001All right. Hello. Uh, good evening. Thank you for coming here tonight. Uh, tonight is the uh, Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 Townage Board of Education meeting agenda. And, uh, as usual, we begin with a pledge of allegiance. So, if you'll join me by standing, move your hat. Yes, I will. And 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 very much. You may be seated. Uh, next up will be a roll call. Uh, Mr. Hostler here here here I am here uh we have people in the room thank you for coming here we have guests we don't always have guests so thank you thank you very much and also to the people
002online thank you for tuning in uh as usual with visitors uh we do set aside a few minutes at the end of the uh meeting uh following the business agenda so if you would like to address the board, you can do that at that time. Uh, however, in the meantime, uh, we do have special special guests here tonight. And, uh, I believe Mr. Wood, would you help us get this started, introduce them? Well, I'll turn it right over to Mr. Rosorski. There we go. Hello. Good evening. Yes. Hello. Hello. And good evening board members and everyone following online. Uh my name is Mr. Rosski and I've had the pleasure of teaching these two groups of students in my English explore class this year. And uh we actually got to pilot a really cool booklet that
003some of you might know. It's called Designing the Future. Uh this was piloted from I believe donated from Mary Kay Mary Jay, excuse me, Mary Jane. Um and uh this booklet has been really instrumental in these projects these students have been working on and they've been following passions to change the world that we live in. And so uh while these two groups did start at different places, they ended up in at a similar end where they were looking at the school time, how long we're here, how often we're here, and they wanted to share their ideas with you today. So uh first we have a group from my fourth block. I'm going to introduce Christian, Cammy, and Kedra. Okay, so we are here to talk to you guys about having a later school start time.
004Okay, so our current schedule right now, first block is at 9:40 and fourth block ends at 2:45. There are 80 minute blocks, five minute block changes with 30 minute lunches and we have threemmies. Our new plan would have first block starting at 8:30 and fourth block ending at 2:55, which would have 75 minute blocks, five minute block changes, and 35minute lunches. And we'd only have twommies. So that's kind of how we're changing it a little bit. And Ohio requires um a minimum um of a 101 instructional hours and this new plan would fit that. So, for the busing, uh, instead of using the elementary bus bus, we would use the middle school ones to make it easier cuz the middle school starts at 7:45, elementary school starts at 9:00. And for snow days, uh, we
005would have five snow days until we have to add on school days to the school year. So, snow days wouldn't affect it. And according to an NEO an NEO today, it states final grades were 4.5% higher compared with students who took classes when it started earlier. This proves grades can improve and many students would learn more if they had later start time. Okay. How will this save us monies? This will save us a lot of money because um utilities will be used less including heating, cooling, lights, and water. Having better mental health from more sleep can cause less doctor visits. In the article, school start times for adolescence. It states, "In addition, class attendance improved as did health related variables, including fewer visits to the campus health center for fatigue related complaints. um extracurricular activities
006would still meet after school, but some would meet um before school if they'd like to. And then our idea was to only have um twomies to eat lunch instead of three. So freshman and juniors would eat together, sophomores and seniors would eat together. And most of the seniors and juniors do CTE and CCP, so there will be less of them at lunch. And then we'll still use our badges to make the lunch lines go faster. Uh pros and cons. For pros, uh it would reduce the risk of accidents for students that can drive because uh they'll be more awake and aware of their surroundings. And by starting later, it can improve our brain development because we'll get more sleep and our brains will get more rest. In another article, it talks about uh late start
007times also generally correspond to improving attendance, less tardiness, less falling asleep in class, better grades, and few or more crashes. This could help impact our students at THS because they're more likely to pass a class and graduate. Um, but for cons, uh, it could be difficult for CCP and CTE students, and more students will be riding the bus because their parents will be at work. Six district compact calendars. Our schools a part of the sixth district compact and if we change our school's schedule, it might affect some other schools. Students who participate in CTE will be affected by this change, but CCP students won't because most of them take it online. The other schools a part of the six district compact have school start times that range from 7:30 to 8. Students who participate in
008CTE would just have to leave an academy or go early in the day like regular. Um, this change could impact our students by keeping them more awake in class and better attitudes and bettering their health. So, it could seriously affect students lives for the better. Many high school students are struggling with balancing school, sports, clubs, band, family, friends, outside activities, and so much more. So, this could help our school's community's health in tremendous ways. Um, imagine how students will feel when you approve the schedule. Students, teachers, parents, and staff will be excited about a new schedule because all of the positive effects it has on us. So, students already struggle with being sleepd deprived, homework, sports, and outside life. A change like this could help our community and take it to the next level. Thank
009you for your time, and we hope you consider our upcoming plan for the school years. [Applause] Oh, yeah. Sorry. All right. So, uh I saw that you extended the academy time from 30 to 35 minutes. Is that because you feel like you need to if you're going to go down to twomies? Um it's because the lines at the lunch lines will be longer. So, we want to give students more time to like get in line and get their lunch and stuff. So, what if we didn't remove five minutes from instruction of instruction from each of the four blocks? What if we didn't touch that at all, but we just went to twomies at 35 minutes instead of three at 30 minutes and cut out at least some of the day just by cutting out the
010academy? Yeah. And just start 20 minutes later. It wouldn't be the the net change you were looking for, but like would that be? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I have a question. Are any other school districts starting this late? 8:30 is really late. Um, is there anybody else in the area that starts later? Not anyone else in the area, but other schools around Americ's like a few that's in Cincinnati that we we found, but like they they end later in the day, though. So, in our sixth district compact, do you know the start times of all of them? Are any of them later than us? Uh, Hudson is at eight. Okay. Yeah. Done your research. Good job. Any more questions? and the high school buses combine to serve the elementary school. Okay. So that that's something to
011be aware of. It's not as simple as the middle school buses are just for so the middle school bus because you basically are on the same schedule as fifth through 12th is essentially the same schedule. So fifth through 12 is all those buses are used for then K through four buses. So it's not as easy as just saying the middle school buses go get the elementary kids. now. Um and then um but overall I think you guys did a really good job. The thing with the snow days that be careful of though is snow days no longer we don't have five days built in anymore. It's all based on hours. So basically you have to have a little bit of excess hours scheduled into the school year to accommodate any lost days due to snow
012day. Um but I I really I love this. I would love for you guys to sleep till 8:30, believe me. Um, did you did you consider I mean some folks talk about like there's a natural circadium rhythm which um I think there's a natural time for kids to wake up and go to sleep and and one of the ideas that's kicked around is elementary kids going to school first. They they are starting the days with the elementary kids because those kids are waking up their parents at 6 already. Uh well you guys want to sleep till 10 probably if if you didn't have to get up. So, did you look at that at all? Think about that? Yeah, we were uh we were thinking about that, but we were just like hoping to like look
013at like more high school just because like we weren't sure what elementary days are like. Yeah. Okay, good. And the elementary you already go to bed earlier, so then they already have a lot more sleep than we will. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. That's great job. Thank you guys very much for this. [Applause] So that was round one and uh like I said so this group they were looking specifically at changing the schedule when they started these projects and the second group was starting at just they wanted to have a later start time. So, like I said, they did come to a very similar end, but they had a different goal in mind, which was just to have a later start time, whereas group four, they were trying to change the entirety of the schedule. Um,
014so don't make sure you have more questions because these guys have some more uh ideas for you. You want to come on up? I'm going to introduce Sandrrim, Lily, and Marissa. Thank you. Here's your buttons to switch. Uh good afternoon uh members of the board. Uh thank you so much for giving us the time of your day to allow us to do this. Um me and my group have came up and we want to talk about something that might seem quite small but has a huge huge impact on students here at Thomas High School and that would be uh starting school at a later start time. So what we believe is that starting school at a later start time would improve hugely on academic performances, safety, well-being, health, and success. So, we're going to share
015you guys some of our powerpoints and presentation here on why we believe that every teacher and educator knows how important every student's well-being is. One of our school's foundational goals is to help all 2500 students succeed. And a really good way of sharing tips on how to succeed is starting by viewing some people's some successful people's standpoints on how sleep fueled their career and life to success. Jeff Bezos believes good decision making ties with being well-rested. He aims for eight hours of sleep and argues that sacrificing sleep for work leads to diminished decision quality. LeBron James claims sleep is a huge part of his success and is the best way to recover to 100%. He cla he aims for 8 to 10 hours of sleep so his body and mind are prepared. Even Albert Einstein
016highly valued sleep and had 10 hours of sleep with additional naps throughout the day. He believed this was important for replenishment, focus and problem solving. So if you look up there, uh we had a survey here for students here at Townage High School. And out of sending to all the students, we had 59 responses. And out of those 59 responses, we had people who voiced their opinions on what they think of the current school start time. And we had nearly 60% of people and students who thought that the school start time currently was too early. And that can have a huge effect on students. And we had that uh two main uh which were mental and physical health were affected highly which you can see in the red. And when these are affected, learning, academic
017performance, and just health and well-being of students really decline. And here at Talage, if we want students to succeed, I think that we should have uh a later school start time, which would hugely boost that uh mental and physical health. We asked students what time they go to bed currently and how many hours they usually get to sleep. Most said they go to bed around 10 and get about 8 to 6 hours of sleep. Studies recommend about 9 hours of sleep for students in middle school and high school. We also asked if they would start or if they would go to sleep later if we started at a later time and most of them surprisingly said yes, they would. Safety behind the wheel. A later start time would allow students to get more rest, decreasing
018drowsiness and improving reaction time. A study by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that later start times associated with a significant decrease in student related crashes. Overall awareness and safety. People are at risk of injury when lacking sleep impairs cognitive thinking, coordination, memory, and more. In 2017, the Hawaii Pacific Health posted a study on how lack of sleep results in decrease of survival abilities in adults, teens, and kids. Uh, now we have our schedule that we're proposing and our current schedule. Now, some key takeaways that you can see or not takeaways, but differences you could see up there are we taken away academy C and we have allowed two 30-minute. Now we believe for academically that 60 minutes is a good amount of time to get work done that we're challenged in through the
019days or homework anything that they need to get done. Now if students are using the time like how they should be wisely 60 minutes is more or yeah 60 minutes is more than enough time to get any work done throughout the day or through academy. Um another one is instead of 80 minute blocks we had reduced it to 75 minute blocks. Now this was also a suggestion uh given to the other group but we took the suggestion from Miss Pool and she recommended that 75 minute blocks would help with uh students who couldn't focus and cutting down those five minutes would be kind of crucial for those students. Now uh 101 hours compared to the hours we have in the current schedule had to be adjusted because we added or we added an additional six
020days to the school calendar which then gave us the required amount for the state law which was 101 hours. So yeah, the state of Ohio requires a minimum of 1,01 hours and for per year and with our schedule, we're coming out right about that. But because of the yearly instructional hour requirement, school calendar has to be adjusted by about six days. researchbased studies. There are many studies that show how the time students wake up is crucial to their learning abilities, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the APA, and the AASM, who all recommend middle and high school start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. The facts. Adolescents during puberty have a shift in sleep patterns called the circadian rhythm which affects when they sleep in their educational life. California and Florida are the first states to
021require at least an 8:30 start time. These states and many others have seen huge boost in students academics and health. Uh now just like everything else there's pros and cons and there's a lot of strong pros that we have and that's improving students sleep and that's also better academic performance and improved daytime function but there's also some real cons here like extracurricular planning changes like sports or club meets after school and there's also busing conflence or conflicts that could be solved but with these type of strengths and pros and cons I think that it's a amount of strength or pros and cons that you guys could take into consideration into achieving this goal of better success in a later school start time. Thank you for your patience and time and allowing us to present some
022of our points and suggestions on why later school start times are crucial for students and beneficial for even adults in the school. Any questions? [Applause] You guys go to school days. Yeah. To meet the instructional hours. Yeah. Prefer like you prefer like adding to the calendar number of days you have to be in school. Yeah. It gives us less time. It gives us more sleep so then we're happier. So then we're not as disappointed of going to going to school and waking up so early. That's a good way to put it. Yeah, I like that. That's great. I have two quick questions. I I wonder if you guys thought about um because there's a reality here of cost, right? So, to add those school days, you have to pay staff to come in for more
023days. So, I'm just curious if you guys considered that, you know, in in your cost analysis and what that would impact the district or the taxpayers. Do you guys think about that? Um I feel like um if if we really uh I know obviously Thomas City Schools cares about the students and their well-being, but I feel like it's something that the school could come together and work around, especially with the thinking about the students well-being and their health. If we really wanted them to, you know, enjoy school, come more, and actually learn and be mentally like healthy, I think we could work this around together. So, we haven't thought about that, but I'm sure it's something we could overcome. Thank you. Thank you. That's a great answer. Yeah, that's a great answer. Um, and just
024the second question related around the logistics is um because we're on a block schedule, Talmage is unique in the opportunity to provide because we're we're basically completing a course, most of our courses are completed within one semester. So, our students are unique in the sense of getting 32 opportunities um to get credit. So did you give any consideration to a significant adjustment in in the block, you know, 60 minutes, you know, in the block would how that might impact being able to complete coursework within a semester? Do you did you say 60-minute blocks? Yeah, you I think you didn't you Oh, you changed it. You originated. I got you. I got you. That that makes a difference then. Thanks. Any other questions? Nice job. Good job. Thank you. Once again, thank you so much for
025coming in. That's really very good. Well done. Well done. uh uh and I think as usual uh we don't usually ask you to stay for the whole meeting but we encourage you if you would like to stay and and see how we run a board meeting please do uh but if you do have to sneak out because I know sleep is a problem and we understand so not a problem so uh so we'll keep moving right along here uh next item of business for us is to approve the prior meeting minutes and uh it is recommended that the board of education approve the minutes of the April 16th, 2025 and March 31st meetings. Meetings are uh as all meetings can be found online in in a digital form. So asking for a motion, I'll make
026a motion. I'll second. Any questions or discussion? None. Hearing none, I'd ask for a vote. I I I I Next up, recommendations of the board of education uh of the treasurer. It is recommended that the board approve the financial reports for the month of March 2025 as they have been presented. I'll make a motion. I'll second. Any questions, discussion about anything presented? Good. I just uh you like to explain something? Yeah. When you compare just keep in mind of the you know our big revenue is the real estate taxes and because of the timing like we discussed prior. It's not a true comparison. In fact, usually April uh when you get the April reports, it'll it'll flush out and it'll you know, but I looked in last year, we didn't get our final settlement till
027the first week of May. So, even the April will be so when you look at them, you know, just keep that in mind that uh Yeah. And and since we're past those dates, I can tell you that that this fiscal year exceeded last fiscal year. If it's less now, don't don't be too concerned. It's a timing thing. We're good. I would ask for a vote. Mr. Pastor Elliott. I. Mr. Lowry. I. Mr. Davis. I. Mrs. Ross. I. Mr. Fair. I. Next up, uh, it is recommended that the board of education approve the primary service plan agreement. Um, option A, uh, fiscal year 2026 between Town City Schools and the Summit Educational Service Center. I need a motion. A motion. I'll second. U, any questions, discussions? This is what we do. Yeah, briefly. This is the
028annual, you know, it's it's a the ESC of Summit County is a very important relationship to Town City Schools. So this we do this um arrangement with them every year. The way to look at it, I think primarily the resources they provide are kind of peacemail like we don't need a full-time aiologist at Townage City Schools, but we need a decent chunk of time of an aiologist and so does Copley, so does River, so does other districts served by the Summit County ESC. So, um, that's really an important role that the Summit County ESC provides is they hire the individual and then farm it out to us because we we uh to to use those resources. So, a lot of what they provide is around student services um students um anything from from physical therapy,
029aiology, occupational therapy, uh they provide gifted service to us um and other other resources as well. So, um I think Looking at cost for this year versus last year, it's down slightly. Some of the our resource needs are down a little bit versus last year, but it's still an expensive resource for sure. Talking somewhere between 250 and $300,000 we spend at the ESC each year. Mr. Zean or Miss Davis, is there anything you'd want to add? Okay, great. Anything else? I would ask for a vote. Mr. Lowry, I. Mr. Davis. Hi, Mrs. Ross. I Mr. Pastor Elli. Hi, Mr. Hi. Next up, uh, it is recommended that the board of education approve the consortium agreement for the provision of services for preschool children with disabilities and corresponding lease agreement for fiscal year 2026 between Townley
030City Schools and the Summit Education Service Center. Need a motion? I'll make a motion. or somebody and a second. Do we have a second for me? Okay, very good. Uh Mr. Zman, I'll let you describe this relationship. This is similar. Very similar. Y very similar relationship. So, uh we provide um preschool services um but once again uh districts have the option of running the preschool through their own in-house resources or in this We partner as part of a consortium with um Summit County ESC. Um we have considered in the past those options to look at that internally, but uh we've consistently found that the partnership we have with the ESC um provides high quality supports and services um to our students. We continue and maintain those relationships and I work closely with the ESC for
031the preschool program. But um in terms of the requirements around what the what the state requires. There's some substantial costs and services that go with that. So, the consortium allows us to do that. We do receive a very small very small um federal money uh around that that we then give back to the give back to the consortium to help run that program. But otherwise, the rest of that cost comes out of the district. Yes, I have a question. So, I I notice in this lease that the um we lease those classrooms to Summit County. Uh is that a exchange for something or how does that work? Yes. Essentially, you know, Summit County runs the program for us and they have certain costs. They look at what it's going to take to run that program
032for us. So if they had to go out and lease a space separately from somewhere else, they would just pass that cost on to us. We're blessed with the David Bacon facility. We have space down there. So essentially that affects our cost relationship with them. Keeps our cost down for running the program. Okay. So that room fee offsets right some of that. Yeah, that's right. Have we reviewed that number in the past years? We review it every year. Okay. Chief. Yeah. To make sure it's uh fair. I mean, the primary cost of this program, the space isn't, you know, it it's it's really the like Mr. Zean said, the resources of teachers and the oversight of this program. Just keeping in mind for the board pre when we're talking about preschool, this is required program
033for students with special needs that that are not of kindergarten age yet. a critical program for us because it helps us help prepare those kids for a successful start at kindergarten. But there it's, you know, it's it's uh there's certainly an expensive program, but it's um we believe um legally we have to do it, but also it's an investment that makes a lot of sense to help our kids succeed. About how many kids in that program? That's a good question. right now. I think we had um what this year we ran um two classrooms and they're AM and PM sessions and we're running programs. So, sorry um 3264 and then we're adding a um and then we're adding a third classroom for next year based on size. Okay. So then that funnels into our kindergarten
034next year. Do you see can you predict any shortcomings with teachers or uh paras that will be required for this group? Great question. So um the program starts at age the preschool program starts at age three. Um most of the students when they reach um the age of kindergarten enter kindergarten though some students are recommended to um take another year. Um but we work very closely uh we meet usually around January, February of every year. So we've already had our meetings for next year. Um, so we um we keep a close eye on what the student need is, what um so we understand what resources we'll need, you know, for kindergarten for the next year. So we we already start planning for that well in advance. So how's next year look? Um good. Great so
035far. Yeah, great so far. So those resources vary. It's it's a great question. Those resources vary. It varies based on the student population we have um that comes out of our preschools. Uh we do partner with other preschools in the area. So we have a we have it's called child. So we have to we have to be aware of students that live in our district that uh present with disabilities. Um and some of them are in our preschool program. Some of them are receiving what we call itinerate services. So they might be in another preschool or um but but with the ESC as a partner, we deliver those services to the student. They don't actually come to our our preschool. And um there are some students that we're aware of that the parents choose not
036to have preschool programs. So we're balancing all of those and then considering and working with families to to identify, you know, are you prepared for kindergarten? Are do do you plan to to go to kindergarten or not? Uh the last um tomorrow is the last day. So Tuesday, as you guys know, we had kindergarten um graduation on Monday. Uh Tuesday, today, and tomorrow, we do kindergarten screenings. So any families that have already enrolled for kindergarten for next year get signed up and those families come in. they the families learn about the school uh get to meet the staff and the administrators and then the students are um screened. Um that also helps us to kind of prepare in terms of uh identifying where students might might best fit into a classroom, what types of uh
037resources we might need. Um so we really get we really get a jump on that ahead of time. Any other questions? Thank you. Yeah, we're good. I ask for a vote. Mr. Pelli, I Mrs. R. I. Mr. Davis. Hi, Mr. Lowry. Hi, Mr. Fair. I uh moving on, recommendations of the superintendent. Uh it is recommended that the board approve uh the first reading of the 202526 school calendar. And I would ask for a motion. A motion. Second. Any questions, discussions? Do we call the kids back in to be a part of this? Uh they may they want some ideas. I don't know. How about that? Uh no, I I think the the highlight for the board is, as you know, we went through a couple iterations of this. I really like where we ended up
038as a as a district. Um you know, it was important to have some records day for our teachers. So our we have record stays between um the first and second uh quarter as well as between the third and fourth and then also at the end of the year. We restored um an additional uh uh inservice day for teachers at the beginning of the year. It actually helps actually helps our teachers get settled in for the new school year, but it also helps out with open houses and meet the teacher nights. So, um th those are back and then Easter Monday as a holiday is back as as a holiday. So, I I really like this calendar. Um so, we'll uh go ahead and this is the first reading. Um have a month to review it
039and then I also at next month's meeting kind of based on this as a model hope to pro provide to you then a 2627 calendar as well. Any questions? We're all going to uh take the time to read the calendar ourselves and if we have questions ask each other and work okay. Very good. Uh I would ask for a vote. Mr. Lowry Ir. Mrs. Ross I uh next up service agreement. Uh it is recommended that the board of education accept the agreement for education alternatives to provide free and appropriate education for students with varying educational, emotional and physical needs for the 202526 school year and uh uh with the attached uh document explaining uh so I need a motion. I'll make a motion. Second. Any discussion, questions about anything? Yeah, I'll just say that uh
040it says free in there. I just want to make sure folks it's not free to us. It's free to the student. Uh but the this this one and the next two um are alternative placements or it's for students that we uh can't successfully help in the in the district and we try very very hard of course but sometimes there's other resources that are necessary. So we use um outside placements. Uh, Education Alternatives have been has been a great partner to us for a long time. Uh, they have a location right in Kyhoga Falls as well as um over in Ravena. And then uh so that's that's the first one. Okay. How did these rates compare to last year? Any changes? I think they're upticked slightly, Mr. Davis. Uh not not significant, but but up up
041a little bit inflationary. Any other questions, comments? I would ask for a vote. Mr. Pelli, I Mr. Davis, I. Mrs. Ross, I Mr. Pers, I. Uh, an additional service agreement. Uh it is recommended that the board of education approve the agreement between townage city schools and harbor education services for the sole purpose of providing education services in accordance with placement at the LEAP program for the 202526 school year. I would need a motion. I'll make a motion. Second discussion questions explanation similar same story different provider same story very good uh anybody same question rates similar uptick about you see uptakes on everything it's about five hours a day thank you we presently don't anticipate anybody at le start the year educational alternatives yes okay I would ask for a vote Mrs. Ross. Hi, Mr. Davis.
042Hi, Mr. Lowry. Hi, Mr. Pelli. Hi, Mr. Fair. Hi. Uh, another service agreement, uh, Wings of Change. It's recommended that the board of education approve this contract between the Town City Schools and Wings of Change Therapy for the 20 202526 school year with contract attached. Uh, need a motion. I'll make a motion. Second. Uh discussion, questions. Is this very similar? We're good. Ask for a vote. Mrs. Ross. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mr. Lowry. Hi. Mr. Pelli. Hi. Hi. Uh, several fun things coming up here. Out of town overnight trips. It is recommended that the board of education approve an out of town overnight field trip for the town high school cross country team to attend the camp in Tiffen, Ohio at Camp Glenn July 29th through August 2nd, 2025. Students will travel via school bus
043and will be accompanied by coaches Heath and Loveless and uh document attached. Need a motion? I'll motion. I'll second. Should we motion questions? Should we motion to put all these together? They're all the out of town trips. We could if you're all right with it. Let's uh take uh 4.5 through 4.9 as a consensus. And uh so I'll I guess I have to take that request for a motion back and we do it again. That'd be right. Makes Yeah, Mr. Ferris, that's good. So, we'll take all of 4.5 through 4.9 as a uh consensus. I need a motion for that. I motion. Second. I'll second. Any questions, comments, all good stuff. Yeah, just really appreciative to our coaches for, you know, making making these trips successful for our kids. Great great summer programs. keep our
044kids engaged and um yeah, very good. I'd ask for a vote. Mr. Davis, hi. Mr. Lowry, I Mrs. Ross. Hi, Mr. Pill. Hi, Mr. Fair. I uh then following suit uh with personnel items, I would ask for a motion to take by consensus all personnel items 5.1 through 5.23 23 and allow uh administration to call out possible highlights uh through all of that. Need a motion? I'll make a motion. I'll second. Mr. Householder, this is your last chance to reneg on this. Uh um they gave you a microphone like they they did. Uh well, there's a lot a lot of activity and that's always the case this time of year. Um so there's a couple things here for the for the board to consider. It's a lot um a a lot to cover. Uh but
045you know, a couple things just continued with our um really appreciative as the board remembers with our teacher substitutes. We did it different this year. Normally we had done it all through the Summit County ESC. Decided we wanted more control over that. I will tell you the first year of doing that has been a a great success in terms of getting more more subs, getting having more control over that process. We're still short. We'd love to have more subs, but definitely an improvement and feeling good about having the additional having the additional control over um you know, having subs with this with this in the district. So, I'll I'll start there. um already have it set up with our supplementals and clubs for for the the fall. Um Mr. House, any comments on supplementals or
046clubs? No, we uh we had a great response from from our teaching staff and and we got almost all of them filled pretty quickly this year. So, that was great. And I want to thank Kelly Christopher for kind of helping out with that this year and and taking uh charge of of putting all the information out. So, I think there's only a couple left that are unfilled in that, but for the most part, uh, we should be ready to roll by next fall. Great. Next thing I'll talk about is one-year teaching contracts. Maybe if Mrs. Davis can help me here as I got to tell the board at we have we had we hired a lot of teachers within the last uh for last year, start of last year. a large new teacher cohort um
047just with the change over in the district and it is a just a extremely strong group of new teachers. We're just thrilled with their performance, thrilled with their um how they've jumped into our culture here at Townage. Really thankful to to to Mrs. Davis. Uh she does the new teacher cohort. they meet routinely meet to talk about how things are going and to support our teachers as they move through it. So, we're just we're thrilled to recommend um these these one-year renewals. Mrs. Davis, I don't know if you had anything to add. I I would obviously just echo what what you said um having that new teacher cohort. We meet on a bimonthly basis. I know I've shared that previously with the board. Um and just a really passionate group of of educators. So, we're
048thrilled to recommend their renewal. So excited excited for that. Um, administrative contracts, not that many this year, but you know, we our our middle schools in in the spotlight here. Jeff Manion and Kim Husting continue to do a tremendous job for us leading that building. They're still recovering from Chicago and Washington DC, but they they jumped right back into all the end of the year um celebrations at the middle school and just um you know wholeheartedly uh recommend new three-year contracts for them and just really thrilled with the job Jen Stewart's done as our MTSS coordinator. It's a new position here in the district. Um and and she's been a big partner with um with as you know we had the Pegs foundation grant for starting up our student assistant uh students student assistance program.
049We will not have a resource continuing in that role for next year. That grant is over. So some of that will fall, you know, directly into Jen. So her workload's going to climb a little bit for next year. But we're seeing significant benefits the MTSS uh guide you know framework in our buildings. Uh and really thankful for Jen for uh her leadership and jumping into that. Uh I you know I'm going to jump down through here. You you'll see Madison Haywood's name here on twice. So Madison is doing a great job for us as an EL tutor. She got her certification this year. We hired her last year as a tutor. She got her certification. So, now she's uh she's a she's a um full-time teacher. The bill became a law, if you will. So,
050yeah, she's made that. So, here's the um we'll move now to the uh bittersweet moment in the program today. So, I'll just go I'll go right in order and I encourage my team up here to add um and we'll save Mr. Householder for last. So, uh f firstly Dave Ravida. Dave Ravida uh who's been the assistant principal at Townage Elementary School for five years. So if we look back and think about David when we hired him it was really right you know COVID was just in its peaking uh we had just opened Townage Elementary School the new building so consolidating the buildings leadership change with Miss Davis coming to central office and Mr. booth joining that happened after we hired David. Um, all the new curriculum adoptions, uh, helping us through COVID, helping us, uh,
051build a culture, a new culture at Townidge Elementary School with that new building opening. So, David has done an extraordinary job for us and I think his record um, has helped uh, launch him and and create an opportunity for him. He's the new head principal at Holden Elementary in Kent. Um we're sure he'll have a lot of success there, but I just um just just very very thankful for David for his outstanding service to townage uh townage schools over the last five years. So the next two are two of our elementary teachers. Um June Mussolino, I wrote down how many years do you remember court? Let's see. Mussolino is 27 years in town and Patty Leid 31 years in town. uh both at town uh in elementary schools. Um just extraordinary teachers um the you
052know to have have impacted a significant number of our kids over the years. Um beloved by staff and students alike. uh both of which are both of whom are taking advantage of the early retirement incentive and we're just excited for them as they launch. They're you know still very healthy, very vigorous, looking forward to retirement. Um but we will certainly miss them in the buildings. Um so I don't know, Mrs. Davis, you want to add anything to that or I mean you pretty much summed it up. Doesn't get any better than than June Mouselino and and Patty Leicc. And Patty Leek spent her career in kindergarten which should be applauded. Yeah. Yeah. And then another retirement, Ken Subac. So Ken has been with the district 15 years. This is kind of a career change for
053Ken when he kind of got in, he was kind of a mid-career change. He got into into education after um after doing social work and a number of other things. But Ken has kind of quietly worked with a lot of our kids in the career tech program spec specifically kids with disabilities that are part of our career tech program and has been critical about helping those kids find um you know careers that that fit their skills and and abilities and talents. and he's built a lot of great relationships over the years and done just an amazing job for our sixth district compact. So, we're excited for Ken. Ken's also taken advantage of the early retirement incentive. Um, so we're we're excited for Ken. So, last but not least, um, Mike Householder has been with this
054district for 28 years in education for 35. Um, the culture of Townage City Schools has been substantially impacted by Mike's passion for kids, passion for um, everything we do here at Town. It is a a a void that will not be filled and um, you know, I will personally miss working with Mike every day. I know Billy Johnson. I don't know what Billy's going to do, our athletic director, without without Mike here. Um, we we are just so excited for Mike and Diane as he as he uh you know, embarks on on on a retirement with us. But, uh, you know, Mike, we're we're just going to miss Mike Householder a tremendous amount. There's there's there's just people in the district that quietly do a lot every day. You don't see it every day, but
055it has a massive influence on on the way we operate and uh the the kind of family that environment that we create for our teachers and staff. And Mike is always right in the middle of that. So, um I'm excited for Mike. Looking forward to uh him someday inviting me out on the fishing boat. Um and I'm I got a feeling he'll still show up to more athletic events than than the rest of us because he's just addicted, I think. But just excited for Mike as he as he takes advantage of the early early retirement incentive also and and uh and looking just looking forward to hearing stories from him and Diane U as he goes on. So anybody else want to comment on Mr. House? Can I can I say something? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
056Right. I'm gonna shoot from the hips and we'll see what comes out. No. Um, so, uh, I just want to say my son Zachary, who is nearly 20, um, was talking about, this was a while ago, but it came back up again when we were talking about uh, your retirement. He was talking about people that had had an influence on him, like in the building, teachers, whatever, that kind of thing. and uh just in your role previously as principal, he just had nothing but amazing things to say about you and how you ran the building where when you were in that role and just uh I don't know, he he and he and a lot of the other students were very thankful for you uh in the building and their time here. So yeah, I
057can echo that with Esther Leighton. She cares deeply about you. So thank you. Appreciate it very much. Very good. We We don't know what to say about you. We You know, you can work from home with computers. You know, Mr. Johnson may find you. Well, Mr. Gwyn can attest that I'm not great on computers, so I'm good. Oh, well, with that, uh again, thank you for all you've done. Uh, oh my gosh. Uh, I have to ask for a vote now. Mr. Perell, I. Mrs. R. Hi, Mr. Davis. Hi, Mr. Lowry. Hi, Mr. F. Hi. And, uh, with that, we'll move on and allow Mr. Wood to continue telling us what's going on with Good Stuff. Yeah. Why don't we go, Mr. Gwen, if you could bring up the uh the slide show that I
058shared with you via email. I think you should have got it. Okay, there you go. So, I just want to give the board an update on a couple things. So, we'll talk business first before we get into good stuff. So, the so cost reduction e efforts. Um again, as I mentioned, a number of folks have taken a taken advantage of the ear early retirement incentive and it's it's working. It's doing its job in terms of helping to set up the district to save some money to help get us through this uh our financial challenges. Um we do need to have a board meeting next week. So I think Mr. Fairhurst threw out some times possible. Did we agree on a time for a for a board meeting special? We have two people who will be
059absent out of town. And the question was, you know, can we tie them in with a cell phone or on laptop? They wouldn't be able to vote. They would not. They could certainly participate and listen to what's going on, but they would not be able to vote remotely. Comments and questions and but you need three to vote or do we need? You could have three to vote. Yeah, most three. Three is fine. Yeah. So, if we're okay with that, uh, yes, we did throw out, I believe, next Wednesday. Wednesday morning special meeting that day. Okay. So, at that point, 8 a.m. Okay. At the MEC. So, at that meeting, Mr. uh, Hosteller will provide the five-year forecast. We'll also have the final results of the early retirement incentive, okay, program. The deadline for that is
060this Friday and we'll be able to give you an update on some staffing and and and and and the five-year forecast. Okay. That will also tee us up. I'll jump to the last one as we start to look at uh levy, whether or not the board intends to put a levy onto the ballot in November. I know that that's where you're strongly leaning at this point. Um that will help us start to determine what type of millillage would be necessary for for a fall levy. um as as we move through that. So, that covers it. And then and then summer projects. I just want to give you an update. It's not going to be a extremely busy summer in terms of, you know, new projects, new constructions or anything like that, but we do have
061a number of things going on. Townage Elementary School. Um there's some some um some classroom modifications we're going to be doing there. Minor um helping to create more space. We have these collaboration steps that we're removing from classrooms just to get make make the spaces more useful and then also looking at some additional um separation walls there. Um we also be finishing baseball. You can see they're making good progress on baseball and then you know likewise just your typical cleaning and getting the buildings ready for uh for the fall. So that's that's summer projects. All right, let's skip to um good stuff. Um so it this is this is when it's you know this is such an awesome time of year. We're just so ex so so excited for really all of our kids K
062through 12. Um one thing I wanted to mention I should have put on here. It happened after our last board meeting. We did have the um Hall of Fame banquet. So I think we had seven new members to our Townage Athletic Hall of Fame. Big shout out to Bill Johnson and uh Ruth Anne for all the work that they did to get that event ready. It was a beautiful event and just a reminder of the legacy and tradition we have in Townage Athletics and and it's pretty awesome to see the kind of impact our coaches had on those adults and they look back and they talk about the impact our co our coaches had on them and their life that still affect them today is pretty awesome. So, graduation, the seniors. Um, well, the board
063got to enjoy that yesterday. We'll talk about the three E in a minute. But also just want to shout out thank you to really the whole team here at Townage High School. Mr. Her, uh, Miss P, Celia Bowser, Julia, Julie Hedrickk, um, Irene Stasac, all the teachers that were involved in just just all the end of year events that our kids enjoy. everything from prom to uh the senior parade to the give back day to, you know, on and on and on and on. There's so many things that um we get to celebrate our kids and just thankful to to the adults that go above and beyond to make those events successful. Middle school, I already talked about just how busy Kim Kim and Jeff have been over the last month with the trips. They've
064also done the grade level awards this week. All kinds of great things happen in Townidge Middle School for a strong end to the school year. And then last but not least, Townage Elementary School. We talked about uh kindergarten graduation and and also the um the the kindergarten um you know the new new kindergarten kids coming for evaluation. Um field days happening at the elementary school. So again, a lot of lot of things doing to have our kids finish the school year strong. So, Mr. Gwin, if you can go to the next slide, we'll talk about where our kids are going. So, I think we had 194 plus or minus one kids that graduated last night. Um, so again, thankful to everybody that was involved in the graduation ceremony at EJ Thomas last night. Enlisted. We
065have all four branches ma the main four branches of the military um represented. We have a student uh going to the Army, one to the Navy, one to the Air Force, one to the Marines. Uh there's 28 students that are going right to work. And when I say right to work, I mean, we have a kid that's going right into manufacturing engineering role at at Copen Engineering. I think you the board and uh some other folks saw some press about uh Gavin and his work with um with Copen Engineering in Kent. uh somebody that's joining the fire academy, police academy, going to electrician school, kids that are working in restaurants, kids that are working in construction, daycare, both for kids and adult daycare programs. So, pretty awesome uh careers that uh some of my kids
066graduating from high school are jumping right into. And then last but not least, of course, is our 172 of the 194 that are going to college. Um, and I I think that that math might not quite work close. Um, the uh what whatever the enrollment number is, I'll have to check my math. Maybe maybe it's closer to 155, but um we most of our kids end up going to Kent State. It's by far our largest university that we we send kids to. A lot of kids going to Akran. We have a large contingent of kids going to Ohio State this year. It's not always the case, but I think there's about 10 students that are going to Ohio State. Got BG, UO, Toledo, Baldwin Wallace represented this year. A good chunk of kids, I think
067there's four or five kids going to Mount Union, which is higher than normal for us. And then a lot of kids taking advantage of the low tuition at Stark State and TriC. So, really proud of our kids and um you know, another awesome group of town graduates. Any questions on that? I I did want to mention too that we are uh Kelly is working on a website um because she she's today sent to the printer the annual graduation flyer that we send out to our our all of Townage. So that'll be uh I think done on Friday and families should start seeing that next week. We're also setting up we're calling it the 3 website which will kind of display all this information for the last four or five years. So if anybody that's interested
068can come back and see like where what are our kids doing um that when they leave us here at Townage. So let's go back to the main slide. Mr. Gwen, please just close it out here. So athletics um I'll let House give updates. We got lots of kids participating in postseason. So I I think baseball, softball, track. House, what else we got going on? Uh basically that's it. Softball plays in the district finals tomorrow. The game got pushed back to six o'clock. So, it's 6:00 to 8 tomorrow or however long it takes us to win. So, hopefully that'll be quicker. And then our baseball team plays supposed to be at home, but we have Akran University running it out just in case that uh supposed to rain all day tomorrow. And then we got Jen
069Ross visiting us today because she was supposed to be at the districts tonight, but it's all the the the boys and girls, women and men are running on Friday at uh 3:00 at Austin Town Fitch. So, um I think that's it for sports, but yeah, but you know, great, very successful, uh uh just like the fall and winter sports, just a a great spring season. So, yeah. Mr. visitors and thank you for being here. Here's an opportunity. If you have a question or comment you like to offer, all we ask is come forward, say hello, state your name. Ross's mom from Savannah, Georgia. And I just want to tell you, I'm one of the people that lo every so I just want to tell you I'm very impressed all the time with what you guys
070do and the school system and my granddaughters, the education, the athletic department, the scholastics. I mean, just rocks. They don't do that in Savannah. You don't have to sit there and keep talking. We're so glad you're up here visiting. Thank you. Glad to be here. Uh, is there any other business to be talking about? Go ahead. Well, I I just wanted to uh I mean I the fact that can't make it next Wednesday. Uh I'd offer up Saturday as an option. Did Did you talk about that? uh for the fiveyear forecast. I because you're going out of town. I I'm leaving next Thursday. Yeah. So, we have to do it prior to Wednesday, but with two missing. I just didn't know if if you all discuss Saturday because I'd be glad to come in Saturday
071morning or whatever if that worked better for the board. I could make Saturday morning. I fly out the next day. I fly out at noon on Saturday, but I could make Saturday 8 o'lock. Okay. How long do we think this is or Friday? I mean, I I can have everything put together. The only thing I'm waiting on is the personnel because of the separation agreement. Once I have that, it's not hard to plug into uh the spreadsheet that I have. So, I guess what I'm saying is it won't take a long time once I have all the information that I need to to be ready. So, But that's Friday. The final information. Do do you need Saturday morning to do it or you do it Friday? On Friday, I'm fine. So I can meet Saturday
072at 8 a.m. starts at Is Friday at 4:00 an option? I will be. You will be gone. You'll be at the track all day. I'm okay at 8 8 a.m. Or I can do 7:30. Uh, do you want to do it earlier? 7 is 7 7:30 okay with you? Yeah, I'll I'll do whatever you guys I just feel bad that you know this is kind of pushed into a a very short time frame and part of that is is my leaving on Thursday, but that's not something that I can change. All right. Uh, we also have to make this public, correct? We have Well, we'd have time to announce. Okay. All right. So, if we have time to announce it and you're available, uh, and we are at 7:30 Saturday at the MEC, correct? I'd
073say we're good. Let's do it. Okay. Very good. Very good. I think I think Mr. Brian had something to say. I would comment. No. No. No. Please, by all means. Do you want me to actually come up? If you got a lot to say, come on up. All right. My name is John Brian and I'm a teacher here in Talmage. Uh first of all, you did an amazing job with your daughter and your granddaughters because they have led left a legacy into Talmage. And just speaking of legacy too, I have some more good news. Um I believe Mr. Davis, you attended last year or the year before the Soapbox Derby mini car race. Well, Tomage swept the competition again. So, we ended up with uh first place the fastest mini car, first place Shell design.
074Uh and this is a fifth grade competition and we're competing against other um schools in in Summit County. Um we had first and second place in our press release. And for our administration card, we always have um our administrators versus custodians. Four years in a row, um Sean Underwood has blown the competition away. Not only in our building, good news. Mr. Boots Carr did actually make it across the finish line this year. He was very happy with that result. Um, however, she won again at she blew again the competition away at um the Derby Downs. So, that was fun. The kids got to ride in a full-size soapbox derby car. They had pizza. They got huge trophies. So, we swept that one. So, that was a really good thing. Um, as the kids were, here's
075the second thing is as the kids were presenting, um, you know, I'm just like amazed at what they do. And sometimes, you know, as adults and being, you know, I know myself sometimes I can get cynical. However, Talmage historically has been known to be trailblazers and that is part one of the reasons I started in Talmage is that we looked at things differently and we like whatifs ask the whatifs. So, I think it's important that we listen to our young folks and you know, does it have to be an all or nothing thing? No. could we try it for a grading period just to see for the heck of it? Because while they were talking then I'm like okay let's go to the Scandinavian countries top scores they started at 8 or 8:30 Japan 8
076or 8:30. So I'm thinking, okay, maybe there is something to them. But as trailblazers, we were one of the first to bring up block scheduling, you know. Now, is that still the best thing after 20 years? I don't know, you know, but these are things that, you know, let's listen to the kids because sometimes they'll really outshine what my cynical mind would do. So, and that's all I have. So, thank you. Thanks. Thank you. the woman that runs that program Ohio Education Association of Education Award she does that program. Yeah. Her name's Linda Hubble out of um Columbus and she helps us get the grants to get the mini cars for the teams. Um they get to build them, design them, write press releases and then we race them. So she's been wonderful in that
077endeavor. So she did get the friend for the big It's a big Very good. We're uh last up ask for a motion to adjourn. I motion. I'll second. Uh Mr. Hostettler. A vote. Uh Mrs. I'm sorry. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mr. Lowry. I Mrs. Ross. Hi. Mr. Perelli. Hi. Mr. F. Hi. And thank you all.