001Okay, it's time. I call the meet this meeting of the Talmage Board of Education to order. It's 6:00 p.m. January 21st, 2026. First order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. All right. Next uh is roll call. Mr. Hetler. here. >> Here >> next thing is uh welcome to visitors. Uh seeing one uh this is your opportunity to speak at the end of the meeting and uh I see two uh and uh we'll call that out at the very conclusion. All right. I'll need uh it is recommended next item is it is recommended that the board of education approve the minutes
002of the December 17, 2025 and January 8th, 2026 meeting. Uh minutes are on can be found online digitally. I make a motion from somebody. >> A motion. >> Second. conversation. No, >> roll call. >> I >> All right. Uh, next uh order of business is recommendation of the board of uh board of education uh school board recognition. >> Yep. >> Surprise. Yeah. So, January in in the state of Ohio is uh school board um appreciation month and uh so on behalf of myself, the students, the administrative team, the teaching staff at Townage, we're just so thankful for this group of of board members. We know it can be extremely thankless job at times and a very difficult job all the time especially with some of the challenging decisions that uh you're confronted with and uh
003we just we just really appreciate um your thoughtfulness, your openness and uh your commitment to doing what's best for kids. So, thank you very much. I have uh certificates for each of you can add to your uh collection of certificates. So, again, thank you very much. Jen got hers this morning. We get a group photo. >> Yeah, you get a certificate already. That's you're you're on a roll. >> Yeah. >> All right. Next item is a resolution of necessity. U 5 6 mil uh property tax. Uh I'm going to read this. It is recommended that the board passes a resolution declaring it necessary to levy an additional 5.6 6 mil tax levy for the purposes of current expenses and requesting the Summit County fiscal officer to make certain certifications uh pursuant of the section 5705.3
004and 5705.21 of the revised code. >> Motion second. >> Get a motion and a second. uh discussion >> to kind of describe what's going on. >> Yeah. Anytime the board wants to put on a property tax levy, it's a two-step process. Uh the first is determining the millage which is mentioned in the in the resolution. You pass the resolution of necessity. this first step. The uh resolution then goes to the county auditor and they certify the amount of collections. We get that back and that certification then is uh included in the the second resolution called the resolution to proceed uh which we will have to adopt if you so choose to go this direction. And everything again needs to be uh filed with the board of elections by February 4th, Wednesday. >> So we're under
005a pretty tight uh time frame if that is the direction we're going. >> Yeah. Normally uh the the county turns that certification around in 3 to five days. Uh I emailed them this afternoon, didn't get a response, but uh they've been very good about getting stuff back. >> And then again, that goes then to the uh bond council who uh generates the resolution to proceed and he can turn that around pretty quickly. So, we're we're coming up against the deadline, but you know, it's not it's not a a terribly urgent situation yet. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh what we'll have to do is a work session to do a second u reading it. That's our intent. >> Yeah. So, this is our resolution first for the property. We need a second resolution if we're
006going to choose property. >> Yes. And we'll get to the next item 2.3 in a minute. But for now, if we adopt this first resolution, it's not cementing us to just property. It's just the first of two steps. >> Correct. It is it is not committing you to anything, uh if you never pass a second resolution, never file anything with the county board, it just goes away, >> right? >> But this is the first necessary step. >> Okay. Yep. >> All right. Call for the vote. Call for a vote. >> Mr. Lowry, >> I. >> Mr. Davis, >> I. >> Mrs. Platis, >> I. >> Mr. Cell, >> I. >> Next order of business is uh resolution number two, school district earned income tax. It is recommended that the board pass a resolution submitted to
007the electors of the school school district. uh the question of a 75% school district income tax on the earned income of individuals residing in the school district. So what I need is a uh to continue this along I need a uh discussion. >> I'm not going to make a motion. I don't think any of us here are ready to make a motion because if we adopt this second resolution then we're cementing in the earned income and that's not our intention today. >> Okay. >> So we would like to have an additional meeting >> right >> with all five of us present >> right >> to finalize our choice. >> We'll uh table this then until our next uh work session meeting and we can address it at that point uh when we have to make
008that decision. Okay. >> Thank you. All right. Financial report is recommended that the board approve the financial report of the month of December 2025 as presented. Motion. >> So moved. >> I'll second. >> Motion in a second. >> End of December gets us halfway through fiscal year 26. Um, obviously we're in a financial uh need situation right now. The December, January are the leanest months for cash flow. So, you'll see you'll see these uh month end balances, this one in January, get pretty low in the general fund. Um, I'm fine-tuning uh the the projections for February. We need to update the five-year forecast that will be uh next month. Uh and as we've talked about before uh in order to um show the state fiscal responsibility, we need to show positive balance in fiscal year
00928. Uh this is year one, fiscal year 26. 28 is the third year. And if we don't, then we'll go through the same procedure that we did last year. And uh so we're going to we're going to look at at making adjustments, cuts, and doing whatever we need to do to show a 28 positive balance. >> So could you describe what the process was that you had to go through before with the state of Ohio? >> Uh they had a consultant there. Uh we had I don't know four or five or more meetings with them. >> Yeah. >> Uh had to go over each of the revenue items and expenditure items. Uh and then we we were in the third year we were a positive excuse me positive cash balance but our incumbrances put us
010in the negative. Uh so then we had to uh go through all of the all the process to indicate how we were going to make that positive balance in the third year. And it's it's a state spreadsheet. It it's fairly complicated because it breaks everything down by month and u it compares and then justifies and then forecasts uh but again whatever it takes to to get to a positive balance is what they're recommending. Uh and then the board has to get involved and approve steps along the way and it's a it's a time consuming cumbersome process. >> So that gives the state some ability to speak into what we're spending on. >> Uh it gives them the ability to recommend changes. >> Okay. uh and if we're not going to go along with their recommendations,
011we have to come up with our own uh solutions to to avoid a deficit balance. Uh it puts us in fiscal watch. >> There's fiscal watch, fiscal caution, and fiscal emergency. >> Once you hit emergency, then they will come in and dictate all of your spending. So, it's It's a process to avoid that for districts to keep them out of fiscal emergency. >> Uh it's a relatively new process I will say. Um I was not aware of the process until they contacted us. >> Okay. >> Uh because in the past they would send out a letter and say, "Okay, here's here's uh your situation. You showed a deficit. What do you plan on doing?" We would write them back. indicating some steps indicate that we're on the ballot, you know, and and they would say,
012"Okay, fine." And they would file it. Uh but that's not acceptable anymore. >> Uh they they make you uh build in cuts and changes and you cannot pass we're on the ballot to pass a levy is no longer an acceptable reason of how you're going to get out of the deficit. >> So go ahead. What is the time frame for all three of those steps? Like we can't be in the red in four years and we're in fiscal watch. What What about the other two? >> Uh we can't be in the red in the third year. >> Third year. >> Yeah. Uh if we are then we're we're in watch. uh because they get involved and they don't allow you to I'm not sure what I guess first of all I don't want to know
013but uh if you can't cut your way out of of a negative situation then they would probably move you to caution and then ultimately fiscal emergency. >> Do you know if fiscal emergency is like next year or two years? You don't know. >> I'm just curious what >> Yeah. No, it depends on on the success of of any levies that you you propose. Uh that would immediately take care of the situation. >> Sure. >> Uh it would, I guess, uh be determined if you're able to make the adjustments or the cuts that that uh were suggested by the state. um because you've got negotiated agreements and other things that uh that come into play. But it again, it's a it's a procedure to keep districts out of fiscal emergency. So for our five-year forecast for
014next month, we have to show all the cuts that we're talking about if the levy does not pass. And then if the levy does pass, then we could re redo the >> resubmit the forecast. >> Resubmit. That's the word I'm looking for. >> You're required twice a year. Uh but if if we were to pass in May, we would immediately file a new one. That would be a good idea. U so yeah the the forecast that will be presented next next month will not show any indications of of new monies. >> Okay. >> Uh so many if not all of the cuts will be built into the goal is to show 28 as a positive, >> right? >> Uh so we're going to do whatever it takes to to make that happen. Uh and and
015obviously it's going to align with the plans uh for next school year if it doesn't pass in May. >> Thank you. Any more conversations? >> Hearing none. Uh we'll move on to the next item. >> Vote. >> Oh vote. >> Mr. Davis. >> Hi. Mr. Lowry. >> Hi, >> Mrs. >> Hi, Mr. >> Hi. >> All right. Next item is recommendations of the superintendent of the schools. The item is E-R. These are two policy measures. >> Yeah. So, um, we want to make a motion. >> Yeah. >> Is this a vote? >> A motion. >> Okay. I second. >> So, so what this is is, uh, I'll let Kurt. So, these are both for our bring your own device program, which used to be the way we did things at Town High School. Now, we
016have the cell phone ban in place and completely different policy in place and our Chromebook program. So, Kurt, maybe if you could mention >> Sure. Yeah. Um, you pretty much said it all this policy. um and and its associated regulation were adopted in 2018. We had some Chromebook deployment at that time but nowhere near being one to one. And so at the time we thought with students having their own devices, cell phones and laptops, we recognized that those had some educational value as these policies kind of laid out the expectations for bringing them in using them in the classroom gave teachers kind of wide discretion about how they would they could be used. Um but now we are onetoone with Chromebooks. Um the state has has said we don't want students using cell phones. So
017this is basically doing away with the policies that allowed for those cell phones to be used on the board network. So >> pretty straightforward. Okay. Vote. >> Mr. Lowry. >> Hi. >> Mr. Davis. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Plaz. >> Hi. >> Mr. Pastor. Hi. Uh the next items are uh personnel items. I'd like to merge uh 5.1 to 5.8 together as one. Have a motion to do that. >> I'll motion to adopt 5.1 to 5.8. >> I'll second. >> Yeah, I almost can't skip any this time. So, I I'll go through each I'll go through each one and then I can we can uh talk about each one because there's um not a lot going on but a lot a lot of going on. So, I want to uh share with you. First of all,
018substitute teachers. Three more added to our or four more added to our group of substitute teachers. The board remembers just last year we kind of switched away from using the county for our sub program. We're doing it locally now and really having a lot of success. Um I think much better job of filling it was one of our top concerns from our teachers. Um you know a few years ago and uh really credit um just taking that over doing all the marketing ourselves and a lot of credit goes to Kelly Christopher for all her work and making that happen. So here's four more to add to our group. Nathan in incidentally Nathan Stanley the first one here was our student teacher that worked with Mr. Coleman in the band last year. So, it was kind
019of cool to see Nate. Normally, I would see Nate with our band kids. Uh, last week he was subbing for our kindergarten. So, it was a little little different group of kids to uh for him to get used to, but again, thankful for for all of our subs and the great job that they do for us. Speaking of which, I'll bring up two two of our long-term subs. We have a number of maternity leaves right now and and so Jackson Queen, who's been in really since the beginning of the school year almost, has now his his uh stay has been extended because one of our English teachers needed to stay out a little longer. Jackson's doing a great job for us. He's a recent grad of town. I think 2020 or 21 is when he
020graduated. Um and uh really really doing a super job. And then Carol Gager who uh retired from Townage a few years ago, but she just can't stay away. And um if the board remembers last month we talked about our from a compliance standpoint where we were in terms of staffing for special ed and we were right on that edge and Carol by taking a long-term sub that that prevents us from having to hire a full-time certified person. She's helping us to kind of cover us for the rest of this school year. So very thankful to Carol for her help. Um and also as a mentor to some of our newer uh intervention specialists. Uh Jamie Wade put in his resignation. Jaime's been with us uh it seems like a long time. Uh he on and
021off. What was it? >> 2009. Um Jaime's Townage grad is is uh he's done a really nice job on the grounds for us. Um but he's got an opportunity down So, he's going to go work for the Ohio State University. So, we're excited for Jamie as he begins that new adventure. Uh, in the meantime, he is one of our plow guys. I'll just warn folks. So, we we do not intend to refill this position right now given our circumstances. So, we're going to try to kind of use possibly use one of our custodians as a temporary plow guy. So, we're we're reshuffling just to just to save cost right now. Again, we only have three plow guys, so we've lost a third of them with with Jamie leaving tomorrow. So, our our our Friday is
022his last day. So, we I think uh Manion said there wasn't going to be any more snow after the 23rd. So, yeah. Yeah. Second that, right? Um and then I'll I'll bring up sports supplementals. I know Mr. Lowry, you spent some time with uh our AD talking about sports supplementals. I don't know if you had any comments or concerns with the coach's list. >> So, no concerns. Our uh our talk was brief because this is kind of a step in a direction of the board being more involved. So, >> probably the next round we'll get together, you know, with a bunch of lead time to make sure that we're in agreement on some of the decisions we're making. I noticed on the list there were quite a few that were >> um >> yeah, maybe
023potentially like to be determined. Yeah. So maybe there's some opportunities that we'll talk about some things for those. >> Yeah, I will say it's a lot of times these jobs are hard to fill. It's just finding really good people to work with our kids, especially some of the assistant positions. I would just say you can look at the list. We have an extraordinary group of coaches. We're very very proud of and some of them have been with us a long time. Coach Lynn, coacha, so thankfully even though he retired as a teacher is back to leave our lead our track and field program. So, um, just very very blessed with all of our coaches and I do want the board to know, um, you know, in in the process that we go through whenever there
024is an opening. Um, there's, um, you know, with especially the head coach positions, we have the not only other coaches involved in the hiring, but also we get involved parents, sometimes students in that hiring process as well. And then by state law, every one of our coaches gets what's called a pupil activity uh permit just through the state of Ohio. They have to go through a it's pretty significant testing pro process and it covers everything from concussions, health and safety all the way to mental health and and um and sportsmanship. So um a lot of work goes into this list and just uh proud of Billy and the job he does and just thankful to our coaches because they do not do this for the money. It's a lot of time um that they put
025into it and we we we appreciate the good work they do with our kids. Um so that's that's personnel tonight. I don't know if that board has any questions. >> I would ask for a vote. >> Mr. Davis >> I. >> Mr. Lowry >> I. >> Mrs. Claus. >> I pass. >> Hi. >> All right. Next item is uh central office reports. >> Yeah, if you could bring up the the uh slideshow, Kurt, please. Uh and we are going to start tonight with just kind of give each one of the uh directors a chance to talk about happenings in their department. So, I'll start with Mrs. Davis. >> Um so, a couple of things uh that we've been working on throughout this school year. We have some awesome committee work happening. Believe it or not,
026we are on that cycle of review. As I've shared with the board before, we established that cycle of review. So, believe it or not, we are um reviewing our social studies um resources. We are obviously not in a position financially to adopt any new resources, but the main goal would be to build consistency across grade level, do some vertical alignment, review our current resources, and be creative in terms of how we can fill any gaps that there might be in our current resources. So, we're doing that for social studies. We're also simultaneously doing that for math this year as well. So, math content committee and and social studies committees are both meeting. And just a reminder that um those committees have representation across every grade level and um our we do our best to get
027as many voices to the table uh as we possibly can in the in that committee work. So um thankful for that group. Also we have been meeting uh twice already this year. Our authentic learning steering committee has met. they really um drive decision- making in terms of next steps related to our our mission vision around authentic learning and personalized learning. So grateful for that group. Um Mr. Brian is here. He's actually one of our members of our steering committee. Um so we're grateful for that work as well. And then also simultaneously we have the authentic learning uh local coaches. So in each building we have two individuals who have been early adopters and been a part of the steering committee work already. They have been trained as local coaches. So the goal in um in
028creating that is is building sustainability. We've been working really hard um with in partnership with partnerships for authentic learning and leadership. They've really kind of spearheaded a lot of our work along with our steering committee. Um, but the goal in in training these coaches is to build sustainability internally and so that we can continue to propel this work forward. So those local coaches really work to support our teachers, help with the design process around authentic learning, um, answer any questions they might have, make connections with community partners. Um, so we're really proud um, of those local coaches that we have in each one of the buildings. Um, and that also leads me to um our upcoming professional development day because we're going to embed some time for that those local coaches to work with teachers.
029Um, additionally, at the professional development day on February 13th, um, it'll be much more building specific than it's been in the past, but we're really looking forward to the topics we have. Artificial intelligence AI will be a hot topic for sure. um especially at the middle school is that'll be their kind of first introduction to AI and appropriate use of AI. Um our teachers are already finding ways to use AI to support um you know their own lesson design and uh data analysis. So it's it's exciting but it's also scary at the same time. So kind of navigating the new world of of AI that'll be a hot topic for sure on the 13th. Additionally, we have um some team building um and collaboration time built in. We also have we also always provide gifted
030sessions because we're required any teachers who are providing any kind of gifted instruction are required to maintain hours of professional development. So, we always embed that. And then we also have some required training. Same goal, which is the system we're using um for IEP writing and that um process, but we're also going to be using Same Goal for our reading improvement monitoring plans and the MTSS um the multi-tered systems of support documentation. So, we're going to get our teachers trained on how to use that. I really think it'll streamline the process of creating those improvement monitoring plans. So, we're going to get them that training on the 13th as well. We also have a an SOS training which is signs of suicide, also a required training under a new house. So, we're going to provide
031that as well. And then finally, um I have to give a shout out to our district lead teachers. You've heard me talk about them before. They are just um integral to um the growth that we've been able to see related to the Talmage Way. The Talmage Way is literally what our lead teachers eat, sleep, and breathe all the time. So, right now we're tasked with creating the learner profiles tied to our our theage way and um it's really to get to know your kids and one of our main goals is for our kids to find their passion and and to find that passion sooner rather than later. Um and um so our lead teachers have had some really great discussions. Uh and Jake Miller, the consultant from the ESC, the personalized learning consultant, has been
032working through a series of activities with our lead teachers to develop those learner profiles. What questions do we want to ask? What do we want to know about our kids? And how can we help this become a decision-making tool for our teachers? So, um that's kind of where we're at thus far. and I look forward to our continued growth and and learning together. So, >> great update. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> PD day is Friday, February 13th. Lucky 13. So, board's welcome to come and see some of the festivities at Townidge Middle School that day. >> Can I ask a quick question? Are we subscribing to any AI and offering that to teachers? >> Um, >> I know that co-pilot's probably in 365, but are we using chat GPT or anything and offering that
033to teachers? Um, Chad GBT is probably the one that we they started using first. Yes. Um, but we have and I don't want to steal Curt's Thunder, but we have Google products, Gemini >> and Notebook LM, which will be one of the main focus of of our >> It's a subscription and all teachers can use it. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It's actually Chad part of our uh >> Google Suite. they offered as a core um service as part of our Google workspace subscription. So one of the thing they developed that part of Gemini and notebook LM for education. So um they're saying that they're that data inputs that are that are put into those two products aren't used to train their models. So it's protecting our data as well. So >> so we're
034we're encouraging the use of of those specifically. Okay. But there are a lot of resources driven by AI out there for sure. >> Thank you. >> I'm curious on the um on the teachers perspective on how much they're uh adapting that or you know like the early adop adapters or whatever or those that are resisting it. Is there >> like a kind of a continuum or >> definitely um I think there is always that concern that it it could potentially take away critical thinking is one of the things that we value as a district and and AI has the potential to you know take that critical thinking away. So, we're we're trying to to steer it a little bit more so in terms of looking at AI with a critical eye, you know, putting something
035into AI and when it when it's what it spits back out at you, is it correct? How do you know it's correct? You know, a lot of that. Um, but there's definitely some apprehension. Um, and I think that's natural. Um, but our students definitely are aware that it's out there and are using it. And so I think our focus really needs to be how to use it appropriately and kind of you know guide them in making those decisions. So >> all right Mr. Zean >> sorry I can take that one. Yeah. Thank you. Good evening. Uh so lots happening uh since the last board meeting. This is kind of an interesting time of year for all of us administratively because we this is the time of year where we balance uh continuing to emphasize all
036the supports and services we provide for this school year while starting to really ramp up um for all the supports and services that we'll need to be providing for next school year. So um within this last month uh lots have been going on. Uh we did in December receive our special education profile. Um uh it came through with flying colors. Uh no findings this year for us as a district and a lot of districts did have findings. Um uh so we were really excited about that. Um so meeting our requirements for for in terms of the state for special education. Um Courtney mentioned same goal. Uh we're now fully on board in terms of same goal meaning if the board remembers um we started with the same goal transition in October. Uh between October and
037December we had we were kind of uh working between two systems. Um, as we started to kind of roll that out, um, we are no longer using SPS refresh, which was the prior, um, software that we were using for IEP writing and 504 writing. So, we're now fully on board with um, same goal for those services. Um, those programs. Uh Courtney mentioned though that even though we have it in in full, we're not fully utilizing same goal in the sense that we are gearing up for uh as Courtney mentioned additional um uses such as MTSS and um and reading improvement monitoring plans. So there's a lot more that a lot more functionality that we'll be able to use with um same goal, but it's a process of kind of rolling that out for everybody. Um
038uh this is the time of the year also well all year long we work very closely with um Mr. Hosa on the treasur's office but this is the also the time of year where we have a lot of um things going on financially um we did a CCIP revision which is our um comprehensive continuous improvement plan. It's our federal grant programs. When you talk when we've talked to you guys before about our tit all of our title programs, all of our special education funding that we receive, um there's a system where we have to take those funds and then allocate them. Uh this is the time of the year where the state provides reallocations of those funds. Uh we so therefore we typically do revisions at this time of the year. We did get small,
039very small, but anything is helpful, small uh increases, positive increases in funds um across all of our federal programs. So, we did those revisions. That was just approved yesterday, I think, through the state. So, we're in good shape on that. Um Mr. Hostler and I are going to be working in the next few weeks um on our Medicaid billing process. Um, we do do a Medicaid billing, uh, uh, school funding, um, school Medicaid billing. Um, if I I think we've talked about that in the past, but we are able to, um, document, uh, certain services, things like occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech and language services, um, school psychology, parts of school psychology. Um so we document those and um work through HBS our provider and then we can get reimbursement on some of those funds
040through the Medicaid program. Um they have since updated that program and there are some additional funds. So Mr. Hostetler and I will be sitting down. >> So those are billable services that >> yeah for us it doesn't affect uh families. Um, we don't know we don't know which families are Medicaid eligible. Uh, we just document the supports and services that we provide to students. Um, and then, uh, parents do have the, um, the right to opt in or opt out of that. Um, but it doesn't affect them personally, but it allows us to recoup some of the some of the cost of those services. Anything on that, Mr. Wholeseller? Yeah. Um this is also the time of the year where we um do things like excess cost and threshold cost which used to be called
041catastrophic cost. Um we've just kind of just while we're in the finishing up stage, we've submitted our excess cost. So that is um typically what excess cost is is um uh for students who are we are the district of service um but their district of residence is somewhere else. If we're educating those students um we can recoup some of the cost of educating those students. It's called excess cost. Uh very shortly we're going to be working on uh threshold cost which is students where we are the district of residents if their supports and services exceed a certain threshold. That's why it's called threshold cost. It's 32,000 and change for uh certain categories as a as as an example. uh if our supports and services exceed that threshold, uh we can request um reimbursement for a
042percentage of that cost and then it's it's dependent upon a number of factors including our share. So um so we're in the middle of that process right now. Roy, example of when a a student could be not a resident but still be serviced by town. Just so the board understands that >> a student who might be courtplaced with us um but where they came they might have come from Akran they might have district is their district of residence but for whatever reason they might be courtplaced in town. Um Talmage becomes the district of service. Um, Akran retains the student as a resident. They're essentially still responsible for that student's education. Um, we if we're providing uh the supports and services that we provide, we can through the state request reimbursement for a portion of that
043cost. >> Is that No, this is just that's school-based. I use that as an example because a lot of times we ste see students who are court-placed as being eligible for excess cost reimbursement. Um but the court doesn't have a say in you know the excess cost program. That's a that's a program through um ODW. Okay. Um whereas threshold cost is um really any student that as a good example would be uh students who the board has approved in the past of being uh students that IEP teams have chosen um to place elsewhere. Uh alternate placements as an example. Some of those costs can exceed $100,000 a student. um once we hit the threshold for that student um we can request reimbursement for a portion of that cost back that we exceeded. Does that make
044sense? In the past, we've it's we've had some increases in supports and services. Um but because our percentage share, this is another example of we're on the levy, right? But because our percentage share has gone down each year, um it uh our cost um our cost has gone up slightly, but um our reimbursement has gone down because it's a percentage of that of that cost. >> But we typically exceed 120 $140,000 or more. >> Let me just jump in because it sounds like a really great thing that the state is doing. There's six different categories of special ed >> and category six is the is the maximum. >> Uh so those are funded at around 30 or 32,000. >> Y >> that's times our state share which is about 30%. So that's 9,000. Okay. So
045we get 9,000 for that state. And then any costs that exceed 32,000 which is the threshold the state reimbures us 50% of those costs but then times the state chair again. >> Correct. >> So if you've got a a a student that cost you $100,000 that's 70 I'll use round number $70,000 exceeds. So 50% of that is 35 and then the state share of 30% again is maybe another 10. So we get 10 on the threshold and nine uh of foundation money. So we get $19,000 roughly 20 student cost us $100,000. So, another area that that is growing because special ed is certainly growing and another area in my estimation because I'm a critic of state funding that it fails schools uh especially in special programs. >> Yeah. Yep. I knew that we, you know,
046had I thought it was 80,000. So, apparently it's gone up over a hundred, but um approximately how many kids do we have that are hitting this threshold? >> We haven't done it for this year yet. Um last year, I think we submitted somewhere around 15 ultimately. Uh >> category six, >> uh no, not necessarily. So, anybody in categories, uh, it ends up really being two through five because category the only thing in category one is speech and language. Um, and it's very rare that you would exceed um a threshold on a student with speech and language. Um, because we're talking about students to exceed categories categories one through five, you have to exceed 20 27,000 and some change. 278 I think is where it last was. And then um as Mr. Hostedler said, category six,
047which would be autism, deaf, blind, traumatic brain injury, has to exceed 32 and change. Um so you're talking about students that either might be placed elsewhere. Um we do have students in districts that exceed that amount. Uh that would be students who are receiving special transportation usually. Um a wealth of supports and services, OTP, speech and language. Um, typically we're talking about students who would have pair professional support on their IEP because we can uh there's a process by which it's a timeconuming process for us but it's still worth it in the sense of getting um some money back but we have to kind of take okay per this percentage of the time this person is with this student so we can charge this percentage to this student. So, um it's quite an involved process,
048but you know, it's worth it in the sense of us getting some, you know, for the time we put into it, the money we get back is worth the cost. >> Yeah, I agree. It's it's certainly worth the the time and effort to recoup some of those dollars. It's just disappointing that the state doesn't do. >> Yeah. But there are, you know, a lot of students that would um push, you know, 20 25,000, you know, in services, but again, we're talking about exceeding, you know, that cost. So, good question. >> Thank you. >> Um, just some last minute things then. Um, some things as we're moving forward. Uh we did put uh so we have um uh threat assessment teams in the district um and representation across all buildings. Uh we went through uh we
049had some new uh new administrators come on board that are part of the team. So they went through the full training in November and then we had our refresher um this past week. So it's called SEAG. It's comprehensive threat assessment comprehensive school threat assessment guide guidelines comprehensive school threat assessment guidelines CA stag. Um so we went through those refreshers. Um as you know Mr. Manning kind of heads up the the safety committee that's general safety and then seag is our threat assessment part of that. Um so we're up to date on all that. Um some final look aheads. Um uh we are starting the process of looking at pre-k tok transition particularly in terms of special education. Um we always start that process with our preschools so that we can start to look at what
050our needs are going to be moving into the school year. Um March 1st we'll be we'll start kindergarten enrollment. Um we did put out notification to families. I think the board's aware that the guidelines changed on kindergarten. So um next this coming school year it will be um August 19th rather than our traditional really August on or before August 1st was our what we traditionally had. Um so we're moving forward with that and then we'll start to look at into March, April and May any families that want to uh evaluate for early entrance kindergarten. So, we usually have a handful of those. Um, we will have I spoke about Medicaid and we will have a Medicaid audit coming up. And then, um, I'll keep the board aware or updated in May. Uh, we still will
051be working with Nordonia. I'm blanking on the name of the event because they changed it. It was the Special Olympics. Nordonia track and field event. That was Special Olympics. They're running that program, but no longer through No, it's something else. but through um it's no longer being done directly through Special Olympics, so that the term isn't being used, but that event will be coming up. We'll keep the board aware about that. Thank you. Any questions? >> No, very thorough. Thank you. >> Good evening. Um first of all, I want to kind of add to when we were talking about personnel. Um, Bill Johnson does a lot of the high school kind of coaching, coordination, but Colin Epstein also has a pretty regular job of finding middle school coaches. Um, they don't typically stay around very
052long. So, he he works really hard to make sure that we have good quality coaches and in my experience in the years I've been at the middle school, um, we have some of the best around. So, just want to kind of throw a shout out to him. Um, in terms of classified staffing, we have been, um, incredibly successful in kind of getting all of our holes filled and hires made. Um, we've had a pretty consistent year of of not having a lot of those staff members leaving us. So, we feel, uh, really good about the people we have in place and right now we are, knock on wood, uh, fully staffed at the classified position. So, we feel pretty good about that. Um, this past Friday, Mr. Wood, myself, and officer Quillin all went to
053uh the Summit County Safety Summit, uh which is basically it was this time it was at River. Um we talked about their most recent incident that wasn't involved in the school, but kind of how they handled that situation. Um one of the things that we took away was some of the safety features that Rever uh schools implement in their building. So, we're in talks about some of those uh potential things that we could consider bringing to Townage. Um, also wanted to kind of give a shout out to our transportation department. So, Jen and Linda um have been incredibly uh flexible. They've had some illness and so some drivers out uh couldn't get a bus to start this afternoon and just kind of watching them pivot and and arrange to to move what they needed to
054move to get kids home uh has been pretty impressive the last couple weeks. So, so I wanted to kind of mention them. Um, also maintenance custodians and their snow removal. Um, every year as as the kind of the chair of the the health and safety committee, that's always mentioned. Um, and you know, just more salt and they want plows out at 2:30 in the morning. Um, and I would be uh really shocked if we had any of those complaints this year just because everything that I've seen and and what our guys are doing um and both custodians and maintenance are doing uh has been really really pretty spot-on. Um we continue to continue to to work on the baseball field to get that ready here for the spring. Uh we still have some things that
055are kind of weather dependent. So, as as the weather starts to warm up hopefully here in the very near near future, um we're still still working to kind of get that uh facility ready for our our our first game. Um and then finally, we do have a state requirement u through a a new uh code enforcement, but basically all schools now have to have their doors inspected. Um so, we have a a schedule of February 5th. We'll have a certified door inspector. Um which who knew that was a thing? uh we'll be coming out to all of our schools and and making sure that all of our doors are operating properly and letting us know uh if there's any work that needs to be done. So those are all of the things in my world.
056>> Great job. I'll add that uh that this the next school safety summit which included other districts as well as most law law enforcement in uh in Summit County will be here at Townage High School. So, we're we'll be hosting that in right now we're honing in on on late March for that meeting. So, it' be good good event. I'll let the board know when that is. >> So, good. Thank you, Mr. Manion. Mr. Gwen. >> Yeah. Hi. I am glad to report that Anthony now is on the men and back to work. Um and everybody um is very glad to have him back, especially me. So um as it relates to technology we are I briefed the board in I think September or October of last year. Uh one of the requirements of House
057Bill 96 was the development of a um cyber security plan and um so we are about two months into meeting with a company called Filament Essential Services which is helping us um develop the plan. And the plan is based around um um the National Institute of Standards and Technologies cyber security framework. Six core components to it. Uh govern, identify, detect, protect, respond, and recover. Um and it's it's um a comprehensive look at cyber security, developing good policy, risk management, change management. and then the the other components kind of go granular into um controls on a more technical level. But right now we're still on the govern uh function which is more policy driven. Um so the end result uh in May uh will be um a a plan a cyber security plan presented to the
058board for you to adopt. Um we are now pretty much fully transitioned uh over to u our single sign on portal called mini orange. Um and what that is is um um a single sign on portal portal that contains um all of our um critical applications. So the state software, state accounting software, um state payroll software, our student information system, Roy and Cordy have mentioned same goal. So So our applications that had that contain really our our most um sensitive data are now in this portal and the portal requires multifactor authentication to get into. So all of the most critical data that the that this the district has is now effectively protected by multiffactor authentication. So that's a good thing. Um it did require a fair amount of effort on the part of the staff
059to migrate their accounts and to configure multiffactor authentication. So I'm very thankful to the staff for jumping through some of those technical hoops. they understand the importance of protecting student data and so I'm very thankful to them for getting that completed. Um coming up on the third uh third year of our three-year contract with which is our mass communications platform. Uh was purchased by a competitor called Parent Square. Um and Parent Square has made it clear that after this year they're going to be doing away with the platform. Sort of a capture and kill type of thing. So, um, we're going to spend the next few months, um, between now and the end of the school year looking at, um, at alternatives. Well, we'll be looking at Parent Square. There's a number of different, um,
060Final Site has mass communications. Um, but we know that and we understand that that once community gets used to a platform, it's difficult to migrate to a new one. So, I wanted to make that um kind of put that on everybody's radar. Remind is going away as as as an option. So, we'll be researching alternatives uh and be communicating, you know, what our decision is um soon. So, >> through Yeah. So, if Parent Square is um purchasing Remind, will they help transition any of that data over? >> Sure. If you pick Parent Square as as >> your I mean, yeah. Okay. So, it's not a like recreate the wheel. It'll just be >> No. No, not really. And Kim, that's a great question. Most of these platforms pull their data in from the student information
061system, which is progress book. So, um, and they, you know, um, while it might be easier to do that with Parent Square because they're already they're already pulling it in, um, it's not a great herculean effort to move to a different platform if we need to. Yeah. Yep. Any other questions? >> Great. Thank you everybody. Nice job. Um, I, uh, just a couple things I wanted to go over. Um, first of all, that time of year for weather. So, I just wanted to kind of remind the board and and the community what goes into um when we call a snow day and a calamity day. And and believe me, the default is always have school. We try try to have school every chance we get. Um, so with with weather planning really there's two things.
062It's safety of the roadways and cold weather. I think that's the one people get a lot I get a lot of questions about because I don't I don't I feel like we didn't have cold days when I was young you know right when I walked to school uphill both ways all that um but there there so cold days minus 15 w windchill is is the magic number and that is based on the fact that um skin exposed to minus15 windchill for 30 sec or 30 minutes can get frostbite that's there's a there's a chart um produced by the National Weather Service for that. So that's always so as soon as the cold temperature, especially on a morning, you know, right when the kids are at the bus or walking to school, if it's approaching -15,
063that's when the cold day happens. That that's what happened earlier this week. I think the wind chills looking at like minus 8 or something on Saturday, so or Friday. So I'm already getting questions about it, but if it's minus 8, that's not close to minus15. Sorry. Uh so sorry kids. is I know it's cold. I know it's not not fun to be outside, but minus5 is that magic number. So, I just want the board to know that's that's what we're looking at. And and I also want you to know every chance I get, I'm going to try to do it the night before. Um, but this was the first one that we had pretty high confidence level that it was going to be at that close to minus15 in the morning when we uh the
064night before. So, I was able to call it on Monday night. The other three that we've had this year really have been a matter of getting up in the morning and myself and I'm I'm on a text chain with pretty much every superintendent within within a long way from here. Um, and we we start talking and uh you know, so so and usually what that means is I'm on the phone with our guys that are plowing to see what the conditions of our our our lots and our roadway driveways are like, but also the roadways of of Townage. So I'll be in touch with Mike Wagan who's the city from Townage City, see how they're doing and keeping up with the plowing and salting of roads. Um, so if if if they see uh if
065we're kind of behind in the morning, um, or if we see some heavy weather coming in, uh, that's that's when we'll we'll cancel cancel school. The worst thing that can happen, I will tell you, is and it hasn't happened is we get all the kids to school and then the storm comes. So, a lot of it is preemptive, just trying to, you know, gauge where the where the weather is. So, I just want the board to know it's always a hard decision. Um, I think we'll have to look. I think we're the the rules are a little different now in terms of when we'd have to start making up. Uh, the elementary is when we start to run up against our hours first. And I think it's right around seven seven or eight days. So,
066we're not there yet, but I'm a little nervous. We've had four already, I'll be honest. So, but that's something we monitor as well uh as as we go ahead. >> Can I ask a question? So, if we get to the point where we're going to the state minimum for busing, would that change any parameters in calling the weather? It's because you'd have more supposedly kids on the road in cars versus in buses. >> I would I would take that in consideration. There's still a lot of kids that would be in that two mile outside of that two-mile radius. Um, we already I already take that into consideration, Miss Pilates. I I do think about our high school kids driving on these roads. So, I I don't think it would significantly shift. I mean, we definitely
067play it on the safe side. So, already. All right. All right. So, um next up, I want to talk about and there's a there's a slide two here, Kurt. So, I know there's a lot of questions on what we what are the cuts, what are the reductions if if we don't pass the levy in May. So, I want to just put this framework in front of the board just so you kind of understand where we're thinking. I know we've talked about some of these things already. Um, but this is where where we're, you know, honing in as we prepare to communicate that to the community and that'll be part of really all of our conversations, especially as Mr. Hostedler puts the five-year forecast together. The important thing to understand is we have got to assume
068so this is the plan if the levy p does not pass in May a levy does not pass in May unfortunately we don't therefore have to assume that the earliest townage will be able to collect additional revenue won't be until January of 2028 as we prepare to enter the 2627 school year. So, you know, I know there's a lot of questions. What if you pass in November? Well, I can't. I I've got to have 26 or the 26 27 school year kind of already set up with those savings in place. And then certainly, you know, hopefully we don't get there. Hopefully, we can pass a levy in May. But I've got to plan accordingly. And we need to find um you know, close to $2 million. That's the number we need to find savings uh
069as we enter the 26 27 school year. So a big chunk of that is the state minimum busing but I don't think it's you know if it's close to a million but probably not quite a million uh of savings and we will have that number finalized as we run the simulations with our busing consultant who's already hard at work with us just to make sure we can m still maximize the amount of money we get from the state. um and you know serve kids accordingly. So, but that's that's a big chunk of the savings that will achieve and right now we're looking at probably six to seven teaching positions for next year. Now, that this number is a function of retirements. um retirements will kind of affect, you know, that's kind of the first before
070we we need to lay off teachers or or rift teachers, take the priority of getting some teachers that are retiring and then not replacing those positions accordingly. So, uh and and retiring teachers tend to be um making more money than the newer teachers that would be rifted. There's a pretty big difference between salaries. So um but we are looking ballpark right now six to seven teaching positions which would affect would affect for next school year the electives that are available to our high school kids uh high school class sizes and townage elementary school class sizes. That's um that's where we are with that. And then support staff positions are also in play. We've already talked tonight about the maintenance position that's now open. Um there may be other positions within our support staff that we'll
071reduce as we prepare and it kind of ties into the last one is building usage. We our buildings are used a lot by the community uh in in the evenings whether it be youth sports to um you know a lot of lot of other community groups will use our buildings but there's a cost associated with that. Um we believe in community use of our buildings. It's a big part of when whenever we have leveies and we we want to be a great partner to our community in terms of making our buildings um they're they are our community's buildings. So, we certainly want to make it available. The problem will come in is if we have to reduce staffing and be able to cover and and keep the buildings open after school. So, that'll be part
072of the conversation. And then paytoplay is also something that we will look at from sports. Um, I shared I I know I share with Mr. Lowry. I'm not sure I shared with the rest of the board. Um, you know, we kind of we surveyed all of our local uh districts, say about half of them have no payto-play fees at all. Um, and then the other half range, we we would I would of the folks that charge paytoplay, we we're in the slightly lower end of that that scale. Um, there are some districts that, you know, are up up to about $250 a sport and about $800 uh family max. So, I would expect we will raise this and to be somewhere in between that um as as uh as if if if we need to
073just to to help recoup those costs. So, this is kind of the framework. I just want to set that expectation for the board. We will have the hard numbers as we get them, as we get closer. And that certainly will be a big part of the communication to our families as we uh as we talk about the need for additional additional revenue. Any questions, concerns on that? Okay, great. All right. >> I was I was just going to say like sure, we already hear about Talmage Elementary class sizes being too large, so that that would be a concern. And I just want to make sure that you know the community realizes that the board is aware of that that we don't want to increase the elementary school sizes but at some point you have to
074do what you have to do. So it's really where we need the support. >> Thank you Miss Claus. >> Okay. >> Well with that so I got I still have good stuff. So let's go to the good stuff. Let's let's do the fun stuff. You know get off get this bad stuff. So, I just wanted to share this and I'll I'll let the uh admin team here chime in on things. So, Miss Davis already talked about the PD day. Just amazing job that uh our team does in getting ready for that PD day and it is it's always a great day. So, looking forward to that February 13th. Today was the career tech showcase. So, all of our sophomore kids went up to Kent State and kind of review and got to see the 29
075different um programs that are available through the six district compact. Um we are is it 30 now? 30 with fashion. Fashion is the we we have our new fashion program which will start next year. Uh so so essentially what all the students from all of the six districts, the six school districts that participate in the compact, they go to Kent State and they kind of walk around. It's like a trade show and they learn about the different programs to see if they're interested in in uh in in in any of them. So Talage, of course, has the new fashion program, which had a lot of attention today. We have our early child early childhood professions program. Jody Morris who's she sells out every year. It's a great program for kids that want to get into
076the preschool um education. Mr. Obney was there today with our uh future entertainment professionals. Um so those kids were having a lot of fun. And then um last is our our financial financial services folks. So the investment and and future business professionals. Um it was really cool. one of our kids that's in the cyber security program at uh I think that's at is it at Stow the cyber security program I forget where it is but it's one of our Talmage kids Devin who's a drummer I see him he's in our band but he kind of grabbed me today and told me how much he was loving the cyber security program and he was one of the host at their trade show today so it was really cool to talk to him and how much he's
077loving loving that program has made school fun for him so it's great great to see that winter sports I'm guessing the girls game has started by now. We got a big game tonight uh here at home with Highland. So, anybody that has time after the board meeting to go check that out, that if if we win that game, I think we'll just be one game out of uh uh the league lead. Um wrestling, just big shout out to Ian B who continues to have a great year. Uh was placed fifth in the Top Gun tournament, which is a big deal. Um um so we're we're excited for Ian and the success really all of our our wrestling program just continues to level up thanks to thanks to Mr. B. Um so bowling has senior night
078coming up. It's hard to believe our bowlers season is almost over and our wheelchair our state defending state champion wheelchair basketball team is undefeated and continues to to to really just be awesome. And then I wanted to point out maybe uh Mr. Man, you could talk about Colin at the middle school. I'll just mention Emily Tran who graduated a few years ago. She's a she's a microbiology at Eastern Michigan University, I believe. But shout out to our third grade team that had Miss Tran come to their classroom and uh teach talk to the kids about microbiology and they're they're kind of in a microbiology unit right now. So, I think they collected some water out of a out of one of our local uh ponds, our retention basins, and we're checking it out under a
079microscope. And Emily, so thankful to our alumni, Emily, for coming to do that. And and Mr. Manion hosted Colin. >> Yeah. So, uh again, Colin Epstein reached out to Colin Dixon. Um for those of you that don't know, he plays for Illinois. Um and he's now come back to the middle school a few different times just to talk to students about kind of what Talmage High School offers. He was a student that left Tomage uh and quickly realized that that you know the grass isn't always greener. Uh and so he returned to Tomage and had an incredibly successful athletic and academic career here uh and into college. So he comes back just talk to the kids about uh public school versus other options uh and what Tomage High School did for him and and how
080much he appreciates that that journey. So, uh, we we really appreciate him stopping in and, you know, the kids all want autographs and everything. So, it's super super cool experience for our middle schoolers to see, uh, to see him him in that light. >> Great. Thank you everybody. That's that's my report for tonight. >> Thank you very much. Um, this is the part of the program where we open this up to the public. If there's anybody in the audience that would like to speak, they come to the microphone and uh ask questions. >> Anyone? >> Is it is it the five minute thing? >> Yeah. Yeah. I >> mentioned that I really >> I'll just I'll just move this around. community appreciate a lot of us appreciate the board as well and the hard work
081and uh what you have to do. >> Miss Mace, can you introduce yourself real quick? >> Oh, Barb Maze. >> Thank you. >> I'm just just a you know resident went through the schools here. My son went through. So that's my background. Um I did I I wanted to ask who monitors the mostly Facebook um because there's a lot of chatter on there obviously about the levy and you know who's recording comments and questions and you know so that you can understand how you need to educate and I I'm just going to say from my from what I'm seeing a big part of the gap um is what was presented here tonight by all the department heads um particularly around special education. Um people don't understand why isn't it the same when I went as
082when I went to school and that's um a huge part from what I can see in terms of cost and complexity. Um, so that's that's the one thing. Um, I did uh email some questions to Mr. Davis and I think perhaps they got forwarded to you, Mr. Wood. Um, one of the things that came up on the web that I saw was the physical education um, waiver and um, I didn't know I it would be really helpful if when you put the information out on these uh, you know, fact Friday if if you could just like summarize some of the things that were presented tonight and then speak to the questions that are being asked. Like I was surprised. I I don't I don't even know if that waiver thing was in place when my
083son uh graduated in ' 09, but you know, a lot of the other communities are doing that. So, I don't know why we've decided not to, but that was one of the things. Um, and let's see. I had asked about another grumbling that I heard, not so much on the web, but just in the community about why are restrooms locked here at the high school during the day and teachers are saying, "Well, they're locked because your parents in the community didn't pass the levy." Um, Mr. >> Maze, I would tell you I heard that I Our bathrooms are not locked. >> Uh, I have had multiple families tell me that >> they're not locked. The only thing I think what they're confusing is that we are only allowing one student in a restroom at a
084time between class breaks. >> That would be No, it's a definitely distinction from what I heard from last year. Um, when >> there are restrooms that are closed that aren't to be used, I know going down by the um the only >> Yeah. The only the only reason we're doing that is nothing to do with money or anything like that. It's it's we have a major vaping problem at Townage High School. It's a major problem. No, I heard you, Mr. S. So, so the any anything we're doing has nothing to do with saving money or anything else. It's about the the team here trying to figure out a way to go after this vaping problem. And uh so that's really what it's all about. So, we're just encouraging families to help us, you know, help
085them to stop kids from vaping. I mean, that's really what it comes down to. >> That would be a better message to go out than having teachers say it's because you didn't pass the levy. >> I've talked to Mr. Her about this. And when a whole group of kids go in and set off the vape detectors, we don't know which one it is. >> So, you you make them go one at a time and they typically don't vape, >> right? But put the put the accountability where it belongs, you know? So that's my my only >> Thank you, Miss M. We'll try to get that out there. It's all about stopping kids from vaping. So I'm and I I think all of our teachers know that. So I I don't know where that's information is
086being skewed. >> I can I can assure you. Yeah. >> All I can say is >> people heard it from a teacher or did you hear it from a teacher? The teachers specifically stated, "Restrooms aren't open to you because we are saving money because you did not pass the levy." >> So, >> not a good message. >> I'm just I'm just making sure you heard that directly from a teacher or did you heard that from somebody that said a teacher said it? Um it came from two but two separate parents, two separate students and one of the students then remarked, "Well, after school it's locked during school, but after school it's open." >> I don't know. >> We'll clear that up. We'll clear that up. I I get you. I I can assure you it's
087nothing to do with it's vaping. >> It's just a matter of good publicity and bad publicity. So >> anyway, that was um and then I had a question for Mr. Gwyn on the cyber program. Are do kids get any certifications? >> They would through a program, a six program that >> Okay. So that's available to them. Great. >> Miss Maze, I talked to them today and they can earn 12 credits in the cyber security CTE program. It's the largest program. >> Okay. That's my son's field. So, I'm just uh wondering about that. And so, then along with the AI, is the chat GPT a um a professional version or just like the thing that everybody gets, you know, on their computer at home. >> It's it's the standard version that everybody get. >> Okay. >>
088If you're talking about chat GP >> chat GPT specifically, >> that's only available. Okay. >> Um, >> okay. >> Everybody Everybody needs to be aware though that there's a lot of false information that gets delivered through chat GPT, especially with the free versions. >> And on Facebook and on Facebook. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> But that's why you need to answer answer with a >> full-time job. >> Yep. you know. >> Next. >> Thank you for letting me sit. >> Oh, no. >> Um, good evening. I just happen to be in the building helping out with the band boosters and the concession stand until the meeting is going on. Scott, CT programs, CC programs. So excited about being ambassador for >> and I did some my own number
089crunching and um you know kind of came up with some analysis I did myself and like yes it's it's supported the money's needed And um I wanted to ask if in looking at that decision between the real estate levy and income tax um what kind of analysis is done with with Norton? I know they're the only other Summit County school system with a uh income tax and u you know my fear would be that that's a a pretty significant in in increase to um working families uh and how that might impact property values and um you know if if they've seen differences in has it been an impact in Norton in real estate values and >> Mr. So I'm glad you asked that. I I spoke to the superintendent, Brian Harson, at um at at
090Norton today. So, they passed a 0.5 earned income back in 2017. Um they are in their cycle again. They're under fiscal precaution like we are. So, they're going back out again and they have elected to do uh earned income again. So they are doing a new one for 75 and they'll that'll bring them to a total of one and a quarter and his perspective is from the from the community standpoint they've had just such good success because Norton is an aging community. There's a lot of retired folks in that community. There's no way they would they would have success with a property tax. So um Norton has has is is having good success. I'm not suggesting that's, you know, would be best fit for Townage, but Norton is. Um, and then we're looking at in
091May. So, Norton was the first really anywhere. Uh, Garrettsville happens to have one. It's kind of an odd, you know, a little bit of an outlier in uh just west of here or east of here. But, uh, what's what is interesting in looking at in the May levy coming up, you know, again, hardly any Summit County districts ever did an earned income tax. Uh, but again, Norton is doing it. Twinsburg is doing an earned income in May, which they'll be their first time ever trying to do that at one and a quarter. Wadssworth is also a little bit outside of the county, but they're they're also going to go for the first time ever for an earned income. they'll go at 1.5. Um, and then Parma and Willoughby Eastlake are also not too far away
092going for earned income as well. So, that's it's rare to see that many districts see that wave. There are some folks locally that are going property tax this time around. So, Barban, uh, Kent, and Streetsboro, Barbardan, Kent, and Streetsboro will all be doing property taxes. So, a little bit of a split, but but again, you know, Twinsburg, um, Wadssworth, that that'll be the first time for earned income. It's just seems to be the wave right now. >> Yeah. So, I was just I was trying to like look at the where we are on the mills and you know that we're below the average. Um, but as far as an income tax, Tomage is already at two and a quarter, which is higher than the the typical 2% in most of the areas. I know I
093my wife works out of the district and I got to write a check to Rita every year. >> Um you know and then so that check's going to get a lot bigger um if that were the route to go. And I I wonder how that impacts, you know, people looking at being in the district when they're um income taxes 3% um as opposed to two or two and a quarter um versus a um you know a 5.7 mil difference in their property taxes, which still kind of keeps them right at the average in the area from my analysis. Um so I I and the other comment I had is I'm I'm an accountant. I I'm a bank examiner is my day job. So, um you seeing the numbers behind things helps me. Um and seeing,
094you know, oh, we're going to cut these things and we're we lost these without any numbers behind it is too abstract for me. Um and I I don't know how the messaging would that help where people say, "Hey, we've got to make up $2 million in the 2627 budget and you know, by cutting the busing is going to provide a million of that. cutting these teachers is going to provide x of this. Increasing the um the paytoplay is going to provide this. That makes it more tangible in my mind. I don't know if that's the same for the general public or if that those generalities work. Um you know, I the messaging I'm seeing on Facebook is it's too much. Um you know, so is that uh you know, something that could be changed in
095the messaging some that might help impact other people in and their decisions. Um and uh so those those are my comments. I know you know um yeah so I'll leave it at that. Thank you. >> No, Mr. Civil and I agree with you. We will they will have the specific numbers. We just don't have them yet because again it's a function of how many are retirees versus non-retire. You know the retirements is a big big deal for us. That'll make a big impact on um savings. So, um, but we will have it itemized exactly how much one of those each one of those areas provides once we decide the plan. >> All right. >> So, can I also say I saw your analysis and I was thankful for the depth that you went to to
096break it down. It makes sense what you do for a living now after seeing that. But, but I was really impressed with it and and thank you for putting the time into that as well. >> Know how One more. >> Thank you. >> Oh, I am John. >> I am vice president of the Tomage Teachers Association and fifth grade teacher extraordinaire in my in my opinion. Um, I get very heated when I hear about Twitter. um when I see Facebook posts um and for the voters in town, I implore you to look at where the source of this anger is coming from. You are directing it at our district and our teachers and we work our butts off and we are very fiscally responsible in this district. Your anger should be going down to Columbus,
097to the legislators who are putting all of public education and districts in this predicament. They have shortch changed us and we're we're basing all of our budgets on 2022. Meanwhile, a billion dollars are going to the voucher programs. That is documented. You can look it up. >> I've posted that on Facebook. >> Okay. So, you know, but you know, I appreciate that you brought up that um you know, the whole opinions, but as a teacher, we're hurt when we see people, oh, those greedy teachers, how dare they want to cost the living raise. We're going to raise these levies so that they can take the money. Well, where service industry teaching is, that's where our our funding goes. It goes to our personnel, the upkeep of the buildings and you know so I get really
098insensed when I see the townage public and not all I'm putting a wide paintbrush to this but it is not our fault. We are reacting what our legislators have put into place to sabotage public education and funnel that money into charter schools, private religious schools, which is very, you know, it's a very difficult thing to find funding for public education now. And without public education, I've been doing this 32 going on 33 years. Our number one goal was always to produce great citizens and that is still our function today and that includes being able to read and write and sign their name and all those things. So that's still important. That is our role as public education when you're trying to give that up or you know allocate other funds to other schools that do
099not have to follow the same rules. You can exclude kids by based of colors. Uh, your scores aren't that great. No, I'm sorry. We don't have room for you there. They have that option. You don't have to take state test. Oh, that's okay. But here's your tax dollars there. Let's just pay you because I don't know about you. I've been driving around and seeing these big billboards from Hoben schools. Well, guess what? Our taxpayers are paying for that because they get that from public tax money, which I'm I'm just livid about that. All right. like I'm just going to settle down. But please, please voters, this is not a district thing. This is our representatives purposely trying to break us up. And with poor school, public schools, you know, your values are going to drop.
100You know, people are going to move to another district. So, I get very passionate about this. But, you know, and I'm very tired of seeing these comments about it's the greedy teachers. Oh, the administrators are not transparent. Yes, we are. But we are dumped with this stuff from the state and our legislators public and we see it nationally too. Isn't that fun? You know that we're seeing our national reps doing the same thing. Secretary of Education, but I'm not going to go down that rabbit. But I >> Yeah, but I do want to end on an amazing note. one of our uh Tomage Teachers Association members received an very great award and this is Matt Hagadorn who received the Midwest um teacher of the year for health. He is now going to be moving on
101to the national competition. So, and I've worked with Matt personally. He is an amazing person and does an incredible job with the students that he works with. So, I had to end on that one because we're very proud of Matt. So, all right. Sorry about Yeah, I'll get off my soap box now. >> Thank you, Mr. Brian. We really appreciate you and congratulations to Mr. Hagedorn. >> Oh, >> thank you. >> Very proud. >> Thank you. Anybody else? Seeing none, >> I wanted to follow up one quick question. Do you know the answer? And I tried to look it up real quick. Do you know what Norton's total income tax is? >> The city's taxes? I I do not know. Okay. I think I think >> Okay, >> we'll look it up. I pulled up
102the spreadsheet he sent us, but it just showed the earned income. >> It's a different tax than the city tax. >> I'd be curious to talk to some real perspective, but is that impacting property values desire to move into that neighborhood? Yeah, no problem. We'll get it. >> I wanted to give one more shout out to um actually Emily Tran's sister um Miss Trann and the FCCLA students came out to the chamber today and talked about their upcoming um competition that Talmage is hosting and uh those kids did a fabulous job. So, just want to make sure we recognize her for bringing them out to our breakfast this morning. And I was very impressed with what they had to how they presented and what they had to say. >> And they're going to be at
103Rotary next week, too. So, they're on a tour. >> That's an exciting event. They're going to be hosting here for the next two years. >> Oh, is it two years? >> Yeah, she told me. Two years FCCLA here in Thomas High School. Um, it's a regional event. So, this is the 104 and then the winners go down to the state. And I'm excited that we're hosting here because they've always like last year they drove two hours somewhere else and >> trying to recruit judges. >> Yeah, they need >> I was just going to say we need 70 judges. So, uh if anybody is able to give up a Saturday in February, they could definitely use you. >> Okay. Uh that being the conclusion, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion. >> I'll second.
104>> Okay. Roll call. >> Mr. Davis. >> I I We're adjourned.