Sycamore Board of Education Meeting 3/15/23

001did uh start the meeting at six o'clock and we went into executive session we'll now start our public session so I ask you to please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance congratulations the United States of America and to public for which it stands one nation under God I wanted to start today's meeting by reviewing our mission and vision and our mission is to create a culture of academic Excellence through inclusive and Innovative learning opportunities for the whole child while our vision is to empower all Learners to reach their full potential in a globally competitive world with that I need a motion to approve the agenda which which includes the removal of the Great Oaks presentation due to a scheduling conflict as well as the addition of superintendent's agenda item number three still

002moved second Mrs Weber Mr Comfort aye Mrs Weiss aye Mrs bitter bye Dr Steiger aye and Mr ballant I the agenda is approved I need a motion for the approval of the minutes so moved second any questions we're just getting the motion for the approval of the minutes of last meeting yep any additional comments from the board any questions additions we'd like to see to the minutes Mrs Weber please call the roll Mrs Weiss aye Mrs bitter aye Mr Comfort aye Dr Steger aye and Mr ballant aye the minutes are approved Mrs Weber if you could give us a overview of the protocol for today's meeting okay thank you Mr ballot welcome to all of you who are in our audience this evening as well as those of you who are in our virtual audience

003um for those of you who are in our virtual audience you can find a copy of tonight's agenda on the board of education page at sycamoreschools.org that along with the addendum is available this evening those minutes that were just approved by the board will be posted tomorrow for those of you who wish to view the minutes of the March 1st Board of Education meeting we do have several members who I believe are in our audience this evening who wish to address the board in public participation so Mr ballot will call you up to the mic which is it located over here he's going to do a quick review of the guidelines for public participation in our meetings so that you will be aware of those we do ask those of you who might be in

004our virtual audience if you wish to address the board please send those requests on non-agenda items to our moderator this evening Mr Christian long who is our director of Technology his email address is long C sycamoreschools.org and he will make sure that we are aware of those as well I think that's it Mr ballant for this evening so I think we're ready to start with our first agenda item thank you Mrs Weber we will move on to public participation I do have six people that have expressed an interest to speak tonight I just remind everyone that I will call you up to the podium your comments will be limited to three minutes per person or a total of 15 minutes per topic and these would be topics that are not on the agenda occasionally the

005board will respond immediately however on most occasions the board will instruct the superintendent or Treasurer to gather additional information and report back please understand that if a question or comment is not addressed during the meeting it does not indicate a lack of interest on behalf of the board but rather a desire for us to gather additional information and respond in the most helpful manner I just want to remind you we will not comment on Personnel issues um nor will we allow student names or information which could be considered uh privacy private by law to be included in public comments um if anybody out there would you know has any concerns or questions yet they don't want to speak at a meeting I just remind you that you can always reach out to any board member

006our emails are on the uh District website reach out to us with any questions or concerns and we'll be happy to talk to you address any concerns or direct you in the right point you in the right direction so with that the first public participation is Kylie I'm sorry Stout thank you very much so if you please come up and again introduce yourself Mrs Wagner could you help us this evening with timing or to make sure that we meet our three-minute requirement the other thing I would just ask you Kylie just to make sure if you could just do a quick test for us so that we can make sure that our audio is working hello speakers my name is Kylie stutt and I'm a current senior at Sycamore High School I have been a

007student of the school district for as long as I can remember my experience from preschool to my senior year has been with Sycamore I'm here today to address the current issue of the numerous cases of bullying sexual harass harassment and violence that has suddenly become an issue to the board even though that this has been happening for years I want to implement into the school new new reforms of how we can support our students who are victims of these different forms of violence while equally punishing those inflicting pain onto others it is frustrating to walk every day down the highways of the high school knowing I passed by multiple boys who have assaulted me and other women in hardly anything has been done besides a small suspension currently we are unable to leave our classrooms

008during Aviator belt time which is when many students can go to seek mental health support whether it's through a counselor a therapist or a mental health club and you've stripped this opportunity out of our hands especially from those who have done no harm I remember Mr Porter during his first speech he gave in the theater he spoke about how he didn't want the entire school to be punished for a few students actions what has happened we all know the fights why is it that the rest of the students are being punished for what other students have done we all know these fights are happening many of us saw it in person or through videos recorded and passed around among the student body the school board has a no bullying policy on sycamore's website for bullying

009intimidation and harassment prevention it is written Sycamore will do everything possible to address any complaints of harassment intimidation and bullying we encourage encourage students staff parents and community members to report this type of behavior to the district if help is needed to solve a problem we are currently providing a harassment intimidation of bullying prevention training for all students in order to educate them for a school safe environment what training has actually been put into place a video with a few questions that says not to bully other students isn't helping anybody it is unacceptable that this is all Sycamore has done to help support its students training isn't fixing the issue of Why students are bullying other students you are giving a weak attempt to treat the symptom but not the actual core issue according to

010the National bullying prevention center one out of every five students report being bullied which is whopping 20 percent of students that are having this happen and these are only the students that are actually reporting these incidents how can we fix the problem of sexual harassment and bullying that continues to be tolerated under no Toleration policy I want to advocate for the funding for more mental health support that the school can offer for its students and supporting the victims of every encounter that has happened this year and the future forward this would include adding an additional amount to the school's budget that would cover more therapists in the building because currently there's hardly enough room for the student body if you hear something say something there are so many telltale signs of problematic students and we

011can support them and help them to make change this will prevent them from attacking or harassing other students and other people in the future if we're able to con if we were to continue coddling and supporting this Behavior then it will continue to happen if we are able to support the mental health of others then I wholeheartedly believe that this school will see many more changes among a student's body I believe it is important that we help each other more often and learn what it means to respect each other thank you I have one more sentence yeah you can yeah you can go ahead and finish if we don't respect if we don't have respect for each other then we have nothing thank you very much okay our next public participant is atlas Suarez you

012have to test the micro okay my name is atlas Suarez and I'm an early graduate at Sycamore High School instead of finishing High School in four years like the rest of my peers I have taken my senior and junior year together and will be graduating in May of 2023. I've made this decision due to the numerous amounts of bullying I faced at Sycamore High School I'll be driving into these issues now I entered Sycamore High School in 2020 I was 13 and openly out as gay a month into my year at Sycamore I faced the first instance of bullying I was added to a group chat with sophomore girls they laughed at me for my body my looks but most importantly my sexuality they added a freshman girl who outed me the year prior outing

013is when you discuss the fact that someone is gay without the person's permission I was ridiculed and mocked at the high school before but words like lesbo and were spewed at me for the two months following this took such a mental health toll that I outed for online learning for my freshman year the sophomore year I started exploring my gender identity and identified as transgender I thought that this would stop at Sycamore I was wrong a group of individuals turned on me and made my Sycamore experience miserable I was bullied for being transgender and it progressed to More Than Just Words students would take pictures of me in the halls or class and I was followed into the restroom I repeat I received so much hate online and I got told to end my life

014these events took place almost daily I asked to use another restroom because I was followed and I came to Administration with screenshots and they did nothing about it how many warnings did you have to give for something to be done my last straw was junior year at Heist at the high school I was using the male restroom because I identified as a male it took three days for someone to say something to me two boys went to the restroom and made comments about it being a women's restroom I got called slurs I made my decision to graduate early two weeks into my junior year I continued to use the restroom because they seemed less busy or I would use male friends to come with me but that wasn't always available I went to use the

015restroom one day at lunch and I was follow by a handful of boys they shook my stall threw things at my feet and took their phone to record me this time not only did I go to Administration but seven people reported the incidence of bullying and nothing was done I still see these boys acting the same way every day why should I fear for my safety and comfort at Sycamore events like these have traumatized me to the point where I had to speed up my education in May of 2023 I would be walking out of Sycamore at 16. I'm graduating as a child just last week I got told that if we see something say something but when we say something nothing is done I have said something for the last three years and still

016face the bullying and harassment I shouldn't have to worry for my safety in a place that preaches inclusivity and zero tolerance you guys preach about the zero tolerance policy at Sycamore but then when it's reported nothing gets done um next we would ask Kathy Sadler to come forward um my name is Kathy Sadler I live at 9035 East Kemper Road I currently have a sixth and an eighth grader and my we started in the district when my daughter my oldest was in second grade um and I'm addressing the personal learning days so there are state recognized personal learning days which count towards the required in-class days in which our district must meet according to Ohio and federal laws to get budget and funding specifically sycamore's personal learning days are not recognized by the state and

017therefore do not count towards our in-class day requirements even without these days our district would meet and exceed the minimum required days regarding the teachers on this on Personal Learning days they are usually personal development or record State the teachers already have eight hours or more of assigned work which does not include creating or creating additional homework you're increasing the burden upon teachers who already have far too much on their plate and you're asking them for more with no actual edited benefit having kids sitting at home doing extra repetitions of work that they're already doing is not particularly valuable to curriculum they're not learning new skills it's not enriching it's not quality education and the teachers aren't supervising them so now there's a digital burden being put on the families some of which do not

018have the resources like the internet or time and capacity to help these kids once they're home it would be okay if the teachers are not getting assigning additional work for every Monday through Friday day during the week in my opinion it would be better to allow the kids to preserve their own interests rather than forced an unnecessary busy work I'm requesting that their District create um disease um assigning excessive busy work on the days that kids should be enjoying a much needed break please understand and recognize quality is greater than quantity um next we have Cheryl pace hi good evening my name is Cheryl Pate I was here last month so I'm sorry if I'm going over the same items again that you may not want to really discuss again um but accessibility is still

019a challenge for many people who use moot who use wheeled devices but not just wheel devices we're also talking about individuals at some of our athletes like maybe someone got hurt they may use crutches maybe you have a staff member that had to have a knee replaced accessibility is very important and I've recently been told that the front office which has been temporarily housed downstairs by the athletic ramp will be moving over spring break upstairs to the second floor so once when I thought we were starting to make some strides and some Headway because I was told we're going to put a curb cut so wheelchairs can access the sidewalk over spring break I thought oh we're finally getting somewhere we're going to be able to access the sidewalk from the parking lot like you

020should be like the law states you should be able to do I've been told that they're moving to the second floor and the only way to check into the front office um at the high school midday once school starts is going up the stairs that's not going to work for everybody and I'm also told that the ramp to that office on the second floor isn't going to be completed until spring 2024 and that it's tied to the swimming pool resurface project so I guess I don't understand why an entrance way is tied to a swimming pool if we're opening the front office and we have stairs why don't we have the ramp too I can't imagine that Hamilton County would approve this type of schedule for accessibility for Ada for the main entrance and I'd

021like to see the ramp construction move forward so people can access the front office midday and I'd like to know what is the accessibility plan once the office moves while we're waiting for this ramp to be finished thank you uh next we have Jamie Mack I'm Jamie Mack I am also a sycamore parent my daughter has been in the school district since kindergarten um I'm also addressing some of the Ada issues that we've been experiencing um a lot of frustration is coming around the fact that we are relying solely on The Architects to come up and tell us what ADA compliance is necessary participating in the board meeting for Sims Elementary School I personally saw some color paint swatches that were displayed that were not compatible with people who had a specific type of color

022blindness and I was told that the Architects are meeting with the ADA compliance I think that we're looking at the bare minimum and I'm frustrated with the fact that there is not a committee being developed with the amount of money that we are spending from public dollars to identify areas where we could be inclusive not meeting minimum ADA compliance for example we spent a significant amount of money on our brand new football stadium but if you're a student who has special needs and you need to sit in the handicapped section you cannot sit with your peers that is not inclusive if you're a student who needs assistance going to the bathroom you have to go into a women's bathroom as a boy with your mother or you have to go into a men's restroom as

023a girl with your father to get assistance because there is no family bathroom at the stadium that's unacceptable there's also not a good ramp to get you into that area around the Gregory Center because it has been moved um in addition to that I'm concerned with the fact that we're in a rush to move to the new office and the high school we're not just talking about the few students that come in and use the ramp we're talking about any visitors so every I believe it's Wednesday you can come to the hangar and Shop I know that there are adults visitors who want to come into the building who would have to go up several flights of stairs to get into the main office to sign in then go down the stairs to get to

024the cafeteria to shop and then if they follow proper rules they must go back up the flights of stairs to get to the office to sign out and then go down those stairs again to leave I'm very concerned with what I'm seeing we're not just talking about a handful of students we're talking about the fact that these students are a part of our supposedly inclusive environment within Sycamore and it's frustrating to see the fact that we have to advocate for something that should be required like Cheryl I'm surprised to see that these plans were approved in such a manner I guarantee that when you went to the county to get approval you did not tell them there would be a 14-month lag between the time that your steps were built and the time that your

025ramp was built the reality is the ramps should have been built first because everyone could use the ramp I would just like to see some better steps put in place for the accessibility of both our students and our families in the community it's not just the students that utilize this building thank you and then I also have um marcellence Shockey sorry if I pronounced that wrong I'm Marceline chalky I live in Blue Ash I don't have a written report what I'm looking for is the logic on changing the hours that the elementary school is going to be in session next year anybody got a comment about this this is Wagner if you want to if there's a couple minutes you can sum this up this was presented at a board meeting at our last board

026meeting there was a discussion on it along with the rationale for it so it is available on our recording for you to go back to our district website and review that did anybody go on the internet and look up the research that says elementary students should be going to school earlier and the high school should be going later not putting them in School more time so so are you specifically asking about a change of start time for all of our students or the additional 50. I want to know why the elementaries are being changed so the elementaries are being changed as part of a larger conversation K-12 we had a number of our buildings that lost instructional time due to the pandemic specifically High School Junior High in green and so we're restoring those times

027but then also we've got significant legislation from the dyslexia law in terms of the the reading requirements and so adding 15 minutes on to the student day K through 4 when we met with the k-4 building principals and had conversation about how to best meet those requirements they really felt that that 15 minutes would serve our students and the requirements to make sure that we're really getting to the meat of the dyslexia legislation you haven't been in a kindergarten classroom in the afternoon have you I have that's why they ask for the specials to be in the afternoons because the maximum learning for five-year-olds is in the morning not in the afternoon and I don't believe that this is going to benefit our students at all thank you thank you very much that's the last

028there are no additional uh public participations thank you very much uh moving on to the superintendent's agenda uh Mr Lovell and Mrs Weber uh Master facility Plan update good evening board thank you for your time this evening I have a few things I want to discuss with you um Mrs Weber and I can tag team in Mr Lewis I'll actually have you jump in on this first slide here um we have an update on the Seeger family Natatorium kind of what it went on a little bit the other day but I did want to put some slides up here and just kind of show you these are the two kind of Master facility plan projects I'm highlighting today and then we'll get in to talk about the baseball softball complex and kind of how that's

029moving forward um the transportation facility you know this has been a long journey for our district and I am proud to say that the land was secured and the building is going up and we remain on time and on budget in fact I hope to say that we can be ahead of schedule with this as well I was over there the other day they're currently putting in our lifts for our buses which is a pretty big process but they're also building out the walls and getting the site kind of secured the other thing I do want to tell you as well that um beginning this June one of the things we're going to see is the city of Blue Ash or I'm sorry yes the city of Blue Ash we work with a lot of

030municipalities I apologize um we'll be building a access road from Grooms and eventually it'll connect all the way to Reed Hartman which will give our transportation team much better access once that facility opens so great things happening out there we appreciate our partners at graybach we keep moving forward with that the secret family Natatorium Mr Lewis you want to talk a little bit about the other day I I appreciate you giving me a couple of minutes to talk about the Seeger family Natatorium obviously yesterday was a dynamic situation and I'm just very thankful for our first responder Partners from the city of Blue Ash city of Montgomery Sycamore Township Sims townships and Sims Township is Sims Madeira uh Sims Loveland Fire Department um we're gonna worry about Madeira but and um Sharonville also responded and

031you know without their support and quick response you know I I it makes me um ill to think about what could have uh gone wrong with uh the situation at the high school so I just want to say thank you to them and and containing it to the demolition uh that is going on in that Natatorium facility and appreciate the staff the students that were still in the building that reacted appropriately and got out of the building and uh certainly a big thank you to the parents that were able to come and get students and get them off property so the reason that we did not have school today and also tomorrow is just um you know this there were a few things that need to be taken care of after an incident like that

032just to clean up um the smoke that's in the building but there is no major damage to the newly renovated areas or the new um portions of the building the only damage thankfully was to the part we're already demolishing so again thankful to all of our partners that kept us safe made that um incident go away very quickly and now we're just in recovery mode and making sure that um you know things move forward and so we we will probably continue demolition on Monday uh there will be additional safety protocols in place to ensure that this doesn't happen uh in the future so Mr Lewis it is fully anticipated though that the high school will open as planned following spring break yes yes we will open as planned and um you know it would have

033been a stretch to open tomorrow but we're very confident that by Monday and I think we're going to be able to let I know one of the concerns for parents is when can students get in and get materials and we do believe we'll be able to open up some time uh likely tomorrow I believe to get people in and get materials and so they can enjoy their break uh Mr Lewis or it could be either it could be either or for the question um were the classrooms that we discussed at our last evening board mem meeting impacted the ones with the special education classrooms did they get any water damage during that time uh no ma'am the um most all of the water that was used by our fire departments to extinguish the fire and

034was isolated directly over the pool area um any water that was a result from that was minimized to that hallway the main new entrance hallway there but it didn't create any damage that we see we're going to continue to go through processes though to ensure that just because we didn't see it doesn't mean it's not there in that area to make sure that we're following up but none of our academic areas or even our new administrative office areas was impacted by this and then one other just follow-up question sure when it come I Mr Lewis thank you very much for stating the additional safety procedures that will be put in place in the future I appreciate that um and that just on that same subject when when it comes to demolition that I assume that

035that's what you mean by that that that will take place at a later time in the day is that correct yeah so the the main demolition of the um pool area um it has been planned to be done the last few days of this week but really capitalizing on spring break mainly due to the fact that the noise and the disruption plus we had to bring in a lot of dumpsters we didn't want to take up student parking spaces so the majority of the demolition is going to be complete by the time the students come back to school um after spring break then the work's going to start on securing um pylons and things like that so support structures around so but to the point um hopefully the mitigation will all kind of happen through

036the next week and be done before students come back on campus thank you yep okay um thank you for that and I just want a second too our Our First Responders are phenomenal we are so lucky to live so close to so many amazing different municipalities that support us they showed up in full force and um um this was minimized to a 15-minute event um and we were able to um do a lot of things proactively in that short amount of time that really helped us um minimize any bigger impact within the building so we really appreciate those Partnerships all right so let's talk about the um baseball and softball I'm sure that you all have seen some buzz on social media around um kind of the plans moving forward what I want to do

037is I want to walk you through somewhat of the journey we've taken to get to the point where um you see this rendering up here um so as part of the always an aviator campaign there has been uh momentum around upgrading our baseball and softball facilities if anybody specifically has been on our baseball field you have experienced the um Rolling Hills of the Outfield um but outside of that there's other just upgrades that need to be done in that area we have had over the course of the last few years um momentum with some groups that have fundraised for some of these upgrades and we have money associated with those things however one of the things that our team are always an aviator team wanted to do is really take a look at the facility

038holistically and say if we could dream big and we could say we want to come together and we really want to create these world-class facilities for our athletes to play what might that be so basically what happened from that point is a lot of stakeholder feedback started to to happen that's meeting with coaches boosters folks that are connected to our always an aviator campaign and other parents that are passionate about this topic or those projects a lot of conversation was had around what do you desire from your team specific sport specific approach what are some of the functional needs that we have and then what are those kind of Big Dreams you might have for that those facilities as well um through those conversations we took the first step in engaging an architectural firm MSA

039Architects they um specialize in sports facilities um in the region and across the country and so what we wanted them to do is they we wanted them to start to engage in the stakeholder feedback loop to hear what folks are saying to get us to the point where we have an estimate and a rendering of what might this cost um what we what you see here is a result of those conversations and us working with MSA um the price tag that you see all the way to the right there res represent represents the total price tag for both softball and baseball what we have done though is we've really wanted to take a step back and maybe lessons learned from some of our other projects that we've done is really say okay if this is

040our Dream what's the multi-phase approach to get to this point and so what we did was we broke this down into three phases based on each sport so actually what we can do is we can fundraise specifically for each of the projects and how they're broken down and I don't have that slide up here for you today but that 5.1 million I just wanted to recognize is the full amount of the entire project at completion in today's dollars so once I'm sorry just baseball and softball or that includes the tennis courts that are picking that's just baseball softball okay correct yes thank you for that um so when we engaged MSA in the preliminary contract it was really to help us vision and get an estimated number associated with this complex from that point what

041we realized we need to do is we needed to move forward um with the RFQ process um what we wanted to do is we wanted to see through that process what design firms might be interested in taking us to the point where we can get our drawings um our full-scale drawings to truly understand the scope of the work while we feel really confident with the 5.1 million dollars because how we've Associated our soft costs with it and things like that we don't know the true number until we actually get those 50 drawings and we've talked a lot of that with some of our other athletic venues the pool and things like that so we went through the RFQ process we went through and we rated um the companies that um uh submitted a request and

042um we went through that and we decided that MSA would be the better option to move forward in regards to moving this project um to the fully to the design phase and so that agreement I believe is in front of you tonight with MSA all we want to do with MSA at this point is get to the point where they are moving forward with the drawings and once we have those drawings then um um we'll be able to take those next steps excuse me let me just clarify that we're not asking you to approve an agreement this evening what we're asking you to do is to give us authorization to move forward with negotiating both an agreement and a contract price with MSA that would be something that once we um have come to that

043end of those negotiations and can and talk with you about potential funding for that we would bring that forward right now there's there's no uh cost or no expenditure of funds associated with approval of this resolution so just want to make sure that that's really clear but it does keep the process going so that as the group that's working with always an aviator on these two projects have what they need to be able to continue to move forward thank you Mrs Weber I jumped ahead to the uh the next conversation my apologies yes this is there a commitment to use them or or is this just no cost no commitment the process and Mr Lewis you can help me with this too because you've been through it before but the basically what we did as

044we went through the process is we uh ranked the architectural firms or design firms that submitted proposals in response to the RFQ when we ranked them for the baseball and softball facilities MSA came out as the preferred design professional we will work with them to negotiate a contract if we cannot come to a successful conclusion then we would go to potentially the second qualified candidate so it's not a complete done deal but what this does is gives us the authorization to continue moving forward with with that process with MSA thank you just a general question Mr Global the 5.1 million what amount have we currently fundraised through the always an aviator campaign specifically for the baseball and softball like what percentage of the 5.1 have we already secured sure I'll let Mrs Weber answer that

045I know she's more into the details of the fundraising um the just in response to your question Mr Comfort the of the two projects right now they have fundraised really on separate paths um baseball with a big head start if you recall the board provided authority to name Dan Henke field um as part of the baseball complex and um then also they so they've raised over three hundred thousand dollars to start on the work on the baseball field the softball field or complex is a little bit newer to that game they've raised minimal dollars at this point but I think having this information will help them be able to move forward um with some of their fundraising and corporate sponsorship so safely to say we're less than 10 percent yes that's correct um the why

046behind this work is that I guess Lessons Learned From The Stadium project and other projects that we've done is that we needed strong visuals to get out there to help kick the always and Aviator campaign into gear it's really hard to engage donors fundraisers sponsors things like that without that visual of what we want to run after and so that's why we're at the process we are now um to kind of try to move this forward a bit a bit more and I will tell you on the stakeholders they always navigate our team they're excited about this they see this attainable through fundraising and they're ready to kick things into gear any other questions about baseball softball okay uh so the next slide here right here you'll see a rendering of our field house slash

047locker rooms at the multi-use stadium um this has been from the very beginning this has been a phased approach we knew that we wouldn't be able to do this and what we quote unquote said would be a phase one which was the original site development package stadium bleachers field and everything um there is a strong um desire to have these locker rooms out at that field there's a few reasons for that and number one um for the players to be somewhere um prior to the game and during halftime and Locker facilities out there since none exists at the moment part of this project though also would add the accessibility for on the restrooms that we were talking about a little bit earlier um as part of this and also long-term storage out there on that

048site for our grounds Crews to maintain right now that's on the other side of the campus this project is a multi-phase project in and of itself so phase one would would be building the building but it'd be a shell so we would have Plumbing rough-ins for the locker components the locker room components of it and it would have basically just a roof the walls and heat in addition to that phase two we would do the build out of the interior and then phase three we would move forward with the visitor locker room I used the word locker room and field house interchangeably they're the same thing it just depends on who you ask and what we want to call it we probably need to solidify on the name of what it is but it's basically

049a place for our athletes to be out there if you remember last year and what we did was we rented tents for our home and visitors to be in during the games and we had um Portable Restrooms that we put out there as well again we spent significant dollars on those for the games so we're trying to minimize that and trying to figure out a path forward um what we are ready to do is we have the renderings and we have the new revised layout and floor plan we've reduced the scope of the building from what it was originally supposed to be from about 9 000 square feet down to 7 000 square feet that was not done in a unilateral decision by my department or my team that was done based on coaches feedback

050about what they minimally needed in that space the projected cost of phase one is six hundred thousand dollars and that includes the soft costs and design fees and associated with the project itself so that's all in to get that done what we're bringing forward tonight is actually an agreement to move forward for those drawings the 50 drawings the timeline that we're up against just so you are aware um the timeline that we're up against is we need to have shovels in the ground by May 1st um we have had a significant amount of conversations with Mr Hardin and his team and they feel confident that they can get this money raised in order to get this done by August um but for us the first step outside of that fundraising the first step is to

051get the drawing started so that to get that may first deadline we're able to get the permitting fees and thing or the permitting done and all of those things in line and so um I believe the request tonight is for forty one thousand dollars and Mrs Weber you can explain that a little bit more yeah thank you Mr Lovell um just a review of the funds that were available for the um overall phase one of the project we had between bond issue funds and fundraising through the always in Aviator fund we had just about six million dollars available for this project of that budget right now after the completion of phase one and returns of contingency from the hdcr our construction management firm there's approximately a hundred and thirteen thousand dollars remaining um from that

052that project we would recommend that we utilize 41 000 of that uh the the cost for shp's contract to fund as the seed money for funding um this contract with SHP Mrs Weber I had a little bit of difficulty hearing you can you tell me again how much money you're taking it out of what contingency this uh thank you Mrs wise just for making me aware that it wasn't easily heard um if you recall the total budget for the phase overall phase one of the stadium was five million 985 000 that included bond issue funds our initial fundraising and then um finally 85 000 that was provided by the Sycamore athletic boosters to put in the ticket booth so all in for that phase one including the Toca Booth 5985 000 of that once within

053the construction management contracts they had contingency that were included in those contracts they returned just about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars back to the district from their initial contracts of that we have a hundred and thirteen thousand uh that would be available from those contingency funds to provide the dollars needed to do this next phase of the contract okay thank you that's helpful and Mr Lovell um can you expand a little bit on Mr Harden's belief that he can raise the funds sure um it's hard to expand on somebody else's beliefs what I would say is that I mean I I'm just saying that you know we all hope that and I eat of course but you know what proof do we have that we could actually raise roughly five hundred thousand dollars more

054for phase one yeah what I would say to that is in these conversations um Mrs Weber and I have made it extremely clear that um we have a tight 30-day time frame there's 30 days from approval if we get approval to shovel on the ground to be able to raise These funds to get this project going um he um and his team believe through a strategic approach of doing um specific calls believe they can get those commitments um to raise that amount of money and so Mrs Weber if you want to speak more to details if you've had those with Mr Harden um I have been um kind of laser focused on the timeline working with the architectural firm to get the designs and all that kind of stuff to get that number nailed down

055Mrs Webber I'll chime in just because I've had these conversations with Mr Hardin I think the biggest hurdle that we were facing was just knowing as Mr level laid out like what are the costs and what are the phases and what's associated with it because people don't want to give money or fundraise to a project that they don't know what the outcome is like or what's the goal so getting to that point of having a goal you could actually have a real conversation because it's hard I I've been in some of those conversations where you walk in and say hey we've got these great ideas we don't know how much they're going to cost but give us your money it doesn't work people want to know what is the goal how can we help you

056get there and what does that look like and what do we get for the total funds raised so um I would say his intentional strategy is um besides himself some of the um coaches are going to be engaging you know past players alumni people that are really strongly affiliated with the athletic department and we have what I would consider a pretty good um communication list of potential donors that are interested in I think some of these projects so it's certainly not just cold calling people around the districts they're they're pretty targeted people that have been either expressing interest in projects but wanting to know like what is the cost and how can we help you do it so I think that's where we'll start and what you hope is it kind of branches off of

057those individuals that like when you're talking with them like yeah I'm going to give this and hey I think these five people would like to give as well and so I think that once that gets started that's usually how I would say that these things get funded but I I love your optimism I love Mr Harden's optimism but you know okay so let me ask the question if we do not raise you said 30 days to raise that money correct all right I'm gonna play devil's advocate here Mr level if we don't raise that money what happens to the project it gets delayed until we raise the funds [Music] that's what I mean that's been my conversation with the team from the very beginning is that um we can go to the board for the

058design fees to get the 50 drawings to get us to a place where we are solidified in that amount and we have the plans ready to go um but we've got to raise the money in 30 days to get a shovel on the ground May 1st and if not then we're going to go back to what we've done in the past which is are tints and things like that out there and so okay thank you so much yes Mr level during what games are we having tense out there is it just during the football game it was just just during the football games so is it are you saying that this is just going to be a locker room just for the football team then no it's not um it'll be a mall the the

059way they're set up originally without building them out they're just going to be big rooms that anybody can go in and anybody can use you could go in there and train in them you could do whatever once they're built out they'll be specific locker rooms I I need to figure out the right language you use for these spaces when we talk about a field house really the Gregory Center is a field house model right that's more of that it's a locker room and so they'll be able to use by multi-sports multi-people out there so we'll have two separate facilities say you had a women's team and a men's team play at the same time will they be eventually be two separate facilities are you just talking like it's just going to be one locker room

060that whoever luck of the draw your team brings in more money money on admissions you're going to get the in the locker room yeah so the grand plan is that you have one building that would be for the home team and one building that would be for the away team no matter what sport you have out there it'd be home and away because we don't have obviously the funds to complete the entire project at one time this building will have a wall down the middle and there'll be separate entrances so it could be separated by male female home team visitor team whatever that is um it's supposed we're trying our best to keep it as generic to keep the cost down to keep it as a shell to then raise the money for the second

061phase but be able to use it for multiple things I think back to your original question there'll be multiple teams that use that facility when it's not in season and Mr Hardin and team do a and it's tough right now because we're not um fully finished with construction but you know they they work hard to make sure that every team has a locker room space if you recall the first spaces that we finished as part of this project was in the Gregory Center for soccer lacrosse uh those teams track teams things of that nature so they work extremely hard to try to identify space so that every team has a locker room space that's close to their facility so it will be a multi-use stadium in a multi-use facility for um multiple teams once were

062finished with construction so just have to bear with us a little longer [Music] it's probably just a good reminder as well that um when we did the site development plan out there um we actually did all the site work for the field house and we ran utilities up close to the building itself to help us move this process along quicker which is the reason we can actually get that time frame from May 1st to mid-august done and so if we if we approve this and then in 30 days they don't raise the money those plans just sit there until they raise the money and then it's used at that time correct any additional questions from the board I need a motion for the selection of MSA design as architect for the Athletic Facility Improvement project

063and authorization an authorizing negotiation of an agreement for services yep ma'am ma'am can I just could I ask you to go up to the microphone because if you thank you no I just if you don't do that then it won't be captured on the video so that would be helpful thank you my question was to you who have already created these drawings I'm glad to hear that you talk about that it's not just the sports scenes that will use this facility such as like the marching band who has a lot of equipment is there any considered storage for that in in your plants that you downsized I don't know if it was originally part of your 9000 I'm certainly sure it's not part of your seven thousand but yet they are also facility a group

064that uses this facility it is in sports you're fine you're fine you're fine that's actually a really good question I um when we downside the square feet foot square footage on this building the things that we actually downsized within that was a lot of the training room space things like that that was just bigger than we needed it just we have a team room on one side there's restrooms and Locker on the other side and a few offices in the middle on the far end of it we do have a preliminary design for storage um that would be both for grounds and Equipment out there um and we talked to multiple um stakeholders coaches to understand what the needs would be but outside of that as well we recognize we need more storage out there

065and that can happen under our operations budget as well to look at what are some other storage options so we've talked to the coaches we've talked to the directors we've tried to understand what the needs are out there to try to secure as much as we can I don't know the total square footage off the top of my hand of what we're putting storage there but there will be some in that in that building still so so what I do is I work with our athletic department I work with Mr Harden and then I work with he goes out and he gets stakeholder feedback for me and we bring stakeholders in I haven't had a direct conversation with the band leaders um but we have I do know the needs or at least I assume

066I know the needs from what I've been told about equipment storage and things like that right now there's band storage over behind the Gregory Center and a garage over there which is far our ultimate goal is to get a lot of that storage over to that site as close as we can get it so it's just we're slowly moving towards that direction but we're not losing any space that we have I understand but we're not moving all the equipment out there as well we still have grounds building that will leverage we just have to have some equipment out on that side of the property okay any additional public comment on the field house if it's on the field house yes yep Mrs Patterson has a question oh okay so any additional question okay thank you

067very much so I need a motion from the board for the selection of MSA design as architect for athletic facilities and proven projects and authorizing negotiation of agreement for services I moved second Mrs Weber Mrs Weiss aye Mr Comfort aye Dr Steger aye Mr ballant aye and Mrs bitter aye motion passes I need a motion for the approval of SHP agreement Sycamore High School Stadium Field House phase one some moved second any additional questions from the board I guess having heard the public comment I do want to know is it is the is it being addressed that the that more if the band needed a space for its equipment that it could fit in there or that additional space could be considered I mean what what is the resolution on that or what is the

068answer I guess yeah so what I'll what I do after every board meeting any feedback that I get I'll take back and when we start to look at those spaces because the great thing about this is we just have the conceptual drawings and we have the estimated cost what we do now getting the 50 drawings is we actually build that space out a little more so I can go back um all specifically I'll actually go speak with the band directors to understand their needs um to make sure that we've captured that from what I've heard previously of the needs that they have out there um I just think it's important to understand that what we're building in phase one is a shell there's no specific storage there's nothing the only thing that's included in phase

069one will be um the accessible bathroom that we've talked about um everything else there won't be any Plumbing in there or any anything like that until we get to phase two thank you I just think that it's it is a good point because clearly our band and our our musicians are using that space just almost just as much in some ways as the as the athletic absolutely Athletics absolutely and it is a multi-use stadium and I keep that in mind through any conversations that we have yep thank you Mrs Webber please call the roll Mrs Weiss aye Mr Comfort aye Mr ballant aye Mrs bitter aye Dr Steiger aye motion passes I need a motion for the change order Sycamore High School renovation project GMP number two so moved second any comments or questions from

070the board Mrs Weber I just always like to see the numbers and brackets those are always fun aren't they we don't see those often excuse me what is your question on what what about it if it is about this specific okay here on your change of orders for your Sycamore High School renovation project I just needed a little clarification so I understood what you were changing it says here the main entry North turnaround asphalt work removed from this project per change order number 76 will be added to the notorium project can you tell me what is inside this main entry work that you're changing like what specifically is being moved and added to the notorium I was curious Mr level do you have any more detail yeah so the change order deduct that we see

071on there is representative of the money that we didn't spend putting the north turn around Loop in we get that credit back that money goes to the natatorium project because it's actually going to be completed with the natatorium project so as we've said at the end of that Natatorium construction that's when that North Loop will be complete so all we're doing is giving the credit from what we didn't spend on the last GMP and moving that to the new GMP for the natatorium so we're just moving the funds to the correct to the natatory correct is that yeah that's that's what I was correct because we're we're building a pool where the ramp would go yeah this is not this is not public discussion you had the opportunity for that okay you can ask the

072question and well I I do actually have I've aside from that I do actually have a follow-up so obviously the ramp there was there was a ramp that people could get into in and out of the building in our which is near that area correct and that's where the new parking Circle will be in the pool right I'm or in the natatorium that so when we because one ramp is now not there is a ramp that because I have my own child used that ramp quite a bit so I had a cover on it and it was it was great it was wonderful and it's gone so correct is is yeah so why are we giving money back and getting money back but also not getting okay so yeah so let me take a step

073back so if we remember to the original design plan of the high school all we were doing was renovating the pool it did not change any of the physical structure of the pool so when we had the original design the South Loop that we have currently would be mimicked in the north loop which would be our accessibility the ramp would be maintained and how it currently is it would just be upgraded when we decided to move forward with the natatorium project the natatorium gets bumped out I don't even know how many feet let's just say 20 feet because that's where the stands will be coming down so that entire ramp had to be dugged out the accessibility ramp and everything like that because the north the wall is going to come closer to the North

074Loop so the ramp will look different now so what we did because we had to delay that scope of the project because of the natatorium construction we get the change order deduct because we did not do that work so we had prepaid for the pavement work and all that stuff we're getting that credit back and we're putting that into the natatorium project because now that North Loop and the accessibility will be completed when that wall is built further out on the natatorium Mr level I think the the confusion is okay it's not that we're not going to do this work correct this work will be done correct when the pool is done yes so the scope of all the ramp will be completed it's just that it will be done after the natatorium is finished

075correct this number represents fine how we do our financing that project how to close out we had to move the money over and now we have the new project it's just a debit and credit from one part one project to the other but the scope itself is in place correct yes yes we did that because the contract gmp2 that originally had that work and it will be closed out uh will be complete all the other work will be complete prior to the completion of the natatorium so we just wanted to make sure we would have the ability to close out the contract for the initial the initial contract that went with um part number the general General ah maximum price con addendum for the internal initial internal work at the high school and that it

076could be included with the natatorium so that it could all be under one scope we had a few other things that we did the same thing with in terms of some of the general requirements with that contract so what you'll see in probably one of the next agendas will be a change order to add a similar cost to the natatorium GM please so that you can see that that works still going to be done we just made sure that we outlined um you know because when the board whenever the board sees a deduction you think that that may be a savings we want to make sure that you are completely clear that this is not something that we're capturing and and savings from that deduct change order it's going to be something that's going to

077be just added to another contract any additional questions from the board Mrs Weber please call the roll Mr Comfort aye Mrs Weiss aye Mr ballen aye Mrs bitter aye and Dr Steger no question passes I need a motion for the approval of the bus purchase bid approval for bus purchase so I moved second um so we're just coming back with you back to you for the purchase of the buses based on the bids um you'll notice that there are three um uh there are three buses there um that's a little bit different than what we've traditionally come to you with our our standard replacement Cycles four buses a year the cost of buses have significantly gone up almost twenty five thousand dollars per bus um and so we are bringing three forward this year um

078to meet the allocation by the board for our four hundred thousand dollars in our budget that we allocate uh I did talk with Mr Miller significantly about this to understand the impact we're going to make some adjustments to our replacement cycle we believe we can mitigate some of this down the line um as we transition to our new Transportation facility and some of the new equipment we have and things like that so we feel confident and comfortable with the requests that we have in front of you I just add of the three buses one does is a is a lift bus so we do did add that additional feature to that bus to support um the transportation needs of our students any additional questions from the board Mrs Weber please call the roll Mr Comfort

079aye Mrs Weiss aye Mrs bitter aye Dr Steger aye and Mr ballant aye motion passes I need a motion for the approval of the alumni development coordinator jobs uh pause on that one Mr ballot not approval we're not voting on it um just a discussion because um oh sorry I didn't read further down sorry about that no I just wanted to stop you before we started taking action so um realistically this is just uh continuance of a conversation I wanted to get a job description in front of you um very clearly job descriptions are generic for a reason uh they're just to describe the general duties of the position and I think you got an extensive discussion of this last March when we were at Sims Elementary and this is so that we can continue

080to move forward with that discussion but I certainly wanted to put it in front of you before I would ask you to vote on it to see if you had any feedback um you know Dr Davis and I sat down and we basically looked at a number of of these positions that are out and around the area and we kind of took the components that we thought were important for our district and put it in um and again it we left it high level and generic because it's not a job description is not going to Encompass everything that a position is going to do but um I will tell you the highlights of this is really stuff we've been talking about for a number of years especially the the coordination of our alumni Network that

081is not you know necessarily very strong at this point um yeah I think we have a lot of volunteers that try to do a great job with it but it's not anyone's uh task to complete so you know this person would not only come in and take kind of control of always an aviator and be in charge of that I think we would like to make that a a long-standing many public school districts have like a um a fund that they go to for other things when they're not fundraising for facility upgrades and things of that nature that it's like a foundation uh to support other things that they want to do as a school district that don't fit within the school budget so this is the early start of that process just wanted to

082put it in front of you check and see if you have any questions comments concerns before we move forward and bring it back to you at the next meeting for uh continual consideration and just a reminder to our community and thank you to Mr Sharma for being here tonight because he was on the one of the sac groups that studied this over a number of years and uh he came up and said I'm really excited to be here to see this continue to move forward because it's something that people are passionate about but we did talk about the importance of this position although the board would fund it potentially for a couple years that eventually it would need to be self-sustaining to stay in place so happy to open it up for questions comments concerns

083Mr Lewis I'm overall very supportive of this I do think the language of the first sentence could be strengthened and it and that is in the two increase alumni participation I think is narrower than I would like to see the umbrella I would like to see it more about establishing a foundation as a goal of which to be successful as a foundation you would have to necessarily increase alumni participation but I'd rather have it um more broadly stated and in in your words that you just used about the the vision of the foundation I'd like to see that somewhere in the description especially in that first opening paragraph I I think it's right that a job descriptions naturally open and in general but that's particular element I think is critically important for this role because

084it's not just for alumni participation we would do this we would actually be doing this for you know developing a foundation like universities have and like quite frankly multiple high schools in the state of Ohio have foundations that they can leverage and so I think this um that that concept of foundation is is to me critically important for this role description yeah thank you Mr Comfort um Mr Lewis I am also very I'm generally um open to this concept and I I really enjoyed and learned a lot from the presentation that we had last year it was very helpful and at that time I really did a lot of research just because I wanted to understand the role of a foundation versus potentially hiring somebody to be a development coordinator I know that there's a

085need I understand it I'm not set and sure on the approach I personally as one board member would like to take I don't know that I wholly agree with having a foundation for our school district I would like to see more information on public schools that have one and understand that I know that there are I would just want to understand how much work that would require how many committees would be required for that I know that there's a lot of legal I researched a lot on that last year there's just a lot of legal requirements when a school district creates a foundation and I would want to understand the role of our community versus our board and how that played out so I again I'm in the I'm in the phase of learning to

086me this seems better get hiring a development director or some kind of person that can work on alumni issues and not creating a foundation and not putting them together but I'm still in the early phases I'm not I'm not saying one way or the other but I want to learn more so if you could keep educating us on this issue that would be great thank you I have a quick comments also I loved all the work that you guys have done on this I'm very supportive of this role but right now in light of the Town Hall this afternoon I think we should put a pause on this because it was mentioned um by Mr Porter and Mr Lewis that there might be a need for the district to focus on possibly adding a second

087social worker as a full-time employee I'm not sure we're going to have the funds to continually add all these full-time employee positions and right now I think a critical need in our school district might be on the mental health of our students so I want to put a pause on this and hold off and see what the costs would be Etc before I could make a decision any additional questions from the board Mr Lewis moving on to other yep so I will get back with you I'll do some additional research and bring it back at a future meeting yeah and I I do agree that you know we have talked about uh having a presentation more in depth on a foundation and what that actually entitles so I do think that would be a topic

088for a good uh a good topic for a board meeting soon sounds good for other uh it has been a uh I'll say a busy couple of weeks since our last board meeting first and foremost I want to thank our community that attended the community Forum this the safety forum and talking about some of the issues that uh have been at our high school and appreciate Mr ballant Mr Porter and everyone else that was part of setting that up Miss bonbright did a phenomenal job of moderating that for us and setting that into motion hopefully the community felt that they got the uh responses and information that they needed to move forward um our Juniper FTC robotics team are the state champions uh one of 37 they are advancing to the world competition in Houston

089we have been in constant contact with them that'll be in mid-april so we wish them well and best of luck at the world competition they are ranked in the top like 250 of the entire world in robot biotics which is pretty cool but they are the state champs they scared off one of the other schools they went to Kentucky to compete to not compete against our school district so but I think probably the Kentucky schools are probably a little upset the the it was Walnut Hills and they won the championship in Kentucky so I'm not sure how that works but that's what happened so we had a state champion indoor shot putter uh Mandy our Bobby was second place last year and he moved up a notch first place 58 3.75 was his shot put

090distance so I think it was significantly higher than the next person so state champion Eugene Harney 150 pounds at wrestling so we will make sure we get these state champions in and recognize them in a future board meeting but we also had some other recognizable things that happened Caroline Kearns our first state qualifier and girls wrestling which is really awesome Adam Gelman qualified for State he he was also the district champion in his weight class Bryce minschoffer was second in the state and 500 yard free so congratulations to our swimmers I do know the relay also moved up significantly and I think we mentioned that at a previous meeting are Deca students 43 students finished in the top 10 24 advancing to the international competition eight first place positions and if you look on the

091screen one of the pictures is the robotics team the other picture is DECA and they have a row of trophies in front of them so impressive by Mr steedley and his students and thank you for representing us so well uh Footloose was this past week by the junior high students it was amazing just an amazing performance great singing great dancing great choreography so thank you to Mrs Rosen and her students for putting that on and all the people involved in that last couple of things winter Drumline and guard had their first competition this past weekend they scored very well Sims Elementary they had their third grade performance this past weekend so busy and then the last but not least Superior rating for band two and three in an excellent rating for band one this past

092weekend so lots of activities lots of good news things that are happening um you know while we're obviously we had to put out a fire and deal with that but there's still a lot of good things happening with all of our students they're they're doing amazing things inside the classroom and outside the classroom so thank you for indulging me with all that information thank you Mr Lewis I need a motion for the approval of treasures consent agenda so moved second Mrs Weber any defense I I would like to point out you'll see uh this in both this agenda and probably the next couple of agendas uh Mr quartile does a really great job in securing uh scholarships opportunities and and dollars uh to be able to fund some significant uh scholarships for our senior class

093each year one of them that I've just point out is that it the Nancy and Kenneth Orr scholarship Nancy and Kenneth were a long long time residents of the city of Blue Ash they have since passed away but they have provided nearly 300 000 in dollar 300 000 endowment to the Greater Cincinnati Foundation to support Sycamore graduates so this is just um annually we're going to get funding from that from any investment income from the trust so that's really been a wonderful Wonder wonderful gift to our to our us graduating seniors each year but you'll continue to see because we're seeing them come in little by little in preparation for um providing those Awards to our outgoing seniors I did also want to point out because it's something that may come up in a bit

094when we get into the legislative update is that we just received a portion of funding that we administer on behalf of our non-public schools our private schools in the district the state of Ohio provides what's called auxiliary Services funding for Moeller or saline and blash educational building for us their allotment that they received in February was just about a million dollars for those three schools so that is included in our our annual budget because we administrate administer those funds on their behalf so just wanted to point that out that we we do Provide support for those schools we are you know again fine with them receiving those dollars but when we get to that portion of the agenda I just want to talk about how sycamores and funding from the state compare so that is

095it on the consent agenda Mrs Webber please call the roll Mrs bitter aye Mrs Weiss aye Mr Conifer aye Dr Steiger aye and Mr ballot I motion passes I need a motion for the approval of the financial reports February 2023. so moved second okay uh just a few things that I'd like to point out in the financial report number one um this is the time of year that we're seeing advances in our real estate Revenue coming in from uh Hamilton County right now we're right about on track um we did actually receive one more advance and we're very close to receiving the funds that we have projected in this category of our budget which is good news um the second thing that I wanted to point out and it's not in our general fund review

096but I did want to point out within our Master facility plan um report that we have received a significant um uh disbursement from the Greater Cincinnati foundation for for those funds that have been collected for all of our always and Aviator projects so uh you can see now for just our general Athletics we're about 50 percent of the way there and actually and actual funds not pledged but actually received by the district which is great um and then we are at about 25 of the funds that we projected to receive for the natatorium project but those are those are all right on schedule with those pledges so seen you know a disbursement back to the district which we're utilizing to fund fund those projects and we continue to work closely with the Greater Cincinnati foundation

097on making sure that they're aware of what's coming in making sure that they're doing what they need to do to provide the information to those donors that's required so good news on that front that those those funds are are coming in more and more all the time yeah I don't have a question but I have a comment um you know if we look at the five-year forecast total expenditures we can see that we are six point six percent up over last year um so you know the cost of benefits the cost of fuel significantly impacting the district um to yes we did budget for it but a six percent increase year over year on expenditures is an alarming Trend that we're seeing in the district I agree Mr bellam Mrs Webber please call the roll

098Mr Comfort aye Mrs Weiss aye Dr Steger aye Mr ballant aye and Mrs bitter aye motion passes I need a motion for the approval of the 2023 summer school tuition rates so moved back end okay uh just to remind the board we have been fortunate because of Esser funding the last two maybe three Summers we have not had to charge uh fees for summer school we've been able to utilize Professor funds to be able to provide those to address potential learning loss for our students so our interrupted learning is that right Mrs Wagner I do listen most of the time uh but anyway because those funds are no longer or we have utilized those for that purpose and for many other purposes to support our students and our staff those funds are no longer available

099for summer school so what we're recommending is a fee structure that's very similar to what we had in place back in um 20 well we what we had recommended for 2020 that we did not end up utilizing um and with that we also are asking that the board would approve uh the continued practice that you've had for many many years that those students who are participants in our free and reduced lunch program that they would have their fees waived in order to not create any barriers for them being able to participate in our summer school programs thank you Mrs Weber any questions from the board Mrs Webber please call the roll Mrs Weiss aye Dr Steiger aye Mr ballant aye Mrs bitter aye Mr come afford aye motion passes I need a motion for policy

100revision bdda notification of meetings so moved second I I am so so sorry that we have to bring back a policy revision so quickly after just getting the entire manual approved but we did receive notification from um Kenna haycox from the Ohio school boards Association who is our consultant that they had been notified of a requirement um in how we've notif provide notification or at least our policy reflux notification of our board meetings and how the public would be informed um so what the updates basically do is just note that we will provide that information on our district website we were doing that anyway but they just wanted Clarity with of that within the policy itself so since we've already had very recent uh readings of all of our policies we'll count those as our

101first two and we would recommend in order to get us in compliance that we approve the revisions to policy bdda as presented any questions from the board I'm don't want to be a stickler at a policy but I I do believe that we should have three readings now that we have completed the overall work so unless there's some specific risk we're trying to avoid I I would prefer that we go back to our policy of three readings before we vote that gives the the public a chance to weigh in as necessary just that that is our that has always been our approach for policy revisions unless there's a mitigating circumstance I would I would propose we do the first second and then vote on the third reading that's that's fine um what I would just

102ask and and I think for this evening what would be completely appropriate is that we would table this motion um but what I would like to just make sure that um I do is follow up with with Mrs haycox because I know that there have been some um outside review of this from a group that is pressing and perhaps suing school districts for not having this policy in place as it's been presented this evening so I think there has been some um Push by Ohio school boards Association to get this approved as quickly as possible um one of the things that we do have in our policy that if we do table it this evening we do have an opportunity to waive the third reading so what we could do if that if that meets

103what you're requesting Mr Comfort is table it this evening and then bring it back and and have the resolution read that we would um because of our recent readings of our entire policy manual waive the third reading and present it for approval if that works for the whole board That's How we'll bring it back and I'm open for The Other Board input yeah I would like to give input so what it's saying is that we just put the words we will notify on our website in the policy we already notify on the website every time and this is of essence at the time is of essence because of the legal because we because of the potential or Financial Risk that we could take and I have no issue with the policy revision itself and I

104understand it I'm just I'm trying to tell you to our policy which says absolutely rereadings and but if there is a mitigating a circumstance would be a risk Financial Risk to the district uh legal expense if we if we don't change it quickly we could have that situation occur I I think it's fine to table it because what we would be also saying is our policy is important um and that we want to comply with it I think if we can do it within the next meeting we've we've done uh We've at least taken a first solid step to make sure that we do have our our policies appropriately in place um and I think what's more important if you were looking at it from a legal perspective is that we're following the procedure already

105that's in place in the policy and I think we do a pretty good job of making sure that our community can tell when our meetings are they can not only attend them in person they can watch them virtually at least our regular meetings and we're also putting our regular meetings out on videos so I think we're we're following absolutely the spirit of of this proposal I think if if everyone's okay and we can just wave that third reading that gets us closer to the Finish Line a little bit more quickly than if we go through the entire three three reading process I'm fine with tabling it okay so I'd like to make a motion to table the vote on this policy to have a second reading and um vote on at the April first meeting

106second Mrs Webber that was Mrs bitter that seconded that thank you uh Mr Comfort aye Mrs bitter aye Mr ballant aye Dr Steiger aye and Mrs Weiss aye promotions table is approved I need a motion for the Personnel consent agenda I moved second Mrs Webber please call the Rogue Mrs Weiss aye Dr Steger aye Mrs bitter aye Mr comicberg hi and Mr Ballard aye motion passes moving on to Other Board of Education business uh legislative liaison report yeah so this is I know this is my turn but Mrs bitter and I have been very busy very very because there's a lot going on so um legislative update for tonight so I wanted to share with the community that Sycamore has always maintained and promoted relationships with our legislators discussing proposed legislation and the impact that

107it would have on our district legislation that is discussed has included the financial impact to our district including the school funding formula changes in taxation such as TPP as well as School District academic reporting like the state report card within the past six weeks a team from Sycamore consisting of superintendent Lewis Treasurer Weber and to Board of Education members Mrs bitter and myself have had conversations with Senator blessing Rachel Baker representative Baker and representative Miranda we appreciate the time that our legislators took out of their busy schedules to meet with us and discuss proposed legislation in both the House and Senate so at this time I just wanted to provide everyone with some updates on some legislations that that is being proposed so the first is House Bill One summary is that changes it changes

108how property taxes and income taxes are assessed reducing the amount of total revenue available to fund education public education in the state of Ohio so related to income tax this repeals the graduated income tax rates that apply to non-business income from uh that usually ranges between 2.7 percent to 3.9 percent and instead Levy's a flat tax rate of 361 dollars rounded plus 2.75 on all income over twenty six thousand dollars related to property taxes this decreases um it decreases from 35 percent to 31.5 percent and the percentage of real properties value is subject to taxation it repeals the 10 tax rollback on non-business property and modifies the 2.5 percent homestead tax rollback to equal a flat 125 dollar property tax credit for all owner occupied homes and you're probably thinking what do these numbers have

109to do with me so this is the fiscal impact what does this mean to you as a taxpayer and what does this mean for Sycamore schools overall for the state of Ohio this is a 929 million dollar annual tax increase for residential property taxpayers it is 157 million dollar annual tax decrease for business and comp commercial property taxpayers and what this means is a 538 million dollar annual decrease in local tax revenues that go to schools and local governments legislators anticipate multiple amendments to this legislation and the specific Financial impact to our district is still being determined but I encourage everyone to get informed on this issue this would not be good for public schools Senate Bill 11 expands the availability and the amount of Ed Choice scholarships removing money from Ohio public schools it

110also increases the income tax credit for homeschooling families without proposing any additional regulations expands eligibility for Edge Choice vouchers to all students beginning in the 23-24 school year removing all existing eligibility requirements including income and performance requirements this is basically a shift of public school funds to private schools these scholarships and I put that in quotes scholarships are not what we think they are when we hear that word it is simply giving private school students money toward their private school tuition bill Sycamore Community Schools hopes that the fair funding of fair school funding previously known as cut Patterson and House Bill 110 in its entirety is sent to the governor for signing this will establish a floor of funding for every public school in Ohio but even with that we are not sure that this

111will be enough for Sycamore but it is a start just to note in the state of Ohio right now in our district Sycamore receives six hundred dollars per student from the state for Education private schools in our district receive one thousand three hundred dollars per student the state has characterized the support as auxiliary services and an administrative cost reimbursement no one can think that this is fair and choice vouchers will provide additional money to the Thirteen hundred dollars specifically Senate Bill 11 would add an additional fifty five hundred dollars for private school students in grades k through eight and an additional 7 500 to private school students in grades 9 through 12. House Bill 11 is sort of The house's answer to Senate Bill 11 and it creates a universal voucher program by providing K-12

112students with an annual education savings account to pay for non-public schools um the last one I want to talk about is Senate bill one it restructures and renames the Ohio Department of Education to Department of Education and Workforce and shifts the ode the Ohio Department of Education into a cabinet level agency managed by an appointment from the governor's office it reduces the duties of the State Board of Education to appointments licensure employee conduct and territory transfers highlights the renaming from the Department of Education to the Department of Education Workforce it creates a position called the Director of Education Workforce who is appointed by the governor with no education qualifications made mandatory transfers most of the powers and duties of the State Board of Education and superintendent of Public Instruction to the Department of Education and

113Workforce prohibits the department from adopting additional rules for non-chartered non-public schools it prohibits the department from adopting any additional rules regarding home education here are some of the concerns this shift education this shift to move this seems to be a business focused decision and not a student-centered one this bill makes education a partisan issue and shifts decisions about public education policy budget funding and priorities to the governor with little oversight or accountability this plan does not address the root cause of Ohio's education challenges like Decades of unconstitutional funding teacher shortages and disparate student outcomes It Is anti-democratic by eliminating key educational roles and duties from our democratically elected state board members it eliminates the public voice at the state level so I encourage you if anyone has any questions about this I would be happy

114not that I'm an expert but I've read a lot about it and if you have any questions or want to talk Mrs bitter I think both of us would be happy to talk with you but I encourage you to get involved and to contact your local legislators with your opinions on this legislation that's all I have Mr ballant Mr balance do you mind if I make one comment it's one of the legislators mentioned to us that um some of her districts are taking a stance on this um what I would consider poor legislation for Ohio and for Ohio students and um some of them are passing resolutions in opposition of it so it just I mentioned that as something I would love the board to consider um at a future meeting if if if we

115believe that that's the right move for Sycamore okay thank you Dr Steger Sycamore advisory commission update stack mode on Monday sorry about that I'm talking a little loud on not this past Monday on the 13th of March and our Wellness team made a presentation before the entire group and this what this group was looking at is staff and faculty and staff Wellness in the district they examine both the corporate and other school models in the realm of um Wellness for their employees in the district and the highlights were some of the recommendations for faculty and staff Wellness are you ready drum roll more flexibility in schedules more breaks during the school day work on fixing the not so great feedback received through staff Wellness surveys and keeping in place the great feedback line items that

116are received through those same surveys building leaders need to model healthy behaviors perhaps have faculty have the faculty and staff have access to the gym pass app so that they have easier access and lower prices to enter gyms throughout the country explore Partnerships with other school districts to set up a model that maybe we can work together also at stack if anyone is interested we are looking for some new members if you know anyone who's interested please have them reach out to this uh to the sac executive team through the district website and there were great updates from every building during the meeting and Mr Lucy of all of the highlights for the great achievements of our students I'm losing my voice sorry about that um throughout the whole District so that's your brief update

117thank you Dr Steger Mrs Weiss I'm not sure Mrs Weiss or Dr Steger on student academic achievement I don't have well you know Mr Lewis rattled off a bunch of student achievements so I'm not going to repeat those but there will be I will be visiting the Junior High in the high school in the month of April to see what other things are going on there and I will report back then great thank you very much uh business advisory Council um due to business reasons I was not able to attend but asked Mrs Weiss to attend so I'll ask you to give an update sure thanks um so the business advisory council meeting had a meeting on Wednesday March 8th I was happy to participate um we went over the purpose and goals of the

118um business advisory Council and looked at our bylaws and structure and the structure is similar to SAC in terms of reporting and things that we have to do for that um we identified nominating we have officers now that it was a pretty easy yes we'll bring them to the board so just to let you know so that uh chairperson of the of the council will be Steve Burke uh Vice chair will be Christine downhauer and the secretary will be Walter Spiegel we also then Christine downhour gave a great presentation about um career exploration internships and shadowing experiences that she is working with Mr Porter at the high school she has done a similar program at Saint X and she is really passionate about it and um she wants to get some high school internships for

119this summer they're kind of starting out a little bit slow but if you're interested um and if you have a if you work for a business that can host a high school student for an internship I can get you that information um for Christine so you get in touch with her but lots of good things going on with that Business Council they're very receptive to talk about what's going on in our district and how they can support us and we have some great conversations about different Pathways that our students can take that college is not the only way and really exploring many different job opportunities and there was a discussion that um you know there's jobs that are going to be available to our students that we don't even know about now because things are

120changing so quickly so it was a great meeting and thank you for letting me go thanks for the update Sir Mr ballot I would like to make a motion to have an additional thing to say I don't know about accessibility I second that um the time to amend an agenda is at the beginning of when we go through agenda I mean I will allow it of course but in the future if you're going to put something on agenda we need to put it on at the beginning okay well it it's in response to what has come up during the meeting so I need to be able to have a way to address that so for the future agenda can you always add as we used to have I know in some of our agenda meeting

121agendas and and other or an additional board feedback or something to that extent so that should something come up during a meeting we can continue that conversation I would I would motion I don't know if it's a double motion but I just wanted to say that we just had a a really you know thankfully no one was hurt yesterday during the situation with the fire and that was a situation that my family was personally impacted by um I also have a student with a disability who has accessibility needs and I would just like to make a recommendation to the superintendent and to the business operations director and to everyone else that we go back and just take a look should there be an emergency in the high school that we have our students are able

122to get out of that building safely I think that is a fair and absolute necessary request I realize this is not something that we are purposely you know we're trying to do the right thing by all of our students and I know that but I just want to make sure that we are really looking at exits and entrances sometimes when things happen that are challenging it causes us to go back and look and re-look at the steps and and I would like to make that request I think it would be very helpful I think it would help families feel at ease to know that there's a you know the way out or even to have those students practice getting out you know I know there are fire drills I know all that but the people

123who are using wheelchairs the people who have a hard time with steps the people who might have intellectual disabilities or may have health care conditions when there's an emergency they're the most at risk this is a and this is something that I would just like to bring to your attention once again so please take a look at that I know that you always do but please continue with that and and take an extra set of eyes please thank you Mr ballant um just wanted to remind everyone that our April evening board meeting will be at Sims Elementary thank you it's a good reminder uh the board will not be going into executive session um so with that I we will adjourn the meeting thank you very much