001Good afternoon. Welcome to the Hamilton City School Board of Education board meeting. Also for the record, Dr. Copas will not be in attendance tonight. If we could all stand for our pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All righty. Good afternoon. Ms. Weisbrodt, can you call the roll, please? Absolutely. Ms. Matthews? Here. Mr. Davidson? Here. Dr. Hopkins? Here. Ms. Mancuso? Here. And as President Matthews stated, Dr. Copas will be absent this evening. Thank you. I don't see anyone from City Council. So, we'll move on to It is board member recognition month. So, I will turn that over to Ms. Weisbrodt. Thank you much. So, we get the pleasure of spotlighting
002you this afternoon. So, January is National School Board Recognition Month and we're blessed to bring in two new members at the beginning of January. The week of January 12th for the public that's out there, we ran spotlights on each of the board members, which was actually really wonderful. We got a lot of good social media attraction for that. So, we thank you for you know, showing some insight to yourselves and why being on the Hamilton City School Board is so important. We want to close out the month of January by recognizing each one of you this afternoon and just a heartfelt thank you. I know it's an extremely tough job and you guys have led and always have led with dignity and grace and with the best interests in mind for not only our students,
003but all of our staff members as well and as a staff member, as a mother and as a community member of Hamilton, I personally want to thank each one of you for that, for your forward thinking, your leadership and continue to push this excellent district in the direction that it will continue to go and that's onward and upwards. So, this evening on behalf of the Ohio School Boards Association, I'd like to present each one of you with a certificate of appreciation and then after we're finished and some other closing words, if you had anything to say, then we'll recognize you so we can get that out for our community spotlight. So, Mr. Dave Davidson. Ms. Shaquila Matthews. Yep, thank you. Dr. Ashley Hopkins. Thank you, sir. And Ms. Carrie Mancuso. Thank you so much for
004all that you guys do for our community. And we also have have one for Dr. Copas, but again, he's out and we'll recognize him when when we see him next. Thank you. Yes, if I could just add, I want to thank you each for your work and collaboration together. There aren't many days that I don't speak to many of you and and I've never met a group of more passionate people who really care and want to be involved in the decision making for our students and staff. And so, as a superintendent, your board is really important that we are always communicating, always advocating and and having good conversations. Doesn't mean we're always going to agree on every approach, but really sitting down, talking through those and doing what's best and I just want to thank
005you. As Ms. Weisbrodt said, this job is not easy. They get harder and harder every day and right now as our district goes through difficult financial times, I couldn't be more blessed to have such a passionate group of five people who are helping to drive the decision making in the future forward for this district. So, from my seat, I just want to thank you for all you do. Agreed. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Thank you, Ms. Weisbrodt, for the presentation of our and recognizing us and continuing. I'm glad to work with the great group of board members. So, yes, I like how it says scaling new heights. This is exactly what we're doing. Doing some good stuff. So, in spite of it, yes, we're doing some good stuff. So, next on our agenda
006is our property tax reform analysis and I'll turn that over to Mr. Fraser. Thank you, President Matthews. As promised, we are going to look at the effects of some of the new newly passed property tax reform. Governor DeWine signed these bills back in December and from then until now, we've kind of been analyzing what does that mean for Hamilton City Schools, how is that impacted, you know, us, the forecast, our plans moving forward and all those types of things. So, I've got four slides that we're going to go over. Most of them are comparison documents between what we knew in October for the October forecast and basically we've rolled that forward to include property tax reform in the model. I think it's important to keep in mind there's no other changes within what I'm going
007to share tonight. We're not looking at, you know, how how we are comparing the plan for this year, any enrollment increases or drops, you know, anything like that. It's a strictly a comparison of October and then including the property tax reform. I'm going to be blunt. This is it's not good for Hamilton City Schools. This is making a bad financial situation worse for us to the tune of about 3.3 to 3.9 million dollars per year starting in FY28. So, we'll go through some comparison documents and then we'll talk about exactly how that impacts us. So, first slide we've got here, this is again, it's a comparison document of line 6.01 on the forecast. Line 6.01 on the forecast is where it shows a revenue surplus or a shortfall. So, you're either bringing in more money
008than you're spending and you'll have a surplus or you're spending more money than you're bringing in and you'll have a shortfall. >> [snorts] >> Obviously, on the October forecast, we were showing a shortfall, a spending deficit and you can see on this graph here, the dotted gray line is the October forecast. The solid line is representative of the October forecast with included property tax reform. So, obviously, I've said it's going to be a shortfall of revenue over and above the October forecast of north of 3 million dollars. So, obviously, the spending deficit is increasing and that's what this this shows right here. So, said differently, this is a comparison of just the revenue line items on the forecast. So, again, it we're only talking about property tax reform as the difference between here and October.
009So, really the only thing that's going to be different is the real estate property line on the forecast. Expenditures are not changing. Just that top line on the forecast, property taxes. So, you can see we were predicting in October that green dotted line here of a relatively flat revenue base. And we have increased expenditures, expenditures are always increasing. Predicting a flat revenue base, again, that causes a deficit. But we can see here, the solid green line is the updated model that includes property tax reform and we can see those revenues no longer being flat, but actually losing revenues. With that full impact coming in FY28. The reason we we don't see the full impact coming in until 28 is in the current law, they put in a back filler. So, [snorts] the very first year
010that those property taxes are reduced, we don't see the full weight of that. The the state's going to back fill some of that for us. But again, that's only a one-year deal. And these tax payer credits, which we'll get into, are moving forward. Okay? How how far forward do they move? I mean, indefinitely or Right now, the law says indefinitely. Yeah. So, we'll get into the nuts and bolts here on on this slide. It's it's actually pretty complicated what they've done. Um So, the real the real gist of the law is they've said that any district that's on the 20 mil floor, historically, if if tax values went up 20%, the school district's piece of that would go up 20%. Okay? Well, they've put a cap in place. The cap is CPI, Consumer Price Index.
011Um and so, for the last 3 years, the CPI has been 9.1%. Okay? So, let's say the county auditor comes out and she says values are going to increase 17%. Typically, Hamilton would get a 17% increase on its portion of the property tax bill. Well, you as a Hamilton taxpayer are going to see your increased value, you're going to see your increased tax, but you're also going to see a taxpayer credit to take that 17 down to the nine for the school district piece. Okay? And that's moving forward. And And that, to be honest, would be easy to plan for. Um we would never forecast more than what the consumer price index is, right? And plan accordingly. Um so does that does that piece cuz that's only one piece. Does that piece make sense that
012property taxes for schools on the 20 mil floor are capped at the consumer price index? Okay. So, the real kicker is there's also a provision in the law, which was done, I believe, uh later on in the process. Um the new legislation provides for retroactive property tax credits. So, what they're doing is they're saying the last time that values were assessed was tax year '23 collect '24. And we are going to give taxpayer credits based on if the law was in place at that time. That's the real kicker. Okay? Because, as everybody knows, in Ohio, the last reval was high, right? Um so what they're saying is if the law was in place for consumer price index at that time, here's what those credits would have been for property taxes. And so they are taking
013that value, which is about district-wide, it's about 3.3 million dollars. And they're rolling that forward for the foreseeable future. Um to answer your question, David, it's it's in law and there is at least how we're being trained now, there is no end to that. So that means in FY '28, if I'm forecasting 26 million that I forecasted in October, guess what? That's 22.7 million dollars instead of 26 million dollars. Big difference for us moving forward. That's That's the tricky part is that retroactive piece. Curiosity, is this aimed just at public schools or county governments getting hit with it, city governments, and our great legislature getting hit with uh you know, um This piece of the property tax reform is only aimed at schools. If you look at like a a workflow chart, it says um
014is the school district at the 20 mil floor? No. Okay, none of it applies. If the school district's at the 20 mil floor, then it applies. It doesn't mention any other because there's no 20 mil floor for other government entities. >> But uh but property taxes are not just for schools. >> Correct. But But this piece of it is for schools, yes. >> then the state legislature and the governor hasn't done anything to curb expenses or reduce what uh you know, the county government gets or what the state gets. Is that correct? >> Uh as far as I know, they're just hammering schools right now. Yeah, good point though. >> That's correct, Dave, that property values will continue to be reassessed and I think that's what you're getting at. If there are increases, the only
015caps that have been put in through legislative action are on the school districts, not the other entities that get a piece of that that increase. So the the the targeted uh credit that tax owner or that homeowners will get is the dollars that school districts are losing. Doesn't mean they couldn't still see raised taxes in other areas or or pieces, but you are correct that from my understanding and and my review, the only cap that has been applied is to limit the amount of funds school districts can get on those reassessments. Right. Right. And And like I said before, I mean, if you told us that it was going to be your property tax revenues moving forward are capped at the inflation rate, so be it. Um but the going back and having that retroactive
016credit as if the law was in place, they're basically removing dollars from us moving forward that we already received back in um collect your '24. So that that's the that's the kicker is the retroactive treatment of the last reval. Um do we have any questions on that cuz I know that's a complicated thing. Um and it's, you know, it takes a while to digest that, but that's where the 3.3 comes from. Um I've also referenced the 3.9. Um that is an additional uh this year it was uh $584,000 um that the commissioners chose to enact that piggyback uh exemption on the homestead. Um again, that's a that's a one-year thing. They could do it next year or not do it next year. Um so that's why our estimate is the 3.3 for the uh retroactive
017credits. And if the commissioners decide to um re-up the homestead piggyback, it would we're looking at 3.9. And when does that hit the budget? So, um you as a taxpayer in Hamilton, you did not I don't know if anybody has seen their tax bill yet, but they're out. Um the law was just put in place. So the treasurer, the auditor have not had a chance to put those credits on the bill yet. So you'll not see that on your first half tax bill. On your second half tax bill, when you get it in August time frame, um you will see the credit [snorts] for the retroactive plus whatever, you know, if it's 17% valuation increase, you'll see a a credit for that difference between that and the the 9.1. So it will affect us this
018calendar year, but that is FY '27. Um and again, there are some partial backfills, so we're not going to see, you know, the 3.3 million hit us in FY '27. Um but in '28, we will see the full impact of of the legislation. Do we have any questions on that slide? I mean, I've only got one more. It just shows the um it's a comparison document that shows days cash on hand for what we knew in October versus what we know now with property tax relief. Um Dr. [clears throat] Hopkins actually had uh sent me an email regarding um what what's recommended for days of cash. Um if you talk to to ODE or O do, um they say no less than 30 days of cash, which is one month. Um that's extremely scary to
019me. Uh anybody that only has 30 days of cash is either on the ballot or they're um doing a significant reduction plan. Um it's just 30 days cash is is not sustainable. Um >> [clears throat] >> also, if we look at uh fiscal year 2029 there, uh you can see in the October forecast we had uh two days of cash, uh which equated equated to about $768,000 was the bottom right number on the forecast. With this inclusion of property tax reform, uh we're looking at negative 24 days of cash, which equates to about a negative nine million dollar number as far as cash at the end of fiscal year 2029. So it's it's a big big change. Um it's going to be reflective in my February forecast next month. Um so we get to talk
020about this again. Um but again, this is not inclusive of anything else we're doing, any updates. The February forecast will be inclusive of trends um so far this year, how we're shaping up. Um we've got a a cash flow analysis under the normal treasurer reports uh that we approve every meeting. Uh right now, we're to the good about $616,000. Um but that's in large part in result of uh some additional TIF dollars that we received in December. Um so we're running pretty close to plan. >> [clears throat] >> And that's what the February forecast will will include. Um anything additionally that we uh we do as far as a district moving forward and decisions that that we are going to make will not be reflected in that February forecast, meaning that lucky me, I get
021to do a third forecast this year. Uh and we'll do that in May or June. Um hopefully with with some of those things in place. Um so that that's really all I have. Um I know it's a it's a complicated issue, uh but it's a big time issue for us and anybody uh on the 20 mil floor. I think eight of the 10 school districts in the county are on the floor, so this is going to affect a ton ton of people. Um if you have any further questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Quick question. Yep. State has a rainy day fund. Do you know what that is right now? I don't know what the the total balance is, but I can get that for you. It's I I know it's um quite large.
022Quite large. Yeah. And didn't we just get a uh email from uh Ohio Senate critical of us for having cash reserve, our rainy day fund, which is minimal? I think theirs is almost a billion dollars on the state level. Uh it it it may be more. Um and I I want to applaud Andrea. She uh responded back uh with a a great answer. Yes. Um I mean, they want to penalize us for being fiscally responsible and having cash on hand. Well, when things like this happen, you know, obviously it's it's terrible for school districts, but you know, we are actually better able to weather the storm than a lot of folks. Um and so they they want to penalize us for that, but you know, I I think we're doing a great job and and
023her answer was fantastic. >> It was. Yeah, I I want to thank Mr. Fraser for sharing this. Um you know, obviously the the first part of this devastating budget for us happened this summer when they changed the way that they're funding and failed to continue to fully implement the fair school funding formula. That is why we had to start acting. Um why do we have cash reserves? I hear that a lot. Why do we keep money for 100 days? It's for that. You know, the changes that happened in July I want to say that again. This past July going into August caused us to go from a million dollars of overspend to 5 million within a blink of an eye. These additional things that were just signed into law on December 19th are going to
024cost an additional 3.3 million. And so it is really important that our residents, our our board, our staff understand that these decisions that are being made are having immediate and drastic impacts. That's why it's so important we do keep reserves because we can't be changed. Can you imagine if we were trying to change things right now on a 3.3 million dollar budget item that's changing. We don't want to do the things that we're doing right now. I want to be very clear. Um our state politicians want to throw that back in our face that because we have cash reserves, that means we shouldn't be funded at the correct level. However, that is not the problem that's happening here. It is not our spending. It's the complete changing of the trajectory of what we've been told.
025We either have been given in the case of property tax dollars for them to go back 3 years for money that was already allocated, given to our district that in many cases we've spent. And then the property tax or the the funding formula, it's just it's it's a it's a hard day in education. We are doing everything we can to keep ourselves as solvent. We're going to talk about that again tonight with our budget reduction plan, but I've heard from so many people, why just now? Why didn't you know about this before before now? Why Why weren't you budgeting years ago? We have always lived within our means, but when the boundaries change, we have to pivot quickly to ensure that we can still be responsive to the needs of our community and our students
026and our staff. We were definitely blindsided in July. No warning at all at all. Thank you so much, Mr. Fraser, for that. Um on the cast. Um next we'll turn it over to who'll be doing the budget um to Superintendent Lefevers for our budget reduction plan update. Yes, thank you, President Matthews. We're just switching over here cast so that I can um share an update. I'm going to save my overview of my comments just to respond to the community until later during superintendent, but I do want to provide an update to the board um on where we are with our budget planning um and and kind of moving forward. One, as you know, on Friday the 16th we rolled out what our budget reduction plan was to cut approximately 9.7 million dollars from our spending
027starting with the 26-27 school year. That included the closure of one elementary school, the outsourcing of preschool to Butler County ESC, the outsourcing of nursing services to Butler County ESC, as well as um a number of other changes that are happening throughout our district. One of the the looming questions oh, moving our freshman campus to the high school. One of the looming questions was, well, what are you going to do with the freshman campus? And so we wanted to come back tonight to kind of share that update both with the board, more for the community. There will be a community letter that goes out going over this as well this evening and the staff that are affected in this change have been communicated with as well. Okay? I'm going to stay here tonight if that's
028okay while we talk. I I feel so weird with the screen way down there. Um as we talked before, I just want to put this back to remind our board as we've looked at trying to reduce this budget, we've really looked at how can we provide a continued high quality experience? That is our focus throughout all of this. While 9.7 million dollars is a large sum of money and we've had to look at large decision making um you know, and changes throughout our district, it's also important to note that we've really looked at everything. We've done an extensive research into how other communities are serving their their students. How are they doing it for less dollars? How can we continue to provide and be big blue? Some of those strategies involve building consolidation, the outsourcing
029and right-sizing. However, when we sat back and looked at, okay, now what is the plan with the freshman campus? As we talked about as a board, we do not want to do something that we can't undo if populations were to change. We want to continue to maintain our facilities. We want to look at ensuring we're providing high quality experiences in every single building across this district. And so the second part of this plan really isn't saving money. Instead, it is better use of our footprint, of how we manage our buildings and what experience we provide. So, um one of the the big things that we would like to do with the freshman campus now vacant, we would best like to relocate Wilson Middle School, which is currently at Eaton Avenue, to the freshman the freshman
030campus location on Northwest Washington. Everything about Wilson Middle School would transition from the Eaton Avenue school to the uh Northwest Washington location. Uh right now our Wilson building is our smallest traditional school building in use. Wilson has seen a an influx of students. Uh actually, they are only 80 students less than Garfield, which is almost double their size. They are at capacity when it comes to classrooms. We have had requests in the last number of years to turn closets into office space or conference rooms. We've had to get very creative. It's one of our only buildings where we have staff that travels on cart to cart from classroom because they don't have a permanent location. By making the move from Wilson to the freshman campus, that opens up 10 additional classroom spaces to allow them
031to spread out more. That gives 50,000 more square feet, a larger cafeteria, a larger gym, lots of opportunities. So when we sat back back back and really looked at this, we said, while that's a change, we think it best serves our kids. And so that's the first kind of phase of this move is to move the Wilson Middle School location from Eaton Avenue to Northwest Washington. If you notice, I even did a mock-up. We would change all of the signage and those pieces. They would be Wilson Middle School just at a different location. In addition, we currently have a building down in Ross Avenue in downtown Hamilton that serves our Miami School programming. That is our alternative high school, credit recovery high school. Um if you've been in that building, it is not a traditional
032uh high school setting. It is four classrooms with a uh some bathrooms. There we don't even have a cafeteria, library, any spaces to help support those students' needs. And so with this move, uh one of the things that this would open up is for Miami School to be able to transition to the Wilson location. So Miami School would would start their school year next year in the 26 27 school year at the Eaton Avenue location. Okay? This provides better footprint, expansion, capacity, lots of different pieces. Eventually, we would like to also move our enrollment center from the Ross Avenue building to that Wilson location. However, July, August, and September are our busiest months for enrollment. That would not behoove our district to try to make that move at that time when we're trying to enroll
033and place students. So I put this out to the board to say this will kind of be a one-two move in that the Miami School would move to start the school year, get kids set up, all of those pieces, and then later on in the fall we would like to move enrollment over. Our eventual plan would be to try to sell our Ross Avenue building. It is our building that is the smallest footprint. It's an untraditional school building, kind of similar to here where this is not a school environment. It also is our most expensive to upkeep. So when we really looked at all of our facilities and the use of them, we thought that this plan makes sense. Um if we are able to sell the Ross Avenue building, um those dollars, just so
034that the board is aware, uh when you purchase a building using a particular fund, so we used our permanent improvement dollars to purchase the that building on Ross Avenue, um we purchased it for $699,000. If we sell that building, it has to go back into permanent improvement dollars. So, while it might not help our general fund, that is a fund that continues to ensure we have roofs and maintenance and all kinds of other pieces. Um right now, uh we've put in almost a million dollars over the years since owning that in updates. Right now, the valuation of that property sits at $2 million on the auditor's website. So, we believe that we would recoup all funds put in and and make a little extra in that particular piece. So, that would be our plan to
035ensure that all of our buildings are used to their fullest capacity here in Hamilton City Schools. To kind of recap, I just put a slide together that shows kind of our footprint. Okay? Right now, on the left-hand side, we have 13 active buildings in our district that support our school age. Okay? We have eight elementary schools, two middle schools, and then our three high schools, one that being the Freshman Campus, the traditional 10-12 high school, and our Miami School Credit Recovery. Throughout this transition, that would take Hamilton City Schools footprint to owning still 12 buildings, okay? But, we would be operating school-age programs out of 11, okay? Over here, I put we would have seven elementaries. The one that's in yellow is Fairwood Elementary that would be transitioning, if you remember, that is the site
036where we will allow Butler County ESC to run preschool. Um maybe that's the Hamilton Early Learning Center, those are just a temporary holder right now for us to come up with what that piece looks like. We would still operate two middle schools. The only difference on the middle schools is the physical location of Wilson. So, you can see there in yellow, I changed the address from 714 Eaton Avenue to 2260 Northwest Washington. Then, when you get it down into our high school offerings, we would have one 9-12 high school. I put that because the while the location doesn't change, the grade level served is different. And then our Miami School, which is our credit recovery high school, would change its location from 140 Ross Avenue to 714 Eaton Avenue. Okay? Any questions on those pieces
037before I go into timeline and some others? Dave, no? Just just a comment. I think by closing the Miami School, we'll save money on building's maintenance. I mean, it is very expensive to run that building. Correct. >> old age and outdated equipment. Yeah, it I think um when we sat down and really looked at us, that was the building that was the easiest for us to look and part with. We have amazing facilities in Hamilton City Schools. We want to continue to keep amazing facilities and opportunities for our kids. And so, yes, while there's some movement there, I think this better aligns us to serve. It also puts Wilson in a side a size of a building very close to Garfield, which allows us for down the line, if there's additional restructures, nowhere near, let
038me say that twice. There's no additional changes coming um as part of this plan. But, if in a number of years, I've heard people talk about going back to traditional middle schools of 6, 7, and 8 or different pieces like that, there's opportunities for that by setting up this restructure. If we keep it as is and move our Miami School to the Freshman Campus, that's an extremely large facility for a small program. And so, looking at these things, um I want to commend our team for being willing to look at this and take on these tasks. Um we did, just so the board knows, meet with the Miami School and Wilson staff today to make sure they are aware. Transparency does not end uh just because we rolled out the bulk of this plan. We
039met with our staff. Um I do have a district email that will go out to the community tonight talking about you've you've each seen a copy of that email uh just explaining these changes and why they're important to our district. I also just put an updated timeline. I know before when we met, we put an updated timeline um kind of by month of where we were. Just to give you a little um uh where we've been and where we're going. So, last week, uh the week of January 19th, even though we didn't have school on that Monday, we met with all HCTA administrative and miscellaneous staff members who were part of either the reduction in force or displaced. So, Mike, Mr. Zary, and myself, as well as Katie Maccabee, um sat and met with every
040single one of our staff members uh that are who are directly impacted by these changes. So, all of the the members in those three areas have all been communicated with. This week, we are going to meet, bearing that school can get back in session, uh we are going to meet with 151, which are our uh clerical and educational assistant union to finalize lists in the bumping process um of what that looks like. We are also going to work with our 468 leadership that oversees our custodians and our food service employees to finalize placement. In the 468 uh union, there is no job loss, just displacement where people might be transferring based on these changes. For instance, with putting additional kids at the high school, we need more cooks. We need more support staff. So, it's
041just a change of location um of those pieces. So, we're going to start that process this week. Then, the week of February 2nd through the 16th is actually a two-week window. Uh Mr. Wright and Mr. Zary will be traveling back out to meet with any staff member who is displaced, which means they still have a job in the district, but it's not in their current role, to finalize what that placement is for 26-27. We did provide any displaced staff member with um a survey to get their opinion. We're really trying to work and meet teachers' needs, um our staff's needs of where what's best fit for them. Um and I'm I'm pretty happy to report that so far that process has gone pretty well where we can meet staff where they want to be and
042and help to to to work through this process in a collaborative manner. We also are working uh with Butler County ESC, Mr. Frazier's leading that charge for us um to start working on our draft contract with the Butler County ESC for our preschool program, as well as nursing and some of our other related services that we typically get through them. Um our plan for the board, just so that you know, is our next business meeting after today is Tuesday, February 24th. At that meeting is where the names of the actual staff who are on the riff list, so who do not have a secured position for 26-27, will be presented to you for approval. Okay? Then, Jeremy will also, as he mentioned, do his updated forecast. We will present the ESC contract to be approved
043that evening, and we're going to continue to work on staffing and placement as additional openings happen. Okay? In March, you can see that that continues. Some of the work that is created, our first priority right now is to communicate with the community and to communicate with our staff. However, there's much to figure out in these next few months as we gear up for the start of 26-27. Some of the things that we're working on is as people retire, as people resign, we will be able to recall people off that list. Even since last Friday to today, there have been movement to where we are able to recall as many people as we humanly can as positions become open. We are also working with transportation to put in the new schools and addresses uh to figure
044out transportation routes, and we are looking at building start times for next year. There might be some slight adjustments with those particular pieces based on having two less schools in play for transportation. Um our plan is to hopefully have those in March so that we can communicate those as early as possible to our staff and the community. Um but, those are pieces we're working on. We are also in the month of March going to work on some open houses and building visits for staff. Many of our staff haven't stepped foot in some of the buildings that they're going to be going to. The new principals would like to sit down with them, see how they can support this transition, answer any questions of those pieces. You'll then see in April the same process will take
045place for families. So, we will host open houses and student tours at their new schools. We've even talked about for the Fairwood students of loading up the students and actually having them go and walk through their new schools even before those open houses. It's really important that just like we help elementary kids transition to middle school, we need to do do the same for students that are going to experience a change throughout this process. Mike and um John will continue to work on the recall list. I can see that's on there twice. You can tell it was right on my mind this morning. I think it ran out of room on the March one, that's why it's on there twice. Um but, April and May, we will continue to work on that recall list. So,
046after we present that list of employees to you at the February meeting, uh you know, Mr. Davidson asked a good question. He said, "So, as we see retirements and resignation, that's a good thing cuz that means you can go back to the list and recall someone." After that February 24th agenda, you will see on future agendas a recall. Staff members' names with recall, so you can track how many we are able to call back throughout this process this year. Um in a typical year, Mike has shared we turn over about 40 to 50 staff members in a given year. So, we'll see where that winds up this year. Um we are also working to help all of our staff affected in this to try to locate new positions, and I'll talk about that later in
047my superintendent uh comments. Then, this summer is going to be busy. That is when the building moves. That's when you're going to see a lot of these pieces. Mr. Kilby and his team are already starting to plan for that to one um supply boxes and materials to the teachers affected, to come up with a a way to do this in a systematic process. For instance, we're not going to move all the boxes into a school before it needs to be cleaned. Let's make sure that we're doing this. I said let's put the cart Let's not put the cart before the horse. Let's make sure this is a very systematic process so that all staff have the materials they need ready to go when they come into their new positions in 26-27. Okay? And then the
048last thing I just put up here, any questions or comments from the board on where we are right now? Just out of curiosity. Yeah. We're We're leaving Wilson, the Eaton Avenue going >> [laughter] >> to Northwest. Yes. What about the equipment that's in Wilson? Um desks and books and So, the supplies. The nice thing is as far as resources, yes. The resources needed to run a middle school will be moved over. The desks at both the freshman and and Wilson are very similar. We will move as needed. Um however, we see a lot of those Wilson desks probably going to the high school to help support the freshman instead of moving twice. We don't want to move furniture twice if we don't have to. But all of their resources We've already started talking with the
049librarians about what does packing up books, what books are appropriate for middle school that aren't appropriate with high school. Um you know, all of those pieces will be coordinated by our central office team. Our curriculum team will work to walk through the buildings. Um I actually had a teacher today on the Zoom said this might actually cause me to purge a little bit. Um I am a self-admitted teacher packrat. I still have basements of crates. I have a crates all over my basement of my old overhead projector sheets that I used to teach with. I don't even think they make those anymore. I can't do it. I can't. I cannot let them go, not yet. Um but this is a great time that we'll work through with our staff of but anything they need, we
050will make sure is in their new location. Yeah. Any other questions or comments? I just want to say thank you for your team for putting all the you know, the extra thought into it of just even like the little nuances that you know, people don't even think of that needs that needed to go into this plan. So, um thank you for that and also making this as easy as a transition as possible with you know, such a difficult and and challenging situation. So, thank you for that and all the consideration that you all put into it is definitely much appreciated and transparency and keeping everybody, you know, up to date in what's going on and providing this timeline because I think it's very important to to help calm nerves and to um dismiss rumors and
051and you know, kill all that noise cuz all that's, you know, unnecessary and it it doesn't do do anything. It just induce unnecessary panic in an already stressful situation. So, thank you for putting the information out there to help dispel that so everybody will know the facts cuz we know them. So, we're I appreciate it. Absolutely, Mrs. Matthews. Uh Mrs. Blevins, excuse me. I just like to thank you again too, echoing what President Matthews has said, the amount of work and labor that you guys have put into this, uh the intention, the communication, it's phenomenal. Thank you for the updates. I also really appreciate um that you've taken what is a really terrible situation and found a way to bring some positivity to it. I think our Wilson students are going to benefit from having
052more space and more educational resources. Um I think our freshman students are going to benefit in some ways even though these changes are hard. I recognize that. Um but I think that we are making changes that are forced to be made but will have some some really nice silver linings and benefits and I appreciate that your team is putting students first. Thank you, Dr. Hopkins. We don't have any other comments, we'll move into our open session, our um business meeting. We've already done our pledge. Um we'll have a um motion for approval of of board agenda um of our agenda. So moved. I'll second. I'll second. Thank you. Mr. Frazier, if you call the roll, please. Dr. Hopkins? Yes. Mr. Davidson? Yes. Ms. Matthews? Yes. Ms. Mancusa? Yes. Thank you. We'll have our um take
053a motion for approval of minutes. So moved. I'll second. Thank you. Mr. Frazier, if you call the roll. Mr. Davidson? Yes. Ms. Matthews? Yes. Dr. Hopkins? Yes. Ms. Mancusa? Yes. Thank you. I don't see anyone here for public participation. And I'll turn it over to Superintendent Blevins for our superintendent update. Thank you, President Matthews. Um I will I I typically like to to speak to each of you, but I would like to start with a read statement this evening uh just in light of all the changes. Uh I I think it's important to make sure that I I articulate the emotion um and and my my thoughts tonight. So, I put here good evening. I want to first start by acknowledging how hard these last 2 weeks have been for our district. That includes everyone
054in this room, uh Mr. Frazier, Mr. Wright, myself, our our staff, our students, our community. First, I want to thank uh the care and concern that has been shown for our employees during what has been an incredibly difficult time. I'm deeply grateful for the professionalism, the compassion, and support demonstrated by our staff and the members of our community. That support matters and it is not gone unnoticed. I also want to recognize the intent behind so many recent community conversations that have reached out to ask how they can help to support impacted staff and identify opportunities for them moving forward. Please know that our district shares that same commitment. We have proactively provided the names of impacted employees to surrounding districts' human resource departments and through the But- the Butler County Educational Service Center, which will
055be assuming the responsibility for preschool and nursing. We have secured guaranteed interviews for those affected staff. While compensation structures may differ differ, our goal has been and will continue to be to help every impacted employee land as softly as possible. It's important for our community to understand that these decisions were not made in isolation. This process included staff input, community feedback, and extensive research research into how comparable districts provide services. As we work to reduce an almost $10 million deficit, every effort was made to keep reductions as far away from the classrooms as possible. No cut is easy, but responsible leadership required us to reduce spending while still protecting students and our core mission of our district. Many of the changes we are making put us in alignment with the staffing structure of our neighboring
056districts. I also want to be very clear. I know each of our board has said this, but there is no conspiracy here. The state of Ohio, which provides approximately 80% of our annual funding, changed its funding structure this past summer. And recent legislation signed in December continues to reduce reliance on local property taxes. The result of these changes is is significantly less revenue for districts like ours in a matter of months, not years. No amount of internal budgeting could fully absorb these changes without the impact you're seeing. Our district budgets and expenditures are public record and are openly reviewed at every Board of Education meeting. To those who are upset by these changes, I want you to know that we are too. But we must find a path forward that continues to advocate for fair
057school funding without placing additional burden on our local property owners. Every employee in this district from administrators and teachers to support staff and crossing guards cares deeply about Hamilton City Schools. The continued the continued the continuation of people, positions, and the work that they do make an already difficult situation harder. We are not handing out pay checks that are misaligned with education, experience, or market values. Year after year, state audits show that Hamilton City Schools operates with a more efficient spending and lower overhead than both state average and comparable districts. We have not asked for new operating money in or over 33 years. Let that sink in. 33 years we have not asked for new money. And we do not have a strategy to change that. That information is public record and I encourage anyone
058interested to review it. My encouragement for our community is this, stay engaged. Watch board meetings. Ask questions of your elected officials. Learn what is happening not only in Hamilton but across Ohio and across the country. Just last week, multiple districts made headlines for facing the same challenges with more announcing in the coming months. This is a nationwide issue affecting states like Texas, Florida, Ohio, Arizona, Wisconsin, Indiana, North Carolina, Alabama, and Louisiana just to name a few. The next state funding cycle will begin to discussion in the spring of 2027. There is time to address these issues so districts and communities are not forced to repeat this cycle. But we need all. We will be working in the coming months to create opportunities for our communi- community to come together to help advocate for change. This
059is essential because meaningful change if meaningful changes do not occur, this will not be the last time that districts face decisions like these. Until we collectively decide that public schools are the center of our communities and fund them accordingly, these challenges will continue. Every dollar must be weighed carefully and I firmly believe that has been done here in Hamilton City Schools. The actions we are taking to reduce this deficit provide the most responsible, immediate path forward. However, real lasting change will require broader understanding, engagement, and advocacy beyond a single meeting or moment. We will continue to do our part. We believe in Hamilton City Schools and we ask our community to continue believing and advocating for our schools as well. Just wanted to share those statements before I get into other pieces on the agenda.
060I'm passionate about this, you can tell. This is important to me that we do this right and I I really encourage our residents, our families, our staff to understand what is happening in this state and to get involved because that's the only way it changes. It's not what we do here in this meeting. It's what we do in the community, what we do with our our voting, what we do to our state legislators, and it is important that this is shared by all of us. You summed it up well, and I appreciate that. Mhm. And I've read some of the same comments you have about we should have seen this coming. I I would tell people go back and look at our board meetings in June and July, how shocked we were, outraged. Because before
061then, we had the fair funding formula, which gave us an opportunity to plan for the future. I remember in May, we Okay, hey, we're fine. We're going to be great. All right, not great. Great, we'll be okay. Yes. >> be able We'll Yeah, live within our means. And lo and behold, they dropped that bombshell, we're not going to follow that. We're going to cut your funding. So, anybody that thinks that we should have known this years ago, go back and look at our previous board meetings. Absolutely. I have a few other comments that were not related to that topic this evening, just about some of the items you'll see. Um although I I have to first start with um just recently at 3:30 today, we did announce that for tomorrow, we unfortunately have had to
062cancel school uh due to the continued weather conditions that this weekend's storm has uh brought our way. I did see a a funny meme that showed that Elsa was arrested over the weekend. So, I'm hopeful that that will bring warmer days here in the future. Um but I do want to share a massive thank you to our custodial and maintenance crews uh for helping to clear our lots and sidewalks. They were out all weekend. They were back in their lots this morning at 4:00 a.m. trying to clear and be ready as much as we can. I also want to thank our city for their tireless efforts. We will continue to monitor and make the best decisions we can. This might include closures, delays, or regular operation. We are attempting to make those decisions as early
063as possible while also understanding the importance of getting our students and our staff back into our buildings. Please continue to monitor communications, plan for any scenario, and put safety first, always. On the agenda this evening, uh you have a few items that you'll see for approval. Um you will see on the HR agenda, there are um three different items under the HR agenda this evening. Uh the first is just our personnel typical agenda that we have that features some retirements and resignations, as well as extra hours and student teacher stipends. You'll also see there are two MOUs for our AFSCME 468 union. Again, that is our food service um and um why am I totally blanking on that? Uh and maintenance custodial staff. Uh there are two. The first one is just a reclassification of
064job titles. So, anytime we change roles and responsibilities, we do have to take that back through. So, you'll see that there's an MOU there to change uh the title from a food service technician to a food service maintenance classification. You'll also see there's a second MOU that adds dental coverage to the negotiated insurance premiums that uh the members of that union pay. On our consent agenda for our we've got a number of items on here. The first you'll see there's an agreement with modern uh psychiatric and wellness to provide services to students. That is at no cost to the district. That is where they come in, our counselors come in and work with their counselors come in and work with our students at no cost. Um you'll also see there are a number of field
065trips up for approval today. One in JROTC is active in their season. I know uh some of you were able to go last week uh and watch their event here, but they will be traveling to Grove City, New Albany, and Indianapolis. You'll also see the jazz band is heading to the Beavercreek for the Beavercreek Jazz Festival. Under special education, you'll see there's a number of items there. One is a Learn Well agreement that provides uh special education services to our students here in the district. You'll also see there are four separate agree agreements for individual students who need to be placed outside of the district based on their disability and their needs. You can see that those agreements are for the remainder of the year and go from $23,000 to $42,000 for the second half
066of the school year. So, I just like to draw eyes to those. Um under our business operations, there are a few items there. One you'll see approval of our general maintenance contract that helps to service uh our different equipment throughout the district. You'll see that out of permanent improvement funds, there are two projects in there. One, we talked about how beautiful our buildings. We do a nice job of leveraging our permanent improvement dollars to ensure we do regular maintenance. Ridgeway is due for carpet upgrades this year, so you'll see that's there out of that PI fund, as well as uh parking lot pavement repavement at Ridgeway, Highland, and Brookwood. Uh that will also be paid out of PI dollars this summer. You will see there are two grants that are up for approval this evening.
067One is a grant from Meijer, which will allow our freshman students to go to Miami University for a college visit. We also um have a grant from the New York Life Foundation that will pay for Companions on a Journey grief counseling that comes into our school for any student that has lost a family or close friend. Then you will see uh we finally have gotten our state and federal allocations. So, as Mr. Frazier has talked about, not all of our dollars come from local or from state. We also have a number of dollars that come from the federal government. As you know, this um all these those were a little late coming in. Well, if we do not spend all of our dollars, we then get something called carryover, where they take it back and
068then they give it back to us. And so, while it's a lot later than October, we did receive our uh carryover allocations in each of those title funds that are up for approval this evening. Uh President Matthews, I know those were long-winded, but those are my comments for this evening. No, thank you so much for your comments. Definitely greatly appreciated. Um next on our agenda is our human resource. Uh do we have a motion? I would make the motion to approve the human resources. Thank you. Do you have a second? I'll second the motion. Any comments? Mr. Frazier, call the roll, please. Ms. Matthews? Yes. Dr. Hopkins? Yes. Ms. Mancuso? Yes. Mr. Davidson? Yes. Thank you. Next we'll uh I'll accept the motion for our consent agenda. I would move that we adopt the consent
069agenda. Thank you. I'll second the motion. Thank you, Mr. Frazier. Call the roll. I have I had I just had a question um if I may, just ask about one of these um items on the agenda before we um not a not a concern, but a question about the uh in special enrollment um special education enrollment with S SEOI, Special Education of Ohio Lake. Um just because that's something we haven't seen before here and wondering what there are there possibilities for engaging with them in some way in the future or or any of the others to help us with the changes we're going through. >> Want to field that? Sure. So, one of the things that um Ms. Belden did speak about earlier is obviously with the bus moving the Miami school to um Wilson,
070there is a lot a little more space there. Uh Mr. Watkins, the executive director of special ed, and I both visited SESI um down in Mount Healthy. They call it High Road. Um and it is an opportunity, I think, in the future for us to have an in-house um system where we can handle some of our students who need a higher level of need um whether it be behavior or whatever concerns that that may be going on. Um I do think this is something down the line that um would save the district significant amount of money, both in transportation um and outplacing costs. Uh the outplacing costs are exorbitant um when we do have special education students who do need um those sort of more restrictive placements. Um so, I do think that's something we
071need to consider as a board and as a school district um both as a a need for our students, um but also financially, um you know, the future we don't know exactly what it does look like. Um and I think if we can provide those services here on site in district, um it would be a benefit not only financially, but also um for our students, giving them the needs that they deserve. It's a great question. That that's something um Mount Healthy has partnered with this agency to bring them into their school district. Um you know, they as Mr. Wright talked about, down the line, we think that would be something we would like to possibly look at, but for now, they are opening up spots to allow our students to come there. So, that will
072be the first student that is placed there for our district to see how that goes um and then to be able to evaluate and bring back a recommendation down the line, 2 to 3 years, to see if that's something here in Hamilton we would like to partner with. Thanks. Any other questions or comments? Mr. Frazier, will you call the roll? Ms. Matthews? Yes. Dr. Hopkins? Yes. Ms. Mancuso? Yes. Mr. Davidson? >> Yes. Thank you. Next is uh I'll accept the motion to approve our finance agenda. I'll move. I'll second. Thank you. He hasn't presented Yeah, let him Yeah, let him present it first. >> just Soon as you said it, I thought I was I wasn't going to get away with >> think you presented it yet. that. Like [laughter] it just Yeah, yeah. I
073was going to let that roll, President. >> Right, right, right, right. Mr. I think because I think Well, I thought he presented it because he's done the analysis, so I was just like I talked enough this meeting. That's what I thought. So, we [clears throat] we do have a relatively light uh finance agenda. Thank you, Andrea, for pulling that up. Um we have we we have the tax advance resolution. So, every year at this time, we approve a similar resolution and what that does is I will send this to the county auditor. And as they are collecting taxes, this will allow them to send us money, so we don't have to wait for the final settlement. Um so, we can get our money sooner in our bank um and start collecting interest for us. Uh
074so, we do that every year. Uh we do have a confirming uh requisition for TV Hamilton this evening. That's due to their uh moving offices. Uh we have the normal treasurer reports that we uh talked a little bit about earlier. And then again, uh we have a massive list of donations. Um I love highlighting these. We can just see, you know, all the good things um that are going on as far as uh monetary or in-kind donations um given to the district. Again, almost $10,000 um just on this meeting alone. So, uh love sharing that. Uh if anybody has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Safe now. Thank you, sir. We have uh any Anybody have any comments or questions for Mr. Frazier? No. I do uh I accept the motion for approval
075of the agenda. I think we've had a a first by Ms. Mancuso and a second by Dr. Hopkins. Is that correct? Okay, I'll call the roll. Uh Dr. Hopkins? Yes. Ms. Mancuso? Yes. Mr. Davidson? >> Yes. Ms. Matthews? Yes. All right. Um our next meeting will be on Tuesday, February the 10th here at 533 Dayton Street. I'll accept a motion to adjourn. So moved. Thank you. I'll second. I'll second. Awesome. Mr. Frazier, if you call the roll. Dr. Hopkins? Here. Yes. Mr. Davidson? Yes. Ms. Mancuso? Yes. Ms. Matthews? Yes. Meeting adjourned. I need