001good evening i'd like to call to order this meeting the grandview heights board of education on wednesday february 10 2021. we are holding this meeting using video conferencing technology the ohio general assembly and attorney general have approved the use of virtual meetings as a viable alternative to conducting public meetings during this time and the district's alternative complies with these directives we will be broadcasting this meeting via our grandview heights youtube channel the link to the channel is currently available on the district's website this live stream is being recorded and will be available on the district's website um we do provide for public participation at the at our board regularly scheduled board meetings we do have three folks i believe that have signed up for this evening for future meetings we just ask you to contact
002us by 5 pm that day so we can make sure that you have the access to do so please be advised that board of education meetings are not hearings they are meetings we are in full compliance with house 197 by heart by having our meetings live stream so members of public can observe and hear discussions and deliberations of the board so uh athlete please call the role mr boate here mrs gephardt here mr gousey here mr truett here and ms wassmith uh next on the agenda is our recognition and presentations we have five items this evening we do not have any items under a so i'll turn it over to you mr culp for item b good evening board members staff and community members january was officially board recognition month in an effort to bring
003relevancy earnest appreciation and deserved and sincere gratitude on this occasion i prepared a few words for our collective board to capture our appreciation for their all of your selfless leadership and service first on behalf of the entire grandview heights school district students and staff grandview heights and marble cliff community thank you to each one of you for your service your courage your leadership your dedication your consummate preparation and desire to do right by all students school board members exemplify local citizenship control and decision making in education they volunteer hundreds of hours and an immeasurable amount of energy to ensure that our schools are providing the best education possible for the children of our community for all of their dedication we are taking this opportunity to show them our appreciation during school board recognition month school
004board members are citizens whose decisions affect our children what they learn who will teach them and what kinds of facilities house their classrooms these are the men and women elected to establish the policies that provide the framework for our public schools they represent you they take this responsibility exceedingly seriously by attending lengthy sometimes challenging meetings conferences and institutes where they broaden their knowledge about education during numerous conversations about the schools and sessions before the ohio general assembly so again thank you i have a firsthand view of the hours of analysis and preparation i see the late night calls the earnest and genuine desire to get it right for our students i see the desire by each one of you to get it right for our community i see the desire and reflection that all of
005you engage in in earnest and genuine dialogue it has been a dream come true to serve as your superintendent and therefore it is with great humility that i thank each one of you for your service to this community this district our parents and most important of all our students thank you for your leadership and service above self such that grandview heights schools is truly a small place to dream big jesse truett has been a member of the grand view heights board of education since 2014. he was re-elected to the board of education in november 2017 and thus is serving his second term in january 2020 jesse was elected president of the board of education and re-elected president in january 2021 beginning in 2015 eric bode served as a community member on the school district's facility
006task force advising the superintendent during the facility planning process he previously served on the superintendent's legislative committee he is serving his first term on the board of education having been elected in november twenty seventeen in january twenty twenty elec eric was elected vice president of the school board and reelected vice president in january 2021 molly is serving her first term on the board of education having been elected in november 2017. emily gephardt elected in november 2019 is also serving his first term kevin gousset elected in 2019 is serving his first term on behalf of everyone associated with grandview heights a heartfelt and sincere and genuine thank you for all that you do thank you andy for those uh very kind words um much appreciated i'm sure by the entire board um next our agenda we
007have recognition of guests and hearing of the public as i mentioned in the opening i believe we do have several people who have expressed desire to speak tonight it's just a reminder the board recognizes the value of public comment to school governance for those of you at least address the board you may speak now or directly before the action item you would like to address a copy of the board policy on public participation is in the meeting packet when addressing the board please state your name and address for the record limit comments to five minutes or less direct statements to the board do not mention students or staff by name and maintain reasonable decorum the board will hear statements but will not answer questions or engage in debate during the board meeting i as board
008president andy kopp superintendent beth collier's treasurer willing to meet with any member of the public to answer specific questions individually pertaining to grandview high school so at this point haley i believe you have some folks lined up yes mr truitt this evening we have three registered participants for public participation our first participant is adam smith good evening adam adam you should be able to unmute there we go you guys hear me okay perfect thank you okay great so good evening my name is adam smith i'm going to try to keep this as short as i can but i'm a grandview resident and by way of background my wife and i have five kids in the district one in each school and one in each building we're both lawyers in columbus and participate in the district
009we highly value education we do fundraising we volunteer we're in social events and we participate and donate in the grand view foundation so what i'm doing today speaking in a form like this is not typical for me i don't see confrontation or the spotlight and i think and i think those who know me know that i'm a reasonable person so it's an extraordinary step for me certainly some will not agree with my statements and some may even be upset with me but i remain confident those who know me and karen will understand what we're doing and and what we're doing we think is right i've tried to address and i will admit minute my concerns are the proper diplomatic diplomatic channels with the board but that's really not worked unfortunately i'm left with no choice
010but to speak up publicly and i can no longer sit back and watch the district damage our kids damage my kids watch our kids suffering with the status of the situation and the value that the way and the way the board has handled things so action must be taken and i think voices must be heard i really take no pleasure in what uh what i'm about to say but i think it's long overdue as i mentioned and i'm sure i'm going to make some enemies here and i can live with that because i really think at this point in time it's time to do the right thing not what's convenient or easy unfortunately i believe the board has failed you failed the community you failed the district you failed the parents the property owners who
011pay for these schools and most importantly you fill their students you have not led you failed as your constitutional duty to educate our kids by way of background i'm not speaking today as a first time complainer someone coming out of left field who could take this board i really do and a group of us have approached andy and the board members back in july to voice our concerns and offer input on ways to properly educate our kids in this challenging school year we continue to write letters make calls send emails ask questions offer to meet to offer alternative plans to andy and the board and those have had no success and in fact at this point in time our group has only grown in size and frustration to say that we're ignored i think is
012being nice i'd say that we were placated and disregarded in some fashion rebuffed communications from the board consists mainly of candy emails vetted by council i'm sure if this is the way that board members treat community folks who are friendly generally interested in a meaningful discussion on ways to better educate our kids and schools that we pay for i hesitate to wonder what happens to those who who don't i want to make one thing clear this statement is not a reflection of the teachers and staff in the schools i think our teachers and staff are some of the best around many are personal friends neighbors and peers i believe the board has hamstring these teachers and forced them to try to teach in impossible circumstances mine and many others issues really is with the board
013and frankly the lack of adaptability flexibility and inability of the for the board to bold be bold and lead we hide behind zoom calls and screen time instead of engaging this community a small one at that and trying to educate our kids we've had 11 months to come up with a game plan to get our kids back to school full time many of us now call what you call hybrid half school it's three days three hours a week if we're lucky and followed by homeschooling by the parents after hours to date the last email from andy was another canned email stating that don't get your hopes up for the vaccine there's no promises and no plan for return a website for a dashboard is not a return to school plan it's a lazy way to
014keep us all at bay without making a stand on any position i think i'm a relatively intelligent person i can understand numbers and data but the dashboard data to me seems like simply we're flooding the zone with information no logical connection mostly applicable to our area in our school simply ways to say you provided information without direction without a without a plan or a pathway to normalcy that's not leadership as of today the department of education in ohio has 395 school districts back to full-time in-person learning that doesn't count any private schools almost all of which are back in person why is one of the smallest districts in our area are we not back to full-time learning or even have a plan to do so westerville and tangie hilliard they're all going back full time
015in march where is our plan what are we waiting for we have a low number of students we have the space we have the resources to do so where is our plan i hear in these emails that you guys are concerned with the safety and wellness of the students and that's the number one priority where does education fit in number two number three of course safety is an issue but isn't education the number one issue isn't that what we pay for i have another concern the board needs to think about and i'm not sure you have what about the mental health the sanity stability certainty and human and social interaction for our kids where is the board's concern for these things i see my kids suffering crying begging for social interaction not a silly computer
016screen we are killing our kids with this method we are making them robots to a screen making them slaves to their homes making them feel guilty for interacting with others afraid they're going to go out and quote kill somebody all this data the board sends out where is the data on kids getting sick i mean just normally sick let alone hospitalized or or god forbid dying i see none of it i see no such data i have heard of no child in our community being hospitalized from covet let alone sick i've done my research kids have a zero almost zero percent risk of severe illness or hospitalization there are no studies showing kids are active transmitters of the virus in ohio the average age of getting covet is 42 years old that's a far far
017cry from the school-aged child the cdc says return to school fauci says return to school dewine says return to school almost every medical committee and advisory board in america says return to school today the ohio department of education superintendent issued a resolution saying we turn to school our teachers are being vaccinated where is our plan for return of course there's going to be those who disagree with me and that's fine they have that right they have that option their option is virtual learning those of us who want our kids to go back full time we have no option at the present this is a one-sided plan it only works for those who remain in hybrid or remote where is our choice where are you addressing the large number of us who want to return to
018full-time school i can tell you my feelings and concerns are not exclusively mine there are many many others that feel the same way and i can tell you our numbers are growing this board is failing our kids in this model you are denying them their guaranteed education denying them mental well-being and social normalcy for a risk of an illness that is negligible to them and at most and most around them at this point the damage to the medical or to the mental well-being and educational standards for our kids far far outweighs the risk of any physical illness many in this community are tired of hiding behind screens and zoom calls i can tell you the anger is real and the mistrust of this board grows you are losing the support of this district it's time
019to stop the bleeding the board should be ahead of the curve not chasing it you have all the resources you have the community support other districts only dream of if you're not willing to take the lead perhaps it's time to let someone else do so that's okay our kids well-being is at stake here it's time for the board to do its job to lead with vision be bold and be courageous open up our schools full time now thank you adam mr truett yes our second speaker tonight if you're so ready yes absolutely is brandon strong thank you good evening brandon good evening um so my name is brandon strong i live at 12 30 glen avenue i have one child in school in third grade board members and mr culp thank you for letting me
020speak with you this evening i wanted to talk to the board urging them to make the transition from hybrid to full time school either the week of march 15th or the week of march 29th after teachers and staff were successfully vaccinated i remember sitting in on these virtual board meetings last summer as the board tried to come up with a plan for the current school year at that time we didn't know much about the transmission the virus the effects on children nor did we want to put our teachers in harm's way additionally don and i were very apprehensive about sending our son back to school we have stood by and supported the decisions the district has made up to this point i want to make it clear that by no means am i discounting that
021covet cannot be deadly because it can and it has been to many families across the country and world what i think is that we need to change our risk calculus have we reached a point that the academic social and emotional risk to our children continuing and hybrid is greater than the risk of them going to school full time i am concerned that we could be if we don't get this accomplished by the end of this academic year so i think we need to weigh the risk from both perspectives at the end of february almost all the staff in our district will be vaccinated while i know this doesn't mean that they cannot get nor transmit the virus i do mean i do know that it does mean that it does mean it is is that
022the serious health consequences are significantly diminished we also know that there have been districts both public for example the granville school district and private that have been in school full time during this entire school year and largely the health of health effects have been haven't been substantial are we reaching out and talking to these districts to get information and data that will help our decision additionally upper arlington school district is planning to return to full-time school after their spring break so perhaps that is another district that we could reach out to and discuss their plan and how we could modify it to fit our district we also know that in the state of ohio that the most vulnerable are are getting or have been vaccinated thus further reducing the risk to our most vulnerable in
023our communities so when i say changing risk calculus i think we need to give greater weight to the risk posed to our child children's academic and social lives if we do not get them back in school full-time i also know parents in this community seriously contemplating sending their children to private education if the school cannot get back to full-time what will this do to our tight-knit community our athletic and our social gatherings i believe that these are all factors that need to be considered therefore tonight i ask the board to give weight to not just health concerns which are important but also other relative concerns that i mentioned i would hope that the board mr kulp can give a promise to the community that they are working towards full-time academics by the end of this
024year if not before thank you thank you writer mr truitt yes our third registered uh public participation speaker is joanne taylor good evening joanne oh hello can you hear me absolutely okay i'm gonna shift veins if that's okay um and uh i come before you tonight to talk um as part of one grand view and just to give a little backstory to anybody who's listening or anybody on the board one grand view is combo composed of some grandview teachers and grandview parents we formed last may may 2020 after a series of events across our nation um had some of us so disturbed that we felt something we needed to do something and so we like to see ourselves like a start talking grandview except for social justice we in the fall did a survey to
025parents staff and students just to get some ideas of what people's feelings were um were we off base were we close to base where did we need to go um we have spent a lot of time meeting strategizing and um just to get right to the point one of the things we have come up with that i believe you guys have before you is a resolution for the grandview heights board of education condemning racism and committing to being an anti-racist school district um not only do we feel this is important um just a little bit of history to go along with this the city of grandview last year declared the year of 2021 to be the year of racial justice learning and so um we thought this was a good tie into that as in
026also one grand view working with the schools in conjunction with the city our public library the grandview public library is also very vested in being an anti-racist establishment and helping our community in any way the grandview board of health last summer also declared racism is a public health crisis we are releasing our survey results we are working on a website and hope within the next couple weeks to have the results up there overwhelmingly people feel that grandview the schools are doing great things and i want to be clear we're not trying to do something radical or force beliefs down people's throats all we are trying to do is build upon the learning attributes that grandview schools already have in place and there are learning attributes in each building that this those schools take a lot
027of time to ingrain into the students to make them better humans so honestly grandview schools have already laid the groundwork and we're just building upon what you guys are already doing so we asked that you would consider um declaring this resolution so that we could be an anti-racist school district thank you joanne um i believe that was our last public participation is that correct that's correct so i'd like to propose um i know that that there are a large amount of people watching this board meeting and and so i'd like to propose a certain order that i think makes some logical sense um i would like to jump to the the resolution right now that joanne was speaking to and and asked the board to consider taking action on that then we will have a
028very brief construction update from jay todena and then we will jump into what could potentially be a lengthy discussion about the learning modes full-time versus hybrid so uh for those of you that are watching you know we will get to those things i you know sometimes it's hard when we talk about four topics and then jump through so let's let's talk about the um resolution that joanne presented and we'll do a quick construction update and then we will jump into a discussion about our framework and our learning modality does that work for everyone on the board okay which basically follows our agenda so um i would like under six action taken by the board of education a resolution of the grandview heights board education condemning criticism and committing to being an anti-racist school district whereas
029systematic racism has long held has long led to political physical economic and educational harm to people of color in the united states and whereas the ohio board of education adopted a resolution on july 14 2020 condemning racism and strongly recommend that all ohio school districts begin a reflective and internal examination of their own involving members of their community to examine all facets of the school operations and whereas the grandview heights school district is committed to fostering a learning community which benefits the holistic growth of all of our students and whereas the district recognizes its need to confront systemic racism and proactively teach anti-racism to achieve this goal now therefore be resolved by the grandview heights board education on this day february 10 2021 that the district condemns racism racial violence white supremacy hate speech and
030bigotry in all forms inside and outside of our schools and the district commits to a careful examination of institutional policies and practices in order to establish an anti-racist community and dismantle systemic racism in our schools and the district informed confirms the importance of a culturally culturally responsive curriculum that represents the diversity of our country accurately honors the contributions of historically marginalized communities and encourage and encourages anti-racism we acknowledge our current curriculum does not achieve that yet and commit to supporting teachers and staff as they work towards this goal and the district believes that having a diverse faculty and staff provides significant value to all students and will examine recruitment hiring and retention practices to broaden the representation of diversity in the district and the district will commit to re-examine student discipline policies and records recognizing
031that school discipline policies can have a disproportionately negative impact on children of color and the district will commit to re-examine staff professional development content and practices ensuring opportunities to identify implicit biases and support every child's emotional mental and physical needs so i would ask for a motion to approve that resolution as read so moved second um any other discussion um i'm sorry that took a minute to read but in the virtual environment i felt it was important that that was uh in front of everybody just quickly to say thank you to joanne and the whole one grand view team um for your work and for being uh you know collaboratively and i think very thoughtfully as you laid out going step by step and working and and i think you're correct in saying you know
032this really builds on the direction that the school has been heading but we all have more to go and more to learn i really like that the resolution focuses on some very practical things you know recruitment and professional development discipline you know that are very much at the core of what we do as a school and also just really affirming that um you know it's not just about not being racist it's about being anti-racist i think that's an important term for our society right now so thank you for bringing this forward and um you know i think it's uh it's the right thing at the right time an important note is the district has been doing some of this work i do know that we'll have some presentations at board meetings later this spring that
033that really allow us as a board and the public to see what some of that work has been so far so i'm excited and look forward to that at future meetings there's no other discussion beth can you call the role for approval of that resolution mr bode aye mrs gebhardt aye mr goussey aye mr truitt aye and ms wasmith vatic eye thank you okay we're going to jump to uh jay todena to do a quick construction update and then immediately after that we will um jump into the discussion of our learning modalities so i believe jay is leading that discussion hey good evening hi sorry i'm uh i'm in my basement where we're thinking about painting the walls so this was the best spot i could find for this evening so you'll have to bear
034with me apologize for that um you know through the weather that we've had these past few couple of weeks we've actually made some fantastic progress on the inside of the building it doesn't look like much has changed probably from the outside but from the inside i think the district and anybody that's able to take a tour and see the progress we've made would be would be pleased there's a lot of drywall on the second floor and the first floor is really really starting to take shape with all the stud walls that we're installing right now so you know as we catch a break in the weather you'll you'll be able to see um a lot of progress with the exterior the windows um are i've said this last month but they are coming this month
035they're they're scheduled to ship on the 19th of february and we'll start to see some going in on the west elevation probably either the week of the 22nd or the week after that so that will be some good progress there um you know through the leadership of of andy and rob brown and brett bradley doug addis we've had some great proactive thinking about how we transition into phase two when we complete the new middle school so we've met and discussed you know what's going to come over to the new building what's going to go into storage and what uh what the expectations are when after graduation um i think may 26 or or maybe may 29th somewhere around in there um but yeah a lot of action still running at 80 to 90 guys um
036a day and you know thinking ahead thinking um towards what this summer looks like when we turn over the building any questions i leave anything out oh uh covid no real cove in nineteen's our skylights are delayed until march but we're able to absorb that um that delay they're supposed to come this month as well but the the vendor had had to shut down a mill and they're they're back ordered but it's only been a month impact so far any questions for jay jay i appreciate and what everybody realized that that you know we get those weekly reports sort of the one pager that's uh pretty detailed and has some pictures and those are posted on the website too so that's a that's a really good way for for anybody to follow the progress of
037the project um you know it's clear where we're behind where we're ahead and so those are um much appreciated i know by the board but i'd imagine by others too so i'll share that i'll share that with colleen as well i know that she works hard on those each week no those are definitely used so any other questions for today or the connection for the compliment all right then we'll move on uh mr kulp i'm going to turn over to you to just leave this discussion i believe you have some things to present to us and we will get into it yeah so first off just bear with me here i'm going to spend some time talking at you uh and and building up towards garnering feedback and perspective from all five of the board
038members about a possible all-in return [Music] similar to pretty much all of our board of education meetings for the last year i wanted to provide a coven 19 update as well as engage the board in a conversation around consideration and the timeline for an all-in return as the board knows we have established a and established grandview heights coveted 19 learning mode framework 2.0 i wanted to provide a covet 19 update discuss the current framework and then garner additional feedback from the board about their thoughts for consideration of an all-in return so couple just facts and and by and large all really really good news uh currently our dashboard for grandview heights schools indicates that we have two total positive coveted cases and eight quarantines uh the positivity rate has dropped significantly in the last three
039weeks it is down to 8.1 percent down last week from 9.6 so we're seeing a really strong trend downward in our positivity rate for the good again down to 8.1 percent our case rates in franklin county have also dropped significantly in the last three weeks we're down today to 414 per 100 000 is a two-week average last week it was 550 again that 414 is a significant drop for the good our cats data which monitors our school boundaries for covet positive is a little higher than what franklin county case rates are we're sitting around 632 per 100 000 so we're going to continue to monitor that um importantly and new to grandview heights and really many many school districts across franklin county staff vaccine administration of the pfizer through kroger has gone very very well
040round two will begin tuesday february 23rd and go through saturday february 27th around 90 percent of our staff will have been vaccinated this is clearly a huge mitigation with and for our staff from covet 19. as mentioned earlier case rates and positivity rates continue to drop by a dramatic rate based on the research i've done the research around those vaccinated being carriers and or spreaders is still not fully understood in other words one of the one of the questions i'm personally curious about and have asked a myriad of experts and sought out is this idea of whether if you've been vaccinated can you be a carrier spreader of the vaccine and quite candidly it's the prevailing view is is just not known it's not fully understood yet whether whether you will or won't carry or
041spread covet 19. the research around the benefits of students being in school full-time socially emotionally behaviorally and academically are clear and something that this board of education has indicated is a priority and have discussed many many times at many many board meetings i think of equal importance as we think about this framework that we've created you know importantly it is just that it is a framework it is not a binding decision tree we've been very very exhaustively in my judgment clear about the fact that this is but a framework designed to trigger a deeper dive and discussion of understanding about what we are seeing and why we are seeing it it is in no way binding furthermore things like vaccination of staff uh and new clear research around not seeing links spread in school settings
042is all new data and information the board governance team leadership team has been reviewing and discussing an all in return to school based on the decrease in numbers and the fact that ninety percent of our staff will have been vaccinated by saturday february 27th the ohio board of education today in fact released a declaration of support for an all-in return the highlights basically read now therefore be it resolved that the board calls on local school boards working in collaboration with their local superintendent and health department to provide where feasible a fully in-person non-hybrid learning option for children of all families who desire it the board also urges local school boards to implement solutions to protect teachers and staff who are in a high risk and to provide for those families who continue to desire a
043remote learning option for their children during this time we have discussed kind of key factors of consideration those key are number one student and staff safety number two adding to the spread of covid19 in other words are we seeing links spread or cases in school setting and as mentioned earlier you know we are not and number three school district operations you know are we able to operate school given the mass amounts of quarantine as referenced earlier our quarantines are significantly down which is really great news we are not seeing link spread occurring during the school day among staff and students so in prep couple other just points in preparation for a possible all in return i have asked each principal to review our uh our comprehensive plan that we've authored for an all-in return uh
044in particular for lunch you know one of the things that was unique about our hybrid disparate from many other districts is we didn't feed kids on school sites so when we return all in we'll need to be clear and well planned with respect to how we're going to feed students in school and ensure that we'll be able to use all of the varying locations throughout the school to ensure six foot distancing while kids are eating clearly they can't eat and have their mask on so that's i've already charged principals to evaluate plan for and dust off that plan we have even explored the idea of possibly getting a large tent to feed students and so as to provide increased capacity for that six foot distancing while eating currently the prevailing view by principles is that
045they will be able to maintain six feet of distance for lunch using all spaces to eat including classrooms gyms cafeterias and media centers without needing ten space we are also exploring the option of students being able to go home for lunch provided this is done consistently by parents in other words if there is a situation where a parent would like to pick their son or daughter up for lunch on a consistent daily basis they follow a protocol and procedure established by the building principle that would be something that we could also allow for our current plan for recess does include remaining in our classroom pods and wearing a mask this is particularly important for contact tracing purposes in the event that someone in the classroom tests positive them playing on recess in those pods would
046help with contact tracing the move from half day to full day will be a change for our students who have to wear a mask all day we will have embedded mass breaks as much as possible however outside of those students will be masked at all times including recess lunch when they're not eating and mass breaks and breaks that will be a change going from wearing a mask three hours to six hours in particular i would imagine more challenging for our younger students just something to be mindful of and well planned for should we choose to return all in would significantly decrease our ability to maintain 3 to six feet of distancing at our current levels it would more likely be one to three feet of distancing in classroom settings this would increase the number of
047students that would will potentially have to quarantine when there is a positive case in the classroom in particular it could also have implications for extracurriculars if they're outside of that three feet again mass will be required to be warm all day we'll also engage in other mitigation strategies to incur to include plexiglass hand sanitizing washing trying to maintain maintain three to six feet where able however importantly one of the biggest and most significant changes to going from our hybrid plan to all in is the distancing that we will not be able to maintain it will be one to three feet franklin county public health's current recommendation is to maintain six feet but our understanding that in practice there are times where three feet is going to be the reality one of the other things that
048i'm sure all of you listening and on the board have heard and we've talked about are this new variant strand and possible implic unknown implications and certainly that's something we're just going to have to be uh attentive to again with the dramatic decrease in positivity rate case rates that we're seeing uh in every belief uh that that will continue um there's no reason to see to think that it won't so just to review last vaccines administered on saturday february 27th of staff experts outlined that it takes a minimum of 14 days to realize the full benefit of the coven 19 vaccination therefore given this there seems to be some logic in considering the first all-in student day to be on or around march 15th this would be 14 days after the last staff member would
049have been vaccinated so again just something for the board to consider in terms of a timeline uh just a couple other important dates that i wanted to provide to the board the fourth quarter does start march 11th spring break for grandview is march 22nd to the 26th therefore if we were to return on march 15th all in then this would be one week before spring break and you know again something just to think about the pros and cons analysis there um would it make more sense potentially to return after spring break on monday march 29th and that be the first all-in k-12 return um i think in and all in return i think it's important just to to and i know i've said it and i'm sorry to be so redundant but i think these
050things are important to mention that you know and all in return isn't a return to normal as we remember it it is going to be uh wearing a mask all day it is going to be hand sanitizing before and after every class period or in increments of an hour it is going to be trying to maintain social distancing uh where able um it is going to be wearing a mask on on recess and playing uh with your pods of a classroom um there are as you know significant requirements uh with respect to quarantine and and likely when we go all back in or should we decide to go all back in um there is going to be a bump in quarantine requirements and um you know i i think it's just important to mention that
051because you know i happen to have three sons myself one of which has had two separate 14-day quarantines and you know the thought of a third is certainly uh well from my point of view frustrating uh but understandable given the requirements that that we have to follow um so i've again as i as i mentioned spent a good deal of time here talking at you i wanted to take a pause here and give each of the board members an opportunity to reflect on many of the things that i've said and get feedback on their perspective and insights on and all in return well i guess i'll just open the open the discussion for the board i you know i have a few thoughts and questions but um i'll hold on those for for a few
052moments so i don't i don't monopolize the discussion here one question that pops up for me uh andy you mentioned that there would be a likely increase in quarantine would there be any plan because we would be full time with students in classrooms there would be no synchronous activity from teachers would there be any option for a kid that's either in quarantine or choosing not to come to school would there be any option to have a broadcast from the classroom that they would be able to attend from home is that is that at all feasible yeah so i'm going to give you a couple couple um talk on that uh first and foremost florida virtual learning school is certainly an option for anybody that is uh uncomfortable with an all-in return if that's what the
053board decides um and that that option has been and will remain available to our students um so secondly you know i i heard your question to be somewhat nuanced and that was more targeted towards quarantining of families and students that are choosing to go all in not florida virtual learning school which which i think is a really important question and so here's my unfiltered answer and you may agree with it and you may not um i think this notion of broadcasting learning um into into a classroom would work in older grades um and in you know we could debate about whether that's seventh grade eighth grade up um and and i'm sure there'll be others that will just will even agree with me or disagree with me that it would work in elementary school i
054just can and and my and my experience and observation and even being a former elementary school teacher uh i'll be it for for one year um the ability to retain attention of younger elementary schools by by live streaming a class i think is problematic and challenging um so having said that i do think there there are options for our doing that and that is happening at heist in high school in particular but but i'll real quick because i think this is important um and i don't i try not to get into the weeds of it but i think from a level set understanding this idea of quarantining so as you may know the the franklin county public health has lessened the rigidity of quarantines from it used to be six feet now it's three feet
055and if you are exposed to someone that's coveted positive in a classroom setting and wearing a mask but sitting four feet away or three feet away you are quarantined for all extracurricular or non-school functions outside the school day but you are still allowed to attend school wearing a mask etc unless you begin to become symptomatic what i think is important is in our hi just for understanding again i don't think this is necessarily a reason not to go all in but it is important for all of us to understand in our all-in model we will not be there will be far more incidents of less than three feet and so correspondingly there will be more incidents of quarantining mr kulp you kind of segued too and i have a couple questions you said with the
056six feet the gold standard we have the in most of our situations right now not all but most but when you were discussing just now and a little bit ago you said that it's going to be less than three feet now am i to would franklin county two questions one i want to know how much and you may not have that answer now like you could get back to us me whatever later how many instances or how many classrooms would that affect where it's going to be less than three feet and would franklin county public health sign off on us putting students back in knowing that it's because it's it's been three to six the whole time six is the gold if we're physically putting kids in less than three feet of space is that
057something that franklin county public health is like you can do that talk me through that yeah so i'll start with the the latter part of your question franklin county public health stance is six feet is the gold standard but they're tolerant of three uh my my sense is they are not going to change that recommendation so correspondingly uh and all in return would be our doing uh understanding that we're we will so there's no ambiguity let me be pretty direct here we will not be able to maintain three feet of distancing and an all-in in every situation it just is not going to happen um you know it has to do with square footage and and so on and so forth and it just that's just going to be our reality uh in terms of
058franklin county public health signing off um i i don't think that they'll they aren't signing off on uh an all-in return um you know or quote-unquote endorsing um i i would say however you know that they will uh review plans they'll consult with districts um and be amenable to working with them um if that is the choice that the board makes um but but certainly that is not their recommendation because it's i know from my day job that we got kind of the okay different things so for me i'm kind of like three to six i like everybody like six feet but the three but i'm like i i know you don't have this information in front of you but before i really want to make this decision i want to know how many kids
059are going to be less less than three or maybe how many classrooms like that again i know you don't have this information well i i can well i i don't i mean i can't give you exact figures per classroom but i can pretty clearly with a a high degree of confidence say to you that in a in a traditional k in just about any k-12 classroom with the square foot size of our classrooms and the number of students in all in would have you know that we will not be able to maintain uh it we'll be able to maintain one to three feet but we will not be able to maintain three to six and that will be that's pretty resolute now there there might be one offs there for example uh choir has been
060high school choir has been meeting in the auditorium so there might be an example or would be likely an example where they could maintain six foot distancing you know band has been spreading out in the in the high school gym in the hallways and the band room so again there might be an example where they might be able to maintain six foot distancing but the vast majority of classrooms are just not going to be able to do that but i i appreciate your honesty and your answer because to me it's you know like putting going all back in i know we're not gonna all get six feet i know that and that's it's okay putting kids in classrooms where there's less than three while i understand and i appreciate your honesty like yeah it's gonna
061be less than three that puts a different slant on things and i think one of the things that we have been successful with so far with the spread being so low if minimal in the school is because we have the distancing so it's kind of like when we take this safety component away and put this in how does that change our safety thing it's not well in molly if i may i i think this topic that you're getting at really articulates the tension in my judgment between um a desire on the board to get everyone back all in well with juxtaposed with this challenge retention of less than three feet the safe the safety is paramount in my mind and i'm gonna cut myself off because i'll talk again i know i will but it's
062knowing knowing that we're we're sending a lot of kids back in with less than three feet whether i like the answer or not what in that that's something that we need to know before we make that decision because it's there's some things and it's you know i appreciate your candor and just being honest with me about it like yeah there's gonna be less than three feet it's like okay that helps me make it with my decision that we are making and the things that we're talking about so i'm gonna pause myself because i know jesse was talking to i'm sorry mr joy well you know molly that one of the first things on my list was about uh some data and spacing in classrooms so i won't repeat that but you know i think you
063know systematically where we are is you know no matter where we land as a board and where you land as a leadership team we're giving consideration to all in and so in my mind where we are today is i think we need to get our answers or at least let mr cult know what questions we have about what all in looks like and realistically because of our time frame uh we made you know i i think that this body will will probably need to meet again before before the 10th of march specifically on this on this topic so i would like to propose that um you know we have some discussion about not only you know what would it take to shift but you know what that looks like and we may have some questions
064such as spacing that that we need some some data and information back from from andy and his team um i also know that that um you know um a lot of parents and community members rightfully so just from a planning purpose you know need to sort of know what the process is and what the decision points are and what may or may not happen um you know that's a difficult task to do when numbers and data and everything is changing and this is a very uh real-time discussion but i think at a certain point uh whether people agree or disagree with where we land um which you know where we are right now it looks like you know the board would have the option or or andy would have the option to say we're going
065to stay in the current learning mode for the rest of the year uh we're going to really go to full time as soon as possible we're going to go to full time let's let it sit in another district for a week or two and see how that goes um you know there's different options but but you know as much as some people are very adamant as we've seen in our emails and public comments you know both directions um some people just want to know and are just adamant that they want to know so um with that being said i just have a quick list and i don't think we need to ruminate on this a lot but mr cobb i'll just go through this quickly you may be able to speak to some now and
066some of this may be data you need to collect and come back to us um i would be real quick and you know this could be a little bit down and dirty but i don't think it would take that long to look at the square footage of classrooms and how many kids are in that room and what that does to square footage per kid and we can sort of figure out the distancing there um you know as a reminder you know some of our elementary classrooms i think are as small as like 580 590 square feet you know we've been doing facilities work whereas i think a standard elementary classroom is 900 square feet so we do have some facility challenge but i'd be curious you know what that looks like um so if we
067choose to take that that risk we know what it is would like a little more detail around lunch um you know i do know that medical advisory boards in other districts the one thing they really hold on to is boy people need to be six feet apart when you um you know i've heard that pretty loud and clear um and andy i think you have too um so i think that is potentially doable but i think as a board member i'd wanna i want some reassurance on what that would look like um you know i think very tied to this not to open a can of worms but we there's still a discussion about academics extracurriculars and athletics um and and i do know you know you read so much and you try to balance
068it all but there's a discussion about the way to get back into school is to put everybody back in school and stop doing everything else you know and and i'm not proposing that but i do think you know there's there's there's options right so i think you have the the school day piece the extracurricular piece the athletic piece and i think you know they all can be just still affected and you know whatever we need to do to get kids back in school and i'd like a little analysis on that um you know and big picture you know what what would all in look like for our district i mean i think that's important for the board to understand and that's important for the parents and community understand and i'd like to engage in a
069real conversation around that whether that's where we land or not and then i think a real discussion about sort of that timeline you know andy i i appreciate the dates um you know i as one board member would not want to entertain going all in before the 15th of march just based on what we know with the with the vaccine but but you know that's that's not my decision by myself so you know that's really all i have on my list that's just those are just things i'd like more information on and i and i'd like and i think that we're going to need to reconnect specifically on this topic um and even though i would say typically at special board meetings we don't allow public comment but i would this board chair would be
070willing to open public comment because this is uh because of the the the topic um you you know at a meeting relatively soon quite frankly because i don't i don't feel like i'm equipped with enough of that information to really dig in to dig into giving you much feedback you know so that that's what i thought said because like i mean just the spacing issue i had a different mental thought than what it's perceived just more information inform it the thing that frustrates me and we do a good job of it i think in westerville is western oh boy sorry give away my day job we do a good job of it in grandview is here is everything then we make a decision and it i don't feel like i have all the components in
071front of me to do it so i i agree with mr truitt but i also think there's a lot going on with the decisions that we probably 100 need another meeting and then i'm gonna be quiet and talk again five more times i'll just jump in and hopefully not too long-winded but um i think you know a couple things really driven us um throughout our consideration you know from back um almost a year ago you know when we first were looking at this and one thing is just recognizing that you know all in is the best learning mode and we know that and we want to get there and uh you know great to have this opportunity i think it's also been our approach which i think to our benefit to the benefit of the
072the school and to the the students is to remain flexible um you know i don't think we've adopted of like here we're announcing and the entire semester is going to be this way um you know it's been so much changing i mean you look at the curves and there's ups and there's downs and looks good one month and then bad the next month and uh and we've seen some districts around us that you know have announced decisions further in advance and then that's caused some concern and consternation when they've had to go back and either you know change that or like in the fall when they were locked into staying away um not in person probably for too long because that's they had already announced it so um i mean i i recognize you know
073as a parent myself um you know it's good to it would be great if we all knew you know the future and be able to say in this state you know in the future let's plan for it now and let's put our stake in the ground but i think um you know remaining flexible now having said that um you know right now the trends look really good they look at the national level at the ohio level at the franklin county level the grand view level certainly i think we're on the trajectory and given on the vaccinations which are enormous i think you know jesse i'll give you credit that very early on in the discussion um back before the beginning of the year you are really focusing on you know it's as much about teacher
074health and the vulnerability that we have with you know frankly older um you know population among the teachers and none of the students and um you know that's where uh even just you know even if we want to go in and then getting sick or you know needing to stay away or whatever so um you know really having um that the teachers and the staff vaccination is huge so um you know right now my thoughts would be as soon as possible once the vaccines fully kick in to get back um i've seen some comments of um you know it's toward the end of the school year it's not that long to the end of the school you know we've gone this far but the way i think of it you know it's the last quarter
075of the school year and given the time that we've had um both distant fully distant and hybrid i mean it's very conceivable that our kids could have as much time in school in the last quarter than they did in the first three quarters of the school year combined so i think it's it's valuable really valuable and if we can possibly maximize that you know i would just love to to do that and hope that you know the trends continue and we'll be in a position um to uh to address the problems we have and to um you know to move to that mode when we can yeah if i could jump in now um i actually echo a lot of what eric says um i think i i'm sort of in the same place that
076he is right now with my thinking um you know more data is definitely good always good measured approach make sure things trend in the right direction all of that is good um right now if things did trend in the right direction even if i guess i'm kind of in a place where even if we have data that comes back that says based on square footage all classrooms which it kind of sounds like we're what andy's close to saying pretty much all kids are gonna be in that less than three foot range now even with that said i don't think that having halfing the distance means you're doubling the risk um and you know i've said this to a lot of people over the last couple of days as people have talked to me to a
077degree this is a very subjective decision and it's about risk tolerance and how you weigh what level of risk you're willing to take for the benefit of in person school um and my thoughts have shifted on this throughout the pandemic as i get new information and see what happens you know in a lot of these schools that have gone into in-person learning successfully i think that lunch is not insurmountable i think we can overcome that challenge um you know i want to be measured i definitely want to be conservative but at this point if things continue the way we think they will i'm feeling increasingly comfortable with the idea of kids going all back um and with eric if everything you know plays out as we think it will i would be comfortable with them
078going back you know once the vaccines kicked in for everyone kevin do you want to go or do you want me to talk you can go ahead if you have a specific yeah comment i think i'm um i'm not to where mr bodhi and miss gephar are um i agree with their thoughts i think that there's i've been every place during the pandemic like no and yes and all over the place my concerns are [Music] a couple things five probably i want to see the numbers keep trending down i think we are on the path to go back in i don't know that we're on the path to go back in in three weeks i don't the data to me i want i want to see those numbers down now our dashboard is a framework
079i i i would love to see us in orange i would love to see us in yellow i think just personally i would love to see us go away i don't i to me i'm like we're trending in the right direction i don't know if march 15th is our day i don't to me i have a very hard time sending kids and everyone back to school for a week going to spring break with that i i will be very honest i'm very nervous about travel for spring break the numbers and the data's with that and i tend to not be a nervous person but i'm like to me i don't think we're where we need to be um the other thing that i want to think about and this is my day job coming out
080the educational shift that's going to happen with going full day you know do we are we sharing art supplies are we bringing lockers in um the the granular details of the teaching day um there's that we're one to one so that's an excellent thing for this are we gonna shift from instead of chromebooks we have textbooks are we going to shift from we don't have asynchronous work we do the the shift in the learning day how is that going to play out um granby does a great job with their leadership with talking to our educators and then you know what are the pitfalls i want to see some more of that like how how is this gonna there's a big shift happening i do think in the bottom of my heart i want the kids
081all back in every we we all wanna we're all ready for this to be done like let's be honest and if our kids are back in school that check we're getting back to life we're getting back to this i i don't want to rush it and then open a new can of worms that if we had waited a week or two might not have been there the other thing too with the new variant coming out does it affect kids does it not affect kids you know i don't i'm reading that it does i am only an armchair epidemiologist i'm not a full doctor yet that's that comes next year but like to me i'm like i i i i'm in the heart i'm in the frame i'm like i want us back in are we
082there yet and i'm like yeah i i don't know that march 15th we're there yet i want us to be but i don't know and to me taking a pause seeing some more data yeah you know that that's where i'm at so with that i will pass it off to mr goose yeah i'm definitely interested in seeing more data um and we're planning on having another meeting here it sounds like so we can follow things for the next uh week or two and continue to see uh where things are are moving one consideration is with travel over spring break if we were not in close proximity and people coming back from travel started to show symptoms then they would be able to quarantine themselves obviously and they wouldn't necessarily be affecting other students a big
083concern of mine is that students that are all in are going to have to quarantine especially after spring break um that's definitely a concern now if numbers continue to trend downward to such a degree that cases are going to be so low that that's uh a factor that's you know becomes negligible well now i might change my decision so i'm definitely interested to watch the numbers over the next two weeks and and maybe have a decision at the next meeting if numbers continue the way that they are now i think i'm i'm with uh mr body and miss skephart i i do but to go follow up on something molly said that i really do agree with is um the need to see those that minutia the details of what a school day looks like
084when it comes to you know like she said like supplies and lockers and stuff those aren't because we haven't really entertained the idea of going back fully in person through this school year you know quite possibly andy you guys did work all this out and we just haven't gotten there because there was no need for us to know that um but it would be interesting not just for us but i think the whole community to know what does a day look like for kids and and could allay some concerns i i hope um or or find places where further improvements are needed you know i agree with that sentiment and i think that's you know um when i talk about wanting more data you know it's it's not just for you know us as a
085board i think i think the communication to to our families to what to what ellen looks like um one for potential comfort level uh either way whether you're comfortable with it or where you're whether you're not as a parent um and two is to be able to talk to our kids about that you know i think it's gonna be real important that that our kids don't don't you know understand that that that school is is is still different you know and in my professional world i'm i'm i'm one of those guys that has been working in schools that have been all in and um i was in one in trotwood trotwood today and you know the the distancing is there the one-way hallways are there the way we eat is that you know that's there's
086a lot there's a lot and i know the team's been working on that but i think you know for the board and community we would just like to to dig into that a little bit um you know as a reminder from a process standpoint um and my role i think it's important to understand that that this board has decided you know to give mr kalpas the superintendent the authority to do this and so where you'll see other boards of education and in the county you know a lot are doing it like us and some aren't um you'll see a board voting on every modality change um and in this situation um you know you know we've given that authority to andy uh but obviously you know he consults with us and that's why we're having
087this discussion at this meeting and that's why um just given the time frame i'd like to propose that we do reconnect before that before that march meeting um you know we've gotten emails and public comment from you know um obviously first of all i want to appreciate uh you know you know the emails that i was able to read the day that came as a result of your update andy um you know i'm always impressed with the community's thoughtfulness um respect you know understanding for the position we're in and and so you know no matter where you land on this um i i do do appreciate that and i know andy appreciates that um you know one of the comments you know the the people some of the folks that want to go all in
088want to go all in right now uh what i'm sort of hearing from you mr culp and the board and i want to make sure i'm not making this assumption is you know if we're going to entertain going all in um it wouldn't be before march 15th and if that's the case let's just say it now you know whether people agree or disagree um and so that kind of gives us not that march 15th is the day because i'm also hearing some some variance on the support around that if we know it's not before that then i i would just like to say hey look the earliest would be after that vaccine was full effect um that's where i am i think that's what i'm hearing where everyone's had and you know with that being
089said um you know i think we could connect either next week or the last week in february and um you know i would encourage obviously we can't deliberate outside the board meeting but if there's specific questions or data points that you want andy and his team to uh to bring to discuss to the board you know just just email that to him uh directly and then you know we we can have a a a good discussion about what an all-in looks like and you know maybe a brief discussion about what the data looks like between now and when we would have that meeting and does that seem like a reasonable next step yes it does to me i i would if i may just add and you know so in preparation for this meeting you
090know i've over the last two weeks i've had a lot of conversations with principals and directors and um and prep and preparing for the potential of an all-in return and one of the things that we did was we dusted off i don't know if you all remember are grandview heights plan for learning uh and modalities it was like a 58-page document do you guys are you guys recalling that document okay so in that document it has uh not not all of the ques the answers to the questions you've asked it doesn't like for example it doesn't have classrooms per square foot the number of students in them and so on and so forth but it does have a lot of the specificity around lunch recess uh art supplies science supplies um plexiglas dividers uh one-way
091hallways you know all of those and so i i will re-share that with the group which may help drive additional questions uh to all of you as well and i would hope i know when we were first having these discussions you know getting your hands on certain ppe supplies was was a little more difficult um you know i just know the salesman emails you get now like it seems like if we wanted to put a plex a class divider around every desk um there might be an expense of that but i think it's it's physically possible i'm not saying that's a good idea or not i'm just saying like yeah we're not short on plexiglass in grandview right now we have a lot of plexiglass and we have i mean i don't mean to get
092in the minutia right now but i do think that that we we will need to at some point so you know i guess at this point do we talk about um you know when would make sense to reconnect that would be a special board meeting um i would entertain and you know frankly as a chair of the right would would say that we would um allow public participation um at that meeting even though we typically don't at special meetings i think this is a uh you know an unusual circumstance where where we'd want to we'd want to hear those comments and and weigh that with our discussion in my opinion um i agree with you may i ask too and this is um something else we've all essentially agreed that [Music] nothing before march 15th
093correct yep mr call plus the opinion or has the authority to change that but we're all kind of on that same page that nothing before march 15th i think there's some logic to that given our desire and what the feedback of wanting to see more data as well as that would be 14 days past the last vaccination which is you know vaccination of 90 percent of our staff is is a significant mitigation strategy or you know factor i do ask this one and i i hope i don't throw a wrench into this if um whatever we decide or whatever we talk about take to mr culp for that decision um if we are deciding to go back in or um what have you can we give when there may not be an answer to this
094but i think we need to give people we're flexible but a couple weeks heads up child care arrangements and everything i'm my mom brain just started rolling through everything that might need to happen and i'd it could be a wrench in this flaw system or is that something that we would at the special board meeting possibly decide because it's i mean i mean i think the answer is um you know that that would be that the time the time frame the timeline of all this i think's uh a big a big part of the the discussion um and and you know that's why i i personally would like us to you know our next official board me is is march 10th um and i don't think we can have a discussion about potentially coming in
095you know two days before we do that so so to that end you know i would propose uh meeting next week or the last week in february you know within the next seven to 14 days a pretty quick turnaround and then um you know that's still getting us a couple weeks out from the from the march 15th date if if that was if that was an option to do that um and then that would really give andy's team to some time to um to really talk about um you know i mean you're the first day of school it's almost like a new first day of school so so how do we approach that um you know i mean you you could even argue a phase-in sort of thing you know yet you have half the
096kids the first day all day the other half second and goal then like we do with being here maybe that's a horrible idea because the child care as i think about that my own kids i'm like wait baby why am i suggesting that but but you know there's things i'd like that the educational team to really to really consider um and i know you have andy and i don't mean that to be insulting i know you and your team have been working on this but you know when when the possibility is really in front of you you know you it changes everyone's lens so um i i don't mean that in any disrespectful way so you know i i would propose and i guess i just look for dates that i'd like to set that
097now so we could let the public and and let people know when we're going to reconnect and and i'd be up for doing that um really for me i think sometime between the 17th and 24th would make sense i just throw out i think the 24th makes a lot of sense i mean it gives us two weeks to learn more and for andy to prepare and i think you know far enough in advance that you know it wouldn't be a last-minute decision that's the night that we're doing the board of education uh that's when we're doing our evals for the superintendent and treasurer i mean either we could say this is the priority which i think we can and either move that to something else or you know if we want to double up i
098think we can you know i would really propose i i know that that dale mcveigh and andy and beth you guys know that that this board you know takes takes the evaluation of superintendent treasurer's you know really one of our main functions um but but i would like to to delay that um i i just i worry about you know sort of adding too much together what i like about that date also is it's in close proximity to the tuesday updates that i get which is like hot off the press so i will have had that right uh that you know two we'll have two more tuesdays and hopefully really great news to to celebrate so why don't i i know that haley and and and dale mcveigh that works with us on evaluations are
099going to kill me for saying this but i i think we we we move that down the road these are unusual times this is obviously um um a priority not that the evaluations aren't um besides we may want to see what andy brings to us before we do his evaluation at no pressure just kidding uh but if but let's do that and then you know but let's make a commitment that um you know by the end of march that we do wrap up the evaluations because that's that's an important part of our our operation and our duty as a board that we cannot we cannot ignore um is that okay with everybody one consideration just to throw a wrench in it a lot of us will be getting our vaccine on that tuesday and wednesday
100and i know with the second shot there are sometimes side effects it's just a consideration will we want to be doing that meeting while having side effects he's excited yeah um does anyone mind saying like who who will be getting theirs tuesday or wednesday that would be in that place that's a lot monday the 22nd my wife did have her second um and the next day you know it took 12 hours but like about 12 hours after the the second round you know and she's tough as nails there was a period of time there i'm gonna say like eight hours where she definitely was not feeling good for sure you know who knows everybody reacts differently but let's do uh let's do the 22nd if that works i don't know everyone's schedule um so let's
101look at monday the 22nd for a special board meeting um once again we're not taking action however i will offer public participation the sole topic being uh learning modalities for you know grandview heights schools um i'd really encourage and and and the leadership team to you know bring us lots of lots of information and lots of lots of different thoughts um you know uh we are a small district but you know when i think we are paying attention to other districts um i will say you know andy you said this before annie meets with the superintendents of of every district in the county weekly share some of the information with other districts are doing we have learned a lot from other districts good and bad that this sometimes drives our decision and sometimes doesn't because
102the districts are so different um in some ways so i appreciate that but i think you'll you'll also have that sort of information i think that the board and community would be would be curious about um you know i know some districts are looking at just elementary going in and you know there's so many different variations you know i i sort of on a personal level like to you know keep it somewhat simple but but let's have a let's have a discussion on february 22nd do we want to do that at seven do we want to start a little earlier maybe at six um i think it might be a long one i'm okay with sex if that's what we want to do i'm okay with seven though can we do six o'clock on february
10322nd as a special board meeting and andy if you can go ahead let's go ahead and um post that uh with the agenda uh quickly so that the community knows that that's that that's happening um and then that begs the question do we want to still do the the meeting on the on the wednesday for the evaluations or do you think um i mean i'm okay either way on that it's going to be a busy spring regardless we can't we have school board week okay just hang out together so let's let's let's let's i'll tell you what let's tentatively keep the wednesday there and then depending how these vaccines go um if we're not able to have quorum or not everybody have everything we can we can adjust but that's already on the books so
104there's there's no reason we can't you know that's all executive session meeting so there's we're not if we have to cancel at the last minute it's fine okay yeah and then also maybe around that same time when we're discussing you know whether or not the kids will go back full in we might have the same discussion for us too whether we're going to resume in-person meetings at some point this spring i i emphatically second emily's it's very hard making a decision for students virtually that's hard well in the same vein i think a lot of people will be vaccinated by mid-march and well by the end of february but effective mid-march though um mr culp can i ask and you may know this um educators were rolled out for the vaccine february march if you
105could bring it to the meeting when our other rollouts and i feel like i should know it but i don't know like do we have access to when of more of the general population is going to be vaccinated too because it's vaccine safety school day that that all is a part of our decision i'm going off memory but in the last governor's press conference i watched he was going to stay at 65 and older which was like i'm again i'm probably wrong here but i felt like it was like three million people and that it was gonna he was gonna be there for a while that's what i thought too but for some reason in my head i'm like april's ringing bells for something again i could be making this i don't know i'll i'll
106look into that though i can find that information out it's just whole the whole puzzle the the focus of the presentation will be about all in return on uh our scheduled date just so just so i that's my that i just want to make sure that i meet your expectations my plan is to focus on it all in return um and our plan correspondingly for grandview heights yeah which which again i i think we we have it i'll just we'll get it brushed off and adjusted to you know february 2021 okay any other comments or discussions on that on that topic all right we're halfway down the first page um we had an organizational meeting on january 13th and a special meeting on january 3rd can i have a motion for the approval of minutes
107for both those meetings so moved second any questions or discussion beth will you please call the roll mr boaty hi this is gab hart aye mr goussey aye mr truett hi and ms wassmith hi um next uh we have our reports three reports uh building and department reports once again thank you for those um the comments i will say i know in the report it mentioned the the grandview singer's performance and i believe that links in the report that's worth a watch if you haven't that's actually pretty pretty remarkable um um and there's some votey influence in that and then um i was really pleased to see the high school's got a mock trial team that's doing really well i know that that when we moved here many years ago that didn't exist in grandview
108ice high school so um you know whoever has been a part of pushing that you know i think that's great so any other questions or discussions on those uh building and department reports all right we've got the superintendent's report and then the treasurer's report so i know you've been on the spot a lot andy so if you could briefly your superintendent uh so we have had a myriad of activities to celebrate black history month as you know this is black history month and so we're proud of those uh those activities to further enhance what we're already doing as jesse truett mentioned granby heights mock trial team has had an incredible virtual performance on january 28th it was so impressive that they're moving on to the regional competition february 19th so that's just really great um
109your good man charlie brown is this year's musical production as mentioned mr bodie's son is involved in it i actually saw him eric at bruger's bagels on lane avenue the other day while i was running over there to get a bagel by the way so uh he does a fabulous job and look forward to more more information about that as mentioned uh january and i'll i apologize for the the month delay january was board appreciation month and so uh i hope you enjoyed our small token of appreciation that was delivered to your homes today um great news great news that 90 around 90 of our staff uh the state average is around 70 percent uh have gotten the or will have gotten the pfizer vaccine by february 27th a big shout out to billy sarrich
110and lydia mclaughlin both have announced their retirements we wish both of them much much happiness in their retirements we're in the process of working on district quality profile 2021 which will be serving as our winner newsletter and we'll be in residence mailboxes soon um i had a really uh awesome opportunity to meet with the class of 1959 uh and for whatever reason this this class uh and i have really bonded if you if you recall bill boardman and his wife nancy donated 250 000 to our construction project and uh for whatever reason they like to meet with me periodically so i had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to meet with them and they're just a really great group of people who just love grandview and love grandview heights schools and it truly is a joy
111to be able to to meet and connect with them um so that that pretty much concludes the the report i was meeting any other questions for andy all right beth you're up okay i'm going to share my screen i've got a few updates to share with the board okay so um just to review some some financial um data as of the end of january um at looking at our general fund the the um tax collection cycle is currently taking place with the franklin county auditor and treasurer's office we have put in requests to get weekly advances of those funds to date we have received just over 3 million of advances we will continue to receive those weekly advances until that final settlement is made that is expected around late march so with what we've received
112so far we're at about 68 of our fiscal year budget for tax revenue our state funding about 60 um of the budget we did receive our second half casino revenue payment in january and that was um just a little over thirty thousand um interestingly because of of the the um shutdown of the casinos um back in 2020 our first half payment was um was about half of that so that is um some good news there seeing that that revenue bump back up um so the property tax allocation that's the homestead and rollback reimbursements and the grand view yard revenue will come after the final um settlement the tax settlements in late march that i mentioned interest revenue for a general fund for january was just over 8 000. um expenditures our fiscal year-to-date budget is
113about 58 and our expenditures came in at about 55.2 percent so we're about three percentage points there under our fiscal year budget um so that's good news um one other update i wanted to to provide as all of you know we partner with meter investments to um you know kind of carefully look at our our cash flow needs and invest those funds um that are excess that that are not needed for immediate operations and um in doing so um i have added an additional million dollars to that u.s bank um investment account to invest those funds so what we keep in our liquid account is star ohio that is um nine hundredths of a percent right now interest rate return um the the weighted average of those investments with our u.s bank account is about
1141.4 percent right now so while that's not a great percentage either it's it's certainly a whole lot better than than the start height rate so we are carefully looking at that and and maximizing what we can invest the construction fund january interest was just over nine thousand our project to date interest earnings um one million two hundred and fifty five thousand um soft costs we have spent about 49 of that budget and construction costs about 22 percent um the fund balance is about 41.5 million um and as you all know that started at 55.25 million and and so we're gradually seeing that that drop as we we pay those construction bills bond retirement there's no new information here from last month we've got transfers coming up in april for the tif revenue used for debt
115service permanent improvement fund we got with the tax advances we get um that i mentioned for the general fund we do get those advances for the permanent improvement levy as well so we've received about a hundred and twelve thousand in in the pi fund and that fund balance is um just over seven hundred and seventeen thousand and then lastly i wanted to give just a quick um update on on a couple funding issues so our fiscal year 21 the the year that we're in our state funding as you um probably recall we started out the year at um funding cuts that were in place last year well some good news we have received is is that governor dewine uh signed an executive order that restores a portion of those funding reductions so that's a little
116bit of good news for us we started out the year with a net reduction of about 144 000 and this executive order restores about 79 000 of that so all in all um that that leaves us at about a 65 thousand um cut compared to pre-pandemic levels of state funding so um so if you think back to just um back to last may you know our our state funding cut started at 321 000 so um so you know to to to get that down to a 65 000 cut um i i think that's um you know puts us in in a pretty good position the fiscal year 22 and 23 budget proposal was also just released in the the last week or so and that puts k-12 uh education funding at pre-pandemic levels so um
117whereas we're down about 65 000 this year that would take us up to um to to restore that that 65 000. um so again that would put us at what our funding was in fiscal year 19 before the cuts at the end of fiscal year 20. and then finally just a quick update on the esser round two funds um so that's the elementary and secondary school emergency relief funds part of the federal pandemic relief funding we received a first round of that funding along with what was called coronavirus relief funding um so kind of two different pots of money initially um back in in late spring early summer and and those two together totaled about a hundred thousand this round of funding for us is going to be about 231 000 so we are looking
118at using a portion of that for some summer programming ohio department of education is really um stressing and encouraging districts to prioritize those funds for for um you know learning gaps or learning loss that that has occurred so we're looking at spending about 80 000 of that 231 on summer programming and that's from from kindergarten through 12th grade and then the remaining funds we expect to use on additional safety supplies ppe and that those funds can be used retroactively um to last march as well so we've spent well over um you know that amount on on safety supplies already so um so anyway the portion that we don't use for summer programming we will use to offset those costs that we have actually already incurred so that's all i have unless there's any questions beth
119thank you for that uh there's no questions from the board at this point i'd offer a motion to accept the january 2021 financial reports and payment of the january 2021 bills so move second second any other questions or discussions finance committee moved in second and i think we're good mr bodhi hi mrs gephardt aye mr goussey aye mr truitt aye and ms smith hi all right moving on uh we have the resolution that that joe and taylor spoke to that we have already unanimously approved so we're going to jump to um seven business and finance uh recommendations from the superintendent action by the board if i could have a um a motion for business and finance one through seven so i moved second i think molly was a little bit before you on that she
120can have it any questions or discussions on those any of those items jesse just to say um the summer kids club fees um i really want to thank the leadership of the kids club and beth who have been at multiple meetings with with emily and myself and andy and going and going over on the finance committee i thought they've just been extremely thoughtful uh and and flexible as we've gone through on the different phases uh with kids club and it's it's you know it's been a real financial hit um but uh they've been able to continue on and i think in in a way that has um you know put the burden of you know if this were you know another situation it could easily have been you know hey raise rates you know 30
121percent or something you know try and recoup some of the actual costs and so i think they've just done an excellent job of holding the line and i think what was proposed again is very thoughtful we've gone over in finance committee moderate increases but on top of you know really beth you'll remind us it's been years really since there's been an increase so um just i think really thoughtful and respectful of a parent's pocketbooks while still delivering a you know quality products so just wanted to give a little shout out to say um uh you know that's been thought through and supported by the finance committee i appreciate those insights yeah i'd piggyback on that because you know people who do use the summer program are going to notice that there's an increase but everything
122eric said is exactly spot on i mean they were well thought through there haven't been increases in the past and this program is not a this is not um making money right now you know the the kids club is it's taken a hit but amy's done a great job presenting to us and maybe just to point out that um there has been a cash reserve there's there's a fairly decent cash balance built up from tuition over the years and so that's really what's been allowing the kids club to continue operating um so good thoughtful planning in advance from years uh to be able to be in the situation they are is there no other questions and discussions beth could you call the role uh we have seven items under personnel it's the that's the agenda
123of stepping stone the motion for personnel one through seven so moved for a second second um i do have one comment and and andy too i know you've already mentioned your superintendent report i um i don't want to gloss over the fact that we have two significant um retirements as the first item on there that we'll be accepting tonight you know um these are both folks i've known since we moved in the district and and um you know i actually had uh the the children of both these folks when i was a high school principal and just phenomenal people and and and great educators and you know i i know i'm not doing it justice because um i didn't work firsthand with either one of them but just um just great people and as much
124as um you know i'm sort of a fan of virtual meetings the one thing where i think i think you know we don't get to recognize you know retirees and and people like that as as much in these settings but um certainly uh a big loss to the district those are two retirements but very very well deserved and want to want to congratulate those two individuals yeah well said i mentioned in my superintendent's report fantastic educators tremendous people um well would would be glad to have any one of my three sons under the care of either of them in a new york second so we certainly will we'll miss both of them there's no other questions discussing beth can you call the role on personnel mr bodhi hi mrs gephart aye mr goussey aye mr
125truitt aye ms wasmith hi um we have three on three items under co-curricular activities um i do have a quick question before i ask for a motion and um you know i do notice that we're approving transportation potentially by van for groups of kids of four to ten and and i would worry about i know this you don't know how many kids are necessarily going to this i'd worry about potential um social distancing so um i guess i would propose that we make the motion under b where it says transportation by ban and or parents that we admin that to say by van calm a bus and or parents and so if you're in a situation where where you need to do a bus you probably would have done it anyway but that way we're
126officially we all agree so um you know i guess i'll go ahead and make that motion for c one through three with the field trips um adding thus adding bus between van and and under b for both of those okay i have a second on that motion second any other questions or discussion beth mr birdie hi mrs gebhardt aye mr goussey aye mr truitt hi ms watson hi items for discussion does anybody have anything you probably put that at the front of the agenda right um i do not believe we have any reason for executive session is that correct mr call correct all right if that's the case then i would um ask for a motion for adjournment at 8 49 p.m so moved second all right mr boaty hi mrs gephardt hi mr gousey
127hi mr truett hi and miss wassmith hi emily emily and eric um i just full disclosure i'm probably 50 50 on your meeting with the city tomorrow thanks for sticking and i know you're not feeling well andy so appreciate the yeoman work and staying with us this whole time yeah we'll report back we'll report back your voice doesn't sound great so go rest up well thanks to everybody i think this was this was good work tonight um and i know that we've got a lot of work ahead of us so i appreciate everybody putting the time in and the research and we will uh reconnect uh relatively soon in about 12 days thanks guys