001Allegiance 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 board meeting, we like to go over 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. Can I please get a motion and a second for the approval of the agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> 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, hi. >> Mr. Harris, hi. >> Mrs. Bitter. >> I
002can I please get a motion and a second for the approval of the minutes? >> So moved. Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris, for your motion. Thank you, Mr. Balant, for your second. Any edits or changes? >> Mrs. Logan, please call the role. Mr. Harris, >> hi. >> Mr. Balant, >> hi. >> Dr. James, >> hi. >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I. Next item is public participation. Mrs. Logan, do we have any public participation this evening? >> We do. Um, Mrs. Ellen Owens. >> Yes. Uh, Ellen Owens, 7330 Bellena Lane. Um, my question is non-aggenda item, but I understand the Cincinnati Classical Academy has just opened up. Are they I think that's blue ash or they are in blue ash. So they are eligible to ask vouchers. Is that correct? >> This we don't we typically
003just take public participation. We don't really use it as a question and answer. >> Oh you can >> um I I just bring that up. I've noticed I I've seen that and I think they open Tuesday. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other public participation? No. >> Okay. Next item is superintendent's agenda, a policy transition discussion. >> We'll have Mr. Levelville lead us through that item. >> This is very exciting. Um we have been working with um our representative Norm who you all met at one of our previous board meetings um to really work through what did this transition look like from OSBA to Neola. And so there's a couple things I'll share with you. Uh Mr. Long will pull up here in a second a visual that I put together. Um it'll help
004me a little bit. Um, there we go. It's not the most beautiful graphic I've ever made, but I I'm hopeful it'll help us understand how this is going to work. Um, so, as you imagine, this is going to be a heavy lift, and in fact, it's going to be about 48 hours worth of work between now and April 6th. Our goal is to do the vast majority of the transition work um for policy related before winter break. um might be a little bit of aggressive, but we've built in some hours to help with that. Um but that would give us some ability to start tackling administrative guidelines the second half of the year. Um I've put in front of you um just a overview of the meetings um that we're going to be having. Um
005and so I'm not going to run through these. These are just kind of my working document to show you how those 48 hours add up. And what we did was we did most all the policy work in 3 to sixh hour chunks. Um so our rep will be coming down. He'll be working with our team and I'll explain how that will work here in a second. Um but what we had to do is we had to realign our policy meetings which are typically the first Wednesday of the month to be on the back end of some of those transition meetings. And the reason for that is that we would want Norm, our rep, to be at those policy meetings as well. And so it makes sense if he's traveling down here um to just have
006those kind of all fall in line versus having him come down multiple times a week if that were to land. So first and foremost, I apologize. We're readjusting the policy meetings. Um but I do believe it'll be more efficient for us to run them this way. Um you can see there's a total of 13 transition work sessions that we'll be doing and again they range between 3 and 6 hours. So what I did here was I tried to create a graphic. I I I reworked this about 50 times to figure out like how can I actually articulate what's going to be happening here. Um but I want you to kind of think of it as a a funnel like a a bigger funnel. Um and at the very top is going to be the administrative
007review. I think I mentioned some bit ago that if you were to look at all of our policies collectively, I would say between 80 and 90% of our policies are standard policies that aren't customized. then there's probably a small amount um let's just use 10% that are more customized policies. So the vast amount of work is going to be going through our OSBA policies and looking to the old policies and transitioning them to those standard policies. Then there's going to be that section of policies that we've customized over time at Sycamore that we're going to have to have conversation around. my what I believe we should do if the customization is significant enough meaning it actually alters what the policy would say in the we would then defer those policies to the policy committee to
008for review and what I imagine that would look like is here's the policy that we currently have in OSBA that's been customized here's the Neola policy the differences between the two are this what do we feel as a committee then the pol if if the committee which has two board representatives on there feel like yes we want to keep the customization that completely makes sense let's move forward great we'll keep that we'll move if the policyy's saying no policy committee saying no I think we should transition to niola and we agree the board should view this then it would drop down into the priority policies board review so the idea is that we do the work as an administrative team as much as we possibly can and then we filter it down based on those
009customized policies that we believe are a priority policy for board to then wrestle with then send back to the review committee. So we figure or I figure in talking with Norm if that's 10% of them it shouldn't be a heavy lift from the board perspective and it should give us some pretty good dialogue that we can have at the board meetings in regards to here's this policy what do we what do we want to do with it? Um so that's kind of that's the flow there. Now, from an approval standpoint, there's only going to be one approval for the board to make, and that will be at the very end when we're approving all of the policy at one time. However, we're going to be tackling the policy process based on um buckets of work.
010So, um for instance, in in OSBA, you have you have section A, right? You have section B, C, D all the way to L. In Neiola, it's the thousand. So, we're going to start with 3,000, which is personnel. And so, what I'm going to do from the administrative review standpoint is I'm going to invite in the voices I believe from the administrative team need to be involved in those personnel policies. Then, when we move on to student policies, I would then say who on the team needs to have a voice in those policies. So, I would invite Mrs. Lawson to that, maybe uh Mrs. Tommpkins, whoever we think might need to have a voice into some of those policies. and that will go on for each of the subsections. For example, when we get to
011finances, um obviously Mrs. Logan's team will be critical to be in those conversations as well. So, we're going to tackle those as sections. So, when we get done with the student section, that entire policy booklet for students will then go to the policy committee for review as a completed section. We will review it as a policy committee, ask if there's any questions, if there's anything that they believe it needs to go to the board, and then if they say, "We feel good about this, everything's great," then from that standpoint, um, we will basically shelf it. It'll go on the shelf, and then we'll move to the next and next and next and repeat that process. Then when we're all done, um we will let the board know that um we will be bringing the whole
012thing and you should probably plan at that meeting to have an extended policy discussion opportunity. Um our hope is that we've worked through everything before we get there. Um but it'll be your opportunity to say we're good to go. Let's move forward. So um I made that sound really simple and easy. Um in my brain it seems very simple and easy, but we also know that it's 48 hours worth of work. So, it's going to be a significant amount of time doing this work. The other thing I wanted to let you know too that I mentioned to Mrs. Lawson um and the entire cabinet the other day is that um this doesn't end the work. The real work actually begins when we start to train our administrative team on our policy and then on our
013administrative guidelines because we can have the most beautiful policy in the world, but if nobody actually knows what the policy says and they're not following it, then we've got bigger issues, right? And so, um, one of the beautiful things now during the summer is, um, all of our administrators are now on 260day contracts. Um so we look forward to doing some deep dive in the policy this summer um around these areas and I imagine we'll tackle that very similarly to this is let's take a section at a time what does this mean um do some learning around it and things like that but most importantly to the administrative guidelines so questions >> yeah I mean my only comment is >> when you do bring all of this to the board >> there's going to be
014significant reading >> and make sure the board has plenty of time to review this before a meeting. >> Yep. >> Probably more than a week. >> So, just put it on an agenda that comes out a few days before. >> Sure. So, my thinking was, and you can you can tell me if you think this would be fine, is that when we finish a section, I would actually send that section to the board. So, the idea would be, and I didn't mention that earlier, but the idea, I think, would be you would be reading it as it goes, but then when we get to that last board meeting, it'll be more lengthy because we've kind of put it together as a package. But absolutely, I I can make sure that you have a couple weeks
015in advance or more. I >> I would prefer to read it as we go. >> Okay. >> Um that's just my opinion. >> Yeah, we can absolutely do that. They'd be PDF. Um it's not likely they would be on board docs necessarily, but we could send like it'd be a packet basically. Will um for the for the meetings I'm assuming the meetings that you have here this is your these are the administrative team meetings or is this board is this combination like >> this is a yeah it's a combination good question the white the white me the white blocks there those are the transition meetings the green policy that you'll see there's no hours next to those are our typical policy meetings I reoriented >> and that's when the board members will be looking at
016>> that's right >> them okay >> that's right yeah and I didn't put hours associated with the policy meetings because I wanted to show the total hours with just the transition work, not the meeting itself. >> Okay. >> And then this is going to be a running document. And so I'm going to start adding attendees um the attenders to the meeting when we know what the next section's going to be. So there'll be transparency in who was there and who gave voice to those policies. Um and then at the very end we can be very proud of all the work we did because it'll be on our our page here. >> And then um so I I I mean we went through this um with um Ohio School Board Association. >> Yeah. >> So I
017I generally know the process and I know this will be a little different. >> Yeah. But so Niola will give us you said for 80 to 90% they're going to say here's what this is what we think is the is the exact same thing >> standard to this >> it may be a little different um will like and it is somewhat customizable even then right >> so if let's say the um the administrators that you're working with are like oh no no we need this or we need to add that is there going to be like an will will We see the notes, but we see like a >> Yeah, >> that we did that with with Ohio School Board Association. We could see like what the red lines were. We could see, no, we
018need to add this because >> in Sycamore, we do it this way and this is what we think we should do. >> And then that way when the board reviews it, we have a some context for why. Yeah. >> Otherwise, you probably need to at least have a note section that you can share or you might need to answer to us. We might not need it, but >> you would want to be ready with that. Yeah, I would agree. Um >> yourself some time because it's once you go through it, it's hard to remember. Yeah. Right. What you talked about for 20 minutes. >> Yep. >> Right. >> Yeah, I would agree. And I think that um one of the things that might be different this time too is that because we're building out the
019administrative guidelines. It'll be interesting the things that we felt we needed in the policy because we didn't have the AGS whereas now we'll say that actually doesn't live in policy. That will be deferred to AG. So I'll have to help then you all understand that this might have been in our policy now but that's more of a regulation and so we're taking it out and we're going to put it in a and the policy is going to be this. >> Does that make sense? >> So I think there'll be a I I think there'll be a good connection. It might be a little wobbly in some sense, but I'll do my best to try to capture that so you never >> I guess I'm just telling you just to you some sanity. You may just
020take for yourself. Keep good notes because you will it will come back. >> I'm inviting I'm inviting a really good >> Yeah, I'm inviting a really good noteaker. >> Yeah, good idea. >> I'm really bad at taking notes and talking, but no, that's it's good feedback and um do our best. And you know, I think that it's one of those things when we send out the first grouping if there's feedback from you all. The great thing is is the work's continuing so you can say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Can we adjust it? Can we do something?" And we can. >> And I agree with getting it in peacemail so that we're not just reading everything all at once. It's really It all blurs together and then you don't >> It's very exciting. >> Yeah. Got it.
021Any other questions for me? >> Did you have anything, Dr. James? I didn't know. I'm on the Okay. >> You're on the committee. Part of it. >> Yeah. The the only the only thing I I might bring up to the board, obviously, um Dr. Stager's not here, but Dr. Stager is on the policy committee and I know that her term is ending and so it might be a consideration if there's what we might do because if the work continues past January, um that would just be a consideration for the board to think about from that point on. So, just wanted to throw that at you so that um you could wrestle with that if needed. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> I think it's important to say double thank you to Mr. Loveville
022and Dr. Steager and Dr. James like I I'm glad they love policy because and guiding us through this work, making a large transition like this, but it will only make our district better. So, it will be >> Thank you for loving on policy as much as you do. >> Appreciate that. And just just so I'm 100% clear, the goal is to be done on the 9th or you just build out the meetings tonight. >> I just filled out the meetings with anticipation and hope. It >> might take long. I mean, obviously >> our if we want to think with the end in mind, our goal is I'm training the administrators this summer and we're launching new policy for next school year. That's >> okay. >> In my head where I want to go with it.
023>> Yep. Yep. Um, and one other thing that I just wanted to bring up, um, and I might have said at the other meeting, but I just want to make sure we all hear it because it's important. Board docs, um, essentially is going to remain the same. So, if if a community member looks at policy, they're going to be seeing our OSBA policy this entire year. However, there are policies through NEOLA, like in the budget bill that we're currently wrestling with. We are not waiting until we get to that section to address those policies because those policies might be due January 1. So we in our policy committee are going to be wrestling with policies that might be in the 4,000s and 5000s now. And what our community will see is when they they're going
024to align those NEOLA policies with where they would be in OSBA. So, you would click on the OSBA policy and it might say AAG and when you click on it, it'll say 5,200 and it'll be the Neola policy. Um, we did that because I wanted to make sure there was no confusion for our community in accessing the policy, but we also have to keep the work going and it didn't make sense working with OSBA over here on these and then having to transition them later. So, I I was trying to figure out how do we maintain that consistency and that workflow. So just in transparency, that's what people will see on the back end until we fully move them over next summer. >> So we'll have Niola and OSBA at the same time. >> You
025will, >> but the one that will be the technical policy will be OSBA until we approve the Nola. >> That's right. You will be approving oneoff NEOLA policies like we typically do. >> Approve it. It'll be on there and it'll be >> those random ones. Okay. >> Yep. So you'll >> will you be able to create administrative guidelines on them already at that time? >> That's a good question. I didn't ask that. I'll ask Norm that. That would be great if we could. >> Then you'll have to wait till the summer. >> Yeah. >> You won't already be busy enough. >> Yeah, that's really good. I'll I'll double check on that. I didn't think about that. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you. I got Yeah. >> All right. Can I please get a mo a
026motion and a second for the approval of an agreement with Jan Meckllinborg, speech therapist services at Mhler? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Dr. James, for your motion. Thank you, Mr. Balent. Second. Mrs. Logan, would you like to I feel like you gave us an update on this once in the past. Just >> say Mrs. Spencer. >> Mrs. Spencer, I believe you did this you do this yearly. So I just want to I feel like we should. >> So um this contract is for speech pathologist Mhler. Uh our district is responsible for providing services uh to students with disabilities at our nonpublic schools who participate and accept IDA funds. um those funds kind of flow through um the district and um I oversee the allocation of those um dollars those resources making sure
027that the students needs are being met um with um the services that we're contracting for. So this speech pathologist this is funded through IDEA fund the grant funds um that are set aside for nonpublic schools and artists. Thank you, >> Miss M. Spencer. Is that all students that attend Muller or just students that live in our district? >> It's all students who >> even if they live out of our district. >> That's correct. >> And it's because Muller lives Muller in our district. >> All right. Thank you. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. >> Dr. James, >> I. >> Mrs. Balant, >> hi. >> Mr. Harris, >> hi. >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I. Can I please get a motion and a second for approval of an agreement with Butler County Educational Service Center? >> So
028moved. Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Balot, for your motion. Thank you, Mr. Harris, for your second. >> Mrs. Logan, please call the role. >> Mr. Balant, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, >> I. >> Dr. James, >> I. >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I. And please get a motion and a second for approval of an agreement with Lisa Noiower, independent contractor. >> So moved. >> Second. Thank you, Dr. James, for your motion. Thank you, Mr. Harris, for your second. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. >> Dr. James, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, >> hi. >> Mr. Balant, Mrs. Bidder, >> I can I please >> independent contractor. Thank you. >> Mrs. Logan, please call the role. >> I'm sure you did it. I did. Can I please get a motion and a second for the approval of
029an agreement with Child Focus Incorporated? I moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Ballot, for your motion. Thank you, Dr. James, for your second. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. Mr. Ballot, >> I. >> Dr. James, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, >> I. >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I. >> Can I please get a motion and a second for approval of an agreement with Lorraine County Educational Service Center? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris, for your motion. Thank you, Dr. James, for your second. I'll just share that this these services are to support um coaching and professional development to our teachers and staff who are supporting our behavior programming across the district. We've got some classrooms, specialized classrooms that are supporting garden behavior instruction for students who require that as part of
030their IEP. Um previously these services were provided positive education program. Um this uh individual left that um facility or that agency and went to Lauren County ESC. So to provide that consistency and continuity of those services uh we contract and >> nice. >> Thank you. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. Mr. Harris, >> hi. >> Dr. James, >> hi. >> Mr. Balon, >> hi. >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I motion a second for approval of an agreement with Kathleen Me, speech therap speech language path pathologist. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Balot, for your motion. Thank you, Mr. Harris, for your second. >> Logan, please call the role. Mr. Balant, >> hi. >> Mr. Harris, >> hi. >> Dr. James. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Bidder. >> Hi. >> Can I please get a
031motion and a second for approval 2025 26 leadership coaching agreement? >> 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, >> I. >> Mr. Balant, >> hi. >> Mr. Harris, >> hi. >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I. Can I please get a motion and a second for approval of an agreement with comprehensive concepts in speech and hearing incorporated? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Balant, for your motion. Thank you, Mr. Harris, for your second. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. >> Mr. Balant, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, >> I. >> Dr. James, >> I. >> Mrs. Bidder, >> I. >> Can I please get a motion and a second for transportation and practical? >>
032So moved. Second. >> Thank you, Dr. James, for your motion. Thank you, Mr. Balant, for your second. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. >> Dr. James, >> hi. >> Mr. Ballot, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, >> hi. >> Mrs. Bidder, >> hi. >> Mr. Lewis. >> Yeah, just a couple of uh quick other items. I just want to mention the city of Montgomery um has continued to be a great partner for the community um with various discussions that they've been willing to hold. They've held um some discussions around mental health services um you know suicide prevention things of that nature. Uh the one that they're holding uh upcoming is going to be about addiction. It's a panel discussion on addiction. Uh it's Thursday, August 28th at 6:30. Um I know the church is on Fifer
033and right now I can't think >> Savior. >> Church of the >> I think it's Church of the Savior. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um but I think it's really important that um our community be aware of that and you know certainly go if they're able to uh participate in that because um addiction is a real uh problem across our community. Um I just want to say thank you to our staff and our um opening day speaker. It was a great opening day. Uh George Curos uh came and delivered a a great opening day address. Uh, but I think he was outshined by Isa Simpson, junior at Sycamore High School, because she did a great job introing him. Um, and just brought, I think, the right energy into the room for all of us uh to
034start the school year. So, both of them were um highlights of the day and hopefully our staff enjoyed uh getting back together and being there and being together and enjoying some coffee and new t-shirts because we're going to take flight together this year. So, um, everybody likes a nice t-shirt. So, um, and then this past weekend, we had the Chris Colmes Field dedication at, uh, the newly named Seagar Stadium. A great event and, um, a great recognition, uh, for a, uh, awesome aviator of our past. And, you know, a great way to remember Mr. Colmes and his legacy that he left and beautiful um discussion by his son to to recognize him and kudos to Mr. Seager and Mr. Oington for leading us through that. Um our teams are off and running. Our fall seasons
035are off and running. Our volleyball and soccer teams uh girls and boys soccer teams are have started off with big wins. Um, we have a soccer player named Estelle Murphy who has five goals in two games. So, if you want to see someone that is insanely fast, go watch Estelle because she can run. Um, she I watched her do it multiple times running past little Miami defenders and they the coach is like, "You can't let her get behind you." But it continued. Um, >> so, uh, we had the Jose Sera memorial tournament for water polo. We hosted it at our facility. It was a busy weekend this past weekend at the high school. There was volleyball, soccer, youth football, and water polo all going on at the same time. So, uh, but a great tribute
036to Jose and u, kudos to his family for continuing that um, in his honor. And then, uh, this Friday night opening up for football in our band and our cheer teams uh, against Kings. Um, so hopefully it'd be nice to pull out the win. So, it's all I've got. Um, one thing I would say to our community is, uh, we do have a new, uh, little aes cave section. Um, and, you know, we we do appreciate the help of our community and having the kids sit in that section because, um, we do need everyone to not run around the facility while we're trying to conduct a football game or and band and cheer. So, if that if parents can help us out by getting them in those seats, that would be great. They can hang
037out in the seats, but we'll see how it works. >> Well, thank you very much for that update. It's going to be hopefully a really a little bit cooler this weekend. That would be great for a Friday night football. >> All right. Can I please get a motion and a second for the personnel consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. Thank you, Dr. James, for your motion. Thank you, Mr. Balant, for your second. Logan, please call the role. >> Dr. James, >> I. >> Mr. Balant, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, >> I bitter. >> I. Next item is a treasur's agenda. Can I please get a motion and a second to accept donations? >> So move. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris, for your motion. And thank you, Mr. Balant, for your second. And
038thank you very much for donations to Sycamore Community Schools. As always, it's very, very helpful to our school district. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. Mr. Harris, >> I. >> Mr. Balant, >> I. >> Dr. James, >> I. >> Mrs. Bidder. >> I. >> Can I please get a motion and a second for approval of month end financial reports July 2025? >> So moved. Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Balot, for your motion. And thank you, Dr. James, for your second. So, Mr. Long's going to pull up the presentation and I added a few graphs to what you normally see um to the monthly report. So, then the monthly report is going to include that five-year forecast, which is our most recent five-year forecast that we have. Um monthly reports, we're only showing we don't go
039all the way out to five years. It's showing through this fiscal year. what was predicted in our May 5-year forecast. Remember, we're going to turn right around and we're going to be doing a five-year forecast that has to be approved by October 15th this year. So, at our upcoming financial retreat, we will be talking um more about and and doing uh further deep dives into this on the revenue side of the house. If we take a look at, we have one month in to this new fiscal year. Um, and this monthly report takes a look at what did we estimate, what's come in so far, what percentage is that compared to what we've estimated for the full year, what did we receive last fiscal year during the month of July, and then how does that
040compare? Um, and so I will say when we look at the revenues, um, the tax revenue, if you recall, our taxes, we pay taxes, our community can pay taxes twice a year, our real estate taxes. So, you're going to see big jumps in July um, every fiscal year. Um, and then you're going to see them later in the year around January and February. So that's just how that that stream of revenue comes in and it's our largest revenue line item here. So it does impact um any questions about any of the revenue that as you're looking at this report for July. I will say as far as state foundation, this is not based on the new 2-year plan that was just approved. This is still based on the old numbers. So that usually gets put
041into the system and we usually start seeing the real numbers around October. So I don't even know that we'll have like the real numbers. We we'll still have the estimates, but I don't know that we'll have the real true numbers before we even approve our next 5-year forecast, but fingers crossed. So the state foundation line that we have here is just an estimate. >> That is correct. As far as FY, >> are they are they actually paying that estimate each month? >> So what they're paying is not based on the new numbers. >> Yes. >> Real dollars that we've received. >> That is real dollars that we did receive. Um >> they would make up the difference. >> They will. So, like in October, we'll receive what we should receive plus like a a back
042payment on what we didn't get for those months. So, yes. So, when we look at the expenditure side of the house, again, um this is just one month in. Um and when you compare last year at this time, you're going to see some big differences there. Um, and I'll I'll start with benefits. So, when you look at that benefits and you see the amount that we paid in July and compare it back to what we paid last fiscal year, it is up. And I will tell you in the month of July, the other thing that happens with benefits is when people retire, we're paying out their severance payments. Right, Mr. Buren? Because he's actually processing those. So, um, severance payments, when you look at that difference between last year and this year, uh, $100,000 difference
043of that is the increase in severance payments. So, I know that that's one piece of it. And then our benefits, our, you know, our health insurance, everything did increase this past year. So, I know that's a piece of that. Then when we move down into purchase services and materials and supplies, you see that um when we look at materials and supplies especially, you see a big um that's really more than what we spent in July last year. But I'm going to show you an additional graph that when you look at the previous year FY24, we actually spent less than what we spent in the month of July. There's a lot of volatility between um purchase services and materials and supplies. When you look at month-to-month expenditures for a school district, especially with materials and supplies,
044you're going to spend more in July and August because you're trying to get everything in that everybody needs for the school year. And then you're going to see more expenditures towards the end of the year, usually April and May. um because you're getting you're finishing out and you're getting ready to start the next year. Um so any questions about the expenditure side? >> Yes, >> Mr. Valent. Yes. >> So, you know, I see these numbers and I'm I'm already concerned, right? So, we we talked at our last meeting of although the board has not set financial parameters that our goal is somewhere around three and a half%. Yet you just told us that, you know, we look at the wages line and and those are significantly up even even if you take away the cost
045of retirement, our benefits are probably close to double digits up. Are you still confident in the 3.5%? Are you do you have concerns moving forward with the budget with those parameters? Because obviously if those those those two lines are 80 to 85% of our total budget. >> So if those are up, >> what's going to be down in order to get that to our three and a half%. So, we're going to do a deeper dive and look at each one of those individual line items at um the financial retreat. But if we go back to our predictions for total for our total operating expenditures for those next four years, the average was about 4% increase over what we spent in FY25. I am still confident that we can meet that target and we had talked
046about okay instead of an a that average being 4% let's look at either 3 and a half% or 3.75%. I am confident in that. I am also I also want to say when we look at the wages line item um September 5th pay for us is a very telling payroll because that's when we have for our teaching staff that's when their first pay of the contract year begins. So by September 5th, we will really be able to tell, okay, this is what our normal per pay is going to look like for the next 10 months of this fiscal year. Um, and that's going to be telling with the work that was done with um our staffing parameters and the work that they did, the deep diving into um the scheduling and all of that. I
047think we're going to be not pleasantly surprised, but I think it's going to help when we look at total expenditures overall and what we're going to be predicting for FY26. Um, I think we were conservative um with what we thought we could do with those staffing parameters and we we didn't just hit that mark, we exceeded our expectations on that. So, that's going to be helpful as well, but we'll we'll know more um and be able to to dive into that. But, yes, I am still confident that we will be able to make a commitment to the commit to the community and be able to put a financial parameters resolution together um and this team will hold to that and make sure that those expenditures do not exceed that. >> Thank you. And I would
048say leading into that retreat even we're going to be doing a deeper dive internally about what are some of those things that we can look at and possibly need to look at that if if we're not able to continue to tighten our belt ahead of time. What are those things that maybe in the future that we would say, you know what, maybe we can live without that this next school year? Because we can't continue to do all the things all the time with everything. We have to make tough decisions. And our key and critical moment is we don't want our programming or our classrooms to change. So, we have to look at those other things. And I think our team's committed to what are those other things that we can look at that can help
049that bottom line. and get below that or stay in in alignment with that parameter. >> Yeah. And I just think it's I mean it's critical all the time, but you know, we're starting to talk to the community about a levy. Um and that conversation is going to continue throughout the next year. Um and we're going to educate our community on why we feel we need the levy and ask for their generous support. And I want to make sure that all our financial parameters and what we're doing is in alignment with what the board parameters are uh to really have that trust with the community to have a successful levy campaign. >> Absolutely. When when do we know like how do we I mean I know you said that in this particular snapshot of what we're
050looking at here costs are up specific costs are up in July and August that will increase that percentage and then maybe a month later they'll decrease and then that percentage will come down. So in November of last year, we set parameters which you've been working on for the last year in preparation for the moment that we're in now. So we ask you this question every single meeting and you answer it every single time we it's like we've been doing this now every single meeting. So I guess and I know it's really important for us to do that because the community needs to understand the district's finances and what we're doing which is great. Is there an end like is there something that says aha we've proven it we are right here in our parameter and
051we've done it like when what does that date come and is does it ever come? I how do we know it as a board and that's my first question. So please remember that question. And then the second question is for Mr. Lewis. He I would request I'm just one board member. I really would like to know what the things are like specifically what it is that we're going to how we will be doing cost savings like what exactly so that we understand what it is because we want to weigh in on that too to some degree. Obviously, we want to at least have input in understanding what it is or at least that when it happens, the community is letting us know that we know what what we just cut or what we just sh
052saved some money on. Those are my two questions. So, so speaking of process, so in the next month, so in the month of September, the board will approve a finalized budget appropriation, which which kind of sets that guard rail. That's the first guard rail which is also going to be in alignment with a financial parameters resolution that says here's the budget. We're we're not going to exceed this. Um and if for example things happen and I mean we've looked at those we have a list of contracts here to to meet the needs of our students. If we have additional needs to meet for our students, then we're gonna have to figure it out in this hundred million dollar budget, something else is going to have to give. But that will be that first step, like
053when will we know? That's the first step. We approve the budget and we say this is our budget for the year. Um, and we're going to be able to meet we're also going to set a financial parameter. And then every month we're doing our due diligence to say, okay, how close are things getting? Do we think that we're going to be able to meet this? And if we see purchase services are exceeding, then we're going to have discussions as a leadership team administratively to say in our cabinet meetings, hey, what's going on with this and how can we attack that issue? So, we're talking about it administratively um in our department, the treasur's office. We're looking at it. We'll look at it here at at our our monthly meetings as well as two times a
054year we'll do financial retreats. We do two times a year the five-year forecast. So, we're keeping our eye on it. But that first step is that budget and setting that financial parameters which will set our guard rails. It will be our marching orders to say here it is and make it happen. >> And so I know the how are we going to look at what would we reduce and so how would you communicate it to us I guess is really you don't have to say what it is. >> I say I don't I don't ever like the words reductions or cuts because neither one of those things are like things that we're thinking about. I would say where my head goes immediately and I'm looking down at Mr. Levelville is like our first run at
055things is always things that don't impact the classroom. So it would be him and Mr. Zimmerly looking at all of our contracts to see and he's done a lot of this work already of like are there contracts that we don't need anymore? Are there things that we can do internally and remove contracts? Do we can we get in tough negotiations and you know and like good good example is one I know he loves and I no I'm just kidding I know he doesn't love it um copy machines like those are things we have to go in there and battle with people to like tough negotiations and get better things but uh better prices from them you know energy suppliers gas suppliers all those things get put on the table to look at first then it
056starts to look at and these are the things that I think we have to have a discussion about because you know it was brought up at a previous meeting that we we've been doing this hiring practice and it's making our staff too young. That's not actually accurate. Our data shows that you know even our average this past year and we'll give you more information at the retreat. We still hired at a master's plus step five. That's still a pretty good spread. And we'll show you a graph of our entire staff. That's still our staff is still still very heavily veteran. You have to have a good wave of people so that you know not everybody leaves at the same time either. So, um, hiring, you know, people in their step 0 to five range when
057we lose people that are, you know, above 25 is just good financial management because it's a savings when we bring in that less veteran person. So, I think all those things are important and I think we need to have some common agreements on understanding why we're doing these things and not saying things, you know, because publicly we want our public to feel confident, excuse me, that this team has a plan. We know what we're doing and they're executing on that plan to stay within the financial parameter, but also um spending their tax dollars wisely. And when I look at I've been here through that whole time frame. We were supposed to only last five years with a levy in 2016 and here we're we're about to sit in 2026. It it it lasted five additional
058years. Like I feel good as a taxpayer in the community that man, we really stretched those dollars really far and we gave everybody a really awesome experience. We don't want that to fall, >> right? So, I don't want to ever think about like that is not our mentality of like I don't want to give you a list of cuts like if the levy fails here's all the cuts. That feels icky to me like yeah we would have to make tough decisions if that happens. I don't want to go out in the community and say that. I want to say here are all the things we can do to extend it longer and try to make it last as long as we can, but also how are we responsibly going to spend your money going forward
059so that we can do that again. Like we don't I don't want to be back on the ballot every two to three years saying, "Well, we need more money. We need more money." People get tired. They get exhausted with it's a real thing, levy fatigue. And you know, whether it's us or the cities or, you know, safety levies or whatever the case may be, we all get tired of paying more taxes. So, how can we continue to find ways to be more responsible as or as responsible as possible with spending dollars? So, I I feel very confident that our team is always willing and we're always doing it. This isn't a to Mr. Balance point, it's not a we just did it because we're getting close to a levy. this is year in year out
060year in year out we're talking about these things trying to find ways to do um hone it in. So um I think we all have the same goal which is preserve the great things that are going on here um but try to find non-educational impact and we'll continue to do that. >> Thank you. I've got a few more graphs and I'll go quickly, but here's this page just talks about the cash and I know Mr. Balant reached out to me previously um talking about the cash balance and I want to just talk about it does look higher. Our um policy speaks to at least 25% and that's double what our policy says we have to have. But remember, we talked about that big influx of revenue that we received for taxes in the month of
061July. So, as we move down through with some of these graphs, >> would it be possible um Mrs. Logan on that table that you just have there to com like add another line >> compare ending cash balance July 31st 25 versus 24? I absolutely and I can tell you what that is, but we can add that to the screen so that moving forward that comparison will be there as well. But um FY25 for July 31st um 69.2 million. So yes, that looks large, but in comparison to last year at this time, it is less, >> which shows we're we're spending into into we're dipping into cash reserves. >> We are. We are. So these are just a couple of graphs that I I put together to show the cash flow through the year from July
062through June. Um, and this is last fiscal year and the year before that. And the green bars are revenue, yellow bars are expenditures. So you can see how those fluctuated. And you see the big bars there in July and January and February, February mostly. Um, and that's when our taxes are coming to us. So that's going to increase the cash balance. And then over the course of those other months, we spend down. And so you see that that line the the blue line is the cash and you can see how it dips in January and then it goes back up and then it comes back down. So that's the cash flow from month to month. Um and then here's our cash balance. Um and the blue line is um the most recent year. Um the
063orange line is FY24 and the gray line is FY23. So you can kind of see in July, yes, that cash balance is up, goes back up in February, but then at the end by the end of the fiscal year, it's it's dropping back down. And then we talked about the volatility of the expenditures for uh purchase services and materials and supplies. And I thought this these graphs kind of show that especially with purchase services. It's it's hard to predict. I'm just going to say that it is hard to predict. Materials and supplies are a little bit easier to predict because like we talked about July and August is where you see the majority of those expenditures. >> Mrs. Logan, on purchase services, would that include um the coaching that we did because of the new
064curriculum? >> It does. And good point. I'm glad you brought that up because those are paid quarterly to the ESC. So, we would see in bigger increases during those quarterly payments as well. >> And if you recall, that was a fairly large expenditure, but we believed that that was the right thing to do to support teaching staff with new curriculum. So, >> um and we committed to doing that for two years. So, this is that second year of the two years. >> I appreciate, you know, I appreciate the effort on the grass. Um I think it helps be more transparent to our community uh particularly on our cash balance because if you look at a snapshot you right now looks like our cash balance is really healthy. >> Yes. >> Um to whereas by the
065end of the year it's going to be lower than it was this time last year. Um and it's important that our community understands that and that we be as transparent as possible. So thank you. Okay. >> Any other questions or comments? Mrs. Logan, please call the role. >> Mr. Balance, >> hi. >> Dr. James, >> hi. >> Mr. Harris, >> hi. >> Mrs. Ber, >> hi. >> We are now into other board business. >> Mr. Harris, >> we have a little legislative update and uh I have to translate this into English. Um but um actually there the house so the house voted to override uh governor Dwine's veto of line item number uh 66. So and this for people who didn't know this says restricts uh school districts from pursuing replacement property tax levies as
066well as emergency tax levies, substitute emergency tax levies, combined school district income tax and fixed sum tax levies. Okay. Um, and the Senate is looking at it. The Senate has not made a move on this yet. Um, they need 20 votes to override uh, Governor DeWine's veto. And they haven't scheduled a session to even talk about this yet. So hopefully they'll do that. >> Fine. >> That's a good sign. Um, also too, one of the things they also talked about two other things were expanding the authority of the county board um, budget commissions to do that with restricting what people could do in their levies and how much their levies could be and revising um, in item number 65, revising the 20 mil floor calculation. Okay. And they didn't consider those either. So hopefully that's
067good news as far as districts who again one of the things with putting that 20 mil um limit in there was kind of penalizing districts who were fin fiscally responsible and spending their money and limiting how much they could go for levies and with the possible thing of creating what Mr. Lewis said that levy fatigue of having to get levies every two or three years because what you get had to be lower than what you really needed. So hopefully this um those um overrides hold and we don't have to worry about those kinds of things. Did I miss anything with that, Mrs. Logan? >> No. >> So So that is our legislative update. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mrs. Logan. Um thank you very much, Mr. Harris, for doing that update. Mrs. Logan, do
068you have any like any other feelers out there knowing what's going to potentially happen, not happen? How are you feeling? >> The only other thing that that is going on currently um I think we all know that the governor um put together his own committee to take a look at um the some sort of tax relief. And um there's county commissioners, there's county auditors, there's a couple of superintendent. Um Bill Sites, a former legislator from this area is one of the co-chairs of that committee. They have met. Um they're supposed to finish up that work by the end of September. So fingers crossed that there's some common sense recommendations that come out of that committee. But there's been good dialogue with them. So, we'll see more more to come. Thank you. >> All right. Are
069there any other topics that the board would like to to discuss? >> I just have one. Um, the Sycamore Advisory Commission will be starting up again um in early part of September. And I know at our last meeting we talked about asking the commission to uh review and come back and give a recommendation to the board about joining the vouchers hurt Ohio initiative. if you would um please send me any questions that you want to make sure we cover as we uh look into that project into that initiative um to bring you back a recommendation. But if there's anything specific you want to have answered uh in that research, please let me know that. And uh additionally, if there are any topics that you would like the commission to explore this year, if you would
070send those to me as well. >> Thank you. >> And then if we want to just tell the community we've confirmed our financial retreat. >> Yep. We have confirmed our financial retreat for Saturday, September 13th at 800 a.m. District office. Yeah, totally accept. >> All right, any other items to discuss? Okay, meeting is adjourned.