Special Board of Education Meeting 5/4/2026

001Let's bring the meeting to order if you could stand for the pledge, please. 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. Beth, roll call, please. Mr. Burman? Here. Mr. Manfredi? Here. Mrs. Stoll? Here. Mr. Townsel? Here. Mr. Watkins? Here. I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. I'd like a second, please. Second. Right. Any discussion? Beth, roll call, please. >> Mr. Burman? Yes. >> Mr. Manfredi? >> Yes. Mrs. Stoll? Yes. >> Mr. Townsel? Yes. Mr. Watkins? Yes. Okay, John and Beth, old business. Um our old business is uh essentially our school finance update. Um we gave the February forecast and said we needed time to get the calculations from the Ohio Department

002of Taxation. We were supposed to have that calculation on April 20th. And April 20th came and we didn't have the calculation. And we had heard that between the Department of Education, the Department of Taxation, and the governor's uh or the county auditors association, there's still some bickering about what the how to apply the actual calculation. Um so we're going to give you what we were told was their best estimate of what the effects of House Bill 186 are going to be and we're going to we're going to run through kind of from the time of the forecast through where we are now and then kind of set the stage for for what needs to happen in the future. So, um where we stand now, after the February forecast, we received a fiscal caution letter from

003the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Essentially, we were put into fiscal caution because we had a negative fund balance in fiscal year '28. So, any school district in Ohio, if you have a negative fund balance within the first 3 years of your forecast, you're put into fiscal caution. If you have a negative fund balance sooner than that, then it's then it's escalated, but so we're in fiscal caution and we were initially given an April um deadline to submit uh our written plan to to move out of fiscal caution. We asked for for an extension of that deadline because we wanted to get the calculation on April 20th. We were granted an extension to May 18th under the assumption that we would get the calculation April 20th, we would be able to work out [snorts]

004a plan, bring a plan to the May 11th board meeting for approval, and then submit the plan to the state May 18th. Uh we didn't get the um we didn't get the official calculation, but we did get what what they say they think it's going to be and so, um that's what we're going to go with. So, House Bill 186 and House Bill 305 um contributed to some significant revenue loss for us. Um the February forecast reflected a $550,000 loss associated with those bills and that included a partial offset. Um this the state has said they were going to suspend the state sales tax holiday and use profits from that to try to help make districts whole. However, the the caveat to that is if they make enough on the sales tax holiday, which if

005if you've seen, they did put out sales tax holiday things and it is smaller than it was in the past. So, that's what they're banking on to to kind of help us fill some of this loss. Um, and then at the time of the February um forecast, we didn't have the official calculation. Um, so there was some uncertainty in how that was going to carry out in fiscal years 29, 30, and uh yeah, 28, 29, and 30. So, so that's kind of where we are now, but um a little bit about the May 18th deadline. We were required to submit We are required to submit a written plan to the state demonstrating how we're going to eliminate that project that projected um negative fund balance in fiscal year 28. So, we can submit that no

006later than May 18th. And so, unless we're going to do another special board meeting, we have to have that ready by next Monday for for you to approve at the um at the May 11th board meeting. What what this briefing is going to do is going to outline some of the revenue adjustments we've made, some of the expenditure uh reductions that we've made um to help us identify and try to bring that that goal closer. And although we have driven it down, what we're we're going to end with is showing you that we haven't driven it down all the way, and that and we're going to need to to [clears throat] take some additional action to do that. So, to give you an idea on the revenue adjustments. So, we are projected with House Bill

007186 to lose um $715,066 per year through fiscal year 28, 29, and 30. So, you can add those up and see how much that is over the 3 years, but but it's looking like that's the calculation. Again, it's not the official calculation. We're hoping it's not more than that, but that's that's what we were given. On top of that, we recently learned that the Illuminating Company underpaid its property taxes. When we went to calculate our property taxes to update the forecast, Beth noticed that Illuminating Company short paid by $168,601. So, it took Beth a couple of days to figure out why that happened. Long story short, they had informed the auditor's office that they were not going to be able to make that payment. And they have since applied for a reduction in valuation, which

008would make that permanent, so that so not only will we lose that this year, but if that reduction in valuation is accepted, we'll lose that in fiscal year 27, 28, 29 moving forward. So, that was another kind of out of the blue we had no control over, we didn't know about until the last minute. So, in order to react to that, we typically Beth will typically project on the conservative side, so that we don't over project, and typically she'll project new revenue, new construction at about a million. If we really dig through, we could increase that to 2 and 1/2 million. We have some data that would back that. So, that helps us in terms of um what the forecast looks like. And then commercial real estate in the February forecast, we were we were

009projecting that at 100,000 and then based on recent uh transactions, we feel we could reasonably increase that to about 250,000, which would help. Um also, our our career tech our mechanical tech program that we have over at the workforce campus has has becoming popular. Currently, we have two out of district students paying for seats there. Seats are $7,500 each. We have now six additional out of district students who will pay for seats. So, that'll increase revenue a little bit. That helps [snorts] with the uh forecast. And then our income tax growth rate, we revised from 1% to 3% based on uh recent findings. Now, we'll get another one in in July, so we'll be able to make an even better um we'll be able to make an even better prediction by then. >> [clears throat]

010>> The another thing that hurt us is we in the past had interest income because we had the permanent improvement account and that money would collect interest. Well, that that account has been complete cuz as we all know, we did not pass the renewal for the permanent improvement. So, that that fund has been depleted and so there's no more interest being collected. So, that's another um little hit to our our five-year forecast. We have made some staffing adjustments already. So, if we talk about expenditure reductions, uh we have committed to two administrative uh positions being eliminated. That'll reduce some overhead uh at the district level. We have two teaching positions that we're replacing with 00, meaning brand new out of college um people, which will lower um some of the compensation costs. We have some

011budget line item reductions. Um we have decided to scale back Chromebook purchases. Um uh we've taken $120,000 per year for the next 3 years out of the Chromebook fund, and we're going to do the best we can to repair and continue to move on or potentially limit screen time if we have to. Um but um we're in the process where we have to eliminate as much as we can. Um we've also uh your building principals can tell you that we've taken building and district supply budgets, and we've reduced those about as low as we feel we can reduce those um realistically. And then I've also gone into the purchase services uh budgets, and I've reduced those about as much as I can reduce uh realistically and and still have uh a continuum of services that

012we that we can provide for students. Um so So overall, we gave you the February baseline, talked about revenue changes and projections, talked about our expenditure cuts. Um and we'll get into the revised forecast here in a second, but I really want to take a second to really focus in on those revenue losses really over the past 10 years. Um we'll start with the open enrollment loss. When we were we were doing really well with open enrollment. And this stings even more now that we have this universal voucher getting because essentially open enrollment was kind of like our voucher. Although it wasn't it wasn't as much as the as the voucher payment is now, but we were we were bringing in um the last year that open enrollment was uh funded, we were bringing in

013an additional $690,000 a year on open enrollment. And so when we built this building, we built it uh so that we could take more students in. So, we could bring in you know, additional revenue from that end. >> [snorts] >> And then, the you know, the the state changed the funding formula, essentially erased the open enrollment payment. They tried to make districts whole by locking in the amount that was received in that last year of open enrollment. But, what that would do is any any additional open enrollment students you would bring in in the future, they would all be carved out of that same amount. So, if we had 300 total, and the next year we accepted 325, well, we didn't get any more funding for that. But, but also what they did is in

014the language of the guarantee, if we got less students than we had through that open enrollment, we were going to start losing some of that open enrollment funding. So, we had to play the delicate balance of how many open enrollment seniors are graduating, how many open enrollment younger kids can we accept in until we were at what we felt was our capacity. Um so, that that's kind of the balance we're playing now. Recently, there's been a tiny bump in um in enrollment where the state has said, you know, if you can show an increase in enrollment, we'll give you a little bit of a bump. So, it wasn't So, we took a few more kids in open enrollment, so it didn't hurt our open enrollment, but it wasn't as beneficial as the the previous. Every

015time I've um talked to any of our state lawmakers, you know, if the open enrollment payment were still there, we would not be in financial trouble. So, my my thing is if if they want to if the guise of it's family choice and the and the funding should follow the student, then if the student chooses a different public school, the funding should also follow the student. It shouldn't It shouldn't be parent choice, but only if you choose a private or charter or or you know. So, that's been my argument. That's continuing to be my argument. More people are listening to that argument. So, if they if if they wake up to that, we could we could fix this and be in a good place. Um but that open enrollment really hurt um cuz we had

016set up our entire business model based on that. Now, we were um able to kind of work around that and make that work um largely because we're at the third the 20 mil floor. And the 20 mil floor is basically in the state constitution that there is a minimum amount of millage a district should collect to be able to function, and that was the 20 mil floor. So, because we're at the 20 mil floor, when property valuation typi- a typical school district if property evaluate if property's reevaluated, um and that valuation goes up, House Bill um 920 rolls that valuation back to the amount that was voted in until you hit the 20 mil floor. If you drop below the 20 mil floor, any reevaluations raise you back up to the 20 mil floor. So,

017the reason we were able to kind of survive is because we haven't passed aside from the the the bond issue for construction, we haven't passed new and >> [clears throat] >> and that wasn't operating. So, so technically, we have not passed new operating money since 2007. So, we've gone almost 20 years without passing new operating money, which is kind of unheard of. But the reason is we've we've kind of been living within our means and living at the 20 mil floor, and so every time property assessments would be reevaluated, we'd drop below the 20 mil floor, we'd be raised back up to the 20 mil floor. That's why in our forecast, you can see some deficit spending years and then we get a a chunk of money after a 3-year re-reappraisal and then we continue

018to operate till we're deficit spending, but we know after reappraisal because we're going to be brought back up to the 20-mil floor. House Bill 186 kind of puts a stop to that. It It limits It It won't raise us all the way back up to the 20-mil floor. It will only raise us back up to um the 3-year average of inflationary growth. So So essentially um the reason we're going One of the reasons we're having financial issues moving forward is because the state will now not move us up to the 20-mil floor, which technically is a requirement in the Ohio Constitution, but these new laws are are prohibiting that from happening. Again, we're all sensitive to property tax. We We feel like they're too high as well, but we feel like the reason they're high

019is because the state's shifting the burden from state level to local level. So when people say you're getting more money cuz I see it going up on my tax bill, well, they're right. We're getting more local money, but we're getting less state money. Cuz right now we're about 70% local, 30% state. Back in '97 when when the DeRolph case hit and the state funding system was declared unconstitutional, the state was paying 47% and locals were paying 53. So the way they fixed that was to make it even more imbalanced. So it makes no sense, but that's kind of you know, that's That's why we were able to kind of live with the loss of open enrollment for a while. Then we found out that the Orwell Trumbull pipeline, which we we were getting a just

020short of a million dollars a year in utility um uh taxes for that. It It There were it it was the assessment was changed and they were allowed to go bankrupt without paying their taxes. And again, it was something we weren't notified about until after it happened. So so, you know, we're going to see that again, it's 900 Keep that number in mind, $942,671, when we look at where our shortfall is. That would have filled that gap. But it's gone, and the county didn't challenge it in time, so it's gone, and it's gone forever. Um so, that plus the illuminating uh company, which we, you know, [clears throat] I just mentioned before, um those are significant revenue losses over the past several years that we really had no control over and no ability to to

021to forecast or or or see those things happening. So, there's a cumulative pressure on those three revenue losses that that really hurts the district, and it's reduced our collections by millions of dollars over the past few years. When you look at the 168,000 plus the 900,000 plus the 690,000 with with open enrollment. And again, if we have those three payments, we're in perfect shape. We don't have to worry about anything. But So, it's just important to understand the depth and duration of these losses when we talk about where we are now and kind of why we're in this position. So, some key takeaways that that that Beth and I want the board to come from this this fiscal fiscal caution is active. Like we're we're actively in fiscal caution until we submit this plan, and

022then if [clears throat] this plan takes us out of a of a fund balance deficit for '28, then we're out of fiscal caution until we file a new five-year forecast. But if that new five-year forecast shows us in fiscal caution again in '29, then we're right back in a fiscal caution and we got to go through this again. Now, one thing we we are not so we do have the thought that we need to put a levy on the ballot to try to generate some additional revenue. But but the Department of Education and the workforce will not allow a levy to calculate into this. They will only allow actions that are directly within our control to show us getting out of the deficit. So, for the fiscal year '28, we're not allowed to calculate there's

023a levy on the ballot. However, if we do put when we do put a levy on the ballot in November, if that passes, uh then again, we would be you know, on smooth sailing, sound financial um standing. However, if it doesn't, we're going to go right back into this fiscal caution and have to start looking at additional things to cut. And when you think about the fact that a a school district's budget is, you know, anywhere from 70 to 80% salaries and benefits, and, you know, I've kind of outlined where we've already cut supply budgets and def- you know, and uh uh discretionary spending budgets and everything, there's there not many other places to cut uh when when it when it comes down to that. So, um so, fiscal caution is active and it's it

024is something that, you know, we're going to have to work to get out of and stay out of. And then, adjustments are underway. You saw some of the revenue enhancements we made, some of the spending um reductions that we've already identified uh to try to help bring it back into balance. There's still some uncertainty about the estimated $715,066 annual loss. Like, in a perfect world, it could be less than that, I guess, but my fear is that it comes back more than that. But, this is the number they've given us, so that's a critical data point right now that we got to kind of keep our eye on. And then, um you know, those structural losses, those years of open enrollment and pipeline and illuminating company losses, they just compound year after year. Um so,

025that we will need board action before May 18th, so it's likely on on on May 11th to uh you'll have to authorize submission of our corrective fiscal plan to the state. And, um so, what we want to show is kind of where we are now. And, this is this is our most up-to-date 5-year forecast. I know this is small and maybe a little hard to read. This is our most up-to-date 5-year forecast as of all of the changes that we put in to the forecast. So, with So, fiscal year 28, which is this column, is the one we really need to take a look at. And, the number down here is the number that we have to erase. So, it's $960,864. And, remember what that Orwell trouble pipeline number was? Or, even with that open

026enrollment number, that 690, that would have really took that out of the out of the hole. So, So, what we have to do is um find a way to reduce an additional $960,864. Now, that will in turn reduce this fiscal year 29 number, but if you look at that number, it doesn't look promising either. That's 2.9 million. But, if we can eliminate this number, it will have a compounding effect on this number, so that number would would reduce. Um likely [snorts] by half or more. Um but, there would still be a number there, and short of passing a levy, we we would have to kind of be in this cycle again. So, with that, I'm just going to leave it to any questions from the board, um, you know, about this or about, um, you

027know, you know, what you I'm happy to offer kind of our thoughts or if you have any thoughts or questions. And then we'll open it up to anyone sitting in here if they want to. I made mention of this before and I know when you say open enrollment, people say there [clears throat] are people have said just get rid of our open enrollment kids. But if we do that the state will take more money away from us. So, they I realize that that doesn't make a lot of sense because um, you know, [clears throat] you would think that they would give us a set amount, but if we eliminated open enrollment, have no more open enrollment kids and push them out Listen to that. >> [laughter] >> And that's all I have to say about

028that. They we would, uh, we would have money taken away from us. So, that's why we try to keep that number um, as even as we can. Yeah, if we if we eliminate open enrollment, we'll lose another $690,000. That would that would They would pull that because we would not meet the guarantee that they set us on. Right. So, that it's not beneficial to stop open enrollment. It's not beneficial to take a lot of open enrollment now, but it's also not beneficial to stop. >> We have to try to keep that number even and we have, um, uh, disappointing to me because our our goal is to fill the building, but, you know, so be it. Uh, the other thing, um, that we don't have much choice on is we we attempt to tell legislators

029things John spends a lot of time and he just touched on it trying to convince them why we need a certain amount of money for what we do because they put stipulations, the things that you never hear is they still want stipulations how we educate the children, we need to hit the stars or the check marks or whatever the program is each and every year. But they're not willing to fund and if you don't hit those check marks then they punish you even more. So, regardless, you know, we we have a certain um a certain baseline that we just have to hit and we don't have much of a choice. So, I just want to say those two things. I've mentioned this before meetings we are at state minimum bussing right now. People say we

030could stop picking up children within 1 half mile or 2 miles. 2 miles of the school but these buses are going right past these houses. It's not something that we choose to do. We run one bus schedule because we're on one schedule. So, you're going to be running the same amount of buses. So, if we went to a state minimum we really aren't going to save anything on a state minimum um um [clears throat] um bus schedule. Be because we're on one schedule in this bill. Other districts have the choice of doing that. It it wouldn't save us any money. Um So, those are just a couple things I just want to bring up to you the public so that you know that's the reason these things were put into place when we opened this

031building because you were concerned we were concerned about what could happen in the future and it's been more than devastating than that. Um John the I had talked to you about uh not elimination but reduction of coaches uh depending upon the sport but tell me again what what determines how many coaches we are allowed to have in a sport for the amount of kids? Well, typically it's typically based on um the number of students that are on a team. Well, I I mean I have a spreadsheet that kind of en- encompasses like the these are the numbers of coaches for each sport. So, football has eight, which is a total of about 58,000. Basketball, boys and girls combined, um they have nine for a total of about 65,000. Cross country, four. Um soccer, four. Baseball,

032four. Track, six. Volleyball, eight. Wrestling, s- uh five. Softball, three. >> When you give those numbers, are those all paid or some of those volunteers? Those are all paid coaches. Okay. And the the not the amount that they're paid is kind of next to the So, if you look at all-in cost of athletics, we have an all-in cost of 562,000 $683.93 for athletics. Um transportation costs for athletics are almost $80,000. And coaches are 350. Um strength coach, the boosters pay for part of that. We pay $6,170 of that. Then we have uh athletic um assistant, which is kind of like the ticket takers and those type of people that we pay $2,500. And then athletic director salary and benefits, all-in cost 119. So, that that's your all-in cost for athletics and and so a lot

033of times people will say, "Well, just eliminate athletics and you eliminate half of the budget deficit." But the problem is well, there are a couple problems. If you eliminate athletics, you're probably going to lose a quarter of your student population cuz they're going to go where the athletics are and then you're going to lose even more money from the state because you have less kids. And the other thing is, sometimes this is one of the few outlets for kids. I I've tried to just Now, not saying we couldn't limit some of these things and maybe maybe we maybe limit some some coaching positions or things like that or potentially ask athletic boosters, is there an item on here that you would really rather fundraise for that, you know, than maybe uniforms or something like that?

034Anything that could offset? Does anyone know of a large benefactor who just loves athletics so much >> [laughter] >> to donate? You know, we could put but I mean, that's kind of our all-in cost. This this comes out of the general fund for athletics, $562,000 $683.39. So, that's you know, that's kind of where uh where we sit in terms of in terms of that. >> So, when we talk about um what the boosters raise, and there's people in here that are part of the boosters, so uh I mean, we we are probably going to have to not purchase uniforms or whatever we've done in the past. we have to limit it because we just quite frankly can't afford it. We have to stretch. One more year, two more years, how many ever years that is.

035And the amount of money that they may [clears throat] raise, that may be the question. We We eliminated pay to play some years back because um we had a hell of a time collecting them. I mean, it it just We we spent an enormous amount of time collecting it and in some cases never collected it. We even tried to do it you didn't graduate unless you paid your fees. But I know for a fact that there were some of those that just didn't get done. Um It may come to the point, John, I think we need to ask if uh >> [clears throat] >> parents would pay for the uniforms, the kids could keep them. I guess it really doesn't matter, but if that's a cost we can eliminate. And if the boosters can pick

036up maybe transportation, I realize that they raise money for In the past they've helped with the weight room and so forth, but now we just need money raised so we can actually operate. Mhm. And and if we don't then we can't have them. I don't know how else to put it because education has to come first. It has to. It's similar to what we're doing with our budgets. We want to we want to reduce as much of the discretionary spending or purchase service or supply budgets as we can so that we don't have to um You can have the best supplies in the world, but they're not going to teach kids. Yeah. Teachers are teaching the kids. So we need to keep as many of them or all of them if possible, but as many

037of them as possible. >> you hear this all the time that people want to eliminate music No. and and um and sports because of all the money you could save. But again, to your point, by the time you do that, you're going to you're going to lose kids. So, you you've you've gained nothing by doing that. >> Yeah, I feel equally, if not more, strong about needing music than I do about, you know, that's that's a great outlet for a lot of kids that need that outlet. And there's a lot to be said for what what effect that has on the brain and helps with with learning. So, Yeah, I I would Yeah, that that those are those are tough um But the thing that we can do is ask the music boosters that we

038need help. And this isn't made up numbers. These are the real deals. So, And the thing with it, too, is that this is this stuff that that's happening down at the legislative department down in Columbus, is impacting every public school. So, but the voucher programs are still going. So, our kids who want to play sports, be in theater, you know, do all that kind of stuff, there'll be an avenue for them to go to because those schools still will be fully funded. So, you know, that's the other side of it. >> they planned it that way. So, I have a question. When you're talking about purchased services, what kind of things are those? Purchased services would be things like um >> [snorts] >> Uh we use JC Power uh as to strategic communications to tell

039both our stories and kind of run our social media sites and run our website. So, probably would be back to me and the building principals doing more of that and and you know, not having that service. Um Um So, that that's that's one really big one. You know, we have thought exchange, the survey tool that that that you know, we like, but that's another purchased service that we would probably have to eliminate. Um we have the data dashboard that, you know, was slow rolling out, but people are starting to use, but we may not be able to afford to continue with that because it is a purchased service. We purchase services. Again, these are things that would, you know, we want to to reduce as as little as possible, but Ravenwood um emotional supports is

040a purchased service and um that's one that I've tried to avoid so far, but, you know, like when I say I I think we've cut the purchased services about as low as we can cut it without affecting the continuum services for students. You know, that's that would be catastrophic, but it's not far from a reality. Um curricular items, IXL, um you know, subscriptions, like I know that our our English department was asking for Newsela and things like that. Those are, you know, purchased services that we're not going to be able to afford to do now. Things that we may we we've done in the past that, you know, we won't be able to do. The other thing too that impacts us is we have so much land that is non-taxable. Can you speak on that?

041That doesn't help us, but it certainly shows why we struggle more than probably some school districts. Um So, Beth ran this exempt property in our district. So, the city of Akron owns 6,183.67 acres with a market value of $28,165,410, which is a yearly loss of $225,190 to the district in property taxes. And then the park district has 2,883.13 acres which is almost 11,000 in market value which is another yearly loss of about 84. Really nothing we can do about that but prior generations of decision makers had decided to sell those properties for an early profit and they sold them to entities that were tax exempt. And that's kind of something else that's that's a unique problem that we have that maybe some other districts don't have because they don't they don't have nearly uh the

042amount of exempted property that we do. This is the cross point I mean to be it's been brought up before. What about the 60 acres across the street? We have done everything that we can if we could potentially sell that property and we can't. I don't care what $23 million Yeah, we we've attempted it. It had a deed restriction and the deed restrictions through 2043. No way we could sell it. We attempted it, didn't work. So that is not an option. So we own that property, the property we're on we don't own. So we technically own one property. I don't know how many school districts can can say that but that's all we own is that property across the street. And it really doesn't cost us anything because there's nothing on there. Yes, we mow

043the grass and yes, our wreck teams and our practice teams practice over there. But there isn't if we stopped doing that today, it isn't going to save us enough to put anything to to help that. So, I want to make sure that's out there as well. The only thing we can do maybe is to log out the trees and you know, that's a one-time shot that you'll get X amount of dollars and then that's it. Another thing we we looked at was school fees. We haven't increased school fees in I don't know. Beth, how long have you been here? 18 years? So, we haven't I mean, elementary school, middle school have been $55 and high school's been whatever the courses are. So, I asked Beth you know, what would the school fees have to be

044to erase that entire amount? And it would be $500 per student. So, [clears throat] then I thought, well, what if we raise the school fees to half that, $250 a student? Again, that's lots more than they are today. They haven't gone up in What do other schools do? Uh I Well, other schools I'm they're certainly higher than ours, but I I don't know if they're quite $250. I would have to really uh research that, but I mean, it it it is pretty uncommon that we haven't raised ours. I I mean, we were trying not to pass on costs to families, but you know, at at a certain point we're uh we're not we're not in good position. So, I mean, one of the one of the things to try to do, but when you The

045other thing is you remember about 25% of our kids are uh economically disadvantaged, so they would be exempt from school fees. So, essentially, you know, it's 75% of the school population that would that would be making that up. So, it's not a popular thing, but maybe um something that we would have to consider. If we were to pass the levy, would hit that 28? We We think the the the levy that we have the greatest odds at would be an earned income tax, an increase to the earned income tax. And we feel that way because it would not have an adverse effect on anyone with a fixed income. So, it would not adversely affect senior citizens. We feel like it's a more fair tax because it's everyone and not just property owners. And also, if

046people do a little bit better, they pay a little bit more. If they don't do as well, they pay a little bit less. Um so, but if we And And I think that would be the direction we would go in November. If that passes in November, then it doesn't start collecting until January. So, we would essentially If we pass it in November, we'll essentially see those collections in 18 months, which would greatly help us for that fiscal year 29. It really won't help us for 28. Um so, we're still going to have to close that gap in 28, but if we could pass that, we would be out of this, you know, situation for 29. But we are not going to add back anything that we eliminated. I don't think we would be able to

047I mean, it I It all depends on the amount of the levy you ask for, I guess. I mean, if it's a if it's another full percent, sure, you could bring back that and more, but that's I don't I think you'd set yourself [snorts] up for failure for that. If it's a half percent, you're looking at maybe maintaining where we are, maybe adding a little bit back, but not certainly not everything we had before. I mean, I think we're living with the reality of we're living with Yeah, we don't know what the they're going to do down in Columbus, either. >> Yeah. We also don't Yeah, we don't know what the next We don't know who the next governor's going to be. We don't know what the next budget cycle's going to look like. We

048don't know what school funding's going to happen after this 2-year cycle. So, I mean, our best [clears throat] guess, if you were If you were to, you know, say, "John, give me your best guess or you're going to lose your house." I would say we would need to ask for a half a percent additional to the earned income tax, making it a total of 1.5 instead of 1. Um at a previous meeting, I mentioned that what if we could do it incrementally? Um so, people don't pay it all at once because I think it's the angst of people when you put on a half a percent. If I make $30,000 a year, I'm paying $300, and I'm going to pay an additional 150. People are going to struggle with that because that's a That's a

049big chunk all of it once. I have I have sent this to Beth. I'm going to give it to each one of you that what if we could um do it in a percentage of 1/10 of 1% for 7 years? Uh in no way is that going to get us to where we need to be. I'm not saying it is, but all I'm concerned with is trying to pass something in November cuz if we don't pass something, it's just It's going to be exacerbated next year. And we could keep going back to the ballot twice a year in May and November, but that number's going to have to grow. So, you go from a half a percent you're you're going to have to go up. Um so, I'm again, I'm going to give this to

050you to digest a little bit, but um whether or not it's the the best method, can't say. I'm just trying to get it a pass. Right today, I think if we had this on a in May, not this, but a half a percent, I think it would fail just because you have price of gas is just all the bad things that have could have happened have happened. Um you know, you hope by November some of this has leveled out, but you know, none of us can none of us up here can guarantee any of that. And we struggle with trying to come up with um you know, a year ago we uh and and I was a big push for to take inside millage. No secret to it. The uh >> [clears throat] >> the

051budget commission ripped us, absolutely ripped us up one side and down the other because how dare we ask for unvoted millage. My my case is it's voted because it was put there by the legislation to allow us to use it if we needed it, and we definitely needed it. Now we're to a point if we went back to that um with the budget commission, you know, people in Columbus now would fight fight us tooth and nail and it and we wouldn't we wouldn't stand a chance. So, uh again, it's the only reason I'm trying to bring up maybe something incrementally, and by the way, I can't even tell you if this is legit. This has to be vetted by uh your county prosecutor. I mean, they have to check the language. This could be all

052for not, but I'm just trying to look at a way of increasing taxes gradually to people so it isn't such a a chunk. Cuz a half a percent of earned income for families could be a lot of money. I mean, there's a pretty large contention that's going to it could be 0.0006% increase in income and they're still saying no. I don't know if a smaller number will help. I mean, it it could help a bit, but I think there's going to be absolutely not voters, yes voters, and a very small percentage of people that we can change their minds on. So, [snorts] I agree. I think it's My fear with the incremental is that it would be confusing in the ballot language. And if it's confusing, there are Hey! >> [laughter] >> It's That's the

053Lord telling me that I [clears throat] shouldn't be talking. >> [laughter] >> If it's confusing, I think people are not going to vote for it. The other thing that I don't I'm not sure that 10th of a percent gets us out of I mean I'm not saying it does. I'm just trying to get us out. In my opinion, I'm just trying to get us out of fiscal hole. Cuz if you keep getting no votes every 6 months, we haven't accomplished anything either. Yeah, but at least we go back to the community and say, "You wouldn't vote for this. Here's what we had to do. You wouldn't vote for this. Here's what we had to do." I think you got one shot in 20 years to get something passed and you got to make sure it's

054the right thing. Right. I think we have to have a solid message. And have lots of people involved. You know, it's it's a little sad that there aren't more here, but we have to get like tons of bodies out there just like we did when we were building the school because people need to know and it's if they read the paper or watch the news or see stuff on social media, this is happening to every single school in the state of Ohio. There's something that I've been following fixed Ohio schools and they say there's five they projected like there's 595 schools that are where we are right now. That's a projection. I don't know if it's actually because they don't know for real either but so it's happening everywhere. So at some point we have

055to convince the population that it's not the schools that are all running not financially sound because we have really tried hard between Beth and John, they tried to keep things and when you look at we haven't gone on a ballot forever. Like there's no >> here they'll tell you we're not we're not spending money like crazy, should they? Yeah. So I think that's what has to happen. We must start calling out lawmakers because you have people who are saying that you know, schools are professional victims and they're always whining and um you know, you have a billion dollars going to vouchers and why isn't public school a choice? Why isn't it just community or private? Now, um the voucher lawsuit is going to be heard at the 10th District Court of Appeals next Tuesday. Um

056you know, whether that does anything, I do not know but um you know, when there's a when the legislature says they can't fund public schools or the fair school funding formula is too expensive. Okay, but you're giving a billion dollars to private schools and you have almost 4 billion dollars sitting in a rainy day fund. So how can you say you don't have money and you're giving 600 million to the Cleveland Rock and Roll Who's going to hold them accountable, folks? That's the key with all of this accountability. If they're not held accountable, we would be in a civil You can call us professional victims, but those are actual numbers. Um, how about And speaking of that, so we have kids from our district that most of them have been going to private schools for

057a long time where their families are. How does that impact us? Cuz I know we have to pay for some services for them, and we have to pay for bussing or transportation for them. What kind of impact is that on our um Yeah, so So in 2023, we had six EdChoice kids. In 2024, that went bumped up to 69. 63 of those were new kids. They've never set foot in our building. They got money just because they were already going to those Just because the voucher was made available. Cuz our our enrollment stayed the same. Mhm. >> We didn't lose any. 2025, that jumped up from 69 to 103. 44 of those were kids that have never set foot in this district. So, um we have to provide transportation to um the parochial and the

058community schools. So, we provide to Berksheim, Montessori, we provide to St. Mary's, to Notre Dame. If we can't provide uh within a certain uh time frame, and it has to be on their schedule, and their schedule trumps our schedule. >> over our schedule. Like, we will get penalized if Notre Dame starts at 7:00 a.m., and we don't have that kid there at 7:00 a.m., we can get fined by the Department of Education. Um so if we can't meet their schedule, then we have to pay parents to take their kids to school. So we have some parents that are getting $1,200 to take their kids to school. Yes. And I we should reiterate we are not blaming those kids. families Right. I know. I don't know. No. That's a better fit for some families and that's

059perfectly fine. We're blaming the system. It's a poor system. I would probably take advantage of a free voucher that you have but some more money in my pocket to put my kids into a private school. So I we are not blaming families that are using that system. It is the system itself that is awful. And Anna, you were going to I just wanted to throw out there cuz I can't not say these stuff. >> [laughter] >> Okay, so um it's just my opinion about like the DEA's opinion or anything like that but just as someone from here it just seems to me that like it it has to be the levy piece of it has to be something that we're inviting the community that like as a team effort and I think if we can

060point out the fact that like this is a way of directly funding putting money into something that you can see sort of in front of you and something that you can sort of have a actual influence on. So you know, other ways of funding education, you know, unfortunately we can only have so much influence about how those things go but in terms of the levy, you know, if they make an effort to not only choose to vote for the levy but if you choose to encourage others to vote for the levy, it's going to be it needs to be about you know, we're supporting our kids directly. We're supporting our people directly. This money doesn't go to other places and it doesn't go, you know what I mean? Like it's We can only control so

061much in a chaotic environment and a tumultuous but this is something that we can actually have control over and that, you know, that we often invite the community to participate in decision making, even um decisions about how we want our kids to be assessed or like what are our standards in not just state standards but in terms of um community standards of what we want our kids to walk away with and achieve the five keys and so on. So, it just seems to me that like they need to know what the what the cost could be if it doesn't happen. Like yeah, dollars and cents but in terms of what services are lost, maybe specific examples. I don't know if there are families who would like really need, say like, if this doesn't happen, here

062are some of the things that my own child won't have access to. Here's what it means to them. More. You know, the tangible stuff. You know, outside of um you know, they don't they don't know when we run out of paper or you know, they're not they're not privy to a lot of the stuff that happens inside but maybe if we can sort of make those things apparent and they can see like, okay, my neighbor's kid is no longer going to have access to a program that they count on um if we can't come together and find a way to like meet the all of them. Yeah, I think we definitely need to have the community as a partner on this and exactly like you said, just like we did with the prime committee, just

063like we did with the five keys committee, just like we did recently with the strategic planning committee. We need probably as many if not more community than we have our staff um and that's So we need to kind of, you know, get back into that and and make it work. I agree. Yeah, I think it's an excellent Oh, I'm sorry. And our business partners, too. Yeah. >> I have a lot of wonderful business owners that send their kids to our schools and support our schools. We need them to partner with us, too. There There hasn't been a case to rally around as much as this right now since the bond issue, right? Mhm. Yeah, right. Yes. So, and I don't want to I don't think we should be doom and gloom, you know, our schools

064are going to shut their doors and blah blah blah. I think instilling that pride of look at this awesome place that we built, the model's working, we're doing everything right, we have these forces against us that are stripping that away. I think that's a very easy thing to rally around. So. Yeah, I think we just need to be as transparent as possible so people can see we're not kind of living lavishly. We We We We don't have, you know, we don't have like 10 kids to a teacher in classrooms. Like our middle school, some of them have 28 kids in a in a classroom. Our Our elementary, we try to keep lowest and they're at 20. Um you know, so other than like you know, maybe uh a high-level AP course might have fewer than

065than 20, but not many. So, I mean, we are we have been living like within our means and and Hannah said it. We We don't tell people we ran out of paper so we can't have any. I mean, but we I mean, there we live within budgets and we're not And I think that maybe probably not within our community, but some people who kind of are louder would say, you know, look at all the money they waste. Even though every time we have a meeting, I say, well, we're have a checkbook. I mean, you can see everything we spend money on." One thing that does come up, but I will never give up, and I know the other board members won't. We have two SROs. Some people could say we're going to do one. I'm

066not willing to risk the safety of my kids. So, it comes up. It comes up. People say, "You shouldn't have two. Why don't you have one?" Well, because two's better than one, and because it keeps our kids safe. I'm not willing to give up either one. There is a involved that we pay for out of pocket. In some years, we've gotten a little bit of money to help pay for them. That would be a great place if we could get people in the community to pick that up, because there's no arguing what they're worth in the case of a of an event. So, But they're also good with mental health stuff, too. Like, there there's another group of people that a kid could go to if they're not comfortable with something else, you know, somebody

067that or the They're very helpful with bullying, yes. Yeah. I just feel like after the last board election, you know, a component of that was school safety, and I know Yeah. that candidates, you know, that that wasn't a main issue. Um and I think we chose the right path in terms of hiring that you know, of all the options we had in terms of increasing [clears throat] security or increasing technology, that would be I mean, there's just no you you can't plan for everything, but to have that second SRO is the obvious choice, I think. Plus, the other day when I was in the office, Vanessa found a grant. >> Yeah. So, she was all excited cuz she just found it and I walked in here. Part of our Part of our struggle is going

068to be that me eliminating two administrator positions means Vanessa won't be able to find grants like she did before because she'll be doing other administrative things. And that's, you know, that's a I always every every time these things come up, the first thing I ever did was "What about those administrators? Cut off those administrators." And And what I would say is I I did make a commitment to make that the first place we reduced. And as of right now, no classroom teacher has lost a position. And I don't And I hope they don't have to. Um Now, there have been some positions that there are there will be some positions that we may recommend we don't replace, but that wouldn't involve anyone losing a position. But And I And I will, you know, if we

069have to do this again next year, I will commit to starting at the administration. But losing [snorts] especially building-level administration just puts more strain on the classroom teacher. Um because then there's no outlet for them for support for when they have issues in the classroom. So, it it all kind of plays together. Um and it's, you know, and it I pulled I pulled a uh state report because I'm You know, I I thought someone No one really asked this question. I thought someone would ask the question about um about the administrators. Um I thought I'd pull this. Maybe I didn't. Oh, yeah, here it is. So, I took So, you can anyone can run this report on the state's website. It's It's called the CUP report or the district profile. So, I took Berkshire and

070they similar districts. So, actually the state will like do a bunch of different comparisons and say these are the 10 similar districts to you and compare you to the state average. And then just because Cardinal, Shardon, and West G is because they're in the county. So, we look at enrollment and ADM stands for average daily membership. And you're going to see Berkshire's number 1,274.68. You're like, "How in the world do we have 0.68 of a student?" >> [laughter] >> When the state The state doesn't count actual butts in seats when they calculate average daily membership. You guys may not know this, Ford. I'm certainly I'm sure you know this. We don't get 100% funding for kindergartners. We only get half funding. So, our kindergartners in in this number only count as half. We don't get

071100% funding for kids that go to Auburn. We get 75% of that. So, our Auburn students count as 75%. So, so when you hear me you're like "Stahls, I mean we had 1,400. The state says we have 1270." That's because our kindergartners count as half, our JVS count as 3/4 in the state's ADM. But but if you compare us and then and it's the same, you know, they're they're doing the same comparison here. So, so we're at 1274. All the similar districts are at 1219. Cardinal's at 684. Uh Shardon's at 2307. So, they're about twice our size. West G's at 1,900. So, a little bit bigger, not a ton bigger than us. But then let's compare uh FTE number of administrators. We were at 12.67. Similar districts to us were and and I'm cutting two.

072So, we're going to be at 10.67. Similar districts are at 13. Average in the state is 69.43. Cardinal has 10.7 with half the number of kids we have. Chardon has 22, about double what we have, about double the kids. And And West G has 17, so we're not out of alignment in terms of the number of administrators. Um so, even But even though we're not out of alignment, I made a commitment when we talked about this that I would start as far away from the classroom as possible and and not hit the classroom unless we absolutely have to. So, I just wanted to put that out there that even though we're going to make administrative cuts, we're not like top-heavy in terms of administration. And when people say, you know, cut the overpaid superintendent, I'm

073the lowest-paid superintendent in Geauga County. I I I mean, it's just it's just it is what it is. >> And our treasurer currently is not the highest-paid treasurer in the county. And our new treasurer will be the lowest, and not by a little. So. We've got districts in the county that are half our size. So, that Again, it it it is what it is. I I think it's you know, people expect us to take pay cuts or uh you know, it's And I'd like to ask people, would you be willing to take a pay cut at your job when you don't work any less? And it's just hard It's a hard thing to ask people to do. I know there are probably people out here I've I've been in this I came When I came

074from Southwest Ohio, we were we we had to do pay freezes multiple times. It's not fun. It's not something that that you want to do. It's not It's not something that we're planning on asking for. Um but it's you know, desperate times. In in In terms of what Beth and I thought would be the easiest way to eliminate that that deficit, and it was uh, conventional wisdom is a staff position in terms of all-in salaries and benefits is roughly $100,000. So, if half the amount is made up on school fees, then that's a little bit less than 500,000 less left, so that's a, you know, just under that's just over four positions. We can round it to potentially four, maybe somehow find a you know, four. Some somewhere in here, either between you know, not

075replacing, you know, things that come back or shuffling things around. That's kind of the along the I don't want to talk about specific positions or anything because I don't want to do I don't want anyone to watch a board meeting and and say, "Oh, you know, I just learned that my position was going away and no one told me." So, I would really rather, you know, if we're going to talk specifics, to do that in in an executive session and have a chance to at least give the people that would be affected Should we put executive at the beginning part of our meeting then next If you're Yeah, if you're going to ask Beth and I to come with recommendations next week, then I think we should start with executive. You listen to, you know,

076our recommendation and then and if we're good with it, we come back out and you vote on it, and if not, we figure something else out. But, I mean, I we've we've I've been meeting with building teams uh, with the with civic representation and with principals and you know, we're we're doing the best we can to try to find the easiest ways to to make this happen and, you know, n- But, no way, I mean no way is easy. Even even not replacing a position, even though someone [clears throat] doesn't lose a job, other people have to gain responsibilities. Um Well, you know, like I said, we're going down to administrative positions. Uh Vanessa and I are picking up a lot of administrative duties because of that. So, but that's okay. We can we can

077do that. We'll survive, you know. Um but so, you know, if there's a position that we decide not to not to replace, that just means other people have to pick up that work somewhere. So, nothing's easy, nothing's painless, but if there's any way to keep classroom teachers in the classroom, that's going to be our number one goal. Do you guys have any questions? In the best-case scenario, >> [clears throat] >> with I mean, there's a lot of variables that you don't control for, but in the best-case scenario into the future, I mean, we don't want to I would hate for the plan to be survival forever. What does that look like to be kind of thriving for our district again? That's a good question. Um I can't [clears throat] necessarily I can't answer that. I

078don't know if any of us can, but the I if [clears throat] we had stability with what the state was going to actually give us, then I could give you more of an answer. Um Okay, if we did uh 3/4 of a percent earned income tax, and the state says they're not going to alter our budget for 10 years. Unlikely, but it then we could tell you that we could we could do these things, we could be there. But every time we set something up, that's what our house bill changes in or a new governor. Be prepared, you know, that what what you're facing. Because the first year he's in office, we have no idea what's going to happen. It'll be year two before you actually see what comes to fruition with what he's going

079to actually do. And then you have the legislators and that vote on it. I I That's the difficult part. >> And that's where people really have to pay attention to the governor. I think we have to >> the legislative level, especially. I think we have to define what what's model we want. Our current model is a model of um keeping class sizes relatively low at the lowest grades because that's where they're learning how to read and that's, you know, where they're getting their socialization. And then they're a little bit higher at the middle school, but that's where we built in a little bit more um movement and choice and things like that. And they're a little bit lower at the high school, but that's where they can specialize more. And and with that, we've built

080in a model where we can have intervention specialists as a part of the regular grade level team, so that any student that doesn't have a profoundly mentally handicapped a profound mental handicap can be included in the classroom, um you know, and and be a regular functioning part of the room and at the same time supporting units for those kids who do have profound mental handicaps where they can get the services they need and then kind of push in and out as as benefits them. That's the system we currently have. Um if if we're going to continue to be, you know, pushed and cut, we we staff our special ed a little bit differently. Um If we staff for a resource room model, that that would be going back to, you know, one intervention specialist spread

081over three grade levels who just took kids out of their regular classrooms, and then those kids, you know, So, I mean, and from from the state's point of view, and this is why um when when Beth and I first met with the person from the state, and he made some recommendations to us, I said, "You know what? No. We're not going to do any of this stuff." And he said, "Well, you can make your cuts with a scalpel, or we're going to come in and make them with a hacksaw. It's up to you." And I thought, "Well, if you put it like that, let's get out some scalpels and see what we can do." But I don't want them to come in and say, "Well, the state model says at the elementary, you can have

08216 kids to one IS, and at the middle and high school, you can have 24 kids to one IS, and that's how you're going to do it because you can't include kids in the classroom in any kind of meaningful way like that. So, but what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to decide, you know, what model we want. We're going to have to explain that model to the public so they understand what we're doing and why. And we've I've been here 9 years, so we've, you know, we've kind of slowly implemented this model. We've probably, since we've been in this building, had that model in place. And every year, even though it hasn't, you guys can attest to this, I have never come to you and said, "You better get

083those test scores up." We all know that they're important. Every year, our performance index, which is the cumulative measure of all test taking in the district, has increased. Also, workforce has increased. Also, you know, kids, you know, social skills, all the indicators we we have are showing increases. In terms of the report card, that new measure that measures career, college, workforce, military readiness, we're the only ones in the county with a five. The closest one to us had a three. So, we're kind of leading the charge in that. We're top 10% in the in the entire state in that measure. Now, our test scores, no, we're not like West G, top 10 in the state, but we are we are improving every year. So, I think we have we have some evidence that the model

084that we have is really working for everyone. And so, I think what we need to do is kind of sell the vision of that model and why we use it and and just let people know, like if this is important to you, if this is what you want, then this is what we need to support that. And, you know, if not, here are the consequences of that, and it becomes, you know, 32 kids to a classroom at all levels, and, you know, lots of pullout, and fewer, you know, workforce >> But, to your question, if we lose stability at the state level, it would be easier for us to be able to figure those you know, back into the >> We live with the two-year budget cycle. Very difficult. What if there was a massive

085reset button like that? Yes, but it's going away. And they have to look at the model because that's going to wipe out all those budget dollars. Then, funding models might change a bit to be more in our favor, who knows, but unless something major happens, it's just it's like you're walking out. Well, I mean, you hear you hear that they're trying to put an initiative on the ballot to eliminate property taxes. Everybody that understands what those taxes do say, "You can't do that [laughter] because of the services they provide." Yes, we're the biggest piece [snorts] of that, but those other services are pretty damn important, especially if your house is on fire or you're being robbed. So, you can't just eliminate property taxes. Somebody my age, I'd love my taxes to go away. Be wonderful.

086But, realism is you can't do that and pay for the things that we need. So, um you know, back to Linda's point, you got to watch who you're voting for. And sometimes we don't have a very good choice, but those are the people that are are the ones deciding what we're going to get and what we're not going to get. Mostly the not part. I think cuz you know you can write to them a bunch of times and they'll nothing happens. I just hope for some of the bigger voices in our community in general, you know, being put out there to be on a soapbox, to be willing to put themselves out there in all niches of our of our enormous district. >> Well, start thinking of those people's names because we do have to

087have a I call you in the background, just saying. And all those of you over here in the back like you are the people that do everything and you know, this is going to be very important to our schools. So, we got to find lots of people like you. And lots of people not like you, too, cuz those are the people that need to they have a idea of what's going on. So, it's easy for [clears throat] them to um decide on what they think they know. But, those are the people that we've got to get on this committee, too, because those non-believers, we can change a couple of them. Maybe perspectively they can change others, too. You got to reach the the people who don't have kids in the district. That's the That's the

088hard part. That's the hard part. Is it Anybody who sees this presentation, it's going to be really hard to convince yourself that okay, You can convince parents very easily. The truth is, everybody in this room that's here, we get Everybody who watches online regularly, they get it. Everybody who's vehemently against the school, they get it. They're going to have a I know no matter what we say. But it's the those swing voters, let's call them, that don't [snorts] pay enough attention to know what's going on and are very difficult to communicate to so that they understand what's going on. Cuz if unless you're really paying attention to stuff, So you go to the They don't know what they don't know. Right. They're going to see oh, tax increase, those schools. But the other advantage to

089this per pupil tax is that we can sell the seniors on there because it doesn't impact them, basically. Yeah, you know. Okay. >> [laughter] >> That's the So you need to quit working and then you don't have to pay taxes. Oh, that's all right. You have to do this. I survived. Anyways, you know, those people should be easy to convince. You know, yes, you're helping the school, but it's not going to cost you anything. Unless you have That's how we sold it in 2007. And that's who passed it was the seniors because it didn't affect them. That's when we did the conversion. Uh they were the ones that passed. So, if we have to pick them up, drive them to the poll, seniors >> [laughter] >> We need to have one of those walking things

090at something like this school. I mean the good the good news is that we've had a lot of them in our building doing things. So, we're going to I mean they've seen they've seen like all of the all the cool things. Who would have thought that that seniors would enjoy walking in the gym with middle school kids? >> [clears throat] >> The middle school kids like it and and we didn't do that to to convince them of anything. We didn't have a levy on the ballot, but maybe maybe that will happen. Yeah, there you go. All right, board members, more questions that we have for Beth and Jeff. And you in the back, you guys might have some questions. You in the back. We came from booster meetings. But we need you and we need

091the boosters big time. We should talk Yeah, we did have a like a a quick like conversation about athletics and and so we put like kind of the district's all in athletic cost out of the general fund and so I mean this this block is what it is. So, out of the general fund the district spends $563,683.39. If you look at this presentation, which is hard to see, this is the number we're trying to erase next year. It's $960,864. And if we if we can't erase that number, if we can't satisfy the state that what changes we're going to make is going to erase that, they're going to come in and make the changes for us. So, what we talked about um and a lot of people would just say, "Well, more than half that

092number, just eliminate athletics." But, our our thought is if you do that, you eliminate outlets for kids that they might not have before, and you're probably going to lose about a quarter of your student population cuz they're just going to go somewhere that has athletics. So, we don't really see that as an option. But, what we thought is could [clears throat] we partner with the boosters and say, "Listen, we may not we may have to wear old uniforms for a while, but would it be possible for your fundraisers to contribute to transportation, which is $78,551, or coaches' salary? You already pay part of the strength coach's salary, but still part of it comes out of the um the general fund as well, or any of these numbers that boosters would want to look at and

093say, "Yeah, we can target that with our fundraisers and and you know, maybe in the future we We also talked about pay-to-play, and we really don't want to go back to pay-to-play cuz it didn't help, and we didn't collect the money. Uh and it'll just uh decrease kids' you know, want or desire to to to uh participate. So, you know, maybe there's a a line item on there where we can talk separately and that, you know, that um that you look at and you say, "Yeah, we can fundraise for that instead of doing, you know, other fundraisers or >> Well, it just goes with the PTO, music boosters. It doesn't matter what organization. Pick an item. Uh you know, the teachers need supplies. They need They have to have them. >> [clears throat] >> PTO

094um raises money for whatever they've raised money for in the past. Well, maybe they have to think more about what do they need so that we out of our budget don't have to pay for it. One way or another, it's the same people that are kicking in the money. The five of us um >> [clears throat] >> fund uh the board scholarship. That's who funds it every year. It's It's the five of us. We do things for athletics. We do things for music. You do things for the PTO. It's all the same people funding all the same things. So, if we we could help a little bit, that's what we're asking for. We're not asking for it to be fully just as much as can be done. >> You might have to adjust your thinking

095about priorities. Like I know that PTO does teacher grants. Like I know like Lauren Hurdler did that great one with the doctors and bodies and stuff like that, but so I know all all of you I know how much your organizations are contributing, but we may have to rethink it at least for next year and who knows going to Hopefully, things right itself a little bit, but we can't count on that. And And you know, passing something in November can certainly lessen what you have to do. That has to happen. It needs to happen. We're If we don't, we're going to be back on in May and then back on in November. It's It's not going to change because we're still going to be running a deficit. And I think >> long has it been

096since we did pay to play? Oh. How many years? It was after 11 you said it was We had pay to play in 2015. 15? When Les Frost came on board, we we took away pay to play. Okay. Hans, did you have a question? Yeah, I was just going to say I think I speak for us on the booster board that, you know, we just discuss this and we do in most of our meetings is fundraising ideas. So um you know, I think that's part of our plan is to help do what we can to supplement. I mean, if you know, our teams now are on an I think every 2 years every 3 year rotation with uniforms. Um the teams do a great job of fundraising individually. They have their own accounts, too. Um

097you know, I don't see why we couldn't try to help contribute to that cuz we definitely are doing our best to make sure we don't have a pay-to-play situation. Um it's good to have those figures cuz we don't actually know what the the operating expenses are for the athletic department. So, that's that gives us a good idea. Yeah, we should I can share that with you if you want. I don't want to I just we um we have listed each sport and how many coaches they have and what what the district pays for the coaches and then we have the the AD, the the assistants, ticket takers, what not are all in one jump and then uh um transportation, there was one of the costs in there. >> Yeah, if you could, that would be

098great. Is there a thought to I mean, it's probably a trying to avoid, but the coaching situation, you know, seems like a lot of teams have many coaches. Are you looking at potentially pairing that down? >> We had talked about it like, you know, do we need as many coaches as we have? Could we cut back in some areas? That that was one of the things that came up. I we've made a commitment before that we weren't going to cut athletics. So, No, I yeah, I hope that. I mean, your your point about having the outlet is I think the main the main point. >> said that. Yeah, I don't feel like cutting anything anything completely is helpful because that, you know, kids need that out that, you know, that outlet. Absolutely. Just like we

099wouldn't cut music, we wouldn't cut art, we wouldn't, you know. Now, I can't guarantee that if we don't if we can't move this, the state doesn't come in and say I I don't know what they're going to say. Like I said, I was trying to avoid the hacksaw. Cuz that's exactly the terminology that was used. Which was scary. I just don't understand the way we're trying to shy away from pay-to-play with the popularity of travel ball being, you know, two grand a kid for Parents don't mind $2,500 in hotel rooms all summer long and What's What's that part of it? $50 or $100 pay-to-play? Cuz they weren't always paying and then people were falling out, so I mean, but it may be an option. Yeah. A rec soccer year is $125. You know, I just

100uh thought I don't I don't see any parents uh not willing to throw money at their kids playing sports. I don't think everybody can. >> You'd be surprised how many people didn't pay. That's what I'll tell you when we had >> Well, I I guess that is a I would have a different perspective. I would do anything I can for my kids' their activities. I have three. Three girls, all different things. Um if we were in a pay-to-play situation, having one in middle school and one in high school, they're all four years apart. >> [clears throat] >> So, it would put us in a difficult position to do that pay-to-play, which is why a lot of our community We do have some that are no problem. We play travel ball, we do all these things.

101We have a large contingent that it would be an issue and they would either go to a different district or pull their kid entirely, which would be detrimental. Um I know Vanessa Pia talked about doing like a day of giving for everybody. I think it's really important for all of us to come together at this point because we have so many kids who participate in all of the things. They do art, they do theater, they do music, they do sports. Um and all of that makes a well-rounded student going off into the world. I think whatever we can do to try to get them all into as much as we can to support would be huge. That's just my perspective on the pay-to-play. >> Well, I I get it. >> [clears throat] >> But if

102you can lower the $250 school fees and help supplement with some athletic pay-to-play, might >> [clears throat] >> Well, maybe it comes to that um when we get uniforms. However, we were doing in the past that they pay for their own uniforms and keep them. I I'm not saying that that's easy. I'm just saying if if people are so willing to pay, they [clears throat] at least get something for the money other than But and [snorts] and buying those uniforms, that would be a big deal. Yeah, they're very expensive. And I don't know that would be cost-effective year to year. You know, if you charge a kid $250 to play a sport, the uniform's 100 bucks. >> [cough] >> How much are you know, is that big difference going to cover what we're trying to

103accomplish here between refs and janitors and bussing? I also think we have to be conscious if we are along the same lines of raising fees. But if if the if the boosters had targeted fundraising to knock out some of those costs that essentially help pay for it. Yeah, I mean, that's like there what We did also talk about extending out that uniform rotation because nowadays the uniforms are much better quality. They're lasting a lot longer. There may not be Frankly, there's not any to get any uniforms every Yeah. You should wear >> [laughter] >> And you could go to a levy meeting. But one other thing I think we have be conscious of is if we are raising school fees or talking about raising school fees, which I get the purpose of it. That's a

104That's a big dollar amount per family. Yeah. And they are for them. Yeah, athletics. It is. And if we're asking to do that or really not asking it, we're requiring people to do that and then asking them for a levy on top of that, I think that school fee raise it will sour some people. And so I think Be cautious. >> I think that's a a good source to make up some of this deficit if necessary, but I also think we need to be very careful about the amount that we're asking. Yeah, I Yeah, I I threw I just threw a number out that we covered. I didn't I didn't mean to say we're definitely raising school fees. Okay. You know, I've not raised school fees in the 9 years I've been here. So Right.

105And we haven't period, which is incredible. [clears throat] I just pointed out that $500 school fees would cover that deficit. Right. [laughter] Right. And then cut it in half to 250. So I I didn't want you to think like, you know, that's set in stone, but Yeah, I I think it's >> [cough] >> it's [clears throat] a decent ask if we if we have not raised school fees in with with 18 years or something like that. I mean [clears throat] Well, you could do small chunks. That was my purpose with this. I just do small chunks. $10 With Burton's water treatment plant is we didn't have increases on our water for 25 years and then all of a sudden Yeah. it was catastrophic. Right. Right. And it was it was such a amateur move. All

106those times we selling people on and we're not increasing and not increasing. Yeah, but like truly at what cost? All sudden, it's enormous. Yeah, it's not realistic. Yeah. Um, I will be stepping in as a PTO officer coming this year. What is something I know you said like or like involved or participate. What would that look like for from the board's perspective of helping out? Like what what would that what would that look like for for us or from us? We do a lot of work volunteering, you know, like volunteering just hand power not not but like the teacher grants and everything as well. But what what would that look like to you guys as helping out? Just so I know what you're looking for. Supplies. I paper? You finding any paper? >> [laughter] >>

107Yeah, paper's expensive. You you want I mean just the most It sounds so simple, but Chromebooks would be amazing. Paper. To re-ask that question is what like monetary amount maybe or like is there something you could give us to say, "Hey, if you gave us this much, we would be in a much better situation to not run out of paper or something something like that or something." I'm not asking right right now, but something. >> can get you that. >> [clears throat] >> We can give you the number that we spend on paper. Yeah. It's like the day-to-day stuff that we do. Like we paid to get the sports team some place. So, that stuff then can come out of the general fund and pay for teachers and all those other things, heat and you

108know. I'm sure Matt hasn't looked at this money yet, but I did text him. I'm like, "How much do you and Shawn and Mark spend on like music for the year?" You know, like give give me a But [laughter] like give me ideas. So, that way we take it back to you guys. We take it back and be like, "Can we, you know, put 75% or you know, whatever, you know, is this is this feasible?" Anything would be helpful. Yeah, but I I thought about that during the meeting. So, I'm glad. Well, and too, maybe the three organizations can talk, too, because maybe PTO, Boosters, and Tune Backers might have some ideas, too, and you know, that we can share with us about how you can do that. But, these things that you're talking about

109definitely help. Find a [clears throat] line item that makes sense to get some effort behind. That's a good selling point for everybody. Okay, we're raising money so we transport the band to Keep in mind when we do the um the levy campaign, I'll call it, regardless of what it is. When [snorts] you're telling the public that our organizations are doing their part as well to help bring down the cost the people are more willing to, hopefully, pull the money out of their pocket and give it to the school versus a Beth's woe is me uh analogy with the way schools are. We're all doing that. And you know, your your is vital to this passing as anybody just telling 10 people what you've done. Hey, pat yourself on the back. Tell them the things that

110you've done. You've You've donated back to that um as much volunteer time, hell, as most of you put in helping these organizations, helping your teachers. I mean, that's going to be a big sell point. And the other thing, too, is now you all are slightly educated. It's impossible to be fully educated cuz it's so crazy. But, you can share these stories, too, with the public. When you talk to somebody, say, "I don't know why they need that." Well, you can say, "Well, this bill happened, this bill happened. This is this, and it's impacting not just Birch Run, but it's impacting everybody." So, there's all sorts of information out if you are on Facebook or any social media that's talking about this now because it's happening to every school in the state of Ohio. Well, actually,

111if you look, it's happening to about every school in the state and in the United States of America, it seems like, you know, cuz lots of areas are suffering with the same sort of thing. And we want people to help our kids. And if they know that that's where the money's going, we're not sending it to the United Way. I I absolutely guarantee you that the money's staying here. I mean, maybe that's where the neighbors and the kids and that all matters to them. And maybe that can flip some of those people in the middle. 10% of your votes are in the middle. That can go this way or that way. 10%. Yeah. I think that's why we have a chance. There's no question that this is directly impacting these kids' education. Before you could

112find some fluff or something that someone could spin and say that's just a They're asking for too much, but this is a clear need. And it's easy to prove that need. So, I think Usually I'm not too uh uh positive on levies, but we got a chance. Um anybody else have questions for Beth and John? I'll be here. Anybody else have anything out there else you want to say? Do you know what school fees are for other districts? That was a question. I I think that John was going to look into that. Yeah, Cardinal's are zero right now. Yeah. Chardon's is zero. Yeah. Chardon's is zero, too? It's what they say, Chardon's is Yeah, Chardon's is zero. I can double-check if I got it. Okay. I think that'd be enough for that. I don't Yeah.

113Yeah, I'll I'll make sure I'll find out. Shouldn't be hard to find out. Anything else? Yeah. I did have one more question. I know how you guys were talking about like in Columbus there's people that are you know like really counts to have the right people in that room with Columbus. Do we at Berkshire like at the board do we have someone who is almost like a liaison or someone who is like like fighting for us down there like that we can count on or like talk to or Yeah, we have we have we have two lobbyists down there full-time and then I'm I'm there a lot and I have I don't know whether this was supposed to be public but fortunately I've been asked to be on the work group for Ramaswamy's policy team.

114So I have been trying to direct their policy to our benefit. But that only works if that team wins and >> [laughter] >> I'm not sure. If they listen to you. I think it's fair to say that our district has gotten more than average attention. Yeah, for sure. From Columbus legislation. There's been I mean uh You said it was up here a couple months ago. Tusculum was in here. And they do Our district's mentioned a lot. That has Yeah, funding. We don't sit on our hands but And our workforce is getting recognized too because we're one of the top in the state so people People talk very positive positively about us but they don't throw any money at us. You can't get Yeah, thank god. That's too much to ask. We're doing a good job

115so They throw money at us. Anything else? That's a good question. Um Is there any need for executive session? I don't think so, no. All right. Need a motion to adjourn. So Yeah. I'll second. Any discussion? Thank you all for coming and thank you for I know you guys are helpers, so Yes. I just wish