001Good evening and welcome to the January 22nd, 2024 regular meeting of the Akron Public School Board. Roll call, please. Dr. Thompson. Mr. Alexander. Present. Ms. Autry. Present. Ms. Hall. Present. Ms. Jackson. Present. Dr. Molnar. Here. Mr. Perry. I'm here. Mrs. Sykes. Present. Eight present, none absent. Excuse me, seven present. Thank you, Dr. Thompson. And if you can, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Vice President Jackson, could you please lead us? Thank you. And next on our agenda, Item 1.3, OSBA School Board Recognition Month. Every January, schools across the country celebrate Board Appreciation Month. As part of this evening's board appreciation, we have a special gift for our board members that was prepared by our Garfield Culinary Arts Scholars. And if they would introduce themselves, please. Speak a little louder. Hi, I'm Timothy Miller. Okay.
002Hello, I'm Diamond Watkins-Richardson. Okay. Thank you so much. Our culinary arts programs are at Garfield and Buchdel. CLCs. Students in the Culinary Arts Pathway experience hands-on instruction in state-of-the-art kitchens that were built when designing our CLCs. Their instruction and learning includes cooking, food production, catering, and banquet operations, baking, and pastry skills. Future careers in this pathway include catering, executive chef, restaurant manager, baker, line cook, dietary aid, health inspector, food critic, as well as owning a business, being an entrepreneurial. Chef Jennifer Morales and culinary arts educator at Garfield CLC worked with her scholars to create special cakes to show our appreciation to each of our board members during this month, Board Appreciation Month. You may have also seen words of appreciation on marquees across the district and on our social media platforms. Thank you to our
003board for your commitment to Akron Public Schools. Thank you very much to the students from our Garfield CLC Culinary Pathway. You don't get one, Steve. Can we take a picture? Yes. Thank you. That's the instructor for Garfield CLC Culinary Pathway. Who is your instructor? Jennifer Morales. Morales. Thank you, Mrs. Morales, for your work with these students and in the program. So next in our agenda, item 1.4 is community and school reflections. And so we are going to start this evening for our student school board member here from Bridges. And his name is Jawan Searles, and he's a 10th grader. And we are happy to have you here this evening, Mr. Searles. The floor is yours. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Juwan Searles. I am a temp grader at Bridges Community Learning Center. This is
004my first year serving as a scholar board member, and this is my first board meeting. I am excited to be here. I am a defensive tackle for Firestone football team, and I want to finish high school and go to college and play football. My dream is to be a real estate agent. One of my favorite teachers is Ms. Jackson. She is my favorite teacher because whenever I have a rough day, she talks to me and helps me be better. At the end of each day, students... At Bridges, get a report. One is horrible, two is bad, three is decent, four is okay, five is good, and six is great. At Bridges, we have a Snowball Global incentive. If you get at least four, five, or six the week of the Snowball Global, you get to
005attend. The Snowball Global is a dance, and students get to wear glowing necklaces and glasses. The students at Bridges are good kids, but we have a hard time controlling our emotions and feelings. We have rough mornings because of things that may be going on at home, and we bring out our anger when we get to school. We have five counselors at Bridges, two for elementary, two for middle school and high school, and Ms. Ozen is the school counselor for the whole building. Students at Bridges... and other schools need more time to talk to counselors. I feel like the more students tell counselors how they feel, it will make students feel better. When students feel better, they do better at school. My mom said you have to express your feelings because it makes it better. My
006call to action for the board members is to get counselors for APS students to give students dedicated time to talk to counselors. On behalf of the student board, thank you for allowing me to speak. And I'm leaving early because I have to go to my job at Gina's Pizza. Thank you, Mr. Searle. We really appreciate you being here. Are there any questions or comments for our student school board member? Vice President Jackson? Well done, young man, and thank you for sharing with us on today. I want to tell you that you are an advocate for... your student body, as well as for the few counselors that we do have in the district. Because you may not be aware, but counselors have come here and have asked for this same thing to help assist with the
007emotional needs of learners. So I'm glad that this is an open meeting and that it's a recorded meeting because this is a common theme that's resonated because counselors that are in the schools do so much. And it's a separate part for the emotional need that also balanced the academic part as far as scheduling and making sure. certain things happen for students. So hopefully this is something that we can work together collectively to see happen. So thank you for being a student leader and pushing this initiative because it is very important. Mr. Alexander? No, I just want to say thank you, young man. You did a good job. I want you to continue to do well. Keep working hard. Keep asking for help. And I want people to know that just because you go to Bridges
008don't mean that you can't succeed and you can't excel. Just because you're there doesn't mean anything. So I'd love for you to keep working hard, keep doing what you're supposed to do, keep playing football. You'll get that scholarship, and you'll make a difference, okay? Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Great job. Ms. Hall. I just want to commend you for being able to stand up and say, as a young man, that you guys need people to talk to. And that's very commendable, especially with your age group. A lot of kids need that extra help. So I encourage you to continue to be that role model and let your peers know that it's okay to ask for help, okay? And that you continue to do what you have to do, be the best that you can
009be. And I look forward to seeing you on TV one day, yelling from my couch, I know that kid! All right, so good luck to you on your future, OK? Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Dr. Moldemar? Hi. I know when we were at the Student Voices event, you were kind of my buddy. We traveled around to all the sections together, and one of the things I really enjoyed talking to you about was your school, because you had some very positive things to say about your school, very positive things about a school that we don't get to hear enough positive things about. So I know you gave us a wonderful speech about everything there, but could you please share with us a couple things from your heart about what you love about your school?
010All the teachers there, they are very wonderful teachers, every teacher that I have. My teacher now, I appreciate him doing things for me and helping me with my work and trying to help me get out of that school. I love my principal, even though I just met her this year. But she is a wonderful lady, and I appreciate her very much. So what's the pizza shop you work at? Giannino's. Okay. Excellent pizza. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Searles. We appreciate you. Any other community and school reflections from our board members? Member Seitz. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the board. I had the honor of attending the Garfield meeting that the mayor's office sponsored to take a look at what the community thought about policing and what we should do and
011how we should go about choosing our next police chief. So, Madam Chair and members of the board, I'm wondering if we could provide a... resolution that would indicate our support first of all for this for the city and the process that they are going through as well as thank them for their partnership and coming together with us and using garfield it's beautiful school and we're so happy that you you're using using garfield and other schools around around the city of akron and to also focus in on the fact that we know that when police officers come in contact with our children that they may seem grown up they may seem all ready for the world but their minds are still developing and so that sensitivity and that thoughtfulness we would like to see uh in
012our next police chief and communicated to all of our police officers so my request madam president is if we could pass a resolution that would say something similar to that or whatever the board as a whole decide because i think that we should speak as a as one when we're talking about our next police chief and the support that we have for our mayor and what's happening through this process thank you ma'am absolutely thank you And so that's something we can get working on through our board secretary to bring forth. Thank you so much. Any other community and school reflections? Vice President Jackson. Thank you, Madam President. Yes, interestingly enough, I said I guess I missed the blue memo, but it's always a good day to wear red. So my community reflections really is a
013reflection of the community that we see here today in a large amount is teachers. As many of you know, typically, and I keep saying this at board meetings, and I pray that someone hears me and comes to interview so I can have an excellent math teacher at Emanuel so I can get back to my schools on Wednesday. In any event, since I have not been able to be in the schools. On the weekends and when I met things in the community, unfortunately this weekend, I went to the home going celebration of a veteran over 30 year teacher, Miss Sarah Finley Brown. in being there and they talked about a lot of the things and her accomplishments and the things that she's done as an educator in Akron Public Schools for over 35 years. She was
014an elementary and middle school teacher. She was a reading specialist and was a workshop speaker for the Ohio Middle School State Conference. She was one of the first teachers in the city of Akron to teach Head Start. She was the creator of the International Buffet, a program that she developed for sixth graders celebrating different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. She also served as an AEA representative for many years. She was a Jennings scholar, an honor bestowed on teachers of excellence in Ohio. The reason why I thought it appropriate to highlight her, because many of you know for some years now, I've token the phrase that excellence looks different. And as they were celebrating the life of Ms. Brown, many people talked and reflected on her as an educator. And I couldn't help, as a product of
015Akron Public Schools, as a product of the AME Church, many of the members of my church, Sandra Stubbs, Renee Green, also were educators. And these people poured in me, and it's on their shoulders that I stand. And so it made me reflect that. Excellence looks different. It's not a cheeky comment that some people have come here and say because I say it often. But those who understand, those who get it, get it. Trina's in the audience. She gets it. She's a history teacher at East High School. Wilkerson at Helen Arnold gets it. Ms. W at Helen Arnold gets it. Ms. Edwards at Bookdale gets it. It's many teachers who gets that excellence looks different because they go above and beyond, and they understand it extends beyond their four classroom walls. As I was reflecting and
016talking to some of these retired teachers, Ms. Renee Green shared how she would, on her own personal time, take between four to six students to, field trips from Robinson to go to the Natural History Museum and to NASA because she felt the importance of giving them these experiences. When they talked about Ms. Sarah Brown and her starting the buffet, International Buffet Club to... Back then, you know, she was 35 years in education, and she saw the importance of giving these children exposure to diversity and other things because we understand what you see you can be. And then I reflected on the fact that here I am, Carla Jackson, I went to Rankin Elementary, I went to Baird Elementary, Kent Middle School, Goodyear Middle School, and graduated from Garfield High School. And I reflected on my
017teachers that when I came to the board, I remember I did my student teaching at Ellett High School, and it was some type of in-service that they had at that time. David James was the new superintendent at that time. And I saw Mr. Adam Motter. And I said, dang, Mr. Motter not a teacher anymore? Because he was such a phenomenal teacher, Adam Motter is why I became a history teacher. Because I thought I would want to be a lawyer. But every time I sat in his global studies and Ms. Hamilton's history class, history became alive to me and I was engaged because I understood that when we understand the past, we sit on the shoulders and we go forward based off of that prior knowledge. I'm not here to lecture you, but I'm an educator
018and I have a heart for educators. And this is really a simple reflection of gratitude because since I've been in here, the things that I've seen and the importance of those educators who get it, that excellence looks different. These are educators that you see. in the community supporting their students. These are the Sandra Stubbs, wife of Judge Harold K. Stubbs. And I talked about last board meeting that I'm I would speak to the committee to extend the deadline because I know a lot of resources students are not getting. Although Miss Renee Green went out, I believe in November, to pass out the applications, we still have had little response. So I have some here with me today for the teachers and community members in the room to share this with you. Through the Harold K.
019Stubbs Scholarship, which many of you, the city has supported, Kent State University supports wholeheartedly, and many of you in this room, we give students scholarships. and not little scholarships. Through our partnership with Kent State University, we offer a full-ride scholarship to Kent State University. And that's a blessing for our scholars. So we want to make sure that we give them access to every opportunity. So I do have those with me today. And also, if you go to my Carla Jackson for School Board Facebook page, there should be a post there as well as about the scholarship. I talked about these teachers that I wanted to highlight. And I want to end by saying, Ms. Douglas at Pfeiffer, I haven't forgotten you. Ms. Sheila Watkins was the best music teacher I ever had, and I'm not
020musically gifted. When I went to Goodyear, we didn't have a lot of budget, but she made things come alive. And I remember us renting costumes, and most of us were from low-income households. Dr. Dees was my principal at that time. And I understand the comment of what you see you can be, because I saw Dr. Dees, and she was polished, and she was poised, and she was educated, and I wanted to be just like her. I wanted to command that authority. And so teachers in the room, I want to thank you, because I am your fruit. And those of you who get excellence looks different, you know this is not a shrug of the shoulders. Ms. Blakeney at Forest Hills, when you have teachers that agitate and advocate for their students to be able to
021have transportation to school and to be supported in that transportation, these are the teachers that we have in our district. And this is why we have to support those excellent teachers. And this is why accountability is important. Because, Mayor, for our city to be better, what comes out of our schools will directly impact the outlook of our city. So we have to support all the way around. with our students and with our teachers. So these are my reflections. I thank you all for your time. God bless you. Thank you, Vice President Jackson. Are there any other community or school reflections? Dr. Molnar. This weekend, I was able to go to the Firestone Theater's Black Box show. I did not realize until I was a board member how many shows, until I was the Firestone Cluster
022board member, how many shows our district puts out. And it's so amazing. And I didn't know, quite honestly, what the show was going to be about until it started. But it was an amazing, amazing and powerful show. It tackled the issue of book banning, was the focus of... the setting, really. And I remember when I was out collecting signatures for the election this November, that was one of the first questions that people were constantly asking me. How do you feel about books? Or how do you feel about book banning? Because that affected whether or not they wanted to support a candidate for our community. But because I went to this show alone, there was an empty seat next to me. And I was lucky enough to sit next to a student, a Firestone sophomore. And
023so she was talking to me during intermission. And she said that this was the third time that she'd already seen the show and that she sees all of the shows that her classmates put on. But this one was especially meaningful to her. And so I asked her why. I tried to dig in deeper why this was, why she connected to it so much. And she said that it's because a lot of it, she felt, was from the perspective of students. the heroes of the show were girls her age, girls like her, and she really felt like she connected to the characters and the actions that the characters were taking and the emotions that the characters were having. And it reminds me of our student board members and our student voice initiatives and why we're here.
024We're here for our students. We're here to make a difference. We're here to listen to them. And the students of this generation have a lot of valuable things they want to say, valuable things that they want to learn. And I was very, very lucky to have that experience. Thank you, Dr. Molinar. Any other school or community reflections? And so I'll just briefly share that since we last convened together, I have the opportunity to sit on with a session. with our students from North High School who are involved in DECA and entrepreneurship. As part of an initiative from Chase Bank and their commitment to provide financial literacy to our students, there is a monthly workshop that takes place that they provide, and they invite local entrepreneurs. And so those students were able to come and hear
025presentations from those entrepreneurs. Denia Eaton, Honey Pot Dula, and Frank Miller were the entrepreneurs that were there to support our students, as well as Ace from Chase. Anybody who knows Ace knows he does a great job with our students. And so thank you. to Chase Bank for their commitment. Also, I got to stop in and see a game of basketball between the Lady Griffs of Bookdale High School and North High School. exciting game and got to see one of our very own student board members frozen who plays for north she had game too it was nice to see that also was able to attend the akron urban league's martin luther king breakfast and met some gentlemen from garfield high school who were there very early in the morning and it was just nice to see
026that they took the time to come out And then lastly, I was able to sit in on a student voice workshop that Drema Whitfield invited me to and just listen in on some of our scholars and how they feel about leadership. And they shared a lot. They are preparing a video for us for our upcoming retreat, so I'm excited to hear that. So they just shared how they've just been feeling about their environments. And the common theme we keep hearing is about mental health. And so our students, they look around in our buildings and they see the metal detectors, they see the bag scanners, and they understand, yet they still hurt from having to have a culture in which that exists. And so they shared that with me. They shared that they feel like violence
027is just a way for students to hide sadness. they feel like everybody is tired of dealing with us. And so some of the students mentioned some resources that are available, but other students in that same room felt like they didn't know about some of these resources. So I think it's just really important that we make sure that all of our scholars are aware of what's available to them as our board member, student board members just shared with us. You know, these students, they want to talk. Their minds are forming. And although they do have the bodies of adults and have the smart mouths and attitudes, they're still children. That's why they're in our care. And so I just wanted to share that little bit of student voice that I was able to experience in City
028and on. And that concludes my community and school reflection. So moving on in the agenda, item 2.1, recognitions. I am happy to introduce our mayor, Shamus Malik. Is this on? Okay. Good evening, everyone. Good evening to our board, to our superintendent and administration, to our teachers and staff, and to our community members, and to our amazing students. We have amazing students in this community. I know that because on, I don't know, when was it, Tuesday night or Monday night last week, a young man from Akron Early College texted me asking if I could help get school shut down. I said, I could not help him. But I did reach out to the University of Akron and asked what their policies were. And I appreciate hearing all the reflections. We truly do have amazing students. And
029as a former APS student, I know the transformational impact that APS education can have in people's lives. The future of Akron is really going to depend on whether young people growing up here see a future for themselves. And that is going to require... very strong partnership and collaboration between the city of akron and akron public schools so i can talk about it or i can be about it and i've spent a long time talking about it so now's the time to follow through so instead of me talking i wanted to take a second this evening to introduce you to two folks if you guys can come up So as part of our new administration, we've created several new roles. One of those is our chief of strategy role, and Nanette Pitt, formerly with First Congregational
030Church, will be our chief of strategy, which is a new role, co-equal with our chief of staff, who will be a primary kind of public and external liaison with stakeholders, including with the education community. And then secondly, we have... Rochelle Wardell, who's working under Nanette on our strategy team, who will be our education and health strategist. She formerly worked on education for Sisters of Charity in Canton. for United Way of Summit County, and also for Akron Metropolitan Area Housing Authority on their early learning. And so has a deep knowledge when it comes to education. And so she will be also a primary liaison when it comes to APS. So I wanted to make sure you could put a face to a name. We are going to be with you in easy times and in difficult
031times. We could use some of those easy times. But we are going to be with you in working on pre-K. We are going to be with you in working. on out of school time. We are going to be with you in working on making sure that college and career academies and our CLC access are working and in everything else, especially student mental health. So I'll just invite these two to just offer some brief remarks, but thank you for everyone who's here tonight. Thank you, Mayor. I'm so excited to work with you and with the school board and all of you educators. About, I don't know, a little over a decade ago, I started this journey of being a community partner to educators. And I'm so excited to really roll my sleeves up and work hard
032alongside you to do what's right for our children in this community. I am a firm believer in early childhood, as the mayor said, from my time at Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority managing their early childhood initiative. And it was at United Way. I wrote those first two bold goals that you might be familiar with. That was me in the beginning of that in about 2016-ish. And I wrote the original plans for the family resource centers, and I'm so excited to see them unfolding and the work that's being done with wraparound services at I Promise School. And I just can't wait to keep going with this momentum. to really serve our children and their families alongside all of you. So thank you so much. Well, having been a pastor, it is in my heart to simply say
033amen. But I know that things are not always easy. We all know that change needs to happen, but sometimes we disagree about how to get there. And we want you to know that we're here, as the mayor says, to have the difficult conversations head on, to handle the tough things that have come our way for decades, and to really see the needle move. And we know that that's an extremely tough lift. We can't do that on our own, but I really commend the mayor and know that my team and I are here to make this heavy lift with you. We really want to see a change. It's not going to happen overnight, but we are here for it and we are in it with you. Thank you again for being here and your commitment to
034partnering with us. And so next item on the agenda, 3.1, request to address the board. And so at the time of this meeting, there were 12 individuals who signed up to address the board. And we do have a policy in place. That guides that process and what I did want to share before we jump into that is section H of our policy In order to remain committed to a productive and efficient meeting the board may provide a period for public participation limited to no less than 20 minutes per meeting unless Extended by a simple majority vote of the board Public participation will be recognized within the time allotted for that meeting by the presiding officer. So I share that with my colleagues because at this time we have 12 folks who would like to address
035this body and at three minutes each that's beyond our policy time but that can be extended if that is the will of this board. And so that information is out there. For my colleagues, if there's a motion, I will entertain it. I move to extend that time to give them time to speak. It's been moved by Mr. Perry. Second. It's been seconded by Ms. Jackson. Is there any discussion? Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I also support giving the community, our bosses, an opportunity to speak because I would not want to see anyone go back, leave, and come back or not have an opportunity to speak to the board. But I would bring to the chair attention. that we just voted on these rules last week and the meeting before that we did have an individual that
036came to this board and felt that they had not been treated fairly because they had not been given the opportunity to speak i believe it was i promised all of their individuals to speak and then i can remember another gentleman that was told that he would have to leave during a meeting last time and come back and he indicated that this This would have been his second time. So I think that fairness is always great. So if we are going to suspend the rules tonight to allow this, then I'm just saying that we want to remember that this may be opening up a can of worms, but I will be here all night, and I am willing to be here all of the time to listen to the public. But our rules are there for
037a reason. And while I will vote yes for this, we want to always remember that the rules are here for a reason. As we say to our children and to our community, and we want equity everywhere. So when the community does not feel that they have had an opportunity to speak when they are going over the 20 minutes, but yet we are allowing this tonight, then going forward, we may find ourselves having to suspend the rules. Most of the meetings so thank you for that and just to clarify I did read what our actually our policy actually reads So it is our discretion The majority of the time we don't have these many guests who want to come share with us. So I believe we should Address it as it comes to us and address
038it on a case-by-case basis. So it is the will of this board As to how we proceed. Yes. Yes. I want to also echo what Mrs. Sykes said, because we do have policies and procedures, and we have to understand that there are always policies and procedures that guide everything. Yes, we can suspend them, but I concur with her that we don't want to have to suspend this all the time, because if we are, we don't have our policy, we're not following our policy. So I will vote for it tonight, too, but we need to be careful moving forward. Thank you. And again, I just want to clarify that it is our policy to vote to extend the time. if that's the will of this board. Vice President Jackson? I'm sorry, but just for clarification, even
039with if we extend the time, it's not an individual's time. It's the number of individuals that are able to address the board. So an individual is not going to get more than three minutes. It's just saying that we're allowing more than 20 minutes for the overall address so that each person has the opportunity to speak. but one individual person is not going to get more time. I do as I understand it, but you can clear me up on this, that it's a policy that if I defer my minute, if you're up there with me and I go under my minutes, I know someone asked me, I defer my time to this person because they didn't use their complete time. People have asked that question because someone that got up, they may have talked one minute,
040and then they wonder, can this person use my additional two minutes? I believe in policy and the practice of policy, and it is new leadership. And under the previous leadership, if an action was done, then we hope moving forward, if this is her standard operating procedures, as she's quoted the policy, that it shouldn't be an issue because I think we are all in one accord as far as following the policy and allow individuals to speak. Further on in the policy, it talks about if someone, at any time is being irate or if it's a combative situation that they're able to be asked to be removed. And as board members, it's just not good decorum to go back and forth with someone or things that may have seen. So just because something is not done in
041good practice, we know it's not good practice. So I think that's what we want to stick on is that we don't want to practice bad habits. of interactions with the people. So I just, because it seems like we were saying, I was understanding what Ms. Sykes said and what you said, but I didn't know if that was being, I was understanding that like one person is not going to have extended time. It's the entire group. That's what I was understanding as well. But I was just referring to policy because we do have the policy and that we do want to. honor what our public wants to talk to us about, but we also have to honor our policy as well. And so that's the reason I made the comment I made as well. Thank you.
042Thank you. Is there any other discussion? We have suspended the time limit before under President Hall, but it's just about the consistency because it's the inconsistency I think that's been a problem. Is there any other discussion? Dr. Molnar? Madam President, I want to say I do appreciate your proactiveness. I know we are under new leadership. We are a new group meeting today, and it's simple math. It's 20 minutes. We have 11 people. It's 33 minutes. And so I appreciate the proactive nature of us being able to vote on this topic as we see who has. the number of people that have signed up and if everybody uses even close to their three if everyone even uses two of their three minutes we are up against time so i i appreciate the opportunity to being able
043to vote on this any further discussion seeing none roll call please dr thompson mr alexander yes miss altree yes miss hall yes miss jackson yes Dr. Molnar? Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Ms. Sykes? Yes. Motion carries 7-0. Thank you so much. And so as we call up our first person to address the board, please keep in mind that you do have three minutes. We ask that you refrain from any specific mention of vendors pending contract matters of that nature. If you do happen to have similar stances, please consider collapsing your comments with someone else. And so first up we have is Kazelle Smith. Kazelle here? Madam Chair and board members, we have a good preaching crowd here today, but we won't be preaching nor singing. There were two brothers that were troublemakers in Allen Elementary School.
044One failed the second grade, one failed the third grade. Two teachers, one black, Gene Scruggs, one white, Lester Morgan, decided to help provide some intervention to these two troubled youth. They started the Day Old Club. They would give the two brothers a quarter at the end of school. The two brothers would go to the H&R Bakery on the way to school the next morning and purchase a bag of Day Old Donuts. Arriving to school a half hour before the classes would start, the day-old club would be called into session and the foursome would wrap. This intervention changed both brothers. One wanted to be like the two teachers and went to college and got a degree in education and taught at Robinson Elementary School. This young man went to Case Western Reserve School of Applied Social
045Sciences to get a Master of Science in Social Administration with a concentration in poverty and community development. This young man from a family of eight kids whose father was an alcoholic and his father was kicked out of the house when he was six years old, was at an agency 39 years and was able to oversee programs like EDGE, Education Development and Guidance for Employment. This young man, who was a troublemaker in school, was able to be an instructor at the University of Akron School of Social Work for 15 years. This young man that failed second grade was able to be elected to Summit County Council, a post he held for 20 years. These two men made a difference in my life. Without that intervention, I would have been on death row or skid row. Now
046this young man is an old man. A 10th centenary United Methodist Church, is a member of the United Methodist Men and the program evaluation coordinator of the United Methodist Men. The church has adopted Krause Community Learning Center and Helen Arnold Community Learning Center. Our mission is to protect, educate, and nurture children in the Shabani Hills neighborhood. It looks like hundreds of pupils in the Akron Public Schools will be passed on to the next grade, even though they can't read at that necessary grade level. Their reading deficiencies will not go away without the necessary intervention. Some will act out in their class because they are not proficient in reading. Some will eventually drop out of school. In a recent Akron Beacon Journal article, Doug Livingston wrote, Data reinforced a strong correlation between gun violence and communities
047with high infant mortality, fewer local job opportunities, lower rates of health insurance or high school diplomas, and higher rates of divorce, unemployment, single-parenting, cash-strapped renters, and other destabilizing characteristics. Pupils that can't read will stand a chance in belonging to these categories. Where do we go from here? Thank you, Mr. Smith. Next, we have Pastor Gregory Harrison. Before the meeting, I gave the board member pictures. I come down every August, and I bring those pictures down. Every August, I bring those pictures down. Those pictures is of a young man, Ramos Lewis, who, at 15 years old, killed my godson. He shot him in the middle of the day, the first day of school. Ramis was 15 years old and he could not read. He could not read at all. I'm glad the teachers are here because
048it is two things we can do. We can support teachers and we can support kids in their learning. I think it really becomes tragic. When we have to make a decision if we're going to support teachers or we're going to support students and when students can't read when students can't read when students can't breathe we give them no chance I'm glad the teachers union Attorney is here because he has intimate knowledge of this case because he defended one of the people who were charged with the killing of Paris Wicks. He did an excellent job. He did what he was supposed to do. But our kids can't read. And to not want to support kids getting reading, to not support that is tragic. We don't regulate sports. We don't regulate the coaches and their players getting...
049additional instructions outside of the school. We don't regulate the band. The band members getting additional training outside the school. We don't say anything about STEM students who need or may need additional instruction outside the school. But we're going to say to kids that you can't accept free money that does not even come from the district. Your issue is with the state of Ohio. It's with the state of Ohio. So now we are in a position where the community has to decide. And if the community has to decide if we're going to support kids and the safety of our community, or we're going to protect the union, we're going to rally to protect kids and the safety of our community. I think it would be something different now. If we go back to the conversation that
050teacher evaluation is based on student achievement scores. Now, that's a whole different conversation at that point. Because then we want kids to be proficient in reading. We want kids to get additional help. Do not make us choose between teachers and the communities. We can support both at the same time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Harrison. Next is Jennifer Warden. Good evening. My name is Jennifer Warden. I am an Akron resident and a parent of a STEM high school sophomore. I realized that the previous boards of education and superintendents knew about the issues with the STEM high school lease, and instead of coming up with a solution, they kicked that can down the road. Now it is up to the new superintendent and new board members to solve this problem. Am I thrilled about the proposed
051relocation to East CLC? No. I have no safety concerns with that location. I am positive that the district will make any changes necessary to secure both the STEM high school and the East High School sides of the building. When referring to the STEM program at the April 10th, 2023 board meeting, Dr. Thompson stated the philosophy of the programming is that those students would have the opportunity to attend college classes. My concern with the proposed move to ECLC is the ability of the students to take classes at Akron U during the school day. It's nearly three miles from ECLC to the Akron U campus, so walking is no longer an option for them. My student is currently taking an Akron U class that thankfully is offered on the STEM campus. But next year, several of the
052classes that... she and her classmates want to take will only be offered at the Akron U campus. For STEM high school to continue to be an incredible program, which it truly is, it is a gem in this district, there needs to be a plan for transportation for the STEM students that want to improve their education and take Akron U classes so that they have transportation between the STEM high school and Akron U campus. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Morton. Next, we have Gwendolyn Wharton. Hello. I am also speaking on the topic of NIF STEM high school's placement. I am a sophomore at NIF STEM high school. I started back in 2022 when it was first announced that the University of Akron wasn't planning to renew my school's lease of Central Howard. Think of how it
053felt for my grade to start a school, not knowing if we'd even get to stay at that same building until graduation, and how it felt for us as a collective group of students to always be the last updated about our school. The proposed plan is to put us in the East Building. I remind you, us students at STEM are from all over the city. Imagine the commute. My best friend currently lives half an hour from East. She would have to drive at least 30 minutes to school every day as it is. Many students also live on the entire other side of town and need to take a bus to get to school, meaning they would have to wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning. Also, this plan was proposed without knowing what would
054be done with the students who take college courses at Start State and Akron U. The superintendent says that his team is working on it, but as many have stated, they don't believe that this is good enough to propose the idea yet. If you can't secure us with a 100% way to transport us or something, then the plan isn't ready yet. Other students have raised concerns, as have I, that there's not enough room in what is currently East Middle for my school. Many believe that they can't fit us there when they barely had enough room to fit since through 8th grade. If you put us with East, you will see a lower application rate to STEM. I assure you of that. I beg you to find a better option. Most preferably, negotiate with the National Inventors
055Hall of Fame to put my school there. We fit the bill far better than STEM Middle with our many STEM extracurriculars that the middle school doesn't have, with all due respect to that school and as someone who has attended both. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you, Ms. Wharton. Next, we have Kelly Gilbert. Hi, I'm Kelly Gilbert. I'm also here to speak about the proposal with NFSTEM. I have a junior, Caden, at the school. As you've already heard before, the proposal does not perform or support the platform of STEM high school. The main... advantage of this school is the attachment, the physical attachment at University of Akron. If these kids are transporting through East, that's not optimal. Our kid's a junior. He's got a full class prepared workload for next year for University
056of Akron. How is he going to get there? We would love to, as the young adult just mentioned before, pose, work with the middle school. We were told, we asked this question of Dr. Robinson in his meeting, and we were told there are rules in place, there are things that took place prior to his taking on this role. That's great, but let's ask those questions. What do we need to do to amend that? What contract is in place? You guys own the building. What about Akron Early College? This is really unfortunate because open enrollment closed on Monday. We were told on Thursday the 18th. So I would love to know what options our students now have. If this is not going to work as far as transportation, we're told that funding still has to be
057approved and passed, which we didn't get a whole lot of hope in the meeting from Dr. Robinson. But we just asked for a better solution. This is completely taking away the advantage and the opportunities. These high school kids have worked for four years now to secure and advance the education. This school is the number one high school in Akron and number six in the area. Fight harder and please do better. Next, we have Cynthia Blake. Good evening, and thank you for allowing me to speak this evening, this afternoon. I come from a family that is an advocate of education, several family members who have retired from APS to the state of Maryland. a past PTA president of Crouse School, a past member of Perkins Middle School and Buchtel's PTA, and a concerned citizen, a concerned
058resident who believes in advocating for children and involved in various organizations to promote our youth with opportunities and enrichment. I am here to support the APS and the school board members for their recent vote to allow... the grant funding from the state of Ohio to tutor our students. This money doesn't even pass through the APS fiscal office nor any financial hardship. Also, the program is an after school. This is why I struggle with the opposition of these funds to be utilized to help the APS students, in addition to them needing the resources available to them. Let me say that again. Needing the resources available to them. The varsity vendor has stated that they would hire the teachers who want to participate in the program. I have friends that are teachers in this system, and I
059respect you dearly and thank you for teaching. But this here is nothing more but a power play to use our children as pawns and personal agendas to disenfranchise the resources for our children. Everything is not up for a dispute or a fight with APS to ensure these children to pass these state exams. They had the data for the failing students. This is why they wrote the grant, to help the students. We also live in a municipality and county government that has limited budgeting accountability to implement youth programs of this age bracket, but he just now announced it today. To the current superintendent, Dr. Robertson, please continue to be a vessel to push for the resources for our children at this APS. These issues and practices from previous school boards to vote on increases without a
060levy passing and overreaching to deny our students this access. These tutorial funds are temporary. However, they would be great help for my granddaughter who is struggling and needs the help, who my daughter has an outside tutor and is picking up extra shifts at her job to pay for the tutoring so she's not a burden or left behind. And because she's involved and a great mom. It saddens me that a power play to choose capitalism for teachers over a resource that is beneficial to the children in my community. Thank you. Please get it done. Thank you. Next we have Lorene Wise. Good evening board members and superintendent Robinson. My name is Lorene Wise. I am the president of OPC local 689 whose paraprofessionals, clericals, bus assistants, and interpreters are here tonight in support of AEA in
061addition to the following associations. Akron Association of Classified Personnel Secretaries, SEIU Local 1, bus drivers, mechanics, building and grounds, warehouse transportation, custodians, maintenance, safety team, and child nutrition. Also, the following professional educator associations. Canton Professional Educators Association, Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Toledo Federation of Teachers, Dayton Education Association, Lorain Education Association, Cleveland Federation of Teachers and Columbus Education Association. The organizations I just listed represent tens of thousands of professionals, classified and unclassified public school workers across the state who have stepped forward in support of the Akron Education Association and its members. We believe that this board's recent actions, the outsourcing of employee jobs to a private company, are not only violations of contractual agreements you entered into, but also clearly serve to damage the trust which any of your employees in this community have placed in
062their relationships with this board and the superintendent. If you so readily outsource the jobs of our educators, I ask you, who is next? What other employee will you deem unnecessary? Will you outsource custodial jobs during athletic competitions? How about safety team members at board-sponsored events? Will you tell our trained clerical staff or child nutrition workers that any untrained outside personnel are qualified to perform their jobs? During the convocation held at the beginning of the school year, which all employees attended, we were told that we would all move forward united. We were told that we are APS proud and that we are family. We were told that we all matter and will be listened to and heard. Yet, that is absolutely not happening. When you dismiss and disrespect one of us, you dismiss and disrespect all
063of us. When you erode the trust with one of us, it erodes the foundation with all of us. I ask you to look around this room. Take a good look at the employees united in support of our teachers. Be aware of the support our teachers have around the state tonight. That is our family. Please don't dismiss us. Please hear us. Please respect us. Thank you, Mrs. Wise. Next, we have Paul Palumbo. Good evening board members and superintendent Robinson. My name is Paul Palumba I'm the president of the camp professional educators association and standing in solidarity with me Is Kevin Dalton president of the Toledo Federation of Teachers Neil Mahoney president of Dayton Education Association Julie sellers president of Cincinnati Federation of Teachers John Connick Leo president of the Columbus Education Association Sherry O'Briskie Cleveland Teachers
064Union, and Julie Garcia, president of the Lorain Education Association. We're here tonight representing tens of thousands of professional public school educators across the state in support of AEA and all public schools' outstanding professional educators. I've known Pat Scheidt, president of AEA, for over a decade. All of our associations are members of the Highway Coalition. This is a unique organization in that we have labor management working side by side advocating for public school children. Pat, representing the Akron Education Association, has worked tirelessly for the last decade to shine a light on and fight for the rights of public school children to receive the resources and support they all deserve. All of us and our educators have done the same. Our students are some of the most marginalized children in the state. Many politicians in Columbus have
065made it their work to attempt to drain more and more public dollars away from our districts and funnel those resources to private companies and schools. That is why we have all been shocked that this board would collaborate with the state to further drain Akron's resources out of the district by outsourcing Akron's qualified educator jobs to unqualified and subcontracted people who have thousands of complaints logged against them. How could the board further marginalize your own students by representing the subpar instruction which Varsity Tutors provides to be anything but a money grab by these private for-profit companies? With all due respect, we believe your actions represent a complete lack of understanding surrounding what our students need in order to recover their education. Just this week, it was announced that five Akron schools, which had been in priority
066status by the state, have now exited that status through the hard work of these wonderful teachers and administrators. How could we believe that outsourcing these educator jobs would serve these children better than working with their own teachers? We ask you to set aside this ill-advised political action and support our teachers in public education across the state of Ohio. Our students and educators deserve to be supported by their school boards and superintendents. Please listen to your teachers and make this right. And I leave you with this. The work of the Ohio 8 for the last 20 years, in fact, it was formed to fight against private money being used, being siphoned from public education. And we're doing the same thing. We don't like the word for profit. From companies who want to get their hands on
067on public money. It just doesn't mix We're in it for the love of the kids. They're in it for the profit. That's what we're talking about here Alana Alana train Good evening. My name is Elena train and I'm a social studies teacher at East High School More than that. However, I am a highly qualified licensed educator Our classroom teachers are highly qualified licensed educators. Our tutors are highly qualified licensed educators. The same cannot be said for varsity tutors. Over the last few months, I have watched in disbelief as this administration's message to our students and the Akron community would lead them to believe that delivering remote, online tutoring with unaccountable, unevaluated, and in many cases, unqualified strangers is better for our students than receiving in-person instruction by their own qualified teachers. We have thousands of
068educators teaching in our classrooms across the district, most with advanced degrees. All are unquestionably more qualified to instruct our students. To infer that you must outsource teaching jobs to a for-profit company in order to deliver high dosage tutoring is, I believe, simply irresponsible. Anyone researching with due diligence would find that varsity tutors is not who they claim to be. They have thousands of complaints against them, employ individuals that are not required to have any teaching experience at all, and have many pending lawsuits filed against them. Parents using varsity tutors for their children have said tutors have represented themselves as being licensed when they were not. Tutors were unprepared and looking up answers on their phones during tutoring sessions. Tutors would belittle their child when he got wrong answers. Varsity tutors do not take student disabilities
069seriously. These are a fraction of the thousands of testimonials you can read about regarding varsity tutor practices. If this administration and this board are truly trying to be transparent with this community, why was there no open discussion or questioning before a vote to hire this company was rushed through? Why all the secrecy? Why all the resistance to legitimate and well-founded questioning? Simply put, Varsity Tutors is wrong for our students, Varsity Tutors is wrong for our families, and Varsity Tutors is wrong for this district. I would like to close by respectfully telling you this. Not only is it my right to question your decisions, it's my responsibility. I'm a social studies teacher. History. All of your employees have the right and the responsibility to question your decisions. Being engaged in this process and respectfully questioning is
070what is in the best interest of our students. I respectfully ask you to do what is right and practice the transparency that you so loudly claim our community deserves. Stop outsourcing our jobs. Next, we have Michael Harkness. Good evening. My name is Mike Harkness, and I'm a proud educator and product of this fine district. Why is it always inferred that if educators dare question the decisions that are being made which directly impact our students, we're being negative? Why is it always inferred that if teachers do not agree completely with the superintendent or the board, we just are not simply looking out for the best interests of our students? Why are we called negative and inflammatory when we speak out? Our educators are far too aware of how our students and families are marginalized. We spend
071every day with those children and we know a lot more about them than most. If this board thinks that hiring unqualified part-time tutors from a for-profit company to instruct our students remotely is better than allowing our own qualified educators. to instruct them in person, then you are the ones that are now marginalizing our students. If you think that working jointly with the state to funnel more public dollars through a private company to provide inferior instruction to our students is not marginalizing them, I disagree with you. We complain when public money and resources are diverted to private schools and away from our students. How is this different? When money has strings attached to it like the state money does, this is not helping our students, but rather profiting off of these very kids. What's next? Let's
072bring outside workers to replace our custodians. We'll tell them, hey, go get a job with Joe's HVAC company if you want to work in our buildings. We'll tell our safety and security staff, go work for ABC security firm if they want to work athletic events. How about our child nutrition staff? It's okay to funnel money through Main Street catering services in order to work for Akron Public Schools. This is not why this is if not then why is it okay for our administration to tell our educators to apply for varsity tutors if they want to instruct their students? In a moment, we are going to hear a beautiful presentation from varsity tutors. I'm sure it's going to be a glowing and slick review of themselves. I urge the public to peel the layers back. Look
073beyond the presentation and investigate this company on your own. They are not who they say they are. Please do your due diligence because we do not believe that the administration is doing theirs. Board members, Mr. and Superintendent, all of your employees hear a lot of words from you, like we are valued, we matter, we are family. We don't feel valued, and we definitely don't feel like family. Look around this room tonight. All of your employees are sending a clear message. Your actions are not matching your words. Our message is this. Moving forward, we will be watching your actions. Your actions will tell us clearly if we actually matter. Because right now, your actions are telling us that we don't mean anything. Thank you. Our last address is from Kathleen Brown. Good evening. My name is
074Kathleen Brown, and I am a tutor at North High School. I have been deeply troubled by what I believe is an irresponsible action by this board when they approved the superintendent's hiring of varsity tutors. Hiring any private vendor is not mandated by the state as this administration will like us all to believe. The very language within House Bill 583 and the Ohio Department of Education guidelines state, while the list of programs is intended to be a helpful resource, schools and districts are best equipped to know the specific needs of students and select appropriate tutoring programs and may select any tutoring provider of their choice, including providers not on the list. the state guidelines go on to say no school district or school shall be required to use a tutoring program on the list i believe
075that i am best equipped to know the specific needs of my students i believe that my fellow educators are best equipped to know the specific needs of our students school districts across the state are rightly rightfully using their own educators to provide this high quality instruction to their students they know that students are best served receiving in-person instruction from their own highly qualified teachers and not remotely from unqualified strangers moreover for this administration to tell their own qualified teachers to apply to varsity tutors if they want to provide the instruction and make a little extra money is nothing short of outrageous how insulting how tone deaf Our AEA leadership was correct when they said that ensuring we all work in the best interest of our students and family does not preclude or diminish in any
076way the obligation of the APS Board of Education and the superintendent to treat all employees with professionalism, respect, and transparency. Your actions are telling me that you do not hear me and you do not see me. I believe that the actions of this administration and this school board making the decision to outsource any employee's job to an unqualified private vendor is reckless. I believe your actions undermine and demoralize your own employees and destabilize this district. This action does nothing to unite us. You are not hearing us and you are choosing not to see us. Please start listening to your educators, those of us who have built trusting and real relationships with our students, those who work with students every day. Please do not act as though this ill-informed decision by the board is good for
077our students. As we have said here tonight, we believe the action of delivering inferior instruction from an unqualified person employed by a private vendor further marginalizes students who are already struggling. Please make this right. Thank you. And so we are going to move on in our agenda to item 4.1, superintendent's report. 4.1 is our redistricting update. Thank you, Madam President. I am going to be rerouting a couple of things in the superintendent's report. I want to thank our scholar for staying. And I want to recognize them for participating. These are the three amazing scholars who are at the top of the reading, that are top readers in the Book of the Month Club. igniting minds through daily reading. We just kicked off this book club on December the 22nd, our scholars' first day off for
078their winter break. A scholar from elementary, middle, and high school who read the highest number of books from December 22nd to January the 7th, that's about two weeks, will be recognized. Each time a scholar finishes a book, he or she submits a Google form. and shares briefly about the book that they read. Before I announce the names, I want to thank Acme Fresh Market for partnering with APS and this wonderful initiative. Our top readers will each receive a $25 gift card from Acme to purchase their favorite ice cream flavor and any toppings they would like to enjoy with their families. Although the weather might be cold outside, it is always nice and warm inside to enjoy a delicious Sunday. Without the support of families, this would not happen. Thanks again to Nick and Katie from
079ACME. Our elementary student is Monica McDonald. Is she still here? She had to leave. Okay. All right. Middle school student is Tia Gemma Florinoy. Is she here? Okay. So we'll make sure that they receive this. And our last one, let's see, from APS Online for reading one book is Trinity Edelman from Ellard High School for reading two books. Is she still? here with us? Okay. So we'll make sure that these students, these scholars receive this. And so I want to thank them for participating. Thank you to their principals and teachers and the students for being encouraged to support and foster and promote reading in their building. I'm looking forward to the first board meeting of each month where we're going to recognize our top readers from the previous month. And at our board meeting in
080February, I will recognize the top readers in January. I know for the elementary students, there were over 400 books read already. And so keep reading, students. As Walt Disney would say, there is more treasure in books than in all of the pirates' loots on Treasure Island. So I want to thank those students for... participating. Mr. Superintendent, could we give their names again and give them a round of applause since they're not here? Yes. Monica McDonald. She's a kindergarten scholar from Windmere. So let's give her a hand. She actually read 23 books. Yeah. Wow. And I think it's pronounced... Tia Gemma Florine from APS Online. She did read one. And then Trinity Edelman from Ellett, who read two books, actually high school students. So we're very proud of what they did. So thank you so much
081for that. So as you know, but as a reminder for our community, on January 8th, 2024, I did recommend to the board to enter into a service agreement with varsity tutors for 2,400 one-to-one tutoring sessions for our fourth grade students who did not successfully earn the promotion score on the third grade Ohio State test. This was an incredible opportunity for our scholars, first and foremost, because as we all know, some of our scholars are continuing to suffer from long-term learning losses caused by the pandemic. I would like to also note that we have about 70... tutoring vacancies right now that are district-wide throughout APS, and most of these assignments have been filled with substitutes, tutors, supported by the general fund. So, unfortunately... What started as something wonderful has sort of turned into something just the
082opposite. Instead of solely addressing their concerns about tutoring through our mutually agreed collective bargaining process, our teacher union has indicated their intent to file an injunction against the district to prevent the program from moving forward. Although we remain open to discussions with our union on this grant-funded tutoring program, I would say that today is indeed a sad day for our scholars and families. I don't think that I can stress that enough. Given the union's intentions, actions, and its impact on the program, it would be my recommendation that the board consider rescinding the January 8, 2024 board action, item 32.1, regarding the varsity tutoring for schools LLC service agreement. If the board would like to consider the recommendation, we would need a motion to amend the agenda and to rescind the approval of the item 32.1
083from the January 8th 2024 Board of Education meeting. So it's been presented to us to rescind the vote from our January 8th meeting approving this item. And so it's on the floor, and I will entertain a motion. So go ahead, Ms. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we need to write a motion and a second to have a discussion. Well, I'll move to discuss. Second to discuss. So is there any discussion on that? Well, yeah. Obviously, I don't want to cut you off. I do have some questions that I want to just make sure to be clarified. Are we saying that if we have varsity tutors come in to our district that our teachers cannot? apply for those jobs and tutor the kids after school or will it be the tutors from varsity tutoring that's that's one
084question um if we vote no also uh to this this evening uh and those funds are do not come to uh akron to help our students will we have an opportunity to get those funds back again to help so those are two questions that i have i want to because i i am Not on this board to make everybody happy I'm on this board to make sure our students get what they get. That's the only reason I got on this board I have not sought to Be in any higher positions anywhere else I could have but I have not I've chosen not to Because I'm a child advocate and I want to make sure that our kids get what they're supposed to get So I will be asking the questions or geared towards the kids
085to make sure that we know that the kids can get what they're supposed to. So those are two questions I have that I'd like to make sure we have answered before we move forward. So when the varsity tutors grant was provided to us, and understanding when I came, because I really can't remember if it was the week before I started or if the week that I started or not. But when it was brought to me and it was my understanding that they would not be able to do it because it's intended to be done during the day. So given the fact that the structure that we have here and the fact that we have... tutors during the day and the teachers would not be able to do it. I asked for the teachers to be
086able to have those opportunities, but it would have to be done after school. And it's virtual, so a teacher could, you know, they don't have to necessarily be in the building, per se, to work with a student. The answer is whether or not they would, the money, no. Given the fact that there is a... injunction to be filed or has been filed. The state gave us an additional time to sort of straighten this out before, which it's been kind of bouncing from, I think, maybe November, December, and now into January. So they're not going to, those seats that we were offered will go to another district that is already asking for the seats. So, and our teachers yes, if they wanted those positions, they would be able to apply. I asked that they would be
087given first preference to having those if they wanted it. And I even asked also if it was possible that if our teachers didn't want it and we have tutors that are certified, would they be able to have the opportunity? So my first initial was making sure that our employees had those opportunities. And so, but to your question, no. Once this is over, then we do not get the opportunity to recall it back. The seats will have already gone to another district. Okay, so it sounds to me that our teachers could serve as tutors. after school to serve our students. If they wanted to. Right, if they wanted to. So in my mind, in my eyes, I think if I'm a teacher in a classroom and I have a couple students that I know need some
088help, I know where they need the help at. I would want to be able to tutor those kids because I know where they stand. I know what I would need to do to help them. And I would also be able to help them. get the help that they need so they can move forward. So if we're saying that teachers could apply for those positions, that answers my question. Then if they didn't want to apply, then our tutors could apply for those. I asked if the teachers did not want it, would they consider allowing our tutors that are certified to have the option? That's something that would have to be worked out with varsity, but I was asking if the teachers didn't want it. could our tutors perhaps have the opportunity before they actually go and
089seek outside teachers to be tutors. Okay, so our teachers could apply for those spots and be tutors. Yes, if they wanted to, they could. Okay. Is there any other answers? I'll answer my question. Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. Mr. Perry? Yeah, so I want to make sure I understand this clearly, Superintendent, because I don't want to mix words here. You're saying our EPS teachers and tutors get first priority, not just the ability to apply, but they actually are first up for these jobs? Yes. I asked for the teachers, and then if the teachers, you know, said, well, they can't do it or they maybe don't want to. Then I asked, could our certified tutors. So that's something that VARC would have to work out in approving that. But I asked, could they have it if the
090teachers declined and said maybe they don't want it or they're not going to be able to do it or it's something that they don't want to do. Then I asked for the certified tutors. Since we have tutors here. I was thinking that maybe they could take the jobs. If the teachers, there were openings, then let our tutors do it before they would ask outside people. And that goes to my second question, and I have three questions. This is my second one. What are the numbers right now? Is there a shortage of tutors we have right now in our school? We're currently short about 70 tutors across our district in various pockets. It's about 70 as of today. Now, I think it was Ms. Trane, I believe, who brought up a lot of concerns that were
091very concerning to me about this varsity tutors program. You know, she talked about, you know, how they ridiculed students. They were unprepared. They were unlicensed. And it sounds to me that the biggest thing was they do more harm than good. Was this varsity tutors program, were they fully vetted? Do we know whether those things existed, those complaints are true and accurate or not? Yeah, this is a program that's vetted through the state, and they're in other states. They're not just in Ohio. I'm familiar with varsity tutors. We didn't actually use them in previous places I've worked, but I am familiar with them. I have not heard any negative things about them. That's not to say that it's not out there. I've just never heard anything, and which I was excited. because I thought that this
092would be a great opportunity for our kids, number one, but then also that our teachers would be able to do this after school if they chose to. And then I was asking varsity to look into whether or not, since our tutors are certified teachers, could they then have that opportunity, which is something that they would have to approve. Because all of that goes through varsity, but it goes through the state. Are there any other? Vice President Jackson. Yes, this seems, it's so many layers to this. And so I want to just take it piece by piece because it's very multifaceted. So I'm sorry I don't recall your name, but I believe it was the tutor from North High School. And she mentioned that, and that's why I rushed out because I was trying to see.
093I forgot my badge. I wanted to try to print out the bill to highlight certain areas. Because what you mentioned was that the district, in fact, could have. funneled the money through us, we could have housed the funds. That's kind of what she insinuated, that we didn't have to go through varsity tutors. And so I was trying to look through the bill quickly, but as you all know, I didn't have time to really get that detail. We could have not necessarily used varsity tutors because that's what she said. And so I needed clarification. That's why I hate we can't really engage in dialogue because they make a statement and then we can't follow up for clarity. Can you clarify that? That's my first part of my question. Is it possible? Because I was reading something
094that was saying ESC, something about the ESC as far as with the funds. And so did Varsity write the grant, and then they were granted the funds, and then they're partnering? Part of the grant obligation is, okay, you have to partner with a district that has this demographic of students in order for the funds to be released. So that's done through the state because it's a grant that was bestowed through the state of Ohio. No, right. I understand. So could Akron Public Schools, since we have a grant office, could we have written a grant for the state and got the money? Without varsity, could APS have done it? Not on our own. Not for this particular grant, because the stipulations were outlined by the state. And so if we, which we did apply, then we
095would have to go through that particular vendor. Okay, that's what I was asking. Could we have been our own? Could we have written the grant and then serviced it and employed our teachers? Yeah, we wouldn't be able to do it on our own, because the way the grant is written. Everything funnels to the state so we would never actually touch the money through Akron Public Schools Yeah, so I understand I understand that Because I write a lot of grants and so some grants will require that you have enough money Enough capital within your organization to pay out front and then you would get reimbursed some federal grants do that the other grants will say if you hire the people then the or we pay directly to Your people so if it's the Carla Jackson grant
096and I hire all of you You would be hired ApS will do the hiring and I would pay after you bet I would send they will be up through my payroll So that's where I'm trying to get we wouldn't have anything to do with the hiring that's why I was asking if our teachers could have the first dibs on the jobs rather than someone else you know, from another state or another city. No, no, no. I understand that because now it's house with varsity. I understand that it's going through the state. It just was based off the conversation of what it appears that the teachers are understanding. I'm trying to make sure that we all have the same facts because they're mentioning. She just stated at the podium, is there, because I don't want to
097be out of order, but the teacher from North came and said, and I didn't have time to reference that, we didn't have to go through varsity tutors. So is there another option? Because as to my colleague here, Mr. Alexander, I believe that the kids need to get the service. And if the teachers can provide the service, qualified teachers can provide the service, which is what we stated. I think Mike made a statement that then we would have to go, if I'm an APS teacher, I have to go through varsity to serve my kids. They would have to do the paperwork. They're looking like you were saying something. So I just actually want to kind of bring us back to the topic at hand, which is our students. And so I think at this time, they
098are very worthy of further consideration on this matter because they deserve the support and the resources. And we are facing a time constraint when it comes to this. I believe it's February the 1st. And so I would even ask that we consider tabling this so that we can take it to the wire if we need to. If we need to have further discussions to see how we can make this work for our children, I believe that they're definitely worthy of that from all of us here in the room. Because as a reminder, if it weren't for the children... none of us around this table or in this room would even be necessary. And so I would recommend that we consider tabling this so that we can have some further conversations between leadership to see how
099can we make this work for our students. But who are the we? Who are the leadership? Are you talking about with the teacher, with AEA, and with us? I'm going for clarity. Is that the leadership? Absolutely. Whoever needs to be at peace with what the decision is so that our students can benefit. So our leader and the leader of our teachers here. And so I would say that. with students in mind that we need to have some further clarification on. Is there any, have we turned over every stone that we can at this point? And I know we have until February the 1st. Well, this is from my understanding. That's quickly approaching. This is why I'm saying, because everyone, we're talking about transparency, and we're having this discussion. What I'm saying is these questions were
100something that we're voting on. We've already met with these people. I would assume they would be vetted, that this conversation can be had. I'm fine with tabling it for certainty. But I want to hear, there were people that came up and spoke. Absolutely. And we should follow up on everything that they said. That's what I'm saying. But in this community open meeting so that it is clear on what it is that we're saying. Because our students need to be served. We heard the community member talking about her granddaughter struggling with reading, a parent picking up an extra shift. These are the inequities that we talk about. But in the same right, I am an educator. And if someone that is unqualified, and sometimes someone can be highly qualified and not have a teacher's license. And
101you can have a teacher that's licensed and not effective. So the evaluation of, and I'm a licensed teacher, Google me. I have a state teacher's license, and I have a state principal license. So I'm not talking out of ignorance or what I feel. I'm talking about what I know and I've observed teachers. There are excellent teachers, and I've seen them in this district. But what I am saying is we have to make sure that people are not just throwing people in there and people looking at their phone Googling because their big sister could have tutored them. And then, or we believe that students are getting gains. I'm just saying, how is this unfolding the real discussion, not just passing through light? Because we have to serve our kids, and it is about our kids no
102matter what. And if it's grant money, it's just about the accountability. Because people get checks every week, and they're not serving our children in classrooms. So we need to be very real about if we're having tutors coming in, what is the evaluation process that our kids will get gains and that this works? Because, yes, the money's there. But if we can use this money and can go after we do this vetting and it still can be used, and, you know, if it's not varsity or if it is varsity, the accountability piece, that's all I'm saying. And, yes, we can discuss it. But I think the discussion needs to be a real. open, like how we're having this discussion, so that the community is clear and everyone else is clear. Absolutely. And I think questions were
103raised that need followed up on, so that's important. Madam President, can I ask another question? Is it possible for, we have these questions that came out here from teachers. We have questions that we have. came up ourselves and asked, is it possible that we can take all these questions that were asked, know the deadline is by the 1st, and I don't like having special meetings. I have meetings just to have them, but can we have maybe a special meeting to have all this answered and maybe vote at that time? That gives us some time this week to say, okay, here are the questions that were asked, here are the answers so we can get the right answers for it, and then come back and maybe vote at that time because that gives... everybody gives the
104superintendent an opportunity to get the questions answered. If the teachers union wants to give their questions and gives them an opportunity to get these questions answered, then come back and then have that, maybe our board meeting if we need to, make a decision at that point and then move forward. Madam Chair, Madam Chair, we have committees. And so are you asking to just refer this to committee? There's proper notification has to be given to the media, to the public. Everyone can come in and speak on it. So because of our time constraint with this, February the 1st, which I think is next week. Right. And so we're under that time constraint or we lose the opportunity. So I would say we could call a special meeting that we would notice publicly. And so we've heard
105the comments and questions and inquiry that we can continue to discuss and return back. before that deadline. So I guess we could probably expect possibly a special meeting to give some opportunity for this worthy. discussion and support opportunity for our students. I have no objection to a special meeting. I wonder also, Madam President, if we might send out a poll to our very own teachers, you know, who would be interested in doing this? Because one of my concerns when we talked about this last time was, you know, the continuity of having our own teachers teaching the same students. And if we found out that our teachers were given first priority, which I've been told tonight, the first priority, if we could have a poll of our teachers, like who's interested in this, and just get
106a raw numbers count, you know, and see whether it's worth it for us and whether we can really do this. Well, I know the reality, y'all, is that we currently have 70 positions. That's the reality of right now. So that should give us a little bit of an idea. But I want to allow another board member to share. I personally think a poll of asking people if they would like to apply to do their own job is a little tone deaf given the situation. But I like the idea that... Mr. Alexander, I do not object to a special board meeting. I think that this is a conversation worth having. It's a discussion worth having. I think a lot of valid points were brought up that we should hear as a whole community the response to
107these. My only amendment to that is if there would be an opportunity to potentially, if there are additional questions, to submit additional questions since it's virtual and we're preparing for the agenda. Madam President? Yes. I just want to note for the board, as you stand right now, you've voted for it. So it's moving forward unless you take action otherwise. And secondly, I would recommend before you engage in a second meeting, which you need to do quickly if you're going to do that, you need to engage the union first, union leadership first, and make sure that you have something you can bring to the table that... both the union and the administration can agree upon or there's really not much of a reason to have a second meeting unless The second meeting was to rescind That
108would be the only reason you need to have a second meeting if a resolution can't be reached So that's the clarify as it stands. It's moving forward but with the indications from the unions plans it's possible that If that's the case, February 1st, we will lose the opportunity. So as of right now, we voted upon it. Madam President, I'm sorry to interrupt. I just needed clarity based upon Dr. Robinson. You said there are 70 tutoring jobs that are available right now. Are those tutoring jobs during the day or are they in the afternoon, like after school? So it's only during the day. Okay. No, yet, but I'm saying these 70, we just have 70 openings across the district throughout our schools for tutors, but it's during the day. It's during the day, okay. So basically,
109the kids that would need the tutoring would just be pulled out of their class and get additional tutoring. with these tutors during the day, correct? No, this is not going to be during the day. No, no, I'm not talking about with varsity. I'm talking about the 70 jobs that are open right now through APS, and that's tutoring during the day. Yeah, it works across the district, I mean, differently in different schools, different levels. It just depends on the content, the students. You go into some schools, and some of our tutors who really do a phenomenal job with the kids, I mean, I've actually sat and watched some of them. Sometimes they're in the hallway of some of our schools that don't have the space. Sometimes they may have a room designated, depending upon the space
110in that building, where they're pulling students and doing small group instruction. So how can we fulfill these 70 jobs that are unfulfilled? Like, how long have they been unfulfilled? At least since I've been here this year. Since I've been here up until now, we have. And some of those, give or take, you know, the ones that have resigned since we've been here. But, yeah, those have been open for quite a while. And have we found out the reason why people are not applying for these tutoring jobs in-house? Because it's 70, unavailable. Yeah. And to some of these 70s, some of this is based upon the schools. Some of our schools are Title I, some are not. And where it's not Title I, then we pay for it out of the general fund, especially when it
111comes down to ESL scholars. We have to pay for that out of general fund. But it's posted. We just haven't been able to find the tutors. I mean, and like I said, we have some really awesome tutors here, which. was why I would like if if they would have a lot what would allow them if the teachers didn't want it up That's why I was asking could our tutors because some of them are certified teachers Some of them want to be tutors. They don't necessarily want to teach food a full schedule because of their you know the things that they have going on personally, but To the your point. We do have 70 openings across the district right now for various reasons and it's just very hard Just like it is to find teachers, it's
112even harder to find tutors because in some cases, some of our tutors are part-time. I think they're like 24 hours a week. And then some of them are full day. Okay, so if we fulfilled these 70 tutoring positions, we wouldn't be in this case getting other tutoring if we could fulfill the 70. This is just another extra layer of support. for students after school. So this would not be done during the day. I understand that. This would be after school. So again, I really want to remind us that as it stands, we've already voted on this issue. So it is moving forward unless there's some movement. on the union's part. So we can leave it at that and ask that some questions be answered. And maybe we can come to a happy medium with kids
113at the middle. I completely agree that we are here for the students and we all believe that our students should have every opportunity to learn the best they can but I do think that real concerns about the quality of learning that could That could be offered I'd like to hear more on I have questions on where this is standing now So is there an opportunity to a motion to suspend? until we have the special board meeting or Logistically with Robert's rules and everything. Where are we presently between now and that next meeting? I think we can make a motion to rescind and we can vote on tonight and we can You know talk about it more before February 1st That's the deadline right February 1st Do that I think early in the week so we
114can give time I Don't know how where we think where we at but I would hope that we would have that special meeting possibly next Monday no later than Tuesday because of the because because it gives up So we would have to have a 24-hour notice for a special emergency meeting. And so, again, as it stands, we voted on this. Let's give the opportunity to answer these questions that have been brought to us. And if either way, we should have the meeting to inform the community on the answers that we found. Yes, Madam President, we're talking about the timing of the meeting, because we understand we need to have a meeting. The timing of the meeting to address this so it can happen expeditiously, because it's clear that we want clarity around the service. And
115it's also clear that we as a board, as well as the community, know that we want to service our kids and meet the needs of our kids. It's just unfortunate we have scholars here that be highlighted for their scholastic achievement in reading that we can't even recognize, because, you know. for whatever reason. So I think the quicker that we can expeditiously read and go over and have our questions ready and discuss it as a body and then come back before the community is what's best. That's the only reason I asked, okay, what is the maximum time? Today's Monday. So to wait a whole another week and then press it even more. That was just my opinion. My thought was that we needed a lot of time. There's questions that... We come from the teachers unit.
116It's questions that we have. It's questions that the superintendent has to get. We need time to get those because there are some other things we have this week as well, you know, because we do have a retreat on Saturday. But that gives plenty of time to get the questions answered, to come back on Monday if we need to, have that meeting on Monday. Talk about it. After we talk about it, if we need to vote on it, we vote on it at that time. And then that still gives three days to have them, we can say either no to varsity or yes to varsity. That still gives three days. And we're still within that timeline. We still have enough time to make a meeting notice for 24 hours for the special meeting. To me, it
117just seems like it's right. But I'll go with whatever the body says and what everyone thinks we should do. So can someone state the motion simply? Yes, I would like to. I move to rescind, and we'll discuss it later. I second. Is there any discussion around that? I don't know. So I'm learning. That's all this thing. But I'm just confused a bit. I'm sorry. This is about the children, or is this about replacing teachers, tutors, counselors, and service providers? Like, based off the letter? Well, it can be about both things, to be honest. I mean. Right? I mean, we're all here for the students, but the concern was raised that we're giving our kids less than quality tutoring. Are we saying that's speculations or are we saying that that's proof? Well, those are questions we've
118got to answer. We've got to figure that out. I don't want people teaching our kids we're not qualified and we're going to do more harm than good. That's just going to make them worse. I just think it's up to us to do our diligence, do research, figure out what kind of quality tutoring they're getting. That's what I want to find out. Is there any other discussion on the table, Madam Vice President? Yes. So to Ms. Hall's point, because I was looking at these signs as I came in. It says, stop taking away our jobs. Stop outsourcing our jobs. And so the conversation that we've been having here was that teachers can have those jobs. So when I said it's multifaceted, so I understand what you're saying, Ms. Hall. It is multifaceted because on one hand,
119we're talking about quality of services rendered. The other hand, the accusations from the signs is saying that jobs are being taken from teachers that is being outsourced. But as it was explained to us as a board, and that we're discussing now as the president, sorry, the superintendent stated is that, no, they will hire teachers. So teachers have the opportunity. And when you ask about the 70 jobs that's open now, you have Title I tutors and you have auxiliary tutors. Title I tutors are not going to be at schools where they have test scores and it's a certain demographic because there are certain indicators that you have to meet in order to qualify for Title I services, where auxiliary tutors will be able to service all students. The issue becomes budget constraints. So this school may
120only have this much title funding, et cetera. So those are two separate things, which also could be a reason as far as the need. Because if it's a greater need, if you're in a school and you have less than 40% of kids that's reading at grade level or lower, then that budget that you have for tutors. It's never going to be enough because teachers are always working, trying to catch up three years behind and can't do that. So I just wanted, because you asked that question and it was a good question and I didn't feel, I just thought I would add to that. So it is different things, to your point. Because they're talking about jobs and they're not having jobs. And the superintendent said he talked to this varsity tutors and they said they
121would hire teachers. And then the teacher came up and said we would have to apply for these jobs. I would like to add to the discussion. Last time in, Dr. Molnar. Yes, I would like to add to the discussion for clarity the value of rescinding the vote rather than just having another conversation. I think rescinding the, if we're going to meet again anyway, we're going to vote again anyway, I think rescinding the vote now. tells our constituents and our community and everyone here and everyone watching that we are going to have a thorough discussion when we meet again, that we're not going to have an emergency snow day or anything like that. Member Sykes. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. We can have a thorough discussion about this without rescinding the vote. Absolutely.
122Moved and seconded. Now we just have to take a vote, right? Yeah. uh for the folks uh in the audience uh because there was a discussion of tabling and rescinding so rescinding uh takes back our vote from the january 8th meeting if that's correct tabling is standing where we voted on as a board and having some continued discussion and getting some of these questions answered we've already moved and rescinded and seconded to to to be Clear that we're not. I think you have several options here moving forward, and it's really your decision about what you want to do. But one way you could go is you could make a motion to rescind the agreement, make a motion to approve the agreement, and table said movement. Now it's tabled. And you've got to come back to
123either approve it or. or turn it down. Or you could do absolutely nothing, not table anything, not do anything, and simply make another meeting. And at the second meeting, once again, I would highly recommend that there is some robust negotiations going on first to see if a resolution could be reached that might help alleviate. the lack of understanding by both sides to reach a fair resolution. Then at the second board meeting, there may not be a need for it if the superintendent and the president of AEA can reach some type of agreement. If they can't, then you've got to come back, answer all the questions, and make a decision as a board. About what you want to do moving forward. You know my personal opinion is I don't want two hundred forty five thousand dollars
124To go away or whatever that dollar amount is you know I? You know so at the same time. I understand the concerns So is there a way? that we could capture that money and meet the needs of the teachers union and their concerns as well. I don't know that there is, but if there is, I'd like to get that and present that to you before you make any other decisions. That would be my recommendation. So it was on the floor. It was moved and it was seconded to rescind, and we had a discussion about it. And again, just for clarification, rescind takes back our vote. But we have the opportunity before next Thursday, it sounds like, to reengage, to do this again if we get our questions answered. And it's not going to go away,
125right? That's correct. As long as you call for another meeting with this being the sole topic, then it's back on the table as long as it's before. Is that correct, the first? Is that correct, Dr. Robinson? Then that would be your decision. So what I'm not sure of is if we would have to start a process all over again. Should we take back our vote and then decide that we want to move forward with it? That's a question that I would have as well. And so as part of the discussion that I'm adding to, I would like to see us... stand by our vote and have this further discussion and come back to the community with answers to some of these questions we've heard this evening and make a decision at that time. Well, that's
126just part of my discussion that I had. Why didn't we give, I'm sorry, Madam President, why didn't we give Varsity an opportunity to speak today? So the superintendent, I think, explained in his remarks, but they're not on trial here. And so it's not a courtroom for them, for us to... I wasn't saying being on trial. I'm just saying being able to articulate their goal and, you know, how they plan to proceed. Right. So as far as the challenges we have with our relationship with our union, I don't think that's a varsity tutors matter. I think this is a matter that we have to resolve here within our family here. So that's my thought and opinion on it. So I don't know if you wanted to add to that or not, Mr. Superintendent. Okay. And so.
127Madam President, I move to call the vote. And so it is on the floor. It's been moved and seconded to rescind our vote from the January 8th meeting on this matter. Motion. Motion. I made a motion to rescind. And Renee seconded. My motion was clearly to rescind. Motion to rescind. My motion to rescind. So that's what I had as well. So that is what is. for us to decide on right now. Roll call, please. Dr. Thompson. Dr. Molnar. Yes. Mr. Alexander. No. Ms. Autry. No. Ms. Hall. No. Ms. Jackson. No. Mr. Perry. Yes. Mrs. Sykes. No. So the motion to rescind the contract. fails 5-2. So the motion, so Varsity Tudors state, to be clear, Varsity Tudors is still a go. That's what we just voted on. Just want to make sure we understand that.
1285-2, it stays on, and we go. Doesn't mean you can't rescind it later, just means for right now, you're moving forward. That's what I want to be clear about. We can still do this later on. We're clear on that. Yeah, so as of right now, we have not rescinded it. We're going to keep varsity tours. Right now, it is not rescinded. Yeah, yeah. It's, yeah. Hmm? Oh, it's always on. Yeah, yeah, I don't turn it off. Yeah, I think they got it back. Yeah, yeah. I will say that here. I think some people did not realize. We should have clarified that better. The motion was to resend the contract. And if you vote no, that means you're not resending it. If you vote yes, it means you are resending it. And there were two yeses
129and five noes. That's what you voted on. Maybe you didn't quite understand that, but you could re-vote. And we'll give the superintendent a time to further come to some type of... Common ground on this issue that we can report back on and get these answers questions to these Answers to the questions that were brought forth to us this evening. So we're gonna move on after that Okay, I'm sorry It felt pretty long but Continue on mr. Superintendent. Sorry Just a reminder regarding the weather days, we're asking our community and families to please make sure that they check the district's website on days that we have weather advisories and all of those things. Anything that's going to occur, especially such as tonight with the freezing, if something, because you will have to deal with the ice
130first thing in the morning. Please make sure that you check the district website. And if there is going to be some type of closure or anything, then we will be sending out. Robocalls and text messages and those kinds of things. On to some really great things that are happening in the district. I want to say congratulations to our scholars and educators, our teachers at Akron Early College High School. 87% of the students passed the American Government Ohio State Test. Yes. That's why we all are here. And let me tell you something, when I came in to APS this year, we were having a data review, which is when I found out that the students do not sit for the test. And to my knowledge, correct me, Dr. Kaver, that they have never sat for the
131test, am I correct? Yes. And so we appreciate those scholars, those teachers, the administration in that particular building, because this is going to help us as a district, but it's also going to help our scholars. And the American government test is a very rigorous state test in which 60% of students in Ohio were able to pass this fall. percent of early college scholars passing is indeed an impressive accomplishment. On to some great things. I want to recognize some of our principals and thank you for your patience and not leaving. I really appreciate that. Dave Curzon at Ennis, where is he? Please come up and stand, please. Yes, let's give him a hand. Ms. LaMonica Davis at Helen Arnold. Come on, we could do better than that. Ms. LaCresha Beecher at Bookville. Mr. Nolan over at
132East CLC. Mr. Frank Killeen. And also Ms. Catherine Rodocker. And we also want to recognize, let's give them a hand, yes. And we also want to recognize Ms. Kim Sabetta. even though she is not at North now, but she was at North, and some of this is a part of her efforts and work. And so I'm pleased to announce that these five schools and their principals have worked tirelessly, and their staffs, that these schools, tirelessly working, but also... their way of looking at how the state calls priority status. They have had two consecutive years, which in the state of Ohio you need to understand that you have to have two consecutive years of steady and strong progress, and they have moved up and out of what is called comprehensive support improvement, which is what we
133call CSI. They and their staffs and administrators have worked very hard to emerge from this designation by making steady strides in grades and graduation rates. The work aligns with the requirements of the federal and state. Every Student Succeed Act. And so I just want to say again that I'm very proud of these principals and these staffs that stand behind them for the hard work that they have done and for their contribution that they have made with them. And this is to support. all of APS. This is not just some schools, but no one is going to convince me that we do not have an awesome school district. And so I'm going to ask that their teams that have come with them or representatives from their schools. Where is Mark? Okay, let's start taking some pictures.
134Let's turn this board meeting into something a little bit more exciting. We're going to ask that you come up as well. Board members, if you would please come up as well. And then we can kind of, I'm running a turn. Y'all stay in the back. Y'all stay in the back. Everybody else turn. Five, four, three, two, one. Good? This is our newly appointed assistant treasurer. We're going to be doing a video with those principals and those schools and so we will provide that to you once that is completed. I also want to recognize the cheerleaders who competed at the Universal Cheerleaders Association Ohio Regional Nationals and who earned a first place tie and a bid to the National High School Cheer Championship. Firestone Cheer. is the first APS cheerleading team to earn a national invitation.
135Participation, yes, let's give them a hand, please. Participation in this prestigious national cheerleading competition happens only after receiving a bid invitation. Earning the chance to compete against the nation's top cheerleading teams is a truly remarkable honor. The competition is being held at the ESPN Y, World of Sports at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Coach LaShonna Johnson, Coach Ashley Cohen, and Coach Amari King-Johnson, are they here tonight? Okay. We will work with our scholar athletes as they compete against elite cheerleading squads from across the nation. The Firestone cheerleading team has 22 athletes and three coaches. They're gearing up for this opportunity through fundraising efforts. For additional information, you can always contact... And to support our scholars, you can contact Coach Johnson at Booktel or Firestone. And congratulations again to our athletes and to the coaches as
136they are to be honored. Mr. Superintendent, sir, I'm going to put a plug in for them. They are trying to raise money for these kids to go to this event. And if anybody out there is willing to support and donate, you can contact Coach Johnson, as the superintendent said. This would be a... opportunity of a lifetime for most kids to get an opportunity to go somewhere to compete on the national level and to be able to be exposed to that. And some of these young people will be going to college as cheerleaders on scholarships if they get an opportunity. So support them, please. Thank you. Just a second, Superintendent. As a former cheerleader myself at Bookdale High School and with a nine-year-old who does competitive cheerleading, it is very expensive. So, you know, i would
137second that you know people could donate to help these this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to florida and compete with some of the best of the best cheerleaders so for akron to be put on the map this is a big deal so i'm excited for them yes and let's try to help them out so who do we contact again about donating coach johnson over at um Firestone. And at Bookdale, I'm sorry, or at Firestone because she's working across. Yes. I'm just about done almost, Mrs. Autry. It feels like we've been here for five hours. As Mother Teresa once wrote, and I'm editing this wonderful piece just a bit, people are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you're kind, people may accuse you of being selfish and having ulterior
138motives. Be kind anyway, as she goes on to write. What you spend years creating, others can destroy overnight, but create it anyway. She closes with, give the best you have, and it will never be good enough, but give it anyway. The role of the superintendent is often thought to be devoid of emotions and human considerations. However, I believe that the best decisions are made when one is in touch with their emotions. In the perfect world, This message would inspire others among us to make decisions that are true, that their values and emotions, and to hold and always strive to do the best no matter what others may say or do. I live by that every day. And I truly believe that we need to get back to being a school district with the same purpose
139that Ansel Miller and Reverend Isaac Jennings fostered in Akron way back in 1847. The purpose that created this district and set forth the model for public education used across our country was single-minded. Educate children, period. Let's keep the focus of our purpose even when some may not be satisfied or agree with these decisions. Our purpose is most certainly in the best interest of our children and this district. And I believe I'm here for a reason. The greater purpose is that to persevere against those who would discourage and spread negativity for some other purpose they may have. Our missions apparently do not coincide. Mine is for our scholars and our children. And sometimes we must forgive others who are simply acting human. The Blueprint for Excellence, the strategic plan, is moving Akron in the right direction.
140Our blueprint is our compass and our guide to build a better Akron as we empower minds and enrich futures. We continue to strive for excellence in all that we do, even though some may not agree with our methods, our path, and I understand that. But however, differences are good, and they make us stronger and a better district. We are working with the city and the new mayor, Mayor Shamus Malik, to do our part to help move Akron forward. There is, as there often can be, the chatter of negativity, but we continue to move in the right direction for our scholars, our families, and our beautiful city, a city that I am now proud to call home. Some in our community feel that closing of these schools, moving students and redistricting and restructuring creates a sense
141of uneasiness, even instability. But know that everything is going to be okay. It's all a part of the process to make us better. To the community, our parents, our scholars, our staff, our partners, our supporters. We have thought through this. Yes, there are certain difficult decisions to make, especially in the first year as a new superintendent. With so many parental and community supports that are needed for future endeavors, know that my own heart is filled with many emotions, as many of you have, and this affects all of us in one way or another. However, what I do know is that I am definitely well-equipped, certified, and as the folks in the southern part of the United States say, we're actually bona fide to run the district and have the qualifications for this position and to
142position us in the right direction. We have an awesome staff, awesome teachers, awesome scholars, awesome parents and partners, and know that beyond all of the noise, which seems to be a deliberate action to distract us from our momentum, we are moving in the right direction. Change is never easy. It is easily sidetracked in any institution or group, but change is, in fact, inevitable, and it is definitely necessary. We will continue to do what is best for Akron Public Schools, our parents, our scholars, our community to move forward so that this district does move forward. The teachers, our staff, our scholars, and all of our employees, no matter what capacity they serve, serve with passion. I do, in fact, care about them, not just as employees, but as people. as they are a part of the
143greater humanity. I'm going to remain focused on our blueprint that will move the district forward to the next level. And from the initial collaborations with stakeholders and throughout the implementation of this work, I intend to remain steadfast, unmovable. My work is a collective assignment that I am determined to fulfill, ensuring our shared successes. Thank you for your support. And Be Kind 330. We know that kindness can happen anywhere, including in the workplace. Mary Michelle Cole, a tutor at Hatton CLC, recently got a first taste. of the power of the workplace around kindness. When her overhead projector called it quits, she turned to the AV department for help. Jason Dickerson, with unwavering patience, tuned in to her urgent needs, and the very next day, John Crensham showed up in the classroom to assist. Meanwhile, building tech
144support specialists, and I'm not going to get this right, but I'm going to try. provided her with a document camera for her room. In the midst of her teaching day, she took a moment to reach out and let me know about the AV department's support that was given to her with a dose of kindness. Jason's patience, John's lighting, fast response, and Abdullah's Abdul Latif's tech support, forgive me for the mispronunciation of the name, all invited the kindness that flows through a positive workplace. Yes, people do have jobs to do, but these employees' actions are a powerful reminder that a workplace with kindness not only fosters a positive culture, but also lifts people up. Thank you, Madam President. That concludes my report. Thank you, Dr. Robinson. Are there any questions or comments? Yeah. Okay, so also
145under Superintendent's report, we do have our redistricting update. So I want to introduce to our community, to our staff, to our scholars, our parents, our partners, and to our Board of Education. This is a proposed, and that's what it is, proposed. I first of all want to say thank you. And sometimes we're saying thank you to people, but it really... can sound like lip service, but our team has truly worked diligently in trying to, they've taken their time to go with me to community meetings across this city. They have been diligently working weekends, nights, so that we're able to put this in motion. But I do want to make a disclaimer. that this plan is subject to change after we have further review. What I also want to say to the community and to our
146board is that this is not set in stone. I know that some people feel as though because it is being brought to the board that it's a done deal. That is not the case. We are still working diligently, looking at options, but when we come back as the board is not voting tonight, but as we come back with this, then we will then have updates for this proposal. But I just want to acknowledge our team and the work that they are doing. I also want to acknowledge the fact that we do have our motto, which is empowering minds and enriching futures. We have had a series of several meetings across the district at various schools, as you can see, relative to our redistricting and restructuring plan proposal. So, and there will be continuous meetings. Even
147beyond the restructuring and redistricting, I will still be going out and meeting along with our team. We will still be meeting with our community to ensure them that their voices are being heard and that the plan is able to move forward. And so the agenda, we'll talk about the purpose of redistricting and restructuring, the impact of buildings, the attendance zone overview, enrollment, and transportation. And I'm going to ask those that are going to be presenting, Justin, if you all come over here, please. Thank you. All right. So just to start off, some thoughts from our superintendent that we wanted to just hone in on. Dr. Robinson, as a superintendent, believes that we do not distinguish between schools. We want all of our students in our districts to have the same access to the best opportunities
148and to the same opportunities. He seeks to uplift all of Akron Public Schools, knowing that all of our students belong to us and this community. And so we're going to start off by first looking at what is redistricting. Redistricting is the process of establishing school attendance boundaries, looking at attendance zones, and then every residential address in Akron Public Schools is assigned in elementary, middle school, and high school. What is restructuring? Restructuring is the process of relocating or the redesign of a school or a program. Why are we proposing redistricting and restructuring? Well, we're proposing this because of imbalance in enrollment, school closure, opening, and then also operational efficiency. And all of this is connected to our blueprint of excellence. Building closures were voted on July 10, 2023. Proposed changes to facilities were presented at the
149board. For the 24-25 school year, some of the changes involve closing and moving Firestone Park, Stewart ELP, Essex ELP, STEM High School, and Ott. Who determines the scope of redistricting and restructuring? Well, a recommendation is made to the Board of Education. For redistricting and restructuring and then if the board concurs then we'll proceed with addressing the impacted communities the primary criteria that's involved when we're looking at redistricting is the geographic proximity projected enrollment building capacity and then also programmatic changes Dr. Tamia Caver, our chief of academics, will now dive in deeper as it relates to our restructuring and redistricting plan, talking about the different clusters that will be impacted. Thank you, Ms. Carter. So first I will start with an overview of all of the items that you are about to see on the following
150slides. What you will see is that we will propose that Firestone Park Elementary, Essex, and Stewart buildings will close. We're going to describe specifically how we're going to provide relief to Harris-Jackson COC. We're also going to give you an idea as to what we're proposing for the relocation of STEM high school. You will see how we will utilize the building capacity at East CLC on the middle school side and how those students can be relocated to one of our other buildings. The other building that will be considered in this plan is Robinson CLC, and we will also describe how the scholars at the current Robinson CLC will be impacted. Two of the other items that we want to make sure that we address is that in previous proposals we talked about the potential of David
151Hill and Portage Path moving clusters. And in this new proposal, David Hill CoC will remain in the East Cluster and Portage Path will remain in the Firestone Cluster. We also want to address the early learning program. As we work to close Essex and Stewart, we want you to know that at least every cluster will have at least one ELP classroom. Most of them will have many, but at a minimum, we will have ELP classrooms dispersed throughout the district in each cluster. We will identify where those locations are based on space and also to making sure that we ensuring that we meet the regulations needed for ELP classroom. Key insights from this proposal. We will make sure that we transfer, that we, sorry, translate letters for families regarding the redistricting and restructuring. We will have some
152students that will qualify for transportation based on the rules of the Ohio Revised Code and our board policy for transportation. Based on summer... programming offers students may be able to attend summer programming in their newly assigned school for the 24-25 school year which will help them to get acclimated over the summer And then in all of this presentation and proposal, services will always transfer with the students. So in regards to IEP services or ELL learners, English language learners, services always go with the students, not based on the location of where they are. Some additional key insights. We may provide transitioning services such as building tours, such as school visits for the new location. Again, to help scholars get acclimated to and introduced to the new facilities. And then at the K-8 level, we will still
153provide school transportation as I already stated. And that is determined based on the type of transportation is still determined based on their address, the distance from the school, and in accordance with the Ohio Revised Code. So first we'll look at the new recommendation for the closing of Firestone Park. Our current attendance zone shows Firestone Park right here in the middle section, the light blue section of this map. At the top, we have Mickey Bright, which is shown in the navy blue section. We have Glover CLC, which is highlighted here in red. And then in the green section on the south or in the bottom portion of this map, you'll see Voris CLC. Again, this is our current zone of Firestone Park Elementary School. David Hill is right to the right, and it is outlined in
154that box. The proposed attendance zone for Firestone Park will look like this. As you can see, there's no longer a light blue section in the middle of this map. Mickey Bright has been extended down. Voris is right there in the middle and takes a small section or small group of scholars. And then Glover has also been extended down in the red section. Insights from Firestone Park. Firestone Park building itself will be used for various purposes until the board declares the building obsolete which at that time ORC will be followed so Ohio Revised Code will be followed. In the meantime we will maintain the building as long as it is in our possession and what we mean by that is of course we will cut the grass upkeep the grounds provide the appropriate security to secure
155the building etc. Now I want to talk a little bit about the north cluster. As we started the presentation, we talked about utilization and building capacity and looking at operational efficiency, which is tied to our blueprint for success. So currently, this is the utilization of our buildings in the 23-24 school year. As you can see, Barber CLC is at what we call 40% adjusted utilization of that building. Forest Hills at 86%, Harris-Jackson is at 128%, and Cyberland CLC is at 66%. So as indicated on here, our Harris-Jackson CLC is above utilization at 128%. Hence, this is what sparked us looking at the redistricting of the north cluster to alleviate the overcrowding at Harris-Jackson CLC. Our proposed enrollment and utilization, which I'll show you the maps in a second, then adjust all of our utilization. And
156as you can see, some of those numbers will go up in increasing the enrollment at those buildings that are being underutilized. And then Harris-Jackson CLC will have an adjusted utilization of 85%. This will also include bringing back our scholars from Harris-Jackson, from kindergarten that are currently being serviced that attend Harris-Jackson, but are physically located at Essex Elementary School currently. Again, we're at 128% adjusted utilization at Harris-Jackson, and we know that our kindergarten scholars who are five and six years old are bused daily over to West Akron to be serviced by their teachers. This is the current map of that north side with Harris-Jackson being highlighted here in yellow. You will also see the light blue section for Forest Hill. You will see that Barber is in orange, Robinson is in purple, and Mason is in
157green. Again, this is our current map of Harris-Jackson CLC. And you can see that Forest Hill extends right in the middle section of the Harris-Jackson attendance zone. This is our proposed attendance zone. Harris-Jackson is still listed in yellow. Forest Hill is in blue. Barber is still in orange. We have included CyberLink on here in a tan color. Robinson and Mason are still listed here as well, purple and green. What you'll notice as has been outlined here is that a large section of that Harris-Jackson area that was previously yellow has now turned orange. And that is the group of scholars that we are proposing will have a new attendance zone to attend Barber CLC. Again, it will increase the utilization of Barber CLC and it will bring Harris-Jackson under capacity. It is important to note that
158we are trying to address only the problems and alleviate the problems that are at hand. So over our community meetings, we have been able, as Dr. Robinson said, to make changes and adjustments as needed. And one of the things that we have decided is that... The North cluster will not be changed in terms of its full attendance zone. And the scholars that attend Barber CLC for elementary school will still attend Jennings Middle School and North High School. So again, this proposal will only address the overcrowding at Harris-Jackson. However, the attendance zone for the middle school and the high school of those scholars will remain the same. So in other words, Barber CLC will feed into two middle schools. The scholars that currently are in the East area will still attend East. They'll stay for middle
159school, wherever that middle school is. And then the scholars that are now at Barber, but were formerly to Harris-Jackson area, will go to Jennings, which is what they do currently. East Cluster. The next couple slides, we'll talk about the impact to STEM high school, East Middle School, and Robinson CLC. So Robinson CLC students will be, we are proposing that we will close Robinson CLC as an elementary K-5 building, and those scholars will be zoned to either go to Mason or to David Hill. The STEM high school will be moved to the East CLC complex on the middle school side, and Robinson CLC will become a new middle school serving the scholars in the East Cluster. The current enrollment and utilization charts are listed here and as you can see the adjusted utilization of these current
160buildings range from 41% to 90%. And so again in maximizing the capacity of our buildings the new proposal will show that David Hill and Mason can absorb those scholars from Robinson and still be completely under adjusted utilization. STEM high school does fit at at East CLC, currently on the middle school side. And also that Robinson CLC does have the capacity to absorb the scholars in the middle school side of East. Here is the map currently. In green you have Mason and you have orange, David Hill is right here in orange. I'm sorry, and this is the adjusted map. My screen is a little blurry, so that's why I keep moving. So this is what the proposed area will look like. Again, now the top part of Robinson has become green, and then you can see
161that section on the top part of David Hill that is orange, and that's where they will be divided. I believe that that is I-76 as the dividing line. Key insights, again, STEM high school will be in the East CLC complex on the middle school site. Each school, meaning STEM high school and East High School, will have their own entrance and their own signage. The schools will operate separately. They will have their own school IRN, and they will have their own staff. Schools will continue to run on their different building schedules. As we know, STEM high school begins at 715 currently, and East High School begins at 805. They will continue with those schedules, which are different right now. In addition, we know that there are some shared spaces in the building. And so they will
162share, for instance, the auditorium and the cafeteria, though they will not be utilized at the same exact time. More insights. We know how important it is to try to have the schools operate separately. So we will be implementing measures such as a badge access for the adults and alarms on certain doors. And we believe that these things will enhance the safety and supervision of both schools. The building for STEM will be outfitted to support the current programming. So they will not lose the programming that they currently have. at STEM. We also want to address the question of athletics and because they are two different school buildings under the OSHA rules, they will not be able to be on the same team. So STEM high school will follow the current the same rules that they currently
163follow and that is that the scholars must participate in their home school for sports. Finally, STEM and ECLC students that are in College Credit Plus, currently we are exploring a midday bus service for scholars to be transported to the University of Akron. Kind of a shuttle type service in the middle of the day. So we are currently exploring that option. In terms of Robinson becoming a middle school, that building too will be outfitted to keep the fidelity of middle school programming for those scholars that are coming over from East. And then finally at Robinson, we do intend to keep the Family Resource Center open and located at Robinson. This is the overall map of our district. In here it has the different colors to show all of the elementary schools. However, the actual clusters of
164Akron Public Schools will remain the same under this proposal. Now I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Lash for enrollment. Thank you, Dr. Kaver. And so with the proposed changes, we realize the importance of communication to our families. And so families will receive personalized communication that lets them know where their student is, will be zoned to. And families will also be notified of their enrollment options. We heard that question come about as well. And so our two options. open enrollment and continuity will still be in effect and just to to make sure everyone understands what those two terms mean open enrollment refers to our process that Typically, as we've heard, happens in the fall of each school year. This school year, it was extended and actually went until January 15th. But open enrollment is
165a process by which our families make application to attend a school outside of their resident school. Continuity is a process by which we allow continued enrollment in a school in which a student currently attends. And so with the proposed changes, again, making sure our families understand that they have the opportunity for special open enrollment. And special just means that it's a window of open enrollment outside of the traditional open enrollment window. There's no special criteria that needs to be met. And students are approved based on capacity for enrollment. And so again, that special open enrollment window will be offered. And again, it's outside of our traditional open enrollment window. And that window will open in February is the tentative timeline. And so pending a board approval on this proposal, we will be ready to move
166forward with that special open enrollment time period. And just to, again, make it clear, our students in grades K through 5 that will be affected by the redistricting, restructuring, and so those students that are currently at Barber, Firestone Park, Forest Hill, Harris-Jackson, and Robinson, those students that will be affected will be offered that special open enrollment opportunity. They will also be offered continuity to be able to stay at the building. that they are currently enrolled in. That automatic assignment to the new building will occur. That will take place in our work behind the scenes to make sure that our students will be properly assigned to the building. For East CLC, our students that are on the middle school side, our middle school students, again, will have opportunity for special enrollment or special open enrollment. They
167will be automatically assigned to their new location. However, again, special open enrollment will be offered, as well as our students in STEM high school. They will automatically be assigned to their new location, but will also have the opportunity. to make application for special open enrollment. And now I will turn it over to our Executive Director of Business Affairs, Ms. Deborah Folt. Good evening. First of all, I'd like to have Mr. Miller come forward and be introduced. He is our new Transportation Coordinator this year. He joined us at the beginning of June, and so he has now been an active part of this process. A review of transportation for this particular proposal does include the following. The state of Ohio mandates that K-8 students residing less than 2.0 miles from assigned school buildings are not eligible
168for bus transportation. And that is following Ohio Revised Code 3301-83-13 and House Bill 110. The state of Ohio does not mandate that bus transportation for students in grades 9 through 12, but as you all are aware, therefore our high school students will continue to use the Metro bus service through the Metro passes that we provide by the district, which are at no cost to the family. New APS bus routes will be determined based on the new attendance zone, and please be advised that we are already working in the active sandbox. We have opened up 24-25 to start this process. Students who do open enroll are not provided school transportation. Safety issues will be reviewed once required bus service routing is determined. We have to do what's mandated before we go into that area. And then
169special education McKinney-Vento homeless transportation will continue to be met as required per the student. And that includes their IEP services if listed for transportation or if they are certified. or recertified because you certify every year for mckinney-vento now i'll turn this back over to dr kaver thank you so one last proposal um that one last change to this proposal is that we want to um ask the board to consider keeping i open for an additional year it was voted as a part of ltop the long-term operational plan that we would close out At the end of this school year and so one of the items that we are proposing as a part of this new Redistricting and restructuring plan is that we delay the closure of that building as we address all of the things
170that were just presented to you here tonight For additional responses or for our community members, if they have questions about this presentation, they can email their questions to this email address, which is redistrictingquestions at apslearns.org, and someone from our team will answer those questions. We now turn it back over to Dr. Robinson. Thank you, team board members, Madam Chair. Thank you for that presentation. Are there any questions at this time regarding this? Madam Vice President. Yes, quickly. Firestone Park, Dr. Caterer, you had mentioned that we will continue to keep up the building with security, et cetera. And I'll send an email so that you guys can, you know. Because we have Goodrich building that's still, we have buildings that's been closed down that's still vacant and in those communities, Rankin Elementary, when we start to
171sell properties, it being done with fidelity within the communities that they're housed, because then it brings more stress into already distressed in some cases, like when we think about Rankin and Goodrich communities. So when we were at Firestone Park. There were many community members from that area coming to me, and they were very concerned about the closure. based off of their property values and what is going to happen with the building based off of previous history when we're closing buildings. So I'm just wondering from a cost standpoint, what does that look like? Is Firestone going to be empty when you talk about security? Security, you talk about boarding it up and change on the doors, which we do with all buildings that still end up with busted out windows and things. Just for clarity. Okay.
172First of all, I'd like to remind you that as an example, the Goodrich building, the Rankin building are no longer ours. They were actually auctioned off at a public auction in August of 18. So those issues that you currently see that are broken windows, et cetera, are not under our ownership. Prior to that, those buildings were taken care of by our buildings and ground security crew, the facilities department. And occasionally we would get a call as an example that we needed to cut the bushes and we addressed it. those immediately say at Rankin. So please be aware. Now in this case for Firestone Park. One second because I want to address what you said. Because I'm very aware about 2018 and the selling of the buildings. That's why I use the word fidelity when we
173get rid of the buildings. The way in which we go about getting rid of them. Because in the communities in West Nestled, in the community of West Akron, Rankin, even though it was so, when I'm, do you understand my wording? I do. So when we're transferring ownership or when we're deciding this, sell it. I bring up this point because a community member at Firestone made a very good point. How do you determine? What are the rules by how we determine who we sell to? Because there may not be any. So I'm saying this in case they're watching. There are very specific rules in the revised code that say what a building can do once a board determines it is obsolete. The first thing that it has to look at is whether there is a qualifying
174high-performing charter school within the school district that it can be offered or leased to If there is not, then the next phase of what happens is the school can go to public auction. And therefore, as it happened when we auctioned in 2018, we had a variety of people come, tour, get that information, make very qualified bids at that time. And actually, some people refer to what they... thought they would do with the building the board then was provided that information they accepted those bids and therefore we it took us from aug september when the board approved those all the way to january to transfer those properties over to the correct owners including we had visits from the city of akron while we were doing the transfer to remind those particular new owners what vacant building
175citations and etc were as part of the city code because they then were posted so to this point firestone park is not determined to be obsolete at this time we will use it as we said for storage and other items that we will take care of during this process to make sure that as we said we keep the grass we would keep our security alarms on we will make sure that it is attended to as we would do with any building whether it is occupied or not does that help you miss jackson um i'll follow up with you i'll see what the community the people who live in those communities what their follow-up questions are thank you because i think you explained it but yeah i mean one thing that um this was a decision
176that the board decided to make prior to this administration. So when I came on, I've met with the council person from that area, as I'll be meeting with them again this week. I know that strongly they're wanting something productive to be done with that building. we do have to go through the state's process. But one of the things that I would certainly love to see us be able to work with some type of investor that could do something with the building, perhaps even housing for elderly housing or condos or whatever, because these are things that have been kind of presented. Again, I'll be meeting with them this week. But that was something that was brought, kind of brought to the table because the one thing that they mentioned was about previous buildings that were sold
177to someone else. They either couldn't afford or didn't do anything productive with it and it just kind of remained there so Working with the revised code as we have to I would also You know want to make sure that we have Certain stipulations within within the within our purview based upon the code that if We're selling this building to someone that we work to ensure that those options for them won't be there. That I think that when that contract is written, you know, and working again within a revised code and working within the means of what we can do legally. I would ask that we don't have an easy out for that to happen because it's a beautiful building, and I would hope that something could be done productive with it outside of the revised
178code and what we can do as a school district. Ms. Falk, is that something that's because that's what you kind of put the words together because that's what the person asks. But when you were stating that, I kind of got there's some straight, hard, fast things that can happen and that's not going to happen. Yes, that is correct. There are some to Dr. Robinson's statement. There are some very specific items. Now, I will. There is one other item that is not. actually in the revised code and that is a governmental exchange what is unique about firing stone park is it does sit between the library and the community center so it may be a possibility that Maybe we can look at that with the city of Akron. You can only do a governmental exchange with
179another governmental agency. The library is not one, but the city of Akron is. So it fosters a really possible unique opportunity that something could come from that. And I'm going to refer you to the Perkins property. As you remember, that also was part of another governmental exchange and is currently being developed by a developer. to housing in the area so each one is unique and you have to go through them specifically but again we still to dr robinson's statement we have to follow what the revised coast says is that helpful yes you're welcome quick question just to piggyback off of that when schools are being sold not saying firestone park but maybe you know another school down the line How can we hold that buyer accountable if it goes for public auction so we don't
180fall into what we fell in before with the buildings being condemned and then glass broken and then the city having to You know get grants or what have you to tear those buildings down I Under the revised code since it's a public auction You do have to put it out there publicly now it as I said the board doesn't have to accept the offer from the bidder. But that doesn't mean that we can't work with to find out exactly what would happen with the building. In the case of what happened in 18, I think some of the buildings, the intention was there, and I'll give you an example. I met with the buyer of... rankin and was absolutely told what was intended for that as we were exchanging the property they hoped to make it
181into a community center and what happened was i think covid and it kind of threw everybody off the rails so i don't hope that that ever happens again but again what we put in a auction i don't know how legally we can say to you as an example miss hall that you said you would do it in as a community center once you take ownership with it we could certainly follow up to see how you're doing but i don't know that we can mandate it once you take on ownership as i said we have to take the revised code very seriously it is very specific okay because i was thinking if they don't follow their word you can take back the ownership of the building and do another sale it's very very specific as to
182when when the they pay the amount to the district if the fiscal titles of property ownership actually go through the mandated process we turn over our actual titles and make them cease, and you, as an example, if you are a purchaser, then you take out new titles for property. It's a very long process, and that's why it took us almost six months to get those properties done. Okay. All righty? And then my second question is, in one of the slides, it stated the services will transfer with the students, but the teachers may not. That's correct. Is there a possibility that the teachers can? So we have to follow the AEA contract. So it's a, sorry. There's a very prescribed process. And so we have to follow that process. And that entails transfers and those kind
183of things. It's not necessarily that in all cases that they can lift and be placed. If all of us are teaching in this building and the building is not closing but they're moving to another location, then it's not as easy as just lifting and placing everybody there. So we have to follow the contract. Okay, because I received some emails from teachers concerned about that. If it's not our discretion, is the union able to make that discretion and say, OK, due to what's going on? Well, I guess I'm asking the wrong people. But you'll just follow where you are to another school versus doing all of that. Yeah, our human capital department and labor relations will work with AEA to ensure that the contract is followed. Are there any other questions regarding the presentation, Dr. Molinar?
184Yes. I have some transportation questions, especially since we had a few concerned parents and families here from STEM. On slide 35, we said that we were exploring a shuttle. And on 41, we talked about the special open enrollment period in. february but i think some of the comments that i heard from parents today was that They didn't have all of the information in time for the open enrollment and so if the information they're waiting for is this shuttle or this transportation is there an estimated of estimation of time of one we would know how stem students would get from east to Downtown and would the parents know that before the special open enrollment would close so before they speak dr. Molinar the Families were notified, or let me just say that last school year, they
185were told that the building would be, that we would have to move. And we were given an additional year, which... When I first got here, I thought the additional year was next year. The additional year is this year. So they were notified of that. The principal, I think, sent an email out to parents letting them know that things were in motion, so to speak. And that's the reason why I went. to with all of this that's why I've gone back to meet even though in some cases staff met with for example at Firestone Park I went back and had a meeting there I didn't I wasn't obligated to have one but I think it's important when we're doing this that our families have current information and that's why I wanted to go back there and
186kind of start the process over to make sure that our families knew what was happening right now So they were, it was communicated that, you know, we would be leaving the building at the end of this year. And in terms of the... and I'll let Dr. Lash talk about the special enrollment, but in terms of the transportation, this is something that we're trying to work out and provide for them. We're not obligated to do it. However, I know we're not obligated to do a lot of things, but I'm thinking about our kids and them having to travel back and forth and all of those things. So it is something that we're working on, but we don't have enough drivers and we don't have enough buses. for us to literally, and then we have other schools
187that need to be supported as well. And that's why as we're looking at this, this is not just for STEM high school, this will be for all of our high schools because we have children in all of these schools. that take those classes at the university who have to struggle to get there. And what I'm trying to do is trying to make sure that we can do something, if you heard in the presentation, in the middle of the day. So it'll be a window of time that... if we're able to do this, that we would be able to transport them, bring them, and then pick them up, but it would be during a window of time. So if my classes are outside of that window of time, then we would not be able to get
188them there and bring them back. It could be that maybe by the time we're arriving, they're leaving. Perhaps if we're able to work it out, we could get them back to school, but we wouldn't be able to do it in the morning because all of our drivers and our buses are already occupied. So this isn't just something that I'm looking at just for STEM. It would benefit all of our students throughout the district if we're able to do that. Yeah, I'm aware of our transportation. struggles, right? I sit in a drop-off and pick-up line for 10 hours a week, every single week. I'm very aware of our battles with transportation. I think specifically, though, when it comes to our STEM high school families and as the concerns that were brought out today, they're also very
189aware of the problem. We've done a great job as a district educating them on the problem of we don't own Central Howard building. It's not our building. I think what they're anxiously awaiting is our proposed solution. Because when a lot of those families, especially the juniors and the seniors, when they enrolled, when they chose and selected that school, they selected it based on the fact that it was on campus and that they could take their University of Akron classes on campus. And so I think from what I heard even a couple of parents say again today is... during an open enrollment period, they might have even considered going to early college or something like that, which is in the Polsky Building, because that is... That's not something they can do. In their... So that is
190something that I'm not sure if all families are aware. So a STEM high school family cannot open enroll into early college. That's correct. So the families that chose STEM high school, and I know that there are students all over the district who are taking the college credit classes. Right. But they did not specifically enroll in a building on campus. And so I think our families, for peace of mind. Would like to know if we had a timeline of when our proposed solution would be if it is a window of time What would that window of time be when when would we have that information for them? What type it right now? We have maybe a shuttle but what type of transportation would it be and when would they know and would they know that by
191February 1 special open and no We we could not tell them that and I'm gonna let miss Debra's speak and Justin Please come forward so that you can engage in this I'm going to let them speak. But yes, they may have enrolled with thinking that the school was that we were going to be there. But this information was communicated long before I got here that we were going to be vacating the building. So I'm not sure prior to me getting here what communication was provided and all of that. What I do know is that The program for early college, students must start in the program in ninth grade and go through. So there's no entry point into the program. If you don't start in ninth grade, then you won't be able to get into the
192program. So those are stipulations and guidelines that were set prior to me getting here. But since we've been doing this process, that is something that we have been sharing. to let parents know that that is not an option. Now, they would be able to open enroll into another high school within our district, but they wouldn't be able to open enroll into STEM high school. I mean, into the Akron Early College program. But I'll let... Okay. I know I'm supposed to be speaking this. So... As we look through the slides, we do not provide transportation for 9th through 12th grade. Is this correct? We do not provide it by yellow bus. We provide it by metro bus pass. Yeah, I'm going to finish the thought. I'm sorry. So we don't provide it from 9th through 12th.
193We provide bus passes. So that's not new. So if a child opens the roads and decides, I want to go to the pathway, I live in Firestone Park, and I want to go to North High School, those children catch the bus to North High School and come back. If a child has to go to Bookdale from the east side, this is common practice. Because we talk about equity and certain things. So this is not new of kids catching the bus to get to their schools. And so the second thing is, Superintendent, you can help me with this. The children that go to STEM and have the privilege and pleasure to take college courses, do they pay for those college credits? No. And they can graduate associate degrees? Yes. What an opportunity. So currently, If you
194go to STEM high school, you drive or catch the bus currently. Is this correct? Because I don't go to STEM. Is that how it normally works? And so. I mean, parents may bring them. Or parents bring them. So it's already trust. I just want to clarify what we're talking about. Because when we start to talk about more indebtedness, when we talk about shuttles and white glove service for one grouping. And I think it's great that kids go to STEM. I think it's great that they're getting, have the ability to get free college courses. I think one of the, because we talk about access and equity, I think something else that we're missing, and this is Carla Jackson speaking as an individual, is enforcing the kids' grit and intestinal fortitude. Because at a high school age,
195you can catch a bus. and transfer and you already have to be responsible for your transportation. So I just think that the discussion when we're spending this time talking about transportation when they already are responsible for the transportation, I understand that they went there and it was foot, they were able to walk to where they need to go. So I guess the real question is as a parent. Would I then transfer my child to another school when they're that close to having an associate's degree when I already had to worry about their transportation? And then for us as a district, something to just consider. That's why I'm dropping all this out. Could we be innovative and shape? I know you're an audience, so I don't know. I'm not trying to violate anything. Can we be
196innovative with scheduling? to where if they're going to college, can kids take Tuesdays and Thursdays their courses on college campus? And that day, they transport themselves to the campus. And just Tuesday and Thursday, they take their college classes. And Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, they go to their building. As a thought, because I don't know if this is something that cannot just absolutely happen. So just, and that's my piece. And I hear, I know it's your turn, but I hear the white glove comment, and I get that. I definitely hear that. But when the parents enrolled in there, it's because the bus took them to there. So some of them might have chosen that location. And so then... There's a Metro bus stop. I know what's taking them to STEM high school. They're taking a transit
197bus to STEM high school. So now the same kids are going to get on a different bus and they cannot get to campus. Well, maybe that's, that's the question parents are concerned. That's the question I'm hearing parents be concerned about. They're, they're getting on a Metro bus, but that Metro bus is not taking them to all of their classes potentially. And, um, The other question too, do we let other and I don't know if this is a question Do we let other students leave in the middle of the day to go somewhere? Do they do we let them get in their car and drive and live in the middle of the day? Yes, okay To get on the day to get on the bus to go to campus. Yeah, we have a current alternative We
198got bridge kids go half a day. That's the number. So we just need yes them from and I was a parent of a student that went to STEM And he was the first graduating class as my brother who I raised he was the first graduating class a STEM middle school and the first graduating class of STEM high school under the direction of Larry Johnson. And you go to that school because of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Going to the University of Akron is just a plus. It's an added bonus. I don't think really parents, all parents say, oh, I want my kid to go to STEM because they can go to Akron U or it's on Akron U's campus is what the school stands for. And that's the reason why I enrolled my brother
199into the school when he went to the high school. Again, Akron U was a bonus, you know. So, again, students from all over the district, even when I was in high school, they caught the bus to go to Akron U to take post-secondary classes. Are there any other questions for the presenters? I just wanted to give you a background on what's going on now to help with the announcement to families that they would be assigned to different places. It's called geocoding. We have to geocode all this proposal into the system. One is eSchool, which is our student database. The other one is the Route Finder program that Mr. Miller uses. We're starting to do that geocode now so that to your point, Ms. Molnar, when you would get a letter saying that your student is
200now assigned, say, from Firestone Park to Glover, we can't necessarily tell you what the bus stop is, but we'll tell you if you're eligible for transportation. We currently route, as you know, triple route our items. So when this issue came up with STEM High, Mr. Miller and I discussed with Superintendent Robinson the idea that if there was a shuttle in the middle of the day to get them around, should we also be considering the other? We have a total of 300 students that take college credit plus type classes. um and only what 30 30 from stem so is there some way in the middle of their schedule once they knew that they would speak as an example at east could their schedule be such a way that the bus is arriving say at a certain
201window and we could shuttle them back we were trying to accomplish nine tenths of what everybody wants but we need time to see what we can do and the geocoding is very complicated and it has already started Does that help? It helps, but would that information be provided to parents before the open enrollment, I guess, is the question. We're trying to work on that, so we'd have an opportunity. Because all of the STEM pathways, to Ms. Hall's point of enrollment into STEM, all of those pathways exist in other buildings already, so they could transfer to another building and still follow their pathway. So if a reason for why they enrolled in that was to have transportation to there, I don't know the bus routes. Is there currently a metro route easily from east to campus,
202and would that accommodate their schedules? Has that been discussed with parents? Quickly, the answer is yes. The goal is to have all of that information ready to be presented and communicated to our families in that personalized communication. But Ms. Debra can talk about the route. Actually, when this proposal came to our... Lead by dr. Robinson and some other discussion. I reached out to miss Dissler who is the director of Metro bus to tell her that the location of stem would be at East middle school campus and That we would need to see what could be done in the middle. So we've already reached out to Metro I don't know all of their routes and as you are aware, we can't change them by federal law But I want to see what exploration is available and
203working her staff okay thank you miss um deborah and i guess the team because you guys were here when did you all notify the parents um last school year actually we would be in this place in space where we are now um it went to board I'm sorry, Dr. Robinson. I sent it. It went to board that we extended the lease for one more year from October of 23 to June of 24. And I'm going to say it was last. like February, June? It was somewhere. I just don't know the date off the top of my head, but it was literally in a, because the board had to accept the acceptance of the extension of the lease because it altered the pricing of the lease for this additional nine months. I think it was in
204the spring, if I remember correctly. Does it sound like it was May? Yeah, it was somewhere April, May. Yeah. Yeah. Because that's when it was negotiated. Yeah. Just, it was just. When Miss Otley was here as superintendent, that I can tell you, but it was prior to you coming. Any other questions? I just want to say I was a bus student. So I know these bus routes still, I still see them. And I remember the first lineup was at 6.20 in the morning. So those were for the folks who wanted to come to school early. I know I heard a young man say he was going to have to get up at 3 or 4, and I'm wondering where he lives. Because you can get to every part of Akron and back to where you
205started in less than an hour. Way less than I would. Right. And so I'm just saying that out loud because I know what it feels like to have to catch the bus. And I think it's an opportunity for our older students who become more independent because a lot of major cities, that's what they rely on. A lot of people don't drive. But anyway, I just wanted to share that and thank the team for this presentation. Thank you, guys. Thank you. And then also as a reminder, the board's policy around redistricting, just so we're aware of it, is that it does have to come before this board three times before we would approve it. And so that is our policy. And that's a policy that was enacted during my time here on the board. Madam President.
206Yes. I will ask the board to consider it to... forego the third round simply because of the timing. There's a lot that has to be done and or a special meeting. may have to be called because of the timing. We have staffing that has to be done. We have a lot of things that have to be done. And it is not that we waited to the last minute. We've been working on this stuff. I've only been here five months. It feels much longer than that. But we really have been working since I got here. Some of this stuff came to me a month or two after I got here. We have been working consistently trying to make sure that these things happen based upon things that I inherited. So I will ask either to forego
207the third round and or to have a special meeting so that we can get this stuff done in a timely manner. Let me just say this, that... It would not be my desire to move any schools, you know, if I didn't have to. This is something that honestly... I would like to have been able to plan a year in advance, but it doesn't always work that way. And we work with what we have, and we have to make happen what we have in the time that we have. And this is the time that we have. And so trust and believe that behind the closed doors, we're flipping ideas back and forth. trying to make sure that what we do is going to be, and I know people hear this, but it's not fake with me.
208So we're trying to do the best we can with what we have to work with. I did not. asked for Firestone Park to be closed. It was closed before I got here. But it's my job now to ensure that we proceed. And so the team has been working hard, Ryan with technology. We've been trying to market the schools that we're sending kids to. A lot has gone into this, and there's a whole lot more of hurdles that we have to cross. And so I'm just wanting people to understand that this is though, because I've heard that too, that Dr. Molinar, that we just got this information. But this information was put out before I got here. It's just now coming to pass. It's just now coming to fruition that this has to happen. There are
209some guidelines that I don't really know about as it relates to the fact that kids cannot. transfer into the early college program. Those are things that were in agreements that were done years ago. That's stuff that we could certainly look at, you know, but it's going to take us some time to be able to go and look at those things, and it's not time that we have on our side or on our hand right now. But certainly, as I shared with parents in that meeting, it's certainly something I would like to look at. But I do understand... having done this work in other districts and districts much larger than this, that the pathways, they're entry points that you can get into a pathway and then you have to be already on that path in order
210for you not to delay your own high school graduation. And in this case, these kids are taking college courses, which is not only going to guarantee them a high school diploma, but it's also going to guarantee them an associate's degree. And they have to be able to complete both at the same time so that they're able to graduate on time. So I did hear that from some parents. in these meetings that we've had, which is why we're having them, so that I can hear from them. But there are some things that I'm unable to change or fix right now. But there are things that I certainly want to explore and look at in terms of policy for next year. I'll do respect superintendent. The problem is not new. I completely agree with you, but the
211proposed solution is new. And so parents, I think now are making decisions that they did not know that they would be making a month ago because a month ago, some families might have thought that they would move from central Howard to Polsky. And now. that maybe we take over an empty floor of Polsky or something like that. So now that the decision is, do I stay in my pathway at East or do I stay in my pathway at another school that offers that pathway, it is a different decision for families. And that is new information to digest and discuss with your family. May I? I'm not sure what's new, because this information was provided last school year. And so this year, I'm embarking upon this. And if the board has a different suggestion, we would
212certainly love to hear it, because we've run out of options. And so? We are going to move on because guess what we have a whole agenda that we have not even gotten to and so I Appreciate the discussion. I think it's important that we have it open and transparently like we've been doing And I would like to think that we are all on the same team moving forward for these children so that being said item 5.1 on the agenda for the approval of previous meeting minutes. So moved. It's been moved by Mr. Alexander. Is there a second? I second. It's been seconded by Ms. Hall. Is there any discussion? Dr. Molinar? Using my microphone a lot today. Yes, I have two discussion points. First is on the community reflections. I did want to point out
213that I wasn't just bragging about a beautiful event I went to. It was a beautiful event, but the purpose of me having that conversation, the significance of that reflection, was connecting that performance of current students, alumni, celebrating their dignity and their culture as promised in our blueprint for success, yet being stifled by barriers to CLC usage. So I would like to emphasize for... the record improved access to the CLCs and its connection to blueprint equity goals. Especially important, when our mayor was here, it feels like yesterday, but it was earlier today, he mentioned the CLCs. And also, as the Joint Board of Review is preparing to meet and in our legal policy committee, we're going to be discussing the CLC usage. And so I think... That is very important. And I also need to point
214out section 32.1, since this is the section of the meeting that is missing from last meeting's live stream. The live stream conversation was removed from our board agenda today at 445, but I do want to point out that I'm happy to see that that section is in the board meeting notes here. And it says, since we didn't have it on the live stream of the other meeting, Board President Autry asked for comments prior to the vote by the board. for or against approving the varsity tutors contract grant award dr molnar started to express her concerns with the package passage of the agenda item as she began to express her concerns board member sykes objected called a point of order additional comments were asked for and seeing none the role was called to a vote and
215my recommended clarification to the notes is that there was called a point of order there was no response to the point of order and we moved directly to the vote and this is just for transparency of the record of our meeting notes Thank you. Any other discussion? Madam Chair, may I just say that, of course... point of order means that everything stops and that there are questions and it stops because when i said point of order i thought that the board member may be going into conversation that actually took place in the executive session and if we're going to discuss what's in the executive session and what's the purpose of going into the executive session so since i was not asked then i could not respond by the chair and when the board members sit
216down and then the chair proceeded to ask for the vote So that's how I see it. That's what happened. Okay. And I appreciate both the comments. And what I would also say is I am not... There was no discussion between myself and the member, and there was no discussion between myself and you. That is correct. Because I am not to discuss anything unless you ask me to when I call point of order. Thank you. And I just want to acknowledge that I am not here for my parliamentary procedure. I am here because people think and feel that I... believe in kids and make good decisions about kids. So I will acknowledge that in that moment I did not address the point of order, but I bet you I would know how to address it now
217because I went home and did my homework. And so thank you. For those updates to the minutes, I'm not sure how that usually works because we've not had to do that. So I guess our note taker can make an adjustment or you can vote no not to approve them. Madam President? Yes. We had voted first and then Mrs. Mulliner came in. Yeah. No, no. I think if you check the record, the board was in discussion. Then the vote transpired after that, and Ms. Molnar voted no. And so I do not want to beat a dead horse, but so that was, is there any other discussion about accepting these meeting minutes? Seeing none, roll call, please, Dr. Thompson. Never been more happy to call the roll. Dr. Molnar. No. Mr. Alexander. Yes. Ms. Autry? Yes. Ms.
218Hall? Yes. Ms. Jackson? This is a vote to accept the amended, with the amendments, correct? That's correct. That's correct. With the amendments, yeah. Or is it? It's just to vote with the amendments added. It is to vote to approve it as the language is currently written. No, they know. Okay. Mr. Perry? No. Mrs. Sykes? I don't know. Wow, we're having a fantastic meeting here tonight at ABS. What we can do, we could, again, table this motion, go back and work on this. Ruth, I don't think you've looked at those yet. So maybe I'm teasing. She's been working on it all day. We can make whatever adjustment we need to make. Because once we approve them, then it's a different procedure. So we could table them. Come back next meeting and and make any changes that
219the board is comfortable with and then move forward I'm not glad we called roll now. I don't have a maybe on here. I have a yes or no Because I don't have that before me. I don't have what the board member said before me, so I don't have those notes to read. There's no pressure, but it's 3-3 right now. May I ask what the amendment to the meetings, may I have that read out aloud? The proposed amendment? The proposed amendment, yes. Dr. Molnar? Yeah, there was two proposed amendment about the CLC's but not importantly board minutes. Yeah that See clarification there was called a point of order and there was no response to the point of order and move to the vote So the amendment is there was no response to the point of water
220And I would accept that amendment Yes But that wasn't the amendment. That was as is. That's without the amendment. It's only 9 o'clock. Is your vote a yes or a no? Well, we're not talking about the amendment right now. What's on the table is just as it reads. That's correct. Thank you, Attorney Perry. No. So the motion fails 4-3. So if I'm understanding correctly, we're going to make an amendment and then come back at the next board meeting to re-approve these minutes. Is that correct? Is there a reason why we can't submit the amendment right now at this time and be done with this matter from this meeting? As long as, could you say it verbatim, Ruth, or write it down verbatim? i'm just adding no response to point of order that's it could you
221read it it's in it's in in its entirety miss molnar could you read it in its entirety with that edit um yes so scroll back up just stick in ourselves sorry here we go okay we're making recommended clarification was um after so the current policy has in parentheses called a point of order And so then after that would be there was no response to the point of order. Move directly to the vote. So that's the change? That is the change. Okay. So then if we could make a motion. Is there a motion to accept these amended meeting minutes? I would just, Madam Chair, just to be very clear, there was no response and no discussion to the point of order. No response and no discussion to the point of order. That's all I would ask.
222So I move to accept as they have been amended and re-amended at this point. I move to accept those minutes. Moved by Mr. Perry. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Vice President Jackson. Any discussion? I think we've had enough. Seeing none, roll call, please. Dr. Thompson. Dr. Molnar. Yes. Mr. Alexander? I don't know. Yes. So we can move forward? Thank you. Please. Ms. Autry? Yes. Ms. Hall? Yes. Ms. Jackson? Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mrs. Sykes? Yes. All right. Motion passes 7-0. Thank you. Next is our personnel recommendations. Dr. Robinson? Thank you, President Autry. I wish to recommend the approval of the personnel recommendations presented in categories 6 through 17, please. Is there a motion to approve the personnel recommendations? I move to approve. It's been moved by Mr. Perry. Is there a second? Second.
223It's been seconded by Dr. Molnar. Is there any discussion? I'll be brief. I just wanted to point out in section 6-5 and 6-6, those three positions are not new funds being added to our budget. Those are simply repurposed positions. Superintendent and I discussed this last week. We're not adding payroll to our account. So I want to make that clear for the public. We're not doing that. Those are not new add-ons. Thank you, Mr. Perry. I think it's even worth mentioning those positions for those who don't have a computer in front of them. Communications program manager, which is definitely in our blueprint and strategic plan, and a lead enrollment specialist. Any other discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. Dr. Thompson. Ms. Autry. Yes. Ms. Hall. Yes. Ms. Jackson. Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mrs. Sykes? Yes. Dr.
224Molnar? Yes. Mr. Alexander? Yes. Hallelujah. Motion carries 7-0. Thank you. Next is the approval of resolutions and motions in the consent agenda. Dr. Robinson? Thank you, Madam President. I wish to recommend the approval of the resolutions and motions presented in category 22. They are in proper format, and I move their approval, please. Is there a motion? So moved. Moved by Mr. Alexander. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mrs. Sykes. Is there any discussion? I just want to once again acknowledge all the donations we get on a constant basis. Every week we come here and see all these donations. I'm not going to read them all, but everyone from every different facet of life donates things to APS. So we should always acknowledge their generosity. Thank you, Mr. Perry. I will concur with that, especially
225during these harsh winter months. Lots of donations of hats, gloves, coats, blankets, and food for our families. So thank you very much. Also under the consent agenda is the first reading of the board policy on the school calendar. Policy 8210 on the school calendar. And also Policy 6240, Board of Revision complaints and counter complaints. Any other discussion? I'll quickly add to that discussion since we have a couple of new board members for those first readings. Policy 8210 was a NEOLA updated policy. And policy 6240 has been reviewed by staff and outside counsel. And it's a new policy, but it is related to the change in taxes. um that's happened here for a lot of our residents and i know i'm getting a lot of questions from community members who are saying things like you know
226my landlord saying my rent's going up and things like that so um 62 40 is related to taxes and then eventually potentially possibly the levy and then i also will say since i'm talking some more today um section 19.1 this item comes up frequently the contracts for transporting children we're just talking about transportation this is required by ohio revised code and so this is another example of state requiring for our tax dollars to support students who are not attending our district school for clarity but this is for the non-public okay okay thank you is there any other discussion on the consent agenda Seeing none, roll call, please. Dr. Thompson? Ms. Hall? Yes. Ms. Jackson? Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mrs. Sykes? Yes. Dr. Molnar? Yes. Mr. Alexander? Yes. Ms. Autry? Yes. Motion carries 7-0. Thank you.
227Next is our business affairs recommendations. Dr. Robinson? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, President Autry. I wish to recommend the approval of the business affairs recommendations presented in category 24, please. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the business affairs recommendations? I move to approve. It's been moved by Mr. Perry. Is there a second? I second. Seconded by Ms. Hall. Is there any discussion? Dr. Molnar. Would like to discuss section 24.7, the service contract for $1,400 for an activity at St. Anthony of Padua. This is another example of money that we are required to pay for services outside of the district by Ohio Revised Code. Thank you. Any other discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. Dr. Thompson. Ms. Jackson. Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mrs. Sykes? Yes. Dr. Molnar? Yes. Mr. Alexander? Yes. Ms. Autry?
228Yes. Ms. Hall? Yes. Motion carries 7-0. Thank you. I will brief with my president's report. I just want to thank everybody for the discussion. It's important. It's challenging stuff, but we're here to do a job for these students. And so I just want to thank everybody for that. Just remind everyone that tomorrow we do have a professional development for this board. I do want to thank this board. All seven members of this board attended a professional development last week. So we are committed to being the best versions of ourselves. And so I look forward to more. tomorrow and also at our upcoming retreat. And that's all that I have. Thank you. And next is Treasurer's Report. No report. No report. And so I believe I'm setting the standard for y'all. I believe there was just
229one committee meeting since we've last met Instructional Policy and Student Achievement. And so Vice President Jackson. Yes, and I will not be the one to hold you up, but it was a great meeting. Please click on the agenda. You will see it there. We did Instructional Committee and Student Achievement. We met on Tuesday, January 16th, and we had two presentations from college and career academies. Also, I would like the public to know that the public is welcome. They are public meetings. So the same way that you're at the board meeting, it really would be more advantageous to come to committee meetings because more discussion happens there. Also, you can engage in more detail about things. So please come check the agendas and come to the committee meetings. I would advise you. Thank you. Any questions
230for Instructional Policy Committee? Okay. There is no unfinished business. New business, redistricting proposed plan, first reading. And so that's been presented to us already. And so moving on from that. Item 31.1, there is a need to recess into executive session. And there's a motion to recess into executive session pursuant to Ohio Revised Code 1-2. I'm sorry, let me take my glasses off. 121.22G for the purpose of considering the employment or compensation of a public employee or office of the school district. And G3 to conference with an attorney to the public body concerning disputes involving the public body that are the subject of pending or imminent court action. Is there a motion? So moved. Moved by Mr. Alexander. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Ms. Jackson. Is there any discussion? Madam Chair, do we expect
231to have come back and vote? I do not expect for us to have any items to vote on, so you wonderful folks can go home. Right, so let the public know that they could go home. Absolutely. Thank you. Any other discussion? Yes, ma'am. I do have these Hero Case Steps applications for those who are in the crowd that you can take to your schools, your churches, your community. Please have your young people apply before you leave. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you. Roll call, please. Dr. Thompson. Mr. Perry. Yes. Mrs. Sykes. Yes. Dr. Molnar. Yes. Mr. Alexander. Yes. Ms. Autry? Yes. Ms. Hall? Yes. Ms. Jackson? Yes. Motion carries 7-0. Recess at 9-20. 9-20.