, are those numbers a

071subset of the numbers we saw on the previous slide? Okay. >> So, vaping in general concerns me and that seems to be the biggest thing that we're we're finding and which is troubling because it's like I said, I think it's it's it's addicting. It's very addicting. And so now, uh we are reaching out to some other schools um trying to find a cessation program, one that we can utilize other you know other other than just discipline. It can't just be that. If we don't, it just >> effective. >> It just keeps happening. Um, so that is a topic of our discussion at our PBIS teams on February 20th. It's already on the agenda. We're looking at what the mental health aspects and impact that that can be as well. So this is this is a

072lot of information that um well while we can go well we're better than other schools that's not good enough. We got to find a way to we got to find a better cessation program. And I you know what I haven't seen a great one yet that seems to be working but I'm hopeful and I hope that we can we'll continue to have those discussions. So, um, and that's that's where we're at. I don't know, Holly, do you have anything else that might touch bases? I mean, we're just in the early stages of of getting this >> basic Let's talk education measures some tips for parents look for something that is >> I think we also will kind of embed some of this information into parent academy because I think parents need to know. I mean,

073if I'm a parent and I'm battling that, I'm going, what can I do? How can I help my kid? You know, um, >> are parents notified if there's a vaping violation for their kid? Okay. >> Oh, yeah. [laughter] >> Yes, we uh we have a whole series of things we have to have to do. Um, but those are the two two big ones. Was that my last I can't remember if that was my last slide, but those those are coming up February 20th. We're really going to start jumping into that information and hopefully again this is just something that we have got to as school officials, as parents, we got to find something that that works that makes sense for our kids. And um I think this is one of those potential runaways, you know,

074and and you don't have to I mean, you can go down Beachmont and after you get by all the chicken stores, the next ones you see are the vape stores. So, I just think that it's we've got to we've got to figure this one out. So, Thanks. I appreciate that. >> Okay. >> Um, what else do you need me to? >> I think that's it. Did you want do you want to talk about anything? >> Yeah, I was going to say, would you mind addressing a little first the um potential Friday walkouts? And I will just say as a little bit of an introduction to this that I can speak for myself and I believe the board members in general that most of us found out about this through social media chatter the same way

075others in our community um did. I will absolutely stand up here and attest to the fact that none of us have had any involvement with this. We are not fostering walkouts in our schools. Um we absolutely respect our kids civil rights and appreciate the ACLU reminders um from Mr. Martin. Um that said, as I've responded in emails, um we are not involved in this. Um we absolutely respect and trust our building administrators to handle this walk out and missing class issues as they would with any other um truency or attendance issue, but um I would love for you to just speak to the logistics of it. Obviously, safety of our kids is paramount. >> Four big points. Number one, and you just mentioned it, is I want to make sure that people understand that Forest

076Hills School District, we do not sponsor, we do not endorse, we do not organize, we do not promote, we're not providing food, we're not doing anything. Um, from that regard, this this is not something that we're doing or organizing. Um, two, safety is critical. and we're always going to protect our students. Um so in the event um you pause and speak to what what what do you have planned as far as safety? Do you have anything any changes that you're making or any plans? >> Yeah. Uh we have uh resource officers that will be available. We've talked to >> How many resource officers do we have in the district? >> We have two. And then we have access to >> county. Is the plan for the resource officers to be at each high school tomorrow?

077>> Okay. >> Yep. Um but with that said, I mean, we we've tried to reach out to the students involved through their through the individual schools. Um, at the end of the day, I mean, can we're not we can't lock doors. We're not tackling kids. We're not we can't do that. We don't have that authority to do so. Kids don't shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door. Um, so there is as long as it's peaceful, if they decide to go outside, uh, we would certainly hope they stay on campus where we can protect them, where we have the the ability and the authority to protect them. Students go off campus, you know, school goes on, classes continue. Okay. Then as I think Sean might have mentioned it. Yeah. It's just absences. You know, you're

078absent from class. You're responsible for what you missed. You know, that's because teachers are going to keep on teaching. But we'll have administrators also as well as school resource officers available or school uh counselors available. So people that are not instructing instructing, but instructional time continues. Yeah, Larry, a couple things with this one. Um, I think there's an anticipation of counterprotesters showing up as well. And so it might be prudent to proactively have more than just a school resource officer at the schools. >> Um, you know, I think again a lot's been said about this stuff. >> Technically, they don't have the right to be on school grounds either. >> Sure. Sure. Sure. >> Technically, >> but Sean mentioned the Larry mentioned it and Jeff I think and Aaron you could speak on it a

079little more but the idea that students have constitutionally protected rights to speech expression demonstration even as students even as minors. >> Yeah. I mean um Larry and I haven't talked about this but in response to a couple of the community emails um I got a response from Kyle Fender and he pretty much nailed it. >> Uh the Anderson High School principal. I mean, the law is clear. Students have constitutional rights to free speech. Doesn't leave when they walk in the door, right? That includes a right to protest. It includes a right to walk out. Um, they are not exempt from discipline because of the political nature of their speech, but they also cannot be subjected to harsher or different discipline because of the viewpoint of their speech. It's something we've talked about here before. Um,

080we have to be absolutely neutral in that. They're entitled to an even-handed application of the makeup work policy, for example. Um, separate from that, disruption can always be punished, right? So, if they walk out quietly, you know, other students who aren't walking out are there to learn and students who intend to walk out and protest, I don't think there's any here, but if they're listening, which I'm sure they are, um, they should do without disrupting those who are still there to learn, right? And if they are disruptive, they should be disrupt they should be subject to the same discipline that any student who is not protesting would be would be subject to. So um that's my expectation for how the district will handle it. Um based on you know I'm hearing this for the first

081time from Larry. It sounds like that's his expectation. It's certainly Kyle Fender's expectation from the email I got from him. I have no reason to think >> the district is going to handle this any other way. But that's my expectation for it. >> Yeah. And then the last thing I'll add is that this is not a Forest Hills specific um demonstration. Uh this is a nationwide um movement. Um there were other schools I think Sycamore High School had a walk out today. There were some schools in Columbus on Tuesday and all across the country. And so like obviously I know there's a a large contingent in our community that does not agree with the the content of of the demonstration. This is not a Forest Hill specific thing. Um our students are obviously aware of

082issues around them and in their community and in the country. They have access to unlimited information um and are able to form their own opinions. And so I think as Jeff and Larry are alluding to is like the board will not and cannot stop students from from de demonstrating. I think I actually want to add one more thing. Um the kind of the basis of a student's right to protest comes from a 1969 Supreme Court case called Tinker versus De Moine. Right. >> And I have a junior at Anderson and I went to her room yesterday. She hasn't been to school this week because she was sick. She went back today. So, she hadn't heard about this, but I said, "Hey, what do you know about Tinker versus De Moines?" [laughter] And and she said,

083"Black armbands, protests in school." Like, she knew it all. So, shout out to the AP US history teacher, uh, Ed Anderson, Dan Armstrong, for teaching them Tinker versus De Mo this year. >> I'm impressed. That's That's pretty good. I thought you were going to ask her if she had heard about the walk out because [laughter] >> I will just say she know >> I will just say none of the high schoolers I have talked to have heard about this only adults and the kids are only hearing about it because we're asking them did you hear about this? >> Yeah, my daughter had not heard about it. I heard about it from an email from a community. >> Same. My daughter has not heard about it. >> Yeah. >> Also true in my house. So I

084think also a completely second a separate issue. Yes. Unrelated. Did we want to talk about this now as well? >> Yeah. So I think we've been able to clarify that piece and our lack of involvement in it. >> Not endorsed. Um secondarily this week we had the issue with AR Elementary and the potential federal visit for um I'm blanking on the name History Rocks. Um and there has been a lot of confusion around timeline uh when this was first notified what was happening where we were in the district and from a board perspective it was Monday evening at the end of the holiday weekend when we got an email through asking about this. Can you please back up and just kind of cover where this came from, where it went and the the in between?

085>> Yes. Uh briefly. >> Briefly. Yes. >> Because it's Um, I got a call on the 12th, Monday the 12th, um, from the, uh, superintendent from the Hamilton County ESC. I was in cabinet meeting, so I couldn't take the call. And then I called him back right around noon or so, and he shared an an email um, from the day before. It was a urgent request from um the director of the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Development, Mr. Dakan. Um requesting um help for he called it civics rocks. Um so I I called, you know, I talked to Mr. Hillicker. And uh at this point uh based off the email that was from Director Dak and it it was that uh the governor, lieutenant governor may be in attendance with this and I'm going

086okay. Um and basically um I think they must have contacted Mr. Dakan to see if he could get somebody in Ohio. Um I found out later that it was more Hamilton County and I'll tell you why in here in a minute. But anyway, um he also Dhakin had also mentioned that it wasn't likely that anyone from the US Department of Education would be there. Uh so basically I told Mr. Hillicker. I said, "Well, how can I help? What do you I mean, whatever. I'll do what I can. I mean, you've got the the director of do asking for help." I'm going, "Okay, what's that mean?" Um, so I didn't really hear anything else. Well, wait a minute. I did. Later that day at about 3:30ish, um, there was an email that, um, Mr. Hillicker sent

087to Dhakan about Northwest, Indian Hill, Forest Hills could all good could help. >> Does this does this mean this is at at this point you agreed or you expressed interest? >> Yeah. I said, "Sure. What do you need?" >> Had you vetted the program at this point? >> I didn't even know what the program was at this point. It was Civic's Rocks. That's that's what the director Dankin had mentioned. So, it it goes by Civics Rocks in these emails and then it advances to History Rocks. Yeah. Which is what I Googled uh History Rocks presentation. And these are the first couple of results that come up from the New York Times. The headline reads, "Linda McMahon's school visit sponsored by conservatives draws protest." And there's a paragraph describing the protest in Coltsneck, New Jersey. Uh

088during the first one of these stops, uh the next stop is from New Jersey.com. Uh and it says, here's the first paragraph. Let me find it here. I apologize. I lost my spot. Um, okay. The America First Policy Institute, Turning Point USA, Moms for Liberty, and the Faith and Freedom Coalition are among the more than 40 groups sponsoring Miss McMahon's 50-state History Rocks barnstorm. The initiative time to coincide with next year's 250th anniversary, blah blah blah. And then it goes on to explain what the program is about. I am well aware of what these >> organizations are. Are you? >> I am now, but I didn't at that point because he didn't tell me it was history rocks and I had not looked on the Department of Education's website. >> Okay. >> US department. It

089wasn't until Friday that I had heard anything else. >> So, the the emails we've been getting because of this, we're up to about 40 now, which is not that big of a deal. um they are talking about us bringing the politics back into the schools. When Jeff Aaron and myself ran, the reason we ran, or at least myself ran, was to get the politics out. At the first chance, we jumped and brought something incredibly political into our district. And I I guess my question is why? And why was this not vetted better? or if it was vetted, why did this seem like it was a good idea and something that our district after going through what we have over the last few years? How would this be beneficial? >> Well, if you'd let me do

090the timeline, I'll get I'll share that. >> Okay. >> Thank you. So after that, I didn't hear anything until uh director Dakan called called me around um 2 o'clock on Friday the 16th um and asked or basically said, you know, Eric had been selected um for this. And I and also on the call was his chief strategist. And I go, what does this mean? what is this all about? And he said, "Well, it should be pretty fun. It's a one-hour deal. Um, I'll be there or my deputy director will be there. Um, don't know who, if any, from the US Department of Education will be there. Uh, it's called America 250. That's where they first said, um, history rocks. I said, okay. And then he told me they're trying to hit all 50 states. I

091said, "Okay." Uh, didn't tell me anything about sponsors. Didn't say anything. So, um, I said, "Okay." at this point. Um, they said it was a like a five minute presentation, um, which I assume would have been about history, uh, of America and then a game show with elementary kids. That's that's what I knew. Um, and I said, "Wow, when?" And he said, "Well, next week." I go, "Next week." Wow, that's fast. He said, "I know." >> So, this this was all Friday after >> last Friday and we had a three-day weekend. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And I'm going Okay. Well, um, Jeepers. Okay. He said, "Don't worry. We'll we'll handle it. We'll we'll we just need to be able to." I go, well, okay, well, let me So, I in the short term,

092I called the principal. I said, are you wanting to do this? You like this this what do you think? [laughter] It was sure and uh which fantastic. That's that's fine. >> Sorry. At this point, you were still waiting. You had asked them for more information about the content and you were still waiting to receive that. >> Yeah, I didn't know. That's what I knew at this point in time. So later that afternoon um you >> and you had asked for that on Monday the 12th and as of Friday the 16th still hadn't received the information called the principal to ask if the principal was in support >> on Monday. >> Yeah. >> They didn't I don't think they even knew. >> Oh no I thought he did ask on Monday. >> So the first I

093I take the first email came in on Sunday I think and it said civics. >> Yeah. But it was that was to >> Right. So >> to Chad. So, there's an email from Chad to several people, including you on Monday at 3:28 PM says, "Thank you again for the opportunity to provide support for the USDE History Rocks program. So, at no point between Monday and Friday did anyone ask or look up what History Rocks is." >> I started to look at trying to figure out what was going on, but really wasn't at this point in time. I didn't know how this selection I didn't even know what was going on with the selection. >> Right. But my question is like before you got to the selection point, did anyone want to ask what we were

094being selected for? Did anyone make any inquiry to that whatsoever? >> No. >> Why not? >> As far as what the program? >> Yeah. >> All I had all I knew was that it was about celebrating America's 250th. But even on the website for the Department of Education, it says that the event is a celebration of America's 250th, but that the way that they do that is through a presentation on founding principles and values. And it lists the sponsor. >> So that information would have been available on Sunday the 11th or Monday the 12th. >> And maybe I misunderstood our phone conversation, but I thought you said that you did ask them for more details about the actual content on the 12th and still hadn't received it. >> I hadn't had anything. I had just

095Chad was looking for help. right >> at that point and I said, "Well, sure. Interested. I just don't know what this means." >> But it sounds like they weren't providing any information, but you also weren't seeking any information. >> Well, I didn't know we were even selected or even didn't know where that was going. So, I didn't know about any of that until Friday. So, there was that during the week. I just had we didn't have any information. didn't know know if if or why we would be selected anyway. I just offered to say, "Hey, what is it we can do to help?" >> But in the regular course, when an outside speaker comes to us instead of the instead of the other way around, instead of us inviting somebody into the district, when an

096outside speaker offers to come in, aren't there protocols for checking to see great, what would you like to present? when it does happen. Doesn't happen very often, but when it does, there's a series of questions that they answer. What's it tied to? Is it what in the curriculum >> and so you asked those on Monday? >> I didn't know that we were even being selected yet. >> But they had offered the program, right? >> At what point would you have asked those? It sounds like nobody did. >> No, nobody did, but that until Friday. Once you once it came out Friday, then I said, "Okay, >> tell me where we're going with this. What does this mean and what is it?" >> You know, it's um >> so you asked that series of questions for

097the protocol on Friday >> and they didn't know and even even the director didn't know. >> Who didn't know? >> Director Dakan >> and I just want to put this in the context of when a teacher would like to have somebody into their classroom. Now, we have policy that there is a form they have to complete indicating what it is that the topic is, how it relates to standards, what materials are going to be distributed, and it has to be at least 5 days in advance to be vetted by our curriculum >> team. So, just in contrast, there's a mismatch here in terms of >> yeah, being ready to go. I get that Ohio as a state wasn't the one facilitating the program, but Kentucky, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana had already gone

098had already had presentations like this. So, it seems to me that it would have been easy for somebody to say, "Here's the whole script for what other states have done so that we could ask the series of questions that says, great, how does this combine with the how does this >> comport with the curriculum?" And then make the choice. >> And we didn't we didn't have that. And then >> but it sounds like you were going forward with making plans for it to go forward >> on Friday um again about 2 o'clock you know that's when the director called me said we'd like to move forward and I go okay like when and he said next Friday and I go that's fast >> right >> he said I know um >> so did you at

099that point say we've got a fiveday policy and that's four business days away. We can't do it. >> Where's our fiveday policy? >> Wendy just said, >> is it five? >> I don't have the policy, but that's >> it's an an administrative guideline 9700. >> That's like an administrative >> administrative guideline 9700 >> for buildings to it's not a policy, but it's a kind of a guideline. So, >> well, another piece is that in the email chain that you had sent us today, >> there was another email that came on Friday the 16th at I think 4:00 where >> it was rescheduled. >> Yeah. >> And so, it was going for two hours. So, >> I don't >> by the time we found out about it, it had already been >> res You're like three

100days ahead here. Hold on. So, we're at at 2 o'clock on Friday. You get a call from uh Steve Dakin at the Ohio Department of Education Workforce. He says, "We want to do it." >> And you say, "Great." Not, "What are we doing?" You say, "Let's do it." >> Well, I didn't say great. I think I my response was, "Okay." >> What is that? Okay. What do I need to do? >> Yeah. What What's involved? Where where are we going? And then that's what he put his >> said next week. >> Next week. >> Stuff together. But he still didn't say what it was, right? No, he said it was it was America celebrating >> 250 History Rocks tour, whatever. Whatever. >> Yes. And so I said, "Okay, >> but at this point, nobody has

101given you and you have not looked for any content of the event." >> No, I hadn't seen it. No. Hadn't seen the content yet. >> You hadn't seen it. Had you looked for it? >> No. >> Had anyone? >> I didn't know we were even going to be selected. I didn't know have any reason to believe. >> You get the call. looking. >> You still didn't look for it, right? >> Yeah. I started looking around for it and I I made some calls and just said, "What do we know? What's what's on there?" Um, >> who did you call? >> I I actually I did that. Um, and I started gl reading it. Then I get an email later. >> Hold on. You said you made some calls. >> I I made a call to

102the principal. Are we okay? Do you want to do this? They're seemed to be excited. So, I said, "Okay." Um, I can't I don't know anymore yet. They're supposed to get they're supposed to get with me and and let us know. And I kind of loop them into the process, too, so that I wasn't the only one hearing this. >> Right. Was the principal under the impression that that the district had already vetted and approved the content? >> Probably. I mean, I I I can't speak for her. Um I can't speak for her but >> and then was the was the overall >> why would she not I mean she wouldn't >> right why would she not if the superintendent is calling her about it right >> I just said >> so then was the

103tenor of that conversation more of a facilitation let's make this happen like what what do we need to do to to prepare the facilities and AV >> we've got at this time I didn't know who was coming you know I still didn't know if it was the governor was coming this governor was coming or if it was going So what was your plan at that point? Not having received the information about the content. What was what was the plan for getting that? >> They had told me that they would get more information to me uh on Tuesday. >> On Tuesday. >> Tuesday. Um yeah. >> Okay. >> I think I think the emails. >> And did you did you have a backup plan for what would happen if the information came in and did not

104comport with the district's curriculum standards? Well, we would have told them no, but I didn't. >> But who who would tell them no? You or us? You would have >> I would have had to tell them. But at the same token, by 4:'lock, then a little more information came from the Department of the US Department of Education, >> right? And and that's that's an important part of this timeline, but I'm I'm curious at what point was was the plan to loop in the school board? Like when like when did when were you planning on talking to us about it? >> Well, I was going to talk to you before the the day, but then I then by 4:00 they said it's not going to happen on that day. Then I could go, okay, >> let's

105please let's figure out what's going on. [laughter] >> I'm not ready to get to four o'clock. We're still at 253. There's an email at 253. This is from Carrie Jones at the Ohio Department of Education Workforce. It's addressed to you and the guy at the federal DOE that says, you know, please let this email serve as a formal introduction for purpose of coordinating efforts around the American 50 History Rock store. And it's got a little bit of information asks about what time of day, etc. And down there in that email, there's a link that says, sorry, there's some summaries where elementary school in Ohio when? January 23rd. purpose, entails, duration, one hour. Here's the press from the kickoff event in Pennsylvania. It's a link to a news article about it. So, this is the federal

106department of education had forwarded that information to the state who forward it to you. So, this is the federal department of education's chosen framing for this event. They said, "We want you to know about this event. Here's the news coverage of it." >> Did anyone click that link? >> Did I don't know. I did. I mean, yeah, of course I did. >> What did you see there? >> Because what I saw is a short article and a video of Linda McMahon talking about dismantling, their words, the Department of Education. >> Does that sound like an educational event to you or a political event? >> No, but he he had also told me that she wasn't going to be there. >> He said she wasn't going to be there. >> Yeah, she wasn't going to be

107there. So your understanding is that that message was specific to Secretary McMahon and that if somebody else were going to be there that there would be no discussion related to what she had done in other states >> or that was my impression. Yes. >> Okay. So it would be new information from a new speaker but we didn't know what that new information or new message would be. >> Correct. And then >> but we still went forward with saying yes and calling >> what is there to do. Okay. So, um, and then that's when I first got a email that I got looped in to on four. Um, and that was we've received a number of emails from people talking about money being spent already on this celebration. When did that come into play? When was

108this communicated with PTO's or boosters or anyone that may have been spending this money or is that not something that actually happened? >> There has been no money spent on it. Now, would there could there have or would there have been? I think there were some plans moving forward very quickly um after Friday because I did call Heather and say, "Okay, you know, this looks like it's a I said, I don't know a whole lot more." Um, and I can't remember if it was if I called her after the last email. Um, but the last one at four was from the guy, the lead person at the US Department. >> So, the rumor online that a private donor had spent $9,000 in anticipation of this on t-shirts or something is just misinformation. >> I didn't

109know anything about that. I don't think anybody knew anything about that. Um, what I can say is in the short term that has not happened. No, >> that has not happened. >> No. >> Okay. >> No. >> Do you want to get to 6,000? >> Are you aware of anything with funding just because of your involvement? >> Based on Dr. Simmons asked me to. I followed up this morning. >> Yeah. >> And she told me that >> Can you use a microphone? >> Oh, I'm sorry. She told me that a parent had offered to buy um 700 t-shirts at $8 a piece. He evidently had a connection um but he was able to cancel that order once we found out. So the parent has spent no money, but she did have an offer and it

110would have been uh 5600. So $8 a t-shirt at 700 t-shirts. >> Thank you. That's I got that information from the principal this morning. >> Okay. >> So, I think this brings us to the and I'm sorry I there's a lot of details here, but we got a lot of emails about it and there is a lot of uh misinformation that has led to a confusion in our district, which is what we don't want here. So, we're trying to make sure it's all clear how this worked. >> That same Friday, two hours later at 4:00, we got an email. you you got an email from um the Department of Education saying that the >> the event had to be rescheduled. >> Yes. And to clarify, this is the Friday before we all found out about

111>> Yeah. We still have no idea that days ago. >> Yeah. So on Tuesday though when we had first talked or when Wendy I guess had first talked with you about it like it it sounded like it was still going forward and um a parent was planning to buy t-shirts and the PTO at was working on it but if we had already known Friday at 4:00 why were plans still being made to move forward with it if it wasn't going to be happening? >> Why you didn't know? No. Why? Why were we continuing to move forward with plans if we knew Friday at 4 pm that it wasn't happening? That there was a there was a parent going to buy t-shirts. Uh the PTO was buying balloons, but we knew two hours later on Friday

112at 4:00 that it wasn't going to be happening on Friday the 23rd. >> Well, it was so that the reason was for slow schedule to work out. So, it was going to be delayed, pushed off. Um, but not wasn't it was my understanding just off the email that it wasn't cancelled. It was just going to be pushed off so we had time to get more information. >> Okay. >> But in the meantime, I called Tuesday morning and that's when you and I at 4:00. >> Okay. I'm sorry. Jumping ahead. I'm not leaving 4:00. >> No, but I think when we were talking, you got this email, right? I mean, you had left for a long weekend. Everybody had left for a long weekend. Nothing was ostensibly happening over the long weekend. You So, you hadn't

113seen this email. Is that correct? I mean, I think And so things were moving forward as if it was happening even though it wasn't happening. >> Right. at sometime I don't know when I looked at that email wasn't right I wasn't I think at four o'clock on Friday I didn't look at it right then it was later >> but um okay we got time >> right >> that was my first response we got time because it's not going to happen Friday but it would likely happen at some point >> so you have Friday at four o'clock >> we get We the board got your weekly board update email >> that had already gone out. I think >> it it went out within minutes of the we need to reschedule email. So two hours after Steve

114Daken called you, one hour after the email that says we're going to be there in a week, here's all the information about the program. Let's talk again soon. It wasn't in our board update, right? >> No. >> So >> because I didn't have enough I didn't have the information and I didn't know it had been delayed yet. So, you told the principal, "Let's go do this event." Someone wanted to buy t-shirts and balloons, but you didn't have enough information to tell us about it. >> Well, I didn't had time to get more information. And I didn't have enough any more information other than um >> but so again you thought that the director of the Ohio Department of Education workforce or his deputy and possibly the governor or lieutenant governor was coming to one of

115our schools on Friday but you didn't put that in the board update >> because he told me then on Friday that it would be him or the lieutenant governor. But I I think I don't know if I had that information when I had the board update go out. >> So, we got the board update right about four o'clock. Was the board update prepared on Thursday or something? Like when did you >> Because it doesn't come from you. It comes from from Joey. I do it. But you prepared for her, right? Right. >> So, when did that happen? >> She sent it probably whenever you whenever you got it. >> I know. When I got it was like 402 or something. >> Oh, yeah. But I work on it during the day. I'm usually done by

116usually done by noon >> on it. >> So >> it's on my schedule. There's no time. >> You probably finished it at noon, but then two hours later you get a call and you didn't think, "Oh, I should put that in the board update." >> Like what's the point of the board update then if not for something like this? >> Okay. >> And then so that's Friday and then there's the email about rescheduling and there's some emails from the principal saying the AV equipment's no good. That's after the slowest reschedule email, but then the weekly building email comes out on Sunday. We all get that now. I'm learning the board gets weekly, you know, like my kids get the Nagel and the Anderson one, but now I also get all the other schools, which is

117great. It wasn't in the air parent update email that came out on Sunday, right? So, at this point, as far as I can tell, >> no air parents know that this event is happening at their kids' school four days later. Is that right? As far as I know, no. Now, do I think do I mean I'm sure that pretty sure that the principal talked to the PTO president otherwise there wouldn't have been any kind of discussion on t-shirts or balloons or whatever. So, I'm sure there was some kind of conversation. So what was the plan for notifying the heir parents then? >> Right once I had information on when what specifically >> but we had the information on when because now we knew the date. So we're just still waiting for more details on the

118content and correct. So it's the lack of details on the content that was your reason for not telling the board and not telling parents. >> I didn't have enough factual information. >> Okay. I think for me personally in the future it would be good to have a heads up even if there's not complete information about something of this um magnitude so that we can be aware and start to be looped in on that. Uh my other question is once you found out on Friday that Slotus which is the second lady of the United States was involved then I assume we have protocols for additional security or additional media or other things involved with a high-profile visit. Were those then put into place? >> Well, if it's anything like the governor, the when the lieutenant governor

119visited. Yeah. They have a whole >> Are you asking if it's anything like the governor? >> Say that again. >> You said if it's anything like the governor? >> I said if it's anything like what we had when >> you don't know what kind of security they would have required. >> Did it ever get that far as? >> No, it never got that far yet. But they do all that. They do all that security. Sure. But those are those are people on our campus with our kids. >> Sure. >> But I didn't have any of that information. >> So, can I jump to Monday night or so? I I feel like we've we've got a timeline here. We've moved forward. I think we're we're getting to the idea. Monday night, we receive an email thirdand

120that this is something happening and heard having questions. Somebody heard something. So, Tuesday morning, I called you and we chatted and I expressed very strong concerns about this. I expressed concerns from a policy standpoint and the vetting, not knowing what we were doing, uh, which I think needs to be our first line of question whenever we're looking at something like this. The second line of question is always going to be the safety and well-being of our students. We as a board have been asked to diffuse the vitriol in this community to try to bring us back together. And I believe very strongly that as a community of the large majority of us moved here for the schools. We believe in our teachers and educators and paras and aids and cooks and custodians and bus drivers

121and everybody who interacts with our kids every day. And we've lost sight of that because of the external political earworms that have been coming in. And as a board, we have indicated we want to turn our focus inward. We're focusing on the strategic plan. We're focusing on our district. We're focusing on how to be a thriving educational environment for all of our kids. And we are trying to set that aside so that we can do that. And it seems to me that we inadvertently involved oursel in an event that would create just the opposite. Either way, we're getting an opposite response to people who are upset about it. We would get a response with people who are upset if it was happening. Um, and so from my lens, regardless of political affiliation, this appears to

122have a political event to it. A political figure is going to have a political event. Regardless of who this was at this moment, my comment was this is not what our district needs right now. This is not what our community needs. This is what our not what our kids need as a distraction. another dramatic distraction to their their education. And so that's when we didn't have a date anyway. Nothing was moving forward. You were able to reconnect with Mr. Dakan to express that we weren't sure what was moving forward at that time. Is that fair? >> And at the same time, I was going I was reaching out to call you. So it was a kind of a weird thing because I wanted to get to you before cabinet meeting that we had and we've

123had a nice a good discussion. You explained all those pieces. Respect that. I know that and Josh had reached out to me about your conversation. So I felt there was that that this wasn't going to go forward and after talking with you then I said let me reach out and see what I can do >> to to to to say this. This is the last thing I have to say on this. Um I would love it if our elementary schools did a celebration of America turning 250 fantastic. I I am uninterested in having politicians use our children for photo ops. >> And it the thing is is that it's less about the content of the message and it's more about regardless of whether you agreed with it or disagree with it, it's a divisive figure.

124And we see evidence from the prior stops that there are massive [snorts] protests and uh media coverage. And obviously by it not coming in that has disenfranchised and upset a lot of people in our community. So it's done the exact thing that we're trying to um trying to avoid and trying to trying to tone down. Um and so I think a really another big piece of all the emails that have come in is the accusation that the board cancelled this event. And I think it's important to note that that did not happen. Wendy did not ask for the event to be cancelled. We expressed she expressed concerns. I had expressed some concerns. The event was already being rescheduled before we even knew about it. Very little if any planning had even been done. None of

125the parents from Ayer knew. Very few people knew. The program hadn't been vetted yet. We had no clue what the content of the visit was going to be or the materials or the activities that were going to happen in the class. But >> parents had not had their optin opportunity. >> There was no mandate to cancel it. Nor could the board get together as a group and do that without being in the public space. Right? Like that that's we had we had met as a group for 30 minutes before tonight at the organizational meeting. So the idea that the board stepped in and canceled it is not >> did not happen. And I think it just goes to an important point that I think is the bigger takeaway to this is that right like we

126we are in a just a very tense political time and the schools are at the center of it and just because somebody is saying something on Facebook and presenting themselves as an expert on a topic or information on a topic does not make it real. And people took this and ran with it. And it led to a ton of confusion. And we got emails not only from angry uh community members, but other people said, "Hey, I heard that. I have no clue what's going on. I saw this online. Can you can you clear this up for us?" Right? So, you don't have to like any of us, but our goal is to be transparent and make sure we are articulating what happened and the truth on all these different matters. You can choose not to

127believe it. You could choose not to like it. Not like us, but we are always going to be transparent and lay out uh the facts as we see them. >> So, I'm sorry. Were you going to say something? >> No. I was wondering if we were ready to move on to the consent agenda. Do you have a final thought? [laughter] >> I think so. >> So, on Friday, >> no, no, no, no. We're on Tuesday now. So, I I got this email on Monday. You know, I I hadn't heard about it, but I I understand that you talked to Larry and Wendy spoke on Mon on Tuesday morning, and that's what prompted Larry, you to send to us, to the board, the email that you had got on Friday afternoon. That's the one with the

128link to the news coverage, etc., etc., etc. So, but it sounds like at that conversation when Wendy expressed some concerns, you a still didn't know what the program was and b still wanted to do it, right? I was very interested in doing it. Yes. Did I know everything about it? No, I can't say that because I had never first, you know, other than from the Friday late email. I didn't know Slotus was involved. >> I'm just the content of the presentation like like set aside who might be there. But the content of the presentation, you got an email, >> just what you saw. >> You'd had an email eight days earlier that said it's called history rocks, but nobody googled it. Apparently, there were multiple emails on that Monday the 12th. So, the first thing

129I did other than click that link, which I mentioned before, where it's a clip about dismantling the Department of Education, I Googled it and I got to the official Department of Education website for the program. Nobody at the district thought to do that. Okay. Um, I did. And it says that the website for the history rocks tour which is which is out there. I mean you can Google it or bing it or whatever. And it describes it as being coordinated by a a partnership with you know 40ome organizations. Jeremy named some of them. And so if you look at those organizations and some you'll recognize I would think but here are what those organizations say about this event. They talk about resisting liberal academics and demagogues. They're saying we must challenge progressive policies. We're saying

130one of the sponsors is quote is more resolved than ever to advanced god- centered education for students. That's from the official Department of Education. You don't even need to click out a link to get to that. And that's on the Department of Education website. The same sites talk about their goals of undermining public education by quote providing more choice for students. other words, not public schools, about how their goals include expanding access to charter schools and enabling statewide open enrollment and eliminating school district boundaries. Like, what about this district makes you think we should associate with those programs? That is purely political. You can agree with it or disagree with it, but what does that do for our kids at Air Elementary? >> It's also anti-public education, >> Right. like how does that benefit our

131students? And and I think you're going to say it doesn't and I agree with that, but why didn't anyone think to ask that question eight days earlier? I I mean I asked it the moment I heard about this. It's the first thing I asked. What is this? >> I typed in two words into Google, history rocks, and that's what came up. That's all anyone had to do. Why wouldn't someone do that? >> Well, like I said, I just I saw what you saw. I didn't read all of that component of it. I did see some of the groups that supported it, but I didn't see any of those groups performing in in [clears throat] the event, if that makes sense. So, >> so at the end of the day, we really didn't know what we

132were were getting into and the date didn't work and it has moved on at this point. So, if I can bring us back to try to bring this full circle, I think the board first of all probably needs to revisit policy around how something like this would work, communication plans around how something like this would work, and also would welcome the opportunity to plan a 250th patriotic celebration in our district. We have amazing history teachers who could provide either a wealth of information or activity. Sorry teachers, I'm volunteering you. Um, but I I think we could absolutely do something to celebrate this and keep it Forest Hills focused. Nothing outside Pro- Forest Hills. And that that would be a good way to move forward. >> I'd very much like to see that happen. >> All

133right. I would like to suggest we move on to item 8.1, the beginning of the consent agenda. >> Where Where's Mark Bell on the pizza tonight? and I'm starving. >> Good evening and uh this does begin as uh Dr. Strickler mentioned the beginning of our consent agenda for the rest of this evening's meeting. Um HR report this evening happens to be the uh fewest number of retirements resignations that I think I've seen on an HR report. Um I did have a lastm minute addition that the board may recognize uh highlighted on the draft. Uh it's just a a last last minute resignation. Um we have been able to post earlier because we had anticipated that resignation was coming through. Um so you'll al also notice the other highlighted uh portion was uh that individual's replacement

134and we're excited to have a little bit of a transition period with that par profofessional uh working in this building here at Mercer Elementary. So, um the let's see, moving on down in our appointments. Um we have um just kind of call out a couple uh new hires that we have welcoming into the district. Uh starting with Dana Evans. Um Dana is replacing Sue Price in our uh print shop as our administrative assistant uh for maintenance and custodial. Um we spent a lot of time uh with uh with our admin team over winter break. Uh we were hopeful to have filled that position a little bit sooner, but uh the holidays kind of got in in between some logistics and we're thrilled to have her. She's uh now hitting the ground uh running here on

135week two and drinking from a fire hose and we're slowly releasing back that print shop uh availability. Um but we're very thrilled to have her. And Sue has been phenomenal. I will also mention she's a longtime resident here and as the board may recall, she's been currently out on vacation until her retirement actually comes due, but she's been very willing and and uh accommodating to help Dana with this transition. So, that's been huge. Um let's see, moving on down. Um just uh for the purpose of of our new board members, uh you'll note uh often in the appointment section there's a delineation between uh new appointments and those moving off of their probationary contract. And that's just pursuant to Ohio Revised Code, there's that 60-day probationary period. Um so those are not new employees. They're

136just rolling off of that probationary contract onto their first one-year limited contract. Um, beyond that, uh, on the attachments for our appointments, we have 28, uh, supplemental and pupil activity contracts, work beyond contracts, uh, largely spring athletics gearing up for, which is crazy to think about. Um, but that's listed in there for the board's review and approval this evening. We have a a few subs that we're bringing in on the classified side as well, listed there. And um there just a a few personnel changes on uh with regard to payment and stipens for the OPE training. That's uh um something that Jamie Roth and his team have been working on. [clears throat] Um beyond that, item D, volunteers, 27 volunteers for approval this evening and uh one lonely student teacher um who uh we're excited

137to welcome in from UC. And uh just for the board's knowledge, uh that makes 33 student teachers uh placement experiences this year. >> Um I can't say off the top of my head if it's every building. >> You said just this year. That's >> Yeah. Now that would include practicum, you know, or observations experiences. >> A good number. That's great. >> That's awesome. >> So, >> any questions? No. >> All right. That concludes my report as part of the consent agenda. Thank you. >> Thank you, Rob. >> Thank you. Business operations Mr. Eert. We have Mr. >> Good evening. >> Evening. I just have two agenda items that I I did share the items with you in the board update this past Friday, but the first one 9.1 is a resolution to work through the

138cooperative of aqualas on the air roofing project. It's a process that we've been doing now for three years as we go through the roofing projects and it's worked out very well for us. Um that is the first item and the second item is a re resolution authorizing us to solicit bids for the operation center of the concrete. Um >> we have some bids or some quotes that are below the bid threshold but I don't believe we're going to be able to stay there once once we tie in the engineering. So it's going to go over our bid threshold. That's why I wanted to put this out on the agenda so we could move forward with that at this time. Does anyone have any questions on these two items? >> Am I remembering correctly? This is

139the concrete that needed replaced or is this a different project? >> It's the concrete that need needs to be replaced. Yes, actually we're replacing asphalt concrete, but we're doing this >> uh we're going to do some drainage and stuff to control the water for the new copy center. >> Okay, perfect. All right. Thank you. Thank you. And with that said, I respectfully request the board accept items 9.1 and 9.2 as part of the consent agenda. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Item 10.1, teaching and learning, Chuck Ogden. Are you responsible for all these? All of teaching and learning. Chuck Ogden. Yeah. [laughter] Thank you very much. I have three items on the agenda tonight for approval. F first would be the secondary uh course guide updates that we do annually. Um, I've been feeding uh

140uh some information uh the last couple updates just so you kind of understood the trajectory and uh a couple highlights that I'd like to make specifically on the course guide are u per strategic plan. We are looking at adding more embedded CCP courses that's college credit plus it's a phenomenal savings to our community. So, an average three-hour course at the University of Cincinnati is anywhere from $1,500 to $1,600. They get that credit by staying at Anderson High School or Turpin High School. So um we are adding um five this year. English composition, Spanish, German, uh Chinese, which is Mandrin for us, and then um uh engineering design too, which I'm really excited about our engineering pathways because two years ago it was three elective courses. Now it's intro, it's principles, which is honors credit, foundations

141of engineering design one, and then foundations of engineering design 2. um which will have a number of students go through that pathways and they'll have six college credits in engineering design um as they go into um anywhere in Ohio it's guaranteed but uh UC is right down the road and we have a number of students that go there too so proximity wise it's it's really good. Um English composition just so you know is that is our largest uh CCP group of students that leave our campuses to go to main campus at UC. We're 26 to to 30 students in each school. So, we're really hoping to retain some of those students here. And our teachers are awesome. Um, you know, I have a bias, but they're really, really good. In our world language programs, um,

142if you notice, Spanish is a 10,00and, those are actually 2,000 level courses. This was vetted with the University of Cincinnati. So, they basically they credential our teachers. They look at uh it can be a combination of if they have a master's, they have experience andor just graduate credits in that specific subject which get them credentialed. Then they look at our courses and our curriculum and what they teach. And so in collaboration with the University of Cincinnati, that's how we choose the levels. All right. So in world language in all three that I have proposed for this evening that will also replace our level four um which are students that start a world language in the eighth grade at Nangle. So um and then if they were to go on to a level five that would

143be uh AP level. So super super excited about that. Um there's a there's a another thing is noteworthy is all CCP courses will be at a 5.0 weighted scale. uh the letter of the law which I embedded uh OC in there basically says you can't being in CCP can't be less than what you offer at your high school. So we are we are just leveling it. We only had one class that was at honors level which is technically a 4.5 weighted GPA. We're going all five because in Ohio also this year CAG courses which essentially are courses taught at the Oaks which is career uh campus anything that they have has to be at a CCP or AP weight. So it's just easier um it's best for the students but it's also easier because right

144now what we're having to do this year is any student that is for example I'll use our our business department which we don't have weighted grades in at this time. So, if they're taking a a weighted course at the uh at the Oaks campus, we have to go in and manually do that. So, that's just in our world with transcripted credit could lead to um not some accurate data. Plus, it's what's best for the kids. >> Um uh additionally, next I have any >> I got a question. Sorry. Um, so >> for clarity, like some of these courses are offered at the University of Cincinnati and we have our students going to UC to take those classes and then some of the courses our teachers have been certified by University of Cincinnati to teach them

145and they're taught in our schools. >> Yes. All these courses proposed are embedded courses that will be taught at our high schools by our teachers that UC has credential. >> Okay. So we don't have students going to UC then? >> We do. Yes. Yes. >> Yes, we do. in in Ohio CCP you can >> but we also have them being taught at our schools >> and we're yes based on it's actually technically strategy 2.2 2. Our goal has been to grow those programs. So, last year we added three. >> Um, this year we're adding five. Um, uh, we have a we have a goal, my goal would be between AP and CCP that any of your kids when they choose when they graduate from either of our high schools will have the option of minimally

146to walk out of here with 30 hours. Um, >> 30 college credit hours. >> 30 college credits. Yes. And are they paying college tuition rates for these classes? >> No. So in Ohio there's there's a graduated scale. Okay. So for off-campus it's 160 I think it's $161. I don't think it changed this year per credit hour. When it's embedded it's it's $41. >> And is that a cost that the the student and the family pay or that we >> by law we cannot we cannot uh charge them a student fee for that? that is in that is paid by the district. >> Okay. >> But so for example with the with the students that we have going off it's a much higher rate. So those English composition >> when when they take it here it'll

147be almost three times as less. >> Y >> do those numbers affect our ADM like the number of students who are actually in the high school at any given >> uh it can it fluctuates. So we have a number of students a lot of students will split the student day. So for example they might only leave our campuses for a class or two. So it's pretty popular. I will share my son did this in high school when he was at Lovelin. So uh he would come for the afternoon. So he did his CCP in the morning. Uh college courses started. He'd take a nine o'clock class. So he got to sleep in a little Monday, you know, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So uh a bulk of our students, we we don't have a ton of students

148um that are full full CCP. We certainly have some, but a majority of students that leave our campus because we're just starting building our embedded program leave for a part of the day. And what's most popular, for example, if you pull up Bartles Road here in the in the morning versus the afternoon, you will just see the parking spaces. It's usually students like the afternoon courses, but it is also based on uh availability specifically at the Institution of Higher Education when their classes are. >> So, Chuck, just to clarify, we've always offered the CCP classes. They have been either onampus or online options. Right. So my son took an online English class in Ohio. Yes. We every public school does not have an off option. >> Right. What I'm seeing is the difference now is

149us embedding the classes. So students don't have to leave but can get the correct >> correct. Yeah. >> Correct. >> Yes. >> Can I ask one more question before I move to your second point? I saw that Latin is being phased out and that's already been communicated to students before they enrolled in Latin and that looks like that's continuing as as part of the phase out. I also saw that one of the um alternatives offered to them is online or CCP. Does the online version still offer them credit toward high school graduation? >> Yes, all all of them. It's it's an elective credit because these students already have um their two credits. So, we we did have uh level two at Turpin. So, it would be a level three. So, we're actually working. So, an

150online version um advanced placement is going to be pretty tough. That's where the CCP option will come in and that will be offampus. But we're we're vetting a number of resources to see how can we continue those students on if they want to continue on in Latin >> and that will continue to taper over time with no new students coming into Latin. >> Yes. And and and per uh the updates I sent, we were down to a 6 FTE this year. So yeah, it is it has been a a slow taper. I like that. Um as we move forward >> and that point 6 was split over the two schools, right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Great, great questions. Um, any more on Okay. Uh, I have a number of uh field trips uh

151for approval. The first two are domestic with the marching band. Uh, looking at the Orlando trip, um, which will be in 2027. Uh, also domestic would be um, uh, the Nagel um, Washington DC trip which Mrs. Brennan started. I think we're in our third maybe fourth year of that. So, she's she's really got that rolling in a really nice welloiled machine. >> Chuck, on that one, it says the number of students is one and chaperones is eight. >> The ratio >> for the ratio. I mean, it's not a ratio because all the other ones >> all the other ones. >> Do we have >> only one student goes >> just something that's not right. >> It's a 8 to1 about 40 chaperons and 350 students. >> I Yeah, I knew it was a bigger thing.

152I just wanted to make sure we knew we were approved. Okay. >> Yes. that that is in her packet just so you know that that is all accurate in the packet okay >> that she gave us. >> Um great great point. Thank you. Any other questions on domestic? >> Okay so for international field trips this has really been uh a big journey. So, we started this last year. Um, Wendy and Jason, there was a international travel handbook approved last year really trying to put some guard rails around this um because it's a it's a it's a big endeavor. >> Okay. And it's a lot of liability by our teachers that that take on that. And so, we just really wanted to really leaning into policy really leaning and create something a little bit more substantial

153kind of like the course guide. when our students look at that, when our parents look at that, it's like okay, this is how we can these are these are our guidelines, right? So, um these trips uh have been vetted not only um uh by the the trip leaders but by myself and the international review board which is comprised of myself uh Mr. Fellows and Miss Tinsley to look over it. We we put it through a rubric which gauges um we look uh at the US Department of um oh shoot I forget which office it is um I think maybe the interior it's on the website but they rate travel and they they they put it on a you know how safe is it to travel um so we really look at a number of things

154what is the educational value what is the cultural value um how is this going going to uh grow our students things of that nature look at the uh student to chaperone ratio all these things to really again just put some metrics behind it make it very linear and make it very uh systematic and these four uh going to we have one to London and Paris one to Bise um and actually the one to Bise changed because we had some things happen in the world a couple of months ago and I don't know if Ecuador is the best place to go so talked with uh that person and we usually go through EF F tours um which is a a very uh tried and true beenaround company. They have they have good educational plans for for

155our group. So we're going to BISE. Germany is pretty cool. That's a part of an exchange program that our German uh uh world language program is a part of. So they'll actually be over there for about 20 days. Uh that's a true exchange. We had German students this year. So that's going to be pretty cool. And then we have some theater students going to Greece, which uh I I don't know. I've been to Greece once for my 20th and it was amazing. I would go back yesterday. So um any questions on the international trips? >> No questions. But I would like to say that I do appreciate the teachers um willing to put in this extra time. This is 100% extra. Um it's not needed. Um and I do appreciate those that are willing to

156do it. Thank you. >> Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um the last thing I have on the consent agenda is our summer school um courses and fees for this summer. >> Any questions? >> Just one question there. And this is just me being curious. I saw that only one course was listed both under original credit and credit recovery world cultures. Is that the same class or there's two different versions of it offered depending whether it's original or credit recovery? Um, so if it would be for elective credit. So if you were to need uh if you if you need an additional elective credit to graduate based on where you're at with your specific credits, um you can take it for an elective credit if you're just trying to get ahead or if you actually need elective credit

157to graduate because you're credit deficient. >> Okay. And am I remembering correctly that we're working to expand our tutoring list available to parents, especially for elementary since we're not offering elementary that we'll have a tutoring list available. >> Uh uh I believe >> okayamilies >> okay so access to some resources. is Alicia Champions working on a tutoring list. So, >> I'm just repeating in case people can't. >> Yeah. And we'll we'll also be offering at the elementary levels uh a couple weeks of a STEM camp um specifically uh June 8th through the 12th and then the 22nd through the 26th. >> Great. >> All right, >> Chuck, I don't have any questions, but I did do want to say I I really appreciated um when you're talking about the CCP credits, the connection back to

158the strategic plan and how that ties into what we're trying to do. So, uh, very much, uh, you know, the just the intentional efforts to show how we're how we're moving toward achieving these goals. Thank you. >> Absolutely. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Item 11, technology. Mr. M. >> Good evening. We have one item for technology tonight. It's item 11.1. This is the approval of the Lenovo lease agreement. This is for to support the 1:1 Chromebook program for the students in Forest Hills. This is where every fifth grade and nth grade student will receive a new Chromebook this year. Then we will gather the Chromebooks that they've been using for the last four years. We'll take those and move those down into grades one through four and use the Chromebooks during

159that time. And then again, once those kids get to fifth grade and nth grade, then they'll get a new Chromebook again at that point. This is a program that we've had for every year for the last six years. Do we have any questions? >> Be working well. >> Just one. Is it our regular practice? I saw the the master lease agreement for the the lease of the laptops. It looks like 1100 laptops. Is it our regular practice for you to reserve to review those terms and conditions or do we send them to our lawyers? >> I send them to the legal team. Absolutely. >> Okay. So, they've looked at that. >> Absolutely. Yes. >> Great. >> Anything else? >> Yeah. Good legal question. >> Thank you. Item 12, treasurers update. Mrs. Crawford, >> Atlanta, speaking

160of legal update, our lawyer's been here for over an hour running the running the clock on us. So, uh, [laughter] >> so would you would like me to hurry. Is that what you're trying to say, Dr. Simmons? >> Presentation. >> All right, let's go through pretty fast because it it it was a low cash flow month as usual in December. So starting with donations, um over the month we took in 7,900 total for the year. Um just slightly under 23,000. Item B always gives you a snapshot of our current five-year forecast. Item C, general fund, low cash flow as expected, major revenues during the month, the 1.6 million from the state. Item D, um, uh, general fund expenditures, uh, very stable throughout the year. At the end of December, we've spent 48% of our appropriations

161and 50% of the year over. So, tracking right on hand. Item E shows you the uh, cash balance progression throughout the year. One of the things that we always look at is how much cash we have on hand to cover expenditures. Um, we're looking pretty good on that. Uh, right now, um, cashwise, we can cover the district's operation for 124 days. Unreserved 101. Uh, moving on to the permanent improvement reports. The first report there, that is only the um, uh, subobject. It is only the, uh, portion of the, uh, PI that receives tax revenues. Uh we have a schedule in here for both our capital projects that we uh did during summer of 25. Um just a few encumbrances hanging out there waiting for final sign off. Um and then we also have have started

162projects for this upcoming summer. So schedule for that as well. Interest earnings remain strong. Beds are meeting next week. We don't expect another cut. um will be maybe one one to three depending on who you talk to. Probably a max of a threequarters percent. Most people are saying only a quarter. Most economists are saying only a quarter this upcoming year. Um the last thing on there is um the approval of a certification of funds um that did not have a prior PO. That said, any questions? That said, I respectfully request that you approve the treasur's agenda items in line with the consent consent items starting with 8.1 through 12.1. >> Can I get a motion to approve consent agenda items 8.1 through 12.1? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Miss Wazooi? >> Yes. >> Dr.

163Simmons? >> Yes. >> Mr. Nye? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ward? >> Yes. >> Dr. Strickler? >> Yes. Item 13, board discussion. >> Can I start with something? Um, first I just want to welcome officially welcome the new board members. It's a I'm very much looking forward to to working with you and in this group. Um, one thing that really became evident as we received emails the last few days is our board communication policy over email. Um, and I want to just make sure we're all on the same page with how we're communicating. Um, you know, in the past we've had the president respond to everything. Um I I know there were times in these last 48 hours where multiple people were responding to the same people per uh person and that's totally fine, but I

164do think there's a benefit to having some consistency so the public knows what to expect from communication with the board. And then we have an expectation of what is um what is expected for us in terms of communication. And what what I would like to propose, I'd like to hear your all's thoughts is um to continue the process of having the president respond to the emails, but CCing the board on all those responses so that we know that that email has been responded to. That's been an issue in the past that >> we don't know if it's been responded to. So that would allow us to set up a separate separate thread to reply separately should we want to, but it would inform us that that email has been responded to. >> So I'd like

165>> And Jason, you mean when somebody sends an email to board forest hills.edu >> to the board to all five? Yeah. If they're obviously if they're emailing you separate, right? Yeah. But when an email comes into the board about any topic, >> um barring Wendy reaching out to us saying, "Hey, can I get a hand with this because there's a lot." as president, Wendy would be the one to respond and CC all of us so we would be aware of that it was responded to and what the response is and then should we feel inclined to follow up with something further, we can reply separately just to that individual. >> Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense and I'm happy to do that. I think the question about that which maybe warrants just

166a legal check-in is this sunshine law piece, right? As soon as it appears we're holding any kind of dialogue on email, it becomes a problem. So nobody can then reply back to that email if I do that. Um I'm happy to do that. But yes, if you want to continue that dialogue with the um community member who reached out, it would have to be a separate interaction. So that me including you would be essentially an FYI, no further discussion. Just so we're >> careful about that piece. And I think that's part of the reason it hasn't happened previously is it just feels like a little bit of a sticky wicket that we don't want to create any sense that that we're >> correct >> interacting behind the scenes. >> It's purelyformational to let us know

167it was responded to and this is what was said. >> Right. I think that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, >> that sounds good to me. >> I am not the board's lawyer, but but I I don't I don't see any problem with that. Under the open meetings act, a meeting is any pre-arranged discussion of school business. We wouldn't be discussing school business. We would be >> seeing that you responded to a community member >> and then if we want to respond separately, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. >> Wendy, would you be able to follow up with uh our district legal council to confirm that that is allowable under Sunshine Laws and we're not setting us up for some potential issue down there? That's that's my only question is whether that changes

168at all those emails being subject to um disclosure and whether the person emailing us knows that or not. Does that change it? And if so, how? >> Right. >> Um then two other quick comments. Um one is we we got the revised strategic plan on Tuesday and I'm sure um Jeff, Jeremy, and Aaron had an opportunity to read it. I'm not sure to what extent you've read it and looked into it before then, but we have um Wendy's going to talk a little bit about our our schedule coming up in the work sessions and the intent of those. Is that on your nut? But I I would like to propose is one of the things that we talk about in one of our earlier work sessions is I would love to hear your all's insights

169on the strategic plan. Um allow you all an opportunity to ask both Larry and Atlanta questions on it. Um, so we're all on the same page with where the district is headed. We're clear on different things if there's gaps that we feel need to be addressed. So I'd like to see that on one of the the early agendas. And then finally, um, like we got a big storm coming in, uh, this weekend, right? So Larry, I'm sure you're going to make the wrong call on if we could cancel school or not. It's going to piss someone off, but uh, [laughter] no. Um, I had heard that was a joke. Yeah. [laughter] Um I had someone had reached out to me and said that the the township had offered to plow our parking lots when it

170snows. Um and that hadn't been the case in the past. So I had reached out to um one of our trustees, Tom Hodes, and he looked into it and confirmed to me that the township is willing and able to plow our parking lots. it just needs a request from from you or someone in operations when there's a snowstorm and they would plow our parking lots. So, um good partnership there. >> We have used them. >> Okay. Yeah. I mean, if we have a more efficient way, the township is also offering. So, >> we have a great cooperative with them as far as salt as well. >> Yep. >> It's a combined effort. There's a lot of districts very when you're leaving. >> Yeah. >> Another op another resource. Yeah. So, that's all I have. Again,

171welcome to the new board members. >> Anything new board members would like to say? >> Yes. In recognition of the building shoutouts and liaison that we had talked about before, I wanted to give two quick shoutouts and I know we're running late on time so I will be quick. Um, at Summit Elementary wanted to give a shout out to Jeff Shashkin. He is a coach who has been running the four through six co-ed basketball program for almost 40 years. One guy coaching all the teams. Um, but it's a great learning league and a great way for fourth through sixth graders who are interested in learning a sport without being in a in a mildly competitive way, but without um having to participate in club club level activities for basketball. And so that that is underway

172right now as is the sixth grade annual mock trial uh led by Mr. Divine. So Jeeoff, maybe you can be a a judge for them. Um, and then prek is my other one. But uh, Larry, you stole all my thunder on the the good announcements regarding uh the gold award that they have from the Ohio Department of uh, Children and Youth. And just wanted to encourage people to consider Forest Hills for preschool options and remind people that uh, kindergarten open houses are coming up in March, I think March 5th from 6:45 to 7:45. >> Very nice. >> I've got a couple shout outs as well. Um, from Live Oaks, we had uh Lily Crate uh who is an Anderson uh student, Live Oaks student, placed second in the advanced desktop publishing. Um, she's advancing to

173the state competition in February. And Grace Kinsey, um, took sixth in fundamental desktop and received a gold key in comic art. So, um, well done to our students out there. Uh, Mercer spotlighted two students who were caught in the act of picking up some trash around the playground. Um, so thank you to Tanner and Avery for showing some initiative uh and pride in your school and your community. Um, and then lastly, Anderson High School has got a lot going on. Uh, OMA is coming up this weekend hopefully with the weather. Um, the last few weeks they held their first home girls wrestling meet, uh, battle of the bands, had CCP meetings for parents, uh, along with the local universities, uh, and our counselors, and we had an achievers breakfast as well. So, there's a lot

174going on. Um, and I love getting these updates about all the positive things that are going on with our kids and our staff. So, um, this is kind of the highlight for me. So, uh, I'm glad I got to do that. >> Awesome. >> Anything you'd like to say, Mr. N? >> Yeah, in terms of, uh, shout outs, um, I've been assigned the building leazison for Nagel and Maddox. I haven't met at Maddox yet. We reschedled to next week. I did meet with, uh, Tiffany Brennan at Nagel and neglected to bring my list of shout outs. So, we'll do better. We'll do better next time with something from >> I forgot to Jeff. It's okay. >> From Nagel and Maddox. >> You can shout them out next month. >> I'll get back to them. Um

175on the subject of work sessions, um yeah, you know, we need to kind of develop the strategic plan and make sure that we're moving the right direction. Make sure we know how we're going to meet some of these goals. How do how are these goals established? How are we going to meet these goals? Um that's really important. The vision for the future of this district is is really important. Um and then last I Oh, no. Two more things. One is we're going to go into an executive session so we as new whoever is listening can get an update on what litigation the district is facing. I I don't we're not going to take any action after that. I just want people to know why we're going into executive session see what's going on with those

176little with those uh court cases. So that's coming up in a minute. Then finally, while I kind of hate to end on a down note, I am obviously not happy with how this error event happened. It should have been vetted before it was ever even considered put on the calendar. This cannot happen again. Whether it's a conservative program or a liber liberal program, I do not care. Our kids cannot be political pawns. Period. >> Thank you. All right. A few final notes. One other shout out from the Oaks to Jackson Bower from Turpin placing fifth in the computer network technology um event that was happening. So um that's pretty amazing that we have students across this district and all they're accomplishing. I also just want to um give a welcome to the board. Thank you.

177I'm excited to have the opportunity to work with you all on behalf of our students and bringing our school community together. Um and then just a couple informational updates. As you know, we have our first work session on February 3rd. As a board, we have made the decision to have um regular work sessions between the regular meetings. That was a strategic decision by made by this board to have the opportunity to um engage more in the work and be ready to go for the meetings. It is a very common practice across Ohio. If you talk to other boards and even um historically in Forest Hills, if you look back, there were work sessions and special meetings that were called fairly frequently. They were just called on an as needed basis. So, it was harder for

178the public to be aware to potentially be able to um attend. So, our intent in doing this is to be very transparent to the public by saying these are largely going to be board discussion. Um they are open to the public. You are welcome to attend. It is our intent to just have these dates on the calendar for you and for us. If we don't need one, we will cancel it, but it's an opportunity to discuss things further like the strategic plan so that we can keep work moving forward in the district. So that's the idea behind that. So thank you. Um secondly, the other piece we are very committed to as a board is really taking our roles very seriously. So, um, looking at our policies, what policies are in place, what policies are

179potentially missing to make sure that we, um, have a system in place that is going to be able to meet the needs of, uh, our students, our teachers, our, um, all of our educators and staff under any condition. So, continuing to review those, that includes reviewing our legal counsel and who is the best consultation we need given different situations. So, we're continuing to pursue that question. Um, we're continuing to evaluate our employees. That's something we've started very seriously. So really having conversations about what is the direction for our district, what are the next steps, who are the people we need on the bus, who are the right people at the table to help take Forest Hills into 2030, 2040 and beyond. So we are continuing to have discussions about um leadership and where we go

180as a district and then also progress monitoring which you heard tonight. We are very serious about having um measurable benchmarks on the strategic plan so that we can ask critical questions about whether we're making the progress we want to make on behalf of our students. So, we're continuing to um hold our work sessions to be able to address all of those different areas and um really hope to be part of uniting our district around the best interest of our kids moving forward. So, thanks for hanging in for a long meeting. All right. Would you like to do I adjurnn or do we go to executive session first? >> A motion for >> motion for executive session. Can I make a Would you make us a motion for moving to executive session? >> Yes. So uh

181p pursuant to Ohio revised code section 121.22 G3. I hereby move that the board adjourn to executive session to meet with board legal counsel to discuss disputes involving the board andor the school district that are subject of pending or imminent court action. Second. And as uh Mr. NY said, we do not anticipate any action after executive de session. We'll come back and adjourn and then be out. >> Okay. >> Dr. Simmons, >> yes. >> Mr. Nye, >> yes. >> Miss Wazooi, >> yes. >> Mr. Ward, >> yes. >> Dr. Strickler, >> yes. >> And for those who are leaving, just so you know, our next scheduled board meeting is February 3rd, 2026. That will be a work meeting at central office. So that's where you'll see us