001it is for kids to have that uh strong foundation to get this school year started. We know kids need two things to be ready to learn. They have to be healthy and able to come to school with everything they need. So, we're partnering closely with the district. We wanted to bring them back with a lot of fun things to do from a sports perspective. So, we've got our treehouse out here. We got our center without walls as well as our soccer pit. So, we're happy to bring the sports back to the resource fair, introducing them to our bucket truck, providing those rides to the children. And some of the children's, what they even said is, of course, they have fun when they take that ride, but more importantly that they want to become a line
002worker someday. This is community. We are one community. We're all working together to make sure that our kids have the best year possible. It's always so exciting at the start of a school year. It's just a great feeling. There's a there's a buzz. There's an excitement. Everyone's psyched for school to start. Being able to see the smiling faces, it just really brings a joy to my heart. It's really important for kids to show up day one of school so that they are welcome. They get to meet their classmates, their teacher, and just really celebrate the fact that they're, you know, back and that we're ready for a good school year. Get into that back to school routine. Now, school comes at you fast. And my recommendation to kids as they're getting back to school is
003really to take it easy, take it slow. It's nerve-wracking for everyone. I think the most memorable interactions that I've had thus far are seeing our seniors come out to get their school supplies. Oftent times we find out that seniors can have that senior ititis. They can have that summer slip, but I've seen seniors from Briggs High School, from Walnut Ridge High School here bright and early to get their school supplies. They're excited for their senior year. So, let's cheer them on from the first day of school till they cross that graduation [Music] stage. I used to get calls all the time from people asking me about the station, uh, what kind of music do you play? And the canned format was adult album alternative. And so I asked the music director, "What does that actually
004mean?" And he said, "We play the good stuff." That was the end of his explanation. Well, AAA music is heavy on the singer songwriters and the Americana, but we also include blues music, jazz, other styles like world music. It's not the same songs every other hour. And in 90.5's case, it's not even the same songs each week. WCB is pretty unique with all the the variety of music that we can play and the variety of shows that we have. We've had John Prime, Ziggy Marley, Warren Haynes from the Almond Brothers. We have had Tadeshi Trucks. The list goes on and on. The thing that we have at WCBE is experts in music that know where the good stuff is. Homemade, locally produced programming is what we're all about. And just sort of sitting there and
005grooving out in in a radio station knowing that I'm doing the same thing with thousands of listeners across the state. I I I really dig that. I dig that uh sort of concept. We're all over the map. It's great music. You know, people that go, "Oh, I listen to everything." If you listen to everything, all you need to do is listen to us. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey, hey, hey. [Music] I try but you know I'm a student athlet I'm not Greetings and welcome to this week. [Music] [Applause] Greetings and welcome to this week's highlights from across the district. May is here and it's time to celebrate the incredible individuals who make Columbus City Schools a vibrant and supportive community. We began the month with
006principal appreciation day on May 1st, honoring the leadership of our principles who guide and inspire our students. On May 2nd, we celebrated School Lunch Hero Day, recognizing our school nutrition staff who provide nutritious lunches that fuel our students, giving them the energy they need to thrive in the classroom. And yesterday we kicked off teacher appreciation week highlighting the dedication of our teachers who shaped the future of our students. [Music] Greetings and welcome to this week's highlights from across the district. May is here and it's time to celebrate the incredible individuals who make Columbus City Schools a vibrant and supportive community. We began the month with principal appreciation day on May 1st, honoring the leadership of our principles who guide and inspire our students. On May 2nd, we celebrated school lunch hero day, recognizing our school
007nutrition staff who provide nutritious lunches that fuel our students, giving them the energy they need to thrive in the classroom. And yesterday we kicked off teacher appreciation week highlighting the dedication of our teachers who shaped the future of our students. We are grateful for their passion, hard work, and commitment to helping every student succeed. Tomorrow, May 7th, we celebrate National School Nurse Day. We thank our school nurses for ensuring the health and well-being of all of our students. Many thanks to everyone who contribute to making Columbus City Schools a district of learning and growth. On May 2nd, the Columbus Division of Police hosted the fth annual TAPS Academy Summit Day at the James G. Jackson Police Training Academy. The event offered TAPS graduates a day filled with hands-on experiences, including an obstacle course, impaired driving
008simulation, and forensic science activities. Students also participated in decisionmaking scenarios, teen safety awareness, and fitness challenges, gaining a deeper understanding of what it takes to wear the badge. Additionally, students learn essential life-saving techniques such as first aid and Narcan use. Thank you to all who participated in this engaging and educational event. On Saturday, May 3rd, Columbus City Schools hosted the Countdown to Kindergarten event at Fort Hayes, welcoming families of incoming kindergarteners. Families enjoyed a fun-filled day with free kindergarten readiness kits, exciting games and activities, delicious food, giveaways, and special appearances by story book characters. Our community partners were on hand to offer resources and enrollment assistance was provided to help families prepare for the upcoming school year. Thank you to everyone who joined us in preparing to welcome our youngest learners to CCF. The excitement
009of graduation season is here and Columbus City Schools is gearing up to celebrate the accomplishments of our graduating seniors. From May 23rd to May 31st, graduation ceremonies will be held across the district honoring the hard work, dedication, and achievements of the class of 2025. This season is a time to reflect on our students journey, the challenges they've overcome, and the bright futures that lie ahead. We look forward to celebrating with families, teachers, and staff as we recognize these students success and the limitless possibilities for what's to come. To our graduating seniors, we are CCS proud of you. We can't wait to see you walk across the stage ready to take on the world. The future is yours. These have been your highlights from around the district for May 6. Thank you so much for joining
010us. [Music] Good evening everyone. Today is Tuesday, May 6. Welcome to today's uh regular Columbus City School Board business meeting. Um may we call the role? Yes, sir. Vice President and Deer present. President Cole here. Miss Engles here. Pierce. Miss Reyes here. Mr. Simmons present. Miss Ver. You have a quorum. All right. Can we stand for the pledge, please? To the flag of the stand, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay. So, today we have a pretty active agenda. Um, we will begin with uh section three, which is uh welcoming our one speaker for public comment. After that, we'll go into board matters from 4.1 to 4.6, uh, where we will receive a couple of updates, one from our treasur and one from our esteemed superintendent. Uh, from there, we will go into executive reports
011for which I understand there are none, but that will be from 5.1 to 7.1. We'll then go into accepting the consent agenda and that is 8.1 to 23.3. Then we will accept other legislation that is 24 uh point give me 24.1 to 24.2 and subsequently adjourned. Is there a motion to accept this agenda? So moved second. Moved and seconded. Can we call a role? Vice President Adair. Yes. Miss Vera. Yes. Miss Engles. Yes. Miss Reyes? Yes. Mr. Simmons? Yes. President Cole? Yes. All right. Motion carries. All right. So, we will get right into it with our first public speaker and that person will be Mr. John Harrison. Welcome, Mr. Harrison. Thank you so much for your work as an educator in the district and even the work you did with my own child. So, thank
012welcome. Thank you. Uh good evening everyone. Uh, President Cole, Vice President Adair, uh, Treasurer Cook, Superintendent, Dr. Chapman, members of the board, and members of the public. Thank you all for being here. My name is John Harrison, and I'm a science teacher at Wetstone High School. Uh, and I'm here tonight to talk about quality points. According to the Department of Student Services, over 4,000 semester 1 grades were not in compliance with board policy 5421, which outlines how grades are determined in middle and high school. There are roughly 25,000 students in grades 6 through 12. So, by rough estimate, perhaps one in six kids had an incorrect grade this past semester. The root of this problem, in my opinion, is quality points. a complicated and burdensome system that to my knowledge is used by no other
013school districts. Over 4,000 incorrect grades during just one semester. Uh so in the decade that CCS has used quality points, the number of incorrect grades surely must total tens of thousands. Why are we using such an errorprone grading system? I'm here today to ask the board to end the quality points grading system. I created a survey to ask other CCS teachers what they thought about quality points. And here are the highlights from the 25 responses that I received. Most teachers had strong negative opinions towards quality points. For example, over 90% of the teachers responded that the quality point system is not fair, is not a reasonable standard for students, and is inconsistent with the board of education's philosophy that quote, "ggrades will accurately reflect students learning and mastery in a course." What's the problem? Given
014that few teachers give exams, a student only needs to earn a D in one quarter in order to be guaranteed a passing grade for the semester, even if they get a zero the next quarter. One teacher commented, "Some students have learned to game the system. They will do enough work to pass one quarter with a D, then do absolutely nothing the next quarter." Another teacher said, "I feel like I'm being forced to lose what's left of my integrity. With teacher morale at historic lows, getting rid of quality points should be a step in the right direction. But how would it impact our students? Most teachers believe the elimination of quality points would cause some bumps, some bumps initially in the road. However, again and again, teachers commented that students would quote rise to the occasion.
015Others mentioned that student effort and attendance would increase in the long term, that students would retain more information and over longer periods of time. One teacher commented, uh, by mastering content in courses, students will do better in subsequent courses. For example, a student who masters algebra 1 will do better in algebra 2. We have to show students that we believe in them. The quality point system devalues the important content and skills students are expected to learn in their classes. It creates a vicious cycle of chronic absenteeism and poor academic performance. It expects less from them. That is why I'm asking the board to end the use of quality points in determining grades. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Harrison. Madam superintendent, I thank you. Um, at some point I think that we would like to learn
016a little bit more about this system. I think it'll be helpful for us to get a deeper sense of uh what the wins are and what the challenges are to this system. So, please feel free to keep us a prize on that in the future. We'll circle on it. Um, okay. Moving on to uh section four, board matters. We'll go into the first couple of issues around resolutions. The first is the National Teacher Appreciation Week and National Teacher Appreciation Day for 2025 and CCS. Madame Reyes. Thank you, board president. Resolution on recognizing National Teacher Appreciation Week and National Teacher Appreciation Day 2025. Whereas, the Columbus Board of Education recognizes and values the essential role that teachers play in educating and preparing students for leadership, service, and citizenship within our global society and appreciates teachers as
017strategic partners in achieving the mission of Columbus City Schools to ensure that each student is highly educated, prepared for leadership and service, and empowered for success as a citizen in a global community. And whereas the 2025 National Teacher Appreciation Week theme, teachers lighting the way forward, fittingly honors the steadfast dedication, leadership, and inspiration that teachers provide to our students and our community. Now therefore, be it resolved by the Columbus Board of Education that this board does hereby recognize the celebrate the week of 20 May 5th through the 9th, 2025th as National Teacher Appreciation Week and Tuesday, May 6, 2025 as National Teacher Appreciation Day within the Columbus City School District. And be it further resolved that the board expresses its profound appreciation and gratitude to each of the district's teachers for their unwavering commitment to
018improving the lives of our students, strengthening our families, and enhancing the community we proudly call home. Is that a motion? Yes. Is there a second? Motion and seconded. Can we call the role? Miss Vera? Yes. Miss Engles? Yes. Dr. Pierce? Yes. Miss Reyes? Yes. Mr. Simmons? Yes. President Cole? Yes. Yes. Vice President Adair. Yes. All right. Thank you. Motion passes. All right. Um, is there an opportunity? Can um we have uh Mr. Kglio, CA team, teachers, can you all please feel wonderfully comfortable to approach the podium and offer a few words to us? There you go. Thank you. [Applause] President Cole, Vice President uh Dar, honorable uh board members, uh thank you so much for the resolution. Um my name is John Kiglia. I represent 4,500 of the most amazing professionals. Um I always say
019the best part about my job is as I get the opportunity to go from building to building and see the work they that that our teachers do and they are dedicated and they're here to work and we appreciate your resolution. Thank you so much. Thank you. Are there any additional words from anyone else? All right. Keep it short and sweet. There you go. Yeah, let's do it. Welcome. We're going to do a group picture very quickly with you guys. I want to try it. Living a dream. Just you ask me. Okay. All right. Thank you again for your service and dedication to our students. Um, moving on, we will go to honoring school nurses week and school nurses day 2025 and recognizing Deb Strauss's induction as a fellow of the National Academy of School Nurses.
020Yes, sir. Mr. Simmons. I have it. Oh, you have it. I'm sorry. That's okay. Vice President. Yes. Um I would welcome before I read the resolution um Deb Strauss, Michelle Klene, and all of our school nurses uh to come up in front uh to be recognized. So it is my honor and privilege to present the resolution to honor school nurses week, school nurses day, and recognize Deb Strauss for her induction as a fellow of the National Academy of School Nurses. Whereas the week of May 6th through 10th, 2025 is designated as National School Nurses Week and Wednesday, May 7th, 2025 is recognized as National School Nurses Day, honoring the critical role that school nurses play in supporting student health and academic achievement. And whereas the 2025 theme, school nurses, advocates for every student's health, underscores
021the essential role that school nurses play in creating safe, healthy learning environments. And whereas school nurses in Columbus City Schools advance the district's mission to prepare students to be responsible, productive citizens who are capable of succeeding in a global society through their daily work in safeguarding the physical and emotional well-being of students. And whereas Deb Strauss, in addition to her work as a school nurse, has served as the district's emergency preparedness specialist, helping guide Columbus City Schools through health crisis and shaping critical policies to protect students and families. And whereas her distinguished career includes 20 years the United States Air Force, 26 years of nursing in Columbus City Schools, and 10 years as a licensed family nurse practitioner with national certifications in critical care, emergency and school nursing. And whereas Miss Strauss's leadership has made
022a lasting impact at the local, state, and national levels, most notably through her authorship of disastrous preparedness for school nurses part two, which helped establish the school emergency triage training program, now used in schools across the country. Now, therefore, it be resolved that the Columbus Board of Education recognizes and celebrates National uh School Nurse Day and School Nurse Week 2025 and extends its deepest appreciation to each of the district's nurses for their vital contributions that make it make in preparing students to become responsible citizens in a global society. Moreover, we congratulate Deb Strauss on her induction as a fellow into the National Academy of School Nurses, honoring her extraordinary leadership and service on the local and national levels as a school health and emergency preparedness professional. That is a motion. Second. Motion and second. Call
023a RO. Miss Engles. Yes. Dr. Pierce. Yes. Miss Reyes. Yes. Mr. Simmons. Yes. Vice President Adair. Yes. Miss Vera? Yes. President Cole? Yes. Motion carried. All right. Motion passes. Congratulations you all. Is there any word that you'd like to give? Yes. Board President Cole, Vice President Adair, board member, Superintendent Chapman, and Treasurer Cook. What an absolute honor it is to be standing in front of you this evening and congratulating all of our school nurses on school nurse week. It is also with the utmost of respect that I share with you. This year we are honoring a very very special nurse who has dedicated her life to service. Deb Strauss will be inducted at the end of June in Austin, Texas as a fellow of the National Academy of School Nursing. The honor of fellow is
024the most prestigious recognition that members can receive from the National Association of School Nurses. It is a symbol of superior achievement in the school nursing profession and exceptional contributions to Nassen and the profession of school nursing. The depth and breadth of the fellow's imprint on the field is extraordinary. Their contributions have had significant and enduring impact and their ex exemplary leadership qualities and achievements are recognized by many nationwide. Deb is not just admired by those here in Columbus City Schools, but also on the national level. Here is what Jodie Keller from the Central Ohio Trauma System had to say about Deb. Over the past 13 years, I've been honored to work with Deb in the preparedness work to build our healthc care preparedness coalition and incorporate the school nurse side of the pediatric response. Deb
025is considered the subject matter expert in the nation in school preparedness and my go-to nurse for all such topics. In 2022, I needed to convene a pediatric coalition of subject matter experts from around the central Ohio region to discuss planning for a pediatric mass casualty incident and what their specific roles would be in this scenario. Our regional plan was updated based on the conversations and to no surprise, Columbus City Schools under the leadership of Deb Strauss was way ahead of the game in planning for a p pediatric MCI and brought valuable insight to our discussions and to the update of our plans. Columbus City Schools has been blessed to have Deb and her forwardleaning approach to preparedness for many years. Congratulations to Deb. A job well done. Ladies and gentlemen, please congratulate Deb along with
026all of our school [Applause] nurses. Thank you so much to everyone for recognizing the award within the district as well. It means a lot to me and I put a lot of my life and career into making sure that we are really ready to go. And as I say all the time, you know, would our nurses know what to do without all that training? They would because they're nurses and they would be able to do it. But now they can do it better and more efficiently and with confidence and that's what we were going for and we've shared that with local districts and and other systems as well. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to come up and get a photo with you. Yeah. All right. Thank you for that. Uh we will move on
027to our next resolution uh to recognize and honor school lunch heroes in the Columbus City School District. Board member Simmons. Thank you, President Cole. Um, I'd like to welcome to the podium at this time Tamara Jackson, food service manager, and her dedicated Fort Hayes food service team as as well as the students they've brought with them as they accept this resolution for resolution for school nutrition professionals week. I'd also like to welcome to the podium Lois Carson, president of Oopsy in recognition of the vital role school nutrition staff play in student health and learning. All right. Whereas the first Friday in May has been nationally designated as school lunch hero day, a time to honor the unwavering commitment and tireless efforts of school nutrition professionals whose whose work nourishes both bodies and minds of our
028students. Whereas these dedicated individuals ensure that students across Columbus City Schools across the Columbus City School District receive healthy nutritious meals each day while upholding the rigorous nutritional standards, accommodating diverse dietary needs, and delivering their service with a comp compassion and care, thereby exemplifying true heroism. And whereas the 2025 national theme, fueling the future one meal at a time, highlights the essential role school nutritional professionals play in promoting student wellness and supporting academic achievement. Be it further resolved by the Columbus Board of Education that this board hereby recognizes and commends the exemplary service of the district's school nutritional professionals are esteemed school lunch heroes and expresses the district's heartfelt gratitude and vital heartfelt gratitude for the vital contributions that school lunch heroes play in improving student health, academic success, and helping to fulfill the district's
029nutritional m mission not only on school lunch hero day but throughout the entire year. I also would like to speak to I was given a note before this meeting by our director of food services, Mr. Joe Brown. I'd like to honor the service um of the previous Fort Hayes food service manager, Renee Davis, who passed away suddenly recently. Um and the note says, "As our staff mourned, they were there for our students of Fort Hayes, providing them a shoulder to cry on, and it was an emotional time for everyone, but they continued to show up and are truly heroes." So, I'd like to thank you all for that. If we can just have a brief moment of silence in acknowledgement. Thank you. Uh is there This is a motion. Is there a second? Second. Motion
030and seconded. Call the role, please. Dr. Pierce, yes. Miss Reyes, yes. Mr. Simmons, yes. President Cole, yes. Vice President Adair, yes. Miss Vera, yes. Miss Engles, yes. Motion carried. Motion passes. Um, we want to give the opportunity to uh offer acknowledgements right now. Uh, Madame President, please. Whoever wants to speak. Whoever wants to speak. Yep. Whoever wants to speak, feel free. This gentleman here was the children. So, go for it. Good evening everyone. My name is Solomon Samuels. Good evening. My name is Solomon Samuels and I am here to represent this strong and everyone else in here as well. Um, teachers and lunch ladies, everyone, I we really do appreciate you all. We respect you, everything that you do for the youth and I look forward to being in business and companies like this and
031more meetings like this. And um, I feel like that lunch ladies are more than just lunch ladies. I feel like that they will be remembered for decades and centuries. And I also want to show more appreciation and um love to more than just lunch ladies. Everyone in this room, thank you so much. We love you. Thank you. Love you too, son. All right. Good evening out of the mouth of babes. Uh he said it better than I could say it. Thank you team for all you do. He said, "The lunch ladies, I have to say, we're diverse young men. We have gentlemen who serve our children on a daily basis. So, I don't want to get calls tomorrow that I forgot to include the guys." So, I'm include the guys for you. Okay, baby. Okay,
032we got this. We got this. And like that young man said, he too someday would like to sit in an arena like this. So that is why we do what we do because people don't think that children or young adults in the schools are looking at the food service staff, the custodian, the bus drivers, the secretaries, the count clerks, all the folks that do the work behind the scene. Well, I'm here once again this evening to tell you they watch us, they look after us, they respect us, and they support us. and they too one day can either be standing here as a state president of a fine ask me union or as a board member and they too can say that they were a proud product of Columbus City schools. So don't you guys
033forget you're a proud product of Columbus City School and don't let nobody tell you any different come from an awesome school district. That's right. Thank you. [Applause] All right, we too want to get a a photo with you all. Come back here, please. [Applause] Is she? [Applause] another 500 people will leave. I think these acknowledgements are so very important. Um I love this, you know, almost as much as I love the commencements. Uh the opportunity to really celebrate achievement and celebrate human beings uh gifting the best of who they are to others. We're going to continue that with one more resolution uh that I will read. I would like to invite to the stage or to the podium, excuse me, uh Annette Tuman. uh Janet Wright song, Dorothy Flanigan, Dr. Cheryl Williams, Dr. Daryl Sanders
034if he's here, and Dr. Milton uh Ruffen if he's available. Um, this is an acknowledgement of recognition and honor to celebrate school principles for their leadership and dedication to the Columbus City School District. Um, I'm going to read just a few of the whereazes and then the conclusion. Whereas principles serve as leaders of the school communities, setting academic vision, inspiring staff, fostering strong family and community partnerships, and ensuring safe, nurturing environments where students and educators thrive. And whereas the school board of education wishes to express its heartfelt appreciation to all school principles for their standing contributions throughout the year and the ana and acknowledges their continued efforts in fulfilling the district's vision of becoming a worldclass model of public education. Whereas uh be it further resolved by the board of Columbus City School Education, uh
035that this board does hereby recognize, honor, and celebrate the contributions of each of the principles in the Columbus City School District, not only on May 1st, but through the year, and extends its deepest appreciation for their service with special appreciation for those principles retiring. And I'm sad to see a few of y'all go, Miss Rice on. Yes. Sad to see a few of y'all go. Definitely. Um, but retiring in 2025 for their exceptional leadership and enduring legacy. Thank you so much. This is a motion. Is there a second? Second. Motion and seconded. Can we call the role, please? Miss Reyes? Yes. Mr. Simmons? Yes. President Cole? Yes. Vice President Adair? Yes. Miss Vera? Yes. Miss Engles? Yes. Dr. Pierce. Yes. Motion carry. Thank you. Motion passes. So, I just want to say before you offer
036words, um, I've watched all three of you demonstrate phenomenal leadership in a school building. Notes that I have personally taken myself and how I should behave and think through and perform in this role. So, thank you so much for your your service and leadership. Please, anyone who's ready to speak, the floor is open. Thank you. I seem to be the one who's elected here. Um, also as a representative of the Columbus Administrators Association, many of our colleagues that are not here that are retiring, uh, we thank you and this has certainly been our honor and pleasure to serve the students of Columbus City Schools. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, come on up. There you go. This is dangerous, as Mr. Nelson will tell you. No, seriously, for um I have counted a
037privilege and an honor to serve Columbus City Schools for 34 years, 25 plus as an administrator. Um, and I feel like my vision of creating uh the conditions where students can learn and teachers can teach um is just it's coming true. So, thank you for the honor and the privilege to serve the students of Columbus City Schools. Thank you. There you go. Come on up. And I haven't been doing this as long as some of my my other colleagues. I've only been doing this for about 14 years. But, you know, think about these last 14 years and this is the this has been the honor of my life. And like I tell my staff, I said they're the ones, my staff and my students are the ones that I get up every morning, you know,
038I make my way to work whether I'm feeling the best or not. The other thing being that I am also a proud graduate of Columbus City Schools. I'm looking at my beach students back here. I'm a Northland Viking and a proud graduate. So I just thank God for the honor to be able to give back, you know, from the district that I'm I'm a product of. But thank you everyone. Just thank you for this honor. You're quite welcome. We'd like to get a photo with you as well, please. [Applause] We're going to move forward and uh begin with uh the treasurer's uh presentation for the five-year forecast. Treasure Cook, thank you so much. Welcome this evening. Yes, sir. Good evening. Hopefully, my PowerPoint comes up here momentarily. All right. Okay. It seems like it's been
039a minute since November. A lot has changed economically, nationally. This is going to be our May update to the November forecast. So, we'll have a little fun with finance if we can label it at that in this budgetary period that we're undergoing here at the state level. Uh, before we get to the numbers, I want to remind the board that the five-year forecast is like a painting. It's a snapshot of what we know today. The five-year forecast, it's viewed as a key management tool, and it needs to be updated periodically. We're required by law to do that in November and again here in May. It's very important to note that in a 5-year forecast, the numbers only tell a small part of the story. For the numbers to be meaningful, we have to review and
040consider the notes and assumptions. I've provided those to the board. They will be available publicly on our website. Don't draw conclusions and use the data as a basis for calculations. Without that, the notes and assumption really provide a lot of background and context behind the numbers. Those paint the picture and tell the narrative. The five-year forecast is a tool for management teams to examine future year projections and identify when challenges will arise. It's exactly what we're going through right now with this period of uncertainty around the state budget. This helps our district management team, the superintendent, the treasurer, and the board of education to meet those challenges. Why does it matter? It's a tool to engage the board of education and our community in long range planning and discussions of the financial issues that we
041face as a school district. Secondarily, it serves as a basis for the 412 certificate for contracts for services for our labor partner agreements that we have to reach every several years. It allows me to certify that the funds are available to meet those obligations. It's a legal requirement. And lastly, it's a tool for the Ohio Department of Education and the Auditor of States office to identify districts that may have financial problems on the horizon. The forecast is divided into two sections, revenue and expenditures. On the revenue side, 74 and a half percent of our revenue comes from our local taxpayers. Approximately 22.3% comes from the state of Ohio. Another 3.2% is nonoperating. So, we're very close to that 8020 split that we've continued to talk about and we continue to see since we first did
042that forecast in November. On the expenditure side of the equation, it's primarily salaries, wages, and benefits. Personnel services are 83.7% almost 84% of our budget. That is the single largest item of expenditures for the district. It makes sense because we're in the people business. In fact, tonight we honored a lot of those outstanding people. That's what we take pride in. That's what drives our expenditures. That's the focus of what we do, the people and our students. As we look at the the May forecast from November, our cash balance is positive through fiscal year 28. For context, we're in fiscal year 25. July 1, we'll start fiscal year 26. Expenses begin exceeding revenue this year. We refer to that as deficit spend. We'll talk a little bit more in depth on those in some some following
043slides. In fiscal year 29, our actual cash deficit is projected to be 54.4 million. From our November 24 forecast to our May 25 forecast, projected cash balances increased just under $115 million. We'll talk about those changes in future slides. Primarily driven again 84% of our budget is salaries and benefits and we made a change in March that made a substantial impact there. Summary of changes from our November forecast in red. That top part is a consistent piece. It's not a change. I wanted to highlight that we maintain our funding formula assumptions from November on the fair school funding plan at 66.7%. FY22 cost inputs and no change in enrollment. And I will tell you, as we've navigated this period of uncertainty from the state with the governor's proposal and the house budget proposal, there was
044a tremendous amount of angst amongst my peers, amongst board members when Governor Dwine's budget was released. Because of the conservative nature of our forecast, we had built in a lot of assumptions that unfortunately have played out. this steady level 66.7% we didn't see the wild swings that a lot of districts did with respect to forecast versus budget proposals. So that conservative approach is helping us navigate some of these choppy waters that we face. The state funding formula we've projected based on our April number two payment. It has resulted in a $31.1 million increase in our specialed transportation funding. Again, we saw some positive impacts on that cash balance as we look out to fiscal year 29. 31.1 million is because of an increase in state of Ohio transportation funding specifically for special ed. We've updated
045the timing of our transportation penalty. I'll talk about that in a future slide as well. I can tell you we're still on track. that $15 million is holding. We can make an argument for slightly increasing that. I'm comfortable with 15 at this point. All other revenues increase 21.8 million and that's a huge number to Joe and Jane taxpayer. But to give you some context, that's approximately 2% of our revenue. So the scale and size of an over $900 million general fund reduces the scope of that to just 2%. Transportation penalty. There's a $7.5 million increase related to the delay of the transportation penalty expected from this year to next fiscal year. Last year in June, the district was assessed the penalty and it caused our state foundation formula to be zeroed out. We didn't have
046the funds available to pay our retirement deductions for STRS, STS, etc. It created a massive problem in our accounting world that we had to work through. So, I reached out to the Department of Education and Workforce earlier this year and said, "We really need to avoid this at all cost. is there any way for you to work with us? And they agreed. So, we'll be able to avoid that zeroing out of our foundation formula. But what it really translates to is we're on an installment plan with them. They're going to space those deductions out as we go through the end of this fiscal year and then carry our FY25 penalty into FY26. Last year in September, I received a $2.2 $2 million penalty for FY24 that hit this fiscal year. So, it's been somewhat taking
047place before, but that was due catching up with their backlog and assessing. This is us working together as a team to mitigate hiccups with accounting at the end of the fiscal year. We're projecting an FY25 that's going to be assessed this year, $5.3 million. Take the 2.2 two with the 5.3 and we're at that 7 and a half million. So carrying forward, we're going to have 7.5 million from this year that'll hit next year. In FY25, the projected penalty assessed for next year will total approximately $10 million. We're still forecasting 15 million. It's important to note that as we worked with do on this penalty, their worstc case scenario, not saying we'll hit it, but if we were to be penalized at what they calculate would be the worst case, it could rise to 17.5
048million. I know there was a tremendous amount of pressure on the district with this. I was facing it. Let's ratchet that penalty down. It would not have made sense. we would have missed big because there's a small increase that is potentially out there depending on how this process plays out. 15 million is looking pretty sound at this point. We're going to continue that summary of changes on expenditures. Again, we talked about that cash balance improving substantially over November. 108 million of the decrease or increase in our cash balance from the decrease in expenditures is related to the revising of the assumptions of our annual increase from 2 and a.5% to 1%. So the vast majority of that swing in our positive cash balance and the decrease in our forecasted expenditures is because we changed that
049assumption. So that accounts for the drastic swing. $13.3 million is an increase related to just updating our actuals in payroll and our non-payroll expenditures and then projecting that forward. We always true this up. We continually monitor this. Miss Vanover, Dr. Roush, specifically Mr. Hayes who's here tonight. It's a constant ongoing effort. The hours that go into this cannot be overstated. It's a tremendous project for us. Our revenues versus expenditures. Again, I highlighted earlier our cash balance is positive through fiscal year 28. Expenses are exceeding revenue starting this year. I've highlighted here on the bottom right days cash on hand. As we look at the House proposal, there's a lot of discussion around this 30% cash balance of your operating expenditures and it's frightening. What does that mean for us as a district if that were
050to happen? It would result in a reduction potentially of $139 million to our cash balance. Again, 139 million could be at risk depending how the budget shakes out. We have strategies to mitigate that. We have investments that we need to make and we would certainly be proactive in working to protect that cash balance. I think it's an industry best practice. You'll see to me it's green. I'm not great with yellows and colors. There's a line that runs across that chart. That's our 60-day cash balance. That's a target. We don't have a policy for that, but that's a target. You can see in FY25, 26, and 27, we would check that box. We meet that ratio for a healthy cash balance. We begin to face some challenges as noted in fiscal year 28 and 29. Just
051want to highlight that. In conclusion, ongoing risks, House Bill 96, I just touched on it. that cash balance, 30% of our expenditures. We've got, I think, a critical chart here, and I can't impress upon the board, the community, and our elected officials enough how devastating this could be to our district. In FY25, we stand at 37.9% of a projected cash balance to operating expenditures. So, 7.9% almost 8% could be at risk depending on how that shakes out in the process. 26, 27, 28, and 29 were not at risk. And that's primarily due to the deficit spend that we have. We are beginning to eat away at our cash balance. So deficit spend's not good. We'll talk about that in a second, but it could potentially help protect us from having to give back cash, if
052you will. I don't know how that's all going to shake out yet. Obviously a lot of news around not only the state budget but the federal budget pending litigation with respect to that we've had a tremendous amount of conversations what happens if our federal programs and the funding associated goes away 160 plus million dollars there as well. So between a cash balance of 140 million, another 160 million potentially in federal funding, quick math, $300 million, almost a third of what our annual operating budget is. A lot of risk that the district and all districts across the state and nation face right now. Upcoming personnel negotiations, the current assumption reflects a 1% base increase. deficit spend critical juncture for us. Um expenses are exceeding revenue starting this year. I say this district will have to look
053at budget cuts, attrition, new revenue or a combination of the both for long-term fiscal stability. Our deficit spend this year is projected at 27.8 million. That is better than we had in November, but again, we made some changes to the assumptions that really helped blunt that in the short term. We still don't know the impact of the state budget, federal programs, and the outcome of negotiations. So, I expect this to shift again. In 26, we're looking at 91.4 million as a deficit. 27, 90.3. 28, 129.2 million. And then it jumps down in 29 to 110. I want to explain that delta. Look, it looks weird. How do we go from 129 to 110? We have an extra payroll payroll creep. That 27th pay is going to show up in fiscal year 28. So that's why
054we see that rise and then that fall back down to normalization. So again, I think it's important from a fiscal standpoint, we have to begin to take a look at where we're going in the long term. We have deficit spend five years within our forecast now. We've made some changes to help that, but it still hasn't been quite enough yet. We're still beholden to the state to see what they do. It's imperative that we really start to take action on those out years because in 29, back to those opening slides, I have to, the board president and the superintendent, certify with a 412 certificate that funding is available. We don't have the funding available as projected right now in 29. So, we're beginning to have those discussions. Dr. Chapman and I have met. Again, it's
055a key tool for us. It's a critical tool for the board, and it's imperative that the community understand the risks and challenges we face both statewide and nationally that add up to this. With that, any questions? Uh before I open the floor up, I want to make sure I make a very quick announcement. Uh that announcement is is that we will be hosting Columbus City Schools will be hosting a town hall discussion at East High School tomorrow between the hours of 6 and 8 p.m. Um we'll have a panel of, you know, esteemed guests who will be talking about this very issue. Vice President uh Madame uh Dare. Uh in addition to that, we'll have senator state senator Hershel Craig. We'll have uh state representative Maniraa Abdulahi. We'll also have uh state representative Dantavius Gerald.
056And in addition to that, we'll also have uh state representative Barl uh Brown Pickle Antonio. and also of course our treasurer, our superintendent will take part in this as well. I'll kick it off, but I want to make sure that we announce this again, East High tomorrow between 6 and 8:00 p.m. You are all welcome to come and learn about how this is actually impacting the school district. Thank you, Mr. Treasur. I open the floor. Any questions? We have one. Uh I'll start at the end. No, we can start with that one. Please uh feel free to go ahead and say this. Sure. Um so this five-year forecast you said was based on the idea that the funding model would be intact. How do you understand the state budget uh to be with regard to
057whether or not the funding formula exists and if that funding formula exists it or does not exist how that could impact schools like Columbus City Schools ability to forecast finances in the future? Wonderful question. We will also talk about this tomorrow night. It's frightening from a school district treasur standpoint. The way the the bill is written presently, the funding formula is still there. However, there is language that says the Department of Education and Workforce cannot fund that formula. In a sense, it's gone. It's sunseted. What this means for me, and I lived these days early on in my career, is we're back to residual budgeting. It's scary in the sense that they could potentially look at public education, as I saw in the past, and say, "Here's the piece of the state pie that we
058have left. Here's the number of students we estimate. It might be $25 a student that you get, only a few million dollars. Um, it it's detrimental. The Fair School Funding Plan Work Group, which has been comprised of superintendent, treasurers, board members over the last seven to 10 years, has worked tirelessly to get a funding formula that makes sense, was created by school district leaders and had buyin, bipartisanship from our leaders. Now, they want to take that away. It's a massive setback that I can't underscore enough. From a budgeting standpoint, it will become excruciating to try to forecast out what that means. We have a formula now, and it's extremely challenging to navigate what that looks like outside of a two-year bienium period. I've seen it. I've done it. I hope we do not have to
059go back there. students will suffer the price of those that fair school funding formula is is absolutely critical for not only districts but most importantly our students and I think that messaging has been lost in all of this discussion around cash balance it's frightening and to follow up on that with the formula there is something called the DPIA and I'm going to let you explain what DPIA is and how that impacts the formula whether that's been fully implemented or not implemented and why that would be important um for schools like Columbus City Schools um that have a lot of students that would would affect our DPIA calcul. So it's disadvantaged pupil impact aid. Primarily the discussions revolve around the community eligibility provisions which has enabled most districts that decided to apply for that around the
060state to provide free lunches for students. Districts may have a student index of disadvantaged of let's say 30%. With the way the DP DPIA aid is calculated, they can now recognize and be funded at 100% which makes them eligible for certain state and federal programs. The largest of which is the school nutrition. I can tell you there are discussions around that aid. How that's going to shake out, I don't yet know. Um, there's a myriad of conversations. Again, I'd say it has been impactful not only in the classroom through the aid, but nutritionally as well. I think there's substantial evidence, and I'm getting a little bit out of the fiscal wheelhouse, that hungry students don't perform as well. Probably impacts things like academic achievement and student discipline. This has been a huge boon and positive
061impact for students. If that were to go away, there's much more at stake than just fiscal, but we would certainly feel an impact. That calculation spreads throughout. There's a ripple effect amongst other programs as well, depending on where you're at on eligibility and your percentage. So, it could have a wide ranging impact not only on our lunchroom programs, but others as well. Again, clearly being discussed, clearly being looked at. I don't have any clarity on it yet. Thank you, Mr. Treasure. I want to move to Dr. Pierce. Sure. That that was a great teaser for tomorrow's um panel discussion and dialogue in terms of how state policy are going to affect the spending of our district for a second if we could focus on our district and the five-year forecast that you just presented. Um
062so in your presentation, you mentioned that we are going to need to make some cuts in the future. um those cuts specifically coming in FY27, FY28. Is that a correct timeline? 27 would be an accurate accurate characterization. All right. So, if we're thinking about the cuts that need to be made in FY27 or discussions, let's say discussions that need to be had so we can move forward in a very proactive way. How can our board discuss the launching or the starting of those conversations in ways that will engage not just the board, our administration, your team, but also our community. I think it's a start here tonight as we look at the impact and the challenges that we face. I know Dr. Chapman and I have met and begun to have those discussions internally. I
063think once her team has had more discussions with my budget team and they've met twice now, they'll form a solid plan, a course of action and then begin to bring that forward at the board level. I I like where you're going here. So, a course of action and a solid plan. What would be the optimal time within that FY2728 time frame for us to request such a plan? I think given the two of us have already met uh statutoily that June 1 date for any staffing moves, we're not even discussing that at this point in time. I'm looking at and I think Dr. Chapman can support this that FY27 timeline. I say that's important because we have the uncertainty around our state budget. We're going to be able to see how this comes to fruition
064over the next 60 days. That's going to then allow us to update the forecast again, take a real hard look at where those numbers are for the bianium budget. And then we have all of next year or a good portion of next year to really sink our teeth into the fiscal picture, the changes with the state budget, and then navigate back to the board with a course of action. So, I would say July one, we'll have some clarity around what the state's doing. I'm planning to update the forecast to show the board what positive or negative changes we had. Certainly, Dr. Chapman and I as we navigate the summer months, get back to school, will escalate and increase the level of our conversations. That's my desire. And then we'll put forth a plan based on
065her teams, not just fiscal, but likely academic impacts as well in front of the board of education. Um, and so colleagues, I think with that information, I would encourage us to think about how we can situate this work within our board committee so we can start having these conversations as soon as the summer hits, right? In terms of what is the ROI for some of our academic curriculums and services that we're using, how are they impacting um the achievement of our goals and guard rails? I think the more that we can gather that information and share that information with the community and not that it'll be an easier process for us to make cuts, but that it will be a more informed way and process for us to make potential cuts as we move forward.
066Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Pierce. I appreciate it. I'm going to go to uh uh Ver. Okay. Thank you. Um thank you, Treasurer Cook. I appreciate all of your explanation. Um, and some of my thoughts were also similar to my colleague um, Pierce just in regards to the principles that we're going to use to prioritize what those cuts are. I think we need to be very clear about that. Um, but I don't want to look at it just from a deficit standpoint. I also want to high or touch on the revenue piece and really what can we anticipate in terms of planning and what does that look like and you know so I just wanted to get if there's any preliminary projections as it relates to targets for new gener you know revenue generation if
067that is that later to come or is that something I know we've talked about a couple things but I really want to get more in the space of what can be some options for the district around that revenue generation Yeah, we we've talked at a lower level. I don't have anything that's materially going to move the numbers. I think there's some options out there as we've discussed naming rights, building rights, etc. I think we have to get creative to your point on that. Um, again, I have no problem leading those conversations, working in conjunction with Dr. Chapman, Alex Trevino, etc. I think we've got a lot of great talent here. The rubber is really starting to meet the road with respect to our finances. Another thing I want to caution, we still have a chance
068at the state level. There are discussions about the importance of the fair school funding plan. And if they were to keep that, if they were to update cost sets, maybe not to what I'd really prefer as a treasur at 24, but if I can catch 23 from 22, we're going to see an uptick in our revenue that I believe would have a positive material impact on the forecast. So, we still have a chance. It's still going through the process. I think everything with respect to creativity and drive, excuse me, driving revenue needs to be on the table and to me it lives outside of silos. It's not just me. It's not just the superintendent. It's not capital improvements. I challenge my team every day. We have an idea wall. What could work that I'm not
069seeing? Every idea counts. So, I'm open. We continue to have those discussions. All right. Thank you. We have one more question and then we're going to move on to Dr. Chapman's presentation. Um, thank you. Um, I I kind of have a a two-part question and one is a broader understanding of um, you started this presentation off by explaining that one of the reasons we do the forecasting its requirement. Um, and I'm I'm wondering if you could remind us what happens if we are unable to um to certify um and what's the impact to the district? Um, and then after you that I have one more followup. Sure. The impact if I can't certify funds on a contract, for example, we simply can't do it. We legally have to meet that threshold to do business. Let's
070say we're going to do a copier contract for $3 million. We need it. If the funds aren't there, I legally can't sign at the board president and the superintendent. So, as those deficits grow, it puts us at risk of running into that. Additionally, we'll begin to enter into fiscal watch, fiscal caution, fiscal emergency. I'd be remiss if I didn't tell the board there's also discussion of going to a three-year state forecast. I don't know if that'll happen. We will continue to provide five, but my concern is will that three-year look then pull any of those forward whereas now we're talking on the outy years, but where does that impact on three? So there's a lot at stake to your point. Okay. So thinking about um you know right now the way the funding works we
071are about uh we are funded about 74 75% local uh 22% state and then we have a little bit of other money coming in and basically through this forecast um and our projections. There's still a lot of unknowns. Um, and we know that based on a previous uh presentation you gave that eventually we're thinking that it's going to be more of a 90% local. um with the the projections that you have and you've given us tonight um especially around the possibility of giving back giving back money um in addition to the continuation of the transportation penalty um and the unknowns about whether the formula exists to the point that um board member said um and us kind of going into that cash balance um we did project as well as what come the outcome of
072negotiations Right. Um, are we getting to that 90% or requiring to get to that 90% sooner than we might otherwise in order to meet the ability for us to continue to certify this as a 5-year forecast, meaning we're going to have to generate other revenue, and a lot of times that means we're going to have to go back um and ask for additional levies outside of our levy cycle. Yes, I believe we're going to get there sooner. Um, and I think that is some of the substantial issue and concern I have. We're hearing a lot of discussion at the state level. They're they're making some of these changes for property tax relief. The argument I make and will continue to make is the very point you raised. the changes they're making are having a substantial
073impact on our local budget, which is going to cause us to potentially have to go back to our taxpayers on a more frequent basis because we don't get the updated cost sets. So, I think it's it's creating a perfect storm. I fear that we're looking at back in the 70s, we arrived at House Bill 920. I understand the pain that we've all felt with the reevaluations, but quick and hasty legislation could compound the problem and drive us to the ballot every two years. Not saying that's where we're at. I'm saying that's where if things don't go in a positive manner, it could offset the very argument they're trying to make. Thank you for that. Uh there's more to come and be discussed tomorrow uh at East High School between the hours of 6:00 and 8:00
074PM. Uh all are invited. I look forward to seeing you all there as a part of a rich discussion with a panel about the implications of this current bienial budget. Thank you. Thank you. Now we'll move on to Dr. Chapman. Um Dr. Chapman, you have a update for us with Guard Rail 2. Yes. Good evening, President Cole, Vice President Adair, members of the board and community. Certainly want to thank you for this opportunity to provide an update on our whole child guard rail. Tonight's report is structured differently than those that we have presented this year on board goals. You will hear about our theory of action and the logic model we are developing to ensure that we continue to prioritize a whole child focus. As a reminder, board goals are based on the vision of
075our community. They represent the student outcomes our community expects for reading, math, and graduation. In addition to our three goals, the board of education has set guard rails. The guard rails are a set up are set up to reflect the values of the community and they ensure that how we will accomplish the goals respects those values. Goals are measured by student outcomes and the guardrails reflect adult behaviors. About six years ago, the board of education conducted a listening tour and received feedback from the community. This occurred as a series of outreach and engagement sessions in different communities in Columbus. Tonight, we are discussing the guardrail prioritize a whole child focus. Your our adopted guardrail mandates that the superintendent will not allow the district to ignore a whole child approach. We have been ensuring that our
076strategies and activities are honoring the guard rails. Our goal here is to tell you about those and I welcome your questions. We know the board's job is to monitor outcomes. We haven't yet given you evidence so you, the board, can assess that the guard rails are being honored. So this is a discussion, not a monitoring session, but at the end I'll address or plan to prepare for guard rail monitoring going forward. And I just interject very quickly. Thank you for illuminating that. So this conversation is totally open to questions. We're not following the protocols of how we convene a monitoring discussion. This is open. So if there is opportunity to offer you know some wise counsel or give some measure of guidance you are free and the floor is open for you to be able
077to do that. Okay. Thank you Dr. Chapman. Certainly as we have updated our strategic plan to align with board goals. We see that our whole child focus is described in the strategic plan as one where we develop systems to create strong healthy learning communities in which students and staff feel a sense of belonging and wellness. In addition to addressing the academic needs of our students, we also prioritize social emotional supports. Our school counselors, school social workers, and school nurses are assigned to provide support services beyond what our teachers provide. We will be setting metrics. You got the giggles. I'm so excited about this report. There you go. There you go. Joy in the work. Joy in the work. Great work. And it brings me immense joy. Good recovery. Joy in the work. Joy in the
078work. Love it. Go ahead. Oh boy. We can take a break if you need. Okay. We will be setting new metrics and baselines based on our align strategic initiatives. This slide represents our theory of action around whole child. Relationships are the foundation of our work. If we focus on developing practices that lead to positive relationships, school culture and climate will improve. As school climate improves, students and adults will want to be in attendance. Improved attendance increases the likelihood of academic success for all students. and academic success ensures our students progress from one grade level to the next and graduate prepared to succeed in life. We are grateful for the support of the Columbus community whose resources allow us to go beyond academic instruction and also address the social emotional needs of students and staff. As
079a result of this commitment, we were able to retain 90 school counselors, 18 social workers, and 10 attendance program specialists who had previously been funded by ESSER. In addition, we're able to provide restorative practices training to school teams and department staff and utilize the Panorama survey data to study our progress. As you will hear throughout this report, we start with our logic model. Our theory of action and build on this work from year to year. One of the key actions in our theory is that students and staff benefit from having a common set of strategies to use to resolve conflict, create dialogue, and build school environments where all members have a voice. Restorative practices. We have been on the journey to implement restorative practices for several years. Some in our community may may remember that
080in 2016 and 17 a district discipline committee was created to address office referrals and suspensions. In 2018, our community partners at BRED came together to join us in this work. We focused on training school counselors, school social workers, and community partners in restorative practices and created a train the trainer model to scale up the opportunities for all school-based staff to be trained. When we returned to school after the pandemic, we used ESSER funds to provide additional school counselors and school social workers to address the needs of students and families whose needs were exacerbated by their experiences during quarantine and remote learning. In 2022 and 2023, we launched studentled restorative practices in four CCS high schools, Walnut Ridge, Beachcraft, Mifflin, and Briggs as a pilot. That work is continuing to build momentum and beginning to have
081an impact on those school communities. I am now going to invite Dr. Denita Thornton, our executive director of whole child supports to share more about our work to prioritize the whole child. And with her this evening, we have four three of our high school students that has joined us today. And um please extend some grace to our high school students. As you know, they have a very early morning. Many of them have been up since 5 5:30 a.m. to start their very early day. So, thank you for hanging in there with us and being here with us tonight. We welcome you with open arms and we are excited to hear your voice and your perspective as a part of this strategy. Absolutely. Blessed to have you. Welcome. Thank you, Dr. Chapman. Good evening again, everyone.
082Before we continue, it is important to highlight a few key concepts associated with restorative practices. Restorative practices is the science of relationships and community. All human beings are hardwired to connect and need strong and meaningful relationships to thrive. The guiding principle of restorative practices is that human beings are happier, healthier, more productive, and more likely to make positive changes in their own behavior and in their communities when we do things with them rather than to them, for them, or not at all. Another important concept of restorative practices is the engagement window. As we strive to build positive relationships within our community, we must consider how we engage with ourselves first, followed by how we engage with others and how we engage with our community. The goal is to operate from the space of width as
083much as we can by offering high levels of support and encouragement while maintaining high expectations both intrapersonally and interpersonally. Any action can be restorative when we do things with people rather than to them, for them or not at all. Everything we do in service of the whole child is informed by the research centered in the castle framework that you see on this slide here. We have learned a great deal since beginning our restorative practices journey. Let's begin by highlighting some of our successes, including training our school-based mental health professionals, support staff, central office staff, and administrators. Another success has been studentled restorative practices within four pilot schools. At this time, I would like to invite our students to share how participating in studentled restorative practices has impacted their lives. Good evening. Good evening. Hi and
084good evening. My Hi and good evening. My name is Fouad Bengura and I am a junior at Beachcraft High School. And today I'll be telling you about how student led restorative practices has affected me. And I'll tell you about the two skills I gained from participating and practicing studentled restored practices. These two skills go hand in hand. Number one, studentled restored practices has taught me leadership skills that I use every day in my school and my community. All the work I have done in student le restored practices like planning community circles uh workshops with students and adults and mediations has taught me how to be a great listener and leader. Number two, I learned community bonding skills from student led restorative practices. Doing community circles at my school has allowed me to know more and
085more students at Beachcraft High School and it also allowed me to know uh people in my community with our partnership with City of Columbus reroute. We've been doing community circles at rec centers. In conclusion, SLRP has taught me in order to be a great leader, I have to understand my community and be a part of my community. And the fun games that we play in uh community circles allows us to put our guards down and build trust. I leave you with this. In order for our schools to thrive and succeed, we need to empower our young scholars with SLRP. Let's do the amazing to be amazing. Beachcraft amazing. Thank you for listening. All right. Welcome. Um, good evening. Before I speak, I would just like to say give a shout out to all the teachers.
086Happy teacher appreciation week. And also band director, Mr. Mar because they're also teachers. Good evening. My name is Rashad Catrell and I'm a rising junior at Walnut Ridge. I was first trained for SLRP in February 2024. My my family leaders aka two leaders that led me. Their names are Jade and their names are Jade and Jamari. And Jamar is actually here. Sadly, Jade could not make it. But I would just like to thank them for being able to be a amazing mentor and lead me into this great leader I am now. This year I took on a leadership role in SLRP and I have organized communication and plans for our initiatives. Now leadership of course I gave to but also more than that too. It has let me have a more growth mindset. It has
087made me emotionally mature, more mature in general and it has just done so much things for me. And a couple examples are firstly I have been able to again took a leadership role and I've been able to been someone to call upon. So whenever admin needs help they would call upon me. recently they called upon me to help boost the Pamarana Pamarana scores and I helped with that and also there was also a recent situation where a student at Water Ridge was being bullied by another student from a different school and I called upon a teacher to kind of sort of look into it and usually people or maybe even myself would not do that. So that's for the growth mindset. So, I have just grown so much and I'm just going to leave off
088with this note. Without SLRP, I would just be another voiceless student. And I want you all to think about that. [Applause] Hello, my name is Jamari Fleshman and I'm a graduating senior at Wner Ridge High School and a future Bobcat. Thank you. So, I started the program in February of 2023. I was one of the first groups to be able to train with student le restorative practices or as I like to say I ran so they can walk. SLRP has given me so many opportunities to be able to do things like speak at meetings, go to conferences and just to let people hear my voice. It even helps me with my career goals. In the beginning of my high school career, I wanted to be a teacher. But then as I did more student led
089restorative practices, mediations, community circles, I realized that I wanted to become a psychologist. Um, many of the things that I've done with student le are very, very important and it shows in my school, in my community, and just with my friends in general. Uh, thank you Rashad for that shout out. Today I learned that I trained everybody that's with us today. So it's really just been a really great experience for me. Uh and I just want to leave you all with that because of student le restorative practices I am the portrait of a graduate for CCS. Well spoken by a Scott significant courageous outstanding and talented all three of you. Yeah. Can we give our students another round of [Applause] applause? Our team is currently working to build adult capacity by increasing awareness through restorative
090practices videos and sharing tools and resources on the Columbus City Schools restorative practices website. We have added training opportunities for our departments and school teams throughout spring and summer 2025. This year, we sought to create more options for school teams to participate in training during their building professional development days. I am proud to announce that we had 11 schools take advantage of this opportunity, which allowed administrators, teachers, and staff to engage together. This year we furthered our e we furthered our efforts to support school teams in learning how to apply restorative practices by offering six professional learning sessions called putting theory into practice. These monthly sessions allow school principles, school-based mental health professionals, and additional support staff ongoing coaching and feedback. Additionally, we collaborated with our partners at the International Institute for Restorative Practices to
091conduct focus groups to develop a strategic plan for training and implementation, which I will share on the next slide. Based upon feedback from our district leadership team and data from our one needs assessment, we will train administrators including building principles, assistant principles, and leadership interns as well as central office personnel. Cohort 2 training is focused on school teams, including our teachers, secretarial and support secretarial and custodial staff. Our intention is for everyone working within our school communities to grow together by participating in the two-day training. Cohort 3 includes our students. We want to ensure that both students and adults receive the foundational skills to truly make CCS a restorative district. This slide is an example of how restorative practices and social emotional learning are part of a tiered system of support, positive behavioral interventions and
092supports, also referred to as PBIS. We often get questions about how restorative practices and social emotional learning align with PBIS. This graphic is visual representation of how these initiatives are well aligned in classrooms across the district. Teachers are using classroom circles to help build a sense of community. We see this in tier 1 universal supports highlighted in green which applies to all students. Within tier 2 supports highlighted in yellow, we may see circles such as peer conferencing and problem solving circles for students requiring additional support. Several teachers also use check-in and checkout with students at tier 2. And finally, in tier three, reflected in red, intensive supports are provided for students with more complex needs. Teachers may use the reintegration circle or a restorative conference to support students return to learn. The restorative practices dashboard
093was designed to create datadriven tools that guide and monitor our restorative practices work. To date, 1,476 adults have participated in the two-day introduction to restorative practices training. We truly appreciate the investment made by this board and continue to require your support as we strive to have 100% of adults working within CCS trained in restorative practices. As I turn this presentation back to Dr. Chapman, I want to again remind our community that we are grounded in our logic model and theory of action and that each year our district practices will deepen and strengthen through a commitment to continuous improvement. Guard rail updates like this give us an opportunity to make that learning visible. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Thornon. Thank you to our students who are here with us. And thank you to all
094of the staff members and students that have taken the time um to invest in their own professional growth and learning and committed to participate in the two-day training if they've already done that or if they are planning to do that in the summer or upcoming sessions as a part of um the additional cohorts that we have added. So again, thank you in advance to all of our staff members as well as students across the district serving in various roles, whether they're school-based positions or central office positions for um going on this journey with us and making the commitment to show up for our students in restorative ways that really support um moving the district forward. Um and in closing, we'll certainly take time for questions. Um but I just want to remind um that you
095know going forward we will be working to equip the board to monitor the guard rails as a part of our board monitoring calendar and our student outcomes focused governance model. So we are working to create aligned measurable interim guard rails and we'll bring those back to the board for acceptance by October so that our board can continue to monitor um the guard rails on the following board monitoring calendar. So um we'll certainly continue to work on that. We'll bringing we'll be bringing those metrics to the academics and facilities committee to preview one guardrail at a time and then bringing that back to the board for acceptance for how we monitor these and measure these guardrails. So more conversation will continue. Um we are certainly um want to extend some gratitude to our SOFG coach who
096has joined us virtually today um and helped us prepare for this conversation and dialogue today and is also supporting us in the work of realigning those metrics. Thank you. This concludes our report and we're certainly um will entertain any questions that you have at this moment. All right. I you took my thunder. I did want to acknowledge uh Mr. Sindle. Good good evening Synindle. Thank you so much again for joining us. Absolutely. He's he's also here to to give us guidance and make sure we're on track and understanding what work needs to happen moving forward. And that's particularly around interim guard rails. We establish the guard rails as the board, but the interim guard rails are thus the responsibility of the administration, particularly the superintendent. I'll open the floor for any questions at this point.
097Anyone? Yes, sir. Mr. Simmons. Thank you, President Cole. Dr. Chapman, you mentioned that you were um in the process of developing those metrics and I was just wondering if you could maybe share if there have been any bottlenecks or kind of hang-ups in developing those metrics and why it's kind of taken maybe a bit longer than some of us might have expected. Um thank you board member Simmons for that question. It's a combination of um several factors. The number one X factor is time. Um, as you know, um, these discussions take time. Um, it was really important when we looked at our goals, we started with updating our goals. And so, you're you have been a part of those conversations of updating our board goals. And so, next we went to the guard rails. But
098what we needed to do was really hash out um our strategic plan and priorities and reset those priorities so that we can ensure that we are focusing on that these guard rails we continue to measure them in ways that make the most sense and really truly reflect the work that's happening in our schools and across the district. So, I certainly want to thank the board for um the opportunity to reset those guardrails and metrics so that it makes sense. Um as you know that prior to we had lots of different plans going on and that did not ensure coherence or alignment across the entire organization. We had strategies in our strategic plan. We had strategies in our goals and guard rails. We had um other strategies of work that was prioritized by the board. and
099all of that didn't live in one document. We certainly think that we're in a better place now of being to being able to have greater align alignment and coherence so that we can move the work further faster. So the strategic plan has been updated. We have updated um the strategic plan. We had offered provided some feedback and received some fe feedback from the board around um the guard rails and we are committed to um committed to these same guard rails. So those will not change. Right? Our board goals have not changed. Our guard rails have not changed. How we measure those guard rails will be a future conversation that we'll be having with the board to um ensure that we're on the same page. But the strategic plan has changed or at least has been
100updated. Are you able to share that with the board? Yes. Thank you. And then absolutely. My next question is um my my next question is around um the it's more for our board leadership around the equitable resources monitoring. I just wanted to uplift again as I did at our last monitoring or this is not a monitoring conversation but at our previous monitoring conversation I asked about when we might be able to get that calendared again. It was originally slated for December. We missed it. Um but we haven't came back to that guardrail since and so I just wanted to update um or uplift that once again that we still need to talk about our equitable resources guardrail. Okay. Um u Lord have mercy. Board member Reyes. No problem. Good evening. You're good. Um, you have
101a question? Yes. A real uh brief. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you to the students. You guys did awesome. Really? Really? It's like wow. Um um Dr. Chapman, my question is as we look as we're looking at the um the roll out, how is there a plan to implement this or provide this training to the organizations, the adults that do work with our students within the district? Yes. So, we have done some partnership with other organizations. I know that um that has been we they've offered um because once you have a certified trainer anyone can participate in the training. So we have shared space with shared trainers with some other partner organizations um in the community and certainly we would be more than willing to invite others to join us. uh specifically,
102thank you for that. Specifically, like our city years, yeah, that are already working with us. But I do like the the first answer because I know uh there's organizations within our community that could benefit uh from this training uh where we have um volunteer opportunities for our high school students. They're coming into our spaces. it would be advisable or a good thing for those nonprofits, those organizations that are taking in our students to understand what our students are learning because I I was actually sitting here with board member Vero. I was like, I might have to take one of you to my to my uh building. We definitely need some of that training within some of our organizations. So, I appreciate that. Thank you. All right. Um is there any additional question? Um but I
103will add and thank you so much for this presentation this update. I think it's uh very important for us to get a get a good sense of a level set of how things are started. I realize a lot of work has gone into this and I I totally honor it. So, thank you all and thank you um as we consider the interim guard rails and the development of that moving forward in a way that is smart using those metrics around you know all of the things that are measurable, attainable, all of that. Um I think it's important for us to get a good idea one of where students are with this. How does this apply to them? How does this apply to them in a way that they get to have a surveyed opportunity to
104share where they are with not only restorative practices, but as you illuminated earlier in your uh your report uh you circled culture and climate within buildings. I think their feedback is essential. I know that we currently have a document that was done by engagement to gauge students about their opinions about the district. You can get that from engagement. We started that last year. We actually started that process. I'd like to see how we continue that and integrate that in our as a metric. The other piece I think is important is what is this adult impact on behavior on attendance and a very brief conversation I had with our youngsters here. they shared that some of them are seeing some sort of a a small impact in their school building with regards to that. Um, but
105I think that that's a a notable metric to gather about where this adult impact is actually happening. So for me, this is a a significant thing I'd love to hand off to you all as consideration for inter goals and gu interim guard rails. Thank you. Thank you again. Thank you to our amazing students who joined us tonight and stuck it out with us for um this evening's presentation. Dr. Thornton, thank you. And again for all of our staff that are watching, thank you again for your commitment to this strategy. And we look forward to learning alongside you um in the next year, in the summer, future trainings, as well as in the fall. Um so you all can see how this strategy brings us all so much joy. All right. Uh thank you. Thank you
106all and you guys are definitely free to go. Thank you so much. Have a good night. Thank you. Yes. Get home safely. Um uh moving forward, we'll go into voting on the consent agenda between 8.1 and 23.2. Um is there a motion to accept the consent agenda? Motion to accept. Motioned. Second. Is there a second? Second. Motion and seconded. Can we call the role? Yes. Vice President Adair. Yes. Miss Vera. Yes. Miss Engles. Yes. Dr. Pierce. Yes. Miss Reyes. Yes. Mr. Simmons. Yes. President Cole. Yes. All right. Motion is passed. Now we will accept the other legislation. Um that is 24.1 for personnel. Um do we do this one at a time? Dr. Rous. Thank you for that. Just as clarification. Is there a motion to accept 24.1? Motion to accept. Second. Motion is seconded.
107Call the role. Miss Vera? Yes. Miss Engles? Yes. Dr. Pierce? Yes. Miss Reyes? Yes. Mr. Simmons? Yes. President Cole? Yes. Vice President Adair? Abstain. All right. Motion passes. Uh we'll move on to 24.2 authorization for membership in OSA. Is there a motion to accept? OSHA. Yeah. So, it's moved and second. Second. Second. Call the roll. Miss Engles. Yes. Dr. Pierce, yes. Miss Reyes, yes. Mr. Simmons, yes. President Cole, yes. Vice President Adair, yes. Miss Vera, yes. All right. Motion passes. Uh, thank you all again. Before we close out, uh, I want to again announce that tomorrow between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. at East High School, we'll be hosting a town hall discussion with a panel of, you know, experts from our state house to the community to discuss what's happening in this bienial budget and
108its impact on our school district. I look forward to seeing you all there. All are welcome to attend. With that, is there a motion? Motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion and seconded. Dr. Pier Ro. Yes. Miss Reyes. Yes. Mr. Simmons. Yes. President Cole. Yes. Vice President Adair. Yes. Miss Vera. Yes. Miss Engles. Yes. Motion carried. Motion carries. Thank you all.