Dayton Board of Education - Business Meeting - September 21, 2021

001Good evening. Good evening. Tonight's meeting of the Dayton Public School Board is now in session. Treasurer, may we have a roll call, please? President Alhamdani. President Alhamdani will not be here this evening. Mr. Smith. Present. Ms. Reiner. Present. Mr. Sampson. Present. Ms. Swigany. Present. Dr. Pickett. Present. Dr. Harris. Present. Six present. We stand now for the Pledge of Allegiance. So we will start our meeting off today with something great. We have Ms. Erin Dooley, if she can come up and help with our summer graduates. Good evening, everyone. Vice President Smith, Superintendent Lawley, and members of the board, it is with great pleasure that I present our candidates for summer graduation. After the challenging year we've had, we are thrilled to congratulate these students who faced their challenges, did the work, and are now poised to

002walk across the finish line. Superintendent Lally with the powers entrusted to me by the Dayton Board of Education, I hereby request your consideration of the candidates for graduation. These students have met or exceeded the requirements set forth by the Ohio Department of Education and the Dayton Public Schools. These students have completed at least 20.5 Carnegie units. Superintendent Lally, I present for your acceptance the class of 2021. Thank you, Chief Dooley. As the superintendent of schools and by the powers entrusted to me by the Ohio Department of Education and the Dayton Board of Education, I do hereby accept these candidates for graduation and release their diplomas to be presented in this ceremony. Vice President Smith, Acting President Smith, tonight, it is my honor to commend to you the class of 2021. Superintendent Lally, with the powers

003entrusted to me by the Dayton Board of Education, I hereby accept these candidates for graduation. These students have met or exceeded the requirements set forth by the Ohio Department of Education and the Dayton Public Schools, having successfully completed at least 20.5 Carnegie units. Superintendent Lally, I present the class of 2021. At this time, Principal Cicchetti, could you come forward? At this time, we would like to recognize our first graduate from Belmont High School, Ruth Denise Judkins. Thank you. At this time, Dr. Marvin Jones and Mr. Daniel Henshaw. Could you come forward, please? At this time, we'd like to recognize our graduate from Thurgood Marshall STEM High School, Diana Louise Mines. And our third candidate from Dunbar High School, Dr. Henry, could you come forward please? From Dunbar High School, we would like to recognize Jakari

004Zaid Morris Jr. Congratulations to each of our three graduates. I wish you could see our smiles. They're there. We promise you they're there. Congratulations, everybody. Thank you. And for the board and everyone here, we do want to give some time for our graduates and their friends and family who all came to take pictures, be able to gather with each other, and we'll continue with the board meeting in a few minutes. Definitely want to appreciate you all coming out, and once again, congratulations. Thank you. I hope everybody was able to smile at seeing the youth and their families smile. It's a reminder of the work that goes in and what DPS is about, bringing our families and community together for moments like that as well. We have a couple of special presentations this evening. We'd like

005to start with a COVID update from Jeff Cooper, Montgomery County Public Health Commissioner. Mr. Cooper. All right. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to be here on behalf of Public Health Dayton, Montgomery County, and the Board of Health to provide a brief update on COVID-19. We also have with us, I'm sorry, my name is Jeff Cooper, Health Commissioner at Public Health Dayton, Montgomery County. We also have with us this evening Dr. Michael Doan, who is our Medical Director. So we all understand what we're seeing in the headlines and the news every single day around the COVID-19 pandemic and the way that this Delta variant of the virus is spreading. And we all understand. that the proven strategies to limit the spread of this virus start with vaccination. And we'll talk about that here in

006a little bit. Vaccination is the primary mechanism or means by which we limit the spread and control this pandemic. But also important are masking. and we appreciate and value our partnership with Dayton Public Schools and we commend you for your decisions on requiring masking at Dayton Public Schools. Ventilation is always important, maintaining physical distancing to the extent possible, avoiding crowds and so forth. And so we've prepared a couple documents for you. I know the last time we were here. kind of just talk through some things, but we've actually created a few documents for you. One is some event guidance in the event that you're planning any type of events. Then we have a list of our locations where our health department is offering vaccine first dose incentives. And then we also have some data specific

007to City of Dayton zip codes around child cases and vaccine uptake and some other things. And we're not going to walk through all the detail on that data, but we wanted to have those for you for your reference. So where do we stand in Montgomery County? Well, the Delta variant, as you're aware. is more infectious, meaning individuals have a higher viral load. It's more transmissible, meaning it's easier to spread person to person. And it results in more serious illness and oftentimes hospitalization than the other strains. Just today, we heard again at the governor's news conference with the Ohio Department of Health and medical professionals, hospital professionals from various parts of this state, the severe impact that this Delta variant is having on our hospitals. both from a staffing standpoint, a capacity standpoint, and a younger

008demographic that's being hospitalized compared to earlier in this pandemic. So with respect to vaccination, as of today, 53% of Ohioans have started vaccination, meaning have at least had one dose. For Montgomery County, 51% of Montgomery County's population has started vaccination. And we'd like to say thank you to everyone who has been vaccinated to help work towards the greater good. However, the surge that we have been experiencing really since early July of this year continues. So keep in mind, we track all these data, and one of the key indicators that the state is looking at is comparing county to county in terms of the incidence rate. Number of new cases over a two-week period per 100,000 population. We were down to around 20 cases per 100,000 population for our two-week rate in early July. As of

009last Friday, we are at 869 cases per 100,000 population. But that's not all bad because we're starting to see a little bit of a trend per se. It may be that our daily cases that are being reported to this health department, we may have plateaued. It's a little too early to say that, but in early July. we were probably having each day reported to the health department maybe 10 to 20 new infections and then on september 8th that peaked at around 500 new cases per day and we're starting back downwards a little bit so that's at least encouraging it's a little too early to say that is the definitive long-term trend but we're optimistic that perhaps we may have reached a peak and we'll start trending downwards. And so we really need to continue our

010work as a health department around promoting vaccination and giving organizations the guidance they need to make decisions. With respect to vaccines and how we think this will continue to roll out. And we have our medical director here in the event that there are specific vaccine related questions. We are offering through funding from the Ohio Department of Health. Our health department is offering incentives for first dose. And so anyone who receives first dose or the dose of Johnson and Johnson is eligible for a $100 incentive. And we've established five sites in the community where we are offering these incentives and we prepared a flyer for you to show you those sites. We also are offering that incentive at our ribald building clinic by appointment. The other locations that you see in front of you are walk-in,

011but the ribald building is by appointment. And then we will continue to do congregate locations, such as shelters, feeding locations, correctional facilities. We're working with homebound populations. We will continue to do that as well. And now we're all waiting for final guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and their Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which is meeting today and tomorrow, to make final determinations on when booster doses will be made available and recommended. And so we are doing all of the logistical planning to make sure that we can meet the needs of our community once booster doses are fully approved. We will very likely continue to operate several of those sites that you see right now where we are offering incentives. And it may be that we add a couple of other locations

012as well, because we really don't know right now what the demand will be each day for booster doses. It will start small just based on when individuals completed their primary series. But by the time mid November, early December rolls around, it could potentially be 20,000 people or more per week may be eligible for a booster dose. So to give you a little context, over the last couple of months, our health department was averaging probably 120 to 130 vaccine doses per week. And then as we started this incentive program last week, last week we conducted 842 vaccinations. And we anticipate that there will be a demand for the booster dose. We just don't know how that will be phased in and when it will be available and what are the high-risk groups that are going to

013be included and what that will be. But we'll continue to track that and be ready to operate our sites to serve our community. So that's a quick update in terms of... the data where we are currently offering vaccine incentive doses as well as second dose and third dose for immunocompromised individuals and then we'll continue to move forward and be ready once booster doses are approved thank you so much health commissioner cooper um are there any questions from the board member reiner i have a few questions thank you actually president smith thank you for coming out commissioner cooper we're really grateful for your time and we really appreciate you coming and giving us some up-to-date information on covid what is the latest news on what a lot of parents in this district are thinking which is

014the vaccines for children under 12. So the current information we have is that it may be that by the time early to mid-October rolls around, it may be that children under the age of 12, but we don't know the definitive age group, maybe 5 to 11, will be eligible for vaccination. But we just, we don't know that yet. We continue to track that as well. And I don't know if our medical director has any, he may want to make a few comments about that. Well, we're... Yeah, we just have to prepare for the perfect storm of everything happening all at one time. And from a logistic standpoint and understanding how we're going to serve the population, the role of our hospital systems, the role of Dayton Children's, our fairly qualified health centers, as well as

015pharmacies, how do we all do our part to make sure the vaccine's available? Thank you. And acting president, if I may, for the people who are watching, since you weren't mic'd, I'll just repeat what you said so people can hear in the broadcast. They're hoping that it will be by the end of the year. It will probably happen a little bit later rather than sooner, if I'm getting your information correct. But it should be soon. Dr. Harris. Thank you, Acting President. Dr. Cooper, this is a two-part question, and I apologize for asking it, but it's just running through my mind. Is anyone tracking the... the reason for the uptake in vaccination shots due to the incentive? In other words, are people taking the shot because they get $100 or is anyone tracking that, the reason

016why now people are taking it other than health reasons? So where does the money come from? Yeah. So the money comes from funding a grant from the Ohio Department of Health. OK. That local health departments are eligible to apply for. And our health department has chosen to do so. As far as statewide tracking, I don't know if that's occurring. We've heard a variety of comments from individuals last week coming to our sites. Some just said, well, I was thinking about it and ultimately decided that why not? Others, quite frankly, indicated that I only want Johnson and Johnson because I don't plan on getting a second dose of anything. I just want the $100. So I think it's variable. Yeah. But the key is. The way we prevent the spread of this virus and the way

017we protect each other and our communities is we get more people vaccinated. And so this is an incentive available through the state. There are other public health programs that we operate where we offer incentives to the clients we serve. And so this falls in line with that strategy as well. Thank you. Are there any other questions? i have one more question um superintendent um could we make sure that this information is shared on our social media so parents can have access to it so they can see the locations you know i know that we've been asked if we can have vaccination clinics at our locations we're not equipped to give vaccinations and nor do we have the storage capacity to to store this um really um sensitive vaccine but we're happy to do anything we

018can to get the information out and we'll send you these documents electronically Thank you. Thank you. Board Member Sampson, did you have a question? Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Mr. Cooper, can you tell me, there's always this changing narrative about what warrants a quarantine. According to CDC Public Health, what are the guidelines currently for quarantining students in school? So the you're in, thank you for that question. And the Ohio Department of Health has recently issued as of the last several weeks, their updated guidelines on quarantine. We've shared that with all of the schools. And if I have that document in front of me, I'll walk through that. All right. So currently schools need to have masking in place. strategies to maximize physical distancing to the extent possible, and then other prevention policies around

019protocols for cleaning, ventilation, etc. If those things are in place as you walk down through this flow chart, then individuals who are close contacts, who have been identified as a close contact to a positive case, they can safely remain in the normal in-person classroom setting. and they do not have to quarantine. However, if all of those above strategies are not in place, then if the contact is vaccinated, they should wear a mask indoors and then monitor their symptoms, but they can continue to be in class setting. If the contact is not vaccinated, did not consistently wear a mask, then that contact should quarantine. And there's an actual flow chart that the Ohio Department of Health has shared with all schools throughout the state. And I don't know, Dr. Doan, anything else you want to add

020to that? It's changed obviously over time and we're all aware of a pilot project that is occurring in Warren County Schools. That's scheduled to begin. It either began last week or it's going to begin this week. And we'll see if those modified quarantine guidelines that have been approved by the Ohio Department of Health. and the governor's office specific to warren county schools we'll see what the results of those are and then we'll understand whether or not other counties in this state will be able to move forward with any type of modified quarantine guidelines but it's just too early to tell there are no data yet on that process thank you mr cooper thank you mr vice president no problem are there any other questions from the board If there are no further questions, I'd like

021to thank you for coming out. I'd also like to thank Dr. Doan, and I appreciate the work that you've been doing in keeping us abreast of what's going on. And I would like to ask Superintendent if we can make sure we set something up to have you all back pretty soon. Sure. Appreciate you. Thank you both. All right. You're welcome. Next, we have a presentation from Ms. Kelly Jackson, the Director of Nursing here at DPS. Superintendent Lally, Acting President Mr. Smith and other distinguished members of the board. As he said, I am Kelly Jackson, Director of Health Services for Dayton Public Schools. Can I take this off while I talk, please? I'm sorry. I've been in this thing since 6 o'clock this morning and on planes and everything else. So, all right. I was asked

022to come tonight to give you an update on where we are as far as the number of positive cases and quarantines we've had this year. I would like to recognize the team of nurses that I have working with me and the painstaking job they have done to keep our staff and students safe. I need for you to understand what it means every time we get a child, a student, or even a staff member that tests positive. Those nurses have to make contact with every teacher that that child has. They have to find out who sits in front of and back of and on either side of that child in every classroom. They also have to know who sits next to them at lunch and also on the bus. So this is hours of manpower that

023they are spending trying to track down who are close contacts just so we keep everybody safe, okay? I'm happy to say that for a district hour size, I think we're doing pretty good this year. So far, we've had 273 positive cases, student cases. That was as of about one o'clock this afternoon. We've had 53 positive cases, student cases in the last seven days. The last I checked on staff cases, we were at 52, but that was at the end of last week. So that number very well may have changed since then. The number of students we've quarantined is 437 for the year. We've quarantined 110 in the last seven days. So last year we would quarantine everyone that was considered a close contact. I will say that this year masking is saving us from having

024to do that. So if we've had 273 cases so far. And on average, there are four children that are considered close contacts of those students. You can imagine how many children we would have had out of school at this point. So us having a mask requirement is really helping us keep students in school. So that's the update. Any questions? Thank you. Dr. Lally? Can you just tell us the date that these statistics are starting, the cumulative statistics, just so the board has a reference number? Sure. Did these start in August, or did they start in September? August 18th. Thank you for your presentation. Are there any questions from the board? Board Member Sampson. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Director Jackson, thank you. First of all, thank you for all that you and your team are

025doing to make sure that everyone is remaining safe in our buildings, both staff and students. The question I have is when, and I know that everything is COVID sensitive, when a young person is sent to the clinic, and there may be a cough or some symptoms. A couple of parents have said that, you know, they've been told you got to get a test, go see the doctor, but it is probably a week out or... a long time because everybody's now getting tested. Everybody's got to see a doctor. What are we doing as relates to, maybe it's for Dr. Lawley, as it relates to those students who can't get those tests within one or two days, how are we making sure they don't fall behind academically while we're waiting for those test results or getting them

026to see a doctor? So I will say that from a nurse's standpoint, they should be alerting the teachers. Hey, I'm having to send Sally Mae home. Please make sure he or she gets their homework. Okay, that's what should be happening with every time we send a COVID kid, I'm sorry, COVID kid, a child who we suspect has COVID home. Okay. Now, as far as what happens from that point, I can't answer that. Thank you so much. That is the expectation. We're treating it just as if the student goes on an extended. leave because of illness or an extended leave because of a vacation that their family's taking or something like that so our staff prepares that work and and sends it to the student uses it in the same way that they would they grade

027it give feedback on it when the student returns So, Dr. Lawley, is that an excused absence? And if so, is there a time frame in which the district is expecting a child to be back in the seat? I'll let you answer the time frame question. It is an excused absence because the student is ill. What we have seen is that sometimes instead of going to get a child tested, parents will opt to keep them out for the quarantine period, which is 10 days. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. No problem. I have a couple of questions. Have we been seeing instances where students have been coming to school already sick? Have you been seeing those kind of things happening? We have. We've seen instances where parents have had their children

028tested and sent them to school and then called and said, hey, they tested positive. I've got to come pick them up. We have seen instances where parents have tested positive. and still sent children to school and... Children will tell, hey, my mom's sick at home and the adult will ask further questions and it comes out like, oh gosh, yeah, this mom is positive for COVID. So here we have this exposed child who's probably unvaccinated, right? So yes, we are seeing that in the schools. Okay. Another question I have is with the close contacts that we broke down the flow chart that come from Health Commissioner Cooper. and then what we're doing in the schools. Have we been seeing any of those close contacts then come back and test positive themselves? Not too often. Not too

029often. I heard a statistic on the news and take that for what it's worth, right? 85% of children who are sent home as close contacts generally don't ever show symptoms of COVID-19. And that's typically what we're seeing. There have been a few cases where we find that they're probably more of a close contact than we knew about. And I think that's what's important to understand, too, is that we make decisions based off of the information that is given to us at the time. So our decision is only as good as the information that I have. in front of me so if you tell me your child is not sick or you're and nobody at home is test positive i have to go with that and sometimes we find out that's not necessarily the case either

030i appreciate that and then my last question which i think might be my last question for now um with the just uh what you just spoke on about the information given How could we work better in some of those things with giving information, understanding who a child was next to, especially when we are outside of that classroom setting and we move into, you know, at lunchroom or at recess. So those kind of things. How can we as a district kind of tighten those things up and get that information out that could be vital? What is very helpful, especially on buses and in the cafeteria, is assigned seating. lunch buddies, bus buddies, you know, so that way we know who was where. Because as of right now in the cafeteria, nobody knows where anybody sits, and

031we have to result sometimes to watching video to see what child was next to another child. I will say this, we are always going to err on the side of caution and protect students and families. So if we are not sure, we're going to send them home. And I think that's the way we have to be in order to keep our kids safe. I appreciate that. And I was wrong. I did have one more thing. With flu season approaching, which adds another thing into this, what kind of suggestions or advice would you want to give to the parents in our community about how we stay vigilant, especially with flu season approaching now? I'm going to say. The best thing to do is to get vaccinated. Get vaccinated for COVID-19, get vaccinated for the flu. The

032reason why we didn't see as much flu last year is because we're doing things that protect us from the flu, right? So we're wearing masks, we're washing our hands, we're staying away from each other. And so that helps. But the best thing to do, the gold standard, is to get vaccinated. I appreciate that. And do we have any other questions from the board? I just have a comment, Mr. Vice President. Yes, ma'am. I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you to you and the nurses, because I'm pretty sure that dealing with a pandemic is not at the top of your job description. And you're mentioning right now how difficult it is for everybody to do all that tracking. So thank you so very much for what you're doing. Thank you.

033I appreciate it. And I would ask if any of you are in a building and you see a nurse. say something nice because they are so overwhelmed. I mean, can I say really quick? The beginning of the school year, the nurses come in, they track immunizations, they do screenings, they get to know their kids, they participate in IEP meetings, ETRs, things like that. They're having trouble getting to those things because they're spending so much time on COVID. And so, and I have to say that if we had more children vaccinated, we wouldn't necessarily be here. I know we all hope we be in a different spot. Lord knows I did. But here we are, and this is what we have to deal with. Yes, ma'am. President Smith. Thank you, Ms. Jackson. I echo the thanks

034to you and the thanks to all the nurses that are doing really hard work. You know, I get the texts when there are COVID cases in my child's school. And my youngest daughter, who is not yet vaccinated because she's under 12, had to, was exposed to a close case. Thankfully, she wears her mask. She started feeling weird the other day. And so... Half of our family got tested and thankfully we all tested negative. I would just like to say at this point, I found out that there's an initiative from the governor where you can go into your local public library and pick up at home COVID tests. up to five at a time. I'm really grateful for the access to test. They are the rapid test. They're not the PCR that you would get at

035Dayton Children's or something. That might be really helpful to a lot of families that are listening right now. So if you need COVID tests and you don't have access to them through Dayton Children's or through your insurance or anything, you can go to your local public library and pick up some at-home tests. I would like to speak about the at-home test really quick. Sure, please do. Thank you. We cannot accept those right now as proof to get it back in school. There's too many variables with that. I can't necessarily say that you swabbed your child's nose. You might have swabbed grandpa who you know tested negative two days ago, right? You may be presenting to me a test that was from several days ago. Technique might not be right. You may not have swabbed the

036right part, you know. So for that, because there's too many variables and it's too easy to, I hate to say that falsify results. We really can't accept those right now. So what we do, we don't tell people to go get tested. We tell them to check with their healthcare provider. So if it's, if their healthcare provider deems it necessary for them to be tested, great. If not, they come back to school with a note for us, then we're fine. But we just, we, we have to, we need them to see somebody. I really appreciate that clarification that I thank you very much, Ms. Jackson. No problem. If there are no further questions, I'd like to echo the board, and not only as a board member, but as a parent and community member, I really thank

037you and everything that your team does. You know, every piece matters, and we have to be in this together. So we look forward to hearing from you sometime soon and getting more updates, and we just got to push through this thing. Yes, sir. That is the truth. Appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our final update will be from the Office for Exceptional Children. Each month, the board in a business session will have a report out on strategic goals. And the first one for the month of September is on the Office for Exceptional Children, their goals. And one of the major things about the Office of Exceptional Children is that we had a state review over a year ago and got the results back last year during the COVID situation. Mostly what they're reporting

038on today is our progress towards becoming compliant and responding to the recommendations from the Ohio Department of Education. So most of their report is about that. But strategic goal wise, they're going to talk through some of the things that they also are doing for the students that we serve. So I'll turn it over to you. Tanya Ray and Shirley Coulter are executive directors in the Office for Exceptional Children. Good evening, Dr. Lawley and Acting Board President, Mr. Smith, Treasurer, and other board members. Thank you for giving us the opportunity this evening to present updates from our department. I will be providing an overall enrollment information and identifying main focus areas for our department. Shirley Coulter will be providing detailed information regarding current tasks that our department has implemented and ongoing activities that we will be

039engaged in this school year. So beginning with the 2019-2020 report card data, our overall enrollment was approximately 12,467 students and then students with disabilities were approximately 2,207 and we service all disability categories and you can note them on the slide. Our main focus areas this year are internal monitoring, record compliance, training and professional development. policies procedures and practices Good evening Kind of tag teaming tag teaming the presentation this way. All right so some of the training and professional development that our Department has done already this school year is training in the area of alternative assessment student discipline as it relates to the manifestation review functional behavior assessments as well as behavior intervention plans we have also provided professional development on evaluation timelines from referral all the way to the 60-day completion timeline We are currently

040providing crisis prevention training right now to all of our paraprofessionals school psychologists some specific special education teachers Are and also the positive school climate coaches and so within about three weeks all of our paraprofessionals will be trained in that In October, we're going to have a professional development series that we are completing and getting all the details situated right now for, but it's going to be a nice series of different things that the staff will help them and help them do their job. And we also are creating a bank of on-demand training videos, just little training videos that... aligns with all of the different procedures that we're putting into place so they have an additional support after they've we've provided the training if they need have have additional questions they can go to that training

041video and watch it on their own as well For in the area of policy procedures and processes, we are updating our preschool. We have updated our preschool and school evaluation processes. We've updated all of our out-of-district ETR and IEP adoption steps. There's a number of steps to make sure that any documents that are coming to us from out of state are compliant. So we've updated those procedures for staff. We've identified some steps to better our parent involvement within IEP and OEC meetings. And we've also implemented a number of tools to help us monitor compliance going forward. And then our future plans is, of course, the creation of additional policies and procedures. It's a process that's continually evolving. We want to make sure that our ISs have the tools they need, our case managers, our speech

042pathologists have the tools they need to be able to write compliant documents. We're also analyzing the skills of our cross-functional team and student specific data. What is that data telling us? What are our next steps? What do we need to do to help the students reach their goals and the teachers have the skills they need to help them reach their goals? And then of course developing professional development plans from that data and as needed and feedback from the staff as well. So in the area of training, professional development, policies and procedures. That is exactly what OSC has been doing. We've been busy, but I think it's been a good start to the school year. And then we can answer any questions that you have. Thank you both for your presentation. Do we have any questions

043from the board? Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much for the presentation. A couple of things. I'm really grateful for this update. It's a big job and I understand that. You hit some of the buzzwords that I tend to talk about and I know it's probably a little bit different. I would just like to hear about some of the things that you have been talking about in terms of improving the parent involvement. Yes. So we've a couple of the things that we've outlined for our staff to help is Just an implementation of the calendar system and and I know it probably sounds simple enough, but just having that Proactive planning with meetings that this is when the meeting has to happen Giving parents enough time to adjust their schedule if needed to be able to attend

044the meeting making sure that parents have that draft at least two weeks in advance so that they can read through, and if they have any questions, they don't feel that pressure sitting at a meeting. They'll be able to get some feedback and have questions answered ahead of time, or just to name a few of the things that we've really, from our department, really implemented in our viewing for compliance, just to make sure that's happening for our parents. Thank you. I appreciate it. Any other questions? I think I have a few questions. I definitely agree with Board Member Spencer-Reinert on the need for that increased engagement. Also, with that, what are some of the things you guys were talking about on increasing the level of compliance? Mm-hmm. Part of increasing that level of compliance is our

045training piece. So we're implementing a number of different systems and processes to help staff. So we've got... The actual training that we're doing in October, and we've done some in August as well, we're posting the on-demand videos to help. Our ACs are in the buildings. They're providing that guidance and support and answering questions for staff when they have any questions. They're reviewing those documents ahead of time with that calendar. They're able to go in and say, okay, this meeting's coming up. Let me take a look at it and just make sure that the documents are compliant. Okay, and then a follow-up with that, and I don't know, maybe this is something that Dr. Lally, you could then help with as well. Is there or has there been any attempt or any thought around using some

046of those trainings to increase that parental engagement as well? And I say this because I know and seeing in the district that sometimes our parents may not have a grasp on how to deal with some of the disabilities or difficulties that their child may face. So is there a way that we could have some of those parents in and receive some of those training things as well? Because we know that they have to deal with some of these things at home. Yes, absolutely. I think it's a good idea, and it has been something that our department has talked about, a little parent on-demand videos, and just even understanding the whole process as well, and what do they do if they do have questions. That is on our list of things that we would like to

047accomplish with our department. Okay, and then lastly, and it wasn't on here, and I don't know if it's just part of the plan, but what does the department... look like across the district as far as building by building resources and abilities? Has there been an effort to to ensure that some of the things in this building aren't that building so then parents can feel comfortable that they're getting the most out of this education? I can answer it on just a 30,000 foot view. I wouldn't be able to give you details for each building, but I know that that is something that our department wants for all students, all kids in this district is to have services at each building that's the same level. That is one of our goals. If you'd like specifics, I can

048probably get with. I think he's asking about resources. Yeah, like different resources that are available. You know, like one school may have. I can't even think of the name of it, a sensory room. Does every school have that? How are we looking at being able to provide all of these things at each school? And then not only just equal, but then to an equity level, to where we may have more students in one building. How do we then balance that to make sure we're being equitable and not just then being equal? Right. One of the monitoring tools that we're implementing does look at the resources within each school building and what are the needs because we know that it could be a changing number with enrollment and even each student's needs is very, very specific.

049So as a part of our monitoring, one of the tools that we've implemented is looking at that just to make sure that students, I mean, at the end of the day, we want them to have what they need. And I have to say that, and Ms. Ray, you may want to comment on this. There's always a large order that's placed at the end of every year for supplies, materials, resources, depending on what the teacher asks for and depending on what the curriculum actually is. And the majority of our students receive the general ed curriculum materials. It's when they're in a specialized situation like the unique curriculum. that they may not receive the textbooks or the materials that the other classrooms receive, but they receive what they need to implement that. They receive the technology, the

050training, all of that. I don't know, Tanya, if you want to speak to it, come up to the mic if you want to speak. We've actually added two sensory rooms at the end of last year, and we've ordered... technology, assistive technology, vision equipment, hearing equipment. So we really have looked at across the board what is needed for the kids because they all should have the same. So I'm I know that we both are very much reaching out to the buildings, making sure that we have, if they don't have a sensory room, they're going to have the sensory items that they need. So I don't believe that we've had to deny any at this time a request from teachers. So we just want to make sure that we have all of those necessary pieces of equipment

051and materials that any of our kids need. And sometimes a sensory room can't be set up because there's no space in that building. Exactly. Exactly. Thank you. Appreciate that answer. Board Member Reiner. If I may. Thank you, Acting President Smith. You know, there is a lot of really good information that you guys have given us tonight. And part of the work that I do as chair of the Parent, Family, and Community Council is think about ways in which we can engage the public and ways that we can do some outreach and let them know more about this. I would love to invite the two of you to attend one of our meetings so we can talk about maybe doing a town hall so parents across the district and family members can have an opportunity to

052hear this information and ask you questions themselves. So I'll be reaching out to you guys if we can talk about doing that. I appreciate that, Board Member Reiner. Is there anything else from the board? Dr. Harris. Thank you, Vice President. I'd like to ask, can you give us a little bit more information on slide number three on training and professional development where it says child find the evaluation timelines? How are you doing with that? So we are doing well with that. What that professional development included was the complete process, exactly what has to happen within that 60 days. And then our department is also monitoring any new initials that are happening just to make sure that we are still compliant within that 60 days. Does that answer your question? A little bit. It's basically the

053testing process. So I have a child that I believe in my classroom is not achieving at the level they should be achieving. I've watched them for a while. Last year they had the same similar kinds of issues and they just keep falling further behind. So I start an initial process for an evaluation. So that's called child find and the evaluation timelines from my referral forward we have 60 days to finish all the testing which includes uh... testing that that the school psychologist does it includes uh... referral forms that i feel that is the teacher the parent has forms that he or she fills out uh... and we just gather this additional information and go through that process you only have sixty days to complete that and at that point in time the i p of

054the actually it's multi factor evaluations what it what it used to be called still is called that Yes, no? Yes. The multifactored evaluation process occurs, and that's what that whole process is called. But you only have 60 days, and then you have to call everybody together. You call that team together, and you make decisions about that child's placement or the child doesn't qualify. So what other supports do we give that child? That's what that's about. Thank you. Dr. Pickett, you had a question? Well, a quick follow-up. I'm sorry. What happens if you don't get everything done in the 60 days, or has that ever occurred? I am certain that that has occurred, but probably never in DPS, no. Or if it has, we used one of the non-compliance codes. The state does have a small

055amount of compliance codes, where in certain circumstances, if we're not able to meet that 60-day timeline, we can put that code in. And it does occur. It occurs in every school system because sometimes it's hard to gather everything together at that point. But you try for it not to occur because you don't want to be noncompliant with what the law states should happen. Okay. Dr. Pickett. Thank you. In terms of policies, procedures, and processes, on number three you have identify steps for better parent involvement. What extra steps have you put in place for parents whose English is a second language? So we have a number of supports that we can use. We have a documentation translation service that we use, and we also have a... a company that we contract with that can partner up

056with us during the meeting and help to translate what the IS or case manager or school psychologist is saying during the meeting to the parent. So we can provide the document in their language and as well communicate with them during the meeting. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions from the board? If there are no further questions, I'd like to thank you both for your presentation. I appreciate the work that you and your office do, and I look forward to having you all come back with more updates as we get through the school year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next on the agenda is hearing of the bargaining units. Do we have any bargaining units in attendance to speak? Good evening. My name is Keith Stuyvesant. I'm with OPSI, Ohio Association of Public School

057Employees, and I represent seven locals here with Dayton Public Schools. I'm here tonight with grave concern of the ongoing issues we are having with payroll discrepancies. Numerous of our members have been shorted on their last several paychecks. I would at least understand if this might be a one-time thing, occurrence, but unfortunately it's becoming a pattern which is extremely concerning. I can only assure you that I receive many calls on a daily basis of hardships that our members are going through because of this, late fees, overdraft fees, can't make rent, can't make mortgage, groceries, getting gas to put in their car to get to work. Basically just having trouble living because of this issue. Our members are very generous. Some volunteer at local soup kitchens. They volunteer at shelters. But that is volunteer work. They chose

058to work for Dayton Public Schools to make a living, not to volunteer. I would ask our board members to reflect for a minute and think about what you guys would endure with a check that you're expecting to be a certain amount be shortened. And not just one check, several checks that are in a row. And see how severe this issue is ongoing that we are having with our members. Now, I've been given explanations of why, such as management, payroll department being short-staffed. computer glitches, but the bottom line is this is a Dayton Public School issue, not the employee issue. We've held up our end of the bargain by providing a service for Dayton Public Schools. Now it's time for you to hold up your end of the bargain by paying us timely and correctly for

059that service. And in closing, I would ask for the board to please consider all options, resources to make this right and resolve this situation as soon as possible. Thank you. Thank you, sir. And I appreciate your advocacy. Thank you. Next, we have hearing from the public. Treasurer, do we have any people who will perform to speak today? Yes. Gloria Nichols. Gloria Nichols. Tiffany Townsend. You say Townsend? Townsend. Townsend. Send. T-O-W-N-S-E-N-D is the last name. I hope you can go to the next name, Charger. Okay. Christina Rondo. Thank you. And as you're prepared to speak, I would just... Ask if you would just tell us your name, address, and then make sure we keep our comments to three minutes and address the board as a whole. You may go ahead. Appreciate you. Good evening. My name

060is Christina Randall. I live at 1643 Humphrey Avenue. I'm the legal guardian of my grandson who attends Dayton Public Schools. We do live more than 1.5 miles away from the school, and we live in the quadrant of our school. We do not have a bus. It's been over a month. I have called and called and called and no bus. No supervisor has ever called me back, even though every time I call, I'm told I'm going to get called back. I went on social media. I have went on the news about it. With being on social media, a bus driver, Marie Hayes, took it upon herself to find me a bus. No supervisor. She found another bus that drove right by our house and the person agreed. So this bus driver has been picking up my

061grandson, but it's not permanent. I still don't have a bus. She's even put in for him to be on her route, but it's not permanent. I still have not heard from one single person. It's just been excuse after excuse. We've heard every reason of why we don't have a bus. The system, the new system input was wrong. The parents gave misinformation. All we've heard has been excuses, but there's been no action. It's time for the excuses to end and the actions to start because I'm not the only parent who does not have a bus. There's quite a few, and it's just ridiculous that we need to adjust our work schedule and not get paid so that we can get our kids to and from school. when there are people that get paid to get our

062kids to and from school. I think I'm done. I think I've said it. Thank you. Thank you for your advocacy. Dr. Lawley, is there someone that she could connect with to make sure that the situation gets rectified? I'm going to have you go over here to Alex Kinkade and give her your address. Thank you, Dr. Lawley. And give the student name, too. Next name, treasurer. Ronnie Tingle. Speaking of public school board, we appreciate you guys. I have several different issues. I'm not the only parent that woke up on the 18th and there was no bus. We're usually patient. We know that the text is going to come 10 minutes before the bus is supposed to be there. So we just got dressed and... figured out what time it should be there and last year was

0635 55 or the year before that was 5 30 in the morning so if we just be ready around that time we'll get the text and it'll tell us when the bus comes that but that text never came then we called 5 30 i got on the phone with transportation Two hours, well, two hours. It was a two-hour wait. The young lady that answered the phone was really happy. She was like, I apologize for your wait. I've been taking care of calls all morning. They said they'll get me some help, but I apologize for your wait. What's your concern? She took my address and stuff down, and she said, that route is uncovered. Okay. So the next day we go to school. We picked them up, dropped them off. Next morning, watching the news, there's

064transportation issues. We already knew that it was going down and down and down every year. The same bus drivers that we see here are the same bus drivers that always come. When we had Ms. Washington, my kids had straight, perfect attendance. My son didn't miss his first day of school until he was a junior in high school. And that was just because he didn't have a bus pass to get to school and I was already at work and he had no way to get there. So that's the reason why he missed his first day of school. So that being said, we just, I have six kids. I've been here since 2009. I got here to student enrollment and they told me, you live in the Dayton public school system, pick any school on this list.

065Pick any school on this list and you can go there. Then I had to ask them, we are just coming from out of town. I don't have uniforms. What schools have no uniforms? So that made my list very short. We picked Ruskin. Ruskin had no uniforms, and they were the closest to the diversity that we were coming from. We were a black family, but we lived in a very saved-by-the-bill atmosphere school. We had everybody at our school. So I wanted my children to have that same option. So that's why we have chosen to stay at Ruskin, because we are a dual-enrollment, dual-language school. That's the only one that I know of that offers that. Unfortunately, we don't have enough Spanish-speaking teachers to continue to offer it properly. But we are going to continue to go

066there because their friends speak Spanish and they're learning from their friends. That being said, we're grandfathered in because I have a sixth grader now. I have an eighth grader at Stivers. She receives a bus to go to Stivers, but I don't have a bus to go one street over to Ruskin from the same house at the same time. Her bus driver said she has... It's not a lot of students on her bus, so she could easily pick those kids up. Middle school used to ride with elementary. It used to be K through 8. So that if you're having issues, we were riding past Richard Allen, and four kids got off the school bus. And that's been daily, not just a couple of times. It's been daily. I asked the bus driver, how many kids are

067on this bus? She said she has seven that are assigned to this bus. So she has a whole school bus for seven kids. I think we're mismanaging the time of the bus drivers. I'm not exactly sure what I wanted to say because when you get up here, it's just a little different, but I'm just mad. I'm very angry. I'm angry at the fact that there's so many parents that don't have buses. There's so many children that haven't even been to school yet, and no one said anything. The other issue was the COVID. My son has been called. Ms. Tinkle, I just want to say you're at about four minutes, 30 seconds. Okay. So I am here speaking with other people. I apologize. I just wanted to say, please work on it. There is no solution

068being made. I came to the other board meeting that we were supposed to talk about one thing, and the board came back and said something else. I was confused. So if you could please continue to work on it, please continue to talk to the parents and let us know what is going on because we don't know why we don't have a bus. And the pickup lines are ridiculous. So thank you. Thank you for your advocacy. Next name, Treasurer? Danielle Johnson. I do not. Is she out there? Okay. Ms. Johnson? No. Daryl. Daryl. Who? Next name, Treasurer. Okay. Next one is Foud A-I-L. Can you say that again, please, Treasurer? Foud, F-U-A-D. Last name is A-I-L. And is there no one else back there, the Chief? Okay. Then next name, Treasurer. Benson Kenmore. Benson. Next name?

069Edwidge. Rehama. R-E-H-A-M-A. Next name. Okay. Stacia. H-O-C-H-A-D-E-L. Okay. Next one is Shamika Lee. Next name. Jamie Ryan. No, no, she's not here. I don't see her here. Next name, Treasurer. Rahma Edwidge. Next name. Cheryl Alley. No, ma'am. Next, please. Cherise Grimes. Good evening, board members, acting vice president Will Smith, Dr. Lawley. Before getting to my issues, I want to commend the bus drivers. I want to acknowledge our dedication, our faithfulness, and I'm sorry because you told us to say our address. My name is Cherise Grimes. I'm a bus driver, 1820 Ruskin. Okay. Our faithfulness to the job. Despite our checks being messed up every pay period, we've been coming. Despite the fact that we haven't had a consistent leader going through three executive directors in 19 months, four since 2019, we've still been coming. We're

070still coming even though we've been seeing everybody else parking lot getting fixed, yet we have massive potholes in our parking lot and we have drivers that trip and fall every year. We're still coming to work and we're still getting the kids to school safely. And our drivers, we deserve recognition and we deserve to be heard. Drivers have been coming to work to daily dysfunction since in-service August 2nd. Our routes are a complete disaster. Despite writing them up during dry runs in August, they have not been fixed, and we now know that they won't be fixed. So, and now we're just waiting for the miracle that's supposed to happen in October when the routes should be done. Our routers were laid off. Last month, our previous routers, Devin and Erica, and they had already prepared routes

071for 2021-2022 school year. The sudden decision to switch into the new system traverse that absolutely no one previously or currently knows how to use, I'm sorry, has caused frustration not only for the drivers, but also to the community. The district has brought in people that aren't familiar with the greater Dayton area to do routes, which is why the routes are taking buses through alleys, which is not okay. It's not allowed. Pulling into apartment complexes, taking buses down streets on the east side that are forbidden because they're too tight for a school bus. Things that only someone familiar with this area would know. We need our routers back. And we need to go back to Versatrans at least until the district is able to have our former routers and the one current router that we have

072in the building is fully trained on the new traverse system. If that's the direction the district chooses. Drivers like myself are saving the day daily. Picking up students that are not... I'm sorry, that was my three minutes. I'm just going to... You got a couple more seconds. Go ahead. Okay. Picking up students daily that were not routed at all, taking them to school, even if it's not the school we're going to. Then there's the kids that were told that they have to cross over James H. McGee and railroad tracks to walk to Edison because they live too close to the school, or cross over 35 East and West Ramp on Stewart to get to Pownett. Because they were told they were too close to the school and that is incredibly dangerous for a child. When

073taking situations like these to the current router, she says she needs help. She didn't know she would be by herself. She's not familiar with the roads and she doesn't know what she's doing. This is disastrous. We need students present, especially with count week coming up and just because they need to be in the school learning. Devin and Erica had done routes and I haven't heard a legitimate reason yet for why we switched to the traverse system in the beginning three weeks before school started. The actual route sheets out of the system doesn't show the child's address, sometimes have the child at another child's stop, and then it doesn't even show us who we're dropping off or we're picking up, which puts drivers in terrible situations because we can't let kindergartners off the bus, but we

074don't have their names to even verify who they are. And then lastly, I just want to talk about the routes that this year they've been far worse than ever. And instead of the district investing more money in this system traverse that no one can use, seeking help from first student who can't route their own kids, and they let children off on four-lane roads to cross the street. I just want to suggest that bringing our phenomenal routers back because they did exceptional work. And I want to commend the board and all of you for every decision that you make. And I also have a petition, if you all are willing to take it. It's for our previous routers that were laid off last month, Devin and Erica. Thank you for your advocacy. You can take that,

075Ms. Kincaid, please. And Sam, could you come forward and talk about the time frame for that parking lot? Good evening. So I am aware of the parking lot. As you all know, I've been here for a few months. It is scheduled for replacement. We're going to fix it in the summer. However, any holes or any areas right now, we will patch them before November. But the total replacement of the lot will be this summer. So cutouts and any repairs, holes, are going to be fixed now? Yeah, they should be filled. I turn up the suspension on this bus and I back out every day. And a hole that is about this big. I appreciate that. Oh, you're fine. So those areas will come out, we'll look, and if we need to cut that out and

076repair it now, so those are the kinds of repairs we'll make in November. We'll take care of those things, but largely the lot is what I'm talking about. So we're going to replace the lot in the summer, okay? Thank you, Chief. If it's approved in the budget. Thank you, Chief. Moved by board. Do we have a next name, Treasurer? Yes. Tanesia Hobson. Good evening, board members. My name is Tanishia Hobson. I live at 817 Wyoming Street, Dayton, Ohio. I am here stating like the other parents said about the hardships. As previous, we got a letter sent out saying that the Quadrant was put in effect five years ago. That's not possible. Not when your kid could go any school. At the Dayton Public School, I was born and raised in Dane Public. You know, on

077the letter it says our kids can go to Stivers. We can transport your kids to Stivers, Ponitz, or if they have IEPs. What about the other kids that's going to Thurgood, Dunbar, Ruskin? several other high schools. Some students have been at the same school since kindergarten. Why can't they still stay at that school? Some kids are juniors finishing their last year in high school. Why can't they stay at that school and get transportation? Dayton Public Schools is a public school district. We should provide transportation for all our students. We don't have transportation now that... Now the kids are being transported by first student far as the charter schools and the and the Christian schools So why is it that Dayton public school kids as a whole each and last one of them can't get their

078transportation? I don't know how the budget is or where we're sending our money to but as a taxpayer I think that we should be providing our own kids transportation. I don't know the decisions that the board is making towards our kids, but our kids deserve a good education. And then when you say we have transportation, okay, the truancy is at a high rate. Why? Because the kids are not getting transported to school. Why? You're giving parents hardships. They have to make decisions on bringing their kids to school or being late to work. We're coming out of a pandemic. You made a decision based upon, yes. You said this was five years ago. No, it couldn't have been five years ago. You couldn't have put this in five years ago. I know parents and me as

079myself, my kid was bused out of Quadrant schools and she had transportation. Now you're saying we've had this before. That's a lie, period. That's a lie. I'm just going to say that, you know, but this is a public school trip. This is a public school system and taxpayers, homeowners. But when you say. When you want to levy, you want us to pass it. But you don't want to give our parents the choice. Then you wonder why we want to take our kids out of Dayton Public Schools. Why? Because you're not giving us a choice. You're making decisions. We had a pandemic last year. We're still in a pandemic. And now you're giving us a reason to say, well, let's take them out of Dame Public. Let's take our kid. That's a $9,000 kid right there.

080That's that $9,000, $6,000 kid you want to get out of the school. Why not? But you don't want to give us the transportation that we need. I know my three minutes is up. But I advise the board to take it to consideration. Because we all, because as a public, we voted you all in. Think about that. Thank you ma'am for your advocacy and coming to speak. Do we have any other names, Treasurer? Angela Miller. Angela Miller. Next name, Treasurer? Denise Drum. My name is Donnie, well hello everyone. My name is Donnie Durham. I live in the city of Dayton and I am here today as a parent and a bus driver. I'm just going to jump right into that. I watched the board review maybe a week or two weeks ago, and it was stated

081that we have five routers. To my knowledge, we have one router who is there two, maybe three days a week. That building needs a router every day because, as you heard, there's an ongoing issue with routes that was a problem before school even started. After her, I heard that the routing is being done. as an outside from an outside source. Most of our routes are messed up. Drivers are changing routes, stops, times and turns. This is only possible for experienced drivers and people who knows the streets and the communities that we serve for new drivers. That is following the route sheet and for drivers who are not familiar with the areas or the the streets that they're having to pick on, pick up on this is. This can be frustrating. It can be unsafe because

082when we're doing drop-offs, they may be dropping a child off that cannot cross this certain busy street, but they don't know any better because the route sheet is telling them where to go. It is causing students to miss educational time. It can be an inconvenience for families that we serve. Routes not being organized is not just a bus driver issue. I have a kid that was routed to my bus about two weeks ago, and I am serving in the Wyoming area and by Belmont. They had me leaving Belmont and picking up in this area and then going over to the Germantown area, which is like the Wagamon School area, and then coming back to the east side and continuing this route in the Belmont area and then dropping off at Kent. Now, I am aware

083that this is happening because this is a kid with an IEP. And this kid with the IEP, if they were out of the quadrant, they wasn't routed to buses at the time that routing was done. So when routing is getting it, they are just throwing these kids anywhere, and it is not making. It's not sensible. So what I had to do was take my route sheet home because routing cannot help me. How can I make this work? How can I do this route without complaining? How can I do this route and make sure that my babies are getting to school on time? Because the first time that I ran the route, my children was 45 minutes late to school. So I had to go back. Mom, I apologize for the inconvenience, but can I change

084your route time 30 minutes earlier? Can you please have this baby here? Because this stop is at a dead end street. I cannot pick up at home. I apologize, but I need him on the corner here. This is what we are as bus drivers are doing every day. Excuse me because the frustration comes in because we come in here every day and we do this and when we turn around in a community, we're being bashed like it's the bus drivers. This is just from last year. We asked questions. Nobody has the answers to them, which is understandable. But if you don't have the answers, don't tell me you don't know. You're leadership. Tell me, let me look into that and I'll get back with you. I dealt with payroll issues from June, July, to August.

085Yes, as she said, we came to work every day. I still came to work. I didn't stop. I came back home. I have this raw sheet available if anybody would like to look to see how this is. I hear the driver say lack of communication. And because of lack of communication, I have automatically assumed that this is not lack of communication. This is just... someone feeling like we are not owed an explanation. And it's not an explanation that we're looking for. It is understanding, security, knowing. It is us wanting to know, hey, I'm coming in here every day. We know this is messed up, but let us know what's being done to make this right. I received a parent letter as well. And in the parent letter about transportation, it stated that. Before you get

086in, I don't want to hold you into doing that because you are about four or five minutes. So if that's something we can share, and I don't know if we want to really share somebody's parent's information. But I definitely appreciate you coming to speak and we do want to have some conversation but I don't want to have a parent information out at the right. That's why I didn't release any names or stuff or schools. But yes, I have a kid that is in quadrant. I am a bus driver. My child goes to the opponent. She has not been routed. I go to routing. She has a bus and I route it. It is an ongoing thing and I am hoping that We know change is coming, and I am hoping that things get addressed and

087we're not just left wondering what's going on. I hope that we are respected enough to be explained to what's going on with the changes within transportation. Yes, ma'am. Next one is Mary Winfrey. Superintendent, only acting president of the board, William Smith, to all you, protocol has been established. My concerns is the facility, the building, and the parking lots where we work at, transportation. I am also a driver. I also have property in the city of Dayton, and I am a taxpayer. Where I work at, I have some pictures to send out that y'all should look at. Our parking lot and our building really is unsafe. dangerous and not enough adequate space in the break room for the number of employees that work in the transportation and fleet services. We have exceeded maximum capacity that is

088posted in our building. There are several major issues that I want to address. Time does not allow all the issues, but I will highlight the ones that is necessary. Restrooms. We're informed by our new management that the restrooms in the front area by the mechanics were off limits to the drivers and the paraprofessionals. Unfair conditions. We have over 200 employees at this facility. And the break room area is small just as well. There's three stalls for women and men there is two units and one toilet as I understand. That really isn't acceptable for the amount of people that is employed at this facility. Per the standard of OSHA, it states that we should have six toilets for 100 to 150 employees and one additional toilet for every 40 employees over 150. We do not have

089that adequacy. They state that we cannot use it. It is one of each man and females in the back area that they said is not, that we cannot go to. So hopefully we can get this fixed. The other area, as I heard Mr. Samuel state, is about the parking lot. You will see the pictures that are stated at Brough Forth. We've had potholes, holes and holes, uncovered, grass that's growing in between the black tops. No one's coming in to change any, cut anything, fix anything. We have areas that we can trip, fall, and hurt ourselves. When it's wet, it is nothing but a slippery set. We were stated that we were supposed to have some things allocated to us to have it fixed last year, and it has not got done yet. I understand that

090he said he will cover and fix it by November, by the time the weather is changed, but it'd probably be worse out because we do have buses that we do have front wheel alignments. I park right behind a pothole that's twice the size. My bus and my wheels go right into that. All we're doing is bippin' and bobblin'. We should have this completely fixed before that time frame, sir. We see that other DPS areas is getting worked on. Blacktop, Wellcome Stadium has got it, Thurgood, Marshalls, all the other eds. Please consider doing transportation just as well. We need it immediately. Makeover as soon as possible. And we also need the break area and we need the facilities bigger because of the pandemic. Thank you for listening. Thank you, Ms. Winfrey. Appreciate you for coming to

091speak. Do we have any other names, Treasurer? Ebony Johnson. Ebony. Ebony Johnson. Next name, Treasurer? Janai Foster. Ms. Foster? Yes. P-O-S-T-E-L-L. Doesn't look like they are here. Next name, please, Madam Treasurer. Ken Hayes. I'm Ken Hayes. I live on 728 Wellmire Avenue. And my guys go to Rivers Edge First I just want to thank you all for holding session and hearing communities concerns I'd like to echo the concerns of those who've come before me or earning transportation and Payroll and facilities things like that. So I won't get into those so much but one of the Folks who came up just a couple before me Mentioned communication as a concern and to me that's one of the underlying concerns that I've I've had across the board both relating to transportation and other things When the school

092year started and the issues with the transportation and the buses were going on We did get the the phone calls with the messages and some of the emails and those were appreciated but some of those were a little inconsistent some of those were misconstrued and Eventually they they kind of slowed and that kind of information wasn't coming in the same way that that it was at the beginning And so for me, a lot of the information that would be appreciated in terms of the switching to systems and the ways to engage in those systems, that information doesn't really seem to be presenting in ways where a lot of the parents are able to see it. And there seems to be a lot of confusion. and in talking to a lot of the people around the

093town and in the communities I you know each topic seems to have its own group of rumors about what's happening what's not happening where it's coming where it's going and there just doesn't seem to be that straight line from DPS saying here's where we are here's where we're headed there don't seem to be clear goals in terms of where we're headed for the transportation issues and things like that. I know that it's very hectic and a lot of things are in flux. We have the new system coming. But a lot of the answers to those questions are it's new, it's in flux, we're trying, which is understandable, but at some point we have to get out of flux. We have to get a sound understanding of where we're at and set objective goals that we

094can say we're meeting or not meeting. within this time frame because hoping it happens soon is soon can be you know ever ending depending on where we're at in that situation one of the examples for me is when it comes to the transportation communication you know you go on to Facebook and the DPS Facebook page and the thing that you see almost consistent updates is the progress reports on the the schools who have the best attendance and in the first couple of weeks and that's like the update that we get but so many of the schools are already handicapped because they don't have the transportation to get their kids to the schools to attend the school and so that that update seems relatively meaningless when you consider the fact that not everyone has equal access

095to it and so instead of those updates at the moment I would rather be hearing, here's where we are with the transportation issue, here's where we are with the new system, here's where we're headed, and getting those sorts of things out there for the parents to hear, to see, to have a better understanding of where we are and what the plans are to move ahead. So for me, it's... understanding the difficult position that the school is in, that the system is in, but at the same time understanding the frustration that we parents have and asking for more of that direct proactive instead of reactive communication. And that's all for me. Thank you, Mr. Hayes, and we appreciate your advocacy in coming out this evening. Treasurer, do we have any other names? No, this concludes tonight's

096public hearing. Thank you, Treasurer. Next, we'll move on to our consent agenda. Refresh your screens, Board. Do all Board members have the updated agenda? Yes, sir. Okay. If so, now we move on to Superintendent's recommendations, first starting with the consent agenda. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded by Dr. Harris and Board Member Wick-Gagné. Are there any questions on the consent agenda? Board Member Spencer-Reiner. Thank you, Acting President Smith. Superintendent, we've got the note that the items highlighted in yellow or green on the reports were added or changed at the review session. Could we get an update on the items that were changed prior to the vote, please? There are no items that were changed on the consultants, on contracts. There are no items

097that were changed on human resources. There are revised items. I believe there are additional items on here, additional personnel that we were hiring or that we've accepted resignations from. Okay, thank you. Are there any, if I could ask Director Herman, if there's any update that he wishes us to know about in regards to HR. Good evening, board members. As always, thank you for giving me the opportunity to. Speak with you and share the most recent update most recent data I do want to share with you before I run through the numbers Last week, I believe it was board member Samson that asked I think maybe is a sentiment of the whole board Could I give you some information about? reasons that people have shared with us about departure as they've chosen to move on from

098the district. I just wanted to make it aware, make it known to you, I have just prior to the board meeting shared that information with Dr. Lally. She has not even had a chance to look at that yet, but she'll share with you what she may choose to share with you on that. So I wanted you to know that I did try to get that information for you. Two other issues that are regarding recruitment. We do have a job fair. We are attending a job fair tomorrow at the Montgomery County job fair event that we are a part of that is at the UD arena. And so I would encourage anyone who's watching live and or listening who is interested in potentially joining us on our staff to, you know, possibly to see if it

099fits in your schedule to be out at the University of Dayton. um at the arena somewhere between one o'clock and four o'clock that's when that job fair is taking place uh and secondly we have another um a dps specific recruiting event that we are doing between the hours of 10 and 3 on wednesday the 29th That event is at Jackson Center and that is for paraprofessionals and operations staff. So again, just always looking to add to our staff and so want to get those dates out there to the community and see if you're interested in joining us. Those are two opportunities to get in front of a recruiter. As far as the updates to... Where we were since the last time we've seen each other these are updates as of a week ago So you

100know I'm now just updating you since the last time we've seen each other we have decreased The number of vacant positions in the ESSER position, by one, there are only two remaining double teachers in the district. And if you recall, at one point, every one of those were filled, but we've had some staff leave. We've now been able to begin to backfill that. So there are two remaining ESSER positions, double teacher positions open. In teacher positions, we decreased... by teacher meaning DEA, not necessarily a classroom teacher. We did hire our last school nurse, so there are no school nurse vacancies where there was one. And there are no ESL teacher vacancies where there was one. So that's a move in the right direction. As well as paraprofessionals, we decreased the remaining paraprofessionals as required by

101the needs of the individual students by three since we last spoke a week ago. Clerical positions are down by one. That remains at 13 positions. And as I've shared with you a number of times, that's a civil services tested area. So testing has happened. They've now made it through their process. So I hope maybe in the next board meeting, I'm gonna be able to tell you that the remaining 13 positions in a month are zero, I hope, to be able to tell you that. That is that is really we did have a move in the wrong direction as far as custodial staff we had a few staff three Custodial positions have come open in the last since we last spoke a week ago That is all I have for you at this time unless you

102have questions. Are there any other questions for Chief Harmon? Mr. Vice President. Yes, sir. Board Member Sampson. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I think the question that I'm having is I understand that there was a revision, but I don't see any yellow or green. So am I assuming that the two names that have been taken off the list is what has been the revision? Yes. Okay. Thank you so much. Are there any other questions for Chief Harmon? Thank you so much, Chief. I appreciate you. Are there any other questions on the consent agenda from the board? I do have one question, Dr. Lawley. When we look at the contract for the city of Dayton with the police department to come with our events, how as a district are we able in the future to kind

103of mitigate that rising cost, be it by having conversations? Is there something like that? Because I know at the review session it was said that rise was due to their salaries rising, correct? Do they give us the officers that they want to have at the events? Is there some kind of pick? I just want to know if there's something we can look at to kind of keep that a static cost. I'd like to ask Chief Wright to come forward because he's the one that works with them on that. Okay, thank you. So he can explain that. Appreciate you, Chief Wright. No problem, sir. Good evening, Vice President. Board members, thank you this evening. What happens is, of course, the cost of their officers go up, the cost of their equipment goes up, and that's what

104raises the cost. What we've done on our end is we've limited the amount of times that we actually call them in to work. We use them mostly for DPS-DPS, and we're going to have a large crowd from an opposing team. And this is for a year and a half. This amount? Correct. It says from January 1st, 2021 to June 30th, 2022. Correct. And it's not to exceed $16,000 more. Correct. I appreciate that explanation, Chief Wright. Are there any other questions for Chief Wright while we have him? If not, thank you for your time. Thank you. And thank you for what you do for the district, sir. Are there any other questions? If there are no questions, Treasurer, can we have a vote? Mr. Smith? Yes. Ms. Reinhart? Yes. Mr. Sampson? Yes. Ms. Wiegand? Yes. Dr.

105Pickett? Yes. Dr. Harris? Yes. Six yeses. Thank you. Next, we have a 48-hour rule waiver, and I will take a motion for the 48-hour waiver. So moved. It's been moved. Do we have a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Was that by Dr. Pickett? And it was moved by Board Member Spencer Reinhart. Are there any questions on the 48-hour rule waiver? If there are no questions, Treasurer, may we have a vote, please? Mr. Smith? Yes. Mrs. Reiner? Yes. Mr. Simpson? Yes. Mrs. Wigany? Yes. Dr. Pickett? Yes. Dr. Harris? Yes. Six yeses. Thank you. Now we move into our superintendent recommendations. Dr. Lally? I'd like to recommend that the board approve the DEA list for after July 10th. Do we have a motion to approve the DEA after July 10th? So moved. It's been moved.

106Do we have a second? Second. It's been moved by Dr. Harris and seconded by Board Member Spencer Reinhardt. Are there any questions? If there are no questions, Treasurer, may we have a vote? Mr. Smith? No. Ms. Reinhardt? No. Mr. Sampson? No. Ms. Wigany? No. Dr. Pickett? No. Dr. Harris? No. Six no's. Your next recommendation, Dr. Lally? I'd like to recommend the approval of the Memorandum of Understanding for the Delco District Project. Thank you. Do we have a motion to approve the recommendation? So moved. Second. We have a move. Do we have a second? Second. It was moved by Board Member Sampson and seconded by Board Member Wick-Gagné. Are there any questions or comments on the recommendation at hand? I do have one, Dr. Lawley, and I know I had spoken to the president about that,

107is as we move with some of these CRAs, if the board is able to sometimes see the deeper scope outside of what is in the agenda, but what is also in as far as... some of the agreements that have been placed knowing that I think no one on this board has been here longer than four years. So no one was around when kind of the framework when some of these things came into place, especially some of the newer board members who have been in two years. So I wanted to put that out that as a board, when we get these CRAs that we can look deeper into them and see what is the real financial impact on the district. And that is my comment on that. Are there any other questions or concerns? If there

108are no other questions or comments, Treasurer, may we have a vote, please? Mr. Smith? Yes. Ms. Reinhart? Yes. Mr. Sampson? Yes. Ms. Wigany? Yes. Dr. Pickett? Yes. Dr. Harris? Yes. Six yeses. Dr. Lally? I'd like to recommend the approval of a resolution to move a deposit that will be in general fund from the Conner Group into the following two accounts. $100,000 into the curriculum for programming such as district-wide competitions and programs, the music festival, science fair, speech competitions, et cetera, and $100,000 into PIO for attendance campaign incentives when that money arrives. Thank you. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second. It's been moved by... by Board Member Wick Gagne, I think, and second by Dr. Pickett. Are there any questions or concerns on the recommendation? Well, I just want to say I appreciate this

109being brought in. I do believe this is for the next three years, Dr. Lally? Yes, there are three payments from the Conner Group. Okay, and I definitely appreciate that boost in the curriculum. I know as a board, we definitely want to see ways that we can boost our curriculum, especially doing these district-wide things that get our families out, get our families, our children, the community out. That was kind of what we came up on. I remember my first, my spelling bee back when we had those things. So just seeing more ways that we can involve the community and put some resources to those things, I definitely appreciate that. Are there any other questions or comments? Board Member Sampson. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Dr. Lawley, will it be possible at the end of the school

110year that we get an opportunity to see how the funds were dispersed, what the data shows, how attendance, the campaign, attendance campaign incentives, so at the end of the year that we would be able to get a report on how these funds were used? Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you. Board Member Sampson, is there anything else? If there's nothing else, Treasurer, may we have a vote, please? Mr. Smith. Yes. Ms. Reinhart. Yes. Mr. Sampson. Yes. Ms. Weigany. Yes. Dr. Pickett. Yes. Dr. Harris. Yes. Six yeses. Thank you. Dr. Lally, your next recommendation, please. I'd like to recommend the following approval of the following resolution, which is about payment for welcome stadium positions. So move. Second. It has been moved and seconded by Board Member Sampson and then seconded by Board Member Wick-Gagné. Are there

111any questions or concerns about this recommendation? If there are none, Treasurer, may we have a vote, please? Mr. Smith? Yes. Ms. Reiner? Yes. Mr. Sampson? Yes. Ms. Wick-Gagné? Yes. Dr. Pickett? Yes. Dr. Harris? Yes. Six CSS. Thank you. Dr. Lally, your next recommendation, please. I'd like to recommend the approval of settlement agreement FGHNI. Thank you. Do we have a motion for this recommendation? So moved. Second. Second. It was moved by Board Member Spencer Reiner and seconded by, I'll give that to Dr. Harris on the late chime in. Are there any questions or concerns from the board? Question. Yes, sir. Board Member Sampson. Can we clarify the letters again? Is it E-F-G-H-I? It is F-G-H-I. All right. Thank you. Anything else from the board? If not, Treasurer, may we have a vote, please? Mr. Smith? Yes.

112Mrs. Reinhart? Yes. Mr. Sampson? Yes. Mrs. Wigany? Yes. Dr. Pickett? Yes. Dr. Harris? Yes. Six yeses. Thank you. Dr. Lawley, your next recommendation, please. I'd like to recommend approval of the YMCA lease agreement. Thank you. Do we have a motion for this recommendation? So moved. Second. It was moved by Board Member Spencer Reiner and seconded by Dr. Pickett. Dr. Lawley, could you give us a little bit of information on the YMCA lease agreement? YMCA lease agreement is for a latchkey-type program at Rivers Edge, Montessori. And I believe I did skip E. So I'm going to go back to that in just a second. But that's for the YMCA lease agreement with Rivers Edge. Okay. Are there any questions or concerns from the board regarding this? If there are none, Treasurer, may we have a vote,

113please? Mr. Smith? Yes. Mrs. Reinhart? Yes. Mr. Sampson? Yes. Mrs. Wigany? Yes. Dr. Pickett? Yes. Dr. Harris? Yes. Six yeses. Thank you, Dr. Lally. Your last recommendation, please. Yes, and I apologize that I skipped the item number E. I recommend approval of the settlement agreement with Local 166, the interpreters. Thank you. May we have a motion? So moved. Second. It was moved and seconded by Board Member Sampson and Board Member Wick-Gagné. Do we have any questions on the motion? If there are no further questions... Treasurer, may we have a vote? Mr. Smith? Yes. Ms. Reinhart? Yes. Mr. Sampson? Yes. Ms. Wegeni? Yes. Dr. Pickett? Yes. Dr. Harris? Yes. Six yeses. Thank you. And does this conclude your recommendations, Dr. Lally? Yes, this concludes my recommendations for this evening. And before we move into our next

114piece, Board Member Spencer-Ryan, did you have something you wanted to say? I just wanted to point out to the treasurer, Board Member Sampson alerted me. I think that the motion to approve F, G, H, and I were accidentally put under E, so just make sure that you switch those around or wherever it was recorded to make sure that those were moved around into the proper places. Thank you, Mr. Acting President. Thank you, Board Member Spencer-Reiner. Madam Treasurer, your recommendations, please. Okay. I have 48-hour rule. This is a settlement for agreement tax revision with Dayton-Stanley Avenue LLC. Okay. So do we have a motion for the 48-hour rule waiver? So moved. Second. It was moved by Board Member Sampson and seconded by Dr. Pickett. Are there any questions on the 48-hour rule waiver? If there are

115no questions, may we have a vote? Mr. Smith? Yes. Ms. Reinhart? Yes. Mr. Sampson? Yes. Ms. Wigany? Yes. Dr. Pickett? Yes. Dr. Harris? Yes. Six yeses. Thank you. And now we will move to the settlement agreement. Yes. I have the settlement agreement with Dayton Stanley Avenue, LLC. This is a tax revision. What they are doing is they bought land for $817,000, but they sold it for $1.4 million. So they agreed to pay the difference directly to Dayton. public schools for two years after that if the tax commissioner increases it's okay if not we will go to revise it again so the direct payment is the fifteen thousand dollars we'll get so we don't lose any money out of it thank you treasurer are there any other comments or questions on the motion Seeing no other

116questions, may we have a vote? Moved it, and who moved it? It was Mr. Sampson. That was the 48-hour rule. Oh, then my... My apologies. Do we have a motion to move this? So moved. Second. There we go. Now we do. Now it was moved by Board Member Sampson and seconded by Board Member Spencer-Reiner. Now, Madam Chair, we may be having a motion. Okay. Mr. Smith? Yes. Ms. Reiner? Yes. Mr. Sampson? Yes. Ms. Wigany? Yes. Dr. Pickett? Yes. Dr. Harris? Yes. Six yeses. Thank you. Now we move into our treasurer's recommendations, please. Okay. I have amended certificate of estimated resources. We are amending the certificate of estimated resources to include the $3.5 million we moved from general fund to capital improvement fund. That's the only change we have on that one. Thank you. Do we

117have a motion? So moved. Second. It was moved by Board Member Sampson and seconded by Board Member Spencer Reinhardt. Are there any questions? If there are no questions, Treasurer, may we have a vote, please? Mr. Smith? Yes. Ms. Reinhardt? Yes. Mr. Sampson? Yes. Ms. Wigani? Yes. Dr. Pickett? Yes. Dr. Harris? Yes. Six yeses. Thank you, Treasurer. Your next recommendation, please. Okay. I have, we are updating the appropriations to include the $10.1 million payment to defuse the caps for our buildings. That's the only amendment we are having. May I have your approval? Do we have a motion? So moved. Second. It was moved by Board Member Spencer Reinhardt and second by Dr. Pickett. Are there any questions? If there are no questions, Treasurer, may we have a vote? Mr. Smith? Yes. Ms. Reinhardt? Yes. Mr. Sampson?

118Yes. Ms. Wegani? Yes. Dr. Pickett? Yes. Dr. Harris? Yes. Six yeses. Thank you. Madam Treasurer, your next recommendation, please. I recommend the approval of... education except to repayment of the following advances. What we did is we advanced to our grant funds. Now grant funds received money and they are repaying general fund. May I have your approval? So moved. Do we have a second? Second. Moved by Dr. Harris and seconded by Board Member Spencer-Reinert. Are there any questions? There are no questions. Treasurer, may we have a vote, please? Mr. Smith? Yes. Ms. Reinhardt? Yes. Mr. Simpson? Yes. Ms. Wegani? Yes. Dr. Pickett? Yes. Dr. Harris? Yes. Six, yes. Thank you. Your next recommendation, please. I have monthly financial report for August. And this financial report was reviewed by the Finance Committee on Thursday, but I would

119like to go over it a little bit, if you don't mind. Yes, ma'am. Okay. We will go to the financial report page. This is the general fund. Our general fund in the taxes area, we compare last year in August to this year August, and our taxes, which is good, came flat like last year with a small increase. That's good. But we show state funding decreased. This is due because of the House Bill 110. The charters and vouchers go. money go straight to the vouchers and open enrollment. Another one is our advances in, decrease it, but really by $4 million. Last year we had four. This year we don't have it. This is the timing because advance today you... you approve it, it will go, it will be posted for September. So total revenues, 61 last

120year, million, 0.2 million. This year, 45 million, 16 million decrease. Really, it's not a decrease. It used to be. It used to come through us and we were passing it. So now since it was going straight to the charter vouchers, that's the main thing. Okay, we'll go to expenditures. Our expenditures in salaries increased. We had an increase in salaries and the retirements. Purchased services decreased by 11 million compared to last year. Really, it's not a decrease, it's a pass-through. We used to post it into our books when we pass it through, but now it's straight, it doesn't pass through us. So overall, if you see general fund unreserved cash balance... Last year we had 94.8 million compared to this year 88.5 million. It's a decrease in that funding. So I will go first to the

121other pages. Page four shows budget to actual. What we budget compared to what we have right now. So we budgeted 238.6 million. We spend 26.9%. It's a little bit high, but most of our departments encumber their budget. That's the reason why so, but we will watch it. I will go to the next page. This one, we included it as new to our financials per the request of the finance committee. So we show in this one is total revenues, total expenditures, and unreserved cash. So you see, as you can see, In fiscal 18 to fiscal 22, August, we compare in August to August. In fiscal year 19, it shows a spike in revenues. Really, that spike, it is because we transferred from the health fund to general fund. That is a little bit spike. And we

122see down in 2020. because the governor cut us by two million. And this year you see a lot of down because it's the House Bill 110. We'll go to expenditures on that chart. Our expenditures look very lower in 20. 20, no, high in 2020, but lower in 2021 and 2022, because in 2021, we moved some of our expenditures to the wellness program and the Acer funds to save the general fund. So as you can see, our unreserved cash balance. looks a little bit better because of the movement what we did. We'll go to the next page. The next page shows really all our funds, district funds, and we start with our beginning balance, revenues, expenditures, and fund balance. So as you can see, at the bottom of this IT SHOWS 213.5 MILLION BEGINNING BALANCE. SO

123FAR THE REVENUE IS 76.2 MILLION. EXPENDITURE IS 52.7 MILLION. AND INCUMBRANCES 63.9 MILLION. SO WE HAVE UNRESERVED CASH BALANCE FOR THE WHOLE DISTRICT OF 173.1 MILLION. NOW WE'LL GO TO THE To the next page, this is budget to actual. Our budget is for the whole district is $576.2 million. So far what we spend is 20.25%. It's a little bit high, but we will watch it because our departments tend to encumber, to budget all their budget, encumber all their budget. So the next page is this is a request of the finance committee sending one for us a new one to put it in our financials. Where do we put our money and how do we reconcile it? So our money is in KeyBank. In K-Bank, we have 52 million. Star Ohio is 99.5 million. Fibers Third

124is 77.3 million. So our bank shows 229 million, and our book shows 229 million, which is in balance. So the next one is where do we invest our money? So what we did in here is last year in August and in July and August of this year. So our investments are 29% in agency bonds, 9% in money market, 6% certificate of deposits, and 56% in Star Ohio at this time. That concludes the financial report. Do you have any questions? First, thank you, Treasurer, for that. And do we have a motion to approve the monthly financials? So moved. Second. It was moved by Board Member Sampson and seconded by Board Member Spencer Reinhart. Now, do we have any questions from the Board regarding the monthly financial report? I would like to say I appreciate you, Madam

125Treasurer, for going through. the report and I appreciate you to responding to the request from the finance committee on adding some of the new information in there and having it in by the next monthly financial report. I do appreciate you raising the point to keep an eye out on the percentage that we are at, seeing how we are around a quarter of that before we're done with the quarter. But as you said, there are a lot of encumbrance that come in now and I appreciate your... keeping an eye on these things and making sure that the board is aware of these things. Thank you. If there are no other questions, Treasurer, may we have a vote, please? Mr. Smith? Yes. Ms. Reinhart? Yes. Mr. Sampson? Yes. Ms. Wiegand? Yes. To schedule a tour. I know

126more of us for Sunshine Laws that if there's a way to break it up that we could get a tour of the transportation facility to look at firsthand some of those things that were shared with us. I would love for us to be able to do that sooner than later. I don't know how we would schedule it, but I would definitely like to be able to see some of those concerns that was brought before us. And lastly, always males of color, always being innovative, creative. Thank you for all you're doing. Females of color, your commitment to being innovative and creative at all times. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Thank you, Board Member Sampson. I will move now to Dr. Harris. Thank you, Vice President and President. sitting in this evening. Just want to say again

127that I do appreciate the advocacy of our Transportation Department and certainly I feel your pain and I hope that we can get it resolved as soon as possible. Thank you so much for sharing this evening. And again, we will have a... technical meeting scheduled for October and I will have a report then. So thank you, Vice President. Thank you, Dr. Harris. Next, we move on to Board Member Spencer Reiner. Thank you, Acting President Smith. I have a number of things to go over. The first I would like to do is go over policy. We have a second reading this evening. This is a resolution to adopt board policy. It is the second reading. The rationale is in as much as the Board of Education is committed to the continual updating of its policies, rules, and

128regulations manual, and the committee which was appointed has been working toward that goal. The following is brought at this time for second reading in compliance with board file. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Dayton City School District, Montgomery County, Ohio, hereby accepts and adopts the following policies that have been codified for inclusion in the Handbook of Policies, Rules, and Regulations. File IGCB, the Innovative Education Programs, and it's revised to align with changes in legislation. and file IGCK, blended learning, and it's revised to align with changes in legislation. Thank you so much. Madam Policy Chair, do we have a motion? So moved. Second. And it's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions? If there are no questions, may we have a vote? Mr. Smith? Yes. Ms. Raynard? Yes. Mr.

129Simpson? Yes. Mrs. Wiegand? Yes. Dr. Pickett? Yes. Dr. Harris? Yes. Six yeses. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to continue by giving an update on the Finance Committee report. Thank you to the treasurer for running through that today. She already touched on a few things. I would like to reiterate, spending is on level with where we're about supposed to be. The biggest changes are, first, the way that the money from the state to the charters and the nonpublics no longer passes through the district. And so it looks like we've got a massive cut. Instead, the money that was always going through our district straight to those entities are just going straight to them. So if there are any questions about that, that explains that. There is a small number of money that is still in

130that account though. It was $773 and I asked the treasurer about that. And that's actually money that goes to the college credit plus program. So there will still be a small amount that goes through the district, but it is... not the larger amount. The second change that, the second thing that she talked about in regards to the finance report is I've asked the treasurer to make a couple changes with the way that we do our finance committee, our financial, monthly financial reports. I consulted with a number of my colleagues across the state and looked at some of their financial reports and I decided that there were a few things that I wanted to do differently to get a different kind of view on the the way that we looked at financials so i've asked the

131treasurer to do that she um you know it's a big job to put together the monthly financial report and she wasn't able and obviously she's she's got a lot on her plate um so she made a few adjustments now but next month we'll be seeing a lot more different information included in that report so i'm looking forward to that and i would also like to echo the thank you to our treasurer for being adaptable and giving us a slightly different look at how we do the monthly financials the third thing i would like to report back is the parent family community council we are having instead of a meeting next month next month We are going to be having a virtual town hall for our Spanish-speaking families. We had a town hall, virtual town hall

132a few months ago. We had 83 or 86 people attend. It was actually really well attended. Really good question-and-answer session. We'll be doing the same thing, but for our Spanish-speaking families. We'll have an interpreter there, and we're going to do some... outreach to our spanish-speaking communities to make sure that they know it'll be about the same format it'll be a general question answer format they can submit answers ahead of time and they can also submit questions during the town hall as well it will take a little bit more juggling on our part because we have to do the translation on top of the town hall virtual moderation um but i'm looking forward to that and i know dr pickett is looking forward to that as well we had a really good meeting this last month

133we invited some chairs of our ptos now that school's up and going again and i see it now that we're back in in school in person learning Our PTOs can kind of get up and going again after taking a little bit of a pause. And we're excited to see how the PTO chairs across the district can work with each other and communicate. The last thing I would like to talk about is, and I'm gonna take, oh, I'm sorry. I have two more things I wanna talk about, my apologies. As the legislative liaison to the district, I've had some good meetings with Senator Brown's regional representative in the area. He watches Dayton with great interest. He cares very much about this region as he does all the regions in Ohio. and he regularly reaches out and

134asks questions through his regional representative and I've been giving him updates. I am going to be joining a call with Governor DeWine on Thursday and then I will be on a call with Senator Brown on Friday and I'm really looking forward to doing that and communicating with him. The last thing that I want to talk about, and I'm going to take my mask off. I'm vaccinated and I really want to make sure that people hear me when I talk about this, is there are two bills in the Ohio State House right now that I would like to speak to. It is House Bill 322 and 327. and they directly affect our ability to teach children in public schools. They are concerned that the bills are targeting districts that teach their students about real history. There

135is a lot of talk and a lot of reaction against a fear that public schools are teaching critical race theory. And I get questions about this all the time. The first thing is that critical race theory, if anybody doesn't know, it's a very high concept law school class that people take. I did not go to law school, but from what I've read about it, it's a pretty deep dive into the way that laws are not racially neutral. It is not taught in. undergraduate universities. It is not taught in K-12 schools at all. It is not something that the students in K-12 or even college universities have the grasp of. It is a law school level class. So we are not teaching critical race theory in our schools. That being said, I think that critical race

136theory is being used as a dog whistle to keep us talking about equity in our schools, to keep us talking about the real history that we have. If this law passed, we wouldn't be able to talk about the real history in Dayton, why Dayton Public Schools is the way it is. We wouldn't be able to talk about the Civil Rights Movement. We wouldn't be able to talk about the civil rights leaders that we had in Dayton. I think that this is an affront to the way that we educate our children. And I would just like to make that statement. Thank you, Acting President Smith. Thank you, Board Member Spencer-Reinert. We move on to Superintendent Alali. Thank you, Acting President Smith. I want to just reiterate some of the things that I shared with the board

137last week at the review session, just to make sure that the community knows and hears it. We do have five routers that are working on routing, and we're anticipating that all new routes will be rolled out the second week of October. The Board of Education passed a... contract for first student routers back in July. I believe it was July at that point. We passed the first student contract for them busing the parochials and charters, and then we passed a contract for their Ohio-based routers. to do routing with us. So they are working with our transportation department right now. So there are actually five routers that are working on a new process for the Dayton Public Schools in Traversa because that's the software that they use. That's their expertise area. So they are working through that.

138They also have gone through and looked at some of the concerns that were raised by the bus drivers about stops that were not appropriate stops locations that were not appropriate locations so they have listened to the concerns that have been forwarded to them from many of our many of our drivers through the the actual associate director that's there right now. So those comments have been shared as well as me sharing comments with them in a meeting that we had a week ago. So they are working on that. We're anticipating announcing that closer to time. However, as I told the board last week, I was going to send out an update to parents once I had a little more information in a clearer date. That's anticipated. Director Kincaid and I have talked about Friday, that going

139out, so that will be prepared once I get another review of what's actually happened and how far we've made the progress. So parents can anticipate on Friday some sort of update, as I had said last week, we would be doing. Additionally, they are routing extra students every day. They're still working in the old... database but they're routing extra students every day just to try to get us through this situation for the next two weeks making sure and making sure that they're they're getting as many students on routes as possible OEC department has worked extensively to make sure that the specialized busing that's needed is correct and updated and that the IEP meetings will continue to occur with those families where Special bus routing for IEP students have stipulations required by law. So some of these

140students that were being bussed, if it wasn't out of quadrant for them to go to the program that was available, they were being bussed without those special stipulations. So OEC has had to go through and make sure that they qualify for special bussing if it's not a cross quadrant. program issue. If it's a cross-quadrant program issue, then we, of course, bus those students. High school routing is supposed to be taken care of with this new routing that will come out in October. Right now, we're still sketchy on our high schools that are not specialty schools. The specialty schools do have routing in place, but our other high schools do not. Hopefully, that will be totally completed. when we roll this out in October with the new Traversa system. So it has been a very tedious

141process. It's been a very long process. But hopefully at this point in time, whenever we roll this out, we won't ever be back in the situation where we start school with such turmoil in our routes, turmoil in... and not being able to get our parents to the information that they need, our drivers the information they need, and just having such a bad start to the year, which is not the fault of the bus drivers. And we're trying to make sure that that doesn't happen again. Then secondly, my second point tonight is we've had professional development in our BLT cohorts training occurring the last two weeks and that will continue for two more weeks. We have closed two buildings or three buildings each day the last two weeks and provided that reset and that refocus on

142what expectations for our classrooms look like. If you recall, we did that in 2018. 19 and that's the year that we actually pushed forward and received a D on the report card for the first time in so many years. We were very close to a C. So we wanted to refocus and have everybody understand what the expectation for the classroom looked like. So we're doing those sessions. Curriculum is doing those sessions every day at UD Arena. And it's actually in their meeting rooms at UD. Very nice rooms there that we're using. Then the other part of that is the building leadership team cohort trainings. We started those back up. There will be five of those this year where we bring in the building leadership teams in cohort groups and we rework how they do their

143data analysis and how they look at that to make sure that they're teaching what the student needs to be taught at the level they need to be taught. So those have gone very well and the staff has done very well. in their participation with that. So that's a good thing. And then the last thing I want to say today is that Premier Health is a very valued partner to the Dayton Public Schools. And recently something was posted that should not have been posted and should not have been out in public. That is not a comment from the Dayton Public Schools. It does not represent the Dayton Public Schools, nor does it represent the relationship that Premier Hospital and the great work that they've done through this entire pandemic. to help families, to help school districts,

144to help each and every one that's called on them. Not something that the Dayton public schools condones and or supports and I just want to just want to make sure that We understand that premier health has been a valuable partner to the Dayton public schools and that they continue to be a valued trusted member of this community each and every person that works there and the The hospital in and of itself. So I just wanted to conclude with that mr. President Thank You. Dr. Lally I'm gonna like just echo the sentiments of many of the board members. So appreciate everyone coming out. I appreciate the presentations. I appreciate those from the community that spoke. I appreciate the work that's been going in to try to keep our students safe and in the buildings and understanding

145that. that education that we saw what happens when we do not have our children face-to-face in these learning environments. We have a, as far as our committee, we have a Athletics Advisory Council meeting tomorrow. So I'll look forward to giving a report on that meeting at our next business meeting. I want to echo the sentiments of Board Member Sampson. I was able to attend some of the males of color, females of color events. I think, Dr. Lally, you were at the Dragons game recently with them. So I appreciate those opportunities to engage. I appreciate the work that's been going on throughout the district. I appreciate those raising up their voices. I appreciate our parents that speak to people, understanding that sometimes our parents don't know who to speak to. So I encourage people to really

146find people around that they can share with. Board member Spencer Reiner with the Parent Family Community Council, ways that we can definitely create those engagements. I know we spoke about it today with OEC, but as a district, I think that's a big thing is how do we engage? How do we have those clear lines of communication? How do we really open up those lanes to raise concerns and try to get those things moved forward in a positive direction? Dr. Lally, I do want to move off of what Board Member Sampson said. If there is a way that we could find some time to go over and check out the Transportation Department, I know we want to make sure we are also following law, but also being safe in doing so. Lastly, I want to tell

147our families to be vigilant, be safe. And I know that it sometimes causes hardships, but if you see signs that your child or you aren't doing well, please seek medical attention. And I know that can be a hurdle at times. So if there's people that you need to contact, I just stress that we have to still be a community. I know that when this thing first hit in, geez, it seems, what, 2020? Spring of 2020? the response was different from communities. It seemed like everyone was out. Do you need something? Do you need a meal? How can I watch your kid? And as things progress, we're still looking that we're in this pandemic still, but a lot of people are still back to living their daily lives. And I kind of relate it to when

148a family member dies. And, you know, right after that time, everybody's bringing food, people's checking on you. And then after a while, that grief is still there. But people get back to their lives. And I just want to remind everybody that we're still in the pandemic. So we still have to be able to look out for each other. We have to be there for each other. Be safe. There are a lot of people dying. There are more children now in the hospitals now in this pandemic than was when we were first dealing with this and we're being extra vigilant. Continue to do these things, washing your hands, being socially distant, just doing the things that we have to do because we want to see the end of this. And it may not be sooner than

149later. So we want to make sure we're on top of these things. And that is what I wanted to share. I appreciate you, Board Member Spencer-Reiner, sharing what you talked about. History is real. History is real, and if we do not learn from history, we're doomed to repeat it. I encourage our families, teach your kids as well. Some things we learned about history are things I learned at home. And if you do not teach your child history, somebody will teach them, and it may not be what is right. So someone's going to teach somebody something. So we should do all we can to really learn from our past and face it head on and understand what got us to where we are and how do we move through this. There was an exhibit at the

150library around redlining. It was great, and I would encourage anyone to look more into that to understand how these things happen and what it does to impact our communities. With that, I just want to appreciate everybody coming out. Let's move forward. Let's keep this year going forward. And I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. It was moved by the right side and seconded by the left side. I will say Board Member Sampson and Board Member Wiganyi. Any questions? Mr. Smith, can I introduce my newest member? Yes, ma'am. Yes. We have Amit Gutam. He's coming from the Auditor of State. He was a senior audit manager. He is bringing a lot of experience in financial experience and auditing, everything. This is, we are very, very fortunate to get him. So let's welcome Amit

151Gutam. Thank you, sir. Thank you, and welcome to the district. If there are no other questions or concerns, I'll take a vote, Madam Treasurer. Okay. Mr. Smith? Yes. Ms. Reinhart? Yes. Mr. Sampson? Yes. Ms. Wigany? Yes. Dr. Pickett? Yes. Dr. Harris? Yes. Six yeses.