001We're going to call the meeting to call the meeting to order. Uh Mr. Buren, could you please read the role? >> Uh Mr. Balot >> here. >> Mrs. Bidder >> here. >> Mr. Gosnell >> here. >> Dr. James >> here. >> Mr. Harris >> here. If everyone could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, thank you very much. Okay, before we start our meeting, like to start it like we start every meeting with our mission and vision. So, our mission is to create a culture of academic excellence through inclusive and innovative learning opportunities for the whole child. And our vision is
002to empower all learners to reach their full potential in a globally competitive world. So our first thing is is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you Mrs. Bidder for your motion and Dr. James for your second. Mr. Buren, could you please call the role? >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I. >> Dr. James, >> I. >> Mr. Balant, >> I. >> Mr. Gno, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, >> I. All right. um agenda has been approved. All right, we're going to approve the minutes to our first meeting which was the uh work session meeting that we had last two weeks ago. Is there a motion to approve those minutes? >> I moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Balant, for your motion. Thank you, Mrs. Bidder, for your second.
003Any questions with the agenda? Anything like that? Excuse me, with the minutes. Sorry. Okay, Mr. Burson, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Balot, >> hi. >> Mrs. Bitter >> I >> Mr. Gnull >> I >> Dr. James >> I >> Mr. Harris >> I All right is a motion to approve uh approve the minutes from our special meeting on February 12th >> so moved second >> thank you Dr. James for your motion thank you Mrs. Bidder for your second any questions about those minutes >> okay Mr. Buren call the role please Dr. James >> I >> Mrs. Bidder >> I >> Mr. Mr. Balant. >> I, >> Mr. Gosnell. >> Hi, >> Mr. Harris. >> I All right. And our last set of minutes that we're going to approve is the amendments from
004our financial retreat which took place on February 14th. Is there a motion to approve those? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Balant, for your motion. Thank you, Mrs. Bidder, for your second. Any questions about those minutes? Mr. Burson, could you please call the role? Mr. Balon. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Bidder. >> I. >> Mr. Gos. >> I. >> Dr. James. >> I. >> Mr. Harris. >> I. >> All right. All right. Next thing is we have our public participation. Um, all public uh all people who want to uh publicly speak here at the meeting, you have three minutes to speak. Please state your name and your address for the record. Uh Dr. James will keep the time. I hate yelling. Just an apology beforehand. I hate saying two minutes, one minute. I
005don't mean to be rude, but we're just letting you know what your minutes are and everything like that. So, Mr. Buren. >> Sure. Uh, we do have two participants tonight. Uh, the first one, uh, Jade Stewart. >> Okay. >> She's speaking on a non-aggenda topic. >> Okay. >> Please. >> Like I said, >> okay, >> Dr. James will tell you, she'll just quietly like let you know how much time you have left. Thank you, Jade Stewart, 1805 Trail Lane, Montgomery. So, I'm here on to follow up on the topic that board member Bidder brought up at the last meeting, which is the topic of parental notice of sensitive and controversial topics in curriculum. This is something that I have been advocating very strongly for, unfortunately, to no avail for several months. It began when I
006learned four days before my fifth grader was reading a new book that covered three pages of a graphic scene of miscarriage, a bus crashing off of the scene of a mountain killing everyone and um a hanging and that caused scrambling to research this book getting such little notice. I then had extensive meetings with district administration on the topic of improving parent communication. you know, let us know in advance of topics that are controversial or curricul or um controversial or sensitive so that we have time to research them and that we can make decisions based on our parental bill of rights accordingly. Unfortunately, the product of all of those meetings was unsuccessful. The district did implement what I understand to be this module overview. However, as you can see, and I brought copies for everyone, it
007does not contain any notice of sensitive or controversial topics. The book The Westing Games was the next on the list. It contains topics of arranged marriage suicide and multiple bombings. No parental notice given whatsoever for that. So I think this is an extremely important topic. I don't I I can't I can't foresee a reason why we would not want to give parents advanced detailed notice of controversial and sensitive topics in curriculum especially new curriculum. I've heard each of you speak individually at different public sessions on the importance of transparency and communication and that's what I'm asking. So, the district does not have a protocol in place for this despite my best efforts to try to implement it. I have ideas I'm willing to share. I also would request that we look at how parents are,
008excuse me, how the children who are opted out are handled because I think that that part of our system could use improvement as well. So, I ask that this continue to be a topic of discussion. I brought the copies of the module um if you would like to see them and I appreciate board member bidder bringing this up at the last meeting and I and I'm I'm I'm not a person to give a problem without being willing to help work on the solution. My contact information is throughout my attendance here and my letter and um just I really hope we continue this discussion because I think it's extremely important for our children's education that we continue to work as a team. Thank you. >> Thank you. I >> thank you very much. Right. Uh our
009next participant is uh is Amy Shaman. >> Good evening. Amy Shaman 11 sorry 11225 Acrewood Drive um in Montgomery. So, um, thank you as always to our district leadership, staff, board members, and most especially to the teachers and staff members in the buildings who make our education system as excellent as it is. I, as uh, you all have seen, I have been attending in person and listening, watching online that you can't see since 2000, since 2022. Uh, and I thank you all for the time and resources it takes to stream these meetings. I find that extremely valuable. Um I hear you each often whether staff leadership or our board members talk about the importance of community involvement in the schools and the importance of our involvement as the public. And I really appreciate that that
010is what is desired and asked for. And that makes me question why you all have reduced the ways that public can participate in school district meetings. I understand agendas are very busy. I understand these meetings go late. I too am here and when I'm able to come in person, which is not all the time, I try my best to stay to the end because a I want to learn everything and b if I'm going to be here and make it two and a half minutes or 3 minutes longer, I I believe that I should stay. But recent decisions since I've been watching the meetings used to be able to participate via Zoom which made it possible for people without transportation, without child care, perhaps people who are living with a disability to be able to
011participate in meetings. That was removed. I realized not not super recently. And now you all have made the decision to have a public meeting and a working meeting. So now out of the two meetings a month, only one are people able to participate if they have child care, if they happen to have children in their home, if they're able to get here, if they're able, you know, all of the things that go on with that. So I hope that you consider that. I realize there's a lot of mixed agendas. Thank you. Um, a separate comment, and this is one that I've shared with you all via email. Um, I uh encourage the board to consider doing what CPS has done in terms of publicly affirming carefully publicly affirming that all members of this community matter
012and that the safety and protection of all our students matter. I realize that some see this as a political statement and that that's one of the reasons I was told nothing is going to be publicly said. Um, I would ask you all to realize that your silence is a public and political statement. And not saying that there are multiple ways to understand what is happening in our society and that we value our students who may find it very threatening to come to school is in itself saying that you that this district supports what is happening. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. We appreciate you speaking, both of you speaking today. All right. Uh we're going to move on to the uh superintendent's agenda. >> I don't think we need to vote on that, do
013we? Am I missing that? >> Uh I don't Mrs. Lawson, are we uh seeking a vote on the calendar tonight or is this just another read of the calendar? I put it up for second read in case there was any discussion that you would like to engage in or if in case there was anything that you wanted to invite the public to provide feedback on. >> I will say I've only received one email and it's just anxiously awaiting your approval. No feedback, just I think people like to be able to schedule their vacations and time off and so they're just waiting for your approval. But I haven't received any feedback. I don't know if anyone >> from my office has >> I I did have one question if Can you open it up for us,
014Christian? >> Um I I was just curious. This is this is probably like an HR in-house thing, but the difference between like a a teacher record day, a teacher work day, a professional learning day, like those are all categorized as slightly different things. >> What is that? >> Mr. Mr. Gos, I wish you I feel like we have to explain this every year. So, it's you're not the only one that's confused because >> no matter how many times we send this out, >> it's a a topic of discussion. So, um I would just say there are different contractual days that we are obligated to provide. Um currently, and Mr. Love will jump in if I'm incorrect, but teacher records days have been a past practice of the district. they're not contractually obligated. Um, and and
015a teacher records day is really for our teachers to get caught up and get grades put in and and kind of end the quarter appropriately and it we call them no contact days for us because they're essentially our staff getting those things accomplished um and making sure that things are done. I think there are two in the >> one at the end of every quarter. Okay. So, three uh I know there's not one at the end of the last quarter for >> the first, second, and third on the >> first, second, and third. There are those. And then we have your other questions. Teacher work days are just days that are required to work. Um where you know they may be doing stuff in something to at the beginning of the calendar, it's preparing for
016the year. At the end of the year, it's kind of closing up the classroom and kind of preparing for that end of the year work. So um again those are typically when I say teacher work days they vary but most of them again are non-cont no meetings with district personnel or administration but uh there are a few at the beginning that are more instead of teacher workday they are um professional learning days where there is engagement uh with our team and our administrative team and engaging in a learning process. So, um, as we mentioned at our last, I think our last time we talked about the calendar, our we we staffed up for the professional learning days because we had new curriculum and we felt the need to um, help our teachers with the new
017curriculum and now it's starting to come back down. So, we're adding instructional days back to the calendar. So kudos to Miss Lawson and her team that looks at the calendar, the calendar committee because um it takes a lot. People think it's all it's just so easy to put together a calendar. It is not. Uh with all the challenges and feedback that you get from you know various people throughout the district and you know we try to do our best to take in all the feedback but you know everyone's personal feedback of where they would like a vacation makes it difficult to you know craft a calendar. So we try to craft it around what we think is best instructionally for the learners in our district. But great questions. >> Mrs. Lawson, can you um remind
018the board of the process also that working with um our educators um with our with both of our unions to be able to collaborate on the schedule too just for the benefit of the board and the community. >> I'd be happy to. So, when Chad alluded to the calendar committee that's comprised of um Brad and myself and then members from our teacher association and um we meet monthly at the very start of the year um and we gather feedback um from teachers um as well as any feedback that we've heard from the community and um are careful to ensure that we are holding to as many instructional days that we think um are needed uh for our students to to learn at optimal levels along with that which is needed to ensure that we are
019providing staff with the support and time that they need to continue to provide a really high quality education for our kids. >> Thank you. >> Just for I guess for the public, how many readings do we usually go through before we actually approve the calendar? Just so people I know people have had opportunities to comment and different things like that. What is that usually? >> Um it's been three in the past. Um sometimes two. Um so I kept it at two at three just in case um you needed more time with the public to review it. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Have any board members heard anything from the community? Any other things to weigh in on? >> I have not. I have not heard anything either, but >> okay. Thank you. Thank you, Miss
020Lawson. And it's everybody's favorite part of the evening, ladies and gentlemen. >> Let's talk a little policy. >> I'll keep it level I'll keep it brief. It should be pretty easy here. So, we have a first read for policy um for um 34301, which is our FMLA leave. This was not a part of the batch first reads that we had previously because we needed some time to actually look at our current FMLA policies. Now, while most of FMLA is federally driven in regards to compliance and what have you, um we just wanted to make sure that what was in the policy was our acting practice within the system. And so, um we've got that on there for you. And there's not a copy of the policy on here as standard with our first reads for
021the Nola transition. Uh folks can email us if they desire a copy of that draft and then um we'll bring that forward for a second read at a later meeting. >> Want me to keep going? Okay. All right. Um >> for that one, can you is there anything that any specific highlights that you feel like we should know that are very different than what we have currently or do you feel it's a very similar policy? >> A very similar policy. In fact, that's what I need to know. >> We were glad to see that we were clearly aligned with everything that was in the policy. Yeah, we're good. >> Um I I will say that um in education, in public education, FMLA is a little bit different um because in um most of the time
022our classified staff and exempt staff have to work a certain number of hours in order to be eligible for FMLA, but teachers through a higher revised code are automatically eligible for FMLA day one. And so there are some things within the system that we have to do a little bit different, but it doesn't skirt the law. We're still operating under the law. So we just wanted to double check how we're engaging with our staff and the things that we're doing were in line and we are. Yep. Uh okay. So um we have our second read of 1,00. Um are there any questions from the board about these policies? And again, this is just our standard transition. Just as a reminder, there's no approval. These will all go for the batch approval come summer. And I
023it's important to note as well um I guess as many times as I can say this these policies many of them will have accompanying um administrative guidelines that will follow them. And so um that's another layer of work that we'll be doing. Um and so as we start to look at these policies and then define how do we do that in practice here in the district um that will be a team approach by our team as we go forward. Um but this is that first step of the process. >> Mr. Lavo, I I know that we have talked about this but I I can't remember what the answer was. Does the board approve the administrative guidelines? Yeah. So, we're going to I I've been working with um our NEOLA representative on that to understand how
024other districts kind of um work through that process. There's nothing saying the board can approve the guidelines, but I don't believe the board has to approve the guidelines because you're approving the policy. The guidelines are simply how our administrative team is executing those policies within the district. Um, what I would imagine is that our policy committee um can have a really good conversation as we head into the later months of the of the spring here about what do we desire to do at Sycamore. Um, if we believe that that's a good move for our district to have that approval by the board. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Um, but they wouldn't have to go through the first read second read process. We could define whatever we believe that process would be. But
025I did want to bring back to the policy committee I think at the next committee. I believe we talked about this at the last one. Um really kind of from our Neil representative what other districts do with the guidelines and how they approach it. >> That work >> work. >> Okay. >> And on just on that same topic once the are are the policies um approved first and then the guidelines are written or how does that work with? >> Yeah. So we're going to go ahead and approve the policy so we can get the patch policies done and then we're going to work on the administrative guidelines. Niola provides administrative guidelines. So it's not that we have to develop these from scratch. We're basically just going to do the similar process we're doing with our
026policy, but then we're going to customize those a little bit more to match how we do things. Many the probably a good amount of the guidelines will match just how we should be doing things. And so it's going to be very easy to implement those. And there are other things like um our our speaker had mentioned earlier that there might be things in Sycamore that we desire to do different that we want to put in those guidelines because that's um something of interest to the community or to the board to make sure we call out those specific things and that's what we want to capture. >> And then I'm assuming that Nola looks at the guideline to make sure it aligns with the policy. That's also part of their service. Right. >> Correct. And that's
027why um they draft them through their attorneys and provide them to us. Now um they're go I would imagine and I haven't done this work so I don't want to speak like I'm an expert on it but I would imagine it would be very similar to the policy that we get it and they say these things have to stay you can change or customize these areas in there. Similar actually to what they did with the um artificial intelligent policy. Um they kind of said here's the big chunk here are the things you can keep. However you want to kind of do this work, you can fill in what you want here. And so I assume it'll be very similar to that. >> I was going to say too as a starting point uh 1230.01 the
028development administrative guidelines that that policy kind of serves as like a starting block >> um because it has language about um the board delegating to the superintendent the function administrative guidelines shall not be inconsistent with policies adopted by the board. So there there's like the initial language is is there to >> Yeah. And and that's in our current and that is in our current policy too. It's just we didn't have our administrators didn't have Niola to create the guidelines. They had to create them themselves. But we have the same policy right now in our board policies as stands. Yes. I mean it's not verbatim that same level but but it's literally telling you to create procedures which you have done >> and if you all remember this was the really the leading charge to move
029to Neola is because these guidelines are so rich and it creates consistency across the district with the policy. So I'm I'm looking forward to it. We just have to get through this work first. Not that this isn't exciting but that will be really exciting. All right, that was very thorough um examples and thank you. >> You're very welcome. >> We have various definitions of excitement. >> We do. >> Yeah. >> So, >> yeah. All right. Okay. Um I think our next thing on the agenda is Oh, I'm sorry. This is on you. I'm taking your job, Mr. Lewis. >> All right. We'll jump in. >> All right. So, this is approval for a Chromebook P uh purchase. Um, is there a motion to approve? I moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Balot, for your
030motion. Thank you, Mrs. Bidder, for your second. >> Mr. Long, >> I'm sure Long Mr. Long's going to have a comment. >> Yes, >> I won't steal any of his thunder. I'll let him do it. >> Speaking of exciting things, Chromebooks are very exciting in my world. Um, yeah. So, this is our two things. our annual purchase for fifth and nth grade students uh is one of the quotes that you see here. The second one is on our refresh cycle for our our elementary grades. We're up for grade two this year. Um so that's what you see for the two of these. It is our current enrollment and then um we do increase by about six or 7% just to cover for newly enrolled students or any damages that might come through. Last thing I
031would say is I appreciate you u moving this up. We did move this up. Um it was supposed to be for next July 1 purchase out of next fiscal year. Um as you may know uh there are increased prices in technology world because of AI chips are becoming much more expensive. These devices um if we were to wait even a month or two uh we'd probably be paying north of$1red to $150,000 more for the total order. So I went to Mr. bur and said, "Hey, I think it's a good idea if we just move funds up a few months to save over $100,000." We got other quotes on uh comparable devices and they were all um $110,000 more than what we're paying here. So, I appreciate you um considering this and approving this so we
032can get our devices in, get them early, and not have to pay the increased cost. >> Good job. Thanks for >> Thank you for being proactive. All right. Any more questions? All right. Mr. Buring, could you please call the RO? Uh, >> Mr. Ballot, >> I. >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I. >> Mr. Gosnell, >> I. >> Dr. James, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, >> I. All right. Uh, we have a motion for some um overnight field trips. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mrs. Bidder, for your motion. Thank you, Dr. James, for your second. All right. anything we need to know about these Mr. I just appreciate you understanding that things happen between board meetings and obviously we cannot stop our diving team from going to state at in Canton. So that obviously
033that's a retroactive approval but we felt confident that um we would be able to send them and uh our swim team is heading there tomorrow. So uh good luck to all of our swimmers and divers at the state meet. We have a lot of kids going to state this year. Good thing. Yes, it is good thing. All right. Uh, Mr. Burson, could you please call the role? Uh, >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I. >> Dr. James, >> I. >> Mr. Balant, >> I. >> Mr. Gosnell, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, >> I. >> All right. Uh, the next thing we know, we have a uh uh talk about a sister city trip uh delegate trip uh for Ashley Marinich. Uh Mr. Lewis, you want to give us a little background on this, please? >> Yeah. I
034just uh I want to recommend the approval of Mrs. Marinich to she's a Sycamore Junior High teacher to attend the sister city trip as a representative of Sycamore schools with the city of Blue Ash. The city of Blue Ash covers this trip. Um the reason that I'm bringing it forward uh for your consideration is that u talking with Mrs. Wessonorf Wartman. Um the only way that u we could allow Mrs. Marinage to go would be if board the board approves uh her ability to go. Um, I know we've talked about this in the past. Um, and just consulting legal. You approving it basically allows Mrs. Marinich to be able to go and for the city to cover the cost and it not be any kind of violation of ethics law. Um, so again talking with
035Mrs. Wesondorf Wartman, that's why we're bringing it forward. Mrs. Marinich is going to come back in June u to talk to the board about what she learned uh on the trip and you know how she believes that this was a benefit to uh Sycamore schools. The reason they asked for Mrs. Marin, she works closely with the parks and wreck department. um I think in her own personal life and they felt like that deep connection plus being a school personnel would be a rich experience for not only the people of Ilman Germany but also for uh her as a Sycamore schools employee. So um just again talking with our legal counsel I don't have any concerns based on her recommendation and seeking the board approval. Do you know when the trip is? >> Gosh, I I
036do not recall. Um I do know that we're going to grant um Mrs. Marinus some professional days to be able to go. Um but I do not recall. I want to say um I'm not going to guess. I can look it up while we're sitting here if that's >> I I remember this topic. Um what was the issue was if we paid for it or if it what was the what was the issue before is this >> I think the issue previously was members of this board or administration going and having it covered could be perceived as a use of your position um to benefit and that would be an ethics violation, but Mrs. Marinage doesn't stand to benefit because the board is permitting her to go. >> Okay. And then the co the cost
037is fully um supplied by Blue Ash and that she's not getting paid as a teacher during that time. She can take her own time off for that. >> We're giving her professional leave to go because we will reap the benefits of the information that she is receiving. But again, talking with Mrs. Wendonorf Wartman. She did not see any issues with it. >> Okay. >> As long as the board approved it. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. >> All right. Uh so we need a motion uh to approve uh our sister city delegate Ashley Marinich. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Uh thank you Dr. James for your motion. Thank you Mr. Gosnell for your second. >> Mr. Bson, could you call the role please? >> Dr. James >> I. >> Mr. Gno >> I. >> Mr.
038Balance. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Bidder. >> I >> Mr. Harris. >> I >> All right. And is there any other business? >> The only thing I was going to mention just back on the sister city thing for a minute, this has been a long-standing tradition with Sycamore Schools and City of Blue Ash. So, like, and when I say long-standing tradition, I know for numerous years there were multiple, you know, staff members. I think what was great about our team is we just want to do it right and make sure we're being uh protective of our staff member and protecting, you know, the school district. So, and protecting the city. So, I commend everybody for, you know, questions and just, you know, let's whenever we have these situations come up, we just want to make sure
039we do it right. So, >> and Mr. I want to say thank you for doing your due diligence and thank you for for following doing all that work on behalf of the board and the district because that is really valuable. Thank you. >> Critically important. Uh the other stuff um not that you know it's funny it's under other but it's all these important stuff right? Um Mr. Balon are you going to cover the AES Foundation because if so I'll skip that. >> Yep. >> Um this morning I had a cool opportunity. I went to um I went with Mr. Podab. We drove down to watch uh I believe six of our orchestra students participate at Music Hall uh with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. It was amazing. Um and not only did we have six students
040on stage, we had the entire fourth grade from the district there listening, we had all sixth grade orchestra students there. I think it was all sixth grade, maybe in fifth and sixth grade. There were 200 green school students there and then um there were some of our high school musicians there to listen as well and along with a lot of our um orchestra staff members. So, thank you to Dr. Santangelo, Mr. Otto, Mrs. Kennedy, uh Mr. Lewis, Dr. Ewing for making those opportunities possible because that doesn't happen for every school district. We had five of the 25 buses there. So, that tells you how much uh we do for the arts. Um, congratulations to winter athletes as you're finishing up your uh seasons. I hope uh we hope for lots of championships for all of
041you. Um, so we're rounding out that season and I do know that spring sports have already started. This is the week of tryyouts. So, good luck to all of our spring athletes. State swimmers. We just had a send off today. We have 17 swimmers going to state. Um so we will get to hear more about their accomplishments. We will keep our fingers crossed for some state champions. Uh junior high play starts tomorrow, The Descendants. So Thursday, Friday, Saturday at the junior high theater. Uh just want to thank Mrs. Tomkins and the entire um teaching and learning staff, Mrs. Lawson, they put on an incredible professional learning day February 13th um Friday the 13th. Um didn't have that kind of vibe though. It was a lot of love. There was not a lot of, you know,
042concern over Friday the 13th. There was a lot of love and there was a lot of energy in the building. And Dr. James, I know that you had a chance to stop by. I'm not sure if any others did, but we really appreciate your investment in you guys like caring about that. That's a big day for their team and making sure the learning is relevant for everyone. Um, and I think everybody could find something on the schedule that they really wanted to catch. So, um, and really appreciate all the presenters and all the people that invest um, in that. Um, I would encourage all of you if you get a chance to um, we have a group of junior high students that meet called sources of strength and they're always looking for trusted adults to
043come in and do a session with them. Um, and I'm looking down the row here. I know I think Megan and Brad are signed up for a session. Christian and I did one today. I think Christian and Jessica did one together. Mr. Guttermouth and Mrs. Spencer did one together. They love having various people come in from all walks of life and just be a part. And basically, you sit down at a table, you meet with them about a topic for about 15 minutes, and then you play, you bring a game for 15 to 20 minutes. Um, and you better step up your game, people. If you're going to do it, it's got to be a fun game. You know, Mr. Long and I, we had a rousing family feud style game today, and it was,
044we were using white paddles. They're holding up answers. It was >> we had the room rocking today. So, but they're so much fun. They're so engaged and these are the future leaders of our high school. Um and and they're amazing uh students. So, if you get that opportunity, uh Mrs. Deon and Mrs. Proctctor uh lead that group and you can connect with them or I can connect you with them. If you would like to sign up, just let me know. Um, and I'd be happy to be your trusted partner with you and we can step up our games together if any of you would like to go. Um, I wanted to give you one piece of feedback that I heard uh from our retreat and then I'm going to read you something that's another good
045news item and then I'm finished. Um, the piece of feedback that I got from the retreat came from one of our staff members that was at the retreat and they said, "Do you guys always call each other like Mr. So ando or Dr. Soando?" And I was like, well, we do that for board meetings. And he's like, I just want to tell you how perceived from my standpoint. It's like you guys don't like each other. >> And I thought, man, that if that's the perception we're giving off just by using like Mr. Harris, like I don't know that we need to use formal titles unless we all believe that that's required for a board meeting. So just an outside perspective of someone that was their first time being with us. He was like, "It just
046felt very impersonal and like you guys don't like each other." And I said, "Well, that couldn't be further from the truth." But it's a great piece of feedback for us to consider as we go forward. Like I think we've all just been trained to do it versus just calling each other by our first names. So if we decide to make that adjustment, I think it'll be an adjustment period for us to get used to it. But just a piece of feedback from an attendee that heard it and shared his feedback with me. So, um, last thing I wanted to read to you. This is pretty awesome. I just got this in the mail today. Um, Chad, on behalf of See, Chad, on behalf of all of us at the Dragonfly Foundation, thank you and the
047entire Sycamore High School community for your continued support through Fashion for the Cure. Over the past 12 years, your student, staff, and community have raised more than $700,000 in support of Dragonfly Families um fighting pediatric cancer. That level of sustained commitment is truly extraordinary. Please extend our heartfelt thanks uh to everyone involved in making this year's Fashion for the Cure such a success. We are deeply grateful for your partnership and are proud to be part of the long-standing tradition. With sincere appreciation, Mike, chairman of the board, the Dragonfly Foundation. Um the good news is you will have an opportunity to thank um the organizers of uh Fashion for the Cure. We are going to have them come to a board meeting and be recognized. Um they raised nearly $125,000 this year on a goal of
048$100,000. So, uh, you can imagine the emotion after the show, um, of how much they care deeply about this work and the the young people that are doing this are amazing and and the things that they do to raise funds and they're already starting uh, for 2027. So, um, I just wanted to share that they will be coming to a meeting. We'll have a chance to thank them and, you know, we're looking for some other ways to thank them for their extraordinary efforts. But from Mike, from the chairman of the board, that was pretty impressive just to hear that number. 700,000. >> Thank you, Chad. >> You're welcome, Victor. >> Okay. Uh, next thing you know, uh, we need a motion to approve the, uh, personnel consent agenda. >> So moved. Second. >> Thank you,
049Dr. James, for your motion. Thank you, Mrs. Bidder, for your second. Before we take a role, just uh from an administrative standpoint, I think on the leave of absence for the first person, I think you have the dates wrong. >> It says it starts uh 11:8. Correct. That will be 2626. >> It'd be Yeah. 118 2025. Yep. Thank you. I just want to make sure we correct that before we Thank you so much. All right. Any more questions? Mr. Persian, call the role, please. >> I feel like I will call the role, not maybe not using your first names if that's okay. >> Uh, Dr. James, >> I. >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I. >> Mr. Balon, >> I. >> Mr. Gosnell, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, >> I. All right. Uh now we're going to
050come to the uh treasurer's agenda and uh the uh financial forecast presentation. So Mr. Buren, you're on. All right. I feel I'm feel like I was just in front of you a couple weeks ago um for the financial retreat. Um I will just go ahead and preface this with information I did share with the board um before that financial retreat that due to the timing of receiving that February update and working with our consultants um that update was received on February 2nd and kind of prefaced the financial uh retreat with nothing material will be being changed um just at a a once over but after the the deep dive we'll go over some updates for that still um we'll So one of the Senita moved a little bit but not in the grand scheme of
051things with the with the expenditure cap uh growth. All right. So the financial forecast start off with just what is the financial forecast. We like to be open to the public about what that financial forecast is, what it does, um if it's mandated. So the financial forecast only includes the general fund. So if it only includes general general fund, what other funds are we excluding? Um, so we have our student activity funds, our 200 level funds that are not included in uh the 5-year forecast um or the financial forecast. It's an updated name. Uh we have our athletic funds uh the 300 level and some student activity accounts are in there such as theater. Um the overall athletic account is not in there. Um you'll see that the federal grants are not in there. Although
052the federal grants do impact the the general fund because some of that funding um we may otherwise have to pay for from the general fund if we didn't get u federal funding for it. And there's there's some state grants also that we do get some funding on um that we could potentially see that flow over into the general fund if we didn't necessarily get that funding. though it does include the general fund and only uh the general fund debt. So, couple notes here uh that we've that we pointed out previously in the October update. Um we pointed out that there were going to be some maturities. Um one of the energy conservation bonds matured in December of 25 along with the district office bonds and the blue ash debt uh matured December of 25. So,
053and that's that's uh also relayed in or that's portrayed in the forecast as well. Um, what does the forecast do? So, historically before House Bill 96, what it did was it took three past years of actuals and projected out five years. That's not changing for us and a lot of school districts around the state of Ohio, they're still going to project out five years. But what the House Bill 96 did is it went with the current year projections plus three years, which pretty much is a four-year forecast instead of a five-year forecast. Um, and it's just used as a uh long range planning tool. It's a snapshot in time. And along with uh the change in the length that's projected, the um House Bill 96 did switch it from a November May forecast to an
054August February with the caveat of the first year of implementation FY26. We did do the October update and uh now we're just doing the February update. So we're kind of hitting a new cadence in um how we're going to presenting the forecast and just the timing of it. Um a lot of the treasures are trying to get used to that the new cadence of August and February over the May and November just to see how um the best information to present at that time. Right. Things that uh that have impacted the 5-year forecast in a lot of districts in Ohio. Um I'm just going to touch briefly on these three on this slide. Uh House Bill 129. Um it's going to what it does is for for the 20 mil floor it does not um
055it actually is going to include the emergency levies and fix some levies in that calculation. Sycamore doesn't have to worry about that. We don't have any emergency levies in place. House Bill 186. This is going to apply to only 20 floor districts. Um, and it has to do with setting an inflationary cap and how that's going to play into once a district reaches the 20 year 20 mil floor. Um, how that's going to limit their growth. For Sycamore, that's not going to matter to us. We're not on the we're not on the 20 mil floor right now. Our effective millage rate that applies to the floor uh to the floor is 25.6. seven mills. I actually think it's 25.66 to be exact. Um so, uh the piggyback refunds, um the Hamilton County Commissioners did not
056take action on this. So, what it did, um it was going to give property owners, um almost a doubling up of the owner occ owner occupied credits and the homestead exemption if both of those would have been moved on by the Hamilton County Commissioners. Um they they could have picked one or the other or both. Um but hang with the county just didn't take any action. There was no vote or anything like that. They just didn't act in uh which was a vote in essence if they didn't do it. All right. So the legislation that does affect uh does affect sycamore is the inflationary cap or the deflator on the inside millage. We talked about this in the financial retreat on exactly what is the deflator? Um, it's really just it what what this bill
057does is is it takes a three-year history of inflation and it caps our growth on our inside millage to that deflator. Uh, so if you had, you know, inflation was uh 3.2% each year. So you got a a sum of those three years of 9.6. Um, it's going to cap our growth at that 9.6. So what what we did in our model was we went ahead and um we just set that we set our growth to 9% um overall on our property taxes. It was previously 11%. And what that does is just that's going to restrict us to the 9% without having to get too far into the weeds on on the calculation. Um and so what does that mean for Sycamore? So a huge chunk of this 2.6 6 million is due to House
058Bill 335, not all of it. So, some of it's going to be um so we now have what the what the assessed value is going to be from 2025 that's going to be collected in 2026. Um, so some things that affect that are maybe border revision, um, you know, appeals, you know, um, if if if you have a homeowner that feels their property value is is is out of line with where, uh, uh, the county may have it, they have the right to file an appeal and go through that process, same as businesses. Um, so some of that right there we're seeing we're seeing actuals where in October we were we were projecting what the assessed value was going to be, but now we actually have the rates and the assessed value. Um, and is
059there going to be future property tax reform that's going to impact um our forecast going forward? The forecast is a living breathing document. I mean, something that we have to we have to continually um refer back to um with with all of our changes with with staffing um with our facilities. We always want to refer back to this 5-year forecast to see what we're capturing, just make sure we're trending properly. Um we've got property tax reform um that's going to continually shape how schools are funded. Um, one example is some new um, some new legislation. House Bill 420 has been introduced uh, to the House Ways and Means Committee. And what that one is going to do, it's not going to the extreme of of eliminating property taxes like there there is there is the
060discussion out there, but what House Bill 420 is going to do um is going to eliminate our continuing levies and it's going to and what it what it wants to do is to eliminate those continuing levies by um FY29, FY30. So, it's it's really just been introduced. There's some discussion going around about and and and what it will mean is that when those expire, school districts are um the route of getting those recontinuing for a certain certain fixed fixed amount of time is to go back in front of the voters again. So right now our effective millage outside of bonds is 25.7. What that would mean is there's going to be a stagger of um those actually expiring. Then you have to go back on there and you can only list it. It would then
061limit it to a unspecified number of years yet and then you have to go back to the voter. So it's going to really mean that we're going to have to continually go back if that one gains any traction. um it's just been introduced, but just to call out there what we're dealing with with property tax reform. All right, so this this forecast in review, the October forecast, what it did was it showed us falling below the cash minimum requirement goal of 25% in FY28. With the updated forecast, it shows us falling below that in FY27. um it's going to be late in FY27 whereas the October forecast showed us it's probably it was going to be somewhere in the I would say the first first third or halfway through FY28. Um so there's that. We'll
062we'll touch a little bit uh more on that later on in the presentation. Uh the district predicted to experience cash deficit still in FY30. That's not changed. And just to just to um I guess reemphasize the importance of that. What that means that if we fall below a negative cash in our current year, we are in fiscal emergency and that's when the state comes in and they don't give you an option. They come in and they they work with the leadership, work with the board on developing an action plan um to get us out of fiscal emergency. So that's what that looks like. if that continues to creep up on us. Um if it does creep up on us in year three, there's fiscal watch and then fiscal caution in year four. Uh so that's
063what we want to keep our eyes on and that's the importance of continuing to model a five-year forecast in uh so at the October 8th meeting uh the board of education did adopt the 3 and a half% um 5-year growth expenditure cap uh from FY26 to FY30. Um and that's that was just done you know the board pick action to really uh do its due diligence on maintaining those expenditures. Um because as we know that you know revenue tends to be steady uh for school districts but those expenditures really fall off the cliff or you know go over the mountain top whichever way you're going to look at it. Um they so the board of education did just want to go ahead and uh they had adopted that. Um and so we thank you for
064taking that action. Uh we've been talking about a new new lever request um and calendar year 2026. So the last operating levy uh November um some of the options considering a combination permanent improvement um and operating levy or an earned income tax. to dive a little bit deeper into the February forecast. Um what this did was uh for oh sorry the difference from the October to the February forecast just shows a negative uh that negative cash balance growing from uh 111.6 to you know3.6 in that fifth year. Um some things that have impacted that um we'll say the impact positively was the state funding increase. Since October we've modeled and shown in the monthly update that we anticipated getting more than what we actually had projected. Uh some of that is due well most of
065that is due to uh the state offering some supplements. There's a base funding supplement, an enrollment growth supplement and a performance growth or a per performance supplement. um in FY29 and FY30, we backed those. We backed the enrollment um supplement out. We do anticipate that, you know, the state historically hasn't just taken money back. They've just repackaged it. Um the enrollment growth and the performance. is kind of a repackaging of leading into the the next bullet point is the fair school funding is going to be 100% phased in in FY27 but the cost inputs were not updated. So in essence there's no there's no growth there. Um so the repackaging of not fully updating the inputs is the enrollment growth and the performance supplemental which the point of the fair school funding uh formula and
066the work group was to um hopefully move towards um funding becoming becoming more predictable uh for districts and to not um have to repackage anything. just if they would if they would update the cost inputs I saw then then they wouldn't have to uh potentially supplement districts with those base funding enrollment and performance uh supplements. So the forecast update for expenditures um wages the the October forecast uh predicted about a 1.9% increase from FY25 um with with what we saw in working with with our consultants um is that the February forecast we're going to anticipate a 3.3% increase from FY25. This is falling what I believe is more in line with um what we're you know what we should see due to responsible staffing. Um and if you look if you if you look in
067the financial forecast itself you're going to see that on line 3.01 01 in the expenditures our uh personnel services that over the last three fiscal years the average growth has been 5.7%. Um so this is even with moving it to 3.3% uh expected over FY25 it's still going to fall below that average. Um and that's that's that's a significant update that we've made. um or the benefits. Um the October forecast may have been a little bit aggressive on what we was going to see as far as the expenditures um savings for benefits, but with actually with with with seeing the full um benefit picture in January with that 9% increase that we that we experience on medical dental and anybody newly enrolling in our medical and dental benefits. Um, we've actually increased that to an
0688 to it's going to be about a 8.4% increase from FY25. Um, so in working with our consultants, that's where we felt best it was it was going to going to land on what we projected. Um, and making sure that it lined up with our model. Um, >> Mr. Mr. B, can you go back to wages and and help me understand why, you know, I know you said responsible staffing, but to me, responsible staffing should make the number go lower, not higher. Um, so why what's the difference between October to February, we're where we're seeing this increase in in wages? So I believe the modeling or the October forecast may have been a little bit too conservative or or too too aggressive in the savings from the responsible staffing um model. We're we're far enough
069along in the year that where we where where we have the history of what we projected for each month was going to be for um you know for October, November and December and I believe that just just those projections were a little bit low. Um, >> so with wages being roughly 75 80% between wages and benefits, are you concerned that this now being 3.3% that it's going to impact the board's financial parameters? >> Uh, no. I am I'm not and I' I've got a slide to to show you for that the what um and I can I can skip ahead a little bit for that. For what that means is in the October forecast we were um projecting it was a 2.89% 89% average growth. Now it's going to be a 2.91% average growth when
070we take into account the additional funding that we're getting um from the state and even with the reduction in property tax revenue over the uh life of the forecast through FY30. So we the needle doesn't move much on that. Um >> the board parameters are around expenditures not revenue. >> Yes. Exactly. And and so so when we do um when I modeled out the expenditure growth, um what it was doing, it was getting us us back to a more getting us back to closer to where we um I believe we should have been from the October forecast. It may have just been too a little bit too too aggressive in how much we were going to see in savings from that. Um, but again, I have a slide coming up that'll that'll be able to
071show you what that actually looks like from the expenditure growth standpoint. >> Mr. Burson, if you don't mind, I might add as well, and again, I don't I'm I'm not in these numbers like Mr. Buren is, but there is another contributing factor when you look at what the savings might be is that we also move teachers in the fall on the horizontal scale as well. We don't aren't able to predict that. meaning if a teacher is um taking more coursework um they're able to move from a bachelor's to a master's to a master's 45 and the deadline is October 1st on that and then we retro that money back as well and again that's not a lot of employees but that is employees that will get a bump in their pay as well and so
072again that happens again now March 1st and then that goes retro back to January and again we're collecting all of those but it's very unpredictable because you just don't know where teachers are in their course work. So just to add just a >> Mhm. >> note that then that you know thanks for bringing that to our attention bra because that is definitely going to impact the wages as well. >> Well I do have one there is is just what Mr. Long also you know talked about about the Chromebook purchase. Um we increased FY26 the transfer um in the forecast to the 4.7 million um and decreased FY27 to the 3.6 six, just to make sure we're capturing that transfer that's done a year earlier to to, you know, make sure we get that $100,000 savings
073on the Chromebooks. All right, this is a this is a new a new cash flow trend um graph. There's there's been one that we've been using, but I felt like throwing a new one uh a new model up there that just goes back to the actuals in 23. Um, again, it's going to show our expenditures continuing to grow. That dotted line there is where we should be, and you'll see where cash in FY27 just dips below um the board's parameter of the 25%. >> This is this assumes no new levy. >> This is assuming no new levy. Yes. And and you bring up a great point because I I've I've asked around some districts do model um in their forecast a levy just to show um how much it's going to take to bring that
074year five up to where it um you know is is not a negative cash balance. Um it's kind of it's kind of um board preference on on if if they want to model that levy and just to just for the purposes of showing what year five what it would take to bring it up. Um >> I I p personally don't like modeling something that the community hasn't approved. >> Exactly. And and and that's the that's the approach that we've been taking. Um but just in talking with some other districts, they do they do kind of show it that way. And just so I understand, you're saying that some districts model it in their five-year forecasts like every time just to or just >> just to show the importance, I guess, to the community that in
075year five if if some action isn't taken. Um so it's it's really just preference. Um because if you're going to model it and you're going to you're going to state in the forecast what it takes to bring you up um to having a positive cash balance. And if you don't model it and you're just simply going to state, well, if we have, you know, we're expecting no new money, uh, no new funds, then in year five, we're going to have the negative cash balance. >> Thank you. >> Well, at some point you will show that, but for this >> Yes. Um, I I am going to touch a little bit on what we did model from the financial retreat. Um in just in just a couple slides it's going to show kind of what we
076talked about modeling from the financial retreat just so the um I know that we didn't have very many members of the public u they to attend the financial retreat but since this is being recorded um and to get that presentation out there and to let them know just just a few of the examples of what we talked about on uh the 14th Mr. Balance. So, this is this right here is going to model with the increase in expenditures um what that looks like now in the in the 5-year forecast. Um you see it's 2.9 2.91% now on the average growth and 2.89% previously. All right. All right. So, now we are going to move on to a little bit about what we what we talked about during the financial retreat. Um, our permanent improvement needs.
077So, right now the district only transfers 4.1 million annually to the PI fund. Um, we did engage with Four Seasons and Bradley Payne early in FY25 uh to kind of project what our needs were. They went out to our buildings. They work with our staff um who are the experts of our building and they developed a plan on what the actual needs were. These aren't luxury items. These aren't um you know the wants. These are these are going to be our needs for the district. Um and what it showed was that our transfer just to meet our needs uh averages about $5.4 million annually. At the retreat, we talked about the levy timing and factions and schools have two options for additional revenue uh request. One being an earned income tax or districts could do
078a traditional a traditional income tax. Uh a lot of districts don't have success in um you know pursuing that. So, we've pretty much just brought forward um what does an earned income tax look for look like for Sycamore schools. Um 1% is going to generate about $18.8 million annually. And what we kind of modeled here in a couple slides is with um like FY29 anticipating a 2% growth and then stretching that out and see what it looks like because we would I think be safe to assume that wages are going to continue, you know, continually increase. Uh so we did want to kind of model that sum with a conservative figure of 2%. Uh and so for the earned income tax going be um it applies to employee compensation and net earnings from self-employment. What
079it doesn't capture is retirement income um interest dividends capital gains and unemployment uh property tax. So it's based on millage one point or sorry 1 mil is going to generate about $2.8 8 million annually for the district. We had previously been modeling 6.5 mills, but due to the updated forecast and due to uh the assessed valuation being a little bit lower than what we anticipated and with House Bill 335, those 6.5 mills are only going to generate 18.3 million where in the October forecast it generated 18.7. Um and just forformational purposes and what we did kind of model here going forward is what does seven mills look like? Uh 7 mills is uh roughly set 19.7 million annually. Um and here on this chart to the right you can see where our effective millage rates
080are compared to our neighboring districts and and those districts that we compare ourselves to. So we are on the lower end for our effective millillage. Um and that effective millage does include uh the two bond funds or two two bond levies that we do have. So the property tax levying kind of what we touched about the financial retreat is what are some of the pros? Um it's historical. Uh Sycamore has the norm of utilizing property tax levies to increase revenue. We have a history of failing one levy. Um, and it was during a May, sorry, it was during an August, um, special election. Um, I think it failed by like only passed like 39%. So, another pro of the property tax is the full collection is not as delayed as the earned income tax. Um,
081and it's a steady stream of revenue. Cons, we've already talked about property tax reform. It's not going away. Um there's going to be continual developments on property tax reform and what kind of relief can property tax owners get? Um so pointed out now the ask is more due to reform. Um and there's really voter uncertainty um around property taxes. Um you know with the with the amendment to abolish property taxes in general. Um there's just uncertainty about what that means. So the earned income tax uh pros it's not tied to property tax reform. Steady stream of revenue grows with the economy. Um can feel more equitable for for renter u sorry for renters um in the area. you know, renters, they they may in some shape or fashion get passed on property taxes. Um, if
082they're happen to, you know, whether it be um in a building or, you know, renting the home, it's probably going to get relayed to them some. Um, so it does not apply to residents on a fixed or retirement income. Um, and earned income taxes are gaining more traction around the state. one-third of Ohio schools have earned an an earned income tax. Um, so there's just continual interest in that. I know that uh Fairfield Schools is, you know, getting ready to go to the ballot for for one. You know, that's a neighboring district. Um, and the Kings did pass theirs and their their collections are coming in now. Um, so the cons with the earned income tax is is a delayed collection, and you'll get to see this modeled here in just a minute. Um it's
083not historical. It's something new for the community. There could be some voter uncertainty around the earned income tax and uh another one is it's the local municipalities. You know, Montgomery Blue Ash do have income taxes and there's no reciprocity there. So, school district income income tax is going to be in addition to those. One of the mo uh one of the models that we took a look at during the financial retreat was um a 7 mil um 7 mil property tax levy and it's going to um state well what what happens in the model if we if we increase our transfer for permanent improvement to that permanent improvement fund to 5.4 4 million um starting in FY27. Um and if we model a 3 and a half% growth beyond FY30, what we're going to see
084is that in FY36, we're still going to show a positive uh cash balance. Um falls below the 25% cash policy in FY 34. And you see that in at the end of FY uh FY33 that we're teetering. We're right at the uh what the board has approved as the you know the 25% cash policy. Um and negative in FY37. We could stretch that out to FY38, but being conservative and especially since we're projecting 10 years out, we should probably assume that in FY20 FY37 we're going to come closer to hitting that negative cash balance just since we're projecting so far out. So, what that does with the with the $5.4 million uh dollar transfer, um it's going to put our FY26 through FY30, um it it's going to uh increase that three increase the expenditure
085growth cap to 3.1% that was previously at 2.9 with the $4.1 million transfer. Um and we can anticipate discussing a new new ask in FY31, FY32, um as we're projecting out and looking at that 5-year forecast. um and FY30, you know, FY28, FY29, just to see where we're modeling, but but we anticipate that we're going to have to have a discussion on um when we're going to go back to ballot. We would anticipate if everything lines up with when we're going back to ballot now. It's going to be November 2033, could be May of um 2034. Um, and depending on, you know, if there's any additional property tax reform, um, what the state's going to continue to do with funding, could be sooner, could be later. Like, it's it's just it's just uh important that
086we that we continue to live and breathe the the 5-year forecast um moving forward. And a lot of school districts, they have to. We we always do, but the importance of that 5-year forecast is going to continually grow. uh the 1% earned income tax um what that is going to do and and again we assumed that um assumes a 2% growth on your income tax in FY31 going forward you will see the delay in collection and that delay in collection although all the way out in FY35 and FY36 um we're stronger there with the earned income tax than what we are with the property tax but that delay in collection is going to mean that we're probably going to have to potentially ask a little bit sooner um and and and have a discussion on
087um new revenue for the district and as soon as uh maybe FY31 starting to talk about that. whereas property tax was FY 3132. We just want to kind of um and we could anticipate probably going to the ballot November of uh 2032 or May of 2033 with the earned income tax, but again, we don't know what's going to happen with property tax reform. Um that's the big that's the big cliffhanger that everybody keeps waiting on. Um and just just going to see what happens. Again, the earned income tax is not tied to property taxes, levy consideration and timing. Um, know we we again we touched on this at the financial retreat. Um, we're predicted to fall below that cashman balance in FY27 or it could be a little bit early early on in FY28. um
088a negative cash balance predicted in FY30. Um that we have to decide for if if if we are going to ask for new money that the there's some deadlines that we do have to meet for the November 26 uh ballot. Um it's got to be finalized in you know July of 2026. um with the with the resolution of necessity must be meet the 100 day deadline by July of 24. So if the property tax is pursued, it's got to go with the county auditor. If an earned income tax is pursued, it's going to have to go through the high department of taxation. You'll see the 90-day deadline to file those. And that's um the resolution of necessity. The board has to take action um by those dates in order to meet the filing deadlines. All
089right. And the legislative concerns um in the push for constitutional amendments to abolish property taxes. We we've touched on that several times. Um there there was a tax workg group um that the governor organized. There's a there should be it should be linked to that report and recommendations. This is something that still um the legislators continually working through on those recommendations and reports. Um let's see. And so one thing to consider is the is also in the legislative concerns is the expanded authority of the budget commission uh the county auditor, county treasur, county prosecutor um to reduce non-debt levies to avoid excessive collections. Um that's one thing that they can they can take action on. And just to recap on the, you know, the limit the revenue increases from inside millage the cap 3% a
090year. We're assuming, you know, based on the deflator and there still could be talks around capping the cash balance. They the governor did veto that in that last round. Um, but there still could be talks of limiting that because right now there is no cap. they went from 30% to 40% to 100% to we're not going to have a cap at all. So, there's just some uncertainty and really um the legislator understanding the the cycle of schools and when they're, you know, when they're when they do have most of that cash. Next steps is again to determine the timing and ask for a new levy. Any other any kind of additional questions there? No, I think that Thank you, Mr. Thank Thank you, M. Brody, Mr. Burson. Um, I think that the board needs to
091put this on our calendar probably or April to really finalize what we're doing so that we have time to to to start to have discussions with the community, organize a committee if that's what we're going to do prior to um, you know, the school year ending because once people leave for vacation, you know, you're not going to really get people back together until August. Um, and and then we're we're pressed for time. So, it's my recommendation that, you know, maybe Is is there a reason we couldn't do it in March? I >> mean, I know that's that's rushing it, but we also have a lot of stuff to do. So, so you're asking if we if if it's reasonable to put the the resolution of necessity on in in March. >> And then I'm going
092to ask a third question. Is it possible I'm going to go different than both of you. Um, if we're considering an earned income tax levy, which we are, and we know that other districts are going to have it on the ballot in May, it would sure would be helpful to have experience and know what happens with that before we have to make a decision. So, I don't know if it's possible to even wait a little bit. And when are the elections in May? >> May. And again, I don't want to push it I don't want to push it too far. I understand what you're saying, Mr. Valent. And I understand what you're saying, Mr. Gosnell, but I would like to put Sycamore at an advantage, the best advantage we could possibly have. And I and
093I I mean, that can be different things, right? That could be doing it early, getting organized early, but knowing what happens and knowing how their communities that are similarly situated to ours react to such an ask. If it is confusing, if it is, if there is push back, I would like to be able to know that before we would decide on that if possible. >> I think the challenge, Mrs. Bidter, I agree with what you're saying. The challenge is just with with May, you got graduation, you got prom, you got really a lot of parents that are very active um doing other things. The administration has a lot going on as well. So, I agree with what you're saying. I I just I think it's going to be hard to wait until May to really
094start to organize people in our community that want to step up and and help with timing. >> And then logistically, so on that on that same note, are you saying so what typically the way it works is once you decide what type of levy once the board votes on a type of levy that we would be that that the district would need, that's when the levy committee begins based off of that. Is that why you're saying that? So, we couldn't still do a levy committee like right now and then decide the board couldn't decide on May 15th or whatever which version we're choosing. >> Oh, we could decide which version. I mean, we could make we could make a commitment to the community that we're going to be on the ballot. >> Well, yeah, that's
095what I that's all I mean by that. I'm not I mean I think it's clear that we're we're >> and then we we really don't have to determine the exact >> version. That's what I mean. I'm just talking about the version because I feel like it would be great to >> I mean I don't really see I don't see an option not to be on the ballot in November looking at the financials. So I you know I think that that's almost a foregone conclusion that we will be on the ballot and you know we don't have to take the steps of necessity of resolution and all that to formally vote on it. Um, but we could as as a board make a commitment to the community that we're going to go out for a levy,
096start that process internally. Um, and then we could decide which which option we're going to. >> Yeah, I I would I would prefer that version. I mean, I would I agree with Mr. I mean, as early as soon as possible, we should begin this uh discussion with our community and and the committee being established, but to me, I would just like the benefit of a little bit of time on the which version we choose. And I said that at the uh retreat as well. I just want more data. I want more information before I can >> that May election is May 5th if that helps. >> And Mrs. Bidder and I had a we were just having our normal weekly check-in this week and we were discussing there might be some benefit in taking what
097we have done at the retreat and kind of going on the road and really engaging our community deeper into the discussion. not only so they can understand it but to offer some feedback. We have really engaged you know deep thinking people critical thinking people and there may be something that we're not seeing that we can consider before we make a decision. So I think the point of we know in November of 2026 there is going to be an ask for new money. I think what we can do is as a team get out there and give people factual information. We're presenting factual information. This isn't, you know, say yes or no. This is we're out there just giving you information and we're allowing our community to react to to your point, Mrs. Bidder. what what
098feels better to them, but also understanding all the challenges cuz I don't I don't know that every single person in our community pays attention to, no offense, but like House Bill 420 and Senate Bill 920 and, you know, all these different numbers that are common language for us, but I don't know that the, you know, general person in our community is paying, you know, that close of attention, you know, and a lot of us probably heard our governor say, "Yeah, if we pull away all property taxes, what could happen? Well, one was a 10 to 12% income tax or the other one was a I think it was an 18 to 20% sales tax. Well, how is that going to make Ohio a prosperous state in the nation? It's, and I heard somebody say, it's
099not. uh we'll all go to Kentucky or Indiana to buy products and you know I don't know if people will move but we don't want that I think but being able to engage our community deeper in those conversations presenting all the factual information that Mr. Buren has presented I think also and Mrs. Bitter and I talked about this. It's also presenting all the things that we value about Sycamore Community Schools. It's our quality profile. It's the amazing things that we heard about tonight that our students are doing that, you know, if we don't if we don't have the the ability to support those things, they go away. And that's not what we want. We want to preserve what is great about Sycamore Community Schools. And that's why most of us move here. So, what if
100either at the next meeting or whenever the board were to pass a resolution stating that we will be on the ballot in November um and that we're going to you can word it however you want and probably have to get feedback but for the board to make a commitment that we will be going on the ballot in November um and that you know we we're in the process of analyzing these two types of these two types of levies and we're going to engage our stakeholders and we'll come back to the community you know by the put a date in there, end of May or something with the type of levy that we'll have. >> Well, I will get some guidance on um what kind of resolution that would what that would look like. I >>
101I just want >> that could just be a statement. >> It could be a statement. >> I just would like it to be affirmative to the community. >> Right. Maybe it's not a resolution. Maybe it's just a statement that we all agree to. Um but a resolution is something we could vote on and then you have, you know, you have commitment from board members. So whatever legal would tell us is what the best way to do that is. >> I would like to also with that announcement in whatever form it takes um is also to have some dates where we uh are committed to going out to the community holding some community forums to explain the options that we are considering. Uh earned income tax is very new to a lot of people. It's going
102to take a lot of time and explanation. Uh, and I think just as soon as we announce that we're going on the ballot, we should also announce some community in for uh forums to engage with our community and have some dates available. >> I mean, can this be part of our sorry our March work session like creating this kind of community schedule if you will? >> Yeah. Absolutely. Mhm. >> Yeah, I think that's a very good idea. >> Think that's a great >> meeting to do that in because we will have a chance to obviously talk about this in a little more detail. Um, obviously if there community members there, they can, you know, ask questions during that kind of stuff there too as well. So, yeah, I think that would be a great time
103to do that, the March March 11th March 11th meeting >> work session. And and I just I I I know that this is a little bit of a shift, but I just want the community to know that the two versions that we're looking at um would not alleviate um what would occur to the school district should property taxes be eliminated in Ohio. Neither one of them would touch the need that would would be created based off of that. So that is not I don't know that we can plan we're not planning for that in a levy. We are considering other legislation that potentially could impact us when we talk about the versions of levies, but that elimination of property taxes altogether is a is a third op a third version that we just don't want
104to confuse people to think, oh, if they do one of these two, then no matter what happens, it's okay because it would that would not be >> correct. And if if if that does happen where that gains weights and and and makes its way onto the ballot, then there's going to be a lot of um anxiety around that with with all municipalities with, you know, fire, police, you know, libraries, all that. So, >> yeah. And also like county boards of developmental disabilities and really every single entity that receives taxpayer funding in order to exist. So, we just I think it's just important that because we throw that in there every once in a while when we talk about the two versions. I just want to make sure that the two versions that we're talking about
105wouldn't help us if the property taxes are eliminated in Ohio. >> Again, that's a great point and that's why we need to have legal. So my point of asking about it. >> Yeah. And also I and and to that actually that's a good point that we have talked about many times as a board and as as administrators we have done training on this. I still would like I'm requesting it that we continue to get legal some type of legal um training once again before we go out and talk about this so that everyone is absolutely informed. Um I we've all taken classes. We've taken multiple classes, but I just I think one of the classes they said to us, make sure you get your legal to train your entire board and administration before you go
106forward. And I would like that as a board. >> There there is a document on the Ohio auditor's website uh that gives some really good guidance and I can I can forward that to you. Um that just be a preemptive to any kind of legal advice. So yeah. >> Yeah. And we know that our board council is willing to do that. I just want to make sure we don't that we schedule that. So, I guess that would be the board to schedule that. How does that work? Should we schedule that? Should m should Mr. Harris schedule that for us? >> The scheduling for us. >> Thank you. >> And maybe that could be at the March 11th meeting at least have that. >> Uh, and Mr. Harris, you could invite Mrs. Wesondorf Wartman to the
107May March 11th and we could have that discussion during the work session. Mhm. >> And then also whatever presentations we have in the public um should also just be reviewed as well by our legal by legal counsel to make sure that it's consistent. That was recommended during our training. So that's why I'm saying that repeating that information. >> Mr. Harris, I know you have a full-time job. So, if you need us to lift any of those calls or connections, just let us know. >> We're happy to do that. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. Appreciate the ask and the offer. Thank you. All right. Um Okay. Yeah. Next thing you know, next thing is the approval of the financial forecast. So, do we have a motion to approve? >> Moved. >> Second. >> Thank you,
108Mr. Ballot, for your motion. Thank you, Mrs. Bidder, for your second. person, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Balance, >> I. >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I. >> Mr. Gosnell, >> I. >> Dr. James, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, >> I. >> All right. The next thing is the monthly financial report uh for the month ending January 31st. And so, do we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. Second. >> Thank you, Mrs. Bidder, for your motion. Thank you, Dr. James, for your second. And Mr. person on you again. All right. Even though we're at the end of February, we're going to look at the January monthly financial report. Um the forecast I did go ahead and update um the forecast and the monthly financial report so that we can compare it to
109where we're at now. even though we're talking about January's numbers, not update, not uh approving the forecast until February, but this is the most recent information we have. So, it should be in the monthly um report as soon as we can get it in there. Um so, you'll see um let's see property tax revenue. You see, we're we're down 11.3% from last year, and that's really a timing issue. Um, during January of last year, we received around $8 million in tax advances. This year, we only received three. Um, and when we get to later on in the in the monthly report, you'll see that's why our um cash balance policy, why we were really flirting with that. and it's it was a 26%. Um, and the 25% that's what that's what our threshold is. Um,
110but that's mostly due to that. I will say that our tax advances so far for February been around 25 million. So, we're coming off of that. Um, you know, we we'll see a increase with the February report there. Um, we've been talking about the state foundation. Now, it's actually in the model. um that increase. We're still going to see um the increase from last year to this year just based on updated uh funding. And again, that um that Hamilton County um refund has been has been on there. That's just due to the revow and them um giving each entity back a portion of those fees based on the revaluation that happens every once every six years. All right. So, on the expenditure side, um we're still going to continue to monitor those those wages. You
111know, the wages are updated in this forecast. Now, um we are close to that 60% which is what we should should see around January um for the fiscal year. Um, and it is it is still continually important to note that that 111 object for our certified staff, that's where their regular wages hit. Um, that does include, you know, all teachers being paid out of general fund. Um, all certified administrators that pay into STRS, that's the object that we're paying attention to. Um, overall wages are up to, uh, year-over-year 2.88%, 28% but that certified um object code that I believe is like 1.6% from last year. So again that does point to that piece of responsible staffing. Um uh the healthc care it's it's been on there. We've you know we um now we have January's
112actuals um you know with the healthcare increase. Two items that we want to continue to pay attention to is the purchase services and materials and supplies. We're down 25% materials and supplies. We're still going to make sure that that we're tracking on that with with what was projected in the forecast from October. There wasn't much um anticipation that that was going to change. Um, if there is any change, I do see maybe purchase services possibly being a little a little bit more and materials and supplies falling off, but that that's going to take a a another deep dive into that. Um I am in um have been working with our consultants already in discussion for a May update um to get us back into that since since we're finding a new cadence on the forecast
113like get us back into let's see what the May looks like since we looked at last May um just to see if there's any kind of updates that we really need to make sure of um that we're capturing. So, I will anticipate bringing an updated forecast to the board in May to see where where those trends are going to land for the fiscal year and overall expenditure growth over last last year that 3.05% 05%. Um we want to continue to monitor that. we will see, you know, that drop off as, uh, June is typically when we make those transfers and last year during June, we made those transfers and advances um, for the baseball softball project and to that was a time of uncertainty around the cash balance on it was at a 30% cap
114then and so we went ahead and moved some funds um, that we anticipated to move in FY26 at the end of FY25 to make sure that we didn't know what the legislature was going to do. Um, again, we'll continue to monitor that that cash balance policy. Like I pointed out, right now it's at 26% at the end of January with the revenue we've already received from uh property tax advances in February. That's going to go back up. Um, and we'll see what February looks like. It's going to be, you know, compared to what it was last year this time. All right. Is there any any kind of questions on this the the monthly update? >> I just Oh, go ahead, Mrs. Spitter. >> Um, I was going to ask it's I guess it could have
115gone to the five-year forecaster here. I know we said that the county commissioners didn't vote and they didn't go through with an action. Is there still when I when I read the five-year forecast the details it seemed as if that still could potentially happen or there was some risk there. >> So there's there's >> until like August or something like that. Is that still >> there's no risk with with the piggyback because that that time >> expire over. Okay. Um what there could be risk of is with the budget commission just deciding on uh drawing back you know a portion of our um tax portion of the tax dollars we receive. Okay. >> Just based on >> what they decide they want to pull back. Okay. >> If if if they want wanted to pull
116back. So yeah. >> Thank you. >> I just want to make a suggestion to the board because I know I've talked to a couple of you about this in just one-on-one conversations. Like when you look at the forecast and you look at fiscal year 2023, you know, our our expenditures were at 89 million. At the end of fiscal year 2030, we're at 123 million. We cannot sustain that. And I told Mr. Buren just looking longterm, we can't sustain 150 million by 2036. And I just think it would be a good work session topic. And I don't have the answer. I don't know that any of us have the answer. Um, we we want to make sure our staff are compensated fairly, but we also have to look at what other creative solutions can we put
117into place that is not going to impact our programming, not going to impact our staff, but can still accomplish the goal of slowing that down. That's just when I when I every time I see that it just causes me like anxiety to look at it and say how can we sustain education not only in Sycamore but in Ohio at that kind of expenditure trend. So I think as a team it's just a good work session topic. It might be a summer topic, you know, when we have a little more time to dig in and just talk and and spend some time kind of digging deeper into some of those, you know, financial thoughts and concerns. And, you know, I think we're going to hear some good ideas from our community while we're out talking to
118them about our facts. But I also think we have people in the district that can bring ideas, can bring thoughts, can get creative about some of the things we're doing. responsible staffing is important, but there might be other things that we're not looking at that we could uncover that might help um kind of stretch that out a little bit. >> And and I I I also think just to add to um add and supplement to what you're saying is the reasons why just the inflationary increases and where it's coming from. We know that buses cost so much more, construction costs so much more, everything costs more and health insurance. So where I mean if if it's inflationary like do we need to have less of things like if it's uh I mean we have to
119ask ourselves I mean what are our priorities? Can we repair less? Can we have less buses? Can we have like if it's inflationary which it largely is um then how do we handle that? If it's not inflationary, if it's, you know, if it's some type of expense that we're paying for that maybe we don't need, then that's another situation. But like we have to ask ourselves, I would like to see I would like to know see a detailed budget again of our permanent improvements. I know you you gave us a snapshot. That's great, but we need to see where that money is going. That's just a that's a very small part of our budget for such an incredibly valuable school district, right? But we need to have more details. We need more information. We need
120more data to be able to you you can't we can't possibly come up with an answer or solution without without understanding the why. I mean, there's no way. And we can't just say it's because we spend too much money. I mean, yes, we spend too much money because things cost more money, but but why do they which things cost more money and why? >> Exactly. And I know that um with with that capital plan um you know forecast that we that we kind of put together with with Bradley Payne and Four Seasons, we've been living in a you know that was done early in FY25. I think it was in maybe October, November of 24. Um, so we've been living in a world where we know that our transfer should be more, but we've we've
121had to continue the model that 4.1 because it's what we've what we've anticipated. So when we when we know if there's going to be new revenue um or then to really revisit that tool to see what's been done, what's been pushed off because right now we had the plan, but there's been some things I'm assuming that's been pushed off. I know that Mr. Zimmerly is um you know would be working on updating that along with Mr. Levelville on giving guidance on what's all been done what's all been pushed and what's the new um what's the new forecast for for capital planning look like just on its own what's it look like and we we have had discussions and I know Mr. Lewis has been involved in that as well and wanting to know what you
122know what exactly have we put off and what do we need to visit immediately um with the anticipation of new levy or the need for new new money new funds. So any more questions on that? >> Okay, Mr. Burson, could you call the role, please? I'm uh sorry. Mrs. Ber >> I >> Dr. James >> I >> Mr. Ballot >> I >> Mr. Gosell >> I >> Mr. Harris >> I All right. Uh make a Is there a motion to accept donations? >> Moved. >> Second. >> Thank you Mr. Balot for your motion. Thank you Mrs. Bidder for your second and uh Mr. Person. Could you please call the RO? >> Mr. Balot. I >> Mrs. Bidder >> I >> Mr. Cosnum >> I >> Dr. James >> I >> Mr. Harris >> I and
123as always we'd like to thank the people who reached out and made these donations in our community. Um there's a lot of people who really care about what's going on with the kids and things we do with the kids and everything. And so we appreciate these donations every time. It's one of the best things that we can improve um at our meetings is the donations. So thank you very much. All right. and we're moving into other board business. So, first any committee reports? >> Uh, yes. Um, I had the opportunity to meet twice with uh both the um people who are leading the charge to kind of form the Sycamore Foundation. Um and then as well as they had invited some of the different uh organizations within our school districts from the PTO's to the
124boosters of athletics, band, theater, vocal, orchestra, um and and various other groups to come in and kind of talk about what the goals of the foundation were, where they are in the process, and kind of what the next steps are. So they've been working with a law firm who's doing the work pro bono to start uh putting all the paperwork together. They're in the process of filing for their tax exempt status, uh, which will then allow them to start collecting money. Um, one of the hurdles they had, there was a $600, uh, fee for filing, uh, so the ask of the of the group, uh, was to donate money towards the $600, uh, which they happily did. They very easily met the $600. Um, so the good news is the paperwork is being worked on
125and being filed for the 503C. Is that right? uh the tax exempt status and kind of the next step is to start to form a board. Um they're ultimately anticipating somewhere around 12 people that'll sit on the board and really um kick this foundation off. So if any of you have uh community members that you would think would like to sit on the foundation board, uh please pass some some names along to me and I'll get them to the team. But uh really exciting that we've been talking about this for a while and you know we are starting baby steps but we are starting to uh get the paperwork and the process together for a foundation. >> Thank you Mr. Balot. Any other committee reports? >> Sure. I'll go. Um I'll start off with a
126SAC update and then I'll give you um some exciting legislative updates. Uh those are always good. Uh so for sack the implementation team that that just presented for us um their kind of next steps was to um pitch a review committee that would exist of the executive committee um administrative representation and board liaison to go through and do the the rubric that was presented to figure out which projects they'd like to move forward. So they're they're kind of pitching what what a review committee could be comprised of. Um and then there was a discussion of trying to um either have like a a end of the year party where we kind of you know say thank you and discussion of what what to look forward to next year or kind of a pep rally at
127the beginning of the next year to discuss those pro just timing of when can sack figure out these projects um and also say thank you for the hard work they've done and the hard work that we want them to do um coming up for the the next year. So that was the implementation project. The um this is probably a question um for everyone. The the vouchers team I think assumed that they were presenting in March based off the schedule that they were given. So they are expecting to present on the 11th but they have said that they would love more time if that's okay. They just have to talk to the sack leadership because that's there's a schedule that's already set. So somebody else would have to switch them months. >> Okay. >> But that
128also means we would have to have time for that in our um March 11th meeting as well. >> But you're saying they would like more time as far as >> research or do it at a later Yes. because one of the things they're saying is that they feel like they're just starting to get people to open up and talk about it. This this voucher, this has been a very hot button issue. It's very politicized and so they're having a a really hard time like getting people to to talk and they feel like they're finally starting to establish communications and connections and actually building information that would be valuable to present and now it's already, you know, like they feel like they're just getting going good. So, I don't think there's a reason they can't get
129delayed. They just they need to work back through the sack leadership so that it's not us pulling that. >> Okay. >> Really the sack leadership sets that. >> So if they if you can whoever asks for that if they can just contact >> Kim and the leadership team. Yeah. They'll I'm sure somebody will happily switch. >> Perfect. >> And if not we can always delay it and they can go in June. >> Yeah. >> So >> Okay. All right. Um legislative. I I'll go really fast because we've talked about legislative a lot. Um it is an election year. Don't forget November 3rd. Register to vote. Figure out if where your polling location is. Legislature.gov. Good information if you want to learn everything about all the bills going on. Um we've already talked about the property
130tax uh abolition concerns. Um I will say that the office of budget and management has come out and said that this could cause a catastrophic impact. destabilizing local budgets for schools and first responders. So, you know, budget and management has at least made made an opinion out there. Um, House Bill 671 is still floating out there. That is the voucher litigation where um the state can withhold funding from school districts that are actively involved in legal action um with something like the the Ed Choice voucher program. Um, some new stuff there is. This is one that I was not able to personally find in the bill. This came from our education service center um report. It's House Bill 455. It is part of a deregulation bill and part of that is a potential adjustment of
131report card calculations, including things like counting certain IEP students as graduates. It was over 600 pages and so I I I ran out of time. I I will work on that. that bill has has defeated me personally, but it is out there if you guys want to to read more about it. Um, curriculum advances, these are either proposed or they're advancing. Um, there there are so many bills. It would involve including a computer science course requirement, a middle school career exploration, uh required success, uh success sequence curriculum instruction, mandatory fetal development instruction with ultrasound video, and the addition of classic learning test as an alternative to the ACT and SAT. Um, a new one that's come out is House Bill 473 in the House that would prohibit public employers from paying employee contributions to state
132retirement systems. And House Bill 420, which Mr. Buren stole my my thunder on that one, is a new one that has come out to eliminate all continuous levies by 2030. Um, the the wording I read it would put a cap of 10 years. Um but I know that's all being discussed. So and that is um act one of multiple bills that they intend to present. So there you go. Mr. GZnull, we're I'm going to reach out to you. I think it's probably time to set up a some meetings with our legislators that are local here. Uh, I find it very hilarious that they talk about in the same breath a deregulation bill and then they add 14 things but take away two. So, you're not deregulating anything. You're just adding more regulation on the next
133bill. So, uh, I do think it's time to get them in because that was one of the commitments when we went to the legislative breakfast was we are going to take some things off your plate from your presentation or your discussion. And I didn't hear anything that comes off our plate other than they want to make the jobs less appealing for people to take by removing the ability to pay our retirement. Thank you for that ray of sunshine there, Mr. Gos. We appreciate that. Any other uh committee reports? Oh, good there. Okay. All right. The next thing on our agenda was to talk a little bit about um professional development uh executive learning team professional development update and uh Mr. Lewis. >> Yeah, I can do it this. So, um if you remember at our
134one of our recent meetings, we talked about doing this and u we we had discussed um connecting Marlon Styles and Natasha Adams from Hamilton County ESC. Um I've had a chance to connect with Maron um on two fronts. One really looking at our um strategic plan and kind of refreshing it. we're not going to redo it, but refresh it with with the board in collaboration with the board. And there's a whole process to go through that. Um, and I think it it matches really well with being able to communicate with our community and talk about what's important to us. Um, I think one of the most important things that the board does and talking with Maron, he thought it would be a good exercise is just, you know, you read your mission and vision at
135every meeting. Is it still relevant? Is it still the mission and vision that you envision for Sycamore schools now and into the future? And that is that is the role of the five of you to set that mission and vision uh for the rest of us. So, you know, in discussions he's like, you know, it's a good question to ask them is is this still what you believe about Sycamore schools now and into the future? You know, I agree. It would be a it's a good exercise to go through as a team to really discuss that and dig down into it and if we believe it then we reaffirm it and we move forward. Um and there are other components to this work. I'm making it sound very simplistic but he was very excited about
136the opportunity to work with this team. Um, I think they felt a connection to all of you through, you know, some other work that they were proposing to do with you and, um, I think our team feels a good connection to them as well. So, um, I think it's a natural fit. I'd be happy to send you their proposal for consideration and we could certainly put it on a a future meeting for discussion. I think my my recommendation since we're in the process of looking for a new treasurer which will change the dynamics of the team would be to hold off until we have uh you know what that team is going forward be happy to look at a proposal kind of talk about what we want but as far as setting dates you know
137that would be my recommendation >> and I would I I agree with that and I also really would like to still consider working with Mr. Cleba because I think that he brings a lot of value as well. So, just to be able to maybe compare the proposals because I think that would be an excellent um potential person to do that professional development as well with us because I think that was originally the first thought and I think that I I really like that proposal that you gave us >> and it might be if it if it would be okay with the board to consider both and do both of them um because I think they're going to be very different in pathways. I will get back to Marlin and Natasha and just let them know
138what our desire is. I think that's a good suggestion is just let's finish one process. We got a lot of irons in the fire right now. So, let's finish one process and then re-engage in that process once we're finished. So, I just wanted to get back to you because I know we talked about it at a previous meeting. Keep in mind too that the the search firm that we're working with uh also has included in their contract with us that they would provide some professional development opportunities for all of us. Um >> yeah, that's a very good thank you for that. Um that's a very good reminder. They also have that. So we need to consider the financial aspect as well of what we're >> Yeah. And that's what we've already covered. I know. And
139that's included. That's what I mean. Yeah. Exactly. >> Thank you. All right. Is there any other board business? >> Okay. Um uh we need a motion to move into an executive session to prepare for, conduct, or review negotiations or bargaining sessions with public employees concerning their compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment. Ohio. according to Ohio revised code 121.22G4. Do I have a motion? Oh, and then uh also to enter an executive session to consider the appointment, employment or compensation of a public employee. >> Read it. >> Um Ohio vers uh v Ohio rise code 121.22G1. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you Mrs. Bidder for your motion. Thank you Mr. Balot for your second person. Could you please call the role? >> Uh, Mrs. Bidder, >> I. >> Mr. Balon, >>
140I. >> Mr. Gosnell, >> I. >> Dr. James, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, >> I. >> Yeah. The board will now enter an executive session. We will not be reconvening after executive session. Thank you very much for everybody coming tonight. Everybody have a great evening.