CH-UH Board of Education Regular Meeting - June 3, 2025

001and we will continue with the agenda. Um, first thing we have is awards and recognitions. Miss Kirby, good evening and welcome. I'd like to begin our meeting tonight by introducing Mr. Alan Alred, Chief Auditor, Northeast Northeast Region, auditor of the state of Ohio to present the Auditor of State Award with distinction. Thank you very much. Um, it's my honor to be here tonight on behalf of auditor state Keith Faber to present the Cleveland Heights University Heights City School District with the Auditor of State Award with distinction. Uh, this award puts a district in a very select group. Auditor of state Keith Favor's office audits approximately 6,000 entities and less than 4% are eligible for this award. Uh the auditor state award with distinctions presented to local governments and school districts upon the completion of a

002financial audit that meets the following criteria of a clean audit report. The entity must file financial reports with the auditor of state's office by the statutory due date without extension on a gap basis and prepare an annual comprehensive financial report. The audit report does not contain any findings for recovery material citations, material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, uh uniform guidance or federal single audit findings or question cost. Uh the entity's management letter contains no comments uh relating to ethics referrals, question costs, uh less than the uniform guidance threshold, lack of timely annual financial report submission, bank reconciliation issues, uh failure to obtain a timely single audit, findings for recovery less than $500 or public meeting or public records issues. Um the entity has no other financial concerns. So this this award it represents the hard work of

003all the school employees and financial staff who make every effort each day to attain accounting excellence. I want to recognize the board members and the superintendent that have done an outstanding job watching over every tax dollar uh at Cleveland Heights University Heights City School District. I want to specifically recognize Treasurer Scott Gainner for his leadership, professionalism, and exceptional commitment to fiscal integrity. So, on behalf of auditor of state, uh, I'm sorry, auditor of state Heath Faber, uh, I would like to present the Cleveland Heights University Heights City School District with the Auditor of State Award with distinction for fiscal year 2024. All right. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Well done. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Tiger team members of the month. Finally, the Tiger Team members of the month for May. Their peers have recognized

004the CHU staff members for going above and beyond to contribute to the culture of excellence in our district continuously. Your colleagues who nominated you for this recognition have shared these heartfelt words about you from the board of education. So, if you are here, please come up. We do know it's the end of the school year, so um we may not have have as many here. From the board of education, Terrence Douglas, utility trades person. Terrence Terrence is dedicated to his job, is very well-liked, and has a sense of humor. He also helps wherever needed, is respectful, and much more. from Boulevard Elementary School. Julie Walker, fourth grade teacher. Julie is a Heights alum and is the model of Tiger Pride through and through. She is an outstanding teacher, a thoughtful, kind, and enthusiastic teacher leader

005and jumps in to help all day long. She is an expert at building a trusting, caring community in her classroom and is motivated to have the building culture show the same. from Canterbury Elementary School. Stacy Leby, fourth grade. Stacy is a team player and a genuinely amazing co-worker. She works tirelessly to do what is best for her students and does an amazing job forming relationships and establishing high expectations for her students. From Fairfax Elementary School, Katherine Pur, speech language pathologist. Cat makes giving all students access to communication her priority. She is able to adapt to the needs of all of her students in order to make sure they have the opportunity to express themselves. She helps them communicate through speech p pictures or voice output from Gity Professional Development School. Dr. Fiona Connor. Dr. Connor

006planned another amazing field day for our students with intensive needs. Even with the weather forcing all 200 of us inside, her wellthoughtout activities kept all students engaged and participating. From Heights High School, Sarah Parker. As a seasoned marketing teacher and DECA advisor, Mrs. Parker consistently goes above and beyond to support her students. She works tirelessly to prepare her senior marketing students for their success in their DECA competitions, encouraging them to do their best and guiding them every step of the way. From Monteello Middle School, Jennifer Braun. Mrs. Braun is an outstanding teacher who consistently goes above and beyond for her students. She not only supports her own students with care and dedication, but she also ensures that every student in the classroom receives the support they need to succeed regardless of their classification. From Noble

007Elementary School, Melissa Barrett Burke, assistant principal. Her unwavering commitment to the success of our school staff and students is evident in everything she does. Whether it's supporting classroom instruction, managing the day-to-day operations, or lending a listening ear, she is always present, intentional, and focused. From Oxford Elementary School, Demetrius Todd. Mr. Todd consistently goes above and beyond in his role, particularly through his exceptional support in setting up and breaking down for events. Regardless of the size or location, whether indoors or outdoors, Mr. Tide is always willing to lend a helping hand to ensure each event runs smoothly. From Rocks Elementary School, Carol U. Carol is assigned to rocks one day a week and during that time she is always a productive team member who listens, provides positive feedback and supports our students, families and staff. From

008Rocks from Rocks Middle School, Kelly Mcker. She has made my last year of teaching a joy. She is a real team player. Advocates for children and staff. She is creative, caring, and supportive. So, let's congratulate all of our winners, please. Just a little bit. There we go. Perfect. Thank you. I'll take it to you on three. One, two, three. Nice. This concludes our recognitions for this evening. As school is out, we do not have the student report. Thank you. Hey, Laura Lo. Hi. Thank you for having me. All right, so uh next we wanted to uh provide an update on the high schools foundation. So our executive director is here to offer an update. Thank you very much for having me here. Thank you to the board of Cleveland Heights University Heights School District. I

009still love my job. I love coming to work every day and I feel that the work we do at the foundation is very important and um I enjoy every single day. Um I just wanted to give you an update about the different programs that we held in the last year. Uh we inducted 10 into the distinguished alumni hall of fame and we did this by still working with the image makers at the high school. There were 15 students that we worked with that helped select the alumni hall of fame. And this year we did something a little different. We hosted a dinner host event at an off-site venue. It was a lot of fun. Um the attendees were very happy and it gave the event um a little extra something special and I think that

010the Hall of Fame recipients were very happy to be there. Uh we designed and mailed Heights magazine. Uh the second one for this fiscal year is going out as we speak. Uh we raised it from 6,000 homes to 12,000 alumni homes and we also send it out electronically to 44,000 in our database. We brought back by popular demand the pancake breakfast. for those of you who were there, for those of you who were volunteer volunteers that day, it was a lot of fun and it really brought back um community members and also young families up to Heights for a great time. Um we continue to collect and organize our archives in preparation for the 100th anniversary of Cleveland Heights High School. Um, we are pulling things from 1926 and we found the graduation um, brochure

011that was given out in 1926. So, there's a lot of great things in the archives and it really shows how special the district is and how special it's been for such a long time. Um, we continue to host reunion tours. This year, the class of 1974 had the largest reunion to date. They had 450 attendees. It was amazing. It was an amazing weekend for them and it was another way to re-engage alums who we haven't seen or heard from in a while. So, with regard to new funding that has come in this year, we secured a $300,000 grant from the 87 and Running Foundation. We raised $3,000 for the Heights Family Resource Center. We solicited and secured funding for the following new scholarships. the Krauss family scholarship. They're working towards an endowed scholarship. Um by

012the end of next year, there will be 25,000 in the account at the Cleveland Foundation. They're at 10,000 right now and it's $1,000 a year uh scholarship. The Mills Award was given for the first time. It's a $20,000 annual award to a stu for a student selected by staff. The Michael Dixon Award is a $2,000 annual scholarship and in memory of Jake Nice scholarship was a $2,500 scholarship that will be given out annually. And this is in addition to all of the other scholarships that we distribute. We also established a two-year grant from the Fiser Family Foundation to fund two additional mental health professionals at $172,000 a year. This is done through Metro Health. We also secured $2,500 in funding to match a funding match, meaning the foundation uh donated 2500, a an alum donated

0132500 to um as a match for the inner uh instrumental music department trip to New York. And we've raised 140,000 in our annual fund campaign. and our goal is 150,000 by June 20th. So if you haven't given to the annual fund for them, um please do. Our scholarships and programs were incredible this year. Um $20,360 to sh in Shark Tank grants to um the schools listed um Boulevard, Canterbury, Fairfax, Gity, Heights High, Monaceel, Noble, and Rocks Middle. um 6,950 to the vocal and instrumental music departments for their spring travel, 88,000 in scholarships to 59 graduating seniors, 5,000 for the Holocaust education class trip to Washington, which I see Mark Sack is here, and he helps solicit a lot of the funding for that. And some of those we receive matching dollars. Um, and I think

014Mr. Fischer is here as well. um 20 2 uh 250 in stipens for the image makers, 870 for district art awards, and that's not everything that we've done this year um for the district and for our community. Um, we also facilitated Heights nights at the Cavs game and they created a one-of-a-kind Cavs Heights hat and we sold out of those. It was tremendous. And we also brought um the students to the Cleveland Playhouse and one of our alums was the playwright for King James which was a um which was a play um g at the playhouse and we brought him uh Rajie Joseph as well as the head of the Cleveland playhouse who's also a Heights grad to Heights High to meet with students. We continue to sell alumni and heights gear and through uh

015ticket donations from the 87 and running foundation we rewarded students and staff who with Monster Jam and Cleveland Browns tickets. This coming year, the 202526 year will be the 100th anniversary of Cleveland Heights High School. So over the next few months, you're going to start to hear more about monthly events throughout the year, a centennial gayla, which is scheduled for June 20th, 2026 at the high school. And our goal, the foundation's goal is to raise a million dollars to support our initiatives, which will then in turn help the district. Um we also this year covered costs for several events that we that are held each year in the district from helping with the um Heights Family Resource Center by providing funding for um extra things like diapers and and canned goods and shelf stable goods

016um for um gear up and for YOU interns. We had um YOU interns here last summer and we helped feed them while they were here. And we also arranged a defibrillator training for board of ed uh board of ed employees through the Make Them Know Your Name Foundation. So, having said all that, I just wanted to report about what we've done over the last year. It's we've brought in more than the foundation has ever brought in financially and that's our goal because we're here to support you and the work that you and all the amazing staff that are here tonight and others are doing and we want to continue that. So, thank you for having me. Are there any questions? Well, I don't I don't have a question, but um I do want to thank

017you for all of the work that you've done over the past year and building up the foundation and continuing to build relationships and amplify all the wonderful things about our district. So, thank you. Thank you. And thanks. I would be remiss if I did not recognize um Betsy Freellander is on staff. She's twothirds time, but I feel like she's more than full-time. She's incredible. Um, and our board of trustees is um, outstanding. If we need anything, they're there for us. They support the decisions that we're making. They support our programs. So, none of this could happen without a strong alumni community and a strong board. So, thank you. And thank you to the district board. Appreciate it. I recently attended my nephew's high school graduation in a suburb of Columbus, which will remain nameless, and

018they um went about touting 20 years of of graduation ceremonies. And I had to sit there, you know, and not say anything because like, yeah, we've been doing this for 100 years up here in Cleveland Heights, and that builds a legacy which is obviously invaluable. Um, so I'm looking forward to next year. Yeah, it'll be great. If I could just sort of point out as a commercial message, um, if you really want to impact, uh, if you if if people really want to make a donation to impact what's happening in our classrooms, it's the Heights Schools Foundation. The Heights Schools Foundation is has as their fiduciary is the Cleveland Foundation, which is the gold standard. Um, it doesn't get any better than that in terms of in terms of Cleveland uh foundation financial support. Um,

019and the centennial celebration on 6, 2026 is going to be a party like there has never been. Um, Heightsai is famous for throwing a good party, but uh, this is going to be a really special one. It is the 100th anniversary of Heights High at its current location. Um, as we all know, there had been there's been a Cleveland Heights High, a high school in Cleveland Heights longer than that, but this is really a celebration of the Heights High as as we know it. And um, even with all our crazy, I think our crazy is part of what makes us a little bit special, a little bit different. And um so I would really encourage folks to go to the Heights Schools Foundation website, surf around. If you're a Heights alum uh or the spouse

020of a Heights alum, register so that you get in the loop. You will not be asked for money all the time. What you will be is you will be informed about what's going on in the district so that you'll know if there's something that you do want to lean into. It is also sort of the um the epicenter of reunions. So um for instance, there is a very special class about to celebrate its 40th reunion. Um good lord, it's been that long. Uh but so this is where you go in order to register and the high schools foundation really helps uh each individual class make the plans to build a really memorable reunion. So this is a really important service organization that really helps to build and promote the culture that is Heights High past

021and present. Thank you, Laura. Thank you. I just want to thank you for all you do for our students. The the amount of scholarships that you have brought in is really impressive. So, thank you. I know that is something that makes a difference to a lot of our kids. And I just want to clarify one thing. I thought I heard you say that the celebration is 620 and I thought I heard Dan say 626. What is the 620 26? 620 26. Okay, it's next June. Yeah, I knew it was next June, but I just want to make sure it was either the 20th or the 26th. And there will be um uh gatherings for affinity groups throughout the entire year. And there will also be events in the different schools celebrating 100. What does that

022mean 100? And when you look at the clock tower, I mean that's 100red years old. When you look at that building um and you look at the cornerstone, I think the cornerstone was laid in 2025 and the first graduating class was 2026, but it's there. It's right there and that's living history for the next generations. So, we're really excited. So, thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you very much. Uh Molly, yes. Uh I would like to with respect to our audience propose a brief change to our agenda and that is to move a certain piece of new business up. We could do all the new business frankly but I only know of one thing that will be brought forward and it's a discussion on the pool uh at Heights High. So

023is that a motion? That is a motion to amend the agenda to move new business up so we can talk about the pool uh at the top. Do I hear a second? Second. Mr. Gainer, we're messing with you. Mickey, you are. Just when you thought you knew us. Why? Why? All right. Mr. Trimble, yes. Miss Serini, yes. Miss Lewis, yes. Mr. Hines, yes. Miss Krenshaw, yes. So, now under new business, may I invite Joe Damasho to come talk to us, please? Okay. Good evening board members. Superintendent Kirby. Good evening. Good evening. How are you guys even Joe? Um so I guess as some of us are aware the the pool in Cumberland uh is down. Uh you should introduce yourself. Sorry. I'm Joe Dato, the district athletic director. Um yeah, so the the city recreation

024department reached out to us last week regarding uh Cumberland being down for some construction purposes. Uh right now it's scheduled to reopen uh June 16th. Uh they asked us about utilization of the Heights High pool during that interim period. uh we've had discussions with them to hammer out a schedule uh that fits within the constraints of when our our building is open and what we had previously planned for uh district activities. So, uh all of that is is kind of set and ready to go. Um Andreas, the recreation director has been great. Um, I think he has some exciting information that I I I don't want to, you know, steal his thunder um for for some of the residents, but uh I think this is a great opportunity for our our our building to open

025up to the community as well. Um, you know, the recreation department of the city is very very gracious to us uh in terms of utilization of their facilities. We use Dennis for soccer. Um, they allowed us to use Denison this spring uh as we launched a rugby program. Uh they also allow us to use the hockey rink uh for our hockey program. So uh they've been really good partners with us. Um obviously they're bringing staff and and covering all the costs. Uh we're simply opening up our doors. Um you know uh Coach Dan Buden was was was another uh asset to kind of helping bridge all these gaps. So, um I don't know if there's any questions specifically uh for me from the board or or or how you guys wanted to address that, but

026um everything is all the kind of tees are crossed and eyes are dotted and and and we're able to do that for the community if if that's something that's good to hear. Um first off, we have always wanted to welcome the community into our pool when it's not being used by the students. So that's, you know, and we have said this countless times. Um, so fantastic. Uh, and we're happy to pinch hit uh when with Cumberland not being available. There was some conversation about hours and whether they needed access when our building is not normally open. Has that been hammered out yet? It has. Like I said, I think there's more information coming from the recreation side of things in terms of amenities for the community. Um, with that said, they'd still like to utilize

027the times we made available to them. And and as many of us that work in the high school building recognize, the building's open a lot more than people think it is. So, uh, there was some additional time that that that we were able to make available based on some of the other activities that are going on in the building on Saturdays. Um, they're already pre-planned. So, um, like I said, that all that's ready to roll. Wonderful. Do you need action on our part? I I don't I mean, we can execute that. I didn't think on your command, so to speak. Well, I mean, do you have an anticipated open date or is that the city's going to announce that or I I think in their ideal world, I would leave this meeting and call them

028and let them know, you know, what we've ironed out is good to go. They'd like to send out a newsletter. Okay. Potentially this evening just because like I said there's there's going to be two different tracks and like I I think you know given the unfortunate circumstance of what's going on I think the community would be pretty excited to have a couple different options available to him. Now in in that case may I propose um before that I've got I just want to make a comment. So Joe you did say and we need to say it clearly that the city is paying all the costs. Correct. This is a recreation program. It's not a height schools program. And that that has been the h hangup with the pool all along is that the school district

029was not allowed to fund a recreation program for the community, but if the city chooses to, we can make the pool available. They're fully staffing everything. Yeah. Excellent. Wonderful. Similar to if you know we've got soccer happening at Denison, the gates for Dennis are unlocked. The team comes on, we bring our own soccer balls, our own jerseys, our own referees, all that stuff. Yeah. So, thank you, Jody. That's a really important important clarification for the community. So, thank you, Joe. Appreciate that. And thank you for all the work. I know this had to happen pretty quickly because I think the announcement came out late last week and suddenly here we are, right? It was the Friday night email from the city and then the weekend of figuring out how to make this work. Those of

030us that utilize facilities sometimes catch ourselves without a facility and are looking for options. So, it's nice to be able to help. Well, I'm happy that we could collaborate with the city and be a partner, you know, for our community. Yeah. Hopefully, this is the beginning of an ongoing aquatic relationship. Yeah. I will say I met with Andreas a week prior and uh the new recreation director has been fantastic. Uh there's a lot of synergy that we'd like to continue to create in a number of different programs with the city and the and and the athletic department. So, we're really looking forward to kind of ramping up our relationship. Awesome. Great. Well, then I guess proposed a resolution to support uh the city's use of Heightsai's beautiful pool uh as Joe has described. Second, Mr.

031Gainer. Write faster. Mr. Trimble. Yes, Miss Sereni. Yes, Miss Lewis. Yes, Mr. Hines. Yes, Miss Crunchaw. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Joe. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Mia, for allowing me to close that. No, I think I think this was definitely better than waiting until the very end of the meeting. Joe's got like 14 young children, so he needs to get home. Well, plus it sounds like he needs to make a phone call to the city. Yeah, he has to make Yeah. Okay. So, now we can go back to the regular order of things. Um, I will entertain a motion to consider the consent agenda. I motion we consider the consent. No, I'm sorry. You're right. I I am out of order. Mhm. All right. Next up, we have statements from the

032audience. My mistake. Okay. Um, are these in the order in which they were? Yes. Okay. Okay. I just want to make sure I I'm not flipping things. Okay. Statements from the audience. Um I'm going to take these in the order in which people signed up. Please remember that you have three minutes. There is a timer right over there. Um please address your comments to the presiding officer. Mwah. Refrain from naming students or staff members. Refrain from campaigning or endorsing a candidate for public office. When invited to speak, state your name, address, group affiliation if appropriate, and the topic you plan to address. And the first person who signed up is Christopher Wood. My name is Christopher Wood. I am a graduate of Heights 1965. I'm here tonight to speak about the teaching of Palestinian history

033in the Heights schools. The state of Israel is a settler colonial project. Here are a few facts that you won't learn in the Heights schools. Before the Christian era, there was a Jewish kingdom in Palestine. The Roman conquest, the rise of Christianity, and the Arab conquest in the 7th century caused the displacement or conversion of the Jewish population. For the next 1,200 years, Jews were a small minority in Palestine. In 1900, they made up only 4% of the population. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, in 1891, Baron Dehir founded in London the Jewish Colonization Association to quote form and establish colonies in various parts of the world. It began buying property from the Aphendi, the large landholders, and expelling the Arab tenant farmers. In 1917, the Balffor Declaration promised British support for a Jewish homeland in

034Palestine. In 1924, the renamed Palestine Jewish Colonization Association was restructured with James D. Rothschild as president. Despite intense efforts to attract settlers, by 1931, Jews were still only 17% of the population. During these years, the British army and Western money kept the Arabs from expelling the Jews. In a 1938 speech, the future prime minister David Bengurian spoke plainly. Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves. Politically, we are the aggressors and they defend themselves. The country is theirs because they inhabit it whereas we want to come here and settle down. In 1976, Prime Minister Golden Mayor told the New York Times, "There is no Palestinian people." Today, there are 7 million Palestinians, one half the population. In a poll published last week in Arts, the oldest newspaper in Israel, 82% of Jewish Israelis favored the

035expulsion of Gaza's residents. Expulsion plus mass murder and starvation equals genocide and silence is complicity. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Mark Sack. Good evening. My name is Mark Sack, a proud graduate of and an educator at Heights for the past 36 years. I speak tonight with great sadness stemming from the realization that if the issues I raise are not effectively handled by this board through the immediate authorization of an external independent investigation, additional harm to our students and the further tarnishing of the good name of our beloved Heights High are likely. I am now giving voice to concerns I have pursued internally for over a year. Despite those efforts, insufficient administrative responses to possible inappropriate teacher and substitute teacher conduct have resulted in emotional harm to and concerns for the safety and well-being

036of one or more students. This tangible damage is in addition to the likely intellectual harm done to an undetermined number of students. Board policy 2240 has long existed to protect students from school staff efforts to present one-sided views on controversial issues in ways that tend to indoctrinate or persuade students toward a particular point of view. 2240 defines controversial issues as topics on which opposing viewpoints have been expressed by responsible voices and are likely to elicit both support and opposition within the community. The ongoing Israeli Palestinian conflict is a controversial issue. Matter number one, last May, a Heights teacher invited an outside source, a representative of an organization committed solely to a singular narrative of that conflict to come to his classes and promulgate that one-sided perspective. To date, several critical questions about that guest speaker

037incident remain unanswered. Matter number two involves a substitute teacher who last year abused her President Heights to indoctrinate students to accept her one-sided version of history and current events. This particular substitute had continued to be allowed in our classrooms until only a few weeks ago when she was suspended from working at Heights for surprise reasons directly related to her biased agenda. Matter number three, perhaps emboldened by last school year's lack of accountability in the matters I just described. This year, teachers in room 33 operated to create a classroom environment that strongly encouraged students to adopt a one-sided narrative of the current Israeli Palestinian conflict. Ultimately, the classroom environment in room 333 caused at least one student who bravely proposed an alternative view to become extremely distressed and feel so unsafe in the classroom and in

038the building that they left school. They needed a break from the cruel and intense criticism they had been subjected to both in class and on social media. Given these egregious instances and a possible conspiratorial connection between them, I am urging this board, the elected stewards of our school's educational mission and designated guardians of its integrity to immediately authorize an independent external investigation in them. While we cannot undo the harm already done to students and to the reputation of Heights, choosing now to commission an independent inquiry and that publicly letting its findings out would demonstrate the requisite accountability needed to prevent future instances where students are intentionally exposed to only one skewed side of a controversial issue and deliberately denied the opportunity to engage with the broader spectrum of facts and perspectives that exist in our

039community. Thank you. Please know I'm always available to answer any questions the board members may have. Thank you very much. [Applause] Next we have Melissa Wood. Testing. My name is Melissa Wood. Uh I graduated in 1989. My youngest graduated last week. I am no longer a parent in this district except in the sense that there is no such thing as other people's children. I hope that future height students will be supported learning about the world and forming opinions and arguments based on research and discussion. Whether or not our students go to college, we want them to become knowledgeable and participatory citizens. And when students learn to care about the world through research and discussion, they should be encouraged, not censured. Their teachers should be encouraged, not policed. Because if they see that it is somehow

040dangerous to speak when they see injustice, then they will be silent. And we all know what silence in the face of genocide means. I know you are not unaware unaware of how anti-semitism has been weaponized in our district. You know the history of how teachers in our lessons of the Holocaust class have tried to silence any teaching or discussion of Palestinian history. I know you are aware because I have brought it to your attention in emails and public statements and private conversations since 2019. in 2019 when a PTA sponsored speaker was to come to Heights to speak on the colonial dimension of Israel and Palestine, an event that was cancelled because the Jewish community that does not use our schools didn't want to see Israel and colonialism in the same sentence. You were aware, but

041due to indifference or fear or political ambition, you chose in action. But there is no ignoring it now. Now you must confront the complicated history and culture in our schools and our community. Trump is right to believe education is dangerous. Education makes critical thinkers who question contemporary and historic relations of power. Surely here in chuh you should not prematurely restrict what we teach or censor what students can learn. Surely there should not be a Palestinian exception to our stated values. But unfortunately there is. We can teach black liberation but not the solidarity between black liberation movements and the Palestinian liberation movement. We can teach Nelson Mandela and South African apartheid. But what not? Why Mandela wore the kafia and connect it to Israeli apartheid. We have a model UN but we don't teach the history

042of the US veto in the security council on any resolution supporting a free and independent Palestine. Finally, genocide is bad. I have to say that because for some reason in this community either this community either denies it is happening or justifies the extermination of Palestinians. It is not controversial to be against genocide. It is not controversial to be against America's role in this genocide. Denial of the ongoing Nakba is not different from denial of the Holocaust. Palestine is the moral litmus test. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have David Schaefer. I will not take my three minutes. I'm a proud graduate of Heights High School. I have two grandchildren living in Cleveland Heights. I don't know if I want them to go through the school system. When I became aware of uh Jewish students feeling

043vulnerable and harassed, um I have real questions about uh the district. I wanted to state that. Thank you. Next up we have Mark Hos. Okay. Um, Abe Millip. I may be misreading that. I thought you had to sign in to get Oh, you don't have to. Well, if you don't want to speak, you don't need to. That's fine. You don't have to. I I can't pass up a microphone. Okay. Well, you've got three minutes, sir. My name's Abe Miller. I did not go to Cleveland Heights, but I grew up uh in Shannon Road off of Taylor. We belong to Park Synagogue. It it was very significant for our family a little bit before my time when they migrated from the city of Cleveland and East Cleveland and Glennville area to move to Cleveland Heights because

044it was really something very special. And I I came here to support many of the other speakers that are here. But I I'm kind of glad in a way that my grandparents and my parents aren't here because I think they would be absolutely shocked coming from Cleveland Heights. So what the situation has become in this city. Just a few moments I had sitting here listening and your your mayor hasn't been very helpful either. So, uh, I I hope these this situation can get resolved and that we can really focus on what you guys are supposed to be doing, which is running a school district and what the parents are supposed to be doing, getting their kids to school on time. So, that's it. Thank you. [Applause] Next, Patrick Fiser. Welcome back. All right. Good evening.

045My name is Patrick Fischer and I'm a teacher at Heights High, including the elective class, lessons of the Holocaust. And as you remember, I was here uh just last month talking about how successful our trip to um Washington DC was. And so I'm I'm here for a different but connected reason in my thoughts. So what is the purpose of my lessons of the Holocaust class of our schools? Part of it must be to raise kids that will speak out against injustice, give voice to the voiceless, whoever that may be. To raise upstanders that will protect rather than bystanders who let things happen. That is a key lesson of the Holocaust. I have seen my students meet Holocaust survivors and be inspired by their toughness. And I've seen my students as they learn about someone that

046resisted the Nazis and be inspired by their bravery. So this month when a colleague of mine gave her students the assignment of creating a poster about an issue they were passionate about, several students decided they wanted to make their poster be about the plight of the Palestinians. While this was on the list of topics they were given, students could have chosen anything, including creating their own topic as long as the overall criteria for the assignment could still be met. Once these posters were displayed outside my colleagueu's classroom, another colleague hung a paper in response to the students poster, which basically said the students need to do more research about who was on that land first and who that land belongs to, implying that the students were wrong. This was followed by complaints towards the administration

047about the teachers assignment and then students voicing their opinions on social media, which they then showed me. My students asked me my opinions on everything and I really do not have the luxury of not having an opinion on a lot of important things. I would like to believe me. And so when they asked me my thoughts on this issue that was taking place in my hallway, I told them that to be honest my concerns were less about who was there first and that my biggest concern was what was happening to the people that were there now. Since the horrific terror attacks of October 7th, 2023, in which Hamas murdered over,200 Israelis, including some Holocaust survivors, and took approximately 250 people hostage on the single worst day of violence against Jews since the Holocaust. Israel has

048responded with military action in Gaza that that has killed approximately 50,000 Palestinians from October 2023 until February of 2025. This included approximately 15,000 children under the age of 18. And while Israel claims that these numbers have been inflated, Israel also admits these numbers are probably close and that only about half of the dead are Hamas fighters. Just two weeks ago, the UN stated approximately 15,000 children were in danger of starvation. As Israel has blocked food, water, and medicine from being brought into Gaza by aid groups, even if these numbers are inflated, I would ask you, what is the number of dead that we are supposed to be okay with if that number is the inflated one? Last summer and throughout semester 1, I spoke with many of my students parents, including at least eight families

049that are Jewish, about this topic and in preparation for teaching lessons of the Holocaust class. All of them said all of them said they thought I absolutely had to talk about Gaza as part of the Holocaust class and they thought that what the Israeli government was doing over the past year was wrong. Before I wrap up, I want to make this key point. Criticizing Israel's government is not anti-Semitic, just as my criticism of America's government, which I do often, does not make me anti-American. In fact, saying I expect them to be criticizing them means I expect them to be better. When the US military bombed and bombed and bombed Afghanistan following 9/11, I spoke about those deaths, too. That I thought that what the United States government was doing was was wrong. Lastly, you should

050also know that we have a staff member at the high school with family in Gaza who often goes days or weeks without hearing from them, fearing the worst. We have students at the high school with family in Gaza andor the West Bank. How do you think it makes them feel when two posters in one hallway of a very large building supporting Palestinians are seen as being too controversial? In conclusion, last summer I spent nine days in Poland with a Holocaust survivor and I was lucky to sit down with him and have real conversations. Repeatedly he stressed that never again should mean never again to anyone regardless of who they are. And until we begin to treat all deaths as equally tragic and equally unacceptable, we are failing in that mission. Thank you. Thank you. Next

051we have Chance Zurub. All right. Uh, hi. My name is Chance. Uh, I graduated in the class of 2014. Um, since that, um, I went to college, became a lawyer. Um, and it was really the the lessons that were taught to me at Heights that propelled me on that journey. Um, today, um, in 2020, I also started, uh, an organization in in Cleveland Heights called Safer Heights was was aimed at, uh, combating police violence. um maybe some of you came to our march, but it was those lessons from classes like our um AP US history, our lessons of the Holocaust that really inspired me to pursue social justice. And so, you know, even coming here today, um, and hearing about some of the things that have gone on in the in the past year, um,

052it's a little worrisome because not only is the crisis in um, super prevalent to us right now, um, but it is something that we should all take action for in my opinion. And the reason I'm saying that is not just because I myself is am Palestinian who also has family in Gaza who's lost upwards of 50 people in my family. It's because that for us like as Cleveland Heights residents, we are talking about a supposedly controversial issue, right? Supposedly controversial. And I say supposedly because as some previous speakers mentioned, there should be no controversy about genocide. The Lancet report uh that came out almost a year ago at this point stated that 186,000 Palestinians, that was their estimate for Palestinians that were killed. And including in that number is one person that I want to

053highlight. And the person that I want to highlight is Barah Abu Alash who was who had just graduated from medical school and moved back to Gaza who was an exchange student here in 2014. And so I want to bring up while we're talking about controversial issues, Barah Abuish's house was bombed and she was killed, a member of our Cleveland Heights community. And so if we cannot take a stand against that and we cannot and if we're going to sit here and talk about controversial issues while not honoring someone from our own community that laughed with us, that went to our plays, that went to our concert recital. If we can't do that, what are we doing? She is someone from our community that we should support and we should be supporting all Palestinian students and

054all students right now because Thank you. But anyways, I want to thank you all for giving me the time to speak. Um, and especially being from Cleveland Heights, we are one community and many of the values that we all hold are shaped by our experience. whether it's at Fairfax, whether it's at Roxboro, whether it's at Cleveland Heights, these are the values that formed us as adults and so we need to practice those consistently throughout the board and move forward together as a community. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Claudia Stadler. Hi. Um, my name is Claudia Stadler and I've been an English teacher at Cleveland Heights High School for the past six years. I'm also a resident here. I know that we all share a goal in developing civic-minded and empathetic students who are

055capable of building the kind of world that prioritizes the well-being of all people. I cannot imagine that there is a more important important purpose for education than this one. Up until recently, I have faced no barriers in my attempts to foster this kind of engagement in my classroom. In a recent project, my students were able to choose a movement or activists that fought for freedom and create a research poster. I am proud that my students chose potentially controversial topics to study, spanning from Malcolm X to Greta Thunberg to the trans rights activist Marshia P. Johnson. The only student posters which were unfortunately publicly undermined and which prompted further investigation were those that chose to research the Palestinian struggle for freedom. Why do we draw the line at Palestine? In preparation for this project, my 10th

056graders read Ellie Weisel's speech, The Perils of Indifference. They learned about the ways in which the United States ignored and emboldened the Holocaust before they joined the war. They learned about the dangers of remaining neutral in the face of genocide and the importance of learning from the mistakes of our past. I fear that our district may consider any acknowledgement of the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people too controversial solely because our culture is unwilling to learn from the past and extend such historical lessons and empathy to the Palestinians. I have not introduced this issue to my students. I have no interest in um propaganda or swaying their opinion. Um but they are already engaging with the violence in Gaza on their phone screens on a daily basis. many of them aware it is our own

057tax dollars which are aiding this violence. If students are not able to come to school and ask questions, conduct research and engage in discussions regarding this issue, then we are throwing them to the wolves in an age of misinformation and propaganda. Meanwhile, this very week, the death toll in Palestine continues to rise above 60,000 all at minimum probably. All the while the UN warns of uh oncoming famine for the entirety of Gaza. The controversy in our building regarding this conflict rings profoundly trivial in consideration of this context. As an English teacher, I can tell you that literature is meaningless without world context. We do not teach in a vacuum, and I refuse to let the empathy we attempt to convey through literature be rendered a meaningless gesture. I ask that the district take measures to

058pro protect teachers rights to teach controversial issues. I cannot imagine any reasonable justification to draw the line at Palestinian men, women, and children. And I would like to end it with a note from Tony Morrison who explains that conflict in the halls of academy is not is unlike conflict on a battlefield. Conflict is not a social gaff to avoid at all costs. It has a bad reputation only because we have been taught to associate it with the desperate need to be right. Conflict is a condition of intellectual life. I know that democracy is worth fighting for. I know that fascism is not. To win the former intelligent struggle is needed. To win the latter, nothing is required. You only have to cooperate, be silent, and agree. Last thing, I will always advocate for the rights

059of my students to engage in intellectual conflict and to challenge any force that justifies the dehumanization and genocide of any group of people. This should be not controversial at all. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Sandy Saiger. May I ask a question before my my time starts? We're not You said we shouldn't mention names. If part of what I have to say is a quote, a direct quote from somebody where they mention the name of a teacher, is that permitted? And I mean, I'll go either way. I don't know. Um because I don't know what you're going to say. But if I say the first name and the initial, the last name, I would not say I think it's probably better not to mention the name. Okay. Thank you. My name is Sandy Siger.

060I'm a uh uh graduated from Cleveland Heights High School in 1976, which explains why when I look in the mirror, I see my father's face staring back at me. I was at a peaceful event a few weeks ago and u there was someone that I was having a discussion with who called a teacher from Cleven Heights High School, a current teacher, a terrorist. Actually called him a terrorist by name. And I said, 'I know this person. Why is he a terrorist?' And the answer was, because he teaches a class on the Holocaust. So I talked to this teacher and I said, 'What what's going on? What's going on? And he explained that at the high school there's a controversy. So I ask, "What's going on at Heights? I understand that there aren't posters. I understand

061there's debate. Debate is good. I understand there are two sides to every debate. But there's a poster in at least one classroom that ends with free Palestine. Okay. But when another poster was put up by a teacher and taken down immediately, where where's the debate? The poster said, "I am willing to speak to anybody about this issue." It was taken down. Why? Why? you know about that as the superintendent. You were brought many many times information about controversy controversial u posters. You even directed to have them taken down, didn't you? They weren't they weren't taken down. Now, this teacher also suggested let's have an open forum. There was a person that's here in the audience that came to the school and talked about their side of this controversy. The other teacher suggested to the teacher

062that brought this student in and copied the the um principal, "Let's have a debate. Let's have two sides." It says in your your policy 2240. I I'll let you read it right here. You gota you got to allow debate on both sides. You have not. Why not? It's not rhetorical. Someone can someone can answer that. Well, I'm not going to speak to the specific situation. This isn't the proper form for that. Then then fine. All right. So, but I'm happy to meet with you after the sign in the classroom that says free Palestine. in the name of free Palestine. On May 22nd, Israeli staff members were murdered. I think you guys know that they were murdered in in Washington DC. They were coming out at an event where they were talking about helping aid to

063Gaza. May 28th in the name of Free Palestine, a man pleaded guilty to gun charges. He was going to mass murder children in a Jewish daycare. Look it up. You can find that. And on June 1st, in the name of free Palestine, Molotov cocktails were thrown at a peaceful event to try to get these hostages free. You tell me what's going on in Cleveland Heights where you shut down debate. Thank you, Mr. [Applause] Next we have Sean Abbott. I'm not sure I'm reading this correctly. He was pretty close. You did pretty good. You did pretty good. Correct me, please. Okay. Good evening. My name is Sean Ev. It's a team. Don't have very good handwriting. Uh I'm a resident of Cleveland Heights and uh a proud parent of twin daughters. I don't think I'm I'm

064sorry, Sean. It doesn't sound like you're Oh, they try again, please. Okay. Hey, hey, I I need my full time, though. I saw No, I'm not playing your time. Um, so, uh, my name is Sean Abbott Clafter. I am a proud resident of Cleveland Heights and, uh, a proud parent of two daughters, twin daughters who are just graduated actually, second grade at Fairfax Elementary. And they have had a great time at Fairfax. uh and they uh we feel lucky to be part of this community and to be able to send our daughters to a school that that has a great community, great parent community, great teachers. And so I want to thank you all for your efforts on behalf of the district. Uh, and I also want to say, uh, as a Jewish resident of

065Cleveland Heights, uh, and a, uh, parent of daughters who will one day attend the high school, that, uh, it's very important to me that we provide our students with a, uh, as it says behind you, actually on the wall, a challenging and engaging education that prepares them to be uh, responsible citizens. And I say that as somebody who for many years was a history teacher. I have another job now, but I taught my family lived in New York City before we moved here. I was a high school history teacher for many years. And as a history teacher, you really have one job, and that job is to help prepare your students to learn how to think critically. That involves certain reading skills, certain writing skills, but at the end of the day, you need them

066to be independent critical thinkers so they can be future citizens in this country. It is it is literally impossible to foster critical thinking if we limit what students can learn. It's it's critical that students have access to lessons on whatever is happening in the world and are exposed to a variety of viewpoints. History education indeed education in general is is dysfunctional without that sort of process. Uh so when we think about what is happening now, I want you all to think very carefully because there are certain historical processes that that are worth reminding ourselves of as we think about education. One, whenever a group is oppressed, their history is systematically denied. It is part of the process which allows one group to dominate and oppress another is denying their history. That involves controlling curriculum in

067school and it involves controlling narratives outside of school. So what I ask you all I is to have a little bit of courage to say you know what we are standing up for education and we want our students to be able to learn about the history of Palestine and the history of every country in this world and every people in this world because what is happening is that there has been a very one-sided and even completely sensorious environment in the district for a long time and now that some teachers are daring to say the word Palestine, people are freaking out. And so I want you to think critically and ask yourself, is there some sort of um mind control program happening at Cleveland Heights High School designed to make students hate Jewish people? Or is

068it that there are people who are very committed to preventing the teaching of Palestinian history because indeed they don't even believe Palestinians exist. Um and so I I ask you again to have some courage and stand up for real education in our district. Thank you. Next, Kirsten Beard. I thought it was a sign. Okay, never mind. Uh Jane Same here. Same thing. Okay. Uh, Robert Cohen. Okay. Also, I'll say it's more common than you think that lots of people do sign that. Uh, so you're Matthew Eisenberg. I only just signed it also. Okay. Avi Laav. Ditto. Okay. Angel Folo, we know you meant to sign in to speak. Hi, my name is Angel Folo. Um, I'm going to be talking about something different tonight um than most people here. Um, but the same thing I've

069been talking about for a full year now. It was a year ago, I believe this week pretty much. Um, that news broke of two different federal lawsuits against the district. Um they were title n federal lawsuits against the district um alleging title nine violations and they involved um students who had been um sexually abused or assaulted on campus or around campus by peers and how they had been mistreated, retaliated against, dealt with inappropriately by a variety of staff members here um in the district. Um there's still um a court case with multiple plaintiffs and multiple named defendants who are in the administration. You asked the athletic director to make sure that we weren't spending any money that the district wasn't incurring any costs for having community swims. Meanwhile, you've been protecting and promoting a number

070of named defendants. Um quite often you do more to protect the bad players in the district. Um the bad administrators in the district and the students who have suffered suffer more. Um and I do think you guys all should be accountable. Past board, current board as you move forward. if any of those members I know some people who have been named in a lawsuit. I know there's other lawsuits that sometimes get settled, but there's a lot of lawsuits. There's a lot of pending litigation. There's a lot of threat of litigation. There's a lot of claims of retaliation by administrators or staff against students and families who've been um who are in the special ed community who have alleged who are in protected groups um such as victims of sexual assault as well. and you guys

071keep failing, but you do keep promoting and protecting some of your worst administrators. One of the things I would actually suggest is that before you do promote people within the district that you do a better job talking to employees and families, maybe even some students and actually start really listening to them right here because I know there's real concerns across the globe that a lot of people are talking about tonight, but there are also a lot of students, staff, families who are being hurt in our own schools and you guys had a responsibility to do better by them. Thank you. Next we have Mitchell Frankle. Hi, I am not a resident of yours. I actually came here with my motor Jewish motorcycle club because I heard that one of our friends was in need of

072our support. I want to say that our club um annually has a ride to remember that raises money for Holocaust awareness. In 2018, the event was held here in Cleveland. We raised close to $100,000 for the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, of which at the time David Schaefer was the director. I was the editor of the book and put together uh stories of 29 Holocaust survivors. Among them was Stanley Bernath, who was a resident here in Cleveland, who has since passed away, as have about six others that I did stories upon. The uh the book was uh published by the Schul Boys Jewish Motorcycle Club from Cleveland here and used as this tool to raise awareness of the Holocaust and money for the Maltz Museum in the book which is in the Library of Congress,

073the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, the uh Yadvasham in Israel and the uh Holocaust Museum in Washington. Uh, you can read about what the definition of genocide is. You can read about the six million Jews and the practically 12 million people who were killed. You can read about the things that ended the war, including huge numbers of collateral damage in places like Dresden or Nagasaki or Hiroshima. Those things were acceptable back then. uh not the Holocaust but the collateral damage to end what was going on. I would say that the the word genocide is is being gratuitously used in many cases does not apply to what's going on because if genocide was going on before our eyes then Israel must be very horrible at it as they've had 75 plus years to accomplish their goal.

074They are a small minority, a sliver in the Middle East trying to survive. And what they want is their hostages to be released, the bodies to be returned to their families, and an end to the war. Hamas wants the extermination of Israel from the river to the sea. They want the people pushed out of the country. That's the goal. And when I see people say free Palestine, that to me means exterminate the Jews and get them out of the land of Israel. And that's unacceptable to me. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Kito Truit. I haven't seen you in many years. Uh my name is Sukito Truit. I am a member of or I'm a resident of Cleveland Heights. I graduated in 2019. Um and I wanted to get up here and speak today

075because I do believe I feel like I'm really close to I do believe that um the teaching of the Palestinian struggle right now is extremely important. Um a few things that I do want to touch on. The last speaker that just spoke mentioned Hiroshima and Nagasaki as acceptable back then. That was never acceptable. Um, that was an extremely extremely grotesque act by the American government, just as continuing to supply Israel as it commits a genocide against the Palestinian people is a grotesque act of the United States government. Um, I think that there is a deep and um, disgusting co-option of Judaism and Zionism. You don't have to be Jewish to be a Zionist. and you don't have to be a Zionist to be Jewish. I think that co-option has scared a lot of people into

076speaking out um about the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people um for fear of being labeled or deemed anti-Semitic. The co-option is weak. It's thoughtless. And it's it's so old. It's so old. Um, it is so clear to see that what is happening to the Palestinian people has nothing to do with the sanctity of Judaism or the Jewish people. And it is only about the continuation of the colonialist ideologies of the American government. And I think it is a little bit gross for this to even be an issue within an educational realm, you know. Um to have a bunch of teachers and people that are supposed to be leading teachers be afraid of education is wildly hypocritical. Um, I I think that at the very least the teaching of the Palestinian people and what's currently

077happening, what we can look at on our phones, what we can research right now, the teaching of those things should not be taboo in any setting. And the only people that are going to be afraid of knowledge are the people that are on the wrong side of history. That's how it's always been. The Nazis burn books. The United States government is is deporting people left and right and they're shutting down the educational sector. The only people that are afraid of education are the people that are on the wrong side of history. I grew up in Cleveland Heights. I went through the entire school district. I graduated from Cleveland Heights High School. And in that I I had such a great experience of being exposed to so many different people through so many different walks of

078life. And it's it's kind of insane to me cuz I still talk about it. Um with all the private schools that are around here, it's very easy to not go to a public school. And I still tell people to this day that I'm thankful I went to Cleveland Heights because I got to engage with so many different types of people from so many different walks of life. The idea that that stops when it comes to the Palestinian people is absolutely disgusting. And I'm telling you right now, there is no stop. Okay? There's no stop to fighting for the liberation of our people. and we will continue to do so and and and we've done it at the county level, we've done it at the city level, and we will do it at the local level

079if that's what it takes. It should not even be a discussion. Thank you. Next, Adam Waldbound. Volley alert 45 minutes. We have to vote to extend. Uh yeah, you're right. Okay. Um hold off, please. We've passed our time limit. We've only got two people left signed up. May I have a motion to extend? So I move that we extend the statements from the audience. Second. Yeah, Mr. Gainner. I'll be brief. But we have to vote on this. Hang on. I'll wait for the vote. We have to vote. Mr. Be Mr. Trimble. Yes. Yes. Mr. Yes. Miss Lewis, yes. Mr. Heind, yes. Miss Krenshaw, yes. Okay, you may proceed. Thank you. Adam Waldbomb here. Very brief comments. A lot's being said. I just want to say that, you know, we can teach anything in our schools.

080We could teach anything we want and shape the kids um and shape thinking or critical thinking and all these things that that we're here to do in school. But sometimes there are good things and bad things. And you don't teach that the bad things are just as good as the good things because there has to be equal amount of teaching for all things. doesn't work like that or we'd have a real big problem, which we're kind of having in in many ways. Um, basically, you don't have to teach hate. You don't have to teach from the river to the sea. You don't have to teach a lot of these other issues in order to be able to say that there's a group or an ethnic group of people that happen to be living on this

081piece of land. And that everyone here, I think, knows the history. We don't have to get into into that. I don't think Cleveland Heights taught that Nazis were equal or good. And I don't think that Cleveland Heights taught that Japan was good. And I also don't think that not using horrible weapons like we did in Japan was the right thing. It saved lives. It's controversial. That's what occurred. But I don't understand why there's this need or desire for anybody to get up here or at the school and ask us to teach that Hamas, which is pure evil, is different. It's not the same as in this case the Israeli Defense Forces or America going after ISIS or going after many of our other enemies. There is collateral damage. It's terrible. A lot of us have

082seen this up close and it's horrible. But at some point you have to make a decision what you're going to teach teach. You teach your kids this is good or that is bad. And that has to enter into some of the thinking other than just pure everything's equal. Cuz if everything was equal, maybe we wouldn't be here. Maybe we'd be a part of the Japanese Empire. Maybe there would be a a greater Nazi Reich that was still out here. So, this is not to say that there's any lack of care for people dying or that there isn't aggression occurring, but one side started this brutally and evily. Just like in World War II, there actually was someone who started it and a a bad guy. We need to educate what's good and not what's evil.

083Thank you very much. Thank you. And the last person who signed up is Fatin Ode. Assalam allayikum. May peace and blessings be upon you. I'm going to say a little prayer. I say this before every speech silently to myself, but I feel it is appropriate to say it out loud. Oh my lord, expand me my chest and ease my task for me and untie the knot from my tongue so they may understand what I say. This is what Muslims believe was the prayer that prophet Moses said before having to give a speech in front of Pharaoh and it is something that we say uh most of us say before we give a big speech. My name is Fatanada. I am the executive director of the Cleveland and Northern Ohio chapter of the Council on American

084Islamic Relations, otherwise known as Car Ohio. We are the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the nation with chapters all over. And I take care of Mansfield in Northern Ohio. I am a former educator. I got my masters in the art of teaching. I taught history. I studied political science. I studied journalism. I also taught refugees. Um I have my teaching endorsement in uh English for speakers of other languages. I come from a long long line of educators. My sisters are educators. My brother is a school administrator and my grandfather um God rest his soul had a school had his house his home turned into a school in occupied Palestine. I am a daughter of Palestinians who have parents that live in Palestine. My father was born in 1947 before the creation of Israel. So

085though for those who don't know again CARE is a civil rights organization and I started this job in 2023 and this job has been very very difficult. I have never in my life thought that I would have to defend students rights to just exist to not be bullied by their teachers. As a former educator, this absolutely breaks my heart. To say to teach about Palestine or the genocide or anything about current events that what's going on over there in Palestine in Gaza is controversial, is sickening. Why are we allowed to teach about current events anywhere else or anybody else's history? And that's not controversial, but it is controversial to teach what's happening. The students, no matter what you do, even if you try to censor what you teach in the classrooms, the students are seeing

086it. They're watching it. They see it on their Instagram, their Tik Toks, they know what's going on. They're watching a live genocide happen. So censoring it isn't going to change anything. But maybe our role as educators is to teach students how to deal with difficult topics, difficult things that are happening and what they can do to change the world. I want to say that knowledge is power and it is clear that there is a fear that this power will spread to our children. It is not our job as educators to push our own political ideologies. It is to teach them here are the facts, here are how you find facts and here is how you go through them and confirm the facts and you make your decisions of your own opinions and how you want

087to be in the world. It is not anyone's job, anyone's job to restrict what they feel about certain things. It is maybe our job to teach them how to be decent human beings. And it is a disgrace, an absolute disgrace that there are educators that are using this this privilege to teach people's children. Parents have trusted you with their children to shape their minds. Don't tell me what time is up. I'm still speaking. It is a disgrace. It is a disgrace as an educator that you would use your time as an educator to push your own political ideologies and to say that free Palestine is controversial. So are we saying that people can't exist with equal freedom? Thank you Miss O. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, first of all, I want to thank everyone

088for their public comments tonight and I appreciate um the listening um and the decorum exhibited. Uh I am the superintendent of the district and I have been involved um in this situation um since last year. Um I have spoken with uh the student who had concerns and the parents that had concerns and the teachers that had concerns on both sides of this issue. Um what has be become very clear to me is that we need to definitely provide more training to our administrators, my team, uh teachers and other staff. We have a board policy uh that guides all this work. And I want to be clear, I'm a former social studies teacher and our mission to create students that are responsible and able to be successful in college career means we want them to be

089critical thinkers. Um, and so I know that everyone in the room doesn't know all of the details and I wouldn't expect you to. Um, but I do want you to know that what undergurs the board policy is a commitment to make sure that we are building students with the skills to to be able to engage in critical controversial issues. So, I want to just I'm going to take a snippet of the board policy because it speaks to the spirit of the board. I want people to be, you know, to just make sure they're clear on that. Um the board of educ this is from the first three sentences of board policy 2240 on controversial issues. The board of education believes that the consideration of of controversial issues has a legitimate place in the instructional program

090of the schools properly introduced and conducted. The consideration of such issues can help students learn to identify important issues, explore fully and fairly all sides of an issue, weigh carefully the values and factors involved, and develop techniques for formulating and evaluating positions. That speaks to the critical thinking piece. For purposes of this policy, a controversial issue is a topic on which opposing points of view have been promulgated by responsible by responsible opinion andor likely to arouse both support and opposition in the community. And then from there, the policy speaks to um how to go about teaching a controversial issue. It doesn't say don't teach a controversial issue, but there is a process for that. I've learned a lot about that and it is important that we properly support everyone in that. And here's the thing

091about board policy. The board engages in a process where they do multiple readings of a policy and they collect community feedback on that policy and take that into consideration on the policy committee. Um, and so here's an example of where that is really important. Should people have a different opinion that they want the board to consider as they as they review and ultimately adopt policies? Um, I know that our teachers at Heights High love their children. All of them work really hard and are very passionate. We are so lucky to have that. when the students from the ninth grade class accompanied myself and Malia Lewis to Columbus to protest against proposed legislation against diversity, equity, and inclusion training. The very training actually that we would need to support this policy. It was the students that

092said, "What I love most about high school is my teachers." And I so I want to thank all of the educators who are here in the room. You're done with school, but you are here to share your opinion and you're here to make sure that students are ultimately protected. And I will tell you the one thing from my conversation with the student who raised concerns. Um the student said, "I love my teachers. I love my teachers." Um but the concerns that he raised showed me, oh, our policy will help support the discussion of these issues, right? Um so again, I want to thank everyone. We will continue to to review this and again um anyone who wants additional followup, I'm happy to have those conversations with you um if you want, you know, more information

093and more discussion. Um, but I just wanted to say that and to thank thank the audience for um for coming today. Thank you. Thank you, Liz. While people gather their things, I will entertain a motion to consider the consent agenda. I motion that we consider the consent agenda. I second. Mr. Gainner, do we have any discussion? I have one comment. One comment discussion. Oh, we need Sorry, I'm I'm out of order. I'm so Yeah. Okay. When I first saw the resignations and saw Miss Pranty on there, I was a little disappointed, but then I saw her on the new appointments um and that she will be taking on the AVID classes. Um so, I'm excited about that. Yeah. And I want to clarify AVID AVID teachers and only teach AVID. They run that program. So

094she will have many teacher leader responsibilities um to make sure that we maximize that opportunity for our students at Monosella. It's uh it's interesting, Gabe, because I like you. I mean, I you guys know me, I'm I'm almost no paper, right? Uh so so I was very digitally flipping pages looking to see uh and find her name somewhere else. So I'm also glad she's staying in the building. I think she's uh fantastic. Yeah, I saw that and I almost picked up the phone and called Liz, but then I'm like, "Oh, wait. Let's just see what the new appointment did the same thing." And and I would just like to comment that, you know, you're getting old when one of your former students was hired by the Cleveland schools to teach first grade. Oops. Congratulations, Dan.

095The student is getting old, not you. That's it. Okay. Um, and I guess I'm going to jump the gun a little bit here. Um, we have a separate item under personnel we're going to be approving, but I just want to thank Angel Laam for coming on a month early on a contract position. So then we can do our comments on that agenda item when we get to it. Got it. Agreed. All right. Anything else? The rest is it's boring. It's what we do. Thank you for the donations. Amen. Always. Yep. All right. Mr. Gainner. Mr. Heights. Yes. Miss Lewis. Yes. Miss Sereni. Yes. Mr. Trimble. Yes. Miss. Crunchaw. Yes. Okay. And now we have an item not in the consent agenda, which is a resolution to appoint a new CFO treasurer. I would h Yes.

096You want somewhere, Scott? I am. Yes. Hi. Well, we're not going to say anything about what we think about your retirement. However, I would like to welcome Angel to Tiger Nation. And if you'd like to come up here, I have a piece of paper for you to sign twice. Can we clap? All right. Third day of June. Third day of June. This is on behalf of herself. I love that. Well, while you're signing, Angel, I'll just say that we are really excited for you to join Tiger Nation. Um, and that, you know, we can persuade everyone to join Tiger Nation, you know, so we need to have some conversations offline, you know, and I'd like to say you have big shoes to fill, but we know you're more than up for the job. So, yeah.

097I'd uh I'd like to say to the community uh just personally how uh impressed I am with you, Angel. Um I think one of the things that that really impressed me the most about Angel beyond financial acumen, because that's table stakes for the role, right? Um is her ability and willingness to engage with folks in the community. Um, you know, w without going too far into the interview process, one of the things that Angel said, and I'm paraphrasing, is that, you know, she's at the football games, she's at she's at events, uh, and and that is one to support the district, but also to engage with the public and engage with the residents, which uh, for me personally, I found so compelling and so impressive. and I'm I'm so excited that you're joining the team.

098And I guess I'll take a turn. Um, one of the things that you see immediately when you talk um to Miss Laam is her uh genuine enthusiasm about the role. um and having had this gentleman next to me um really steward this district's finances for 30 years. Um those are big shoes to fill. Um but I am thrilled that we found you and that you are um as eager as you seem to be to come join our family. and I'm thrilled that you're coming home. Um, which means the world to me. Um, and so, bravo. Thank you. And I look forward to working with you. Thank you. I look forward to working. You got to go to the microphone or speak in Gabes or nobody will be able to hear you. So, I've been sharing

099my space all night. It's okay. I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you sincerely. This is a return home for me. Sorry. Sorry. You got to unkill the switch. Got it. Unckilled. You're live. Now you got to repeat that. Sorry. Um I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you. Um it is truly a pleasure to come serve alongside you all. Um and I want to thank my mom and my daughter and my friend Angie for being here um in support as well who is also a Cleveland Heights resident. Um, but these are my advocates and we look forward to um serving alongside you. I'm super excited to join Tiger Nation. Thank you. Welcome. Welcome. So, to make it official, may I have a motion to appoint Angel Laam as

100our next CFO treasurer? I move that we appoint Angel Leam as our next CFO, treasurer of the Cleveland Heights University Heights School District. I second. Mr. Gainor, Miss Lewis, yes. Miss Sereni, yes. Mr. Trimble, yes. Miss Krenshaw, yes. Mr. Heights, yes. And thank you to your family for being here this evening in support of you. Yes. Thank you for loaning us your daughter and your mom and your friend. Yay. Okay. Next up, the superintendent's update. Miss Kirby. And of course, my uh computer has died. So, Kathan, if you could help me out. No, it's okay. We'll just we'll just uh mine will put it up. Yeah, please. Sorry. And I left my phone in my office, so I can even text you to give you a heads up. Sorry. Um, so yeah, it's not in

101the agenda. Can you share it with Oh, you know what? I for that. I apologize. How about what I will do is I'll start it. No, I can't do that. Um, I will actually what I will do is it okay, Scott, if I do the policies first and then come back I can motion agenda. All right. So, we'll go to the policies then I'm going get it together and then we'll do the report. Okay. Perfect. Dr. Lombardo. All right. Good evening everyone. You'll Yes. You'll see in board docs there are two sets of policies that uh they're going to be looking at. The first one is group D. We had the first reading. Uh as people may or may not know, we do three readings. Uh group D it first reading was April 1st. Second

102reading was May 5th. So this would be the final reading of policies group D. I would like to bring up some changes to policy. Oh, what number? I can't do this from memory. Where is it? Bill of Rights. Is it the parent bill of rights? That's 5780. Yeah. 01 5780. Um, which has changed since our previous reading a month ago. And I hate this machine. There we go. Okay. Um upon advice of legal counsel and yes we pay for lawyers because we need them. Um, we have added some language at the end of that policy to make sure that everyone is reminded that things like HIPPA and FURPA still exist and still govern our um interactions with students. Um, everything else is as we saw it a month ago. That's that's a great ad. Yeah.

103And for those who might look at that in board docs, the sections at the bottom of that policy and it's highlighted in yellow all the way down. Can't miss it. H4. Okay. Um, do we need to take the two groups separately? We do. So, this one this one we now need a resolution to accept because it's the third reading. Correct. Correct. May I have a a motion we accept? Um policy group D after as this is the third reading second any further discussion okay Mr. Gainer M serini yes Mr. Trimble yes Mr. Krenshaw yes Mr. Heights. Yes. Lewis. Yes. All right. And you'll see there is policy group E. Um we've had a lot of policies this year as you know. So this would be our final group. This would be the second reading. So

104no action needs to be taken tonight by the board. But this would be the second reading of these three policies which is group E. And these are three policies which are essentially the same policy but applying to different adults basically. Correct. Different eras in the and this is also as always mandated by Ohio revised code. Yes. Our favorite. Um so are there any questions? No. No. Okay. I would ask uh that the board uh allow me to bring the final reading back on June 24th for group E. For group E. That would be the final. I know it's a work session, but uh I'm obsessed with getting things done and um I want to make sure I finalize this before uh before I do leave. Um so uh if you'd be so kind uh to

105allow me to bring them back, we'll finalize them on June 24th. I don't see any reason why not. That's kosher then. Yeah. Okay. Great. We don't seem to have any questions or concerns about this this group, so there should be no problem. All right. Excellent. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I think I'm ready now. Did you get it, Kaitlin? All right. So, superintendent report. This is for the month of May. I think the biggest event was the graduation that occurred just last week. The class of 2025, we had our graduation again at the Wiling Center where um over 370 students uh graduated um and are moving on out of Heights High. It was a wonderful just a it was really a wonderful night. Um the student speeches were excellent. Um the

106student hat decorations were excellent. Um and it was just great seeing the entire Heights community come together at the bulling center named for a Heights grad of course um to um have the ultimate sendoff. Um, so again, I just there's so many people who just work behind the scenes. Um, and last that last week of May was a doozy for everyone in the district. Um, from students to teachers to staff to principles, principles, uh, central office staff. So, I just want to thank everyone um, here for their work. Kathan has been running non-stop on events um as has uh Rachel Coleman supporting the principles just with the entire cabinet team. I mean Bob and we had everything from AVID this past month from the AVID signing ceremony to the job and careers fair to you

107know AVID training we just had. So, everyone's really been pushing um for a strong end to the school year and I've just been very pleased at how folks have just kind of stepped up and stepped in seamlessly. Um and so just a couple things I want to highlight under goal one um as mentioned we did in the month of May early May have the job and trades fair um that happened to give students an opportunity to hear from employers uh to hear from uh trade schools hear from union organizations um apprentichip organizations. We also had some uh colleges um and community colleges there as well to attend to give you know there was someone on site giving haircuts because they were advertising their uh barber school for kids and that when I tell you the

108line was long and the interest was high. Um it really was and I do think that speaks to you know ultimately with our CTE offerings we want to make sure that we offer that to students. Um also in May, early May, AVID signing day um was incredible. Uh just to see the community that the AVID students um and teachers have created for students, you know, and some students had been in AVID since sixth grade. Um and they were acknowledged for their years in AVID. Very exciting. Um you can really see the community and the love that the students and teachers collectively have for each other. Um summer school is next week. Hard to believe, but summer school is next week at Heights High. We will be having students in grades 2, 3, 5, and 8,

109focusing on academic support and preparation. You know, we have all types of summer programs and events happening, enrichment, credit recovery, early exposure, AP readiness. So, things are kicking off soon. Had a week off and now going right back. um in May um wonderful creative heights arts district art show at the library. I think we went after a board meeting al together just but it was awesome just to see uh what the students have created. Um so really great work by students and teachers uh providing that opportunity for students. We also have students who uh were showcased recently in the statewide Chinese essay contest. Um, so they were showca they showcased their Mandarin language skills, creativity, and cultural knowledge at the 11th annual Ohio K12 essay contest hosted by the Ohio Association of Teachers of Chinese.

110The competition featured 307 student participants from 28 schools. It challenged students studying Chinese to handwrite original essays ranging from 100 to 500 characters on things such as family, Chinese culture, and personal reflections on their language learning journeys. Um, National Merit Scholarship Award winners were announced both uh at the graduation but also through the um various end of the year events. Uh, Heights High School senior Remy Borau has been named a recipient of the National Merit $2,500 scholarship. And we also had three Heights High three Heights High seniors who were named National Merit Scholars this past fall. that includes Warbo Gusback um who were semi-finalists in the first round and then finalist in March and William Larkin was also a nationally merit commended student. In the month of May, we also celebrated the welcome of 58

111new members to the National Honor Society. Um each year we invite sophomores and juniors with a 3.5 GPA to apply for membership um if they have demonstrated achievement in scholarship service, leadership, and character. Under goal three, uh May, it just seems like we just did this yesterday, but May 14th, um I was pleased to be able to attend the Senate Education Committee with board president Malia Lewis and four Heights High students, all freshmen, um to talk about the fair school funding funding plan and also um Senate Bill 113 and its house accompaniment which seeks to restrict um any training around diversity, equity inclusion of any kind. Um also restricts uh officer offices that do that work restricts doing the work in another name and calling it something else. Um so that legislation is still um

112out there and pending. We will see um what what if it gets approved how it gets approved and its implications um for districts. Um high pancake breakfast. We talked about the annual 5K run which was a rain out situation um that was held on May 17th. Uh so again thank you to our collective PTAs for hosting that opportunity. We had um you know comm community members who sponsored girls on the run teams from across our elementary schools that they could all participate too as well. Um I'm super excited to announce that uh we have a master teacher of the year uh Heights High School Mandarin Chinese and business teacher Dr. Shu Hugh Lynn has been named the master teacher of the year by the Martha Hoding Jennings Foundation. Wow. So each year the foundation selects

113one educator whose work exemplifies the highest standards of the teaching profession in Ohio. She will be recognized at the annual educator awards on July 24th. And as a part of this recognition, she will receive a $7,500 scholarship to support a project or initiative that enhances educational excellence in the classroom. So congratulations to uh Dr. Lynn. Um we also had one of our one of our teachers participate in the first ring leadership academy professional development session um where she met with uh emerging leaders across the first ring districts who worked on different uh projects in order to advance their leadership. So um celebrating Kate Butner who represented our district this year in the cohort. Her capstone project was on identifying and implementing strategies to increase student achievement on the Ohio State test in biology. Um our

114preliminary data shows that she likely did we likely did achieve that goal. So that's wonderful. Um but of course we'll wait till we have everything final and official. Um in terms of staff appreciation days um starting in May school lunch hero day May you are truly a hero if you work in May 2nd. um teacher appreciation week, May 5th through the through the 9th, we did a staff appreciation uh week and a teacher appreciation week because we held um the celebrations for all of our staff to that uh one one week to to do a a bigger celebration for everyone. We have school bus driver appreciation day on May 5th, school nurse appreciation day on May 7th, school community school communicator appreciation day on May 9th, and National Speech Language Pathologist Appreciation Day on May

11518th. Coming up, in addition to summer school, which I shared earlier, uh Sunday, June 1st was the beginning of LGBTQ plus pride month. Um, we have a day off uh to celebrate June Junth coming up on June 19th and just we always want to promote our August 16th back to school resource fair that will be happening this summer. And it's odd to say it because I feel like school just closed. It did. It did. But the first day of school will be Wednesday, August 20th. Um, Miss Kirby, could you repeat a number that you mentioned at graduation and that would be the amount of scholarship offers that our graduating seniors received? 2.6. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Phone a friend. Yes. Um, we are very excited. Thank you for that question. Very excited in our

116um the graduation to announce that the class of 2025 earned collectively 22.6 6 million in scholarship offers. So that is significantly more than last year's graduating class. That is significantly more and 370 kids and Laura Loel and the Heights Schools Foundation can be thanked for a small portion of that, but that's still an enormous amount of money that's been offered to our students. So they're doing something right. Thank you. Thank you. I think it's it's important to point that number out also as um an important measure. You know, when I was down in Columbus last week, um some of the uh Ohio senators, state senators, um were sort of trying to lean in against me and um talking about standardized test scores. And thus began a conversation about different measures. And the state is addicted

117to this test that um has that has been shown to um under reportport achievements of students like the students in our desks. students who are, you know, our district, the students at our desks are majority minority and majority poverty. And the standardized tests have been shown time and time again to measure something other than academic accomplishment or achievement. They measure the social capital of the students in the schools. And so it is incredible to have the number 22.6 6 million because that's a real measure of what do colleges and trade schools and the like think about our kids because we've got 22.6 6 data million data points that says that our teachers and our kids are doing amazing work at Heights High. And similarly, the other data point that I, you know, was happy to

118talk to them about was the fact that the college board um when they identified 11 high schools in the state and they gave those 11 high schools um excellence with distinction recognition. Heights high was one of those 11. And so we can talk about data points um forced on us by a state that is seems driven to um diminish public schools, the reputation and the and the funding and everything of our public schools. Or we can talk about real outcomes. And the outcomes are the incredible opportunities that colleges through scholarships are are fighting for our kids using. And so it is a great measure. I am so proud and I love the fact that we are keeping that and that we are tallying it and that we are talking about it as much as we

119do because that's the real work. That's that's the real accomplishment of our kids and our teachers. got one just brief thing to add and it's it's a real shout out to the the staff and students involved in the AVID program. Oh man. as as a parent um of a of a middle schooler, AVID has a way of kind of sneaking up on you in the district because at the lower elementary school levels, a lot of it is about um like organizing your papers and and you know, in in upper elementary school about like the beginnings of note-taking skills and uh you know, Cornell notes and all that sort of stuff. But then at the middle and high school level, it's it's and this is my own opinion. I'm speaking for professionals here. Uh it's it's

120really about creating a culture uh and a and a culture of of excellence, a culture that is uh that is driven. And I had such a profoundly joyous time attending the AVID signing day this year. And to hear and see all of these students supporting each other and their plans for what they're going to be doing in the fall after graduation. Uh and and for some kids that was four-year institution. For other kids that was community college or a community college to four-year institution bridge. For some kids that was trade school and across the board kids were celebrating each other. I mean wholehearted you know loud clap. I mean the claps were as loud for each kid you know coming from their peers and it was really beautiful. And like we've said I've said with

121other board members individually um graduation I mean you could you could take everyone's sashes and cords and ribbons off and you can tell those avid kids because the handshakes are different. The eye contact is different. They have soft skills like you wouldn't believe. And they're destined for some really great stuff. Uh, and I'm just incredibly proud of them. And I noticed it at the senior um, project walkthrough. I went through and talked to I didn't get to everyone because there was quite a big group, but I went through and I could always pick out the AVID kids and I would ask them and as I was asking about their project, did you go through AVID? And I could always tell the ones that did because you're right. They look you in the eye. They shake

122your hand. They can they introduce themselves. They just come with the soft skills that I think a lot of teenagers don't necessarily develop on their own. And I think we have developed it in such a way um that regardless of what type of student you are um if you you know are a high achiever or you know you are just the quote unquote average student um you still can find value in the AVID program. Um, I will say that at first I when Kelsey was put into AVID or, you know, it was put on her schedule, I was a little hesitant about it because I thought that, oh, this is where they send the the the kids who aren't highf flyers, you know. Um, but I have really come to, you know, appreciate it. We

123even, you know, she even mentioned which hand you're supposed to shake with. um you know in in regards to something else but it you know it I can see for my little delicate flower how it has helped her to blossom. Um and so you know it was you know like someone mentioned I'm I'm no longer a parent in the district anymore. Um but I'm sure that those skills that she has learned will you know take her very far. Yeah. What I found with the AVID students is that they have a certain self assurance in talking to strangers, which is an incredibly important thing to get you through life, not just for job interviews, but just everything, right? Um, and it goes to addressing a lack of social capital. These are the soft skills that earn

124you social capital, right? So, we're talking about really ch changing the trajectory of a community, which is the work that we do such an incredible job at and that we we don't don't talk about it as one of our exact goals, but it's a result of a lot of the work that we do. Well, good. Thank you. Mr. Gainer, I think it's your turn. It is. All right. I know it's uh been a a long evening, so I'll be quick. Um No, you won't. I will. I'll try. Don't try giving us Don't give us two things, Scott. We need all three. I'll give you all three, but I'll do it quickly. Um so, yeah, we have the three things for the month of June. And just as a reminder to the community, uh three things

125in terms of trying to introduce finance uh school funding concepts that are easily digestible to the community. uh and as part of goal five objective three of informing and educating all stakeholders regarding district finances and school funding in Ohio. So because we had the auditor of state here tonight, we're going to go with the author state theme tonight. Perfect. Right. Congratulations again. Yes. So the first thing is the the uh state award with distinction which is what we received tonight and I just bring this back around. I know we have talked about it in a previous three things a couple of years ago actually, but just to give a shout out to the finance team in particular, you know, it's it's a lot of hard work and in particular with the amount of money that

126we have flowing through the district and, you know, it's a it's a part of the annual audit, but they go above and beyond. And it's it's just I I think a lot of times they feel like they're the bad guys or they're unappreciated or underappreciated because you know there's so much compliance involved with making this kind of thing happen. And so many times when you're trying to make sure that everyone's doing the right thing and and you know people want to do what's best for kids but they're all not always concerned about you know that the mechanics of that. So, just a big shout out to the finance team who really make sure, you know, they all work together to make sure that this this happens. And I think that this is um a really

127nice thing for the community and others to see um because oftentimes we're questioned as we know, you know, are the district's finances in order and you know, this this kind of um this kind of uh award would suggest that that it is. So uh again just want to thank thank everyone there uh for all the work they do um for the auto state award with distinction and it just repeated the things that uh that Allan spoke about tonight. Uh the second thing so auditor of state they've they've been busy and I see Angel knows this as well. So all of a sudden the auditor of state has come out with what they want to call financial health indicators and so this was again developed by the auditor of state 16 FHI that are supposed to

128provide early warning signs of fiscal distress. So um you know interesting the timing of it uh I think and and uh but it it is what it is. Each indicator is categorized as either positive, cautionary or critical. So you get a green, yellow, red um here and in terms of the 16 uh indicators that they have. If you have five or more in in the red that suggests that you're in fiscal distress and you need to take a look at things. So you know for uh for the district um we have you know it actually lists 17 FHI. One is not applicable to any school district. Then there's one that's not applicable applicable to our school district. Uh then we have 14 in the green and then just one that is critical and I do

129have a link to the the Otter state uh FHI there you know which but this is it basically you know what it looks like along with supporting detail is just the the bar with your green or red indicators all the way across. Um you know I I just was doing a quick tally here. Eight of these indicators are all tied to how much what your what your cash balance is. So, you know, I find it kind of ironic and and especially in the timing of this that that that the legislature wants to limit the amount of cash the district has. Yet, the auditor of state is coming forward and and by virtue of these FHI saying, you know, we're giving you a green score because you have a healthy cash balance. and even suggest you

130know you know like one of the one of the standards is that you have you know 90 days of cash. So that's just a uh kind of a standard that all districts and and other entities try to keep. So for a district that you know just to round things if we're spending $120 million a year roughly. You know 90 days of cash three months is you need at least $30 million. And you know we're right now based on a 5-year forecast at just above 40. So, and also you know I find it ironic that these kinds of indicators these are the things and the cash balance is looked at by Moody's and Standard Empors and they're the ones who are doing the bond or bond ratings and they're the one that's you know so those

131balances matter and drive your interest rates and yet here we have the legislator. So I don't know I haven't looked into the the newest version of the state banial budget that's the one that dropped this afternoon this afternoon. Yes. But I don't so I don't know if the cash balance issue still remains in that version, but my spies tell me that they've increased the cash balance to 50% from 30% of acceptable numbers. Well, there we go. So, we're good just to say that, but we're good now. And but you know, until they find something else, correct? But it's just it's just again kind of a strange thing that that that the Otter state came forward with these financial health indicators just during this banial budget process and you know decided to do this. Just as

132a side note too, the only one that we uh don't have in the green or positive is um the one relative to our debt. So which is an obvious one. So, it looks at just the amount of debt you have um relative to your capital assets. And because of our bond issue, which we talked about at the work session um last month, the bond issue for the high school and the middle schools, we have a significant amount of long-term debt out there based on that. And so, that drives that that metric down, which is why we can't borrow more money. Correct. Correct. But it still is accounted for in our fiveyear uh our five-year budget and Oh, absolutely. Everything's being paid. Our lights are still on. Everything's good. And also, the OFCC never gave us

133the money that they had promised us for high school. They did it. Remember that? In five years, we'll tell you that you'll be on the list in 5 years. And then five years later, they said in five years, we'll tell you if you're on the list in another five years. We do have a bill ready to go. I swear I think we should go. We might pay it. You never know. You never too much money, right? Well, then the we exceed our 50% threshold. But so any any questions about that? Again, you know, it's not no one's gotten much into the weeds on this. This is kind of a new thing. Uh but this is something that they've done for other entities for years. They just started doing them for school districts now. So I

134suspect that this is the kind of thing that, you know, people will go to and bring forward, you know, in terms of levy cycles and that kind of thing. There's something a little simplistic about turning things into a green, yellow, red stoplight. Yes. Um, which I find annoying because this stuff is awfully complicated. And by creating a little dashboard, you're pretending that things are simpler than they are. you're also dumbing it down uh for a larger audience and and the thing is school finances cannot be dumbed down. However, I'll talk about this later. When you go to Columbus to testify, oh my goodness, they don't know what we're talking about. No, not at all. Not at all. And I did watch your testimony and so, you know, good for you, too. I mean, I watched

135all the testimony, but they really they came at you hard and you you you did a great job with that for sure. Okay. And the last thing we have, again, sticking with the auto state theme, is that they've decided also interesting timing to update the entire USS manual um you know, in May for implementation for the next fiscal year. Treasures really got angry about that and pushed back on that, you know, in particular because I don't think it was well thought through. Um because you'll remember the USS coding and all the dimensions and all those things that we have to do. The legislature wants to force us to code things in certain ways so that they can track it easier. You know, in particular, student wellness and success funds, disadvantaged people impact date, those kinds

136of things. They want to create special cost centers within the general fund so that they can look at EMIS data and and the financial reports that we send and just extract it and know if we're spending the appropriate amounts of money from those things. Great. Except that we we're on ERP as you know. You know, districts are either on state software or ERP and the software can't accommodate what they proposed. Oh boy. So, you know, one would think they wouldn't be this far into the process that they're dropping it on us in May and uh here we are. But so, so I think much of this will be is is going to be delayed. As I said, the treasures really it was it was a mess. I don't know Angel if you were on that

137call or not that that uh that that OASBO had with the auditor of state but it just went it it was embarrassing so for them. Um, so I think they're going to delay some of it. Some so some of the changes will be effective fiscal 26, others fiscal 27, but you know, district's already deep into the budgeting process as you know, and we'll be coming to you at the work session this month to talk about the appropriations for next year. And so not great timing for this, but just to put it on the radar and and this will be something that um you know the organization will have to deal with uh for probably fiscal 27 and trying to make sure that the software does what it needs to do to track those expenditures that

138the legislature wants us to track. Do you think that there will be enough need that the software developer will update it to accommodate the Yes, they will absolutely have to do something. I just don't know what it will be like, you know, soon. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's just bad bad timing. It's also just worth pointing out that the legislature all of a sudden cares about a very deep dive into all of these different buckets and tracking this that and the other and the other's cousin when it comes to public school funding. And yet they are literally at the same time putting all of this out of reach of the billion dollars a year that taxpayers are sending to vouchers to to private schools through vouchers. So you kind of have to call BS on the

139fact that they they say that they care. They're really, it seems quite clear to me that what they're doing is they're they're trying to micromanage and they know exactly how much is in each little pot, each little envelope of money and how different school districts are spending that money so that they can come out and surgically remove money from each of these because they don't care. If they cared, if they genuinely cared about the taxpayers's money, they would they would easily force the private schools receiving a billion dollars of taxpayers to go through precisely the same requirements that each public public school district in the state has to go through. And and I celebrate this as a taxpayer. I want there to be accountability. I want there to be transparency. Cleveland Heights University Heights, we

140pay extremely high taxes and it's important that we be accountable to our taxpayers for exactly how that is how all of that is being spent. I want the same for private schools who are receiving my tax dollars as well. And yet this legislature will have none of it. Not a moment of conversation about it. And that is the height of hypocrisy. Yep. Here we go. Thank you, Mr. Gainor. Absolutely. Um, my turn. Um, so first again I want to welcome Angel Laam and I want to thank Dan Wilson for all his help with our treasurer search um because we would not have been able to do it without his help. I also would like to thank Karen Rigo and her 795 negotiating team. And I want to thank Paul Lombardo and Lindseay Jingo and the

141administration's negotiating team for what has been a very smooth and respectful process. Ratification coming soon, but we're we're in good shape and and I'm very happy that we had such a good process. Next, I want to thank the parents of Emanuel Gutierrez, Jesse Bowling, Kennedy Brown, and Caven Bruce for entrusting their children to me to drive them to Columbus. Um, I didn't go too fast. Really, I didn't. And I want to congratulate Emanuel, Jesse, Kennedy, and Caven for testifying before the Senate Education Committee. They were amazing. And these are ninth grade students. So, learning how to navigate the complications of state house etiquette and how to advocate for the things they believe in, how to stand in front of a room full of strangers and not lose your cool. It was it was hard. They

142were fantastic. Um, I've done this a number of times and it always makes me nervous, but watching the kids is so heartening. And thank you, Liz, for fielding the hard questions cuz they went after you, too. So, it's like, um, obviously we all enjoyed graduation on Thursday and the staff awards ceremony last Friday, two middle school promotions. I think we were only able to cover four of the seven fifth grade promotion ceremonies. We tried, but the scheduling was tough. Senior project presentations were wonderful, as um Jody said, and the senior carnival was great. Mr. Smith was a real trooper. He got dunked three times by the seniors and it was cold. Um and last week started with the Memorial Day parade. It was that was perfect. You could not have dialed up better weather for

143the parade. It was wonderful. Um, and a month ago, it was a month ago because I think I said two weeks ago that we had 17 weeks worth of events in the month of May and we've finally done it. I have a parent friend who's been calling it Mayber. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Accurate. Um, coming up soon, I want to highlight a couple things. On Saturday the 7th of June, we as a board and a district will receive recognition by the Cleveland chapter of the UN NAACP for our refusal to cave to federal pressure around the reinterpretation of title six. Um I am honored to have been you know received this email and uh a number of us will be able to attend that is at um Forest Hill Church on Saturday. They're having a 4-hour

144event and we are a little tiny slice of it. Um, this Thursday, the Heights Middle School shorts and the digital video production class are showing the documentary they worked on together on the creation of the new playground at the Peace Park. And you said that summer camp starts. Guess what happens on the 9th of June? Reaching Heights Music Camp. Oh, thank you. Sorry. Okay. So, music June 9th through 14th. The uh concert is on Saturday. Usually there's like preliminary stuff at 10:30 and the full out concert at noon. It's wonderful. Go there. It's free. Um and that's it for me. It's been it's been a month. So, okay. Any committee reports? I just want to amplify that the Heights Athletic Boosters presents Hype the Heights um at the Heights football field um Saturday, August 9th

145from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. It's kind of like a field day for families and kids. Um, so if you were there last year, there were kind of there was also a teacher who was getting dunked multiple times, which that seemed to be the most popular um activity. Um, but they are also um they'll have sports activities and games, food, food trucks, bounce house, local vendors. Um, it'll also serve as a media day for the Heights athletes to so the seniors can take their pictures for senior banners. Um, and they're also looking for some student entrepreneurs to participate. So, if you know any Well, some of the kids who did senior projects are definitely entrepreneurs. There was a bunch of kids who might be Hopefully, we can connect them. Yep. Great. Anything else in committee

146world? Nope. Are we busy with graduations and promotions and everything else? All that. Yes, exactly. We did have a Monosella renaming committee meeting today briefly and we would like to ask the board if we could come with the name suggestions for the July board meeting because uh we won't we just want to we want to make sure we're doing our due diligence. Um and I won't be able to be there next week. I'll be on vacation next week. So that kind of takes a meeting off the board and we want to just probably have two more meetings before we come with a formal. Okay. So that would be Tuesday the 1st of July. Is any reason not to do it on the first? Fine. N okay good then. Fine. Um, okay. Next, we have some

147resolutions, which Oh, goodness. I don't have hard copies of because I've been too busy at events. I think we can talk about them without reading them. Good. Let's So the first is a resolution in support of LGBTQ students, staff, and families, which um I wanted to coincide with the beginning of Pride Month and also serve as a little bit of our rebuttal against House Bill 8 and some of the policy changes we've been working on to try to reassure members of our community that they still matter to us even if things elsewhere seem sort of dire. Um, you look like you want to say are we able to discuss a little, please? Um, I am in absolute full support of this. I as as a uh as a a uh straight cis guy, uh I

148I feel very strongly that we support our students, our families, uh the people uh that our our students are friends with and that our students love in their lives. Uh I have LGBTQ family members, people that I love, uh people that I serve with, people that I work with. Uh and it's uh it's it's up to to us to look out for each other. And this is just one small way that we can tell students and our and their families that uh we have their back. So uh Molly, if if you were the one who authored this, uh I did. I thank you. You're welcome. I mean, like all resolutions, there's a fair amount of plagiarism from other resolutions. No point in reinventing the wheel. But yes, but then you have to beat it into

149shape. So, yeah, but it's important to align around common language because that's how you get attention. If multiple resolutions have similar language, that makes an impact at the state level. Mhm. So basically we're saying we prohibit discrimination against anyone. Um we prohibit bullying and harassment against anyone and we mark June as pride month and we fly the pride flag over the high school in June and we send copies of this to everybody we can think of in Columbus. That's basically the short version. You're here. Okay. Um, may I have a motion to Oh, what's the word? I need I need an active verb here. Uh, I'm tired. To adopt Thank you. a resolution in support of LGBT students, staff, and families. I motion we adopt the resolution. I will second that. Thank you. Anything else?

150Mr. Gayer? Mr. Trimble? Yes. Miss Crunchaw? Yes. Mr. Heights? Yes. Mr. Lewis. Yes. Merini. Yes. Next up, we have two um resolutions which are um meant to meet a deadline to request that the Ohio School Boards Association, which we are members of, um adopt two planks to their legislative platform. The first is a special education platform and the second is a fair school funding plan sounds familiar platform. Um, currently the Ohio School Boards Association does not lobby specifically to increase the amount of funding at the state level for special education in Ohio in public schools. Oh yeah, private schools aren't required to provide special education services. So it is incumbent upon us as member organizations to change their platform to advocate for what we believe is right. Just like our children, our students are advocating

151for what they believe is right. So that's why I have put this one forward. If only I could find it. So, while you're looking for it, just so the audience understands, the OSBA hires lobbyists and at our conference in November, um, one of the important things that's decided at that conference is which, um, legislative proposals um, are raise up to actually be the focus of our lobbyists for the coming session. And so districts propose um these as um as options that a handful are selected and move up and get the majority of our lobbyists attention. Thank you, Dan. So, um, the number of students identified as needing special education service services has increased nationwide over the past decade from about 6.4 million students to 7.5 million students. So, that's slightly more than a million students

152in increase. 270,000 of those kiddos with disabilities are in Ohio. Despite the growing need, Ohio ranks dead last in the nation in the percentage of education funds allocated to special education. This is why I wrote the right. Um, as a result of this underfunding, local school districts like us either divert general ed education funds to provide appropriate services for our students or we leave those students underserved. Right? There's only two options. If we're not getting enough, well, there's federal law, yes, but if the state isn't giving you state money, then those are your two choices, right? you either leave the kids underserved or you divert general fund money towards those services. So, this is why it's incredibly important that we have the Ohio School Boards Association advocate more loudly um for increasing the amount of

153money that goes to special ed statewide. Um we have approximately 20% of our students uh in CHU or on a IEP or a 504 plan. Um the money we receive from the state is negligible. So that's there's a bunch of boring stuff after that that's about telling OSBA to please do something about it. Um, may I have a motion to approve this resolution if we don't have any more conversation? I motion we approve this resolution. I second. Mr. Gainner. Miss Crunchshaw? Yes. Mr. Heights? Yes. Miss Lewis? Yes. Miss Serini? Yes. Mr. Trimble? Yes. And the last one may be moot because of what happened in Columbus today is a resolution recommending that uh the Ohio school boards association um adopt amendments to its legislative platform in support of the fair school funding plan. The fair

154school funding plan, as we know, was intended to change the illegal system for funding public uh public education in Ohio. The legislature uh couldn't swallow that pill as a one-year change. So, they agreed to phase it in over six years over the course of three bianual budgets. Number one happened fine. Number two, there was a little dithering. And here we are at the third phase of implementation for the fair school funding plan and we can't do it. We don't have the money. We've sent a billion spent a billion dollars on private school vouchers. Um OSBA has not done enough to help public schools around the fair school funding plan. Um, so this resolution has a ton of um edits to the existing uh finance plank of OSBA's platform. I'm not going to read any of

155it, but it is specific to telling them that we want them to advocate for the fair school funding plan. Anything? A motion we adopt this resolution. Second, Mr. Gayner. Mr. Heights. Yes. Miss Lewis. Yes, Mr. Serini. Yes, Mr. Trimble. Yes, Miss Krenshaw. Yes. Thank you. That is all from the official agenda. Is there any unfinished business, correspondence, announcements, things you need to get off your chest, then I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. I motion that we adjourn. I second. Mr. Gainner, Miss Lewis, yes. Mr. Serini, yes. Mr. Trimble, yes. Mr. Grenaw, yes. Mr. Heights, yes. Thank you everybody and good night and I apologize for it being