001Please join me. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We do not have anyone on our list of the public. I'm going to go right over to special recognition. It's always a fun night for us on the board. Okay. Yes. So, while we're while we're preparing here, I just take a moment. We get to do this twice a year. In January, we recognize students, staff members, community members who have made exceptional efforts to make a difference in the lives of our students during the first semester. So, we always talk about the word impact all the time. And when we say impact, we talk about the ability that people have to make a difference in their
002lives. And when we use the word impact, sometimes we're talking about students who make that difference. Sometimes staff members who make that difference. Sometimes we're talking about community members who make that difference. And we know that what makes Wyoming so special is the people. It's the people who make the difference of the experience that our students have here in Wyoming. And so that's why we're so excited to be here tonight is to celebrate people. And so you're going to recognize kids. going to recognize my staff members and you're going to recognize community members. And so when we do that, we we've kind of gotten a special routine down to do that. And so we'll have individuals come up who will recognize others. And if you are being named or calling out your name to be
003recognized, we ask that you come on up here. We've made some room. We'll stand in the line here. So I see some smiles from our students already. Yes. We're going to ask you to come on up. You'll be recognized. Yep. Right there, my neighbor. Um and and then before you go back to your seat, we'll ask that you introduce yourself to the audience tonight. And we'll meet this way and we're able to members who are excited about again the difference that you have made. So I think to start us off our board, we have nine members of our family who are retiring this year. May I ask them [Applause] Please tremendous amount of teacher fire. Um we have nine people Some of them are here tonight. So, I'm going to quickly run through a couple
004of those things. Uh June Rob is is retiring from she was our data manager of our state open office. Captain actually left in February. She is the high school secretary. Hi everybody. Okay. yearsly known as Mama J. Not everyone is known as her student. She saw everything from one to statistics and [Applause] her you know those do know that uh every curriculum night when she met with parents uh she would end with Salutation to everyone. She will say, "I love me some math." [Applause] Congratulations. And so I just gave us all the opportunity to share a word. And I remember a few months ago dropping Morgan off at 7 a.m. to come do a makeup test. That's been person took me years teaching me math is my favorite subject not everybody what you've [Applause] done
005is also returning she has to the middle school and she served as a teacher at Hill School. Uh she was also presucation [Applause] You are perpetual favorite among all the students in the high school. Everyone love you. I know my daughter when she got her schedule the summer before freshman year, she learned that you were assigned to her algebra class and she said, "I got zero." Even then, she knew what was coming. So, thank you for all your service. Veronica Robinson. Uh 28 years in Wyoming as an educator teaching high school math, algebra, geometry, uh involved in all types of student organizations, project lead, ninth grade advisor, uh Wyoming high school aces club, math department chair, uh and brothers united club. So um many thanks for all you've done. You will be terribly blessed by
006so many. Congratulations. [Applause] I think of 2020 some friends of mine were doing our running on Saturday in the parking lot at 7:30. I was asking her daughter what class and we had a lot of conversations that time but I was having the opportunity to be challenged by you and I just want to say thank you 28 years almost 29 both very long years older than 28 but what it means here of the traditional that this community is I know is meaningful people who are one name that combination of but it still is an indication of everyone knowing who you are and knowing thank you for what you've [Applause] done. Have you noticed that everyone from the math department has different name? We'd also like to recognize and has been in um city schools for
00736 years. She has taught physical education mostly for primary in fact very fast. Stand up if you had Mrs. Sh. [Applause] I do want to also say though that I'm sure your love is in the primary many times and has helped us out by I have to read this list because over the years she's been chairing mentor and she served. So we thank you for all your service. [Applause] The last two are not able to be with us. So I would like to recognize Warmarmac who uh was in W schools in various capacities for 25 years. You may have known her as the first face you saw in the primary also the first you saw in middle school. Um we thank her for her service and Dr. Tracy has been with us since 2018. She's
008the director of people services. education. This is our our team is leaving but we thank them for all their service. [Applause] Okay, next we have outgoing community leadership positions. And I kind of lost track if you're here. If any of these lovely three ladies, if you could just stand where you are. [Music] Sarah, I'm just gonna say the junior school association president this past year was foundation president and has been the school music association president and on behalf of the school board and all the administration we're so grateful for all the work you put in. Um it still needs help to all the students. So, thank you so [Applause] much. Next, we would like to recognize our members of the CAC. Once you're here, if you would stand up, please. We have the CAC is
009a group of parents who and community members who offer to two year period uh really consulting with us and doing research for us and making presentations to the board of education. We talked about how critical this is to help us make decisions now to watch every single About two years ago, we added some teacher representatives as well. AI this last year of social media schools and how it research on this inter when the children go through their [Music] when they first started their research contemporary build what we will be doing to make sure our education does change. So I want to thank Joe Chad Herner Amanda and who were our team members this year who are sorry off Adams, Julie, thank you very [Applause] much. And I'm sorry. At this time, I think we'd like
010to have members of our belonging inclusion collaborative in the audience. So, if you are here, Nicole, Amy Hall, Tracy Major, and Mel, you're here. [Applause] Again, an incredible group of voluntary staff members, voluntary community members whose mission is really to have discussions about in our school district and try to identify that our students, our staff members, and our families can feel valued, feel connected, and feel this great sense of belonging. We culture like that ultimately very appreciate those individuals and allong the best title here. So thank you [Applause] Hi, my name is and I am the development director of the Miami Foundation. So, first of all, I just want to thank school one person, a great collaborator, and a great supporter to the school. With that said, in January, Tim approached the Wyoming School Foundation.
011Would you be willing to look at Bunny's middle school sound speaker system that is old and doesn't work? And the text $18,400. So I want to thank all of you, our alumni, our donors. So in one night when we had our blue light practice at the civic center with 100 community members there in 10 minutes we raised $8,400. The next day I got a call from two Wyoming high school alumni who just remain anonymous and asking can we fun. So, we were able to complete 18,400 tonight school system. [Applause] Okay, a little plug for the event next year. Exciting time. Not not fun for middle school, but just incredible incredible time. And so the moment you see the event come out next year, I urge you to participate in it because it's just a lot
012of fun. A lot of fun. And in the end, we're doing great things for kids. Okay. So, right now, I think we're going to transition over to our students and celebrations building by building and our primary schools are going to kick things off. So, welcome. We're excited to hear some great news about our primary school. [Applause] First, I have a group of students who are being recognized for their artwork. So, if you are here, please come on up when I call your name. Can I have Natalie Brooks, Scarlett Scout, Evan H, Parker Lockwood, Emily Crook, Ali Holiday, Marggo Mard, and Jesse [Applause] We are so proud of these students. Um, all of them had artwork that was recognized by the Ohio Ohio Art Education Association contest and their work was actually on display in the
013state house up in Columbus. So, I'm going to have them each take a moment to introduce themselves and tell what they made that was on display um at the state house. I am [Applause] I won second place in essay about painting called [Applause] [Music] I like this drawing of [Music] [Applause] bunch of different name and I made like a landscape with like an ocean and some flowers and like [Applause] here. [Applause] Hi. And I'm honorable. [Applause] Okay. So, that those are our artists who are on display up in Columbus. So, Okay, up next if you want to come up is here. I would to have her come up as well. I don't think she can make it, but I don't want to miss anybody. Um, so these friends are here with me tonight just to
014as a small representation of our primaries um because I'm excited to share that we had a very special recognition um that all primary schools received this semester. We were named a 2025 Hall of Fame school by the Ohio Association of Elementary School Administrators. That is an award that was um given to just 10 elementary schools across the state of Ohio. Our journey to get that recognition began back in November when we learned that we had been nominated for this recognition. Following that nomination, our leadership team engaged in a rigorous application process where we highlighted our systems, processes, practices, and really all of the things that are at the heart of our work as students and families. Um so from there, applications went off and we didn't hear anything else about it for a while and
015the next thing we knew it was early March and we we were learned that we were a finalist. Um and so as part of the final step, two representatives, uh one who was a practicing principal and one who was a retired administrator visited our primary schools in mid-March. And during their visit, they tooured every classroom in all three of our buildings and then sat down for a roundt conversation with a diverse group of stakeholders. Um the panel that they talked with included teachers, educational aids, administrative assistants, we had some parents, a board member, and two of our amazing students um including Margot William, Margot Williams and Isaac Sham um who represented our school um with such thoughtfulness and pride. And then in April, we received the official news that Wyoming was Wyoming Primary Schools was
016named a 2025 Hall of Fame school and our staff has been invited to come up to Columbus in June to at their um annual conference to receive our recognition. And so we have just a couple of representatives here um that were part of that roundt conversation. And so I thought it might be fun to just kind of have them share a little about the process. So, I'm Katie Gaw. I'm an intervention specialist this year at Vermont Primary. Um, and I was honored to be asked to sit with a group of teachers and staff members, community members, and students to talk about all of the great things that happen every single day at our primary schools. It was such an honor to be a part of that conversation, but then also awards and I think they
017really are great. I think that honestly I don't could get any better. I know [Applause] that. So, I just wanted to end by saying that the award, the recognition that our primary schools receive really exemplifies the whole child education, collaborative work, and strong positive culture that our schools have. And that is exactly what makes our primary schools so very special and we just couldn't be prouder. So, thank you for sharing [Applause] our All right. Thank you. Today we'd like to take a moment to recognize four groups from the middle school who have really gone above and beyond with their learning and their creativity. And the first group that I'm going to talk about is design lab with Mr. Stein. Mr. Ste, could you come on? And Mr. students, come on up as [Applause] well. Just
018want to say hello to everyone. here at school. Excited to share some information tonight participation design reaches far beyond as more than 2400 students across the city of Cincinnati took partiation and understanding of the built environment through education. Each year centers on a theme that guides lessons and fundamental architectural skills. This year's theme was push students were encouraged to think beyond traditional ideas of play. One of the important aspects of the project was the involvement of our classes. Each class is a volunteer either architect or engineer by trade who help guide students through the design process of project manina. the project because we got we got two habits that we were all passionate about while still having creative freedom. We had fun creating a model and slowly our creations together. Our groups love how children
019of different ideal product. It's incredible. I learned [Music] about although We always were able to compromise in the end. This was something that our group had to overcome. Along with this once our upper and lower levels were finished, we had to figure out how to connect them. Balancing two levels was One year [Music] awards to the problem with the most recogniz [Music] to make our water. [Applause] Thank you guys. Great job. The next group that we're going to bring forward to work with Mr. Allen through the youth model project. Mr. Alen, come on up. And you are also invited to come forward at this time. Good to see you, too. enough to tell you about there are two conferences we go to. One is actually high school in the fall country. They work together. What
020is really special about here is that this program on leadership not only as individuals but as a team amongst other teams. So a lot of the work is done on their own time. They do meet after school twice a month but beyond that they have their own meetings. together. I'm primarily the facilitator providing some format and structure. But as far as the creative ideas, all the work that they do, the heavy lift they come up here and talk about their experiences very kids up there this year did extremely well. So um I think I'm going to turn the kids now. you talk a little bit about the country that you represented, your resolution topic and then what you found to be about the experience and that could be anything. So I was representing the nation
021of Donald and I think it just was very rewarding experience to go back because I also had a really good time. South China flags to different countries around the um general assembly and we have authors which awesome thought I think it will help [Applause] other countries and just [Applause] resolutions to point out there's a lot of kids for example that's spontaneous they also participate in debates historically about 600 kids and that they come up on the spot whether they're doing research in the moment or just responding to something that was said remarkable. So I couldn't be more proud of these students. Thank you for making this a [Applause] possibility. Our next group is from the power of the pen and the two faculty members who work with the power of the pen this year are
022name and come on up and any students that are involved with power in the pen are also invited forward at this time. Hi everyone, I'm Emily and I'm really excited to celebrate during their power school. Um these students um participated in power and seventh grader this year. So this is their first time participating. Um and for those of you who don't know much about the program itself, it is a competitive writing program that challenges students to craft original short stories in just 40 minutes using just a times very obscure prompt. There are three rounds at each tournament that these students compete in. Um, and this year I've had the privilege of coaching part of Marina. This is our first year stepping into the coaching role together. Um, and we're very aware that we have big
023shoes to fill. We're honored to continue the legacy of Beth Turner and Bobby um who collectively led the program for over 25 years. Under their guidance point, we became a recognized team in the power of the men community and in those 25 years they coached at least one student who qualified for the state tournament every year which is amazing. Their impact on the program and our young writers has been extraordinary and to say that the tradition continues this year. At the district tournament, Iris Kavend uh was awarded best of round in the third round of writing. Uh this is a round that included 81 student competitors. Her story was selected as the best edition of the round. This is a tremendous honor because only three seventh graders receive this award at each tournament. Our seventh
024grade team went on to place second overall and these three students standing up here are members of that seventh grade team. So we have our Bitman and Rachel Mar. We're very [Applause] proud. I think it's worthy I'm think forgot about these girls. At regionals, our students continue to excel. Uh Brie Pitman in the middle here placed 17th, Iris Cavit placed seventh, and Rachel Morrow placed an impressive third. um out of 81 students included representing 35 teams. All three have now qualified for the state tournament which will take place on Thursday, May 22nd at Ashlin University where they will compete against top writers from nine regions across these successes are the result of great effort and commitment. Our writers meet weekly devoting time to write revise uh and hone their storytelling skills often times marinating whatever
025we can say about their writing taking that within themselves pivoting and working on that very skill the same day power demands not only creativity but also mastery of structure voice and technique all within the of a ticking clock. It is a specific and rigorous discipline that challenges students to produce compelling fiction under real pressure. We are so proud of what these young writers have already achieved and we are super excited to see what they bring to the stage at stage and beyond. Thank you for your continued support of programs like this that uplift and empower our students voices. [Applause] Thank you. And our last group to be recognized at the middle school are our students who have worked with Mrs. Williamson throughout this school year. Mrs. Williamson and your students, please come on up to
026the crowd. Thank you very much. Uh tonight I would like to recognize two of the students to be here with us tonight and could not be here this evening. These three students had their artworks selected to be on display at the art museum um each year for about the last seven to eight years. The art museum host a team 10 10 by 10 the size of the work um exhibit with a theme. Uh this year's theme was whimsy. So the artwork took on a whimsy very childlike um look to it. Um, so the girls have their pieces up here. Uh, the other thing I would like to add is the girls have also had their artwork selected to be in a publication called Talis Design which is a team um board where students can submit
027creative writing and visual art. Yes, I slid to make them because I decided to opportunity to um get my art out there and um create something and um I really enjoyed this project and I'm glad that I can have it showcasing the touch other artists because I like to see what they did and it kind of inspired me really up here right now. But the other thing I would like to say about these two is they are always engaged in their work, take great pride in their work and that's one of their main goals and they enjoy how they're doing. So thanks for representing [Applause] And that's all from the middle school. I'm going to turn the mic over to I know. Good evening everyone. Congratulations on the school year for each and every one
028of you. Also for those students that are being recognized and highlighted this evening, congratulations. My pleasure to be up here today to highlight some of our athletic accomplishments. Winter spring season, as you know, spring is going down right now. Girls lacrosse playing first round game off the NCC. So, let's keep that up. Um, but we had a great winter season. We finished the winter season on top of all sports trophy the follow season. So, that's something to be very proud of. Uh, but first I'd like to recognize coach Dave Elliot uh for coach of the year honors and also Cooper Stink and Neon was swimmer of the year and state runner up. Coach Elliot, you want to come up and say a few words for the swim [Applause] team and [Music] Thanks for having us.
029We did have a nice list of state qualifiers this year, so I'm going to just go through their names. Obviously, it's just Willow and Gileia here today. But, uh, just some accomplishments this season. Our boys team finished first in the CHL's first districts and we were 10th at state. Uh just to put those numbers uh kind of in perspective as far as the state meet over 100 teams that compete at state. So that's a great accomplishment for our boys. Our girls team was second at CHL's third at districts and they finished fifth at the state. So great accomplishment by our leagues. We also have four uh new school records. Uh Ansley Ne who's not here tonight two school records in the 23 and 103. We also had two female relays school records. The two three
030relay which consisted of Willow Adams tonight and harness and meth and also our for free relay set a new school record with Adams as harness and so four school records were set this year as far as our state [Music] qualifiers we had Anthony will Adams and Willow finished 14th in the 1003 and sixth in the 100 back. And she's also on our third place two relay and fourth place. Great job was a two qualifier. She finished 32 at the state and same as Willow. So the future looks pretty bright for us. So just really proud of these ladies. So a couple other names, Lucy En was also a state qualifier. She was one of our alternates. And for our boys, Cooper Stink was State qualifier Jake Calbert, Noah Fent, Will Hogan, Josh, Will, Carter Rummer,
031and Bill Spar. So, we had eight boys this year. Like Matt said, Cooper was our CHL boys of the year. And just wanted to say best of luck to the senior boys. I know here everyone for their support. So thank you very much. Next I'd like to congratulate and highlight Olivia Hill. Olivia Hill continued her athletic success in indoor track and she won her TCC indoor track champion. Uh she is not here this evening but did want to congratulate her on her outstanding accomplishment this winner. I know that districts are next week or tomorrow at Richmond. So excited to see her compete and excited to see all our track and field athletes compete uh here for districts and make another good tournament and run. I also like to congratulate Luke Throwin uh for state qualifier
032to wrestler. He was a wrestler state qualifier this winter. So again, great season by coach wrestling team. And lastly, I'd like to bring up coach Matt Brooks, head coach of basketball team, coach of the year honors, as well as leading our Cowboys to another CHL championship in a state final four appearance, coach Matt Brooks. Thank you. I'm gonna have one of our guys come up. Kelly, you come up and join me. U while he's coming up, our um I want on behalf of our staff and players like to sincerely thank everyone for this um recognition of our accomplishments. Uh for the season, it was truly a historic season for boys basketball. The most successful season in the program's history. Winning is never easy. Every game brought unique challenges, especially with the target that comes with
033consistent success. Every opponent brought their best effort, making each victory very hard to earn. Uh playing W high school basketball is going to mean something. And even the biggest schools in the city uh take pride in playing. That's because of what our young men have accomplished. This year, we took on the most demanding schedule Wyoming has ever faced. We secured our our third consecutive CSO championship with a 14-0 record. Kell's class is 41 and one in our league over the last three seasons. Uh claimed our district title for the second straight year and earned the title of regional champs, finally overcoming a long time not just for our basketball program, but for our school and and being altered. Reaching the final four was a goal shared by every coach and team in the state. And
034with LJF short, we finished the season with an outstanding 25 record with the most wins in school [Applause] history. I can't talk about the last play much. I'm still getting over it, but but the uh I want to thank everyone for the Wyman fans are awesome game. It's really a great environment there in the final four. This is Kell. Uh Kellen um and Tim talks about impact a lot. Uh if you've ever seen this play, nobody impacts the game more than Kell does um game to game. He is a kind of player comes along so many times in the coaching career. one who live one who leaves a lasting impact on our team, school, and our program. He's a three-year starter. Kell has shown consistent growth each season with his individual game and his leadership.
035His dedication and competitive spirit, has played a significant role in helping our team achieve key key goals and new milestones. During his junior season, Melan averaged 17 points a game, four rebounds, five assists, two and a half steals, and two blocks per game on an all-around performance that speaks to his versatility and commitment on both ends. This season, he was CHL player of the year for the second year in a row, district 16 player of the year, which is all coaches in the district, both of them for the second year in a row. Southwest Ohio Division Four Player of the Year for Cincinnati Corner and he was second team all state. Kell scored his thousandth point this season which is a major milestone in any high school uh player career. He's the eighth player in
036Miami history to do so and he's getting over it now. So he's kind of in up all time records some of his major ones so far. He is eighth all time in scoring with 1148 points. He's second all time in assist. for breaking the record. He's ninth all time in free throws made, third all time in steals and second all time in blocks. [Applause] So for Thank you. Congratulations first and our entire basketball program. Uh again, spring season is still going on during time. Please visit our athletic website. Check us out on social media as we highlight more of our spring success. Without further ado, just a brief intro to high school. [Applause] All right, the high school student I can speak for the high school students. Um, in addition to their accomplishments in the
037competitive arena, I can tell you they're also just stars in the classroom and in just all great people around shine on the court, but they also congratulations to all. So, um, couple people are going to be here tonight. Some will not be. The first one that we want to want to draw attention to is our district nurse, Nicole Murphy. Um, probably a familiar face at all grade levels. She can't be here tonight. She's has a family with one of her children who are ascending out of their grade level into the next one. So, that's an accomplishment and celebration for her family. But just wanted to bring just attention to Nicole and the great work that she does for our district. Um had the privilege of meeting Nicole this year and also traveling with her countless
038hours that she puts in planning and preparing for for trips for our students for not just trips that she goes on but trips that she sends students off on with all of our teachers. Um it takes a lot of work and a lot of preparation to plan everyone's emergency medical their medications wake up in the early hours to ensure that everybody has exactly what they need while they're on the trip. But um in addition to the great work that she does in preparation for those experiences for our students, I would also like to draw attention to just even uh you know within the last month there was a situation where I was in the nursing office with a call when we were addressing she was bandaging a student's forehead and then another student came with
039a knee and um ultimately that student uh needed additional medical care. But I will we're not going into too much details. Just highlight the fact that um had a followup conversation with the family and her fast action on that day uh in communication and collaboration with the EMTs uh I I can confidently say helped save life that day. Um, and just with uh with the the additional medical care, making sure that that the student was able to get to where they needed to be in order to receive the medical care they needed. Um, a school nurse makes a difference on a daily basis. A lot of times an unsung hero and uh just kind of just goes throughout the day making sure everything's in order. But you know, we're thankful working keep our kids safe
040on a daily basis. So, just want to make that for her. Um, a couple next people are here. Um, I would like to call Wise and Nick here. Okay. Well, here's the thing. Uh, they again, they scored a 36 on their AC. So, I [Applause] [Music] all the um but uh just to do that is is not an easy easy accomplishment but they make it look easy. So congratulations to that. At this time I would like to call up to acknowledge some of our students competition recently participated in quite successful. So um this is the ninth year actually that I've had students competing in the forest competition. Um when I first started nine years ago it was something that Mr. Miller actually started when the competition was new about 15 years ago when he retired
041and he knew I was taking over 18 environmental he says Tracy you have to keep this going so he drove me to the competition the spring before I took over the class um and it's really really cool opportunity the students basically write a proposal um based on an environmental problem that they see and they come up with a solution and they can get up to $1,000 to implement their solution if they are chosen as a top 10 finalist Um when I first started it was in Hamilton County. Um and so every year for the past nine years I had at least two of the top 10 groups from my high school. Um they started off with they usually had about 90 people that would submit proposals. So that was um you know a pretty good
042feat. And then about three years ago they opened it up to all of Ohio. So now um it's largely promoted just in the Hamilton County and in the Cleveland area, but they're up to about 140 proposals every year now that they pick the top 10 from. And so again, this year, even with a small group of students, I had two groups in the top 10. Um I also had an honorable mention group. And um so super proud of those kids. They competed at the zoo with their final um project where they present to a different round of judges what they did. And I had one group that came in um fifth place um that was Olivia and Ava and Anna and then I had none here. So, and then Maddie and David came in third
043place. Um my honorable mention group is actually still implementing their project. Um and it the community has always been great about supporting them. Um they actually sent me copied me an email from Rusty today. they were waiting for approval from Rusty in order to do something um for their project where they're removing seven days of pentle. Um and then the one group some of the primary people that are here may know um a Hannah and Olivia actually went to the fourth grade classrooms at all three elementaryaries and taught them about the dangers of paints and how they can make their own paint and took in some pictures and kind of talked to the kids about that. My other kids put in some duck boxes along Mil Creek. So, if you were out walking around, you
044may see the duck boxes. We have little QR codes on them and they'll take you to a website that talks to you all about the duck boxes and why dust are important for the environment. Um, and then I do have um all of my kids are required to enter the contest and so a couple years ago I started using um oh I should mention they would money when they do this. So um they get $1,000 to implement their idea but then when they place us to zoom they would money. So, the third place group won $800. And then they get that money. So, David and Maddie got $400 a piece. My fifth place group won $600. So, those three kids got $200 a piece. And that's their money. They send a check to their house.
045Um, I have to pay checks like the one you guys got earlier in my room because they can't catch those and so they don't they don't keep those. So, they're all over my room. Um, and then the kids come in the next year and go, "What are those checks?" That's great. Um, but I started a couple years ago. I get matching funds that I have to use in my I can't use it for like shoes and stuff like they can. Um, and so, uh, one of the things I've been doing is funding something called EOC service. So, it's sponsored by College Board. Um, and basically students have to, um, complete some kind of project in their community. Um, it has to have a global and a local impact. Um, they have to have at least
04620 hours worth of time into the project. And so, um, I use my matching fund to to fund the kids who don't make the top 10. funds they are project so they can implement those and then they earn an AP would be service credit designation which is a special designation on their AP score report and as long as they took the AP exam it doesn't matter what they got on the AP exam they still earn that designation um and and one of the groups was just here today if you walk down to the second courtyard you can see there's some painted doors they work with some of our teachers here and they painted some doors and installed some um that they got from Habitat for Humanity And so they're recycled doors and they attach plants
047to them or tennis and flowers to try to brighten up the space a little bit. So that's it. [Applause] Thankfully, Ella was recognized as the Sim human resources award winner. It goes to in short it goes to one junior and one senior who submits their Ella is the fourth recipient from high school and we couldn't award you know what do what does everyone get each year in high school. Um, every year we give out the phone, but typically everybody gets a yearbook. Um, not everybody signs up to work for yearbook, but Mr. Walters did. And we're very happy about that and he's doing an awesome job. And I'm I want him to talk about some of the students and the work that they're doing for our building. So, Mr. W. So that my name is
048Christopher Walters. I'm one of the teachers here at the middle school and um so I kind of late start to the yearbook. students [Music] that they're very persuasive to be a professor. And so Matthew classy on my side for just games, matches, all sports of Um, also Jenna and they have worked on all of the spreads, all the templates that we use for the yearbook to incorporate different pictures and themes to get our first. So, hey this sports game and just seeing personality going nowhere [Applause] ideas year and a lot of effort. I'm just so thankful that he will be with us next year. Um so early start issues that we did this year. [Applause] Jo. [Applause] All right. Go. You tell me how you do this. But do you want to explain this? You
049want me to explain it? Because I mean like here's just you're remarkable. Okay. If you were at the the grades 9 through 11 ceremony um just this past week, you already know what's coming. Okay? So, spoiler alert. Okay. Don't don't. All right, I go for it. So, back in I think before second quarter ended, my US history teacher Mr. introduced us all to an essay contest run by the American Revolution. And I was like, okay, I might as well do something. And so I took it up and I decided, you just have to write about something about the Revolutionary War. And so I wrote about how the nation was one of the six nations of the Europe in a multitude of ways during the revolution through the battle of Valley Saratoga. and I submitted it
050and I found out in the winter that I had won first place at the chapter level and at the Ohio level and then my essay went on to national and a couple weeks ago I found out that I was the national first place [Applause] winner sending emails and updates and things like that like okay what can we share what can we not share and then it was like boom right so you'll travel to this summer um to receive your recognition at the national [Applause] Congratulations. Mr. Hi everybody. My name is Dennis Shaper and I have the honor of being the business management instructor for Grey Oaks at the uh at the high school. Uh I teach four uh business courses plus an internship uh business foundations, marketing principle, digital marketing, strategic entrepreneurship and all of
051my students uh by virtue of being enrolled in a business class at Wyoming are members of DECA. Uh, DECA is the fifth year career tech student organization in the world. We have just under 300,000 members and the high schools alone. Um, this is our fifth year of a deca program. We teach in district 6 along with two chapters from Indian Hill, two chapters from Maryland, and also a very large chapter at Sycamore High School. Um, it's without a doubt the toughest district in the state. Um, I want to bring one of my members down. My name is All right. So, Libby takes business foundations. um met Libby for the first time in January which happened to be the same month that our district 6 competition. So uh greatly said I'll do u principles of business
052management administration which is for first year uh de students and she went on to finish third place at the district level out of about 16 different students and uh qualifying for the Ohio DECA career development conference in March. Uh we actually took a delegation of 27 students. Um, I'll put that in perspective for you. Um, three years ago, we brought four. So, um, we we took 27 students to the, uh, to the state competition. And I'll let Libby tell you how the state competition went. Um, so at the state level, I did an exam and I won first place overall for principles of business management administration. So, and he's kind of selling short. It's a very rigorous 100 question exam. Um at the regional level or district level 60 minutes at the state level, they
053got 90 minutes to complete it. There's actually two role plays that she had to do. A preliminary role play um and then the top 12 from a various heat. I believe there were six um go on to a final role play and they throw out the first role play. The exam counts for uh 33% of your total score and the role play counts for 67%. So became our second state champion ever um in the principles of business management administration and uh by virtue of finishing in the top five in Ohio, she qualified for the international career development conference in Orlando um at the end of April. Um there along with 25,000 other students from countries like the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Slovakia, um are all there competing in a
054grand total of 46 events. Um I'll let the tell you how the international career development conference. So at an event with about 200 other students um and so it went a similar process. You had an examin And so I found out I was in the top 20. I was super top 10. So then that night I found out I was in the top 10 and I ended up winning principles of business management administration. Um and it was like a really great experience and I think that was kind of small but I literally tried it out randomly this year and just took me to places I never would have gone. I think it's really worth something to put that in a little bit of perspective by the numbers because I love numbers. Um, Ohio had just
055over 200 contestants at the international uh conference. Libby was one of just three champions from Ohio. Um, and she was one of just four to even finish in the top three. Altogether, Ohio had 13 different contestants made the top 10. Um, on a local level, I mention in the last 10 years, Great Oaks has had a grand total of three. Great Oaks comprises 17 chapters, 15 different So it is a rare and difficult accomplish do again all next [Applause] Ariana. All right. Joining us now is not very happy. So um we ended here there was a a former superintendent and uh there is a award And each school district can nominate a student to represent their district. And then in all of Hamilton County, they pick one student to head the state. Ariana was the
056representative from Hamilton County this school year to head the state to represent not only our school district and our community but also our county um at the state level and just it's a it's a very it's a rare award um that's unique to the state of Ohio and it's very prestigious and very proud to share a few about what that experience was like. She called me in her office and I didn't really know what it was, but she called me to give this award and I was like I didn't know what it was at all but um consisted of activities um awards an essay test like a standard application and this is um like February. So like I was like not sure how much you put into this but like I was like this for
057a reason so I should like try my best and yeah it was um I applied and then they reached out to me and they were like and there's like there was a ceremony up in Columbus at dinner and I got to meet everyone there who also got different [Applause] [Music] counties. No problem. The next day Good stuff. So, uh it's better last. Okay. So, we're here from all the United Nations at the high school. This has been a phenomenal year. lots and lots of other phenomenal years. I've got a part of my team right up here with us. Lots of lots of big things this year. We hosted our 11th conference in a row. Uh we're one of the few schools in the state of Ohio who do this. Mason Mason does a much smaller
058version of what we do, but they're the closest to what we are. um we replicate the college experience and we generally have between 200 and 250 delegates every year in attendance from around the greater Cincinnati area and the state. So that's a big deal. Additionally, we travel to four conferences within the area and also we go to Mason High School a smaller conference. So this year we went to WashU in the fall and then after winter break we went to Mason and then the University of Michigan. We went to Indiana We went to Notre Dame also in the fall and then we also went to United States. We added one more at the end. Now my kids have won a lot of awards. We've got a great group here in front of you. So first
059I want them to tell you where they competed and what they won and then I'll title. I attended Mason University of Michigan and state. Um at Mason I won best delegate in the net crisis. I attended Indiana University outstanding delegate for representing Vietnam3. Honorable delegate delegate. I couldn't tell you how amazing our team is. These kids are super competitive. They're well researched. They're articulate. They work well with other people. But I have to say that the crowning moment for our team this year was when we won the spirit award. Now, this is the University of Michigan, a pretty fierce and competitive group of kids there from all around the region. A lot of private school kids. Um, and a lot of schools that are kind of like preolin is a class that kids take every
060day. There were kids at that conference whose grade hinged on their conference performance. That was their grade. So talk about a lot of pressure to put on a high school kid in a conference that year. All right. So at that conference with so many delegates from so many great schools, our team won the spirit award. The high school of the 40 plus high schools who were there that most embody the spirit and values of model. collaboration, open and honest scholarship, enthusiastic communication, and really the spirit of problem solving that we can hope for for the future. So, while we love going to conferences, we love throwing our own conference. This year, we're hosting our first time ever middle school summer camp right after school is out. We're very excited about that. This award meant a
061lot to me because it speaks to the character of our students and the values that we try to spread and hold dear in our own world. So, thank you to the board for all of your support. Uh, thank you to the parents who give so much in bringing the kids to practices and making sure we can do all of our traveling. This is really one of the highlights, I believe, of the high school experience. Thank you. Thank you, Miss. Thank you to everyone who stayed until the end. Appreciate that. Appreciate you being here. just a testament to see the primary schools up through middle school. Um it's no it's no secret as to why the high school is so successful because all it's foundation is comes from the primary school comes from the middle school
062and high school. It's just speak the words with them. So great job everyone. Thank you very much. We appreciate you here tonight. We got a lot to be excited about. Obviously, we are going to transition now into the rest of our welcome to stay long. We appreciate being here. [Applause] Take a few second break. All right, we're gonna have an update [Applause] on the jump. Roll the jump. I'm giving you This is the time of the year that we hear an update on the five forecast. And so um we do the main adoption of the five-year forecast in November. So at this time of the year, you know, we're five or six weeks away from June 30th, our fiscal year end. So we're just looking at the highlights of any changes. And so uh is
063going to answer me. Um just a reminder that uh the FIRE forecast is currently a statutory document. Um and that's kind of um maybe the backdrop of everything that that we're going to review tonight. The state budgets in two-year cycles. We are in the middle of a banium budget process. And there are a number of legislative proposals, some from the governor, some from the house, some that could come out of the senate, some things next week or in the next few weeks. And so everything that I'm going to talk about tonight is current law. Um, one of the one of the uh recommendations from the House is that they shift the five-year forecast to a three-year forecast. So, what we're what we're going to talk about tonight is current law, and I'll I'll try to
064identify things that are being for debate by the Ohio legislature when we're going through it. But right now, statuto document required to be adopted by the board twice a year. Once in November and once again in the spring. It includes three years for historical data, five years of projections, the fiscal year that we're in, and four more. It's important to remember it is the general fund only. So it doesn't include like our bond retirement fund. I mean we just passed that bond issue to build new primary schools. Our bond retirement fund isn't included. All of the student activity accounts a number of which we talked about tonight. Model UN um some of the other uh athletics, some of the other uh funds that aren't tax supported. So this is the the 5-year forecast is the
065general fund only and we do use a reliable trend for our forecasting. I'll highlight some of those assumptions and obviously it's we're modeling the uh the forecast and using assumptions based on everything that we know to be true today which is again important during this binding budget process. Um, we talk a lot about cash balance and we have a c Wyoming has a cash balance policy and that just simply means that through quite a bit of analysis and months of work with some leadership of our teachers union and our administrative team, we identified what the appropriate cash balance was for our district. And that helps us as we think about when we might need future operating values. And so we identified $5 million as our cash balance target that that sufficiently allowed us to meet
066the cash flow needs of the district. Anything less than that, we would need to start thinking about either reducing expenditures, raising revenue, or some combination of both. Okay? And so immediately anytime that we as a leadership team or as a board have a big picture financial conversation, all of our eyes go to that bottom line and we How does it imp the decision we're trying to make or the planning that we're thinking about, how does that decision impact our cash balance? And I added some percentages onto the bottom of this graph because one of the key pieces of of that's been introduced by the Ohio legislature as part of the House's version of the budget bill is this metric that says uh what they they they're going to determine whether your cash balance is too
067low or too high. So, we as a as a school district through engagement with our our student union leadership and through our board identified $5 million as our target to say, "Hey, we get to 5 million, we really need to start making some having some conversations or when we see it coming really. If when we see 5 million coming, we we need to start making some decisions about how we're going to either reduce expenditures or have a plan to increase revenue, which for us then is not ready." And so, um, as you can see, we're in fiscal year 25. That's the year that we're in right now that we're getting to finish approaching finish on June 30th. And so, our cash balance as a percentage of the expenditures of last year is about 28 and
068a half%. Well, this arbitrary threshold that's in in the the House's proposal is 30%. So, right now, we're okay, but there's a lot of districts that aren't. And had had this proposal happened maybe two or three years ago, our number would have been above 30% and that would have meant something difficult for us because that 30% triggers a reduction in property taxes and that would just make us go down this slope quicker. Okay. Now, again, it's just a proposal and so we're going to talk about maybe here uh over the course of the board meeting how how we might ask our school community to do some advocacy in opposition to that threshold. But I put it on here just so we can continue to have conversations and make sure we know and understand what know
069what our cash balance means to us in terms of dollars. We've not used these these these percentages as a way to talk about it. So, if our number that we're targeting is $5 million and if every single number on this forecast were true, then that means that we would be looking for new revenue sometime in the latter half of this forecast. Okay? But again, we know that at this point it's we're just using a trend. And I can with 100% certainty tell you that those numbers are not going to be 100% true. Right. So, we start with revenue and we get the bulk of our tax revenue from property taxes. We also get income tax, two types of tax revenue here in Wyoming. 40% of it, 40% of our total revenue is from property taxes.
07038% of that is from real estate. And then we get a little sliver of public utility. I called out public utility in this version of the presentation because they are growing at different rates. So the um the top graph you can see that our real estate revenue property tax is paid by uh both class one and class two taxpayers. So residential remember we're 98% residential and then a little bit of commercial industrial without any new voted property tax mill that number is never going to grow materially. It's going to make teeny tiny changes and you can see those in the graph, right? Really small changes when when values when values go up, just really small changes. But the public utility revenue has grown a little bit, but even though the shape of that graph looks
071different, it's only 2% of our of our total revenue. So, it's not driving material change to our forecast. So, the biggest bucket was property That's the second our second most material revenue source is school district income tax and it's about 32% of our total revenue. And this graph looks different, right? And so we have had quite a bit of volatility. This is a um 25 years of of actual school district income tax collection and then the next four years of forecast. And so we've had some volatility even in recent years. We we saw a decline in 24 coming out of COVID. We saw some declines there. And so this is particularly difficult for us to forecast and and I just tried to give you a couple little years of couple years of um actual data
072there. The 24 year average of our collection is a is a overall 3% growth and that's what we have in this forecast. What we saw a decline in fiscal year 21 coming out of co we actually coming out of co we weren't sure exactly what was going to happen. So we we were super conservative and at 1 and a half% well in fiscal year 22 is actually 10%. And then we forecasted six actual of almost seven. 24 we saw some early indications that we would might see might see some really limited growth. So we took the forecast down to zero and we actually saw a decline. So it's really really difficult to forecast. Property tax is very easy. the values are are are um public property tax property tax values are are public on the
073auditor's website and we know exactly what our voted millage rates are. It's very easy for me to calculate what our property tax revenue is going to be. Income tax isn't like that. There's not a site at the Ohio Department of Taxation that says, "Hey, here's what everyone's income is and then I know what our rates are. I know what our voter approved rates are." We don't know. It's very driven by taxpayer behavior. So, if people are if their investments are doing well, people are buying and selling businesses. All of those things are happening and they're impacting the collection of our income tax and we don't know any of it. And so it's very difficult to forecast. So we really just rely on our trend data to do that. So this is one of the one
074of the places in the forecast where we we take that 25 year trend and we say over 25 years it's been 3%. That's what's in the forecast. And if we see anything different um this year A great example uh for this current year we had had 3% in the forecast and our early collections in July were not healthy at all. We started to see a decline and we got the October collection and it was really low. So we we um modified that November forecast down to 1% and even even at the January payment we said oh gosh if we're going to make it and then all of a sudden we get the April payment and the April payment is a 21% increase from the prior April. came out of nowhere. No data that ever could
075have supported that that much of an increase. So it ends up at 5.68%. So very very very difficult for us to forecast but also a material source of revenue and certainly helpful to our cash balance when we see those years of growth. So of our three material revenue sources, first was property taxes, second was income tax, the third is state funding. That's about 19 20% of our total revenue. This is is um sort of the crux of what's being debated in the Ohio legislature right now. A few years ago, there was a new fair school funding plan. But even at the onset, Wyoming that that new funding formula did not generate additional revenue to to Wyoming city schools. So, we've been funded on something called the guarantee. So, when they plugged in all the factors
076of the the new plan, some it just didn't work for some school districts. There were like less than a dozen of us that said, "Okay, it just doesn't work for you. We're going to give you exactly the same amount of money that you got last year." So that means we're on the guarantee. And so we've been at that flatline level for six years. This year 25 will be the sixth year that we've been hovering around 5.8 5.9 million. And so the governor had a new um proposal for the implementation of this fair school funding plan. Then the house had a version the governor's version um shifted some of the implementation measures and also reduced the guarantees. That was bad for us. The house um kind of abandoned the whole fair school funding plan hit pause
077built a bridge jump formula. Um that generated a little bit of revenue for Wyoming, but I think it's not great for public schools in general. Um so we're waiting on the Senate's plan. The Senate held hearings in their education subcommittee uh la the past few weeks and they their deadline for their proposals was last Friday and so we expect to hear a budget out of the Senate I think somewhere around maybe June 3rd. So, we are continuing our advocacy um targeting uh the Senate's finance committee as they work to take all the input that they've heard in hearings over the past few weeks and work through their leadership to generate a budget provision. The Senate will vote on a budget. It will go back to the House. They will reject it and then we'll move
078to conference committee and then it will be a very busy June waiting for all of this. I always like to mention that during the time that we were flatlined from fiscal year 19 to f this year 25. We kept our same 5.85.9 million that the state expanded spending on voucher programs from 300 about 350 million to almost a billion dollars. It's very difficult for the public education advocacy to hear from the Ohio legislature that they don't have money to fund public schools and they're really just making a decision to spend those dollars on voucher expansion. So I've talked about all the revenue sources say so that's kind of how we have the money to spend. So what does the expense side look like? Um salaries and benefits are about 80% of our of our general
079fund budget. We pay staff members to serve kids. It's the core of what we do. And uh just to give you a benchmark of what those dollars actually look like, salaries, uh for this year and the next next couple are hovering around 18 and a half just over 19 million. Our historical average growth over the past five years has been about 2 and a half% and that that is projected to stay about the same over the life of the forecast. Um we know that labor cost there's pressure on labor costs and so we are um you know continuing to monitor that uh over the life over the life of this forecast. Same on the benefit side. We have a lot of strategies in place to help control some of our benefit costs. Specifically we partner
080with a consortium of 13 other school districts in Hamilton County to procure our health insurance. And through that effort, we've really been able to keep um some really reasonable benefit growth historically in this forecast and then also modeling that out forward. So if 80% of salaries and benefits, what's the other 20%. Well, about 13 and a half of it is something that we call purchase services. And instead of paying staff members to do something, we we outsource is sort of a common way to talk about instead of paying Wyoming Wyoming employees, we we outsource that work to um other companies. Other items that fall in that are utilities. Um and I've given you some of the the dollar thresholds there just to kind of so you can put your arm around what those expenses look
081like. Um sub costs really increased for us this year still coming out. I hate to even be saying the word co when I'm doing this presentation but it is the reality. So since then we've really struggled with sub procurements and uh that was a difficult line item for us this year some appropriations. So when we think about purchasing these services instead of our own employees, it's things like our our outsource transportation, our outsourced custodial services. And then again, uh fixed costs on things that you might have or see in your home, um just regular repairs, legal services, utilities, those sorts of things. So that leaves about like three and a half% on materials and supplies and a little bit of capital out. For us, materials and supplies are instructional supplies used in classrooms. Textbooks, I
082know we have some textbooks on the agenda for board's consideration to approve tonight. And then capital outlay is in alignment with our technology plan where we buy devices and building infrastructure. And so you'll see that that takes a little bit of a dip next year because we aren't we won't have to support primary technology infrastructure because we're doing that with our new money. So, fiscal year 26 takes a little bit of a dive and then it rebounds to the regular regular trend. So, I go back to sort of our main page there. Think about our cash balance. And maybe that big circle in red might remind you that as we approach $5 million as our as our cash balance that we'll be looking for again reviewing expenditures or uh discussing with our community and engaging
083the best way to find a way to increase revenue. For us, that's some sort of tax levy. And right now, again, everything were to be true that would be maybe running that sometime in 27 to collect in 28. Remember how tax collection works. Taxes property taxes that are voted in in one calendar year are connect are collected to the following calendar year. So for us our fiscal year that process was about a half a year of collection and you know again just just put it there as my first bullet point. There are a number many a number of of provisions currently being debated in the general assembly that could materially impact this forecast. The the main the main two are how the fair funding plan and the guarantee continues to impact our revenue. That's the
084first one. And the second one is how some sort of measure that would cap our cash balance. us in the future. Again, not an issue for us right now unless they lowered it or was 30. But thinking about in the future, as soon as we pass any sort of operating levy would be immediately reduced because we would be above that threshold. So, it's a really difficult provision to understand to apply to your forecasts, but that's where our advocacy is. Any questions about the updates for the forecast? Thank you. Thank you. I think it's part of my recommend each one of our groups. So why don't we start with I will share we had our final April 29 advisory committee have their time. I did. We had a nice conclusion at the end of the year,
085you know, suggestions on what went right for everyone and then suggestions for what do next year. And we had some good good ideas including topics. We ask them next year. All wellers. Oh, I'm sorry. I was thinking about social There was a suggestion by one of the members of what suggest it wasn't specific to what's next but the suggestion was assimilation of data overwhelmed data from all the sources bring it together way everything's out there all kinds of sources all kinds of databases but in terms of gathering note simply sitting in the classroom so some really suggested good suggestions possible kind of take that next We will have an update necessarily just keeping this perfect though because we met right after the community. was perfect because really the next day we had another basing I
086think that's one of the highlights from the first time students sess We had four students from the first workshop to the second Thursday is important. It's the retirement celebration retirement open. Are we all suggested? All right. Thank you. Yes. The right hand give the left hand take up. Yes. Uh we reviewed some modifications in the current year appropriation related to salaries and benefits. And so some so we reviewed one our income tax revenue for this year's income taxation. We did see some increase forecast positive revenue but then we had to add some increases to benefits. We have higher income tax collection. You also have higher income tax fees. So we have that also small discussed and then we review the Ohio State has released some new financial health indicators and talk about that. Those are
087available website. I think that our district very in our forecast and how we use that tool is a new information. And then um we just shared an update on the Budget and the policy review is is ready first. All right. In the board of education, first thing are policies. Remember two months ago, we looked at some policies. We had some concerns. We sent them back for research purpose policies have come again. There was planning now. Do you want to go over each one at this point? changes. I appreciate something. And I appreciate not just research. So, so we will call this next thing to the policy. And then the first read of a revised district calendar. Yes, we're still with the 256 calendar. And so this is specific to the date of May, which we
088just had incredible celebration. Amazing day. Um, thanks to everyone who put forth a great effort to celebrate. Um but next calendar that was not an ideal change to the text. I think this is the second. Yes, you did the presentation at the last board meeting. staff for 30 days in the board office. So this has the approval of and then the resolution to resend prior board action and adopt special education model policies and procedures. So I'll just speak to that. So in in January we adopted the department of education workforce special education model policy that is now an annual action that will take were made to make sure that policy is fully covering. So we have already motion to approve the board of education report. Yes. Miss James. Yes. Yes. Yes, treasures. Thanks, Genie. Item
089A, approval of the minutes from the regular meeting of April 21st and the planning meeting of May 6th. Item B, for the statement of revenues and expenses for month, April 30th. Item C, except with appreciation, the list of donations including the big check tonight. Item D, the appropriation adjustments for the month of May, including those Item, approval of your forecast and item. We have a motion to approve Mr. Yes. Mrs. Mr. Yes. Mr. Thomas. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I have several personnel items to number one. Number two is personel sharing who is administrative. So we're very excited to join us. So this year this year got experience at multinit buildings. Number four is number five. Number six artificial intelligence guidance. This goes back to CAC students, staff members and families. that number seven to
090approve these number 10 to support extended schools. 12. Number two is number 14. These are all steps. Okay. So shifting it great opportunity apps. contract. Students are services. That's a lot. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve one person to approve? Superintendent update. Okay. Exciting time. This was I don't know how many times heard today. This was the final Monday of the school year. Seems to be Monday. Yes. Did you talk about it today? I I I said it to my home. Yes, it is the final Monday. It's Some people are really excited, some people are really scared about that. It's exciting. Lot of great things happen last week and there's so much. So you saw the fourth grade continuation were demonstration events like this. see what comes next. All right. Um, now
091we would uh we need to go into executive session. So, could I have a mot to move into session to um consider the employment of a public employee. We have a roll call. Mr. Yes. Mr. G. Yes.