001This business meeting of the board of education of the Cleveland Municipal School District will come to order. Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the role? >> Miss Elott, >> here. >> Mr. Phillips, >> here. >> Mr. Briggs, >> here. >> Miss Jones, >> here. >> Pastor Jones, >> here. >> Mrs. Leone, >> here. >> Mrs. Peak >> here. >> Dr. here. >> Mrs. Welchow >> here. >> There are nine members present. >> Thank you. I ask everyone who wishes to rise and participate in the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Next, we will have our public participation period. During this segment of the business meeting, we will hear all public comment
002on either agenda or non-aggenda items. The public participation period will be for persons who have previously signed up to address the board for up to three minutes each. We will have um the timer on either screen so you can monitor your time as you go. And as usual, we will we li will limit each speaker to three minutes. We ask that everyone respect this time limit. All right. First, uh, Mayar Abdulhadi followed by Sana Bahader. Mayar. Okay. Sabah. Good evening. My name is Sabah Hadadur and I am a junior at the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine. As the name suggests, CSSM is all about science, medicine, public health, and community. And everything we do here from classes to school traditions reflects that mission. CSSM is definitely challenging, but that is just part of the
003experience. Most of our courses are advanced placement or honors. And if you want an extra challenge, you can take college credit plus classes and experience college level learning while still in high school. Learning here doesn't just happen in the classroom. Many students spent their summers doing research, internships, or specialized programs. This is shown by using our one-of-a-kind careers pathway program. This program gives students the ability to not only learn about their desired field, but receive hands-on experience that that a very small majority of high school scholars actually get. For example, Project Seed lets students work with graduate and PhD mentors at Case Western Reserve University to work on research projects and that is all while balancing a busy school year. While on the topic of extracurricular activities, new and various opportunities are sent out every
004day. And this is all thanks to our one-of-a-kind counselor who works tirelessly day and night to give her students the best high school experience. Without Mrs. Cynthia Dalin, opportunities such as Minds Matter and Top Scholars are more prevalent with sorry without Mrs. Dalin, opportunities such as Minds Matter and Top Scholars um would have gone a bit unnoticed throughout the student community. These programs provide guidance to ACT preparation, college application and experience and much networking. And while CSSM and is mainly based on science and medicine, our school offers a unique pathway program that covers for more than just being a doctor. We have a pathway for biomedical engineering, scientific research, public health and policy in addition to professional medicine. I personally pledged into the P professional medicine pathway last year. We get to hear from the
005American Red Cross and medical students from Case Western Reserve University and they help us understand what it is like working in the healthc care field. Outside of classes, the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine has a ton of activities. I am excited to be a part of Health Occupation Students of America this year. With funding a bit tight, students have to put in extra work to fund raise for competition costs. Although that is a down downside, it teaches teamwork, leadership, and in their hard work. The School of Science and Medicine hosts an annual white coat ceremony for all new students. Throughout the year, scholars get pins to decorate their white coats, which soon get transferred onto their graduation gowns. From the white coast ceremony to pathways, summer programs, and clubs like HOSA, CSSM gives students
006the tools, experiences, and support to pursue meaningful careers in science, medicine, and public health. It is a community that makes that pushes you, inspires you, and prepares you to make a real difference in the world. Thank you so much for listening. >> Thank you, Son. Next, Jonathan Parker. Good afternoon. My name is Jonathan Parker Jr. and I've had the amazing privilege of serving or being a student at the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine for almost four years now. The Cleveland School of Science and Medicine isn't just a school. It's a place where students like me and Sana goat who explore our future careers in the pathway program. Now through our pathway program we gain access to professionals in fields like professional medicine, biome biomedical engineering, uh scientific research and public health and policy. We
007don't only focus on just the science and medicine background. We have different aspects of each career that are exposed. But students regardless are rece received in numerous opportunities to explore and experiment with whatever career they want. Students are are rewarded for exploring going about in these in this pathway program with coats like these the white coats at at the end of the freshman year when a student has fully completed their uh freshman year at the Cleveland School of Science Medicine. They are given these white coats to symbolize their growth and commitment to this Cleveland School of Science and Medicine. They are given pins too. They're given pins which are are earned from various programs and internships that they're being a part of that symbolize their dedication to this to their career. We also we also
008reward students with path with medaling pathways. Earning points in pathways can give you give you a seal on your diploma and other things like that. What makes CSM truly different is the dedication to their student leadership. So we have we have award-winning careers from our mockshaw team to our chess team which just competed in a national competition. We also we also host a national uh chapter of SAD and HOSA which by the way is the first in the district. Little little but time and time again TSM has proven that we can establish amazing leaders in our community. Students that are giving back directly to be honest it's just the CSM way. But personally, personally speaking, I've grown not just as a scholar, but as a mentor and leader. CSM gave me the experience and the
009guidance to fully learn what I wanted to do. They I personally speaking, I didn't want to go into the medical field. I came in thinking I wanted to be a doctor, but CSM taught me that I didn't have to do that and I could still be involved in medical field like be going into public health and policy, which I plan to minor in in college. But Dr. Morgan, I'm speaking directly to you now. I know we are facing financial hardships and I ask that you just remember the effects of CSM has on the community and their students when you're making these hard financial decisions. So I yield the rest of my time. Thank you. >> Thank you Jonathan. Um if Mayar does come we will let her come in at the end. Uh Famika Bonner
010is next. Grateful evening board members and Dr. Morgan. My name is Famika Bonner and I am a parent and grandmother of students in CMSD. I'm a resident in ward 16 and I'm an educator at Marian Celzer. Dr. Morgan, this year as a part of our BBF, you have the guardrails. The first one is safety and well-being. It states, "The CEO shall not fail to promote safety with CMSD facilities." Well, Dr. Morgan, our children's transportation is a problem. It is week six of school and students at Mary and Celzer are still waiting for transportation. I have my little notebook here of request and the first three are still waiting for transportation. I have submitted it on August 18th. We are still waiting for students in Power School that are labeled as walkers because of our old
011address. I tried to give Karen Thompson and Eric Taylor this information back in July. Eric emailed me back and he said there are still working on routes. It is now September 23rd. Are we still working on routes? We have lost a great deal of our students because of the never received busing, bus drivers being rude to families, and not showing up to stops. My fellow colleague Aaron Inhosa took the time to go to bus stops and wait with 12 families. Buzzies was not coming to stops. She even made suggestions. And I'm just going to read just a little bit of her email that was sent um because I don't have that much time. Um it said as we are well aware businesses have been um buses have been an enormous problem since the first day
012of school. We had students that were listed as walkers because there were walkers to the old school not our swing site. The transportation department never recalculated their routes to swing site. And for those students that were assigned bus routes, many of them are not being picked up at their designated bus stop. I have feel concern from parents dropping off their students. And Miss Bonner observes who and who is not getting off of buses and the drop off lane. She and I are receiving messages via class dojo from parents experiencing the same issues. Miss Bonner and I compelled list every morning after arrival and talked about issues which are being fixed and which will remain. Um so I just wanted to give you that little snippet. Um we have reached out to Eric Taylor. We even
013went to transportation. Unfortunately things are still not being done. So, I just asked if we can get that situated. Thank you guys so much. Thank you, Miss Bonner. Next, Alicia Dodson. Alicia Dodson, Adrien Leonard Busby. Good evening, members of the CMSD School Board. My name is Adrienne Leonard Busby and I serve as an intervention specialist at Mound. I write on behalf of myself and my colleagues to express serious concern regarding the ongoing incidents of vehicle vandalism and theft on school property throughout the district. Despite repeated reports since 2021, there has been little visible response or prevent preventative action. This lack of acknowledgement has left staff feeling unsafe, unsupported, having to deal with financial inconveniences, and increasingly demoralized. As a second generation Cleveland educator, I find the district's inaction especially disheartening, not only for myself, but
014for those whose legacy we proudly uphold. We respectfully urge the board to investigate these incidents and to implement continuous effective security measures. Staff safety must be a priority and we deserve a workplace where we feel protected and valued. Although leadership may consider this a bargaining unit concerned to be handled in negotiations to those of us affected by this violation, it is a matter of leadership doing the right thing. Thank you for your attention in this matter. Thank you, Miss Leonard Busby. Next, Andrea Docky Murray. Good evening, CEO Morgan, Madame Chair, and esteemed members of the board. My name is Andrea Dri Murray, and I'm an art teacher at John Adams College and Career Academy. And I wanted to speak to you tonight about the urgency about several things happening at my building. One of them
015pertaining to one of my students. I have a student in my class who's been at our school since the very first day on August 18th. He speaks no English. He's unable to participate in class. I know he feels isolated and overlooked because I could see it in his eyes even though he cannot speak to me. I tried to communicate with him using the limited swuahili I learned in college. So that was many decades ago and even Google translate, but he doesn't respond. He in fact might not even speak Swuahili. He may speak a number of other languages related to Swahili, but that's not the point. The point is we've failed him. He is not getting met with the basic needs. He's not there. And I need to know what can we do to help this
016child. He's been in my class and his future is completely dim. So, how are we going to build a brighter future when I don't even know if he's learning because he can't even speak English? So we we have to rectify that. I'm also here to talk about the clarity of my school. I know that there may be um a dissolution of my building or we might have to merge with other schools. And I have to tell you that it's very stressful. We almost feel overwhelmed because we have so many students in our school and now we're going to have more students and fewer teachers. And I know that the new Adams was rebuilt in 2006 to house about 1,500 students and at one time it even housed about a thousand. And right now we're not
017at that. And I know that you want to have more than 500 students at a building. However, our community, our families in that building need to know what's going on with our school. And I also want to say that they need to know. We also need to think about how many students are going to be in a classroom. I have several classes of more than 43 students and 21 in one class and 22 in another class have individualized educational plans. So yeah. Oh wow. It's it's really serious. And I have a class that um you know when when we have students that may have individualized educational plans and they're not speech related, there could be some adversity in the classroom. And there are other teachers that have 53, 54, and 58 in the classroom. And
018I really hope that the fire marshall doesn't drive by. I want us to think about the legacy of Cleveland. Remember the legacy of Cleveland when it was Cleveland public schools. This district educated the best and the brightest. We had Carl Stokes, the first black mayor of a major US city. We had his sis, his brother rather, uh, Lewis Stokes, Olympians, Jesse Owens, Eleanor Montgomery, and even Nick Mleti, who was the original owner of the Cavs. We need to talk about our past, but we need to make it our present. I know we're in a crisis, but we need to come together to come up with a solution and a plan so that this is not just a past memory, but it's our future. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Dra Murray. Next, Roberta Cathkart. Hi,
019and good evening. My name is Robera Cathkart and I am a pair professional at the newly constructed Joseph M. Gallagher. Beautiful on the outside, problematic all throughout. On our first official day back, I walked into a warm building. We gathered to meet our new principal in the media center, a very large atrium-like room with frosted skylights. We all assumed the AC was taking its time to cool down the place since it was our first day. Surely, everything worked like new, and we just needed to be patient. After lunch, the outside temperatures kept rising in the already stuffy media center with its delightful skylight warmed up even more. When we asked about it, we were told that the AC was controlled by Wi-Fi and the thermostat was controlled by downtown. I still don't know for sure
020since getting straight answers from anyone in in this district proves difficult, but that did raise a lot of buildingwide concerns. If the Wi-Fi goes out and we don't have internet, are we also to assume that there will be no AC or worse, no heat in the winter? And speaking of malfunctioning HBAC issues, last week we endured classroom temperatures in the 50s and 60s for four straight days with zero explanation. My room this week is still at 69 degrees and the AC blows continuously. What little Wi-Fi connection we have there is abysmal. This often limits clever touch usage, a significant teaching tool. But the biggest problem it creates is the breakdown of instant communication between staff. Our phones become useless bricks when we walk through Gallagher stores. So, when one of my runners takes off, I
021can't call their tech security because nothing goes through. Additional thoughts to those on uh thoughts and prayers for those not on iPhones. My biggest safety concern though is there are zero firepull stations in the building. You know, those in case of fire pull here levers, those things, not a one. Uh so, are those controlled downtown, too? Is it through Wi-Fi? Has the Wi-Fi been damaged by the fire? Do we use our cell phones to call 911 and hope it goes through? As for our health, well, we're all still standing post pandemic, so why not build windowless boxes for classrooms? And since whoever put all that thought into the firepole stations they installed, surely our buildings are equipped with state-of-the-art air filtration air filtration systems to keep us healthy. Right. Right. It's not all bad news,
022though. I do want to use this opportunity to give Miss Shantina Thornton, one of Gallagher's APs, a well-deserved shout out. Every day I watch her doing the jobs of three people with intention and grace. The level of support I've gotten from her over the last year and through the beginning of this year is only on par with what I received from Mr. Greg Atkins when he was my principal at Hannah Gibbons. I hope that all building administrators districtwide strive to this level of excellence. I'll wrap this up by stating how annoyed I am to be continuously dis disappointed by those who make decisions for this district. This isn't just a building issue. It's a whole CMSD issue. My teacher has yet to be issued a laptop. Some other teachers in other schools still haven't received
023textbooks for their classes, and this is week six. It is so incredibly hard to believe CMSD cares about the kids when they don't even look out for the educators in charge of teaching them. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Cathkart. Next, Elliot Cayman. [Applause] >> Hi. Uh, good evening board. Uh, I'm a Cleveland resident and a CMSD high school teacher at Road School of Environmental Studies. I'm speaking today as a resident who plans to have a family and would like to choose CMSD, but I believe there needs to be more transformative change that takes place in the district to improve learning and school culture. I'm speaking today to advocate for CMSD to pilot K through five and six through 8 schools and neighborhoods east and west to see if it could lead to improvements in our
024district. In the building brighter future presentation, CEO Morgan highlighted that CMSD's enrollment decreased by 50% because of low birth rates. This was misleading because in the county only 15% of public school enrollment decreased during the same period but 50% decreased in Cleveland. I think this rationale fails to address another cause for the decrease enrollment which is continuous sprawl and lack of confidence in CSD when compared to other public schools in Ka County. families leave Cleveland or choose to move or choose other schools in the suburbs or private because they give more confidence that their school district will provide the education they seek for their child. I think a reason CMSD fails to compete and improve is that we are the only public school system in Kaga County that offers K through8 only and not K
025through 5 and 6 through8 schools. Even the largest district in the country, New York City offers K through5 schools and middle schools. As a CMSD high school teacher, too often I see our students are illprepared for high school. And I believe this is a result of societal factors and K through eight's failing to prepare our students for learning at the next level. As the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported recently, only 8% of our fourth graders and eighth graders are proficient at reading. This does not give families confidence that CSD will prepare students for the complexity of life in the 21st century. This data shows that our K through8 model is not working and does not keep CMSD competitive with its competitors. I know we have great students, great teachers, and great admin in all
026schools. But there are too many needs with limited capacity to address the needs of our student body, especially in the large range of ages in K through8 schools. The needs of students in K through 5 grades are much different than students in sixth through eight grades. Having K through five and six through eight schools could provide a space to create a culture that addresses the needs of specific age groups and foster the growth our students need. As Mayor Bib said, we see small pockets of excellence across our district. We need to explore innovative ways to make excellence pervasive to increase our enrollment so we can better empower our students, compete regionally, and improve the financial stability of our district. As we consolidate and rethink structure, I ask you to strongly consider piloting a K through
027five and middle school because the efficiency of the K through8 is coming at the expense of quality education for students. This investment, I believe, will be well worth it for the future of our children and families. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Cayman. Next up, Polycar. My name is Pauly Carr. I'm a CS CMSD parent and I write a blog called Publicly Cleveland about schools and public records. Today I'm here to talk about Kenneth Clement Boys Leadership Academy which is in Ward 10. On the CMSD BBF fact sheets, the building structure of KCBLA earned a score of 48, which is almost as low as it can get. Last May, I was contacted by a woman whose grandson attends KCBLA. She was upset with the leaking ceilings and general disrepair inside the school. She was also
028upset about the conditions outside of the school. She raised her concerns through the proper channels and got a building walkthrough with Karen Thompson. They took photos and made a to-do list. This grandmother has stayed in contact with Miss Thompson pretty much every week. Some things were taken care of and many things on the check checklist are marked as completed, but they haven't actually been done. When the grandmother asked if I could help, I said I could ask for public records. So, I requested the air quality report that Thompson said had been done. Public records at first acted like they had no idea what I was asking for. When I CCed Thompson on the follow-up request months later, I got a copy of the to-do list mentioning air quality. I pointed out that it was not
029the document I had requested. A few weeks ago, I got the actual report from GetCo. That's over four months. Last May, I requested the personnel file of the KCBLA custodian, wondering what his evaluation said. I finally got that file a week ago. He started working in CMSD in 2009 with its security. There are evaluations from security, layoff letters, recall letters, and so on. But there are absolutely zero documents in his file since 2017. None. know nothing about his being a custodian. I went to see the outside of the school for myself. I had requested the work orders, but the uh and I do this frequently with buildings that have issues and I've gotten them. I use the exact same wording, but when I requested them for KCBLA, it was several months before they even responded
030and said, "No, your quest is too broad, even though it's the same language I always use." So, I went to see the outside of the school the other day. There are giant rodent holes three or four of them on every side of the building. There's got to be underlying structural damage. These things go like 39 feet. They say on the checklist that that has been taken care of. I saw a groundhog the size of a bulldog. That has not been taken care of even though it says so on the list. The maintenance of this building is a sign of disrespect to the students that attend the school. Also disrespectful is that there are several long-term subs teaching classes this year. The long-term sub who used to cover music now covers ELA. And I don't know
031if you know, but in 2025, the OST results for ELA at this school, only 14 students in the entire building were proficient in ELA, but you have a long-term sub covering it who taught music and doesn't have ELA background. None of you would accept this for your children or your nieces or nephews. Thank you, Miss Carr. Next, Dr. Vincent E. Stokes II. Well, greetings everyone. My name is Reverend Dr. Vincent Stokes, the second, and this is the third time I've spoken before you on this issue. I keep coming back because whether or not we know the exact schools that may close, the weight of those decisions will fall on our neighborhoods and we cannot be silent. In my Masters of Public Administration program, we talk about institutions as anchors. An anchor holds steady in the
032middle of a storm. For our neighborhood, schools are those anchors. They are not just classrooms. They are stabilizers. They hold families togethers, provide meals, host services, and give children their first sense of identity and possibility. When schools close, neighborhoods destabilize. And right now, we don't even know where those closures will land. But history tells us when white folks catch a cold, black folks get pneumonia. The heaviest burden always falls on Cleveland's black neighborhoods. Communities like Mount Pleasant, where my church is, Glennville, the best high school in the world. Huff, Lee, Harvard, Fairfax, Cottonwood, and Buckeye Woodland. These neighborhoods already carry the weight of disinvestment and redlinining. For them, schools are not just buildings. They are the anchors that keep the whole community from drifting. And let me raise this point. The last five board meetings
033have all been on the west side. August at Morgan, June at Gallagher, May at Marshall, and Morgan again. I know I was there. Meanwhile, there are viable schools on the east side that could host meetings. If most of the closure are expected to affect this entire community, don't you think you should be in the entire community having meetings? Yes, budgets matter. Enrollment numbers matter, but public administration reminds us that efficiency must never outweigh equity. A balanced budget means little if it leaves neighborhoods unbalanced and unanchored. So I will be back next month and the month after that if I must because our communities cannot carry this weight alone. Schools are our anchors and if the anchor is lifted the whole neighborhood drifts. Thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Stokes. Ashley Mines. Brian McDonald. >> Good
034evening, CEO CEO Morgan, Madame Chair, members of the board. Thank you for granting me some time to speak with you this evening. My name is Brian McDonald. I'm the executive director of the Joan C. Edwards Charitable Foundation and chair of the board of trustees of the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine. On behalf of the trustees, I want to thank the district for its commitment to providing excellent education to every student, even as we face challenges like declining enrollment and ongoing pressures on public funding. We believe that preparing our students for the future, especially for the highly specialized careers that fuel northeast Ohio, requires schools that are themselves specialized. Think of maritime studies connected to our Great Lakes, or music, dance, and the arts that build on our cultural institutions. And at CSSM, a sharp
035focus on science and medicine, preparing students to step into Cleveland's healthcare economy. Together, these specialty schools create a rich portfolio of opportunities for our community. Since its founding 20 years ago, CSSM has been one of the district's most successful endeavors. Our students not only excel in test scores and college acceptance. They're ready to thrive in higher education and meaningful careers in medicine, science, engineering, law, and beyond. They carry the district's mission toward forward as true ambassadors of excellence. And what makes this possible is our unique model. It's a rigorous STEM instruction delivered in close partnership with the Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University, the Jones C. Edwards Charitable Foundation, RPM International, and many others. These partnerships open doors to mentorship, hands-on learning, and world-class opportunities rarely found in a high school setting. They make CSSM
036not just a school, but a gateway into Cleveland's broader ecosystem of innovation and discovery. As the district moves forward with consolidation, we urge that CSSM's legacy, its current impact, and its future potential be preserved. This school shows what's possible when academic rigor, student aspiration, and community partnership align. We believe CSSM embodies the very spirit of the district's mission, and we look forward to continuing this work together, hand in hand, to give Cleveland students extraordinary opportunities to succeed. With gratitude and support, the board of trustees, Cleveland School of Science and Medicine. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. McDonald. Before we close the public participation period, I'm going to circle back to a few people that were called earlier. Is Mayar Abdul Hadi here? Okay. Alicia Dodson, Ashley Mines. All right, that concludes our period of public
037participation. This evening's consent agenda includes the minutes of the last board meeting and two board of education resolutions, two finance resolutions, one operations resolution, two academic resolutions, one external affairs resolution, six excellence and culture resolutions, and two legal resolutions. The chair will now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda consisting of agenda items 4.02 through 11.02 O2 as set forth in the board meeting agenda. >> So move. >> Thank you. Mr. Stockdale will please call the role on this motion. >> Miss Alicott, >> yes. >> Mr. Bilips, >> yes. >> Mr. Briggs, >> yes. >> Mr. Jones or Miss Jones. Pastor Jones. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lebron, >> yes. >> Miss Peak, >> yes. >> Dr. Shrear, >> yes. >> Mrs. Walchow, >> yes. >> Motion passes with nine votes. Thank you. The motion
038passes, the minutes are approved, and the 16 resolutions are adopted. Next, we have a resolution approving the general fund for your forecast, which will be presented to the board this evening, and that the board will vote on at our October 14th board work session. Dr. Morgan, >> I'll invite uh our chief financial officer uh Kevin Stockdale up to present uh information on this. As you know uh most of the time the vote is taking place in the uh board business meeting which is today. Uh but on this one we will be uh presenting it well we're presenting it tonight at the board business meeting and the vote will take place at the work session because of the requirement for the state to have this done by I believe October 15th and so we wanted to
039make sure we had that that timeline and so we have some updates that our u chief financial officer will bring to you. The other thing I would note is um as you know with our board meetings now we're doing progress monitoring on our goals and guardrails. Uh this is one of two meetings I think this entire year where we will not do progress monitoring tonight. Uh but we will have this uh presentation that is done uh by our chief financial officer. So with that I'll turn it over to Chief Stockdale. >> Thank you Dr. Morgan and thank you Chair Elcod. Um this is uh this is the slide I always start on which is a bit of the regulatory context and I usually go over it very quickly and I'm going to just pause for
040uh a few of these items because it is uh there are some changes this year which are due to the state operating budget house Bill 96. Um first off typically we we are talking about a five-year forecast and a five-year forecast is the current fiscal year plus four years of projections forward. The state changed the law this year to make it a four-year forecast. So, it's the current fiscal year plus three projected years. Uh, as Dr. Morgan alluded to, uh, they also changed the timeline. And so, what will become a forecast that is due in August and February of every year, um, this year is October 15th and February. And that's because the, uh, state operating budget didn't actually go into effect until just recently. So, uh, there's a little bit of a splitting of
041the difference here from previous years. uh between our normal November timeline and the new August timeline. Otherwise, everything is is is fairly standard and um so want to jump right into it. There are to to just take a little bit of a step back. There are really four different fund groups and uh I typically don't talk about this, but the four fund groups that uh we budget for and that we are responsible for. And we're really only focusing on one of these today. and and there's a reason for that. So, the general fund, the one on the far left, is the one we're going to be talking about. It's by far the biggest revenue and expense source that we have. I also want to highlight a few other areas uh that are important right now
042and that have an impact on the the general fund. So, special revenue funds, these are things like school uh breakfast and lunch, state and federal grants, and then student activities. um really highlighting that one because what is happening at the federal level especially uh where there is some uncertainty about future funding levels. If that funding is decreased that creates costs for the general fund or it leads to services that we have to disrupt. And so I wanted to name that um here. And then the the other two areas on the right side, those are really you can think of those as kind of like your mortgage and your mortgage payment. um where we're doing building and taking care of our facilities. But I wanted to highlight that middle category, the special revenue funds. When we
043talk about school funding in Ohio, it's a state and local partnership. Uh a little under half comes from us and a little little under half comes from the state. I highlight this because uh in the next few slides I'm going to talk about some challenges that we have on both the local funding side. So 45% that comes from property taxes and then some things that are changing at the state level uh that are also causing difficulties for us. The first thing is that we've seen property tax collection rates uh that decreased and uh this is for tax year 24. So there's a delay in when we actually received the revenue. We saw almost a 4% dip in those collection rates. that was really out of line with what we had seen in recent years, but
044it is in line with what tax jurisdictions across Kyhoga County saw. So, we know that with the reappraisal that um there were some changes to people's um appraised value and to tax bills and then we also know that we passed a levy and so we did see a bit of a dip really in the delinquent uh property tax collections. We do expect that's going to improve. So, we've seen two payments now um since then, and we expect to to uh return to almost our pre levels. And so, we went from 98% to a bit under 94%. We're going back up to 96%. I want to highlight here that there's a little there is quite a bit of uncertainty. Um these could be a little bit uh higher, the collection rates, and they could be a
045little bit lower. Um that's part of why we update you twice a year. Um, but I wanted to make that clear to put it in dollar amounts. Uh, it it has had a significant impact on our budget. And so last year we saw actual collections about $9 million lower than what was expected. We expect that to be a little bit higher this year and then um improving in the following years, but we're still higher um we're still at a lower collection rate than what we were a year ago at this time when I came to you. Um if collections improve we can obviously improve this situation a little bit but um the the opposite can also happen. I've previously brought this chart to you as well and this is our total state funding. Um to
046me this is powerful uh because it shows in uh a very clear manner what the impact is on the state the the state's decisions on state policy. So we have the fair school funding plan that the state had been implementing over a period of six years and you can see FY24 was the last round of implementation for it. And what has happened since then as they have not changed cost inputs and they have not done all the things that they committed to doing is that we've actually lost state funding. So not only is this something where we're not gaining ground where we had expected to gain ground, but we are now $16 million a year below where we expected to be. The state has a guarantee so that funding cannot fall below a certain amount
047which is the amount we received in 2021. What that means is that the forecast presents forward based on the current fiscal year fiscal year 26 through 29 assuming the state we are going to be paying u the state is going to be paying the same amount as they paid in 2021. So a very challenging situation. To go a little bit deeper on this, the amount that the state expects the school district to pay for educating students is is increasing. And so the way the state funding formula works, it's a the state local share and it's based on property values and income in a district. And what this chart is showing is so the the dark blue or the navy is the amount that the state was funding per student and the light blue is the
048state amount that they expect us to fund per student. And so we are going from a period of the state's share decreasing by 21% from fiscal year 24 to 29. So more than a fifth and their expectation is that ours will increase by almost half. Of course, that's not the way property taxes work, where property taxes do not collect more as property values go up. Um, but is it a perfect example of the state shifting expenses to our property taxpayers and to the district um to make reductions to just kind of emphasize this a little bit more. Um we know uh based on some studies that if the fair school funding plan had been implemented the way that the state had been working toward it that there would be substantially more resources available to our
049district and districts across the state. So um for us specifically $157 million over the next two years um and about $2.8 billion statewide. So, a substantial amount um that is that would have been funding that would have been available to us that is not available. Uh I've also shared this one before. This is just another area of the the funding formula where funding for disadvantaged students uh the state has actually cut the money that they're sending to us. So, they've cut by $22 million over a period of years and uh we expect that uh we're going to be flatfunded from here on on out. So those are the challenges on the revenue side. On the expenses side, a little bit of background. So of course, like every school district, by far the largest expense area
050we have is for salaries and benefits. Uh as it should be, we're in a human services uh work work field. Uh and we have 79% of our expenses that are for salary and benefits. We know what uh the increases are going to be for this year and for next year. We have collective bargaining agreements. We don't have anything uh beyond that uh because those have not been negotiated. And then we are seeing healthc care increases on about the level of 7 and a half% a year for our other expenses. Um we've really looked very hard at these and we we continue to and we need to continue to. But um to put it in perspective, you know, only 21% of our budget remaining is all this other stuff. So contracts, supplies, utilities, equipment, um everything
051else. One of the areas that we've seen uh an increase in our forecast from previous forecasts is this area of employee benefits. And uh just to be candid, employee benefits have been really hard to project the last handful of years. So going back to co uh employee benefits, health insurance predominantly was something where um it changed a lot yearbyear and in some years we we actually saw negative growth and that was because people weren't utilizing their health insurance and so establishing this new baseline has been difficult. Um we have exceeded our our projections for employee benefits which is what you see here on the chart um by fiscal year. Um, but I wanted to highlight that the the district has done a lot of work on this. And so last year we brought to the
052board work that we had done with our labor partners in selecting new health insurance providers, um, we believe that while we have exceeded um, where we wanted to be or where we thought we would be, we believe that we would have been this much worse off if we had not done what we had done when we um, changed health insurance providers. Um, and that there's more work to do here really. So um looking at the forecast as we as we go forward, we are looking at um the the previous forecast from last November and that we would expect since we were moving forward a year, we would expect this negative number for fiscal year 28, the three-year box that that is in orange is what we were looking at. Um in reality, this is what
053I'm projecting now. So, um, we ran a small deficit last year. Uh, the $4.1 million that increases over time and the cash balance that we have decreases yearbyear as the deficit u adds up. What we're uh what we've brought to the board and which is in the resolution is a reduction plan that starts with a reduction of uh a $5 million target this year. $35 million next year which carries forward. Um this would be a minimum reduction plan that we we need to hit and that will um really keep us uh in the positive for this three-year period. We know that in reality we have to go quite a bit beyond this. But what you're seeing here is the impact of that and um that that is keeping us positive for those three years uh
054and also reducing the annual deficits again needing to go further than that. I've also showed you this chart before. Um the green line being revenue, the dotted line being um pre-levy, red line being expenses, and red dotted line being pre-levy as well. So, you're seeing a time adjustment here. Uh, and really what I wanted you to look at is the gap between the the two lines. So, the dotted lines versus the um straight lines. Yep. >> Chief Suck, I know you're about to demonstrate this through the charts. One thing I did want to point back, if you can go back to slide 17, just looking at the November 2024 uh forecast. So, uh right uh when we right when we did the November 2024 forecast, this is right after we passed the levy. If you
055look at fiscal year 28 in the bottom row, you see that uh that would have been the first year in fiscal year 28 running a deficit of the 96.2 million. Uh Chief Stockdale did uh uh voice this over. But one thing I want to point out, if you go to his four-year forecast on the next slide on slide 18 for where we're uh for October 2025, what we're looking at now, you see that fiscal year 28 and you see the 71.2 million deficit. It's still a negative, but the work that we're doing, and I know Chief Stockdale is about to show this over the last couple of slides, but the work we're doing to find savings, the work we did over the spring, uh there were savings we found in terms of the work we
056were doing around studentbased budgeting um at our school, the refresh. Uh there was work that we did continue to make cuts at central office, the calendar work we did. You can see that already dramatic drop from fiscal year 28 in the out years just based on the work we're doing. And so this work that we're doing, the continued work that we do to really um uh put our fiscal uh operations in line, uh the work that we've done to upgrade our credit rating, we've shared that before. It's having an impact and you're seeing it in the forecast and I know Chief Sto's about to show it over the next couple slides, but I just didn't want to pass that over when you're looking at these numbers uh because it does show the work that we're
057doing in house to um to make changes. >> Yeah, thank you, Dr. Morgan. Um so uh and then that's part of what this slide really is showing which is the narrowing of the gap over time. So the dotted lines a much larger gap between expenses and revenue and what we're moving toward um which we think we can accomplish uh and and really exceed is a much smaller deficit and getting toward fiscal sustainability. And that leads us to this which is where um kind of the the long-term picture is that uh when Dr. Morgan started when when I started, we were looking at this um this kind of faint dotted line where we were going in to lose c run out of cash in fiscal year 25 very dramatically and uh things only getting worse from
058there. And as you move to the right, you can see that each time we've come forward with the forecast, we've improved our our financial forecasts and saying how how long our cash will will last us. And so, um, you know, certainly we appreciate the the community support, um, with the levy and, uh, we have these challenges that I talked to you about with state funding and with, uh, property tax collections, but yes, we have made the reductions that have made this possible. So really what you're seeing here is, and I highlighted it, a $518 million improvement uh in our expected cash balance and that of course is the cumulative amount of those deficits over time that we've been able to address. I also want to put this in a bit of context and uh I've
059not previously shared this and I think this is really important but we are we are operating within a very challenging environment and we've talked about the federal funding challenges and state funding challenges but just to put this in perspective because we are in the same boat as many of our colleagues and so um these are the five largest urban districts in Ohio. These are the the my four colleagues that I work with most closely and that I do a lot of benchmarking with and so uh I brought this idea up to them and and I provided it and and gave them an opportunity for feedback and and what I think he I presented here is a pretty fair comparison. So what I'm showing is um you know starting off last year how many days of
060cash did they have on hand and basically you know how long could they pay their bills. Cleveland is actually somewhere in the middle. Um there's really only one district that hits a real substantial balance, which is Columbus. Um following that with what our deficit was last year, and Cleveland actually had the smallest deficit as a percentage of budget of any of the five districts, some of those are very large numbers. So like we don't want to get to the point where we're running a 10% annual deficit. Um let alone a um you know what that would do for our cash reserves. And then based on their forecast, when will they actually run through the cash that they have? And what you see here is so basically everyone except for Columbus is FY28. Akran says FY29.
061Um this is based on the May forecast. Last night they presented a forecast that showed them running out in 2028. >> And so four of the five districts running out of cash including us in FY28 without any cuts. and then also recent operating levies. So, unfortunately, the challenge that we're facing, our communities are trying to support schools. They're doing what they can. The state government is not providing that support or actually allowing the support to decrease. And so, we're all having to make difficult reductions. Some key takeaways for me. Um, you know, I've talked about the fair school funding plan and this just really substantial amount of money that that we are missing out on due to the fact that the the state is not funding the school funding plan statewide. Um, they are also
062in doing so they're they are shifting the burden to local taxpayers. Um, either that or causing us to make reductions. Property tax collections are lower than what we forecast. Um, which is happening really throughout the county. Um we do expect some improvements there, but it's something that we're going to closely monitor. Um we uh and by the way, this is something which is in the uh monthly board financial report which is available for the public to see as well where what we're doing with uh tax collections. We've been implementing the cost savings measures uh within our goals and guard rails which has allowed us to improve our our current position as well as our projected position. we are really just in this difficult predicament with all of the large urban districts. And then um that
063we are asking you to approve a forecast which uh directs us to make uh these reductions within the go board goals and guard rails of $5 million this year and $35 million in uh next year and following. Um so I'm happy to take any questions. >> Thank you, Chief Stockdale. Dr. Shredar. >> Thank you, Chief Stocktail. It was a very sobering and informative presentation. Um, I'm really uh this is a question about the previous slide with the comparisons. Um, I have a lot of things to say about the the other projections. All I'll say is thank you for your work. Um but on this slide I I you know I I think I know the answer but I would like you to explain um to the public who's watching um the first two columns. The
064column that says cash balance and then the the deficit um the uh so what you know when you say you know we have 56 days of a cash balance and the year ended in a deficit. Toledo ended the year um with an almost 11% deficit and has 32 days of cash balance. Mhm. >> So can you talk about that that chart and you've explained this to me um at a previous I think last year sometime quite well um about you know what is the role of the cash balance why do we have a deficit if we still have money in a cash balance and and and just walk us through that if you use one of those other charts that you have your forecast that'll be good >> I mean I think on a on
065a personal level you know a way to think of it is u if you take a a new job and you have a salary that you're earning and you're spending more than that amount of money, uh that would be the deficit. So that your your annual expenses are exceeding what you bring in, you may have money in your bank account which you can live off of for a while, but at a certain point that's going to run out. So what this chart is showing is how many days of cash do you have based on your current expenses? Um so really like what is in your reserve um fund, how what percentage then are you you running above or below what you're bringing in? And then how fast are you going to run run out of
066cash? And um very very similar look for really all of the urban districts. >> Miss Walchow, thank you. And thank you, Chief Stockdale. Um I the world has changed around us, I think, since what will be sort of the basis of this question. And I understand that, but we would have put out there a large kind of long-term savings target related to achieving long-term fiscal sustainability and also the work around building brighter futures. Um, I won't say the number because I don't remember it off the top of my head, but it was north of of 80 million if I if I roughly remember correctly. Can you guys just walk me through sort of the world when we would have put out that target and then the kind of 5 million 35 million expense targets that
067that we're talking about right now? >> I I can start there and then yeah feel feel free to chime in. So um what uh and I I could bring clarity to some of the things. Uh last year uh we we were looking at three years out and there was a 150 million that we were we're looking at. um some of that of savings we've already accounted for uh last year. So some of the the the cut so that was when we were talking about that 150 million it was over the next three years inclusive of this year and some of the work we had to do. So that would have left if you take uh we were looking at about almost uh you know looking at 50 million or so a a year. Um so
068there is more work that that needs to be done. One of the things that we're looking at now is what would it take to get the forecast um when looking at this four-year forecast, what would it take to make sure that we are in compliance with the state for um this round of presenting a five-year forecast and for next. So, this is about the minimum. >> Yep. >> Uh it is nowhere near the work we have to do. Um and uh you know, bringing into line some of those numbers that we mentioned about 50 million a year. There's still more work that we have to do, more work that we will uh be doing uh and committing to doing. This is the minimum in order to be compliant with uh the state's demand and we
069and to avoid that fiscal uh precaution um that the state can do if we are not in the black for this year and two years out. Is there any more you would add, Chief Stock? >> No. Covered it all. Thank you. >> Understood. Thank you, >> Mr. Briggs. >> Yes. Uh Chief Stockdale, that was an excellent report. Thank you. Um, is there any, and I should know this, but I don't, um, and perhaps you do, is there any hope that the state will revert to the fair school funding plan at any point in time? I I think this is to be determined. Um, we have a state operating budget that runs from this June, June of 2025 through u or July 1st, 2025 through June 30th of 2027. And so we have work to do
070in telling our story. And um you know I think that this slide is really part of that because all five you know when you're seeing this picture from everybody it's very clear. Um, I think the state uh saw the price tag of the fair school funding plan and um, you know, they there were other priorities that they wanted to fund, but we need to be using our voice to to show why this is important, that this affects our communities and uh, our kids. Um, so we'll we'll have that conversation probably about a year from now, I would say. >> Thank you. >> I don't see anybody else, but uh, just checking if there are any other questions. Uh just thank you Chief Stockdale. I want to say how um you know how thorough this presentation
071was. We really appreciate the work that you continue to do in an extremely difficult environment. Um and you know looking at especially this slide that is up right now. We know the vast majority of children attend public school everywhere across this country. And um we're not looking to educ we're not responsible for educating kids for 56 days, right? we're responsible for educating them for a year and then for 12 to 13 years. And um I know that this board charges ourselves with that responsibility. The mayor and the state law charges us with that responsibility. But um some would say that uh our state lawmakers have that same responsibility. So what you said about using our voice um folks in the room who are civically engaged, who want to be civically engaged, public education is incredibly
072important. uh piece of our society. So, um I really appreciate the work and hope things can get better, but we're doing what we can right now until then. All right. Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Chief Stockdale, is there any old business? Is there any new business? All right. Uh, the next regular board meeting will be a board work session on Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. at Arnold Pinkney East Professional Center. The chair will now entertain a motion to adjourn this meeting. >> Hearing no objection, this meeting is adjourned. Good night.