001Thank you. Will you all please join me in the pledge to the flag 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. Yes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Farah Thomas. >> So, I'm gonna turn it over to Mr. Weber and take it from there and we're All right. Good evening everyone. >> Thank you so much for coming uh coming in tonight and and for being flexible and adjusting your schedules. Uh I we had a little bit of a snowstorm last week uh and that's uh kind of got things a little bit goofed up. Uh kids and some adults. Um I think they've reduced any chance of snow for tomorrow. So don't worry about it. Get to bed
002on time. Everything is going to go on as planned tomorrow. if you have any special ideas. >> Um anyway, this is a special recognition. We are excited to do this. Uh we do this twice a year in January. Should be January. Um we take a moment to recognize students and many of our staff members for the outstanding accomplishments that they have had in the first semester. And so that's what tonight is all about. We're going to begin with our primary and then we'll go to our middle school and we'll go to our high school. It's amazing to look out in the audience and to see, you know, kids of all ages and you'll see how students across the entire district are being recognized. It's it's just amazing. What our students are able to do is
003beyond phenomenal. And that's because of the support of our staff, but we know it's truly rooted in the support that that our students are receiving at home and throughout this awesome amazing community. Um, and so in May, we also do this for semester recognition. So, we'll come back and do this all over again. Uh it's one of the best things that we do. And during this part of the the program here today, we do have a microphone and um we will invite again Starbucks primary and we'll have Mrs. come up here in just a minute and um then she'll invite people to come on up and recognize our students or our staff members. When you are called, when your group is called, we ask you to come on up here. We're going to make it
004just a little more comfortable. Not much, I promise. You'll be recognized, and then we want all of our teams to introduce themselves. So, take a moment, grab the microphone, introduce yourself to the audience. We want to know who you are. And then as you as you leave, after you recognize, bless you, come this way, and we have a small gift for you. Sound good? All right. Again, thank you for being here. We know it's hard to adjust your schedules. We will start with our primary, our principal, Denart. Good evening. That's much better. Thank you so much for being here tonight. We are just thrilled to share our delight in the accomplishments of so many of our students here. And so we are starting with the primary school. Uh first I would like to just give
005a little shout out to our Hilltop staff. uh for the transition that they have made to the FMC building this year. Lots of changes for them as we are in our temporary space, but we are so grateful for our Hilltop staff as well as uh our facility supervisor Josh Steenval and our district leadership team. I'd also like to recognize our kindergarten teachers and students for the work that they are doing with the social thinking curriculum. This was a curriculum that was purchased through a grant from the Wyoming School Foundation. And so we are so thrilled to u be moving forward with that curriculum. To start out with our student recognition, I would like to invite Jen Gersner, our gifted intervention specialist and district coordinator of gifted services, along with our perennial math students to come
006up to the front of the room. Jen Gersner has earned a scholarship awarded by the University of Cincinnati to attend the Council for Economic Education's fall conference related to her work on stock market gains. All right. And then Jen is going to share a little bit. Well, my friends are up here today because they participated in a nationwide math tournament back in December. We had 25 of our third or three reach students uh show up at 9:00 a.m. on a cold Saturday to do math and they came um very excitedly and um part of the competition is individual and part of the competition is a team. Um so they were in groups of five and that's kind of my favorite part because we're in three separate primaries and they don't have a lot of opportunity
007to be with the other kids. Um I always pick them up and they always do um really well together. Um so um these are students that out of across the country from schools from New York and Michigan and I think I was in Washington. Um there were 105 third graders that competed and 13th graders that competed. And we have my name is Elsie Peterson. >> My name is Theo Clark in fourth grade. >> My name is Hold and I'm also in fourth grade. And these students here, Michael scored second place out of all of the third graders. Hold the first place out of all of the board as a team. Hold in Theo Elsie and then two other members, Noah Hayes and Ben Reed, who I believe are at basketball practice tonight, um came in
008second place um as all the fourth grade team. It's wonderful. Thank you so much. You guys want to head this way? >> Thank you. All right. Next, I'd like to recognize students who have shown remarkable performance in art class. Our lovely art teachers, Mrs. Benjamin and Mrs. Allen, cannot be here tonight, but they would like to recognize Tiana Walker. Come on up. Miller Moran, Leona Schaefer, and Sebastian Martinez. Please come forward. Okay, I'm going to pass you the mic and you can say your name. Tiana. >> So, just to tell you a little something about these students, they have shown outstanding effort in art by embracing new challenges, staying fully engaged in every project, even when it's hard. They have shown remarkable growth in their creative ability and their thoughtfulness. It is a privilege to
009watch them evolve not just into talented artists but into dedicated and expressive individuals who take pride in everything they create. Let's give them a hand. All right. Next, I would like to introduce Tula Jackson. Come on up. You're here. Vio Perka and Belle Taylor. These students were nominated by Brian Pitman, our math intervention teacher at Vermont. And Mr. Pit Pitman could not be here tonight in Jackson. >> All right. So is a returning crew member. She's a very hard worker. She is well-mannered and has a great sense of humor. Tula is always willing to learn new things. We are very proud of her continuous success in efforts. All right. So I am going to that's it for the primary school. Such wonderful students. We are so proud of our primary school. >> Dr. Ban is
010going to share next. Thank you, Jen. Thank you, everyone. It's great to be here uh recognizing members of the school community. And I'm going to begin uh recognizing some some of our team members at the middle school. And when I say team members, I'm going to talk a little bit about the adults that are working with our teachers. And the first group that I want to talk about are our mentor teachers. So at the start of this school year, uh we had eight new teachers starting at the middle school. Uh some of those teachers had transferred from other areas um in the district and they had had a lot of experience. Um others came from other districts with a multitude of experience. Yet some of the teachers that came to us were just beginning their
011career. And when you enter into middle school, uh we know that that is is quite a challenge and we want our new teachers to to get acclimated and have the support that they deserve on a regular basis. And we know that it also takes a lot of patience and skill and heart uh and especially a lot of patience uh to work with middle school uh students. So, our mentor teachers do this willingly um and they they share their attributes with our mentor teachers on a regular basis. And we're really really pleased at the uh level of work that they do for those teachers um in what can often be a very overwhelming first year. So, I wanted to specifically recognize today Julie Krishnner, Laura Kumer, Jen Savvi, Emily Jenkee, and Todd Castner. If they could
012come forward, I know not all of them could be here with us. Uh, but if if they are here, I'd like to bring them up. Thank you guys. Their hard work uh has a direct and lasting impression on all of our teachers and especially our students. Their mentorship helps support our strategic plan and helps create a climate and culture that's very positive. uh it leads to greater collaboration and communication and partnerships and ultimately advances teaching and learning. So we are very very grateful of their leadership and commitment. So I ask you to please join me in recognizing our mentor teachers for the profound difference that they make every day. All right. Our our next adult that I would like to recognize uh plays a vital role in helping our building run smoothly on a daily
013basis. And at this time, I would like to ask our building substitute, Josh Montgomery, to come on up. So throughout the course of the school year, uh teachers from time to time get sick, uh have family emergencies and um attend different levels of professional development and they can't be in the building. And when that happens, we rely on individuals such as Josh. Uh, and Josh makes a big difference in our building, probably more so than he realizes. Uh, he's incredibly helpful. He's always upbeat, and he's always ready to take on whatever the day brings. Often times Josh finds out what his daily assignment is just about 5 minutes before the day begins. And uh we are are really appreciative on the way he handles that. No matter what the situation is, Josh steps in. He
014brings a positive attitude. He never complains. Instead, Josh consistently asks the question, "How can I help?" And his flexibility, his reliability, and his willingness to support both the staff and the students makes a huge difference in our building. We're grateful for his commitment, uh, his professionalism, and his positive presence. So, please join me and thanking Josh Montgomery for all that he does for the university. And we have we're going to hear a little bit about um our students and their commitment to athletics and uh all of the work that they do in our drama program momentarily. But first, I would like to bring Jamie Hanger up. And Jamie is going to talk a little bit about our school's partnership with Tun Farms. Uh we worked with Tfoon Farms right before the holiday break and we
015were able to partner with them and Jamie did a phenomenal job at orchestrating that partnership and working with our pack and our student council and we had a fantastic day uh supporting this community organization. So let's hear for Jamie and I'll turn it over to her now. >> Thank you. If you are a middle school student, stand up. Let's see how many folks are out there. Yeah. So, thank you. Thanks. All right, you guys have a seat. I want to do that just because you guys, we literally when when Dr. Bush and I were talking about, you know, which students do we invite? We could invite the entire Wyoming Middle School community, the staff, the parents for this project that we did because it really was all hands on deck. Um and it just turned
016out really amazing. Just to give you a little bit of background, um this actually started last year. U we were in a pack meeting and we're talking about let's do something um building wide grades 5 through 8 service learning focused. Um and so from there we started to brainstorm a couple of um local organizations around Cincinnati that our students could support. Came up with a list. Then we presented that to our student council and we went through, you know, this is the mission of every single organization and then they then voted on which organization they wanted to support. They decided that they wanted to do Tik Farms. Um, and so we took that and we kind of ran with it. So to give you guys a little bit of information about Tik Farms, um, they
017are centered on people, community, and creation. Um, and one of the things that they have is a community market. So, we asked, you know, what can we do to help support that? And they gave us two different ideas. One was creating art bags, and these art bags are for kids that end up going to the market on the weekends with their parents and they're shopping. So, just as kind of something extra that they can um either sit and they um can color, we put stickers in there, just lots of fun stuff for them to be able to do while they're here shop. And then the other um made or created during the service learning project was we created spice bags and so spice bags were that was something that they were able to offer years
018ago but just the rising cost of you know spices and groceries it's something that they had to cut out of their program. So they said, "If that is something that you guys could create, our customers would be thrilled, right? We all like spices on our food." And so we talked with student council and they decided we would have grades five and six create art bags and then we would have grades seven and eight create spice bags. Um, and so we took this idea and we gave it to staff as well. And everybody jumped in. Um, I had I had people down the office with a magnifying glass trying to, you know, read expiration dates and ingredients. And we had our student council stay after to help organize all the spice bags. Um, in the end,
019we donated over 600 art bags and 1,000 spice bags in addition to just like bulk, like, you know, spices that we ended up not being able to use or, you know, extra color and pencils. And they were thrilled. They said that that will get them through months and months. Um, so when it comes to recognition, I mean, it truly is the entire Wyoming Middle School community. We are so thankful. I like to say that it's our annual because we want to do something like this again um next year. So um you know, thank you to everybody um that threw in um you know, whether that was you know, helping create the bags, all of our students, parents that donated, teachers that helped organize it, we really appreciate it. All right. I believe next is Huey
020and she's going to come up and talk a little bit about some of our students um that have participated in drama. >> Thank you so much and thank you for this opportunity to recognize our drama students who are a great group of people. Um participation in the dramatic arts and in musical theater offers students such a great amount of opportunities. Um it enables them to express their creativity in a safe and guided environment. It enables them to enjoy doing the things that they really love in the company of other people that really love those same things. And it it also gives them a chance to learn and practice new skills, performing skills like public speaking or dancing or singing as well as social and personal skills like self-control and self-discipline and self um the word
021just went away for me. Self-awareness uh and also the ability to work as a as a cooperative member of a team. So, these students that we're recognizing tonight have become wellspoken, creative, confident, and compassionate leaders for our younger drama students, as well as their other school and community groups. I'd like for you to meet these eighth graders. So, come on up. These students have been part of all or most of the seven productions that um have been that they are eligible for while they were here in middle school. Um so want to introduce yourself. All right. >> I'm Peter Bernheisel. I'm 13 years old and I'm in eighth grade. >> Hi, I'm Iris Kat. I'm 14 years old and I'm also in eighth grade. >> Hello, my name is Aubrey Goodman. I'm 13 years old
022and I'm in eighth grade. >> I'm Carter. I am in eighth grade. >> I am Zoe Taylor and I'm also in eighth grade. >> I am Miles Kat and I am in grade. >> I am Emma Hel and I am in eighth grade. recognize these students. And congratulations you guys. >> Thank you, Nancy. And they have done a fantastic job. Most of the students who were up here have participated in every single production that they've been eligible for. And a few of them have been in fact every production that they've been eligible for. And it's just amazing the amount of time and effort that goes into those productions. If you haven't been to one yet, I invite you to attend our upcoming productions. They do a wonderful job. So that's all things Wyoming Middle School.
023At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Michael Buovich, Mr. Buovich from the high school. Wow, it's a hard act to follow. I mean, look at all the great things heading our way here at the high school. Congratulations to all of our primary students, all of our middle middle school students. uh just for your active engagement and involvement um in your school community. It's what makes uh your school an amazing place and what makes Wyoming and the community of Wyoming just a very unique and special place. So congratulations and we look forward to welcoming you to high school when you get here. So um Mr. Weber, our athletic director, Matt Weber, um he calls there's a there's a game in the high school tonight, girls basketball game there tonight. Uh so he would
024have been here last Monday but sends his regards this week he wanted to recognize a few of our um students who engaged in extracurricular events athletics during the fall and the first semester. Uh he noted that there were 263 high school student athletes in the fall semester. 45% of the high school students participated in the fall sport. That's a that's a nice percentage. Okay. That's that's a lot of involvement. There's there's a venue for access for everyone. So 45%. That's wonderful. The average fall program GPA was 3.61. So not only are they getting it done outside the classroom, those are also students are also getting it done inside the classroom. So great job to all of our fall student athletes and 127 of them received all ac all academic honors for the CHL. So great
025job to all of our fall student athletes. Do we have uh from our boys soccer team? Coach Ryan. So, Coach Ryan. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Yep. So, our boy, in case you didn't know, the boys soccer team, they were the CHL champions, they were the district and regional champions, and they went to the state final four for a final four appearance. Um they finished 182 and four. Coach Ryan Dur was the boys soccer coach of the year. So um great accomplishment there is Roco Fisher. Rocco. All right. So I already introduced you. This is Roco Fish. So um so Rocco's here. Uh he was an instrumental part in the the boys soccer team success this year. Um and wanted to recognize him. So I mean he kind of you know kind of did a pretty
026good job with Gold Box, right? So, I mean, CHL player of the year, right? The Southwest player of the year, all Ohio team, and you got something else coming up, right? Well, how did that go? Tell us a little bit about that. He's humble. All American. Okay. I mean, not only is it getting done on the pitch, but also in the halls and in the classrooms. Um, just positive influence in our building as peers. Um, all you can look up. And one of the things that um I know that I really love about W too is that our students support each other. You like a lot of our athletes and students in clubs and activities. They You come out to Milford for a regional tournament game, playoff game, and our kids are there in the
027stands. And then you look at the the basketball games, you look up there, and there's Rocco in the stands, you know, um clearly identifying out of bounds to teams to understand when they touch the ball, Rock goes, I think it was Marmont, they uh they hit the ball out on Marmont. Roco goes, "Let me explain it to you. You were the last person to touch the ball. It was out on you. It's our ball. Like, how about that for constructive feedback, right? So, we've got great kids. Congratulations to Rocco. Um, thank you Schwarz with our our cross country program. works is going to come on up here and talk about all all great things going on to recognize. I'm Paul Schwarz, by the way. I'm responsible for the Wyoming uh cross country program and like
028to thank the board of education for giving us the opportunity to recognize some great team and individual accomplishments from the fall season. Um Cross country is a very challenging sport. I don't know how people know what cross country is. Who really knows what cross country is? Got a pretty good um very challenging sport where athletes run in all weather conditions and as a CHL championship all weather, lots of rain, lots of mud through parks and forests and fields and hills. Middle school cross country is for seventh and eighth graders. It's 2 miles. And then high school cross country is 5 km or 3.1 miles. It's the It really is the only sport where you know, if you've done it right, you feel miserable at the end. So, it takes a lot of um builds a
029lot of character, dedication, and teamworks. And cross country can be an individual and team sport. Um the team scoring works as the top five on the team, their places. You add them up and that's the score for the team. The sixth and seventh runners bump the other top five from other teams down and then it's a low score win. It's pretty simple. Um but also going to be a very individual sport. And so tonight we're going to recognize both team and individual. Um I'd like to first recognize team sport and that's Wyoming Middle School cross country. So if the coaches and kids can come on up the Wyoming Middle School cross country big group. So this is Wabby Middle School cross country's team is actually bigger than the high school cross country team and involves
030two grades, seventh and eighth grade. We had over 50 kids, 29 boys, 25 girls. Um, so this is not everybody. Let's move down a little bit. So it's a big and growing program with over 50 kids. First, I wanted to um introduce the coaches for the middle school cross country um team. Randy Knox, head coach for Wyoming Middle School cross country. He's been doing, I think, at least 15 seasons, 15 seasons. He's probably the longest tenure coach of any coach in Wyoming athletics. Um, and he's got a very challenging job not to get the kids lost. He does a very good job at that. We have seventh and eighth graders running all through Wyoming. You've probably seen them before. Um, keeping track of them is very daunting and Randy does an excellent job at that.
031So, your kids are on very good care of Randy as our head coach. We also have Matt Garrett. He's not here tonight. He is a seventh year in his middle school cross country coach. You may know Matt as a crazy guy that runs around the track hundreds and hundreds of times for hours and hours and hours. Matt's a ultra runner and running enthusiast. He was actually for the big snowstorm that we had um last week. He was on the track with George. Where's George? Shoveling the track out lane one. So very dedicated. And we also were lucky to have Kyle Schneider here um as our coach for his first year Wyoming Middle School uh cross country coach. He knows a little thing about track and cross country. He is he's a coach for St. X's
032cross country team and he's the head coach for St. X's um high school track team. So thank you for Kyle for joining us too. All right, I'm have introduce themselves. You guys just got to say your name and your grade. Okay. My name is Scout Shaw and I'm in eighth grade. >> My name is Kaitlyn. I'm in seventh. >> My name is Alan High and I'm in seventh grade. >> My name is Rosie Lawrence and I'm in seventh grade. >> My name is Julia Street and I'm in seventh grade. >> My name is Le Renee and I'm in eighth grade. >> My name is Dece and I'm in eighth grade. >> My name is Alex Wetstone and I'm in eighth grade. My name is Camden Fisk and I'm in eighth grade. My name is Adrian
033Bur and I'm in eighth grade. My name is Avis and I'm an eighth grade. >> My name is Liam and I'm also in >> My name is Nathan and I'm also in eighth grade. My name is Axel and I'm in seventh grade and I'm in eighth grade. My name is George. >> My name is and I'm in seventh grade. My name is Sam and I'm in seventh grade. >> My name is Elise Clen and I'm in seventh grade. My name is Elliot and I'm in seventh grade. >> My name is Nolan Burner and I'm in seventh grade. My name is Archer Boris and I'm in seventh grade. Thanks guys. This is not all. Oh yeah, like I said, we have over 50 kids, but this was the first year in at least maybe 15 years
034that both the girls and the boys um Wyoming Middle School cross country team won the CHL championship together. So the boys have won the last three of the last four years and the girls are now backtoback champions. Um, in fact, I was I was so confident that this year both of them would win, especially the girls, but the boys, too. Um, I was so confident that I had I got them these shirts to wear right at the very right as soon as they crossed the finish line, the CHL championship. I got them shirts to put on because we knew we were going to win, right? Indian Hillary weren't as happy about that, but the fair a little bit, but very confident you guys can win. What I want to do right now real quick is
035something we didn't get to do at the meet itself because it was a kind of a a lot going on with all the rain and mud. I want to now recognize the kids that were um CHL honorable mention second team and first first team the boys team. Let's start with the boys first. They beat powerhouse MadiRaa. Madiraa in the past has had perfect scores which means they get places one through five. First five places all Madiraa. They've done that a few times in the recent past. Not this year. Um Our boys stopped them. We had six in the top 10. So, CHL honorable mention. This is for places 15 to 21 with Tommy Anderson. He's 21st place. Alexander Webstone 20th place. Alexander, where is he? Right here. Right. Step up. Honorable mention. And Adrien Adrien
036Fur 19th place. These are CHL honorable mention. CHL 17 Ryder Tyler 10th place. Ryder's not here. Um Evan Roach ninth place and Grandma McKenna eighth place. Those three are not there, but those three are very important coming in places 8 through 14 earning them CHL second team honors and CHL first team honors for coming in the top seven. Sam Kohley seventh place or sixth place sorry sixth place second place and your CH champion first place AFTER the girls the girls dominated I mean the boys beat Madura which is a big accomplishment the girls crushed Madiraa who was in second they had half the score that Madiraa had which is a very great feat Um, and we had five of our girls in the top 10, including we went to first, second, third, one, two, three.
037Um, so CHL, honorable mention, 15th through 21st place. Julian Blog, she was 21st place. Caitlyn Marsh, 19th place. Okay, it get up here. Misha Lubie, 18th place. And Rosie Lawrence, 15th place. These are your CHL honors. All right. CHL second team 8 through 14th place. Eddie Gerson 14th place. Julia Street 13th place in 10th place. Now your first team all the top seven places be in the first team in the top seven places. Sam Holler seventh place like I mentioned one two three and they all had the same time so they were they ran together as a pack. They did really good. Third place, Adeline Heisel. Second place, Elliot Tilden. And your CHL champion for 2025, Scott Soul. For the girls team, eight of the 10 of them are seventh graders. So, the future is
038bright for CH for Wyoming Middle School Cross Country. All right, that's your middle school cross country. Very good. Do your homework. All right. And as I mentioned, high cross country is not only a team sport, but it's also an individual sport. So, I want to shift gears now and talk about high school cross country. And we had three girls on the high school cross country team that qualified for the state championship this year. >> Olivia, come on up. >> Three of our girls on the Wyoming high school cross country team qualified for the state championship. Um is here. Leah is unavailable tonight and Ella Humble is unavailable tonight. This is >> How many years you done cross country? >> Six years cross country. Talk about this kid in a little bit. Um to qualify, let
039me just say a little word about how you qualify for the state championship in cross country. It's three rounds. It's districts and then regionals and then the state championship. So you have to come in towards the top in districts, then towards the top by top 10 in regionals, and then and then make it to state championship. Wyoming High School has had 32 seasons of girls cross country. So for this is our 32nd season of girls cross country for Wyoming High School. In those 32 years, only 10 girls have qualified as an individual for the state championship. This is number 11. and we had Leah was 12 and um Ella was 13. So we have three girls this year. In the past 32 seasons, only 10 have qualified as individuals. So it's a very rare club.
040We actually have, if you go to the champion center in our cross country room, we have a big banner that shows all of the kids, all the kids that have qualified as individuals for the cross country state championship as well as the state championship as a team. We were the girls were only four points away. Four points away is qualifying for a team. But you ever get in the um in the champion center, go to the second floor, look in the cross country distance room, you'll see Olivia's name up there as a qualifier for the state cross country team. Something you never take away from you. Let me talk a little about Ella and Leah first. Um so Ella Hmel was not here unfortunately, but she was a rare firstear senior cross country athlete. She
041was injured a lot and kind of she ran a little bit maybe too much towards the beginning of the season. Um but she was transitioning. She's a great lacrosse player. So she got a stress fracture in her foot and she only competed in three meets and those three meets happened to be districts, regional and state. So she did great. She ran the she ended up running the eighth fastest time in school history and qualified for the state championship coming in 13th at regionals. Ella's going to go on to compete for lacrosse at Smith College, prestigious Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and maybe cross country too. I think she's kind of open her eyes that maybe she might do cross country. Leah Zimmerly, who also qualified for the state championship, is just a sophomore. Um, she
042competes in like hurdles and high jumping track and she's a prolific dancer. Um, so she's very graceful and that makes her a very smooth runner, but she also has a lot of range because she does high jump and she does um the hurdles, too. Um she has a potential to be one of the best cross country runners we've ever had. Just a sophomore before before her season four school years for her school season done junior and senior year. But now for Olivia. Olivia, like I said, has been doing cross country for how many years? Six years. She was a senior captain this year. I've known her since 8th grade. No one is more dedicated and committed to the sport of cross country as this kid. I've seen a lot of kids, but this is the
043most dedicated person I've seen. She has battled back from adversity, some health challenges, never giving up. I'll be telling her story for a long time about how you never give up. You battle back and she had a great senior year. Olivia was first team all CHL. It's like I introduced some of the middle school kids who were first team. That means she came in the top seven at the CHL championship. Qual and she I thought almost even more impressively is that she qualified for the state championship by one second. Um, hers is a story of determination and grit that I I've been telling this story forever because cross country is a 3.1 mile race. If Olivia would have slowed down at all in that last 10 ft, she wouldn't be standing here right now. So,
044she qualified for the state championship by one second, one place because she never ever gave up. I will be telling that story forever. And you never give up because a lot of times you see that finish line, you're a quarter mile away. I mean, I'm there. You don't give up. even within the last 10 feet, she did it and she held on and it was tough. She dug in deep and she qualified very proudly. Olivia also received the prestigious Lily Parker go the distance scholarship. Um it was created back in 2018 off of a senior named Lily Parker who exemplified um a cross country athlete who best has the spirit of the sport in mind and the life lessons it teaches. I'm reading for the scholarship right now. principally that striving toward goals drives performance
045and adds meaning to work and that even the most difficult task can be achieved if one is willing to invest in the necessary time and effort. That's Olivia. Olivia will be continuing on because there is no finish line. There is no finish line. She'll be continuing on your talents to Center College in Danville, Kentucky. She's going to compete in both cross country and track and her signing day I just found out is next Wednesday and center. So congratulations very proud. As we transition here while Olivia is still here, 30 second anecdote about her. She stops me in the hall a couple weeks ago says, "Mr. V, I just want to let you know I broke my pee off." Like we're just in transition and class change. And I say, "Okay, hey, that's great. So, what
046does it do? She not only did I break it in in in this run, but I also broke it in this run. And I said, okay. I said, Olivia, I'm just curious when you're running, what do you think about that makes you run that fast? And she said to me, Mr. V, I mainly think about running for the people who can't run, who are unable to run. I mean that's the type of depth that we're talking about. I mean talk about a motivating factor. I mean like that's the type of character we're not only building athletes and students but people with strong character and community members. So kudos to you on that. Thank you. Next up, Ariana Sanders. You have a few students that you would like to recognize for their service project. >> All
047right. Um, if I start talking about you, please walk up. I know some of our high school students are towards the back. Um, so the first two students I wanted to recognize are students who I felt uh spent the semester doing something different than how we see a lot of our service programs be. Um, and the first one is Reese Oiri. And Reese, I noticed when I was looking through service, actually uh volunteered with Ohio Living, which is a hospice and nursing facility, and she did volunteering with her dog. And so I thought that was so awesome, uh, and unique. And, uh, the second person that I found that gave um, a very unique contribution to our service uh, learning opportunities was June Esinger. and she uh over the summer did some volunteering out in
048New Mexico on a Native American reservation. So those are two students that I thought had a really unique uh opportunity. >> Um I'm a junior um and I volunteer the high thing with my dogs. >> Oh yeah. And uh the volunteer board on the city council in front of the architecture architectural board. Uh, it's pretty cool. We get to sit on housing meetings and board meetings and figure out how it works. And the next two students that I have seen um are Ace Fisher and London Fizz. And these two students I uh put as our dedicated cowboys. all of their service goes back to the Wyoming community and it's pretty amazing when you see what they have contributed. Um, so we're talking our programs that happen in Tender Auditorium. Um, we're talking fire cadetses, we're
049talking um, any community building thing that Wyoming offers, one of these two are probably there. Um, and they just so happen to be two of the highest volunteer hour earners in our school. um as underassmen they'll tell you. So ACE thank you for doing tech and pendry for concerts, plays, musicals, etc. and also here in middle school and London you've done model UN soccer camps, brave like me events um and was a winner of an award in my class for service last year in financial literacy. So you two are just awesome contributors to the Wyoming community. Like she just said, I'm Ace Fisher and I'm in my sophomore year. >> I'm London Fis and I'm also a sophomore. >> And my my final award goes to the student who had the most hours logged out
050of the entire high school. Uh you'll find that this is a younger student as well. So our underassmen are really doing a great job of logging their hours in our system. So Alex, come on up. Uh Alex has from the first semester in the summer uh and then her first year here, so a year and a half with time at Wyoming High School, Alex has logged more than 500 community service hours. Um she is a fabulous supporter and longtime supporter of two really important places as well. First is Valley Interfaith which is right down the road. Uh second is the Cincinnati Museum Center. So not only is she doing a lot of volunteer hours, she's making a lot of great connections to our community and doing some things that'll for sure be attention getters on
051a resume and some teacher jobs. I'm an environmental literacy teacher. So can you tell us a little bit about those places? So, I've been at the Sound Museum Center since 8th grade. Um, and it's a really fun job for youth to try to get more like customer service experience and just talk to people. And then Valley Interfaith, I work with the local community to help them pass well help pass out to them and give them the things they need. >> What grade are you? >> I'm Alex and I am in 10th grade. I'm a sophomore. >> That is amazing. Thank you, Miss Sanders. Miss Lee, I know you did not see her. Uh Tyler, Carmela, Cora, Ormuli, Graham, and Laura, you are here. I know we've got a couple students who are at games. So
052um these are some of our the the students whose names um Tyler Evans, Carmemella Divicious, Cora Kramer, Woo Mahi, Graham Perman, and Lauri Wise were um six of our students who were national merit semi finalists. So, they are proceeding on to try uh to work to compete for um some serious scholarship money and just the recognition of being a National Merit um finalist. And um I know you heard a couple other schools mentioned uh we had six which was double some of our other competitors. So, and uh ranked this pretty pretty pretty highly did a pretty good job. Uh Lucy, Liam, and Natalie. These are our students who were uh Lucy in uh Liam Smith and Natalie Martell were our students who were national merit commended students. Um again, strong finish nine students to finish
053in the top um with their national merit recognition. Laura Kumer who is also not here. We have Elliot Bartell, Elias, and Louisa. >> So Elliot's here because um you know uh he had a unique opportunity to perform at a recent um swearing in ceremony in city hall. So, uh, Elliot, Eli, and Lucia, uh, traveled with Mrs. Kumer has developed a very strong music program as you know, and, uh, had the ability to travel downtown. If you want to share a little bit about you and maybe what that was like. >> Uh, yeah, I'm Elliot Bartell. I'm a senior. Um uh we got it was a small quartet that or not a quartet, it was like 10 kids, uh three of us from Wyoming and a bunch of other districts around here. And we spent uh
054the morning playing while people were walking in for the ceremony. Swearing in ceremony of Cincinnati mayor, correct? >> All the other members of the council. Awesome. Hey, great talk. Thank you, Ellie. Kelly Exler. Uh we had a few students who um were had their national art or their artwork recognized. Um, Izzy, Dela, Opel, Olive, Fiona, Penny, Kayla, and Matthew. I know I saw some of you guys back there. All right. Uh, these students art, their artwork was selected in the 22nd by annual uh, selections, the 2025 exhibit in Mount St. Joseph. Their exhibitions celebrate outstanding artwork of talented area high school students. Uh their they were selected through their art teachers and their um artwork stood on um display. It was on exhibit for over a month in in November through December um in Mount
055St. Joe. and uh you know there was an awards ceremony there was a gallery reception um and if you just want to share a little bit about just introduce yourself >> I'm very I'm a senior Dela Anderson and I'm a senior as well I'm Izzy Lenn and I'm surprisingly a senior too and even I'm a senior as We attended an award ceremony. Uh we had our names up on the screen and we walked across the stage and then we went to the gallery and there really >> Okay. All right. Um had the pleasure of talking with Mrs. Exler about their artwork and she showed it before she sent it off and just the artwork that you were able to produce is remarkable. I'm telling you like the what the creative talents that exist in in
056our students and especially what you um just gives great insight into just who you are and your abilities and is incredible. Um you know it's very impressive and I'm sure at any point in time would love to sh share that with you. Anyone wants to. So, thank you. Great job. >> Hi, I'm Chris Walters. I'm the photography teacher at High School. Um, back up here. Um, she is one of the students that has were selected for the Ohio State state house student art exhibition. Um the other students are included um they're not here for tonight but they are William Sophia Shenko Brian Molenberger Ara and Michael. Um so these students were selected um for showing their artwork at the Ohio State um state house student art exhibition. Uh it is organized by the Ohio Art
057Education Association in partnership with the Ohio Art Alliance. It's a state house exhibition with the Ohio Art Education Association and the Ohio Education and the Ohio Arts Um, this features select works of K through 12 student artwork from across the state. It's a jury competition that recognizes students receiving high quality arts education in Ohio public schools. Um, so I'm just going to say a little bit about some of the students, Olive and other students. So Olive, I actually have not had her in photography class, but I have worked with her in the yearbook. So she is a scary talented with her drawings and her mixed media artwork. She pours herself into everything that she does and make sure every detail is perfect. Um this is actually her second time being selected and showing her artwork
058at the state house. Um Will, Arrow, Sophia, Brian, and MJ all are hardworking students in photography class. Um they met every challenge that I threw out at them with perseverance, creativity, and true grit. that was mastering the digital camera, learning how to use sunlight to create cyanotypes or developing their films in the dark room. Um, I'm so glad to be able to select their artwork and have it shown at the Ohio State House. It'll be on display for a whole entire year and it is set up to once they get tours up to hundreds or even thousands of people view the artwork. This piece was part of my AP 2D portfolio last year. I did a collection of hyperrealistic graphite drawings. And then this one was combined with collage and string. So I explain but
059this was a really fun piece to do. My piece was part of my photography class and it was made by exposing um images and objects on photo. >> Thank you. Nathan Nakuski Nathan here. Nathan was published in the um he published his own research article on his own ter like he sought it out in the American journal of student research. So, um, 11page document. Uh, just wanted to kind of share that that not only are students doing things connected to club, sports activities, and classes here, but they're also seeking things out on their own. And in case anyone there are a couple copies up here, would like a a copy to read um for whenever your leisure time, you identifying quantum teleportation error mechanisms through bit string level. signatures. So, um, like anybody want to
060talk about what that might be? I mean, but this is a product not only of the wonderful families and students and people we have and the supports we have in the community, but also of the education. Here's a senior who's going through the Wyoming community, being educated here, and having the opportunity to piece things together, learn, seek information, and produce something that's published in a in a national um journal for students. So, I mean, it's just another testament of all the great things we have going on here. Um, congratulations to all of our students who are recognized this evening, and thank you for for participating. One more one more recognition. Um, and just really quickly, um, I want to talk about the word impact. We use the word impact all the time here at schools.
061And when we say impact, we talk about the unique ability that we each have to make a difference in the lives of others through what we do. And I am very excited um and truly blessed to have a board of education who understands what that word means and understands what it means to make a difference in the lives of every student, every family, and every staff member. January, I know we're in February, but we we push this meeting back a little bit. January is board recognition month and it's important I think to recognize these leaders who stand up to ensure that our students and our families and our staff have the most incredible experience of city schools that they can. So I'd like to introduce our board members and have them stand up uh to
062just be appreciated. Our board president, Jeannie Zer, our vice President Thomas Justin All right, family, students, staff members, thank you for for coming tonight to to share in this recognition. Uh it's obvious that we have amazing students, amazing staff who excel in all areas and we're excited to appreciate them and and recognize them for the accomplishments again. Thank you. Have a great night. Let's go to our committee reports belonging inclusion. December 16th from coming back to virtual discussion. We decided for this particular meeting to just check in on all of our members. There's a lot happening in the world and so we to process events for those as well as just kind of check within our community what people were hearing and what are the concerns we weren't there anything we were there to listen
063Citizens advisor. January 13th and right now we've got two study teams who are working on homework and studying deeply studies in order to present March 30th graduates feedback from graduate gradu. prepares to both of those informationers topics. So January 12th was our last meeting and we talked about January feedback during those times. So that was one big idea. We also reflect on our district with that work of that work. We've been talking also a lot about calendar. So the 26 27 calendar introduced the idea of possible early release without entire school day. So we'll be also contin some great initial ideas, but we're still refer So just continue to look at the timeline. So then teachers are utilizing that support number. facilities. So to continue on some of what we've shared, we had a big
064event just recently on January 27th as we continue to plan for the construction of primary school. We are thinking about plans for school and we have been in Presbyterian Church of Wyoming and one of the key events was to meet with the congregation and also the close neighbors to church. And so that happened on January 27th of the school and that included work outside the school day after school during the school day recess and also the use of the interior of the building. Great meeting um wonderful questions that came up from participants and we are excited to be moving in a positive direction and contin to partner with that church. Just incredible story incredible spaces for our students while instruction. Um let's see also our primary primary team talking about So that's the inner team
065that continues to do all the detailed work. >> So they were sort of working up until I I was just surprised to see some foundil found soil. um finance this evening finance committee meeting where we welcome our two members of this year's finance committee and as we review the salary man analytic which is some detailed information on salary and benefits 80% of our budget. We take a deep dive at that every meeting. We also look at primary facilities financial update. The facilities team is looking at all things facilities during that work and then we tag along and look at the finance financing side of that. We also looked at the January income tax payments. We received our third income tax payment of the fiscal year. We received payments in July and October and um January
066and our January payment was up 2.87% from last January. Our year to date, so three payments this year versus three payments last year are up 15%. And so we had some some discussion about uh how we were going to forecast the um last quarter payment, the April payment. And then we also looked at the components of the income tax payment. We received the income tax payment broken down by payment with returns versus withholding versus estimated payments. And so we took a look at each of those individually and how they're performing compared to the estimates in order to help us think about how that might look in the February filing of the forecast. So come on that we discuss the February forecast but good news on the income tax front income tax is significantly outperforming forecast.
067Uh we then revisited the tax values that we looked at in December and we did that um to follow up with a review of tax rates and this is 2025 was not the year in Hamilton County. So very small change in tax values and also a corresponding very small change in tax noticeable by taxers. And then we finished with a review of some information from the district profile report that's released by OD that was also the focus of the finance Friday which we every Friday. So hopefully you have an opportunity to follow along that on our social media on our Facebook page or also on our website where we continue to highlight information and um the fiscal year 25 update of the district profile report we recently highlighted expenditure for pupil and in alignment with
068the stewardship financial stewardship pillar we were noting that our expenditure for pupil is just shy of $17,000 per student which is less than the state average less than the average of our district and less than the countywide average >> especially that So, we're going to continue to review the different components of the district. >> You taught me a great deal of catching. Thank you as always explaining concepts that are I'm looking forward to other similar districts because it's interesting how we are able to education at much different levels. Not just congratulate ourselves, but uh make sure that we understand how that's happening, why it's happening, and not lose sight of those performance per dollar. years by the partners I think that intentionality where it came from 17. Is there anything policy that you'd like to
069talk about? >> Just we have No, I don't have it yet. >> Sometimes it's a thick pile, but it comes with a summary. Do make sure All right, great. Thank you. Let's go on to um our board of education report. This is just a um we talked about our meeting. We never actually approved them, which we were supposed to do at the January meeting. So all I'm asking for you here is when somebody wants to talk about is motion to approve >> a second roll. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lee. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sp. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Genie. Item A, approval of the minutes from the December 15th regular meeting and the January 6th organizational meeting. Item B, approval of the statement
070of revenues and expenditures for the month ending December 31st. Item C, accept with appreciation the list of donations from the foundation. And item D, the appropriation adjustments for the month of January. Thank you so >> Mr. Lee. >> Yes. >> Mr. Farah. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Mrs. >> Yes. Mr. >> Yes. It is to approve purpose of retire. And this is for John. He's been here for 11 years and he quietly snow all over the place trying to make sure number two. This is a specialized building. You can see that are listed in this list. There are specialists and there are teachers. This is special. First one is the high school senior class. Motion to superintended. So again, >> too All right. Thank you. >> I have a motion to approve. Thomas >>
071Mrs. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Farah. >> Yes. >> So I will explain this. I should probably basically um every member of the staff such as when a person is single out then kind of change it child living in your house. So that's why we do it this way so that I can go ahead and All right. Superintendent go backhip Thank you. You would think another serious call. But we wait to watch als condition. So just weather related early morning. I appreciate all the effort into this considering so many Considering the imagination also consider putting together a video or how you know talk about it's not just'll be in the show. But I do think you >> Yes. And so as to show our appreciation what you have in front of you is artwork from
072our very own students and say thank you for the incredible recognize who's actually history. >> Those are all middle school. On that note, may I have a motion to journ? >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes.