001Good afternoon. Welcome to our Hamilton City School Board meeting. Uh we're going to call this meeting into session. Mr. Fraser, if you can call the role, please. >> Miss Matthews >> here. >> Dr. Hopkins >> here. >> Mr. Davidson >> here. >> Dr. Copus >> here. Miss Manuso >> here. >> Thank you, sir. Next, we will have um not seeing anybody from city council. So, I will call Miss Wisbro for our spotlight today. Good afternoon. Thank you for having us today. We've got uh two spotlights that we are going to honor and celebrate today. Um our first one is our student um Maline Wagenfield. I've got a little prepared statement here. Like I said for the last one, I could read on and on and on and on about this young lady, but we're going
002to highlight some of some of her accomplishments. Maline Wagenfield is one of the most well-rounded and high achieving students we have had the p privilege to celebrate. She consistently pursues excellence by fully embracing the opportunities available at Hamilton High School. From an exceptional rigorous academic schedule to leadership in student organizations and a standout involvement in the performing arts. Most recently, Meline has qualified as a National Merit Scholar Scholarship finalist and was named Loveland Chaufest best performer of her work within the group Prestige. And I might add, last week's Cincinnati Inquirer student of the week. She won it by a landslide, so we got that out there. Academically, Meline has challenged herself with the most demanding course load throughout high school, including honors, college credit plus, and advanced placement coursework. She is one of approximately 50
003seniors working toward an all academics honors diploma, maintains an impressive weighted GPA of 4.591 whoa, and will compete more than 50 college credit hours by the end of this school year. Her academic focus aligns with her future plans to attend a 4-year university, major in biochemistry, and ultimately earn a PhD with the goal of conducting research for the Environmental Protection Agency. Meline's impact extends well beyond the classroom. She serves as editor-in chief of the student magazine, Out of the Blue, where she leads and manages a team of 15 students. She has competed completed more than 100 hours of community service through the National Honor Society and is the president of both the drama club and the Tri Music Honor Society and serves as treasure of student council, helping manage budgets and finances. Maline is also
004a member of the 17 strong Hamilton Youth Commission, collaborating with the Hamilton City Council to strengthen and unite the city's 17 neighborhoods. In addition, she balances her extensive commitments while maintaining employment as a kennel technician at Bark Hamilton, demonstrating responsibility, work ethic, and maturity. And I don't know where you find the time, girl. Maline Wagenfield represents the very best of Hamilton High School through her scholarship, leadership, service, and character. and we are proud to recognize her accomplishments and her bright future. That is the Hamilton way. Congratulations, MADDIE. [applause] >> SO, there only a few of these people get to rock and I think you rocked one already for your performance. Was that back in December? So, now you're you're double fisted. >> Thank you. >> You don't have to. >> I'll thank you so much.
005I just wanted to say that um I'm so grateful to call myself uh a student at Hamilton City Schools and that I wouldn't have been able to accomplish everything that I have without the resources uh provided to me by the Hamilton City School District as well as the support from all of the staff members that I have had um the pleasure of getting to know in my time here. So, thank you so much. I really appreciate this. It's an honor. [applause] Maddie, I know you brought your mom here today with you, but we are all as proud um of you as can be. Uh you represent us in the absolute best way. You have so much natural cha talent in your academics, in your vocals, in your who you are as a human and um
006I'm so proud of you. What I think is is uh so impressive is you have attended Hamilton City Schools from preschool all the way up. And you have done uh things that I mean exceed every goal that we set in this district. And so you are a walking billboard for Hamilton City Schools. I'm proud of who you are as a young lady. And I know that we're going to continue to watch you soar. I remember you coming to my pool seven years ago and swimming and and jumping in and I thought, man, what a special little girl back then. and here you are seven years later getting ready to walk across one of the biggest stages and you have such a bright future. So, thank you for representing us and thank you for being the
007very best that is Hamilton City Schools. >> Yes, I just want to say congratulations and I echo everything um Miss Bleven says and just you know you come from a amazing family that's just been serving and being a blessing to this community and this district as well and so it's just no surprise that greatness is on your life as well. So just, you know, just pray many blessings on your life and that you will continue. I know you're going to continue to soar and thank you again for always representing Hamilton and Hamilton schools in the best way. So yeah, you are amazing and um it was great always hearing you sing and just share just your beautiful talent with us and and you you're just a blessing. So thank you so much. >> All right,
008our second spotlight tonight. I want to take the the moment to personally thank them for finally getting us out of February. um our our maintenance technicians uh who do who do all the plowing and and help make our places safe and secure for our students and staff. Man, that was a ton a ton a ton of work um this past February. And you know, being in the district as long as I have, it is amazing to see how quickly our buildings and our lots get up and running. Um shout out to Mr. Kilby as well for having to get up so early in the morning to go check the road conditions. Uh as well as Mr. Scheler, our director of buildings and grounds. Um Mr. Kilby included this in inside the H the other day,
009but I think it's important to to read and and put out there for the community in case you missed it. Over the course of the last winter storm, our maintenance staff dropped over 35 tons of road salt and our custodial staff used roughly 432 bags of ice melt to keep our services safe for students and staff. They also spent over 400 hours plowing parking lots and over,00 hours clearing sidewalks. Guys, that's no joke. It is absolutely no joke. and you and you jumped on it right away. And with snowmageddon that we just experienced, um it was a lot. I mean, we still have snow piles that are that are around, but not on our buildings and grounds. And it it's great. So, I want to thank the the technicians. We have a few of them
010here today that I'd like to recognize. Uh Don Spawn, Bill Berg, Jeffrey Burkhart, and Nathaniel Gray. Also, those who are not in attendance tonight, Josh Birkhart, Aaron Casano, Zachary Samson, and Anthony Johnson. Thank you from the district. Thank you for as a parent and a community member. I truly appreciate that. You guys can't eat these all. These are for everybody that I just named, but I'm putting you in charge of taking crumble cookies back from the district to say thank you, Sally. Can I trust him? >> Can I trust him? >> Okay, I can trust him. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you, Miss uh Wiser, for uh highlighting our team. A a lot of our community doesn't realize that this team uh when we first hear of snowfall, they are out preparing our lots. They're
011dropping uh ice melt and and and salt to make sure that we are prepared. and then they are out with plows um at three or four o'clock in the morning trying to ensure that they clear our lots. You know, when this last big snowstorm that Miss Weisro was talking about fell, that was record snowfall for Butler County uh in the last number of years. And you know, there were every day Mr. Kilby and I were back and forth on the phone of is it safe enough to open today? Is it safe enough to open? And you know, a lot of the the decisions that went into us having to close for as long as we were um had no had nothing to do with our lots and driveways. When you drove by, our sidewalks were
012clear, our lots were clear, it was where our neighborhoods were. And I think it just you guys really are the uh unsung heroes in our district. Uh there were so many days where you were putting 12 and 14 hour days in making sure that our kids are safe, our staff are safe, and you and you take such care of our district. So, I just want to thank you for all that you do um for us, but it is not lost on me uh how important that work is. So, thank you uh to each of you for all the work that you've done. And knock on wood, no more snow this year. Wait, I think I just cursed us. I know. I'm sorry. Would any of you like to come up and say anything? >> I
013bet the answer is no. >> Okay, I I would love to just >> No. [laughter] I will say this, when I first started here, I've been here 23 years. My first truck was a 3/4 ton Ford that had a blue hood, a red door, a brown bed, and a white cat. And Jeff and Tom have done a and the board obviously have done an excellent job in updating all of our equipment. We've got Bobcats, tractors, all of our trucks are less than 10, 12 years old. Thank you for the equipment to do what we need to do. >> Sweet. I just wanted to interject that you may not even realize how farreaching your impact is. I in passing schools every day or going to them as a parent, I went to my own workplace after
014the latest snow and I walked in and I said, "Look, if the schools can look the way they do, we can we can do as good a job. Let's get out there and fix things." So, seeing seeing what you all can can manage to do, that spreads to other places who want to who want to serve the public as well as you do. So, thank you for that. >> Definitely want to say say the same thing. Say thank you. Appreciate, you know, making sure everything is taken care of and that kids are able to get in and out the building safely. And also, listen, they're hiring in New York. So, if we want to take this show on the road, they're hiring in New York for snow people to remove snow. So, I'm just saying
015I I will be >> right. [laughter] Right. I would be willing to lead the charging. No, no, but no, thank you. Don't honestly, thank you. I appreciate it so much. Well, before we move on, I know Miss Wisber would like to get a picture and then we'll move on to our next item on the agenda. Does that sound good? Do you want them in the blue? >> Yes. >> Okay. [clears throat] Mom in the middle. Thank you. >> Absolutely. something >> so Oh, no. It's okay. fails. >> All right, it's always a great time. Thank you, Miss Wro, for those two spotlights of amazing. Next on our agenda, we have our February forecast from our treasurer, Mr. Frasier. Thank you, President Matthews. Uh, never fails. Uh, we get a crowd here and then they all
016leave before I get a chance to speak. Um, so it's that time of year again, although the time is, uh, different than it has been in years past. Uh, typically we've done a November forecast and then an update in May. uh this last year with the uh many budget uh bianium budget changes one of those things that has changed is the timing of the forecast and the number of years that are in the forecast. Um, so the November forecast is now an actually an August forecast, but in the first year they allowed us to present in October and so we will be doing this February forecast. Um, and then also we're going to do another one in May. So we get the pleasure of that as well. Um, so this is kind of like an
017interim forecast. It's we're we have to do this to keep in compliance. Um but there are other things um that will be in the May forecast that are not in this forecast. So this this may be a little bit shorter um than everybody is is accustomed to. Um so let's move forward. Uh but before we start though, um I do want to make it clear that with everything going on in the district, um there is a plan uh for a deficit reduction in this district. That is not in this forecast. Okay. Um there are some material updates in this forecast, things that have happened after October, uh that we did not know yet. Um and there's a couple of them. So that's uh number one is property tax legislation. So there was some property tax
018legislation that was signed into law in December uh that obviously we did not know about in the October forecast. And then also um we've had some further enrollment decline than we actually predicted in October. and and we'll get to those, but I just want to make it it clear the numbers in this forecast do not have anything to do with the uh deficit reduction plan. So, just get ready. They they don't look very good. Um but hopefully in May um we'll have a better one for you guys. Um so, we'll run through a lot of the typical slides um and we'll proceed that way. So, [snorts] what are we going to cover tonight? Um, just an introduction to what the forecast is, what its purpose is, why do we have it. Uh, we'll look at
019our revenue and expenditure categories. Uh, we'll look at some trends within those revenue and expenditure categories, and then we'll look at our financial condition um at the end. So, what is the forecast? The forecast is a snapshot analysis of general fund revenues, expenditures, and cash balance. It's only general fund. We have quite a few funds on our books. We have food service funds. We have uh permanent improvement funds. We have uh principal funds for the schools. We have federal, state, and local grants. Um but tonight we are only talking about the general fund. General fund is our main operating fund. It's where most folks salaries are paid from. It's where we pay for uh utilities, bus fuel, school supplies, those types of things. And and that's only what we're talking about tonight uh for the
020forecast. Um so why do we do the forecast? Uh well, number one, we're required to do it. Like I said, we're required to do it twice a year. Um now we are required to have a forecast in August. uh which is basically just going to be a rollover from the May forecast because we're not going to have much new information at least this year. Some years we'll have a a bianium budget um change over which we'll be able to look at um and and that's why we do it is we're required. Now what's the purpose of the forecast? Well, [clears throat] it encourages the board and the community to uh engage in some financial planning discussions which uh we obviously have been doing uh these last several months. Um there's a legal certification for it.
021Uh basically means we have the money to meet our financial obligations. Uh but what we really use it for is a long-term planning tool. So every Monday, uh, Andrea, Mike, and myself, uh, we meet and one of the things we talk about is finance. We talk about finance every Monday morning. [snorts] And, uh, what we will do is, you know, there's always things that, you know, we'll want to do for the district or have a cost reduction plan or some of those things. And everything that we talk about has a financial implication. And so what we will do is we will talk about those things. I'll perform a cost study to see what that's going to cost or what that's going to save. And then we will run that information through the financial forecasting software.
022Um, and that will tell us, hey, is this a good idea? Is this a bad idea? Is that something we can do? Um, and so we do use that quite a bit. [clears throat] So, what are our revenue categories? Where where do we get our money? Uh we get 20% of our general fund revenues from property taxes. We get 5% of our revenues um in a category called other revenue. It's basically reimbursements um interest earnings, those types of things. Uh but we get the bulk of our money through uh the state and that's through our state foundation. We get twice a month uh through the fair school funding formula. Uh and you can see at 75% any little change with something going on at the state has a major implication here in Hamilton City Schools.
023Um and in July of this last year, uh there was a major change with the fair school funding formula which we have talked about. We we talked about at the last October forecast. We've had community forums. Uh I think Andrea will talk to anybody that will listen about what happened um in July with us uh and with that fair school funding formula. So um again any little change is going to really affect us here in Hamilton. [clears throat] So where do we spend our money? Here are general fund uh expense categories. And just like every school district, uh the main u expenditure for us is personnel costs. It's salaries and bennies of our people. Um and that's going to be every single school district out there. Uh we spend about 13% on purchase services, which
024are things like utilities, um special ed contracts, and those kinds of things. And then we spend a a small amount in all other, which is basically supplies. Um, and that's going to be classroom supplies, bus fuel, and things like that. So, with those revenue and expense categories, uh, in the general fund, this is where we're projected to end up for the year. Uh, you can see we've got general fund revenue projected to be, uh, about $17.5 million, while expenditures are going to be about $122.5 million. uh which means we're looking at about a $4.8 million deficit spend. Um for reference, the October forecast was 4.7. Okay. So, we're we're really close to where we thought we were going to be. Um there are some some changes in there. We were actually moving ahead of trend
025in a good way um after we received some uh tiff money in December. Um, but with the drop in enrollment that we'll get into, that's kind of eaten up that good trend that that we were seeing through the year. So, as we can tell, you know, once you have a deficit spend, it's really hard to get back on track. And those deficit spends, they tend to snowball year-over-year. It's just not a sustainable situation once you start getting into that. So, I've already kind of touched on these. Um, what are the updates from October? Um, in December, there were some significant property tax legislation changes um that were passed. Um, they capped the increase on uh property tax revenue that districts at the 20 mil floor could receive. Um, but the kicker was the retroactive credit
026[snorts] that was stuck in the law at the very end. Uh, and that little bit of legislation, uh, looks like about a $3.3 million cut in property tax revenue for Hamilton City Schools. Um, so what's that mean? That means if next year I'm predicting $26 million in property tax revenue, well, now that looks like $22.7 million. Um, so that's a that's a significant cut that we're looking at. And when we get to the numbers, that's that's the bulk of the change um that that we'll see from October um to this February forecast. And also, we're we're down in enrollment. We're actually down about 44 kids uh 44 FTE from where we thought we were going to be at the end of this school year. Um there's various reasons for that. Um but there is a
027graph that later in the in the slideshow that that I'll show you that that kind of illustrates what the enrollment trends look like. Um and I've got some numbers from the October forecast we'll talk about. >> Is that counting kids that are here now or is that a projection for enrollment? So down 44 kids is currently right now. So um in October we predicted we were going to be at 86 or and today we're at 8220. Um and so what we do is like I said we meet every Monday. We talk enrollment every week and we will take current enrollment and put that through a spreadsheet and project what the enrollment looks like and then we'll take those numbers and actually throw them into the forecast. Um, so our forecast numbers actually tie to our
028enrollment projections. >> You said there were reasons for >> So there's there's all kinds of different reasons. Um we have we have some early grads. We have uh a big one is homeschool. Um the state has made it significantly easier to homeschool your child than it has in the past. Uh and so we're seeing a a a big drop in that. That that's probably the bulk of them because we haven't there hasn't been that many early grads this year. Um but the the homeschooling I think is a big piece of that. Good question. Any other questions before I move on? >> I do think it's important to add we are hearing um while some of the families that are choosing to homeschool it's in lie of you know if a child is not showing up
029to school. We refer them to court for truency. There are a few lawyers out there that we are hearing that will encourage families to go ahead pull their child out and homeschool because it stops all of that process. I don't think that's an overwhelming majority, but when we see the numbers shift at this time of year, uh it it causes the the little light in the back of my brain to go off and say, I wonder how many of those scenarios are we seeing? Uh we have about 14 early grads so far this school year. So the rest are related to traditional uh withdrawals from our district. >> Good point. So as with any forecast um there are some unknowns. I mean we're projecting uh used to be five years now we're projecting four years
030worth of data. Um but again we're we're looking four years into the future. So what what are the things that are going to happen in the next four years that we don't know? Uh there's going to be a new state bienium budget here, not next year, but the year after. Uh and I think that largely depends on what happens with the governor's race. Um the governor is the one that sets the stage for the state budget on how much they want to spend on various things, education being one of them. And so I think that's that's very important. And we simply don't know. um property tax legislative changes that we've had some, you know, a couple recent ones that that have hurt us. There are still some out there um that are still being introduced.
031Um and so we we don't know what's going to happen with those. Are those going to do those have any legs? We don't know. Is there going to be any uh you know backlash in legislation updating what has already been passed? Um I don't know that. So we, you know, we make assumptions through the forecast and move through it that way. We've got, uh, negotiated agreements that are expiring um throughout the forecast period. Uh, so I think we have all four unions uh that we will be negotiating in the spring of 27. So again, how does that land? Uh and then again our enrollment, yeah, we we dig into it pretty deep, but again, we don't know exactly what's going to happen. We don't know where the bottom's at. Um and so that's that's an
032unknown and we make assumptions for that uh in the forecasting model. So, with the state not fully funding the formula, the change that they made in July, uh we've got recent property tax changes, we've got declining enrollment, uh and we've got increasing expenses. You you can see what the trends look like here. Um the blue boxes on the left hand side are revenues and we can see that's relatively flat to declining. The orange boxes are expenses and we can see those are ever increasing and we can see what happens with the cash balance. Um the projected cash balance is over there on the right and where we were in the October forecast we had two days of cash in 2029. Now that number is negative. Um, and which is why when you're seeing these trends,
033it is so important that you act early in order to write the ship and correct those things. Yes, D. >> Is this taking consideration the cuts we're making? >> No. No. So, that and that was kind of what I said in the beginning. There are nothing in this forecast has anything in there with the deficit reduction plan. Nothing. Um, now I do have a slide later that shows what that looks like with those. >> So basically this is all just to satisfy the state requirement. It's not really going to be a projected 50 million. >> Correct. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, correct. Correct. Because later on in this meeting up for your approval is a large piece of the deficit reduction plan. Um so that technically has not happened yet. Right. So um go ahead
034>> to clarify. So this does not include those deductions but the May forecast will include the deduction at least the pieces that we have approved at the board. >> If everything that's up for your approval is approved this evening then yes absolutely. >> Yes. No. Very very good point. Um but yeah, this this situation is why it was so important that we act now. Um and it was, you know, kudos to to the board um and the administration. Um I think they've done a fantastic job uh with the plan um thinking that through, making it make sense, the follow through. Uh I I just think that's very very impressive. So um thank you all. >> [clears throat] >> So this is a u cash on hand. So we typically will have a a slide here
035that just shows the days cash on hand and with this being an update to the October forecast. We're comparing now where we were in October versus now. And like I talked about in 29, in October we thought we were going to have about two days of cash. uh with the recent property tax legislation changes and the updates in enrollment now we're looking at a negative cash balance um without doing anything right >> Mr. Fraser, can can you share there if we were to not make changes and file this forecast in August, what would that mean to the state of Ohio? >> So, if if we continued down this path without making any changes um and it comes time to file the next forecast in August, we're looking at a deficit or a a negative cash
036balance in 29. So that would technically be FY27 and having a negative cash balance two years out would put us in fiscal distress. Um we would get one of those nasty letters. >> Yeah. Yeah. We we'd get one of those nasty letters um that the state sent out uh in October they sent out 44 letters of districts that are in fiscal distress. Um I would imagine after the recent updates that they're going to receive a lot more letters. um we are one year removed from that right now as we're currently sitting in FY26. So the negative cash balance right now is three years out. So it doesn't qualify for that. Good point. Okay. So this is this is the one slide that that we talked about um just a second ago. This compares this February
037forecast to what I'm hoping to file in May after the deficit reduction plans approved. significant significant increase. Um th this looks substantially better than where we are currently sitting at right today. Um I will say though I if we look at it you can see the days of cash are still declining. Um and that's a that's still not a good trend. Um what we've done with this plan is is we've bought ourselves a few years to see what happens with this governor race to see what's going on with enrollment u in order to be able to make those decisions without the state coming in. Um, and so it again, this looks significantly better, but if things do not change at the state level, um, I hate to say it, but we might have to start
038talking about the L word, uh, which is levy. Um, and I I that's something I I never thought I would have to say here in Hamilton City Schools. U, but there's just been so much change. Um, and we've got a slide here that that shows it, and Andrea loves this slide. And it's it's a slide that shows, you know, every decision that they have made at the state level are reducing their own cost, meanwhile increasing the tax burden on the local people. Uh and so we'll get there. Um but again, if something doesn't change, we're going to have to do something. So this is our enrollment. These are our enrollment projections. So we're in 2026. We're looking at 8220 in October. it was 8264. Currently in 2027, we're predicting 8150 and in October that was
0398239. Um, >> how do you go about predicting? >> So, we have a spreadsheet uh that we use. We I pull EMIS data every Monday morning that tells us our FTE, which means if you're a kid and you go to Butler Tech, three classes and you're in high school, I get four sevenths for you. I get four bells at Hamilton and three bells at Butler Tech. Um but it breaks it down in FTE for so we know by kid how much funding we are getting for [snorts] that student and what we do is we predict by cohort throughout the years and as and we know how many about how many kids we lose from 8th to 9th grade and from 9th grade to 10th grade from 11th to 12th. Okay. And so we put those
040percentages in this spreadsheet and we predict kindergarten classes coming in and we move the cohorts throughout the years and we end up with numbers by year for that particular school year. And and so we take all of that information and boil it down into here's what we think we're going to have in that particular year. So there's a lot that goes into it. Um, but it all boils down to, you know, a single number. Um, so we can see, I mean, even in the for this forecast, we don't we don't think we're going to go below 8,000 students. Um, but again, we don't necessarily know where the bottom is. Um, and so that's something that we're, you know, we're constantly looking at. I always like to tell people when you know they always people always
041ask me is enrollment really that far down and I like the example of uh 10 years ago we had a thousand students in the kindergarten class. This year we're at 618. So it it does illustrate yeah we are losing students and and Mike Wright did a a fantastic deep dive into where are the students what you know because it was it was always my thought uh that the birth rate's down well 10 years ago um in Hamilton's 22 square miles there was a set amount of kids and we got a thousand of those kids today there's actually 300 more kids in Hamilton's 22 square miles, but we're only getting 618. There's just so much more choice. Um, kids go to Fairfield Prep. Prep, obviously, there's ed choice. Um, we have high school kids that go
042to, you know, we have an increase in Butler Tech. Uh, we have kids that go to Marshall, there's homeschool. There's just so many more choices now that's driving that decline for HCSD. historically did this uh downward trend really start >> I don't know Mike can you answer that so we knew that we did a study um with actually a gentleman from UC it's been probably 10 years ago now um where we knew that we were going to start hitting an in an an enrollment decline um again that goes back to the birth rates and and all those things right now our junior class is our largest class in the district. So, we knew that we were going to kind of hit a little bit of a slope. Um, what I will say is that prediction
04310 years ago was that we were going to hit a dip, which is kind of where we're at like in fourth, fifth, sixth grade right now, but then it had us going back up. We have not seen that rise back up as was predicted. Um, so for example, last year I believe our enrollment was about 680 in kindergarten. So, we kind of predicted I think this year 660 or >> based on historical trends. We we had it at 660, then we bumped it to 650, and now we're sitting at 640 throughout our our spreadsheet that we calculate that. >> Yeah. So, so like when when Jeremy's saying, we go back, I mean, we we look back 10, 15 years, and we see percentages as we as cohorts go from kindergarten to first grade, first grade
044to second grade. We typically stay 98 to 102% kind of through those grades. It's the high school where you start getting um the choices of you know technical schools um you know uh early college academy through Miami. There's there's just so many other options where we do lose fundings for those kids. Um and as those programs continue to expand, we continue to lose more and more money for those programs as well. So, um I I do think that um you know, our junior class as they roll out, we're probably going to hit our low. Um so, two years from now, we're probably going to be at our very lowest. Um and and hopefully we will start trending back up because we have seen a little bit of growth. Um so like that I was talking
045about our fourth, fifth, sixth grade classes. Some of those are significantly low. So we're going to see five or six more years of that trend pushing through. We do have a couple kindergarten classes where they did kind of jump to that 680 number, but then we're back down to, you know, 620 this year. We're predicting next year to be 640. Again, if it comes in higher, it's better. If it comes in a little lower, we're probably in a little worse situation than what we're able to even predict. >> Right. >> What was the trend prior to this junior class? Did was that a huge ramp up from the trend prior to that or was it >> Yeah. So, so this junior class is actually going back to what Jeremy said. That's when we I think
046it was 101 kindergarteners was this junior class right now. Um, and we knew that again that was that was kind of atypical, but we were sitting at 850 to 900 in most classes. Um, right now we only have, I believe, three classes in the entire district that are over 700. Most all are in the 650 to 680 range. Um, and and I think that's kind of where we're expecting things to continue kind of in that range. Very good question. [clears throat] I always like this uh slide here. Uh this just shows what it costs to educate a kid per day. Um here in Hamilton City Schools, that number is about $83. Uh of which the resident property owners portion is only $1162. So I it's it's always it's set a different way than how we
047typically see it. Cost to educate. Uh I like u breaking it down to the daily cost. So I always include it in my slides. This is the slide we talked about earlier. Uh that shows in the the green line there is the state's portion of funding and cost to educate a child. And you can see basically with every decision that they make, they're driving their costs down while forcing um the local taxpayers through uh income tax levies, property tax levies, what what have you uh to foot the bill for that. So u I always include this uh in my slide as well. And and we got one more slide. It's the summary. [clears throat] So obviously there's been some big changes uh between October and February uh with property tax updates u enrollment updates again
048there's always some unknowns when we're forecasting years out into the future um like what's going on with the banium budget what's going to happen with enrollment um where are our contract negotiations going to land next spring um so there's there's always those types of things. Um, however, I will say that the May update is going to include hopefully the the deficit reduction plan um that we have the bulk of that on this meeting this evening. Um, and it will look significantly better as that slide has showed. I mean, I I know this forecast is a stinker. It is. Um, but hopefully in May I can present you a lot better picture. Uh, and I look forward to that. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. But that's my presentation. I have
049any questions? >> Perfect. Thank you, Mr. President. Appreciate it. >> Absolutely. >> Um, next on our agenda, we're going to um consider a motion to go into executive session. The reason for that is to consider employment of public employee or official. And our second reason is to discuss confidential information related to an application for economic development assistance or negotiations with other political subdivisions related to application as an executive session is necessary to protect the applicant's interest or related expenditures of public funds. A unanimous vote is required for by the board to go into executive session. So do I have a motion? I move a second. Thank you, Mr. Fraser. Got a roll. >> Dr. Hopkins. >> Yes. >> Mr. Davidson, >> yes. >> Dr. Copus, >> yes. >> Miss Matthews, >> yes. >> Miss Manuso,
050>> yes. >> This is Tango. And Tango is our certified [music] therapy dog through the AKC. and he is going to be a therapy dog in Hamilton City Schools this school year [music] and for the future. The students are so excited to have Tango in the building. Um even just seeing him through [music] the glass as they're walking in, they're like, "Tango's here." I think the biggest thing that Tango is going to provide for us is [music] really a lot of comfort um and emotional regulation. Um we know that students learn best when they are emotionally regulated. And so having Tango available to help us feel the calm, that [music] connected state, and just be able to kind of calm our bodies, um it really helps to allow students to feel comfortable and safe, um
051here at school, which then allows them to be ready for learning. >> It's [music] the connection. Um no one has to teach a dog how to connect and how to have empathy. It's part of their [music] genetic makeup. It's part of who they are. um and their connectivity um just the way they feel um their sense of calm, you know, them picking up on how [music] we smell different when we are having different emotions. Their noses are way more attuned. They can pick up on those things. Uh and they can respond and they intuitively know how to respond [music] to um help us be calm. Um you know, uh Arrow, who's already been across the district, will stop and spend more time with people who might have something going on that no one's ever going
052to know about, but Arrow [music] knows. Um, and now Tango is going to know, too. And you don't have to use any words. They can take care of us without us having to talk because sometimes there aren't words for situations that are hard. Ultimately, we'd like to have a dog in every building. Um, you know, and [music] that's we're relying on our community for that. Um, and we've already been met with an overwhelming response. Um, we have, you know, one building already successful and I've got three more buildings on tap that we're be going to be expanding our pack very shortly. One of our main missions is uh the community, right, and children and youth. So, it's all kind of the pillars of the American Legion. So, being able to keep it close and local
053is a great thing. >> His job is people. He is here to work for people, to be comfort, to be friendly, and he's just he loves love. He loves to be pet. He wants [music] friends and attention. So, his job is people, and I want him to know as many people as he can and make a difference in as [music] many lives as he can. I mean, it's amazing. You know, I wouldn't be where I'm at if it wasn't for here. So, being able to come back and and get the love that I get and be able to return it is it's it's huge to me. >> I didn't think this would happen cuz I kind of just jotted it down one random day when my teacher wasn't there and I was like, I don't
054really think anything's really going to happen. I was like, oh my gosh, nothing like this has ever happened to me. This is so awesome. It was amazing to hear the stories and like their their thoughts on, you know, how how they made the design and and what it meant to them. So, like hearing all that was it's awesome. >> I did the Phoenix on the very front of the shape and like the clock. >> You know, I picked a piece out of each each uh design that I seen and I tried to all implement it together and like try to make one like a really cool cleat so that way not just one person won but maybe like 10 or however many I could be able to get. Like I said, some of it related
055to me and some of it didn't relate to me at all, but it related [music] to people that I love and people that I grew up with. So, it's like I might as well uh might as well put everything together if I can. >> I do stuff from like, oh, no one really no one really cares. No one really sees what I'm doing. And then this just kind of proved to me that what I'm doing is worth something to someone. >> You know, being able to just try to make it all about y'all, all about the kids. So that's something I love to do every year. [music] >> Hi, I'm Shaqula Matthews aka Pastor Shaq. [music] Born and raised in Hamilton. I am in my seventh year of schoolboard. Oh my gosh, seven years of
056serving the community in this [music] capacity has been an absolute blessing. um that the people would find the confidence in me for me to [music] serve another year to be able to represent not only um this city but my community that I was born and raised [music] in. And it's just been an honor to be able to serve the kids cuz I work with youth with hype. So to be able to serve in this capacity of being a part of the decision- [music] making and helping make this district better than what I found it and also once my term is up to leave it better than what [music] I found it is definitely the ultimate goal. Uh for me it was important to be a part of the board [music] and to be able to
057work with others to help bring about change to help make sure that every student had the opportunity to [music] be great and whatever that is. If it's excelling in academics, if it's excelling in their sports, however, I wanted to be a part of that process [music] to make sure that young people had what they need to be able to be great in whatever capacity, whatever [music] that may look like. For me, I think since I've been on school board, I've um been I've worked with some amazing board [music] members. uh Mag, Lauren, Dave, all of them. I've worked with working with some amazing people and I look forward to working with our new incoming board members, uh [music] Carrie Vancuso and um Dr. Ashley Hopkins. So, I'm looking forward to their input and what they
058will add and bring to the board. But I've seen so many great things. I've seen a lot of great partnerships come along with working with the city and development in that regards. I've been one thing that that I've been really excited about is the program that [music] Chris Canel heads up with students and them finding employment. I [music] think that has been just just phenomenal how he's really taken that by the head just to really move forward with that program and open up so many opportunities for kids to be able to find employment. So that's been important for me. I also love the CCP course that [music] the students are able to take advantage of. They're able to of course continue working at towards graduation but as well as earning the associates [music] degree in
059Miami. So for me those have been two amazing things that stand out to me that I really really really really love about our district. cuz I've talked to many kids that they're graduating from high [music] school as well as college and I just think that's phenomenal and I that's really setting that that child up to really be great and I think that [music] being a part of those things in the district have been amazing. We have great leadership. We have great leadership with Andrea. We have a [music] great school we have great schoolboard members that are willing and dedicated to us being great and putting us in the best position as possible. We all [music] know that um districts over all over the nation are facing challenges as it relates to budgets and just everything.
060[music] And we feel as if district we've done the work. We we are dedicated to coming together and [music] being supportive of our admin team and of our leadership to make sure that we are able to continue to position our students to [music] be great, continue to support our teachers and staff and make sure that we continue to do things the Hamilton way. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Couple [music] years ago, we had a plan that we wanted to work with a company to start designing a cafeteria that was different than your [music] typical school cafeteria. We wanted it to feel more like a food court and less like your typical long tables, benches, rows. So, we wanted some different types
061of seating in [music] there. The response has been wonderful, not just from the students, but also from the community. We've had lots of adults in here on open house. We've had other jealous teachers from other buildings that have been telling us how great it looks. Uh, so [music] we've had a wonderful response. Honestly, >> it feels more like when we went to Miami. we just got to [music] sit in their cafeteria and it felt just more like mature and so it just is [music] really cool that our cafeteria is a lot like that. The kids are doing better this year like from last year we always would get up scream across the whole lunchroom cuz you couldn't sit with like all your friends. It's like kind of a [music] small space but now it's like
062a bigger space more tables you can just sit and eat with your friends be comfortable. It's a very big [music] change from last year. >> I feel like it's very comfortable. Um the students enjoy eating there while talking to their friends. They really um seem to like [music] the new changes that were made this year. >> We tried to bring not just Garfield in here, but also the city of Hamilton. We brought in Hamilton things from around our community, including some [music] maps of the neighborhoods that our kids come from. It makes you feel like you're being part of the community and [music] enjoy the places that are important. >> I'm just so glad that we get to share this with our students. [music] I'm so glad they get to enjoy it and I just
063love making Garfield even better. >> [music] >> My name is Dr. Ashley [music] Hopkins. Uh I work for Miami University directing our Upwardbound College Preparatory Program at Hamilton High School. Uh I've [music] worked there for about eight years and I have worked in public education for almost 20 years this year. I decided to run for school board first and foremost because as I mentioned I have worked in public education for almost 20 [music] years. Um and I'm a product of public education and my whole family is. I come from a workingclass bluecollar background >> [music] >> um from Appalachia. I'm a first generation college student myself and if it wasn't for the great public school educators in the small town that I grew up in in Galliples, Ohio. [music] Um if it wasn't for them,
064I wouldn't be where I'm at now. I wouldn't have my doctorate in educational administration and I wouldn't be serving my community here in Hamilton [music] and helping open the door to educational access for other students. I think in the district we do a really exemplary job of providing [music] an individualized educational experience for each of our students. And so we have a district that has [music] many many passionate educators from our um support staff in the cafeterias and in the classroom, our [music] teaching assistants, our teachers clear up to our administration. they really all genuinely care about students and their well-being um and their ability to learn and succeed. And so we're really focused on doing what is best for our students and and that looks very individual for each student and we take the
065time out to get to know our students and to think through [music] each one of those individual needs and problems that they maybe um experience in the classroom or in their educational [music] journey. I'm really excited to stand as an advocate for our students to continue the student focused educational uh traditions that we've developed at Hamilton [music] School District. Um I really am focused on being an advocate, especially for our students who are [music] uh maybe overlooked or feel overlooked, making sure that our most vulnerable populations [music] are really advocated for in the board meetings and when we're making different difficult decisions throughout [music] the year. So, I'm excited about that. I'm excited about the performance in our data and being at the front of that and thinking [music] about how we can continue to
066respond to the changing educational landscape, maintaining that data while also protecting and supporting our students overall well-being and educational access. I know that we have challenges ahead, but to [music] be very honest, those challenges are uh some of the motivation for me to even jump in right now. [music] I think it's a really important time to serve public education. And so for me, this is a bit of a call to service um as we navigate choppy waters, but we're going to come out on the good side. As a new principal at Hamilton High School, I was really thinking about this Hamilton Baiten game and how we could [music] make this a community celebration, but really at the core of the Ben mission is service to our community. And that's always been an important part of
067[music] uh what my passion is in education. So whether it's working with 17 strong and micro grants with our youth or [music] just getting out in the community and doing cleanups, we really wanted to launch something that was bigger than the football game, something where our kids give back to the community. Some of them are actually throwing stuff in the dumpster right now, helping out Miss Ebony, the executive director at BTW. [music] And then we have boys out in the community, walking the streets, picking up trash. Over the summer, uh we had the the opportunity to meet uh with Hamilton [music] High's administration and and just talk about this game. Uh this game is such an awesome opportunity for both schools uh to showcase really what we believe, what we're [music] all about. And in
068meeting with Tai and talking, we wanted to do something to make our community better to bring our uh our two football teams that that obviously are competing to win win football games. Uh but more importantly, we wanted to come together to to serve the community in the [music] midst of a rivalry week that we're working together to make things better. I think that, you know, when I look at, you know, our guys and Hamilton's guys, there's so many little faces in those crowds, little kids that look up to them. I mean, they see them as celebrities at times and just to inspire in them a desire to to be more than just what they are on the football field. I mean, they're leaders in our community. They're doing great things and I think the opportunity
069to showcase that really to inspire hopefully some other people to get involved in [music] 17 strong uh here at the Booker T. Washington Center to get involved here, which are great organizations uh that need need people like this to come out and serve [music] uh and make the place better. And it's just really to me signifies kind of a new launch of service to our community for both of our schools for Ben and for Hamilton. So it was great to see everybody out in their jerseys. Uh it is Hamilton versus Ben Friday night, but right now everybody's working together to make our community a better place. [music] I'm Dr. Joe Copus. I'm a board member here in Hamilton. Uh I've been on the board for two years. Um [music] lifelong resident of Hamilton. I'm a
070product of the uh public schools here in Hamilton. Uh [music] I'm married to Joanie Lowour Copus for 42 years. We have uh three grown children also here in Hamilton. Um I am a retired dentist. I practiced clinical dentistry for 30 plus years. I'm also a retired colonel from the United States Army. uh having [music] enlisted in 1983 and retired in 2018. Um I love being on the school board. I think uh the health and the welfare of our city is in a large way dependent on the status and condition of our public schools. And even though we currently are facing some challenges, I think we're doing the best that we can and we're still producing and delivering a [music] very good product to our city. ever since day one of me being elected to the
071board was I I am very much an advocate for the [music] staff. Um I've said on multiple occasions that the three most influential people in my life were teachers that I had in the Hamilton City Schools and [music] they truly have affected me and influenced the decisions that I've made in life. So I I can't focus enough on the welfare of our staff and our goal as a district should be to attract and retain as many great educators as we can. Uh I think that's so critically [music] important not only to the success of the schools today but the success of our city as we move forward and fortunately our schools I think have a very good working relationship with the city and I think both of those two entities understand that each we're dependent
072[music] on each other and the success of each is dependent on each other. One of the things I wanted to accomplish when I was elected is that I wanted to see the culture in our district [music] change a little bit and I think because of our new superintendent Mrs. Blevens and her staff. I think it has. [music] Um, and I also wanted to see I wanted to try to take better care of our staff. And fortunately, each one of our unions in the Hamilton district has been able to renegotiate their contract, and they've been given what I think are some pretty substantial pay increases, which makes us very competitive in what we're trying to do as far as finding good people and keeping them here in Hamilton. It's an honor to be on the board,
073and uh, when I ran for the board in 23, there were two seats available. There were [music] four candidates and I think it's very appropriate that the uh community at that time had a choice. It really is a critically important job and the decisions that you make uh not only influence the schools but it influences the health [music] and the welfare of our city as a whole. Arrow is the Hamilton City School District's first therapy dog. Um she is certified through the AKC [music] as a certified therapy dog. Um she is here for our students and our staff and uh is just a part of our the Hamilton [music] community >> and I'm just so impressed with her poise. Um she is so well trained and just does a great job [music] already uh to
074lighten all of our moods. I I couldn't be thankful enough to leadership Hamilton Hamilton Community Foundation and the Pauls and Stripes [music] College for preparing such an amazing partner. We couldn't have asked for a better dog. I know Andrea just saw the benefit [music] and all the research that was behind how therapy dogs make a solid impact with students, you know, through attendance and grades and behavior and she did a lot of research herself [music] and brought it to the team and wanted to take the project on. And this is one proactive strategy that local communities are using to help build resilience, kindness, [music] positivity. There's a lot of research out there about how a therapy dog will lower anxiety and [music] stress, which so many of our young people and our staff are facing
075on a day-to-day basis. Our goal is to get a dog for each of [music] our buildings. Um, as you know, there's a lot of needs that go around and Arrow is just one. We're a very large district. And so, our goal is to onboard [music] four to five dogs a year that would allow us to eventually get there in the next few years to a dog per school. that will allow that [music] dog to become really a part of that school culture. Through community donations, through different [music] agencies, we've been able to raise the money completely so that not one district dollar is being used for this. >> She's calm, mild manner, just very [music] sweet, very gentle, listens very well, a lot of love, a lot of love, a lot of happiness. [music] Um,
076a lot of energy behind it, which is great. >> [music] >> My name is Dave Davidson. I'm a Hamilton City School District board member. Uh I'm starting my will be my 11th year. Uh I was just reelected um [music] in November. I am a product of the Hamilton City Schools and actually [music] I'm a third generation uh Hamilton City School graduate. My father graduated in 1951 from Hamilton High. My grandfather uh from Hamilton High in 1928. Uh I have three boys that graduated from Hamilton High and I currently have two gr grandchildren who are students in the Hamilton City School [music] District. I'm married to Kim, who's a teacher in the Hamilton City School District. I have 10 grandchildren. Two of them live in Germany. Uh I'm a practicing attorney here in Hamilton. I've been
077practicing for about 35 years in Hamilton. I love Hamilton. I came back to Hamilton when I graduated from law school. I'm committed to Hamilton. [music] It's a great place to raise a family and I was fortunate to do that. Uh, I've been very active in community activities. Uh, I was involved with Westside Little League when my boys were younger. I'm on currently the planning commission for the city of Hamilton. I was on city council for 5 years back in the '9s. The reason I went on to uh the city council back then is Hamilton [music] was going through a difficult time. Everybody was complaining. We were losing manufacturing jobs. People good evening. Want to call this meeting this business meeting into session. We can stand for our pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of
078the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Mr. F, you call the role. >> No roll. >> We don't do a roll. >> We We did roll already. We'll just go right into the um approval of the >> approve. That's it. That's it. Approval of the agenda. I have a motion. >> So move. >> A second. >> Second. >> M. Fer, if you call the role, please. >> Mr. Davidson. >> Yes. >> Dr. Copus. >> Yes. >> Miss Matthews? >> Yes. >> Dr. Hopkins? >> Yes. >> Miss Manuso? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um, I'll set the approval u motion for the approval of minutes. >> So move. >> Thank you. Do I have a second? >> I'll
079second. Thank you. Mr. Fzer, if you call the role, please. >> Dr. Copus, >> yes. >> Miss Matthews, >> yes. >> Dr. Hopkins, >> yes. >> Miss Manuso, >> yes. >> Mr. Davidson, >> yes. >> Thank you. Next on our agenda, we have our U public participation. And I have Miss Katie Mcabe from for doing a HCTA update. There we go. So, hello. As you know, I'm the president of the Hamilton Classroom Teachers Association, and I just wanted to come up and say that as a group, as um union leadership and a union in general, we understand the appro the proactive approach that the board is taking tonight to create a balanced plan that supports our student and students and staff. We understand that tonight's cuts are direct results of the cuts in the state
080and federal funding. We want to thank you for your transparency through these challenging times as well as your continued support for our members, including in this evening in the debt reduction plan. Um, we look forward to a bright future for our district and continue working with all of you for the betterment of our staff, students, and district. We understand this is a hard decision. None of them were made lightly, but we do truly appreciate the transparency that we have shown been shown through this entire process. And just to let you know that how much we appreciate it and that we do understand it was difficult decisions to make. So that [snorts] was it for tonight, but I just wanted to make sure that you guys were aware. >> Thank you so much, Miss Mackie. I
081appreciate that update and the encouraging words and support. So greatly appreciate it. >> Next on our agenda, I have um Miss Blevens with our superintendent comments. >> Yes. Uh thank you, President Matthews. Um, I do have a number of comments to make uh this evening. Uh, first I just want to acknowledge that uh this week we're joining school districts across the nation and celebrating public schools week. A time to recognize the vital role that public schools pay play in our communities and in our democracy. Public schools are the heart of our community. They are the one place where every child is welcome regardless of the background, ability, language, or circumstance. Every day, our schools open their doors with a promise to educate, support, and care for all students who walk through them. Here in our
082district, public education is far more than just academics. It's about relationships. It's about dedicated staff who stay late, support staff who go above and beyond, administrators who lead with purpose, and families who partner with us to ensure student success. It's about creating safe, inclusive spaces where students are challenged, supported, and prepared for what comes next. Public schools are also one of the greatest investments a community can make. Strong public schools strengthen neighborhoods, fuel local economies, and pre prepare the next generation of workers, leaders, and citizens. When we invest in public education, we invest in opportunity and in the future of our community. This week is also a reminder that public schools don't succeed alone. Our success is made possible through collaboration with our families, community partners, local organizations, and this board of education. Your support,
083advocacy, and belief in public education makes a difference every single day. So during public schools week, I just want to say thank you. Thank you to our educators and to our staff for their dedication and their professionalism. Thank you to over 82% of the families in the city of Hamilton for trusting us with your children. And thank you to our community who have stood strong with us through these difficult times. We are proud of our schools. We along with the other 610 public schools across the state serve 90% of children in the state of Ohio. We believe in the mission and we remain committed to ensuring that every student we serve has access to highquality well-rounded public education. I think it's important to note that we have so many special things going on here in
084the city. just a few I want to highlight tonight for our board and our community today. I'm extremely proud of our juniors who took the ACT today and did a wonderful job uh showing what they know as they determine what the next steps for them as they become young adults. James Hustler qualified for state after winning uh districts in the breast stroke. Hamilton City School students are catching the attention of the Cincinnati Inquirer magazine as you saw tonight. Mattie Wagenfield was Cincinnati Inquirer Student of the Week last week and Joan Joe Price is up for nomination this week. So, please keep voting for him. In addition, our Hamilton choirs did an amazing job last weekend at the Double H Showcase. This week, our HHS alum and Atlanta Falcons NFL player Malik Verdon returned to Hamilton
085City Schools to distribute student or shoes to students at Riverview and celebrate our artists who designed cleats that he wore in a professional football game. We are also uh so proud that this week our um our students are showcasing their musical abilities at our citywide concerts. Uh last night was our band, tonight is orchestra, tomorrow is choir. So please make sure to check them out if if you haven't already. And we are also extremely excited to host the upcoming 17 Strong Neighborhood Summit at our high school on Saturday, March 7th. With all these exciting things, it's hard to believe that the school year is flying by. I think it's important for us as a board and to remind all of our families that the end of next of third quarter is next Thursday. I don't
086know how we got here so quick. Um and we will have no school for students on Friday, Friday, March 6, so that our staff can finalize um reports. I do want to thank um HCTA uh for their comments this evening. Um, you know, I I think that Mrs. McCabe has acknowledged that these last few months have been hard for us as we've had to make tough decisions and tonight is another tough decision as the as the board will vote to approve uh and accept some of the reduction in forces. Uh, however, we are doing this work every single day to make sure that our district is ready and strong to support this community long term. Tonight on the agenda, you'll see there are a number of items up for approval. one is the NIL uh
087policy update that we talked about during the last work session. You'll also see that there is a OSAA resolution that will allow us, our students, athletes in grades 7 through 12 to continue to participate. You will also see as part of that reduction plan tonight, the Butler County ESC contract of service to run preschool at Fairwood Elementary uh beginning in August of next year. Uh just want to remind the board that that contract will save us approximately $1.3 million in having them outsource our preschool. In addition on our HR agenda tonight, uh it is quite large. This is the agenda that includes all of the certified, so our HCTA and administrative reductions in forces. This list is already less than the original 153 that we talked through. Um, as we've started to recall, as vacancies
088and retirements occur, from this point forward, uh, after your vote this evening, any staff member who will be recalled will be listed on future agendas as a recall and a resend as the reduction will be made official after your vote tonight. Our local 151, which is our clerical and our EA union positions, will be on a later agenda um, as we finalize that process. I am also happy to report that while you'll see uh all of our HCSD nurses are included on tonight's uh reduction and force list uh through collaboration with Butler County ESC, we have already hired a number of them back to onboard and continue providing RN services in our district. Um with hiring going on, this allows us to keep the best quality in our schools for a price that we can
089afford. Um I do plan as we get into future months to continue to update the board on where we are with recalls and what actual numbers in the end that we are parting with um of employees. Uh but I will tell you one resounding piece in every one of these conversations that I've had with staff is they want to be a part of our district. They love working here. They love serving our community and we are committed to trying to recall and employ as many of them as possible uh through this transition. There are also uh some other items on the agenda that I just think it's important for our community and our board to to uh point out. Uh as you know, I always send a description of every item so you have some
090time to review and ask questions before. Um but on our consent agenda tonight, there's a number of items that I think are important to call attention to. The first is our program of studies for Hamilton High School next year. Uh each year we take a look at what course offerings we're going to um offer. Uh on here you'll see that there are a few classes that have been added um including electives, career tech, as well as advanced academic options that have been added to the table for our big blue 9 through 12 high school students next year. In addition, you'll see there's a number of field trips that are up for approval tonight. We have amazing athletes and performers uh going all over. Uh we've got a student uh swimmer that is going to Canton
091to compete um at Canton High School. We also have uh NJOTC traveling to Florida for oreing uh here in the next few weeks. Our inharmonics group will be traveling to Indianapolis to compete at Warren Central High School. and our students uh that participate in Miami University's Upwardbound program will be going to Indianapolis over spring break uh to visit two college campuses uh and have some some great experiences. You'll also see on the agenda tonight from special ed there is a quote to uh provide placement for one of our special education students. This student is already placed at Warren County Career or Warren County Educational Service Center. However, they need a more restrictive environment. And so on here, you'll see that that student will be that we are projecting that that student moves from the wellness
092center to the learning center, which does acrue additional costs. We talk all the time about the costs associated with educating all students. Um, and so there is an additional cost for that that comes out of our general fund. [laughter] On our business agenda tonight, we've got a number of things. One is part of our commitment to ensure we have the best quality buildings as our capital plan uh is laid out. We Bridgeport Elementary this summer is due for a carpet upgrade. It's important to note that those that that carpet is paid for out of permanent improvement. No general fund dollars are used. Uh that is to help ensure we have high quality facilities for our students. You'll also see on here that there is uh the freshman campus has has received a grant from the
093Joe Vero Burough Foundation for $1,000 to provide youth mental health supports at their school. You'll see on here that we have up for approval tonight the purchase of a box truck for our building and grounds team to ensure they can continue to do uh their work. Unfortunately, our previous one overheated and no longer uh will run. Again, that comes out of permanent improvement dollars. to leveraging everywhere we can to save funds within our general fund. In addition, you'll see on the business agenda, um, as I've talked about with a lot of, uh, community members don't realize that we are also also the fiscal agent for many of the federal dollars that flow through our district to our local parochial or charter schools. And so just like we got our allocation before of those during our
094last board agenda, you'll see tonight these are the auxiliary funds that are flowing through for Emanuel Lutheran, St. Anne, St. Joe's, St. Pete, and Ben. Um our our team is the one that oversees the use of those dollars, but they we just manage their money for them. They tell us where to spend that. So that's on here for agenda. Then the last two items on here um I wanted to just uh take a second to speak on in our technology agenda. You'll see there are two fairly large purchase orders on this agenda. The first one being uh our district phone system. Our phones um typically in a typical year cost us about $200,000 to maintain in a in a in a regular school year. What's interesting right now is those are paid out of general
095fund. As we are upgrading all of our phones, the physical phones that we have in our buildings, we are able to package that together into a five-year deal and take that expense out of permanent improvement dollars. So that will save our general fund over the next number of years about $695,000 I'm sorry, $225,000 by moving that from the general fund into PI. The same uh is can be said about staff devices. So as you know we provide all of our teachers um and our administrators with computers to use and and ensure that they can provide high quality instruction to kids. Um right now we purchase those out of permanent improvement. However, the software that we use we purchase out of general fund. We spend about $50,000 a year uh to provide Microsoft services for all
096of those devices. By packaging that together where we're buying the devices and the software at the same time, we are able to save the general fund and put that into the permanent improvement. So that was an item that was listed as the budget reduction plan and will save us about $250,000 over five years time. So, I think it's important to our community to know that um our team is committed to looking at every available dollar that we can leverage that allow us to relieve our general fund but continue to offer great services to our staff and students. And so, I that that's sometimes a complicated process, but both of those expenses have been able to relieve our general fund, but still continue to provide high quality uh supplies and materials in our district. Okay. I
097know that was a mouthful tonight and I apologize, but I think there were there were so many items that were on here that it was important um for those. I will take any questions that you might have for me, but those are my comments this evening. >> I have a comment. >> Yes. >> Do you think Huffman and the legislature are going to celebrate public schools this week? >> I don't know. I have not seen anything come out yet, Mr. Davidson. [laughter] >> And the second thing is just a question. the federal dollars that flow through us. It's our staff. It's accounting at Jeremy's time. Do we get compensated for that? >> We we do. We we get um 4% of those dollars. I'll do a journal entry every year uh for 4% of the
098total allocation goes back into our general fund. >> Yep. >> So, it's not completely for free. >> Yeah. >> I didn't know if it was like the busing, but we do for free. No, we we do get a little a little portion of that pie. What I'll say is, you know, we have a dedicated title and grants coordinator. Her salary is more than 4% of of what that piece looks like. Um but we do at least see some return for that management of the federal dollars. Those are federal dollars um that flow through there. Those are my comments this evening. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss. I appreciate that. Next on our agenda, um we'll uh accept a motion for our NIL policy. Um anybody have any questions about it? Do >> a first and second
099and then discussion. >> Yep. Okay. Yep. Do I have a motion? >> I'll motion. >> Second. >> One of us wasn't first. >> I've got Dr. Hopkins on the first. >> Okay. >> Miss Benuso for the second. Any discussion hearing? None. Mr. Frasier. >> Miss Matthews. >> Yes. >> Dr. Hopkins. >> Yes. >> Miss Manuso. >> Yes. >> Mr. Davidson. >> No. >> Dr. Copus. >> Yes. >> Okay. Next on our agenda, we have a OSAA resolution. Do I have a a motion? >> Motion to approve. >> Have a second. We'll second. Mr. Frazzer, if you call the role, please. >> Dr. Hopkins, >> yes. >> Miss Manuso, >> yes. >> Mr. Davidson, >> yes. >> Dr. Copus, >> yes. >> Miss Matthews, >> yes. >> Next on our agenda, um, our Butler County Educational
100Service Center contract to provide preschool services for school year 2627. Do I have a motion? >> I'll move to adopt. >> Have a second. I'll second the motion. Any discussion? Hearing nothing. Mr. Fraser, if you call the role, please. >> Dr. Hopkins. >> Yes. >> Mr. Davidson? >> Yes. >> Dr. Copus? >> Yes. >> Miss Matthews? >> Yes. >> Miss Musa? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Next on our agenda is our human resource um personnel items. Do we um have a motion to accept? have a motion. >> I'll I'll make the move to accept. >> I'll second that. Any discussion? >> Hearing that, Mr. Fer, if you call the role. >> Mr. Davidson, >> yes. >> Dr. Copus, >> yes. Miss Matthews, >> yes. >> Dr. Hopkins, >> yes. >> Miss Manuso, >> yes. >>
101Thank you. Next we have our consent agenda. Do I have a motion? >> I motion to approve. >> I have a second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Uh I due to my affiliation with the upwardbound program, I will be abstaining from voting. >> Thank you. Mr. Fer, if you call the role. >> Dr. Copus, >> yes. >> Miss Matthews, >> yes. >> Miss Manuso, >> yes. >> Mr. Davidson, >> yes. >> Dr. Mr. Hopkins, >> I abstain. >> Thank you. Our finance agenda. Um, Mr. Frasier. >> Thank you, President Matthews. Um, you folks have already heard me uh talk quite a bit tonight. Uh, so luckily we have a a short finance agenda this evening. Um, I'll bring it up here. uh we basically have the regular normal treasure reports and then we also
102have uh the financial forecast that we will uh approve on tonight's agenda and then we also have the donations that I always like to highlight. Um again, we're always uh so thankful and grateful for uh the folks that donate to Hamilton City Schools. Uh so we've got Amvets out there uh for $3,400 and then the Hamilton Optimist Club uh to Wilson Middle for 250. Um so again, thank you to all those folks and that's my those are my items this evening. >> Thank you, sir. Do I have the um motion to accept the finance agenda? >> I'll move. >> Thank you. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. Thank you. Mr. Fer, if you uh call the role, please. Miss Matthews, >> yes. >> Dr. Hopkins, >> yes. >> Miss Manuso, >> yes. >>
103Mr. Davidson, yes. >> Dr. Copus, >> yes. >> Thank you. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, March 10th, here at 533 Dayton Street. Do I have a motion? Accept a motion to adjurnn. >> So move. >> Thank you. Have a second. >> Second. >> Meeting. >> Thank you.