February 9, 2026 Board of Education Meeting

001Thank you for attending the February 9th, 2026 meeting on the Westerville City School Boards of Education. It's great to see all of you here tonight. This evening's agenda will be displayed on the screen in the front of the room. Printed agendas are available for our guests in the back of the room. You may find the agenda on your mobile device by connecting to the district's website at www.wcsoh.org. Click on our district link, select Board of Education, and then follow the Board Docs link to our current meeting agenda. There will be one opportunity to address the board this evening during agenda item 6.01. There's a sign-up sheet located on the table where you entered that, enter in the back. Each auditorium, or each speaker will have three minutes to address the board. A timer will be

002shown on the screen. And with that, Ms. Hendricks, will you please call the roll? I have to do that before, okay. Sorry. This is... Sorry. It's a little messed up. That's okay. May I have a motion to appoint Laura Hendricks as the treasurer pro temp for the February 9th, 2026 Board of Education meeting? So moved. Second. Will you take the vote? Okay. Ms. Valentine? Yes. Ms. Altman? Yes. Ms. Brown? Yes. Ms. LeBron? Yes. Ms. Meyer? Yes. And now will you please take the call? Ms. Altman? Here. Ms. Brown? Here. Ms. LeBron? Yes. Ms. Meyer? Yes. Here. Ms. Bountine? Here. Here. Will you please, I know it's a Monday, it's been a while. Will you please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. and

003to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Moving along to four district highlights and recognitions, the fun part of the evening. I am going to pass it over to Ms. Melanie Amano to talk to us about the Westerville Education Foundation. Good evening, President Meyer, Vice President Jen Alton, and members of the board. I am here to introduce a remarkable community member, though she needs no introduction whatsoever. But please welcome to the podium the co-chair for the 2025 Levee Campaign, a Westerville mom, and executive director of the Westerville Education Foundation. Please welcome Emma Nelson, who is going to give us a WEF grant update. Thank you, Melanie, for that enthusiastic introduction. Thank you, President Meyer and members of the board for allowing me to

004be here tonight to present a little bit about the Westerville Education Foundation and our mission and work. My name is Emma Nelson. I serve as the executive director of the Westerville Education Foundation, and our mission is to support Westerville City Schools by enriching the learning experience and expanding the mind of our students by funding innovative programs that advance and strengthen public education. We give money in two grant cycles per year, the fall and spring. So I'm here to talk a bit about our fall grant recipients tonight. But notably, our spring grant cycle did open today. It's open through March 6th, and all Westerville City Schools teachers, staff, and students can apply for grants. I'd like to briefly talk about our all-volunteer board of directors. It's made up of community members who believe deeply in Westerville

005City Schools and their value to the community. Our board president is Cam Pyatt. Our vice president is Jessica Diallo. We are also honored to have Superintendent Angie Hamburg, Executive Director of Communications and Community Engagement Melanie Amato, and Board President Chrissy Meyer serve ex officio on our board. Before I talk about grants, I just wanted to briefly touch on two non-grant making programs of the Westerville Education Foundation. First is Teacher of the Month and it's one of our favorite things we do just a chance to recognize outstanding educators throughout the district. We recognize an educator in every building each year. Once again Snyder's Baker is donating baked goods for all our winners. WEF is pleased to be able to provide $100 for the classroom accounts of our winners and this year we're joined by Buckeye Heating,

006Cooling and Plumbing as our official sponsor for our Teacher of the Month program and we are grateful for their support. Currently our nominations are open for Emerson, Hanby, and Whittier and they will remain open through February 15th. So if you know an outstanding teacher at one of those buildings you can go to our website or the QR code here to nominate an educator for that award. I also want to thank our district administration who always make sure they have a couple of people to come surprise teachers with us because we know that recognition means a lot to the teachers. The other thing I want to talk about is our Westerville Student Education Foundation. And that's a student group we run in each of the three high schools. On the WEF side, Tree Douglas, a board

007member and myself, had things up. And then we have three staff advisors, one at each building. We are very grateful for. They make things much easier. John Sands at Westerville North, Allie Hennessy at Westerville Central, and Ricky Robbins at Westerville South. And WSEF really seeks to empower students to collaborate, serve, and lead by addressing key challenges not only in their own buildings but within the district and their community. And in the last two years as the district launched the We Are the Ville initiative, we've been really trying to be in line with that and get the kids to recognize that they're not only rivals but also part of the same district and the same community. I briefly want to share a little bit about the work each of these groups have been doing because our

008students are truly amazing. At Westerville North, our students launched a program called Real World Wednesdays where they teach practical life skills to their peers during lunch. You'd be surprised how much fun students think it is to sew a button, tie a tie, use a fire extinguisher. And the students have really had a lot of fun with it and they're moving it to the middle schools this semester. So this Wednesday. Students from North will be going to Heritage and making valentines with students and teaching them to properly address an envelope. Our Westerville Central group hosted their first Central Clubs Fair where students were able to discover opportunities to get more involved in their building and clubs were able to show off their mission and recruit new members. This was a project our group conceived last year

009and was able to bring to fruition this year and they've already got plans to expand it. And last, our WSCF South group has been working on something they call Portrait of a Wildcat. They're collaborating with their administration and the guidance team to help co-author a link crew training program, and that's a mentorship program for freshmen in the building. They also plan to host their second annual jobs fair this spring to bring job opportunities to Westerville South students. For our fall 2025 grants, we received a record 33 grant applications and that signaled to WEF that there's an increasing need for our work throughout the district. We recognize the importance of PTOs, PTSAs, booster groups, and all the critical work they do for our building, but we also recognize funds available to give to projects vary greatly

010by building. So we're happy to be able to be a resource for all staff and students throughout the district. Of those 33 applications, we were able to award 17 grants, 5,860 students will be impacted in 13 buildings across the district, and we awarded $26,251 in grant funding, which is an exceptionally large grant cycle for Westerville Education Foundation. This was supported through our generous sponsors, donors, but also outside grant support from META. the Ingram White Castle Foundation, and the Arts Council of Westerville. We were able to fund four grants in STEM, and that was everything from coding to a garden project at Anne Hurst Elementary. We funded two projects in language and culture, including English Together, which not only supports our own English language students, but also their family. We supported six grants relating to literacy,

011including projects at both Pointview and Hawthorne that are bringing Vox audiobooks to their libraries so reading is accessible for all students regardless of abilities. We funded two projects in the arts with support from the Arts Council of Westerville, and we're excited to, for the second year, be funding the Westerville Central Arts Alive Festival. We know that's a very important tradition there, and we're excited to be able to help them keep it going. We also supported two projects in student wellness, including the Model Mentor Program. This will initially be launched in two middle schools, but expanded to all five, and this will be a mentorship program for middle school boys, something we know that's been a goal in the district for a long time. So with support from the Ingram White Castle Foundation, we were excited

012to support this project. And last, at Westerville South, a student-operated business learning lab by helping them get their student store up and running. Those were all our projects we were able to fund this year. We're very thankful for all our donors and supporters, of course, especially our presenting sponsors, Nationwide Children's and Mount Carmel St. Ann's. And if anyone would like to support our spring grant cycle, which is now open, you can visit our website or go to the QR code. And thank you so much for your time this evening. All right. Well, I would like to start by thanking the Westerville Education Foundation. As Emma said, I've had an opportunity to work with that group and just continue to be amazed by our community's generosity and also by the volunteer board members, the amount of

013time they put in. I think you'll hear that's a theme tonight. We're very fortunate to live in a community, work in a community where we have lots of people that help out and volunteer their time. So thank you to WEF and all of the board members there. And now I have the privilege, and I did not know we were doing such an animated introduction. I apologize because I'm definitely going to be showing up a little bit there, Ryan, and you're going to wish you would have had Melanie. But I have had the privilege of... This is always awkward facing this way and I'm trying to look at you. I've had the privilege of getting to work with Ryan on Westerville Parent Council for the last couple of years. And I will tell you when I

014came into the district in March of 2024 as the interim and then moved into the role of superintendent, Ryan was just one of the most helpful resources. She truly has a... connection in with all the buildings and watching her lead and guide the volunteers who are here has been amazing. The organization that goes behind our parent council here, I think most people probably have no clue what goes into that. I see what she does with it. Just everything from the advice and resources she gives them on tax filing. to helping align and making sure that all of our students have opportunities across the district. We have programs like reflections, which I'm sure you'll talk about, that she just does a really good job of making sure our entire district has an opportunity to come together,

015share best practices, and how our PTAs and support groups are sponsoring our students. We're extremely grateful. I know I speak on behalf of the board to tell you, Ryan, how grateful we are for all the volunteers who are here that represent their buildings. But I want to give a special thank you to you because I know you put a lot of time in behind the scenes to make all that so seamless. So at this time, I'd like to turn it over to Ryan Hilpert. She is a mom as well. She has kids at Central and Genoa and formerly Alcott. and I'm sure when they all graduate there will be a huge hole to fill so we're very grateful to have you and I'll go turn over to you Ryan. Thank you thank you here's the

016million dollar question does she need these? We're gonna go with it. Thank you so much for having me president Meyer vice president Altman members of the board We believe at Westerville parent council that school family partnerships that foster authentic and strategic collaboration Lead to increased efforts and experiences for our students We're also concerned about our families and our district staff having positive experiences and leading them toward their drivers for success The parent council support report that I'll share with you tonight again demonstrates just that I'm excited to recognize the unbelievable ingenuity. dedication and the time that our organizations give to our schools. As the umbrella organization, Westerville Parent Council is responsible for overseeing about 35 parent support organizations. So we have PTAs, PTOs, PTSAs, and booster groups. In that collaboration, we try to bring the

017mission of PTA local to Westerville. That mission is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging and empowering communities to advocate for all children. So as our district level PTA, we are a nonprofit. We're here to organize leadership training, a lot of the things that Angie mentioned, community building, resource development, and keep that ongoing connection for our member organizations. I'm continually overwhelmed by the way our parents and caregivers show up for our children, for our schools, and I think the numbers that we'll share reflect that. So we're pleased to share support data findings. This is fiscal year 2025. This is the 24-25 school year. We have compiled data from 24 organizations of our 35 reporting. So Westerville Parent Council and our member groups supported graduating seniors from all of our high schools with scholarships.

018In fiscal year 2025, that total was $56,750 going toward their post-secondary education. Monetary support outside of scholarship comes in the form of fundraising programs, donations to the district, donations to the school. funding teacher grants, teacher initiatives, technology support, playground improvements, field trips are a big place that our groups shine. And those donations collectively totaled $1,106,231 for that fiscal year. And I love these numbers and they're very big and we love that. But I also get very excited about talking about how much we see in volunteer hours and labor from our parents and caregivers and community members. So for that school year, our member groups provided 65,510 hours of donated time. So this is assisting music, athletics, art, theater support, literacy initiatives, student leadership, mentoring. clubs and experiences, all kinds of things for our students beyond

019the classroom as well as supporting teachers and curriculum. To put this in perspective, this year's hours of over 65,000 put at the Westerville school staff rate for our per hour rate for contracted employees is $949,895 of salary. So that's a lot. One more other way one other way to think about this It's also the equivalent of about 44 full-time staff members the work that our volunteers are doing through our groups It's amazing and I as I said, it's overwhelming to think about how we package that all in a year The contributions of these groups in our districts are very invaluable. I want them to hear that I want you to hear that though. I know everyone knows it We encourage all of our families and community members to connect with one or more of our

020groups share Whatever is the best fit for you? Sometimes it's time, sometimes it's talent, sometimes it's treasure. It is all very, very important, and we're very grateful for all of that. Thank you so much for having me. We have asked that each of our member groups provide a representative tonight to share in this recognition, because again, that is a compilation of what you all have done. You're right, this is awkward, Angie. Thank you. Very validating. So as I read off the list of our member groups if their representative is here I'd like to invite you to come on up and join us Meet the board and receive your certificate of recognition as well So we'll begin with the ELC and our special needs preschool PTA Alcott Elementary PTA and Hurst Elementary PTA I'm getting the

021feeling that we can put Anne Hurst in the deliver later pile Charington Elementary PTA Emerson Elementary PTA Bouse Elementary PTO. Mb elementary PTA I'm told was unable to join us as well. Hawthorne Elementary PTA. Huber Ridge Elementary PTA. Looks like we can set that one aside as well. Mark Twain Elementary PTA. Minerva France Elementary PTA. I think we can set Minerva France aside. McVey Elementary PTA. View Elementary PTA. Robert Frost Elementary PTA Whittier Elementary PTA We will get Whittier to them later Wilder Elementary PTA and entering middle school, Blending Middle School PTO Genoa Middle School PTSA Genoa Middle School Fine Arts Boosters So I don't see our Genoa Fine Arts friends Heritage Middle School PTSA Minerva Park Middle School PTSA Walnut Springs Middle School PTSA and our four groups from every high school, which I

022think is so cool. Central High School Academic Boosters. We will share their certificate with them later. Central Athletic Boosters. Ooh, one inter-office on the loop for both of those. Central Music Boosters. Make that three. Central Theater Boosters. All right, all four. We will be sure they get that. North academic boosters, North athletic boosters, North music boosters, Nice job! North theater boosters. And our friends at South from academic boosters, South athletic boosters, South music boosters, and South theater boosters. Thank you again. Okay, so our last recognition today as many of you know our we were supposed to actually have all of these recognitions last month, but the weather had other ideas and So we're pleased to be able to a little bit late recognize our board members as part of public education school board recognition month

023And I just wanted to take a moment to say how much I appreciate everybody standing up here And the fact that they, well first of all, we have people reach out all the time wanting to know about their salaries and think they're full-time employees and they're making like my salary. That's not the case. They're only paid for their board meetings and the amount of time they put in outside of that is extraordinary. I think some of you may have an idea to that. Most people probably have no idea the amount of time they put in. Everything from reading our updates. to board leadership meetings to set the agenda. Tatiana Brown just joined the board last month and we've already spent eight hours together going around visiting buildings, educating her about what's going on there. She

024just did a new board member session. So she's trying to catch up with all the other hours that everybody else has put in. But they do an extraordinary job. And what I can tell you, I've worked with a lot of boards over my career of 28 years. and this one is by far one of the best that I've worked with and the reason I say that They're not perfect. We're not perfect as an administrative team, certainly. But what I really appreciate about this board is they have a heart for kids. And they care about all children. And they truly want all of our children and families to feel as though they belong here in Westerville City Schools. And so we are very, very fortunate to have them doing that work. Oftentimes, you see people in

025these type of roles who maybe have agendas or they're trying to accomplish other things. Truly when we have conversations about issues and we have lots of issues we're the 10th largest district in the state so things come up they're always centered back on what's most important for the kids and I truly, truly appreciate that as a superintendent. I feel very fortunate to work for a board that does have kids' best interests in mind. But outside of just our kids here in the Westerville City School District, they're also very focused on children in general, and they are fierce advocates for public education. And I want to take just a moment to say... Public education in our state and our nation is in jeopardy right now. I know many of you know that. I say that every

026opportunity I get because it's very, very important that people hear that. And these women are constantly advocating whether it's going down and speaking at the State House, reaching out to legislators, trying to inform the community. on behalf of not just our children but all children that are impacted by public education. We know 90 percent of the kids in Ohio are served by public schools. Strong public schools are critical to our society and I just truly truly appreciate the work they do. I think as important as it is what they do for our kids here and that is why we're all here. almost just as important as what they're trying to do for public education as a whole and they are speaking up and trying to get that word out there and fighting the good fight

027for on behalf of all public students and I would just like to ask you all if you're not already to join them in those efforts because we need you right now and we all need to be focused on that goal for our public schools to continue to provide the wonderful services that we provide here in Westerville. So with that I wanted to just take a moment and recognize our board members. Vice President Jennifer Altman, Tatiana Brown, Anissa Lieben, President Kristi Meyer, and Louise Valentine. Thank you for all you do for our kids. All right. Well, that was the fun part of the night. Thank you all for being here, and thanks for all that you do for our schools and our children. We are going to move along to reports and 5.01 and first up

028we have our superintendent comments. Ms. Hamburg. Yes, thank you. Again, a big thank you to everyone that was here tonight. We appreciate you. Safe travels. I do want to take a moment to just thank everyone. Can't tell you how appreciative I was when we had to close school down for a week due to this big storm. The amount of people in our community that stepped up and went out and helped people who weren't able to shovel their own walks. Somebody left a water bottle. I don't know if they're all gone, but it's all there. If not, we'll have it for you. I just really appreciate all the people who went out and helped shovel and help get our our sidewalks and our curbs Ready for our kids to get back to the bus stops. I

029will tell you I was over at the bus garage today Mrs. Brown and I were over there on a tour along with Mrs. Dennis and I was chatting with some of our bus drivers and I they are still struggling to get through some of our streets in the district where It's very narrow to begin with and there's still a lot of big piles of snow. So we're hoping it's supposed to be 40 degrees tomorrow. So hopefully that will all melt and not be too big of a mess. But just wanted to take a moment to express my appreciation for everybody that went out and helped with that. And a huge thank you to our staff members who were in during that entire storm, plowing and salting and clearing walks and getting everything ready for our

030kids. We just really appreciate. I know Doug Swartz is here tonight to help present, and so hopefully he can. Carry that message back yet again to his team that we just really appreciate all the hard work that went into taking care of that storm. The other thing that I wanted to share tonight was I wanted to let the community know we are starting several. administrative committees so we want to look at ways now that we've gotten past our ballot issue circling back around to our strategic plan and so we'll be starting a revisiting our strategic plan committee so we can look at updates there we have an academic engagement committee and we're asking for we'll have a couple of our board members will be serving on each of these and just so the public's aware

031Basically an administrative committee can have two board members on it up to two board members So one or two if it's more than two board members, then it becomes a board meeting So that's kind of why we do it that way It's a lot of work to make it a board meeting So with our strategic plan Mrs. Altman and Mrs. Leibann will be on that committee our academic engagement committee, Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Meyer We already have an existing finance committee that our treasurer, Nicole Marshall, runs, and we have Mrs. Altman and Mrs. Valentine on that committee. We've done a lot of work in the legislative space with the last budget. We want to continue that momentum. We have a lot of really engaged community members in that space, so looking to move forward with

032the legislative committee, which will be Mrs. Valentine and Mrs. Brown. Our safety and security. Obviously, that's one of our top priorities in the district. Mrs. Lieben and Mrs. Brown on that one. And our facilities committee. So many of you know we had a bond issue as part of our ballot issue last fall that was not successful. We know that we are going to have credits coming up from the state within probably the next couple of years. Some credits that we've been able to bank as part of their early assistance program. And so we want to revisit and get that facilities committee back together. They did a lot of work back in 2019, but looking at kind of going back and looking at where we are and Mrs. Dennis and Mr. Swartz are going to be

033kind of sharing a little bit of a facilities update today, but we have lots of work to continue in that space. As many of you are aware, we have a lot of really old buildings. And so. There's just a need to make sure that we're constantly in an ongoing continuous plan on those facilities to make sure we're taking care of them in the very most efficient way possible. And then finally, and I'm not sure if I said, but Mrs. Valentine and Mrs. Altman on that committee, and then just an internal committee. with working on our policy will be Mrs. Meyer and Mrs. Liebens. I know you've already done some work. We have found over the last couple of years with all of the legislative action that we're seeing at the State House, that translates to

034lots and lots of policy updates and changes. for us and so it's really important that we have the board's voice in that because they are the ones that approve and own the policy and so we want to make sure that we have some good dialogue there. Thank you Mr. Reeves for heading up that committee. So really excited to we'll be talking more about this as we get these up and up and going but excited for this work ahead and I'm happy to answer any questions if anyone has any. Thank you. I just have a quick question. I know you had mentioned that the community could be involved in these two. And so I know we're not there yet, but over time, where could they look to find how they could get involved on these committees?

035Yeah, we'll have information on our website and in our newsletters that go out. We're actually working right now on, we talked at a previous board meeting about our newspaper that we'll be mailing out. So we're excited about that because that will reach. people who don't currently have kids in school so there'll be information in there as well thank you thank you okay um moving along to 5.02 we have the five-year forecast miss hendricks is going to help us tonight with that so i'm going to turn it over to you Okay, so Nicole, again, this was supposed to happen in January, but here we are, and Nicole is now out. So she took her presentation and then did voiceover, so we'll play that presentation for you, and then if you have any other questions, I can

036try to answer those. Thanks. We are going over the February 9, 2026 financial forecast. The purpose of the forecast is that it is a valuable long-range planning tool. It serves as the district's basis for signing the 412 certificate. That's Ohio Revised Code 5705.412, which requires certification for appropriations measures, collective bargaining agreements, wage schedules, contracts that are more than $500,000. and any long-term contracts. And so we use this as a guide for whether we're able to sign those things and approve those things. And it also provides a method for the Department of Education and Workforce and the Outer States Office to look at districts and whether they're in any kind of financial distress or anything like that. There were some new requirements for the forecast. That was a change in the most recent state budget bill,

037House Bill 96. It used to be it was a five-year forecast. Now it is a current year budget plus three-year projection. And in the first year this year, it was required to be filed by October the 15th, which we did this past October. And next year, it will be the initial forecast filing period will be August 31st by August the 31st. And that's beginning in 2027. We also have to update projections no later than the end of February, which is what we're doing tonight. And then we will continue presenting five years to the board. The board's passed the resolution to request that we do that, as we believe that this is a valuable planning tool and it's prudent for us in order for us to adequately plan that we do look at all five years

038of the projections. Both forecasts, even before and this one now, include three years of actual information for historical purposes. The forecast structure includes only the general operating fund. And for lines 1.01 through 2.08, those are our revenue lines. So we have different revenue categories and some other financing sources. Expenditures are lines 3.01 through 5.05. with different expenditure categories and then other financing uses. And then we have 6.01 through 15.05, which is where it shows all of our fund balances and reserves and changes in fund balance. Just a reminder that the district's fiscal year runs from July 1st through June 30th. So that's how we plan. Challenges to this forecast and pretty much every forecast that we do. We have legislative changes that continue to be a good question mark. We're continually dealing with the state

039legislature, also the federal government making changes around different things. State funding and federal funding, those things continue to be unknown. We do have a two-year state budget that's in place so we know what to expect through fiscal year 2027. However, beyond that is anybody's guess. And just a reminder that we do do the estimates based on the best information we have available to us at the time this forecast was prepared and that that information could definitely change going forward. Different assumptions change going forward, but we do what we can with what we have to work with. The biggest changes from October 2025 forecast that was approved by the board was the new earned income tax was approved by voters in November of 2025. So those estimates have been worked into this forecast based on estimates

040that we received from the Department of Taxation. We'll see partial collections beginning as early as fiscal year 2026. Increased health insurance premiums, our medical plan. Increased premiums were 13.8% for calendar year 2026, and that's all been put into the forecast. And then state funding is slightly down due to updated student data. The Department of Education and Workforce has updated all of the payment reports with current year student data, and so that's down slightly from what we had in October. Looking at all of our revenues, we are seeing a slight increase through the forecast period, and that is due to the new earned income tax beginning in fiscal year 2026. There will be a slow phase in of collections. We have a very small amount being collected in fiscal year 2026. We don't anticipate full collections

041until fiscal year 2028. And then state funding, we continue to see reductions from the updated formula that is making our community look wealthier, but not updating what does it cost to educate students and how the state is calculating some of the categories within those funding formulas. So and then just a reminder, we had that one time transfer that was not really revenue, but it was we did a transfer out. that was to go with the bond issue from November of 2024, so that it would be a no new millage ask of our community. However, when that wasn't successful, we transferred that money back. That's not really revenue. I just want to make sure that that's pointed out on this presentation. Revenue uncertainty, state funding continues to be uncertain as we only have a two-year budget

042and we're not really sure what comes after the first two years of the budget. Homestead and rollback continue to be up for debate with the state legislature. They did make some changes with House Bill 186. They're changing who pays or who receives the non-business credit. I don't think we'll see a lot of changes in revenue from that, but it shifts who's paying the tax. But I do know that this conversation continues to happen with homestead and rollback. We don't see rollback on new levies after 2013, and the state reimburses us for those rollback amounts. So we'll continue to see that come up for debate with the legislature. So we just keep an eye on it. And then with property taxes, there's several properties that had values reduced after the tax rates were set, which results

043in a direct revenue loss for the district. And so we continue to monitor that as we... look at projections. And then legislation affecting property taxes. There was five bills that were passed, signed into law by Governor DeWine in December that are working their way through the different counties to see how that's going to result and everything with mostly impacting 20-mile floor districts. But we continue to see the legislature talk about property taxes and what that will look like. I will share this slide on every presentation that I do as long as our state funding formula continues to be out of balance. This shows what our state share calculation has been since 2021 versus what our local share calculation has been. As you can see in 2021, our state share was 43%. Today is fiscal year

0442026. We are at 18%. And then next year we will be down to 11%. And that is already in law because we have that second year of the biennium that's in there. So we estimate that will be about 11 percent. And just a reminder that the new formula we have from House Bill 96, the current formula we're working in, continues to fund us based on what does it cost to educate a student in fiscal year 2022. It does not account for any inflationary increases or anything like that that we've seen over the last four years. Yet they continue to update the local wealth factors, which how wealthy does our community look and what is the local share versus state share? And so that's why we have that out of balance formula. Shifting gears to expenditures,

045we are anticipating expenditures to increase annually with inflation. This forecast does include those reductions that we already made after the November 2024 levy failure. We do not have any increases for adding anything back after those reductions were made. And then just a reminder that we do have that one-time transfer out that we did back in fiscal year 2025. And with that transfer of that fund balance, that portion of it, We actually moved expenses out of the general fund. So capital outlay, you can see it really well in there. Instead of having expenses in that line item, we will be paying for it out of the funds that we transferred out. And the idea behind that was to more transparently allocate resources based on how we were spending them, as suggested by some of our lawmakers

046during the budget process. And so that's why we did that. And that's why you see that like that there. Expenditure uncertainty, we continue to think about staffing needs and the educational needs of students, keep an eye on the economy and inflation, healthcare costs, and then legislative mandates. The state really enjoys adding new requirements to us without funding us for them, so we have to continually keep track of that and what that looks like. This is a snapshot of the overall forecast period. You can see we have the three years of actual fiscal year 23, 24, and 25 there. Just a reminder that we had ESSER funds that covered some expenses during this time. So we moved expenses out of the general fund and paid for them out of the ESSER funds while those funds were

047available. And then once those funds were exhausted, we brought those expenses back to the general fund. ESSER funds were COVID-19. 19 pandemic relief dollars that we got from the federal government. And so that's why you see some things there that just look kind of just looks different from the rest of the forecast. And then the two peaks that we have there, those were transfers. So where we transferred money from 24 to 25 and then back in 25, we transferred out to the capital projects fund. And so that's sort of an anomaly in that year. But that's what that's there for. And then you can see with the new earned income tax that began in tax year 2026. So if we look at this, we're seeing revenues in the green line graph and then expenses in

048the red line graph. And then our unreserved fund balance is the blue. bar graph. And so you can see our revenues and expenses are aligned pretty well through fiscal year 2029. And then they start to separate. And so that's what we want to keep an eye on. We'll have to continue addressing, you know, as revenues don't keep pace. With our inflationary increases and expenses, this forecast projects on average our revenues to grow by about 2.2%. And again, that's a direct result of the new earned income tax. And then our expenses to grow by about 3.6% on average. So as those two don't come together, we will have to start thinking about how to make those align more if we don't see a growth in revenue during that time. So that's just something we want to

049keep an eye on. Looking at federal funding. We are anticipated to receive about $7.5 million in fiscal year 2026. That's what our current allocation is. And you can see the breakdown by each of the different programs that we have. These are all entitlement grants, which means that we receive this money from the federal government based on our student demographics. So looking at how many are students in our special education and. Title I is usually based on our economically disadvantaged numbers. Title II support is supporting effective instruction that's also based on student demographics and then Title III and you can see all of the different categories there. There is nothing to tell us if we're going to continue to see this past this year's allocation. I think that everyone knows that it's been no secret that

050they are trying to, the federal government is interested in abolishing the U.S. Department of Education that oversees all of these programs. And so we don't know what that will look like going forward. There's talk about returning that money to the state. And then there's some conversation around how the state might. utilize those funds. Not sure that they'll use them in the same way. I've heard talk of block grants and what that looks like. So the important thing to note here is that we have not updated the forecast for any changes for any of the outer years going forward with this. Until we know what will happen, it's hard to predict what that would look like. Should this money go away, we would have to want to regroup and have a serious conversation about how we

051would continue providing programs based on the funding that we have available. This would be a huge impact to our overall budget if this funding was to just go away in a year's time. So something to keep in mind. All right. And that concludes this presentation. Thank you for listening. So I do have one update since she did this presentation or put this together a couple of weeks ago. Last week, Congress did pass the education budget. The proposed cuts to the federal funds for K-12 were rejected, and we can expect to receive similar funding for calendar year 20, well, their calendar year, our calendar year, fiscal year 27. The grants that they were looking at, those first two, that IDEA-B and Title I, they weren't looking to cut. All the others basically on that list, they

052were looking to eliminate. That would have cost us about a million dollars next year. So we can count on that. The legislation does not halt the efforts to shift the Education Department to other agencies or to further diminish the Education Department. So beyond 27, we don't really know what will happen. But we do know, at least for one more year, that we will continue to get similar funds for the federal grants. And I did see that, so thank you for raising that. I didn't see, though, and maybe you know more about this or my colleagues do, if they're still talking about block grants, because I know they sent a block grant to Iowa, and that as... Ms. Marshall said could really harm us if it goes as a block grant to the state. That is

053basically putting all the control in the state's hand as to how they want to then divvy that out to school districts. We have not heard any more about them doing that in Ohio or in other states at this time. Okay. Thank you. I have one other question, too. There was a slide up there that talked about changes in balance, and I know we've seen that before. And, you know, the blue bar graph, it showed our unreserved cash balance, and I know we have a policy of 90 days cash balance. And so I'm wondering, because we didn't have the numbers up there really, at 2030, are we at 90-day cash balance? So we are not in year 2030. We do not meet the 90 days of operating expenses. 90 days in 2030 would be about $66

054million. And our unreserved cash balance in that year is being shown at about $55.5 million. So we're about $10 million short of that target. But with many of the unknowns, projecting revenues and expenses five years out is very likely that these numbers will change. But it's definitely something the board and leadership will want to consider and keep an eye on. Thank you, I don't know are there other questions This is just to clarify for everybody. So the forecast remembers the general fund, right? And so I'm just wondering if you can give people a sense of okay. Well, there's a general fund but like what else is there, right? Sure. So general fund is by far our biggest fund where our taxes and state foundation money is accounted for. There are other funds like your debt

055service fund, your capital projects fund, bond funds for the bond that we passed several years ago where you account for that. There are also what we call student activity accounts. So that's your 200s and 300s. So basically all of your extracurriculars, groups, your theaters, your athletics. Those kind of things each building principal has an account where they keep some fundraising when PTAs make donations to help fund things at the building level And then you have your 400 funds which are your state grants We don't have too many state grants and then your 500 funds are your federal grants So that's where all our federal money is accounted for Thank you Any other questions or comments? All right. Thank you So moving along to 5.03, our facility master plan report, and welcome, Ms. Dunness. Good evening,

056President Meyer, Vice President Altman, members of the board. Tonight, Doug and I, I'm inviting Doug up also, are taking an opportunity to share with you the status of the 2019 capital improvement bond projects. I think it's important that we start the review of where these projects started. To note the 2017 Facilities Master Planning Committee. I know that Superintendent Hamburg shared that we are reviving a facilities committee. Part of that work will be to look at the Facility Master Plan as a whole, but it did have some roots previously, largely focused on a Facility Master Plan. The facility master plan committee at that time comprised of 19 community members, staff members, parents, business owners, partners within the community, along with members of the executive leadership team here in the district, the superintendent at the time, and

057a couple of board members at that time also. We sought... I'm seeing traffic now. It's not working. There we go. We sought feedback at that time also from our community by doing a thought exchange. This thought exchange had just over, just under 1,700 participants, but they did provide over 51,000 ratings. So it was different concepts and thoughts. What did people think? And they were able to rate them. You can see the responses were broken down by the school or their connection to the district there on the right-hand side. The outcome of that facility master plan committee was what you see here on the board. I'm sorry, on the screen. In 2019, April 15th to be exact, the Board of Education established the scope and timeline of the district's facility master plan based on recommendations from

058that committee. The plan on the screen is what was developed, the importance behind the development of this plan. was to complete projects beyond patchwork building projects. So oftentimes we go in, we can do little things here at a time as money is available. These projects are whole building when you think of that. As a result too, it was focused largely on the buildings that were 50 years or older. And it was to enhance also the teaching environments for our staff members and for our students. The project specified in the first five years of the facility master plan included a new elementary school, a new middle school, renovations and additions at Anhurst and Whittier elementary schools, renovations at Hawthorne, and then some infrastructure updates at Emerson, Hanby, and Longfellow, along with safety and security updates district-wide.

059We talk about funding mechanisms, as we just covered with Nicole's five-year forecast and then also with Laura's questions. Our facilities team, which is largely Doug and I, and then our team over at the maintenance buildings and grounds, we have a few areas that we are able to use for funding. One of them is the general fund. It's limited. It really covers a lot of the design work, architects. permitting, those types of things, along with limited projects. Thinking like, I replaced wireless mics in our theaters more recently to make sure each of our theater, our high school theaters had the same. Number available to them then we have our PI funding which is our permanent improvement fund. That's where we replace district vehicles So vans buses our white fleet, which is our maintenance buildings and grounds

060fleet And then AV upgrades technology pieces in classrooms along with district wide. We also have music equipment furniture the certificates of participation Financing is paid with our PI dollars and building and site projects And approximately 75 to 80% of the PI building and site funds are applied to HVAC roofing and site work related projects. So you also think additional paving, some playground pieces. HVAC is our biggest number of that money. And then we have certificates of participation funds that we utilized for the South High School renovation project, plus district-wide camera and access control enhancements as well. So buildings that were within that first phase of the Facility Master Plan, the bond money paid for those safety and security upgrades. Everything outside of that was COPS funded. And then the bond funds, like I mentioned, it's

061just repeated information. Good evening Greens forward Okay, so there have facilities construction Commission our partners if you will so we talked about all the funding mechanisms so Part of this is you enter into agreements with the OFCC Ohio facilities construction commission, but why do we do that? In the case of Westerville, we entered what is called the expedited. I'm going to go a little in the weeds for some of the newer board members and for the public. So, again, we partnered with them and signed an agreement with what's called the expedited local partnership program. That's a program in which schools, they fund, they co-fund school construction. They do it through a wealth and equity disposition of their funds. We have not come up to bat yet, so to speak. So we can choose to do

062on our own. discrete portions of the work. And that is what the board did. Everything Carrie just walked you through was there was a committee, there was structure. What are the priorities of the district and what do we think we would want to entertain undertaking in this quote unquote discrete portion with the state? So what this outlines is kind of the process that went through and some of the forms this board or the body approved at that time. So again, as Carrie alluded to, there was an overall facility master plan agreement that took place in 2019. just after the November 15th date she shared earlier, which was also after the bond was approved. And that's critical. The state will not make an official agreement until you've got your money, so to speak, for this program.

063Expat Local Partnership Program, also on 2019, there's that discrete portion. So she outlined that in terms of the two new schools, the renovated five schools, safety and security, and some other components. The modified agreement, again, as it goes along, you're constantly designing, look at estimates. You're not stagnant. We took a picture in 2019, what are our needs, what are our wants, but we're constantly evolving. Superintendent Hamburg said, even on the legislative side, we have to react to it, so do these projects. So we amended the agreement for things we found, whether it was financial, higher bids, lower bids, different. different makeup for students, et cetera, in 2022. And then at the bottom there, we're going to talk about at the end, there's something called the Classroom Facilities Assistance Program. That is the main program of

064the state organization. That is where they come in. And once schools are eligible to participate, you can choose to update any and all remaining facilities in your district. You have to raise your portion of that money. But what's important to note, the ELP program, the state essentially has a promissory note. We didn't get any money from them. But we are eligible for $0.35 on the dollar for every dollar that was spent in alignment with their program. Right now, it's a little over $25 million, plus or minus. I'm looking at Laura just to see what's somewhere around there. So if and when we become eligible for CFAB, we're going to talk about that at the end, we would receive that check. And that would defer our cost for whatever part of the CFAB or whatever other

065buildings we want to partner with them. So they would put their money up front, starting with the credit, and then they would fund 35% of anything else we agreed to as part of Phase 2, we're calling it. So with that, I'm going to turn it. I think it might be still me. Nope, it's Ms. Carey. All right, you're stuck with me for a little while. We're going to walk through all the projects. As was said in the beginning, and as I think the superintendent said, we're going to give you a refresher course. What did we buy? What did we do in phase one? And more importantly, maybe, what have we done since the last board presentation, which was in late 24? So again, for some of you, this will be repeat. For some of you,

066it'll be new. And more importantly, it'll tell you where we've landed now. So in no particular order per se other than when they were completed, Anhurst Elementary. Anhurst was the first school that was completed in this program. It was, as Carrie said earlier, it was a renovation and an addition. The renovation was focused mostly on the fact this was an open classroom type school, meaning there were no walls, interior walls for the most part, between classrooms. So that was one of the main things this project attempted to address successfully, I should say. It also included an addition, seven classrooms, a prep room for teachers, a small group room, and what's interesting on this school, it has what I'll call the knuckle. that kind of acts as a transition between the old and the new, and

067that houses essentially a play structure, an interior play structure. What's important to note on all these projects, our predecessors, as well as that committee, did a really good job of undertaking and assigning and developing a theme, an inspirational theme, and you'll hear me talk about that with each one of these projects. In the case of this school, it sits next to a metro park, Sharon Woods. As such, its theme was a park in the woods, or a school in the park, a school in the woods, sorry. And so as such, many of the design elements inside, including that play structure, attempt to emulate and correlate that into the design. Finishes, colors, patterns, all that also emulates as you walk through the school. It also received, and you'll hear this on all these, Carrie talked about

068security and safety upgrades. This one also received what we call our security entry standard protocols, meaning the office was renovated, partly relocated, so all the bells and whistles, access control. If you've gone to any of our schools, you get buzzed in. Same with this building. If you've never been there, you show your ID. All those special items are part of this school as well as all of them that we'll talk through tonight. Next up is Manila, France. Manila, France, as it says, opened in August of 2022. And I've neglected to note on the last one. So not this project, as well as the last one, is bond funded. But you'll hear me notice note in a few few moments on some of the later schools. Not all of them are part of the ELP program.

069Andhurst is, meaning there's part of that 35 cents on the dollar credit, as well as Minerva-France and a couple of the other is the latter schools that Kerry made note of. I'll mention it to you so you know are not part of the ELT program. So Minerva-France is part of the ELT program. It opened in 2022. A couple of interesting things to note, especially for, I didn't even know this when I first joined here, the land that it sits on. was part of Minerva Park Country Club or golf course. That was bought by MI Homes. They originally prescribed or envisioned there'd be a school on this site, but how they convinced the board. Essentially, it was a land swap. We got this land for free, but over 14.7 acres. But the board gifted or donated

070to MI as a developer about one acre along Farview Road, which if you knew it back in the day was not very wide, was not much to speak of per se. So the village and the county required to be enlarged given all the bus traffic, the increased residents with cars and whatnot. So for one acre. We got 14.7 acres just to share with this board. So pretty good deal on the part of my predecessors. That also enables us to build the middle school that we'll talk about in a second. In terms of inspiration, just to share, this site, both where the homes and the school are, was the Minerva Park Amusement Park. Now this was 1895, so there weren't giant roller coasters, there weren't all the things that kids think of today. There's a small

071pond there, so there were boat rides. They had a large structure, they played cards, danced in, live music. It was that kind of quote-unquote entertainment for that time period. This structure, similar to what we talked about at Annhurst and elsewhere, attempted to emulate the history of that park. So you'll see in that turret, or the eight-sided structure, looks like a three story element, that mimics or emulates similar turrets that were on the original music parts structure where the gaming took place, the cards and the music and whatnot. Also in this building there are music motifs. I know in the ceiling of the student dining there's the outline of a guitar emulating the fact that live music occurred on this site. There are murals and other things to the historical reference of people and places on

072this site. So they did a really good job, as they did in all the schools, making sure that theme is carried through. Important to note on this school is it really created the baseline. Both Annhurst and more importantly here created the baseline for everything that happened in the other elementaries that were renovated. What were we going to have programmatically in terms of standards for classrooms, technology in terms of interactive teaching monitors, again, the safety and security elements, materials, even the flow through parking and whatnot. This really created a baseline, and actually as we talk about strategic plans moving forward, this will be something we need to revisit now. Talked about that picture in time. This is an amazing picture in time, but it's now six, seven years old when it was designed. So we'll still

073use it as a baseline, but it's always a moving target. But I just share this really did help us moving forward through this phase. So the other new structure, the River Park Middle School. I made reference earlier. It sits on Farview. So again, it benefited from that land swap. It is also a bond funded project and part of the ELP program. So part of that 35 on the cents credit, we get back from the state eventually. Couple things about this the inspiration for this site. It's a slope site. It's kind of a wooded site It was originally part of Hawthorne Elementary. So the board already owned it. That was nice. There was no cost here to Procure land but cost obviously develop it its main inspiration was nature. You'll see that a lot in some

074of these schools So I'm sure I know all the board members have been in there. So you've seen the use of natural light. You've seen some of the tree motifs, some of the murals, some of the even inspirational with the athletic athletes and whatnot. This one does a really good job, again, of trying to implement that and introduce it to the building. The photo we chose was just to emphasize kind of the use of natural light or the introduction of natural light through all the glazing. This, of course, is the front corner of the school. That's the gym, the two-story structure. even though the gym, as you know, is recessed about 20 feet down into the earth. You can't see it all from there, and then the bus drop off there. The overall design, which

075was unique to this building, included a grade-level teaching pod arrangement, meaning instead of having a science wing, a social studies wing, English wing, we have grade components where there's a science room, an English room, a math room, some supporting classrooms by grade, by pod. So as you walk through the building, you wonder, why is there a science room here and a support room? And there's one down the hall. There's one on the first floor versus the second. All three grades have their own teaching pod. And then, of course, they share art, music, gym, cafeteria, all the things you're used to. The other picture we noted just for kind of a fun reference. So it's the athletic concession building that's on the football field, athletic field that is built behind Hawthorne. If you know the site,

076there was an adequate land behind Minerva Park, but they're literally across the street from each other. This building, the field itself was completed in 2024. Again, the school in 2023. The concession building was completed in 2025 and the painting, just like the note, was undertaken. We hired a former graduate of Westboro Schools, Sophia, I was saying her last name right, Swanson? Thank you. I hear her back, Swanson. It's important to note when she was a student, she actually was hired to do the motif for the mascot on the Walnut Springs Middle School concession building, which this was based on, so they have very similar structures. So Whittier Elementary, now we're getting into some more of the renovated ones. Whittier opened in 2025. It is also a bond-funded project that is part of the ELP project,

077so it's going to receive that $0.35 when we become eligible for what's called CFAB. This was renovated over multiple summers, so the board had to award two contracts for it, but we had construction. three summers plus in terms of that school. So the teachers and staff lived through a lot of opportunities as we renovated that school. A special note, as many of these do, it has what are called PBLAs. project-based learning areas. So you'll see these here, you'll see them at the South High School, you see that many of the renovated or new schools and those are kind of flexible open spaces and many of the schools this one has it also. Again I got an updated main office that aligns with our security standards. Again I have the teaching monitors as was the case

078of all these renovated schools in terms of interactive teaching monitor in the classroom and then for what we call mechanical electric plumbing. IT infrastructure all that stuff that's behind the walls that with its expensive that we never really pay attention to What's important to note in these pictures? Why do we put these two up here on the upper left since the last time we were here? We completed the renovation of the kitchen both here and two other schools With all three schools, and I'll get to the other two in a second, it was a project that I'm happy to say was co-funded by our food service department. They saw the initiative, which was part of the master plan, and said, hey, we see the funding, we see what was planned, can we take this to

079a little higher level so we can increase our flexibility and return on investment of staff and use of facilities in the district and how this kitchen functions. So it was elevated to what we're calling, they're calling, a semi-autonomous cooking kitchen. So before this kitchen and some of the others, a lot of or all the food for the most part was brought over from south or elsewhere. So cooked off-site, centralized, if you will, and then brought to the school. We now have a model where they can go slowly and they're slowly teaching their staff as they learn the equipment that they just started in the fall and trying to get to the point they can be at or near capacity of being self-sufficient in terms of the use of these kitchens. In the case of... This

080one, what's important to note, it actually received a new walk-in cooler. It did not have one before. You'll see something a little different on the other ones. It also has, you can see there, a heating well and cold well, serving wells. So you'll see those a lot of times at catering places. We now have those. That's really expanded their ability, obviously, to preserve food, save food, and expand the types of foods they can serve. The other picture, that's in the corridor at Whittier. And the original, you heard me say multiple times, a theme, a theme, inspiration. That's the case here. Their mascot is an eagle. They go by the acronym SOAR. And so it was opted originally to have the whole idea of kind of nature. In this case, sea or water, planetary or space,

081desert. and forest. So you see that all through the building. The mural though, it's important to note, wasn't implemented until 2025. We didn't want to do it until the building was essentially done so we wouldn't damage it. So with the principal, A.J. Hoffman, he put together a committee of teachers and a few students, if you will, kind of on a secondary basis. They got to see prescribed views and voice their opinion. A committee was put together. What does that look like in terms of implementing that in a school? We know the vision. or the inspiration, how do we actually implement and put on the wall. So this is actually when you walk in you can see it has the word sword, it's got kind of blue. balloons and whatnot implementing kind of the sky motif.

082There are astronauts farther down. There are students on bikes. There's students, there's different ably bodied students in terms of how they're shown whether they're in a wheelchair, whether they're running, whether they're climbing. So we tried to make sure and even their ethnicity in terms of how they present themselves with how they dress and how they show up to school on a daily basis. We tried to make sure different students at that school in particular were shown in the type that we're representing without being too specific when you see children throughout. So that's actually still underway. I know most some of you just toured the building. It's on for kids talk to the artists the other day. She was the original interior designer and she's on track She's saying April I'm gonna say complete in May

083just to be safe But she's saying she's on track just after spring break to be done with the work We're almost through the buildings Okay, Hawthorne very similar to Whittier also part of the bond issue also part of the Elk credit Very similar in its update, other than it has no addition. Whereas Whittier had a new art and music addition, Hawthorne has no addition. It was strictly a renovation, which includes, similar to Whittier, reprogramming some of the classrooms into those PBLAs, those project learning spaces, into other group rooms, into ADA restrooms, which we didn't have. So very similar to Whittier, except the addition. It's all complete renovation. It has the same secured entry features, all the other same features, mechanical, electric, plumbing, IT upgrades, interior finish, everything got repainted, new flooring, etc. Very similar pattern.

084It also received a kitchen. So just like... Whittier, same way, co-funded with food service. They paid for the equipment. Has hot and cold serving lines. Here they already had a walk-in cooler, so they didn't need one. But same protocol and same desired outcome. A little different layout. Kitchen walls were existing in the first two projects. The goal is to make it as autonomous as it can be, and so it's heading in the same direction. as Whittier. The other picture I put in there, this part was completed but I wanted to make note. This is the student dining room. On the right you can't even see it. There's a white wall, it's blank. If you've been in that school before, I think it used to have kind of the world painted on it, a motif of

085the world, a map if you will. Behind that is what was the stage. to the student dining. It had some loose use, storage, a little bit this, a little bit of that. What occurred, remember we talked about this design, this whole project is always a moving target. The original facilities master plan said give them two special learning classrooms. Three years after that, they realized as student populations were changing, the makeup of the students and the need, they had no room at the end. And we had already built those rooms. So we opted. We still had bond funds and opted. The stage was supposed to get renovated, but mostly just refreshed. And because we'd had good bids, we opted to go ahead and create two more SLC classrooms. The board already approved those contracts. The work's

086done. You can't see them, but they're behind there. So I just wanted to make note that we have done that. A special note, if you notice, it's kind of hard to see in that picture, can you see those round globe lights? If you've never been in there, their theme is space, like outer space. So those are the planets in our spectrum starting from the sun backwards to Pluto. Okay, Emerson Elementary. Emerson Elementary is the first of the projects that is bond funded and not part of the ELP program. The reason it's not, it's a wood structure and so we talked about OFCC has rules and regulations. One is they don't co-fund wood structures which tends to be the older buildings. This, of course, is the oldest continuing operating school in the district. So instead of,

087hey, let's renovate it and make it all new, it has a 10-year plan where only phase one of two five-year cycles were funded in the first bond issue. So that was updates to electric, plumbing, mechanical, technology, auto-visual. interior finishes, carpet, painting and whatnot, and exterior work or some roofing work that was done in 2022 as well as some work on the playground. But since our last meeting, a couple things have happened at this school in 2024. So we completed an enlargement of the clinic, and that's what you see in the upper left. Before, it barely had one bed for a child that was feeling ill. Now it has two. There's an office space. It's sized. For the school, it's more than adequately sized, but it's very much programmatically in alignment with our other schools, which

088is great. It also has, which you can't see to the right. associated single-use ad restroom so again it Looks, tastes, and acts just like the other clinics and other schools, even though it's a 130-year-old building. As part of that, though, we also did some minor tweaking and upgrades to the office area, which happens to be right outside of the clinic. That involved added access control and some other security elements that it did not have at the time. Again, to align it with the district standards for safety and security for inter-building, it did involve a little bit of reworking of the systems furniture, office furniture. and hence that photo there, some new carpet and things like that. Hanby Elementary, very similar to Emerson in that it is also part of the bond project but not part

089of ELP. So you'll see a pattern here in these older schools, unfortunately. Similar in OFCC, not allowing it to be part of the credit has to do with its structure, its size, its land size. They have certain limitations they look at. But the district still opted to go forward with some renovations. So similar to Emerson, we refreshed it. New carpet, new painting, new HVAC. It's also a two-tier renovation program. So we've solved or satisfied the first five years. In theory, phase two of the master plan would possibly include funds to complete the work. But we affected every classroom, flooring. interactive monitors, etc., etc. The pictures you see, this is the third of the three kitchens that were renovated this past summer. It's important to note at Hanby, they had no kitchen. If you've ever been

090there, I don't want to say it was food on a cart, but it was very simple and primitive. It was safe. It met all standards for the public to know. But it was essentially just some equipment lined up on the side of the student dining area. So this is now a full built environment that can be locked. It's in the corner of the current student dining area, so it's just across the way, if you will, from where they were before. But it very much, as I said in the very beginning, emulates Minerva France. We kept going back to Manoeuvre France. In fact, all three kitchens use Manoeuvre France as a baseline of design to try and get as close as they could to that autonomous kitchen approach. It does not have a walk-in. You can

091see the two reach-in cooler and freezers there. It has the hot and cold serving lines. It has everything the other two renovated schools do. And the staff and students are delighted compared to what they had before. Lower right, what we also did since the board last saw, we renovated the media center. Just showed it just to show some other work that happened a little bit after we were here. Carpet, some furniture, didn't just rearrange bookshelves. We did not get all new bookshelves and you can't see it in the back. Far back we got a new checkout desk, but it's kind of hard to see in the photo. Again, so we completed an Emerson and Hamby phase one of their renovation scope. All right, the last of the schools. Longfellow. So it is the third of

092the three schools that are bond funded but not ELP eligible. It's not eligible very similar to the others. It has to do with structure, size, and ultimately where we're headed now in terms of program use. So when this was being assessed and looked at, it actually was housing at one point a kindergarten program. And that could have been eligible. But since then, we've gone on to decentralize. We've had more of a centralized approach, similar to here at Pre-K, even though I know we've outgrown it using point view. This was envisioned as trying to house as much as we could of all-day kindergarten at the time. I'll share there's only six classrooms here, though, so it's not a really big facility. No gym, just a small student dining and some other small office and related space.

093So not a real big building. So unfortunately, it was not part of the ELP. but it was part of the bond similar to Hanby and Emerson. It was a vision of two phases of renovation. It was about a million dollars. That was limited interior renovation as well as building exterior, making it, we like to say, safe and dry. Roof work, the brick masonry work, even though it looks beautiful when you walk up to it, could use some work. to keep it around for a longer period of time. We need caulking around the windows. The outside needs a fair amount of work. We are currently only envisioning to undertake the exterior work associated with masonry, caulking. There's a chimney that needs work. We're not looking to undertake the rest of the work. And just to share

094programmatically what's happened to this building, it now has two programs in it. I have to read because they're both interesting. One is called Best of Both Worlds. That was formerly housed at Outer Rhine, but I believe they asked us to take it back in. This is, in a simple way of looking at it, it's an amazing program. It deals with postgraduate students and teaching them life skills. So very valuable program. So that is now housed there. And then we have office space for other related services. And so these are folks that kind of float between our other buildings. So it's more of a hotel, if you understand that space. You see a lot in private sector now, about 10 cubicles for 30 people. I know I float here in and out. I have a cubicle

095I can share because I actually work at the farmhouse by north. But I come here twice a week, and other people use that cubicle. So it's that kind of model. Given that this building is no longer houses K-12 students or staff, Carrie and I are suggesting tonight that the long-term use and purpose of the building and the associated bond funds are in need of a refresh. We'll talk about that in a little bit in some of the next slides, but it feeds into, without getting too far ahead, what the superintendent noted, a facilities committee and some other pairs of eyes. Remember, it was a picture in time. It's time we review that picture again. With that, I'm going to turn it back to Carrie for a quick minute. So with the bond projects, the safety

096and security updates that we've mentioned kind of on repeat at this point, um, did include secured entryways at all of our schools, meaning that it caused us to, uh, relocate the main office. So that would be adjacent to the entry points from the outside of the building. So what that means is that, uh, general public visitors to the building are coming through the main office before they ever get into our school buildings. Um, One of the things that Doug mentioned was at Hanby there wasn't a kitchen. Well, there actually was a kitchen at Hanby. It was on the lower level. It was then repurposed to make it the office space for the secured entry project. It was not usable as far as a kitchen. on a day-to-day basis. That's not where we served the kids

097from, but there was some storage and stuff in that space. These buildings have adapted with time and our use of them, but these secured entry projects promoted a lot of that direct access into the buildings. In addition to those, we also use the bond funds to enhance access control systems, visitor management systems, and monitoring. If you've been to our building and you have to, you know, use your ID. through the Raptor management system. We want to make sure the people in our building are safe people. Along with integrated security cameras, card reader access points, and then we also did a one-to-one replacement of our exterior lights and added smart controls that helps with energy efficiency, gives us the ability to control on-off and those pieces as well. And those were that first phase of that

098work. All right. We talked in the beginning. and even Laura and Nicole and Laura walked through kind of whether there's some funding sources we have. And so another one that we have is known as COPS, which is a lease buyback kind of program. It's almost like a lease to own program that the board signed up for for South. The promise of the community was no bond funds would be used to fund the renovation itself. And that is actually the case where we stand today. South, though, is part, so it's not part of the bond, it's part of the COPS grant. I'll talk a little bit more in a second. And only phases four through six are part of the ELP program. So phase one was the gym. The state would not fund a gym that

099needs even that big. Phase two is the conversion of the current. what was then the Aux Gym. The state would not co-fund that. Right around Phase 4, which got into classrooms, and I'll have a chart in just a second that'll show some of that to you. We want to start off with somewhere fun. What have we done? What's happened at the school? And just some images to remind you where South stands. Upper left, and this happened, I think, since our last presentation, is we completed what was called the secured entry portion of South High School. So it was the renovation. or relocation of the main office and then that front portico if you will that's right off the circular drive off Otterbein. So that's a shot upper left of the office area. In the middle

100there, those three benches, we did use bond funds. There were benches because some of the money is allocated for exterior assets and in this case there were old wooden and metal benches out there that were horribly unsafe. So we selected some and worked with actually there were a couple students in the principal. and sighted them out there. They desperately wanted them under that cherry tree, believe it or not. And they do use them. I've seen them out there. So that's right in front. Lower left, mentioned earlier, what were called the PBLA. So the learning spaces off the hallway, the flexible open spaces. This is, I know it's not the best photo, but I wanted to capture the fact that it's off the hallway. In the case of South, we designed it so it's a large

101opening and kind of a faux window opening. Other schools, that entire wall will be gone. Other schools will be all glass. This is just how Westerville here, we chose to interpret it in the case of South. But again, it has IT, it has flexible furniture and all that in it. Lower right, probably the most important part is what do we do to the classrooms? So this is a classroom. This is one of the ladder phases. It's on the north second floor or what they call the orange wing because there are colors in the case of south. I'll call that the theme there. It was kind of a wayfinding theme to make it very playful and fun. So this is the orange wing, hence the orange wall. They got new flooring, new furniture, open ceiling concept,

102flexible new lighting so they can dim it, turn it all off, just turn it on the teaching wall, whatever they want. You can kind of see to the right, we replaced the curtain wall or the glass, if you will, the glazing on that 50s building. And so now they've got new roller shades, et cetera. So that's back to that natural light. We tried to bring in all the schools. And there you see in the distance kind of the far end or back end of the photo. the integral teaching monitor that Tim Steffler and technology helped put in all these schools that were renovated. But one thing we wanted to share is the fact that we still have a little bit of area at South that's not completed. So this is what I just walked you

103through real quick. We had six phases. That was what was originally planned. We've completed all those phases. But I added a phase in red. There's still about 8,000 square feet at South that was never part of the program, that was never renovated. If you know the building, it's essentially what is now the Ox Gym and the space outside of it. So it's some student lockers or PE lockers that are oversized. It's the old concession. It's the old restrooms. It's a ticket booth. It's kind of all this mystery space that's just south of the Ox Gym or surrounds the courtyard, if you know where that is, behind the theater. So the district undertook, we need to do something with that. It's sitting there. We've completed or are about to complete all the safety features. Update all

104life safety to meet... latest standards in the current spaces as designed. We've already done security upgrades. We've already done everything else baseline to it. But we haven't done lighting, painting, rebuilt walls, any of that, any programming in this space. So we did hire an architect a little over a year ago. It was Triad who did the original building and worked to complete how would we program this space. Is it just going to remain lockers? Is it really going to be a ticket booth, et cetera, and looked at how can we rework it? How can we reconfigure some of the circulation? And we'll go into that later. The purpose tonight was not to go into that design. It was just flag an opening conversation that we have some square footage at South that still needs to

105be completed, if you will, potentially. So that's what this is just kind of sketched, showing that we're proposing a final phase of South. So in terms of what's next, the Facilities Master Plan, so Phase 1, we need to close out contracts. Laura can definitely nod yes to that. She's like, come on, Doug. Get these things closed out. So we're moving forward. Some of them are or can be. I would note we still have punch and warranty work at Whittier, Hawthorne, and South. That's predominantly because you might hear it from some teachers occasionally. We're still struggling with some of the HVC work there and getting the systems 100% compliant with the intent of the design. They are functioning. There is heat in the winter. There is AC in the summer or spring or early fall. We

106just have been tweaking. We're holding a lot of money on these guys, and they're not walking away, so just to share. So those projects are really the reason we can't close everything out in terms of close the books, if you will. Other capital needs, we're proposing a work session in March with the board in concert with the superintendent. And that's where we really want to kind of walk through remaining bond funds and interest. So we had $103 million. It made roughly $2.2 million plus or minus to date in interest. That has no assigned purpose at the moment. We also have about $4 million left over as currently projected in the original bond funds. And so I just share that to let you know there's some money out there. But we have needs. We just talked

107about South. COPS grant. There's technically no more funds to fund an extension of a COPS grant. So if that's a project the district wants to move forward, and I'll elaborate a little bit more. South is not only conversion or renovation of that roughly 8,000 square feet, it's also updating and completing the original vision of the lobby. You go there in the lobby, it got painted, it received some lights, the ceiling was taken out, but not much of the original vision was implemented. Also, if you walk through the school, I dare have to say COVID and some of that. Back in the day, some of the phases, some of the materials were not able to be procured. So you'll walk through. Remember I said their theme was essentially a color theme, making it bright and fun.

108You'll walk through some of the corridors where everything's white. But yet there's a blue wing, there's an orange wing, very distinctive, and it's like, what happened to those other wings? They couldn't get tinting of paint blue or not. They couldn't get the lighting to be right. They couldn't get some of the materials, so they had to go with more basic white, to be blunt. And so we'd like to go back and align with the intent. That'll help us with wayfinding, maybe some new signage. So there are other needs. So essentially it's complete things that we couldn't complete or possibly outstanding, mostly architectural. minor in scope, a cleanup if you will, complete work on also the clinic, but also more importantly the main lobby, and then look at that 8,000 square feet and see if there's

109a programming need within the district or how should we use it versus leaving it in its current condition. Longfellow also, I noted that. It had a fair amount of funds and scope, similar to Hanby and Emerson. We have not implemented the bulk of that scope. So we need to have a discussion. Is that something we still want to do? What does that look like? Is the current use of that building appropriate? That's where that facilities committee hopefully comes in. And then we also have a, I shouldn't say it this way, I'll simply say we have deferred projects. One being HVAC projects. They're actually out to bid. We have some funds for it, but possibly we look at using other funds to fund the project. But I just wanted to let you know there are multiple

110projects to look at for funds that are currently unassigned. And that's the intent of that work session, to kind of walk through some of that, how we're proposing to use it, other thoughts folks may have. And then we mentioned it earlier, the Classroom Facilities Assistance Program, CFAB. Again, that's where we're talking about another role of the Facilities Committee in terms of looking at Phase 2, if you will. Is that something we still want to do? Remember the board had approved. We presented phase two. There was a bond issue in 2024. Unfortunately, it didn't pass. So is that still the direction we want to go if and when we come up to bat? The state is saying we're moving up in the ranking, but they cannot guarantee or say what that means. We're a little more

111hopeful. We will hopefully know more in the next couple of months. They promised us to come back and maybe lay out what that means to us. So we just want to be ready and start talking because when they're ready. And they say yes, you have two years to accept their money, get your plan together, and pass a levy, potentially. So it's a fairly fast track once they say yes. And they can't forecast much beyond their funds as well. So with that, I think we're done. If you have any questions, I know it was a lot of stuff. But again, the goal is just to refresh you. Where were we? And probably most importantly, where do we think we're going? This last slide's probably the most important one. Doug, I just want to emphasize quickly, I

112know we've talked about the HVAC work. Is it fair to say that, I know that's a large number, that the cost of HVAC work has gone up tremendously in the last five years since post-COVID? Everything has. But that's like a really big number. So when we start looking at the money we have available on an annual basis to take care of buildings, that's becoming a really big chunk of it. takes away our ability to do some other things. I know that's one of the things we talked about. If we could offset some of that cost maybe out of this bond interest as an example, then that would free up some funds to take care of some of the other projects. Correct. Traditionally, that would come out of PI money, which has about $3 million annually

113assigned to building projects. The rest goes, as Carrie said, to buses, computers, payback of the COPS grant. and other capital expenditures. So of the roughly 9 million, about 3 million goes to construction each year. And I always like to say an elementary roof is easily a million dollars. So 3 doesn't go too far. Any questions or comments? I'll say thank you. I know I'll look forward to the next board meeting and learning more about the cost. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So moving along to public comments, and we have none, so I'm going to move along to seven board meeting minutes. And may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the Organizational Regular Board of Education meeting held on Monday, January 12, 2026? So moved. Second. Are there any corrections or questions

114needed? Okay. Ms. Hendricks, will you please take the vote? This is leaving. Yes. This is brown. Yes. This is open. Yes Valentine yes. This is my yes and may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the regular Board of Education meeting and joint session with the city of Westville held on Thursday January 20 22nd of 2026 so Who was that? Okay. Okay any questions or comments I'll just say I really appreciate our partnership with the city of Westerville and appreciate that we're able to hold that meeting. But with that, will you take the vote? Ms. Valentine? Yes. Ms. Brown? Yes. Ms. Saltman? Yes. Ms. Leibman? Yes. Ms. Smyth? Yes. And moving along to financials, 8.01, may I have a motion to approve the financial reports and investments of November 2025 and December of

1152025? So moved. Second. And Ms. Hendricks, will you talk to us about this? Okay, so yes, we are approving both months and for November our general fund year-to-date receipts were $100,179,640 year-to-date expenditures of $95,733,148 which left us with an unencumbered fund balance at the end of November of $112,558. All funds year-to-date receipts at the end of November were $132,045,575. Year-to-date expenditures, $139,329,384. An unencumbered fund balance at November 30th of $199,834,939 for all funds. December, year-to-date receipts in the general fund. At the end of December, $104,456,264. Year-to-date expenditures, $113,450,990. An unencumbered fund balance for the general fund of $99,066,130. Year-to-date receipts for all funds, $141,381,872. New to date expenditures, $162,478,969. An unencumbered balance for all funds of $183,554,785. Just briefly, as you know, most of our tax funds come twice a year. So we are at

116the end coming into November, December. We got those funds in August. And so we are spending through those. So you will see those fund balance continue to come down in those months. Beginning in January. We started getting advances on our tax dollars again for the second half settlement, which will Be through February and usually settle with beginning of March So you'll now see those cash balances start to increase and then again, we'll start spending down It's just the cycle that we go through every year. So Thank you. Are there any questions or comments? All right Could you please take the vote? Mrs. Leibann? Yes. Mrs. Altman? Yes. Mrs. Brim? Yes. Mrs. Valentine? Yes. Mrs. Muck? Yes. And 8.02, may I have a motion to approve the purchase in accordance with Ohio Revised Code 5705.41 D1

117and Board Policy 6320? So moved. Second. Wait a minute. OK, who was first? Ms. Altman. Yeah. And will you talk to us about this tip, please? So we have one item for you tonight. This is what we call our then and now purchase. It was for Garber Electrical Contractors from our operations department. This is an interesting situation. There are actually two POs open for this purchase. They realized that they had two POs open and didn't need to and closed one. But then inadvertently closed the other as well. So both of you is one of getting closed before the payment could be made. The funds were budgeted and we do recommend approval for this this evening. Thanks for that explanation. Are there any questions or comments? Okay. Seeing none. Mrs. Altman? Yes. Mrs. Valentine? Yes. Mrs.

118Brum? Yes. Mrs. Liebman? Yes. Mrs. Smith? Yes. And 8.03, may I have a motion to approve the five-year forecast? So moved. Second. And any other questions or comments? Okay. Seeing none. Okay. Mrs. Liebman? Yes. Mrs. Brown? Yes. Mrs. Altman? Yes. Mrs. Valentine? Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. And 8.04, may I have a motion to approve the revised appropriations for fiscal year 2026? So moved. Second. Ms. Hendricks, will you talk to us about this, please? Tonight we're also asking for approval of a revised appropriations. The biggest change on these appropriations is the general fund. That is to align that with the five-year forecast changes that we also are approving this evening. There are also changes to our student accounts and grants. Our student accounts, our principal's accounts, all our extracurricular programs that we talked a little bit

119about earlier in the evening. Those are managed through a budget process that the buildings can revise those budgets anytime throughout the year. and as changes are requested we include them here for your approval also it is common in january for odw odew to update our federal grant allocation so you'll see those tonight as well thank you so much any questions or comments all right seeing them will you please take the vote assaultman yes this is levian yes this is brown yes this is valentine yes this is mark yes And is it okay if we take the personal consent agenda as one? All right. May I have a motion to approve the personal consent agenda 9.01 through 9.11? So moved. Second. Welcome, Mr. Reeves. Thank you very much, and good evening, everyone. I'd like to present

120for you for your consideration tonight's personnel consent agenda, and there are a few agenda items I would like to note tonight. Resignations, we have nine classified and one supplemental contract resignation for the board to consider this evening. Leave of absences and contract status changes. We have four amended classified time frame extensions to previously approved leave of absences to consider this evening. And we have four classified contract status changes accounting mainly for work schedule adjustments. One-time pays. We have a one-time pay for classified and one for licensed staff for advisory work with our Hope Squad students. We also have one-time pay requests for K-5 elementary curriculum training. and for support for Hawthorne's Fluency Night for their families. Employment, we are happy to recommend the hire of nine new classified employees and are requesting the hire of

121an hourly home instruction tutor. For supplemental contracts, the board will see four amended contracts of coaches splitting their contracts with an additional coach and a rescinding of a contract of an approved assistant coach who left before the season actually started. The board will also see the hiring of some of those additional split coaches and those replacing the coaches who left. The board will also see for approval the first of our attached lists of our spring coaches, the first of several that will come as we are starting to prepare our hiring for the spring season, which, although it doesn't seem like it, will be upon us before we know it in about a month. Retirements. The board has four classified retirements and one licensed retirement to approve this evening. Tamika Brown will be retiring as a

122food service worker at McVeigh Elementary. Tamika has served Westerville schools for 14 years. Kathleen Long will be retiring as a secretary at Emerson Elementary. Kathleen has served Westerville schools for 17 years. Mark Lovett will be retiring as an HVAC and buildings and grounds worker for the district. Mark has served the Westerville school system for 10 years. Donna McCauley. will be retiring as a secretary at Westerville South High School. Donna has served Westerville schools for nine years. And Carrie Burton will be retiring as a physical education teacher at Heritage Middle School. Carrie has served Westerville City Schools for 29 amazing years. And if you add up the collective service of our wonderful retirees, Their total years of service to Westerville City Schools is 79 amazing years. And their collective service takes us back to the year

1231947 when the Cold War began between the United States and the Soviet Union. It didn't end until 1991. Let's hope our cold ends a lot sooner than that. Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier by flying his Bell X-1 rocket plane. faster than the speeding, the sound of speed. Speed of sound, 700 miles an hour. I'm overwhelmed with facilities work, you know. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball when he suited up for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15th. His number 42 is retired on every single Major League Baseball team. A mysterious object crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, leading to decades of speculation and conspiracy theories that we have alien beings and a spacecraft stored there. Now I don't know about you, when I was 13, I personally

124saw E.T. go home. And a little closer to home, Otterbein College, as it was known then, celebrated its 100th anniversary, commemorating its founding in 1847, where Otterbein opened as one of the first universities in America to welcome women and black students, and Westerville and Otterbein share a pioneer in William Faust. And I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. I just wanted to ask a clarifying when you talked about hiring nine classified. Those are replacement positions, right? Yes. Point that out. And you'll see some of the classified hirings replacing what is earlier in the resignation. So good point. Good call. Thanks. Any questions for Mr. Ruse or comments? All right. Seeing none. Thank you for that history lesson. We take the vote. Ms. Saltman. Yes. This is Valentine. Yes. This is

125Brum. Yes. This is Levin. Yes. This is Meyer. Yes. There's no old business tonight. So moving along to 11.01 in new business, our first reading of our 2027-2028 academic calendar. Welcome, Ms. Dennis. Well, good evening again, President Meyer, Vice President Altman, and members of the board. I would like to present to you all the first reading of the 2027-2028 school year calendar. The district developed calendar options for a superintendent's calendar committee to review. That committee is comprised of representatives from our Westerville Parent Council, WESA, OPC 719, OPC 138, WEA, AAS, and our administrative teaching and learning team. The committee reviewed the results of the calendar survey. They also studied different calendar options and sought feedback from their represented groups. The calendar survey had approximately 3,600 participants, nearly double what had previously participated in a calendar

126survey. It continues to show community support for a shortened first week of school. A winter break that is two full weeks and to have spring break to be scheduled for consistency and planning so it is the same week of every year. So think the last full week or the last week of March so it's predictable. The responses to the survey did show a general interest for starting later in August even if there was a potential to be pushing the end of the school year past the end of May. However, when the committee met in person and discussed the impact of such a change, there was a great deal of focus around the structure of our current calendar. Our current calendar aligns with the semester ending prior to winter break, meaning a balance between the two

127semesters in terms of dates, kids taking end of course exams prior to the winter break versus after. And additionally, the semester aligns with students taking CCP courses at our local universities and colleges. That's harder on the back end of our academic experiences as parents as I'm learning myself. With the kids in elementary school, you don't always get that full impact. So the other piece of that is that second semester, we build in a little bit of extra time for calamity days, which this year was a primary example of why that is to our benefit. The takeaway from the committee though is that we, Westerville City Schools, we, should share information as to how our school calendars develop and structured on our website so that parents can point to that and understand the impact of any

128shifting within the calendar structure. So the district leadership will continue to evaluate with the calendar committee any potential recommended changes along with seeing to that the website be updated with that information. Once the committee fully reviewed the survey results, the members were able to share their feedback to the calendar drafts, ultimately landing on the one being presented for the board to review tonight. To note, the start date for the students on that calendar would be August 17th for grades one through six and ninth graders, as we do a sixth grade only day and a ninth grade only day at that secondary level. And then our kindergartners do general start along with our preschoolers as well. That would still maintain. So all students would be reporting on August 18th, which a little later in August than

129what some of our calendars in the more recent years have had. There's a minimum of 30 days for review before the second reading. So this will return to the board in March for a vote. And I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have tonight. I don't have any I don't have a question I just want to call out that and as a reminder that kindergarten's well what's that the age yes so they must be five on the first student day so for the 2728 calendar not to confuse people for next year's 2627 calendar on this calendar would be that August 17th date yeah so that's very as a as a parent I feel that's very confusing but the state one in this and so each year it will change the date that

130your child has to be five in order to start kindergarten the only thing is i was talking with my colleagues at our superintendent's meeting that i guess is a i don't say silver lining but maybe a silver lining is in the past some schools would start different have different rules because we had to choose august 1st or september 30th and so people would literally open enroll their kids in other districts that had a more lenient date. And then once they're enrolled there, we would have to take them. And so that caused a lot of logistical issues. So that's one nice thing that everybody has the same general timeframe. Not crazy about the date changing all the time, but thought that was interesting. And I wanted to thank Carrie and all the employees and parents that

131served on that committee. We appreciate everybody's time and everybody that filled out the survey. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Moving along to 11.02, first reading of non-discrimination and access to equal education opportunity. And I think a lot of these go together, right, Mr. Reeves? There are some together. And if I could, if I could bundle 2260 and 2260.01 together. And then after those two, we'll see if there is any questions. Both policies are. Only a technical correction by changing the address of the United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights from its former location in Cleveland to its new address in Washington, and we had to make that address update, and that's the significant change for those two policies. if there's any questions on those two. Three of the policies I'm going to also

132bundle together. I'm going to take 2430.02, which is participation of community STEM school students in extracurricular activities, 2431, extracurricular activities, and then also 9270. equivalent education outside the schools and participation in extracurriculars for students not enrolled in the district. That's a handful to say that's where our home education policy is and I'll share how those three are related. These policy changes are a result of House Bill 96. House Bill 96 revised the law originally passed very recently in 2024 which permitted home educated students as well as students from other qualifying districts or schools to participate in interscholastic athletics if they had been subject to bullying, harassment, intimidation, or other prohibited acts by a school official, employee, volunteer, or another student. The House Bill 96 revision now restricts this practice to only home-educated students, and the

133other students are no longer eligible for this practice. provision. This was a provision that we really did not interact with being a bunch of multi-high school districts in and around Columbus area compared to the rest of the state but this is a change statewide. I do not know actually the cause for this adjustment. The policy change therefore makes the adjustment in language in policy 2431. It removes the entire provision completely out of policy 2430.02 and relocates because we're talking about home educated students, it relocates that language in policy. 9270, which is how they're all connected, which is our home education policy. And they are working to try to minimize redundancy of a lot of things written in the same policies to. have it consolidated in one place. We also clarified language in 9720 regarding the

134necessary assurance to us for home education that education and subject areas will be met like English language arts, math, science, and social studies. And we clarified that our students participating in our extracurricular activities who are home educated must meet the same guidelines and requirements and fees that the students who attend Westerville City Schools. So that's how those three policies are connected. Any questions for those three? Yeah, I did have a question. I know we kind of talked about this, but... I think it's wonderful giving students an opportunity from anywhere, all kids, an opportunity to participate in athletic sports. My question is, with this new change, can we anticipate more students needing an accommodation? And if not, could you just kind of talk about how common this is? I would say any that we would have,

135we would have less because home education students were already in that pot who could have taken that. One of the things that we are required to do for students who do live in our district is if they're home educated, if they go to a STEM school, if they go to a charter school, if they go to a private school that does not have the activity that we have, they can participate in Westerville City Schools. This is for students who live outside of our district. Because we have multiple high schools, and many do, we've not, the single high school districts like New Albany that are near us. We haven't had any requests from superintendent to superintendent to say, hey, we had this child bullied here. They cannot play football here. They want to play football for

136Westerville, whichever school is closest to their resident. And we've not had that. I don't know. Very many. But most, we have 612-odd school districts in our state. There's only about 20. multi-high school districts and most of them are in our central Ohio Cleveland Cincinnati Toledo area have very few multi-high school districts in the suburban area so they get that a lot in the rural areas we don't hear and then the last one is the one we just talked about a little bit and that's policy 5112 and that's our entrance requirement Carrie talked about and Ms. Hamburg talked about the change. It's House Bill 114 that now mandates that every public school district in our state makes their date the first day of school, which for us changes. So we want to be mindful every year

137as we introduce calendars that we let families know what our start date for kindergarten is. It does not change our process for students who don't make that date in terms of the testing and the requirements to early entrance into our school. But that's something we have. It is in effect next year. We have worked very hard and Baldwin and her team and the enrollment center. We are working on making sure that all the pieces and parts that talk about requirements on our website get updated to the new language. But it is effective next year and we are actively enrolling kindergarten now so we want to make sure families know the updated requirements. Any questions? All right. Thank you so much. Moving along to recommended action and standing business 12.01. This is also a really fun

138part of the night. May I have a motion to approve the donations as presented? So moved. Second. Ms. Hendricks, will you talk to us about this? We are very grateful for all our generous donors. This evening's request is for $17,988.66, which brings our year-to-date total donations to $194,367.20. We'd also like to give a special thank you to CK Construction, as this is the third year in a row of them donating a significant amount to help pay off some of our negative lunch balances. Yeah. Any questions, comments? I just echo your thanks. Yeah. All right. Will you take the vote, please? Ms. Saltman? Yes. Ms. Leibann? Yes. Ms. Scrum? Yes. Ms. Valentine? Yes. Ms. Sacker? Yes. In May, I have a motion to approve the resolutions to file complaint against the valuation of real property for

139tax year 2025. So moved. Second. Ms. Hendricks? Oh, Ms. Brown was first and Ms. Saltman second. Mm-hmm. And yeah, you talk. There are several resolutions attached to this agenda item. These items are commercial properties that the county auditor valuations are much lower than recent sales of these properties. This allows us to go through the Board of Revision process where we can ask the county auditor to make appropriate adjustments to those values. We do only file these Board of Revision value changes on commercial property. We do not do this on residential property. Thank you. Anybody have any questions? Okay. Ms. Brown? Yes. Ms. Brown? Yes. Ms. Altman? Yes. Ms. Liebman? Yes. Ms. Ballantyne? Yes. Ms. Mark? Yes. And may I have a motion to approve the early graduate candidates who have completed all local and state

140requirements? So moved. Second. Welcome, Mr. Cooper. Good evening. Excuse me. Good evening. Tonight, we're requesting approval from the Board of Education for early graduation for 19 students, six students from Westerville South High School, seven students from Westerville Central High School, and six students from Westerville North, contingent upon the successful completion of all remaining requirements for each of these students. I'll just say congratulations to them all. Okay. Ms. Levan? Yes. Ms. Valentine? Yes. Ms. Altman? Yes. Ms. Brown? Yes. Ms. Meyer? Yes. And 12.04, may I have a motion to approve the 2026-2027 student fee schedule? So moved. Second. Will you talk to us about this too? Sure. Yeah. Before you for approval tonight is information on student fees for next school year. Our teaching and learning team has reviewed the information and made two key adjustments.

141First, we have reduced the number of pages by providing links to the relevant board policy and tuition assistance, income eligibility guidelines. We believe these changes allow the document to be more easily read by our families and still maintain access to the detailed information. Number two, the advanced placement test fee was changed from approximately $98 each to approximately $99 each. This reflects the additional dollar change per test that became effective this school year. And that's really all the changes? It's pretty much the only substance changes. The substantial changes, you'll see dates and things like that. A little change in there, a little bit of clarity on percentages and things. But essentially, those are the two substantial changes to the document. As a reminder, we just did a big review of these last year and made some

142adjustments. So we want to stay in a regular cadence with that. But we felt like with the adjustments that were just made last year, we didn't need to make any changes this year. Thank you. All right. Any other questions? comments okay and then moving along to 12.05 oh i'm sorry yes can you take the vote yes this is valentine yes miss lee van yes yes miss brown yes this is my yes and then may i have a motion to approve the resolution to authorize 2026 2027 membership in the ohio school athletic association so moved second And perhaps this is my longest report, but it won't be too long the Ohio high school athletic association or what is known as the OHSAA their constitution requests the Board of Education to annually adopt a resolution authorizing their

143schools that were members during the previous year to continue membership for the 2026-2027 school year next year. As part of the requirement for your approval of the membership for our three high schools and our five middle schools, I will read the resolution in its entirety. Noting here, whereas Westerville City School District, District IRN number 045-047 of 936 Eastwind Drive, Franklin County, Ohio, has satisfied all the requirements for membership in the Ohio High School Athletic Association, a voluntary unincorporated association, not for profit. And whereas the Board of Education and its administration desire for the schools with one or more grades at the 7th through 12th grade level under their jurisdiction to be voluntarily members of the OHSAA, now therefore be it resolved by the Board of Education that all schools listed on the reverse side of

144this card do hereby voluntarily renew membership in the OHSAA, and in doing so, the Constitution, bylaws, general sports-specific regulations, and business rules of the OHSAA are hereby adopted by this Board as and for its own minimum requirements as it pertains to, but not limited to, student eligibility, coaching requirements, and administrative responsibility. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the board does reserve the right to raise the minimum standards as it deems appropriate for our schools and the students under its jurisdiction. And be it further resolved that the schools under this board's jurisdiction agree to conduct their athletics programs in accordance with the Constitution, bylaws, general sports-specific regulations, business rules, interpretations, and decisions of the OHSAA, and cooperate fully and timely with the Executive Director's Office of the OHSAA in all matters related to the interscholastic athletic programs of the

145schools. Furthermore, the schools under this board's jurisdiction shall be the primary enforcers of the OHSAA's constitution, bylaws, general sports-specific regulations, business rules, and the interpretations and rulings rendered by the Executive Director's Office. The administrative heads of these schools understand that failure to discharge the duty of primary enforcement may result in fines, removal from tournaments, suspension from membership, and or other such penalties as prescribed in Bylaw 11. Thank you, there any questions or comments All right. Thank you. Will you take this up, please? This is Valentine. Yes. This is Liebman. Yes. This is Altman. Yes. This is Brim. Yes. This is Mark. Yes. And next up we have board comments. So who would like to lead us off? I can. Good evening, everyone. Thanks for attending tonight's board meeting. I think my remarks really will be

146heavy on thank yous. There's a lot to be grateful for. I definitely want to start off by thanking our school bus drivers. It is actually school bus appreciation week, and I certainly appreciate all the work that they do to get our kids to school. and back home. But I also want to thank Ms. Nelson and Ms. Hilberts who were heard from today who continue to really show up in our buildings and in the community. And I would like to also thank our retirees. And finally, I really want to congratulate the early graduates and everyone. that has helped those students. And of course, I really appreciated the many presentations that we had today. I found it to be really helpful to get a refresher on the forecast and then facilities updates as well. But, you know,

147I think. You know, it's been a really difficult time in the community. Many of our children are really overwhelmed. It's a really scary time. And so I just really wanted to uplift some of the incredible resources that were recently shared by the district and just make sure that that's also at the forefront of our minds as we run into families or students that may be in need of resources at this time. Happy to go next. Get over here to my mic. So yes, again, thank you to the Education Foundation. They just really do incredible work and support our classrooms and teachers and the parent council and I can just, all the support organizations, when they share the number of hours that are logged, I can tell you, having been part of some of them, that

148that's under-reporting, the number of hours that they actually put in by a lot. So just. the experience of our students in these schools wouldn't be nearly what it is without the support that those organizations provide. So thank you, thank you every day for all that you do. And I also wanted to just double down on the thanks to the whole community for helping kids get safely to school with the snow and ice. I know we're not quite done with it. And our transportation and maintenance teams, I tell you. cannot imagine how much extra effort and work they have put in. So thank you again for that. And I also just want to take a moment to note that this is Black History Month. So happy Black History Month to everybody. Ohio has tremendous black history.

149I just encourage you to take time to get out there across the state appreciating that rich history here in Ohio. So thank you. I just wanted to say again congratulations to everyone who was recognized this evening and a special thank you to the Westerville Education Foundation and the Parents Council and everyone who's involved there. I think it really speaks a lot to the incredible community that we have that everybody rallies around kids. So thank you and also to everyone who participated in getting our kids back to school during the snowstorm and i really appreciate the district's communication i think lots of parents really appreciated understanding why we were out of school for so long and how we needed to rally the community and get everyone back to school so i think that was very thoughtful

150and then also just wanted to say after today i've had like an immersion today of um visiting schools all day and then hearing Carrie Dennis's presentation tonight and Doug like understanding the scope of how large our district is how many buildings we have the needs of our buildings the needs of our kids I think it's very important to be able to see all of those things and so I really appreciate you taking the time to take me around and I have one more visit left so looking forward to that as well Say ditto to all of my counterparts on all of the thanks. So many great people to be thankful for who have served our district, who continue to serve our district. And thank you also to the parents. We know that you didn't probably

151want your kids at home all week with you that week, but it was for their safety. And I'm glad that everybody got back to school and the community pitched in to get some of those sidewalks shoveled so that kids could. uh stand by the bus stops where they need to stand we actually got some pretty good press out of that as well i know nbc ford did a kind of video ride along i think with one of the bus drivers and maybe maybe with you angie no just with the bus drivers yeah so um thank you thank you thank you um and i think that's all i have for tonight just such gratitude for this community so thank you So I won't reiterate everything my colleagues have said. I will say, yes, thank you. I

152just want to pull out one piece. Something that strikes me every time about this community is just how we come together. And we come together for the betterment of our community. And I really appreciate the staff, the parents, everyone that really came together and said, we're going to get this done. And it happened really quickly and it was really awesome to see. So thank you. I did want to just note two things. One was a piece of legislation. It's House Bill 671. It was introduced by Representative Jamie Callender, a Republican from Concord, and that's in Lake County. It would allow Ohio to deny state funding to a district if they were part of the lawsuit against the state for funding Ohio's voucher programs. This is likely unconstitutional. I know a number of legislators had asked

153for it to go to Judiciary Review to see if it is constitutional, but it was referred to the House Finance Committee. And then recently, Speaker Matt Huffman, who is a Republican from Lima, and President Matt McCauley, a Republican from Napoleon, who also is a potential lieutenant governor candidate, told the Ohio Ethics Commission that if they did not rescind a rule that would have required officials overseeing charter schools to file financial disclosures, they would pass a law prohibiting the rule. I'm a firm believer if public taxpayer dollars are going to these schools, these officials should also be required to file financial disclosures. And this year, charter schools are on track to receive almost $1.6 billion and another $90 million in facility payments by the end of the year. So just some important updates. There's so much

154going on in the Statehouse still, but I thought those were really important to highlight. And then with that, the board will meet in regular session on Monday, March 16th, 2026 at 6 p.m. at the Early Learning Center, which is here, 936 East Wind Drive, Westerville, Ohio, 4308081. And moving along to 15.01, may I have a motion to enter into executive session for the purposes of discussing the employment compensation. Benefits and discipline of public employees. So moved. Second. And will you take the vote, please? Ms. Liebman? Yes. Ms. Valentine? Yes. Ms. Altman? Yes. Ms. Sprem? Yes. Ms. Meyer? Yes. It's 8.59, and we're back from executive session. May I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. We take the sound time. Yes, miss Sprem. Yes, miss Lieben. Yes, miss Altman. Yes, miss Meyer. Yes