001All set. So, welcome, welcome, welcome to the uh Wednesday, October 15, 2025 Town Board of Education meeting. And uh glad you all are here. Uh as usual, we stand and start with a pledge of allegiance. Move your hat if you have them. I aliance 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. >> There we go. Thank you, Mr. Hostetler. Roll call. Who's here tonight? >> Mr. Davis >> here. >> Mr. >> Here >> Mr. Paselli >> here. >> Mr. Fair >> I am here. Welcome guests. We have a big big crowd here tonight and welcome to the people online too. So glad you're with us tonight. Um we're going to jump forward here and get
002going. Uh I'm going to ask for an approval of prior meeting minutes. Uh so it's recommended that the board of education approve the minutes of the September 17, 2025 meeting. Minutes of course can be found online in digital form if you would like to go back and see them. So I need a motion. I'll make a motion. >> I'll second. >> Uh, any questions, changes, >> anything? Mr. Hosteller, >> roll. >> Mr. Elli, >> I >> Mr. Lowry, >> I. >> Mr. Davis. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Ross. >> Hi. >> Mr. >> Hi. >> Uh, currently there's no new recommendations for the board of education. So, we'll go to the treasurer's report. And uh it is recommended that the board adopt uh the financial reports for the month of August 2025 as they are attached.
003And I need a motion. >> A motion. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion or questions on anything? Or Mr. Hosteller, is there anything to review? >> Uh not for the month of August. And just uh so you know, September was also reconciled yesterday, but not in time for the meeting. So we're kind of up to date with that. Uh but I'll get into the financials in the next item on the agenda. So >> very good. I have a I have a question. The fund 031, the underground storage tank fund, I see that every month. What What is it? It's a fund that we are required to maintain uh in case there's any >> Oh, for leak purposes and cleanup because you own that site. Okay. >> Yeah, we we have an insurance policy on that.
004That's a state requirement. So, we have to have it we have to have basically the deductible in an account ready to go in in the event of a problem. So, that's what that's for. >> Okay, that clears that up. >> Anything else? I ask for a vote. Mr. >> Davis, >> I Mr. >> Ross, >> I pass. >> I >> uh forecast and notes. Um, it is recommended that the board adopt the four-year forecast as presented along with the corresponding notes as required under the new regulations contained in House Bill 96. I need a motion for this. >> I'll make a motion. >> I'll second. Any questions, Mr. Hostettler? Any >> uh where do I start? >> Start in the middle and work your way out. Just just do it. Yeah, >> there is no
005beginning. >> We know the the forecast isn't good, which is obviously uh the reason we're on the ballot. What I wanted to do tonight though is to sort of recap uh just quickly uh and this is something you've seen before, but uh it bears repeating because it is I will call it the primary reason why we're on the ballot and that is the state funding uh situation that that we're in. So, uh, Kurt, if you will pull up the state share reduction there. Uh, and I will use, uh, fiscal year 94, uh, as the base year because that's the last year that the state updated the cost factors to the funding formula. And I want you to focus on, uh, the valuation line, the state share line, which is highlighted in blue, and then the
006state share in yellow. Uh we've talked a lot about House Bill 920 and the effects that that it has on districts like ours. The the state is sort of in a uh a battle uh with public school districts because there's roughly 400 districts that are on the 20 mil floor and you've heard me talk about that. When you're on the 20 mil floor, when your valuation increases, you're not affected by House Bill 920 because your effective millage cannot be reduced below 20 mills. So for a district that's on the 20 mil floor, when your valuation increases, so do your taxes. Uh bad for the taxpayer, but the schools benefit because every every year, every three years especially, they're getting a bump in in tax receipts. uh which I just experienced because the district I live
007in in Hutztown is on a 20 mil floor. Uh so I know it happens that way. Uh but we're not we're one of the roughly 200 districts that is not on the 20 mil floor. And I wanted to simply recap. We talk about our last trienal update and what it did to our state funding. So, this is sort of a recap of of the impact that it's had uh on our our state dollars. So, fiscal year 24 again is the base year. Our valuation at that point was $54 million. The state share is for 24 was $3,195 highlighted in the blue. And you'll notice across the base cost line there's a little bit of variance but not much. And that has to do with their shift a little bit in our ADM but the base
008cost is relatively the same. So in 94 or excuse me in 24 the state was paying $3,195 per student. Now, as you'll see in 95, uh, excuse me, why do I keep saying? Anyway, 25, uh, our new valuation starts to kick in. And when the what the state does is they take a third of it each year and phase it in that way. So, in fiscal year 25 with our increase in valuation, the state share went from 31 3,195 to 28.84 84 and and I won't read all the numbers across but you can see that that keeps going down. The state share percentage from fiscal year 24 at 3875 is now projected for fiscal year 27 to 2305. Nearly a $900 drop in what the state is paying Tal City Schools per students. When you
009take that times roughly 2400 students, that's over $2 million, which is reflected there right below the yellow line, the loss that we've experienced each year uh because of of our increase in valuation and the state share going down. Now, what you don't see and what I purposely eliminated from this scenario is the phase in. Okay? Because the phase in just muddies things. What what I wanted to reflect is a true impact of of state funding when you experience an increase in valuation like we have. So the state share went in fiscal year 24 to 7,832 and this number is just a product of the state share amount in blue times our ADM for that year. So in from 24 to 27, we're losing over $2 million in state revenue simply because our valuation went up.
010And as you know, when our valuation goes up, we're not on the 20 mil floor. Effective millage goes down. So we're not collecting additional tax. So, I mean, I I I want to just sit all of the legislators in in front of us and say, how do you expect us to recover from from that calculation, from that experience? And the only answer is is 11. And that's what they would say. But again, they're focused on the 400 districts that are on the 20 mil floor because those districts are not on the ballot. most of them have money and they have substantial carryover and they're trying to figure out how to decrease that. In the meantime, we're stuck here uh with a situation that we just have we can't do anything about. Now the bottom part
011where it says foundation before phase and the jump from the 7 million832 that's highlighted in fiscal year 24 to 11 1 million77 is categorical funding targeted assistance all the other types of funding that that we get from the state. Uh but again, when you project out to fiscal year 27, you're still at a $1.7 million drop. And and folks, when you look at a district that any district whose costs increase simply by doing nothing and you get a million7 to$2 million drop in three years, that's catastrophic. So I I just wanted to recap that to remind you all this is this is what we're dealing with and this is why we're on. So having said that now the the really good news or not uh Kurt if you'll pull up the four-year projection slide. the
012state uh has modified things as you're just it's a four-year projection now. They sliced a year off the end, which was not a bad thing because once you get five years out into a into a projection, it's sort of a there's just too much that happens between now and five years from now to properly project your revenue and expenditures. So, they sliced the year off. But what they did do, and I still don't understand why, is they took it from a November adoption back to an October adoption. Years ago, it was an October adoption. And they finally says, "Hey, you know what? This makes more sense to wait till November after the election to see if districts are on the ballot, if they pass or not, and then they have a better idea of what
013their finances are." Now, we're back to October. Don't ask me why. I don't know. But it makes no sense. So uh having said that and I I won't go through the numbers specifically but uh the bottom line we are still showing three years of actual 23 24 and 25. The middle column fiscal year 26 is the year that we're in. We are projected the bottom line to end with $1.9 million. But as you see, we're we're sliding in the wrong way. Uh this projection reflects much of what we worked on with the state back in the spring. If you recall, we had a deficit in the third year. So they made us go through a working plan uh to to eliminate that deficit, which then was fiscal year 27. The third year now is fiscal
014year 28, which will show a deficit. Uh I I in all my reading I I'm not clear as to whether we'll have to go through that again or not. But hopefully uh after November election it'll be a moot point. So but uh having said that this projection you are not allowed uh to assume the passage of a new levy when you create a projection. So this document uh does not reflect any new money for the uh passage of the levy which we hope will will happen in uh it doesn't change the the state foundation although if you look out to fiscal year 28 I do show a little bit of a bump for state monies that's that's a hope I mean a lot's going to happen obviously between now and then we're going to have
015a new governor we're going to have uh maybe a whole different funding formula. I don't know. But as brutal as they have been to districts like ours, I can't imagine they're going to keep cutting this. So there's a small bump there. uh the the significant impact of this document and it reflects again what the state uh did with us working through this reflects that all wages for fiscal year 27 and forward are frozen. Not a good thing but necessary thing to keep us out of out of the red in fiscal year 27. Uh also which was part of the state plan uh and reflected in these numbers is a reduction of eight staff members. Again, not a good thing. But in the situation we're in, that's what the state has dictated that we needed we
016needed to do it in March, nothing has changed. So I've reflected those changes that they made into this forecast as well. This includes the renewal passing. Correct. >> It does include the renewal passing >> and the state's okay with the projections including that. >> It's a little fuzzy. Uh I have always included renewals passing. Talmage has had tremendous success in passing renewals. Uh technically it's supposed to be on a the state actual forecast is a different format than this and it's supposed to be at the bottom uh renewal levies passing but I've always included it in in my numbers because we've had such >> so it's notated somewhere when you give it to them that is including that. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's in everything that I'm saying is in the notes uh which we won't
017look at because it's length. >> And do you have a forecast without it? >> Forecast without No, I didn't want to go there because I would have gotten really really sad. >> Okay. >> And depressed. >> And your eight staff reduction that's just an average. >> Yes. >> Salary. It's not anybody in particular. It's just average number any individual. Okay. >> It's just a number. >> Uh I think I used 48,000 as a staff, >> just an average. >> Yeah, just you know, if if if there is a riff, it's always harder on the the newer staff. So, I used a newer salary. >> Uh not of all not all of our new staff are on the minimum. So, that's why I picked 48. But that's that's again that's what we did back in the
018state. process with that. Uh I did make a slight reduction in in purchase services simply because I mean it's an increase but not as much of an increase. The the sixth district compact we've had discussions with the sixth district compact and I don't know where that's going to end up but I know I don't know I'm hoping very strongly that it's not a repeat of this past year. So, I've reduced it $200,000 of the 1.6 millionish that it cost us. Hopefully, it will be more than that, but I wanted to to note that in there. Uh, capital outlay uh is being reduced as we move much of our capital outlay into PI because of the uh replacement levy that We have we're not quite out of the red yet, but we will be in this
019collection. So, moving capital there. Uh it's it's a tough situation. Hopefully, come November, uh if levy passes, you know, we'll revisit this with a whole new outlook. Uh but right now, that's kind of where we're at. Okay. So I offer this up for adoption and submission to the city. >> If if people in the city uh have questions, they can certainly call directly to your office. >> Yes. And in fact, they can come in and and we'll sit down. I I I have always loved sitting down with folks explaining this because once they understand it, they have a whole different perspective and and they, you know, you sit there and you watch their expressions like disbelief. Uh which is uh but I've always enjoyed you know educating folks on on how this whole system and
020its dysfunction actually works or doesn't Okay. No, no, no other comments, questions. I would ask for a vote then. >> Mr. Perelli. >> Hi, >> Mr. Lowry. >> I >> Mr. Davis. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Ross. >> Hi, >> Mr. Fris. >> I. >> Thank you. >> Moving on. Uh, respect club. It is recommended that the board of education approve the new respect club activity account for Tomish High School. Please see the attached document for a detailed description of the club if you have not already. And um for this to get started, I need a motion. >> I'll make a motion. >> I'll second it. >> Any questions, comments? >> Uh Mr. Wood, >> we're excited to, you know, bring this forward. something that's really been student driven in terms of doing this to the
021>> All right. >> Very good. I would ask for a vote. >> Mrs. Ross. >> Hi. >> Mr. Pastor. >> Hi. >> Mr. H. >> Hi. >> Mr. Lowry. >> Hi. >> Mr. F. >> Hi. >> Next up, Talmage Middle School Athletics. Uh, it's recommended that the board of education approve the establishment of a new activity account for town middle school athletics. Please see the attached document for a detailed description of the account and its activities. Uh, also for this to get started, I need a motion. >> A motion. >> I'll second. >> Questions, comments? >> We have our Talmage Middle School athletic director, Mr. Colin Epstein, here tonight. >> So, thanks. Thank you, Colin, for being here. >> Yes. Uh, we're just looking to streamline the process. We currently have six middle school athletic
022accounts, ranging from girls basketball to a wrestling club, and we Typically, we do fundraisers. Not typically, all the fundraisers I've been part of has been for the middle school account as a whole. So, when we get fundraising and money, we need to determine where that's going to go. It would be nice to have one middle school athletics account. Um, with the long-term goal to develop a budget for the teams within that account, like, you know, our volleyball team $200 to spend up towards your team. You know, that would be that's a long it's a long-term goal, but the goal we would like to get to in order to properly spend the money for our student athletes. basically streamline the process where we're at one account and make sure we manage that. >> Makes sense to
023me. Sounds good. >> Any any questions, comments? Then I'd ask for a vote. Let's see how it goes. >> Mr. Davis. >> Hi. >> Mr. Lowry. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Ross. >> Hi. >> Mr. Perell. >> Hi. >> Mr. Paris. >> Hi. There you go. >> Thank you, Colin. You're off to the races. >> All right. >> Thank Thank you for being here. Appreciate that very much. >> Uh recommendations. Superintendent of Schools. Uh it's recommended that the board of education adopt the following board policies. ACA uh which is for sexual harassment and IGBA uh which addresses programs for students with disabilities. Uh first reading was completed and approved from the September board meeting and uh tonight we're uh asking for a motion to adopt those new updated policies. So I need a motion. >> I'll
024make a motion. >> I'll second. >> Any questions, comments? anything you've read? >> Yeah, I had a question on the sexual harassment one. Uh, is there changes in this? Because I didn't see anything lined out or green or >> the only uh Good question. Uh, Chief Pasarelli, the only change is who our Title N coordinator is now. So, it was Mr. Householder. >> Oh, >> sorry. We should have uh Yeah, that should have put that in green. So, Mr. Householder was the title N coordinator. So it updates who the coordinator is. >> Yep. And you we we did address that last time, but we talked about it. >> Yeah. >> Usually it's green in the in the changes and it's just it was kind of a blank section, but yeah. >> All right. >> Anything
025else? Good. >> Still need to fix that phone number. >> I see it's got the one hung off there. Yeah, we'll fix that. >> Good. I would ask for a vote. >> Mr. P. >> I. >> Mrs. Ross. >> Hi, >> Mr. Davis. >> Hi, >> Mr. Lowry. >> Hi, >> Mr. Fris. >> Hi. >> Next up, fun stuff. Uh, it is recommended that the board of education pre-approve an overnight out of town field trip for the high school marching band to travel to Orlando, Florida in spring 2027 to participate in the Disney parade. The trip will be financed by parents and fundraising. No taxpayer funds will be used. The band has applied for participation in a prerequisite for consideration. Is this preapproval by the board? Uh, sounds like fun. I asked for a motion.
026>> A motion. >> I'll second. >> Any comments? >> Yeah, I told Mr. I told Mr. Coleman he had me at no taxpayer funds will be spent. Uh, so it's pretty pretty easy one. But I I also want to comment to um you know it's it's this is great, Mr. Coleman is doing this. We're hopeful. I I don't even know what the odds are of actually being accepted to the parade. I think there's probably a lot of applicants. So, we'll see if we get there. But, it's really cool to see Mr. Coleman continue to drum up that interest in the band and our music program, and we continue to see our numbers jump each year. So, thanks to Joe for making this effort, and thanks to the board for giving the preapproval in case it
027it comes to fruition. >> I think it's great. >> It's great. Any other comments, questions? I would ask for a vote. >> Mr. Davis, >> hi. >> Mr. Lowry, >> hi. >> Mrs. Ross, >> I >> Mr. P. >> I, >> Mr. F. >> I. And there they go. Uh, next up, personal items. Uh, we have a few of them here. It's recommended uh that we really recommended as one motion for all the personal items uh 5.1 through 5.9 that we take them all as as one motion. Uh, I would ask for a motion for that. >> I'll motion we adopt 5.1 through 5.9 as one. >> I'll second. >> And uh, Mr. Wood, is there anybody in there? >> There's a couple. I'll start though if I I could I'll put Mr. Manion on
028the spot as far as I'm really thankful to Jeff for the job he's been doing recruiting and um, getting our pair of professionals approved. Jeff, do you have any comment on PAR positions? >> Uh, no. You'll see three of those positions up there. Um, a couple of them are just kind of fills from from resignations or shifts within buildings. Um, one additional position at the high school was due to um, a new student that came in with some pretty significant needs. So, uh, we're excited for all three of them to come on board. They interviewed really well and and I think are going to be great fits within each one of the buildings that they're in. So, we look forward to to getting all of them started. I think we've got one of the three
029right now uh, currently started, but the other two should be coming here very quickly. and we'll keep the spotlight on Mr. Manny if you could talk about the two club supplementals at uh >> Yeah. So, the uh supplemental committee for the district did meet um a few weeks ago and typically part of that process is to look at um any applications that teachers submit for new clubs. Um one of them was the middle school golf club um which kind of started a summer or two ago. Um really high interest. We've seen some real production with our golf team at the high school with a lot of interest and and ability there. Um so the final prop or the official proposal was submitted approved by the supplemental committee. So that will then go through a three-year
030unpaid uh process like all clubs do. Um the other one that was kind of lost in the shuffle with the transition of this position um it was actually submitted last year was our morning meeting uh advisors. So, we currently have two middle school morning meeting advisors that basically oversee all of the um information that's presented by our eighth graders every morning at the middle school. That's actually a club that's been in existence for over 10 years and they've been doing it for free, giving up uh all kinds of time to make sure that that material is appropriate for school. Um so, they have officially put in a proposal to be considered uh an official club. And so that was submitted at the end of last year and during the transition it just kind of got
031uh you know left off the the you know step to get to you. So that's kind of a a correction if you will of of getting them on the correct unpaid year two cycle that they would they would be on officially. >> Great. Thank you Jeff. And then um the one one we don't see very often in townage I I don't know when the last time we've had a teacher take a sbatical. something they don't do very often because they they're it's unpaid. I mean, sabaticals are unpaid. So, she's she's taking a break from the paycheck. Um, but Jessica Germim, who is a uh intervention specialist at Townidge Elementary School, uh is is uh has applied. I I think she's been accepted to a program in Thailand. It'll be in the spring of 2027, so
032it's a more than a year away. Um, but it's really a really awesome opportunity, an awesome adventure for her. And she's gonna part of what her goal is is to bring some of the uh English learner experience um and gain some English learner experience uh while she's over there. So, we're excited for Jessica and and strongly uh support and recommend this um this move tonight. So, I don't know, Miss Davis, if you had any anything you want to add or pretty straightforward. Okay. >> Yeah, Mr. Brian. >> I'm so excited for Jessica because she's 24, she's young. Go and, you know, do this, travel the world, and then come back and share with us. So, she was nervous, excited, but, you know, I'm excited to see our young staff members do this this kind of
033outside of the box thinking. So, Yeah, >> it's good to hear. >> And really the commitment the board's making, just so you understand. So, we're giving giving her a break. We'll have to have a long-term substitute or some way to fill that role for that those six months and then she is guaranteed a position um for that following year and her commitment is at least a year back to the district. But Jessica's, you know, all indications are she's a long term. She's looking forward to being here for a long time. But that's how that works. Okay, that's that was the highlight from personnel. >> Okay, then uh I will ask for a vote. >> Mr. Davis. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Ross. >> Hi, Mr. >> Lowry. Hi, >> Mr. Pastor Elliot. >> Hi, Mr. >>
034Hi. Last up, uh, back to you, Mr. Wood. What good stuff is going on? >> Great. Well, it's going to be a shared report tonight. So, if Mr. Gwen could bring up the slide um show and then I'll I'll get I'll turn it over to Mrs. Davis first to talk about our recent PD day. >> So on Friday we had our first PD day of the school year. Um it was a little bit different because it was NEOA day. So we have we gave staff the option to participate in NEOA sponsored events which were kind of um throughout the state essentially. Um, we had some groups going to Youngstown State. We had some headed up to Cleveland. Um, but we gave staff the option of participating in our regularly scheduled PD opportunities or um, attending
035an NEOA sponsored event. We had some grade levels who went to the same event for any OEA day. Um, so it was um, really wellreceived. Um, but we had about a hundred of our staff members um, participate in our PD day. We had um AI was a was a um crowd favorite um as you can imagine. Um so we had a great session um from Scott Ross. He's the AI consultant now from Summit ESC and uh he did a fantastic job. Feedback was was really really positive. Um so that was well attended. We also offered a work session for new resource as we have done in the past. any new resource, we gave teachers time to work with that particular resource as a grade level team. Um, we also had a gifted session because those
036who teach gifted level courses have to maintain credit hour, excuse me, contact hours um if they're working with students who are identified as gifted. So, we offered that. Um, we also offered um choice boards was one of our sessions. um ties in with our personalized learning and authentic learning efforts. Um so we had some really great sessions available for staff and um like I said the feedback has been really positive so far. Uh we also uh spread a little joy and and confetti cannoned our birthday boy >> as well. Of course you did. Yeah. >> Yes. So it was it was a really great day. >> Yeah. Yes. Uh, as we get up to certain ages though, Davis, I think we should do something like potential harm and heart attacks can happen. Confetti cannons. Um,
037so thank you, Courtney. >> Uh, so an update. Joe, briefly on the levy. I mean, really tagging right on to the back of what Mr. Hostadler talked about. I mean, we we've really been working hard um during non-school times, getting out into the community, speaking at events. Uh there's been a really awesome Citizens for Town Schools group that's been doing a really good job of promoting the importance of this levy and protecting our kids and maintaining our programs. Uh it is urgent. So, uh, we continue to emphasize to folks, please give us a call. Like, like Jeff said, we we believe Townage has always supported schools. They have. And, uh, we believe the more people that understand this the stress that we're under because of the loss of state funding and inflation that um, what
038we're asking for makes sense and the board the board's ask is a fiscally responsible one. So, we will continue to beat that drum uh until levy day, which is less than three weeks away now. Um so, thank thank you. I just wanted to personal thanks to all the volunteers, parents, teachers, um that that administrators, board members that have been working hard to get the word out about the importance of the levy. Mr. Zean, can you tell us a little bit about a a really awesome new tool that we have here in the district called Same Goal? Uh yeah. So uh as the board knows we currently have progress book uh and within the suite of progress book uh we have uh for the longest time used special services. So that has been our um where
039we write our um special education evaluations, IEPs, 504 plans um for a variety of reasons um especially over the last few years um special services within progress book has um received uh fewer and fewer updates um and less and less support. So, uh, not only us, but, um, districts throughout the state have really been switching over to a product called Sangle. Um, we switched over on Monday. Monday >> the 13th. Yeah. Yeah. Just two days ago. My goodness. >> Uh, so we just switched over on Monday. Um and we had virtual training for all the intervention specialists, uh counselors, um e teachers, administrators. Um so we'll be switching over to this new system that will provide a lot uh a lot more functionality for our evaluations. Um our IEPs that we write, we will be
040able to still do 504s. Uh in addition to that, we'll now be able to put our EL service plans within same goal. So access uh both writing them and then accessibility for people who need them will be easier. Um we will eventually be doing our rims our reading improvement monitoring plans. Uh there's functionality to put those into same goal. Um we've already kind of written them for this year. Uh so with this with the changeover that'll be kind of an implementation for next year. So um it's quite a versatile tool for us. Um there's a slight cost increase. It still is supported by neonet um who we work with. So they they still support special services and obviously progress book but um the big push for districts assessment same goal. It also allows for a
041lot easier communication within uh across districts because everybody's switching over. So just when students transfer in between uh districts, the the ability to transfer documents easily electronically um is kind of a click of the button now that we can instantly get that stuff as opposed to having that done through kind of slower uh old-fashioned means. So um super excited about it. a lot of functionality for us and uh just another tool um that that we can use that allows people to easily access information, easily use information so that they can uh create plans, supports, you know, for for implementing student need. >> Great. Thank you, Roy. Um and and thanks. I know it's taken up a lot of time for our intervention specialist training and getting up to speed for it, but it's going to
042help protect the district from a compliance standpoint and serve kids better uh in terms of meeting their needs. Um so the ne next up cyber security and I I'll just before Kurt talks a little bit about the detail, I just want to thank Kurt. We give Kurt a lot a hard time about cyber security because he he's he tends to he tends to be the bad guy with it. Um but he's right. Um the risk to the district, the risk of somebody accessing student data, accessing payroll data, accessing uh you know the data associated with this district uh and our 2500 kids and our 300 employees is significant. And um it's something that has happened to other districts proven to be a substantial number one embarrassment. So they lose you know lost some trust within
043their community and uh and then likewise just the recovery process can be expensive and um it's something we have got to be diligent about and work hard to prevent. So, I really appreciate Kurt's um Kurt's emphasis on cyber security and uh there's a new state regulation in Ohio Revised Code that we are um you know in compliance with and and Kurt, so I'll turn it over to you to talk a little bit about what's going on with cyber security. >> Sure. Thank you. Um yeah, um Ohio Revised Code 9.64. This was as a result of uh House Bill 96 which was passed into law over the uh over the summer requires uh of all of the political subdivisions and local governing authorities in Ohio to include school districts to do a number of things. Uh
044and the couple of things uh we're going to focus on tonight is the cyber security program. So um HB96 requires u the board to u ad adopt a cyber security program which is based on the NIST cyber security framework. NIST is the National Institute of uh Standards and Technology and you have a a hand out there for a little light reading that kind of describes in detail that that framework. Um and um we'll talk about it um a little bit tonight, but uh um so uh that framework we'll have to adopt and develop. Most of it, much of it, if not all of it, we're already doing uh the program is really is documenting all of the things that we're doing. Um and then making it available for the board. So um and this is
045something that the U auditor of state will be uh conducting compliance audits uh starting in July 1st of next year to make sure that we number one have a program and number two are adhering to it. So um a couple of other things relating to cyber security uh in HB96 are incident reporting. So if we were to uh suffer an incident uh the law requires us to report that to uh OSI which is Ohio Cyber Integration Center. It's a division uh within Ohio Homeland Security within 7 days and also to report that incident to the auditor of state within 30 days. Uh and then ransomware response policy. Big part of uh this law requires or prohibits the board from u making a payment or complying with the ransomware demand uh unless the board meets publicly
046and resolves to to uh pay that ransom and explain why that's in the district's best interest. All right. So the cyber security framework uh basically five core functions um within the framework um the first is is identify uh basically is we're doing a a deep dive into uh risk assessment asset management focusing on areas that uh may be a little vulnerable that we need to improve on. Uh and then um protect as another core function. Um identity management awareness and training. Uh you know we're we're doing a lot of that. You you've seen emails come through that try to lure you into clicking. That's the biggest really that's the biggest attack vector. Uh that that these scammers are using is email. Uh data security. Um, we we use a lot of uh online resources and
047SB29 actually last year tasked us with uh requiring all of these resources to have what's called a student data privacy agreement so that we can be assured that they're um doing the right thing with our student data. Uh platform security, operating system updates, uh infrastructure resilience and then detection. Uh we need to be continuously monitoring our platforms uh and trying to identify um breaches and in the event that we detect a breach uh move on to the respond phase where uh we um manage the incident, respond and mitigate the incident, communicate that with all the stakeholders. Um and then the restoration phase, the recovery phase, uh restoring the assets and operations that were impacted by the incident. And um so this is a long process. It's really really a deep dive into all the things
048that we're doing uh getting them all documented um and in putting together a comprehensive program so that we can safeguard uh our systems. And um it's about a six five or six month process to do that. Uh and we're going to be partnering with Neonet and a company called Filament Information Security to help us with that process. And the end result um um of that project of this cohort will be uh a comprehensive cyber security program that will be compliant with the law. So, I know that's uh a lot. Uh but uh I'd ask if you guys have any questions. >> Oh, okay. Thank you, >> Kurt. Thank you. And thanks again for your diligence around uh cyber security. And um so next I'll I'll turn it over to Mr. Manion for a facilities update.
049talk. I added flag football in here as a topic to >> I'm res tonight. >> Um so I'll start with facilities. Just want to kind of give uh a shout out to our maintenance teams. So I don't think what um what many realize is the amount of time that it takes to prepare the fields, have the fields ready for the fall season. There is so much work and it continues as we are starting to host tournaments for soccer and that sort of thing. Um it's just an endless endless amount of time. Um and so along with that, our our maintenance team and our custodian teams uh have really been kind of focused on keeping our facilities in the great shape that they are in. Um you've probably seen a little bit of work done on
050the baseball field, been working on the the warning track and getting that kind of uh treated and and really preparing that that field for what we hope to be a opener here come this spring. Um, in addition to that, we also just finished our football season for the middle school. Um, Rashaki Stadium is not quite in as strong a shape as the high school stadium is in. Um, we are currently kind of looking at options for those bleachers. Those bleachers are in, uh, pretty poor shape. So, uh, looking at maybe the first step in kind of the bigger picture and eliminating those bleachers from that that area. Um, so we're kind of getting some bids on what that might cost the district and and so far we've been pretty happy with what numbers we've seen.
051So as we complete that bid process, um, you know, that might be something that that happens here in the the relatively near future. Um, so just again a shout out to our our maintenance and custodian teams for for the fall season. Um, the other thing I'm I'm tasked with is I think Bill's covering soccer tonight, so flag football. Um, so you may have heard some some talk about flag football. Um, recently the OSAA has sanctioned uh girls flag football, which would be a spring sport as an official sport for uh the 26 well the 25 26 school year. Um, we have been kind of in communication with a lot of the leading parties which include the Browns and USA football in terms of what that would look like. Um both of those parties are incredibly
052invested in making this work at a pretty minimal cost to the districts that are involved. Um it has been a growing sport. I think over the past six years it's it's widely recognized as the largest uh growing girls sport. Um there were 60 schools in Ohio last year that participated in girls flag football. um that will drastically jump this year with uh with the recognition that the OSAA is putting uh as an official sport. So we are interested as a district in kind of going down that road. Basically the financial commitment from the Browns and USA football pays for really pretty much everything. Um I mean including uniforms, including coaches clinics, including uh you know just pretty much everything that you would spend money on officiating and all that sort of thing. Um and districts
053are really kind of it boils down to to really a coaching uh position. Um so we will be obviously looking at that potentially at the next uh meeting. But um really just excited about the opportunity. They are doing everything they can to make sure it doesn't conflict with track. Um and that makes our track coaches very happy and that kids can potentially do both things uh at the same time. um those games potentially are are scheduled. I think it's Friday evenings and Sundays. So, they're working really on a schedule that's not going to impact and interfere with with other things. So, our kids can can kind of do multiple multiple sports. Um so, that's that's kind of the just of it. And we're excited to potentially, you know, chase after that state championship and flag
054football. We've got a pretty strong group of girls in our high school right now. So, I'm anxious to see how they stack up in terms of uh in terms of this. >> If any if anybody saw the power to pop game, I mean, some of those girls you want to have suit up for Friday night. They were ready. They're ready to go. Pretty darn close. So, >> Mr. Manion, thank you. >> Oh, go ahead, Mr. Lowry. >> So, I was actually on the field for the Powderpuff games, but I wish we would have known the rules because we were just making stuff up, you know, so would have been nice we knew ahead of time. Um, for the I just a couple questions and you may or may not know the answers to them. Um,
055>> I'll do my best. >> You're right. For the uh commitment from the Browns for paying for things, is that a one-year commitment or is there some kind of ongoing? >> So, from from what I recall, Billy, kind of talking about when when he met with them, it it was obviously a one-year commitment, but they they have that in all of their strategic plan. They I don't think it's in writing, but they are very much committed to making this a long-term commitment. Um, and I don't see that changing after the first year, though I don't know that any of that's in writing. Um, but everything that they've communicated out has been this is this is a multi-year commitment and and really trying to grow the interest in their sport. Um, is kind of the way
056they see it is they they'll get the dividends back as they grow that, you know, interest in the sport. >> Mr. Larry, if we bring that to the board, which we likely will in November, I'll have Mr. Johnson ready to answer that question. >> Okay. >> Um and then on the Rashaki bleachers, we're just getting quotes to tear them down right now, not not the replacement because I've been on the bleachers recently as well. And uh I don't care if we get new bleachers. We got to get rid of that's like a lawsuit waiting to happen in my opinion if if it goes on much longer. >> Yeah. So the bids that we are working on right now are just for the demo and and removal of of all of that um material. Um, we
057obviously long term would like to see that facility, you know, kind of stepping up and and really uh highlighting what what Tomage is all about. But yeah, it just involves that demo piece of it >> com I'm wondering should we pull a yellow tape around the seats? I mean, I I mean, for the past several years, I used to walk the steps and it's like, I don't even do that anymore because they Yeah, I don't want to be a statistic. I'm just wondering if we should or >> Yeah, I I don't I don't think that's a bad idea for sure. I mean, we are all of our fall seasons are finished, so there there would probably be pretty minimal um you know, people that would venture up there, but I think it's it's definitely a
058good idea to just >> um you know, people take that extra step. Yes, they absolutely do. >> Citizens do. And yeah. Okay. >> Absolutely. >> And then like of course I have a bunch of sports related questions because that's like what I care about a lot for whatever reason. Uh the turf maintenance, we were talking about that a little bit. Um I've seen them go out and brush it or whatever that like machine that they go through it. How often do we do that? And then there were some high school football teams that had like foot and mouth or hand and foot or whatever it's called disease. Uh, and I think that had something to do with it the turf itself not being sanitized properly. And I want to know if we have a procedure
059in place to like sanitize it every so often or if that's a thing. >> I'll look into that. I'm not sure that question. >> What I do So the machine we have basically if that turf there's these little rubber pellets. >> Yeah. Little rubber. You know what they look like. So that's So what that machine does is try to keep those balanced out. So you don't want to have them all kind of pushing to the bunch into the front or bunching to the outside. So we have that machine and then we annually it's an astroturf field the original astroturf. So astroturf comes in and does an annual maintenance and I will have to check with you Mr. Lowry on I will check with them on whether or not there's a sanitizing piece. I'm not I'm
060not sure of that. I think the hand foot and mouth a lot of that is locker room related too locker room and equipment. Um so I I had not heard it was being uh happening on the field, but I'll check on that as well. >> I pick that up somewhere. >> Yeah, I thought it was much more around the locker room and uh sanitary there because it's it hand foot mouth is very contagious disease. It's just very just just contact. Um so I I don't think it lives on a surface very long. I think it's person to person, but I will follow up with you on that. Okay. And we, you know, fortunately, I think we did have a couple of cases. Um, not at the high school. I think we had a couple at
061the elementary, but nothing nothing. It didn't, it didn't become a uh too many kids affected. Um, okay. Great. Anything else, Mr. Lowry? No. Good. All right. Well, I'm Mr. Mr. Booth is here tonight. So, the first first item is on the good stuff. I put these just for you. Teach you up. Uh, Mr. Booth. >> Yeah. Sorry. >> Yeah. >> Elementary. >> Yeah. >> Gave a couple bullet points. I'll just touch on >> Yeah, you can touch on those and then add whatever you like, Mr. >> Sure. Well, first of all, uh I just want to thank you guys for a good start to the school year. Uh adjustments that have been made with the new flexible walls put in a couple spaces. So, thank you for your support helping that. Um just making those
062those larger spaces more flexible and more usable for large and small groups. And in addition to that, our new hires, we were excited about all of them when they when we first got. They're doing a great job nine weeks in here. So, um, as far as, yeah, those are a couple bullet points I was going to touch on. Anyway, the the tees emergency drill, uh, that was our first reunification drill. We had not done one of those before, so that brings on a lot of anxiety uh, with our staff and, um, it went really, really well. So, the first responders were there, very supportive. Uh, Mr. Manion was there and middle representation. They've done the reunification drill was really focus on just our fourth and fifth graders this time. Um, and that was just to
063get through a process of if there was an emergency where we had to relocate and then getting reconnected back with the parents. So, we we used the gymnasium as a staging point um in the cafeteria. Obviously, that would all be flexible depending on the situation, but staff and and students did tremendously well. We got good feedback um and we you know, good critical conversations as well as as how we might do it differently. Um, and we plan on doing it, making some tweaks and doing it uh something like that again in the spring. So, but really really happy about that how that went. Um, and then the booster thon, those are two big things over the last couple weeks that we checked off. The booster thawn was something that, uh, personally I was a little
064bit nervous about and then now very optimistic at our community continued support as we have the upcoming levy. Um, we actually last year we for a pavilion that we've run into some red tape that we thought we might get a little bit of criticism there so it might be tough but uh the community stepped up. I mean we the kids we reached our goal once again. Um the kids always kind of spearhead what we're raising for so it was uh we talked about the mulch that we have there and they would like to do a rubberized surface like they have at Lions Park I believe. So, uh, but I think the pavilion is now finally in works and we'll have, uh, you know, rubberized, uh, surface hopefully. But really encouraging. I mean, there the support
065was tremendous. I mean, it was as good as it's ever been. So, a couple great things for there. >> Great. And thank you for being here, Mr. Booth. Um, all right. Couple other highlights. Uh, homecoming. Just big shout out to all the student leaders that were involved in planning homecoming. U, Mr. Mr. her, Miss Pool, the whole team here at Townage High School, just nothing but positive feedback in terms of the dance itself, the parade, uh, everything associated with homecoming. So, we're thrilled for our kids. Uh, wish we could have won the game. I guess that's the one one. But, but, uh, we we we are certainly proud and had a great a great event. Um, Mr. Mr. Manion, another successful camp Fitch here. Yeah, we uh had great weather. We were lucky in in
066kind of that regard, but took I think 162 students um and plenty of staff went. They were all exhausted when they got back, but they they all left and came back. So, that's a big win for us. So, yeah. >> Yeah. So, um next up, just a big shout out to our cross country athletes and our overall team. you know, team performance was outstanding. But we have two uh I should really start with Michaela Martio. Michaela is a junior and she won her third Suburban League championship uh suburban league runner of the year for the American Conference and which is an extraordinary extraordinary achievement and it's the most she can do. We're changing leagues next year so it's a little bit uh kind of bittersweet. she won't be able to sweep all four years as
067a suburban league champion, but I I I'm I'm thinking the Metro is probably shaking in their boots that Michaela will be running against them next year. So, congratulations to Michaela for just an amazing achievement. And then Donovan Noah, who is a sophomore athlete, um won also the boys uh division uh American. he would have won the national too uh with his time of 1555 which is just an extraordinary time. Um and I I would just tell you to Donovan and Michaela are great kids. So Townage should be very proud of them representing our district and and performing at uh you know state class levels. I mean really really amazing performance. And so then it's also an opportunity for me to just talk about our whole fall sports. just really proud of all of our coaches,
068all of our teams. Um, again, a great a great year and we we look forward to an awesome uh winter season. It's really hard to believe to be talking about the end of this season. And it's also amazing to me that we're talking about the end of the first quarter. The first quarter is over. So I declare this first quarter of being the first quarter of the best weather that accompanied the first quarter in the history of town. And I I dare anybody to prove me incorrect with that statement >> based on what we started >> maybe part of it but it really was uh just an extraordinary quarter. Um, and uh, I also just a quick shout out as we look forward to things ahead, but also uh, just just a chance to uh,
069celebrate Kelly Christopher and the job she's doing with PR. There's a lot of things happening in the district right now. And Kelly's one of those people that's on on a weekend, if there's something going on, she's on it. Whether it be a a false rumor that we've had a couple at the buildings or a you know a true um true news safety related news that we need to get out to our families to everything trying to communicate the finance concerns that the district faces right now to also celebrating all the kids um and and the great things happening at Townidge City Schools. So really a strong presence on Instagram, Facebook, uh X um everywhere. So, thanks to Kelly and thanks to the buildings for for for complimenting that effort and and and supporting her. And
070then last but not least, we we before the next board meeting, we will have our fall play. So, Clue is on its way. I encourage you tickets are not on sale yet, I don't believe, Mr. Manion, but they will be soon. Uh they are Jeff, you just told me a couple hours ago, but what are the dates again? The 13th, 14th, 15th. >> Yeah, that's correct. 13th, 14th, and 15th of of the month. Yeah. Yeah, November. >> So, uh, looking forward to the fall play. >> So, on that fall play, is there any, uh, thing going to happen with the seniors as we've done in the past? Uh, they've been able to come to the, uh, dress rehearsal basically. Um, that's a real good way of getting some of the seniors in our building and
071this is a good time to do that. >> It's a good question. I will I will check with the director. We have a new director this year. So, uh, I have to see if that works for their schedule and um, >> but it's a great idea. I agree with you. We've had nothing but positive feedback about that Wednesday event. >> Great. That's uh, that's all. I don't know if anybody else had anything else they want to add. Good. All right. Thank you, Mr. Pastor. >> I had one other thing. Uh it's 7 o'clock now. The Pep Club is dying to donate at the uh West Avenue Tavern. You have one hour if you haven't eaten. >> Okay. >> And I understand that they have pretty good wings if you have eaten. Uh so, um yeah,
072that's where I'm headed. Nice invitation. Nice invitation. Uh, anything else? We're good. We're good. Good. Good. >> Mr. Brian, you always want to comment offer to our big crowd if there was anything else you would like to say. Uh, >> actually, we we had a historical moment this Monday. >> Okay. >> In my 32 years, it was the first records day that teachers had to work on report cards and at the elementary building. It's been a while since probably you've seen them. They're very detailed. Not only do we have to grade things and and assess them according to the standard, but there's also a large narrative that we completed. We had some very happy teachers on Monday because it's the first that we actually have. And this year we'll have a a record day for
073every grading period. It's huge because we would have to spend weekends and time away from our own families having to work on this stuff. It was it was very much appreciated at the elementary school. >> Yeah, good John. And we were able to make that happen through the calendar without taking away student days. So, it didn't affect our number of student days. So, uh we try to continue that. Thank you, John. >> Any other comments from the gallery? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Good. Uh then I will be happy to ask for a motion to close our meeting. >> I make a motion. >> I'll second. >> Mr. Hostedler, >> Mr. Professor. >> Hi, >> Mr. Ross. >> Hi, >> Mr. >> Davis. >> Hi, >> Mr. Lowry. >> Hi, Mr. >> Hi. Thank you. See you
074all next month.