001I pledge aliance to the FL of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all at the beginning of each meeting we like to go over our District's mission and vision our mission is to create a culture of academic Excellence through inclusive and Innovative learning opportunities for the whole child and our vision is to empower all Learners to reach their full potential in a globally competitive world the next thing that we have on our agenda this evening is going to be our best thing on the agenda this evening which is a presentation from Maple Dale Elementary students we'll have everyone thank you for coming tonight I am so proud to introduce our third graders who have been practicing for their grade
002level performance which will be next week and it's theme the theme is song for from around the world so thank youber our Music Teacher for putting in all this work third graders are you ready you got you will hear them perform it first in their heads second all together and then third in the cannon so let's make sure we know where that is got it ready the TR and this song is about the dangerous art of making Mochi in which one person pounds the Mochi and another person mixes the Mochi by hand so first we'll begin like this second we will show all of the Motions that we make when making Moi and then we'll partner up are we ready okay than me first one this one okay one two voices strong you two more
003songs for you so this one is a French Canadian piece of music about a windmill and I'm going to give you all your first notes remember you're going to start like this okay these movements are courtesy of Henry green will you wave Henry there he is all right ready sing [Music] I and we that there time for us to explore more countries and places on our planet and um in recognizing that we're just going to sing a beautiful song about our planet itself called This Pretty Planet you ready I'm going to all together okay so PR two like thank you so much for having us this is settles very if you do you mind if we ask like how long have they been working on these songs cuz that sounded pretty professional well thank you
004for that like how long have they been working on this and you know just tell us a little bit about what you've been working on so we were thinking about the long game here we started with a song we actually did not perform yet we started the year Africa do you want to hear that one come to our performance on on March 13th really fun um and then the other songs we've just been building along the way so we really uh have been working on these songs throughout our year so far you agree third grade guys you did a great job it sounds like it's going to be an amazing show so look forward to seeing you thank you for being here like as you disperse I want you to go stand by your parent
005and make them stand up with you because we want to recognize your parents for bringing you tonight you go do that for me so give him a hug too tell them thank you e aome everyone we're gonna go ahead and continue please 30 seconds good the entire it was offered to all third grade it was offered to every third grader to come those were the ones that were able to make it that was that was wonderful thank you mle there can I please get a motion in a second for the approval of the agenda so mov 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 ballant hi Dr Seager I Mrs bitter I please get a
006motion in a second for the approval of the minutes mov second thank you Mr Bal for your motion thank you Dr steer for your second changes anybody edits this Logan please follow Ro Mr ballon hi Dr steager hi Mr Harris stain Dr James hi Mrs bitter hi the next section is public participation and before we begin public parti participation this evening I'm going to read a couple of statements for the community the Sycamore Community School Board of Education recognizes the concerns raised by the recent situation involving a teacher's remarks and Behavior at a board meeting we understand the importance of addressing these matters with transparency and accountability while the district conducted a thorough investigation and took disciplinary action we acknowledge that the impact of words can be significant especially in a diverse Learning Community we
007want to reaffirm our commitment to fostering a school environment where every student and staff member is treated with dignity and feels respected valued and supported to that end our district prohibits discrimination based on race color or any other legally protected classification we deeply appreciate the trust that our community has placed in us we will continue to work together to ensure a high quality education and support supportive learning environment for all Sycamore students before we begin public participation this evening I'm going to read another statement about public participation we know we have at least five people signed up today good evening before we welcome our first Speaker this evening I would like to take a moment to review the guidelines for public participation public participation is an important part of our meetings and we value the
008input of our community to ensure an efficient and effective meeting we have at a maximum of 30 minutes for public comment individuals addressing the board must be stakeholders of the district meaning they must reside in the district or have a connection to it as defined in our policy each speaker will have up to three minutes to speak please state your name your address and any relevant group affiliation before beginning if multip multiple individuals wish speak no one may speak a second time until all who desire to do so have had an opportunity all comments should be considered to excuse me should be directed to me as a presiding officer individual board members will not be address directly board members are not expected to respond directly to public comments during this portion of the meeting we
009ask that all all speakers maintain a decorum and remain respectful personal attacks profanity or disruptive behavior will not be permitted the board reserves the right to interrupt or end comments that are repetitive obscene threatening or personally directed at individuals the presiding officer reserves the right to enforce decorum and if necessary take appropriate action to maintain order additionally please note that b the board does not hear compliments or complaints about Sycamore School District employees during public comment we welcome feedback through email our website and with direct conversations we appreciate your cooperation in following these guidelines and your commitment to a constructive dialogue public comment is a valuable part of our process and while we may not respond immediately please know that we are listening and we take your input seriously thank you and we will begin
010public comment now Mrs Logan will be um well she will say the person's name for the first speaker and go through the list and Mr Harris will take time so everyone will have three minutes okay so the first person who has signed in is Mr Brad cord thank you Brad comfor 8460 c m way I read the article in the Sunday inquire about a sycamore staff member and sea president Mrs Grace and I have to say I was dismayed disheartened and disgusted on many levels how many of you would still have your job if you walked into your place of work drunk exposed yourself bullied a female coworker via a text message and made a racially charged comment would anybody in this room expect to stay employed doing just one let alone all four of
011these things I have always been proud of Sycamore Sycamore has always stood for anti-bullying Sycamore has a zero tolerance policy for racist remarks Sycamore Boards of Education have always put the safety of their students first so what's different in this case how has Mrs Grace retained her job you I know you know very well that you are not to make comments directed at employees your board member you understand that this is going to be directed at you Mrs bter okay you can direct that at me but we're not gonna I'm gonna have to tell you to stop the simple truth is it takes you need to stop this is not appropriate the truth needs to come out Mrs bidder and let please let me have my three minutes I much appreciate that I read the
012guidelines you have to follow our board policy you were a board member can I pleas no no the simp trth is it the truth needs to be heard Mrs bitter this is about you and this board and board mismanagement Mr B Mr Excuse me Mr comford would you like to suppress the truth excuse me this is inappropriate I'm not being confrontational I have a statement to make why why don't you put that in an email or I will be honest with you Mrs bitter my wife sent you an email on Sunday and you ghosted her for two days that's why I'm here to I made a response that I would need to speak with her over the phone because it was politically motivated once we showed up tonight it's not politically motivated I'm concerned about
013our high school principal Mr Porter and our communications director being targeted for bullying and racist remarks that's an important topic you used to be a board member you I absolutely violation of that you go ahead you go ahead by all means you want to give your campaign speech right here on the floor Board of Education this is not a campaign speech the simple truth it takes three board members to agree to termination I clearly have no idea what happened behind closed doors but what I saw was the outcome 15 days and exping from the record what I read in the inquir makes me pause in know Ohio a school board member must recuse themselves from a decision if they have a conflict of interest which generally means one of three things a personal financial interest
014in a matter before the board a close family member directed involved in the decision or a situation and this is what's relevant here where their impartiality could be reasonably questioned are our school board members impartial in regards to Mrs Grace Mrs gra is the name leader of the citizens for Sycamore pack which supported a majority of the current school board members she actively campaigned for a couple of school board members wearing campaign t-shirts there are pictures online of Mrs Grace arm in-arm with you Mrs bitter during your campaign at least one school board membered here received $1,000 personally from Mrs Grace for their campaign to be clear Mrs Grace has every right to form a pack 30 seconds and endorse the candidates that believes to best serve the district my concern is whether or not
015this board has given her preferential treatment to me this is clearly a situation where the impartiality of the board can be reasonably questioned to be frank the Optics are not good the last question is this did the board members who CED favor from Mrs scrace recuse themselves during executive session decision regarding her employment I certainly hope so that's your 30 seconds Mr Comer finally I wanted to share in conversations with the Ohio ethics commission that I have had not only were they concerned but they provide guidance for a formal complaint they also in this case encouraged me to contact the NAACP you can count on me to shed light on this until the truth is revealed Sycamore is better than this the next person I have signed up is Emmanuel black and Mr Harris is
016timing my name is black I said 9411 Stone Crest Court um this was brought to my attention regards to the teacher uh this morning and it and it's very concerning um me and my wife we came to this District nine years ago we specifically chose this District because we came it was like a u a student for they has different students different diversity it was a very diverse population and when I when I say we looked at every school because I'm I'm also a former teacher I'm also a former school board so I'm very vers in education and so when I decided to say hey where can what's what would be the best fit for my children we came we did we scouted multiple schools and we settled on syore because when you was able
017to look across the sea of like those third graders that were just here you couldn't tell who or where they were from and that's what sold us on that District so for me to see a teacher from this District display a character fla is highly concerned and it's it's it's very alarming because I was I was uh I didn't know who she was so I hopped on Facebook and I looked at the Facebook and behind the silhouette of her picture she has Mar King and we all know who Martin Luther King is and he gave a good speech where he talked about being judged on the content of his character not the color of his skin and I think that resounds very loud given this situation and I will hope that the board will reconsider
018and look at the content of the character of this teacher because also as a teacher as a somebody board as a parent um I would be calling everything that she's done did in this school district into question how have you graded your stud stud that were the most difficult ones how have you graded the ones that didn't look like you or didn't come from the school or come from the places that you came from and I think those are things that you have to look at when you considering the totality of what them took place and so that's all that time I have I thank you for your time thank you next I have Courtney black good evening my name is courney also reide at 9411 Stone press Court um I also have very very
019big uh concerns about the issues that have been going on like the two gentlemen before me um addressed but I also want to shift a little bit because um I I wasn't aware of this prior to the article coming out but it's kind of um intertwined with an issue that I have that has been going on at the green school and I feel like that may have been down play possibly due to this situation because of the magnitude of this situation and I feel like it was not addressed where there have been um fifth grade students uh Caucasian fifth grade students who have been circulating videos uh very casually calmly and uh frankly uh comfortably uh saying the n word and it's just been getting around and uh we addressed this and several other uh
020African-American parents went to the school to speak with the administration about this and the concerns that that has um just because for one it's just inappropriate for so many reasons but also uh it's inappropriate because if you feel comfortable just using it so casually that means your parents are using it casually and you didn't just pick it up in the bus station so that's concerning as well and I never want my little black children feeling un comfortable because somebody casually is throwing racial slurs at them and there have been multiple videos circulating throughout the fifth grade two years above these children who just sang a song from Japan and Africa and so on and so forth so uh we were met with all the right things that you say to the parents where the administration
021pulled my daughter out of class and from what my daughter told me I gathered that the concern was more for the little girl in the video and how many people have seen the video and if she was going to get any retaliation from the video more so than how that maybe affected my child and then so far we are nearly a month removed and all that we've seen about that was in a s'mores um parents please just watch your children's phone or any slang language a racial slur is not language it's inappropriate it's disrespectful and it has no place in a school so I feel like this particular situation has muted the real issue in this District which racism is blatant and it's running rampid so I really implore the board to look deeper and
022to really put some emphasis on why this is happening and do something about it thanks next I have Ronnie Hill uh my name is Ronnie Hill I live at 7935 Village Drive and um I've been on um currently on the the basketball board for youth basketball I've done the boosters board I've done several things coached all three big Sports um in Sycamore my son graduated last year Elijah Hill I have Isaiah G he's a eighth grader and I have Ethan that's a fifth grader um and so without getting into details my biggest thing to the board would to be we just said the Pledge of Allegiance with liberty and justice for all correct and so one of the biggest things that I've taught my kids is that you know the biggest lies the devil wants
023to tell you is that he doesn't exist right and so what the biggest lie that in America that happens is that racism doesn't exist it's in 2025 and everybody tries to act like this thing doesn't exist we know it does it's been happening for hundreds of years so my issue is that the way this works and it some some people may not like this malol me said that people they took off their white hoods and they started putting on doctor's jackets they start being lawyers and attorneys and judges they started being teachers and Educators and so my issue is that somebody said something that was clearly out of line like the G said here if that was any other profession I work in it if I would have said that anyway I would be gone
024if I said it about the LGT the LG you know T whatever I don't know letters whatever it is those letters if I say about them I'm gone if I said about a woman I'm gone but for somebody to put that in there about a black man specifically a black man I've met my son looks up looked up to as a senior last year and my son was on the syamore advisory committee and so my thing is that the biggest lie ofon is that this stuff is not happening and these people that believe in this stuff are everywhere and here's the thing is that you reinstate somebody like that and this is what happens that person can now Target a kid doesn't look like them they don't like and how does that work oh you're
025talking too much instead of another kid talking now this oh I'm G send you to the office I'm GNA Mark your I'm GNA give somebody else a curve on the grade I won't give you one though so what happens is that little things lead to the big landslides and so what I ask is that to reconsider this entire thing because if you have somebody that's okay to say that especially if they had a drink that's liquid courage it's G to come out how they feel and so what I'm saying is that that's out there then now I had to tell my black kids that hey even though then you might be getting treated unjustly you got to shut up because the the deck is stacked against you and that's what this is saying right here
026I've been this district for 14 years now my son went from kindergarten all the way out and now he's in college okay thank you my other son has been here the way this is looking if this is going to be what we continue to do now I'll take them somewhere else because at least I know it's stacked against us if they go somewhere else but here we thought we were included and we thought we were protected but if my kids aren't included and protected then we'll go somewhere else because this a conversation in a group text I got an article and this is circulating already so you think that putting this person back into where into their role it's a smart idea it's not and what's going to happen is that every little black kid
027that has his teacher is going to request to be taken out of that class you G have a whole different situation I'm sorry all right thank you thank you next I have Jenny Barker hi Jenny Barker 7425 Drive last Tuesday the class of 2026 was geared up to take the state sponsored acct many students have spent hours preparing for this test many families have spent money on tutors for this test these tutors are not cheap with families spending anywhere from 500 upwards to $2,000 for standardized test prep I was concerned when I heard that they were administering the te ACT test online they had given a practice test online earlier that year and my kids talked about the technical issues getting it started with just the practice test AP tests have recently gone digital and
028with my background knowledge I know that it's a headache with each and every test especially when testing larger more populous tests due to bandwidth issues and frankly sometimes college board issues unfortunately with ap there is no choice they only do online but with act there was a choice schools could choose between paper and pencil or the computer last Tuesday our students showed up to the school ready to test inste they sat around for for anywhere from an hour and a half to over two hours because of IT issues in emails with Administration I was never actually given a definitive answer as to what went wrong just that several other schools had similar issues that were unforeseen the biggest issue was instead of scrapping the act that day and doing it another day which was optimal
029for the students testing the administration instead chose to start the test somewhere around 120 minutes after the test was supposed to start so now the kids have been sitting around doing nothing for 120 Minutes literally doing nothing let's think about that in professional football it's a big strategy to call a timeout when the opposing team is ready to is rolling down the field why would the team do that because it's messing with their Mojo it's messing with their focus it's messing with with their timeing so that's just a timeout 30 seconds 2 minutes whatever it is for football we're talking about 120 minutes that the kids were sitting and mind you the test for Act is three and a half hours so some of these kids were sitting for over half of what the test
030length is after all oh sorry I asked the administration why in the world would they decide to proceed after such a long delay their response was and this is quoted most students did not plan on returning to classes after the test so did not have school items to be sent back to class if we had canceled the test on that day also with so many different types of academic programs we felt strongly that uh we would push back then their day would have significant um issues first off they had their Chromebooks and their calculator calculators they could have gone to class after all said and done the parents are not are only getting from Administration that they're going to adjust in the future no apologies just deflection the class of 2026 deserves a proper administ
031ation of the ACT I'm asking the district and the board to give them that I'm asking for either the district to pay for a district um for the class of 2026 which is an option with act to pay for another um actt test for them during the week or another idea not as optimal if they get the score and they're like that was not the score I was studying for planning for because of this they could maybe turn in a receipt to the district and get a credit on their school fees for the cost of that test that they could they could take the receipt for a future Saturday test sorry so if they had if they got a score and they were hoping for let's say 29 and they got like a 25 and
032they were like all my practice tests were saying I was going to get a 29 this totally screwed with me that they could take a test on Saturday in the future and turn it into the district the receipt and get a credit to their school fees that's why I'm asking for and as a side note I have been an ACT test site coordinator for 19 years I know how this test should be run that was not how that test should have been run thank you thanks this is better I know we don't typically comment but I just want to make a point that um I had reached out to Mrs Barker to schedule a meeting U we are working with act um to mitigate the issues that they caused and we be finalizing some things
033with act and we'll be getting back with not only Mrs Barker but the rest of the parents that experienced that issue um I think act realizes it was their issue not ours it was not a sycamore bandwidth issue it was a act issue and um so it doesn't it doesn't help our families and our kids feel any better about what happened uh but certainly we're working with act to rectify the problem and we'll communicate that out when we have a final answer I had one other person um email me uh Kimberly Reese Mena men Mena I apologize good evening Kimberly Reese Mena 8916 Cherry Street y'all know me y'all know why I'm here right let me just say this I want to make a point that the high school has very little staff faculty uh
034lunchroom people uh maintenance that look like me my daughter has no teachers of color now I'm not talking about just black teachers I'm talking about Asian we have had this conversation before over years I have talked and preached and and for those who don't know me I've been in the district for 26 years I've had children go through the district I have one left um like this gentleman said I was flabbergasted but I read transparency is extremely important in this District why did I have to read about it in the paper that's my first issue mother issu is that no one is perfect regardless to what Mr Porters uh the way he carries things how he makes decisions that is no uh has no merit to him being called out he is a man yeah
035we know he's a black man so here's the deal we know this this teacher was wrong she was wrong it was inappropriate and the fact that my children are hearing about it my daughter it's going around the school the kids are confused there's a problem with that I have a major major problem with that and and I'm just GNA say this each of you that's on this board I voted for all of you I've been there for you well most of you not all of you I've been there I've tried to support you I am confused I'm a little concerned and Confused Mr Lewis made a decision right that he felt was the decision to make but because she decided to sue then it kind of flipped right so so now I'm confused again if
036it were me and I came in here and I called somebody out by their race I would probably Bann from these board meetings I would not be allowed in the school district building I know this for a fact and just like this other gentleman said if he was at another uh profession why is this woman in school she has admitted what she has done Not only was she uh inated but she was did some other things going to the bathroom we all know this right after reading the article I made some phone calls I want to make sure this is true because sometimes propaganda can be propaganda we know it's all true I'm concerned about my children 30 seconds and I may take a little bit because everybody else did my daughter is here my
037daughter has I have begged you all I have begged you all to make our district more diverse I have preached this for the 20 some odd years I've been here and it's like it's gone on death ears and now we have a situation where our children are being this should not happen we are not sick this is not sick more we do better than this we know better than doing this I'm GNA say this she needs to go and if you are a teacher in this building if you're a teacher listening online I suggest you find another leader because she does not represent our school district she doesn't represent me as a parent she truly doesn't represent the teachers and she doesn't represent my child this is inappropriate it is ridiculous and something needs to
038happen that's the last one I had from anybody thank you everyone um your public participations do not comment on Personnel matters so the statement that we gave at the beginning is the statement that we're going to the only statement we're going to give at this time thank you very much for your input we appreciate it can I please get a motion in a second for the M actually we don't need a motion a second MTS update please yes thank you um as you all know um mtss is a part of our strategic plan and we thought it was um important to make sure you had an update about the work we've been doing in this area I also think we're guilty of throwing a lot of acronyms around in the field of education so I
039thought let's take a step back and actually talk about for those online um and here the evening about what mtss stands for so mtss stands for um multi-tiered systems of support which is a a fancy way of saying it's how we organize all of the adults in service of student learning thanks for driving Christian uh I I usually don't like to read to people but I think this is a really nice way to cast Vision um on our first uh big initiative toward um deepening the work on mtss and this is around um teaming models and specifically the building leadership team so every building currently has a building leadership team but we've recognized that there's a need for us to provide more alignment across all seven buildings so the building leadership team exists to nurture
040a high Trust deeply curious and highly collaborative environment where teams of Educators can thrive in their efforts to learn together The BLT support teams and their efforts to implement learner-driven evidence-informed instructional practices this Focus creates a sense that the adults are learning and growing together in service of meaningful learning um I shared that statement actually uh drafted that statement with some of the uh Department chairs and subject leaders who were kind enough to come alongside me to continue to um refine and revive their supplemental job descriptions and it was really encouraging just to see how excited we all were when we read something like that because that's um our our part and our mission here um in the work that we're really striving to do um in honor of our students here so just to
041share a couple of uh core values or three to be exact um when we are looking for BLT members and I'll tell you about who's on the BLT in a second we're looking for people who want to be a lead learner meaning you're willing to go first and and try things and take risks and make a mistake and learn and try again um we want people to be learner driven and evidence informed uh essentially when we're looking at data um you know we want to make sure that we are um looking carefully at multiple data points and then we're also using the incredible feedback that we get from teachers um regarding what they're seeing in classroom and and together trying to formulate um what's next uh as far as student needs go and then finally
042we're deeply committed to being very collaborative so so who's on the BLT um essentially it's different right now across buildings but we are looking to ensure that the work can happen very efficiently um in each building and that uh we can provide learning across all building leadership teams as well so as far as the teachers go we're working to ensure that it's uh comprised of Department chairs or subject leaders as we call them in grades um a through six uh it also includes of course the principal possibly an assistant principal and a counselor or School psych The BLT often uh will meet weekly but we are just asking that uh our BLTs meet in a minimum of two to four times a month and that uh we continue to focus very heavily on student learning
043sometimes there's nuts and bolt bolts things related to the operations of the school that are important um but we're working to really hone in on our Core Business of school um which is really at the Heart Center of all of our teachers and that's student learning itself so I just wanted to share a few um BLT responsibilities um every building uh currently has a aves plan that principles are practicing with that's directly connected to all the components of our strategic plan uh starting next year this will become the focus of the BLT they'll actually identify building goals together which many of them are already doing um but it will follow the same acronyms as our strategic plan following AES so academic achievement Vibrant Community Partnerships excellence and operations and then student centered culture with the
044main focus mostly being academic excellence and student centered culture um for this team they're going to review data together and proactively and provide team uh response so just to uh help you think about when you think about a system we talked about mtss being systems it's the commitment of the district leadership team to make sure that we organize and um provide data to the The BLT at Key moments throughout the year um and then provide them with any support needed to uh review that data with some data protocols that we'd like to practice with um and just continue with our commitment to um implementation science uh we also are committed to collaborative structure so continuing to encourage staff to work very closely together um because we all believe so deeply that some of the best
045learning happens um side by side each other um in the classrooms and in the schoolhouse and then finally to continue to lead in model learning so planning professional development for the building and um in with feedback much uh feedback from staff in that building and then also continuing to be a risk taker and try new practices and to model being that lead learner for others so our next steps I talked about the data piece uh we have done a lot of great work um thanks to teammates who were here long before my time um related to data but now it is time for us to um to organize further the data that buildings have access to as you all know the the pace of a building is quite fast and so it is our job
046to smooth the way and make sure that we're moving barriers people having access to data that they can interpret very easily and um then determine next steps so as far as flow the last thing I I'll say is um you know think about the district leadership team being comprised of um administrators District administrators that we meet and we organize some data for key moments throughout the year that data makes its way specific to the building and then the building team um uh Works to provide the data that a teacher-based team might need to make informed decisions an effort to make sure that we're doing everything we can to support the hard work that our excellent teachers are doing on a daily basis in the classroom and so um I know that was a little bit
047of a high level wanted to make sure that you got to hear about our tremendous commitment to mtss and the continued work and I wanted to just give a shout out to every hardworking teacher professional district office administrator building administrator U people are working really hard in service of student learning and we're going to continue to organize those efforts questions for me related to that no I think it's fantastic and really like the use of data to make decision at the individual student level thank you thank you thank you Mrs lawon deserves a lot of credit for leading this area along with you know others in her Department the teaching and learning team has done an amazing job just getting it this into alignment and really bringing everyone um in the district around this structure
048my a timer no sorry that was 30 minutes on so that was but uh um it's it's great to see um everyone um coming together and buying into the new structure and saying that this is exactly what we've needed and everyone's excited about it so um kudos to them and their work that they've done on this area and I would like to tell you that I've had some people some teachers some Educators just complimenting you and amazing work that you're doing so thank you for being so collaborative and meeting with people this is very important supporting teachers in this district has really been one of the greatest honors of my life there's some excellent teachers here and um I take very seriously our commitment to working together um to build the future so thank youate
049that thank you okay next item is the discussion of policy first read so it is not um something we're going to be voting on on or is it it say discussion yeah so um I can tell you a little bit about the policies and why they're on here for the discussion for the first read so there's two the first one is ikf that's graduation requirements this was something that was passed to committee um not because of any significant changes but we had to match in regards to what we actually offered so when you if you were to click into it you would see that there's um specifically social studies on how we actually are what we require of our students so um that's here just for a first read again nothing major there ACAA which
050is our sexual harassment Title 9 policy um we currently in the district have one coordinator and that is um Miss Lawson and um what we are Desiring um and we vetted with legal is to have two coordinators it gives us the ability to have obviously two trained individuals that um can better meet the needs um meaning if something comes up um we can get to that much quicker than if there's one coordinator and um sometimes it's just doing intakes um understanding the situation better and things like that and so um it would be our desire um for that policy specifically um that it could be approved by the board tonight but I think that would need a special motion if we were to do that so motion to wave the second reading and to approve
051the uh ACAA I'll make a motion to to wave the second reading and approve it okay can you call the role to approve to wave or do I have to wave first no it would be to approve the to wave the second read and to approve ACA policy ACAA um Mr ballant hi Dr James hi Mr Harris hi Dr steager hi Mrs bitter hi okay thank you you're welcome all right can I please get a motion and a second for the approval of the 2627 school calendar second thank you Dr steer for your emotion thank you Mr B for your second do you feel like need to say anything more or you sure yeah I just wanted to um thank uh those who responded to the email that went out from the district with regard
052to family feedback on the calendar um I did provide an overview of that feedback uh to the board and um yeah we're just really appreciative of the careful look that everyone has given this calendar calendar to ensure that we um have provided the best possible calendar that we can understanding that calendars are um a challenging topic as there are some a variety of opinions and preferences Mrs Lawson there's been discussion at the state level about um adding hours to the requirement and I know Sycamore is always very far above those would this uh the school calendar for 2627 cover those additional hours if that was passed in legislation it wouldn't thank you Lawson can you just share with us the method by which you communicated to the public to get feedback yes so there was
053an email sent uh from the district uh out of putting out that request uh for feedback and then the emails were received um in return and then we uh collected all of those emails and took a careful look at any themes or patterns that had emerged there a lot of roughly 10 responses yeah roughly 10 and I would love to say that we could meet everyone's personal needs for what they would like to see in a calendar but it's just you know the amount of feedback that we get it's tough um and we're always looking at what's best for instruction what's best for our testing schedules um you know those kind of things that drive our calendar I think people would like us to start later and um end later but again with our testing
054schedule with the way the Quarters Fall it's best for us and I think our teachers would agree it's best for us to end before winter break which causes that stress for people on the summer you know who doesn't like summer longer but there's only so much we can do with trying to fit in the necessary instructional days but we appreciate the good feedback that we did receive from from people and keep doing that every year we want because if you guys recall uh some of our community members caught errors in previous years where we just you look at these calendars so much and so long there's only so much you can do but this year we were clean so we made it through and I think it's also something to point out is that there
055are teachers are working working 185 days so having students come all year round is not an option either I think sometimes need to understand that teachers are not pror year um and also that the teachers do need training days in order to prepare to teach the children when they do arrive I know that that's come up as questions as well thank you Mrs Logan can you please call the role Dr steer hi Mr balant hi Mr Harris hi Dr James Mrs fitter hi can I please get a motion in a second for the authorization to advertise for bids pluss purchase so moved second thank you Mr ballant for your motion thank you Dr steer for your second it's that time of year again it's time to time of the year to buy buses um we
056have a bus replacement schedule that Mr Miller and transportation works hard to update um as you know we have a a large Fleet um we have nearly 60 buses on our Fleet um and so making sure that we're proactive in re in response to the age of the buses the fleet that we have out there and to make sure our costs are spread over time um each year we bring um to you the request and this year it's two buses um and that cost is estimated at $131,000 um per bus I just always think it's important to bring up as we head into the financial retreat in April and we start talking about Capital pi I came to the district four years ago we were buying buses for about $93,000 um they're 131 so our
057Fleet replacement was four buses a year for a while for a good while and we're down to two based on the escalating cost that we see inflation all the things so um we're that again about four years ago y really fast um and so you know we're thankful um that the district is allocating funds so we're thankful for that but we also know that we need to continue to look long term in regards to the impact of that cost and how what that has on our Fleet long term so um so yeah that's what we're um requesting for the bids and then we'll be back once we have those bids in thank you Mrs Logan please call the rooll Mr ballant hi Dr steager hi Mr Harris hi Dr James hi Mrs bter I please
058get a motion in a second for the OBC mou intermittent use of sick leave Bank days so moved second thank you Mr Harris for your motion thank you Mr ballot for your second this was just aou that we worked out with opsy in regards to a unique situation for one of their members um and so um because it did not match what the language in the contract stated we wanted to make sure we just captured it in anou so it wasn't um practice moving forward Mrs Logan please call the role Mr Harris hi Mr ballet hi Dr James hi Dr steager Mrs bitter hi could I please get a motion in a second for the agreement vswc architect scene shop 100% drawings sub mov second thank you Mr ballot for your motion thank you Dr
059James for your second this is the next step in just um being able to be confident in prices for the scene shop I know there's been discussions and so as we prepare for the April 12 board meeting again the financial Retreat we want to make sure that we um are moving this process forward not that I think that we're going to have numbers back by that point but we're going to be able to um commit to be able to do that work and maybe have some insight as we get closer to that time um this is 100% drawings um the $60,000 we allocating out of our fy2 Capital Improvement fund you Mrs Logan please call the rooll Mr ballent I Dr James I Mr Harris I Dr steager hi Mrs bitter I can I please
060get a motion and a second for the approval of an agreement with Sant Health LLC no moved second thank you Dr steer for your motion thank you Dr James for your second Mrs Logan please call the rooll Dr steager hi Dr James hi Mr ballant hi Mr Harris hi Mrs bitter hi can I please get a motion and a second for approval of field trips no moved second thank you drer for your motion thank you Mr ballot for a second Mrs Logan please call the rooll Dr steer hi Mr ballot hi Mr Harris I Dr James hi Mrs bitter I can I please get a motion in a second for the Personnel consent agenda still moved second thank you Dr James for your motion thank you Mr Harris for your second Mrs Logan please call
061the rooll Dr James hi Mr Harris hi Mr balant hi Dr steager hi Mrs bitter I can I please get a motion in a second to accept donation thank you Dr steager for your motion thank you Mr balant for your second Mrs Logan please call the rooll Dr steer hi Mr hi Mr Harris hi Dr James hi Mrs bitter I can I please get a motion and second for approval of Summer School tuition rates so moved second thank you Mr Harris for your motion thank you Dr James for your second do we know just for the community when uh summer school registration will open a great question summer school registration will probably open in the next month be after spring break it may be after spring break yeah likely but we will provide Communication in
062advance of that so people have an idea of the dates um that will be coming um sooner than later okay thank you Mrs Logan please call roll Mr Harris hi uh Dr James hi Mr ballant hi Dr steager hi and Mrs bitter hi next item is other board business anyone have any I we're just going to keep putting them on there um any updates no from a financial standpoint Mr Harris and I um just are continuing to work with our treasur and assistant Treasurer to prepare for the financial Retreat thank you okay next item is to appoint can I get can I get a motion and a second to appoint voting delegate an alternate for osba 2025 Capital conference and I think that those two people are going to have to be Dr James and
063Mr Harris because you're the only two that we know for sure will be absolutely for sure board members at that time I mean actually we'll all still be board members yeah true any of us any of us could still be it I think it does make most sense but any of us could be this right but if right if we're not then we won't attend we'll have the new board Mr Harris looks very excited so the two of you can decide among you can be [Laughter] delicate a lot like first okay so delegate do we want to um can I get are you okay to be the delegate or do you wanna I am Dr James I am honored and privileged to be the delegate thank you Dr James for bestowing this title upon me
064you're welcome and you're the okay very good so how do I do that Mrs Logan just I get a motion in a second to appoint Mr Harris as the voting delegate and Dr James as the alternate for the osda 2025 Capital conference I'm moved I need a second thank you thank you Mr balent for your motion thank you Dr SI for your second Mrs Logan please call the RO Mr ballet hi Dr Seager hi Mr Harris hi Dr James hi Mrs better hi can I please get a motion and a second for the BAC bylaw approval soov second thank thank you Mr ball for your motion thank you Dr steer for your second Mrs Logan please call the rooll Mr balant hi Dr steager hi Mr Harris hi Dr James hi Mrs bitter I can
065I please get a motion and a second for the BAC joint statement approval so second thank you Dr steer for your motion thank you Dr James for your second Mrs Logan please call a roll Dr steer hi Dr James hi Mr balant hi Mr Harris hi Mrs bitter hi next item on the agenda is a potential special board meeting Mr Lewis can you please remind me what sure so we have we because of um I think some upcoming events and holidays we do not have a second board meeting in March um to be respectful of all of our community that um have some days coming up that we we've we really try not to put our board meetings on days where uh some members of our community are celebrating their you know cultural heritage or
066cultural um events so um we met may need a special board meeting just for some [Music] approvals in the interim because our next meeting won't be until April um so we we don't have any dates planned we don't have any things called out but I just wanted to put it on the board's radar and it would be one of those meetings where we just need you to come in there might be a few HR items to get approved um I think this was centered around uh the baseball softball project um approvals being able to move forward because the bids are going to come in in and if we don't have approval we can't do anything until we receive your approval so um we would miss valuable weeks breaking ground and getting it moving and I
067think we all know that that was a um a desire of everyone you know I'm still on Mr zimmerly we're having a conversation like I have to get sometimes back into those old business Ops conversations of like tell me why they won't commit to having this done by the end of August because that's a long time so um we're just trying to get everything done trying to get everything um situated so we just wanted to put it on your radar that we may ask for an approvals meeting and obviously we just need we'll throw it on your schedule as as time allows if you want to do it early in the morning we'll accommodate if you want to do it late at night we can accommodate whatever it is just to get some approvals moving
068forward so yeah just reach out to me and let me know and I can coordinate it thank you for the board the board you mind if I jump in on your other because somehow the other got deleted under superintendent I think somebody stole it and put their um field trip approvals on there Mrs wson so sorry I don't know if it was you but I'm blaming you at this point I received that so just a couple of things that I wanted to mention and I deeply apologize to one of our wonderful high school students uh Manassa yata she is an overture finalist as well and not only is she an over finalist she got a perfect score um in dancing so terrible oversight on my part I'm only as good as the information I'm sent
069but I got to double check my information so I'm sorry to um basa but hey congratulations and how awesome is a perfect score and what you're doing so so she will compete on March still competing yes um we did us we didn't ask us anything Elementary Edition um last week it's pretty well attended on kudos to our elementary principles Mrs Jimenez Mrs Ralston Dr deac Mrs zner and Mrs Aldrich from the preschool also joined us and they answer questions Rapid Fire for over an hour um about um everything that goes on in the elementary school some really good questions not a shock that there were a lot of new young parents and kindergarten was a topic of a hot topic for them but overall it was really well done and I think they were all
070nervous but by the end they were yeah I had the opportunity to listen in and I would just Echo your comments I thought the whole entire Administration and the building Traders did a phenomenal job and we'll keep looking for opportunities I think the next one I'm toying with is we do have a secondary one coming up but um Mrs Lawson and I were talking about the fact that it gets boring to hear adults talk so it might be time for the ask us anything student addition so we'll see what comes out of their uh their thoughts uh for our for our community and I know our community would love to hear from them so uh F speaking of our students fashion for the Cure a new um high amount $997,000 raised for the dragonfly foundation
071so I said to the group I can guarantee I know what the next goal is 100,000 I'm sure so um and just in tandem with that we've talked about this in the past but April 12th there's another a new event uh a Cars and Coffee event all donations are going to Fashion For the Cure in the dragonfly foundation so Parker is helping them get an early start on their next donation so uh was that again April 12th nah we have a board retreat U for the financial Retreat so we're all going to have to zip out of there because it goes till 1 if we're going to end at 12 where it where it at the high school by the stadium the whole parking lot um some of our wonderful musically talented students um are
072it always amazes me when we get these um reports the Oma solo and Ensemble huge success 87 High School string musicians performed either a solo Ensemble or both at Anderson High School February 1st this is 76% of our high school string Community that's amazing um they had an outstanding showing they either re all performers either receed received a superior or excellent rating um Orchestra students advance to the Oma All State Orchestra um we have Anna Christos Yu Paul coup and Mato mey so uh kudos to those students for advancing in the All State Orchestra and then our symphon symphony orchestra received a superior rating um in Columbus at the Columbus Orchestra string imitational so good news on the music front and then um I did ask um and I know coming up we we had
073a state champion in swimming um so she is going to come and we are going to recognize her I think the May board meeting the first one um and during that board meeting I'm going to steal a little bit of his Thunder but he's going to give you the full overview um our athletic director Mr Ovington is going to come and give you a full Athletics yearly report um I know you like to hear um kind of where we at as as an organization fully but again our girls and boys teams uh went to State and swimming uh we and and a diver so um our girls team finished seventh at the state their best finished since 2015 that's awesome um Addie Roar was state champion in 200 IM and 100 breast stroke Khloe Fox
074uh finished sixth in the 500 free and 11th in the 200 free our boys 200 meter leay finished 13th uh Matt y Chase mazinsky Parker schelli and Colin Pressler girls 200 meter relay or 200 medley relay um finished ninth overall and that was Vivian new Ellen Elanor Hardy Abby roard and Khloe Fox girls 400 free relay uh finished ninth Sarah Finn Elanor Hardy Chloe Fox and ab Addie Ro robard and then Simon Huff finished seventh and boy diving which is impressive um girls basketball finished is the district runner up first uh 13- win season the most since 2022 um I think we saw our boys basketball team moving on to Regionals they're District Champs they've upset two teams so it's exciting and wonderful that they're um upsetting teams they've got a big task ahead of
075them I haven't heard but I'm assuming they're playing the number one team in the state Tangi orange so um girls and Boys wrestlers um seven Advanced to districts um so that's that's amazing um and we had uh East imp Perani represent our boys bowling program at District so um and again you're going to get to hear about all of this from uh Mr Ovington but that was just some of the highlights so far from winter so good seasons and one other other is the we had the business community breakfast at eh green that was really well attended that was an excellent day and I know a lot of board members were able to attend that so thanks for for being for that any other other board business all right meeting adjourned thank you thank