001Okay, we'll call this meeting to order. Uh, this is the October 9th, 2025 board of education meeting. Today, we'll have an open session which will consist of a work session and then we'll go immediately into our business meeting. With that, we'll do a roll call, please. >> Mr. Davidson, >> here. >> Dr. Copus >> here. >> Mr. Sprag >> here. >> Mrs. Baker >> here. >> And I'll make a note in the minutes that Miss Matthews is absent this evening. >> Okay. Next on the agenda is our city council representative. And it doesn't seem like anyone's here, so we'll move on. Next item is the BCE SC Superintendent and Partnership. >> Yes. Thank you, Vice President Davidson. I want to take a minute here to just introduce uh Butler County ESC's current superintendent uh Chris
002Brown. And he's got uh introduction that he'd like to make here this evening as well. So Chris, the floor is yours. It's on. We're good. >> Thank you, Mr. Evans. It's it's a privilege to be here. Uh my name is Chris Branch. She said I'm the superintendent of the BCESC, which is the old Kroger building on Route 4 for those of you that don't know. Um Mr. Brand is passing out or Mr. Fraser is passing out just some information for you. Reason we're here is just to thank you for the partnership. Um we do a lot of things with Hamilton schools, a lot of things with the Hamilton Community Foundation, a lot of things in the city of Hamilton overall. It's been a great partnership for a long, long time. I've been fortunate enough to
003be the superintendent for the last 10 years. Um but as Miss Bleven says, we're getting to I'm getting ready to transition out of here in January. So I do want to introduce uh the person who will be the next superintendent, Mr. Jeff Brandt. So thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Jeff Brandt and uh as Chris said, I'll be transititioning in uh as the new superintendent. So, uh really looking forward to to this role. I I've spent 30 years in K12 public education primarily in the Oak Hills local school district where I've uh had previous uh experiences as administrator, building level administrator, high school principal, a little HR work, and then the last nine years I was superintendent. And so when this opportunity came to be able to come up and impact in a different way, I'm
004just really looking forward to you. Got a great team here in Hamilton and uh really already have learned uh quite a bit about the relationship that we have with the Hamilton City Schools and the great community that you have. So appreciate your service to the to the business as well and uh I look forward to working with you guys as we move forward. So thank you for the time just for a brief introduction. >> Thank you. >> Good luck, Chris. >> Yeah, >> you got some big shoes to fill. >> I'm a little worried about that. Welcome. Thank you. >> All right, we'll move on to the next item which will be our weekly or meeting spotlight. >> Good evening. Um it's a beautiful day outside. I'm loving rolling into fall break here. So all
005students and staff that are out there, I hope you enjoy your fall win or your fall break. Um stay safe. visit OC or our pumpkin. Operate your pumpkin. Spit it out, wise broad. Okay. Um I've got a a pretty pretty cool one to share with you today. Today we are recognizing Miss Donna Morehead. Um she is one of our crossing guards and I can't tell you how many times that we've received phone calls up here, positive phone calls up here. um multiple people that not only work in this office but um you know other buildings as well. Just how personable and friendly that she is. Um very welcoming and she's at a tough intersection. She's at the corner of Fair and 129. So um very busy. We were just having some stories about, you know,
006some of the drivers that don't pay attention to that. and it's a and it's extremely extremely important jobs to get our kids um coming to school safe. But not she goes out of her way to make that personal connection and that's what we've heard time and time again um up here. She was just sharing a story about a a young man, you know, we're talking about junior high kids, so sometimes it's too cool to talk to adults. Um but she would say good morning to this young man all the time and he would just be stoic and you know straight face straight but she continued to break down that wall right and uh one day he smiled and she just told me she said he said smile more that keep that it it looks good
007on you and from then on the walls were broke down and he would smile at her on the way she was talking to me about how she wishes people's luck on tests you know there's that personal interaction to get them there so you've got a a very tough job she said she's a people person and this is the best job that she's ever have. Um all throughout the district, we appreciate all of our crossing guards. But uh Miss Morhead, we wanted to recognize you this evening for your hard work and dedication to the Hamilton City School District. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all you do. If you don't mind, we've got a small little gift for you. >> Come on. >> She come on up. She doesn't like this part either.
008Not I got to do Maybe I should bring Arrow and bring Arrow up here. Everybody would want to come up here. Again, thank you very much from all of us here at the Hamilton City School. Enjoy your tumbler >> here. I've got a box for it. But >> thank you for all you do. >> I love what I do. I love the kids. >> It shows. It shows. So, >> thank you so much. [Applause] >> We're going to take a picture up here real quick. Communityless. Good job. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. Oh yeah, >> don't make it difficult. Okay, go ahead. >> I recently retired from my full-time profession about two months ago. My wife was already pressuring me to get another job. >> One thing I always thought was cool was being a cross, but
009one of my goals is to avoid as much stress as possible. So, is that a high stress? and I do enjoy it. It's the best job I've had and I've worked since I was 17. I was 76. So, >> this is this is year 10, right? Going into year 10. >> I respect that. I love the story about the young man that smiled. >> Good for you. Thank you so much. Okay, we'll move on. And I think we have a presentation tonight from Riverview Elementary. [Music] >> I'm gonna have to move that up. >> That's always a little awkward. First of all, it's exciting to hear that Jeff Brandt's coming. I had your dad of course at Xavier for uh administrative classes and he was the best. So it's good to have you. Um so
010I'm Anory Bar, the principal at Riverview. Um and Katie Milders, my assistant principal here is here. Also we brought uh our shining star Nikki Bowling. She is our sixth grade teacher. Um she teaches ELA. She also has a daughter at Bridgeport. Correct. Sixth grade. And a son, Darien, who is our now freshman football coach. >> Yes. So, um, she's a longtime Hamiltonian. Um, but Nikki has been with our district for >> 28 years. Um, and we're begging her to stay past her retirement. We'll see if that happens. Um, but she actually her and her team, uh, Grace Caldwell and, uh, Julie Rogers have really developed this student ambassadors program. Um, so it was here before I got here as principal. um and they've kind of incorporated um a new uh behavior system, if you will,
011called Palace Pay um and how that ties into our student ambassador. So, this is a specific program to our sixth graders. Um and so, I'm going to kind of start out and kind of tell you a little bit about um the students that we're look that they're looking for um as the student ambassador program and then Nikki's going to tell you a little bit about what they do. So when looking for ambassadors um we are looking for the specific qualities such as demonstrating our expectations um of our school which we say in our pledge every day which is to be respectful, responsible and ready to learn. Um we're looking for kiddos who have consistently good uh grades, also good behavior, so no referrals to the office. Um also kiddos who are have good attendance. Um
012also looking just for character traits in students that are helpful, reliable and trustworthy. um and just kiddos who kind of show uh that they have the ability to be a role model for other students. So that kind of conversation, I'll let Nikki talk a little bit more about that, but that conversation is had with the kiddos so that they kind of understand what they're looking for. [Music] That >> so when we uh look for our ambassadors, we start the year by telling the kids that we're going to get take a couple weeks to get to know them and we want to, you know, the things we're looking for. We want some role models. We need kids who are consistently showing up, doing good things, um, and also, you know, have that care for their grades,
013but also the respect, um, of their classmates and their teachers. So, when we get ready for to pick our ambassadors, we have them fill out an online application just like they'll do in real life. Um, with that application, they also have to have a recommendation from a staff member, so they have to have that reference. Um, we do like a leadership position thing for them. We give them little tasks to do as kind of like a test um to kind of see how their leadership um goes with that. And then we sort of meet with them and talk to them about what the jobs of ambassadors are. Is this something that you're interested in? And we start out the year with eight. We try to start with a lower number and then each quarter we
014add a few. So, as the kids see what these ambassadors are doing and the jobs that they have, um then more kids kind of get on board and want to apply um as the the year goes on. And since it's only open to sixth graders, they've kind of seen this coming up through the years that it's a pretty important thing to do. Um and then as they work at events, they are also paid through their palace pay. So that gives them extra money um play money or school money that they can use for um events and other things at school. >> Okay. Um uh some of the things that the ambassadors do is they re they're in charge of recycling in our building. So on Thursday and Friday we have two teams that will recycle
015the upstairs and the downstairs and the office quite a few times a week. Um, and then they're in charge of like watering the flowers and things that are outside or around the building. Uh, we use them during conferences to greet parents. Uh, we try to make sure that we have at least a few bilingual students because we have such a huge Hispanic population at our school so that they can translate for parents and help them find the classrooms that they're going to. Um, put them on and off of elevators if they need that. Um they run a table at trunk or treat so they feel, you know, really important. They get to pass out candy to kids at trunk or treat. We um we host open gyms and dances after school and they get to
016help with setup and clean up and then they also get to help run the concession stand. >> Yep. Sure. Um the other things that they do is they help us organize and run a donation drive that we have um the blessing box at the Booker T. Washington Center. That was a 17 strong project that our kids did a few years ago. And so we take donations um a couple times a year and the kids will walk those donations over and fill that blessing box at the center for um for the community. Uh they also tutor students in younger grades. We get referrals from teachers saying, "This kid just needs a little bit of help in math or reading." So, we coordinate their times like during a lunch period or during a recess or a special
017time that they can go down and uh tutor students outside in the pods um for other classrooms. They also help teachers and staff in the building with any tasks that come up. I know when the title staff brought us a couple things that they were going to use as manipulatives that kind of needed to be put together just recently. So, they will bring their lunch upstairs and get those things together for teachers and help out with any of those tasks that need to be done. >> Um before she goes on to Palace Pay, one of our our biggest things as administrators, um trying to dismiss about 450 bus students every day um can be quite interesting. uh grades preK through six. Um and so we have assigned bus captains um which are generally student ambassadors.
018Sometimes they're kiddos who are looking to become an ambassador possibly and they're kind of proving themselves to us. Um and so these bus captains are there and they um they will take some of our kinders have to go to the bathroom quite frequently. So they'll walk the kid to the bathroom, walk them back, make sure they get on their bus. Um but it's generally a kid that's on their bus as well. Um, and so it's just a a good contact too for some of those kids if they feel like they need to be heard on the bus, but the bus driver's driving, they can always report it to their bus captain and sometimes their bus captain reports to us. So, it's a really good, you know, way for both both grades and both ages to
019kind of come back and forth between um one another and that communication and again just building that community. So, that's been a really big help for our for us as administrators as well. So last year we implemented a new program called Palace Pay. Um my colleague Julie Rogers, my team member, actually came up with this um through something that she had uh seen being done in other classrooms across the country. So we sort of took it and ran with it and and developed our own classroom economy system. And this way we can involve all of our sixth graders. So our ambassador program is great, but it only involves so many students. So, we were looking for a way to involve all of the students and also, you know, we teach that middle school age, so
020it's kind of difficult sometimes to get them to buy into things, but Palace Pay is one that they definitely have uh bought into. So, we have um class money. The students get direct deposits um every two weeks into their account. They have a ledger that they have to keep track of what they're spending and how much money they get in their paycheck every two weeks. We have an online ledger, so we check that with them to make sure that everything balances. Um, they are able to they get they get paid for coming to school every day on time, just like we get paid to go to work. Um, they get paid for extra jobs that they do like the bus leaders and um we have kindergarten helpers at lunch. So, anything they do inside the
021school day as a job, they get a pay they get paid for. Uh, we have news um that's on our screen every morning. So, our news crew gets paid for that. Um, and then if they're absent, they don't get paid that day. And if they're tardy, they don't get paid that day. So, that's kind of like a way to help with attendance to get them to come every day. Um, and then they also through class dojo, once their class earns like $10 or $20, they get an extra dollar, $2 on their paycheck. So, that's ways that they can earn. Um, they also will get fines for any like uh discipline that has to happen, an office referral or um calls home, anything like that. They'll get a fine on their paycheck and they see all
022of that every two weeks when they get paid. And then they're able to we charge rent, so every month they have to pay rent for their desk and their chair and their computer. Um, so at the beginning of the month, they're so funny. They all come in and they're all like, "It's rent day. I'm going to be broke." you know, it's it's really pretty funny. Um, so and then we also are teaching them that they have to keep their rent money in their account. You can't go to the store and buy anything unless you have enough for your rent for that month. Um, so that's been a huge thing. We have a store that we run through mostly donations of things that we've gotten from the community and then also when we raise um we
023raise some money each year to try to to to get some things for them to buy at their store. And so it's just it's a lot of um snacks. You know, snacks are always good for middle school kids. Um but they also we have journals and mechanical pencils are huge. Like these are things lots of it is school supply driven um that they can buy with their um with their palace pay. Um and then they our ambassadors get extra pay every time they work an event as well. So there's just a lot of ways that they can spend their money but also earn their money. And it's teaching them to kind of balance that. And it's fun to hear the conversations where somebody will say, "I'm going to buy a snack." But then you're only
024going to have $11 and the rent is 10. You probably need to save your money. So at the end of the year, we do an auction for those kids who have saved. Last year, we had kids with over $100 that they saved of their palace pay. So we auctioned off anything that was left in our store. And then there are always those kids who barely have the $10, too. But, you know, so we can tell you who's going to be real successful at money already. But it's a great way to teach them the the economics piece and also that your behavior also ties into all of those things. >> Two just quick very sweet stories. one. Um there have been students who have paid for other students to come to the dance or to come
025to, you know, whatever it might be cuz they noticed that the kiddo, you know, maybe they were out sick for a while and they didn't get that money. But that's really cool because they had asked them, can I pay for my friend to come? You know, and the teachers will make the final decision based on whatever it might be. If they're suspended for seven days, probably not. But >> but if you've been out with, you know, the flu, okay, we might we might give you credit on that one. Um so that's really cool. And then one other great story, Katie and I were at uh a soccer inter mural tournament and there was a kid who saw us and yelled up to us and said, "If I get a goal, how many Palace Pay bucks
026do I get?" You know, we were like, "Five." And sure enough, that kid scored two goals that day. But um so it it transfers. It surely transfers. Um so we just have a quick video here to end our our presentation of some of the kids, what they have to say about uh student ambassadors. >> We are ambassadors. A student ambassador is somebody who is a role model for other students. They are respectful, responsible, and somebody that can be relied on to help get things done. >> Hi, my name is Serenity. >> And hi, my name is Lamaru. >> And what you have to do be to become a student ambassador. The first thing is >> you have to fill out application. And the second thing is you have to have a teacher that recommends you
027to be a student ambassador. >> Hello, I am Muel >> and I am Angel. >> And here are some of the qualities teachers looks for ambassadors. >> Student needs to have good attendance. >> They need good grades and good behavior. >> They they also need a faculty member to recommend them. >> They cannot be in any issues. >> Hi, my name is Marelli. >> Hi, and I'm Miner. >> And we are going to be telling you what ambassadors do around the building. We help things around the building like recycling, watering flowers, greet and navigate parents at conferences. We will also have a table at trunk or treat where you and your child can come and get a lot of candy for Halloween. And the other is help at open gyms and dances like setting up
028tables and tearing down concession and tutor students and younger grades helping teachers and staff. Awesome. >> That's it. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for having us. >> Well, thanks for coming. I absolutely love this. [Applause] >> I absolutely love this palace pay. >> Thank you. >> Uh well, it I mean it's teaching kids at a young age about budgeting, >> right? >> Manage money or how to manage their money. And I think that's lacking in some situations with kids. So, they're learning early. >> You know, paying rent for your desk. I love it. >> That's great. And at tax, they pay taxes when you guys pay taxes. Like the April that Yeah, that April 15th date, they pay their taxes on that date, too. And it's really It is really cool. They have withdrawal slips.
029They have deposit slips. They have a ledger. It's It's really neat. >> You're really teaching them what they need to know to go forward. Now, question for you. With the ambassador program, >> you said there's eight that you take at the beginning of the year. How many at the end of the year do you typically wind up with? Last year we had 20. >> 20. >> Yes. By the end of the year we had 20. >> And at the beginning of the year when you you're taking your initial aid, how many usually apply? >> Usually almost everyone applies. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Because they're like, "Oh, okay." I mean, and then we have to kind of sit them down and talk to them about like, you know, these are these people got chosen for all
030these reasons. So when you, you know, show those qualities, we'll be happy to add people to that. And so yeah, a lot of them do. There are a couple who are like, I don't want to do that. That's extra work. But most of the kids are interested in the program and want to be involved. >> Well, I love it. Keep it up. >> Thank you. >> As a former banker. >> Yes. >> Great job on Palace Pay. Trust me. >> Thank you. It's really >> teaching them some valuable lessons early in life. Yes. >> And it's helped with behavior and it ties kind of everything together with also real life skills. So, >> great job. >> Thank you. >> I think it's a great motivator for the younger kids, too, because they're coming up there.
031I mean, if you're telling us you're only going to take eight kids at sixth grade and you got the whole class. Yeah. They're looking at that and saying, "Yeah, we want to be a part of it." And uh I just with everybody else love the financial uh component, the the financial literacy. >> I'm so glad you did not say you had credit cards, too. >> Oh, no. No. >> But the idea that they have to that whole idea you have to earn what you what you're spending is is great. Thank you. Thank you very much, guys. Good job. Thanks, >> uh, Principal Bar and Vice Principal Milders. Uh, one comment and one question. Uh, my comment is what a neat program to teach young students um, leadership roles and responsibilities. I I think that's wonderful.
032Um, my question is this. At some point during your presentation, you mentioned someone with 28 years. >> Really? Hey, I just want to tell you I have a tremendous amount of respect for that. Thank you so much for your dedication. Glad you're here and and I agree. Please stay past your retirement. >> Thank you. I've been here all of my 28 years. So, I've been in Hamilton all 28 years. Um in fifth and sixth grade, but sixth grade mostly. I thought I wanted to teach third grade. And um I started with Sue Chanel. I don't know if you guys remember Sue. Um and she said, "I'm gonna hire you." And I said, "Oh, for third grade?" And she said, "No, for sixth." And I I was terrified, but I've never left. So apparently she she
033knew that. But I am a huge Hamilton person, born and raised, and I'll be here until I have to retire. Maybe I'll stay longer. >> Well, but thank you. I appreciate that. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Yeah, Nikki, uh, Ann Marie, Katie, I I just, you know, want to echo what our board has shared tonight, but I think I think something that really shines through is also that ownership and that pride for their school and that showing up. We talk every day about attendance, right? and and getting kids the the biggest part of the battle is getting them through the doors >> once they're there. And so just that idea of noticing whether they're coming on time or being tardy. I just think that's such a innovative way to pay them
034for their time >> because that is their full-time job as sixth graders and you're not treating them like babies. I know at times sixth grade and elementary is hard. It is. And so I I echo everything the board shared, but I just think what an innovative way to try to attack something that is a chronic problem. If they're not there, we can't teach them. And this shows the reward for those that are coming and being there. And um you know, it's not a punitive piece. It's it's a reward, right? >> So I I want to thank you. You know, I think the world of what you do in your classroom um but this is just an awesome program and thanks for coming to share it with us tonight. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you.
035Yep. If I can, just one more plug. Sixth grade had the least referrals of our building last year, the least, which can be tough feat. So, kindergarten even had more than they did. So, um, it's proving to work very well. It's very successful. So, thanks for your time. >> Thank you, Jeremy. >> Mr. Mr. Frasier, I owe you an apology. We always put him after one of these feel-good stories, and I get heck every time. >> Never fails >> afterwards for the story, but the same theme, finances. >> Well, yeah, but we're going from something good to something not so good. >> He hates following the kids and the and good programming. >> We'll move on to the forecast. Dr. Copus has indicated he will write prescriptions for painkillers after this presentation if anybody needs
036them. Um, thank you Dr. Copus. >> Jeremy, it's up to you now. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Davidson. Once again, I've cleared the room. Uh, and just one comment. Uh, I know you all kind of stole my thunder talking about this palace pay program, but oh my god, I can't I can't say enough nice things about that. Uh, Andrea was looking at me and I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face as as she was presenting uh paying the rent and the taxes and earning the money and and all those things. Uh, what what a fantastic fantastic program they have. So, okay. Well, it's that time of year again. Uh it's forecast time. Although this year, uh it's about a month earlier than normal. Typically, uh we do these in November and then
037again in May. Uh but with the new state budget, uh they have changed the November and May time frame to August and February. Uh with they're giving us a reprieve this first year. We have to have this done by October 15th. Um we have to have an approved forecast. Uh has to be submitted to the state and so that's what we are going to be doing tonight. Uh but the next one will not be in May. It will be in February and then thereafter it'll be August February unless something changes again. >> Is there a reason for the change? >> I have no idea. >> Is there any reason? >> No, I was that was I was setting the ball up. >> Thank you. So here's an overview of what we're going to go over
038tonight. Uh very similar to what we've done in the past. We will uh have an introduction to what is the forecast, what's its purpose, why do we why do we use it. Uh we'll go over revenue and expenditure categories. So where we receive money in those categories and how we spend those funds. uh we'll look at how that changes over time with some assumptions that we will make uh in this forecast and then at the end we will uh look at what that means for the financial condition of the district. So what is a forecast? A forecast is a snapshot analysis of general fund revenues, expenses and cash balance. So it's what we know at this point in time. We make some assumptions because it is a it's a long time frame. Um and what
039does that mean throughout that period? Uh like I said, we have to approve it twice a year. Used to be November and May. Now it is August and February with the exception being this year. Um it is the general fund only. We have lots of funds in the school district. We have permanent improvement funds for capital projects. We have food service funds for um lunches. We have federal grants, state grants, principles funds. We have a lot of funds, but this is the general fund. It's our main operating fund. Um and they also made another change uh to the forecast. We always called this the five-year forecast. Well, they've dropped the last year off of it. So it has traditionally been three years of history and then five years of projection with the current year being
040the first year. That is still the case except we've lpped off the last year. So it's no longer a five-year forecast. It's a four-year forecast. So what's the purpose of it? Uh we use it so the board can engage the community in long-term planning. Uh the forecast also allows me to sign what's called the 412 certificate. Uh that just means we have the ability to meet our financial obligations. But what we really use it for, we use the forecast as a tool. um management cabinet meets every Monday morning and there are always things brought up, ideas for the district, things we want to do that are either cost savers for the district or things that cost the district money. Um, and with that, you know, obviously there's some financial implications there, and we will take
041those ideas, do a cost study, and then throw that information into the forecasting software and see what that means for us long term. Does that is that a, you know, something that moves the needle, or is it something we want to do that really doesn't cost that much money? And great, we we can go ahead and do do those things. So, that that's what we really use the forecast for revenues. We get 20% of our revenue from local taxpayers and that's through property tax. We get the bulk of our money through state funding which uh is currently the fair school funding formula. Um we get 75%. So that is that's a huge driver for what happens in this district. We are very dependent on what happens at the state level uh and what comes out
042of the bianium budget. So that's very very important to us. Um and then 5% is all other revenue and that's various reimbursements. The largest of which is uh Medicare reimbursements. Uh and then the other large piece of that is interest earnings. >> Jeremy, would you rather questions at the end or as you go along? >> Go ahead. Absolutely. >> Okay. So, I think people have to realize that what they they're seeing right there on on the screen that we get 75% from state funding and 20%. Not all districts are like this. >> Absolutely not. So, if you if you think of like a Lakota Lakota and I choose them because they're almost the exact opposite of us. um they get most of their money about three/arters from local property taxpayers and about 20% from the
043state >> and their taxes are extremely high. >> It could be I I haven't looked too far into there into that but um but one of the reasons is because of our our base uh property here. That's one of the reasons it's so low. There are a lot of reasons why we get most of our money from the state. Um there's something in place now called the fair school funding formula. So what they look at is a myriad of items. So some of that is socioeconomic condition of the school district. Some of that is um the income base of the residents. Some of that is property valuation. Um there's there's a whole host of items uh and they throw them into this formula and we get something called base cost and that's what effectively they
044pay us per kid to help operate the school system. So the the more money in the community, the less money you get from the state. >> Looks like we got a little over $88 million from the state. >> What did we get last year from the state? Uh it's it's probably really close to that. I'd have to pull up the forecast to look at it. Um but we we did not get a large increase this year and we'll talk about that here in a little bit. Um during the May forecast, we forecasted on the House version of the budget. So that comes out every two years, right? And it comes out after the May forecast. So during the May forecast, again it's a snapshot analysis. During that time, we had the House version to go
045on. Well, they still had the Senate version to come out. Then they had conference committee. And what we ended up getting stuck with was the Senate version, which included a 0% increase in that base cost that we talked about, >> even though our costs continue to rise. >> Oh, absolutely. >> Absolutely. That's that's one of the problems we have doing these budgets is that you you're hoping for the best, but you're >> be realistic. >> Exactly. Which is why we had to we had to update the model from May to get rid of any kind of increase that we were looking at because we we ended up with the Senate version of the bill which was a 0% increase in base cost. Yeah. >> Even though over the long they were supposed to fully fund
046that. Um, >> correct. And and we had we had looked at that. I mean, this was a originally this was a six-year plan. >> Yeah. >> Um, they did the first two years and then in year three and four, they phased in additional base cost. So, if you look at forecasts prior, you know, we look okay going out because we were anticipating them fully funding five and six like they had done 1, two, three, and four. Well, that didn't end up happening. >> Exactly. So now we are stuck with and we'll see this uh what looks like pretty much a a flat revenue stream throughout the forecast period. >> Jeremy, correct me. Um we ended up at the Senate version, but was there not then it went but but then they talked and then it
047went to the governor and then the governor the governor vetoed some things and then it came back and what came back was it the Senate version? basically the the underlying bill the a lot of that was the Senate version okay of the bill. He did line item veto a few things. Yeah. >> Um >> but that is >> that's up for question now because there there could be some veto overthrow. >> Um so there's still some things out there kind of in the balance. Nothing major as far as what we're looking at for our our funding. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Mr. Fraser. One comment I want to make is um we need to make sure that our community is aware that you know anticipated financial difficulties for our district is not because of anything
048that our district has done. >> It's because of what our politicians have done. Um I just think that's important for people to know that I um I think our district has been unbelievably fiscally sound. Um, and we'll try to continue to be that way, but um, it's the politicians that are making it very difficult. I >> I agree. And and what's disturbing is we're basically flatfunded, but they can find $1.7 billion to give to private schools of taxpayer money >> without any accountability. >> No accountability. We don't know, you know, how that money is being spent. >> Sure. and we'll we'll see some of that in graph form here in a little bit. Just some visuals for for you guys and the public. So, um we talked about expenditures a little bit. Um with any
049school district, the the largest expenditure you're going to have in the general fund is going to be personnel costs. So, that's salaries and benefits for our folks. And that makes up about 84% of our general fund expenditures. It's a large number. 13% of general fund expenses are in the form of purchase services. Uh that could be um ESC contracts with Mr. Brandt. That could be utility costs and the like. Um and then we have all other makes up about 3% which is pretty much all supplies. Okay. So here we are. This is a representation of this year. So this is FY26. We're projected to receive a little north of $17 million this fiscal year and we're expected to spend just south of $122 million this year. Uh so we're staring down a $4.7 million deficit
050this year. And you can see what that does to our cash balance over on the lefth hand side. So the orange column is where we started the year and the blue column is where we expect to end this year. Jeremy, can you talk for just a second about how we ended up with I mean a lot of people would look at that 48 or $43 million and say, you know, that's a big chunk, but part of that was because we were concerned of the future, >> but correct. Can you talk a little bit more about how we >> the school district finances are are cyclical? Um so before CO we were the the models look very similar to where we are now um with a spending deficit and a declining cash balance. Then COVID came
051and we had $44 million injected into the system. Um, and we did, I think, a great job um, of managing those monies, having a soft landing. I mean, some districts went off what they called the fis the uh, COVID cliff. >> Yeah. >> Um, as far as, you know, managing those expenses coming back into the fold after after uh, federal funds ran out. Um, and so we built up a nice cash balance um, there, but we're we're kind of back into that trajectory before we were there and we knew FY26, if you go back and pull past forecasts, we knew FY26 was going to be a bear. Um, but there were things that we were waiting on. You know, there's um, the bianium budget. We have we have a new bianium which is you know
052at this point in the forecast um more than other forecasts I'm more confident in at least this year's and next year's numbers because we're operating under the same bienium. Um moving forward FY28 29 we're going to have a new governor. Governor sets the stage for how much money the state's going to spend on education. Um, so that is kind of one of the assumptions we're we're going to make that we're we'll talk about. Um, but yeah, we're we're in a similar spot. We have done a nice job build up a cash balance. Uh, we do have a little bit of cushion. Um, but as we move forward and look at this deficit spend, there are some things that that we need to do to take care of that deficit. date makes us have uh cash
053on hand or cash cash balance equivalent to three months of expenses. >> So what and I actually have a graph on that later. Um the state says they'd like to see you with 60 days cash. >> Okay. >> Which and no less than 30 is what they say. Um but I can tell you anybody with 30 days cash with only a month's of cash, they're on the ballot. That's right. >> They're on the ballot. Um, so we we will we'll look at that here shortly, but this is what we look like for this year. And then I we'll we'll show a graph here shortly that um shows what that looks like throughout the forecast period. >> So So again, to the point that we um as a district were very responsible in how we handled
054those CO dollars, recognizing the fact that >> Oh, absolutely. And I think we did a great job putting, you know, putting the dollars where they need to be in the classroom. >> Yep. >> Um, hiring some great teachers, some that are still with us. >> Yes. >> Um, so I I think that was that was a really smart thing to do. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Fraser. If I could add one thing to that piece too where Jeremy talked about as a soft landing coming down from CO uh that deficit spend that we're looking at act in actual dollars now would have been$2 to3 million more if what we did last year through attrition and those pieces were not already done. So when Jeremy talks about how we're using these dollars every single week, we
055were able to lower that negative spend this year, knowing what was happening by looking at class sizes, looking at things like that. So we are constantly analyzing and trying to make those adjustments. But we were looking, I think all in all about $2 million higher uh if we would have kept every position or refilled even though our class sizes were much smaller. Well, and I I think that's been the the case since I've been on the board is a it's every year looking at what how can we make ourselves more financially sound. Um I I'll just say I think Mike Hullberg did a great job in saying looking at the future and and he sort of predicted a lot of this and saying we need to be on top of this now. We can't wait.
056We've seen it in other districts around us who've waited to the last minute and think there's going to be, you know, something is going to save them and they've they've hit a brick wall. We have been constantly trying to meet the needs of our our our city, our community, our schools, knowing that it's it's crazy crazy how we finance the schools. It's just plain crazy. >> Yeah. >> Jeremy, one question real quick. >> This um cash balance that we have of 43 million. >> Yes. >> I assume it's invested. We're getting some type of return. >> Oh yes. So that's that's all part of that new report that um you all have you approved started approving last uh board meeting. >> My question is is that part of the included in the 117 million uh
057general fund revenue that you're >> Yes. >> Okay. That's already in there. >> Yes. The the investment earnings are in the projection. They're actually in that um that 5% >> all other revenue. So, while we do a nice job with investing monies, again, it's still it's a very small piece of of what we you know, what we operate on and the bulk of that is what we get from the state for sure. >> So, we've already we've talked about some of these already. You know, what's changed since May? Um, again, we were the May forecast had the house bill version of the bianium. uh that is not what happened. We uh we got stuck with the Senate version u and so we've had to adjust the model to include zero uh increase in base cost.
058We have updated the model with an increased enrollment decline. Um the model now currently has 40 less students in the October forecast than we did in May. Uh and we look at that we look at enrollment student enrollment every every Monday morning um by by grade level. Um and and we I've got a graph here to show what that enrollment decline has looked like in the last couple years. I think it's very interesting. Uh we've updated the model with reducing some of those interest earnings um from what we had in May. So, we had a Fed rate cut in September. We're probably going to have another one here late October and the market is already pricing in almost at 100%, another one in December. So, we've kind of put those dollars into play as reducing
059some investment earnings throughout the forecast. Uh, but something that we've also done is increased the Medicare reimbursement revenue line item. So it it actually almost equals out um dollar value on that all other line. Um because as Medicare costs and Medicare expenditures, Medicare eligible expenditures increase, so does our reimbursement from those u eligible expenses. So uh we just we just put a uh a check in the in the bank last week for $1.4 million for a Medicare reimbursement. So, um, those are starting to be real numbers and and we're allocating for those. We talked about some forecast unknowns. Um, mainly the the bienium budget FY28-29. Uh, we'll have a new governor and again the governor sets the stage for what's going to go on in education spending throughout the state. Um, so we are assuming
060that they are going to continue what they did this year and give us a 0% base cost increase. Now, they could potentially go completely away from the formula. They could come up with a bridge formula. We really don't know, but we have to assume they're going to do something similar to what they've done in the last six years and more like what they've done this year and next year. So that's that's a major assumption uh that we're making. >> In other words, assume the worst. >> Correct. And and we talk about being conservative. Um the forecasts you're one and two. I feel pretty strongly that it's pretty accurate because we know what we're operating under. >> Yeah. >> You you can't go and assume that I'm going to get an 8% increase on base cost
061and we're going to be flush with cash. You just can't assume that because then you wake up and you're you're out of money. Um, so our assumptions, yes, are conservative. >> Um, hopefully something better comes down the pike. I really, with everything that I hear, I I don't see that coming to fruition. Um, so yes, we we are we're going to project and we're going to assume a 0% base cost increase um out of the state >> to plan for the worst and hope for the best. >> Absolutely. Uh there is a lot of talk about property tax now. Um we've got we've got a reval uh revaluation here in Butler County in uh FY26. Um which would be good for the district, but there's a large push to cap property taxes specifically for districts
062that are on the 20 mil floor. And we are a district that's on the 20 mil floor. Um, what that means for everyone is that, you know, we are at the lowest legal funding level from our local property taxpayers that we can be. And so the legislature is trying to uh cap the amount that we can get out of property taxes. So I've gone in there, we've assumed that they're going to cap it at CPI, consumer price index, which is what everyone is saying. I mean, the governor's put together uh property tax work group. Um they had about 20 recommendations. Um one of those recommendations was to to do that as well as there's a house bill out there that's getting some traction to do that. So that potentially could be a very likely thing.
063Um and so we've we've accounted for that in in the model. Uh I think it bears you said that we didn't create this the tax the tax process. >> No th this would I I think there's a misunderstanding that the district is the cause the schools are a cause of the tax issues. They set the rules. They set the when I say they the the state government on how taxes are are uh assessed. the process that goes through. We didn't have anything to do with that. And really the the the windfall is not that great for us, >> especially if they're going to cap it. >> Cap it. Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean, like I said, we are we are sitting at the lowest legal level that we can possibly be. Yeah. So, um, throughout
064the forecast period, our negotiated agreements are up. So, those will have to be bargained. So, we've got an assumption out there in the model. And then we are also modeling a continued enrollment decline. Um, again, we don't know what that's going to be. We we again, we talk about it every Monday morning. We have some idea. Um, but who really knows the exact number? So, this is what the forecast looks like. Um, we've got the green or not green, blue columns on the on the lefth hand graph there that represents revenues and as we alluded to before that that's pretty darn flat throughout the forecast period. Uh there's several reasons for that. It's you know state not fun fully funding the formula. It's a potential cap on property taxes. It's definite declining enrollment. Um and
065then when we look at the orange bars on the graph that that represents expenses and so we are projecting expenses to ever increase. I mean utility costs never go down. We have negotiated agreements for salary. Um that that moves forward in an increasing way as we go throughout the forecast. So what are we left with? So on the right hand side we can see our projected cash balance. Um, and again, right now we're we're pretty healthy. We're pretty healthy. Um, which is a a a good starting point and a lot better starting point than a lot of districts around the state of Ohio. Um, but as we continue to deficit spend, we can see how that eats into the savings as we look at, you know, 2027, 2028, 2029, um, as we move through the
066forecast period. That just brings another point that the sooner we make any adjustments in our expenditures, it has a not almost like a compounding effect. >> Correct. Any any cost savings measure has a compounding effect. So the the earlier you make it, the less you have to make. >> It can't wait. >> Yeah. Can't wait. >> Great. >> Mr. Davidson, this is a graph that uh deals with cash on hand that you alluded to earlier. Uh if we look at 2026, we are above that minimum threshold um that the state likes to see. But again, it's it's four months of cash. So days cash that just means if we stop receiving revenue today, how long could we operate? Um any of you listen to Dave Ramsey, like Andrea likes to say, he recommends six months.
067Mhm. >> Um, so we're looking at four months this year as we continue to deficit spend. 2027 that's three months, 2028 less than two months and so on. Um, >> so as we as we move through the forecast period again looks very similar to the cash balance graph just said in a different way. talked about the slide for declining enrollment and that's what this uh graph illustrates um for and and I say it every forecast forever and ever when we were in the journal news it was Hamilton City School District 10,000 student district that's how that's how we were portrayed in in the paper and it was true for a long time uh this year we are getting funded on 8264 students um just to put that in perspective Ive 10 12 years ago we
068had kindergarten classes rolling in at over a thousand. This year's kindergarten class districtwide as a whole was 618 kids. So we are definitely seeing some enrollment decline. >> Go ahead. And that enrollment decline can can be attributed to students moving to private private schools through the ed choice. >> We we've actually done uh Mike Mr. Wright has done a some significant research on and some some deep diving on what is going on with that enrollment decline. >> And you know forever I thought that the kids just weren't there. You know people don't have four, five, six kids anymore. That was that was my assumption. Well, um Mike's done a extensive work showing the kids are there. The kids are there. They're just choosing other options. Um ed choice being one. Um but yeah, we can
069absolutely go over that. Um so you can see what exact pieces that looks like. But the good thing is the kids are there and we can attract them to Hamilton City Schools. >> Right. That's >> Jeremy. I've got a few of those numbers pulled up if you want me just to kind of talk through them. So, >> um, basically going back to 20 2021. Um, so we in the district kind of residentially we had about 10,265 students. Um, today if you look at our residential students, it's about 10,500. So there's not as many. I mean, it's a couple hundred difference, which you wouldn't think would make that big of a difference. But, um, when we look at community schools, and community schools are our online community schools. um so like a K12 a Treka um
070sitebased community schools which is a Butler Tech um and then dropout recovery schools which would be schools like Marshall High School and GV out of Warren County. Um so in 2020 2021 we had 428 students attending those community schools. Um as of last year's fiscal year we had 1,020. Um so that's an increase in about 600 students. Um the Ed Choice expansion um impacted us from 2020 to 2021. Um so when you take Ed Choice original, Ed Choice expansion and the John Peterson scholarship which is for some of our identified students um we had about 437 students attending those schools in 2020 2021. Um as of this past year we have about 915. So, um when you look at the community schools and the school choice with three with the ed choice, uh expansion, um
071those those school choice um issues have have obviously impacted our enrollment as well. >> Yeah. If I can add to that too, a few years ago, uh something that was a shock when Mike brought this up and and showed us this graph was the the number of kids that jumped that were attending Butler Tech. We can trace that back directly. If you remember, Butler Tech used to have an application process where they would interview, they would pick who they wanted. They went to a lottery a few years ago. Our number went doubled. Went from I think it was 190. >> Uh it went from 167 to 364. So >> in one year >> 200 200 student increase, >> which is good. Our kids are But those are also dollars that are following those kids right
072out our door. So that was something I hadn't realized when we were looking at some of these. I think people think it's all Ed choice ed choice is hitting a lot of this but some of these other program and you know our partnership with Marshall that's a lot of kids that have walked out of the door. Uh so there's some strategy that we have to look at in our programming in our retention and in our recruitment to try to capture. But I think what was encouraging to Jeremy Mike and myself was these kids are out there. We were thinking it was a declining birth rate. Yeah. We were thinking there were a lot of factors that we couldn't control. The things we're seeing here, there's some some positive uh signs that we could do some
073things different to keep kids here in Hamilton. >> That's why I keep saying we need to market ourselves better, >> correct? >> And get those kids back. >> But to that point, too, though, as that enrollment declines, that directly affects staffing. >> Correct. Moving on, I I added this slide because I thought it was interesting. Um, we can see here the, you know, the financial responsibility burden where that lies. Um, 14% of the financial burden of educating a student is on our resident property tax owners. The balance of that comes from state, federal, and business taxes. So it costs us about $82 a day to educate a student and of that 14%. So it costs the residential property owners about $1.50 to educate. Um which I think is I think we do a nice job.
074We we are consistently, you know, we we talk about our 20 peer districts when we talk about our state scorecard and all of that. Well, there's some financial indicators in there as well, and we're consistently in the top area of cost per pupil as well. Um, for those >> And you say top area, you mean >> mean the lowest? >> Lowest. Yes. I was I want to clarify that because that's been our the way we've been doing it for quite a while. >> Well, and I also think that that's, you know, a lot of the property owners in the district make the assumption that they're funding everything for the schools. And I I think that that's this is an could be an eye openener for them as well. >> Yeah. I just thought it was
075an interesting graph. You rarely see it put that way. >> Yeah. >> So, we've talked about decisions at the state level. Um and what what has happened in the last several years is the state is reducing the burden that it's placing on itself to educate students. >> Public students. public students. >> Let's let's be >> and increasing the the burden on or the financial burden on individual taxpayers. And so the green line on this graph shows the state's portion of base cost. So what they're funding and the black line through the graph is what the local taxpayer is now responsible for. And so you can see those lines converging, meaning the state is putting less responsibilility on itself and more responsibility on the local taxpayer. And that's just that's a a graphical representation of what
076we've been saying for the last several years, >> which that also brings me back to that the state the state constitution says that they need have to fund public schools. This isn't looking to me like they have that thought in mind. Plus the fact I believe you gave us some statistics, Superintendent Blevens, that Ohio was at the bottom >> 45th as far as what the state thinks in >> percentage of state budget allocated to education is once a month. >> Yes. So, we're at the bottom and now they're saying that it's even less um important. >> Well, the Supreme Court ruled the same thing with the DeWalt case. >> Yeah. The Supreme Court said the funding wasn't >> Yeah. And that's been going on for almost 30 years now. So, >> the case hasn't closed.
077>> Yeah. >> It's supposed to be working. Has anybody filed a motion for contempt against the legislature for this? Because this is not in accordance with what the Supreme Court said. >> Not Not that I am aware of. I know we are part of the Ed Choice >> lawsuit. >> Um, but as far as it, you know, remaining unconstitutional, I'm not aware of. Um, and to be fair, that's that's why the fair school funding formula was put in place. That was the latest attempt to rectify the situation and they went through year one and two and, you know, put it in place in year three and four. They tried to balance the scale with, you know, increasing base costs because it never costs less to educate a child. And then here we are five and
078six and we're I mean we're kind of scrapping the idea it seems like if we're not going to fund the formula. So, >> and how long ago was that that they ruled it unconstitutional? >> Oh, 1997. >> 97. >> Uh we actually Jeremy and I met with a representative. This was a while back. And one of the representatives shared with us that in that ruling that it was declared the way that Ohio is funding its public schools to be unconstitutional. Um they were given a very long runway to fix the problem. Uh that person said about 38 years. I don't know. I've never seen that in writing but said 38 years to us in the meeting. And so a lot of our state legislators are just kicking the can down the road, you know, making
079some attempts. You know, that was the latest we heard is with the fair school funding formula was supposed to be the first attempt at trying to fix that. we've already stopped funding that. We're we're no longer continuing that process. my understanding and and with talking with both that representative as well as others. I've gone up to Columbus uh in the last month and met with other superintendents and uh state reps was really they're waiting for the next governor to come in >> that there will not be any massive, you know, reform to the way that schools are funded in the next at least two to four to six years depending on what happens. Well, on on a plus side with the with the the lawsuit, my understanding is that's how the school the the Ohio
080school facilities uh funding got going back in what 9798 was to sort of plate some of those issues with school buildings. And that's how we were able to fund our school buildings um and other districts. And my understand that's still going on in some respects, but it was a a short range. I mean, >> it fell in their lap because of the tobacco money. >> Yeah. The tobacco money. All of a sudden they had their flesh. >> Yeah. What are we going to do with it? Oh, okay. We can get ourselves out of contempt. >> Yeah. >> You know, put money over here. >> That's in the past. >> Yeah. So, in in summary, again, we've we've talked a lot about a lot about these. Um, what's happened from May to now, uh, we've got
081a different budget than we thought we had. Uh, we are experiencing some further enrollment decline that we've had to allocate for. Um, the state is pushing really hard on property taxes. Um, and so we've allocated for those in our model. Um, again, we knew FY26 historically, if you look at forecasts in the past, was going to be a tough year. We've done a lot to mitigate that number of the deficit spend this year. Uh, but we knew it was going to be we knew this year was going to be a bad year. It's what's important is how what we do in the future years with the projected deficit spend um to write the ship. And again, our key factors, we're always looking and the these are the main things that that we're looking at. Uh
082we're tracking enrollment, whatever we can do to to attract students to Hamilton City Schools, keeping track of legislative updates, um particularly right now, what is going on with property tax reform, um and what's going to happen in the next bianium budget. I mean, we we have constantly with state legislators and and proponents of of school districts u what in the world is going to happen coming down the pike and you know like we talked about the bianium where we get our money from the state that's that's huge for us and and so that's we we keep a close eye on on these three things. Um I know we've we've done a lot of question and answer but if you have any further questions that's my presentation tonight. Um, I'd love to answer them. >> I
083appreciate all the effort you put into this. It's a lot of work and you've made it you put it in simple terms that everybody can understand. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> I've got a couple comments. Um, um, I want to make sure that people understand what a few of my fellow board members have said. Mrs. Baker correctly said that Ohio is currently 45th out of 50 in what our state spends on public education. That's terrible. And as Mr. Sprag correctly stated, our current political environment, our state is even trying to further reduce that, which will make us even worse. And that's embarrassing in my opinion. Um, as far as the forecast goes tonight, Mr. Frasier, you did a a great job. Um, and let's think about the forecast. We're asking him to accurately
084make a four-year forecast. Um that is which as far as I know it's impossible to predict the future. Um but we're asking him to accurately do that especially when it is based on so many variables that are far beyond our control that literally can change on a daily basis. Uh, I think it's important for our community to be aware of that and understand that because that's almost an impossible job for him to do, but he does it very well. Uh, and I agree with Mr. Davidson. Thank you for your efforts and the information. >> Thank you. >> If I can share one piece, especially with Mr. with Chris Brown and Jeff Brandt being here tonight, um, we had our monthly Butler County Superintendent meeting today and this is affecting every school district across the state.
085No matter which side of that, you know, which which way you're more heavily funded, the Lakotas that are more dependent on property tax versus us that are more dependent, there are attacks to both sides of that equation. Right now, our uh Butler County superintendents are working together to put out a package, if you will, to help inform our community. I don't think our community and our taxpayers really understand what's happening. They see the dollars. They see some of the propaganda that's out there, but I will be hopefully in the next few weeks sending to you a draft. we want to send kind of in solidarity with all of the superintendents in the county uh both to legislators but to our community. You know, there's there's a really nice uh infographic that we're putting together for
086them really to understand what this means to our communities being flatfunded. It's not that we're misspending. It really isn't. It's it's not that we are um you know not watching every dollar that's coming in. One of those line items, Dr. copus as you mentioned can throw things into a tail spin. You know, just the decision of um the homestead credit. That's $800,000 that went out of our district throughout the entire school year. >> Can you take a second and explain that? >> Yes. >> Jeremy, do you want to explain the homestead credit? >> Sure. >> How the current decision by made by the county commissioners. >> So, what was that? Two Mondays ago, three Mondays ago. Um, so does everybody know what Homestead is? Homestead is a property tax reduction for elderly individuals, military veterans,
087disabled persons um to where the value of the property, the taxable value is reduced so that the individual taxpayer has some property tax relief. Well, the state has said, "Okay, we think that's a good thing. Um, Homestead can move forward, but we think that if you know they're not paying as much on property taxes, then the beneficiary of those taxes, which most of that comes to the school district, they're going to lose money on on this good thing." And so the state has agreed to reimburse the school districts for lost property tax revenue for giving that credit to individual taxpayers. Well, another thing that happened in the latest bienium budget along with, you know, messing around with the forecast and all other things is they gave the county commissioners the power to in essence double
088that credit, which the effect was to wipe out the reimbursement to the school districts. Um, so >> ju just to be clear, they the regular homestead we would still receive, but the amount that was doubled, we were not made good on that, >> right? The >> it's going to wipe out the credit wipe it all out because we we're not made good on the new thing, the uh the new >> correct. So um in essence we get a reimbursement after the set after settlement uh from the state and that was last year was $864,000. So in essence the vote a couple weeks ago wiped out $864. Now that money goes several different places. of that $560,000 was general fund revenue which we're talking about today. So I had to update the model again after the
089vote to remove $280,000 of property tax revenue for this fiscal year and next fiscal year. Um the balance of those dollars come in to pay debt on our elementary buildings uh and also to help fund our PI fund which pays for capital projects. So about $300,000 between the other two funds is now gone as well. >> One more piece to wrap up with that. So, in addition to this coming out from the Butler County Superintendent, um I've got two new committees that I've formed, both that I meet with our teachers on a on a monthly basis through our superintendent advisory council. And just last week, we had our first parent advisory council meeting. And this was a topic of conversation to start getting the word out about what this looks like so that people understand
090because they don't they don't understand the numbers. They don't understand what this means for our district. They see a value and think, "Oh my gosh, you are flushed with cash." But when you look at the scale, that was the biggest takeaway with our parents the other night was the sheer scale of our district. I think a lot of people think of us as a small town district. We are not. When you look at that, you know, line item of we're spending $121 million this school year. >> That just gives you the the scale and the size of this district. So, um I think those are great avenues. Uh we're talking about different ways to to get word out there, but these unfortunately these are laws right now and they're continuing to monkey around with things
091that can directly take dollars out of our pocket. So, Jeremy is in a hard place with budgeting and we look at this every single Monday because it is so volatile and can change at any time. >> Mrs. Blevens, I have one other comment. I want to make sure I make this point clear about what I mentioned earlier. Mrs. Baker's correct. We're currently 45th out of 50. Mr. Sprag, I love the comment that he made. Um, that our state is currently even trying to further reduce their expenditure and I love the point that you made, Mr. Sprag, trying to further reduce what they pay to educate students in public education. Okay. To me, that goes handinhand with what Mr. Davidson said. While they're doing that, they did find 1.7 billion to take away from public to
092put into private. Um, that's hard to explain, especially when you consider, and correct me if I'm wrong, 90% of the students in our state are in public institutions. >> Yeah. Based on the last article I saw, throughout the entire state, about 85 to 90% of all students still attend public school. Well, and to Joe, I mean, we've all seen the different articles that um um what's the pol is it policy matters? What's the uh the group that's carrying forth the >> um >> The vouchers vouchers hurt Ohio that so many districts are being penalized and don't even h are not even part of the ed choice. They don't even have kids going to uh other that have that opportunity. And like we've all said, it's not the choice that's the problem. It's that there's no
093accountability whatsoever of how people spend the money or how well the students are doing. And that's where that >> right >> that's upsetting to me. >> It's shocking that our state allows that to happen. >> Making a level playing bill. >> I've always been said that. Jeremy, again, thank you. That concludes our our work session or work meeting. Does anybody need a break before we go into the open meet or to the uh business meeting? >> Thanks for asking. >> We'll call the business meeting to order then. Roll call. Mr. Davidson, >> here. >> Dr. Copus here. >> Mr. Sprag here. Mrs. Baker >> here. >> Stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under
094God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I need a motion to approve our agenda. >> I'll make that motion. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Mrs. Baker, >> yes. >> Mr. Davidson, >> yes. >> Dr. Copus, >> yes. Yes, >> Mr. Sprag. Yes. >> I would entertain a motion to approve our minutes. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. >> Mr. Davidson? >> Yes. >> Dr. Copus? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sprag? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Baker? >> Yes. >> Move on to public participation. Nobody has signed up, so there is no public participation. We'll move on now to superintendent comments. Thank you, Vice President Davidson. Uh just a few uh I first I know Mrs. Weisbro shared this earlier, but today first quarter ended um which is crazy
095to believe we are 25% through the school year. This quarter has been a wonderful start to the year. I know we're talking about very heavy topics, but we're doing a lot of amazing things in this district. Um I I know that Mrs. Smith came and showed you the draft of the quality profile, but I did provide each of you with a hard copy tonight. This went out to our communities. This is going out to realators in the area, local businesses, the chamber office, etc. And I think it speaks to really truly um all that we do for our students and our staff. And it is just impressive to see it all put our our hardest decision every year is what what makes it and what doesn't because we could fill a four chapter book with
096all of the things happening. So I just wanted to make sure to highlight that and thank Mrs. Smith for her work on getting that together. Um I also just want to you know talk about that I we left a cookie in front of for each of you this week. We had an opportunity to go out and honor Sorry Mr. Fraser not you just for the board today. Um, but we had an opportunity to go out this week and celebrate our staff who helped students uh reach a great milestone on meeting MAP growth. And so any teacher that had 80% more of their students meet or exceed growth on our MAP assessments were were honored. We had so many staff that we had to split those individual classroom recognitions over three days. And I just think
097think that speaks, you know, with Miss Bowling standing here today, our teachers are amazing quality uh and work so hard in front of that. >> Uh just as a a reminder to our our families, uh we do not have school for students tomorrow. That is a teacher records day to get all those grades in and wrap up the quarter. And then Monday and Tuesday are fall break. So it's a time for all of our staff to unplug and unwind. Uh we do begin second quarter on Wednesday the 15th. and I'm looking forward to all we'll continue to do as we head towards the holiday season. The last little bit tonight, you'll see we have a fairly light agenda. We opened tonight's business meeting mostly so that we could meet the new deadline with the forecast,
098but we do have three items for you guys this evening. The first is a resolution to formalize the naming of two of our facilities here in the district and I just wanted to take a minute to honor that. Um the first is the G the Garfield Middle School gymnasium that we renamed Tim Reed Court. I know Dr. Copus uh was able to attend that and be present for that celebration. And then we have the blue room that is now going to be known as the Halcom family blue room over at uh Virtual Swarm Stadium. So, we want to thank um everyone who made those options come together. I do also, you know, when we start naming places, I get a lot of what's next, you know, what are we going to name? Uh because we
099have so many people that uh you know are deserving of those awards. We are putting together a committee that will help to set the criteria, the frequency with what we're doing uh with we're doing that. So just see more to come on that here in the next few months. And then the only other thing that will be up for your approval from my seat this evening is a field trip. Uh that's actually with one of our partners, Miami University, their Upwardbound TRIO program. Uh students from Hamilton High School will get to uh go to camp Kamblegard and ENKU over the fall break to experience both uh community building but also leadership. So those are the items this evening on the agenda. >> Well, thank you. We'll move on to the next item is the building
100court dh dedications that Mrs. Leven just spoke about the Tim Reed court and the Halcom family room or family blue room over at Virgil Swarm. I need a motion to approve the resolutions. >> So moved. >> Need a second. >> Second. >> Right. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. Roll call. Dr. Copus. Yes, >> Mr. Sprag. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Baker. >> Yes, >> Mr. Davidson. >> Yes. >> Move on to the consent agenda. >> I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I'll second it. >> There's been a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. >> Mr. Sprag? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Baker? >> Yes. >> Mr. Davidson? >> Yes. >> Dr. Copus? >> Yes. Next item on the agenda is the finance agenda. >> So this evening
101we only have one item. Uh it is the approval of the four-year forecast u that needs to be uploaded uh to the state by October 15th. >> I'll make that motion. >> I'll second it. >> There's been a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. Roll call. >> Mr. Sprag. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Baker. Yes, >> Mr. Davidson. >> Yes, >> Dr. Copus. >> Yes. >> All right. Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 23rd, beginning at 4:00. I believe that'll be a work session, business meeting, and possibly an executive session >> If needed. All right. I entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Need >> a second. Second. All right. We are ajourned.