001Good afternoon. We'll call this um o open work meeting into session. Mr. Fraser, if you can call the role, please. >> Mrs. Matthews >> here. >> Mrs. Baker, >> here. >> Mr. Davidson, >> here. Dr. Copus >> here. >> Mr. Spray >> here. >> Thank you, sir. Um, city council. I don't believe I see anyone for city council. So, we'll go into our spotlight and I'll turn it over to Mrs. Wise for her to do her presentation. Thank you. >> Uh, good evening. Um, we are honored tonight by the presence of our Miss Fay here who we are spotlighting. Miss Fay, um, she retired back in 2022, um, but hasn't left us since. Uh she is an absolute wonderful person. Um if you would that was my first year in HR if you would have
002seen the write up that her colleagues wrote about her when she retired. It just was very heartwarming and touching all the positiveness that you have made throughout not only with our staff members but with our kids. And she currently is still running the snack shack at Garfield each and every day that help supports the kids. And Mr. Margarum. I on a caveat, I did try to steal her when I went to Wilson, but there was no go. I tried to say I'd even, you know, have red and yellow colors back to get her, but she wouldn't come to Wilson. But Miss Fay, honestly, our district really thanks you for all the dedication and hard work that you provide Garfield and our kids, but throughout the district and model that. It takes a lot of time
003to do that. Um, not only, you know, after school each and every day to the kids, but finding all the items. and I know she bargain shops to make sure that she gets the best deals and runs around all over the place for that on her own time. So, we just wanted to say thank you uh this evening. We appreciate you. We see you and thank you. We've got you a small gift. You got to come up. Come up here, Miss F. >> Come up. We're going to get your picture taken, too. >> Got your fancy mug here with our new logo on there. gray and white for you though. You can color it in your picture. >> Yes. Okay. >> Well, I would just like to say it isn't a job that I do
004on my own and takes a lot of people to help. I got you. Oh, okay. I got you. >> Um I have uh two people that help me. uh Miss Debbie and also uh Vicki helps me every day. When she can't help me, I kind of steal uh our secretary for the little while to help us. We only run it for about I would say 20 minutes, but it takes a good half hour to an hour to get it set up because everything has to be counted and so that when we're finished, we can pay back athletics and then the US goes to our principal and that's to buy things for our kids. We just started a new program. It's called a fishing program and uh it's taking out boys who don't have a father
005or someone to take them out. So uh you know that's what the money helps and I use my special uh MH department and comedy's department. They help us set up and they get to come in every day and get a piece of candy. Uh, I buy big bags of candy and then on Friday the ones that help can come in and get a pop uh every Friday if they work. They have to check their names off. But, you know, without the help of the kids and I have two young men that help me uh every day uh really I appreciate them so much. You know, we're short sometime and sometime we're over. So, you know, somebody ain't doing the correct paperwork. But I do not work the counter. I refuse to work the counter. I
006could do it if everything was a dollar, but when it goes to quarters and 50 cents and they buy I mean, we have to give them sacks sometime to walk out with what they buy. So, you know, we take in good money and stuff and the kids enjoy it and some kids maybe don't get to go to the store once they get home. So, you know, I do it for the kids and I do it for our school because like I say, we don't always get the money that we need to do things that we want to do for the kids. So, we have had great leaders at Garfield. I've been with every one of them. I started with Mr. Brown all the way down to this cute little fella. And u you know, I
007really I really thank a lot of them. He's changed a lot of things. And there's a lot of things that I would like to see changed as far as the dress code. I cannot believe the dress code, but you know, sorry. Is that all you want me to say? I think that was great. >> Yeah, I can say more. >> Miss Fay, >> probably get your picture now. >> Miss Fay, I just want to say thank you. You are a gym to this district. You are the Hamilton way. We talk about that a lot and you make sure that those kids feel seen and heard and purpose. You take care of the staff as much and you are just as much of a staff member today as you were the day you retired. So, we
008appreciate your heart and what you do. >> Think I could have my badge back. >> Oh, no. Not the badge again. I was waiting for the badge, Miss Fay. I was waiting. But we thank you for all that you do. Badge or no badge? You are blue through and through with a little red and gold in there. >> Well, it is all red. >> Yes. >> I I asked him, "Where is Garfield's and Wilson's >> banner?" Yeah. Yeah. This one's just for the whole district. Yeah. Well, Miss Fay, we thank you for that and uh just know your work doesn't go unnoticed. Okay. >> May I say something real fast? Fay, we have worked together. You may not recognize me, but >> probably back in the 90s, I got to meet you at Garfield and
009work with you at Garfield and you were a an inspiration. You did a great job with kids. And you may have remember my wife Melissa at the time. >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, she remembers. Okay. But >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You look exactly You're looking just as chipper as always. >> But I I've seen you in action and I know where your heart is and how much you've meant to the kids and the staff at Garfield and you do a great job. >> I know. I know. Thank you. Come on. >> Oh boy. Come on. >> You get right there. for good Thank you. Okay, we're at 11. We'll charge. >> Okay, >> you have a great night. Be safe at home. years. >> Josh, you need to put this on your the video up on
010at your school. Definitely. Yeah. >> Yes. 85 years young, Miss Fay. >> I tell you, one of the best. Yeah. >> Um, next we'll have our presentation from uh Highland Elementary. Um, if they will come now and floor is yours. >> No, we won't. We won't be. That's for sure. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Okay. Oh, yep. Okay. Hold on. I'm sorry. I shared it in or All right. Hello everybody. In my notes, I have good evening, but it doesn't feel like an evening. So, good afternoon. Um, I am Ellie Lawson. I know I've met you all before. I am now the principal at Highland this year. Um, thank you all for having us here to speak with you about what's going on this year. I have with me our assistant principal, Becca Wear, and one
011of our occupational therapists, Kayla Hal, that we are here to share with you guys tonight about something special going on at Highland this year. All right. This year, our goal at Highland is to grow together. So, growing our staff, growing our students, and all of that, growing our community, and growing with our families. Um, we're being very intentional this year about growing our staff. We we know that um with new curriculums and everchanging things in education that we need to give our staff time to learn curriculums, collaborate with each other, find out what best strategies are. Um they also need time to look over students data to figure out how to better instruct the students. All of that to of course grow our students. That's our number one goal. Um one of the things that
012we are doing to grow our students is each week we have a growth mindset challenge. Um we talk with the students about how you can grow your brain. One of the um growth mindset challenges that we had, we introduced it on Monday, Mrs. Wear and I um it was talking about how you can show perseverance. So we tasked the kids with thinking of something that they that they might have struggled with in class that week and they tried and they tried really hard and they they never gave up and then finally they mastered it or they they showed progress with it. And so then we invite those students down to the office with us in the morning to celebrate and put a little green leaf on the tree that we have in the building. Um
013and we get the kids excited about it. So inside our building, you know, we're we're growing our staff and our students, but we also want to reach outside of our building. Um so through that, we are we're wanting to grow our families and grow within our community. So, at the start of this school year, we did have a couple of meetings with different stakeholders and really asked them what what do you want out of Highland? How do you want to feel connected to Highland? What's important to you? Um, and so what I am going to do is hand it off to Becca Wear, our assistant principal, and she's going to talk to you about one of the really big things that we kind of focused on this year after we got that feedback. Good evening
014everyone. Last year when Ellie and I found out we were going to be the new leaders of Highland Elementary, we began reflecting on the needs of our building. Through the process, we identified a need to increase our engagement of family of students with high needs at school events. Mrs. Kayla Hal came to us at the end of the school year with a plan to address this need. Kayla has been in our school for four years. She's a leader in our building. She works closely with a excuse me other family other staff members and continuously puts students and family needs before anything else always in Kayla's role she works closely with many families and has a deep understanding of their goals and struggles. When Kayla presented this care caregiver connect idea to us at the end
015of the year last year we knew her goal was to build a bridge between school-based support and family life. We set to do this by offering regular opportunities for connection, for learning, and shared experiences among caregivers of students with IEPs and 504 plans. We were able to make this wonderful idea into a reality. I will now hand it over to Miss Kayla Hal to tell us a little bit of more about this special event. All right. Thank you guys for having me here tonight. I'm really excited to share this new um opportunity that we're offering at Highland. So, like they said, I'm Kayla Hul and I'm one of the occupational therapists at Highland. So, Care Caregiver Connect and is is an event specifically targeting families of students with special needs and we offered it to
016all of the preK to sixth grade um families at Highland. Our goal is to show them that they are supported through the school and the community beyond the classroom. We want to create that safe space for open and honest communication. Um, this is is an event where families can learn practical and real life tools in order to feel equipped to navigate not only school but their home and personal lives as a whole. The Highland team paired with district support prioritized this plan and we were able to get it off the ground launching in September. Again, we just brought it up last year. At our first event, we had over 20 families attend and the event was truly a team effort. We had over 15 staff members, several junior national honors society students from Garfield Middle
017School as well as multiple district resources volunteering their time to bring this event to life. We began the night with a shared meal with families followed by child care so that the caregivers could fully engage with a presentation focused on sensory processing strategies for home success. I selected this topic for the first session because sensory processing can be kind of mysterious for families. As an occupational therapist, I attend many IEP meetings where families often share their struggles with sensory processing and their need for strategies to help their children regain regulation following that long day at school. Therefore, this event allowed me to provide them with practical strategies for identifying when their kids are overwhelmed and how to help them regain that balance at home. Following the presentations, families had the opportunity to explore our five
018community and school-based vendor booths. We had the Hamilton City Special Education Department, preschool department, and our parent mentor, Becky Kramer, as well as the Lane Library and Rally Cap, which is a nonprofit organization that provides sports programs specifically for children with special needs, right at the event. This is really a key point I'm specifically proud of because we are breaking down barriers of access that families of kids with special needs have to reaching these community resources by having them available at this event where families can go up and sign kids up for that sports program right there. They're a the kids are able to access these things. Overall, we feel that this event was impactful and successfully achieved our goal of beginning to bridge that gap between school and home. We as a team have
019big aspirations for this and we have three more scheduled already for the remainder of the year. We are currently surveying families to identify topics of interest and we're working to harness our internal leaders. Amanda White, our Highlands students and family support specialist has already volunteered to lead the next topic at our session in November. And we are also working to expand our community resource partnerships with organizations such as the Hamilton County Developmental Disability Services and a representative from Cincinnati Children's confirming their participation in future events. I think that Caregiver Connect is just beginning to scratch the surface of the needs that our families have, but I'm truly excited to see it grow. Highland Elementary is a place where we aspire to help students and families thrive. We are growing staff, growing students, growing community for
020Highland, and growing together. Our ultimate goal is that this event would transition to a district-wide service model where we will be able to support all families of students with special needs within the Hamilton City School District. I want to leave you with one key takeaway from the event. A parent approached me at the end of the event and she said that she was able to gain valuable language to talk about the needs of her child that she had never been able to share with people before. This is the kind of empowerment that we hope to continue to foster with our families at Highland this year. I want to thank you all for your time and your support. >> Thanks. >> Yeah. Thank you. Oh, go ahead. >> Oh, no, no, that that's the end. So,
021I didn't feel like I need to come out up here again and close it because Kayla did a great job. So, thank you all very much. >> Oh, thank you. >> I just want to make a comment. Um, in my prior life as as president of Butler County United Way, seeing you take services to these families is really important. Those are one of the things that that trying to um wrap around these services for families and making it convenient for them because there is so much out there that um having this and bringing specific needs for your kids there is just phenomenal. So, I just want to thank you for what a great idea, inspiration, and I hope it does go districtwide. >> Thank you. >> Oh, I hope it does, too. I mean, my
022my first wife was a special ed teacher and she would come home concerned about the parents. Uh the parents are so overwhelmed and being a caregiver, uh especially if someone with special needs, you don't know where to turn and you're overwhelmed. And this program is great to help help the parents. They're the forgotten people. uh they're dealing with it at home and sometimes, you know, during the day at school and uh I'm glad to see this. Keep it up and I hope we can morph it into a district-wide program. >> Thank you. >> Are the are the parents do you allow enough time for parents to develop the connections too? I mean, I know we're connecting to the district, but having that connection between parents to me seems like a a really big thing because
023I I agree with Dave, they they're overwhelmed. they they feel isolated like it's we're the only ones facing this and they are not. >> So I think this is a great program. >> Yeah. The we started with just sharing a meal as staff and parents and families with the kids all present. So that allowed time for them to get to know us on a different kind of level and us to get to know them and hear what they need. Um there was it's an hour and a half long event. So there and the the topic the presentation was really only 10 to 15 minutes. So, we really wanted to capitalize the time on meeting with community vendors and then time to ask questions from staff and to bond with each other. We think that's really
024the most important thing for them right now. >> Because most time the parents only see you during an IEP meeting, stuff like that. And having that connection, the vendors, great job, guys. Thank you. >> What are we What are we 18% uh special needs now? Or we're probably above that >> 25%. I mean, I I see this really going places. So great idea. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Thank you guys so much. Um this is one of those things where I say another above and beyond, you know what I mean? Like this is I mean outside of looking at like okay the school bells rang, that's it. This is another above and beyond and bringing in you know staff to just go you know you know just do exceeding. So it's just amazing
025what our kid the opportunities that our kids have to be great you know and also pouring into their families so they can grow and continue you know to connect. So, I love it and I, you know, just appreciate the efforts of everybody, you know, that has something to do with this. So, thank you so much. Uh, we greatly appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Uh, to the Highland team, thank you uh, for doing this. Something that I love, I I loved the idea when it was first pitched and um, I actually happened to be in Ellie's building about an hour before the the kickoff and she thought, "Oh, I wonder how this is going to go." And to hear how successful the first one was. But something that jumped out at me in your
026presentation I think is great is you're also surveying them to see what they need. >> We're not writing that course. We are finding out uh you know really being that connector of that and and giving them a place to share those questions. There is no manual no matter how many baby books you read. There is no manual on how to do this work. And so um I just think that's that's really impressive. You know it's not here as a prescripted. It's really easy to plug in, right, presenters on topics we want, but you're you're listening to what those families need and adapting. And I I just think I can't wait to see where this goes. I know today Ellie Bless asking for some other uh 712 students to come and volunteer for the next date.
027It's already set. Um and and I I saw quite a few principles perk up when she started talking about this today. So I I have a feeling this is going to catch on uh throughout the district. So Kayla, thank you for being willing to take the risk and bring the idea forward. you know, um the idea is somewhere in the room. I truly believe that and if we just put our heads together, we can get there. So, thank you. >> Thanks, guys. >> Thank you. Well, November 12th from 5 to 6:30, if you want to come come hang out. >> Thank you all. >> We are going to go back to conferences. >> Thank you. I'd like to consider a motion to go into executive session. >> I'll make that motion. >> Thank you, Mr.
028Fraser, if you call the role, please. >> Mrs. Baker, >> yes. >> Mr. Davidson, >> yes. >> Dr. Copus, >> yes. >> Miss Matthews, >> yes. >> Mr. Sprag, >> yes. >> Executive session. Heat. Heat. Couple years ago, we had a plan that we wanted to work with a company to start designing a cafeteria that was different than your 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 of seating in 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 we've had
029a wonderful response. Honestly, >> it feels more like when we went to Miami. We just got to sit in their cafeteria and it felt just more like mature and so it just is 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 small space but now it's like a bigger space more tables. You can just sit and eat with your friends, be comfortable. It's a very big 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 the new changes that were made this
030year. >> 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 maps of the neighborhoods that our kids come from. It makes you feel like you're being part of the community and enjoy the places that are important. >> I'm just so glad that we get to share this with our students. I'm so glad they get to enjoy it and I just love making Garfield even better. As a new principal at Hamilton High School, I was really thinking about this Hamilton Baiten game and how we could 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 uh what my passion is in education.
031So whether it's working with 17 strong and micro grants with our youth or 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. 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 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 all about. And in meeting with Tai and talking, we wanted to do something to make
032our 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 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 to showcase that, really to inspire hopefully some other people to get involved
033in 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 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. Arrow is the Hamilton City Schools District's first therapy dog. Um she is certified through the AKC 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 community. and
034I'm just so impressed with her poise. Um, she is so well trained and just does a great job already uh to lighten all of our moods. I I couldn't be thankful enough to leadership Hamilton, Hamilton Community Foundation, and the Pauls and Stripes College for preparing such an amazing partner. We couldn't have asked for a better dog. I know Andrea just saw the benefit 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 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, positivity. There's a lot of research out there about how a therapy dog
035will lower anxiety and stress, which so many of our young people and our staff are facing on a day-to-day basis. Our goal is to get a dog for each of our buildings. Um, as you know, there's a lot of needs that go around and Arrow is just one. We're very large district. And so, our goal is to onboard 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 dog to become really a part of that school culture. Through community donations, through different 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 sweet, very gentle, listens very well. A lot of
036love, a lot of love, a lot of happiness. Um, a lot of energy behind it, which is great. Welcome everybody to Garfield Middle School. My name is Josh Margarm. I'm the principal here at Garfield. Tonight we are here to commemorate a legendary coach, teacher, and family man from the Hamilton community, Coach Tim Reid. I was fortunate Yeah. I was fortunate enough to have played for coach Reed, as I'm sure many of you in the crowd were. We often talk about how many wins coaches have or how many years they coached, but typically we don't hear many stories or talk about what really matters, which is the lessons that coaches teach their players that go beyond sports. One thing that sticks out to me that I still bring up to this day is a conversation I
037had with Coach Reed in high school. He was talking about how important it was that we are good people and not just good players. Of course, he had his own way to explain this. He said, "Marroom, it's not about the X's and the O's. It's about the Jimmies and the Joe's." At at that time, I just thought that was funny, but I I didn't understand what he was really saying. Um, and since then, I've thought a lot about that frequently in my day-to-day work. Without a good group of people around me to support me, I would not have been as successful in life. The people we have on our team in life are the most important teammates we will have. Coach Reed was not just a great coach, but a great person. I'm sure many
038of us in this room are glad he was on our team. I would now like to welcome up our next speaker to the podium. Please help me give a warm welcome to Coach Reed's son, Jimmy Reid. Good evening everyone. Uh first off, I'd like to thank everyone for coming on the behalf of my family. Um my mother uh Diane Reed, my sister Shannon Reed, my grandma Willa Reed, my uncle Wes Reed. Um it is incredible seeing everyone come together to celebrate this special moment. As many of you already know, our dad was a very humble man and he would have a hard time accepting all of this being done on his behalf. Dad spent 32 years teaching and his efforts have made a lasting impact on many lives. This was very apparent with the outpouring
039of love from the community since his passing. He left his mark on many people's hearts and we are all better for knowing Tim Reed. Our family would like to thank Josh Marram and the pre the principal here at Garfield and the board of education for making all of this possible. Also, we would like to thank the community for keeping his memory alive and sharing with us the impact that he left on the hearts of everyone that came into contact with him. He is truly missed. I was going through some pictures the other day and I came across some statements made about my father. I'd like to share with you a quote from Walter Vickers. I started teaching at Garfield in the 1985 along with Tim. We coached basketball together the years I was in Hamilton.
040Like everyone who knew Tim in any manner, I was immediately impressed by his kindness, calmness, and genuine care for all people. Tim was a treasure for all students he served at Hamilton. I know that words cannot express how good things about my father and that I know that words cannot express good things about my father and that left. Sorry guys. >> Okay. I know that words cannot express good things about my father and that the life he led. We pray that future scholars and student athletes see his name on the court and become cur curious and inspired. I know I may be biased, but my dad was a pretty awesome guy. This floor dedication truly gives him the recognition he deserves. His incredible legacy will live on with this floor dedication and the Tim Reed
041scholarship that has been made in his memory. Um, can the board members please stand up >> on on of the scholarship legacy fund. You guys you guys do an awesome job with everything you do. Um, as many of you know, there is a legacy fund created in dad's memory. Since 2019, the Coach Tim Reed Legacy Fund has provided over 35 scholarships to collegebound seniors from Talawanda High School and Hamilton High School. Coach Reed exemplified the traits associated with an outstanding teacher and coach. Honesty, integrity, loyalty, respectfulness, responsibility, humility, compassion, and fairness were all strong principles and core values that Coach Reed modeled daily when interacting with his students, co-workers, players, and people. Our hope is that the floor dedication reaches the community of Hamilton and inspires the young students. His legacy will live on for
042many years to come and we are very appreciative of everyone that made this happen. Thank you. At this time, I would like to bring up Miss Diane Reid, um, and also Coach Reed's mother, um, and also city council member Tim Nab for a ribbon cutting ceremony. >> Everybody's going to get a haircut. We would like to welcome you for the first time to Coach Reed Court. Okay, before we conclude, and I am going to let everybody walk around and talk because I know you guys want to do that. Um, before we conclude, I just need to thank a few people um for helping make this event possible. Uh, all of our Hamilton City School officials, including those who brought these giant scissors. Um, please give them a round of applause for supporting this. I would
043also like to thank our Hamilton City School Superintendent, Miss Andrea Blevens, and our school board members who supported this event. Please stand so everybody knows who you are so we can give them a round of applause. I have to thank Mr. Kilby, uh, Mr. Jeff Kilby, Mr. Tom Scheler, and all of our custodians who work behind the scenes with the company who completed this project. They do a wonderful job. I would be remiss not to thank the person that runs this gym, uh, Mr. Jimmy Seismore, for helping me design all this and staying involved the entire time. Shout out to Jimmy Seismore. Of course, I'd like to thank Miss Diane Reed and Coach Reed's entire family for helping make this night possible and always supporting our schools. And finally, I feel like I'm giving an
044award speech or something. Uh, finally, uh, most importantly, I'd like to thank Coach Reed for his patience and for always taking care of the Jimmies and the Joe's. Thank you guys for coming out today. Um, thanks Coach Reed. And, uh, feel free to hang around, grab some waters out front and uh, converse. Thanks for coming. So this is Hamilton's pre-apprenticeship program enables the kids to learn core fundamentals of all these different industries. State of Ohio recognizes it for construction, manufacturing, agriculture, architecture, and engineering. So these are core fundamentals for all of those different industries. We don't like to call it even a core curriculum anymore. We call it a confidence class. So it's to give you confidence in using hand tools, using power tools, understanding what you're learning in class and how it applies to
045the real world and careers that are available for you. So there's two different aspects to it. So in order to complete the class, the kids complete a series of quizzes based off the curriculum and they also have to attend class so much. So they're actually getting hands-on instruction from Durana employees on site. The kids are actually working with them. They're exploring on that side. We do it to the curriculum. They do it to the quizzes. However, if the kid chooses to go the next level, they're able to take what's called the credential course. So, they're now able to go and get a full credential from it. So, even if they don't do it now, the beauty of it is they can take it later on in life. And it's the first half of 39 different
046apprenticeships that are out there in the industry. They're ready to go. Um, they're ready to go right to the >> like to call this meeting back into session to our open session from executive. Um, we'll call to order. >> We do the pledge. Yes. Stand for the pledge, please. 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. >> We call this meeting to order. Yes. >> Yeah. >> Uh Mr. President, you call the role. >> I'm Mrs. Matthews. >> Uh here. >> Mr. Davidson >> here. >> Mrs. Baker >> here. >> Dr. Copus >> here. >> Mr. Spra >> here. >> Thank you, sir. I'll take a a motion for the approval of
047the board agenda. >> I'll make that motion. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Pro. Call the role. >> Mr. Davidson, >> yes. >> Dr. Copus, >> yes. >> Miss Matthews, >> yes. >> Mr. Sprag, >> yes. >> Mrs. Baker, >> yes. >> Thank you. I'll take a motion to approve um approval of minutes. >> So moved. >> Thank you. Second. >> Mr. Mr. Fer, if you call roll, please. >> Dr. Copus, >> yes. >> Miss Matthews, >> yes. >> Mr. Sprag, >> yes. >> Mrs. Baker, >> yes. >> Mr. Davidson, >> yes. >> Thank you. I don't see anyone here for public participation. I'll turn it over to our superintendent for her comments. Miss Bleven, floor is yours. Thank you, President Matthews. I just have a few comments this evening. One, uh,
048it is hard to believe, but we are already a week or two into second quarter. Uh, and it has been a great start as we start to enter this busy holiday season. Um, I would be remiss if I did not mention what a great evening we had last night at our educator of excellence annual celebration put on by the Hamilton Community Foundation. Uh, we want to thank them for such a great evening recognizing our staff. Even one of them is sitting in the audience this evening. Um, and and what I loved about that that program is it really recognizes the commitment and the dedication and you know Dr. Copus, you said earlier about going above and beyond or someone on the board today said that and I think it really showed how special our staff
049is in here in Hamilton and our students did a wonderful job performing last night and it was just a wonderful event. I also want to remind the board and community that in December or November and December we will only have one business meeting for our remaining uh month as of this time unless there's a need for a special meeting. The dates are on the board website and that will take us through to our next organizational meeting that would be January 8th. So, it's just we get uh gets we're down to the wire here with some of these meetings this evening. On the agenda, you'll see that you have several items up for approval. One being the HR agenda that has various uh staff appointments and things like there. I do want to point out that
050on this agenda, you'll see Mrs. Kathy Wagenfield on this agenda being recommended for approval of up to 50 days to help sub. Uh what who better to come back in and help lend uh a helping hand when we have admin out or sick? Also on the agenda this evening, you'll see we have a series of field trips. Like I mentioned, we get into busy season in JOTC. We'll be traveling to a number of places. Uh our fine arts programming will be going all over. We are we are gearing up for a busy season. Um, I'm also excited to uh announce that we will have Prestige Prestige here during our December meeting to put their holiday showcase on for the board. So, I'm really excited for you to see their their talent. You'll also see on
051our special education consent agenda, we have some contracts for placements of individual students uh both with Applied Behavioral Services as well as with Union Day and Warren County uh educational service center. And then we do have a recommendation for an approval of a dishwasher at Garfield. So those are the items uh this evening for you. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Blevens. The update. Um next on our agenda, we'll have our um human resources. Uh take a motion. >> I'll make that motion. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Fraser. You can call the role, please. >> Miss Matthews? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sprag? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Baker? Yes, >> Dr. Copus. >> Yes, >> Mr. Davidson. >> Abstain. >> Thank you. Next, we'll have uh I take a motion
052for our consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. Mr. Fra, you call the role, please? >> Can we have a discussion real quick? >> Yes. >> I just um Mrs. Blevens brought it up that we have two items on uh the um instructional part uh for special needs students. There's two students that um and and we don't mind educating them and we embrace it. We do a great job with it in our district, but I just wanted to point out that comes out of our general fund and it's $165,000 for two students, but the state of Ohio only wants to give us, you know, $8,700. And I just think it it's just blatantly unfair. We have the voucher system. Those schools are not required nor nor do they want to educate the children with special
053needs. We do but the state wants to cut our funding uh or keep it you know stagnant. They don't want to increase it. Um I think the figure is 89% of the students in the state of Ohio are in public system and we're we're stuck with this type of figure uh for education but that 10 10 and you know 10.9% um voucher students are receiving almost two million or two billion dollars. uh is just blatantly unfair and I just urge the folks in Columbus to to think this through clearly. It's not fair. >> Do the right thing. >> Correct. >> Thank you, Dave. That's great. >> Thank you. >> 100% agree with you. Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you for that comment. >> Uh Mr. Fer, if you can call the role, please. >> Mr.
054Sprag, >> yes. >> Mrs. Baker, >> yes. >> Mr. Davidson, >> yes. >> Dr. Copus, >> yes. >> Miss Matthews, >> yes. Um, next is our uh, finance agenda. Mr. Frasier. >> Thank you, President Matthews. >> Welcome. >> Fortunately for all of us, the uh, five-year forecast was done on last meeting and so I will not be speaking for an hour tonight. Uh, we have a relatively short um, finance agenda as we typically do uh, up and including the forecast time period and then shortly after. Um we have the normal treasurer reports which includes the cash position report, the cash reconciliation report and uh the newer report that we've been adding is the investment report. Um again we have quite a few donations that I want to call attention to. Um and againvets for NJOTC
055$6,700. We've got various other uh cash donations andor inind donations. We've got a saxophone on there. We've got picnic tables on there. We've got office supplies on there. Um again, just shows uh the value uh and what we get out of the community and how much they support us and um you know that we we greatly appreciate that. So, I'd like to highlight those. >> Jeremy, I'd have to agree. And there's a lot more that people are giving and does not even come across your desk too. I mean every day organizations are I mean we've seen that with the when we highlight different or different groups who give so much to our schools and to our kids and and that's very much appreciated. >> That's all we have. >> Motion. >> Yes. A motion to
056accept. >> So move. >> Second. Mr. Frazzer, if you call the role, please. >> Mrs. Baker, >> yes. >> Mr. Davidson, >> yes. >> Dr. Copus, >> yes. >> Miss Matthews, >> yes. >> Mr. Spring, >> yes. >> Now, I'll accept the motion to adjourn our next meeting. Oh, our next meeting will be November 5th. Wednesday, November 5th. Um, it'll be um our board retreat only. >> It will be it'll be a work session only. No, >> work session only. No >> action will be >> Yeah. >> We'll follow it. >> Well, now I'll accept the motion to adjurnn. So move. >> Thank you. Second. >> I'll second. >> Mr. Fraser, >> Mr. Davidson? >> Yes. >> Dr. Copus? >> Yes. >> Matthews? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sprag? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Baker? >> Yes.