001All right, let's uh call the meeting to order. Um Beth, can you please call the role? Mr. Bod here. Mrs. Gart here. Mr. Guousay here. Mrs. Matney here. Miss is absent. She will be here soon. She's out. Okay. Okay. Pledge of allegiance. [Applause] To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Minutes. Um, is there a motion to approve the minutes from our regular meeting and special meeting? So, move. Second. Okay. Any discussion? Hearing none. Beth, can you please call the role? Mr. Bod, I. Mrs. Gart, I. Mr. Guay. Hi. Mrs. Metany. I. Okay. Is there anyone who would like to come speak before the board today? Um, great. And if you could please state
002your name and your address. Sure. Uh Rowan Mueller, 1227 Lincoln Road. Cooper Bower, 2000 West Thirdrd Avenue. Welcome. Good evening. My name is Cooper Bower and my name is R Mueller. We are student leaders of the Bobcat Anti-Racism Collective. Thank you for your time tonight. We want to start by saying that we are very grateful to be in a school that offers clubs like Bark and we want to share our gratitude for the school's continued support of honesty and education. Bark is a collection of students and staff who collaborate to broaden our predominantly white students knowledge about the black experience in America as well as the experiences of other people of color. Educate students on the systems and institutions both nationally and locally that perpetuate racial racial inequality and provide students with specific anti-racist thoughts
003and actions. We host movie nights, general meetings, bring in guest speakers, and are involved in activism events. Last Friday, we had a general meeting where we discussed environmental racism and how climate change disproportionately affects people of color. Dr. Art, a profession, a professor from the Ohio State University, was our guest speaker who came in and gave a presentation on environmental racism. We found this to be a very educational talk and we always enjoy these guest speaking opportunities. Given the current climate of dishonesty, ignorance, and ambigu ambiguity in the United States, we are especially glad that our school does its best to promote an honest, inclusive curriculum characterized by diverse representation and valuable discussions that help us grow as critical thinkers. Bills, orders, and policies that are currently circulating have put Bark at risk now more
004than ever. Just because the political climate is changing doesn't mean our values are. We hope that your continued support allows us to keep voicing our passions and to keep changing the community. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you guys coming here. Mhm. Okay. We have a presentation. Mr. Brown. Hi. Hi. Want me to uh rearrange the place here? right? That's half the battle. All right. Good evening everyone. Thank you for allowing me to present this to you. I'm very excited about the work that we're doing with um social emotional learning in the district, which is um I I could stand up here till Friday talking about the things that we're doing as a district, but um I I won't do that. Um first, I I'm going to try really hard not to
005use acronyms. I know um that's a big no no and I get it. So, um but in case I do, I I want to just go through a couple of quick definitions. So MTSS is multi-tier system of supports and that's just all that's just a tiered level of all the supports that we offer all students. Um tier one just means all student supports. Tier two is when you go into like individual or small group mostly small group students who just need more support than tier one provides. Um and then tier three is the most intensive usually individualized plans like IEPs for students with disabilities and then social emotional learning. Uh why social emotional learning? So this is a growing field. Um, it's it's one of those things that it's it's I'm so immersed in it,
006but when you ask me to define it, it's hard to give a just a short definition of it. Um, but I I tried. In schools, uh, refers to the process through which students develop the skills to understand and manage emotions, um, set and achieve positive goals, show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and just make responsible decisions. And and why is that so important in schools especially is because um I mean it's important to help grow future learners and leaders and citizens. But when students aren't being successful in school and we we go through our our tools and we do a root cause analysis a lot of times and I think I talked about this last year is um it's it's not sort of sometimes it is especially younger grades sometimes it is
007knowledge gaps or sometimes it's you know there's reading gaps but a lot of times it's the social emotional I feel like I'm not close enough to the microphone um a lot of times the root cause of why they're not being successful whether through grades or attendance or behavior is some kind of social emotional barrier that's making it very difficult to learn the academics which is really why this is so important in schools. Last year I presented on some of our tier 2 and tier three programs. Um again tier 2 supports are targeted for students who are more at risk um who really aren't being successful with the tier one with all students. And I just listed some of the examples. This is not extensive or exclusive. There's there's more than this but IEEPs and 504
008plans will include social emotional especially if it comes with a diagnosis from a doctor. Um legally we certainly have to address that. Um collaborating with outside agencies like children's hospital, zones of regulation, check-in, checkout, which is really um it's as simple as a student just needs to check in with a trusted adult in the morning, go through his or her day and just talk about what the success look like, what are my goals for the day, what am I working towards, what's going to motivate me. Um and then checking in periodically throughout the day, especially at the end of the day for the checkout. Sounds simple, but it's wildly successful. um small group prevention, our rocks program, rolling our experiences, um which is a program I think I've talked about before for we've done it
009um grades five, six, seven, where really it's it's empowering our female students is really what it is. Um and then multi-ter system of support plans that include mental health support inside and outside of the classroom. So those are tier two and tier three. I'm not going to get into those extensively here because I really want to talk about tier one. So, our tier one supports um and that's for all students in the classroom. And the trick is, you know, there's a lot of content material to get through. You know, if you're a math teacher, you really have to get through the curriculum. You can't really stop and take time to have programs for social emotional learning. So, the trick really is how do we embed this into the instruction so that it's seamless? And it
010doesn't have to be anything huge. Um, I always use the example of just greeting kids at the door is a great tier one social emotional um, strategy and it it shows, you know, as the students walk in, it shows that you're seen, you're kind of heard. It's a really quick interaction. That is a strategy that doesn't really take away from the curriculum. So last year, um, there's I I visited classrooms. I gave, uh, teachers K through 12 the opportunity to sit and meet with me, allow me to observe some of the things they do in the classroom. I had a lot of volunteers for this. guests come in um see what I do in terms of social emotional learning because I don't feel like I'm doing enough or I don't feel like I'm doing anything.
011So I went and I visited dozens of classrooms um and then afterwards I would have conversations with teachers and there's two things I learned. Uh we're doing a lot of this is the first thing I learned and and the second thing I learned is uh teachers really have no idea they're doing it. So they just they're just doing it because they feel like it's good teaching. Um so what we want to do is capture what they're doing and be able to generalize it for other teachers to use. sort of capture it so that we have resources for other teachers to use because there are things that I would see in a third grade classroom where I would say that would work really well in an 11th grade classroom and and vice versa. Some of the
012things our teachers are already doing. I won't read through all these, but um sort of the selfcheck-ins, you know, we have um just hallway chats, like thing things that are simple. Um some reflective journaling when kids need to write, giving them the option, giving kids voice and choice. Um things like fidgets or calming corners just to allow students to if they need to step away for a second. Again, that's something really small, but it's it's very powerful. Um relationship building. Obviously, relationships are are paramount to everything we do. um offering multiple ways for students to demonstrate what they know. I feel like the the teachers that are doing that well or students are very successful. You you certainly don't see a lot of D's and Fs in the older grades for teachers that are doing
013that. Um group selection, scaffolding. So the these are just some of the things giving kids classroom jobs in the younger grades. I mean that these these are all just sort of tier one all student examples that can be done in the classroom. So our mission this year and going into next year was um we had inquiry groups for our late starts. And so the inquiry group that I helped facilitate was the comprehensive wellness group. Our overall objective was to create sort of a tier one social emotional learning toolbox that teachers that's live that teachers can add to, teachers can go get resources from, you know, just having a place for teachers to go that's sort of easy to use. Um, so we took what teachers are currently doing, we looked at research, we looked at
014the resources available and the resources needed, what are some of the takeaways from what they found? And then next steps and within our inquiry group, we built four because this is a very large topic. Um, we came out with four sort of buckets. Staff wellness because that's important too. It can't just be student wellness. Staff wellness is important. Using data for improvement, you know, how are we tracking how kids are doing? How are we progress monitoring when they are getting interventions? learning environment and culture. And that just goes back to the tier one interventions and then designing impactful learning experiences. So those were our our four buckets. Our next steps with this, like I said, so we've we've completed all of this and we have we have what teachers are doing. We have what the
015research says. We have a ton of resources. Um what we're going to work on the rest of this year with sort of our little core team that was part of this inquiry group is just compile all of that and um figure out the best vehicle like whether it's in class link or wherever we put it for teachers to be able to easily access it so that they can use it moving forward and then have a roll out next year for teachers. So that leads us into because these aren't exclusive um our attributes for success. So you may remember uh during our strategic planning um we had a subgroup of teachers, administrators and some board members that um redefined our attributes for success um in the following four categories. It's probably look familiar. Integrity, curious innovator,
016resilient, and intentional communicator. And then we spent a I forget where Emily and K were you two on the I yeah we spent a lot of time talking about um we wanted to pick descriptive words that best described what we were looking for what we wanted kids to be able to do and it's hard when it's just one word or a short phrase um but we landed on on these. So from here this year um Angie and I facilitated it's mostly Angie I was sort of learning from how she facilitates a group which was fantastic. Um we had a committee of teachers uh K through 12 I forget we had about 10 12 teachers um and administrators that our goal was we we had three different goals for this uh committee. We wanted to deepen
017the definitions of each attribute discuss grade and age appropriate actualization of the attributes and create a skill progression that has a student and family-friendly language. We wanted this to be sort of studentf facing versus teacher facing. We felt in the past maybe our attributes didn't speak necessarily to students. They were more just for teachers. And so we really wanted to to pull off the trick where um you know students, family members, you know who whomever can pick these up and know what we're doing, where we're going, what these mean. So the first thing we did was we we and this this took um a while which because I mean these are important and you really want these to be meaningful and you really want um them to come across in the way that they were
018intended. And so we spent a lot of times with definitions and so the first definition of integrity and I in blue I included the three descriptive words that came out of each of these four buckets. Um, someone with integrity is is an ethical decision maker who considers multiple perspectives and experiences and is culturally aware. They make empathetic decisions and reflect their understanding of others feelings and experiences. They are accountable and take responsibility for their actions. We were pretty happy with that definition. Again, that's that's maybe version 300 of of the definitions because you know, you play with it. You want it to mean something. You want it to you know what I'm saying? Um, curious innovator. Do you want me to read all these or do you just want me to put them up? I'm
019happy to do either. You can read them. Okay. Um, a curious innovator explores new ideas, finds creative solutions, and is eager to learn more. They are problem solvers who see challenges as opportunities to solve problems in new ways. They are adaptable and creative. They seek new methods. They learn from each experience and they continue to grow. Intentional communicator um carefully chooses how they share ideas and opinions by using effective verbal, written, digital, and non-verbal strategies to connect with others. They are audience- centered, considering the needs and feelings of the people they are interacting with. They are active listeners, paying close attention to what others say and responding thoughtfully and respectfully. They value collaboration, sharing ideas, and solving problems in a way that all individuals are included, heard, and valued. And finally, resilient. Resilient people do
020not give up even when things get challenging. They are daring enough to step out of their comfort zone and persevere enough to see failure as an opportunity. They have a growth mindset which means they are open to new things, seek feedback and learn from every experience. That one resonates with me right now. The uh so what what came of this? So that was step one. The the next thing that we did um and I won't go through all the iterations and how we got there, but um we came up with sort of a skill progression um a chart that outlines learning attributes that we want Grand View height students to embody across all grade levels, not just academic knowledge, but who students are becoming as people, learners, and future citizens. And they're organized around these
021four core attributes and a well-rounded for a well-rounded future graduate. We broke these down into developmental stages. I'm going to show you in just a second. Uh K2, 35, 68, and 912 so that you can see how these skills build over time. So, it's not a one-time lesson. It's a continuous intentional journey from I listen with my eyes on the speaker in kindergarten to I listen with intent to learn in high school. So, there's there's a progression there that we really wanted to focus on. These aren't soft skills, but they're essential skills. They prepare students for college, career, and life. They build emotional intelligence, collaboration, critical thinking, and adaptability. Qualities that employers and universities are certainly looking for. Let's just hope this opens up. You see a quick picture of my kid. Baby jeans. I
022know. I want to see baby jeans. I would, but I'm not sure I can get back here. So, as soon as I close this out, um I I'll go through one example here. I'll go through the um intentional communicator. They're all the same. They're all the same format. So, I'll just go through one. But the intentional communicator, this is sort of where we first landed. Hopefully, that's okay to see. Um where you can see on the left side, the active listener, audience centered, collaborative, like those are the those are the words that came with the attribute. And then we talked about like in the different grade bands what that looks like. But as you can see, this isn't something that is is studentfriendly necessarily. We wanted something more like this. And this is where we
023landed. And it's not a rubric. We we it's a skill progression rather than a rubric. I know it looks like a rubric, but it's really a skill progression. So, same thing on the lefth hand side, you can see active listener, audience centered, and collaborative. And then you see the grade grade grade bands on top. And you can see as you read across there how the skills build. So, if I look at um active listener um K through two, I acknowledge the speaker and respond appropriately. And then when you go up through 9 through 12, um, I know when it's appropriate to communicate with the speaker in a reciprocal manner. So, and all along the way, those sort of build with what we felt were age appropriate um, and an age appropriate progression. Oh, there she
024is. My god, there she is. Yeah. Now I got to figure out how to get back to my worth it. Actually, I think that was it. So I I tried to squeeze a lot into that short amount of time. So um our next our next steps for the attributes is um a soft roll out next year. and we're still talking about exactly what that looks like, but just um how we're going to roll this out with teachers and students and families. We're still trying to figure that out. So, I don't want to quite present on that yet, but um that is our next step. That was going to be my question was how that how that translates to the classroom, but it sounds like you're still looking at it. So, is the intent that these
025then replace um when you look at a report card and you see all those things that they're are these going to be replacing that or how does that Yes. I I we're not sure exactly if it'll be the exact same like a replacement for replacement, but um but yes, what you're talking about that these replace what was currently there? There other questions? I just want to comment if I may. Uh first off, Rob's birthday was Monday. Oh, happy birthday. Thank you. I love when that comes up out of the blue. Rob, you're welcome. Um and then second off, you know, I what is awesome? Well, from my perspective is, you know, we all worked tirelessly with administration and staff in creating our last strategic plan update. and to see all of that work be continued
026and actualized in the way that you outline and uh all the way down to the student in very tangible understandable ways. I think is an a great example of how a strategic plan is created at a high level but then metriculates down to through iterative, intentional, purposeful work into this. And we had an amazing team of teachers that were heavily engaged and bought in and just saw the importance of this and were really I mean we had an amazing committee of teachers that um took this very seriously. So they're excited about it. They're excited about how it um the outcomes as well, how this turned out. I just finished the book Hidden Potential by Adam Grant. Are you familiar with Adam Grant? No. He's a he's an author of course, but he also um he's
027worked the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and um in Hidden Potential, he talks a lot about education and it talks a lot about social emotional learning and the importance of it. So, highly recommend it if you're Yeah, I will. Okay, I'll I've I'm uh I'm going to school too and I've done a ton of research on social emotional learning and uh for this and for schooling for my own schooling and um there are there's so much research out there at this point and I'll have to look have to look him up. Yeah, he's great. And he also the first book I read of his is called Think Again, which is talks about a growth mindset, the importance of having a growth mindset all the way through life. And anyway, he's amazing. You should read
028it. But this all looks great. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Rob. Yeah, sure. Thanks. It's striking how many adults could use this, right? Just thinking that. Absolutely. Yeah, we need these qualities more than ever now. Yes. Okay. Um, so anything to say? Anyone have anything to say about building and department reports? Okay, Mr. Cult. Thank you. Stevenson Elementary students have been busy giving others by stock stocking the blessing box on the Northwest Boulevard and learning from guest speakers and meteorology from NBC4, chemists from Battel, gymnasts from OSU, and about changes over time from bring the farm to you. Um, at Larson Middle School, fourth graders are studying pollination using Tower Gardens to grow lettuce, kale, tomatoes, and cucumbers, which is super exciting. And just a quick off fact, uh, Jess Fields is spearheading this initiative
029in collaboration with the staff. And she wanted to order an electric toothbrush. And so she ordered that through Jim Buffer. And Jim was like, "Well, why do you want an electric toothbrush?" Well, if you, as flowers are pollinating, if you stick the electric toothbrush where the flowers are pollinating, uh, pollination and, uh, occurs and it spreads the seed and increases yield, which I fancy myself as a gardener for many years and I have never heard that. Wow. So, I'm still learning. Yeah. Mhm. Uh, GHS freshmen attended Junior Achievement Inspire Career Fair, a hands-on career exploration program led by regional employers introduces students to job opportunities and education pathways. Student prepped for a fair via classroom lessons on career exploration and self-reflection. At the fair, students interacted with local employers to learn about job prospects and
030options. Uh, we had a great, wonderful trip. Uh, Amazing Real World Adventures touring Costa Rica and France. I think Mrs. Olm was on the French France trip. Our marching band performed at Walt Disney World. First Robotics competed in Cleveland and Model UN recently competed both in New York and Boston. A total of 41 juniors and seniors were recently inducted into the National Honor Society. The GHS Scholarship Awards Night will be Tuesday, April 15th. I believe that's next Tuesday. So, this coming Tuesday. If you've not attended that, it really is amazing, wonderful event. As of April 1st, the district assumed management of the crossing guards from the city of Grand View Heights. I appreciate Lyanna Wilcox, our new HR coordinator, in interfacing with the city to make that transition as seamlessly as possible. Cake Pops and
031Bob Cake Bash. Thursday, April 10th, the band program will present a Cake Pops concert at 6:30 p.m. on the GHPL lawn in anticipation and excitement of the Bob Cake Bash this Friday. That's this Friday, April 11th at 6:30 p.m. in the high school gymnasium. And of course, always so fun, the coffee and conversation with Superintendent Annie Culp. It'll be the final one of the year. Uh, and it's right outside of the district central office between Larson Middle School and the high school. That's April 17th at 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. And then last, but certainly not least, the Little Grand Event, the Grand View Heights Marble Cliff Grand Event is Saturday, April 26th, 2025 from 7 to 11:00 at the Little Grand Market. Tickets are 150, which includes food, beverages, live music, and silent auction. So,
032I had the opportunity to go for lunch two weeks ago, I think, to the Little Grand and it's my first and last time there, but I have to just tell you as a total aside, if you haven't been, it it it blew my mind. It's cool. I I thought it was beyond cool. It was one of the cooler places I had. It reminded me of my first experience what, 30 years ago, of going to the North Market. I was like, I went with my wife and I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is so I'd never been. This is so awesome." That was my literal experience. It was, and it's new, but I thought they did an unbelievable job of making it feel like it had been there for 30 years. Um, and the mixed
033seating and environment was awesome. The food choices were diverse and great. It was really cool, by the way. Anyway, it's going to be a spectacular event and a great location. There's some cool historical things on the wall as well from Grand View specifically. Absolutely. They just got it right in my opinion. I was really blown away. That's awesome. Anyway, thank you. Okay. Um, okay. So, we're back back on the agenda after a bit of an absence is the core team committee report and construction. So, I don't know. I guess sa we just met earlier today. We meet every other week, right? Am I right on that? Sometimes it feels like more than it's every other week. Um, so right now where things stand is we're still working on the Is it just the schematic design?
034um for Stevenson and the athletic complex across the street. Um it's really coming together nicely. I feel like I mean it's especially for Stevenson is really pretty solidly taken shape. So, I know Andy forwards you guys those minutes each week and the presentations um that they do um because it's always the representatives from Perkins and Will, MKSK, um Concord, Addis, uh Elford, am I forgetting anyone? And then district folks. Um but at least the interior Stevenson is is really really coming together and it's really exciting to see where that stands. Now, the outside, obviously, the shape is set, but it's just a little bit, you know, we've been talking about what the roof line's going to look like. Um, there'll be some other details like that. We're talking about the playground. Um, playgrounds are incredibly
035expensive, by the way. Holy smokes. Um, and then, as you know, the athletic complex is uh they think the traffic study is ongoing. I know. I just was driving today and I went over some wires on third and I was like, that's for the traffic study. They just tracked my car. There's I saw some cameras were up like to see. So that's part of part of the um process for the city of Columbus to see if they will be on board with the idea of hidden parking along Fairview and Northstar. So, you know, we'll just keep moving along with that. But that's where things stand right now. Is there anything that I'm forgetting? Um, I might just uh add uh we had a meeting with Grand View Heights City about the approval process and incrementally
036keeping them up to date. Um the the the first round uh with the zoning committee with Grand View Heights City will include phase one and two of only of the athletic complex for now. um and Stevenson uh all in um and then if we are doing more with the south side that will be in coming now we shared with the city um both options that we discussed in our board work session um and they were amanable to our not submitting the southside at this point but we did outline what the two options were along with some of the decision decision making choices around the south side of the athletic complex. Um, and I feel good about that. I also forwarded an email uh response that I think I received maybe even this morning to you
037about that as well. Uh, very positive meeting. Um, so that's good as well. Great. Yeah, it's exciting. It's really exciting to see everything coming together. So, keep keep you updated as we know more. Awesome. Okay. Um, treasurer's presentation. Hi, Molly. Hello. Thank you. Thank you for ignoring my tardiness. But I'm here for Eric Bod's favorite portion of the You did not miss the finance timing. Yeah. Perfect. Um, so I'm gonna share. Nothing happened in finance. Yeah. Nothing came. It's so good. Yeah. Our It's been quiet for us. So, I'm going to share some um financial highlights and then um just give you a quick update on um the budget the state banial budget bill. Um so, first uh we got our final tax settlement and it came out to um almost exactly 100% so it
038was within about 7,000 of our our projection. Um our state funding is where we expect it to be at this point about 75%. The homestead and roll back is still pending. Um the Grand View yard revenue we got on April 1st. So first day, you know, the day after the the month end results, but the the um I so I'll have more information on that next month. It was it's over, you know, our our actual is over what we expected, what we budgeted. Um part of that is because of the new bond millage and um so we are seeing the the um impact from that as well. Um our interest revenue for the month was um just over 83,000 and 634,000 for the fiscal year. Um our expenditures are just slightly under budget where we
039are at this point in the year. And um our investments um US Bank at 3.47 and Star Ohio um has held steady from last month at 4.48. Um so update on a couple of the other levy funds. Our PI um fund has an uncumbered balance of about 353,000. The um you know the same projects that we have talked about and then the orders has been placed for the outdoor shades that we have been planning. Um so that is um good news both out here and over there. Oh great. So, would it cover the play structure or No, it's it's going to be a concrete platform with I believe separate from uh picnic tables, more industrial. Okay. And then a shade that goes over that. Okay. Oh. Uh and now uh I believe that the conversely
040the shade unit will cover the existing concrete patio where the tables are and stuff. Yeah. Okay. Um, so the construction fund, um, as I've mentioned, the the, um, bond proceeds were received on, um, actually April 1st. Um, I was hoping that wasn't going to be some kind of April Fool's joke, but the money came through, so that that's good news. The, um, interest on the bond anticipation notes through the end of March um, was just over 40,000. Um it it actually is a little bit more than that but when we when we purchase the first security we have to pay the acred interest on it. So if we if we purchase a six month security for investment purposes and it's three months into that we have to pay the acred we have to basically pay
041three months worth of interest and then when it matures we get six months of interest back. So, um, so the actual interest is a little bit higher than that, but because of that offset from from that acred interest, um, it's about 40,000. And then the one thing that I'm doing, um, a little bit differently this time than we did with the last project is tracking the interest earnings in in separate cost centers. So, we've got the construction fund and we've got um the construction budget and all the activity is running through our our regular construction fund. the interest is not running through that same fund. We're setting it aside um for a couple reasons. Um really to kind of so that it doesn't get coingled and and kind of um you know like being used
042as as an offset for things to kind of keep things a little bit cleaner. That's good. and also to track um interest earnings for arbitrage rebate calculations too. So we have a separate cost center for the bond anticipation note interest and a separate cost center for the bond interest. And so um you know starting next month I'll have kind of two separate fiscal year-to- date numbers there. um and and that will make the tracking for that arbitrage um a little bit more straightforward and and also I feel like it'll just kind of keep that more separated so that we have a little bit more um um you know discretion and and and oversight on that and and and we can be real intentional with with um what we do with that. Um and then kind
043of switching gears. So, I know you guys have been inundated with emails on, you know, from Andy, from me, from the the associations, the schoolboard association, um, the alliance on what's been going on with that budget. And where it stands, um, as of this morning was it had passed the House Finance Committee yesterday. Um, I think it was to be voted on today, but I was um at the OASPO conference this afternoon, so I've I'm not quite completely up to date on on where that stands right now. But basically what that did was the House Finance Committee increased that 25% carryover to 30. So, you know, Andy and I have talked several times and and you know, while that number may get adjusted a little bit throughout this process, it it sure seems like that's
044not going away. And so what that means that that that 30% if if we end the year at June 30th with more than 30% of our annual budget in in a carryover balance um the county budget commission would have to take away that much of our our tax revenue collections next year. So that is that is really um really significant and it and as written this would have a significant impact on us. Um so the calculations show that we have about a 62%. Um, one of the the the problems with that is that it ignores the the action that that our board has taken to set aside TIFF dollars for debt service to set aside 5% of our our general fund for as a budget reserve. That's done in board policy. And so it really
045ignores those factors. Um those dollars are not unreserved and they're not available. And so I I think that's one of the, you know, one of many um problems with that that um legislation as it's written. Um, I think, you know, there's there's been a lot of um talk among school districts and treasures and and I know superintendents as well, but but really um you know that it's going to incentivize unnecessary perhaps wasteful um irresponsible spending because it's it's really going to be use it or lose it. your your funding if you've got more than 30% as a carryover balance, it's going to be essentially um a use it or lose it situation. So the the you know the other thing I think it will do is um you know a typical levy cycle is a
046school district has a new levy and it bumps their revenue up and then it's kind of flat for a while and it buil and and while their expenses are a little lower but kind of creeping up and so it builds up the cash balance for a while but then as expenses come up then that cash balance is going to start coming back down. So, so there's this period, what we call a levy cycle, and it it's really going to prevent us from um from doing that. It's it's really going to shorten those levy cycles because it's not going to allow us to really build up much of a balance before the money's either taken away um if it's not spent. And so, um you know, there's been a lot of advocacy efforts. I know all
047the associations um you know reaching out to to our representatives, reaching out to the the um Senate members will be really important. Um it goes to the Senate now and so um you know I would just encourage you to to keep reaching out. Um Andy and I met with um Allison Russo the week before last, I think, or maybe it was last week, and talked through um our concerns with it. And I I honestly I think that's one of the few times that um I feel like there's been legislation that is so impactful and so important that um you know, we really feel like it's it's um important to to reach out and share those concerns. So, so you know the other um consequence of this is it could really result in tax bills to
048to taxpayers really fluctuating from year to year and you know they they take back some taxes from a school district in one year because the balance was a little bit high. Well then the ne the following year the balance is going to be quite a bit lower because they they didn't get in as much revenue and then the following year somebody's tax the people's tax bills are going to go back up. And I think that's going to be, you know, the the all the nuances of the school funding system are are hard enough to for all of us to kind of, you know, keep up with and kind of wrap our brains around. And for the average um citizen and taxpayer, I think it's going to be a challenge to to try to communicate what's
049going on with their tax bill and why why did the school raise raise my taxes this year when when that's, you know, that may not be the case. So, I share that with you just to give you some context of where that stands now. Um, you know, it's it's it's very concerning. Um, and you know, quite frankly, I think it feels like an overreach into to our you know, to our local control of of our tax dollars, but um so Beth um absolutely everything you said. Um a couple questions. one is um can you talk a little bit about how this is the general fund versus other funds and and does it address that? Really good question, Eric. So, this is just the general fund. So, it's what is included in our five-year forecast. Um
050so, it does not include PI. It does not include, you know, our bond levy fund. It doesn't include our food service fund. So those funds that are um you know set up for our kids club fund you know set up for a particular purpose um are excluded from that calculation. So it is just it is our general fund operating budget only. Um and there are some there are some options for school districts that um that we're exploring. So you know and and I'll be sharing those um soon. Um, so there are some options. You know, right now we keep our TIFF revenue in our general fund. We kind of put it in a holding account and then in the year we're going to use it for debt service. We transfer it to debt service. And
051this might be one example where we're going to have to transfer that sooner than what we normally do. Otherwise, we're going to lose that amount um out of taxes the following year. So, there are some strategies that I'm looking into um because obviously what we want to do is avoid having our our tax millage cut. Um I I feel like you know over you know the last 10 years we've asked for one mil of operating dollars and we've been very careful and and um you know very very fiscally conscious in terms of of um building up what is is recommended by most industry experts in terms of a a carryover balance and and and you know having enough to weather um you know unforeseen inst you know, circumstances. So, I feel like we've done a
052really good job of doing that. We've been very responsible with the with the tax dollars and and so um you know, I I think we'll need to put our our heads together collectively and and um look at what our options are and and evaluate um those. Yeah. And so, thank you for that. And I think the the other question I had was um I mean so there hasn't been something like this I'm not sure I would be really in favor of any number but you know if it goes 25 30 somebody might do something else. Is there a number that would we could root for that would be kind of a safe zone for us? 50 like So 50 is what I would say. And if if you if you um exclude the money that
053that this board has already set aside the tiff money for debt service and our budget reserve, we are right about 50. And and to be honest, you know, when you're you're a school district going for a bond rating and and you know, which we just went through, if we didn't have a healthy fund balance, it it wouldn't have been much of a conversation. So, um so that that's a that's a really important um aspect, too. So, yeah, I agree with Emily. I think um 50 would be I think a a little bit more fair of a kind of a benchmark. Um, I think 25 or 30% is is um is unreasonable in my opinion. I I think importantly, one of the things she just mentioned there, but I want to spotlight and I know Beth
054agrees because we've talked about it and not just for Grand View, but for all public schools, the um the the Moody rating that you get that impacts the um the um the interest rate the interest rate for the loan. Thi this will significantly impact district's rating also which cost taxpayers which will cost taxpayers just I mean again not overly insightful I mean it's it is going to happen and it's just another another bullet that will negatively impact public schools. So, I feel like, and not to get too opinionated on this, but I feel like there are a lot of um consequences of this that maybe weren't thought completely through or or um maybe didn't have the right people at the table to to um uh to be part of that conversation. I feel like this
055was something that was kind of um pulled out at the 11th hour and and um we weren't involved in it. we we didn't we weren't, you know, aware of it that it was being discussed. We weren't included in the conversations and um so it just feels pretty arbitrary. Um so I think it's okay to be opinionated on this kind of thing. Yeah. When it when you said it was um like you hope I was like or this is someone just being honest. Well, and and I think like my opinion of it is and from, you know, reading what I'm seeing the the speaker Huffman and the chair of finance say is that I'm reading between the lines here is they wanted to do some kind of property tax rebate to homeowners, but they didn't want
056to spend state money on it. So they came up with a unique way to say we're giving money back to pro we're giving money back to property owners without having to pay for it ourselves. And this was their unique way of doing it. But like obviously if you look at a five-year forecast we're already seeing a point where our expenditures are higher than our revenues. And that's what happens in a levy cycle at the end of fiveyear forecast. We, you know, you need money. That's not gaming the system. That is the system that's set up. It's it's just the unconstitutional system. Yes. And there and we are not unique in this. There are what do they say? We're talking like 10 billion dollars statewide that they're talking about. I mean, it's a Yeah. Well, it
057was a that was that was 25 above the 25%, right? once you once you counter the 25%. But it uh yeah, it's it's a lot. It's not, you know, by seeing the way levies go statewide. This is not a situation where everyone is just so flushed with cash, we just don't know what to do with it. And so we just hold on to it. Like that's not the situation. And I feel like our our hands are tied in terms of it being part of the general fund, right? Like we can't just move around. We can't just move it to debt service. That's not something. So, so the board has the authority to transfer money out of the general fund to other funds for other purposes. Um, in most cases though, if it's not needed where
058you transfer it, it's hard to transfer it back. You would need a court order in a lot of cases. Um, but that's the exact um issue that I'm looking into. Now, there are a there are a few options under the law that allow school districts to set money aside, and that would be a vote to transfer from the general fund to another fund um for a particular purpose, but still have the flexibility where if it's not used or not needed there, it it would eventually go back to general fund. So, um working with our um legal counsel and um exploring a couple of those options right now. Great. And um so so yes, the the board does have that authority to move money. Um the general fund is unrestricted and so it's it's relatively easy
059to move unrestricted dollars to a more restricted um fund. Okay? But you can't do the opposite because funds like for example grant funds in a restricted fund can't be transferred out and and become unrestricted. So it's easy to move them out, it's harder to move back in. Mhm. Um and if we move it out, do we have to spend it? Um like if we moved it to the permanent improvement fund, would we have to spend what's there in that year? Um not necess not that year or not necess not um not at that exact time, but generally once monies are moved out then they're restricted for that purpose to to be spent at some point. Mhm. Wouldn't have to be that year, wouldn't even have to be the following year, but at some point um
060the intent would be um to to spend it for that purpose. And our levy money like could we put it towards the buildings like the new buildings permanent improvement? The per like moving general funds to like a bond retirement kind of Yeah. construction. Yeah. That's for the short term, right? It's allowable. It's allowable. So that that is an option. For example, if there was something about our project or something beyond the scope of our project that the board wanted to do or was interested in doing, general fund dollars could be set aside to um help supplement that project or to do something beyond that project. Okay. But then but like we're saying, that essentially is that use it or lose it mentality, which I totally understand, but it doesn't change your operating needs. Correct. So
061you're still looking down the road at like we now have an operating now you just have to go back on the levy sooner and there's nothing that changes that. Right. Right. Usually aside from a facilities project I think it's safe to say between 70 and 80% of all school budgets is operating. Like that's your salaries benefits that Yeah. So so just between 75 and 80 is on on personnel. Yeah. Um it's you know obviously mostly a person you know um personnel driven business but you need people to do things. Yeah. So um but again I am looking at some some options um for that I will share um as I as I learn more. It was interesting to hear that speaker Huffman said this is going to be the highest year that for schools to
062get funding. Oh, like from the state. Is that mean? Yeah, I know. Well, you give us more state money. It just means we'll have to give back our local money. Like, okay. It's a shell game. We're not allowed to hold on to it. So, we have to just give this Um Emily, you mentioned five-year forecasts, too. So, this going to change to three. Yeah. So, this um um amended bill is changing that from five to three. and and my personal belief on that is that's not a good thing to shorten the the um window of how far out you're looking. And and I mean I I would probably even if the state's only asking for three is I I think responsible fiscal management is we still look at five even if it's not required. But
063they're shortening the the proposal is to shorten it from a five-year forecast to a three-year. And you know, with with a lot of school districts, things can change that can if you're only looking three years out, that's not a lot of time to to be able to react to and plan um for circumstances that change. We're going to have a lot more school districts in fiscal watch and fiscal emergency, I would suspect. Yep. I think you're right. This might be the goal. And I'm not saying it's not possible. Isn't this in some of the conflicts this bill in conflicts with some of the statutes? Because aren't, and correct me if I'm wrong, I was under the impression or I made it up and I felt good about it that there were statutes that said like
064schools should maintain x amount of cash reserves or is or is am I confused with just good fiscal policy? Um well it definitely is good fiscal policy to to you know to have um and you know there would be recommendations between you know three months, four months, six months. You know there are some school districts that have more than six months. Um I don't think there's a statute that says you have to have a minimum, but there are statutes that talk about if your balance is um projected negative, you know, in year two of your forecast, you have to submit a written plan to department of education on how you're going to address that. So there there are some statutes in place that are on the um you know that that require analyzing balances if
065they get too low. I don't think there's any statutes that require um a balance to you know what I mean? That's fair. Yeah. I was like don't let me talk too much because I've got thoughts on it but their opinion. So that's um that's all I have on that question. I mean, it's definitely an infringement on local control, too, because, you know, we as a school board have the right, you know, it is part of our duty to decide when we want to put a levy on the ballot, right? And then it's up to the voters to support or deny a levy. And this is essentially saying, we don't care what you local schoolware decided. We don't care what you local voters decided. We think that that's too much. And so, it's like yet another
066chip away at local control. Public education. Yeah. So, I mean, it's kind of done for in the House, but it's going to be going to the Senate. And at a minimum, you I think it's worth it to reach out to our state senator to to um the president of the Senate, to their chair of their finance and appropriations committee, but I'm sure the associations will do this, but it like Eric said, just simply saying you don't like something isn't always the answer. You need to give an alternative. So yeah, try to make a bad thing slightly better. Yeah. Thank you for that report, Beth. It was uplifting. So finance committee report. The finance committee did not meet this month. We are um scheduled to meet um or did not meet in March. We we will
067be meeting in April. Okay. Right. A siren. Tornado siren. I don't think so. I don't think so. My phone would have gone off. Okay. All right. Um Okay. So, under business and finance recommendations for approval C1 through nine. Is there a motion to approve those? Shall move. Second. Um any discussion? Thanks for the donations. Absolutely. I like how 69 million is an adjustment and adjustment. I didn't budget for that at the start of the year. It is an Eric Bod joke of the night. Okay. Um hearing no discussion. Beth, can you please call the role? Mr. Bod. Hi. Mrs. Gart. Hi. Mr. Gusay. Hi. Mrs. Matney. Hi. Miss Wasmith. Hi. Okay. under personnel A1 through 12. Is there a motion to approve those? So move. Second. Um any discussion? There are like the calendar. I
068don't have any edits on the calendar. No edits on the calendar. I wanted to mention a couple if I may real quick. Sure. Yeah. No, go ahead. Do you want to go first? I just had actually I had a question about the calendar. Angela, I might need your help here. I saw in a couple of the versions there was like oh all the 11 I think it is holidays were marked as holiday and then there was one day that was marked differently that yeah so what what happens with the way um school administrator so I'll just give you an example it's probably the administrator count calendar because I I put those work calendars together um so what happens is um we are so administrators are 260day employees days. Well, in some years, the way the
069calendar falls, there are 261 days and so there's one nonwork non-paid day. Okay. Um and and once in a while there was called Yeah. non work. Yeah. So once in a while and usually we put that if it does fall that way, we put it the day before Thanksgiving. Um that Wednesday before Thanksgiving because there's no school. Teachers are out, students are out then. And um and in some years because our our different groups are on different calendars, one group might have that extra day and one group might not. So it's it's and in a leap year there might be two extra days. Crazy. Yeah, good question. That's Kevin Guousay analysis. I see that the limbo. I wanted to just mention um number six. Uh Terresa Clayton is a longtime employee with Grand View Heights
070Schools and often serves as the face of Gran View Heights High School in particular. Uh and has served this community in our school districts uh for decades and decades. Uh so, you know, I wish her very the very very best in the next chapter. Certainly, we'll miss her dearly. Um so, I wanted to mention that specifically. And then number 10 is the athletic director contract approval for Logan Dunn. Um we had a robust process for that. He wasn't able to be here tonight. Um but suffice it to say he is super excited. Um I will just share with you we had three finalists. I know Molly and Katie participated in those and met all three, interviewed all three. I thought all three were outstanding. Uh, it was a tough decision, but I know Logan will
071do a great job. I just want to add to that. Um, huge thank you to Sam Belulk because I feel like this process got the attention it deserved and he was exhaustive between surveys and community support. Like he made himself pretty vulnerable to get feedback and um, like you said, all three candidates that came to the final round were would have been great. So, I'm excited for Logan and what's to come. Great. Any other comments, questions? Okay, hearing none. Beth, can you call the role? Mr. Bod, hi. Mrs. Gart, hi. Mr. Guay. Hi. Mrs. Matney. Hi. Miss. I. Is there a policy committee report? No, we're meeting April 18th. Okay. How about teaching and learning? Just real quick though, I it's going to be a bit it's it's a large PDQ as I understand it.
072So ju more of just a FYI to the board when this does come to the board. This is Yeah, it is going to be it's going to be uh you know oftentimes we maybe have eight, seven. This one I think is going to be larger. Just put that on your radar. Okay. Teaching and learning committee. We didn't meet. Okay. Where am I alone? We do have one first reading of the school calendar. Yeah, that was work calendar or school calendar. A school calendar. Yeah. Um, is there anything to be said? Did Kevin, do you have anything to What does Kevin have to say? Yeah. Nope. Anything to say about No. Any questions, discussion? Okay. Well, that's just the first reading, so nothing to vote on there. Um under co-curricular activities and extracurricular activities recommendations A1
073just one A1. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Okay. Any questions, feedback? Hearing none. Ball the role. Mr. Bod. Hi. Mrs. Gart. Hi. Mr. Dusay. Hi. Mrs. Matney. Hi. Miss Watsmith. Hi. Does anyone have any other business to bring before the board? I do. Okay. I just wanted to mention that I think at our next meeting uh regularly scheduled meeting at least the current trajectory is uh to potentially go into executive SK session um after that meeting and so put that on your radar. Mhm. What is that date? I think it's the 9th again. The next meeting is when we recognize retirees. It is and we have a lot of retirees so it's going to be a long probably it'll be an we I mean we could do a special meeting and go into
074executive session. I'm not suggesting that that's what we do. I'm open to that but that's the current when I said that's the current trajectory. It's the current trajectory but certainly on the table if if we need to meet sooner perhaps it it might be something to consider as well but for now that's our plan. Cool. Okay. Okay. Anything else? No. All right. Uh, then is there a motion to adjourn the meeting? So moved. Second. All right, Beth, can you call the role? Mr. Bod. Hi. Mrs. Gart. Hi. Mr. Duce. Hi. Mrs. Matney. Hi. Miss Watson. Hi. Okay, we're