001e e e Jonas here Dr Simmons here Dr strickler here Mr bib here let me get a stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of 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 just ask her safety briefing we have an exit on the top and the bottom of the stairs and one right here and then may I get a motion to adopt the agenda I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda I'll second Dr Simmons yes Dr strickler yes Mrs Jonas yes Mr BB yes uh item 3.1 approval of the minutes for the special meeting and work session uh from February 20 2025 I'll make a motion to approve items 3.1 and 3.2 as
002presented second Dr strickler yes Dr Simmons yes Mrs Jonas yes Mr bib yes item 4.1 National Merit finalists uh presented by Mr hook yes Mr bender and Mr Jos if you would come up we've got some extremely exciting Awards yeah this is rarified air it's 100% right thank you guys for for having us here to recognize these just top-notch students this as Mr hook said is rarified air this is the best of the best the brightest of the brightest so you you've heard us talk about the results of the PSAT that these individuals took as Juniors and we had a really high achieving group come be recommended and commended as um commended Scholars and then another group uh for semi fin IST status and then it just gets more selective from there we're talking about
003the top 1% of students from across the country who participated in this assessment uh being commended as finalist tonight it's a an yeah wow wow is a is a good word to use it it it is a group of of Scholars that contribute in the classroom and they contribute around the school as well as Leaders so the group that we have tonight is really special I'm going to bring our finalist from Anderson up I'm going to let Mr J speak a little bit about his students as well we'll we'll have any uh students from Turpin present come down as well and then we'll do a joint um recommendation to the board for approval so uh with no further Ado Leighton aale please come on down [Applause] um and first thing I'm going to uh want
004to do is I do have two students that aren't here today so we'll uh announce their names I do want to Echo what Mr Fender um said it's it's an unbelievable accomplishment um when we're talking about the entire country and uh how many hundreds of thousands of millions of students that have taken taken this test and once again the top 1% um two students that are not here tonight uh that could not make it uh Charlie Co and also uh tonu Boltz uh could not make it today but now I want to call down um Russ [Applause] Housman you stand right over here okay thanks all right at this time Mr Jos and I uh recommend or uh offer the board a what's the right phrasing I never get it right I've been up here
005a hundred times recommend that the board approve we just we just had a little a little back and forth of her that the board commend we recommend that the board commend the following or the AFF mentioned students as finalist for the National Merit Scholarship competition thank you [Applause] guys want to go that way Kyle I want to make a bad joke about seeing these two tutors for some help with the [Laughter] accomodation thank you guys uh reports to the Board of Education item 5.1 the Forest Hills Teachers Association report uh Mr Chris Preston good afternoon well hello and good evening to each of you good evening this week our district has been celebrating our staff and teachers in each of our buildings in central office I'd like to give a shout out to the Forest
006Hills Council along with all of the Fantastic PTO volunteers Community groups and local businesses for helping to organize the festivities the efforts are greatly appreciated each day Forest to Sals Educators Foster not only academic Excellence but also skills related to collaboration resilience and adaptable learning and our rapidly changing World our staff Works each day to create an environment where all students can be successful and Thrive Forest HS Teachers Association appreciates the board's commitment to supporting our teachers through resources professional development opportunities and policies strengthen our schools we look forward to continuing our partnership with the Board of Education in further building a strong supportive and inspiring educational Community this concludes my report thank you very much thank you Chris item 5.2 The Forest Hills foundation for Education Miss Gillard good evening thank you Bob you're
007welcome hello to the school board um I'm here to just quickly give a a report on behalf of the Forest Hills Foundation um as many of you may have seen registration is live and available for the Forest Hills 5K um we're thrilled that our theme this year is one Community One Finish Line so I do have a couple updates first and foremost outside of the 5K I did want to put a plug into everyone around how you can help the foundation continue to support student needs and help us cross the finish line we had 21 grants come from students and parents this year through the PTO Community grants which is the highest number we've ever had so momentum is growing with that and those will be awarded we will be awarding $25,000 um after spring
008break so quick update on that also we're going to be kicking off our senior campaign an honor to congratulate recognize um all of our seniors at both Anderson and tpen and then the last thing too for those that are alumni in the community um you may be if we have your contact information you may be receiving um a survey from us and we just want to hear from you I think it's we are constantly trying to find ways that we can connect with alumni many people stay here many people depart um I also think in this Spirit of working together as a community this is something the boosters wants to do this is something the band boosters wants to do everybody wants to know how we can keep in touch with our alumni so we'd
009love to hear from you if you get the survey it takes about three minutes to fill it out so on to the 5K if you can go to the next slide there are three ways that we're promoting to get involved the QR code is there um you can walk run you can cheer on participants it's going to be on Saturday May 10th um all money raised this year is going to go to support three things I like the three theme um one is teacher grants in the last three years the foundation has awarded over $330,000 so we are over um a quarter of a million yeah a quarter of a million dollars um and we want to continue that effort but we need your support to do that in addition to that the money will
010directly go to student grants and the last thing too is the foundation is continuing to work with the district to identify different tiered student support um so as we plan for next year what that looks like and then also anybody and everybody can come to the Afterparty it's a fun um morning free food tons of booths so we hope uh and you don't want to miss out on the mascot um the mascot musical chairs that's always a highlight of the event so our goal this year is to raise $150,000 um last year we were very close to getting 2,800 participants so of course you go big or go home right and so our goal this year is to bring it we have over 2,800 um participants this year and it is the largest fundraiser for
011the foundation so all money raised goes back to support the kids in our district so we hope you will join us there is still opportunity to sponsor the event the QR C code is included here um and I did want to give a quick shout out this weekend trate Running Company is going to be having their um 25% off any and all running gear so if your kids your family your neighbors your athlete whoever um needs some new running gear this is a great way can great weekend to do that and they have three different locations probably the two closest are Marmont and Edgewood so this is the 10th year that tri state has supported the foundation and so definitely want to take advantage of this great discount weekend if you can we have two
012parties coming up because why not throw in some more parties um the 5K pre party is going to be Thursday April 24th at 50 West um this is going to be targeted towards the running clubs so for those that don't know that all elementaries have running clubs that they prepare to participate in the race there are over 700 elementary kids that are preparing right now um to prepare for the 5K in May and so those running clubs will actually get an opportunity to run on the trail at 50 West so great opportunity to come and talk to parents kids um we hope you can join us and then the second event is actually going to be on May 1st which is at wandering monsters another huge supporter of the foundation um and that is invited
013open to everyone it's going to be a dine and donate night so anytime you can come in and grab some dinner grab a drink um there a percentage will go back to the forest host foundation so we are thrilled to kick off officially kick off the 5K um I love this photo it's like one of my favorites when I'm having a bad day I just put this on my screen because um if anybody knows how to have fun it's these kids and we're thrilled to continue to support them so thank you Stacy if there was an alumni listening who wanted to get involved they could just Google Forest Hills foundation and there's a get involved button on the website right corre take the survey if you get it but if there were people who heard
014this and wanted to absolutely would that be the best way to connect yes great question any other questions okay thank you thank you uh I'm 6.1 updates from the superintendent Mr hook yes thank you Mr bib members of the board I'll try to keep my comments brief um just want to touch base um had the privilege this week of going and surprising a couple of our top notch Educators in the district um Jody Brandon here left left picture up here uh is one of our preschool intervention specialist just a fantastic teacher I mean you just watch for a little while and it just makes you smile you know um some of our most challenging children um just the patience of Job and just is something else with kids we we're just very excited to have
015her and she is so involved with our preschool in terms of compliance uh with the do as well as step up to Quality licens your board you know she is is topn couldn't be uh a better candidate for the Anderson Area Chamber educator of the Year award representing our school district um the other one I wanted to mention is Debbie nmo she's on the right she is a health teacher at Turpin High School um again unique lenser and both health and Spanish um right now and she's done both right now she's doing all uh Health but uh this is one of those people that just go above and beyond all the time and uh it's it's kind of fun when we walk into the room and they're just don't know what to say and um
016it's not the balloons I guess I think it's just the fact that you know to these kind of people they see what they're doing as just what they do but they don't realize sometimes the impact they're making on all of our children and so uh she's going to be uh celebrated as the Hamilton County Educational Foundation um of year excellence and that'll be usually that's at the um Sharonville Convention Center a little bit later in May so I just wanted to mention those two outstanding individuals um highlight of my day is getting to go in there and and meet with them um secondly I wanted to uh recognize our staff appreciation week we kind of combine everything I can't keep all the Hallmark holidays and all the different ones had and so a few years
017ago kind of combined them all you know and it it really helps and so um I just want to say a special thank you to our PTO and our Forest Hills Council for making this a special week for teachers they go around um down to the transportation department um throughout the District Food Service uh all of our staff teachers uh they just make it memorable and every once in a while it's important we let people know how how much they mean to us and we've got a fantastic staff and so I just want a shout out to all of our staff but I also want a shout out to our PTO and the Forest Hill Council for helping make it a memorable week for those people um finally I I spent quite a bit of
018the last few days on the phone uh a lot that today i' be in Columbus tomorrow uh at least for the uh morning for legislative meetings um then I guess uh Friday morning I have a state a countywide meeting um as well with superintendent and I believe one of our legislators will be there but anyway that's that said um I've been working with legislators for 20 years and you know I think it's really important that when you approach legislators re you realize that um it's important to not just point out problems but to give Solutions solutions that are actually doable uh can work um sometimes uh I think in our attempt to get our point across sometimes we can kind of close some options and I just think it's important over like I said some
019of this you learn over time you know you you learn well maybe I should have been a little softer with that or maybe I should have said it this way but they're just regular people um like I said I I shared with them my thoughts um after I talk with them then I usually send them a letter to kind of follow up so they can use the points um you know some of the things I talk about of course you know the fair school funding model you know where that'll light I don't know whether it'll be actually um the governor's model or some adjustment to it nobody knows yet it has to still go now to the Senate and then likely a conference committee before there's an agreement uh and then up to the governor
020uh but the two things that I really kind of focused on and and again I focus on the things that to me are critical for Forest Hills because that's who I represent you know and number one is the categorical funding component and without going into the weeds and I promise I won't because you can get lost in these weeds but the categorical funding in general if you take special ed for example it's probably one of the biggest Arenas in there just so you know I recommend um and I know there are other people that have as well is to take that component out of the funding formula and fund it separately and there's a re the reason for it is is pretty simple um as a 10% School District in other words our share from
021the state's only 10% um we don't get the full amount it just don't um we spent 14.5 million don't hold me to the exact number but it's pretty close pretty close 14.5 million out of our general fund just in special education okay we received roughly 677 th000 from the state that's about 4.6% coverage if you pull that out and start funding that at any percentage above that that's a win and it's a win for every child in every school district in the state of Ohio and so those are things that are important um what we found out and what we see is going on is that um don't know the actual reason I'm sure people have their own opinions but uh the intensity levels of some of our our most fragile children are higher okay
022that takes more supports in place for it um also suggested adding a line in the categorical um items for mental health because typically it just gets put in the second category which is other health impaired well sometimes the needs are so great it just doesn't even come close to the coverage needed so that's a win I said that's a win for school districts it's a win for our children it's a win for legislators and governors and I don't know how you can argue that one that's just a good smart thing so feel pretty passionate about that piece uh funding the guarantee obviously for schools like Forest Hills is pretty critical as well especially if you don't do the first one that I mentioned you know the guarantee we're on a guarantee we're at getting the
023same amount we got in 2021 okay and then so that doesn't account for all the inflation that's happened since then um so it just kind of keeps keeps everybody um okay we have about 187 I want to say it's about 187 uh school districts that are on the guarantee right now that could balloon if they don't do anything else in the formula that could balloon to over 300 school districts that's hard that that tells you maybe the inputs aren't right the there's something missing because you can't have half of your school districts or over half your school districts actually that the funding formula doesn't work for that becomes problematic so um I think there's some things you can do I think we have to look at uh initially fulfilling those guarantees at 100% if they
024would uh if not maybe some shorter longer phase out and phase in program for for districts uh the common mistake with this is that it's all about um enrollment it really isn't it's also about the fact that I think they're going to have to evaluate the local capacity calculations which include um how much money people make okay as well their income as well as property values okay those are dramatically changing so when again you start putting those pieces all in there it changes things so that's that's really what I've been doing I had some great conversations today um I was on the phone with about an hour with Senator Wilson um it gives me reason to be optimistic that the Senate is is listening and so I just wanted to share that um about my
025day so I promise not to get too far into weeds so thank you thank you uh item 7.1 procedures for public commentary the board is committed to conducting its meeting in a productive and efficient manner to ensure that the meeting is completed in a reasonable amount of time we are also while also recognizing the importance of adequate opportunity for public inputs in yes in order to conduct an orderly and fair representation of expression the board will provide a period of 30 minutes for public part participation per policy p1691 at every regular board meeting each speaker will have 3 minute time limit if there are more than 10 speakers which there are not individual time may be adjusted uh we do not allow uning of time uh the board does not discriminate based on the individual
026content of the speech or the Viewpoint of the speaker if several people wish to speak on the same topic the time Li the time limit may be adjusted at the president's discretion speakers are asked to speak from the podium and address the board speakers are also asked to start by clearly stating their name and address we have seven speakers uh first one will be Emily Roth good evening my name is Emily Roth my address is 20514 for Crest and I have a sixth grader who is a student in the district I have two issues I want to address tonight so I'll try to talk quickly first I would like to encourage our district to join the over 140 other public school districts in Ohio who are part of the vouchers hurt Ohio lawsuit and to
027formally advocate for the state to fully implement the fair school funding plan tra traditional districts will have a decrease from 2025 funding levels of over $100 million in the next 2 years while vouchers will increase in over $265 million in the same time period according to the governor's proposed budget there's no reason any public school district in the state of Ohio should not be advocating against this part of the budget the second issue I would like to address is that of the impending loss of our Treasurer per the district's social media Pages our district just received the auditor of State award for having a clean audit report less than 133% of Ohio school districts received this award and we've won it many times over the despite these facts our Treasurer was recently forced to resign
028the resignation of our Treasurer occurred after a subjective and non-evidence-based devaluation process showed allegedly poor performance despite many years of positive evaluations and a lack of objective goals on which the treasurer was being measured I've been in a supervisory position for many years each year I have to complete evaluations on every one of my supervises I've never met anyone who likes doing evaluations however it's part of the job I was hired to do just like it's part of the job each of the board members were elected to do when you're hired or elected to do a job the expectation is that you do that job to the best of your ability in this case that would mean using an evidence-based evaluation form with clearly stated and objective performance goals even if it takes more time
029or is more difficult than the one you found online you have an ethical obligation to fairly evaluate District employees another thing I've learned after being in a leadership position for over a decade is the high cost of turnover in any organization the money it takes to recruit a new staff member and train them is significant this is even more true when the position is highly specialized such as that of a School treasurer due to the clearly partisan nature of the forced resignation of our Treasurer the added expense with which the district will be burdened when forced to find a new one the exemplary performance of our current Treasurer and the indisputable fact that one board member who was in favor of the resignation was likely already planning to move out of the district at the
030last board meeting it is imperative that this decision be reconsidered at this time thank you next up is Olivia forgive me for your last name is it kic Kik good evening board members my name is Olivia CCH and I'm at 2386 mounts Road and I'm here because I've seen firsthand what happens when Dei and woke agendas infiltrate our schools and I'm watching Forest tills very closely I attended school in Ohio and faced the absurdity of Dei as a student at the University of Cincinnati in 2023 I pushed back in a required Dei course only to have my professor dock my grade calling me exclusionary in trans phob iic that incident went Bal sparking National debate because it exposed how Dei twists education into indoctrination I fought back and I won because I refused to let
031ideology silence the truth Across the Nation I have experienced the threat of Dei I've been held hostage by hundreds of protesters at the University of Washington for calling out the lies of Dei across Ohio I've watched schools wrestle with this mess and here in Forest Hills you're of Crossroads your February meeting showed this the Trump Administration gave warning to ditch race-based policies or lose funding and it seems that in this school district you are willing to ignore this if that is the case you're defying an executive order and risking the future of the kids in the school district I've lived through the state's Dei battles this morning I testified for S sp1 stop we allowing people to speak everybody gets their time thank you we're not going to play this game anymore if you whoever
032she was next time you're out they will escort you out this we're not going to do this anymore thank you I've lived through the state's Dei battles this morning I testified for Senate bill one to kill Dei in Ohio and tonight I'm here to hold you guys accountable you've had since February to comply with the federal directive just know that if you do choose to violate this Federal directive if you continue to push roke agendas like Equity training or diversity days I won't hesitate to act I will personally file a federal complaint with the office of civil rights against the school district alleging violations because Dei discriminates by Design you've got top schools here so don't gamble that away on ideology eliminate it now not tomorrow not after the next lawsuit I'm here to to
033ask for clarity and compliance Forest HS can lead Ohio in rejecting this nonsense or face the consequences so the choice is yours but just know I'm watching very closely thank you [Applause] next up is Ann saledo good evening my name is an Salo I live at 5793 Brookstone Drive the forest tals School District culture culture blue print includes Noble and positive statements such as set a positive example in actions behaviors word and attitudes create a safe and inclusive learning environment where everyone feels valued respected and safe documents do not build culture our actions do we all agree with this philosophy and certainly the action to bring this blueprint alive however my colleagues will soon shine a light on examples which are occurring in the Forest Hills School District that are 180° counter to this culture
034blueprint these examples represent teaching content and materials which harm a safe learning environment erode respect amongst our students and do not set the positive example in actions behaviors words and attitudes as stated in your blueprint to the contrary such examples promote inappropriate sexually explicit Andor racially divisive Behavior as a norm to our students we consider these serious breaches we challenge this board to follow your own culture blueprint to identify areas to improve and make meaningful positive change by setting goals we expect the board to do the right thing demonstrate integrity and honesty and set or revise policies to ensure breaches like these do not occur we expect your rigorous enforcement so that our School principles teachers and administrators live your culture blueprint and stop the breaches culture is not built by what you Proclaim it
035is built by what you practice promote and permit thank you thank [Applause] you next Kevin mishack I think that's what's coming thank you thank you sir my name is Kevin mishack 8433 holiday Hills Drive I have two children in the district senior graduating from Anderson High School and a ninth grader at Anderson High School um nationally parents are strongly concerned about books in their school library books with age inappropriate sexual and controversial content this community me is no exception there are several books currently in our school library iies which are concerned one example is the book me Earl and the dying Girl by Jesse Andrews according to the Forest Hill School District online catalog this book is in the Nagel middle school library for seventh and eighth graders now I am not going to read
036out the sexually explicit content it's in the handout you can read through it I actually took the time to read this book it's only 259 pages long I read quite a bit my objection is a little different I was actually quite surprised by the language available to middle school middle schoolers this book could be a perfect primer for vulgar language in schools for instance 10 different expletives are used over 26 67 times in a book of Pages that's one cuss word per page there's entire Pages full of nothing but foul language and again for seventh and eighth graders now we can argue about the content being sexually explicit but I don't think anybody wants me to sit here and read out the 10 different expletives I'll start with the big F bomb it's in their
037times it goes off and use a derogatory terms for homosexual men and women four times each it drops the s word 88 times it refers to gentia 35 different times for male and female parts and I'm not talking about the scientific terms either you got this in a book you got this in a library for middle schoolers seventh and e8th grades that's your culture blueprint this is the example that you want our middle schoolers to take to high schools here's the book all right you can check it out online it's available online at the Anderson Book thank you next up Dan saledo hello board my name is Dan Salo I live at 5793 Brookstone Drive I'm confident that this board and superintendent would be aligned to president Trump's recent executive order stating that quote parents
038trust America schools to provide a rigorous education instill a patriotic admiration for our nation and for our American values yes or yes recently the US Department of Education directed public schools to end Dei work or risk losing Federal funding schools across the country including right here in Cincinnati are a b abandoning harmful Dei programs the doe is striving to end discrimination in the use of harmful race stereotypes previous Dei efforts indoctrinate our innocent school children to be compelled to adopt identities as either quote unquote victims or quote unquote oppressors and demanded acquiescence to quote White Privilege or quote unconscious bias based solely on their skin color like mine I'm Hispanic Dei actually promotes racial discrimination and divide these practices not only erode critical thinking so division but they also create confusion and distrust they undermine
039the very foundations of personal identity family unity and undermined parental Authority Forest Hills School District has supported such Dei indoctrination in the recent past but in January of 2022 when the new board members were sorn in have since taken some actions to eliminate it we encourage you to embrace the removal of the harmful Dei indoctrination and Forest Hills School District and as stated in your culture blueprint to create a safe and inclusive learning environment where everyone feels valued respected and safe void of a harmful woke influence of Dei the Dei directive includes removing Dei resources and has established a website for anonymous parental reporting of any Dei activity we are challenging this board and this Administration on the following one how has Forest Hill School District substantively comp complied with the doe directive two has
040Forest Hill School District informed teachers of of the required requirement to cease Behavior inconsistent with the culture blueprint and to cease exposing our students to Dei or csse material which can be a violation and risk a loss of funding what are the specific consequences if and when a teacher goes Rogue third how has Forest Hill School Board and administration improved and taken ownership and accountability as it as it says as it says in your culture blueprint in the text and library book selection process including clear guidelines redundant vetting and a robust approval step thank you thank you and I've got some handouts for the board and M [Applause] last speaker Mr Jeff NY hey Jeff NY 1000 ever Soul um I got to leave in a few minutes for an event with one of my
041kids so I won't be around if you do address this but I hope at the appropriate time in the meeting you guys will address either the board or the administration a couple of things one is there are two uh major search projects going on right now one for a board member one for a Treasurer and I hope the board will be more transparent than it has in the past with uh these processes um the these are important decisions for the district and we're entitled to not just transparency but timely transparency telling us what happened after the fact isn't good enough um you guys should be more upfront not just through a comment at a board meeting not just through the occasional email from the board about who you're Consulting with what criteria you're considering who's
042applied who you're interviewing how those decisions are getting made those are important decisions that the entire Community should be involved in in a timely manner the second thing um Dov tales with some of the other comments we've heard here today um I mentioned at last month's meeting uh that of course it is important it certainly looks like there are going to be changes in the law coming down the line from both the state and federal levels and it's absolutely important that the district comply with those uh but as I said then an executive order order is not a law and in fact uh last I saw a judge has enjoined the executive order we've heard about here as being likely unconstitutional the point I was going to make though is that one of the next
043items up on the agenda is this year's insurance cost it's hard not to notice it's about $100,000 more than it was last year 96 97,000 19 or 20% you guys have the numbers and I guess my question is and something I hope you'll consider hope you'll discuss is whether and to what extent that giant jump and a premium is related to all the litigation this district has found itself in including race-based policies that are enjoined by the cour whether it's the Updike litigation or the downloading litigation that's still ongoing or I don't know what else might be out there uh and I guess my question is in retrospect now that one of those cases is settled and the other case is ongoing do you think those policies were student centered and uh good for kids
044and their education thank you thank you that's just facilities Insurance just so you know it includes it's the insurance it's the entire yeah oh I'm sorry Mr Dave loback I'm sorry I missed a name it's called Eno missions it's included what the lawsuit good evening everybody my name is Dave lobach I live at 850 Strath coma Drive earlier this school year a a Turpin teacher read aloud a book in her classroom called The Perks of Being a Wallflower book contains uh objectifies sex contains flid content and resulted in one student uh going home embarrassed uh unsafe and and felt disrespected her parents wrote a letter to the the teacher and to Mr hook complaining about it explaining the incident um I'm going to share a a a passage from this book I'll read it to
045you and uh uh if you object to any of the language let me know and I'll leap it out if it if it continues um unfortunately the students weren't given that choice they just were hit with this saying and you'll see it's very very explicit if there's any children that that are in the room that that could hear this might want to take them out or they might be exposed material that wouldn't be appropriate this is the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven shasi and I'm going to read from page 31 please Dave no but the boy just talks soft to her about how good she looked and things like that and she grabbed his penis with her hand and started moving it I wish I'd to describe this a little more
046nicely without using words like penis but that was the way it was after a few minutes the boys pushed the girl's head down and she started to kiss his penis she was still crying finally she stopped crying because he put his penis in her mouth and I don't think you can cry in that position why would a teacher read that to a class I don't see anything beneficial I see no intellectual content at see any growth resulting from it uh this the school district here has a cultural blueprint uh I calling the board now to live up to that themselves and I'd like to know what action was taken regarding this this this teacher and what action was taken to assure that this doesn't happen again thank you very much thank you and there's exerpts
047that were passed out to you that has that the details from that book thank you item 8.1 Human Resources report Mr fellas good evening again and um few items here for um approval this evening uh in the HR report first is uh a bit of advanced notice on a retirement uh pending uh December of next school year um want to congratulate Nicole Binky for 23 years um in the in the district and um although she's not leaving at the end of this year technically she um certainly we wish her all the best in in her future and and uh retirement um we have a number of resignations uh kind of that time of year on the Staffing side folks with uh plans that creep up at the end of the school year um so there
048are a couple certified staff members and a handful of classified resignations for approval this evening item d uh for um the appointment side of things I would really emphasize uh number one we've got spring sports starting out there's a handful of um last minute uh spring Sports uh appointment recommendations for this evening uh attached and I would also want to um emphasize or or give a um just a a moment to recognize two administrative hires that we have one is not new to us and I'll begin with him I don't know if he's still here but Kyle Mack um the associate principal at Nagel middle school um has uh been uh through a relatively strenuous and grueling uh process as an internal candidate um there were over 40 applicants for the summit principal position and
049we worked uh um collaboratively as a central office team uh to coordinate a process that included various uh levels of uh stakeholder feedback um and involvement in that interview process and one of the things that you're always TR kind of striving towards is um this just a sense of consensus at the end of the the interview process and we reached that with all four groups independent of one another um and uh we're very excited for Kyle Mack is Kyle still here I don't think he's probably decided to peace out so um I appreciate Kyle for coming this evening it's a change of assignment which is uh it's great for summit we're very excited for Summit and uh and then as things go in our world in HR it it presents then a vacancy over at
050Nagel which we have uh posted for and we're we're um uh along that process of finding that uh next candidate for um that administrative team over there at Nagle um the other one is still here and he's been waiting patiently in the back you had a chance to meet him I'm going to ask him to stand up although he might not like that and his name is Terell Davis Terell Davis is our recommendation for um the new Nagel athletic director position as the board is aware Zach McCormack announced his intent to resign at the conclusion of this current contract very excited about Terrell um he's got uh he's bringing a lot of great athletic director experience with him um and uh that's one of the primary things that we were looking for and in that
051program over there is somebody who's been in the chair before that has been through um that understands the the ins and outs of that position um and he will work awesome with our team of athletic directors uh both at Anderson and Turpin um and uh certainly will um we'll be working well and closely with uh Chuck as well so I Know Tiffany and her team is super excited um 48 candidates for for that position and uh congratulations to so I'd be remiss if I didn't also add um that um he is a Michigan fan and I I know that there are a few here um there there are few in far between but um one more in the organization so there you go great uh moving on down in the report um there's um uh
052volunteers student teachers a couple kind of squeezing in here at the end the last quarter of the school year and then a few job descriptions um for uh updated revisions um ahead of next school year so any questions yeah Rob one quickly um I've asked you this before but again like people are watching for the first time and whatnot but with the volunteers that we bring in can you briefly talk about the vetting process the background check to make sure that yeah we don't uh we don't place any volunteer on a board agenda that hadn't had a proper background check that's been conducted here internally some often times we get people that come in and say hey I I've got I just had one we just to cover all bases we run the the uh
053FBI the BCI background check and until that clears they're not volunteering with kids oneon-one um there are um particularly like if you've got a visitor in a school there's the initial Raptor um background check at the front office that kind of does a preliminary screening and that's just for you know you're not working oneon-one with kidss but you might be helping in the copy room you might be helping in the cafeteria but you're not left unsupervised with students these on this list are those that have been properly background checked and thank the Lord that they're helping to provide some additional support for kids so that's kind of how it works we need them for sure for sure anything else real quick the the teachers and the administrators of the rehire retire retire re what's the
054cost savings on that since we're keeping experience person yeah so it it varies but what we um you know our our CBA with FH indicates that you bring a certified staff member back at step five step five is um quite different from you know the end of the road where they currently are so that savings is in the neighborhood of about $30,000 to the district that's on the certified side on the administrative side it's a little bit different it's not quite as as prescribed we don't have steps in that area um all told in this group um we're looking at north of $130,000 in cost avoidance so yeah awesome thank you item Nine Business operations Mr eard good evening I have five items on the agenda and you've heard most of these items at some
055point in time at one point item 9.1 is our school bus purchases we will be purchasing five buses this year that will start you know that's a to keep our Fleet up to the rotation that we've discussed numerous times and we're expecting delivery for the majority of them in July item 9.2 again last month we talked about awarding cont or going out the bid for the next two items the Turpin Chiller and the nle Middle School boiler because of time constraints and ordering constraints these are two um resolutions that I've asked you to approve that we will go in and sign the contracts once we find the lowest responsible biders in both cases we have many many months outlay on some of these deliveries so we cannot afford another month off item 9.4 so it's
0569.2 and 9.3 the chiller and the boiler 9.4 is something that if you've been on the facilities commit committee like Mr bib has we've been talking about for a number of years we have finally found uh solution that we believe is viable for districtwide r system for the administrative team that will connect with Transportation Administration and will not be have any contingence on Cell systems Wireless or anything like that so in a true catastrophic emergency our administrative team and our buses will be able to communicate which is vital in any situation like that and number 9.5 is the annual Insurance renewal uh as you have seen the pric is uh 594 that is an increase um I'd love to say we're unique but we're not I was at the county meeting and basically everyone was
057ranging anywhere from about a 19 to a 22% increase and that has to do one large factor that that does have to do with is the fact that insurance companies are now placing Us in Tornado Alley yes they they believe Tornado Alley has shifted or at least they believe it and so there's a lot of increase in uh other sets but to bring this into a bit of perspective this insurance policy does cover uh administrative errors and emissions and various other components like that but it also protects just on the property end our 333 million dollar worth of property here in Forest HS and unluckily we noticed last month how important insurance is and with all the challenges we faced at Anderson you know so a proper insurance is not something that I believe we
058should cut cost on and Miss Cropper and Mr hook also agree so we believe we have a strong insurance package that will protect our district and our facilities for the year to come so with those five items discussed are there any questions okay with no questions being asked at this time I would recommend that the board approve items 9.1 through 9.5 as part of the consent agenda thank you for your time thank you item teaching and learning item 10.1 overnight field trips uh by Mr Ain good evening and thank you um I have two field trips that that I am recommending these are pretty annual by our teacher Preparatory Academy TPA that we have at both high schools for the Ed Rising conference and competition in Orlando June 24th through the 29th any questions okay
059thank you very much the end of the consent agenda yeah need a motion should item 11.1 is a committee report is that in the consent agenda 11 sorry 11.1 in the it's just first the first reading of Poli first reading do you want me to do that or okay you can talk about it if you want yeah sure the policy committee met on March the 12th to discuss um the updated Neola volume 43 and this is the first reading of the policies and next meeting in April will be the second reading which we will vote on this includes 26 policies 12 Administration administrative guidelines in one updated form um some highlights of new policies include release time for religious instruction restroom locker room shower room exclusive to biological sex and parents Bill of Rights um
060so that's pretty much it item 12.1 Treasures report Miss craer okay moving back to the PowerPoint there we go hey all right the treasures report as always starts with donations so agenda item 12.1 a show that donations over the month total just over 13,000 and that brings total donations for the uh year to date to just under 4 50,000 so again very thankful for all our volunteers our donations both in kind and monetary that that supplement our programs Item B on the uh Treasures report gives you a snapshot of our fiveyear forecast um which was approved by the board in November of 2024 item C presents the general fund are five-year forecast revenues by comparing the estimate on the forecast to year-to-date actuals the month of February um is and typically always is a high
061cash flow month as we continue to receive advances against our spring real estate collections so during the month of February we received over 24 million in advances from the county auditor for property tax payments um last month if you recall we received 5.1 million so that brings our total um spring real estate tax collections um to date to 29.5 million we have received all the advances that we will receive and we will be getting a statement of settlement as soon as the county gets it settled could be sometime later in March could be April and again as always the other um primary revenue that we get is our semi-monthly payments of our state aid about 1.6 million a month moving on to item this presents the expenditures of the general fund our 5year forecast expenditures
062and it Compares our estimate on the uh fiveyear forecast to our year-to-date actuals as you know expenditures are very stable during the year and with 8 months or 87% of our fiscal year complete at the end of February we have spent 63% of our Appropriations so tracking within budget right where we should be at this point in time May moving on to item e this presents the activity of our general fund cash balance and as you can see the balance at the beginning of the year on July 1st 2024 was 23.3 Million after adding revenues received to date and expenditures deducted to date our cash balance stands at 46 million as I said before when we looked at revenues we're an extremely high point in our cash flow and uh real estate uh collections only
063happen twice the year so we will be spending that cash Reserve down um in the next months through June as our expenditures exceed revenues in those months at February 28th our unreserved cash balance stands at 40.6 million or to put the balances another way we have enough cash to operate the district for 167 days and after incumbrances we have 14 47 days of unreserved cash to operate the district moving on to item F this presents the detailed activity and the revenues and expenditures for our main permanent Improvement cost center and this item also tracks the uh Financial activity of our summer project so if we uh go to the second slide in item F uh we can see where we stand currently on our last Summer's project so summer of 20 24 uh permanent Improvement
064projects so you can see we are almost closed out for the entire summer projects we only have about 18,000 in outstanding encumbrances and waiting for the sign off on those items to close out last summer moving on to the third slide of itmf um you see the description as well as estimated budgets and expenditures as we prepare for the next summer so summer of 2025 as you can see we're um we've already encumbered 3.3 million of the 4.9 um estimated budget for next summer and summer will be here before you know it and and uh John eard and Larry Corley have done a great job getting a head start on those summer projects getting them planned contracts leted out and encumbrances taken care of so kudos to them moving on to item G you will
065see that this item presents um investment earnings um to date at uh February 28th for this year also to three years of History sorry three years of History during the month of February the district received 180,000 in investment earnings to bring our total to 1.7 for the current year at this point I still believe the district is going to be able to meet its uh investment earning projections of 2.5 5 million um the feds met today there was no change in the interest rate as we talked about on the revenue slide our balance is strong so um at this point I do believe we will continue to meet those projections uh moving on to agenda item H you will see our um bank and investment reconciliations at February 28th and the last uh couple slides
066have to do with some adjustments in our Appropriations so in fund uh our permanent Improvement fund fund3 uh we increased Appropriations really for two main reasons um as you heard John say before we he brought contracts to go ahead and order the five buses uh a lot of times we leave that to the end of our summer project so we can add or deduct buses depending upon the budget left in the summer projects but our um EPC the purchasing uh Consortium that we buy our buses through uh gave us a call few weeks ago they gave us 2,000 off per bus if we bought by the next Friday so March 7th so 2,1 million doll budget but okay we're going to take it but the other thing that kind of led us to make the
067decision to go ahead and pull the trigger on the bus purchase is explained to us that they were no longer um they weren't going to guarantee their bus uh pricing they were worried about the tariffs so we decided that um looking at where we stood on incumbrances and budgets we decided let's go ahead and and get these um buses contracted so that was the changes in the permanent Improvement the other one was a uh reduction in um 401 auxiliary service funds and that has to do with um State Grant funds and as you get go through the year and the they gathers more enrollment data they readjust the allocations so again that's just a an allocation Readjustment um the in addition to the PowerPoint you have you also have the February cash position report um
068as you know that um details each fund and special cost uh Center activity for the month and the fiscal year to date um ending are there any questions on PowerPoint or finances oh on the permanent Improvement fund on item F uhhuh so with the projects that were from last summer looks like we're coming in about half a million less than what was initially estimated right so with those savings from what was estimated like what what where does that money go it stays in the permanent Improvement fund but how is it used is it invested what sort of projects does that go toward um all all money that is still in the cash flow is invested so so all funds invested and the district puts all its interest earnings except those that are required by law
069to be placed in other funds into O3 so O3 gets all the interest um as we go through the summer as you remember we will adjust we added a couple of things um when we find out what the budget really is for example one of the things that we went ahead and added to uh the summer coming up was the custodian equipment because we did have those savings from last year so that's one of the things that um Larry John and I um meet weekly and talk about where we are in our budget what the needs are should we leave that money um in the fund or are there needs that it makes sense to spend them on now so kind of a mix of adding a little bit to that we can do and
070saving it if the needs aren't there great thank you if any other questions if not I respectfully request that you approve the treasures agenda items 12.1 a through 12.1 J as part of the consent agenda which consists of agenda items 8.1 through 10.1 and the treasures items 12.1 a through 12.1 J leaving out the first reading of the policy committee that was item 11 I'll make a motion to approve action items 8.1 through 10.1 and 12.1 a through 12.1 J as presented second Dr strickler yes Dr Simmons yes Mrs Jonas yes Mr bib yes item 13 is board discussion um real quick so that everybody knows for the um replacement from Mr St we had 29 applicants uh we Whitted that down to seven uh since then two have dropped out uh we have two
071interviews scheduled for tonight and we have four or three three tonight uh two tonight two tonight okay three on and then three on Saturday um and then as far as the treasure update or treasure search update we had um a presentation by a firm called K12 who's the same firm that Miss Cropper provided to us for Mr hook um and they presented to us on Monday uh the cost is less than $9,000 for the search um two board members were looking for more information so I forwarded you a packet from OS um osba I don't know if you had a chance to review it and what your thoughts are um I have not I apologize it is on my list when we finish here tonight just because of uh everything else we've had going on
072all right yeah I've had a chance to review it I mean seems that services are the same the the members of the team are more administrators instead of treasurers um I don't know if you've had a chance to reach back out to them if they're interested in making a presentation um I definitely like to get your thoughts as well Wendy um see if there's an opportunity to hear from from that group as well from osa's Team yeah as well as potentially Hamilton County since that is Hamilton County Education Service Center is our local provider of a lot of consultation and contract supports I think it would be worth a question as to whether that's something they pursue as well just to to know what our options are on the table all right fair enough other
073board things um sure so just a reminder as the Lea on with the Forest Hills foundation for Education that they five 5K is May 10th if you haven't put it in your calendar it is an amazing Community event to see everybody come out together um so just want to give that another shout out um secondly I just wanted to give an update um we approved the minutes from the work session at the beginning of tonight and that was a work session to come together around an evaluation process um as a board for our superintendent and Treasurer so at this point we are finalizing drafts of both a superintendent and treasur evaluation we started with the templates from Neola um a respectable organization in in education who are involved in a lot of our policies and
074um adapted those to align with the job descriptions that Forest Hills has for both our superintendent and Treasurer um and they now include collaborative goal development and um scheduled dates for evaluation so um I am finishing some edits on those then we are going to share them with uh Larry and Elena to get their feedback on the the Vari items and make sure we're we're all in agreement but we are moving forward with that process so I felt it was important to bring an update on that um third I'm not going to spend a lot of time uh addressing comments tonight other than to say I am glad we are all in favor of the cultural blueprint because I do think that is very much where this district and the professional Educators who work in
075it are focused um the cultural Brant focus is around making sure students feel seen and heard and valued and accepted and that involves um acknowledging the unique students who come to the table for who they are and welcome welcoming them into our classrooms and providing good instruction I have seen no um issues around questions of feeling um like one is the oppressed or oppressor I've seen only that focus on acceptance and with that um I will share some actual work that is happening in our our district as some shoutouts that I think it's important to recognize because that that is what's happening in our building so our preschool program um supports about 200 students every day um about half of those are students with disabilities half are not so it is an amazing environment of
076growth and um opportunities to thrive for all of our students um the preschool program has been awarded the step- up to Quality Gold level program um standard which is the highest you can get they are currently in the middle of conducting curriculum based assessments where they do a check in on every student to make sure they're learning and growing to the degree we need them to um and provide additional instruction where needed so meeting the needs of all of our kids and then that would also lead to an additional shoutout for Jody Brandon the Anderson Chamber of Commerce educator of the year who I've had the opportunity to work with and is absolutely phenomenal so congratulations Jody so uh that's an idea of what's happening in our preschool um preschool happen out of Sherwood Elementary
077and Sherwood has also started a forest families event this year um it is part of work that's happening across all six of our elementary schools with crossgrade level teams coming together to Foster um a culture of community collection and acceptance amongst all of our students um topic for this month was kindness and um students had the opportunity to interact with uh others in their building who they might not otherwise to um to develop those um kind skills we want our kids to exhibit um the rap and ropes team at Sherwood will also be performing at Red's opening day on Thursday so if you're heading down to the parade make sure you look out for them um a recently hosted their festival and spring musical so lots of amazing extracurricular events happening for our students as
078well in the field um at Maddox speaking of strong academic Zayn vashi a fifth grader at Maddox participated in the regional finals of the spelling Beach we made it to the fourth round so kudos for representing Maddox and Forest Hills well um the teams are currently meeting what are referred to as mtss meetings those are multi-tiered systems of support those are meetings where we look at data building wide to make decisions about what's working and not for our students so that we can do better as Educators and there is a fourth quarter madx matters PBIS challenge in which students are challenged to take care of madx so not only are we focus on taking care of each other but also taking care of our environment and that includes the school every day um working toward
079a golden tablecloth Awards so imagine being the grade level get that gets the golden tablecloth at lunch those are big things in elementary um I think I hit the different elementary schools and a couple secondary um over at Anderson um I love this Anderson just completed what's called an Open Door day where teachers were able to observe other teachers provide feedback and feed forward of encouragement to their peers and also a student Shadow day in which teachers from each department followed students around for the day in their schedule um really giving them a good perspective on what the day and the life of a student looks like at the building so what a great way to um help with understanding what the student perspective is build empathy for our students and what it looks like
080to move from chair to chair for multiple Bells a day um and then again be able to think about the environment and how we can do better by our students um the annual Film Festival just occurred this past weekend and two Anderson wrestlers qualified for and competed well at State and those two were Marshall morency and Joe Sherin so nice job on that and I will Applause for and I will round it out with Nagel who recently hosted a sixth grade family Nagle open house and behind the scenes I heard wonderful things about it it was a packed event um Elementary parents were super excited to send their kids to middle school and that says a lot because I know it's a scary time as a parent having done it twice so um amazing um
081event thank you to all the staff who put that on and made all of the the students and new parents feel welcome and then lots of events celebrating um staff appreciation as Mr hook mentioned and then recently they have competed in a power of the pen and math counts competitions and have had students advancing to the state science fair the N Night Hawks lacrosse team has kicked off their in inaugural season so across all of these buildings we have focus on students taking care of each other taking care of their environment learning how to problem solve learning how to get along strong academics strong Athletics strong arts and I don't think I could ask for better from our schools I had a few shout outs as well from some schools um at and before I
082do that I want to acknowledge Mr hook mentioned this earlier but it is Staff appreciation week and so I think all of us would be remiss if we didn't give a shout out to all of our workers custodians um cafeteria workers teachers Paras they make this District happen so big shout out here on staff Appreciation Week to all of our [Applause] staff uh so at Mercer um this this past week uh last week they had their third grade special persons night so the students were able to perform in front of their their families or special persons in their lives um and share their portrait of their guest and uh kind of show off their school and classroom so that was fun for the third graders over at Wilson last week they had their uh Sparks
083day so sad this is my the last one for my son but um Sparks day is a really awesome event that they do every year the idea behind it is to ignite a spark in the kids Minds um in some type of Interest skill hobby or career and so volunteers come in and they speak to Fourth through sixth graders um about a whole host of different activities or interests or skill sets that that those volunteers are engaged in in a regular basis um in their lives the students get to ask questions um sometimes there's some Hands-On activities um and they fill out their passports of the different speakers that they listen to and hear from so really awesome event to help prepare students as they are moving forward into secondary schools so they can start
084to think about how they might be using uh the things they're good at or their interests and applying them to their to their lives as they Advance forward and then uh here at Turpin on March 17th uh so that was this past Monday the uh choir and theater program hosted a Broadway performer th Jasperson th is currently in the a member of the musical Hamilton performing on Broadway and he was in Disney's High School Musical movies um the students were able to learn a choreographed routine and music work workshop and then were able to perform um in in front of Mr Jasperson um this was made possible due to funding from the Forest Hills foundation for education so big thank you to all our community members who contribute to the foundation through the um uh
0855K and and other Ventures this is an example of how that money is being used to you know better the experience of our students um as Mr hook mentioned earlier Debbie Nemo was recognized as the Teacher of the Year by Hamilton County Education for foundation so she's going to be honored on May 2nd uh at the celebrate excellence awards uh Anthony Munoz will be the MC at that event so congratulations to Debbie um last weekend Eden B who's a senior at Turpin won the vocal music category at the Overture Awards the Overture awards are a program that recognizes and rewards excellence in the Arts in Greater Cincinnati for students in 9th through 12th grades um it's the area's largest solo Arts competition so congratulations to Eden for winning the vocal music category and then we
086have another state champion at Turpin Cen Hayden senior Hayden Meers won two state championships and swimming in the 200 yard individual medley and 100 yard backstroke he's going to be continuing his swimming career next year at University of Georgia so [Applause] congrats um Mr bib mentioned the the process that we're going through with the the new board member at our special meeting on uh Monday night we did accept uh Mrs Stewart's resignation that she submitted on Tuesday March 11th and so we are following board policy and Ohio law um that states we have 30 days to fill that position and in the first 10 days uh we're uh receiving applic applications from folks in the community they're interested were not able to to vote until after 10 days the reason that this is being so
087expedited is because I'll be out of town uh starting next Monday for several weeks so um Saturday and Sundays are are only days to actually vote on this and get it done within that 30-day window so that's why it seems like this is an expirated process but as Mr bib mentioned we did get don't get it done it goes to probate yeah yeah if we if we if we don't elect somebody in 30 days if we're not able to come to an agreement uh this weekend the probate judge will decide for us who will fill the seat um and it'll be completely out of our hands so we've been working toward that we have our five interviews uh two tonight three Saturday and hopefully on Saturday uh at a special meeting we'll be able to
088come to a decision on somebody uh the last last thing that I wanted to bring up uh one of the speakers brought it up today was um the issue of what happened last month with the resignation of the treasur and I I get the idea of not wanting to move backwards and continue moving forward but I think it it Bears mentioning that uh Mrs Stewart who resigned on um submitted our resonation on March 11th was under contract for a house in another District at the time of her vote on February 20th and on February 26 6 days later closed on that house in another district and I bring that up because while legally she was able to vote she's still a resident none of the four board members based on what everybody said were aware
089um of her impending move and I find it extremely unethical that this vote was made particularly given that the existing makeup of the board it would would have been split on that decision um obviously we don't have have the support or V of the board right now to cast another vote on the issue but it is something that I wanted to mention that the way that was handled was completely unprofessional and completely unth IAL and didn't represent our our district fairly as an elected official so um Bears mentioning I also want to say [Applause] yeah um Dr strickler is going to be talking here in a few minutes about um a resolution and testimony um to the state legislature uh Mr hook I really want to thank you for your time speaking to legislatur this
090week and advocating on behalf of our school district for for fair funding um but again I I brought this up brought this up several times what we're going through right now in Ohio and our district particularly with our funding is going to be very challenging and while we're moving forward with the process of hiring a search firm to find a new treasure I think it's our responsibility to not just hire a treasure for the sake of hiring a treasure we need someone that's experienced and as I said last week or last month I I I have my doubts on whether we we'll be able to find somebody's experience as our as our current Treasurer I really just want to caution as we're as our switching treasurers here that this is not the right time to
091be doing that so before we finish tonight um along the lines of what uh Mr hook had shared about funding um there are a a lot of grave concerns right now about what's happening with funding in the state um the current proposal that has come from the governor um at the moment has $100,000 plus decreases in the funding that Forest Hills would receive as part of the uh what's called the the guarantee which I'm happy to talk about more with anyone who's interested or actually Atlanta is your better resource um in terms of State funding and that would in essence create a 2.8 million loss in Forest Hills budget over the next five years it's significant um that budget has now gone to the house which in many ways has been less favorable towards Public
092Schools it will then go to the Senate so we are at a point where one of the um modes we have available to us to be a part of the solution is public pressure of as the constituents of the um representatives and Senators who are making this decision and so there has been um a lot of talk around about um passing resolutions as a school board in support of fully funding the fair school funding model with the guarantee um there have been templates around to help do that I know Mr hook has seen them as well and so I worked this week to uh create a template for Forest Hills um talked to Mr bib about it um worked with Alena to make sure the um facts were correct in it but basically passing a
093resolution as a board that um based on Ohio's constitutional guarantee of thorough and efficient system of uh common schools based on the fair school funding model that has been developed based on the 1998 Ohio Supreme Court decision that it schools needed Public Schools needed to be funded um in a way that was stable adequate fair and predictable um that we are able to put forth a resolution saying that we support funding public schools in Ohio as a public school board um speaking to the risk this holds for Forest Hills and expressing our desire to see the fair school funding model fully funded with updated inputs to reflect 2024 expenditures and a guarantee to ensure that um our income from the state remains consistent and I just want to be really clear before I put this
094forth to the the group that the challenge here is that schools are funded through state federal and local and local that's us that's our levies that's our tax money already covers the bulk of that expense um if we lose more State funding the only option is for us to come back to the public to try to offset those differences or to start making Cuts so it is Gravely important that we do everything we can to push our legislators and our Senators to make good decisions on behalf of our Public Schools so with that I'm making a motion to approve the forest H's resolution in support of the fair school funding plan and I welcome any comments yeah I was on the I'm on the uh finance committee can I can I stop real quick our
095first interview starts in 30 seconds yeah I get that but this this is important I I want to I I agree with you a thousand per. yeah but I don't think the Public's aware of all this information we'll get there we can 60 seconds yeah um 60 seconds as as has been mentioned you know we're going to be losing money in on the state budget um Ohio the state of Ohio pays US $2,344 every year to meet the guarantee that's the shortfall between what the um their formula Fair school funding formula says we should get and what we used to get before the fair school funding model um was enacted the problem is the cup report which is an annual District profile provided by the Ohio Department education says that in Forest Hill School District
096it costs $1 14,713 187 between what it costs per pupil to educate in Ohio and what the state of Ohio pays us the state is only paying 133% as as Dr strickler mentioned that is that is made up largely by us as taxpayers um the B the biannual budget for public school funding in Ohio the next two years is going to see a $13.4 million decrease in funds going to Public Schools meanwhile there will be an increase of $265.00 million to vouchers and an increase of $221.2 million to community and stem schools for fiscal year 25 so this this this fiscal year now um only 74% of the state's education budget which comes from our tax state tax dollars goes to pay public education right so the state funding in Ohio is paying $2,822 per
097student to attend public schools $ 6,166 to attend private schools to the vouchers for students in kindergarten through 8th grade and over $8,000 for private school vouchers for students in 9th through 12th grade in fiscal year 26 we uh 87% of districts in Ohio public school districts in Ohio are going to see their share of funding go down and in fiscal year 27 81.1% of those 87% of the districts are going to see their sh share go down again so this um resolution that Wendy's putting forward to vote on as well as the um um testimony to state legislators is based on this information that you know if this new budget goes through and cuts more State funding we're going to become more dependent on levies have to ask more frequently and make more Cuts
098in our in our district that are going to harm our students harm our District's reputation hurt our property values Etc do I have a motion on the table or do I need to make a I think we should take some of those paragraphs out because it looks like they know that it's unconstitutional and after hearing what Larry said we may want to rewrite it so that we offer them a solution you know I agree with it we've talked about this yeah so I don't know if that's something we want to look at yeah I mean the solutions are on the second page in terms of what we are asking them to do and this I mean it models what's happening in other school districts the ones passed by Loveland and Milford and the Oaks and
099warlington just so there's a continuity I think across District sending the message I just I don't know how much difference it makes I do know we need to get it done efficiently or we will miss the window because this is going to the Senate at the beginning of April well the second paragraph they've been told this for years and it it it doesn't do any good to them fair enough are you looking at the testimony or the resolution so which one uh the testimony okay I I think it's just the verbiage of you know stable adequate Fair predictable funding um I I'm not opposed to to getting rid of that but I think we've told them what we're asking for we can change it and do it on Saturday are we able to include this
100in our meeting Saturday we can't vote on can can we can we um um we did advertise the meeting as um any other um item could be added to the agenda a lot of times the courts don't like that I could read vertise the meeting we're still um 48 Hours you you know I disagree with what you're saying I'm just thinking if we condense it a little bit do something yeah tweak it a little bit okay is that fairos to that yeah okay okay yeah if we can do it on Saturday I'm okay with that I just we'll put this on the agenda to be released for Saturday as well yeah yeah yeah no I appreciate that I want to make sure we don't push it until April because I think we will miss the
101window of being part of pro my fear is that the politicians up there see the same thing and they're going to look at it like it's just another one does that make sense yeah I yeah I think it's you could see that going one way or the other but I can appreciate that yes absolutely we can we can revisit it you know I put it in a Google doc so we can all edit so absolutely all right and then need a motion to go to Executive session please oh yeah please reading it are you reading it pursuant to Ohio Revis code section 12122 G1 I hereby move that the board adjourned to Executive session for the purpose of considering the appointment of a public employer official second second Mrs Jonas yes Dr strickler yes Dr
102Simmons yes Mr bib yes thank you I heard I need a second I was like uh we not expecting any uh action after this your action is reading me and ear the dying girl app e for