001Good evening and welcome to the Vermillion Local School District Board of Education regular meeting of Monday, May 12th, 2025. This is a meeting of the Vermillion Board of Education in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business. It is not to be considered a public community meeting. There is a time for public participation during the meeting as indicated on the agenda. Vermillion board bylaw 0165.1. Call the role, please. Mrs. Zennis here. Mr. Benson here. Mr. Habermill here. Mrs. Steppp here. Mrs. Russell here. Mr. Freeman here. Miss Dodge here. All members present. Okay. Thank you. On to item three. Um, usually this is where we have our citizens of the month. There were some from VES for being trustworthy, but they're not here. So, we will still do the pledge. So, if you'll please
002stand. Give me a second. I'm just going to Yep. All right. 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. We need to use a flag over here. I think so, too. by Sean. Yes. Okay. Item four, legislative report. Yes, that would be me. Okay. Um, so last week at the state um in the Senate education committee that was pretty much dominated by uh public testimony on the state budget. So that continues this week as well. and uh and hopefully uh they can get something that is agreeable and passed in the near future. Um but they're going to they're going to pick back up on the 14th with additional hearings at the House uh
003committee. The House heard testimony on um House Bill 155, which would potentially prohibit um diversity, equity, inclusion in public schools. We also heard testimony on a bill House Bill 114 that would alter the age requirements for kindergarten admission. And then uh another one um showed that the house is hearing testimony on a bill that would excuse absences from school to participate in 4 and FFA programs. Um, and then there's another one too that that was highlighted that uh would raise the minimum number of school hours, although it doesn't say what they're proposing. So, um, but the one the other thing I wanted to highlight too, cuz there was it was in the I found it on the internet. I also found a a newspaper hour ago on it. the the governor's governor's office just uh
004passed an initiative called the statewide innovation waiver for college credit plus programs and it's it's designed to uh include uh career tech type programs in college credit plus. So, um, an example that they, you know, they it expands what's eligible for college credit plus and and else, uh, Lorraine Community College was one of three institutions in the state of Ohio to, uh, be approved to, uh, implement this. Um, one example is there's uh, some some students at Midview are participating in a new uh, career tech education pathway for micro electronic manufacturing. So basically what it what it leads to is a certificate and a and a qualification that they can graduate high school with and then they could move on to degrees in the subject from there. So it just expands what's available to kids
005for college credits. The only push back I heard on that is they were lowering the grade point average for eligibility. To me that that is not a problem. the the kids GPA, which is uh we can discuss how that's generated and whether it's accurate or not about the kids learning, but um they're probably not engaged. And if they get into something like this that they're interested in, they're going to be engaged in the GPA will go up and they'll be fine. So, I don't see that as a as a disqualification. And hopefully that's the reason that, you know, people are proposing to to lower it a bit. Right. Right. Get those kids. Thank you, Chris. Uh five, student leazison report. We do not have one for this month. And on to item six, student board
006member report. I have that one for this month. Um on Friday, uh we had students from VES, SMS, and VHS all participate in the local Special Olympics. I'm not sure where it was. I think it might have been a YA. Um throughout the week there was a spirit week. I know at the high school. I don't know if it was at the other schools. Was it at the other schools? Just the high school. Um Mrs. Okconor was the administrator that helped us um participate in the event. Um the high school had five participants that were in the event and then three students that went to help our participants. Um I think these events are super important to the overall student body. Um it helps people that sometimes feel like they can be left out and
007isolated um feel included in these events. Um and I think throughout my years here um I've seen more like inclusion of these events. I know that like when I got here I don't think we had something like this. And I think it's helpful to have something like this in our schools to help people that sometimes can't participate in sports have them to do this. Great point. Yeah. Very good. Thank you. Item seven, public participation on agenda items only. Have anybody? I don't think we have anybody. Okay. On to item eight, superintendent report andor recommendations. Yeah. Why not Matt? So, um, our principles are going to review their instructional core plans and tell us what they accomplished around those plans this year. All right. Um, I don't know, you know, earlier this year, we passed out
008our plans. I don't know if you guys have a copy of that with you today. We want the original copy, but I can just go over um the goals. Our first goal was in the area of rigorous and relevant curriculum. And our goal was that 85% of our students will make a year's worth of growth um on NWA Math in the area of reading and language arts this school year. Um we are just now starting to take that test right now this week. I I don't foresee us hitting the 85%. Um kindergarten has finished and we've seen seen their scores and it's looking um around 75%ish. There's still some tests to be done. they're going to hit their their own personal growth goal in kindergarten. Um, so what we'll do is once we get those
009those numbers back, we'll examine the data closely to see what patterns we can see in the scoring and try to identify some areas that we can address. Whether that's um our students working with our reading specialists, are they making larger growth gains than their peers who are who are staying within the classroom during our intervention blocks? Our high achieving students, are they being challenged? are we giving them rigorous enough curriculum that they're making that year's worth of growth within our GED classrooms and our tier one situations? So, those are kind of things that um once we get that data back, we'll examine. Um just as a reminder, Matt, so with the NWA, they take it in the fall when they come in, right? A few weeks into the school year. That's the baseline that says
010this is where you are now. There may have been a bit of a summer dip for for some students, but that's where they are. And then it projects out where they should be if they get a year's worth of growth at the end of the year. And that's where you're talking about your goal is to hit 85%. You're not sure what it is. It may be 75 or whatever, but that's how we are that's what you're talking about, right? Correct. Yeah. Correct. Um and so also along those lines, rigorous relevant curriculum. We did spend some time this year as a district doing a lot of reviewing and previewing um reading curriculum for our tier one. And as you guys you guys board approved the the new curriculum for next year, what we're hoping that we'll
011see and I I'm encouraged that we'll see is the the increased rigor and that program will start to see kids moving along quicker. Our math scores when you look at our kindergarten and first grade are the foundational skills piece. We really see really solid growth in scores always across the board. It's then when we start taking those Yep. We took those foundational skills and now we're turning those kids into fluent readers is where we seem to be running into that wall a little bit. And with this new curriculum, the phonics portion, the foundational skills portion is going to have kids working on decoding and reading words and things faster in kindergarten and and and doing that sooner where currently like foundations that's a second semester kind of skill to start decoding CBC words. um the
012new curriculum as they introduce the first five or six letters, they right away start making words with those five or six letters and start reading those words. So, this curriculum is going to help that start happening sooner with our students and then hopefully then we'll start seeing who needs support in that area sooner because right now all the information we get says, well, the foundational skills are looking great and then it's time to start reading and and we start. And this is why curriculum matters, right? The right curriculum matters in terms of of attaining student achievement. And even into first grade, they spend the the the curriculum we're currently using spends um the first 3 months going back over letters, sounds, and feeling CBC words. And our kindergarters are doing that right now. So spending
013that much time at the beginning of first grade working on those foundational skills, we're we're ready to move a little quicker. The kids are ready. with with with preschool and and and there's some who aren't and and that's where tier 2 intervention is for and so kids where they're at, but we have some that are ready to go and that's I think where the data when I say we'll look at that data and see those kids who are high achieving students at the beginning of the year are they making their years worth of growth and if our curriculum's not moving if they started here we're not moving them along because they're stuck waiting to catch up. So that's what that tier one deal having a little bit more rigor things will hopefully that need. Yeah.
014A quick question. So by increasing that rigor are you confident that to those students I know we're trying to to help those at the top those that are typically in the lower. Is it gonna increase frustration where I mean I know you can't tell but would that increase frustration where this is really hard, this is really fast, I can't get it and just shut down or or like you said, you've got all those things to help them along as well. Sure. We the district um put a lot of resources into that tier 2 intervention reading specialist. We devoted an hour long intervention block in each grade level that allows for that extra time without missing the new instruction. So, I think we got the things in place. It's kind of almost like we did it
015backwards. We started working on the tier 2 piece because it's what was there and and now we're trying to work on that tier one piece. Um, so I I I think we had to make a space to catch those students who are who are maybe needing that support aren't ready to to take off as quickly. Um, but when you're looking at K1 in the new curriculum, most of the things are read aloud and it's about read listening comprehension and it's still building the words. So, it's still a lot of independent reading, but the decoding piece takes place faster, sooner, we're introducing more difficult vowel patterns sooner like long vowel patterns that we don't normally see till Christmas to first grade are happening sooner in first grade. Okay. And to your question, um, that's where the
016four reading intervention specialists that we hired and then that's all they do all day every day to work with those kids at their zone of proximal development where, you know, right where they are, taking them from where they are instead of assuming they're here and trying to move them forward. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Just wondering, the next section, teacher knowledge and skill. Um, the goal is to continue implementing evidence-based data driven instruction allowing teachers to individualize their instruction for student needs. We spent so much time and resources in the past on getting our teachers trained in good science of reading um teaching and they've been working on using those those those skills. Um la this last year we focused on then what do we do with the data to help improve that in our future the
017data life cycle and that's been a little slower moving than I would like anytime we kind of change what we're doing in those team meetings sometimes it takes a little bit longer um but we've got now the teachers leading those discussions and it's because of the past when we go into those TVs and we're looking at the data they expect the leaders team to come in and say, "Here's what your data is. Let's talk about it." Now, we're using that data for more important discussions with the teachers to make those decisions as far as what students need, our intervention groups. So, there's been a lot of progress just in the ownership of that being taken over by the teachers by using that data process. And that's what that goal would be. you don't have in
018front of you, but the um objectives underneath the goal were talking about teachers analyzing their student data and collaborating with their teams to implement the different strategies. Um the teachers implementing the strategies they learned. So then using that data wise piece, then we're taking the strategies they learned, we're sharing them, we're taking the data they got, we're talking about it, figuring out what student needs. It was putting a process in place to take all the things that we had and start using it. It was a little slow going to get going as you change a process and it still has some kinks and it'll still be something we're working on next year. Um, but anytime you're in a a learning cycle, I think that's what you do. You're you're working on something. When it doesn't
019work, you revise and revisit. And so that's exactly what we number two work towards that. Uh, the third goal was the student engagement goal. Um we talked about improving student engagement by implementing strategies to promote active student participation. It's been a big discussion um all year. What does that look like? What is student engagement? Defining it. We did some PE this year, a little bit of time on that to really look at how we could engage the student more students more. Some of that time was used just um letting teachers share with each other what they were doing. We have some great resources within the building. Teachers getting a chance to talk to each other and see what each other are doing. um with instructional rounds, we made our um problem practice related to to
020student engagement and about opportunities to respond. So, how often students were replying and answering in class to keep them engaged in learning. You're not just sitting there not getting a chance to to actively participate. Um the numbers on that actually end up being much higher than I really would have thought and it really wasn't as big of a problem as practices that maybe we thought it was. our students in elementary school get lots of opportunities to talk and share. Um so really now as we're looking at student engagement, it's about trying to find more ways to incorporate student interests in what we're doing and and how do we get students, you know, learning with not just sit and get a little more hands-on and participating in their learning and collaborating with their peers. So again,
021there's going to be work to continue in those areas. Um, but I think we found out some of the things that we're doing well and some things we could change. See, that's that's one of the values of instructional rounds is like Matt said, they had he had this perception about what was happening in the classroom around student engagement and then we did the rounds and he found out that actually wasn't the issue that wasn't a problem. So that then you eliminate that as a factor and you move on, you know, and so it really is powerful for for seeing what's happening in the classroom. Yeah. And there was some hesitation. You know, sometimes teachers are are real private books and they live inside their bubble sometimes. But I think the response from um the staff
022having people in and seeing what other people are doing, they found the value in that. We try we get we made time. We made sure each of our teachers got out to somebody else's classroom last year. We want to try to make that just a a progress that uh a process that we include more of giving them the time to go watch each other and see what's happening in the other rooms. Thank you. Thanks, Matt. Thank you. I want some coffees for you. Might have to share a little bit. The magenta ran out just a little high. There's plenty. Yeah. Bunch of cards. Okay. So, at the beginning of the year, um, Mike, uh, presented to you guys because I was at my son's wedding. It was our first marriage in the family, and they
023got married out in Idaho. I had never been to Idaho before, so it was fun. It was a beautiful wedding and everything, but I am happy to be here tonight to present to you what we've done. All right. And as I prepared, I went over and I was like, "Wow, we really we were really rocking. We were doing a lot of stuff." So, I'm happy to show if I can get it. There you go. You want to point it at the computer, I think. Isn't the toggle in the computer? Yeah. Got it. So first for rigorous and relevant curriculum our goal was that grade level teams would implement data analysis of common assessments based on the item analysis and content areas and collaborate on best practices. One thing that Mike and I found when we
024came here for to Sailor was that the teachers do a phenomenal job collaborating. they really work together and so to do these common assessments several of the teams already had some of these in place and so we were pleasantly surprised to see okay what do you have and then what are we going to improve upon we did this mostly through our department level meetings that we had so like the first action step uh the SMS teachers administered one common assessment per unit and that was at least the one some did more than at and then for the second one we had oh it should be SMS and typo sorry teachers met to discuss data analysis and item analysis results per unit. So six and seven met during their AA time because we have some teachers
025who teach six and some during seven. So where fourth and fifth could do it during common planning the sixth and seventh would do it during their academic assist time. So let's let's make sure everybody knows item analysis. What that means is when you give a common assessment, in other words, if you have five teachers teaching the same subjects at the same grade level, um they're they're giving the exact same assessment. The way that the reason that's important is then you can see across the board, are the students getting it? What are they not getting? And one of the ways you do that is you look at every single test item and you look at how many students got it right, how many students got it wrong, and then you can that can inform your instruction.
026So that's item analysis is looking at every single test item and how did the students across the board perform on that item and that's why common assessments are important. Yeah, thank you Dr. H. Um the other piece too is that as a teacher look and they see well my like say if I'm a teacher and my students did this on the test and then the other teacher looks and they go oh they've done this then we can say wow your students really got that one that piece how did you teach that right? what were your strategies that you used so that I can then do those things to get my students to really understand it. And so through those discussions is where you really get those gains. Uh the fourth one is training on the
027writing revolution was provided during department meetings. Teachers incorporated strategies into their curriculum maps and daily lesson plans. So what that means is we have a new curriculum for next year with the writing revolution. So, it's all about how you incorporate your writing into it. All right? It's not a curriculum that you just go and you take the book and then you start off and you start teaching through it. What you do is you're picking different pieces that will then work for you and there's different strategies that you can use in the writing. And so um starting it throughout the whole district um Wes presented to our whole staff during those department meetings the training for it and even to like our specialist teachers got the training. Everybody got the training. So then that way when
028we do we look at writing it's crosscurriculum. Everybody's working on writing then. Any questions with that piece at all? So that was our first one. Our second one is on teacher knowledge and skill. So by May now um St. Louis Middle School teachers will fulfill the requirements for the science of reading training with implementation of one of the five pillars during instructional units. So phmic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. All those things that Matt was talking about for them to learn about how to read. Okay. So now we go into our first one was all teachers completed the science of reading training. Yes, I can say that all teachers completed because some we had to get after a little bit to be like okay come on let's let's get this done right. Um it's
029a really extensive training but it's a really good training and so there were different ways that teachers could get it. So a couple years ago we had letters training um which teachers did and the district paid for which was amazing and that's a really good training. So that counted as one of the science of reading trainings that the state is saying now that we all need to take. All right. So then the rest of us we ended up doing a science of reading course. So we've got like 71% of our people did that where 20% did letters and then there's keys to literacy and Wilson keys to literacy. just some other literacy things that you could do. All right. Um and even administrators, you know, take the take the course too. Um so next is
030um then teachers would submit their syllabus and certificates and verify that completion. You would have um we did just a Google form for the teachers just to get the information of which way they did it to get their training. And then along the school too, there we go. All right. Um was a team of teachers created a bank of comprehension strategies. So what we did was we relied on our reading specialist to come up with, you know, like those strategies and things and then teachers can pull from that because we're focusing on that comprehension piece. All right? We're, you know, They still work on some phonics and phenemic awareness some with those tier 2 kids that kind of thing but for the most part kids are looking more at that comprehension. Uh next one is
031teachers utilize the bank of comprehension strategies and reviewed and discuss implementation during department meetings common assessments that data would measure that effectiveness. Like Matt said we are just currently doing our MAT testing so we don't have those results for you. I was hoping to have those but um just because of the time of the state testing and then trying to get math testing in uh progress monitoring is completed every two weeks with the acadian program and that's used to drive comprehension instruction. So those are our tier 2 kits. So they're testing them. So they're getting a small group, they're getting those interventions and then they're getting tested every two weeks to see, okay, what progress have we made? Okay, do we need to switch them in a group? Do we need to switch up what
032we're doing with them? Any questions? [Music] Student engagement. All right. So, um, for student engagement, this is very similar, uh, to what Matt was talking about as far as, you know, we looked at engagement and we started to talk about engagement. And we realized pretty quickly on that, um, we didn't all think of engagement as the same thing. All right? So, we were like, we've got to figure out what this is and define this and and so then that way when we talk about it, we're all talking about those that same stuff, right? Because otherwise, we're thinking different things. So what we did was we got a book and so we can learn more and so we got our book um Confronting the Crisis of Engagement and so as a staff we all read the
033book and we learned from the book and um then we would discuss it. So like at our department meetings, Mike and I would meet with the teams and we would um just talk about the chapters. We broke it into three sections of the book and we would just talk about that and it was just more that discussion piece but through that common themes started to come out. So as I'd meet with the you know the um ELA department common themes would come out math department all a suen you're hearing kind of very similar things. So then we started to piece together what we thought was like you know pretty relevant for us. And so the second one was that we we rewrote the definition of student engagement because we had this definition but it just
034really wasn't working for us. So now we have a common definition of student engagement. The next thing that we did was we implemented student engagement strategies um started and we we'll continue this into next year. Okay. So for example, some of the things that came out of the book, the teachers were already like, I want to do that now, which is pretty amazing. So example would be like there's learning intentions like uh like how you're learning, what you're learning, why you're learning, and those questions are really important for a student to understand those concepts. Another just um strategy is a think, pair, share where you think about it, you turn to your partner, and you share it. Another one was like four corners where you have the different um topics things for the four corners
035or sentence starters because but so the sentence starters also relates back to the writing revolution. So that's another thing. So like it it all kind of intertwines which is what reading does. Okay. Um so our next thing is um implementation was measured during instructional rounds with goals for 2526 school year. So what we did then was we went and for instructional grounds we said all right we're focusing on engagement all right like the elementary did too and then we said we're going to like break this down into these strategies of engagement. So how are students engaging? Are they engaging with technology with movement collaboration with responsive thinking or choices and making connections? Those were our our key ones that we looked at. And after we did our instructional rounds, then all the teams, you know,
036shared out what they saw. You know, like Dr. House said, you never know. You know, you think it's one way, but it might be something else. So, they shared what they saw. And really for us, it was all about there was a a lot of collaboration going on and there was a lot of responsive thinking going on, which was good. We actually because we were doing the um the learning intentions, the how, but why, we then had the people who came around for instructional rounds, pick a couple students in the class and they would just on the side ask them. All right? So, how you know like your questions of you like what are you learning today? All right. Why are you learning it? How will you know that you learned it? All right. Well,
037some of the kids were pretty cute, especially those fourth graders. You know, when you talk about like how will you know? You know, they kind of look at you like, well, duh. Like, you just know, right? Um, but so then we we started to dig in a little deeper and we were like, okay, so can they answer these questions? Well, what are you learning today? Okay, why are you learning this? How will you know? And so um the staff really felt that those were really key to see if the students were engaged or not. And and we found out through instructional rounds, you know, a lot of different um like say we found the you would rank the effectiveness sorry of the strategies. So we would say like are these strategies working? So some of
038the things that came out of it were things like we the team felt that if the teachers really had those refined lessons all set and ready that the students were way more engaged. Okay? And so that's what we did was we found certain commonalities with things that seem to intertwine. Right? Um which then what we'll do is next year we will base our goals on what we're going to do then from the book study what we're going to do from the information from instructional rounds and then we plan our goal for next year. Um one thing that we looked at too with the book that I found really interesting was just that there's these um there's these barriers. Okay. And we all know it. We all have the student in class who's sleeping or we
039have the student in class who's just not into it, you know. So, so we talked about different barriers to learning and and then what are some things that we can do that you know what's the barrier and what's the teaching teaching approach is kind of how they worded it. So, how can the teacher approach that student and what can we do to make that difference? Any questions on that? What is the definition that you rewrote? You rewrote the definition of student engagement. What is the new definition? Yes. The new definition is student engagement is the active involvement of all students in the learning process marked by elements such as active listening, collaboration, and genuine discourse. That's very good. Yeah. Great. Anything? Any questions? And think about it. You had to you had to write the
040definition. You had to because everyone had their own definition. Every teacher has their own idea of what that is. And unless you do something like this, you're never on the same page. You're never focused on the same concept. And and so you can't get to where you want to go because everybody's going a different direction. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. So, thank you for this. Um, I know the assessments haven't happened yet, right? But like what is what are your guys' gut telling you that? I mean, do you feel like the the students are going to show progress or or do you think there's a gap? I mean, do you think there's more work to do? Um, there there's always there's always more work to do. There's always more
041work to do. Okay. But my gut tells me that the students are going to show growth. Okay. And and that's what we want. So, you believe like the actions that were taken as a result like that were effective, right? Correct. Absolutely. Absolutely. They also have to be refined, you know. I mean, this is you just started doing these things this year, you know, they have to be practiced in the classroom with with the students and and it takes time to refine that process to to make a difference. Yeah. Yeah. Because sometimes you want it overnight and it doesn't just always happen that way. But you know I also know that um you know coming in new um there was a lot of challenges okay with with the staff the staff had gone through a lot
042right um but just the difference in the environment and in people's attitudes and they they just you know I can't express enough how like how much happier they are and how much they feel like okay they're supported and that that will listen to them, you know, and and that goes a long way. And that there's direction. There's a direction. Yes. And and there is and there is that direction and they know that and they know that I'm a collaborative leader. Okay. However, there's a point in time some things where you just don't need collaboration where a decision just has to be made. And they also know that I'll just make that decision too. Okay. Um but I will also listen and and and um value what what their input is. Thank you guys. Matt, I
043did it the first time. So, um, two years ago, well, I should say now, um, when Dr. H and Mr., they um directed us to really delve into that curriculum and do some um take a hard look at what we are teaching our kids because as Dr. Kyle stated before that is one of the most pivotal things to learning. Uh and so we have been on this progressive cycle of revising our priority standards in each of the core content areas, asking those essential questions, um doing our curriculum maps, and then this year we kind of moved to the stage of looking at our assessments. Um we really looked to one assessment for each of the courses during the department. It's easier said than done. So we used a uh a rubric and everybody in the
044department wrote brought a summitative assessment that they use in the classes that they teach. Um and then they evaluated that rubric and made revisions. But what we were looking for is does the assessment actually measure the priority standard and determine a student's learning. And again that task is it's easy to say but it's more difficult. And that leads to a lot of good conversation with the teachers in the department as to what constitutes a good test question is does that question actually do what it's intended to do and does that determine whether or not for the teacher whether the student has learned that information. So that is been a cyclical process and we're going to keep working at that but we get did get to the point where we're evaluating each other's assessments in department
045meetings this year and I'd love for that work to continue. um and then start looking at student work samples as a response to those assessments just that will give a lot of good information as to you know is this instrument actually measuring what we needed to measure and is it aligned to our priorities I think that's a really important point we take just giving tests for granted writing tests is is a science and you know what teachers don't get taught how to do it in college you you you do what was done to you if you're a math teacher and you took all those math classes you come and you do the same thing to your students, but there's a science to it and you really need to put a lot of thought into the
046the the assessments that you're giving students because it tells you where they're learning the curriculum. And uh a lot of times we don't we just really give short shift to that. It's important. Yeah. And the good conversations about like does it take 30 or 50 questions to assess understanding of a priority standard or can it be done you know in fewer questions like what does it take to actually measure that learning? So, um, those conversations were had this year in department meetings and they were very powerful and hopefully that they will continue um to share. Again, you know, to Matt's point earlier, it's easy to kind of get isolated in your own classroom and not feel comfortable with visiting each other's classrooms, looking at lessons, evaluating each other's assessments, especially if they were written by
047yourself because, you know, it's it's a vulnerable thing to do, but it's very very very important. Um the second goal that we had was that um teachers would use explicit instruction every 60% of the time and observe lessons. Aside from the district level instructional rounds that we did, we actually did building level instructional rounds for first semester and the second semester. Um the first semester we were like great, they have a learning target in mind and that was part of the explicit instruction, but there's a lot more pieces and parts to it besides just like a learning target. Um, so second semester we actually broke it down a little bit. And for those of you who might not be as familiar with explicit instruction, it is a tried andrue researchbased time and time again method
048of teaching where you tell exact the students exactly what they need to know, what they're going to have to do in order to demonstrate their knowledge of that. Um, and then you model it for them. You show them, you model it for the students. You practice it together. You allow to do allow them to do it on their own. and then you check for understanding your assess. So second semester um we wanted to get more um granular with the data and so we found 75% of the time in observed lessons there there was a clear learning target. So if you ask students hey what are you learning? They were able to answer that question. Um about 65% of the time we saw literacy students reading writing or engaging in conversation about the standards in the
049lesson. um about 32% of the time it was the I do, we do, you do what I just described for you is a very proven method of instruction and then um checking for understanding or assessment within the lesson about 60% of the time. So 75 the really one the only one that hit that 70% target um was the was the learning objective. So, we'd like to bring the rest of those up to um at least 70% over the next couple years. And then finally, student engagement. We've been obviously doing a lot of work with student literacy as you are aware and which was highlighted in both Matt and Mindy's um plans for their building as well, especially with regard to the writing revolution. And when you look at the literacy practices that our students are
050engaging in in the lessons on a day-to-day basis, writing is a little less less so than the other two. So there's the most would be student discourse about the topic followed by uh reading and then writing about 32. But when you look at literacy overall, whether it's writing, reading, or engaging in a debate or conversation about a topic in the classroom, we went from about 45% of that being observed in October of this year to 65% being observed um as of early May this year. So that was some good growth in that area. And I think I really attribute that to um the work that the teachers have done. Um Mr. Weaver led um instruction on the writing revolution and then um the English department actually took the teachers into breakout groups and gave them
051some one-on-one instruction with some um powerful literacy strategies um to help students write. So that hopefully that time will continue to go up. It's gone up this year. questions. Thank you. Thank you very much. You know, you all know that we're losing Jen. Jen is is moving on. Um she is an incredibly skilled instructional leader and the things that she just described to you are not happening in most high schools in Ohio. People are not watching their teachers teach. They're not analyzing their instruction. They're not trying to determine where where can we get better every single day in our classrooms across the entire school. Um, and it's very rare. So, I I applaud Jen for that effort and um we're going to we're going to miss your leadership, Jen. Yes. Thank you. [Applause] Anything else?
052And that's it. All right. Well, thank you guys. All right. Item nine, treasures report andor recommendations. Justin, thank you. Um, hey, recommend a resolution to the board to approve the financial report for April 2025, and that's attachment A. I'll move. I'll second. All right. So starting off with revenue, uh taking a look at our general fund through the month of April, we we have received 26.5 million in general fund revenue compared to 24 million at this time last year and 24 million in fiscal year 23. Uh we did receive our homestead and roll back from Erie County this year in April whereas the last two years we received that in May uh for those two years. So we are off a little bit there. Um, however, the district will collect more tax revenue this year
053compared to previous years, and that is because of property reappraisal and Ohio law. Uh, moving on to food service revenue, through the month of April, we've received $687,000 compared to 701,000 at this time last year and 717,000 in fiscal year 23. A food service should continue to collect its historical average revenue. Looking at all funds through the month of April, we've received 29 million in all funds compared to 26.8 at this time last year and 26.6 in fiscal year 23. On the expenditure side, looking at our general fund through the month of April, we've expended 22.2 million from the general fund compared to 22.2 million at this time last year and 22 million in fiscal year 23. uh the district can expect to spend slightly more this year than it did last year. And below
054is a breakdown of the individual general fund costs year-over-year. So if you take a look there, our salaries are up a little bit this year. Um our insurance and retirement is right in line with where it was historically. Uh purchase services are down slightly. Supplies are in line with where they were last year. Capital outlay is in line with where it was last year. That is going to go up. We have two buses that have been purchased. It just we haven't uh we haven't sent them we haven't received invoices I should say for those two buses just yet. Um our debt and interest payments are down a little bit. Um and then our other objects are up slightly from last year. So there's the breakdown of the 22.2 million compared to the 22.2 last year
055and then the 20 mill 22 million in fiscal year 23. Uh looking at food service through the month of April, we've expended 892,000 compared to 757,000 last year and 732,000 in fiscal year 23. Uh as such, our spending this year should be slightly higher than our historical averages. And then when we look at all funds for the month of April, we've expended 24.9 million this year compared to 25.9 last year at this time and 25.2 in fiscal year 23. Um, so on the cash side of things through the for the general fund through the month of April, we have a total of 20.5 million in cash compared to 19.1 at this time last year and 20.9 in fiscal year 23. Uh, again, part of that is also skewed a little bit just based on the
056timing of receiving homestead back. That's a $600,000 check from Mary County. Um, and then looking at food service cash through the month of April, uh, we have a total of 196,000 in cash compared to 360,000 last year and 363,000 in fiscal year 23. Um, and then all cash for all of our funds through the month of April, we have a total of 23.6 million compared to 22.6 million in last year and 25.7 in 23. Uh, the next page is a breakdown of that 23.6 6 million by fund. Uh the vast majority of it is in the general fund. Uh the second largest fund actually is our scholarship fund which has $1.8 million in it. And then on the investment side, uh through the month of April, we've earned a total of $599,796.32 in interest compared
057to $527,9525 at this time last year. It's a difference of just under $72,000 or 13.6%. 6% more in interest this year than last year. Any questions? Call the role, please. Mrs. Inennis, yes. Mr. Benson, yes. Mr. Habermill, yes. Mrs. Steppp, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Mr. Freeman, yes. Miss Dodge, yes. Motion approved. 5-0. B. Recommend a resolution to the board to approve the following donations. $1,000 from Dodd uh Don Babson to the Ed Babson scholarship fund and $1,520 from athlet Vermillion Athletic Boosters to National Honor Society. I'll move. I'll second. Okay. Call the RO, please. Mrs. Inennis, yes. Mr. Benson, yes. Mr. Haba, yes. Mrs. Stepp, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Mr. Freeman. Yes. Miss Dodge. Yes. Motion approved. 5-0. C. Recommend a resolution to the board to approve the creation of the 070 capital projects fund.
058And that is attachment B. I'll second. So the 070 capital projects fund if you remember um I want to say it was back in uh the board passed a resolution establishing an 070 capital projects fund. Uh the reason we established that fund was so we could transfer $2 million from our ESSER funding from a reduction of expenditures from our salaries. Transferred $2 million to that 070 capital projects fund. That $2 million went to replace the roof at SMS and replace the entire HVAC system at uh SMS. Um that fund still exists, but that was established where we could only transfer $2 million. This one will allow us to transfer any amount that we wish um up to a limit of $11 million. And so we just based on the way the forecast is working. And
059because we didn't pass the bond, we will need to transfer money out of that to cover some of these immediate needs. And in doing so, we need to have more of a transfer than $2 million, which our first resolution would allow. So we had created a second resolution to do that with. Okay. Does that make sense? Yes. Okay. Any questions? Okay. Call the role, please. Mrs. Inennis, yes. Mr. Benson, yes. Mr. Habermild, yes. Mrs. Steppp, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Mr. Freeman, yes. Miss Dodge, yes. Motion approved 50-0 and D. Recommend a resolution to the board to approve the 5-year forecast. And that is attachment C. I'll second. That's it. Okay. I'll go up here for this one. [Laughter] Yeah, it works. All right. So, the purpose of 5 um is really for three things. It's
060to establish the board of education in the community involving planning and discussions of financial issues facing the school district. Uh number two is to serve as the basis for determining the school district's ability to sign contracts associated with continued operations. And number three is to provide a method to the department of education and the author's office to identify potential financial problems. You know, I don't know if I'm sure have everybody change it before you do the we had $427 million in property. Good catch. And in 2024, we had 696 millioness. So in the last 10 years total property values assessed property values that include your residential agriculture uh commercial and your utilities they have increased by 63%. Um and actually 25% of that increase happened in 23 to 24 this last year. So the next
061thing to cover here is just current millillage. You know how does all of this work? So what we have is the district has four current expense levels. Uh they were passed in 1976. That was the very first levy passed in New Million. And then from 89 929 after those current expense levies were passed uh in 2008 the district actually 2006 and then in 2008 uh passed an emergency. Emergency less is a little bit different than a current expense levy. An emergency levy is just a fixed sum. the dollar amount rather than rather than current expense levies which are so these are our current expense levies. Um as property values increase our effective millage gets reduced so that the uh levies generate the same revenue that they did when they were first passed. So if you
062look at 20 uh 2018 total effective millillage 20.28 20.28 20.20 two and then 20 mils. 2021 is when we um effectively hit our 20 mil floor. And so again, what that means is that in 2018, it took 20.28 mills to generate the full dollar amount and its property values continue to rise. The effective mill rate just keeps getting reduced. So it can only collect the same amount of money it did when they first were passed. So, here's our historical property tax collection. And what I want you to focus on is the blue bar at the bottom there. The blue bar is our property taxes. Exactly what we were talking about before time to assess value, time to check sometime. So, I'll see if she get otherwise. Let's just do that. So, this is talking to
063my pages 6 71 schools flat uh since because in 1976 the Ohio legislation legis rise through updates. generate the same amount of money. Shortly after they pass that, they passed House Bill 920 was passed to ensure that's correct. The Ohio legislature enacted the 20 bill floor was designed to assist districts that historically had difficulty passing new operating laws. Uh the thought really behind this legislation was that a school district needs to have a minimum of 20 mills uh to operate and that house bill 920 does not have an off switch so to speak. Uh school districts that cannot pass uh will not have the revenue operating in the future. So the 20 mil floor it works as an off switch for house bill 920 by bringing effective mills back up to 20 mills. So to
064give you an example, if the school district has 20 effective mills and an increase in property value results in a 2 mil reduction and they're on the 20 mil floor, um the uh legislation would add 2 mills back so as not to go below that 20 floor. Um this is what has happened in 2021 because it's been so long since the school district has asked for additional operating funds. Our millage has been reduced below the 2024. The additional revenue the school now collects is done so because of the language in Ohio law. And you can see that increase. We went from 13.3 million in 2024 to 14.5 million in 2025. Uh the other thing to note back a slide here. So I was just looking at this and again our our first current expense was
065passed in 1976. From 1976 to 1993, we passed four current expense levies and that was 17 years. From 1993 to 2008, we passed one and that was 15 years. We haven't passed an operating level levy since 2008. So less than 17. So really in the last 32 years, we have passed one operating since 199. So something to keep in mind. These things are cyclical as they go along. That is the local side of funding. Now we'll move over to the state side of funding. Um, state revenue is still being discussed as part of my budget and and because it is so unclear at this time. Uh, I have our state revenue in the forecast state. Uh, this could change if the fair school funding plan is fully implemented or if the governor's proposal isn't governor's
066proposal. He actually proposed to reduce $100 million in public funds. So we are somewhere in between the fair school funding plan being implemented 100% and losing $100 million. And I'm not sure which way that's going to go. Um so because of that we've just kept it flat in this forecast. Uh we'll make updates obviously when the budget does get passed sometime in July or shortly before July. Um and those changes will be reflected in this November forecast. For those of you following along, this will be on page 14 of the council. This is historical forecast. So forecast this year because of us being on 21 housing prices annual value moving forward and because of that revenue as well. 2025 moving on to the expenditure side matters that's the forecast that's on our go. Uh, one
067of the things that stands out in this in this slideshow here is is 2022, right? We went from 12 million down to 10 million in salary and we shot back up to 14 million. Um, we didn't change staffing levels. Nothing really changed. It was just how it was allocated. Uh I've already mentioned this and I'll link to it again but this is the reduction of expenditure that we received back from ESSER funding and then we took that reduction of expenditure reduced our salaries for it and then made that transfer that's why we established that 070 no capital projects fund transfer that money and put back fun um that's why it was so down and then it jumped up quite a bit there because missing just over $2 million uh that was a year that we
068also were making 27 payments is at 26 instead of 26 and then in 2023 we moved to 2014. So 2023 includes one extra payment that wasn't included in 2022. So in this year um I have built our contractual negotiated salaries into these estimates for uh years 26 and 27. Um, and then in 28 to 29, I have built in a 0% raise uh for staff in there just to keep everything as as conservative as we can on that. Moving on to the employee benefit side, this is AC. Uh, health insurance, the biggest cost driver in this category. Uh, last two years, health insurance costs have increased by 9% in the last two years and this year, starting in July, it's going to go up 6.25%. Now some of the things we don't have a lot
069of control on how we can mitigate some of these costs but one of the things that we have done is we are a member of consortium lake mutual council it's a council of government and we are in that consortium with 11 other school districts in Line County. Uh we've joined that so that we can mitigate the increases and what we do is we pull all of our assets all of our resources and we spread that risk amongst all 11 school districts not just us. So if we have a catastrophic event, it's not going to affect us. That that cost is spread out amongst 11 other school districts with the pool assets that they have. Uh joining a consortium like that greatly reduces our risk. We're too small to be selfinsured. Um and it's very difficult
070to shop consortium. In the forecast, I anticipate a 6% increase just to the health insurance uh side alone. That's why you're seeing the cost rise. Uh purchase services, this will be page 17 in your template. Uh purchase services include amongst other things, services for special education. This includes our water, our sewer, our gas, our electric. Uh this includes technology purchases, laptop purchases, leases, insurance, um not health insurance, but property casualty insurance. And again, I have this going up 3.2% % forecast uh just trying to follow the rate of inflation. Next page page 19 is used for assets that last longer than 5 years. Um we purchased a van and we purchased two buses handicapped and a regular passing bus this year and we anticipate to do the exact same thing next year as well. Um
071we uh starting in 2027, we plan on retiring and replacing one bus each year after that. It helps with the like life cycle costing. You don't want to um buy six buses in one year because 10 years from now, you're going to buy another six buses in one year. It's much easier to buy one and retire one as they go along. Next page is your families. And I haven't really spoken much on this long in the forecast because historic, but we've never really needed to discuss this. Um, you can see in 2022 there's that $2 million transfer made to uh for the new group to our new roof in Hback Middle School. However, in this forecast, uh, in 2025, we have a $2.65 million transfer. And then 2026, we have a $1.635 million transfer. So,
072you're seeing these transfers because, you know, our bond levy did not pass and we will need to use the general fund to replace the high school roof and to replace other uh replace and and prepare for other areas of the district uh that need to be replaced, refernished, um cleaned up. Um that $7.6 million transfer to the 070 capital projects fund which you just approved. And then also next year $6 million transfer. Um there is legislation right now. This doesn't change really anything. Um but there is legislation out there right now will uh basically what it's doing is it's saying that if the school district carries anything over 30% of its operations in cash that they're going to give the budget commission the authority to not collect taxes in that amount. And so for us
073that doesn't have a PI levy, that doesn't have a bond levy, that has to use his general fund to buy new roofs that are valued somewhere between $4 and $7 million, that puts us in a bind. If you took away um a 30% cash carry over $29 million, we have to buy a $7 million roof, that completely wipes us out. So what we're doing is instead of again, I don't know where the legislation's going to go. I don't know if that's going to pass. I don't want us to be in a position to ever have to lose any tax money for something that is that we saved up long and and hard for uh and fiscally responsible for um to have to do this. So, so we're going to transfer that out. Making this transfer
074this year puts us right at that 30% threshold. Um and it also earmarks that money for these projects if we are unable to pass a bond that we will need to have to tap into. And Justin, from that fund, can the money ever be transferred back to the general fund? Correct. So in that fund, when you establish an 070 capital projects fund, it's only for 10 years. Project doesn't happen within 10 years, that money automatically is returned back to the general fund where the funding sources came from. Uh the board also has a at any point in time board wishes to abolish that no capital projects fund, you can. And that money will return right back to the general. So on page 23 list the entire forecast. Uh on page 23 what I'm talking about
075now is specifically line 6.010. What this is this is your revenues over expenditures. And so the blue line is our revenue. The red line is our expenditure. Take a look there. You can see that large spike. Um again that's the transfer but we have expenditures over revenue since 2022 and we are projected to continue this trend in future years. Um in future years we'll need to to bring expenditures down to our revenue levels uh which will reduce our current service level or we will need to pass an additional operating uh to bring our revenue up to our levels. Now, passing a bond light will even out the spikes that you're seeing on here in 2025, 2026, and it will also prolong needing additional operating limit for five, six years out. Looking at page 23 again,
076I'm going to give you the snapshots. There's a lot of numbers in in uh page 23, but really this breaks it down to the total revenue, total expenditures, results of operation, and our beginning ending cash balances. So if you look uh the main thing that you look at in the forecast is obviously your total revenue, total expenditure, but more importantly, is your revenue greater than your expenditures? And so that's what line uh that's what the line 6.0 is, the results of operations. And so in our results of operations, we're deficit spending in 2025 by $7.8 million and then we're deficit spending in 2026 by $2.3 million. Now, a lot of those are from the transfers, 1.6 million, and $7.6 million in transfers. Um, but in 2027, 2028, and 2029, we're deficit spending by 1.4, $1.9.4
077million. Um those are reflections of current staffing levels and current operations. That's us saying whatever is happening today is what we're going to continue to do for this entire forecast period. Um if we were to do that, we will be in a fiscal deficit by 2030 without making any changes again to our current operational levy that operational our operations and how we're doing things. Uh and in passing a bond we will extend that fiscal deficit. So right now, if we have to if we are unable to pass a bond and we are to continue with the same level of service that we're providing right now in 2029, we will be ending that year with $13,000. So that's a far cry from when we started this year at 16 million. uh a lot of these capital
078projects are eating up a lot of this money and uh our reserves and and we're unable to uh have any other funding source other than general funds to govern this. So final comments um on the forecast side here. There's a lot of things that could happen in five years uh particularly with staffing, particularly with operations, particularly with with passing bond and everything else. These numbers aren't set in stone. This is just a projection of what could happen if everything stays the same or we're unable to make any changes. Um the district need to invest in its infrastructure component using the general fund. Uh without having a dedicated funding source for replacements, the general fund will be tasked with paying for these replacements. Also the district we need to allow attrition staffing to take place as
079our expenditures continue to climb and enrollment continues to decline. Um then again out of the 611 school districts in Ohio, 518 school districts have a permanent improvement levy. 432 of them have a bond levy. The number of schools in Ohio that operate without a bond or permit improvement levy total is 56 with a million being one of them. Uh passing a levy that dedicates money to infrastructure will extend our cash reserves further than the current forecast right now which again ends us with $13,000. So, I'm not trying to sound off any alarms, but I am trying to make everybody aware that at the current level that we're operating right now without passing a bond will not be able to continue. Any questions? Thank you, Justin. Thank you. Thanks, Justin. Appreciate the detail. Any questions? Call
080the RO, please. Mrs. Inis, yes. Mr. Benson, yes. Mr. Habermill, yes. Mrs. Steppp, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Mr. Freeman, yes. Miss Dodge, yes. Motion approved. 5-0. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Thank you. Item 10, consent agenda. The superintendent and treasurer recommend that the board of education approve the consent agenda items. Action by the board of education in adoption of the consent agenda means that all items are adopted by one vote unless a member of the board, the treasurer, or the superintendent requests that any such item be removed from the consent agenda and voted on separately. Item A, approve the minutes of the regular meeting of April 14th, 2025. B. Recommend a resolution to the board to approve the service agreement for 202526 with the ESC of Northeast Ohio positive education program for educational services per pupil
081per day from $322 to $484. C. recommend a resolution to the board to approve the 2025 2026 uh services with the Murray Ridge Center Lorraine County Board of Developmental Disabilities. D. Recommend a resolution to the board to approve the frontline education renewal for the 2025-26 school year for the applicant tracking and absence and substitute management at a cost of $9,218.96. E. recommend a resolution to the board to approve the 202526 school nursing contract with the Erie County Health Department at a cost of $54 per hour. F recommend a resolution to the board to approve the 202526 meta master service agreement for performing fiscal support for state software emiss support cy support for powers school IEP Anywhere and info Ohio library services at a cost of $43,568. G. Approve the preschool agreement with Lorraine County Board
082of DD Murray Ridge for admission of preschool age students with disabilities at $8,000 per student if utilized. H. Approve the 202526 service agreement with the North Point Educational Service Center for Special Education Services, OTPT, Speech Services, Educational Assistant, and other services. I approve the employment action resignation. Jennifer Bengal, VHS principal, effective June 30th, 2025. And for retirement, Kimberly Schultz, VES, grade 1, effective May 31st, 2025. Lisa Murray, Sailor Way, fifth grade, June 30th, 2025. That's an updated item. And Jay Lucasco, VHS, assistant principal, effective August 18th, 2025. J. Approve the one-year additional duties contract for 2025 7th grade Chicago trip to Mike Palm. K. Approve the one-year additional duties contract for 202526 to Sawyer Schaffer, VHS head girls volleyball coach. L. Approve the one-year supplemental contract for the 202425 school year to Britney, winter winter
083guard advisor. M. Approve the 2024-25 summer worker contracts for the following uh Mati Howell and Rean Massie and approve the one-year certified. Is that is that the correct? Is that would it be for next year? Is it for this summer? It's for this summer. It's this coming summer. So um well I think she's using fiscal year for that. So just it'll be for the summer of 2025. Okay. So you're okay with those dates that way? Okay. Leave it. Okay. N. Approve the one-year certified limited contract for the 202526 school year to the following as listed. O. Approve the 2-year certified limited contract for the 202526 school year to the following as listed. P. Approve the continuing certified contract beginning with the 202526 school year to Katherine Cretchmar, grade four. Q. approve up to 20 hours
084at the $34 per hour project rate for preschool evaluations and IEPs between uh June 1st through August 15th of 2025 to Lake Tester, Michelle Wentworth, Kristen Shon are approve up to 35 hours at the $34 per hour project rate for preschool evaluations between June 1st through August 15th of 2025 to Laura Moyer s approve Approve up to 56 hours of extended service at the PDM rate from June 1st through August 15, 2025 to Stephanie Atwater and Cheryl Weaver. T approve up to 16 hours at the $34 project rate for special education planning from June 1st through August 15th of 2005 to Marina Jasinto, intervention specialist. U approve 11 hours of extended service at $364 for county fair appearances up to to Claire Valagi. V approve up to 15 hours for scholarship IEPs and up to
085eight hours for summer services at the project rate of $34 per hour from June 1st through August 15th, 2005 to Katie W. Approve up to 55 hours at the PDM rate of $46.68. 68 cents per hour from June 1st through August 15th, 2025 for evaluations to Brooks Baffford. Any items to be removed from the consent agenda? No. Okay. I need a motion. I'll second. Made you work tonight. Pardon me. Maybe you work tonight. Yeah. Um, any questions? All right. Call the RO, please. Mrs. Inennis, yes. Mr. Mr. Benson, yes. Mr. Habermill, yes. Mrs. Steppp, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Mr. Freeman, yes. Miss Dodge, yes. Motion approved. 50-0. Okay. On to item 11. Dates and location of upcoming board meetings. Meetings will be held in the Vermillion High School Commons unless otherwise noted. Monday, June 9th,
086Monday, July 14th, and Monday, August 11th. And item 12, public participation. We do not have anybody listed, so we will move right along. Uh, item 13, adjournment. I'll move. I'll second. Call the RO, please. Mrs. Inennis, yes. Mr. Benson, yes. Mr. Haber, yes. Mrs. Steppp, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Mr. Freeman, yes. Miss Dodge, yes. Motion approved. 5-0. Time is 7:17 p.m.