001Okay, it's uh 6:00 and we'll call them uh Talmadge Board of Education April 15th, 2026 meeting to order. First order of business is the uh Pledge of Allegiance. >> [clears throat] >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Next order of business is roll call. Mrs. Pilatus. Here. All right, uh next order of business is welcome to visitors. It's nice to see some folks in the audience. At the conclusion of our meeting, we'll have 3 minutes to where you can uh uh speak to us uh either uh any on any topic. Doesn't Doesn't necessarily have to be uh the upcoming levy. Okay, uh approval of uh prior minutes. It
002is recommended that the Board of Education approve the minutes of the March 18th, 2026 meeting. Um minutes from this meeting can be found online in digital form. Motion? I'll motion. Second. Motion and a second. Any uh discussion? Folks? Roll call, please. Mr. Lowry. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mrs. Pilatus. Aye. Mrs. Ross. Aye. Mr. Pastorelle. Aye. Next order of business is 3.1 retirement of treasurer. It is recommended that the Talmadge School Board accept the attached resignation and early retirement of Jeff Hostetler uh as treasurer effective 7/31/26 and extends its sincere appreciation for his service to the district many many years. >> [laughter] >> Motion? I'll motion. I'll second. Motion and a second. Discussion. Yeah, I would just like to take an opportunity [laughter] to thank the board uh not only this board but all boards preceding
003uh and the entire community of Talmadge City Schools for the last 21 years. Yeah. It's been a a great ride. But it's time. It's time to after 43 years total, it's time to move on and do something different. So, thank you very much for your support and for all that you've done for me over the years. Very good. Jeff, there is happily ever after, believe me. Okay, good. >> [laughter] >> I've never done this before, so you know. All right. Next order of business is >> call. Oh, I'm [laughter] sorry. Roll call. Mr. Davis. Do we have to accept this? Aye. [laughter] Mr. Lowry. Aye. Mrs. Pilatus. Aye. [clears throat] Mrs. Ross. Aye. Mr. Pastorelle. Aye. All right, next order of business 4.1 adoption of policy uh GBCA and JEB. It is recommended that the
004Board of Education adopt policy GBCA and JEB. This is second reading. We've uh looked at these over the past 30 days. Motion? I'll make a motion. I'll second. Motion and a second. >> Yeah, a reminder to the board and the community, these are the the two um policies that are being adopted tonight. The first one is setting the mandatory kindergarten age according to the new state requirement. Um it had previously been August 1st for Talmadge City Schools. It is now the first day of instruction of the new school year the student must turn five in order to enroll in kindergarten. The second new uh second is an update to our conflict of interest policy that adds um a revision that does not permit conflicts when there's a personal relationship involved. Um it had previously talked
005about uh you know blood relations but not personal relations, so we added that to the language as well. Very good. Any questions? Nope. Roll call. Mrs. Ross. >> Aye. Mr. Lowry. Aye. Mrs. Pilatus. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mr. Pastorelle. Aye. Next item is 4.1 Wings of Change contract to 27. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve the Wings of Change contract for the 2026-27 school year. Motion? I'll motion. I'll second. Motion and a second. And this is ongoing boilerplate uh Mr. Zieman, if you don't mind, this is alternative placements for some of our students that uh require have additional needs. So, Okay. Zieman, if you don't mind. Yeah, this this one and the next one that you'll um also look at tonight is um this is just our standard contract. This doesn't um
006set uh any students in place. It's just the standard contract that we uh engage with those agencies. So, it allows the board to approve for us to enter into um uh contracts with them if we have the student need for that. Increases from last year on this contract. I'm reading through >> Um That's a good question, Mr. Mr. Davis. Um I can't remember. >> there's a slight increase on that one. Just a slight. Okay, 37 an hour 8-hour days. Mhm. Is it slightly more than last year? >> Standard standard school year, yeah. Yeah. So, um this contract [clears throat] allows for um the standard school year. And then any extended school year services or anything like that would be, you know, it's included in that contract but it's a discussion above and beyond that, so.
007I remember it from last year. Thank >> Yeah. Yeah. So, um is that a guaranteed amount we pay pay them or is it a per student? It's a per student and it's um So, it could be up or down. >> It's based on a it So, we receive uh we're invoiced on a um monthly basis so that we receive, you know, based on the days that the students are in attendance. Um then we're paying for that amount, so there's there's uh a general cost to that but we pay by the it's essentially like a daily rate. Okay. Okay. Same with the the next one that will follow. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mrs. Pilatus. Aye. Mrs. Ross. Aye. Mr. Lowry. Aye. Mr. Pastorelle. Aye. Next up is Harbor um Education Service LEAP contract 2026 to 27 school
008year. It's recommended that the Board of Education approve the contract with Harbor Education Services LEAP and Talmadge City Schools for 2026-27 school year. Motion? I'll motion. Second. Motion and a second. >> So, again, similar contract, just another um another organization, Harbor um runs the LEAP programs. Um So, in the past we've on occasion had students attend the LEAP program in Kent. Um So, this just allows for that continuation of that partnership, you know, should we choose that as an option. Explain differences between the two companies. Um different uh different providers, different programs um slight different philosophies in terms of education. Um the uh the LEAP program is more of a cognitive behavioral approach to to education. They provide a full educational full education services and um behavioral intervention uh for students. The Wings of Change
009uh program they're both they both have a K-12 option. Um the Wings of Change program is both a non-chartered The LEAP program is a is a non-public, but it's a program. It's not approved by the state as a school. So it's a program that districts may send students to. The Wings of Change program is both a district-placed option for districts. They also are approved as um state scholarship providers for the Jon Peterson and the autism scholarships. So there are students who attend their own scholarships. Probably about 2/3. And then there's a third that attend that are district-placed. The Wings of Change program slides more towards the autism spectrum than the LEAP program does. So each of these programs as you see and you'll see over the next few months um have a slightly different offering,
010you know, in terms of supports and services. Some some have more of a mental health focus. Um some of them like I said are more cognitive behavioral in nature. Um if you guys are following me on that. So it's you know, every program has its strengths and weaknesses and you know >> differences too and obviously you get to choose where you send a kid based on what they need. >> Yeah, there's that's what I mean in terms of offering. Some some some programs have a heavier emphasis. If there's a more significant student need, those programs as part of their programs have additional adult supports, you know, tied to them. They may do additional um They may include therapy therapies, speech and language, occupational therapy, physical therapy as part of their programs. Um One of the
011programs that's not up here tonight, but Total Education Solutions in Fairlawn, they offer a year-round program. They don't even offer extended school year. It's a year-round program. Um so those are just just to give the board an idea of you know, the different types of programs that are out there. So each are have similarities, but each of them have some unique differences that districts you know, have to consider. Thank you. Mhm. Any other questions? Yeah, [clears throat] one just one quick one. So if there's scholarships available, but then there's also district-placed are there ever children that are district-placed, but we can find a way to allocate a scholarship or get them a scholarship? Is that Scholarships So the we don't control the scholarship program. It's a great question. So the state of Ohio is kind
012of unique. They they offer a scholarship program. So some of the some of the special some special ed monies go towards this opportunity for for parents. Just like we know EdChoice, well there's also things like the Jon Peterson scholarship. Which is essentially um The Jon Peterson scholarship is essentially every uh educational category of eligibility like learning disability, speech and language impairment, other health impaired minor and so on. Those all fall under the Jon Peterson and then there's the autism scholarship and that's autism eligibility. It it does include developmental disability too, but it's essentially the the autism program. So there's there's two categories of programs. Um Funding for those programs are allocated are awarded to parents based on um the eligibility category that they fall under. So without getting going into much detail, there's six six
013categories of intensity of support. Autism is a category considered a category six by the state. So it's awarded the most amount of money. Mr. Hostetler and I have talked about like our threshold costs that that where we can recoup some of the cost. That threshold is set at about third little over $32,000 and that's about what the cutoff is for the the scholarship for the autism scholarship. Um but some of the categories like category one, category two could be in the 8,000 to 10,000 range. Um The difference with that Mr. Lowry is the district has an we have an obligation as a public school to offer what's called you may have heard the the acronym FAPE. It means free and appropriate public education, right? So any student that we have two obligations. One is we
014have what's called a child find obligation. We have to find children within our our boundaries. We have to find children within our boundaries. That includes non-public students. We have to find children with disabilities. And when we find them, you know, we have to evaluate and determine eligibility for services. If they're eligible for services, we have to offer FAPE. We have to offer them a free and appropriate public education. Appropriate's the keyword there. It's not optimal. Every parent wants optimal, but it's appropriate. We have to offer a fair opportunity for students to receive an education and the interventions and supports that they need. Um so we do that through offering an IEP. Now a parent has a choice to accept that IEP and come to Talmadge and receive that service or you know, while they have
015the option of saying thank you, but I'm basically going to take this and I'm going to apply for a a scholarship. And scholarships there are state-approved scholarship providers all across the state. Um and parents can contact them and say I'd like to enroll in the program. I have an active IEP from Talmadge City Schools. Um I'd like to apply for the scholarship and attend this program and receive services through that program. So that's kind of the difference. Scholarship programs are parent choice and they um apply for those. They apply directly to the state in partnership with with the scholarship provider. We don't we don't actually use the scholarship. You're you're not allowed to attend public education and receive services and get a scholarship. It's kind of an and/or. Yeah. Make sense? Yep. Any other questions?
016That's a great question. Don't want to go too deep, but if you have more. Okay, let's do roll call. Mr. Lowry. Aye. Mrs. Davis. Aye. [clears throat] Mrs. Fladung. Aye. Mrs. Ross. Aye. Mr. Pastorelle. Aye. Next item is 5.1 [clears throat] and I'd like to merge 5.1 to 5.10 as one. Entertain a motion to do that. We're at 13. I know we have Well, there's a couple that I wanted There's one in there I want to talk talk about particularly the out of out of town field trip. >> Okay. Okay. Yeah. So do you just want to do 5.1 to 5.10 by consent agenda? Okay. >> Mhm. All right. Okay. So moved. All righty. Sorry. Second? So moved. Did you say you second, Ken? I said we need a second. I'll second. Yeah. Okay. And
017these are a mix of contracts and uh Yeah, I'll I'll give it I'll give it Oh, sorry. I'll I'll give an update. You know, I'll just pull out a couple here and answer any questions the board has have about any of them. The the one I want to highlight is Megan Greece who is just finishing up her first year with us here at Talmadge Schools as the assistant principal at Talmadge Elementary School. It's doing an extraordinary job for us. Has really stepped in and proven to be a real leader in the building. Come came to Talmadge with a lot of experience from Stow. So pleased to recommend a two-year contract for her tonight with her expiring contract. And then teacher contracts, this is kind of the annual time that we talk about contracts. So if
018the board remembers all of our new teachers really within their first three years receive a one-year contract and then teachers after that receive a two-year contract until they determine they want to pursue tenure or what's called a continuing contract. So I'll let Mrs. Davis talk a little bit about any of these or if you focus on the continuing. Um yes. So as Steve mentioned, they their first three years they receive um one-year contracts and with that I at the last meeting I talked a little bit about the evaluation process. So anytime a teacher is up for a one-year or a two-year contract um they're formally evaluated through the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System. Um and then 5.5 is the continuing teacher contract. So last meeting we um approved several teachers for tenure. We had one more
019um that I wrapped up this week in terms of the formal evaluation process. So I'm happy to recommend Mirjana Toll. She is one of our EL teachers at the elementary. Does a fantastic job. Um so I'm recommending her for a continuing contract. Um and just a reminder that entails um, a formal evaluation process. Two of those formal observations are conducted by either the principal or the assistant principal. I come in and do uh, the third formal observation and then make a recommendation for continuing contract based on that. Any of these new positions, right? None of these are new positions, right? So, no new money for the district. >> No. Okay. Um, any other questions? Nope. Uh, let's have roll call, please. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mr. Lowry. Aye. Mrs. Palattus. >> Aye. Mrs. Ross. [clears throat]
020Aye. Mr. Pastorelle. Aye. Next item is 5.11, overnight out-of-town field trip, BPA. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve this overnight out-of-town field trip for four BPA members to attend the national competition May 6th to the 10th in Nashville, Tennessee after raising all of the funds to do so. Congratulations to the following members for their achievement in reaching the national stage. Uh, Chad Watkins. I'm sorry. Yeah, Chad's sitting next to me. Chase. Chase Watkins. Uh, McKenna, uh, Demensky. Uh, Uh, Chad what or Chase was uh, first place economic research individual. McKenna was third place uh, small business management team, Stow. Lillian Geiss third place small business management team, Cuyahoga Falls. Zoe McCollum third place small business uh, uh, management team. What's interesting if you open up that uh, letter that's in there, the
021interesting facts uh, of where these people are going. Uh, uh, all four of them will be attending uh, college for uh, finance and accounting programs. Uh, so, this is a new program. It I think you can speak to it a little better than I can. Yeah, it's a one of our career tech programs that we now offer here at Tallmadge High School and uh, we host it here, which means that there are students from five different districts that come uh, to Tallmadge in addition to Tallmadge students uh, led by Kim Brendel is doing a great job with the program. It's an investment management. [clears throat] So, uh, it's it's helping to train kids so they're ready really to enter the investment management field right after high school if they so choose. Most of them choose
022to go and get a bachelor's and advance their degree. Yeah, it's that's that's pretty uh, pretty spectacular um, that they're on the national stage a couple years into this program. Do we need to make a motion? Yes, would somebody make a motion? >> I'll make a motion. I'll second. Motion and a second? Any more conversation? I just I'm wondering is there significance of indicating what high school like what district they're coming from? Is there >> It's just showing that it's from the six district compact. Okay, yeah, but like Tallmadge isn't in the I was just curious like why we're calling out the individual schools. Well, Chase and Zoe both are Tallmadge kids and then one from Stow. >> Right, I understand that. I didn't know if there's a significance for it to be >> Well,
023that our teaching program has put these kids on the national stage. So, the answer's no, there's no significance. Thank you. Okay. Um, roll call, please. Well said. And uh, if you would repeat that at the end, uh, we would appreciate that as we get through our meeting, okay? Thank you. Well said though. Um, Roll call. Mrs. Ross. Aye. Mr. Lowry. Aye. Mrs. Palattus. Aye. Mr. Davis. [clears throat] Aye. Mr. Pastorelle. Aye. Next student worker uh, contract from March agenda. Uh, apparently this was an error in the name. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve the hire of Daniel Goodell, correction from Daniel Good on the March agenda effective uh, March 18th, 2026. Motion? I'll motion. I'll second. Motion and a second? Um, roll call. Mr. Lowry. Aye. Mrs. Ross. Aye. Mrs. Palattus. [clears
024throat] Aye. Mr. Davis. >> Aye. Mr. Pastorelle. Aye. Sorry, got ahead of you. Um, next item is 5.13 uh, student worker, DeSean Danridge. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve the hire of Dan DeSean Danridge as a student worker at Tallmadge High School for the summer employment as well as 20 the 2026-27 school year. Motion. I'll second. Motion and a second? Conversation? >> Yeah, we use student workers um, not not many in the district, but it's a good opportunity depending on the students' kind of career path to give them experience in uh, in in work. So, DeSean has some some interest in custodial maintenance work. Um, so Very nice. >> I could see him. All right, uh, roll call. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mr. Lowry. Aye. Mrs. Palattus. Aye. Mrs. Ross. Aye. Mr. Pastorelle.
025Aye. Next item is 6.1. Good stuff. Good stuff. You have my slides, Kurt? Please. Okay, great. So, we've got to uh, want to cover some things tonight. A lot of good stuff happening in the district right now. Uh, but I'll primarily start um, with with our team. So, I'll let the team give kind of report in each one of their areas. So, Mrs. Davis, if you can talk a little bit about instruction curriculum. Um, I'll keep this as brief as possible, but um, since last time together, um, our math content committee and social studies content committee um, both of those committees have met um, accomplished a lot of great work in terms of kind of streamlining and filling any gaps creatively. You've heard me say over and over again, we're not in a position where
026we're purchasing any additional resources in any content area, um, but we just kind of talked through how we can creatively fill any gaps that we might that we might have. Um, as a reminder, we meet every we're on a um, every 3-year review cycle. So, we reconvene those committees um, every 3 years just just to reevaluate our resources and make instructional planning decisions and things along those lines. So, both of those committees um, continue to meet. Um, we have one more meeting um, this school year. Um, believe it or not, next year is time for ELA and science. Um, so both of those committees will be meeting next year. Um, additionally, we are right in the midst of testing season. Um, so, a lot of time has been spent. Um, that requires some rostering uh,
027of students on our end um, working through the schedule, making sure our testing windows are aligned. So, a lot of work um, goes into that. Additionally, um, as the local professional development committee chair, I have been working. Um, we recently had to completely change our LPDC site where we manage um, all of the individual professional development plans that our teachers must create and all of their professional development hours and activities. We recently had to take all of that data and put it into a new site. I need I say more? That was um, as you can imagine, that was a lot and a lot of that data came over kind of messy. So, that took a lot of time just to kind of clean that up. Um, teachers who are no longer employed here are
028just cleaning up a lot of that data. So, um, thankfully and or unfortunately, our LPDC site has been down for a couple of months now in Okay. you know, in doing that and migrating all of that data. So, um tomorrow LPDC, our local professional development committee meets to talk through that new site and will be up and running um early next week, which is good news for our staff who are anxious to get things moving with their professional development contact hours. So, that's where we're at from curriculum and instruction. Thank you, Courtney. Um Mr. Zima? I'll keep it brief. I've spoken enough today. But uh just a reminder, I and I had mentioned it earlier, we're we're just finishing up the threshold cost. Um we have to submit that by the 30th, so we should
029find out in a few months uh the money that we've recouped. Uh so, we're excited to to work through and hear that. Uh we completed our Medicaid audit as part of our Medicaid school uh program. Um everything went really great with that. So, we're doing a nice job. There's some changes to the Medicaid school program, um which has opened up a few extra avenues for us. So, we're uh meeting with our representatives um next week or the week after to kind of look at how we can uh recoup some additional costs around Medicaid. Um and then last is just a reminder to the board. We welcome you to um attend the Nordonia um Miles of Smiles All-Star Track and Field event. It was formerly Special Olympics. Uh that is uh on May 8th at Nordonia
030High School. Um I'll I'll send out information to the board. Um we have uh staff and students included. I think 106 people attending this year. Um so, it's our biggest ever. Uh shout out to Peterman. They are again uh providing um transportation free of cost for us. So, they're donating that. So, really excited about that. Kids are excited. So, it should be a good year again this year. Hopefully, the weather's good. Great. Thank you, Roy. Uh Mr. Mannion? Good evening. I'll try to be fast as well. Um we are doing our best to keep up with the growing grass and the rain and the roof. Um so, our our maintenance team is is uh you know, lean since we had the the resignation of Jamie Wade um and we are trying to keep those costs
031down. So, they're working a little short-handed and doing everything they can and doing a great job, frankly, uh of trying to keep up. Um we are scheduled to have our opener for baseball uh on the new field this weekend. So, we encourage everyone that can to come out. Hopefully, we get some nice dry weather here so that we can actually get that game in. Um we have a lot of senior events that are going on over the next month and a half. Um and so, there's a lot of moving parts. So, lots people pulled in many different directions, but really just trying to make sure those go on without a hitch. Um also, we are starting to plan for the summer and what big projects we might be able to take on and and uh
032you know, in terms of the facilities. And then the final two things, um we have made some adjustments to some of our uh PM structure to the elementary uh in moving some of our our pieces around to try to make it more efficient. Um so, we'll have some additional changes here in the coming weeks to try to pull some of that traffic off of East Avenue a little bit. Uh we also know that depending on how this levy goes, it could increase our parent traffic quite a bit. So, we're trying to find every way we can to make that process as efficient as possible. And our parents have been fantastic uh in kind of heating our directions and uh changes. So, I just wanted to give the elementary team a shout out and our parents
033for for really helping us kind of through that process. Um finally, the last thing, uh if you haven't had a chance to be on the K-8 campus over the last week or two, um we had a turf project that happened in between our two buildings. Um one of the things that was probably our It's a really great space, but maybe not the most functional space uh was that area in between buildings. Um so, thankful to our Tallmadge Middle School PTA and to our athletic boosters for completely funding that project um and installing turf in that area in between schools so that we can use it for things like cheerleading, things like class, things like uh you know, kindergarten graduation will feel very different this year. Um so, we we are could not be happier with
034that project. We think it looks great and it's very functional and the kids love it uh and have been out there I think every day it's not been raining they've been on that turf. So, uh lots going on and uh you know, just keep praying for dry weather. Yeah. Thank you. Uh thank you, Jeff. And yeah, shout out to you, Jeff. That that has been a space changer. That that area between the buildings is so much nicer now, so much more useful. It's great to see the kids hanging out there during Academy. Um so, thank you for all your hard work in making that happen. Mr. Gwinn? Um no, I'm good tonight. Just wanted to take an opportunity to thank probably Mr. Rozell who I've worked with for 25 years. He's been a great friend
035and a mentor to me and I've learned a lot from Thanks for everything, Thank you. Great. >> That's all I have. Thank Sure, absolutely. So, uh so, I see the upcoming events, much stuff for the seniors. What day is the day where like they walk through the schools? That's the senior breakfast day. 5/14, yeah. >> That's like my favorite Yeah. >> possible thing ever. So, Yeah, it was >> want to make sure I'm like setting aside that day on my calendar. No, thank you, Mr. Lowry. And in in in preparation for the meeting tonight, I realized our next board meeting is May 20th. So, the last day of school is May 22nd. The graduation is May 19th and then we have a lot of great stuff happening between now and then. So, just wanted to
036you know, share with that that tomorrow night is the CARE banquet. So, that's an annual event in partnership with the six districts uh to celebrate folks that are making a significant impact in the community. Um we have the community forum uh for folks that have additional questions about the levy and and the finances of the district. That will be April 29th here in this room at 6:00. We election day, of course, May 5th and coincides with uh senior honors banquet that night, which is uh May 5th. So, Cinco de Mayo will be busy on school stuff. And then um our our community give back day, senior give back day, it's where our our our high school students uh go out and do different community projects. So, that's a nice tradition here in Tallmadge. They'll be
037doing that on the 13th. And then the senior breakfast, the walk-through, uh practice. I think that's all the 14th, if I'm not mistaken. And then uh and then graduation, of course, uh the 19th. So, um great great stuff happening. I put this image up here. I do I I have a lot more to cover, but um that is a a photograph of John Lamply, Tallmadge proud Tallmadge High School graduate. And uh he was This was opening day at uh at the Guardians game and he did the national anthem with his trumpet there. So, pretty pretty amazing uh pretty pretty awesome story and and proud of of John. He's been a great alumni uh has come back to the district and supported our music program. Um so, I'm going to sound like a broken record to
038the board and and anybody else who's been paying attention to board meetings, but at my next slide uh group of slides is just going to be talking about uh the levy for folks that that you know, aren't aware of what's happening in the 5.6 mil levy. It's issue number three on May 5th. Um we are at a point now where we are moving towards um you know, a negative cash balance, which is something a school district cannot do. Uh so, it forces us to make some difficult decisions and changes in the district that uh need to happen just to keep us in the black. So, what that means is um you know, we will be looking to go to state minimum bussing, which uh all of our high school kids would lose bussing and any
039student within 2 miles of the K-8 campus by car, by vehicle, would uh lose bussing. Um su- we would six to 10 uh um teaching positions will be eliminated. There will be some cuts anyway as there already have been some cuts in the district on our from our certified staff side. Um but that that number grows if the levy does not pass and results in cuts in uh extracurricular or or I should say um elective type classes um and also increase class sizes district-wide. Support staff uh would also be affected. It will result in an increase in pay-to-play fees. We'll be restricting building usage cuz we'll want to cut back on um labor time during the weekends to care for buildings and in the evenings um for for outside users. So, that's an another um
040cut that we would have to make, which is we we hate to do. We really do see these buildings as the community's buildings. Um but when you start running out of money, you find ways to take money from areas other than the classrooms and that is one of those areas. And then I just put everything and anything's will be on the table as uh we we continue to be um a victim of our state funding model that has cut significantly state aid to the district and increasing cost and and the inability for our local tax revenues to keep up with inflation due to House Bill 920. Next slide, Kurt. So, we control, as I tell the board over and over, we control what we can control. And we are um we are sensitive to the
041taxpayer and the cost and property taxes. We understand it. We hear you. Believe me, all of us would love not to be up here and talking about a levy. This would make our job a lot more fun. Um but the reality is in order to continue to operate and sustain the programs we have, in order to uh keep up with inflation and and make up for the significant millions of dollars of lost aid from the state, we have to ask for additional money. So, what do we control? We can control how much money we spend and our efficiency. And this is the measure of a school district's efficiency. And we are already uh one of the lowest spending per pupils in the district or in the area. Uh so, you can kind of see where
042we are at uh right around $12,000 per student versus some of our neighbors. And uh I've it's interesting when I show this graph, often I hear, you know, certainly some people would love to have us at all the way at the bottom. But there's a lot of folks that say, "Why why aren't we spending as much per kid and putting the kind of resources that some of these other districts are doing?" Um so, that's that's the balance we strike in trying to be an extremely efficient spender for our citizens and while providing awesome opportunities for our kids through all the different uh academic, extracurricular, um and and the and the more. So, um just want to remind folks where we are and we continue to slip down this as we struggle with the changes in
043state aid. Mr. Mr. Gwyn. So, I talked about transportation, but those cuts and why we're doing it, it's it's going to be, you know, a little less than a million dollars of savings, which is real money. And again, the idea being I I am I do not want to do this. There will be kids that will struggle to get to school if this happens. This will have a negative impact on families. Um 30% of our families are economically disadvantaged in Tallmadge. This will hurt them. And so, I hate everything about it. But the reality is um we need to make cuts where um that are outside the classroom first before we go after core curriculum. And that's that's where we are with um with transportation. Uh Mr. Gwyn. I I like to share this and
044where we've uh happened over the years in terms of enrollment uh decline and our number of staff decline, you can see that our enrollment is down overall from a peak back in the late, you know, '08 '09 time period. So, our enrollment's down about 7.75% from then. Uh but with the increased efficiency in the district, the the new buildings, the K8 campus, again, we used to have back in 2008, we had five school buildings on five different campuses. Now, we have the three buildings on two campuses. That's created significant uh efficiencies for us and enables us to be one of the lower spending districts and still provided awesome opportunities for kids. Our staffing numbers are down by 16% since '08. Go ahead, uh Kurt. That's the just kind of giving people a sense. And again,
045this is attached to the tonight's agenda. You're welcome to kind of look at where we are in terms of um enrollment and why uh why we are looking to reduce some staffing at the elementary school as kind of lower class sizes move through that building. Uh next slide, Mr. Gwyn. This is an update on uh what will happen to um what will happen to pay to play anyway. We we are going to raise it no matter what to be more consistent with uh we did a study of other local districts where they are. So, we're going to be closer to where other districts are. Our numbers are a little low right now. Um so, we'll we'll increase it, but we will increase it substantially more if the levy does not pass. Uh next slide, Mr.
046Gwyn. All right, enough of the mean stuff. Let's uh Let's talk about the fun stuff. This is stuff we we like to talk about cuz there's amazing things happening in the district. There always are. So proud of our kids. Um and I'll start Well, I I put SpongeBob up there. Um we talked about that last month, but just really proud of all the kids. I think there was close to I think it seemed like 40 or 50 kids in that production. It just filled the stage kids from middle school through the high school. Um really a delightful um delightful performance. Proud of, you know, uh Miss Anderson, um Miss Bates, uh the whole team that helped to put it on. So, a lot of work goes into that and I hope our community enjoyed it.
047The next The next thing, almost I can't believe what's happening with our track and field program right now. And um the reason I say that is we have an awesome track and field program and with an awesome history. Um we've had incredible athletes that have come through our district. And um but this year, all of a sudden, all of our records are falling. You know, I don't know if it's something in the water or or what is happening, but it's pretty incredible uh what some of our kids are doing. So, um I'll start Anthony Bontempo. He jumped almost 6 ft 10 in, which is that is state champion you know, neighborhood uh jumping. So, and that is a new uh Tallmadge High School record, which is an amazing experience uh performance. So, Brendan Connolly's uh
048his picture's up there once, but he's got two records. He broke both the 100 m and the 200 m record for Tallmadge, which is incredible. Michaela keeps rewriting the the records books. Uh Michaela Martuccio uh with a sub 11-minute uh 2-mile, 3,200 m, which is incredible. And then uh four of our athletes and and Brendan again, Angelo Gatto, Robbie Reed, and Quentin Johns broke the all-time 4 by 100 relay record. So, um just uh incredible and I'm proud of these kids. Um I I shout out to Billy uh Billy Johnson, our athletic department for starting up the flag football program. Really has proven to be a popular program with our kids. The kids are competing well. We hosted a home uh home uh game a few weeks ago or just I guess it was just
049this past weekend. Yeah, just past weekend. So, fun new sport for us. Greatly and majority financed by uh the Cleveland Browns. So, thankful to the Cleveland Browns and their foundation for making that program happen for our girls. It's a new girl program. Um Mr. Manion mentioned this baseball stadium opening. Um it's always an opportunity for me to shout out uh Tallmadge alum Tom Cole, who gave $100,000 towards the project. His name is on the welcome uh sign to the uh to the facility. And then also making significant contributions was the Crow family. So, one of our dugouts is now named the Jimmy Crow dugout. And Jimmy, of course, will be in the in in in our dugout uh for the game. And then uh the Hindel family, long-time supporters of Tallmadge schools, is the sponsor
050of the other dugout. So, we're just very, very thankful to them for their support in getting that, you know, baseball kind of piece by piece uh getting that project done. And so, hopefully the weather cooperates and we can open it uh on Saturday appropriately. Um I mentioned John. I mentioned SpongeBob. And then last but not least, uh proud of our uh I This is another CTE program here in Tallmadge, the Academy of Fine uh Future Ed Entertainment Professionals. They are putting on this immersive design installation. Honestly, I don't know what it looks like, but they they got um some space carved out at the uh Design Institute at at Kent State, which is a pretty pretty, you know, prime real estate there. And they're going to have their installation there for public view on April
05117th through the 23rd. So, proud of our kids for being part of that. Um I think that's everything I got for tonight. All right. Very good. All right. Uh that's the end of 6.1. Let's go on to 7.0, old business. I see none. Uh new business. I see none. Uh this is the point where we open it up to uh discussion from the audience. Uh we hope hold it to 3 minutes and our timekeeper will will flash that up on the board. So, what I'd like you to do is come to the podium, uh give us your name, and then uh please adhere to the 3 minutes. Any takers? Yes. There you go. Uh that's all right. We'll We'll still give you 3 more. I've I've already mentioned it to some of you. But first
052of all, my name is Jim Theotokos and I'm a retired mechanical engineer. I paid my dues and uh you get to a point in life where enough is enough. But I've been in Tallmadge for 39 years and I've seen how this community has grown and the problems we went through back in the '90s trying to build this new school. And things had changed. The buildings that we had were outdated and we just couldn't keep up with the technology. And people don't understand what's going on here in this building or in our school system. And um my wife showed me something the other day where somebody showed a national average cost per student and here's Tallmadge over here. And I'm looking at this and I said, "Wait a minute." That's just Tallmadge. This is just a
053national average. That means there are school systems out there that in the other direction. You don't want to go there. It says, "Well, how does this compare to the other school systems in this county?" You confirmed what I've known all along. Hudson, Stow, Bath, Nordonia, they're all spending more than we are. And we're doing a really good job of educating our kids and getting them ready to go off and make a living in the really difficult world. If I had to start over today, I don't know if I can compete today. But people need to be made to understand this and to show them uh where we are and why you need this money to continue educating these kids and getting them ready for this Basically, it's a cruel world we're living in right now.
054They need to know how to compete and deal with people. That's about all I have to say. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Jeff. >> [applause] >> All right. Anybody else? John. John Bryant, I am vice president of the Tallmadge Teachers Association. Uh first with good news that our executive uh committee unanimously voted for the levy, so now it will pass, okay? Um yeah, we've been waiting on that, so now you know it's going to pass. Um but to reiterate what you said, too, I've got a great feeling that the thing is Tallmadge cares about their kids. Well, we need to get that point across to the other people that are against this. Right. And I think no, you know, and we have a a forum coming up that um hopefully they will attend. You know,
055I'm hoping those people will attend. Because you don't realize the little trickle-down things once you uh remove bussing. As an educator for 32 years, field trips are like your mainstay of exposing children to the world around us, whether going to the science museum or Hale Farm. And not being able to do that, you know, it's really sad. For some of these kids do not get that enrichment, so as teachers we can do that. So, that would sadden my heart not being able to take them out into the real world, how to behave, how to use manners. Those are, you know, again, our job is to create great citizens. And if you start cutting that, because I'm also thinking about losing teachers, that will increase class sizes. Even though we might be at a little lull,
056but at the elementary we're bursting out of the seams already. So, the thing is, you know, having class I have 28 this year. And that's a lot, especially with today's kids, you know, they sent they have special needs and all that. So, I have a good feeling it's going to pass. I think um I think our elementary parents and people realize this is a big pivotal point in the history of Tallmadge. And like you said, I've been here when we were like looking for land. That was also a big pivotal point in our educational Oh, yes. Yes. And then eminent domain, we went through a lot back then. And this one we're lucky that the millage is not that high compared to the other districts. And you know, for those who are angry about this,
057you know, and you know, cuz now we're seeing teacher you know, union bashing, we're the enemy. But you know, we're not. We're here for the kids. Yes, we want to have a living wage because we also pay that pay pay property taxes and grocery prices and insurance and health care, we pay that, too. So, you know, we we want to be fair as well. Um the other important thing, too, is make sure you mark your calendar for kindergarten graduation, May 18th. And now that we have the new um turf um to see these little people go across with their little caps and they'll be wearing T-shirts this year um that was funded by a TTA grant. Um we're like it's the best thing to ever see. If you want to smile, you're having a bad
058day, please come on out there. But that's all I had to share. But I have good feeling that Tallmadge will come together. Uh we always have naysayers that do not want to be changed cuz they've been hearing Oh, is that my time up? But they've been hearing that, "Oh, you know, Well, and you know, as you can see, the dist- we are so lean right now. No budget. Teacher We have to spend our own money again to get basic supplies cuz there's no funds for us. And you know, so it's difficult for all of us. However, someone did it for me, thank God. Someone said, "You know what? It was the Carter years." You know, times were tough back then, too. But you know what? We're going to pass this levy so that our schools
059will educate our kids. So, it's time for people to step up. But I I have a great feeling about this. We're going to pass it. >> [applause] >> Mr. Bryant, thank you for uh you thank you. And then I also made me remember I was at council meeting uh Tallmadge City Council on Monday and council passed a unanimous resolution 7-0, so that's Republican and Democrats uh in support of Issue 3. So, we're very, very thankful for uh to council for the political courage to do that and um and thankful for their support. And the other thing, too, is that we are so transparent. And I think people are getting it. It's coming from the state. It is not coming from us. Um my name is Emily Taylor. I have uh a son that's junior and
060a son that is in eighth grade. So, um what you just said about this it coming from the state, people don't know that and I don't think we're doing a good enough job of getting the information out. I can't I I don't see very much of it, right? And when I do, it's just giant text social posts and stuff. Nobody reads it. Um there's videos out there, but they're 45 minutes long. No one's going to watch. Right, but they're not getting the information. Like I I we own our own digital marketing company. So, like social media is one of the things that we do. I don't see any of that because if you post something on your social media account, only 7 to 10% of your social media followers are even going to see it.
061There has to be something to back that a little bit. There has to be more stories and there has to be facts. Like I didn't even know until today that it was because of the state. You know, and because people are thinking you that there's misappropriation of funds when there's not. So, what are you guys doing to get the word out there in a in a a fashion to talk to people cuz people are lazy. People don't want to read. I don't want to read. So, the people that are not finding the information and don't care are making up their own narrative specifically on things like the Tallmadge Talk. Right? So, what are you guys doing to to change the narrative because you know, I see a lot more negative than I do see positive.
062What would you suggest? Um so, I would say short-form content. So, you have to get people where they're at, which they're on Facebook, especially like our the older community. Um Facebook is their main place. Like my dad, he used to read the paper, he reads it online now. So, he consumes video a lot. My dad's 70, he'll be 70 he'll be 70, 71, something like that. And my parents mostly consume audio and and visual stuff, you know? You can see them scroll past things that are huge, right? They're not going to read blogs, they're not going to go and find the information. You have to give them the information and I don't think that we're doing a great job. So, like for example, the 45-minute uh pieces of content you have, we need to break
063those up into small chunks that people can get little pieces of information. It's like giving people bullet points instead of giving them paragraphs. So. That's all I have. Good suggestion. Thank you. Anybody else? Barb. Barb Baze, Deerwood Drive, Tallmadge. Um I wanted to thank Jeff for always being um open door policy and being very transparent about money. It's been very helpful. Um I don't agree that most people don't that they don't understand why this is happening. I think they do know why. Um I wanted to ask if if if by some chance, like the cost factor freeze that hurt us so badly. What What would happen if by some miracle that would be updated. And we would have additional funds that aren't anticipated. Um so that's just, you know, something in that I'm wondering about.
064And I do know there there are comments that people that are voting no don't care about the kids. And I can tell you that the vast majority do care. There are some who, you know, no matter what you say are going to vote no, but I think most people do care. And that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Barb. Anybody else? Seeing none. I just Well, I wanted to thank you, Mike. I To Emily's point of trying to get the word out in different ways, I invited Mike to speak at the chamber breakfast this morning. There weren't a lot of people there, but I think the more and then, you know, Emily had more questions after the breakfast and, you know, I met her for lunch and we talked through a lot of that
065stuff. And I think that's the kind of things that are really helping, but there's only five of us, right? There's only so many lunches or breakfasts or coffees that we can have. Um Yeah, or texts or feed Yeah. Um So I just I I guess I just want to say I want to thank Mike and Chad for they've just put in a lot of hours on this. Um and I think sometimes, you know, I I saw posts that, you know, we are the 1% and we should be taking pay cuts. So there's definitely misunderstanding out there and um I I just I just really want everybody to know that we're working really hard. There's a lot of hours put into this that you don't see. Um and and we're trying to combat, you know, the
066negative narrative on on social media as much as possible, but it's time to start thinking outside the box um with like, you know, kind of taking a 45-minute video and making it into digestible chunks. Um and we and we welcome help. I mean, that's really the more there there are people that are walking the neighborhoods on Saturdays. There are people who are making phone calls. There are people who are texting. There are so many ways to get involved to help us get the get the word out that we need to support our kids. Um Expo on Saturday. Thank you. I said no duh. >> [laughter] >> We have a community expo on Saturday um and the schools will be there. So and and in the forum the If anybody really wants to know what is
067going on, you guys can be our cheerleaders and get get folks to that meeting for us. Thank you. Yeah, I would like a shout-out to one particular teacher who has become the the social media warrior, Brooke Gustavel. Holy mackerel. Yeah, Brooke read must read every text that's in there and uh tries to straighten out some of them folks. She does does a good job. So keep up the work, Brooke. Anything else? I'd take a motion to adjourn. Motion. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call, please. Aye. We're adjourned.