001going to start our meeting. Please rise 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. >> At the beginning of each meeting, we like to go through our district's mission and vision. mission is to create a culture of academic excellence through inclusive and innovative learning opportunities for the whole child. Our vision is to empower all learners to reach their full potential in a globally competitive world. I please get a motion and a second approval of the agenda. >> Second. >> Thank you Dr. James for your motion. Thank you Mr. Harris for your second. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. >> Dr. James, >> hi. Mr. Harris. >>
002I. >> Mr. Balant. >> I. >> Mrs. Bidder. >> I. Can I please get a motion and a second for the approval of the minutes? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Balant, for your motion. Thank you, Dr. James, for your second. Do we have any edits or changes? Logan, please call the role. >> Mr. Balant, >> I. >> Dr. James, >> hi. >> Mr. Harris, >> I. >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I. The next item on the agenda is public participation. Mrs. Logan, do we have any public participation this evening? >> We do. We have two that have signed up for non-aggenda items. Um, and the first one that I have is D. Jackson. And I'm going to ask you to stand up here so that the microphone can pick up your voice
003>> there. >> Yeah. >> Been a little while. >> Mr. Mr. Jackson, we uh we do not comment on public participation. The board does not comment in three minutes. >> Okay. >> Please state your your address. >> Okay. Great. Uh good evening everyone. My name is Jackson and uh I live in Cooperwood uh 1205 Cooperwood Lane in Montgomery. I'm the proud parent of a Sycamore graduate. Uh a former president of Sycamore Athletic Boosters and a longtime resident and friend of this community. I'm here tonight to speak about uh something that happened about a year ago this time, the Daniel's grace matter, which took place literally one year ago tomorrow. Um, new information has come to light that raises concerns not only about Miss's history, but also about how the situation has been communicated to our
004community. On March 6th of this year, Mrs. Bidder and Mr. pair signed a letter to Sycamore staff that included statements which do not match sworn testimony from a June 12th deposition. Letter claimed that Miss Grace quote had consistently received good performance evaluations and she had no discipline prior to this incident. Yet, in a June 12th deposition for the open meetings case that I've brought up against this board, Superintendent Chad Lewis confirmed that Miss Grace had faced prior disciplinary action that was later removed through the union grievance process. This discrepancy is important means that when the letter was shared on March 6, the information provided was incomplete and notably no other board members signed that March 6th letter. So the question becomes, was that letter intended as a gesture of support for a colleague or was
005it written in a way that left the community with an inaccurate picture? Seven former school board members, people have held these responsibilities before, have already raised concerns via a letter they um sent on March 28th of this year. That should give us all pause. So, I ask, why wasn't the full context provided? Why does it appear that Miss Grace was treated differently than others might have been? And what message does it send to the value um about the values of this board? Mrs. Ber and Mr. Harris, your actions have raised questions about fairness and accountability that makes it harder for this community to place trust in its leadership, but it can also be a turning point. This is about more than one teacher's contact. It's about whether our community can count on its leaders to
006act with transparency and integrity. You both elected to serve, to uphold the values of the Sycamore community, and to lead with integrity. Now is the time to reflect to rebuild that trust and to uh demonstrate that the accountability matters here in Sycamore. This is better and Mr. Harris I urge you to take this time and this moment to reflect carefully on your actions and what steps you can take to restore the confidence in this board and in our communities. Thank you. >> Um and the next one I have is Dr. Pasha, >> thank you. Good evening members of the board, staff and community here and online. My name is Dr. Zishan Pasha. I have been a resident of Blue Ash for over a decade and I am the proud father of two Sikamore students, one
007graduate and one current senior. First, I want to thank every teacher, staff member, bus drivers, special education professionals, coaches, and volunteers who works tirelessly to make our district stronger. I am here tonight to remind us of Sycamore School Board's mission to empower all learners to reach their full potential in an academically, socially, and personally supportive environment. That mission call on us to see, value, and celebrate every child. Yet in recent months, we have overlooked a vital part of that mission. Publicly recognizing the extraordinary achievements of our student athletes, especially our young female athletes who have made history in Sycamore athletics. These athletes have broken long-standing district records in events like the pole wall and discus and have gone on to represent Sycamore on national stages, proudly bearing our name. Their success is more than a
008personal victory. It's a source of pride for our entire community. It opens doors for our future athletes, attract college recruiters, and shows that Sycamore excels in both academic and athletics. When we fail to acknowledge these moments, we miss an opportunity to inspire, to unite, and to tell our students, "We see you, we value you, and we celebrate you." Moving forward, I propose three simple steps. Add a student spotlight at each board meeting to honor recent achievements in academics, art, and athletics. Publish a monthly sycamore success bulletin to share these stories with our community for those kids who are not in the school and already graduated. Host an annual aviator excellence night to celebrate students who have excelled locally, statewide, and nationally. By doing this, we will not only fulfill our mission, we will strengthen our
009culture of pride, motivation, and opportunity for every student. Our future is bright. Let's make sure every student knows they are seen, supported, and celebrated. And we should work hard to work collectively and collaboratively as a team. Thank you. >> Next item on the agenda is superintendent's agenda. We have a special education department update. Yeah, I just want to invite um Stacy Spencer, our executive director of student services, and uh she will be accompanied by Misty Belfram, who is our director of special education, and they've got an overview of special education for us and the office of student services. So, thank you. >> Good evening. um excited to share a little bit about our special education programming uh this evening with the board and community. Um we have um made some adjustments in the office of
010student services to better support um our students, our staff um and just operations in general. So um we're going to share um a couple of things. Um we're going to talk a little bit about you know what does the structure of the office of student services look like and then we're going to take a little bit uh of uh review of data and um our current status of special education programming some numbers um so that everybody is understanding of uh the stu a little bit about this the students that we serve and the number of students that we serve um and how we serve them. So we're excited to share that with the community and with the board. So um with the redesign if you will or restructuring of some of the roles and responsibilities
011in the office of student services um Mrs. Belfram has uh been given the title and the responsibility of uh director of special education um also under the umbrella of the office of student services. Uh Lisa also um is a director of people support services. So she um oversees in our department uh mental health uh PPIs uh some of our attendance and discipline processes and policies. So uh we work collaboratively um to to do the work of student services. Okay. It's a big umbrella. Um so we had to make sure that we are aligned. Um and so um Mrs. Belram is going to um share with you a little bit about our structure of leadership in office. Great. Um, so, um, the rest of our support team includes Tara Willick, who joined us this year, and
012she is our director of special education, I'm sorry, our, um, special education supervisor. Um, and then we have Amber Aldrich, who is our preschool supervisor. So, they round out our district office team. And then at our building level, we have an assistant principal in all of our buildings who serve as our building case manager for special education. So there is a point of contact who um is the face for our um an extension of the office of student services um and the primary contact for our families to support our students and do that daily work of special education in those buildings. Um and so those are the individuals that are featured there um who support that work on a daily basis and serve as our case managers. So when looking at our special education staff
013as a whole, we have a total of 73 teachers throughout the district who support our students with disabilities. And when we're looking at our related services, and that includes our psychologists, our speech pathologists, OT's, PTS, we have 30.6. And not that we have 6 of a person but they are not full-time. Um so that is who we have supporting um those related services that our students um have. And then far as educational assistance supporting our students with disabilities, we have 111 within the district and that's looking from that prek all the way through our transition program. It's important to understand too that those uh educational assistants are are not the assistants that are supporting our playgrounds uh and and things like that that those are um staff that are um supporting directly students with disabilities.
014Okay. So, a requirement a requirement uh for special education and providing uh special education services comes from federal law, which is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDA. Um and so some of the provisions that we're going to highlight today uh really talk about the principles of uh providing a free appropriate public education and serving students in their least restrictive environment. So, we're going to just um go over a couple of of items related to that. Um our responsibility actually as a school district, believe it or not, under the IDEIDA is to identify all students living within our district who may have children who may have a disability. That includes um children who are birth to age three. Now, we do not go out and evaluate those students. that is uh the responsibility of
015Hamilton County Developmental Disability Services. We used to a few years ago um pay for those services. Uh but um Hamilton County DDS has um started to incur the cost associated with that. But we have a tight relationship and partnership because any of those children who I are identified from birth to age three um if we suspect a disability um that uh would require school age services or preschool services, we are required to have an IEP in place by their third birthday. Um that's why uh you as a board see um in the summertime a list of preschool staff who are doing summer evaluations because children turn three all year round not just during the school year. Um so we need to make sure that we have a team available to do that during the summer.
016Um so a couple of the other principles uh about uh IDEIDA is really that we have to uh provide that free appropriate public education for any student who has a disability. um that it is no expense to the parents. Um it's designed to meet the unique uh needs of u students, individual needs of students and that that offer of a free appropriate public education comes in the form of an IEP. So we offer the IEP um to provide those services and that is considered our offer of a free appropriate public education. Um the other uh tenant if you will that we're going to highlight tonight uh is least restrictive environment. So I know the graphic is small here um but it is a continuum of services that starts in the general education classroom and u
017the the most restrictive would be a homebound or hospital placement for some of our students uh who may require that. But I think it's important that we look at the two um tentacles to that is that we have to ensure first and foremost that to the maximum extent appropriate that students are served in the general education environment and um that removing students with disabilities from that educational environment occurs only if the nature and severity of the disability is such that the regular class with the use of aids services uh related services whatever um that that child might need cannot happen in that environment. So that's the only uh time we should be removing students from that general education. Our paperwork, our requirements for that um IEP for each student uh requires us to first look
018at the general education environment to make sure that we are considering that first and foremost. And that is true preschool through uh 12th grade. Okay. some of the uh related services. This is not an exhaustive list uh but these are some of the most common um that we uh access on a regular basis. We've got sign language interpret interpreters, aological services, aid services, sometimes uh nursing services are required for students who are extremely medically fragile. Um so again this is not an ex exhaustive list but these are some of the services that we would provide um to students should they need that through their IEP. Okay. And then uh this is data from last school year. Um so we had a total number of students with disabilities that were attending Sycamore uh was just under
019um 600. This does not include the students who were accessing scholarship which are are part of that slide but separate from that 594 uh number. Um, so I think it's important just to um u identify that that we we kind of say kids are coming they're they're in our seats every single day. It was 594. Okay. Um when we look at uh the historical I know there's been lots of conversation recently about scholarships. uh for the autism and John Peterson scholarship year overyear the past three years we haven't seen much fluctuation there's only been uh a couple of um differences like for example in um uh 22 23 school year there were 37 students accessing the John Peterson scholarship 20 accessing the autism scholarship and then the 23 24 school year uh 20 students on
020the autism scholarship and then 32 students accessing the John Peterson scholarship. So that number hasn't fluctuated greatly. Um go ahead. >> Can you just remind the board of how those scholarships are funded? Does it come out of the district's budget or the state? >> Great question. Uh those are state funded. So, it used to be when it started that those dollars would come what they would say off the till of Sycamore Community Schools, but uh the state has separated that bucket of money um and uh are paying those directly. Uh it's important to know too with our autism and John Peterson scholarship students. So in in this case it was uh 56 students. We are still required to offer an IEP every every year. Um so we have to gather the information that we have
021access to. Sometimes we have um progress monitoring data from providers, sometimes we don't. Um and so we are obligated every year to uh provide that um IEP. and our staff is working on that as well. So that's correct. So it's not a cost to the district. We are providing staff that oversee that. >> Absolutely. Yes. Thank you. >> Still form a complete team, an IEP team to to make those offers. Yeah. >> And looking at eligibility categories, you can see our comparison to the state. Um one of the areas that um kind of stands out for our district is students with autism. We're almost twice the state average um when looking at that. Um and then we are pretty close in most other areas um except SLD were a little bit lower than a state
022average um as well as for developmental disability. Um but typically we do have a lot of families um with um students with autism who move into our district for services. Um so that is typically where we do provide a lot of services in that area. >> And just as a a point um to compare if we're comparing states to Sycamore overall so just overall identification of students with disabilities um for this school year. This was um the 2324 school year data and this uh data is coming from our state um special education performance profile which is due to come out for last year's data in the fall that next uh month is when it's anticipated. Um but wanted to make sure that we're bringing accurate information that would be reportable to the state and comparable
023um if you were to uh to to look at that information. But overall, we're about just a little over 10% of our student population is identified as a student with a disability. The state is 16.8%. So, we are well under in terms of our overall um when you look at that um category. But when you look at the students that we're serving um they're they're unique for sure in terms of the services that we need to have available for um services. And so here, this one just kind of gives some historical data when looking at the disability categories as well as um our total percentage of students with disabilities. So as um Stacy has mentioned before, we are pretty stable with our percent of students overall within the district. Um as students with disabilities, we
024stay just under that 11% of our total student population. We're not seeing much change there. Um but when and you're looking at the number of students um in those counts again we're pretty stable with um that distribution of disabilities. We don't have much fluctuation um in our numbers overall. So we are our trend is pretty stable for the types of students that we're serving and the populations of students that um we support within. And another point of um I guess comparison to other districts, uh we're not overly too overly discreput autism um category. Um so we have districts that are similar to us that um have similar trends. They're not seeing necessarily spikes in the number of students of disabilities that they're identifying, but again that our categories might be a little bit different. >>
025And Mrs. Spencer, we're lower on specific learning disabilities, considerably lower than the state average. Can you share with the board what those types of disabilities would be? >> So, those could be disabilities related to um dyslexia, dysfia, uh where students are having um difficulty with um reading, um math, oral language, uh a number of of categories that would fall under as specific learning disability that it's specified. >> Thank you. typically reading, math, writing, and oral language are included in that SFD category. >> Thank you. >> So, when looking at that LRE um that least restrictive environment, this is just um some kind of buckets when we're looking at kind of the footcent of time within that genetic. Um so, just to kind of get an understanding of where are our students spending their school day.
026Um, so when we're looking at that first box for our preschool students with disabilities, the majority of our students, 78% of them are receiving their services in that genet classroom. And we'll talk a little bit later about programming and kind of what that breakdown of classrooms are, but 78% of our students are in a genet setting um with their typical peers with a GenEd teacher leading that instruction um and receiving their services in that setting for preschool. um far as special education outside of um the classroom for our school age um starting at that 68.8% um less than 21% of the day is 68.8% of our population. So again almost 70% of our students um spend the majority of their school day with their typical pews in the genet classroom. That's >> to me that
027number seems really good. Something we should be proud of. How does that compare putting you on the spot a little bit to other districts or state average? Are we are we exceeding keeping our kids in the general education classroom or you know just give me a baseline I guess. >> So I don't have necessarily comparison data that I brought to this evening related to least restrictive environment but we certainly can can get that. Um I do um think that you know that number for us is really good when we look at um uh the students that we're supporting um and look at the other three which are more intensive needs students um that aligns with our programming which Mrs. Belf will speak to. >> Yeah. I mean there just to me things just to kind
028of echo that you know we're doing a really good job that your department is doing a really good job and keeping as many students as possible in gen. And that's our mission and vision which is it aligns very well with that definitely. >> And so then you see 16% are um in u outside of that genet setting 21 is 60% of their day. Um and then that's going to be based on student need what that balance is. We have about 11% of our students who's outside of that genet setting for 60% or more of the day. And then we have 3.5% of our students um who are placement outside of the district. Um so again that's a smaller population of students who are not served within the district. Um but even for those students they
029are our students. We are very actively involved and in their support we're a member of their team. Um these are not students that we are um placing and then not supporting. we are very um hands-on and active with our school teams and stay very connected to those students and those families um because they are our students and that does not change because their placement has changed um that is truly just to meet a need for that student. Um and then we continue to work to try to make get them back to appropriate for their situation. >> Okay, we'll talk a little bit about programming. So this is the graphic that you saw earlier. Um so just a little bit larger scale. So you see on that least restrictive environment side, it's that general education classroom
030which we know that our students are general education students first. And that's where we know that um we want our students um to the greatest extent possible. And so as you go down that continuum, that's the gened with accommodations and modifications. And there there's co-eing opportunities, um, specially designed instruction in that pullout setting, specialized program, and you go all the way down that continuum. Um, so we'll talk a little bit next about what that continuum looks like in our bu in our district. Um, we know there's placements outside of the district on that more restrictive side, but we'll take a little bit of time and focus on what we do within our buildings. So, in that preschool setting, we have um three different types of classrooms to serve our preschool students. Um there's that general
031education classroom that we talked about, and that's led by a licensed general education teacher. Um and then we have students with disability and typically developing students in that classroom. and then a special education teacher um goes in and supports those students inside of that classroom for their services or related service provider. We have an integrated classroom and that has a dual licensed teacher there. So meaning that that teacher is both gened licensed and special ed licensed. So they hold both degrees and they lead that classroom and they provide that gened instruction as well as that special education instruction. So, because they're dual licensed, they're able to embed additional modifications and accommodations within their instruction because they have that additional training in addition to being able to do that specially designed instruction with those students at
032those different times. So, you think about that preschool and they have those center time. So, some of that teacher table time would be some of that specially designed instruction and then we have related service providers who also come in to do some of that instruction as well. We have a specialized classroom and that's for some of our students who have more complex needs and those students may need more therapeutic support, more related services in order to access instruction. So some of our students who are in our specialized classroom may need more speech services, more OT, more PT um in order for that access. So our speech therapist spends a day within that classroom. our OT spends a full day in that classroom so that we can make sure that we are really skill building for
033those students so that we can work with them to then transition them to um less restrictive environments and give them an adjusted pace, a modified curriculum and really pour into those students um because they have those additional needs. Um and that's led by a special um a special education teacher for that classroom. We also have itinerate services. So we have some students who are in community preschools because we are charged to serve students where we find students when they're in preschool. So if we find you in a community preschool, we're charged to go there and support if that's what's in that child's best interest. So our special education teacher and related service providers will go there and provide those services. And so that's that itinerate um services. And then we also have the um wonderful
034partnership with Hamilton County and we host a head start um classroom within the district. Right now it's housed at Sims Elementary. Um so we have um that Head Start program. Most of the kids that's in that program are Sycamore students um who are accessing that program. So it's great that we're hosting that because those are our kids. So still get to love on them, nurture them um but they get all the benefits that come with head start. So, it's a great benefit for the families. Um, so it's a great win-win for us and those families that are able to access that support. So, that's what our preschool continuum looks at. So, from that um gened all the way through um through those um specialized classroom, >> can you remind me remind the board are there
035students with disabilities in the Head Start program or do they go how >> that's a great question. If there's a student um with who the Head Start program um suspects a disability, they contact us and then our team will step in to go through that evaluation part. If that student is identified as a student with a disability, we can either go to Head Start and service if that's appropriate because again servicing where we find or we can talk about if it's appropriate for that student to come to our preschool program. So that decision is made by the team based on what's most appropriate for that student. But it we have that partnership. We meet with them on a regular basis and talk about students, but they have an intervention process. So those kids are getting
036intervention and support um along the way and then we meet with them on a regular cadence and then once they hit a place where they suspect a disability then we step in and do that work that we're required to do. >> Thank you. Great question. On the school lake side, um very similar kind of pathway. We have our general education classrooms for all of our students. Um we have inclusion support and think of that more of that push-in model. We're going to the student so that they're not leaving that setting and we're able to provide support within that classroom. That is done by our special education teacher and related service providers. So sometimes that speech therapist is providing speech in the classroom or OT um is there working with the student on the handwriting right
037in the midst of writing class with that as they're working on those letters. All those things are happening inside in those inclusion support. We also have co-eing in a lot of our grade levels. So now you have two teachers leading those classes, a special education teacher and a gened teacher and they're both teaching and both um leading and supporting those students. So, not only are your teach students with disabilities getting the benefit of that instruction from that um special education teacher and the expertise that they have in those accommodations, modifications and being able to look at content in a different way, but also that expertise and content knowledge that that gened teacher has um which is a benefit for all students when we're able to co-e. Then we have special education resource rooms. So, think
038of that pull out time. So um like in our elementaryaries we have that wind time or in and night time their new instruction time. So they may go see their special education teacher and get that um intervention and support and specially design instruction and during that setting. Um we have academic study that is what we call it in some of our older buildings. So we give it a new name depending on the age and grade but it's the similar concept where the students are coming to that small group setting to get that um specially designed instruction. And then we have our specialized classrooms similar um on that preschool side but these are for our more complex learners um for our students who may need a little bit more um and where we're able to provide
039additional services um when appropriate. Sometimes some of our students um participate in modified uh content because they may need a modified curriculum in order to access. Um so that's provided in that classroom led by a special education teacher to be able to make sure that we can meet their academic learning needs in addition to their special education needs. And then we have some students in our specialized classrooms who are academically at grade level able to do grade level work but may need that smaller environment for their regulatory needs because they need that for their sensory system in that large group environment is just not what's best for their learning needs and they struggle to be regulated in those environments. We have that for them as well. Um so it's not just about a content issue.
040um it's really meeting that student where they are and what they need and that IEEP team is making that determination. We also offer behavior programming. We do have some students who really need direct and explicit behavior instruction um in order to be able to be successful at school and they need that embedded in their school day. So we have special education teachers who are getting explicit training and instruction in behavior supports. Um and that is very different type of teaching and they do very explicit teaching in that area, very explicit feedback to that student and then they're there as a support if that student is struggling throughout their day. Um so we have that program throughout the um at every level. Um, and we'll talk about which buildings that's in, but we're able to service
041that through our buildings as well for our students who really need that direct explicit instruction and somewhere to go when they are feeling disregulated. Um, so that we can keep them in school um as opposed to them having um outbursts or displays of those maladaptive behaviors. Um, we have that there for them as well. So that's what our continuum looks like um within those school settings. Great. When we're talking about our um spe specialized programming, we just wanted to kind of highlight where this is happening. Um especially those specialized classrooms where we talked about for more complex learners. At Blue Ash, we have two of those specialized classrooms. Maple, there's actually three classrooms serving our students. Montgomery, there's one classroom. SIMS has one specialized classroom and two behavior support classrooms. All of our behav um
042students who have those more intense behavioral needs with that direct instruction for all of our elementaryaries go to SIMS. Um so they are they all go there because it's a smaller number of students. Um, right now we have six students in that program, but they they go come from all of our elementary schools to the one program in order to receive those services. That also helps us um align resources appropriately. um instead of let's say we had four students across four buildings that would require that instead of having a program in each building with one student we look at you know the benefits of pulling a small group together not only for the resources but also for that instruction and that your engagement as well. Um at green we currently have two specialized classrooms there.
043Junior high has two specialized classroom and one behavior program. The high school has three specialized classrooms and one behavior program. And then our um transition program, we have three programs. When looking at our specialized behavior specialized classrooms, again, our more complex students, that's a total of 81 students being serviced in those classrooms across the district. Um, when looking at our behavior programming, that is a total of, let me look because I just lost it as soon as I said it. Cheat sheet, 22 students currently um that are being service in those buildings. And then as our students um ages and grades move, if we need to move teachers and resources, we ship that with the students as well. So some years like right now we're heavy at that elementary and then we'll look at that
044population from between green junior high. Those are our transitional buildings and so sometimes those will move and it the resources move with the child. >> If you you know we don't have a behavioral support program listed at green but obviously the students through the continuum of our grade. Are we do we not have that option or we just currently don't have the need for that option or why do we not have that listed? >> Yeah that's a great question. And typically we do have a program at green uh but due to the low numbers we did not have the need for that this school year and we had high numbers in our elementary program which is why we have two at SIMS. Next year one of those teachers is rolling up with the fourth graders
045because we actually have four fourth graders um currently. So, one of the teachers who's learning those fourth graders, working with those fourth graders, getting to know those fourth graders will actually transition with those students to green and then that program will stay at Green and be housed at Green. So, that was a way that we were able to support that large group of fourth graders who were there um that had more intensive needs. Um so, that was a way that we were able to provide additional support for that group. >> Sounds like a great use of resources. Thank you. behavioral uh support programs. Are they are they similar to therapeutic behavioral programs, private programs that maybe someone would take the autism scholarship for or the Peterson scholarship? Is it is it like our district's way
046of working with students who need that support and in Sycamore or is it different than some of the private programs that our children are going to? >> There are some differences. Some of the programs that um may come to mind for most people are um 8020, meaning like they're 80% therapeutic. So they're spending the majority of their stay doing therapeutic services with mental health therapists. Um 20% on school. So like some of the programs you may see, they may do an hour of school work and five hours between individual and group therapy or there are 6040. So there's a different mix of that because we're still an academic setting. Our students are not immersed in that level of therapy. So we're training our teachers to be able to do social skills group, to do behavior
047management groups, to do to teach coping skills, to teach other things. So there are set times in the day that they are doing that direct behavior instruction and social skills instructions, but they're not mental health therapists. Um but a lot of our students are paired with our children's hospital therapist. So they are getting that individual but not from the our pro that direct teacher provider. Um and then they're not getting typically the same amount of therapeutic support and services as some of the private um placements that some of our families may access and that's typically the difference um that you'll see with those pieces. Um we're not a therapeutic setting and we recognize that. So, we're very thoughtful about that um with some of our families. Um and even if you think back to like
048our 3.5% um of students that are placed out, that sometimes is the difference when you truly have a child um or a student who um really need that therapeutic component and they really need that for larger portions of their day um because that child's in crisis. We're not mental health therapists and we don't have that capacity. Um, and we can do that and with the amount of education that we're required to do. >> And when you say mental health therapist, do you mean like behavioral like certified behavioral therapists like that? That's what you is that the same thing? >> I mean like true mental health therap like licensed therapists, licensed. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Not just like um like a BCBA. >> Not the BCBA like you mean more intensive behavior. >> Intensive.
049Got it. Okay. Yes. Yes. >> But do our but do our groups have more of the be the behavioral strategies for these classrooms? That's guess what I was trying to get at. >> They do. They do. And we'll talk about um that a little bit. Some of the um supports that we brought in to help um with that, but our um teachers have received additional coaching and support um from programs that specialize in that area. So they are getting a lot more support and training in how to support students um through a trauma based lens um and how to provide that therapeutic support in a school setting staying in our lane. We're not mental health therapists, right? We're not we don't >> do we have BCBA do we have behavioral therapists in our school district?
050Okay, >> we do and we that throughs and we do have some BCBA support. um that is available when that is needed for our students who have access. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> So wanted to share a little bit of information about uh special education ratings that our district is given. The um federal um office of special education programs evaluates our states in terms of their implementation of IDEIDA. So then the state in turn evaluates districts with those same parameters. So um the state is given a rating and then consequently our um district is given a rating based on those um components that they are looking at. What is unfortunate is that oftent times the information that we they are uh rating us on is a year old. Um, so the information that we're
051going to get in our new rating October of 2025 is last year's data. And so any findings that there are, we make corrective action plans that are due by the end of the school year. We may or may not have the time to implement depending on when those ratings come out and when the um state requires us to um submit those plans, it's already a whole another year. Um, so when we're making corrective action, sometimes we've got to wait to see, okay, did that work, right? Because we can collect our own data and determine that, but then it may not reflect on our rating. So that's just something to keep in mind as I'm I'm looking through or I'm sharing this information with you. So again, the special education ratings um they um really come
052from a combination of procedural compliance and then a couple of student outcome uh items, just two student outcome items for the rating. And that's graduation rate and dropout rate. And then some of the procedural measures they um uh look at are timely initial evaluations. If we start an evaluation, we have 60 calendar days, not school days, not work days, calendar days to complete that evaluation. You go to 61, you're out of compliance. Okay? So, that's something that the timely initial evaluations. Making sure that we have early um childhood transition and uh students IEP by their third birthday. That's another um area. So, there's a couple of others there um that they would they would look at. Um what's again another issue a little asterisk if you will with these uh profile ratings is the two
053student measures graduation rate and the dropout rate are actually two years ago data. So for this profile rating that we receive uh for that we received in the fall of last year. It was actually looking at the graduation rate and dropout rate from the 2021 2022 school year. Why is that tipped away? >> I can't answer that. >> When you say graduation rate, is that three year graduation rate or does that include students that go through >> That's a good question because these uh what we're evaluated are uh on our indicators. And so each of those indicators has a target rate. So for example, I'll use the graduation rate. Um the target uh for our students with disabilities to have a four-year graduation rate was 64%. So we needed to have 64% of our students
054with disabilities graduate um in that year. Our our data was actually 78 and a half%. So we were above that even though we weren't at 100% and I think you all know why that's because we do have um uh we are following the law and providing our transition services for students who require that. So we had zero dropouts which is great. Um but uh that graduation rate um that's a target that's set and it's it moves every year so it'll go a little bit higher each year. more points if we if tip was included and we had an 85% does that does our rating move up like in trying to ask are we being penalized for doing the right thing by having the tip program >> on this measure no on our state report card
055yes >> thank you >> um we have historically met this measure um on with our students with disabilities uh which I think is good um unfortunately uh fell I think they were like third to last in the graduation rate um in terms of all the state rankings and um territories that that are um evaluated. And so they really had a push to look at our students with disabilities and the graduation rate. Um, so anyway, this uh graduation, I'm sorry, the um uh rating we got the highest rating, which doesn't sound very dramatic, meets requirements, but that's the highest rating that that you can get. Um the other component, so typically the rating is um given after the profile. One is released in the fall, one is released sometime after January. Um, again, I think there
056the state is working on trying to be better with the timelines, but we're we're not there yet. Um so this uh performance profile um really outlines um there's six essential questions that you see there on the screen that they are looking at and that's because the federal government is looking at the state with those same six questions. um really looking at are we um um not only procedurally compliant because there's u components of that, but are we doing what's best for our students with disabilities? Um and so those six questions, they really help guide continuous improvement. Um not necessarily, they're not all gotchas, right? It's not all about finding fault, but it really is, okay, here's your data. I'll give you an example. our um uh students who were accessing alternative assessment. That's another area
057that the state was over um uh I guess they had a little blemish because uh across the state there was a number of districts who may have been using alternative assessment inappropriately. Um I don't believe we were as a district. Um and our numbers show that. Uh but since we looked at those pieces, each of those indicators on this profile really target, do we have students with disabilities that are participating in the regular assessment? Do we have uh an appropriate percentage, which is 1% is what the the federal government would like u each district, each state to have. No more than 1% of your student population alternatively assessed. So we've always been between like one and 2% more closer to one. Um they changed in the past couple of years the uh eligibility criteria for
058um alternative assessment and so we've adjusted to that as well. Uh but that's an indicator um that is part of this evaluation and helps us with continuous improvement just looking at those pieces. Um, it also identifies any area of non-compliance that you might have that you would have to have a a corrective action plan. Um, so, uh, the indicators on there, they have a set target date like I shared with you about the graduation rate. It's similar. Uh, they have workg groups. I've participated in workg groups before that set those targets. Um, parents participate in that at the state level as well. So it's it's all stakeholders are involved in that. For our profile, the one thing that has been consistent not only in this profile but in the previous two years is our disproportionality.
059Um so we have been found to be disproportionately identifying our black students as students with disabilities. And when we dig into some of those categories, there's there's different indicators. there's that overall identification and then you look at each category such as autism, um specific learning disability, emotional disturbance, all of those categories are evaluated. And so the categories that we were specifically found um under that uh umbrella of all disabilities, but then specific learning disabilities for our black students and emotional disturbance and then other health impaired as well. Um so those are the three areas that we've been looking at the past two years uh looking at our um evaluation process and I'll talk a little bit more about that when um uh we share you know kind of next steps and what we're our target
060areas are. The other area is a disproportionately identifying or I'm sorry um uh dis disproportionality in discipline for our students with disabilities who are also black students. Um so that's those are two areas that we've been looking at. Now that most recent one was just last year's indicator. It hasn't been the past uh couple of years like the other one. Okay. So to share a little bit about the investment that we are making um to support as a district to support our students with disabilities uh just giving uh an overall like the last three years uh total expenditures uh in in special education if you will. Um, so this includes our staffing costs, our special education staffing costs, uh, instructional services, sometimes tuition for those students who are placed out of district, contracted services such
061as the, uh, behavior um, support specialists or registered behavior technicians or other contracted services that we might need. Um, we always have a great partnership with Hamilton County ESC, uh, who provide, um, uh, teachers, uh, for the visually impaired, uh, teachers for the hearing impaired, aiologists that we don't need to have on staff because we don't have a full-time need for that, but we do need those services. Um so um looking at um you know you can see that over the past three years of data our uh costs have significantly increased over that time frame. Um but our number of students with disabilities hasn't necessarily increased. Uh what I can share with you is that the um the intensity of needs for our students is unique to Sycamore and that is something that we have
062seen um increase and so that is uh part of the factor um in looking at those increased costs. Um in addition to that increased rates for specialized transportation um contracted services um I can tell you the u last year you can see that that bigger jump we had a number of staff who were on leave whether it was maternity leave or other leave uh that we had to contract services for. Um our substitute consortium through Hamilton County doesn't have related services uh as substitutes. Um so we have to look at um you know contracting for those services and we definitely have seen an increase in those rates. >> I have a couple questions here and Mrs. Logan this is going to involve you too. Um you know this board is really looking at three important
063financial um processes two shortterm and one long term. We're looking at setting board financial parameters. We're also looking at next month doing our updated five-year forecast. Um and then we're looking into having a levy um you know potentially or probably next year and we're in the process of determining how much that levy needs to be. Um you know when you look at the growth over the last three three years we're looking at about a 21% growth rate. Um so if you if you just look at the math behind that the $20 million today in five years becomes almost $35 million and in 10 years that number goes all the way up to almost $57 million. So my ask is do you foresee that the first question do you foresee that these rates are going to
064the the costs that we're incurring now are going to to continue to increase at this rate which I know is very hard to predict. Um and then the second is more directed to Mrs. Logan of what numbers are we putting in our five-year forecast because it is very critical that we're putting the right numbers in our five-year forecast. Um and then also from a board financial parameters we're looking at a three and a half% growth rate. um when you're looking at roughly 20% of your budget increasing double digits um that leaves the rest of the budget to increase increase at a much smaller amount to achieve three and a half%. So I guess first question is do you anticipate that and then Mrs. Logan if you can touch on how we're forecasting? >> Yeah and
065and like you said Mr. around. It is difficult to anticipate but just seeing the trend especially with some of our contracted services, transportation costs um and um those the cost for just related services in general. I I do see that it would increase. I don't know how much. That's the the tricky part to try and pinpoint. >> It's a non-answer. >> I don't think it's I don't think it's a non-answer as much as just I do think it would be helpful to add in what state or federal funds we are also maybe getting or not getting. Sorry. >> Um so on this slide, this is showing general fund expenditures from the federal government. We receive about $1.8 million in federal funds that help support that investment in those students. As well as we get about
066$24,000 for preschool. So that's the amount of money that we're getting um outside of um from from the federal government from the state. Um as we know that we are a locally funded uh public school system. We know that the majority of our funds come from our community that we value. um in looking at these expenditures and what we're getting from the state to help kick in um to help provide some of the offset on this. We are not unlike other school systems around the state of Ohio. This is such a um topic of interest and a concern um that there was a special education study, two studies that have been done in the past couple years that say that across the state on average the state is providing well the state and federal government
067is providing less than 30% of the total cost. the total investment we are making into our special education students. So, I want to say that upfront like this is something that other communities are are talking about and trying to figure out how do we sustain what we need to do for all kids in the district. Um Stacy and I, we've we've met, we've talked about budget, we have made sure that the appropriations that we're going to be talking about uh later tonight include all of those. We have tried to include the increases that we believe that we're going to need this year for those costs that Stacy's already identified as well as I have built in a little bit of contingency because what we see is that while this is what we know right now
068but it's September so things happen throughout the year um and so we are building in some contingency but a you know it's what we know right now. Um but as you can see things um happen throughout the year and and yes that those numbers are increasing. >> Do you do you know off the top head the the five-year forecast what percentage were increasing? >> I do not know specifically to special education but I could pull that out. Um just like >> we just want to make sure that when we're setting our five-year forecast you know we're including what we anticipate. >> Yes. So we also um Christian you can go the next slide. Thank you. Um we also look at every opportunity that we can to secure grants uh even if it's very small uh
069grant. Um we jump through the hoops um to try and get those. Um and then we also do a heavy lift uh with the treasur's department um to do threshold cost reimbursement. And that is an opportunity for us to really look at our expenditures from the previous year. So, we're going to be doing that work um here coming soon um for last year's expenditures and we um submit those to the state, they've got a pot of money that they have set aside for this. And so, schools who participate and really do the hard work of looking at detailing all of our expenses, we can get some reimbursement. um uh Mr. Buren has been very um busy doing that uh helping us in the treasures department. So, thank you for that. Um but that is something
070we we look at every opportunity that we can. Um you got a a job skills grant for $11,000. It seems like a drop in the bucket, but it's a drop in the bucket. And if we have it, we see it, we take it, and we try and and access those opportunities. >> Mrs. Spencer, why was FY24 reimbursement so much different than 22 and 23? >> I can speak to that. >> So, um, so the way that this works, so you'll notice in FY22, we that percentage 42%. Um, the way this works, and I'm sorry, but just give me a few minutes. The way this works is the state calculates how much funding you should get for your special education students. Then they give us 90% of that total. The 10% that they don't give us
071goes into a bucket and it is about it's somewhere between 90 and 100 million that's set aside for threshold cost reimbursement for every district in the state. And so then what happens is because that 10%'s being taken away and put into a bucket, everybody says, "I want my money." Prior to um 22, not many school districts even participated in this because Mr. Buren will tell you this is a heavy lift. It is a lot of work to get this money back to us. Um what we have seen from 22 to 24 is a lot of districts are now saying I'm going to do that work and I'm going to try to get money back. For example, Columbus Public did not participate in this program before they started participating. So we've got some really large school
072districts now taking more of that pot of money. And so you'll see that our share, our percentage that we're getting back ising less, but it's still worth the effort and we're going to continue to do it. >> Thank you. what is the reason for putting some money in a pot versus >> so I can I can speak a little bit to that too because this this all came about through um the the new funding formula that we're doing and I happen to be the co-chair of the special education funding piece um since 2006 we have funded special education at 90%. The thought was the other 10% was supposed to come from the federal government which has never happened. So one way and we knew that this threshold cost reimbursement was there was not enough money
073there. So it was one way to kind of get the state to say we'll give you 100%. But the 10% we're going to put over here. They doubled the pot of money that was available. It's just and it was kind of supposed to be just a a placeholder until we got the special ed study done and then they funded us at what they should be funding us. But we're we still got a long way to go. So I'm sorry I have too much information on that but that's what happened. >> Yes. >> Thank you so much. has been very >> So just to wrap up um we've got uh a couple of items that we're targeting work. >> Yes. So for our specialized classroom for the last three years we've been doing a lot of
074professional development for our teachers. Um really trying to one have alignment across all of our buildings um preschool through 12th grade especially um to make sure that our student experience is the same. um the programming is the same for our students and really looking at um making sure that our teachers are trained in order to support our students. Um, as we've talked throughout um, our presentation, we are receiving students with pretty complex needs, which means that you need a higher level of training and you need to be prepared to receive those students um, to educate them not only academically but meet their adaptive needs, their behavioral needs, sensorial needs, all the things. Um, so we've been doing a lot of professional development in that area. Um, we also have brought in coaches to support that
075work. Um, it's one thing to sit in a classroom as we all know and do the book work and hear the speaker tell us about the thing and then you get in the classroom with the child and it's like how do I implement? So, we have coaches who are licensed BCBAs that come in and reinforce the work that we've done in the classroom with our teachers um for that programming work. So, they're coming in coaching and they're supporting. And then as we have students who may need more intensive needs, they're able to help us with FBA, BIPS, those pieces um to really help work our teachers and teams through that process so that they can be better equipped um to support students um longer term in their learning and picking up those additional skills um
076so that they will learn that and are able to then implement on on their own thereafter. Um so, we're in that cycle. We started with our um preschool through sixth grade. We've tagged on 712. Um so we have kind of two pathways that we've been working through that coaching cycle um on that programming and coaching support. So um that's been going really well and growing our staff. And then as we onboard new teachers, they're introduced to that training and support as well. Um so that's happening with our specialized classroom. Um we have really over the last few years. Thank you to uh Miss Tomkins and her team have a wonderful partnership with um curriculum department and are not working in silos and have really partnered with them on curriculum for our special education staff to
077make sure that our um students have high quality materials. Um our teachers have high quality materials so that our students are getting that evidence-based instruction. um we don't want to feel like our students are not getting that saints instruction if they're not in that genet setting. So we've really partnered with them to be very mindful of those pieces. Um so we've been doing uh making sure that our teachers and our specialized classroom and our teachers who do that pulot support um have access to those curriculum. So, we've also been doing a lot of training in that. Um, especially as our dyslexia law and rent law and third grade reading guarantee, all that's been coming about. We've been partnering with our curriculum department to train our special education teachers so that they also have the training
078and knowledge to implement, but then also those resources. And then we also have introduced um an evidence-based adaptive core curriculum for our specialized classrooms because we want to make sure that our students if a decision is made for a student um not to participate in that genet setting, they still should be getting rich core instruction. Um they deserve that same rich instruction as every other student. And so we have been able to get some resources in. Um so they're reading adaptive novels. they're doing that algebra work that's been modified to three different levels so that they can participate at their level. Um so they're seeing and doing that same curriculum work at their typical peers and then um so that's been very um great to be able to introduce those resources and then we're going
079through a training cycle for that as well so that our teachers are able to be proficient in that curriculum as well. So that's been a great partnership curriculum. So that's been uh wonderful to have them come alongside us with that work as well. >> And then we're also collaborating uh with the MTSS implementation, continuing that collaboration. Uh Mrs. Lawson is is leading us in that charge. Um so that um collaboration has been continued to be really strong and supportive and inclusive. Some of the continuous improvement components just to wrap us up here. I know we've been a little long so thank you for your patience. um really looking at um addressing that disproportionality um component by monitoring our evaluation process uh and eligibility process um and looking at how does our intervention process MTSS inform
080those decisions um not only for our black students who we are looking at very closely but all students um in looking at that but we need to make sure that we are paying attention to where we have been found to be disproportionate um looking at an internal monitoring team that Mrs. Belfram is um leading uh to really look at that those paper that paperwork the evaluation paperwork with a group of um representatives uh from each building. Um looking at those IEP documents, where might we need more training, where do we need to help support improvement? Um and then hearing loud and clear um from our community uh this through since last spring and through the summer um really engaging our community, our parents, our staff um both gened and special ed um in a group
081level assessment process. We haven't done that since 2018. Um it's it's time um to uh start that process again. So, um, more information will be coming out shortly regarding what that process is going to look like. Um, and, um, identify some areas that we can continue to improve. >> Any other questions? I know that was a lot. Very thorough. >> Thank you for that. >> Thank you for everything you do for our students. >> Yeah. Thank you both for providing that update. >> And may I ask one more question before you go? Sorry. Normally we do this during our curriculum, our um our academic retreats with the board, right? We always ask you, normally we do these kind of conversations with you at a retreat and we always say to you, what do you need
082from the board? What resources do you need from the board? Is there something and if is there something that you feel like from this presentation that you need from us? And if you do, you would let Mr. uh you would definitely let let Mr. Lewis know that. >> Absolutely. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Next item on the agenda is a discussion policy first read. >> Mr. Levelvel. >> Sure. So, um I just want to first by start out everybody knows we have been um going down the path of our transition from our OSBA policies to our NEOLA policies. In fact, we have um so far completed 9 and a half hours of transition work um over the last couple weeks. Um and that represents one of nine sections that we have to transition. So, I'm feeling
083good about this. Throw that out there. Um but what we did finish was this section of the 3000s, which is our professional staff policies. And I wanted to spend just a minute here talking about the process again because we've had an opportunity to be reflective of what I've shared in the past and updated how we're going to tackle this a bit. Um nothing major, but I wanted to talk through that and then share with you why we have a policy up here for first read. Um as I'd mentioned in previous meetings, we have a policy transition team that is tackling the hard conversation around the policy. So that's looking at we spend 4-hour chunks and we go um basically policy by policy look at the aligned OSBA policy if it exists. We have conversations about
084it and then we move on to the next policy and there three options for each policy. You can just accept the policy in that transition meaning um it's a legislative policy there's no significant changes whatever that may be. You can decline the policy because it's not a policy that we actually need. Um it could be for a lot of different reasons or we put that policy on hold. Um when we put a policy on hold that means that policy needs to go for further review with the policy committee. Um and so we're keeping a document um and that document is a workflow of every policy that has notes and things like that. Um once we get done with a section, we just got done with the 3000s. That section will then go to the policy
085committee for review. and I have been sending our policy committee which includes two of our board members, Dr. James, Dr. Sager, um a sheet that incorporates all of those policies that you can log in and check and I'm going to be keeping up to date with that as much as I can. So when we get to the policy committee, it's not a massive heavy lift, right? Once we go to the policy committee, that's where we'll tackle the onh hold policies and look at them collectively and decide at that point if we're ready for that section of policies to move forward for the board for a discussion around that section. What what we won't be doing is approving those sections little by little. All of the policy, all nine sections will be approved at one time.
086and we're looking at June of 2026. The reason for that is is that if we approve policies, we have to resend other policies. And we don't want to be in a position where you have three policies that are one NEOLA policy, but maybe the other OSBA policies are connected elsewhere. So, we want to make sure that we're not rescending a policy, then we're not covered by policies. We want it to be a very clean switch in one meeting, but we also don't want to get to a point where the board is reviewing nine sections at one time. Um, and so we're going to be slowly rolling those sections out when they get completed. And I will be providing the board an update with each of those sections well prior to the meeting so everybody can
087look at them after they go to the policy committee as well. So I wanted to walk through how that will look. So it could be 3,000s get to you for a first read and then or for a 3,000s get to you for a first read. The following meeting they get to you for a second read and then the same meeting you have 4,000s for a first read. So it's kind of going to be this rolling policy continuum until we get all the way to June. >> So we'll do a first read and a second read, but we don't vote on any of them till June. >> Got it. Yep. Yep. So the hope is that when we get to June, when we're in that meeting, it's going to be a little bit longer discussion, but
088it's going to be orienting you to all the policy structure and then an approval of the entire policy handbook at that time in June. Now, you'll notice there's a policy up here for first read. As I mentioned in previous meetings, the legislators are really good about giving us new policy all the time. So, we can't just wait to talk about that policy till we get to the 8000s. We have to address those policies now. And so, we have to tackle that. This policy up here, I am not going to go over this policy with you tonight, but I wanted to put it in front of you. It's 16 pages. This is probably the most in-depth policy that we're going to have through the whole discussion. And the reason I'm bringing this to you for this
089first read, number one for awareness, but this is the policy that we had many discussions last year about. This is OSDA policy ACACR, which is non-discrimination. If you remember, we have to go back in time back last spring when this was a topic with the board. We had actually asked our legal to take a look at that policy to make a determination if we felt like there needed more meat to it because the policy that was being provided by our vendor OSBA um as we know there were some things in it that we didn't feel like fit sick more um and it didn't set us up for success. So what we wanted to do is go to legal and say hey take a look at this what might we do. So from that legal provided
090us with a more robust policy and that was I want to say in like May and then summer happened and so here we are the first of the year. So um in the midst of all that discussion with legal we decided we're moving to Niola. So what I did was I um got with Niola and said, "Can I get this policy from you early and send it to legal and have legal review the OSBA policy, the newly drafted policy and the Neola policy and look at those and try to determine if we would need to do anything to the NELA policy based on the recommendations that legal had brought forward. based on all that conversation, um the 16 pages was enough and very effective and had more than enough in it that we needed. Now,
091you're going to notice on here that there are three policies. There's a 3122, a 4122, and a 1422. I'm not going to go in depth in this right now cuz y'all are tired. In Miola, it's different than OBA. You're going to have a similar policy in multiple sections of the policy manual because one is going to be professional staff, administrative staff, and classified staff. They're all the same just in a different section. So that's why there's three. And you'll see that very often when I bring policy forward for a read. Okay, this 16page policy, we are not going to do simple two reads of this because there's a lot in here. So, what I wanted to do is this meeting is kind of share with you how the progress of the work is going, how
092we've laid it out. I wanted to put it in front of you, let you have time between this meeting and the next meeting to actually read the policy. At the next meeting, we're going to do a second reading. I'm going to go more in depth on the policy and I'm going to talk a little bit more about administrative guidelines and how we're going to leverage those to actually interpret the 16 pages of the policy. Then we'll do another we'll do a third read of the policy and then likely go for approval unless you all say we probably need another read. Um which is perfectly fine. We have an acting policy now that we've been using. We can keep using it. This is just more robust. This policy is not a deadline policy. So I'm going
093to be bringing policies to you in the next few meetings that legislative action requires January one. So we'll have to keep those moving. That is not this policy. I'm just providing this to you because I want some visibility on it so that when we get to the next meeting, we can have a little bit more rich discussion. >> I think just as a reminder to go back to the big picture, just remember when he says he's going to bring the 3000s to us, that is a very that's a lot of policy. >> Yeah. >> We're going to get not like when we have our first reads, we might have 10 or five or one. This is going to be a very high volume number and you're going to indicate to us yes >> which ones
094maybe oftentimes board policy is mandated by the Ohio legislature or the federal government and we don't get a choice and this is what it is and that's it but there are some that are we get to customize for sycamore and those will be highlighted so we'll be able to see that >> I would just ask >> reminder it's a ton of ton of policy >> I would just ask the policy committee to consider whether or not we special meetings, work sessions that would be earlier in the day to be working on. Uh, no offense, but I don't think any of us want to be sitting here at 10:00 at night still talking about thousands of pages of policy. So, if that's something that the policy committee can recommend, if it's going to be 90 minutes
095or two hours of discussion, I I don't know that an evening meeting is the most appropriate for that kind of setting. >> Yeah. And I will I will tell you that to Mrs. Bidder's point, >> our goal is when I bring the three let's say any section bring the 30,000s to the board, you will have that ahead of time and you're going to have not only the policies, but you're going to have the um work document that has them outlined and they will be bolded yellow, the ones that I feel like you need to keep your eyes on and the ones that I feel like are what standard. And so the goal is to take if we have in 3,000 40 policies to narrow it down to five or six that are truly discussion worthy
096on this level outside the policy committee. Um I I agree Mr. Lewis, we I I talked to Mrs. bitter about this and Miss Logan about um there might be opportunities where it might make more sense to say, "Hey, can can we start the meeting an hour early and just tackle policy um so we we can get that done or whatever that may be." But I think we also talked about just knowing that the board could do this offsite. I mean, we will have access to this information. It's homework on our part, but if we as much as we could read in advance and be prepared for the meeting, it would require less time at the meeting, right? It's just that's what happens when you change policies. When you change over to NEOLA or OSBA or
097whatever you're doing, it's a lot of work and we have to do it if we can as much as we can offline, but also people will ask questions. >> There'll always be questions. >> There will always be questions. Exactly. So, we we'll have to figure out a way to blend that. But yeah, we could start early or we could do special meetings and work offsite as well. >> We will we will we are committed. We will get this done. Well, I just wanted you to all to realize that when he says first, it's a pretty big number. So, we just have to be ready for that. But it beats doing it all at one time. If we chunk it like this, this is going to be so much more manageable than the alternative. All right.
098That good. >> That's great. Yeah. >> All right. Can I please get a motion and a second for approval of revised policy committee dates? >> So move second. >> Thank you Mr. Balant for your motion. Thank you Mr. Harris for your second. >> Logan, please call the role. >> Mr. Balant, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, >> I. >> Dr. James, >> hi. >> Mrs. Bidder. >> Hi. >> Can I please get a motion and a second for approval of a contract with Perry Weather? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Dr. James, for your motion. Thank you, Mr. Ballot, for your second. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. >> Dr. James, >> I. >> Mr. Balant, >> hi. >> Mr. Harris, >> I. >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I. Can I please get a motion
099and a second for approval of a sponsorship program contract with Power Ad Company? >> So moved. >> Second. Thank you, Mr. Harris, for your motion. Thank you, Dr. James, for your second. Mr. Lewis, do you want to talk about this one at all or Mr. Levelvel? >> I It doesn't matter. >> Yeah, go ahead. >> So, we have a similar agreement at the high school. Um, basically what Power Ad does for us is helps sell ads um for increased revenue at our facilities. This is specifically to cover windcreens um over at the junior high. So, this isn't the high school. So, we actually, just to let you know, um after our experience with this contract, if anybody has a memory back to the high school, um we did work with our attorney on this one
100to clean up some of the language in it. So, um, we feel comfortable with it the way it's written. >> Okay. And you're okay with it with the We won't know what it will be until the ads come in. >> Okay. >> And it'll, um, follow board policy. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Which is written in the contract? >> Yeah. >> Mrs. Logan, please call the role. Mr. Harris, >> I. >> Dr. James, I. >> Mr. Balant. I. >> Mrs. Bidder. I. Can I please get a motion and second for transportation impractical? So move. >> Second. Thank you, Dr. James, for your motion. Thank you, Mr. Balot, for your second. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. >> Dr. James, hi. >> Mr. Balon, >> Mr. Harris, >> I. >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I. Can
101I please get a motion in a second for out of town field trip approvals? >> So moved. Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris, for your motion. Thank you, Mr. Ballot, for your second. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. Mr. Harris, I. >> Mr. Balant, hi. >> Dr. James, I Mrs. SP I >> just a few items. Um I just want to mention this week the state report card came out. There's still a lot of information and digging we need to do but you know we're still very proud that our district achieved some outstanding results and some of the highlights that stuck out to us. Um third consecutive year of growth in gifted identification and services. Uh, five of our seven schools earned five stars. Uh, we were district-wide five-star ratings in achievement, graduation, and gap
102closing. Um, and we achieved 94.8% of the max score of the state performance index, which is still showing uh tremendous growth. Uh what I'm most proud of is that our teachers tackled um and our staff tackled really a difficult task which was switching curriculums uh in English language arts and math math all the way from kindergarten all the way to algebra 2 um in ELA grades K to 4. and uh to be able to still achieve these great results while going through such a massive change um just makes me proud of the hard work and dedication uh of our professionals. So doesn't mean we won't learn from things uh that we pick up in our data and and always strive to be better, but um those were things that stood out to us. So we
103will be looking forward to um if you remember our next two meetings are kind of um we have October I think 8th and then October 29th and in between we have an academic retreat. So I think our goal would be um we would like to present about the report card to you at at one of the October meetings. Um certainly the academic retreat our buildings are going to be talking about their data with you. Um, so just kind of a precursor that we will be digging deeper into that, but just wanted to give an overview of that. Um, really hot off the presses, excuse me, our girls golf team GNC champions for the fourth year in a row. Um, Matt Star was coach of the year and five of our players are first team GMC.
104So, um, congratulations to them and best of luck to them at the next, uh, level, uh, the next steps in the process. So, uh, we had our high school variety show, um, this past Friday. Some amazing talent. Uh, if the board would desire, one of the students just walked up to me today like, "If you want us to perform at a board meeting, let us know." I was like, "Wow, okay. Well, maybe we'll take them up on that." But one of the performances that stood out to me because the young lady she did a solo by herself. Um if you don't know the I think it's the band Radio Head. It's a song Creep. Um the young lady did a solo of it and won the entire variety show. It was amazing. Um the whole
105crowd uh and granted the whole crowd went wild on just about every performance. They were so good. But I remember hers standing out. Her name's Salem Harts. Um, so we may be able to get some of those young individuals to come to a board meeting and and wow you with their talents if you were unable to see it and really let some of our community that don't get to go to those events see those talents. Um, Aves Theater has put out their shows for the year. Um, She Kills Monsters will be October 23rd through the 25th. I have no idea what that's about, but it's an intriguing title. uh the 25th annual Putnham County Spelling Bee January 22nd through the 24th and then Greece April 23rd to 25th. I'm familiar with that one. So, >>
106um one of the things that I I just wanted to mention, our AES council met for the first time this year, and that's a group of high school students, freshman all the way to seniors, uh that meet with me and also Mr. Potaabomb to just share perspective about the high school. Um what I wanted to share was the positivity that they brought in the room today and they couldn't have been more complimentary of just how the high school has started, how the vibe has felt. Um they just said, "Mr. Lewis, it's so positive here. We're doing so many good things. We appreciate all the spirits." They mentioned the parking lot spaces, how much community that brought and they're like, "Mr. Louis, it's just so everything is just so positive. Um, and they mentioned specifically a
107couple of things. One is the administration and the staff being so present and visible for them every single day. And I've been there a lot since the beginning of school and there are teachers everywhere in the hallways between classes. They're on duty just standing in the hallways talking to kids. Um, the cafeteria or the commons area. Uh and then they mentioned the presence of the administration. They specifically I think you all saw the video of Dr. Krenshaw singing um at lunch that has become a classic cult classic already. Um so that I think we'll be doing a story on that coming up about the singing. And then they just said Mr. Muchmore is so pleasant. He always comes to around and talks to every group of kid uh in the cafeteria. And I think that
108means a lot to our students to be able to have that connection with our leaders. So that came straight from our students uh not from me. But um October 13th, I know we mentioned our academic retreat. I just wanted to at some point I would love some feedback from the board on um you know we typically have the seven buildings present and if you remember we kind of do that in three different kind of three round tours uh in the room. Um that usually leaves space for two other presentations, two other groups. Um, I think we should probably give our special education department a pass on the retreat since they just gave you over an hour of information. Um, but there may be something particular that you want. I would love that feedback from the
109board of what would you like to fill those other two slots with? You know, what's on your mind? What you haven't had uh from us? We're happy to bring it. I would just love that feedback. We're about a month out. So, um, if we could get kind of that information within the next week or two and we can bring that to you, uh, whatever that that might interest you. Um, and then just something that I think is is unique, uh, our team has been talking about this for a while, our administrative team, um, at the district office and, uh, we have been successful in getting it off the ground. We are going to do, uh, what's called exploring leadership in Sycamore. Um we want to give our young um really well any administrators I was
110or any teachers um in our district an opportunity to come and talk to us and learn from us about being an administrator. Um there is a lot of interest. There are a lot there's a lot of people in our district that have administrative lure and they're kind of on the fence of do I go into administration? Do I stay in teaching? So, we thought we would give them a non I I'll say a non-colgate aspect of what is leadership really about. Um, so they're going to be seven sessions that we're going to uh work them through uh reflecting on your why as a leader, building trust and credibility, community partnerships and school identity. The first 90 days, lessons from new leaders, uh difficult conversations that shaped us, equity, inclusion, and student voice. and then moments
111of crisis, leading under pressure, and legacy reflection. So, those are going to be the seven areas. Um, we promise them it will not be a class. It'll be actual stories from people who lived it. So, um, we're excited about doing that. So, I just want to give you the cautionary tale. Um, we tried to schedule them when we anticipated there might be board meetings, um, so that we don't have to share another night away from our family. So, I think they're scheduled I'm going to say 4:15 to 5:45 on those nights. So, I can give you the list just so if there's a need to meet, it won't take all of us. So, um if there is a need for me to be here for an earlier executive session, someone else will cover for cover
112for me. I'm very confident in the team giving those uh unique experiences to our staff. So, >> like a great program. Yeah, >> we're very excited about it. And the the response we've gotten from staff is, "Thank you for doing this. We we would really be interested." And >> I think when I first sent it out, there were about 30 people. Um I think right now that we're sitting at about 15 to 18 that want to come and do it. Some have other commitments, but they're like, "Will you please run this again?" So, if there's interest, we'll do it every year. >> When does it start? Did you >> October 29th? >> Nice. Great. Yeah, very excited. That's all I have tonight. >> Can I please get a motion a second personnel consent agenda? >>
113Move. >> Thank you, Mr. Balant, for your motion. Thank you, Dr. James, for your second. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. >> Mr. Balant, >> I. >> Dr. James, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, >> I. >> Mrs. B. >> I. Next item is discussion of the financial update. Okay. So, Mr. Long, if you go to Yes. Perfect. So, if you recall, we did cancel our financial retreat, which we had scheduled for a Saturday um morning. So, what what I'm going to try to do tonight is try to hit some of those topics that I was planning on hitting um during that time. Also, it's time sensitive because by the end of um September, we must approve a permanent budget, permanent appropriations. So, we're going to focus in on the appropriations, but I'm also going to
114put in some other pieces that are related to that, um, which we were going to cover. Um, and so we're going to try to kind of instead of having four hours all at once, um, we're going to try to look at how can we piece things together when we're together already and not create another meeting for you. So, we'll talk about how we think we can get that done. So, what are appropriations? It's our district budget. We do have a policy. We've talked a lot about policy tonight. Um, which defines the level at which you will appropriate, you will budget, and that's by fund level. We did approve temporary appropriations at the June 25th meeting. And so now we're just finalizing everything. And we can modify these. That's the other thing I want to say
115is we approved these. And permanent sounds like it's permanent and you can't change anything, but you can change them throughout the year as things change. So by fund, I mentioned that um that's the level of authority we appropriate in Sycamore, which is pretty typical um for all school districts in the state of Ohio. So what this chart shows is uh the total amount that was approved for temporary appropriations, what's being asked for permanent, what the variance is, the percentage of the overall budget that each fund uh represents, how much did we spend in the past three years by fund. That information is located located here as well. Why why the big difference between the temporary and the permanent if we just approve this in? >> So for the general fund I can tell you that
116the majority of that was um transfers out was not included in the temporary appropriations and we know that we transfer out $4.1 million annually to our PI um fund and that was not included in temporaries. We could do that in the future but that's the major difference there. Is there a reason why it wouldn't be put in temporaries? >> Probably it was an omission on my part. >> That's fine. I just >> That's probably what happened. Um but that's the majority of the difference there. When we get to um the building fund, the majority of that is going to include the uh baseball softball fields there. Um, and then as you move on down in your 400 funds and your 500 funds, 400 funds represent state grants and then 500s are federal grants. So those
117differences are we did not really know what the allocations were when we did temporaries. Um, and so now we do and we've um changed those accordingly. So when we when we look at the overall budget, our general operating fund is over 80% of our total budget. We do have district debt. So the bond retirement fund represents uh those debt service payments. We do have a PI fund that is solely um funded from our general fund through transfers which is about 3% of that total food service our child nutrition um program is 3% and then our IDA which we've talked about our that program uh tonight. So that represents about 1% of our funding. >> Food service is self-funded. >> Yes, it is. >> The 3%. >> So that's the 3% of the overall budget. So
118if you look at the total budget that we are approving tonight, 3% of that total overall budget is our food service fund budget, which is the O6 fund. So if we look on this chart, um so O1 fund is going to be our general fund. O2 is our debt service. O3 is permanent improvement. O4 is our building. And then 06, that's our child nutrition um program, which is $3.4 million total. So each fund here is represented. But what I tried to do on this sheet was look at not just the fund overall, but how much is being allocated, how much is being budgeted for each one of those objects, wages, benefits, purchase services, supplies, equipment, miscellaneous, and then other uses is our transfers out. So, if I look at the bottom right corner and see
119$132 million, but our budget is only 112 plus three and a half% whatever that number is, what's the difference? Is it your federal funds that's that's coming in, your state funds and those? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> So, these charts just looking solely at the general fund. Um, and we talk a lot about, we talked about those transfers out. What we like to do here and what you should be doing is what is your operating expenditures versus your total expenditures. So when we look at this chart and we look at, you know, what are the how much are we spending on people versus purchase services versus versus supplies and things like that. Um when we look at total expenditures in the general fund um we are spending 79% on wages and benefits but then when
120we look at operating expenditures taking out those transfers um we are at 82% is spent on our people. Last year, just for comparison, that was 84% in FY2025. So, I wanted to show this because we've talked a lot about financial parameters and what would that look like? Could we achieve it? What's the right percent? So, this budget that you see before you um represents, if if you follow it all the way over to the right hand side, it is a 2.9% increase over what we spent last year. We've talked about a 3 and a half% financial parameter and doing that for a five-year period. and we've talked about do we believe we could do it is that the right you know target is that achievable based on the information and the other thing I will
121say that this year is a little more challenging but we have more information earlier this appropriation resolution has been done alongside with the draft of the five-year forecast which you're going to be seeing At the next board meeting, we have worked very hard to try to identify what we believe all those costs are that we're going to need for this year's total budget and where we think we're going to end up. I'm going to ask all of you. I'm not going to I'm not going to say it, but when you look at this and you look at um the 2.9% but then you look at each individual budget, is there anything that you notice that you might wonder how >> just harvested? >> So for me when I look at this wages and benefits because
122you just said that's 80 plus% of our >> expenditures. The only way this is achievable is there's fewer people. >> Yes. >> Um we all know the cost of benefits are going up 10 plus percent year-over-year. So I'm not so much concerned about a three and a half% parameter or this year. But in order to achieve that next year, the same way you're going to achieve that is by a reduction in numbers. >> So that sustainable is my question. So, what we're gonna what we're going to look at with the forecast um at the next meeting is one of the things that I can tell you that's included in purchase services that will go away next year is we have instructional co coaches that have been instrumental in in helping with the heavy lift that
123we've had and those are here throughout this year. Those go away next year which are included in the purchase services. That's about600 $700,000 that will be reduced next year. So that's going to help us next year. again our purchase services including so we have a low um I know we have we have staff members that are out on leave and now we have to hire we have to create contracts with other providers when which we could be paying them quite a bit of money to provide those services for students to educate them. Is that part of purchase services? that is included in purchase services as well as all um substitute teachers are included in the purchase services number as well because um we don't employ our substitute teachers. We contract with the ESC Hamilton County
124ESC >> as well as legal services are included in purchase services. Um, so there's a lot in there, but it is increasing and we've talked about I mean, Mrs. Spencer just went over a lot of information. Um, but we're going to look at all of those details. What I'm what I'm going to say to you, um, Mr. Valent, is do I think that it is achievable? I believe that it is achievable if we say it's a three and a half% average over the next five years. >> And I think that's the only way to do it. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> But my other question is, you know, and again, this is probably not for discussion tonight because I'm putting you on the spot. >> That's okay. >> At our last financial retreat, we were
125presented with a capital improvement plan. We had a consultant come in and look at what our capital improvement costs should be. um versus you know we have that $4.1 million set aside now. So before we start to set parameters I would want to know is 4 and a.5 million the amount that's needed to maintain our outstanding facilities. >> No it's not. >> It's not. So is that built into a five-year forecast and is that also built into financial parameters to make sure we're accounting for the money we truly need to spend to upkeep our facilities? So when we've talked about financial parameters, we've talked about operating expenditures. If we want to look at overall total expenditures growth in putting a parameters there, that's a different conversation. >> It's a good point. I didn't Yeah, I
126thought about that. >> And and I've got this on another slide, but we're going to be talking about at the next meeting. Um we're going to do an update of what does that I mean three and a half% is >> we're still taking from cash reserves in order to fund capital improvement. So that cash reserves is still going to continue to drop at a higher rate than three and a half%. >> Yes. >> I think that's a number we need to >> Yes. Yeah. >> But it is good news. it is that >> you know I mean what we're you know what we've been discussing what we thought we could achieve um we're happy to present this before you tonight and say that the hard work um that was done last year that was started
127last year on responsible staffing will continue and we are it did make an impact um and so we're providing you with that information. >> So, at what point does the board set financial parameters and vote on it? But I would like to do it very soon. Like if not at the next meeting. >> I'm going to bring it to you at the next meeting. Um alongside the five-year forecast and um if you want to take more time, you can take more time, but I'm bringing it to you. It's it will be on the agenda. that, you know, we've been talking about it for almost a year now. >> Yes. >> Um, you know, we're we're heading into next year of a levy cycle and I think the sooner we can put responsible numbers of expenditures
128in front of our community, the better off it'll be. I'm in favor of bringing it at the next meeting. >> Okay. So, this chart I just wanted to show on Sorry. >> Yes. Um, if you are going to bring it to the board at the next meeting, that would be great. We've been talking about it almost every single meeting. >> Yes. >> Good. >> We would need to know what your recommendation is on if it's taking out the permanent improvement or if it's total expenditures. So you you should make a recommendation to us. I think that's what I believe you should do. >> I think it needs to be on expenditures. >> Totally. >> Total. And you're thinking average of five years. You would say 3.5 years. Every other contract with the community that we've
129done since I've been on the board has been average based. >> Yes. >> That gets you away from odd things that might happen one year. >> Yes. And this would be a switch. If we looked at total expenditures, it would be a switch from what the financial parameters have been in the past which were just on operating expenditures. >> You know, my rationale for not having it to be all the capital improvement. Um, you know, and this is getting into further discussions, but if we truly next year are going to look at a a levy which includes a percent operating and a percent capital improvement, then that parameter after next year wouldn't make any sense. >> Yes. >> So, I think the parameter needs to stick on operating expenditures um so that it's consistent and
130the language stays consistent from the past as well as looking forward to what would happen after a levy would be my record. >> Okay. Okay. This chart is just a way of showing you as we're talking about financial parameters and we're talking about expenditure growth, what has that looked like uh since back in 2015. The reason why I picked 2015 is when was our last operating levy here for the district? >> 2016. So I just went a year prior to that. Um the bottom chart which I know is very small. The other piece that we talk about, but I don't think as as often, we did receive uh funds from the federal government for that short period of time there to help us with our COVID issues and it was over $6 million for the
131district during that period of time. And I I want to point out see in 2022 when um it dips down well 2022 if you look at the COVID funds that was a year when we spent the most in COVID funds. So, and those COVID funds, unlike federal funds that we receive where we cannot um you can't basically um replace what you what you're doing like you can't spend money on existing things. You have to enhance or do additional things. Um, with our COVID funds, you could take existing expenditures and spend the money on existing expenditures, which is what Sycamore did for a lot of these and a lot of school districts did as well. >> But a lot of that funding went to paying additional teachers that we that we didn't necessarily have in other
132years. which did not. So th those expenditures on staff, they we didn't spend it and then those went away. The general fund started paying for those. So yes, >> a lot the cost still. >> We we do, but I just think it's >> we don't have the same number of staff now that we have. We we don't we don't but I just wanted to show this because I believe that the COVID money that did come into the district helped the district offset its total expenditures during those years and it helped with the the expenditure growth wasn't as great because we had those those monies during that year. So it helped us, it also helped us sustain, you know, the promise was we're going to this levy committee commitment is for five years. Well, that wasn't
133the total reason. It was part of the reason why we have been able to sustain sustain the levy as long as we have. >> Oh, I completely agree. But there, you know, there's a lot of other things we've done. you know, the the the parameters that were set early on in the levy cycle helped to extend the the the increased state revenue that we had now has helped to extend it as well as as well as this with >> Yes. So there's there's a lot of pieces that have helped to extend it. Uh which have been great. >> Yes, >> we have to be careful saying about staffing because we have a lot more students now than we had in the COVID years. Um, I mean we're at like a 25 year high right now.
134So I just >> So I just meant we brought we brought staffing in to have a dual model home and >> at that time we had to staff extra classrooms basically because they were virtual. But I just I I haven't we haven't done the work to compare. I don't >> it's a fair. >> So just saying with 6,000 plus or close to 6,000 students now I just wouldn't want anybody to get the wrong idea that that might may or may not be true. Right. So in summary, uh the general fund is based on so this general fund permanent uh appropriations that's before you is based on a draft forecast um that you'll see at the next board meeting. Uh the total appropriations overall a little over 100 well over 131 million. general fund is 107
135and a half million. Of that, operating expenses are 103.2. Last year's operating expenditures for the general fund was 100.5 million, which is an increase of 2.8%. Um, federal grants represent 2.6 million. If you're looking at these charts, and this is just I know I've got 2.7% on here, but the chart before showed 2.8%. Right. Before you catch me, what I'm going to tell you is I'm looking at just general fund, but if you look at what's on our five-year forecast, it includes general fund debt funds. So, so if you include those in, that's where you get the 2.8%. >> Close. >> It's very close, but it's still off. And I wanted to point it out. I know it and I there's a reason. So, still to come, our financial forecast will be before you at
136the next board meeting, um, which will include a staffing update. We'll talk about the PI, the capital projects. Um, we're going to review a resolution which would set financial parameters and we're going to talk through what does the cash flow look like that we're projecting and those levy options. We've talked about the academic retreat coming up on the 13th and what we had talked about is maybe possibly doing an hour um of a a financial update during that period of time too which we think would be great to marry the two and and to connect um during that time. So questions [Music] and I know you've had a long night so I apologize. No, I appreciate it. It's um great update and that number looks much better than where we were this time last year.
137I think that all the work that's done been done behind the scenes to optimize um staffing and other areas of expenditures. Uh I appreciate the work. >> Thank you. That's it. I do agree meeting. I think it would be great if you could add in that financial retreat portion at the academic retreat if there's if it's possible be helpful. >> Okay. >> Set some of the time that we missed on Saturday. >> I yeah agree. I would you know if there's time I would like to to look at that capital improvement budget on what was recommended. I mean, it is critical that we maintain our facilities or we're going to be paying a lot more down the road for them. >> Yes. >> So, want to make sure that we look at those numbers, too.
138>> Logan, now we need to need to vote on this. >> Um, no, >> no permanent appropriation. Yeah. >> Okay. Next. Um, can I please get a motion, a second for the approval of month end financial report for August 31st, 2025? >> Moved. >> We need permanent appropriations. >> We need B first. Permanent >> adoption permit. >> Oh, I do have to do it. Yeah, >> you said no. >> Not the I was just looking at a Sorry. >> Okay. Sorry. I thought you were saying no. I didn't have to do it. I saw the word adoption. To me, that meant we had to pass it. >> Yes. Yes. >> I figured you you would let me know. All right, I'm going to go back to adoption of permanent appropriations for FY2026. Could you please
139call the role? Mrs. Logan. >> And I missed who did that. >> Or can I have a motion? Oh, I did. >> So move. >> Got it. Motion and a second for the adoption of permanent appropriations for FY20 26. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Mr. Balot, for your motion. Thank you, Dr. James, for your second. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. Mr. Balot, >> hi. >> Dr. James. Mr. Mr. Harris >> I >> Mrs. Bidder I Can I please get a motion and a second for approval of month end financial report for August 31st 2025 moved >> second >> thank you Dr. James for your motion thank you Mr. Balant for your second you like to talk about this >> no unless you have questions >> okay Mrs. Logan please call the role >>
140Dr. James >> I >> Mr. Balant >> I >> Mr. Harris >> I >> Mrs. Hi. Other board business, Dr. James, >> I did attend the first um SAC meeting, Sycamore Advisory Commission meeting um on September the 8th where we welcomed three new members um and had a chance to discuss with uh each other some of the topics that we might be interested in uh researching this year. I also shared with the SAC membership that the board was requesting um recommendation on whether or not to join the um vouchers hurt Ohio coalition and uh so they will we will be um Mr. Lewis actually has arranged for us to hear from a consultant um from that coalition uh who will be conducting an information session via Zoom to the SAC membership at our next meeting.
141Um and >> you repeat that. >> Yes. >> What did you say? They they're going to do a Zoom meeting at the next >> uh listening hearing from a consultant. >> Okay. uh connected with the vouchers for Ohio. >> I thought you were saying something here, but it's not here that the sack meeting. So, we're okay. I thought >> Thank you. >> Wait a minute. I'm I want to make sure that I'm I'm clear. The sack meeting is here. >> Not during a board meeting. >> Okay. I couldn't hear you though. >> Okay. I'm sorry. >> Nope. >> Yeah, >> that's it. >> All right. Do you mind if I I just want to interject one thing that uh and I it this is one of those things where I just want to I think
142one of the projects that I may ask of them is to research their model of the way we've been serving um projects and doing research projects. Um, and when I say that, I've talked to a few of my colleagues and just looking at the way that other um, advisory commissions serve the board and instead and it's kind of this vouchers heard Ohio is a very good example of like instead of going out and doing research projects that we come up with, they serve at the pleasure of the board where the board is saying here is a hot topic that has come up, we need your help. And instead of going out and doing research projects, they wait for a project to kind of be a hot topic. Um, we still meet and we still need
143to do the advisory portion, but there are other districts that they operate that way more of in service to the board versus like, hey, we have done all these this research, we want to present it to you and make a decision. So I'm just going to talk to give them some examples. So I may ask them to do a project about themselves just to see if it's something worth. We've been in this model for a long time and should we look at adapting our model to be more because I think one of the frustrations is we did all this research and the district didn't implement it. Well, it may not be something that we actually needed at that time because other people came up with the project idea versus if we're serving the board, then
144we're there and we're doing things that we know the board wants done. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. >> So, if it's okay with the board, I just want to make sure I got some head nods that >> I could funnel that back through the leadership and see if they're interested in kind of assessing their own model. >> I think that's great. that would save us some work. I mean, that's the whole stack, right? But I think that would >> I think they would be empa like empowered and like energized by knowing that you as the board are coming to them saying, "Hey, this is a hot topic. We need you." >> Yep. That would be great. That's a really good idea. >> I can't take credit. Mr. Levelvel threw that idea out. >> All
145right. Okay. Next item is a legislative update. >> Yeah, there's not a whole lot. The legislaturator is going back. Actually, they went back. Yep. Monday 15th. >> The 15th, the legislature went back in. Um right now, um in the last bianual budget, um Governor DeWine Light Governor Dwine Light vetoed a few things that dealt with property tax and school millage and things like that. And actually, they're looking to override those vetos, but they're studying those things right now. Supposedly, they're going to come out with a report. And I say supposedly because it is the government. They're coming out with a report on September 30th um to report on what they're going to do about those vetos, those line item vetos and things. Um so that is one of the big things they're talking about. They're
146also talking about an education deregulation. Um and this is non-controversial items that are included in the Ohio Revised Code and update the Ohio Revised Code. So they're going to introduce these in the near future. Um we don't know anything about what's going on with those. So, this is a pretty slow Yeah, they they were off most of the summer, but they'll be they're they're back in now, so things will heat up a little bit, I think, up in Columbus. >> Thank you, Mrs. Logan. You'll definitely let us know if we get to that property tax issue and it's close. You'll definitely keep the board updated and Mr. Lewis, you'll keep us updated on things like that. >> I was gonna I was going to ask you as and Mr. Harris that like do we have
147any interest in setting up some I'll say more individual quaint because it's been a little bit since we've had some like Mrs. Lin and I get to see our legislators pretty regularly at different events but it's been a while since we've invited them into the district. Um, so if there would be an interest of doing that and kind of pairing up of who is available to come to that meeting, I think we would be interested in maybe inviting them back and just talking to them about I think one we always like to acknowledge some of the good things that they've done, thank them for some of the work that they've done and uh be able to invite them in to talk to them about sycamore. >> Yeah, I think it's a great idea. >> You
148know, you don't only want to be reaching out to them when there's problems, right? >> Agree. you want to have that that relationship all the time. Yeah, >> we'll work on that and >> yes, please with you. >> That's a very important thing to do to get ahead of that on that issue on those issues. >> Okay, last item. So, we just have I'll just say very quickly board members, I have sent you PTO dates. I'm not going to go over it here. I emailed all of you the dates. We just need I have some people have responded now. I have all the dates. There are two schools that have not responded to me yet, but let's just try to divvy up the the time. Um, so just email me back and then would you
149like to talk, Mr. Lewis, about >> Can I just comment on this? >> Oh, yeah, sure. >> Yeah. >> Do you And I also printed it out. >> No, it's fine. I got the email, but you know, I think we really need to focus on what's this year because we're not sure who what board members are going to be around for next year. So, you know, >> the only one for this year would be high potentially high school PTO and that only one that said they could go I can I >> short of that it's going to have to be Adrian and Victor on every single PTO. >> Well, there's only one in this school year. There's only >> until November. >> There's only one before November um 4th and that's October 10th and you
150are the only one who has said that you could go. I know and others have let me know so I don't know if we're going to be able to do that one. Everything else appears to be after November 4th. So we >> school is >> actually no yours you're you're right. Green school is October 27th. I apologize. >> So Mr. Harris, if you could go on October 27th to EH Green at 6:30 p.m. So it's evening. That would be very helpful. Or Dr. Steager or other otherwise. Are you comfortable going by yourselves? >> Okay. >> The two of you will go. >> Yeah. >> So say I'm happy to go >> and Yeah. No problem. >> Okay. So, >> do you want two people going? >> We usually have two two board members. >> We
151have our we have our, you know, the the notes that we like to share of what the board's duties are and what what we do as a board and that you all have access to that. So, if you >> I can join you, but >> I can go through a little >> which one >> on the high school one. Okay. >> Virtual. >> It's never It's never the first thing in there. They go through some couple things. So, >> okay. So, you can do October. So, then both of you can do October 10th. >> Okay. Good. >> Okay. And then both of you can do and then Adrian, excuse me, Dr. James and Mr. Harris, you can both do October 27 and then the rest are ones in potentially February or May and then November,
152March, May. So the rest are later >> and we just have to wait. We have to wait. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> All right. So we'll have two on the books and we'll go from there. >> Okay. And then anytime you want Mr. Lewis to attend, he will attend with you. He's attended with me before. It's we get to answer every question very thoroughly. >> They a lot of times they throw at you that are not appropriate for you answers to and you can have your superintendent there. >> Happy to answer. >> Great. All right, Mr. Lewis, before we go, do you want to talk about um just bring up to or do you want to shove this for another meeting? Um Great Oaks. >> Oh, like what? I didn't know what you were going
153to ask. >> We were talking about Great Oaks. Do you want to just wait and have that conversation a little? >> Yeah, I think we late. Okay. >> Next meeting. >> Y great. All right. Meeting is adjourned. >> Thanks everybody.