April 2025 Regular Meeting

001This is the April meeting of the Wyoming Board of Education. I call this meeting to order. May I have a roll call, please? Mr. Thomas, here. Mr. G, here. Mr. Ser, here. Mr. Brick, here. Mr. Fmer here. Thank you. Will you all please join me with the pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Uh may I have a motion to adopt the agenda as written? Okay. Uh may have Mrs. G. Yes. Mrs. Yes. Mrs. Brick. Yes. Mr. Bmmer. Yes. Mr. Thomas. Yes. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh recognition of the public, we have no names on our list, so we will move on from there. We have

002a number of presentations tonight that show just how wonderful this community is and how willing you all are to be involved in so many aspects of of the wonderful things that happen in Wyoming. So, I'm going to start first of all with Toya Wall, who is our um uh representative on the Great Oaks Board of Education. She represents Wyoming in our and is there for us. We thank you. Um she sent us just so all know so everyone understands, she sent us a number of documents to look at regarding the fiscal um situation at the Great Oaks. And um and then we also asked her to make our presentation or not necessarily our presentation but we asked her to share with us some of the things that the connections between Wyoming and Great Oaks and

003I'll just turn it over to you. Thank you. So Wall for those of you I haven't met. Um, so I my approach today was a little bit different than the past where I've sort of come in and made a presentation because I said to the genius that I wasn't going to make a presentation, but what I hope to do is I sent you a bunch of information that was really focused on finances um um enrollment data and I was hoping that it would be a data report. it ended up being the student report card. The data report that um that is still old to me is a more of a deep dive um that'll give you a better sense of how students are fairing um a little more information than what the state does. And

004so, um hopefully the next time I do the report, same materials, I will focus on that report and then the strategic plan so that Harry does later in the year, right? Um the only other thing I I would um before I open up for questions um I I think you all might know that Grado opened up their enrollment last year and so um they they didn't know if that meant a lot of CPS students would be enrolling and they weren't really certain how that was going to help there. Um but it ended up that we did have a number of um Cincinnati public schools enroll but not um to the extent that they anticipated. So maybe next year but um so but that that will be that'll sort of change the dynamics a little bit

005now that students are in the district. Um any questions I can answer on the documents that I it looked very helping to me. Did I misread anything? No, I think so. I think in the future if there's anything significant that feels like this board needs to know financially. Um the district did just undergo an audit and so that's what you you have with you and they may they pass with flying color. There were just a few things on the management note. U most of it was just based on board participating in a um a u an email inquiry and they didn't get 100% participation. So that type of thing. Um but other than that I think if there's anything that stands out in terms of you know finance in terms of finances and how it

006affects this district or any of the the districts that support breakups. That's what I would report on. But other than that, I thought just providing that documentation is a question about the enrollment report. Cincinnati public on it. So that would be so that'll be captured in the next report. Okay. So um I was just trying to see how their number fared against all the other district and they weren't on there. Yeah, they so they wouldn't be on there. Okay. Uh go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. So, the next enrollment report will include the CTS and as you can see on that report, Wyoming's uh enrollment, it's seven or eight students pretty much every year. However, we do have some crossover in that we have our Tell me how the funding works with our business art. Yeah. So,

007they send um a staff member. to the staff member, um, Mr. Checker, I think his name right now. Jeffer. Jeffer, sorry. Um, he he teaches a program, a full course load at at Wyoming High School and Wyoming City Schools doesn't pay for his salary, right? So, um, great has a satellite teachers all over. all of the campus districts that they serve. They have Wyoming has one, but other districts, M Healthy, for example, several satellite teachers and there's a de of instruction and multiple different programs. I think some of our peer schools I think Wyoming has fewer um programs than most of our peer schools. They at least one or two programs. I think we have one. Um but yeah, so that that's how it works. The the Great Oaks has a number of satellite pictures

008that they send out the district. whether kids are coming to all of the four campuses and then like going to the schools and learning site. Yeah. So that does extend the impact outside of that travel. Well, it's a good addition. Certainly it's it's a popular Yeah. I can't remember how we figure out how many um classes they teach here. You know what I mean? Like if you're saying maybe one here versus some is it just one in terms of program. So there so for example maybe there's uh so there's DECA but then there are other there's a rule program there's computer science there's robotics there all of these different programs that schools offer Richard I mean we can continue to understand and learn more about I mean just a reminder oaks gets two mills worth

009of tax revenue from every public school district owner on this list which is yeah. So regardless of how many students are going to receive the same amount of money. So yeah is $800,000 of tax revenue. So our residents are paying two mills on your taxes for $800,000. So it might be worth seeing if there's another program to get full benefit. Yeah. Because that's that's in law. It's not like we can negotiate a No, we're required to have a program and so our choice is to decide which one we want to join. So we could join the oaks or we could join Butler Tech, but we decided with all the other Hamilton County schools to join the Oaks and they they have remarkable programming, right? Remarkable facilities and I think the way to do that would

010be to so each of the deans one of the deans depending on the the program would be who we would contact growing our program. Write that down. Yeah. But think of it, right? If we were to think about different ones, I don't know if there's a limit on how many you either can get or we have space for or have you, but would we were paying a certain fee of the different options, robotics or some other thing that they do? Would that be as simple as expanding in some cases the set of things that we are doing at the high school for free or for a fee that we've already paid? Is that the way you ought to think about? I'm not think it would not be at a cost to an additional cost to

011at least for staffing. And I'm not sure about facilities set up. That's right. Space availability question. Yeah, I mean someone on Wyoming side coordinating has Thanks for sending home that early too because it's so much. No, but it was great because I said it plenty of time for us to take a look at. I appreciate. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. Thank you. And thank you for your contribut contribution as our representative. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Have a good evening. Thanks. All right. Uh next, the CAC, our second group in the CAC has a presentation on social media and its impact on students and family. And uh we're going to let them get Yeah. Well, they get situated others. She said second group, but you're the first

012group in our heart tonight. Well, I bet in terms of we had a CAC group last month. Now, this is the other and they did um share their their great work with the CAC uh in our most recent meeting and just fascinating. Again, we are just amazed by the research that has been done by the CAC teams and this is certainly no exception to that. So, we appreciate you all being here tonight. Okay. All right. My name is Dave Managinger. Um, and my team here is the social media and its impact on students and families team. Uh, for this year, we're made up of July, um, Alison Lupe, Chad Arnes, Ian Clingler, Maria Mariana Nichol and Kathy Ramader. Um, one of those folks I wanted to point out. Um, one of our team members unfortunately

013passed away this year, but um, we wanted to acknowledge her contributions and um, point out that she uh, was a great team member to have um, eager to dig into this topic. Um, and so we didn't want that to overlooked. Um, we only knew her a little bit, but they already miss her. Um, so the study, what did we do? We were tasked to examine the impact of social media on students and families. We were assigned two pieces of media to study in particular. Um that is the book anxious generation and the uh minisseries sld documentary the social dilemma that was put out by Netflix a few years ago. Um the other uh specific tasks that we had were to um explore how social media and device use impacts families um and uh provide some

014recommendations as most CNC groups usually would do. Uh, as I mentioned, we did study the film, took a lot of notes, read the book, took a lot of notes. We also did a survey of parents in the district um and got 283 responses, which we were happy with. And, um, we also surveyed around two different districts and asked them, "What are your policies and how did they go?" um to the extent that other districts were able uh to say. Uh so first up, I'll I'll give you a quick rundown of the social dilemma. Um the basic gist of it is that there are a lot of tech companies today that um have built apps and websites and businesses around uh affecting people's behavior and in particular in ways that the user may not be aware

015of or may not want. Um the the thing about the way these business uh businesses work is that um the more engagement they can drive, the more money they'll make. Um and so uh to some to a certain extent they they will in fact study behavior modification and uh psychology and all these things um to keep you on the app as much as possible. [Music] Um there we go. We have a couple we have a couple quotes here but um sort of been well studied uh in particular that uh overuse of these apps contributes to negative mental health outcomes um and uh including disinformation, extremism, negative mental health outcomes, addiction, depression and anxiety. Um, and studies also show that these are more pronounced than younger users, which is relevant to our interests. Um, that's a

016quick rundown of the social dilemma. Um, unfortunately, the movie does not end with a optimistic ending. Uh, because of these uh business models, this will probably continue um uh without without some form of regulation. So, it's something to be aware of. Um, the next topic we're going to go into is um, the anxious generation, and I'm going to introduce it with this slide that will give you some things to think about as we go through all the details. Um, Jonathan Height wrote this book and it's extremely popular this year. Um he does form a very compelling story of how he believes society has changed in the last decade. Um there are many correlations that he has discovered and highlights in his book. The science isn't quite so clear on which of these things are causing

017the others. It's really kind of the the the answer is still out. Um and There are some researchers who are concerned that deciding that we figured it out and we're done is more dangerous than um continuing to study this. So in any case, we will now talk about uh the book itself and Kathy is going to give you back. Well, if you want to see the notes, it's on chance. I think that's for that. Okay, got it. Um, I'm going to start a little bit with just in general what we know about smartphones and mental health. Um, that and the this is the data from um the book. He has this slide about the increase in major depression and particularly since they introduction of a cell phone because of the way that was behind the

018scenes of what the social social mentions with the act and the way they're intended to create addiction and use um and it is equally affecting our boys and girls um but in different ways which we'll get into when we talk a little just a little bit but basically girls are affected more from the social perspective um with feeling lonely and ostracized whereas boys that are getting into gaming and pornography neither of those are very helpful I mean there parts of gaming which can be quite helpful that when you're when you're spending all your time there not spending time in your life um And then uh I've been recently writing a lot about the neuroscience of learning. Um I interviewed one of my pediatrician friends and as he talks about what we know more today than

019we did 10 years ago about how learning occurs and when a new idea is introduced into our brain. If we flood it with interference, this is not talking about the addiction of social media, but we flood it with the interference of social media and cell phone and constant distraction. We're interfering with our brain's ability to lay down memory. so that later on in sleep it can be consolidated so that later on test day we can actually remember the information and apply it. Um, and if we don't do that initial step of having some rest and letting the brain do what it needs to do to initially consolidate, we're not going to be able to build on that and it just is not going to get enough running interference, which is what which some of the

020data on smartphone usage um is showing that it is running interference or learn for specifically for learning um in memory consolidation. um according to K height so the next several slides are going to be what height is sharing with us and one of the things that was sort of contra height was that he's not the psychologist he's not the one writing the story the study but what he is he's a great storyteller and he has done the literature review saving all of us the trouble to do it um which I'm very happy with all that I don't like to do all that but I've had to do it myself so I'm going to catch me up here um and so he contrasts and and there are Um this is this book came out in March

021of 24 and it has it has really hit the ground running. I mean really has got a lot of traction, got a lot of people interested and prior to it coming out here in the states um countries in Europe prior to this book coming out had already done nationwide cell phone bans in their country. So this is not a new conversation in Europe. This is a new conversation to our country. In fact, Florida was one of the first states in one of the first states in the United States to do a statewide ban in schools of cell phones in 2023. FYI there for you. I'm not sure how it's playing out or how that goes, but it was banned in 2023. It may have gotten on the chopping block um later, but then I'm not.

022So the point is for height is if he's looking at real world versus virtual world experiences you might have heard in real life versus the social world but um that the hazards of one over the other and to Dave's point to begin with perhaps it's not an eitheror perhaps it's a way of learning how to manage and be in both places in the time that is appropriate. Um but there are if you also get down to when we had this increase of social media and phone usage we had this decrease of in-person play time exploration outside time and they are as a result we can see correlated simultaneous to the increase in smartphones these four foundational harms also spiking in our country and our young people. social deprivation uh which is basically this is so

023fascinating to me when when cell phones were first introduced I remember somebody saying but this is a way for all of our young people that don't feel comfortable to have a voice they can do polling in the classroom or teaching at UC and that was a cool thing now the kids that don't want to raise their hands can raise their hands but did we take away the connection with other humans would probably show us a little bit it did um but this is really telling the correlation of the the number and percentage of students, boys and girls who often feel lonely with the introduction of smartphones in 2009 and 10. Uh in terms of sleep deprivation, we can all know that when you don't get a good sleep, you can't sleep, but you can't think

024quite well. And also that affects back to how it affects your learning. You don't sleep well. You don't consolidate your memories for long-term storage. You can't retain them for use and to be um scaffolded later. Attention fragmentation is a term that um height uses. He actually kind of borrows it from an earlier do um book by uh oh what was that name? Hold on. Nicholas car in the shallows. Um, and this is how he described exactly we do make it an intentional decision to be paying attention on task. But when you've got all these things binging you and buzzing you, even when you put your phone on silent, it might still buzz you. And the idea that it might happen, all of your thoughts become dazed and kind of fragmented. And this is what a

025a teenager brain looks like. And I just did a presentation to a bunch of people and I'm like really if you look at it it's like prefrontal cortex is like way squished more than that where all of our rational thinking is occurring because it's not formed and the amydala and the lyic system which are in the middle where the hippopotamus is there that's like on fire in teenagers already and then we add a lot of other stuff coming into us. I mean a lot of distraction and it's just it's like running around in circles. That poor little hippo is just dancing away. Um, so some other things just how it how these are some other studies that show what attention fragmentation you break it down is exactly what it is. It's your thoughts are going

026all over the place which makes it difficult to focus and interferes with um encoding your memories. Um, and this was similar to what Dave was talking to with about the social dilemma, the internal reports. That's really scary about that documentary. You know, you got people on the inside confessing. Like, not that they're confessing, but they are confessing. Like, we knew this was going to happen. You know, it's like Pavlo's dog. We know we put the cheese over here and we ring the bell and there's no cheese, it's still going to come because it might be there, right? It's the same kind of thing. So, it's they they really um kind of did it on purpose, which is that. Um and then this is something that I think as educators and parents the scary part for

027our youngest youngest our most vulnerable students for whatever reason these issues are impacting their abilities to learn more adversely than our kids who are already mobile adjusted. So you throw in a few aces, one, two, three kids in trauma, throw in a smartphone, and that's going to more adversely affect those kids with multiple aces and living in daily trauma than the kids who are coming from a more well adjusted, less adverse experiences in their lives. Um, and it's also likely going to interfere with executive function. Um, and then the last foundational harm is addiction. Um, just that I actually I got a little meme yesterday. Totally sidebar, but this is really funny to me. Somebody sent me a Tik Tok. I didn't do this, but it was a bunch of old people at a slot

028machine like like doing this because it was like happy Easter. So, every time somebody said happy Easter, they were like liking it like all day long. So, like we're addicted to it. Your likes. You get your thumbs up. You get your thumbs up and then oh, you got thumbs down. Like travesty. So, we're addicted to it. I mean, and not just our kids. Um, so this is for me the play recess advocate. This is really just so sad. We ended up overprotecting our children in the real world while we underprotect them in the real world. And I'm going to turn it over to my colleague here, Chad, who's going to talk to me about our survey. There you go. Yeah. So we we sent a survey out to parents [Music] 283 of that roughly a

029third were multif family and I blew that data out. So you'll see numbers that exceed that at times just because I actually did a little trick. We're adding some observations to account for the fact that parents were panting for multiple schools. So these are the four things that they they said that they were the most concerned about. negative perspective, right? And they they do in fact align with what we've seen before. I don't know if that's an influence of the book or not. Uh but uh certainly was the highest response items that we was the right button. Yeah. Um so uh most parents are concerned about phone usage uh and what you support manage that. What we aren't showing here that's kind of what that that says in a nutshell. What we aren't showing here

030but it's also good to note that that they also saw the main benefits of this is having a phone communication the parents family social connections and saving emergency contacts. We saw this quite frequently as well. Um the major concerns have to do with these negative aspects that we talked about. I'm going to dig into which ones kind of rose to the top here in just a minute. The first was character out of how our parents orient themselves towards cell phone and social media useful. So key takeaway here is that across all the schools, right, at least threequarters of families have a policy on either social media usage or cell phone usage. In other words, parents tend to approach cell phones and social media seriously and responsibly here in our community. There we go. Um, families

031that have a policy on cell phones or social media use tend to be more dissatisfied with school policy. Notably, actual usage of either of these things is insignificant with respect to their opinion on school policy. So, in other words, parents voicing concerns are not typically the ones struggling to manage it themselves. And those who have policies, which are most, as we've seen, are less satisfied with the policies that they see in our schools. Oops. So here we see that parents tend to be concerned uh yeah parents that tend to be concerned about social uh media use and phone usage tend to be more dissatisfied with school policy and as we've seen aren't necessarily the ones who experiencing the greatest usage in their homes either given the positive correlation that you see the top line there

032between self-reported comfort. I am so excited to see P values on the slide in here. Um I'm wondering if you can explain the p value for what that means in that. Yeah. So the lower means the more statistically significant it was in the analysis meaning that it's really hard for me to say that there's no effect higher values opposite. It is a somewhat arbitrary cut off but it's in this case I'm not using alpha I'm just um so given the positive correlation between self-reported comfort managing screen time and social media usage at the top you can see there this also suggests the concerns tend to be focused on when children are out of parents direct responsibilities in other words at school. So what schools are the parents most concerned about? uh the primary school and

033middle school parents tended to be generally satisfied with school policy. So they're in the y- axis you actually see the the that's the average score that they assigned to it right on a like scale. Um as you can see primary middle school about you know about the same both the parents you know put it in a satisfied rating on a scale one to four. High school was significantly lower statistically significantly lower. So that means we probably need to be focusing on high school policy if we're really going to put our attention somewhere, right? If we're really concerned about parent satisfaction with those policies, what issues should we focus on? Looking at specific concerns, we see three items are cited most frequently, but the distributions of policy satisfaction that by concern they vary noticeably there. So

034you'll see, you know, the ones most frequently cited are those ones that we open with, right? There's some other ones there. And as far as the portion of folks who are dissatisfied, right, that that proportion goes up considerably for some of those. So for example, the uh inappropriate content there at the very bottom, right? Like so in other words, a real a much smaller group of parents are really really concerned about that and that really really drives or is really really associated I should say with uh their dissatisfaction with school policy. I did not dig into that bigger group. I suspect that they're younger families. So remember the four concerns we originally raised? Well, those plus inappropriate content, they appear to be the issues most strongly associated with dissatisfaction with the policy. Um, now note

035that I group these a little bit differently during the formal analysis, but it is a combined sleep and focus here, but these are the same issues we open the parents say slides with. So to bring home all of those data analysis, if I were to characterize the average parent described by the data, they would be the parent of a high schooler. with a home policy governing cell phone and social media usage. They want their community's high school policy to align more closely with their home standards, especially regarding concerns about social development issues, attention, addiction, and overuse, sleep, focus, and then a much smaller group set in appropriate content. That issue is a very strong driver among that group. Ready? So, the other um survey, so to speak, that we did was um asking other districts

036about their policies. And we've tried to summarize most of what we've uh come across here on this slide. Um most schools restrict cell phone use during class. That's an easy one. Um a lot of schools have uh specific storage areas for phones rather than leaving it up to the student where to put that. Um, smart school, smartwatches, same as a phone. Uh, under under most policies that we saw, um, earbuds and headphones are a kind of interesting one. Um, there are legit uses for those sometimes uh, in the in the classroom, but we saw pretty consistent that um, you needed explicit permission to do that. Um and uh for the most part um there are three main things I guess distraction like we like we talked about these devices you know interfere with development cheating

037which is a whole different area you don't want to have and um privacy and security. So you know uh there there may be things that students are doing with the device that we don't want them to be doing in the building. Um, so here's the um here's here's the recommendations for what we're supposed to do about all these problems. Um, according to height and uh many other researchers um he he wants us to tilt the scale on that on that uh distinction between those real world things and those virtual world things. So, less phones, but also more playing, uh, more unsupervised time. Um, he's in favor of, for example, like fewer rules at recess and play times, um, for kids to work things out. Um we saw a few examples that um they'll be linked

038in the report, but there are some there are some initiatives that um put young kids on a program to engage with the real world around them like go for a shopping trip by yourself or something or like ride the bus or a whole variety of things. And that's actually integrated into the school like a homework assignment like um and and you kind of progress on that. Um, the third rule is an interesting one. Um, I don't know of anyone doing this, but it sounds like obvious. Don't give a smartphone as a child's first phone. Um, you can call people and text people on a non-s smartphone. Um, and you get away from a lot of the apps and games and everything else. Um, and when you do get a smartphone, it really shouldn't be until

039um, high school because of the point in time in the development of the uh, neurology in the in the child's brain. You the a young child can not resist the addictions and and everything else as well as an older high school age student. Um and the last one is a lot about um this falls kind of equally on parents and and on these platforms which is that young children should not be able to open accounts and interact with these types of apps and websites um until uh an older age. That's a tricky problem because of course you can just say yes I am 15 on any sign up form. Um there are a lot of interesting technical and legal ramifications of age verification but height strongly um advocates for age verification and raising the age

040um on most things. I don't know if you know right now you can't sign up for things online unless you're 13. Um you can't enter into a contract with a with a Google for example until you're 13. He recommends at least 16. Um, and for the folks in this room, he's got recommendations. In addition to these, he's also got recommendations for local governments and other things if you want to check out the book. But his section on schools specifically recommends uh no no phone use at school um for all day. Um, put the phone somewhere where it is, um, a known location, uh, a controlled location, um, locker, a pouch, but not in the classroom. Um, and like I said, add those good things, more recess time, more instructor play, um, uh, shop classes, vocational

041training. Um there's a lot of uh correlation between the physical activity and development and the social development and the uh the brain's development over time. So here's probably uh the slide you were waiting for this whole time. What should we do? Um curtail. We we bolded that word because we almost said ban all phones. That's a very tough recommendation to make. Um so we said let's move towards phone free to the extent that we can. Um promote those play-based learning things for students in all grades. That's actually um something that is valuable for kids, you know, K through 12. you know, a recess for a kindergartener is not going to be the same as what a high school student needs, but they all still need those opportunities. Um, as was apparent in the data, uh,

042we found that it will be very important to engage the school and community um, even more so, uh, on developing these policies. I think there are a lot of folks that feel pretty strongly and there are important considerations to um well if the kid doesn't have a phone how do you do this or how do you do that? Um and so there are some ramifications here. We go into more detail on our report on that as well. Um and then like Chad mentioned the high school is probably the good starting point. I think the primary and middle school have kind of an already a home free rule and folks are pretty happy with that and obviously high school's the tricky one. So that's where the focus should start. Um, and we have this slide here

043is some some um some specific questions that you might want to um take into account uh that will affect how well these uh recommendations uh go down in the community. Um but yeah, that's that's everything we we wrote. Could you go back to that one? Yeah. Yeah. Uh there there were a lot of bullets that could have gone on here. We kind of last minute threw this on here, but um a big one is how were parents to communicate with a child? That that was a very common um uh reaction is well my kid doesn't have their phone. How do I test them and tell them that's going to help? Um, you don't want to have a situation where the school secretaries are like a messenger running around the building all day. So, I don't

044know what the solution to that problem is. Um, did you have a specific question? No, I just wanted to read the last. Yeah. Um, okay. Thank you for all of this multi-dimensional work coming at it from so many angles. The data is impressive. Um so I appreciate the different starting points and dimensions that I came up with. Thank you. There's a lot to it. One of our one of our uh unwritten recommendations is that there are still plenty to dig into here. It's not all settled. It's not all figured out. My question is um down the road. I we see proposals coming from the state and I think I just read today that you might see a national um from the congressional from Congress to what we might see a national policy on banning phones

045in schools. But um and so if that happens it happens and we'll comply as is appropriate. But I'm wondering given the the side effects that we're looking at, right? The isolationism, the depression, uh the lack of concentration, distraction, all of those things. How much do students, even if you would ban cell phones, are still kind of perhaps going to be impacted with those side effects with the laptops that we issue them, right? I know it cuts it down. It narrows it. We have software that, you know, cuts them off from certain things. But in terms of some of the habitual processing that they're still able to do that still feeds the the dopamine craving uh in the mind, any thoughts on like whether we cut cell phones completely out, whether the the laptops are still

046kind of it might pick up some it might pick up some of the slack of that, but um you know, as you know, the devices that that full issues are fairly well locked down security wise many websites they cannot even visit. Um, so you're not going to be on there texting or I mean there's probably kids that have figured this out. But the the the tricky thing here is that obviously the district can control the devices that are issued. The district can control what happens in the building. Um, but if I have my own personal device in my hand, um, I can be doing whatever on there. You can't control what apps I've installed or what websites I visit. Um, and furthermore, that's just part of the student's day. The rest of the day around

047that have any, um, control over that either. So, um, it is very much a community issue. Um, I mean, as far as laptops, from what I've seen, they're treated as a education tool primarily. It's not like um buzzing and alerting. I think this is a very helpful question, right? It's there's a a pattern that exists and so if you pull out one of these things is like there's other different things that the energy will go to other paths to try to phone is the least resistance today. We pull that out effectively there'll be some other things and you won't get all of that out but you know our ability to do what makes sense is what we consider was also think about the obligation or the potential duty of you know we ban cell phones

048um but we're still seeing the behaviors the adverse behaviors that you identified here. Do we reach a point as educators where we have an obligation to intervene um as we would with une perhaps other type of addictive quality or harmful behavior? Are we going to get to a point where we have an affirmative obligation to do some kind of intervention to remedy that? Yeah, that's a good thought. I don't know. I mean, I think back to like, you know, the programs against, you know, drinking and drugs when you're in school and stuff like that. Um but as far as um the book specifically um he recommends a wide variety of different um engagement opportunities that take the place um or make make students feel less like they need to have their food like make recess

049more interesting like give them something to do like make lunch period like social I don't know how that would be accomplished But um yes, taking away the bad things isn't enough. You have to provide a lot more of the good things as well. Didn't we in a middle school Jim might be able to speak to this? When we ban cell phones during lunch, we put out little questions at the lunch tables or something conversation starters. Maybe we talk about that not ongoing. I don't know if it would happen at different moments but right yeah ideas like book clubs or physical books you know I was thinking that we we talked we had talked about that I was thinking it but I think that for today's point that you said at the beginning is that this

050is not a one and done even when we talk about implementation considerations there are so many conversations there that won't be announced there has to be something to replace And I mean what we were all talking about before we before we started tonight was that this is going to need to engage the community and there will need to be thoughts about what do you do at lunchtime but not only our kids don't have phones that lunch time at middle schoolers but at high school they do and you're going to take away their one thing on how they're connected but you better engage the students and there's some really good models out there that are doing it. I mean that's the good thing. We're not the early adopters. We're not we're not going to be delayed

051doctors, but you know, you don't want to wait until you get a state policy. You have to do it. But I mean, I just kind of feel like Dave's getting all the questions and really it's not a one and done. That reminds me of one of the big points. You know, he's got the last section of the book is like recommendations for this community, recommendations for that community, but the beginning of it is that all of these things are collective action problems. Like it's very difficult to be the only one doing it. And that's being a district and that's being a parent because um you know I'm the only kid in myth grade without the phone. The answer to that is and all of seventh grade. The answer to that is no. I personally know

052a group of people and we've all agreed that our kids won't have phones. So, you know, go talk to these 15 other kids that I know, you know, and there's like hashtag this and there's organized groups about like getting parents to band together. Um, because, you know, you like I said, you don't want to be the first one or the only one. And it's nice to have uh, you know, other people have your have your back and they're trying to do the same thing. I I also feel like this conversation five years ago, we're thinking about involving people and and different groups in the conversation would have been different. Now it's we're seeing the problems. Kids themselves see the problems and will put themselves on a diet, take off their notifications, you know, um go

053to camp where cell phones aren't allowed because they can, you know, have time where they're doing great things and they they're not allowed to have a phone. Nobody is. So, they're not the one of the sad stories in the book is, you know, kids self-reporting that I wish I could quit this, you know, like this is just taking my whole life and then but I can't stop doing so much. But it's serious. It's serious. It's very serious. and we appreciate it. It's powerful. And and so when the CAC had the conversation and we we got to have a sneak peek of this information, we said there's just many different avenues and levels of this that you could take. There's an in school question, there's an at home question, there's a you know, how do you

054empower students question? And so appreciate the good work to bring to bring up the conversation and and spark future conversations. I also really like your idea about getting students involved on any task force or anything. I happened to be listening to NPR a couple days ago and thinking about this presentation. There was this whole conversation around digital literacy and there was I don't know if anybody listened to it. There was a I don't know if they called it a club, a digital literacy club that kids were a part of and it was about suggestions peer-to-peer about um how to be smart with their smartphones. Um and I thought, oh, who's going to join that in high school? were very successful and they made it fun and you know just I don't know they have better

055ideas but for a generation ideally in schools instruction and interaction with peers and engaging learning would be what replaces the the film and that's what we're hoping you and play on the playground and interacting in the cafeteria and sitting with different people you may not know. But so that's the hope that they don't need becoming more and more difficult to compete with technology. No, it is not a fair fight. That's a good thought. IA said it's not a fair fight. Thank for real. Um I think what we have normally done with our CAC studies and we will continue of course we we always have them on our website. Um all the way back. So you're welcome to go back and take a look. Um often we move right into the next session of the take

056your study and build off that. I think what you said at the very beginning is this one it's going to go off in different directions and it's it's not something we're gonna you know we'll have various ways we're going to address this. It could lead to another CDC study. We talked about different opportunities to engage students and then engage families. So lots of lots of ideas being generated and so what I can guarantee is it will be utilized for future planning because there are definitely methods to happen. Absolutely. Very helpful. Thank you very much. Thank you. For what it's worth, I appreciate that the that the board even initiated this. You know, I tell people like, "Oh, I'm on this committee studying this thing." They're like, "Oh my god, your your district is so great."

057Well, you all step right into it, too. It helps to have a a a number of of people first of all want to be on the CAC, commit to a two-year uh to study program and then and then really dig in. Was the movie Social Dilemma or the book new to all the committee members or had a lot of you all? Yeah. Yeah. Well, the book was brand new because it just came out, but I watch the book, but I've seen social dilemma. And you guys, I was going to say when I saw it, the the thing that stood out to me is the people who did work on this would not allow their children to use it, right? And that was one of the things that kind of talked about the intentional kind of

058intent about it. Reminds me about cigarettes years and years ago. So, I'm like, and it's a much more pervasive impact. Um, but I don't know that they'll be sued or kind of, you know, class action lawsuits given, you know, who their friends are at this point. But then the show Adolescence came out since [Music] that powerful. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks for changing. Yeah, I think somebody We are working our way through many presentations, all of them wonderful. This one will be our uh world language department and we are going to talk about um new books. New books of adoption. Yes, start. My name is Liz Kob. I'm the department chair for one through 12 Spanish on the same page as well uh and Latin and French. So we're going to

059talk about our textbook adoption, the research we did, other books we uh looked at and what we decided on. So as we went through this process of textbook adoption, which I it has been a really long time maybe been like 13 years, maybe 14. So we were all really excited to look at PDU and more modern materials. uh focus on all modes of communication, interpretive, interpersonal and presentational. Balanced approach to all communication skills, receptive with both reading and listening, productive with writing and speaking, thinking of the output the students have to have. Uh and a variety of tools that teachers can use to enhance student learning and success. He's like, why are you main areas of focus? Cultural material presents a variety of experiences and perspectives from our global community. Materials within the resource are

060adaptable for a variety of student needs, practical real life uses of the language. And remember, we're three departments in one. So, everybody was looking at a lot of different things and then we would collaborate and come together and Eric helped us come together on that too and help us make decisions etc. Oh, okay. Good. Okay. alignment to standards, department philosophy, any resource as a tool to assist us in teaching and to assist students in achieving the standards. Uh we're never going to rely solely on our textbooks. We are all generating our own materials and creating our own activities, etc. All texts align with proficiency standards set by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages actful, which is the basis for state standards around the country, including Ohio. Textbook series and advanced readers are

061written with a vision of preparing students for two programs for each language, which is the end goal. Um, interesting to think about in seventh grade when they're going to seventh grade, they're making a decision that will carry them all the way through 12th grade if they take AP, Latin, French, or Spanish, which many of our children do. So, here we have Spanish, which is appropriate because I am the Spanish teacher. Uh, for one through six, we have um the elementary teachers were very diligent. They had less resources than the rest of us to look at. Um, but this is what they decided upon. For seventh and eighth grade and I believe French is the thing, correct Julia? They are using uh the SO series. Spanish one through four. We looked at four series and this

062is the one that we decided upon. textbook series has a great great digital platform and AP Spanish a digital text used to use a paper um but I do like paper's gotten really expensive so now we do the digital so for future focus skills for for Spanish uh interpersonal communication skills in the target language I'm always trying to find different ways to get them to speak Spanish and this textbook. It does a great job incorporating the vocabulary and the grammar uh and with interesting and engaging speaking prompts for them. Sendos aligns with the AP Spanish expectations and skills and trickles them down. Outstanding and authentic listening activities to build listening comprehension. That was one of the huge problems with the textbook we currently have. It's so outdated the listening uh series doesn't even work anymore.

063Fully integrated reading, writing, speaking, listening, and technology skills. Tech series is scaffolded in order to provide early on support to build more independent skills. There's flexibility in the resources available that allow teachers to pick and choose to meet their instructional needs. Grammar is taught conceptually and used in context. A lot of conceptual grammar, which is good for me. I like to teach grammar. I actually think it's fun. So for differentiation um we have print material that provide both graphic and written explanations and supports. Digital access as I said a great digital platform allows for differentiation and remediation. A lot of the kids will make their own materials. They'll make a quizlet. They'll have to do a lot less of this with this new series. Digital access allows for individual practice outside of class time. Additional

064grammar support explanations are offered for challenging concepts such as the subjunctive. For example, what extras do we have with the SDO series, which is a high school series levels one through four? Um, Super Site Plus, Student Edition, My Vocabulary Study tool. Instead of making Quizlets, they can use this to improve their personal vocabulary word banks. Even AP I'm always trying to get them to add more to their personal word bank and so they can take the words they've learned in class and use them in their speaking support outside of schools needed. Additional partner practice available. Um, working in a pair is always great for language acquisition. Activities are assignable digitally. Animated grammar tutorials, which they're kind of silly, but the kids end up thinking they're really fun and they remember them. And provides authentic video

065clips noa filmed in Spain and Mexico. Prime, listen, and repeat vocabulary tutorials. Next, we're going to talk about Wyoming Middle Schools a little bit Spanish. Seventh and eighth graders will be using Sonos one novice, which is all digital, teaching Spanish for proficiency, not just to be able to conjugate verse, which I'm sure all of you did when you were taking images. Um, main areas of focus in middle school, we have high frequency vocabulary, comprehensible input, which has been a huge part of their curriculum for the past 10 years, reading and storytelling, culture, communication skills, communication over grammar and they really really liked the series and it really helped because as they looked deeper into it for Spanish was looking into it as well. Uh so that was helpful for them to be able to collaborate

066on that instructional approaches comprehensible input CI based which is very familiar for them and they've all been trained on CI grammar taught in context developing and using novice level skills in reading and writing assessment through proficiency. So what are future focused skills? What do they want them what do we want them to get out of this as they continue their um language acquisition journey? Critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, cultural competence in global awareness, being a better global citizen, being aware of other cultures, creativity and innovation, digital literacy, social emotional learning and empathy, uh, adaptability and growth mindset. So, modernizing these texts is great for us, too. A lot of our students go on to continue to study world languages in college. Um, and we're hoping they can make as much of a connection

067to the language as possible as they're going through and they'll they'll want to continue for differentiation. Uh, because Solomon novice is built around comprehensible input CI and student centered learning, it naturally allows for a wide range of learner needs, abilities, and interests. The curriculum is designed to meet learners where they are using simple high frequency language that is made understandable through gestures, visual storytelling, which is all typical of CI uh repetition and scaffolded readings. Level embedded readings allow novice low and novice mid students to access the same material with just right support. And that's all that all lines up with the actual standards, these different um levels of efficiency. Caring group work allows for peer staffing and stronger students to model language for others. Assessments are performance based and focus on communication with perfection. You

068don't have to say it perfectly to be understood and your objective is being able to communicate. Allows for teacher flexibility to adjust pacing, add support, extend stories and simplify task depending on student needs. Here are some extras. lots of extras for this textbook series. They probably won't even be able to do all of these things or so many, especially the first couple years as they're getting used to using a new textbook series, which takes some time. For primary Spanish, they are going to do a combination of [ __ ] and alunda heavy reading component. Anything else you want to say about that? lots of storytelling and games and engaging activities that would pair well with what we're currently doing, but we're also shifting. Our curriculum is shifting within our schedule and so we're adapting to help the

069students, but there a lot of it is listening comprehension um and through TI comprehensible input. And so they're going to kind of take all three resources and what we're currently doing. Thank you. So for Wyoming Primary School Spanish, we have communication around concrete everyday topics such as food, clothing, seasons, descriptions, and some of these seem really basic, but they're the things that they end up retaining and remembering when they're even in the upper levels in high school. And they fall back on those when they need to. for communication, development of linguistic proficiency, exposure to a range of products, practices, and perspectives. That's definitely actful language from target language communities. Fostering an appreciation, an inquisitive attitude towards target language cultures and focus skills. components that incorporate critical thinking, communication and collaboration, hands-on, high engagement. Very important

070to keep them engaged especially in a 40 minute lesson for low kids. Uh high engagement learning experiences, digital literacy and media awareness. for differentiation. All programs, particularly vom provide lessons with suggestions for differentiation and interventions to address the learning needs of all students, make it accessible, to make it enjoyable for them and just have some differentiation, having the longer class all more time. Yeah. And really all three of them allow for differentiation and there are editable resources that we can as experts in our curriculum and experts of our individual students. modified as per section. Okay, next we're going to talk about Latin. I'm not going to talk about Latin. I can only talk about Italy. Todd's gonna talk about Latin. You're very welcome. Um so in Latin um we're kind of divided into a couple

071of different um series that we're looking at. Um so through seventh grade through Latin 4 um we are looking to adopt the uh new edition of the series that we have been using the Cambridge Latin course um and uh but the new edition has a lot of uh new features and updates that I'm very excited about um in Latin 4 and AP um which are both uh Latin 4 becomes more literature focused than um than kind of textbook reading focused. Um so we're looking at there in addition to the Cambridge Latin course textbook um for unit 4 um adding in um a book from another um series called Subarani uh but just using their book three which is a literature survey um and really in that book um there's enough content to keep me busy

072for years and years and years. Um it's it's a very rich resource and um I'm looking forward to uh digging into it and using it. um and giving students the opportunity to explore it a little bit and decide kind of their own path and what they want to read about and what they want to explore. There's there's a lot to do um in that book. Um and then AP um this was actually a very convenient time for us to be doing this. Um the AP Latin syllabus um is changing for next year. Um so we get uh two new or we get one new author we get rid of one author um which immediately means new books for everybody. Um so uh looking at those two um books uh virtual selections and selections which cover

073the required readings um of the AP syllabus and then add some because uh the new AP syllabus is adding in um kind of student and teacher choice texts uh which is why we'll pull the superi book into AP as well so that we have all of that kind of choice curriculum as we work through it. The skills that uh we were focusing on um were a more intensive reading focus, Spanish and French where preparing students for um proficiency in a modern world, in a modern environment where there are people to talk to. We don't have that as much um uh so so we focus on accessing the language and the experience and the voice of um of people uh from historical people. Um, so, uh, we we want to focus on the reading all the

074way through. Um, we add in writing and oral proficiency and things like that, but our heavy focus is reading. Um, and, uh, seeing all of our language skills in the context of language as Romans used it um, is important and these uh, series that we're using um, provide that with lots of opportunities to practice. One of the things I love about the Cambridge Live Course series is that there is a lot to read. Um, and we can read and read and read and read every single day and we won't get through everything. There are stories that we skip. There are stories that I summarize so that we can get through them a little bit faster and get on to other things. Uh, because it it provides such an ample amount of practice. Um, the vocabulary

075is uh structured around high frequency and high interest words that allow us to have more effective reading. um those high frequency words uh become um a big focus mentioning uh like the the new AP syllabus um for the first time in my experience with it is actually coming out with a vocab list for us um of a thousand words that every student taking AP must know um and conveniently those are all words that are part of that series already um most of our kids going into AP next year um are already good with those words because they've had that exposure through this series. Language is presented progressively. Um, one of the things I don't like about um, how Latin programs used to work is that you get all of Latin grammar day one and then

076you kind of sift through it um, and try to figure it out as you're just swimming in forms and endings and and you don't know what anything means and um, why do we call this that? Why do we have all these letters over here? We don't do that anymore. um we do things one little bit at a time allowing students to master a topic um and a grammatical skill before they move on to the next one. And then our cultural topics in this series are presented through a variety of lenses. We look at them historically um but we also get them presented to us through ancient literature um usually a translation in the in the Cambridge series um that kind of highlights the the Roman voice about those topics. Um and we also get an

077archaeological lens. What have we found and discovered um that allows us to understand that piece better? Um for the differentiation component, um Cambridge Latin course provides um a lot of features that can provide immediate vocabulary and comprehension support. Um which I'll talk about a little bit more with the extras. Um a lot of vocabulary support on the online resource that provides um derivative information. So, how can we tie that vocabulary not only to English, but it provides um derivational information in French and Spanish as well? Um, if those are uh languages that a student is aware of and having gone through Wyoming, um they've got enough Spanish that sometimes having those connections and seeing how um the Latin evolves into Spanish or into French um it I it interests a lot of our students and

078it gives them something else to link to. um a lot of practice tools in the Cambridge Latin course that allow students to isolate and rehearse problematic content um that they're struggling with. Um and Cambridge course also has audio support that will provide read aloud of any of the textbook content um there on their website. Um the AP texts um have um a lot of different presentations of their vocabulary, terminology, grammar, all the things that hopefully u my students have learned as they went through Latin 3 and Latin 4 in preparation for AB. But if they didn't, they can look it up without even having to admit that they don't know what they do. Um and then vocabulary frequency list. So the vocabulary in those books is arranged um by uh how frequent those words are

079used. So that if a student wanted to focus on what are the words that I have to know every single day, there's a list for that. What are the words I need to know maybe once a week, there's a list for that. What are the words I need to know for this author but not this author, there's lists for that. Um so they can focus on their own specific needs as they work through. Um and then the superani text that we um will be using for four and a um does some good tiered reading. Um, so with more complex literature, breaking it down where you kind of get a first step, maybe get things rearranged or get things highlighted in a specific way to kind of guide through the text and then those supports back

080on um, as they go. So that's built into the the book um, right from the beginning. Um, language notes are embedded with the text as well, so that um, any grammatical information that is a little bit less frequent that um, can be highlighted is there. and then a lot of uh questions and notes and and things throughout that test. With the Cambridge course, which will be um our primary focus, um the new software that's developed for this new series, um provides um a lot of different tools. All this uh the the textbook is there exactly as it looks in print, but also in some different formats that allow students to interact with it. Um, so they'll be able to to to click on things and get information on a specific word, on a specific sentence

081to hear it aloud. Um, and uh they can then look at what they're doing, follow the grammatical notes and get straight into practice tools and um and rehearsal kind of things um as they work through it. Um, and then on my end, on the teacher end, um, teaching notes are attached to everything. So if there's a picture, there's a teaching note on that picture. um if the for each story there's pre-ereading and things attached directly to it so I don't have to go somewhere else and look at it in another book to figure out what their intention was with a a specific item um and uh the learning activities through that software are assignable they provide me with progress reports they provide students with an opportunity to see their own growth on those assignments as

082they go along um the Cambridge Latin course also has a good support network in the United States through the norththern American Games Classics Project. Um they uh have developed um dozens of uh resources um to accompany this textbook series. Um and they are working on the new series now. So those aren't out yet, but they will be. Um and I've I've seen previews of a few of them. Um and so those will be their support. And the AP texts um have workbooks available and pre-formatted notebooks available for students who need that um extra bit of support. Um, so it is it's French time and I can't talk about French. So we'll enjoy it. Thank you. Um, so French we're we've chosen to go with new sum which is by the same company as the Spanish,

083seventh and eighth grade sumos. Um, so I won't actually probably read over the um, focus skills. It's all going to line up exactly with the Spanish 7th and eighth grade. Um, but I will say that um, it's not a translation at all. It's made by French speakers and it's um, really amplifying voices from around the French speaking world and Sagal and Haiti and Quebec and France and all over. Um, so yeah, it's not at all a translation, but um, it's going to be really compatible, I think, with the Spanish curriculum. So, do you have any questions for us? It was very thorough. They're all back on the counter. And it will be for 30 days. Correct. Yeah. That's exciting to get to update. It is. Yeah. There's a lot of tools that are a lot

084of tools that you just didn't have access to, right? Exactly. Interactive piece. Right. Yeah. because we were we were due to have done this uh and then co happened and was not a priority um and then uh I think we got deferred for other departments which were a higher priority so we're very happy to be here it's our turn I'm sure so all of them are well tell me where there's not hard or copy text. So I know right now not sitting back here are the two AP textbooks that I mentioned um because with the syllabus being new um those are not yet available for um review copies uh because the the syllabus wasn't fully published until middle of March. Um, and so they had the s they had the books ready with anticipation of

085what the syllabus was going to be based on the draft that was shared in the spring. Um, but they couldn't stop they didn't want to go to print until it was clear and definitive. And so now it's in like a final edit. So those aren't here yet. Um, and Cambridge Latin course is also in development of the new series. So books one and two are here but books three and four have not yet finished. and every student will get one or they're resourced in the classroom kind of thing. Um I think we're all planning on um classroom sets. So grab them when you're in there, leave them when you go. But having the online resources for all of the series, they'll have access anytime they need it at home. Um or like in my class

086now, if you need we have enough extras that if you need to take one home, take it home, we can bring it back. We don't come get them during study hall a lot. They don't like to lug around books either anymore, so it works for them, too. I'm glad there's just some connection, too, with the hard. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Uh we'll continue on and I know this will be also an exciting and I'm sorry finance get out your Kleenex. Okay. Uh we will next have the state bianium budget update. Yeah. Just give me two seconds to get set up. Absolutely. [Music] We see where we're heading. I think it was a texture. Think of this. Okay. Yes. No. Not a lot of applause come here is what I

087was thinking different than our other presentation. Um so uh we are going to take a few minutes tonight and talk about the bania budget update and and how it relates to public school funding for public schools across Ohio and here in Wyoming. And it's important that we recognize that this is the information that is available today 8:20 April 21st. Things are moving fast, changing fast. And so we're going to talk about uh some of the things that have already changed and what we might expect to see in the next few weeks. So why are we even talking about the bianium budget? The state budgets in two-year cycles and uh we just we're wrapping up a bania budget and getting ready to move to the next one. So we're going to you'll see some different dates

088in here. I'll try to just make sure I talk about um what what we reference things that are happening this year. Fiscal year 25, we're wrapping up fiscal year 25 and then moving into next year 26 and 27. So really that's all we have when we think about our uh revenue projections on our five-year forecast. Really all we have from the state are you know what what we know to be law in the next bianium budget. But um as we're going to learn tonight that some of the proposals in this year's bienium budget impact some of our other revenue categories. And uh just sort of a quick refresher here um we have three material revenue sources in our general fund. Our most material revenue source is real estate taxes. That's where we get most of

089our general fund revenue at 41%. Second is income tax at 31% and state funding at 20%. So we are talking about a $5.5 million revenue source here in the district. And uh we have been flatlined, our state funding has been flatlined since fiscal year 19. So we're on a six-year run of of seeing no increase every year in in state funding. and um at least in the re in the recent bianium and the re uh two recent bianiums was the implementation of a new formula. So the new fair school funding plan but here in Wyoming I think we say that it's not fair or funded because we've been on this uh on this flatline since fiscal year 19. So um the planned phase in phase three we've been through phases one and two but again

090immaterial in Wyoming because none of that has generated additional revenue for us. uh was what was supposed to happen is that in this next bianium was the the planned phase in of of group three. It was supposed to be four four phasins. Okay. So what was supposed to happen is phase three. Um and so we'll kind of get what's what's being proposed happening. But um again just important for us to understand that we've been on the guarantee since prior to the perishable funding plan at this uh kind of 5.9 5.8 million. And again, just just want to mention that in that same time span, spending towards doctors increased from 346 million to almost a billion dollars. So when we hear about the state not being able to fund some of these provisions, uh the state

091is able to find significant revenue to fund doctors. So where are we in the process? This process started in February. Uh Governor DeWine intro introduced his version and we'll talk about the versions that that we've seen. Um then it moves to the House and the House has a version and then we get to the Senate and the Senate has a version and then we kind of have these three proposals out there. The governor's version, the House version and the Senate's version and then all those go to conference committee and that will happen in June and sometime between when conference committee uh late May and June and June 30th, we have to have a budget. Ohio law requires that the governor sign the budget by June 30th and in previous bianiums there have been some years

092where there were extensions but for the most part we're going to start July 1st with a budget and so um you know we've talked about um different funding models so this isn't Ohio's first rodeo with looking at at um at different formulas so I've been in school treasury financial leadership for 25 years and I think I'm been through somewhere between eight and 10 I've honestly kind of lost track Um and so D Roth, you know, was sort of generating some additional revenue early on in here. And we've been through some some freezes, all different names, bridges, all different different components. We we've been through a number of scenarios. Uh public school funding in Ohio has had many many different scenarios. But in 2017, there was a bipartisan collaborative effort that generated an inputbased model. Um

093that was the fair school funding plan. again um it generated additional revenue for um 612 of the 612 public school districts in Ohio. It generated additional revenue for 600 of them. You know only 11 of us were on the guarantee. So we were one out of 11 that was on the guarantee right out of the gate from the implementation of the fair scope funding model. And that our situation specifically was about this uh issue about capacity. So the fair scope funding plan was about inputs. We're going to look at real live data, what it costs to educate a kid, and we're going to do this research and dump it all in there. And then, um, school funding has always been declared a shared responsibility in Ohio. So, we got to figure out a way to

094to measure of that what it costs to educate a kid. How much of that is the state share and how much of that is the local share? So, there's this sort of capacity thing. And then there's some add-ons for special ed or students of poverty. Um, but it's the capacity piece that has always uh kind of been a thorn in our side in the formula because every capacity measure, Wyoming looks wealthy, whether it's income, whether it's property tax, um, we look very wealthy and because of that capacity measure, we we are not a school district that receives additional funds under the formula. Okay. So when we think about um as fair as it may have been to the 600 of the 612, apparently every not any school funding formula is perfect because it really doesn't

095work for everybody because there was just this little capacity thing that we just couldn't figure out a way to get new money to everybody. Okay, so that's that's kind of in the form lose money. We didn't lose money. We were all they put us on the guarantee. Okay, that's important. And they could have come up with 11 separate plans. Yes. But it it makes it difficult to call it a bottle at that point. Right. Right. By capacity, they mean we have the capacity to be okay without help without more help. Right. That's exactly it. So, and that's a great way to put it. So, we're going to devise this formula. We're going to say it costs this and then there's this formula that of this main number, how much of each each school district plugs

096itself into that calculation. And how much of that do you are you responsible for in your local district? And there there are a number of capacity inputs into the capacity measure. Um it used to just be property tax and then they added another layer of income tax and as you might imagine that didn't help us. Okay. So that that didn't help the equation at all. We were almost better off with the property taxation. But that so all of them and all of every single model up here when you kind of look at the history of school funding at least since the 90s all of these have had a capacity measure. They were called different things. They look different but every single every single formula had some version of a capacity measure in it. Okay. So

097what what did what did the governor do? So u right out of the gate he said okay well I we and and the defense of this from the governor's perspective was we can't we can't afford the federal funding. Now remember we shared before that we might debate that a bit but um uh the answer was we can't really afford to continue implementing continue the phase in continue in uh updating the inputs and so the it's important to just remember though that the fiscal funding plan has inputs in a lot of different ways. So there's a way to update the inputs to to talk about the cost. So, so let's update teacher salaries and benefits and um inflation, cost of materials, the inflationary price of textbooks. We know those things have gone up. Inflationary pressure on

098technology, utilities, all of those things go into calculating the cost to run a district. And of course, we know those costs have gone up, right? They didn't they didn't update those inputs, but they did update the inputs on the capacity calculation of how much we're required to pay. So what have property taxes done over this time? Up or down? This is the part. There we go. Up. Good. What about income for the most part here in Wyoming? Up. And enrollment has statewide downall here in Wyoming. Yeah, we're stable city here, right? I mean, we, you know, we go like this, but we don't go like this, right? We talk, we look at our home a lot of different ways. So when you when you update some of the when you don't update the inputs but

099you do update the capacity, the answer to that is obviously everyone is going to get less because you're not you're not increasing the cost. We're just increasing the amount of the cost you pay so that no one is getting additional money and you see that in the traditional public school. Those are red. That's bad. Red is bad, right? Okay. complicated. It's super complicated. Traditional public schools. This is the And we're only on the governor's proposal. Okay. So, the governor's proposal over the biium less money for traditional public schools. Okay. Look whose numbers aren't red. Scholarships are vouchers. Okay. Those numbers say 8.2 and 7.6. Okay. Are the name? Yes. Uh um traditional public schools are negative.4 and negative.5. Okay. negative 15.8% increase over dividend. Okay. So, there is some money somewhere for public education. It

100just it's there's clearly there's clearly a decision. Oh, educate. Yeah. Clearly a decision about where it's being. Okay. And I think it's important to mention too every time the number of students in public education is about 90% of Ohio 90% of students in Ohio are served in Ohio's public school. That is accurate. Okay. So, we talked a little bit about kind of the history of of school funding and so the governor the when we update the we don't update the inputs but we but we but we didn't pause or we do update the capacity pieces the of course everybody got less. We saw that on the first chart but the next piece of the governor's proposal remember we were on the guarantee right since fiscal year 19. The next piece of the governor's proposal was

101to reduce the guarantee calculations. So there were now remember we started at 11 right now there are 225 of us on the guarantee and the governor's proposal had a reduction a phase in reduction 5% in year one and 10% in year two. And you put all you put those reductions into kind of the fake model I guess and now you see that state share as a base cost is is driven over this bianium on an average down to about 32%. State of the state share of base cost. Okay. It was 42% when Dal was declared unconstitutional. So we are not moving in the right direction. Okay. Currently, our state share in the calculation is 24.2. We're driven down in the governor's model to about 13. Okay. The state minimum is 10. You're not allowed to

102go below 10%. Okay. And some of our some of our um uh neighboring districts are there. Madiraa is there. Marmont is there. Indiana is there. 10% 10% minimum state. Okay. So, that's the governor's version. Couple other things. Couple other things happen. Um or a couple other points to to just uh hit again no updates in not updating the input did update the capacity measures reduced the guarantee 5% and then 10% and that's about $850,000 in the bianium so just over the the next two years but if I if I extrapolate that out over the life of the five-year forecast well the impact is about $2 half million for us so this is not a small change it may seem like this reduction in the guarantee is kind of a small thing. It isn't if that

103was extrapolated out and I have to assume in the forecast that we wouldn't be getting that money back. Okay. And again, we've been on the guarantee since since really since prior to the inception of the fair funding plan and current year 477 school districts in Ohio have a higher per pupil base cost than we do. So when you put all that data in, of the 600 plus, 477 of them get more state funding than we do in terms of cost. So 78%. We're we're in the bottom quarter of the district. Are they is that just a mistake that they updated capacity but not the other data input? No. Anybody wanting that like where I know the answer but well it does, right? Well, it does. I mean it generates money back to the taxpayers which

104is one of their plans they want. But it okay how do you rationalize that like if it how that's not logical? I don't think they care. Say log right. Logical doesn't matter. I don't know that I mean logical is the answer. Okay. But that this is we're still on the governor's plan. Okay. So this is still the governor's plan. So the that was all all the governor's piece. All right. Okay. So, the governor approved that and then the whole entire thing went to the house. Okay. So, where are we on the timeline? We're we're done with the first row. Okay. Now, we go to the house. Okay. So, we have the good. It's not not great but better. Okay. Guarantees maintained. Okay. So, um the our two us and our 224 friends, the guarantees are

105maintained. There is a small increase for public school districts statewide. Remember when we looked at that chart under the governor's plan and that line was red. At least now it's positive. A 1.2% in the first year and another 1% the second year. And we are projected to have a small increase. Okay? So remember we've been on the guarantee for six years. We haven't seen an increase. So at least under the house's proposal they have given us a little increase. They have done that because they have completely paused the fair school funding plan. They they said that that that's really not working. So, pause that. We're going to have kind of have this bridge. So, not sure what we're not sure what's coming next. But the bridge is maintain the guarantees, small increases for public schools

106in Ohio, small increase for Wyoming. Okay. That's the good. The bad is there's this um cash balance provision. And this cash balance provision requires the county budget commission to reduce our property tax revenue if we have a cash balance that exceeds this 30% calculation. Okay? So they look at our cash balance when we close our fiscal year in June 30th. They look at our cash balance and if that cash balance exceeds 30% of your expenditure, they will reduce our property tax revenue the following year. So, if they don't like our cash balance as determined by the amount of money that we spend, they will reduce our tax revenue. Okay, I'm going to explain that in a second, so hang on. And then things we're kind of not sure about moving from a five-year forecast, so

107we do the five-year forecast twice a year to now a three-year forecast. Not 100% sure what the endgame of that is from from the legislator's perspective. Um, the five-year forecast gives us a lot of good data and helps us plan. I think it helps our union leadership plan. I I know that it that it helps us just um it helps us work collaboratively in our stewardship pillar. I think it's a good tool and I think we've used it as a good tool. Um I don't know what the endgame is in moving it to to three years. So less information for people to get worked up about when they see the losses. Maybe. And then um the bridge formula, while we like all the components at the top, we don't know where we're bridging to. And

108and you know, I've always kind of been a believer that any formula is better than no formula because when there's no formula, then you're subject to the whims of whatever is happening up at the state house and that's difficult for us. So even I think some formula even if we're not on it is easier to forecast, right? So, um, so that's why I kind of put that down there in the nutsh. Okay. So, let's learn a little more about the bad what that means. So, this cash balance provision requires the county budget commission to reduce tax revenue. Okay. This is the single largest property tax reduction measure since House Bill 920 in 1976. 1976 there was um incredible inflation. Okay, so um home values were rising and the Ohio legislature said we got to do

109something about this. And so they adopted House Bill 920, which is the measure that I always talk about when I say that property values go up and the effective mill rate goes down so that we collect about the same number of taxes. And remember, we have we have recent evidence of that when our values went up 29% and we only collected a 3% increase in property tax revenue. Okay, this this House bill was unveiled and passed in a 10day span. Okay. So, the single largest property tax reduction measure since 1976 was was introduced in the House and passed out of the House in less than 10 days. That's kind of a big deal. Okay. We began this fiscal year, the year that we're in, with a 33.41% cash balance. Okay. So, remember the target is

11030%. We began this fiscal year. If this if this would have been in place, that would have resulted in the county the county budget commission requiring the county auditor to reduce our property tax by 1.16 mills or about $530,000. Okay, this completely ignores the voters and the will of the voters in your school district. And in most cases, every time you pass a levy, I mean, we know that we're at the end of our levy cycle, and in the next few years, we're going to be back on the ballot for something some some um some uh operating levy. And so at 30%, the result is that the consequence of this is that immediately after we would pass that millillage, we would be above 30% and it would be reduced. So the really the the um

111unintended or maybe intended unintended consequence is that we would be on the ballot much more frequently because as soon as you collect millage it's reduced. As soon as you collect it, it's reduced. As soon as you you're you were kind of walking this tight rope of having enough cash balance to be able to operate your district to the next point. Cash balance is key to our financial stewardship. We've had a cash balance policy that was crafted many years ago and and we've crafted that policy because we know what our cash needs to be in order to meet our payroll, our benefit, our contract obligations. I mean, we have a very cyclical operation in terms of the school year, but that's not how our revenue comes in. So, you have to have sign at least some

112level of cash balance to be able to meet your cash flow needs. And so, we studied that at length and we adopted a cash balance policy. We've been working towards we've been using that cash balance policy and working towards our next operating budget. Okay. Again, and this this would ignore all of that benchmark planning of local school districts. I mean, we're many districts across across the state have have cash balance policy that are specific to their needs. I mean, that's this is local control 101. What do we do that works for our school community? Okay. And so thinking about our current forecasts, you know, I said we started the year at 33, but we would we're projected right now to end fiscal year 25 below 30. And so we know that we have been drawing

113down our cash and we've been talking about this for a couple years. We've been drawing down our cash pointing towards a new operating levy for collection in 2028. So running something in 27. But had we been reduced at the beginning of this fiscal year would have just accelerated all of that. It either accelerates your need for a revenue for new revenue or it accelerates your need to reduce expenditures. Neither of those are good, right? Because we've been working very hard since our last levy in 2017 to to live in this cycle and be respectful of our taxpayers and try and stay off the ballot as long as possible. But all of the sudden under this new provision, anytime that you achieve financial stewardship and have some savings, immediately federalize. Okay? So this is a really

114big deal. Okay? And so, uh, we have advocated and sent testimony. Um, the legislature on spring break this week and and, uh, so the House has passed this. This, this has happened. Okay. Oh gosh, I forgot one. I'm sorry. This last one is really important. Cash balance is a critical component of our bond rating. And we just issued bonds and went through that process for a new bond rating. We have a high rating. And a high rating, we know drove down our interest rate, right? and and so and that ends up being less tax less less interest paid by our taxpayer over the 37year life of the debt. When we got our rating a measure in the rating recommendation from or the rating analysis from Moody's was that factors that could lead to an upgrade

115have your cash balance at 50%. So it's required to go it's required to go to double A1 or AAA but no one in the state is ever going to get there because of this measure. No, they don't have Yeah. So, and that one's really important because that one I mean we just did this and we um this was deemed a strength of ours, right? And that we one we had a cash balance policy and two we had a health healthy cash balance in relation to our levy cycle. So, we've already moved across the top with the governors. We've moved through the house and and right now we're uh late April, early May. The Senate is holding um when they come back from legislative spring break, the Senate will be holding their hearings. We'll have additional

116opportunities to testify. We do not know what version the Senate is going to roll out, but we um we I mean our our um my colleagues here in Hamilton County, public schools across Ohio have been um heavily advocating that they pull out this 30%. I mean, it really is a problem. Um and and I think the public education community is doing a good job of helping them understand why this is a really difficult situation for all of us. So the ask when we think about what what um what's happening what could come out of the Senate or when we see what comes out of the out of the Senate is that we want to protect the guarantee. Um you know we've seen remember we can't just rely on what came out of the House because

117when it gets to conference committee they're going to reconcile all three versions. Okay? They'll have the governor's version, they'll have the House version and they'll have the Senate version. So really all three of those things and any measures in them and then maybe something new could could be in play. So we need to protect the guarantee. This 30% cash balance provision has got to go. Okay. And how about we think about some measure that increases state funding. So we've got to figure out some way some some realistic capacity calculation that actually does drive an increase in state revenue. I I mean, if you think about it, it really isn't realistic that we've had flatline state funding for six years, which really, as Tim likes to point out, isn't isn't really flatline because if you're staying

118flat when inflation is increasing, that's not flat. You're losing ground, right? So some some measure that can that can have some sort of inflationary allocation in the capacity version of the formula. And so I I feel like kind a little bit like a broken record that we're kind of in wait and see, but we're still a little bit in wait and see. We need to see what the Senate comes out with. But this is our ask. And so when we see what comes out of the Senate, this is our message. and we'll be um you know continuing to work with with our community groups and our our parents to perhaps depending on what the Senate version looks like voice this ask. I think too, even though we haven't had an increase, I I feel nervous

119about not advocating for the fair school funding plan with some added provisions like you mentioned, just because I I went on and I looked at the list how the House version would affect every school district in Ohio. I don't know if anybody looked at that. We are one of the very few who in this little short term with no plan temporarily get a little bump. Other districts are losing millions millions. Not like unless I read it wrong. I think they're losing millions from number two. I think I think they're losing millions because of the cash balance provision. I I think that I think that the House's measure drives drives an increase to nearly every yes Indian Hill was on the list but also like um like rural areas a lot of rural areas well we

120can look at that further I think that's I looked I thought oh wow if all these districts are losing that much I wonder what we're doing boom we had a little bump and I'm like that it that didn't make sense other than I felt like is that that slide earlier of the guarantees at that tiny little 36,000. That's the house's version. But I, as I understood it, everybody gets a little bit. Oh, okay. And so if you're losing money, you you would be losing it because you have significant cash balance. I mean, we were one of the very few that Well, think about where we are though. If this would have been two years ago, we would be losing money. We We're going to finish this. We are just below 30%. And so that's why

121we're not forecasted to lose money. If this was two or three years ago, we were at 33 34 35. That's where we are in the cycle. If you just passed a levy, if you're reading who just passed a seven or eight mile operating levy, they're slated to lose $10 million. It doesn't make any sense. I think what I don't know if this is where you're going, but one of the questions for me is what is the advocacy common interest as we think about districts around such you get enough weight and push on the things and get the one or two most important of these over the line, right? Because we talked about high performing districts or certain there's there are certain common interests there. you're think about rural, you know, and other anyone the 30%

122thing, anyone who's passed a levy, it's like it's automatically mean you're going to be back more often and so you got to ask more often. You're likely to not get it every time. And so it just it feels like that's something there could be enough combined caring about sort of push and say 30% is not good management of any, you know, financial situation. So a lot of common ground and number two. Yeah. 225 of us common ground on number one. There's 225 of us on the guarantee. Yeah. And uh Genie asked us in finance committee. There is there is some some concern that our advocacy here does address the districts at the 20 mil floor. We're not at the 20 mil floor. We're not ever going to be at the 20 mil floor. But um

123there is some concern that our points of advocacy don't support that. I feel like I I feel like I I'm not in a position to advocate for their specific needs, but I don't know that the first funding plan would necessarily help them. I It is It is It is designed to to make us go like this against each other. Public school. It it it is designed that is by design. public schools knocking hands for the available funding or advocating for different things and that we're not like you were saying it's the longer of them the death by thousand cuts and to go back to the voters so often yes you're not gonna you're not I mean even a district like Wyoming that that loves its schools you can't ask them again why have credibility demonstrated

124financial stewardship is 17 and we thought I might be 21. You won't be until 27. So when you go to that conversation like this is what we tried to do to manage this well. It sort of makes impossible for you to do it well enough that you don't come back so often. And so it just inherently undermines like how well are you doing with this thing we just gave you and now you're asking for more. There's a point where it's sort of like I'm out. So then when it begins to fail then ultimately you either said immediately cut spending for us 80% of it is teachers you know or instructors. And so then you just eventually, you know, sort of like you just keep going down. I remember being in this conversation where years ago

125I was like, it isn't possible that people are actively intentionally trying to kill this school. And I don't know if it was de I'm not sure about that. I was like really and that was the beginning of a level of awareness that feels, you know, today it seemed like there's some intentional things. You think about the 15% increase in the bianium around for essentially 10% of students perhaps to get coupons to make it less expensive for them to do the thing they're already doing. Um given that it doesn't it doesn't enable someone who doesn't have access to get access. You just understand what that's about or what is anything to add? That's I mean we also talked about number three. I think number three really impacts everyone that's like just You know, why can't we

126just look at where we are in moving up? We all we all need to move the inflation, but we all know that number three is contingent upon stopping the vouchers or at least that expense that increased that increased expense of the vouchers and there is go. And what did Senator Grunner say to you about uh survival schools? Um well that he believes in the free market and that one he said a lot of things. Yeah, he did. He did. I'm sorry. He did. Carrot took him on. But and I it's it's helpful to see the process because everyone has wanted to go when we want to want to say something, we want to do something, but there's so many things that are in play and to to find out what's going to rise to the

127surface of it. This is helpful. I think it's important that we articulate our collective voice at the right time so that it has the best impact and the most intended impact for us long term. And and two, I think just if you think about the state budget being applied, there are a couple things rising to the top that may help us collectively around the state. People are not happy that they could dedicate 600 million to buy bonds for uh a stadium. Um you know, they don't have money to fully fund our public schools. Um but they can do that. And then also the increase for vouchers. I mean those two things, you know, both all of those things can't be true. And l the question there's a voice thing collectively together is valuable. If you

128can just put earplugs in or noise cancelling headphone, the voice and the loudness of it doesn't shift your decision. I guess the other part is what's the consequence you know sort of like there's an appeal you know to goodness and wonderful and the rightness of 90% of our kids being educated in public school question I have is like what's the consequence for the people who are voting to do something different than that when it comes to the next election what's the what's the way that level of advocacy is impacting some pressure for the people who are in these rooms in some ways protecting the interests of some of the people who are either electing them or funding them. You know, how do they understand there's a consequence with the rest of us who aren't happy

129about what they do? I'm going to ask you to answer that question. I'm just trying to figure out how that part of it comes in because I'd like to appeal to the goodness of their humanity, but won't necessarily do just that. Property values maybe um decreasing property values and communities with strong public schools. um that vilifying of public schools but then taking away the state money and relying on a locality to you know individual taxpayers to pass a levy when you vilified you know politicians have vilified their local public schools I think um you know that's going to come around to be problematic for reelection but that seems to be a Yeah, we're also dealing with the super majority, but there's enough there that even even a veto of the governor can be overrun. Yeah.

130So, so in other vote may not be sufficient right now. They don't fear that they won't be I think there was a lot of voices um um and the house virgin sailed on through. So I think there are a lot of versions not happy and a lot of people not happy with it but um thank you very smart go Libby Libby. All right thank you. Um, we're ready for committee reports. Um, I Yes, I am going to keep moving on. The belonging and inclusion collaborative is meet has an upcoming meeting. So, I'm going to move on then to citizens advisory. Uh, you heard their the second group give their report. The only meeting left is a a thank you and goodbye meeting. And then again this summer we'll come up with new topics and um

131new people for because half the leaders or half the members will will have completed their two-year obligation. Uh district leadership team uh we have a meeting scheduled uh for Wednesday and um outside of that there's no update. We'll be talking about a vision for grading practices and academic feedback to students and families. And so look forward to that conversation. Okay. And facilities. Oh, I'm sorry. Did you No, I just said, did you do that or listening and then meetings coming up? Meetings coming up. Thank you. You said it. I wasn't. There's nothing. Sorry. Yes. So, just a few updates from facilities. Anyone can can join in. We had a a core team meeting on Wednesday, April 16th. Um the you know, one of team discussed again it's it's right now we're really focused on pre-construction

132worktop excited about the momentum of the of the the team. Um the team discussed several exciting interior interior design features um that will connect all of the primary school. There's a lot going on right here. We could just the out. No, look at the out. So, so again, this goes back to the notion of a vision for our primary facilities that has um alignment across all three schools, but uniqueness uh within each school based on the community in which they in which they live. And so, we're excited about the momentum to continue that conversation. Um also talked about different possibilities for roofing structures when it comes down to it. um the you know based on the impact of the to the instructional spaces and increasing costs we determined that uh it's best to move forward

133with a a more flatter roof rooftop. And so again, just reviewing the design of the building. And then um we also had um several different modifications to the um the current design that were based on originally we had some changes that were based on the community design workshop which was exciting. And then we recently held a staff design workshop. And so that led to more adjustments. It keeps getting better and better and better all with the student experience in in mind. Uh, and we're very excited that we're going to be going out and talking to students soon, primary and middle school students. So, exciting. We did look at a number of look at a different kind of it adds a significant amount of money because when you change the the roof line, the structure has

134to extend all the way up to that roof line. And so what what the impact is is square footage in classroom space. But when you have a school that sits down and people are driving well one of the changes that happened in the design was instead of going main floor down it goes main floor up. So that's that's a change on the the design from the from the initial the initial thought won't necessarily have a view of a right AC. No and they're putting AC. So, a lot of the other differences like you know right now on the cast hilltop you see all the AC units and like the balls on the roof and whatever that um he played around with enclosing some of it but other stuff is going to be inside like where

135it could be indoors or in the back. It would be maybe a unit up top but it's not covered in units. Um so it would still be a low slope and then there's drainage on the inside. When you see all the differences though you and also when you change but considering So the the roof line is is obviously a very big topic that we're continuing to talk about. But but that that simple kind of gable idea, okay, was was part of part of what we had to think about right away because what's the cost impact and what's the impact of the classroom space inside the building. It it did change a number of things like you lose space inside the in the building when you can't committee members. was like I mean I think you

136were interested in it different ways like some people but what' you say a glass well there there will be options for that we're funding I don't have the date to the design May 13th May 13th so coming up on an opportunity to view that and I'm I'm very excited about that because I think that the work of of incorporating the communities feedback and the staff members feedback and soon student feedback will be will be powerful and it I think is really exciting. Okay. Thank you. I I love you all. I trust you. It'll be and it is every two weeks. I mean at least we're meeting regularly every two weeks for we say two hours and it's not two and a half right in addition to I mean they are getting a lot of work

137done. Yep. Yeah. Each in each one for sure. Great. uh finance. Our uh sure our finance committee met tonight uh right before this meeting. Uh we started off by looking at the analytic which uh focused uh only on salary this time. We'll be getting the benefits um posted here shortly. But the uh salary projections are on the mark um and so positive. Um, like I said, we will be looking at benefits in a few weeks. Um, then we looked at an article um related to a school district, Trimble Local School District, uh, that was placed on fiscal emergency by the state auditor uh, recently within the last week or two and um, it just, you know, we looked at it from a couple different perspectives. one was really just the importance of of controls and

138just kind of reflecting on how many different layers and types of controls that we've put together as a school district. Ron was installed. Um, you know, things like the the analytic itself, the fact that we have a finance committee that is vibrant, vibrant and different forms of membership, our five-year forecast, our standards that we've implemented with the five-year forecast, and then just hiring practices, connecting new hires with departures or retirements, and then our monthly reports, ensuring they that they add up. And so I'm just kind of really just reflecting and appreciating that we have things in place that um some of these districts that fall themsel find themselves in compromise perhaps do not or at least are not as faithful to them um as we've tried to be. Um, just kind of an an FYI,

139the auditor of the state is promising a a heat map that's coming uh that's going to look at our uh currently five-year forecast, maybe down the road a three-year forecast uh to see how close we are getting um kind of like that childhood game, you know, getting warmer, warmer, warmer, and then you're hot, meaning your your cash balance is is too low, which obviously is incredibly ironic. We're not sure. Is it supposed to be too high or is it supposed to be too low? We're not sure. Right. That's a Goldilocks problem for us if this percent thing goes into effect. So anyway, just be look on the lookout for that and also be aware that when it does come out that, you know, we're at the tail end of our levy cycle and so we

140might be getting warmer, right, as it reflected on this heat map. And it's okay. That's was supposed to happen that way. That's the plan with these levies. Um that's their design essentially. Um then we looked at the spring settlement. Uh real estate taxes received a little over 12 million and again that's uh more than the the last um year or so again progressing as it should in terms of recovery of of real estate taxes. And then we had the pleasure of listening about the state bianium budget that we all Yes. You know cement. Oh, good time. And that was our meeting. So, thank you to Rhonda. Thank you. Okay. Policy review committee. We actually have some policies coming up, but um did you want to say something now? Just at the last meeting, we pulled

141some we pulled some policies off of this that we wanted to um get some more interpretation on, reach out to legal council about those policies and see um really what what opportunities there are to reflect on those. And so those are pulled off of this list. These are the policies that we were comfortable moving forward. But then we'll at our planning meeting, we'll we'll discuss the other policies again. Okay. Board of Education report that would be to these policies unless someone has a comment or concern. These are the ones that uh when we did the 30D read, we felt they were fine and ready to go. So, um we're asking that you approve those this evening. And then the uh next thing to approve would be the 2627 district calendar. Yeah. Just quickly some highlights

142on this calendar. Again, this calendar is connected to the the primary facilities construction process. Um it's it's really designed around the need for a longer winter break during the 26 27 school year. So, we've been working with this calendar for a while and as we've landed on the timeline for construction has landed on this calendar. And so, there's a there's a few tweaks. Um just a couple highlights. You know, the student year begins on August 10th. It ends on May 27th. Those days allow us to have a threew week window during winter break, which is when we anticipate there'll be more student movement. Students moving out of temporary a temporary school to go into their new hilltop and then students moving from their current Vermont into the temporary school. So that's May I have a

143motion to approve the board of education report? So moved. Second. I have a roll call. Mrs. Eller, yes. Merger. Yes. Mm. Yes. Mr. Thomas. Yes. Mrs. James. Yes. Thank you. Board of Education report. Um, I'll take this one. Yeah. This next one is the um resolution selecting Stan as a commissioning agent. Uh we went through the um statuto procurement process uh for this. Um we've had homemade 105 qualifications submitted and um we reviewed those with both our design team Richley and uh construction team HDC and so deemed stand to be the most qualified and asked for a pricing proposal and so their proposal was very competitive significantly below budget and sent that to our attorney team or legal for review and after following that process, we're recommending to enter into the contract with stand for

144commission services for the primary disability project. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve board of education report? Second. Second. May I have roll call? Mr. Broadick. Yes. Mm. Yes. Mr. Thomas. Yes. Mr. G. Yes. Mr. Dollar. Yes. Measures report. Thanks, Genie. Item A, approval of the minutes from the March 31st regular meeting and the April 8th planning meeting. Item B, approve the statement of revenues and expenditures for month ending March 31st. Item C, the appropriations for the month of April, the appropriations adjustments. Item D, this is an annual piece. Um, this end of the year, we have to renew our workers compensation group rating program. We moved with Cedric a few years ago. They're doing it out for us. So, this is an annual renew. And this is actually for calendar year 2026.

145And item E, approval of the report, please. All right. May I have a motion to approve? So move. Second. May I have a roll call? Mm. Yes. Mr. Promise? Yes. Mr. G? Yes. Mr. Dollar? Yes. Mr. Prodick? Yes. Thank you. Superintendent report. Yes. Thank you. I have several personnel items. Number one is recommendation to approve resignations that have been submitted. Number two is a recommendation to approve new personnel. And this is Corin Doyle. Um, and we're recommending her for the high school principal's administrative assistant. So we are excited for her to begin very soon. I know that's exciting exciting change at Florida High School. And number three, uh very excited to be at a position where we are able to recommend a principal for the Wyoming Primary School. So I want to talk just a

146little bit about that process and and Yep. I'm going to take some time on this. I'm sorry. We're we're gonna we're gonna really This is my favorite part. There you go. Perfect. Really nice. So excited again to talk about the process. We had 54 applicants in all. You know, we've talked about the importance of focus groups. We held staff focused group um community focused groups all to identify the strengths for primary schools which are many um growth opportunities for areas that the the schools can continue to grow and most importantly the characteristics that people are looking for in the next time as principal. From there we had several rounds of interviews to identify finalists. Those finalists met with our primary schools um interview committee and excited to be here tonight to recommend Jen Airheart as

147the new principal of primary schools. A little bit of background little bit of background on Jen. Um has experience as an intervention specialist, a primary teacher, third grade, right? third grade um primary school's counselor and interim building principal experience and is coming to us from Indian Hill Primary School. And you know just I I think it's powerful to share some of the reflections through the interview process through the interview process and through conversations that we've had with people who have who have been able to work with you, Jen. Um, this is um, it's a powerful list and so I'll read these really quickly, but I think it's important to to hear what people have to say about about who you are. Problem solver, communicator, unconditional positive regard, MTSS strength, listener, connects with primary staff, experience

148as a teacher, interventional specialist, counselor with administrative responsibilities, caring and empathetic leader, similar district experience, sense of humor, focus on teaching skills while protecting protecting the dignity of students, leading from the heart, ability to say um say what sometimes no one else will say, understands our needs, data driven, loves Kids can be empathetic and hold others accountable. Boots on the ground leader. Importance of data. Tier tier one and tier two teacher instruction. E plus R equals O experience. You all know what that is. Yes. Measure success from where a child starts. experience with construction and a focus on belonging and connections. And it was it was very apparent right off the bat that there was this wonderful connection that our primary folks had with you during the interview process and we were very excited to

149to welcome you to school. I already feel love just watching what has gone on this evening your collective vision and focus on student centerness. I already am I just been so grateful. So I'm happy and so we'll we'll keep going. We'll keep going and then we'll be back. We're right there. Yes, we're right there. Um, so number four is a recommendation to approve transition days uh for um our new principal to um have some on boarding work and and connect with the primary staff, connect with director Kersner. Um number five is a recommendation to approve these continuing contracts. And we're going to pause for a second. I think Eric is going to share just some highlights. This is always a special moment. Yeah. Yeah. I want to congratulate these people who worked hard to get

150to this place. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'm excited to be a part of this their journey and and to get into um to get on the board agenda for being recommended for continuing contract. So, we have four of our staff members, two from the primary school, one from middle school, and one from high school. Um so, just a few words um that were shared by their principles. So, Virginia Ax um is one of our primary music teachers um and it looks like she's been with us since 2020. Um she is a teacher that nurtures a love of music for all students. Um has a positive rapport with her students and also supported with um helping to facilitate the redesign of the Wyoming primary school music curriculum. Also has helped been instrumental in helping to plan and

151implement the Wyoming primary school family specials night and it's just an amazing school district. So that's Virginia. Um also at the primary school, Aaron Hunley, uh currently a second grade teacher at Elm. And again, um some wonderful words about her. She's um done a great job of creating a warm, welcoming environment for her second grade students. She also once um served as a kindergarten teacher and um she has been a part of our the primary literacy committee um and helped um which has helped create the um practice profile for literacy there at the primary and has done a wonderful job of collaborating with um the team of teachers um and serving as a leader with primary school. And for the middle school, um, we have Ignatio Grizz. Um, one of our our fifth and sixth

152grade Spanish teacher. Um, and also some wonderful words shared about Ignatio is as positive and energizing. Um, has created a positive and energizing experience for students in Spanish. um and just amazing lessons that immerse the students in the study of world language which you've heard a lot about our world language program tonight. He is also a member of the building leadership team and also additionally serves as an advisor for the pingpong and board game. They love her. Um, additionally, strengths um, in just instruction, leadership, and also student engagement. And then at the high school, Amy Malloy, one of our math teachers. Again, some wonderful words shared about her, just consistently demonstrates excellence in instruction, leadership, and a deep commitment to the school community, creates an an engaging uh, learning environment for our students. also serves

153on the building leadership team and also leads the school's um positive behavior and intervention support. So that will be the um program here at the high school and is also very involved with student counsel. I would like to note that two of them are Wyoming graduates and had wonderful teachers that got where they are. All right, thank you. I see. Okay, so a lot of great things here on on my report. And so the next one is a recommendation to approve of the renewal of these limited contracts. And so here you see very dedicated educators that do amazing work every single day. Number seven, recommendation to approve these um educational aids, library aids, clinic aids, health specialists, parent resource leaison. And so again, you have people who are really just doing incredible things in the

154trenches with students and families. Um, number eight is recommendation to approve these staff members children attending Wyoming City Schools for the 2526 school year. Number nine, recommendation to approve these two athletic event workers for spring events. Number 10, recommendation to approve this athletic supplemental contract for a track district. Uh number 11, recommendation to approve these active volunteers that were part of that that link. And again, this is through Raptor volunteer uh volunteer experiences in Wyoming. And that's that's super powerful. Um item B of my report you can see these are all recommendations to improve the summer projects or or camps that are going on. So you can see boys and girls soccer camp science and technology camp also the model UN training camp and then item C is a recommendation to approve an overnight field

155trip for the middle school power depend state tournament which is great that they continue to be in that competition. And then items D and F is a recommendation to approve school fees. So we have primary, middle school, and high school school fees that are part of this and that's part of our spring routine. Uh and then G through K um are recommendations to approve these handbooks. And so you can see the three um student handbooks, primary, middle school, and high school. Also have an administrator handbook and a classified handbook as part of this collection. Did that fall to you? [Laughter] Well, the pleasure for us is that you put the changes in yellow. It was very We combine them. Wonderful. Thank you. May I have a a motion to approve the superintendent report? Second. Roll

156call. Mr. Thomas. Yes. Mr. G. Yes. Mr. Dollar. Yes. Mr. Burer. Yes. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Let's go back. So, would you be willing to introduce those who came here? Yes. Awake. So, this is my husband Dwayne Airheart and this is my daughter Jory. She is 16 and my daughter who is 18 almost. So, we are just so thrilled uh to be here tonight. Thank you for such a warm welcome. I am beyond excited. Like, I can't wait to get started. So, you Great. Thank you. We can get Wyoming gear forever because you you have to wear it when you're in the community. Where did they go? Where do you go to school? Madira. Yeah. Okay. Well, one color's right. Well, we just got to get rid of the yellow. We just got

157We just got to get rid of the yellow. Can't have yellow. All right. Thank you. It's a pleasure to have you on board. I'd make some statement about hit the ground running, but we did that with the assistant superintendent. She wore a boot for Don't worry about it. She either really hit the ground. It wasn't a work injury. Day three. I'm in regular shoes. Day three. Correct. Thank you. Um sir, do you have an update? Just it's very exciting time. You know, we're we're back we're back with in the final stretch. Exciting time. May, our May meeting is always a great one. Uh it is it is when we will celebrate students staff achievements. So again, we'll be at the middle school for our May regular board meeting. Um and just wish the very best

158of our students as they finish strong uh from our youngest all the way up through our folks that are are graduating. It's an exciting time and and our kids deserve um all the great things that are coming in because we have amazing kids. Doesn't matter where you go, who you talk to, that's the the story that you work. So, thanks anytime. Yep. Terrific. Thank you. All right. Thank you. May I have a motion to adjourn? So, move second. Roll call. Service. Yeah.