001Thank you. Good evening. I call to order the meeting of the Cleveland Heights University Heights City School District Board of Education for I don't even remember the date, the 1st of July, 2025. Um, Mr. Gainor, Mr. Heights here, Miss Lewis here, Miss Serini here, Mr. Trimble here, Mr. Gainer, Miss Crunch, I'm here as well. Before we start with the regular agenda, um, our very own representative Wanita O' Brent is here and has officially signed up for statements from the audience. So, I'm going to have to read you the rules. Uh, okay. You may only speak for three minutes. You may not say anything derogatory about anybody ever. No, I would say something very positive. Um, for those at home, my name is Wanita O Brent on 16804 Glendale Avenue. I know we have to be
002very Don't need your address. Okay. Well, it's public. Um, and I just happen to be the state representative for House District 18. Scott, I was supposed to be in Columbus today, but I could not let this day go by by not coming into acknowledging your 30 years of hard work to our school district. There's a lot of places in this world I could have been today. It's a whole hot girl summer, but I'm here with you because I think you're really amazing and I thank you. And I'm not reading off the accommodation that I brought for you from the state. But all what we're doing, even for me at the state, it would not have happened without you and for these past 2 and a half years of me being a state rep, I appreciate
003your communication, your warmth, your intentuality, and even for the space that I'm in right now. So is a lot of places, but I this was the priority for me to make sure that I got here today. And I wanted to make sure that you received something from the state of Ohio to acknowledge your 30 years of hard work and to also let Angel know that you have some shoes to fill. But I know you would do a great job, too. But we're going to miss you. We're going to miss your smiling face. We're going to miss, you know, your warm advice and the institutional knowledge that you bring to all of us in all of these different spaces, particularly for our school. And I'm not sure what you're going to be doing with your time,
004but please remember us. And if you see something happening, make sure you throw us a bone. I wanted to make sure we present this. So, I'm going to say this. It is with great pleasure that I commend you for your um extraordinary career and the last impact you've made on the Cleveland Heights University Heights. From Wanita O'Brent, state representative for Ohio House District 18. I'm going present it to you. [Applause] Take a picture with Kath knows how to read this once. One, two, three. Thank you, Representative Brent. And now we will continue with our regular program, as they say, the agenda. Um, I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda, please. I motion we uh consider the consent agenda. Second. Any discussion? Any questions? Feel like we should really grill Scott on Absolutely.
005The Mountain Style. Well, the quarterly contracts, there are many of them this time round because we're getting queued up for the beginning of the school year, so they're more than usual. Um, I asked George about the buses because normally we have two buses a year, but you may remember that we had a bus fire last year, so we are replacing that one as well as the two regularly scheduled buses. That's why there are three buses. It is worth pointing out if I may that um you know we are purchasing these buses. It was not very long ago that we got state aid to support the purchase of those buses but I believe that it was the 2023 bianual budget or was it 2021 that eliminated that assistance from the state. Good point. Thank you. Seeing
006no further discussion, Mr. Gayner, will you call the role, please? Mr. Hines, yes. Miss Lewis, yes. Miss Serini, yes. Mr. Trimble, yes. Miss Krenshaw, yes. And now I'll turn it over to Superintendent Kirby. Okie dokie. I'm just getting on. So, we do have um a shorter report as it is this. Am I on? Am I in there? Okay, you're there for a minute. computer. Okay. Camera's off. Computer. Oh, mute. Is that muted? Do I sound okay? Okay. All right. So, um I will present um you know just several slides just to give an update on um the work that we are working on this summer. Um and that has happened in the month of June which we are out of which is hard to believe. So um connected to our goals uh we have had
007uh two big uh professional development sessions happening. So uh as school concluded in June, our principles and assistant principles were engaged in uh principal leadership and school improvement professional development sessions. Um and you will see there the topics they include why culturally relevant instruction matters, what to do about it, the datadriven instruction cycle, action and monitoring and coaching teachers to improve learning outcomes. Um there will be followup um in this work. We are uh laser focused on improving um continuing to improve our academic outcomes and this support to our administrators is uh crucial in these efforts. In terms of Tiger Camp, Tiger Camp is off and running. We have 131 second, third, fifth, and extended school year students, 55 middle school students, and 114 high school students as well. Moving on, uh June 4th through
008June 6th, we had our B our BLT retreat, which is our annual retreat for all of the building leaders who come together to do planning for next year. Um they examine data uh they look at root causes. They make any revisions to goals and strategies based on their preliminary one plans. Um they worked on summarizing the work that they do so that it is easy uh to communicate that to stakeholders in the district. They had lots of focus team planning time. Um and they talked across uh across the schools on their strategies to launch the school year. there is a opportunity for schools to share their one plans to get feedback from their colleagues from other schools. So I want to thank Dr. Jenkins for leading that work. I want to thank Mrs. Coleman for
009her work um in leading the uh principal retreat. Very excited to announce that we have launched a new website and I hope you have had a chance to check it out. I checked it out too. our supervisor communications has been engaged in planning for over a year actually in this process. So it's wonderful to see it come to fruition. Um I am not going to play or press it here but we do want to uh get feedback and so just encourage people to check it out and provide feedback for this but uh I just think that Kathan did a great job working with her team um to make sure that this new uh this new website was sleek and modern and really told the story of the district. Um so thank you for that. In
010terms of uh valued professionals, we talked about some of this at our last work session. We are very excited that we have approved contracts for the teachers union and monitors uh 795 OPC unions that's 102 and 617 and EAPSC. We are also in our hiring season. So, we have uh 90% of our certified positions open and we have 25% of our classified positions open. My understanding is that those are July and August are the big time to fill those, but we are definitely watching that. Um, and just to remind everyone, we had lots of retirements this year. So, we do have lots of openings. This was a very big retirement year. I think over 40 40 people, if not more, um, that retired this year. It's probably actually more than that. So, great job to
011our HR department for um getting us uh set up for a strong start to the school year. And then finally, just wanted to put on everyone's radar. We are having summer school graduation. That is August 15th. That will be at the high school. Our back to school resource fair is the very next day. So, uh August 16th, Saturday, from 11 to 1. And then we are going to be doing a district-wide kindergarten kickoff on Tuesday, August 16th, 5 to 6:30. We'll be sharing some more details about that soon because it's going to be different from last year as our partner unfortunately did lose their funding who normally does kindergarten kickoff for us. So, we are going to still have the experience, but we're going to we're going to have to modify it um in order
012to uh make sure that we do give families information so they can have a strong start to kindergarten. May I ask will it be at each individual building or will it be a thinking a big one a big joint event for all the kindergarten families to come together. Yeah. So that concludes my report. Um I will certainly take any uh questions. The 12th graders who are in summer school will be our summer graduating cohort. Correct. Yes. Correct. Wonderful. Correct. Anything else? Um, I would love to see that one pager uh that was developed with the BLT. Oh, those are per school. Per school. Okay. So, um, I can ask I'm not sure where they're housed, but I can find out. I'd love to see a stack of one pages. Yeah, we can we can make
013those available for for everyone. They may want to, you know, the teams will probably want to wait till we get back to refined, but um, we'll follow up on that. Liz, just a quick correction. I'm looking at this slide and it says the kindergarten kickoff is Tuesday, August 16th and the 16th is a Saturday because that's the day of the resource fair. So is that a 19th? Is that the week? The 12th. Okay. So it's before that. All right. Thank you, Kathan. I was just making sure it was on my calendar. Thank you for that clarity. Yeah. We want to show up if we can. Right. Exactly. I'm trying to put it in my my phone my calendar and I'm like, wait, that's not the right date. Yep. The first day of school is the
01420th 20th. No, it's flying. Okay. Um, that concludes my report. I don't have any policy pieces for this month. Okay. Thank you. So, Mr. Gainer, we'll turn it over to you for the very last three things. Final three things. Mercy. So, after this morning's news, Yeah. Sure things have changed. Things have changed. Yes. Um, but we have, so I I've tried to incorporate and and had to pivot just a little bit here with the with the three things for this month. Uh, but again, aligned to our goal five uh, objective five of our strategic plan to try to keep the community informed about happenings and school finance items and and school funding kinds of concepts. So I changed the first thing to be, you know, House Bill 96 was the banual budget, the vetos that
015uh happened just before midnight last night and and in particular the ones that Molly sent around that really had to do with public education. So uh because my previous uh three things, the first thing was that 40% cap on cash carryover uh to talk a little bit about that. Even though that wouldn't necessarily have impacted us, it would have impacted a lot of districts. I think the last statistic I saw was over 200 in the state would have been impacted in some way. So, we're glad to see that go away. We're glad to see um you know the provisions in terms of allowing you know the county budget commission to reduce property taxes if they want to even though you know some of them still think they can do that and as we've seen try
016to do that. Um and done it. Yeah. And have done it. Uh educational savings account gone vetoed that was a good thing. uh certainly, you know, requiring C board candidates to have political affiliation. We're glad to see that go away. Um in and in terms of the prohibition on um STRS and STS district paid contributions, that also was vetoed. And then um just it although it didn't affect heights, you know, the all the provisions about, you know, uh the various types of taxes and and districts on the 20 mil floor and how all of that was going to be calculated. Um, again, not something that would have necessarily impacted us, but we're happy for all of our colleagues and and districts and public education in general to see that go away as well. So, a
017lot of vetos. So, I I you know, was pleasantly surprised. I really expected some of these things to remain. Uh, not to say there still aren't bad things in the bill, but at least all of these things came out. So, we're pretty happy about that. Anything else on that? matter. All right. No, other than Scott, we probably can't expect to see some of these kind of rear their ugly heads again in separate bills, right? I would expect that's probably right. Yeah. And you know, all that property tax reform was in uh 355 originally and and um it just got pulled into the banual budget bill. So, I'm sure that, you know, there will be additional bills and and the governor did say he wanted to have some uh a committee for comprehensive property tax reform.
018So, I'm sure that, you know, it'll be interesting to see what comes of that. Yeah, it would be really interesting if if there was somebody who had a deep deep understanding, decades long understanding, I'm not even looking at of full of school funding. who could be part of that governor's task force. Maybe someone with more time on their hands. Somebody who now has the time to do these sorts of things and his civic duty to help the indeed of Ohio's school district. I can't imagine who might nominate you. Um but well, we'll see what happens with that. Okay. Uh all right. So, the second item I have here for three things, um, again related to House Bill 96 was just that five-year forecast that no longer is a five-year forecast, now a three-year forecast. Um,
019and even the timing of that has changed, uh, you know, in terms of, you know, it used to be that we had to do that in November and in May, and now it is, um, in August and February. And then, you know, for 26, they're actually delaying that August 31st date to October 15th. So that'll be for for Angel to uh um work through what the new format of that looks like, if they change the format at all or or what that will be. But yes, there will be and that lines up perfectly with all of the high points of the fiscal year. Not not in any way. I'm just looking at those dates going, but why would you pick never mind. Okay. Not not good for us or for schools. and and just interesting
020that they want to get rid of, you know, the long-term planning that, you know, we we never like the fact that we had to do it and they didn't, but it's not a bad thing to have to do it. Everyone should have to do it. And so, um, you know, it's it's just a strange strange thing. I'm not sure why they made the change they made there. And then the last item we have here is just the fair school funding component of House Bill 96. Just so this is on everyone's radar that you know that um the uh the last version did maintain the Senate's version uh of of the fair school funding plan. So you know guarantees still at the 21 level. They you know kind of fiddled with the DPIA calculation and and
021put some other uh kinds of changes in there. So, no updates to the base cost inputs, but um you see that for Cleveland Heights University Heights, and again, this is OD ODW simulation. So, I would expect there will be some changes here, but in 26, we're going to see $700,000 less than what we received this year. And in 27, that number is uh $250,000 less than what we received in 25. So, we gained some ground in year two, about a half a million dollars, but still overall less funding than what would have been anticipated. And you'll remember from previous 5-year forecast, we we estimated flat funding. So, that's not where we ended up. So, um, you know, again, I think this is one of those things where once we finally do get the actual numbers
022and the foundation payments, then then, you know, Angel can actually, you know, give a better and more detailed outlook on what that looks like for um for the revenue side, but not great. So, any any not as bad as it might have been. I know this is no the wrong way to say it, but it's the classic, you know, sort of take an arm but give you back your finger sort of approach to things. Correct. Um cuz we were worried that we might be short, you know, over $6 million depending on various Well, we still are because we don't have the they didn't fulfill the promise of the federal funding. Right. Correct. So, in that respect, we didn't We are still We're still short of what we could have been if they Yes. Correct. Okay.
023All right. But we didn't lose the inside millage that was, you know, that they were trying to get rid of, which was also in the $7 million range. And remember, they started our fair school funding what 14 million lower than they should have because of the vouchers that we had been losing money to. Correct. when they imple implemented the first fair fair fair school funding phase in agreed. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. O good. I just want to make a quick comment that I know a lot of people on our community have been advocating for fair school funding and advocating against some of these bills and advocating with the governor for veto and I want to thank everyone who has done that because it's been a lot of work and I think if that hadn't happened a
024lot of this terrible stuff would have stayed in the bill. Yeah. To to me, what this budget process has been is um a wake-up call to the quiet districts around the state because as we've walked through that process over the past year, but really the past three or four months, it is unmistakable that They will take everything they possibly can from Ohio's public schools because they they genuinely don't mind the idea of public schools collapsing. I think that you know there are states in this nation that have eliminated the requirements compulsory education and um nothing I think is is out of their their dream. And so, as Jod said, you know, we've been sitting here at this table for four years in in 2021 talking about the fair school funding program, talking about the fact
025that it was going to take three bianial budgets to fully implement and saying, "For all that time, I'll believe it when I see it." and they live down to every one of our expectations. And don't forget that the fair school funding plan was designed to be implemented in one year. Correct? You know, and the whole breaking it up over three budgets was a breach of faith to begin with. So, an important takeaway is, you know, advocacy um is a process. finding one's voice doesn't just turn on. It's it's a slow process of people getting activated and doing something that's right on the very brink of their comfort zone, perhaps right outside of their comfort zone. Calling a legislator is a giant leap for people because people don't feel like they're capable of having, you know,
026an informed conversation about things and that they won't be able to field questions. But what they can always field questions about is their love of their children and their commitment to their neighbors. And so people shouldn't feel intimidated about calling a legislator, believe me, they're no smarter than you are. Um, unless you happen to be represented by Wanita Brent. Um but you know, so we need to continue to foster that culture of of engaged advocacy around the state because yes, there were items vetoed by the governor last night. None of them should have been on the bill. It's not a success that they were vetoed. It is a failure that they were part of the bill to begin with. There were so many items added to the budget that had no business being in a
027budget bill. But it's a way for legislators to hide their secret pet projects. There were book bans added to a budget bill. Um and so um we need the lesson it seems to me is that we need to become more engaged. We need to help develop the next generation of advocates. And we need we now know we know very clearly what's in their wish list. And it is more important now than ever for us to to hit the gas, not the brakes on advocacy. And so that's my 25 c sense worth. Thank you, Dan. Um I I want to echo Jod and Dan um in praising some of the incredible hometown advocates that we have uh here. Um I mean, Linda Stravki from the Heights Dems has been sending newsletter after newsletter, making sure people
028are up to date. Wanita. I I never see Wanita without paper in her hand, putting it in the hands of other people with information. Um Robin Coslin, who organized the resistance fair at Heights High, where I stood next to Dan at a table talking about these topics, but there were other people at other tables also. We were not the only education table there. Um Resiger. Exact. Yeah. I mean, the list goes on and on. Susie Kaser. Um, and the fact that we have so many people shoulder-to-shoulder with us is is really great, but it's, you know, it's absolutely time to continue to lean in because like you said, Dan, they, you know, the the playbook has been tipped and, uh, we know what's next. Well, it's interesting because it reminds me of the very first
029when we originally had that um Northeast Ohio School Boards Coalition and now it's morphed into another name, but um Katherine Garvey from Chagrin Falls decided, hey, school boards should talk to each other and know what's going on. And she invited me and you know, I think I was president at the time, invited me to a meeting with a bunch of other schoolboard presidents to talk. And I remember we were supposed to bring our number one issue and the issue I brought was vouchers. And I had a presentation about vouchers. And I remember another board president who I will protect the guilty but made the comment, "Why are we talking about this? I come from a good school. I don't need to worry about this." And I said in the moment, I said, "If you're not
030worried about vouchers now, you will be. Our school district is the canary in the coal mine. And I'm telling you right now, this is going to affect you." Six years later, here we are. Here we are. and conversation with a board member, a board president a week and a half ago. Yeah. The vouchers don't affect him. I'm like, "Oh, no, no. Now, now, now they knowbody, now they know they affect them. There's no doubt." No, this school district does because I just talked to somebody from there and uh yeah, they were amazed. They were like, "You know, you were right. You were right." And sometimes you hate to be right but well and one of the reason well I guess the reason why these things are added to the budget is so they can skirt
031around the proper way. Absolutely. Absolutely. Of producing you know legislation. So well if you present a bill you actually have to hear testimony. Yes. Yeah. If you throw something in at 2 in the morning you don't. Um, yeah. And as we know, our students have been amazing at going and giving testimony in the state house. And I'm proud that we are educating and raising up the next generation of advocates. But in the meantime, we need to continue what we do because the problem's not going to go away. So, agreed. Just want to slide in two more quick things. Extra bonus thing. bonus things with five things. You get five things. There you go. How about that? Yes. So, right. So, uh one not so good thing which is um so we received from OD or
032DEDW um update on federal funding. So, I don't know if everyone saw this uh email or not, but that uh ODU received the following notification from the US Department of Education this evening. Given the change in administrations, department is reviewing the fiscical year 25 funding for all title funds and decisions have not been made yet concerning submissions of awards for the upcoming academic year. Now, this is July 1st. Accordingly, the department will not be issuing grant award notifications obligating funds for these programs on July 1 prior to completing the review and the department remains committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the president's priorities and the department's statutory responsibilities. So, you know, that's been a, you know, it's been a little difficult to try to get. So, the Department of Education has
033frozen six billion dollars of money which was already allocated and whatever the correct term is by the Congress um to go to the state each state's department of education. And now the state department of education is telling us oops. Yeah. Well, they're at least not giving us access to those funds right now. And so of course, you know, typically on July 1, we have staff who are being paid from these grants. And so fortunately, not many 260day employees, uh, but the ones that are, you know, that's a question. And, and even our need to enter into long-term contracts for the next school year, uh, and and engage, you know, those people that we need to, we can't do it because we don't know if we're going to have the money yet or not. So, and
034and who are title one students, Liz? Title one students are students who um have academic needs, who are um socioeconomic um students whose socioeconomic status gives them opportunities for more support. It is a targeted hit, right? It's a fancy way of saying poor students. Yeah. Right. Who need the extra funding. Yeah. So, more to come on that front, but that was not pleasant. So that was number four. Four. Number five is just to say is to to you know give everyone a really a heartfelt thank you for you know coming out tonight and um wow I didn't think I was going to be emotional. Uh just, you know, it's it's really been a great experience and and um you know, the the district just, you know, the the board, my team, the communities, you know,
035so accepting and so uh inclusive and just so wonderful, such a wonderful district. And just to be able to be a part of that for 30 years and to have 30 graduating classes and to have been able to be a part of of, you know, providing for those students to be successful and just how important public education is. That's really, you know, when people say, "What do you think your you know, your greatest achievement is during a 30-year career?" That's that's it, you know, is is knowing that all those kids, you know, had opportunities and that I played my role in that. So, so want to thank everyone and again the community too, you know, just being so inclusive in the board. You know, I remember even, you know, years ago when I came out
036and and you know, I'm talking to a counselor and the counselor's like, you know, are you in a safe space? Do you really want to be visible and do you want to be out? I'm like, I work in Cleveland University. I'm good. you know, and and and and just to not have that fear because the you know, this counselor went on to say, I have clients who work in other school districts who can't be visible and can't be themselves. And so, it's really a just a wonderful thing to to be in in an environment and and in a workplace in a community where, you know, you can do that. And so, so again, thank you everyone for all the support and um yeah, it's been great. It's been an amazing experience. It's been an interesting
037and wonderful ride and so I wouldn't trade it though. Well, thank you Scott for your dedication to our students and to your part of making the system work. I mean, it's a complicated system with many moving parts and without the treasurer's office, nothing would happen. Thank you. Thank you. And Scott, thank you so much. I you have been such a advocate for children. You've kept the wheels on the train, you know, on on the track so many times. Um I know that you have been here weekends, late evenings. I know we have been up all night together in negotiations. Yes, we have. Um I don't know anyone in a treasures role who's been more dedicated to their job than you have been. and you've been a great mentor as well. When you when you get
038elected to the board, you don't know what you don't know. And you think you maybe know something about finances and then you get your first tiff and you don't even know what the heck that is and you got to go learn about it. and you have done a wonderful job to help bring us on board. Make sure we get the education we need as a board member. Bring in the experts to talk to us about things that you know as an elected official you maybe didn't understand and now you have to know about it and just making sure that that incredibly steep learning curve is something that we all adapted to very quickly. So, thank you. Thank you so much. And as a parent whose kid went through the district, thank you for being there
039for one of the, you know, my kid was one of the 30 graduating classes. There you go. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you. So, when I uh when I got involved with school levy campaigns, uh your name was a cornerstone of the trust that we were talking to the community about. Uh and and before I had talked to you or laid eyes on you, Scott, I was saying your name, walking around talking to people in town, uh and you know, singing your praises and accolades because the uh the awards that you've won and the way that you run the operation um have provided a lot of trust. uh as we would go out to the community and ask for people to make sacrifices to help the kids in the district. So, um I'm uh
040so deeply appreciative of the the service that you've uh and the the vocation that you've that you've taken on uh to help the district. I think when I there's very little that I can add that hasn't been said, but you um I always think of you as the institutional memory. Mhm. And that's an incredibly important thing that people never think about. You know when you talk about administration the career path for administrators is to move up and a a successful administrator is one who then very often moves on. I always say that when you know when we lose an administrator it shows that we spotted somebody who was going to be a star. And so it's a success for the district to have an administrator actually move up and on and out. Um the problem
041with that is that you end up not having a very long institutional memory and and you know all of us electeds you know uh few of us have been around for eight years. That's a drop in the bucket. But Scott has the institutional memory that he has shared with us that has guided so many of our current decisions because he can remember when we faced something similar. Mhm. Um and so that he's sort of has been a road map, you know, um what worked and what didn't work is is a really important thing to know. Um you know, also I think that um I'm thrilled that my community was as um comfortable for you to share your real life with. But I also think it's important to recognize that in your courage to do so,
042you helped begin the normalizing of that in the community and in the field. And for that, I thank you because you have made this a better world. So, bravo to you and Mark. I don't have much to add. Um, everyone has always has said such great wonderful things. Um, but I will be in touch to see where you all are selling the honey on the weekends. There we go. Absolutely. Corner of South Taylor. All over the place. Good. Is it? Yeah. On Saturdays. I have something to say. I just want to thank Scott on behalf of the cabinet and many of the members of cabinet are here. I want to thank you for your leadership, your model of excellence, your model of leadership. um the the the the w the sitting wisdom that you are
043always in the room and to Dan's point you know I can always ask so how do we used to do this is this the first time this has happened before um it's so uh so appreciated and it's as you as this is your last meeting oh my god now I'm getting emotion now as this as this is your last meeting really underscores how much we are and I'm going to miss that knowledge but it's not just acknowledge just your warm demeanor and your open approach that makes it okay to ask any question. Nothing is big or small. Um and then just helping helping me as I transition into the role like navigate all of everything local, state, national. So I appreciate it. I will miss you. I'll be in touch. Oh, absolutely. I'll be reaching
044out. Thank you. You're not allowed to change your phone number. I will not. I will keep the same phone number and we'll miss all of you as well. Thank you. Thank you very much, Scott. Um, before I give my report, I want to recognize the mayor of University Heights who came this evening to help celebrate Scott's retirement. Mayor Michael Brennan, Dylan Brennan, thank you for coming. Um, and Diana Bremer Fischer who has come as well. So, thank you. And of course, I want to recognize Angel Laam, who is our incoming treasurer. Um, we've got a month of overlap during which there's a massive brain dump happening. Um, and we're very excited to have you come and join us up here at the next meeting. Uh, all right. We thought the end of the school year
045meant things would um uh die down a little bit, but in fact, I looked at my calendar and it's been insane. Um what I've done since our last meeting, a lot of it is pretty straightforward, but there were a few things which stuck out which I wanted to mention. Uh, one I went with a board member colleague from Uklid T2 to visit the Lakewood High School health clinic which is a partnership with the Cleveland Clinic which is similar but not exactly the same as our partnership with Metro Health at Heights High. they have a very strong mental health component and it was just very good to see that and talk to some of the um healthc care providers and learn a little bit about how they run their operation. Um, I mentioned last month that
046we were going to receive and now we have received the Guardians of Justice Award from the Cleveland uh NAACP and we all now have little scales of justice to add to our kit here. Um, that was an incredible honor. Um, and that was in recognition of the district's not um caving into a reinterpretation of Title Six, which doesn't correspond with the meaning of Title Six. Um, we may find out that that comes and bites us in the rear end, but we'll wait and see. Um, I was uh on an education panel on the sound of ideas with Jenny Hamill. Uh, I can't remember how long ago that was now, 3 weeks ago. um which was very interesting. Uh and I want to thank Scott and Kathan for prepping me for that. Um it was the
047the questions were really good. The conversation had the potential to go south, but I think that um because of your help prepping me, I was able to make the points that I think we needed to make. So that was good. You did an excellent job. Thank you. I It was terrifying. That's all I would say. It was absolutely terrifying. So, it's a good thing it was on radio because I had sheets all over in front of me with all my notes and things so that I would like remember the numbers and not mess up. Um, we a bunch of us took shifts at the University Heights June Junth celebration on Saturday the 21st. Okay, it wasn't the 19th, but close enough. Um, we've had several fundraisers and public events. Uh I was down in Columbus
048on the 25th midweek for the rally for education funding. Uh and on my way back I stopped in Akran to be on a panel hosted by the League of Women Voters. Uh intended to explain what being a school board member entails and perhaps encourage people to run for school board. Um and that was really good. I was invited to speak at the Cleveland Heights Pride in the Heights event last Saturday. Um, as was Representative Brent and Senator Kent Smith. And it was interesting how aligned we all were without having talked about it in advance about oh, we need to talk about the budget and school funding. And so those were the things that uh the people in attendance heard and I hope that uh they were prompted to make a couple phone calls or send
049an email because I think that hearing from individual community members can have a lot more impact than hearing from the same old same old, right? I mean they hear from us all the time and hearing from community members who are not normally as engaged in the advocacy. I think has a very important impact. Uh, and Sunday I went to see the middle school shorts. There were five short films. God, those middle schoolers all have a there was a lot of horror film noir stuff going on in threeinut increments. It was great. It was a lot of fun. Um, and and it was a lovely event at Cedar Lee. They got to see their films projected on the big screen. It was great. Um, and then this morning, of course, I woke up to the news
050of the governor's um, line item vetos. I'm happy that the things he vetoed were vetoed. I do worry that we're going to see a lot of bills coming up in the next session, reintroducing all these individual concepts intended to undermine public education. Um, and we have to remain vigilant because that's what we do. And that's all I have. Are there any committee reports? Not a committee report, but I just wanted to acknowledge that I was asked and went and spoke to the League of Women Voters at their uh Greater Cleveland chapter annual meeting uh about two weeks ago. And I also was asked to speak on the subject of Title Six and the decision we made and how we came to it. And it was a delightful meeting. So if you ever get asked to
051go speak to League of Women Voters, please do so because it's a great group of people. And thank you Paula for the lovely introduction you gave for me and uh you know I really appreciate that the league comes and covers these meetings and that they help engage normal citizens in a process that is otherwise very intimidating and intended to keep us out. Right. Right. It's scary dealing with politicians and the whole process is intended to y keep us out. And as I told them as I was closing, I said, "Thank you for what you do because we need you more than ever right now." Anybody else? So, um, yeah, it's been a a week for me. Yeah. Um, so last week, uh, we got very good news obviously about the, um, vouchers hurt Ohio lawsuit.
052um when Judge Paige in a summary judgment which is which is a really important piece that people need to be aware of that that we both sides requested a summary judgment um which basically says look judge just look at what we've given you we feel that you can you can decide this case without it even going on trial both sides said And of the five claims that vouchers hurt Ohio brought forth Judge Paige sided with taxpayers, students, and Ohioans by declaring ed choice vouchers unconstitutional. We won count one, which is basically uh our demand that the Ohio Constitution establishes one system of of common schools. And our argument is that by sending a billion dollars a year to private schools, that is creating a second system of schools. Judge Paige sided with us on that.
053Ed choice vouchers are unconstitutional based on that. Count two is our uh case that um vouchers are hurting public schools and public school students by taking money away from our classrooms and uh and instead providing refunds or rebates to families 90% of whom have never used public schools. We won that. Ed choice vouchers are a violation of the constitution for that reason as well. Count four says that um you know it is a a a charge that um says that ed choice vouchers violate this language of Ohio's constitution. And one of the things I love about Ohio's Constitution, I know I get amped up about a good constitution, uh, is the real plain language. You don't have to be a lawyer or a PhD to understand the verbiage of the Ohio Constitution where it says,
054quote, "No religious or other sect or sects shall ever have any exclusive right to or control of any part of the school funds of this state." End quote. Judge Paige saw, and I cannot imagine any court on earth not deciding that sending a billion dollars a year of taxpayer money to vouchers, 90 plus% of whom are religious schools. Clearly, that is a violation of the Ohio Constitution. and she declared therefore ed choice vouchers are unconstitutional. It is interesting that um count three we didn't lose. Count three she simply said we got to take that one to trial. Game on. And then uh our fifth uh count is basically saying it's it's uh the Ohio Constitution has an equal protection clause modeled very closely after the US Constitution's equal protection clause. And um she sided with
055the other side on that, but really didn't give much of an explanation as to why. And so we are eager to uh have that played out in the appeals court. So um it was a great day for Ohio taxpayers, students, teachers, and communities unquestionably. Um and we are eager to get into court into the appeals court. Um, and we are very eager to have the case heard by the state supreme court, which is where it will ultimately go. Um, people sometimes ask me, you know, well, what about the state supreme court? They're, you know, all on the other side, if you will, and and I really do remind people that when the law is on your side, you want a conservative court. Strict constructionists believe that it is the words on the page and nothing
056but the words on the page that matter. Any judgment that is based on the words of the page of the Ohio Constitution sides with the students, the taxpayers of the state of Ohio. So I am not daunted by the party affiliation that has now been added to the members of the state supreme court. Um I am eager to have our day in front of them. So but this is yet another example of you know yes this was just declared to be a violation of Ohio's constitution in three very specific ways and yet was the legislature deterred in any way shape or form? No. and it's full speed ahead uh for them. And so this is a fight that is worth continuing and my pride in having Tiger Nation be the first plaintiff in this lawsuit
057grows every day. Thank you. Any other committee reports? Nope. Nope. Summer time. Summertime. summertime. Yes. Uh so I'm going to assume no new business correspondence. Nope. Then I will consider a motion to adjurnn. I motion we adjourn. I second. Mr. Gayner. Miss Sereni. Yes. Mr. Trimble. Yes. Miss Krenshaw. Yes. Mr. Hines. Yes. Miss Lewis. Yes. Thank you and good night.