001Hey, hey, hey. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> I know. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey, hey, hey. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey, [music] hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Yeah. [music] Yeah. [music] >> [music] [music] >> I got to call this um May meeting of the board of education to order. Uh we are missing one member. She is fighting South 75 traffic uh from Cincinnati and will be here arriving a little late, but uh we will go ahead and get started with um the national anthem performed by Gray Middle School.
002I need to record. Well, technology is not a friend of mine. >> We have music teachers. [laughter] >> We can call on our music teachers, >> our principles with a voice. >> We have enough. We have a choir right there. >> We can have the SRO sing the national anthem. >> I know. I saw him over there. >> Oh, yeah. [music] >> [singing] >> and bright stars through the [music] night. For the ramparts we watch [music] were so gallently streaming and the [music] rockets. The bombs bursting in air gave [music] proof through the [singing] night that our [music] flag was still there. Oh, say [music] does that star [singing] spangle better yet. [music] For the land of the free [music] and the home of the brave. [music] And if you'd remain standing for the pledge
003led by the students of Urban Beck Elementary School. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Awesome. >> I'm looking right here. [applause] >> All right. Um, and just for recording purposes, we have been joined by Karen Bird. We'll move on to uh good news items. Turn the meeting over to Dr. Housewald. >> Good evening, board. Uh, thank you. We have uh a lot of good news every every year this time as as the as the school year uh wraps up. Uh we we have we take time and pause to celebrate so many acco accomplishments in the district and so many people who have contributed to our many successes. Good news item one
004is our break the mold. Uh it is uh custodian uh Francis Otiti. Um congratulations to Boone County Schools custodian Francis Otiti. Miss Otiti has been employed in the Boone County Schools warehouse division for three years. In that time, he has made an impact across the district. There's not a person that uh has encountered him that hasn't had something wonderful to say about him as a person and his work ethic. He sets an example for what it means to break the mold. And we're going to show a video and then we'll get Francis up here. humility and genuiness, an inspiring individual and hard worker. >> These people are talking about Boone County Schools custodian clean team and district warehouse crew member Francis Otiti. Francis's job also includes delivering supplies to schools, moving heavy furniture, maintaining the
005landscaping at both the district office and learning support services, and once a month delivering go pantry food boxes to schools for food insecure students. He is flexible, working both day and night shifts whenever asked. >> From day one, one of the hardest working >> co-workers I've ever been around. >> He has a work ethic that's just unbelievable. He works with such great intention. It doesn't matter what the task is. >> There's no task too too small. Um he finds meaning in everything that he does and he and he does it 110%. When I'm working, I don't really notice that I am working very hard. I can say first it is because we have all the condition, the good condition of work at Boon County School. >> Mr. Otiti came to us from the Ivory Coast
006where he was a high school history and geography teacher. >> He came over here to kind of tour uh the United States because he's a geography teacher and then CO happened and he got stuck here. I came here on February 7th, 2020 with the situation of the COVID all the border closed and I had to to stay a long time and that is how my story started. >> Francis wanted to work for a school district because of his background as an educator in his home country. He was willing to accept any position offered to him. He came prepared for the interview, dressed for success in a suit. >> And I knew on his application he was a teacher at the in the Ivory Coast, high school teacher. And I thought I was going to have
007to disappoint him. And um when he came in and I said, you know, this is not a teaching position, you know, be working in the warehouse. And he said, "Oh, I know. I know. I want to work in the warehouse." So, you know, from that moment, you know, knowing that um he dressed up for the for the occasion and he takes everything so seriously and um got great respect for the educational process from the delivery of custodial supplies to, you know, the the teaching that goes on in the classroom. >> Mr. Otiti is amazed at the differences between public schools in the United States compared to the Ivory Coast where he taught. We can have more than 90 student or sometime 120 student by by classroom per classroom. Although it is very difficult. We when
008I was teacher we make effort every day to do the best of the best we can do to get some good result. the teacher and him, you know, he wanted to teach all of us a little bit of French, a little bit of geography, too, as well. We've tried to learn French the best we can, but I feel like the only word that uh really has stuck is the word for payday. >> Judipe, which is payday. >> I noticed that American people likes French language. I try to make the choice between some word we can use daily using of word and I choose some word like uh thank you how to say thank you how to say good morning how to say how are you how was your weekend good job which is in French
009bontra >> he [music] makes our team better >> he leads by example raises the bar for everyone never said a a cross word about anybody. >> Francis Otiti is still a teacher but in a different way. Teaching us humility, hard work and work ethic, kindness and respect for your fellow man. That's breaking the mold. >> Thank you very much for choosing me. That is not only me you choose. It is all the warehouse and all the maintenance system you have chosen. There is a real human touch in the leadership and in the management and I am very very happy with that. >> Francis, congratulations on winning Break the Mold. You're certainly welld deserved of the honor and it is truly a pleasure and I'm so thankful to work with you and that you're part of
010our team. Congratulations, Francis. Uh this deserve this award is welld deserved. Um you're just a phenomenal person. your character, uh, your attitude every day, and nobody else, I can't think of anybody else that deserves this award more. Congratulations. >> Hi, Francis. I just wanted to tell you congratulations. You're one of the best people I've ever worked with and it is a honor and a privilege that to to work with you, >> Mr. Ati. I'm proud to be a co co-orker of yours and I consider you a friend. Well done, >> Francis. Congratulations on bring the bold. You truly deserve this and we love you here at the warehouse. And I know everybody loves Francis. Every time we go somewhere, they say, "Hi, Francis. Hi, Francis." And I know that when we go out throughout the
011district this coming month, everybody will congratulate you because you truly deserve this. >> [applause] >> We'll get that Gotcha. stand around our facilities all the is not a kinder person or heart. Everything they said in the video, we all agree it uh it's a pleasure to give you this award and we like to give you the microphone if you'd like to say a few words, but you don't have to. tonight. I would like to say thank you very much to everybody coming here to to be with me at that very important event with me. I would like to express my gratitude to all the board board county board of education workers for their kindness and also I would like to say thank you to this country I would like to say thank you very much
012to United States thank you to all my coworker also thank you to pastor Bill who advised me to come to to work to for Boon County School today. I'm very very very happy that award is I thought it already is the award of all the warehouse the clean team all the maintenance. I say thank you very much to Charles Collins for his management. Thank you to my big boss Dan Reser. Thank you. [laughter] >> [applause] [applause] >> We've had some amazing and outstanding Break the Mold award winners this year. And I always say after every one of them, I don't know. I don't want to follow them. So, um, Mr. Otdi, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. And, uh, I'm sure we'll see him at work tomorrow. Good news item two, uh, excellence,
013uh, dinner award recipients. Um, the following students, teachers, administrators were recognized in April for their dedication, excellence in education during the annual Northern Kentucky Excellence in Education dinner and awards celebration put on by the Northern Kentucky Education Council. Congratulations. And as your name uh is read, if you will please come forward. Um they have received their certificates uh apples awards, but we would like to do a photo and and recognize them. So when I call your name, if you're here, if you'll please come forward for a photograph. Career and technical allstars, Emma Sherf from Ignite Institute, and Samuel Stevens of Ry High School. I don't know if I saw either one. >> Students are getting their associates degrees. >> Oh, so we have lots of things. Oh, yeah. That's right. I [snorts] just saw Samuel
014at RA the other day. So receiving the student leadership awards, Kanak Sonnie and Jennifer Hamilton. And again, oh there perfect [applause] receiving the extraordinary service recognition. Lindsay Chapel of Florence Elementary is Yeah, she's [applause] receiving the Yeah. Come on up together. We're just going to do one big group photo. Oh, in the dark. Maybe I You know what? It's That's what happens when you put the SRO's along by the light switch. [laughter] I just know to blame. Ryan Walters from Boone County High School. Isabelle Java and Riley Thomas. These are uh St. Elizabeth health healthcare scholarships. I think I saw Yeah. Come on up from >> [applause] >> from the Ignite Institute, Angelina Vera. And this year, six teachers uh in the Boone County School District received the region's highest honor. These are our golden
015apple award recipients. Um and I'll read them. I saw many of them here. Uh from elementary school, Steeplechase Elementary, George Canfield. I saw George here. [applause] just come into the middle. Just just just block me if you can. Uh from Stevens Elementary, Carrie Matthews [applause] from Man Elementary School. She's here. Ashley Roo [applause] from Collins Elementary. Andy Sherlock. I saw Andy here earlier. [applause] and high school um from Cooper High School, Melissa Hall [applause] and from the Ignite Institute. And I know they have awards, Jessica Poe. And I know Ignite up there's Jessica. And also included in the awards, uh the lifetime achievement award this year, uh which is one of the highest honors that that they give in this event was welld deserved and went to Miss Kathy Rman. So come on up. >>
016[applause] >> So, if you guys will uh move in, we'll let the board members thank you and uh let's give them one big one big round of applause. [applause] And before we move, we we could tell stories about any of these and all of these uh students uh staff members. They do amazing work and uh it's quite an honor. We have a formal banquet uh every year and uh and it's it's really a great opportunity to recognize the important of the educational profession and and learning and our students and all that they do. So, you know, I had the opportunity to visit many of them throughout the year, but uh I will I'm just going to call out one just for just to personalize a little bit. You don't know Mr. they they snuck into
017the banquet the large what are these things called They were huge. And so when they called his name, they uh all the staff members at the table. And it's it's fascinating to watch the cultures we have in each of our schools and the love and support that they they share for the staff members and the students and especially celebrating the successes of individual ones as well as collectively. And I was at I was in your class right last week. Uh we had a student save the life of another student, a fourth grader. Notice the student was choking and the correctly saved his child's life and we recognized him and he looked at me first day of school Mr. Sherlock taught us how to do this. He taught us and just all these things they do
018to make a difference in the lives of our students and they all do tremendous work and we have stories about all of them. But we them together tonight. So, one more big round of applause. [applause] Thank you all so much. [applause] >> All right. It's a great tradition the the golden apple and walking into schools on teachers desks on display. Many of them have received golden apples over the years. And so those receive these apple uh statues, whatever they are. And uh others receive certificates. the students receive checks. They always like those. So, uh there there's lots of ways we recognize them. And we're Thank you all for being here tonight. Good good news. Item three, our Rotary Teachers of the Year. Uh the Florence Rotary Club recognized three Boone County School District teachers as
019teacher of the year recipients. Last month, each teacher received a $500 check from Heritage Bank to donate to an education charity of their choice. A banner now hangs at the school. um a citation from the Kentucky Senate presented um by state senator Rawlings. They received a Boone County proclamation from Boone County Judge uh executive Gary Moore naming uh Monday, April 20th as uh their their day. Um and the Kentucky Colonel Award, which was signed by Governor Basher. So, we at this time would like to recognize and congratulate all three of them. Uh we attended a really nice lunch couple weeks ago. Uh and at this time, we'll have them come up. The first one, Boone County High School teacher, Daniel Barnhill. I saw Daniel here earlier. [applause] Good elementary school teacher Krishna Tanner. I saw
020him. Yeah, there she is. [applause] And Steven's elementary school teacher, Jenny Aaylor. And she's here. No, I I as I've told you many days I start uh I start many of my days at schools because at the end of the day I usually sometimes the wheels fall off and I don't get a chance. And so I started this morning bright and early at Stevens Elementary School. I walked in and Jenny's uh large banner was hanging right at the entrance of the school. We celebrate uh our all of our teachers that get uh awards and the Rotary uh recognition every year is very much appreciated with their partnership. And so uh let's give them one more big round of applause and we're going to get a photo. >> [applause] >> Every step that we >> [applause]
021>> good news item. >> I don't know what it is. The next good news item, a Rotary High Rotary High School student scholarships. Um, the Florence Rotary Club also awarded $1,000 scholarships to four deserving high school students from Boone County School District high schools last week. Qualifying students must show high academic achievement, leadership, and community volunteerism, financial need uh is a consideration. They also demonstrated courage, strength, perseverance. Um, and so at this time, we'd like to congratulate the students that received that award. Again, we had a really uh they they were presented with banners and checks and lots of great things at a lunchon last Monday. Um and again, we appreciate the Rotary for their support of our our teachers and our students. And those students are as follows. Uh Lyanna Tegarden of Boone County
022High School, Colin Davyy of Connor High School. Thanks. [applause] Come on up, Connor. Connor, you have your purple shirt on. and he told me he's going to Evansville because they have a unique combination of a program. Correct. Remind me. >> What is it? >> What? Remind me the program. It's a unique It's a direct admit. Correct. >> Direct PA program >> for a PA program. So, he's going to be an ace. Autumn Barker of Cooper High School [applause] and Marshall Brand of RA High School. I didn't see Marshall here. [applause] We had a good conversation. >> I'm going to the University of Kentucky for science and neuroscience. We talked and so I enjoyed lunch by the way [applause] and good luck to both of you. Our next uh our next good news item, we have
02334 students receiving the state seal of biiteracy. We're proud to recognize 24 outstanding Boone County School District seniors who have earned the seal of biiteracy this year. Our e coordinator, Alisa Alco, will be making this presentation. So, someone else gets to read names. Okay. This distinction honors students who have demonstrated a high level of proficiency in English and at least one additional language through rigorous coursework and assessment. These students have developed valuable skills that prevent prepare them to thrive in a global society, communicate across cultures, and contribute meaningfully in an increasingly interconnected world. This year's recipients represent multiple schools across our district and have learned rec and have earned recognition in Spanish, German, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and American Sign Language. We commend their dedication, perseverance, and commitment to excellence. Students, as your names are read,
024please come to the front for pictures. Mate Perez, I'm sorry, Boone County Schools or Boone County High School. Maite Perez, Spanish. Santanella Gonzalez, Spanish. I don't believe they're here. Andy Tomas Ramirez, Spanish. Natalie Cruz, Spanish. Connor High School. Valyriia Picazo, Spanish. Alexa Sanchez, Spanish. I don't believe any of them are here either. Cooper High School. Aldine Pavlovvic, German. And he is here. [applause] Ronan Joyce, Japanese. Emerson Caravona, German. Natasha Ura, Spanish. Jade Rios, Spanish. Kiara Brown, Spanish. From in uh Ignite, Isabella Lucia Bamante Rodriguez, Spanish. Angie Nolasco Aguilar, Spanish. And I don't believe they're here either. from Riyle High School. Robert Benton, Spanish. Riyota Kondo, Japanese. Akia, Japanese. And she is here. [applause] Himea Galan, Spanish. Remy Allen, Mandarin Chinese. >> [applause] >> McKenzie Peters, American Sign Language. Braden Iikenberg, Spanish. And he is here.
025[applause] Karolia Montes Nunees, Spanish. [applause] Alexandra Vasquez Lucas, Spanish. [applause] And Andrea Melendez, Spanish. I'm not sure if she's here. [applause] Let's give him one [applause] more good news. Item five, KSBA student district banner. Uh it's an annual tradition at the Kentucky Schoolboard Association uh in in the submission of a school district banners from our school districts all over the state. Districts are encouraged to create a banner to reflect the conference theme. This year's theme uh was built to last uh helping to launch KSBA's 90th anniversary celebration. The banner that you are seeing or will see maybe was designed by Cooper High School student Isabella Candy. Isabella, come on up. We're going to get a photo. And uh we have a certificate. [applause] very talented by the way. >> Mr. Wilson, can you come on
026up for with display it. Good job, by the way. It's impressive. I uh I had a chance to look at all of the artwork the students submitted and I think the best. So, [applause] That's fine. Good news. Item six, the inaugural option nine cohort. This is a This is a great one. Tonight, we recognize a truly special group of educators, Boone County Schools, our first cohort of option nine teacher certification candidates. Um, and uh we're going to have our HR uh executive director, Mr. Eric Ball, make the presentation and also tell you a little bit about what option 9 is and why this is such a significant uh milestone and and and new program that we're really we're really proud of. >> Yeah. So uh again as as often is the case without the support
027of the board this doesn't happen. The board approved memorandums of understanding and agreement with universities that allow our students a new certification pathway. So this started three years ago when the board said we support this and for the last three years we've had individuals participating in this. And so the fruition of their efforts uh come come this uh spring when they end up uh conferring their degrees. And in three short years, they would probably disagree with the short part, but in three years, uh, they earn their teaching certification. So, uh, as you can see up there, the option nine alternative certification pathway allows PAR educators the opportunity to earn a bachelor's degree through the completion of required training, coursework, and mentorship, all while continuing their full-time position as a PAR educator in the district. These
028individuals have balanced the demands of full-time employment with the rigor of certification requirements all while making a meaningful impact on the students our students each day. Their dedication, resilience, and willingness to grow have helped pave the way for the future educators who follow this path. And to our option n quote cohort, thank you for your commitment to our students and community. You've set a strong foundation for those who come next and we're proud to celebrate your accomplishments accomplishments. Please join me in congratulating these outstanding educators. Leona Fryl, Amber Albert, come on up. Amber, [applause] Ashley Walker, and Rachel Jackson. [applause] Many of our many of our educators have taken the traditional path that is attending school and then getting jobs. For these folks who have committed working full time but then simultaneously in every moment
029of free time evenings weekends taking classes beginning the process to earn their teaching degree so that then they would go from classified to certified and become a teacher through the option is very impressive but we don't want to understate the amount of work it is I'm sure they can attest to this we are so proud of all of you it's our first cohort it won't be our last but we know is that people here county work hard and they're committed to this district and this community and when we identify and find great people in our community and we help train them up for for additional jobs they stay and they contribute right back to our community and our kids. So we're real proud of you. [applause] Good news item seven. We don't gone high enough.
030I got to figure out the Roman numerals. 30 years of service recognition. Tonight, Boone County Schools is recognized employees who have completed 30, 35, and 40 years of service to Boone County Schools. Um it's an annual tradition um that we always look forward to. Um I know that uh if you're here uh either in June or July, Mr. Ball will give feedback from what we call stay interviews. The district implemented stay interviews universally across the entire district last year. We've done them this year. And we interview [snorts] uh all employees that are what we call speed limit years. 5 10 15 20 all the way up. So that way we get feedback from employees every five years so we can understand what we're doing well, what we can do better with a focus on attraction
031and retention of our staff. Um I know that we all take turns doing those interviews and I have the opportunity to do the 30-year interview. So many of the people we're recognizing tonight. Um I had a chance to sit down with 30 minutes. We laughed. They made me laugh. They made me cry, but they also gave me plenty to think about uh and and ways to improve this district. So, it's an honor tonight to recognize these folks individually and collectively as a group. And Mr. Ball is going to recognize them at this time. >> Yes. So for 30 years we have Diane Alvi, [applause] >> Debbie Helman, [applause] >> Karen Ellis, [applause] Jennifer Ror, >> [applause] >> Julie Stewart, [applause] Jenny Sullivan, [applause] Cindy Sutter, [applause] Shannon Wagner, >> [applause] >> and Kimmy Zeiss. [applause]
032Got you. >> [applause] >> for 35 years. We have Terresa Bachst. [applause] Excuse me. Okay. [applause] And for 40 years, it's my privilege to recognize Miss Kathy Rumman. [applause] >> [applause] >> Let's give them all one. [applause] good news. Item eight, we have our school. We always say this in May, of course, this is a school resource officer um and a national police week. This is the safest place to be right now in Boone County. I mean, so if you if you if you haven't looked over your your shoulder, uh um May 16th is National Police Week, and tonight, as we do uh each each month of May, we'd like to acknowledge and especially thank all of our school resource officers from the Boone County Sheriff's Department. Uh we want all of you to know
033um we have a deep appreciation for each of you. We understand the sacrifices you make to keep our schools and communities safe. Um and without a doubt uh that you know as I say I frequently visit the schools and uh they are are they have their ears to the ground eyes uh closely guarding our students and our staff. Um they they take our the safety of our students and staff seriously. Um they make our our school and our community a better place and it's just a great and it's not it's a it is a tremendous partnership that many communities don't uh don't have um and definitely don't have to the level that we do. So uh at this point we are uh going to introduce them call their names and and have them come up
034and I believe the names are going to be who decided to read the names. Is it okay I knew >> the voice of the district? Also the one that and also the ones that tells you when you have a snow day. So [laughter] hi this is Barb Brady from Boone County Schools. She's also the reason you're going to be going an extra week. [laughter] Go ahead Barb, if we're ready. >> High schools. >> Thank you. Boon County High School Deputy Bart White. [applause] >> Hey, Barbara. >> I can't hear you at all. >> I know. I know. uh Cooper High School Deputy Steve Evans, [applause] Royal High School Deputy Adam Coleman, [applause] Ignite Institute Deputy Charlson, [applause] He's not here, but Rise Academy Deputy Kevin Gilpin, [applause] Walton Verona High Deputy Joe Gregory [applause] from
035our middle schools, Valley Shannon Middle, Deputy Mark Jump. [applause] Connor Middle Deputy Wayne Turner, [applause] Camp Ernst Middle Deputy Chad Redell, [applause] Gray Middle Deputy Nick England, [applause] Auckerman Middle Deputy Chris Saunders, [applause] Jones Middle Deputy Scott Meny, [applause] Walton Verona, Intermediate Deputy Troy Hagedorn. [applause] Elementary Schools, Burlington Elementary, Deputy Roger Nelms. >> [applause] >> Collins Elementary Deputy Kevin Schwarz, [applause] Urban Beck Elementary Deputy John Liker. [applause] >> Florence Elementary Deputy Chris Combmes. [applause] Goodridge Elementary Deputy Jeremy Reid, [applause] Long Branch Elementary Deputy Scott Dames, [applause] Kelly Elementary Deputy Dean Patterson, [applause] New Haven Elementary Deputy Kevin Duncan, >> [applause] >> North Point Elementary Deputy Eli Salter, [applause] Auckerman Elementary Deputy Derek Boyd, [applause] Man Elementary Deputy Mike Bales, [applause] Steeplechase Elementary Deputy Mike or excuse me, Ryan Strange, [applause] Stevens Elementary Deputy Jim Hill,
036[applause] Thorn Wild Elementary Deputy Scott Rasenthos, [applause] Walton Verona Elementary Deputy Tony Trimble, >> [applause] >> Yay Elementary Deputy Pat Cotttingham, [applause] Substitute SRO's Deputies Adam Dalvo, [applause] Deputy Kai Ransell, [applause] and Deputy Mike Denner. [applause] Last but not least, Assistant Commander Lieutenant Nate Baker. [applause] And Major Ryan Walters. [applause] They tell me [laughter] >> somebody. >> So, is Jesse gonna be visible? >> I'm cool. I don't need [laughter] [music] >> I think he has a sitting where we can't be seen. >> I don't >> Now if I could just get the guys in the front to stagger in between. >> We'll we'll move. It's okay. We'll >> we got everybody. >> He's got a plan. here. Carolyn, you want to come over here? >> There's an extra chair. [clears throat] >> Oh my goodness.
037>> Everyone jump on three. He's taller than the rest of them. >> And before we leave, uh we're going to allow um Officer Walters to just say a couple words. I already have, but uh Oh, it is. I thought you do it every time. >> But no, it's a pleasure for all these guys and and girls to serve the district. You know, a lot of the guys have been in the service for 25, 30, 35, Tony, how many years? >> 40. So, it's truly an honor to and a privilege to work with the staff, the district, the kids, and >> we really enjoy it. So, thank you. >> Thank you. One more big round of applause. [applause] >> Good to see you guys. Thanks a lot. Appreciate you coming. >> Probably had something better to
038do tonight, but glad you were here. >> Thank you. >> Hey, thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> This concludes our good news. Uh, >> does it? >> No, it doesn't. >> Two more items, right? >> Hey, Mr. Walters. Right. >> He's getting him. We do have Okay. Next good news item is special SRO recognition for the school resource officer of the year. We did catch him, but we are singling out one specific SRO. That's Deputy Scott Meny. He's being awarded this year's region four SRO of the year by the Kentucky Association of SRO's. Deputy Mini uh Minifree is assigned to Jones Middle School and we all know his work is vital to ensuring a safe environment. He was nominated by Jones Principal Stacy Park. He will receive his award on June 9th. And at
039this point, we're going to have him come up here for a photo. [applause] I think that's all. Yes, >> each of the other restaurants will be buying you lunch. One more. We got one more. >> Finally, good news item 10. It's our student schoolboard representative recognition. The school board would like to recognize AJ Woff for his years of service as the student school board member representative. AJ, you've done an outstanding job in the Superintendent Student Advisory Council and we are confident that this past year's experiences will benefit you in your future endeavors. Thank you for your service and leadership. And at this point, we'd like AJ to come up and we're going to get the board one last photo um to recognize AJ. [applause] Thank you. I thought that was And that concludes our good
040news. >> All right. Um, our good news items are a little long at the end of the school year, but man, we have so much to celebrate here in Boone County. Um, it's pretty impressive the amount of just overly positive and beautiful things happening in all of our buildings. All right, with that, we'll move on to item five and turn the meeting over to AJ Whiteoff for the student board member representative report. >> Yes, thank you, Mr. Parks. Uh, hello and good evening. Uh, I hope everyone is having a wonderful end to their school year and day. As my time on the board comes to an end, I want to thank all the board members and students who have supported me in my goals as a student board rep. This experience has been an I
041has been as eyeopening as it has been life-changing. I don't know if my views of the world and beliefs have been challenged more by any other experience ever, and I will always forever be grateful to those who were there to support me at committee meetings as well as SSAC. I wanted to especially thank Mr. McCarter, the Bradies, Dr. Hoswald, and Miss Rutman for all they've done for me. Mr. Marter was there with me throughout the entire formation of the health and safety committee and he really helped me advance my healthy habit building agenda and without him I don't think I could have ever laid such a good foundation for the movement that will continue into next year. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Brady for always being there to help me with any tech problems and
042always being so welcome welcoming and all the amazing kind conversations before and after board meetings. Without Mr. Brady's help, I don't think that the SSAC would have the platform that it does through his excellent photography. And I can't thank either of them enough for the privilege it has been getting to know them better. I cannot thank Dr. Hoswald enough for how much he seems to listen to me and the countless Chipotle bowls he has had conversations with me over >> his request. >> Yeah, always mine. [laughter] Dr. Dr. Hosold has made it a mandate in his monthly schedule to have lunch with me and talk about what I was seeing through the county and what he could do to assist me in my missions. Without his care and passion for what I and so many
043other students have to say, the student voice would have never been acknowledged and we as students would struggle to have a place to properly project our voices to the board. And finally, Mrs. Rootman. Mrs. Rootman has been one of the most amazing, supportive people I've ever worked with, and I can never thank her enough. She has helped ease so much stress for me over the entire school year. Whether by helping take workload off my shoulders or just being there when I needed to talk to her for a second. Oh shoot, I lost my place. She was there and she cared for me as well as 23 other student board reps. She really is the heartbeat of the superintendent student advisory council and I want to thank her so much for her kindness and care for
044students like me in Boone County. I will always treasure the experiences that I've had in this position as student board rep and all I and I want to say one more thank you to all of those who have listened to me and been a support over the school year. To any student listening, I encourage you to be courageous and stand up for what you believe in and never be afraid to step into a leader's role because you may never know where the journey will take you. Thank you so much and I wish everyone the best of summers. [applause] Uh, thank you, Mr. Wyoff. Appreciate it. >> All right. Uh, we'll move on to item six and, uh, turn the meeting back over to Dr. Housewald for the superintendent report. >> Yes. Good evening, board. Tonight,
045I have a slightly lengthy uh, presentation. Uh you may recall as a requirement of the Kentucky new superintendent program um we had to provide an update on uh accomplishments in the first year. Uh last year was a PowerPoint. Uh it was 18 slides to be specific. And um so as I began looking at how do I report back to the board on progress this year, um I went straight to Barb and Chad. You've heard them named multiple times tonight. uh they work tirelessly in our communication department to really celebrate not only our accomplishments to help uh but also to help keep our community informed and that community includes our staff, it includes our students, it includes our our parents and guardians and then just all of our Boone County residents. So tonight uh in lie
046of a PowerPoint um we've created a publication and that publication is actually hot off the presses. I was able to get just a handful of copies. Uh and those copies are before the board. Um we have a digital copy that we will be um uh putting on our website tonight um and or tomorrow morning um for the community. Um we also will be sending this out to our community. The reason is um we have a lot to um to celebrate but we also want to continue to be transparent and to make sure that we are sharing with our community what we are doing and updating them um on a regular basis. So uh you have tonight uh 202526 progress report which uh I know that uh a couple months ago um actually um Mr. Parks
047was kind of going through, chairman Parks was going through some of the accomplishments and I thought, well, you know, the reality is why not put this in in in one uh one resource as part of my annual uh uh report to the board. Uh and so um we're going to go through that tonight. And I want to thank uh the executive cabinet. You'll notice uh standing behind you mostly. Two of them are over here. Um but this is it. I mean, the executive council is is it's 10 people. So there's four that sit over here every night. There's four that I don't know sit on the port side of the ship and the starboard side, whatever you want to call it, as well as my executive assistant Michelle and I. And so, um, this is
048really a culmination of information that they have gathered and their hard work in leading the departments, leading the schools, um, and really just, uh, helping, uh, me, uh, accomplish, uh, our the board's priorities. And so, uh, some of many of them are going to be taking over the microphone and presenting. I'm going to just do the general overview, which is kind of what I get to do. And uh then they're going to really dive deeper um for a couple minutes on each area um and really just celebrate and and again this will be available online, but it also will be mailed to all of our homes uh just as a way to not only um uh share our news, but to make sure that our community is aware of what we're doing and the difference
049that Boone County Schools is making in education and in uh the economic difference in our community. So, with that, um, I'm going to skip through the welcomes, but a special thank you to, uh, uh, board chairman Parks and to to AJ for their, uh, for their welcome notes. Um, we have a overview of Boone County Schools on page five, but we're going to dive right in on page six and seven. This is really the the meat and potatoes, if you will, of of what we have accomplished this year together. um new in 2026. Uh you can see on page six, we're really having a conversation about how we continue to work to create a school system versus a system of schools. Uh this was one of the mandates when I was hired that said, you
050know, how in what ways do we need to become a cohesive district rather than um 28 islands that operate independently and provide students with many varied experiences. um and and how do we coales that around common themes uh and and greater efficiency. We're going to talk about tonight some resource efficiency that has come from that. Uh increasing salaries and wages with a focus on entry- level salaries and wages. We've eliminated um a position vacancies. Uh we've expanded early childhood education and we've improved communication both in the classroom and to families. And so I'm going to just kind of do an overview on page seven of many of our our our successes. because you'll see these kind of broken down in terms of the the priorities the board set forth in the strategic plan in terms
051of worldclass education. We're going to talk tonight about the fact that we've adopted a universal language arts curriculum and a universal math curriculum. This is significant. The the timeline for implementation is a little bit different. But many of our students, particularly our priority populations move between schools and when we when we do things differently in all of our schools, they have different experiences and oftentimes that comes with learning loss. Also, um it comes at a greater cost to our our district and our taxpayers when we have to buy multiple resources for the same student. So, one of the key things that we've accomplished uh in this past year is implementing a universal language arts curriculum. Um and then adopting a universal math curriculum. Um it also allows us to have u to coalesce and and
052have uh actually more uh higher level professional development uh at at a lower cost because we're doing it across the district. We've also implemented microphones and translation services in every classroom in the district. It it creates a better learning environment for students and it removes barriers for our English learners. When it comes to empowered workforce, uh we've p again increased salaries and wages. I do want to highlight that over the last two years, this does not count the salary and wage package the board will be considering tonight. We've increased salaries and wages uh flatline 7.8% over the past two years. And um that these changes have also made us one of the highest paying districts in Northern Kentucky for salaries and wages. Our board also tasked as well as our principles with targeting beginning employee
053salaries and wages. This was uh significant because um we had a lot of vacancies and we were having trouble recruiting uh new teachers and new uh employees. And so we're pleased that over the last two years uh excuse me, over the last one year in addition to the uh standard raise, we were able to increase our beginning teacher salaries by an additional $3,000. That took our beginning wages from 46,500 to 50,500 overall. We also uh were able to increase our hourly wages by a dollar an hour. And next year we'll be increasing it by a minimum of of a dollar and a quarter. So you can sort of see the difference there. And that includes in one year's time we increased our beginning teachers uh wages by 9.5%. We've also added a new employer 1%
054403b annuity match this year. Uh we've had tremendous uh participation in that. Um we also know that the state has reduced uh um retirement benefits for our new employees that's both classified and certified. So this provides an opportunity for them to save additional money for retirement. And we've had great uh success in that and great feedback uh from our employees on the benefit of that. Uh we've enhanced opportunities for staff voice and input. We talked earlier about stay interviews. Um and again those stay interviews have indicated that with more than 90 over 90% of the employees giving us high marks as a great place to work. And [snorts] of course I've added uh some building based conversations at every school uh in every department um so that I'm accessible um to our employees. When it
055comes to stakeholder engagement, we'll give you some more details later. Um, we added a a new district-wide streamlined communication uh that uh that really just gives a one-stop shop for our families and our our our staff members to communicate. Uh we implemented community forums. They've been very popular. Many of them have focused on on mental health. And then we've implemented parent university. It's an opportunity to provide targeted courses and classes to our parents. They've been highly uh attended. Some of them we've had to duplicate. It's been a great partnership with Northern Kentucky University. We've also added new safety enhancements. Uh I would be remiss not to talk about our continued improvement in safety. All of our teachers now have uh wearable devices that they can simply signal in case of an emergency. And that can
056be a student health crisis, that could be an intruder, uh any sort of safety uh um concern. They have a way to signal immediately. Many times our teachers, maybe their cell phones are at their desk, maybe they're away from their desk. they have a way to instantly uh signal if there's a safety concern. We have enhanced cyber security and data security with $400,000 worth of investment. Um and we've uh addressed allocations, made them more equitable, more fair um and uh worked on improving our organization chart um so that and we have more room to go on that. We're digitizing it for our community. That will be done I've been told by December 31st, right Kyle? And so, uh, we just continue to make in significant improvement. So, overall, the the the point of this is
057that we we hope that, um, our community comes to understand just how different we look now than we did at the beginning of the year and definitely how different than we looked two years. We have a lot of room to grow. We have more work to do. Um, but we're really uh, proud of the work that we've done. At this point, um, I would like to do a slightly deeper dive for a few minutes, and Jim and Tara are going to, uh, I'm not sure who's going to speak. Jim, Jim is gonna talk a little bit about pages eight and nine in terms of our world-class education. >> Yeah, thank you, Dr. Hoswald. It's my pleasure to talk about successes under goal one, worldclass education, specifically our successes in our academic programming. um in two
058areas. High achievement is measured by the Kentucky state assessments as we compare ourselves to the entire state and also districts that are comparable to us in size and also closing gaps. We're starting to see for the first time single digits in many of our schools in gap closure which is a huge accomplishment for the district. How have we done this? I think the first thing that I wanted to highlight is something that you know about but coming out of COVID we were able to maintain that momentum where we decided made the intentional decision to accelerate learning and not to slow down to keep up with our pacing guides and our pacing guides and that's something that as you know we were cited in a Harvard study for having great success with our students and serving
059our students in that way. We've also made a shift from balanced literacy in reading to what everybody science of reading. The science of reading. This is a researchbased. This is based on brain science. Are you guys sleeping back there? I don't know. You have to have my back here. We were talking in LSS today about I was asking LSS some of the directors, what's a good life analogy that would help me really show the magnitude of this shift because it is a huge shift for our teachers. Teachers were not trained in this way. And Kelly STDM, I have her credit. She said it's almost like years ago when research said you should treat almost every ailment with mercury and doctors did that. But the new research came out to say, you know what, you can
060treat the symptoms, but it's not solving anything. That's really what balanced literacy was doing. You can do it and some students were achieving. But with brain science, we've learned that the science of reading and really phonics at the early ages and also learning to read at the elder ages as well. It used to be we used to say the elementary school you learn to read in elementary school and in high school you read to learn. That's actually not true. You're constantly learning to read through the 12th grade. And now we know that. And so we've made that shift, but it's a big shift for our teachers and they should be commended for that. Also, as Dr. Dr. Hoswell has mentioned this adoption of HQIR, it truly does bring us into working as a school system
061for once we're able to have one resource where we are able at LSS to provide efficient and um adequate support for teachers as they implement this material. Uh we also are able to have greater accountability because we have greater expectations and the expectations are clear because it's only one H it's only one HQ QIR there aren't like 15 of them. So that helps us and that helps our students to achieve. And then finally, I'd just like to point out it also provides access to every student opportunity to every student where they are getting ongrade level instruction and on-grade level reading materials. As you know, we've done that with reading and as you know, next year we'll be implementing an HQIR for math and we're looking forward to the same high results. Thank you. >> Thank
062you. Looking forward to page 10 and 11 with our empowered workforce. Uh Eric Ball. just got to kind of you may notice uh for those of you you don't see it on here but uh for the board um we we get a lot of requests for calendars so it's just a simple thing a lot of people print them out so we just asked if we could just stick a calendar in the middle of this um which you just simply if you want to you can try it if you want you can do it later you just pull it just snaps out of the booklet and you can stick it on the fridge it also has important contact information on the back um so anyway it's just something a resource that we'll be mailing to all
063of our families. So, as as Eric talks, you'll have to kind of toggle the pages between 10 and 11. Mr. Ball, >> it's great placement because our employees want to know, okay, when's the long when's fall break? When's spring break? So, it's great placement. I appreciate that. But empowered workforce. Um, the first thing I have to do is thank the board because really anything we do uh in acknowledging our employees, whether that be uh monetary or non-monetary, uh it cannot go anywhere without the full support of the board of education. And so I knew that was the first thing I had to do because without you guys uh pushing that agenda, understanding how important it is to have high quality staff in every position in the district, uh we don't go anywhere with this. So,
064I genuinely appreciate that. Uh, some of the information you see on there is a stay interview information. You guys received the executive summary of that earlier uh in the school year. Uh, and the nice thing about next year is that we'll have some comparative data. Um, so obviously our our marks are very high and I told you guys when when I showed you that uh back in the fall that I wanted all the numbers to be a hundred. Is that the reality? No. But that's what we're always going to shoot for is 100% satisfaction whenever we can. And so these stay interviews have really helped us to determine what concerns and questions our employees have uh in in both large scale and small scale. And then uh really just wanted to point out the the
065last component that we included in empowered workforce because what we understand is that strong communities make strong schools and strong schools make strong communities. And so what we wanted to make sure that the community as a whole understood is that uh that that these efforts are so important because if we have an empowered workforce, if we reward our employees monetarily monetarily, non-monetarily, we have a system that's going to be stronger and and by by proxy it's going to make our our community stronger. So, uh, I I know my statements are a little bit brief there, but, uh, also want to acknowledge we have American Fidelity. Kate didn't know I was going to do this, but American Fidelity representatives here. Uh, without the support of those those organizations as well, a very short runway to get
066the annuity match off the ground last year. Uh, and American Fidelity, I don't know if Kate has uh, given up on me yet or if I've driven her nuts, but uh, they've been a fantastic partner uh, when it's come to uh, that annuity match as well. Thank you very much. And Kate, thank you for being here for everything that you do. Um the benefit of adding, we're the largest, the only large district in the state to offer a local annuity match of this scale. Um but with that comes some uh free financial consultation um from American Fidelity to our our staff members there in every school all the time, particularly now, particularly with uh tonight's anticipated board vote to increase our match from 1% to one and a half. Um and so but what they've
067done is started a conversation with our staff members, all of our staff members, um about the importance of saving for retirement, um and of good financial literacy. Uh and I know that just today I was at I was at a school was at Camp Bernst. I was having a conversation with a teacher that again thanked me, asked me if about the, you know, that they knew that we were increasing the match. Uh, and just told me that they look at their statement monthly and what a difference it's making and how they're quantifying those amounts of money uh and giving them an additional cushion um for retirement that's in excess of what what happens uh at the state level. So, thank you, Kate, and thank you, Eric. With that, we're going to move on to pages
068uh 12 and 13. And uh we're going to talk about engaging community uh families in the community. And Tara's going to do that because we're going to focus a little more this time on uh the the classroom audio enhancement program that we're using as well as some of our parent universities that Tara's been coordinating. Tara, >> yes, and I'm excited to be here talking about stakeholder engagement. It's so important because when families and schools work together, students are more successful academically, socially, and emotionally. And that strong communication really builds trust and creates a support system that every student can succeed. One of the first things I want to talk a little bit about is audio enhancement with clear connect. Clear connect is in every single one of our classrooms and in our front offices. And
069this really breaks down barriers with our multilingual families. So we are able to provide translation services for them which then in turn provides access to all families. and so they feel welcome and supported as part of the school. We also adopted Apogee this year which is the first time we've had everybody using the same communication system. I just want to share some exciting data from that. Um 92% of our students have at least one parent or guardian con connected to rooms. If you're not familiar with Apogee, Rooms is like the text messaging. So that's two-way communication. And we know that when we're communicating with families, we want that two-way communication between teachers and families. And 92% of our students have that through Apsy. It also breaks down barriers because you communicate with the family in
070their preferred language. So if they speak Spanish, the text messages are translated into Spanish. This is huge when you are getting a text from your fam from your teacher that you are now able to understand and read in your own language. This is huge. It's also a huge barrier for our families who just would much rather have a text than a phone call from a parent. So, it's a great tool and 92% of our students have at least one person. Also, something that I thought was really cool. We're only halfway through the month and over 14,000 families have had two-way communication with their child this month. I mean, that's really, really powerful. Our teachers are using it. Our schools are using this resource. [snorts] And just up right now, 281,000 messages have been sent by
071the district and school. And those are schoolwide messages. So when you're sending out your newsletter, you're sending out announcements. So our schools are really using this to tell parents and families what is going on and that is so important with that communication to get parents involved in our school communities. The third thing I really want to talk about is parent university and parent university is really my passion. We have a great partner with Northern Kentucky University and also North Key. North Key has done several um parent university sessions on mental health and we're looking forward to growing that partnership. We've had a little over 500 families attend a parent university session and that's just on an abbreviated scale this year. We are hoping to grow it next year with a variety of different opportunities for
072parents, not just in person, but virtual experiences. Maybe some microlearning on our website where you have an ask the expert that can come in and you can just watch a video if you want to learn something uh about any a variety of topics. So, we're really excited about parent university. Um, all of these efforts just continue to help strengthen relationships with our community and with our families who are stakeholders and they are the ones who support our school and support our students and we want to make sure they're able to engage with the school however they want and what works best for them. So excited about the things that are happening. >> Thank you, Tara. Moving on, we have um operations and resource optimization uh goal four and uh Eric and oh no >> oh
073Darl sorry page 1415 finance first and then I'll turn over to Eric and Kim. Thanks Darl. Sorry about that. >> No problem. Just a few uh highlights on the finance side for the 2025 fiscal year. Despite turnover and finance and some key positions, including no executive director for seven months, we received an unqualified or a clean audit opinion. That's only because of the hard work and dedication of the entire finance and accounting staff, which I've inherited, and demonstrates a strong financial management and internal controls. Uh, this district has sustained strong, stable financial status thanks to a board that has effectively and efficiently managed resources. Uh helping with that's a cross functional budget committee that meets monthly. Uh our salaries and benefits are 86% of our overall expenses. Our starting teacher salaries have increased 3.2% per
074year on a compounded annual growth rate over the last eight years along with other benefit increases while at the same time our annual state funding from our seek allocation decreased $10 million each year. Uh and taxes have remained relatively flat. Last year, our tax rate was 72nd of 171 districts in Kentucky. Boone County schools are in a strong financial position, unlike the largest districts in the state. Due to the dedication of so many, the district is committed to fiscal responsibility, transparency, and continuous improvement and service to the community. >> Thank you, Darl. Um, again, this is going to every family. We want them to understand that we have um we're in the bottom half of the state in terms of our tax rates. um we've kept an average tax rate. We spend most of our
075money on our staff because of efficiencies. Um and and really and we just continue to make sure that our revenues surpass our expenditures um so that we don't have a situation where there's un unnecessary unwarranted staff reductions and those types of things. So, um we really appreciate it and all of those who contribute um to working through the budget committee and just really the keeping their their um focus on that uh that those bottom lines. Thanks. >> And if you will look on page 16 and 17, we have uh Kim and Eric. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Oswalt. Uh what I wanted to talk about a little bit was the operations side as far as operations, supporting curriculum, supporting students, supporting staff members. And if you'll look at our recent and ongoing
076projects on the page up there, the list of things that we've done, uh, new PA systems, safety alert screens, bell systems districtwide, performing arts center, full renovation of Boone County High School, classrooms additions at Camp Berns, Jones Middle, uh, the fieldhouse is going on at each campus, full renovation of Yale Elementary, the HVA upgrades at the ATC, Collins Elementary, and Stevens Elementary, sprinkler and fire alarm upgrades, and roof repair and replacements. across the district. This is an ongoing process that we do every year. Um, and it's a tribute to our team, our facilities team. It's a tribute to our custodial staff. It's a tribute to working with Emit Hayes uh and Joe and EMTT. Um, I know Joe is here tonight. So, thank you very much. It's a tribute to Dan Razer uh and Charles
077who are in charge of the warehouse and the facility management and to Kim Best who sits in many of those meetings and I have sat in meeting those meetings in years past um to make sure that our projects are on time and on uh uh as far as being uh fiscally responsible as well. Um, and it's a lot of time and effort put into these uh projects that go to maintain them uh to make sure they're correct and to again to support that we have great classrooms for the kids to be in, for the teachers to be in uh and for learning support to be able to implement their programs as well. So, it's a a working a working collaboration. Um, and the other thing that I also want to highlight or talk a little
078bit about was what Darl just talked about. Uh I want to commend the uh finance department for all their hard work and um also the audit. We've had a clean audit over the past ever since I've been here and I know in years past. So we continue to do that. Our contingency is very strong. So we're we're in the right spot and and as far as financial uh situation. Um and that's really all I really want to point out tonight. And I want to turn this over to Kim Best who will give you some information about an exciting new project with our preschool. >> No, they didn't yay for anyone else. Kim, I don't know if they're yaying for you or the preschool. [laughter] >> I'm going to take it no matter which one it
079is. Let's just say that. So, as you can see up on the screen, you have a couple of renderings of the coming soon early childhood center. and that really just emphasizes the board's commitment to early learning childhood education for our students in Boone County. So, this project is one that if you've been around for a while, it has been a long time coming and is very exciting. There has been a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that you can't really see. Um but that's all through that collaborative um workings that we have with the architects with our facilities team with other partners that we have across the state to actually make this project come to fruition. So one of the exciting things is that from our department is when we start to
080see things show up on a board agenda that shows us we're getting some movement. So tonight you'll see one of those items related to the opening of the preschool as a consent agenda item. Then moving on from that, this actually goes out for bid tomorrow, which is a super exciting thing. And the goal will have to have a general contractor awarded in June and then we will start work immediately after that to have our goal to have completion by August of 2027. So, lots of exciting things are happening. Again, these are actually two renderings of that property that you'll see come to fruition very soon. >> Thank you, Kim. And um I I will close with a quick comment on facilities. Next month on the agenda uh I I don't know if it's EMTT or
081Joe, I'm not sure where, but somewhere one of them uh is really working and with us on our five-year facility plan. We're going to update the board and the community on some of the major projects and their recommendations related to the five-year plan. And I want to close with of course thanking uh the cabinet, thanking all those that contributed the data necessary. This is a volume of information. Um, and a special thank you of course to Chad and Barb who I mean just the number of hours to put together a report like this in a in a manner that's both easily readable, pleasant to the eye, and has all the information. Uh, I really appreciate it. Um, about a year ago or a year and a half ago, board member Bird said, you know, we
082oftentimes used to talk about being the, and I'm paraphrasing, so um, the first the first to do things, the fir we were out there in the front. we were the first to do things and and she told me and I want to be back in that position. And so I'm just thinking through this information we shared tonight and we're sharing that we were the only district in Kentucky, the first district in Kentucky to completely overcome the negative consequences of COVID in terms of learning results. Only one of 100 districts in the nation that are performing higher than they were precoid. We were the first district in the state of Kentucky and one of the first nationally to comprehensive comprehensively implement a system for learning with audio enhancement that had both microphones, had speakers, all new
083intercoms, improved safety and translation to every student. Two-way conversational translation between I don't know it's up to 180 languages. We're the only still the only district in the state of Kentucky to offer that. although I've been told Warren County is putting it in this summer. Um, we are the first district in the state of Kentucky to implement a comprehensive percentage-based for every district, every employee 403b annuity match, which upon the board's approval tonight will go to 1 and a.5%. Um, as many people I was at the transportation building were telling me when we first implemented it, you know, Dr. Hles is free money. I said, it is free money, but you got to you got to make the match. And so, uh, we're we're really providing another benefit that most districts aren't. It puts us
084back in the lead. And I have had at least 25 conversation with superintendents that are asking me, "How do we do that? We need to do that." We have people reaching out, visiting our schools. We recently had um um school leaders from um more than a dozen school districts visiting to learn about our audio enhancement program. Um, we're the first district in Kentucky to have a comprehensive system for stay interviews to increase staff voice and through targeted conversations. And um, I believe and I have not found another district that we've offered the largest raises to our entry level staff. our certified teachers. If you go back from their pay for the 2023 20 the 2324 school year to what we will be offering next year uh over two years um we will have gone from
08546,500 to 53,575 um which is a 23% increase. So we are becoming more efficient. We're putting money towards our staff and we're seeing a large difference. We've eliminated our um we're statistically fully employed. What that means is that when someone leaves, we fill it quickly. So, there is always a vacancy because there's we have over 3,000 uh staff members. But, nonetheless, uh it's made a big difference in closing those vacancies that we were having over and over again. So, we're really proud of these. These are a lot of first, but they're not the only first. We have many more to come. And I thank for I thank you for your patience. I hope that you like this format. Again, these will be going out to every uh to every every home uh um in in
086Boone County uh by the end of May. And uh with that, I just want to close the comments and um just thank the board for your support. It was said tonight that I think by Mr. Ball, that none of this would happen without the board leading and setting the priorities, setting the goals, and helping guide the process. Um and taking risks because a lot of these things take risks. And people don't understand it's a lot easier sometimes to hit the golf ball down the middle of the fairway and just continue to do what we've always done. But this board is driving for change. They're driving for improvement. Uh and they're keeping uh I know my nose to the to the grindstone. So with that, I'll close my comments but with a with a thank you
087to the board uh and and an acknowledgement that this progress report is really a result of their leadership as well. Thank you. Okay. Uh, thank you, Dr. Housewald. We'll move on to agenda item seven. Okay. Is there there's a couple of students that are here from various universities for credit? We may have left. Are you there? You go. You want to come up and say your name for the records where you're going to school. >> All right. Thank you. Uh Tim Taylor, University of the Coverlands. >> Nice. >> Thank you. And um and then did we have anybody sign up to speak tonight for the audience of citizens? >> All right. All right. Let me read a statement real quick. Uh, the board welcomes the opportunity to hear from the community and inform the board
088of your views on matters before the board. Please keep in mind the board of education agenda is set and by statute. Board can only discuss items on the items that are present on our agenda. The board cannot legally nor would the board discuss an issue specific to an employee or a student in respect to privacy. These meetings are streamed live on YouTube. Please be respectful in your comments. If you have a concern that you'd like a response from the administration, feel free to leave your information with Eric Ball. Keep your comments to two minutes so that all wish to speak may speak. And the gift giving of time to another person is really not permitted. Uh with that, two minutes, my friend. Good to see you. >> Thanks. >> Oh, what's your state your name
089by the way? >> Yeah, sorry. My name is Dave Payne. I'm uh on the SPDM board for the past three years at um at uh Connor Elementary or sorry Connor Middle School. Okay. So um there's something the parents of Boone County students uh might want to know. The way a new principal is chosen for your kid's school is this. The SBDM council, which consists of teacher and parent representatives, spends eight to 10 hours of their time interviewing a number of prospective candidates to fill the vacant principal position. The council then recommends two potential job candidates based on this carefully thoughtout process. The superintendent then has the final say in who is offered the principal position. I was a parent representative on Connor Middle School's SPDM principal selection committee last year. We carefully and thoughtfully interviewed
090a number of candidates discussing how each person could potentially be received by teachers, students, and parents. We recommended two solid candidates with our top recommendation being the vice principal at that time, Mrs. Ellison. >> Don't mention any names, please. Oh, >> sorry. Um, it is very noteworthy that neither of our recommended candidates became principal and the superintendent didn't even offer Mrs. the vice principal at the time that job at all. The students, staff, and parents at Connor Middle School had just lost their wonderful and very respected principal, Mr. Brewer. >> All right, we got can't talk anymore about the these individual employment cases. I apologize. It's just not something that the board has anything to do with. Okay. >> But I appreciate your comments, >> but like everyone knows who he was, so like Okay,
091I I hear you. I'm sorry. It's It's throwing me off this. >> I hear you. >> Okay. >> But point taken about the SPDM principal selection committee that changed a couple years ago with um I think it was SP1. SP1 changed the way that that and it took many many years for those legislators to get this situation changed. and in my personal opinion um took away some school choice. But that being said, public comment. So um is that the end of your remarks? >> Uh no, if I can thank you. Um okay. Um instead, the superintendent chose a candidate who was not recommended by the SPDM council. >> And everyone knows why that guy only lasted a few weeks. So my question for you, Mr. Mr. Superintendent is this. As the SPDM council goes through
092the process again this year of carefully and thoughtfully selecting the two best candidates to become principal of Connor Middle School, why should these teachers and parents think their input will be taken seriously or even considered at all? >> Thank you, Mr. Payne. Appreciate your time. >> Can I just one more line? >> Go ahead. How do we all know you won't just disregard the valuable input of staff and parents and once again pick someone who's part of your good old boys club? Thank you. All right, with that um we didn't have anybody else sign up for public comment. Oh, you did. Oh, you maybe you signed the student form, but that's okay. >> It's all right. Come on up. >> We've got a My name is Johnny Ward. >> Okay. Thank you. I live on
093Mary's Court in uh behind White Castles. We got a bus issue with uh picking up the kids down there. The bus goes around. It will come down our street. We've got I've got 27 year old grandkids. He's a neighbor. He's got a grandson. They expect these kids to walk uh you know three ten of a mile out of our site to go wait on the bus. It's ridiculous. I've been a resident in this county for 65 years. I've lived on this the same subdivision for 50 years. He's been there about 25 years. These are our grandkids. Uh it's a safety issue. Uh it's ridiculous. I mean, the bus, you know, we got these little kids, man, in the morning running up and down the street to go catch this bus. We need them to come
094pick them up at our house. I grew up on this street. The bus picked me up at my house. I went to uh Auran Moon County High School. All that stuff was never an issue. But now it's an issue. You know, the parents got to go to work. The grandparents that are retired have to watch these kids and it's hard to do. You know, it's where we live. It's it's a big curve and it's just there's no it's unnecessary what's going wrong. You know, we pay for this. We should get service like we're, you know, supposed to have. So, that's my issue. >> If [snorts] you would like, you can leave your information with um Eric Kim Best. >> Okay. Um, and we can look into that for you. >> Okay. All right. We need
095this resolved because like I said, it's a safety issue. >> I appreciate you coming and letting us know. >> Thank you. >> I echo his sentiment, too. >> Thank you for coming. [clears throat] >> All right. Um with that we'll move on to agenda item eight which is recommended action consent agenda items A through double N. Dr. Housewalt. >> Uh yes. Thank you again. Chairman Parks. I recommend the board approve the recommended action consent agenda items A through double N as presented with the treasures report which will now be given by Mr. Daryl Denon. We had began the month with an adjusted cash balance of 101,476,314. We had total receipts of $9,67,922 and total expenditures of $14,11,636 for a net decrease in cash of $4,943,713, leaving us an ending cash balance of $96,532,61. We collected
096$1.25 25 million in motor vehicle taxes, $463,000 in property taxes, and 747,000 in occupational taxes. We made a debt service payment of 1.65 million. Do I have a motion to approve consent agenda items A through double N as recommended? >> Seconded. >> Um, any discussions? Any discussions on any of the uh consent agenda items? >> Yes, I have a couple of things I want to talk about. >> All right. >> Um item number E, the memorandum of understanding for upspring summer the 360 program. Um I have some questions about that as it relates to our community because I hear a lot of feedback where people do not believe that we have a homeless situation in our county. And when you see on our agenda that we have a program designed to address the homeless issue
097of our county with our kids, I like to know statistically like what does that look like in our county? Like what are what are we looking like in terms of homeless children? What does that look like? What does homeless look like? Is it couch surfing? Is it car living? Is it you know, it's not necessarily tent life. So, what are we what are we looking at in our county when we talk about homeless students? >> Kathy, do you and Joe, you guys want to come to the microphone? Maybe the two of you together. I don't That'd be great. Kathy, you want to come up and do the Okay, thank you. Otherwise, people can't hear. And by the way, we we provide this information. It's it's all public information. So, it's not that we're not violating
098any individual uh privacy laws. >> How are you tonight? So, I can answer the definition of that it's um we define it through McKenna Vento which I'm just going to read you the definition if that's okay so I make sure it's accurate and so it is defined as in individuals who lack a fixed regular or adequate nighttime residence and so that can look differently it can be that they have to double up households it can be that they're living in motel shelters public or private places that are not typically designated for sleeping >> and about how many kids do we have in our district that are going through this right now? >> Sure. U right now we have 607 that would be identified under Mckenny Vento. >> Oh my goodness. >> So, but the Upspring
099program, just so you know, is not just for homelessness, it's also at risk. And so there are um other students that would also be included in that programming >> because I know that HUD does a count every year of the homeless people within the county and they usually get stuck at the number 68 because they do a headcount one time a year and people think that that's the number of homeless people that we have in our county. But hearing alone that we have 607 children >> who would qualify under that? >> Most likely a different and to be clear it's a different definition. >> Different definition. Yes. ours is self-reported. Um, and and again, it could be doubling up as you said. So, so not to say that that one count is not to judge
100anyone else's count. That's just the data that we have that's reported to us. >> Well, 68 versus 607 is a significant jump. >> I would argue one is too many. So, >> Yeah, that's right. >> I would agree with that, too. And I I want to say that um is this her first year with this program? >> No, it is not. >> How many years have we had this? you know, I don't know. >> Or and do we know how many kids we've served through that over the four years approximately? >> We can we can >> I can get that. >> I would just like to I just for curiosity, I'd like to know, but I just want to say thank you for making sure that those children have this opportunity because those kids are
101very high risk >> and they can fall through the cracks so easily. So, thank you. >> I have another statistic for you on that. So, about 25% of students who experience homelessness are at risk of not graduating with a high school diploma. >> And that's too high. 1%'s too high. >> So, thank you for that. >> And the next thing I had on here was um Debbie Zagara couldn't be here tonight. She her son's passing through town, so she couldn't come and talk about this. But I want to point out um Pathways to Progress, the transition to high school program that's going to be piloted at Connor. I'm really very excited about this. It's coming from grant funding. Um, if this goes well, it's going to be a program that's going to go through all
102of our high schools that are going to help our eighth graders transition into high school and to help them deal with that big jump. And I think that that's something that has been long needed in our county. And another thing too when you're looking at um the work of Ethan's Purpose, another thing that they're bringing in is going to be a partnership with Northern Kentucky University for internships and stuff as well. So, we're going to be able to provide more mental health supports for our kids in different ways using our partners that we already have established. And it's not going to cost us anything as well. It's going to actually be coming from grant funding. So, it's it's amazing that community members are stepping up to help us fill this need for mental health care
103for our kids and not necessarily pre or after effect postvention. We're looking at prevention when we're talking about the prep pathways program because it's it's very important that those kids have that going in those life skills. and it's going to be, I think, two, three days and they're going to offer the kids lunch and it's like in the summertime. It's it's going to be really good for them. I think I'm anxious to see how it's going to work, but I'm I'm very excited about it and I wanted to make sure that you all knew a little bit more about it because Debbie couldn't be here tonight. So, >> um, any further discussion on consent agenda items? >> All right. Uh, seeing none, all in favor? of passing the consent agenda. Say I. >> I. >>
104Any opposed. Motion passes. 5-0. >> All right. Um item nine, which is recommended old business. We have none. We'll move on to item 10, recommended action new business. Item A. Dr. Housewald. >> Uh yes. Thank you, Chairman Parks. I would recommend that the board approve the recommended action new business item A, a tenative working a budget for fiscal year 2027. Budgeting never truly ends. Uh it's a continuous process, but it's a tremendous amount of work. So for the business office, I know um both Daryl Denham, Katie Nunan, many people in the office involved in that, the budget committee. Uh it is a heavy lift. So it's an acknowledgement of their hard work. And again, I recommend uh approval of new business item A. >> All right. Do we have a motion to approve new business
105item A, tenative working budget for fiscal year 2027 as recommended? >> Let's not all speak at once. >> Motion. >> Second. Any discussion on item A? Seeing none, all in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Seeing none. Motion passes. 5-0. Uh, we'll move to recommended action, new business item B. Dr. Housewald. >> Yes, board. I'm very pleased uh to present to you um a recommendation to approve a new business item B. That would be the 202627 salary wage charts and indices. And just we mentioned a little bit earlier about what we've done in the past. Uh this is not included in some of the data that uh that was shared tonight, but it's a really large big celebration. A special thank you back here to the the um BCA and the BCCA
106um for their involvement and input and and and the committees that were formed um the committee that was formed uh to guide that work uh and to to advocate and in a collaborative spirit um which uh le led to some improvements to our overall salary and wage charts. Um and so uh just a special thank you to them uh to to both um Chairman Parks and uh board member Young for participating on that committee this year. Um, we I have a letter written upon approval and we will be sending uh an update and information to all of our staff members tomorrow with the updated salary charts and wage charts and all of that information uh to remind them of of really I would say the board's prioritization of improving pay and compensation and benefits. Um,
107it is important. We continue to try to be efficient. uh we try to keep that that number the amount of money we're spending on salaries and wages at 86%. And so anytime we continue to disproportionately drive up uh in a good way, salaries and wages, it also takes some belt tightening elsewhere, some efficiencies, and we continue to do all those things. If you look at the the report Darl shared, we continue to move up in the region. Uh we may very well be number one next year for some of our salaries and wages. Um and and you know, we're not stopping there. This uh this proposal includes uh beginning teacher wages uh an increase um that will take their their by almost $3,000. It'll take the beginning level rank three level zero to $53,575. We
108also are recommending an increase to our uh experience level zero hourly wages. Uh that will be a minimum of a dollar and a quarter uh roughly uh based on where they're starting. it's two and a quarter percent uh an additional 90 cents. So those are significant lifts in a time I know there's inflationary pressure uh that warrants and and that our employees tell us that they need these increases but I also know that this is at a time in which the state uh this year has tightened its belt uh and we will actually be getting um less money approximately $2.4 million cut is our estimate from state funds. So at a time when the state is only increasing per pupil funding by $40 for the 2627 school year, it requires us to do more with
109less and also to um really uh focus and and and and give thanks to our our local taxpayers and to really do a heavier lift locally to help keep our salaries and wages uh um as close as possible to inflationary rates. So that's just a brief summary. All of this information is online and will be sent to staff tomorrow. And again, I re I recommend um the salary and wage charts and indices as presented. >> Uh do I have a motion to approve new business item B 2627 salary wage charts and indexes as recommended? >> Mr. Wolf, I have a second. >> Second it. Second, any discussion on item B. Seeing none, all in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Seeing none, motion passes 5-0. All right. Uh, we're going to move
110on to agenda item C or item 10, business item C, revision to policies. 31.125 I'm sorry 03.125 03.225 and 03.23214 and I'm hoping that our board attorney will allow me to read each policy in its detailed and entirety. >> She's gonna say you do what you want. >> You can do what you want. [laughter] Okay. Is there a recommendation >> to read it? I mean >> not for first read >> if you just want to summarize um just like the headers of it and what they are. I mean the changes are there track changes. You can see the exact edits. Um anyone who wants to look at the full comprehensive amount of changes. They are all available on um the board agenda and the attachments. Um so just a brief summary or just read the
111title of what they are is sufficient for my purposes. >> I got you. I'll do I'll read it. That's fine. >> Thank you though. >> Okay. So 031.25 deals with expense reimbursement. Sorry. Yeah. The board memo has a really summary. >> Say it one more time. >> The board memory memo has a real good summary. >> That is >> could just read that. >> Here you go. The revision to said policies provide an update to the district's application of expense reimbursement related to the use of personal cell phones for work purposes. The change oriented from employee request for greater convenience and flexibility in managing communication needs. Under the updated policy, eligible employees may opt to use their personal devices for district business and receive standardized reimbursement in lie of being issued a district-owned equipment. Proposed
112changes were reviewed and discussed in detail across multiple committees as Miss Bird uh stated including the executive cabinet budget committee operations committee. Feedback from these groups helped shape the final recommendation and was presented to the board. All right, with that uh there's no vote uh or approval needed because it's the first reading. We'll move on to agenda item 10, recommended action item D. Dr. Housewolf, >> thank you again. I recommend the board approve recommended action new business item D which is the formal level four appeal to the Boone County Board of Education of a classified employee. >> Do I Excuse me. Do I have a motion to approve new business item D formal level uh >> I have a motion to approve >> appeal to Boone County Board of Education of a classified employee as
113recommended. >> Yes. >> I have a motion to approve item D. in a second. Okay. So, I'll second it. Um, any discussion on item D? Seeing none, all in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Okay. Wait a second. So I think that was three eyes and one abstension and any opposed >> I'll vote I disagree with the decision. >> Okay. So >> uh four and one abstension. All right. Uh motion passes. And with that, we will move to agenda item 11, which is information, proposals, and communications. If a board member would like to share um any committee updates or any other happenings or ideas going on bird got stuff. No. Um, all right. I will, um, like to acknowledge the the education appreciation days. May 1st was principal day and school lunch hero day.
114May 6th uh was school nurse day and the last week was teacher appreciation week and teacher appreciation day being Tuesday, May 5th. Um we don't want to forget the first person in education that most of our students see every day as their bus driver. Bus driver appreciation day was April 28th and uh we just want to appreciate uh or say a thank you to all the hard work and dedication to the student. Man, I don't like reading your statements. So, I'm gonna just say my own thing. All right. Um >> I'm I I never tell you what to do. >> All right. Um I say at the end of every meeting, the school district in Boone County is one of the f most fantastic school districts in the state of Kentucky. And it's not because
115of the board of education. It's because of the people that work for the district and the families that live in our community um and the students that attend our schools. Um, so everybody is um doing a in my opinion a a pretty fantastic job and I will point out just to my fellow board members the renderings of our preschool that is due to open 2728 and I know um Miss Bird and I share this exciting sentiment with having a preschool center um and all that that I think this capacity is six 600 and what that means for Boone County families and then later the students who will be better equipped and prepared and then later on um outcomes at the other end in 12th grade and then later even farther than that the employability and
116the success and the all the things that come from having a more fruitful experience in in our public education system. And I'm I cannot tell you um how excited I am. I spent a lot of Friday mornings having my coffee in the parking lot of that preschool imagining the little kids. [laughter] That is a true story. You can drive by there and see me sitting on my tailgate and um you know I believe it and I can't wait for it. So, >> I would just like to say um I worked in Covington and when they did the bigs early childhood, I taught a lot of those kids that came through that and it was amazing because in Cington we had such literacy problems and um having full day kindergarten and a preschool um our children
117were so much more wellprepared. So, >> yeah, >> I want to say a thank you to the staff for the wonderful progress report. Um, that was something that I think a lot of us have been wanting to see something that black and white going out to the community. So, on behalf of members of the community that are well, it's in color. Yeah, you know what I mean. It's an expression, Miss Dr. Housewald. So, um I'm excited that that's going to be going out to um all of our families and and in a way where it's able to be understood because a lot of the stuff that we do at the school district, it's it's confusing even for people who work here and who are board members to learn all this stuff. So, being able to
118get this out to the community so they can see some of the stuff that we keep trying to tell people, but they can see it in color with graphs and numbers and and resources. So, I appreciate the time that went into that. and also AJ, it's been a pleasure. >> Thank you. I really appreciate it. >> So, we're very proud of you and we're excited to see where you go. >> Yes. Thank you guys. >> See us. >> All right. Um, if there's no other comments or people want to talk about the energy management report or any of these other items that are on um that section of the agenda, uh, we'll move to closed executive session agenda item 12 pursuant to KRS61.810 810 section 1K meeting specified by law to conduct in private which
119is pursuant to KRS56 557 section 4 discussions of superintendent evaluation. Do I have a motion to go into close session? >> I second it. >> All right. Second, all in favor please say I. >> I. Any opposed?