001All set. >> Good evening. We call to order the Cleveland Heights University Heights City School District Board of Education for August 26, 2025. Thank you for joining us. Miss Leam, will you please call the role? >> Mr. All right, Mrs. Lewis, Mrs. Sereni >> here, >> Mr. Tremble >> here, >> Mrs. Krenshaw >> here. >> Gabe, before we get started, I just want to make uh two announcements. First of all, Dan is not here because I believe he has curriculum night at his school district where he is a teacher. And secondly, I would like to congratulate one of our notable alumni and his fiance on their engagement today. So, best wishes to Travis, Kelsey, and Taylor Swift. And we welcome Taylor Swift to Tiger Nation. >> Yes. Yes. Hello, Tiger Nation. >> Welcome the Swifties.
002>> Um, also, our president, Malia Lewis, is traveling. Um, who will be joining us virtually shortly when she is able to. Um, before we begin our work session, um, we will, uh, may I have a motion to consider the consent agenda? I motion we consider the consent agenda. >> I second. Um is there any discussion? >> No. Other than I would like to thank both uh you and Malia for being our delegate and our alternate at the business meeting at the OSBA conference in November. Um, that may not seem like a big deal, but I can tell you as somebody who's had to serve in that role, it can be a long meeting. It can be a contentious meeting. There can be a lot of um interesting dialogue that can go on and on and
003on. Um, it's all for the good of the kids, but it's interesting how people can argue over some really interesting points. So, thank you for being willing to do that for us. >> Go get them. You're so welcome. Uh, Miss Leam, please call the role. >> Mrs. Sereni, >> yes. >> Mr. Trimbo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Krenshaw, >> yes. Um, well, if there is no further discussion, um, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> I motion we approve the consent agenda. >> I second. >> Miss Leam, will you please call the role? >> Mr. Tremble, >> yes. >> Mrs. Yes, >> Mrs. Krenshaw. >> Yes. This meeting is a work session to discuss goals four and five. I will now turn the meeting over to Superintendent Kirby. >> All right. Uh
004good evening everyone. Uh good evening board. Thank you all for joining us this evening. So every fall we do do an update to the board on where we are with our goals aligned to our strategic plan. This evening we are going to hear from representatives from the leadership team on goals four and five. So joining us this evening is Sean Patton our chief of human resources and operations, Sam Gford, director of business and operations, Mark Brown, coordinator of information technology, and Angel Laam our chief financial officer/treasurer. So I will turn it over to the group to get us started with our updates on where we are with our work this year. >> Okay. Thank you, Superintendent Kirby, and uh members of the board. Um we appreciate you uh letting us present us to to you
005about goals four and five for this upcoming school year and the work that we did create um throughout last year as well. Um so there are multitude of us that are going to be presenting today. Um and so I'm going to go first. Um so there are >> I'm going to share the presentation. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I'm sorry. >> Are you in the Google? >> No. >> Yes. Sorry. You have to be Apologize. >> Go to the link and then >> Yeah. Yes. You guys have Mark Brown there, so he should be able to handle this. >> It works out perfectly, right? >> He's on the agenda today. Right. If he can do it, don't >> ask me at that point. >> Phil would be next person. We >> next person up. >>
006There you go. >> There we are. All right. Sorry about that. >> That's okay. >> Okay. So, again, we're going to be doing uh goals uh four and five today or this evening. Um so, last year the district goal was to there was two key two KPI goals that we were going to talk about. Um the first one was the uh number of removals by uh out of school suspension by 50% over the last three years. Um this has been a conscious effort for the district um working through this process. Um this has been uh really an ongoing effort through all the departments in the CHU uh school district and we are proud to show that we've had a decrease of over 19% over the last three years in the number of out of school
007suspensions. This includes uh making sure the guidance counselors, the school administrators, the teachers are working collectively to really support our students, um using threat assessments, um PBIS, it's a combination of a variety of things, but it's really a conscious effort and we will continue to enhance those efforts as we go forward this upcoming school year as well. Um some steps that we really worked through this process and some of the goals that we're going to continue to work on for this upcoming school year is that we do have threat assessments. Um these are uh done when issues come to the schools. Uh we do these quarterly meetings with the principles to share the information. Um learn from them and then continue to uh make sure that that we're putting measures into place to support our
008students. Uh a big effort also this year is that we are continued to make sure that we are planning for big events. Um we have a football game coming up on this Friday. We've already met as a team to prepare for those events. That includes the director of security, uh Mr. Gford, uh Ricky Newman, who is our operations. U myself and also Mr. Damato, our uh athletic director to prepare for those events. Um we're making sure that we are you know having uh Apple staff member present but also preparing for the event and uh we will continue throughout the entire school year for that. Another big thing is doing climate walkthroughs. Those include checking into the building seeing where they are. Um the climate walkthroughs are making sure that we do see things that are
009visible in the hallways. Um that the building's secure. Uh they are done both through the operation side by myself and Mr. Gford um and also by Ricky Waters. Uh so it's really important that we're in the building seeing what's on there. This information is then emailed not only to the building principal but the custodian as well as the operations team as well so that we're able to follow up on any of those. Um last year and the last couple years we've had a district-wide safety advisory committee. Um that is really um an important aspect of what we do um here in the district to support our students and ensuring that we have safe uh and orderly schools. Uh that is something that we will continue throughout this entire school year. Uh we will be doing
010that starting in September. Um having those monthly meetings and we do have board members that are present on there as well. It's really important and we also have representatives from the ESC. Um so we already have some things in place already for this coming meeting, first meeting to prepare. Uh but that is working with Mr. Gford as well as Mr. Waters to ensure that our safety pieces are in place and and continue to have that those monthly meetings. Uh we are also in the process of doing our title N trainings for all our staff as well as our students. Um I will be working with Nancy Pepler who is going to be helping to support some of the title N work. Um I've already started to get into some of the buildings and plan on
011doing more of those um the upcoming weeks. um really kind of wait. I want the schools to kind of be settled before I really get in there. Um but as the after Labor Day, uh there will be a set schedule getting in the buildings as well as going to the staff meetings and presenting about Title 9 as well. Um and then one of the things that we worked on last year and continued to work on is to see where our student participation is in extracurricular activities. Um we are building principles received information about supplementals and then from there we are taking that information seeing the number of students that are participating in afterchool activities um as well as tracking their grade point averages and attendance in that. And so that is something that we started
012last year and we will continue to do that to continue to help support and continue to decrease our numbers of uh students that may receive consequences >> for the oh sorry for the title n training. Um does that happen like by grade level or in the classroom too? Is it or what does that look like? >> So it depends on the building. >> Okay. >> So each building does a little bit differently. >> Okay. >> Uh so for example um I was at Gity. Gertity likes to do 345 together and K12 together. Okay. >> So I tailor those messages to those students. >> Um I bring back my former principal uh you know mantra and voice and and but also tailored to those students too. And we continue to emphasize with those students that if
013something should happen, they report that to an adult, but also there's things that students can do, especially keeping their hands and their feet to themselves. Uh words are important. Technology and use of that is really important as well because that can lead to that. But it's tailored to each of the grade levels. And my messages is different for the middle school and high school students as well. And then for our little guys, we actually show like a short video that kind of encapsulates what I've shared with the students as well >> on the climate walkthroughs, which I think are great that we're doing these. Um, but as you stated them, they're they're sort of uh, you know, done periodically when you're in the buildings. Is there a a and this might be for Liz also
014uh is there a process for people in the buildings so staff you know uh teachers support staff parapros uh to feed back other information that they might see in terms of climate so that it's not just when when you are all in the building but >> do you have tap teams and so tap teams are tasked to collecting that kind of information from um staff and then they discuss address those issues issues and big issues get rolled up to the summit team which we're on with um 795 union leadership to get addressed. So that's like the the um the feedback loop for that. >> Awesome. Thank you. Walkthroughs are really more of just making sure that we're in the buildings like I alluded to, but also if we see something that needs to be addressed
015so that both the custodian, the building principal are aware of that as well as operations if we need to um get somebody from the maintenance team or maintenance side to support that. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Um and so another other big component this year is also our retention and recruitment piece. Um so this past year we were able to bring in um 35 new teachers um nine new administrators and um we had about uh missing on here but we had about 30 25 um support staff which are um our classified staff. Um, one of the goals was also to uh increase the number of certified staff uh members of color um into higher positions and we've kind of um worked on that goal um overall the last couple years and it's
016really a big component of what we're trying to do to help do that. Uh the other retention piece is that we continue to um work as a um we call an RNR team, a retention recruitment team. Um these were monthly meetings that we were working with uh members of the HR team um as well um and a couple other administrators in the district. Uh some of the things that we worked on was to create stay interviews for our pair of professionals. So all the building principles were able to conduct that this past school year for all the pair of professionals. Another big focus was also to um create infinity groups. Uh four groups were started at the end of the last school year. Um, and so that was a big push for the last year.
017And then also continue to share out that we have the EAP, which is the employee assistance program for our staff members and sharing out that information that is a service that the district provides our staff members. Um, so again, we have been really working through this process and we know that a lot of our new hires are coming to us um for a variety of reasons, but support is one of the biggest reasons why people may potentially leave. and the more support that we can continue to show them and welcome them into the district, the likelihood of them staying and making this their uh their home for a long time. And we want them to be part of Tiger Nation for a long time. So this upcoming school year, some of the things that we
018will continue to do is that we will continue to attend to job fairs throughout the state. Um really that is a good marketing tool for us and sharing out the information of what we do as a district. Um our interview teams will continue to um work in the spring and the summer conducting interviews. I think that's one of the things that we were able to do is is really once we were able to identify where the open positions were um we were rolling and so we started right in the springtime and work through the summer um and administrators were able to come in here and to kind of help support that but we were able to get almost all our positions filled u before the start of the school year and I think that was
019really key and if you know there are a lot of districts that are still understaffed right now and we are very close to being fully staffed which is a testament to everybody and their support from there. Um, one of the things that we also worked on the RR team was to develop different literature and I think that's one of the big pushes that we were going to do as a team for this year is really to help market ourselves and share that out. Um, and then really work on uh updating some of our work testimonials. So, that's really important to share out the people that we brought into the district of why they wanted to do that. Um the other thing that we've also known too is that we will continue to have our retention
020recruitment meetings uh we also have scheduled for all our new hires especially our teachers um I have scheduled a monthly meeting with them to help support them. We started a little bit last year um with that and again we've rolled out a calendar and they've already been provided all the dates for their monthly meetings. Some of them will be virtual, some will be in person, but it's just a way for us to connect with our new hire teachers. And then we will do uh quarterly meetings for our um classified staff as well. Um and then just continue to also work on stay interviews for our teachers this year. That is a goal that we were going to develop and work with that. and then um to increase and promote our um infinity groups participation um
021and working through that as we get the start of the school year um really to push that message out and really to help increase the number of uh those staff that want to be part of those infinity groups. >> Okay. >> And are are state interviews exactly what they sound like they are? >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. >> Yeah. The idea is well so you know the the way state interviews are again it's showing the support to the staff member but also learning from it at the same time what are the things that we can improve upon what are the things that they need to to help them to be uh in the teachers really with the pair of professional was it was that was the goal was really to understand their role and
022really help them support them and again I think we were able to retain a lot of our pair professionals over this past school year because of showing them the interest and and really listening to um uh what they shared with us and the concerns and needs that they have. >> Okay, Sam, you're next. >> All right. Well, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to talk to you about facilities in the district and um not only when I was shadowing uh with George uh for uh some days, but since uh I've been here, I've been to every building multiple times, every field, every corner of every building, >> numerous times just trying to get a feel for um the district. gotten lost, you know, but finding my way back, you know, and today
023actually I I made some real gains on how to get from building to building. So, it was great. But I'm thrilled to be here and I'm thrilled to uh help and assist with this incredibly important part of uh the district, which is the facilities, right? So, um you can move to the next slide, please. So the business department being part um and supporting the shared climate goal is uh is critical for us. And um the reason that's critical is when when teachers and students get to school, it's our belief that we just want them to concentrate on teaching and learning. We don't want, you know, worried about is it warm, is it cold, are the lights working, is the technology working, is the are the driveways plowed, uh that sort of thing. So, you know,
024just concentrate on what's what's important for a student, which is what's going on in the classroom and and having, uh, you know, a clean environment, right? Ready, you know, uh, for them temperature- wise and otherwise. And teachers as well, having what they need. And, uh, that can be anything from furniture to flooring to, uh, to lighting to all kinds of things that we're, uh, we're working on, uh, uh, addressing. and um and certainly working on that that vision of the district that that um you want to promote um Superintendent Kirby um and um as far as projects and schedules um at this point, you know, I inherited some things um from George, but he couldn't have set me up better for success as far as, you know, projects being completed um uh on time and
025uh appropriate contractors and those things. And I just used some skills um from previous assignments to push contractors to make sure we were ready for opening. And I'll share some things later in the presentation uh regarding some of the things that we did um this summer to make sure opening um happened uh appropriately. Um so um again uh operations and business like progress update. Um you'll see that um if you have a hard copy or maybe you can see it there. Can you see it there? Okay. So I'm on the goal five business and operations progress update. >> So staffing uh Ricky Newman and I we have become very close and tight friends at this point. We don't he's on a professional development which is great uh right now for this leadership professional development that
026was part of maybe something that he maybe won last year. And so he took advantage of that and couldn't be happier for him. He really loves what he does and he's a a great asset to the district. But we've been interviewing and hiring uh uh cleaners and um we've just had some incredible candidates come through like three out of three one day were really fantastic u candidates and all um were recommended to HR uh to be hired. So they're kind of in that process right now. you won't see any on the agenda today because it was just in the last couple days that they were recommended, but they will be perhaps at the next uh at the next board agenda. So, we're thrilled about that. And uh to be at full staff is important because
027um you know, you may have had head custodians who are uh you know, staying over to help and assist and uh when they're down uh a person, but we don't want to burn people out. So, we're happy to be at 100% staffing and the support of HR is uh is really great. We manage the budget uh very uh very closely and you know multiple quotes and any type of thing that might be purchased or service uh that we might uh that we may need. So, we're always um uh watching the budget very closely and whether it's PI or or our regular budget uh through uh operations, work order systems very important uh to us and so we rely on uh on staff to put um work orders in that we address uh every day and
028they're assigned um to whether it's the grounds or the trades uh whomever has those and uh and then we make sure that they're done in an appropriate manner. So, they're not a particular work order that maybe someone's not interested in in doing, and there's plenty of those. Um, but they have to get done one way or the other. And so, we pay a lot of attention uh to that. Um, and then staff allocation, that was really important this summer. Um, and the summer is a time when people take vacation and do other things. And, um, there were some other reasons why staff might not have been uh in buildings that were totally legitimate. Um, but we moved staff around in order to make sure buildings were ready uh for opening, which means things were painted,
029things were cleaned, and uh and they were uh they were ready. Uh, next slide, please. Um, some of the projects that um were in support of uh school opening. You can see these here. We did a lot of painting around the district just to to take care of um uh the grounds and facilities that we that we currently have. playground repairs. Those were important. Um making sure that they're they're safe for uh for students and with um eight elementary schools. There's a lot of playgrounds, right? So we uh we really concentrated on that um uh heavily door hardware and repairs. Um so that's obviously critically important for that warm, safe and dry uh the safe part of that where we want to make sure uh doors are closing effectively when folks go in and that
030they also open if there should be an emergency and and there are um uh there had been repairs on both sides of that. Um deep cleaning of the classrooms again critically important carpets and desks and everything comes out of the classrooms. top down cleaning method. And then once everything's cleaned, then everything will be put back in. Uh checklist on the outside of the door, doors closed and that room's done. We're on to the next one. And grounds. Uh we had a lot of work to do on the grounds because there was a lot of work that was done in the district with the cement and uh a lot of those projects that can scar um uh the grounds and just lots of uh debris, things like that. So that was a serious push um uh
031around the district to make sure that the grounds look great for students and staff when they arrived. Uh next slide, please. Thank you. Um, so, um, business department meets the planned project schedule 100% of the time and we will continue to focus on construction projects and I'll go over a couple of those, um, some future projects to make sure that those um, uh, meet the schedule andor aren't scheduled that may interfere uh, with some things that that we might have uh, going on. Um, I updated the 10-year plan just um at if you were to take a look at that, you would see what's been completed uh from this past year and uh some of the things that have been uh accepted and bid uh for this coming year. And I'll continue to do that
032and update that and put um uh projects further down for your review. um uh working with staff and uh and architects and consultants on budgets um based on the 10-year plan um is important and we'll continue to do that. Again, working with architects and consultants on any projects that may require that. It's not always something that's required, but it can be from time to time. Uh projects doc project documents being uh put out on time and then ensuring that um if there are projects and bids that things are awarded um in a in a timely manner. So, um, everything's ready for the opening of school. And just some things looking out, um, into the future. Some things that, um, that you can look forward to. I mean, there's some great roof replacement. I know that's
033very exciting. Um, that will be going on in some buildings. Those are the kinds of things, you know, like when you waterproof your basement, you have to do it. It costs a lot, but no one sees it, right? So, that those are some of those kinds of things. But the turf replacement, that's uh very exciting and great um uh for everyone. Track replacement, that'll happen um after the 100th uh anniversary. We didn't want to do it before because what if there's a delay? I mean, I I we're not going to take the risk. So, we're going to take care of that. Some HVAC replacement, which is very important for that, you know, just having that nice um environment for students and staff. And then flooring replacement. Um there's a need for that around the district.
034and I'm going to concentrate on a plan um uh to address that throughout the district but starting uh possibly at Noble and Oxford. Thank you. That's my report. >> I uh I have to say that uh Sam in my opinion and probably another's opinion too is a fantastic hire. And the reason I knew this was at convocation this year a couple weeks ago, I was walking over to say hi to Sam who was in the corner of the the lunchroom in the high school as everyone was having breakfast and he was like this looking around. He was like secret service, you know, but he's looking at the facility. He's looking at the ceilings. He's looking all around scoping everything out and uh and the district really does look great. Uh and I can it really
035shows the amount of work that you and the team put in over the summer because things are things are looking sparklier than they normally do. >> Sparkly. >> Yeah. Mhm. >> Thank you. Thank you for that. >> There's a lot of people that are responsible for that. Um, trades, grounds, cleaners, custodians, >> Ricky, >> you know, a lot of great uh a lot of great people and I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you. >> This is my turn. It is. >> Board members, superintendent, uh, CFO Leam, thank you for having me. Um we have three primary areas that are on our uh portion of tonight's agenda. The first one is it working with our curriculum instruction team parameters related to student devices around take-home versus classroom. Uh we've gathered some data about that. That was
036a tough one to kind of pick up and run with and figure out last year in my first year. Um, and as we worked our way through the school year, the clarity really started to come come into view and so much of of what happens in the classroom with technology is do the students have the device or don't they have the device? You know, can the teacher teach with a lesson plan revolving around technology or are they going back to paper? And we don't have this solved yet, but I I think we have an idea of of the challenges. Um, one thing that we did started last year was um, tracking the amount of damage and loss that happens to Chromebooks. I I'm not sure why we didn't do it before. It didn't didn't occur,
037you know, occur to anybody in the right perspective. So, literally, I can go back to report and tell you from last August, the middle of last August to this year, how many screens were broken, how many keyboards, how many were lost, how many were dro and the the amount of damage was truly incredible. Um, thankfully we cannibalize broken devices to take all the good parts out, but if we didn't do that, I think our cost would be easily $100,000. Um, I don't think it's even half of that because we just repurpose all those parts. Um, but as I thought about that, it's like, how do we minimize that issue? And the biggest issue is how do we get students to um, well, let me continue with this and I'll come back to that because I
038got I got to stay in the order here. Um, sorry. The next section will be our ongoing review of district technology infrastructure and we'll talk about that and how it's related to -ate and funding. Um, and then obviously the most important one here at the end. I say most important but equally important is uh our continued efforts to keep us uh cyber safe. So we we put a lot of work into all three of those areas last year. Um, so now back to what I was talking about. So, we've had a lot of discussions with different people. Um, I worked with the technology coaches to do a survey and that's what that link is there and um you can click on that or you can click on that at your leisure. But really what it
039comes down to is why didn't students have the device with them in class um and most of them were either damaged, lost or stolen that >> um and that's a huge impact. I mean it it impacts the morale of teachers. It impacts the morale of students. Some have it, some don't. And it really took me and and the rest of my team about half the year to go, well, how do we fix what's the approach to looking at that? And the real question becomes, you know, how do we get kids involved to have more commitment to bringing their technology to class? So, we're going to talk about that in just a minute. Um, sorry, I got to put the glasses back on here. Uh the next thing we did this summer to support technology of
040the students and the infrastructure is we upgraded all the Wi-Fi in the buildings. Uh and that was a huge undertaking. Um most of the time when we spend -ate dollars, we pay a contractor to do a huge chunk of that work. not only just help us count and figure out what we need, but imple install them, configure them, um, test everything, make sure they're in good working order beforehand. It doesn't matter whether it's wireless or phones or any other technology we do. But we didn't have that much money left in rate after we upgraded the Wi-Fi and all our elementary schools. And our internal IT staff rose to the occasion and out of the 200 plus access points, they probably put in about 175 of them. um amongst all the other 30 or 40 tasks
041that we do every summer just to make sure we're ready for the next school year. So that was a big difference this year and um we were able to get a lot out of it and now everywhere but our middle schools have brand new wireless. The middle schools will be the next on the agenda pending the next funding rate cycle. Um, we continue to work with the Ohio Cyber Reserve last year and we worked on our risk assessment and our uh our response plan and that will continue. And last year I applied for and the district was awarded the - cyber security pilot program. We were one of only 645 schoolschool districts in the entire country to be awarded that uh opportunity. So, anytime we can bring money in, that's a savings to us. You
042can jump to the next slide. >> There's like 17,000 school district something. There's like >> I'm trying to think that's a that's pretty good for the number of school districts that there are in the country. >> Yeah. The number talking with our consultants. >> I'm about this when I go to things. People know we're on the list because they they always come, >> right? That's why you're getting the >> right phone call. Um so the things moving into next year uh we're going to consider uh this is these are lost not charged these are the main reasons why students don't bring it to school and what I really want to focus on and I started the charge of talking to staff members administrators students is how do they get this commitment um and it's it's
043not my favorite phrase but the way to to really emphasize it how do they get skin in the game. What's the commitment from a student to want to bring that device, not, you know, toss it in the car and it get destroyed or leave it on the roof of the car, leave it out on the football field. Those are the hugest things that that impact not having devices in in school. So, um, we're going to continue those discussions with those three primary groups to see what we can do. I mean, I asked for ideas like what what can we do at a high school level that that empowers students to want to be committed other than say, "Well, you need it to pass the class." Because we tell them that all the time. Um, but
044are there things like, "Hey, we'll give you an opportunity to order Door Dash. It doesn't cost us anything. It's a privilege you earn because you brought it to school." I'm not saying that's the answer, but trying to be creative in ways that connect to our kids, right? because the last thing they want to hear is us talking heads and teachers saying bring it, bring it, bring it, bring it, that's important and setting the tone in a classroom is important. Um, but if there's ways to continue to to get them excited, that's my goal. Um, so that's going to be a lot of work with CNI and and our teachers and staff. Um, obviously we support all the applications with CNI and do those things which impact instruction, but those that's not the hurdle. The hurdle
045is device in their hands in the classroom. Are there uh classroom sets or classroom sets just for like >> testing? So, >> so a few things in our kindergarten through third grade, they stay at school all the time. Fourth grade is when they're supposed to start taking it back and forth to school, although um not officially adopted because that would be a CNI decision and upper management here. Some teachers have told students to leave them in the classroom so they stay in the carts and they give them >> that's something we'll address with the >> we'll have to talk about that. Um and it's that the fourth grade teachers really struggle because it's that that age where they're starting to take more responsibility but they're still really and so we're working on that. So and
046that's the message I keep saying to them is you have to start trying to set the tone early. If you set the expectations on day one this is what you need bring it every day. it's charged up, you know, so it's an ongoing effort. Um, in grades 5 through 12, it's a strictly take-home device. So, um, comes home, you know, in the morning, it goes home in the evening, comes home the next day. Sometimes kids forget to charge it. Sometimes they leave it somewhere, another student picks it up and takes it. It's a multitude of things that, you know, happen. I mean, we have a we have pictures over in it of students who have taken a banana and just mashed it into the keyboard and you you know, you can't ask why. You never
047get an answer. You just there's no answer. So, again, how do they take more ownership of things? Um, it's a challenge. It would be hard for us to have both because of the financial, >> you know, commitment there. Um, even just having straight classroom sets would cost more than what we have today because they move from room to room. If you had to put 25 or 30 in every room, we would need, you know, many more than than what's in a in the high school that they take home, right? The population the classes are more than what the population is. >> Um, >> so students receive a device in the fourth grade that they keep until >> they keep until the ninth grade, right? Through the eighth grade and then they come and collect a
048new device. Okay. >> And we just started that rotation. Fourth graders, uh, that's been ongoing. Obviously, you have to have a new device. And ninth graders, this is the first year of that because if I don't stay ahead of it, we'll end up with having to replace a large amount in one year. That just would be such a financial burden. We couldn't do it. Um, because it's expensive by the time you get the case and the device, it it all adds up to licensing. One of the um one of the things that I've observed at Bombguarder uh where I have a kid so I spend more time there than other buildings. Uh is in the media center library uh there's a door where um people can pick up loaners like they forgot their Chromebook at
049home and they have like a red case instead of a black case so it's very apparent that it's a loner and it's not supposed to leave the building. Um, do we, and this might be for you, might be for other folks if anyone knows, do we track how often kids are checking out a loner? Uh, so that we can try to identify who the, you know, frequent flyers are to the loaner program. >> So, we can kind of tell that by the frequent flyer damage tracker that we have. Um, and it's it's yeah, I mean my my front end staff, they know the few dozen or three dozen, however many the students who constantly are having to replace devices. And um, we do the best we can. Every school has a cart of loaners. Um,
050it's 20 at the elementary school. I think it's 25 at the middle schools and maybe 50 at the high school. Um, some days there's enough to go around, a lot of days there isn't. um they they try to prioritize it based on damage versus I forgot it at home if we don't have enough. Um some kids don't make the effort. We even offer things like if if a parent's not comfortable with the device going home, they can tell us that and we will assign a slot in that cart and it can stay in that cart and the student can pick it up every day. Um we offer repair services at it every single day from 8 to 4 o'clock. So, we do everything we can to keep the devices moving um and in the hands
051of students. >> Do students um incur the costs for potential damages and lost devices? And >> yeah, so every every damage we track and there's a fine assessed to that student account. Um, we've looked at insurance and it's not that something we can't look at again in the future, but we get into that the halves and have nots, who can pay for the insurance, who can't, whether we legally can pay for it for everybody. I mean, I don't know what the latest position is on that. Um, but those are the challenges we've had in the past. Uh, we've also I've been working with uh Chief Coleman and a bunch of other folks to reassess how we how we deal with fines. Um, traditionally what it's been is, hey, don't worry about it. You have a
052fifth grader, they broke the device, you have up until 12th grade to pay for it. And that's, they look at it and oh, that's great. And then all of a sudden, you know, March and April roll around and they start talking about prom and graduation and they look at their account and I owe $1,000 in fines. And so, we're trying to find a way where those things can be addressed on a yearly basis. um we don't like to punish students and I don't like to use that word but you know what kind of things can we use as leverage like hey you won't maybe won't be able to participate in fifth grade promotion or prom or and it's a hard thing to to balance so we're trying to set some true guidelines so that it's
053consistent every time there's going to be a process that talks about u how people can apply for a you know a waiver and what that looks like and we have a whole decision m uh framework work on that so that again it's fair and equal all the way across the process. So uh a work in progress but we hope to have that in place later this year. >> I mean part of this is like you know tale as old as time right? I mean when I was in high school and junior high there wasn't we didn't have Chromebooks but there were plenty of kids who were forgetting their book at home. There was the kid who never had a pen. You know you teacher would give them a pen every day and they you know
054next day comes in I need a pen. >> Library books. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so I mean this is not a a new problem, but I am uh encouraged that we're trying to find some new solutions for >> unfortunately it gets expensive and and it it breaks my heart because I just seeing kids you know not able to have what they need or knowing that they're going to struggle at the end is just so >> keep trying to come up with a solution. >> Is this is this discussed in the technology committee that the district has is this issue? >> Yep. I started sharing that as soon as we had a couple months of uh >> data. We talk about it pretty regular three four times through the year. Um and that's kind of how
055the fine discussion came up with Miss Coleman. >> Um and you know like previously if if you were a fourth grader and you broke your Chromebook, you know, six months into school, your parent or guardian came and picked up the same brand new Chromebook we just gave you. And I I said to my team, I said, "Again, we financially can't afford to do that." So, we will give you another fully functioning Chromebook that's testing eligible, capable, everything, but there's a good chance it's not going to be that brand new one. I just we can't do it because those have to last, you know, if we if I buy one for a fourth grader, I have to have enough similar type devices to last the four years or five years that they're going to have it
056just to keep the life cycle, right? So, we buy a little extra, but it's not enough to just keep handing things out. So, >> yeah, please um uh compliment your team on how their customer service is. Uh when I was at the resource fair, I walked a family over to the IT area and there was, you know, a a not long, but you know, an eight family line of of people waiting to get their Chromebook serviced or to pick up a new charger or had a question. And I stood there for a minute or two and just listened. and the staff was doing just a fantastic job of of, you know, empathy and customer service and and, you know, when someone's coming in with a a broken device there, they weren't giving them a hard
057time. They're, oh, what happened? Okay, let's look at this. Let's look at that. Let's figure out a solution. So, it was um very impressive and a and a great way for those families to start off the year on that sort of foot versus, you know, a slap on the wrist about a missing charger or what have you. So, >> I'll share that with them. They got a compliment from another parent who came in and said, "This is the best customer service I've ever had, >> ever." And and I wanted to make sure they knew it because I stressed that a lot with them that it's important. You know, treat them like you, you know, if it was you being going in and and having an issue. So, >> do we still have those uh student
058interns that we had once upon? >> So, we do bring in a couple college interns. We had two this school year. One just went back. Jonathan is still with us as he works his way through school. And, you know, we'll be starting to look again for next school year. Um, yeah, it's great. And you we'll see what happens with our new curriculum program with the computer science program. Maybe we'll find some students that are our own that are still in high school. Gets a little tricky with access and keeping things secure. But if we can find a way that that works, you know, why not have our own kids, too, right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, talked about that. Excellent. So, next the the finally where we're going to be moving into next school year.
059There a few things. Um, we're still looking at our our uh life cycle of our technology infrastructure. Like I talked about, we did our access points at the high school. We're going to look at what we do with the middle schools and some of our servers this coming school year. Um, as we go into next school year, next summer, we will be eligible for a total amount of almost a million dollars over a fiveyear window. And we can pick and choose when we want to spend that money. um that is eligible for us. EATE upped the amount from about $176 to 201. So what $25 a student um and that's based on today's enrollment of $4,770 students as of four o'clock this afternoon. So um but when we apply it will shift a little bit
060up or down. So you can go to the the next there. >> Are we seeing any uh any tariff related bumps in in cost? I mean, because that amount's going up, but I I would assume that the cost of >> So, I mean, goes up. >> The one we saw the most because we still were calculating what we needed was like these red Chromebook cases. We didn't order them till the summer >> and I think we bought 600 of them and they were $21 a piece and they would have been sub $20. And and the problem is they're they're taking guesses because it's this moving target and you know, I take the dollar. I try to find the lowest dollar at that moment. I think we went through three different case companies. It wasn't our
061first choice, but it was close enough and it was a few dollars less because it's that economy of scale. You buy one or two, oh, what's three or six bucks, but when you're buying a thousand >> Yeah. >> You know, now we're talking thousands of dollars. >> Yeah. >> It's it's crazy. And I I don't know what next year's cycle will be for Chromebooks when we go to buy them. Um we have to replace teacher laptops in the high school this year and we're trying to be savvy about what we do with that. I'm I'm going to I'm challenging them to see if they can operate on a Chromebook plus instead of a laptop because they're half the cost. Um so we'll see. Lot a lot of things to work on. >> What's the duration
062of the pilot program? >> Cyber security pilot program. That's a three-year window. >> Okay. >> And it's that same amount of we have the opportunity to spend that amount of money anywhere within that window, >> but it's a a one a one-time bidding cycle per year. So, we have a whole long laundry list that's out there um of things to that we asked for. That window will close probably in about another 15 or 20 days. We'll review it and then we'll have to make our commitments of what what we want to take off of that. So, um and then they they come and there's some reporting that we have to do based we're a pilot. So, I'm excited about that again because it helps us defer some of our costs for things that we already
063do or will be doing. Mhm. >> Um so yeah, that's our three-year allocation for the cyber security program that we just talked about. Um we are continuing to work with our house cyber reserve. They are a free entity put together by the governor's office uh through the Ohio National Guard and um they did a tremendous amount of work with us over the last 18 months with our risk assessment and identifying uh critical areas and keeping us educated and things like that. and that will be uh ongoing. We'll be looking at things like data flows into next year. Um and if you're not familiar with the data flow, that means you're a department, you use certain amount of data, you need it for a certain amount of time. What do you do with it when you're
064done? Who has access to it? um you know how do we restrict only those people who have access to it so that you know god forbid something happens to us we don't have 20 years of data algile department to look at those processes um to keep us safe there um and the other thing is that we're going to try to look at as well is what things make sense and what things don't make sense as far as uh enhanced security at the user level changing passwords more frequently um doing more mult multifactor authentication within systems so that you have to work harder. You know the old analogy is that if we're not an inconvenience in IT you a little bit we're probably not doing our job well. So um but there's a balance there right?
065We don't want to make it so hard that you can't do your job but we want to make it hard that it makes it harder for our uh unfriendly criminals to to do their job. It is it's so much of a cat-and- mouse game and and you you are all doing an awesome job at trying to always stay one step ahead. Uh because it it really just takes one person making a mistake or one, you know, policy just being a little too lenient and and I could really tell that that you're all really trying to ride the right line of it. So, >> and it's all the external resources. I mean, we couldn't do it without the high cyber reserve. I mean, there's some things coming in hospital 96 that we're going to have to
066look at, um, again, to keep us, you know, up to date and requirements that we'll be compliant with. And, um, you know, if we had to hire a consultant to do what they do for us, it'd be tens of thousands of dollars. So, you know, kudos to the governor for for doing that at no cost. And if there's ever an incident, you call them in a different process and they respond. you know, they help us notify local police, FBI, federal, whatever we need to help mitigate an issue. And um, you know, because most people haven't gone through that and don't want to, and their expertise goes a long way. >> Remind everyone that these uh tables are wood, so we can all give it a quick give a quick knock. >> Yeah. >> Thank you
067again. >> Okay. Um well good evening. Um so I'll start by talking about um some of the things that we were working with um last year. Um so one of the goals was to maintain a positive cash balance and the forecast through um 27 um to continue the advocacy around the fair school funding plan. as you know um this year started a new bienium July 1st. Um and so um we were heavy on advocacy for both the continued phase in of the bare school funding plan as well as updated inputs um in House Bill 96 and of course the um voucher litigation that um we were heavily impacted by. Um and then the continuation um to identify financial data that we can put forth um to keep the community um a breast of what is
068going on with the district financially and so looking for data points um and other ways to communicate that information particularly on our district website. So, some of the things that um were accomplished last year um um obviously the five-year forecast um which is now just going to be the forecast because um there were some changes in House Bill 96 um where you will both see the forecast earlier, so October and February um and then that it is shortened. So, they've taken um one of the years off of the forecast. Um so, but currently the the 5-year forecast shows a positive fund balance through 2028. Um the district wrapped up its use of ESSER funds. So, those have expired. Um, and what we were able to do were utilize our ESSER dollars in a way that
069um, allowed us to prevent the funding cliff that many districts are experiencing. And so we used our dollars to focus on student success and wellness and and remediation. So tutors, things that were temporary supports so that um we could minimize the impact um of the loss of those funds knowing that they were um coming to an end. Um we obviously continued our advocacy around the fair school funding plan. We wrote many letters um made visits to Columbus um to uh support our position on the fair school funding plan particularly the continued phase in and um continued phase in and um updates to the inputs. Um our plan current before this bienium was funded at FY22 levels. um it still remains there. So that is one of the things that did not get updated um despite
070our advocacy. Um but I do believe that it was our advocacy not only of our treasures across the state um but also um community members and our students who um also showed up at the state house and made um their voices heard. And I do think that that made a difference um in some of the subsequent actions um that were planned that did not take place um namely the um overturning of the vetos. Um so they there was a vote for one to overturn one but not um the three that they were planning. And I I believe that that's a direct um that's in direct response to our advocacy. Um so thank you. um for the role that you all played in that as well. Um we worked with advisors and um this is a
071a environment of rising um interest rates and so we have really been working to maximize our interest income um where uh it is available. So those are dollars that just allow us to increase our cash flows and make sure that we are maintaining a healthy cash position. And then three things um we made sure that we continued that um the public presentations at the board meetings the history of those presentations are on our district website. We also expanded um the monthly financial reports um and continued the excellence in our financial reporting um as noted by the um awards. Um so going forward, there's a lot of things going on. So, I mentioned um that the 5-year forecast has um a positive fund balance in 2020 um through 2028. Um but some of the things that
072we um didn't plan for at the time of the forecast um we were negotiating agreements. Um, so we I'm happy to report that we have successfully um negotiated um and ratified um all of our union agreements through 2028. Um and we are really focused in the year ahead of implementing those things, implementing our um agreements and looking at equity and how we allocate resources. Um, and so I am working collaboratively with the senior leadership team um, as we unpack how we're spending our dollars. Um, making sure that we are putting that information in front of the public as well. Um, as we think about um what our finances look like ahead of um a future levy, it's become increasingly difficult to continue to maintain um a positive fund balance. um some of those reasons you've
073heard here today with our facility needs with our um needs that we have our needs that we also have with um it with you know um damage and things like that and um just the rising costs of materials um and so not necessarily doing more but um losing buying power um just because our dollar doesn't stretch far. And so we are um in the process of really like digging through our finances and making sure that um we are maximizing our opportunities for um grants and and that sort of thing. One of the things that we experienced with the fair school funding plan um for this year is a loss in funds um of $750,000 um to be e exact for this year. Um and the reason for that is because as a district we appear
074wealthier. So, um the way the funding plan works is that it measures the wealth of the district um by looking at the property valuation and the income tax. And so those things are on an upward trend. Um it rolls those um amounts into the uh formula on a three-year average, but it has frozen the cost at FY22. And so now the equation is a bit lopsided. So as we appear wealthier as a district um our cost is not um also increasing um for the state. And so um it makes it look as though the district can afford to pay more towards um the education or the cost to educate a student in CHU and as a result the state share decreases. Um and so that's why we're experiencing that loss. For next year, um the
075second year of the bienium, it will be around $900, um,000. And so those things um while we did get the continued phase in of the fair school funding plan, the updating of the inputs had um had a significant impact for the our district. Um, >> and this is one of those things that that drives me crazy because you hear so much about uh from from Columbus about, you know, property tax relief and this that and the other thing, but at the same time, they're limiting the amount of traditional funding that comes from the state. Um and and this is a conversation that we need to continue to have with the community that that we are bending over backwards to stretch our levy cycles as long and as deep as they can go. Uh and at
076the same time we're we're hitting headwinds from Columbus at every turn. I mean, that the the fact that we're, you know, we're still bringing in 2020 dollars, uh, you know, the value of a dollar in 2020 is is what we bring in from, uh, our our local tax base. And at the same time, you know, we're we're dealing with this lopsided formula from Columbus. It's just, you know, it's it's it's really tough and it's a tough thing to explain to somebody when you're out in the community because it's it's complicated. There's just so many moving parts to this stuff. >> Yes. uh which is nothing new but at the same time it it does make our jobs diff more more difficult >> and it's even worse. Go ahead. >> No, I was just going to
077say it's also I mean if you think about it compared to uh if the fair school funding plan had been fully implemented, we would um have gained $7 million approximately. But without it being implemented, we're not gaining that $7 million. And then we're almost losing close to $2 million. So we're almost losing $9 million. Um I think is one way to look at it as well, >> right? And and you know, that's just another thing to to for us all to talk about out in the community when we talk about the voucher lawsuit. And the one of the reasons that we could that fair school funding couldn't be implemented as it was originally intended at the state level is this emphasis on universal vouchers for the state which is happens to be about the same
078amount of money that we're losing. I mean it's it's what a coincidence, right? Um and and that has a direct impact on what we will need to ask our community to do to help to support and fund our district. our our our community will have to make up that difference. Uh which is an absolute shame. >> And it's even worse. I mean, because we cannot lose sight of the fact that before fair school funding, Cleveland Heights University Heights received approximately $20 million in state funding. >> That's what we were getting from the state. About half of that was deducted due to ed choice when it was under the deduct method. But then when fair school funding was implemented, we only got that first year and the second year 10 million. So we were still being
079punished under fair school funding at the start of fair school funding. We were being punished as if the vouchers were continuing to come out of the deduct method. So as you said, we're losing 2 million. We're really losing 12 million because we should have started at that 20 million amount, not 10 million. And that's a part that people it it's easy to lose sight of if you're not continuing to go back and look at the historical data. And I don't know anybody else who you know that's if you had part of your whatever funding source you have in your home cut like that and then still be living under dollar amounts of 2020 how you're supposed to survive. So, the fact that this district has been able to stretch this levy cycle 40 years. I
080mean, this is the longest stretch of a levy we've had in over 40 years. We were always on this three-year levy cycle. Sometimes we could stretch it to four years. I don't remember us really stretching it to five. To be able to stretch it this long under these conditions really shows how much work this district has done. And that's the story that I hope our community understands when we do have to come and ask again. Also, I mean, fierce school funding, it's like jumbo shrimp, right? It's like it's a total misnomer. It's not It's not fair. >> It's not It's not fair. And it's it's not family choice either. >> No. No. And it is an oxymoron >> to say fair school funding. >> So, additionally, um many of you are aware that we had
081a delay in our federal funding. Um, this was caused by the Trump administration putting a pause um while they reviewed um the funding that had already been approved in the legislature for title two that goes to support our professional development of our teachers teachers. Um, title three that goes to support our um e population, so our English learners. Um and then our uh title four which really is a whole child support and provides um addition like enrichment um opportunities for our students. Um so currently those funds have been released as of August 7th. Um and so we are um making plans with those dollars, but um we did have a reduction in um those funds um title one and title two specifically. Um we were we are having to rethink how we serve our title
082um buildings and how we um implement that program across the district um as a result of that. And I just want to call to attention that the fiscal um the federal fiscal year budget 26 does not currently have an allocation for title 2, title three and title four. And so um we need to be mindful and I will be um making sure that I advocate um even at the federal level for um those funding those funding sources to continue and be included um for our district. either during maybe three things or or just other reports that you provide during board meetings. Can are you able to keep this sort of on the front burner um so that we're making the community aware of again >> the gaps that that we're receiving that uh that we
083as a district are having to augment to make our students whole uh particularly some of our most vulnerable students uh because I mean this is some of the most important work that we do and for you know to to not be able to plan for these changes and to have them be so abrupt uh is you know just inconable. So >> absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Um so that brings me to my last point that we are going to continue to identify additional um information that we can um put out and give to the community. So, one of the things we talked about is including things like the federal grants um in the three things and incorporating um those those other data points that help tell our story more completely um and put out um
084that data as well. Um also, you know, getting the lay finance committee back um and beginning to meet so that we can discuss those things um up close and personally is so um those are the things that we are focused on for the year ahead. Yeah, thank you. >> Just one other thing, Angel. I'm so impressed how much how often you're in the community. Uh, and how often I've been at a district event at the beginning of the school year and I look over and I'm like, "Oh, there's Angel." You know, look at that. So that's I think again just as we continue to tell the community the story of what's going on financially with the district. I think that's just going to be such a a powerful piece of it is you know you
085being out there and and you know now that you're also part of the community living in the community. So yeah that's fantastic. >> Any other questions? >> No, but I'm thinking I need to make little buttons that say where where's my $10 million that we all wear? Well, I want to thank the team for presenting and sharing updates on goals four and five. >> And we look forward to our next work session will be on goals one and two. >> Yeah. Thank you everyone. Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> And if there is no further business, may I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? I motion we adjourn. >> Second. >> Miss Lam, will you please call the role? Mrs. Sereni. >> Yes. >> Mr. Trimbo. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kaw. >> Yes.
086>> We are now adjourned.