001Good afternoon. Uh, welcome to the April 25th, 2025 Hamilton City School District Board of Education. Two meetings tonight. The first will be a work session meeting and the second will be a business open meeting. There will be no executive session tonight. With that, u the first thing on the agenda is city council. Mr. Lauer contacted me earlier. Oh, I'm sorry. Roll call. Mr. Davidson, yes. Dr. Copus here. Mr. Sprag here. And I will make a note in the minutes that we are currently missing Mrs. Baker. And I believe uh Mrs. Matthews is ill this evening. Yeah, she's excused. Um, city council. There will be no address from city council. Councilman Lowour uh contacted me earlier. Uh, he had a conflict and so did uh Councilman Ryan, but they had nothing to report anyway. So, we'll
002move on to um update Miami School. Yes. Um, so this evening we have Mrs. Kelly Lynch who's our assistant principal at the Miami school. This is actually a a fun night for us. Um, as you know, Miami School is one of our standalone programs that we have here, and they've never made a board presentation before. And so, Mrs. Lynch reached out to me, oh, pretty early on in the the school year and said, "Would we ever get an opportunity to update the board?" And so, we're here tonight. She was kicking herself earlier this week when her when the nerves were getting in her in in her a little bit. But, um, I am excited to hear from Mrs. Lynch and her team this evening. Awesome. I Oh, shoot. I was connected and then I clicked
003share and it went away. Um oops let's try could not connect with pairing [Music] code not connect is it because someone else's Oh, I was wondering where I was like maybe someone's just Oh, yeah. We are. Um, Miss Mcabe and I are wearing our new t-shirts that we got made. We actually had a student design this. So, our this is our little quote. Um, I had all the staff members part of our back to school. They all put like their comment common or um purpose for the year and this was my quote and the student asked me for one and I said, "Well, that's what's hanging on my door." So, they're hanging on everybody's classroom door. So, he designed that and we worked with Unsung Salvage and did a little um fundraiser. So, this is
004my first pair pair of or you know Miami School apparel. So, I was very excited after, you know, a year and a half to finally represent. All right. Thank you. Not done it this way before. So, all right. Learning new things here. Okay. All right. Thank you. So, as Miss Leven said, I am Miss Lynch. I am I'm Kelly Lynch. I'm the assistant principal at the Miami School. Um, and yes, I did actually tell her, "Hey, I want to do this. I want to present. I want to share about our program because I think there is um a lot of misinformation or just I don't know mystery to what goes on at the Miami school." And kind of one of my missions is to have the building and the program represented across the district, have
005input, um, and just, you know, be known about what our small but mighty program does. So, I am very excited. I appreciate your time and letting us come and speak this evening. Um, so I'll share a little bit about our program and just I'll have some guest speakers here in a moment. Um, but yes, and so this is my first opportunity um to speak to the board. I know I've met some of you here and there. Um, but just a little bit about myself. This is my second year in Hamilton. Um, I've spent more than half of my career in education working with at risk and alternative students in these types of programs. Miami school is the reason a program like Miami School is the reason why I went into administration. So, um, this is
006my passion. I really enjoy what I do. I feel very fortunate and blessed to be able to do this every day and work with these students. but it is a very unique um environment and building. So that's what we want to just kind of convey to you this evening. All right. So um as you know last year we were on Hamilton High School's main campus and was kind of downsized a little bit and this year we moved back to the Ross Avenue building. So we we kind of scaled back up. Um and so we had some staff members that were new to the district that were maybe in other buildings that came back to the Miami school. And so every member of our team is very passionate about what they do. Um at the beginning
007of the year because we had everybody kind of coming from different places, I wanted to get together and kind of establish our own mission and vision for our building for this year. What is our com common purpose and our guiding light as we make decisions and move forward for the school year. Um so that's just a picture of a little opport or activity we did during our extended day and we came up with these two statements. Um, and I think it very much represents what we do at the Miami school because yes, we are trying to get them to graduation and we do care about the academics and the education, but there's so many other needs that have to be met first and meet those basic needs before we can get there. And so we
008really focus on meeting those needs and the whole child and what every student needs individually. Okay. So, as we mentioned, um I did want to come here and share about the Miami school. And part of my kind of um push is really getting us represented represented across the district, hearing our voices from the people who live and breathe it every day about what we do and have our voices being heard to the various members of the district. Um, so we have some with doing this board presentation for the first time, we also have some new roles that may not have been in place before. Um, we now have a teacher um on the district leadership team that works with Julie Arnold for our improvement process. Um, we have a technology learning coach who works with
009Trisha Smith's group to provide professional learning and support to our students and staff for technology. Um, we also have a quote unquote department chair. We don't have true departments because we only have one core content teacher in each area. So, um Jeremiah, who's apparently in the next room doing a presentation, um and Julie were working with the secondary department chairs to kind of do a train the trainer model on their professional development this year. So, he was meeting with them. They were bringing it back to their buildings. And the original plan was, hey, we'll have the Miami school kind of jump in with other buildings and and so forth. So I said, can we be represented and bring it back to us and kind of put our own lens on it, right? Because our instructional
010model is so different than what the high school and the freshman school and the middle schools do. Um, so we've had someone partaking in that this year, bringing back the learning to the Miami school teachers, um, and kind of tweaking it and talking about what does it look like in our setting and how can we do these same best practices, um, that, you know, the curriculum department is sharing, but in our setting. So, those are just some opportunities we've had that I'm very proud and excited of for our staff members this year. [Music] All right. So, a little bit about the logistics of the Miami school. Um, we run two half-day sessions. Students are there for about three hours a piece. Um, they only work on two classes at a time. We find that having
011too many transitions throughout the day to do shorter classes just you lose a lot of time. So, we kind of try to maximize the learning time, minimize the unstructured transition time, and we rotate those classes every six weeks. So students are constantly earning earning credits and moving on to the next classes that they need. Um as I mentioned a lot of students have basic me needs that are not being met. So we've really been fortunate in that food service is providing two meals to both sessions. So breakfast and lunch for the morning and lunch and after school snack for the afternoon. And that has been huge and a lot of our students do partake in that. So we are very fortunate. Um, as I mentioned, we have content area experts and then we also have
012an ELELLL program and we have four intervention specialists for our special ed. So, we have a pretty all-inclusive well-rounded group as far as our staff is concerned. Um, we utilize a blended learning model, which means a few different things. Um, first we have a combination as you can see the pictures down here of teacher in teacher instruction for the in-person learning but also the computer instruction that students can do anytime anywhere. So that is their online curriculum that's housed in the imagine learning egeneuity program. But our teachers pretty uh typically do a 20 to 30 minute um short mini lesson at the beginning of class each day to kind of increase those socialization opportunities that that cooperative learning um and getting some of that, you know, skill building. A lot of that time is focused
013on um bridging those gaps of where those students are missing those skills throughout their their educational experience. Um, it's also blended because we have students there for a half day and then they are required to do half of their learning at home. So, we are still subject to the state laws of House Bill 410 in regards to attendance. Um, so we do have to account for the same number of hours as every other building. Um, so we have students, they track their learning at home. We have a variety of opportunities they can do, but we really encourage um, our students to work on their egeneuity at home. Because of that, we sometimes we have to provide hotspots for our students that don't have internet access or kind of get creative in what they're able to
014do from home. So, it's just a little bit like I said about the the day-to-day. All right. Um, this is kind of this slide is going to be up here for a while because there's a lot to talk about with this slide. Um, I meet with every student on their first day individually and I tell them one of the biggest things about the Miami school is that we are a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment. And that means that they are responsible for making everyone else feel that way and we want them to feel that way. And so that's one of the best things about it is the environment where all students are supported, accepted um and welcomed. And we take that very seriously because every student is coming from a different set of set of
015circumstances. We get a lot of questions about why do students come to the Miami school? Typically, it has to do with being credit deficient or being, you know, disengaged in school or something like that, attendance maybe. But once we kind of peel back those layers and find out what's really going on, what's put them in this position that's made them unsuccessful in their previous programs, we find a lot of these other things are going on. So, um, some of them are working full-time to support their parents. They're, um, they have their own children. Um, a lot of them have housing and food insecurity. So just today I was texting our Butler County success leaison. Hey, I have a kid. They're in a hotel. They need food. Let's get this to them. So we're trying to
016do all of that um for those students. Um a lot of them are transient. They move in and out of districts all the time. So they leave credits where they are or they don't finish credits and they got to come come in and make those up. Um we have significant mental health needs. So we partner with community behavioral health for that. And then with that, um, surprisingly, I guess this is surprising to me, in 2025, we still have a fair number of first generation high school graduates. And some of our students tell us that, some of them don't, but their parents tell us that. And so, um, I like to say our parents are not always super engaged, but they are responsive. If we reach out to them, they're like, "Yes, I want to know
017what's going on." They just don't always know how to engage with school. So, we try to put as much communication out there as we can. Um, at this point I'm going to turn it over to Mrs. Mcabe, who you know is HCTA president. She is an intervention specialist in our building and she's kind of been working on a special project this year that she's going to tell you about. Oh, hi. Um, as you know, I came in late to the school year due to health problems. So I came in the middle of October and I am an IS so I do have kids on my case load that receive that instruction. But most of the kids I work with there are 29 kids on my list. They are our super seniors which means they are
01817 and 18 year olds that either don't come to school regularly, work full-time jobs, have those kids, but we don't see them very often. So my job is to hound them with emails and text messages and anything else at 7:30 in the morning. Um but what I have done is don't not only do I email the students but I also message the parents as well. So that leaves the accountability to the parents as well. So out of my 29, we've had five that have already currently graduated and then we are on track to have five more complete their course requirements and graduate in the next two weeks. So, out of 29 of them, we've had 10 that will have completed school that this may be their fifth or sixth year for some of them in
019school. So, that was huge. And like I said, I hound them a lot. Google um Google Voice has been a blessing because I can text them and a lot of them will text me back versus using their school email. And I can do Google Voice is attached to my phone so they'll text me at 5 or six o'clock at night, hey, what do I have to do? and I can be wherever I'm at and I can answer them. So, it keeps them motivated to work and we just one at a time we get them over that finish line. So, that's been exciting for us. Yes, absolutely. A lot of those students probably would have been um just withdrawn at some point. So, even though it's only five, it's big to us. That's five more. We're
020at about 46 graduates, I think, so far for the year. Um so, more than 10% of our grads have come from Katie's kind of project that she's taken on. Um, next we have Miss Sarah Chavez Medina. She is our bilingual specialist in the building because we do have a unique ELLL newcomer program for high school students. Um, but I think the coolest thing about her is that she's actually a Miami school graduate. So, and she came back to work with us. So, she's going to talk a little bit about her personal and professional experience with Miami School. Um, one thing is that she takes on that that traditional translator interpreter role with working with the clerical staff and myself, but she also serves as kind of an educational assistant working in the classrooms with the
021students and participating in the academics and the curriculum as well. Hello everyone. My name is Sarah Chavez Medina and like uh Miss Lynch uh mentioned, I am the native language support specialist over at Miami. Um, I actually was a student there my junior year. I got transferred over from the high school after being credit deficient. My sophomore year, I actually spent 10 months in Mexico, so when I came back, I had some catching up to do. Um, I vividly remember enjoying Miami school as a student because of the hours that were set. Um, it made it a lot easier for me to attend school because I hated waking up early in the morning. Um, so I um love the environment that the teachers created there as well. Um, there's still actually two teachers there. They
022were my teachers when I was a student there. Um, so yeah, I I really loved it there and it helped me be successful. So, I actually became pregnant while I was a Miami school uh student, and it was really awesome to have Miami School help and encourage me and accommodate to my needs as a young mom. Um, so actually, I am that's one of the reasons why I went back and decided to try and uh get the position and work as a staff member there. I wanted it to be the help and support that I uh believe that a lot of our students need there today. Um I also just for our ESL students especially, I think I can um relate a lot to their lives and their personal challenges and their cultural background and
023the those challenges that come with coming to a new country, having to learn a new language and meeting new people. Um, so I work with those students a lot on connecting them to resources like the social worker there at school, helping make appointments uh over at Primary Health Solutions for those students. Um, a lot of our uh students may have had previous uh education or some have had very little. I've had many students that I've had to work with who have never used a computer before. So, we've had to work um on teaching them English um and also learning those skills like using the computer and anything else that they may need to be successful there at Miami school and outside of school. Um so, yeah, I'm just uh really glad that I'm back at
024over at the Miami school and I'm part of the team and I just want to be there and help the students and help in the classrooms. I do push into all of the classrooms actually uh to help uh translate instruction time and I um also work with students one-on-one to help them complete uh classwork or any projects or essays that they may need to turn into the teachers. Thank you. All right, thank you ladies. Yes, so you can see we have some wonderful team members here. Um one of my favorite things is that when our students graduate, they complete all their graduation requirements. we celebrate them that day then and there. And um we always do an exit interview and one of the questions is um what is your favorite thing about the Miami school?
025And these are kind of the big three that that it comes down to over and over. Um and I'm sure Mr. Wright can attest that everyone always says, "Oh, it's so quiet in here. I'm so surprised how quiet it is in here." But it's a really great atmosphere where students can focus. The smaller classes, the more teacher attention. Um, but the biggest thing I'm proud of is that more than half of our graduates, and that number is higher now, have said the staff is their favorite thing about the Miami school. So, some have named specific teachers, some have just said the teachers in general, the staff, everyone's so great here. They're so nice. Even a student that we only had for two weeks, graduated last year, and he said, "Yeah, the cool the teachers are
026just really chill here, you know, like they help me a lot." So, that is one of my most proud moments and gives me chills every time they say that. Um, but it's something really cool about the Miami school because we do have a great team. Um, just quickly, they are able to participate in um, district activities. We had a couple athletes this year. Um, the one on the right went to districts in wrestling, so we did a little clap out for her going to the competition. So, um, I will see some of them at prom on Saturday. So, that's pretty cool. Um just briefly, I know I'm I hope I'm not boring you, but um we had some new opportunities arise this year um that you people were able to support us in adding those
027new positions, which have proved to be true game changers for our program um that we were able to add a second clerical member. We um went from previously having an SRO to a safe and secure monitor. And the biggest thing about that is we are now able to offer some inschool suspension instead of previously the only discipline possible really was out of school suspension. And with these students that's a reward for them. So we're keeping them in school to receive you know access to their education. Um and so that has been a huge addition this year. Um the biggest one probably is our student and family support specialists which is the first one at the secondary level in the district. All the elementary schools have them. Um, we went this route because we wanted someone
028to can address all of the mental health needs for every student. Whereas with community behavioral health, they have to be, you know, a client and onboarded. This person is a district employee and can work with every student. Um, she's a licensed social worker. She has a mental health background, but then she also meets some of that school counselor role where she works with them on their future planning. So that these positions have been true game changers for Miami school this year. Um, and these are as of spring break. These are our graduates from this year. It says ring the bell because we started a new tradition where they come out, they ring a bell, everybody comes out of class, we cheer for them, we congratulate them. Um, it's great for our students um for the
029graduates as well as the other students to see that success that's happening there. So, we really enjoy that. And we have these pictures hung in our in our uh building as well in our Friday connection. So, we really try to celebrate that. You can even see some of them have their children in the pictures. Um, so they love bringing them in and and meeting their teachers and everything. So, so yeah. So, it's been a great year. Um, thank you very much for Whoops. for your time. Um, these are social media accounts. They're not super active, but follow them. And I do post our graduate updates and things like that. Um, if anyone is interested, they're the same on both Twitter and Instagram. Thank you. Well, thank you, U, Princip, Assistant Principal Lynch. Um, I love
030your passion. Thank you. You're very passionate and you're the perfect person, I think, for that building. Thank you. Um, I was fortunate to come through your building a couple months ago. I saw both of you there. Yeah. Uh, and that was a great experience. And if anyone hasn't been in that building or gone through it, I would encourage you to do it because I had the wrong perception of what was going on there until I saw it. And I think I remember telling you when I left how impressed I was with what was going on there. Thank you. And I think the greatest thing that uh I came away with is we're not giving up on these students. Uh some districts would give up. We're not. And um Katie calling them in the morning and
031pestering them and and you whole binder with all their graduation requirements and these long emails and it's Yes. And I I really I appreciate that. I know the board does and keep up the good work and keep the passion. Thank you. I I just want to say thank you very much. I I think it's very holistic pres presentation. I wrote just down some different notes. I love how you've integrated with the rest of the district for a long time. Any of our any of our I go back to some of the different programs we've had over the years and it was always a standalone. It was sort of this mystic bubble that existed in the district and there was no nothing came out. It was like a black hole, you know, nothing nothing came out.
032So, integrating like you said with the with the staff at the district leadership team and those things. I think it's a great opportunity for for all the students and for your staff too for being part of that. Um, I did have a question. I know that you do have a lot of students that do home in do computerized or computer instruction at home. How do you monitor that? Are you are you able to stay on top of that? I guess um it that's why we need another clerical position. So um we do through our program Egeneuity, we do uh track attendance logs each week. Um and then the students also they can submit other learning opportunities. So we've worked with Mr. Sanf um to look at the attendance rules and what can qualify and some
033students use their work opportunities um if they're participating in any like physical activity. um if they're doing independent reading, some of them are in clubs at the high school, they report that to us. Okay. And then we kind of combine that with their in-person attendance. Um but it is a very large job every week that we have to do um to meet those required hours. So So yeah, it is possible. It's just it just takes some time. We I'm try to be very efficient with systems and procedures. You're getting it. You'll get it. You'll get it. Yeah. So pretty much. Um I did have a question for Katie. Um, so you've got seniors. How how long I know with special ed we go for what 22 to students are 22. How, you know, you're saying
034we have fifth year and sixth year. How long do we are we able to hang hang on to the some of those students? So I I don't have the exact date. It's really Miss Lynch will say they have until if they're not if they haven't done anything all year, then we have to Sure. What is it? Unenroll them. Non-traditionally withdraw them. So, we just take them off the roster. Um, but if they're attempting to attend and we can show because we can go into the computer system and I do it every single day. I go in and I check when they've logged in and it will show me exactly what class they did, how much time they spent on the class, how much time their computer was idle during that class. So, like I went
035in and looked at somebody and it said they spent an hour and a half yesterday, but it was idle for an hour and a half. So they open their course to show pretend they were there but they didn't do anything. So it'll show me what they're doing and if they're actually working then we can keep them on the roster. Okay. That's what I wondered. Okay. But if they're not doing anything then we non-traditionally withdraw them. Okay. That's that's what I sense. Yeah. And we do work with the truency department closely. They do a lot of home visits for those students because we want to make sure they're still living in the district or they're intending on graduating. Some of them are like let me sign my withdrawal form unfortunately. Um, but we make sure we're
036giving as many opportunities as we can to notify them um before before taking that route. Okay. The other thing I was just saying, I think you've offered so many support systems for your students now that I don't know if they were always there or we always had the ability to provide them as a district, but I think what you're doing there is an incredible um it's just so cool to have all those supports in place for the students. And I can see why they could feel like the staff is very supportive or why they feel it's a welcoming environment and these students have not done well at the traditional school. So having them in that situation sounds best for them. And I think that's one thing as we've been trying to do as a district
037is what's the best thing for each student, not just how do we throw something out there and hope we catch somebody. It's it's having those type of programs and your your program obviously fits that bill. So congrats. When Mr. Stanfield told me last year we were getting the SFSS, I cried. I literally I was like because I'm not a mental health professional. And so dealing with the crisis plus the instruction plus the curriculum plus the discipline is a lot on the administrator. So that has been a huge huge asset in our building who I have someone who I can go to and say, "Hey, what do you think in this situation? We found out this about this student. Who do we need to connect them with?" Um that has been greatly appreciated this year. And
038I Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. K. Sorry. One of the things that she brought in was we brought in the um Butler County Regional Transit Authority, the bus system. We just brought it in recently and we did she did a presentation for the kids and we actually had one student who has a daughter who has totally taken advantage of it and it's changed her entire mindset. She was so proud of herself this week that they used the bus system to get where she needed and get her child to daycare. And so it's just amazing to have that support. And we're actually doing a field trip next week with BCRT. I actually have that on here. I forgot to say it. Um to help the students learn to ride the regional transit because a lot of the
039families don't have vehicles. So yeah. Well, and it's I mean in a large city you might have that opportunity from a young child, but in Hamilton we don't typically use, you know, public transportation. So I think that's great. Yeah. And it's free. Last thing. And it's free there. I like that part. Uh I'm sorry, did not catch your name, but Sarah Chavez. I'm sorry. Chavez Medina. Sarah. Okay, Sarah. Um welcome back. And it's so it's so nice to see a success story from what where you were coming back and helping kids. I want to say thank you for that. No, I'm really glad that the opportunity is there and like I said before, I do want to be an example to the kids and show them that they can they can do it and they
040need to see that Miami school is a second opportunity and I think that they and as myself because I was a student there, I'm really glad that it's something that exists here in the Hamilton City District. Thank you very much. Thank you for being a role model for those students. Thanks. I'll just echo what Mr. Sprag said and thank you that I know that it's a tough job and it's so good to know that we don't leave anyone. Um we give an opportunity to everyone. Um I was and maybe I missed this but I would have one question. You made the comment about we had a student for two weeks before and then graduate. How what how does that happen? The circumstance. So, we work with the high school and we have intervals pretty much
041every quarter where we accept accept new students. And so, um getting down to the end of senior year, some of those students once they turn 18, they kind of stop attending school. Okay? And so, because we have the option to do the online courses and things and the flexible schedules, um we do end up getting students later in the school year. So, we accepted a group right um April 1st, I believe. So, and some of those students only had two or three classes left, but they had just stopped going to the high school. Okay. So, they he was there for a very short time, got those classes done and has moved on. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for what you do. Yeah. The same. Assistant Principal Lynch, I want to begin by saying that
042for your first board presentation, you did extremely well. Thank you. Um, I want to echo what Mr. Davidson said. I appreciate your very apparent passion for what you do. Uh, that's that's very admirable. And also, I want to echo what Mr. Sprag said. It is amazing to me all of the support structures and systems that are in place for your students. Um, and I have great respect for what you and your staff do and for what our district does to try to literally do everything possible to help these students graduate. Um, I wish I could say that I was absolutely certain that everyone in our community was aware of all of those things. They are not. I'm certain they're not. And that's sad because it truly is admirable what you do and what our district
043does. So to all three of you ladies, thank you. And to your entire staff, just please keep up the wonderful things that you're doing. We appreciate that. Thank you very much. Yeah, Mrs. Lynch, uh you survived your four first board presentation. I told her she'd be smiling on her way out. Um, but I think what's apparent more than anything, and it's been said, you know, repeatedly by the board members here, but we talk all the time that, you know, each individual situation and student requires a different set of circumstances. I'm just grateful that our district and this board understands that it's our goal not just to make the kid fit into the mold, but make the mold fit the kid. And um, you know, seeing the success of the program and the passion and and
044the the urgency and the need that when you walk in that building, you feel it. all people are all hands on deck to help with the success stories um that come out of there because every child I I firmly believe that education is the equalizer um and provides you know the the path to the American dream no matter your circumstances and whether you take a detour or not and I think the Miami school is just another innovative example of that. So thank you ladies for being here um and we we really appreciate it and I hope we'll see you again next year for another board. I'll do it. You know, next year I can go a little bit more into the finer details and stuff, but um but yes, we very much appreciate it and
045I'm glad you enjoyed it. Well, thank you again. Thank you, Miss Lynch. Thank you. Enjoy the rest of your meeting. Okay, that will conclude our work meeting and we'll move into our business meeting. You call roll please. Mr. Frasier. Mr. Davidson, here. Dr. Copus here. Mr. Sprag here. Mrs. Baker here. Would everyone stand for the pledge of allegiance, please? I pledge algiance 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. I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda. I'll make that motion. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Mr. Frasier. Mrs. Baker. Yes. Mr. Davidson. Yes. Dr. Copus. Yes. Mr. Sprag. Yes. Next on the uh item on the agenda would be approval of a minute of
046the minutes from the last meeting. So moved. Second. Any discussion, corrections? Hearing none. Mr. Frasier. Mr. Davidson. Yes. Dr. Copus. Yes. Mr. Sprag. Yes. Mrs. Baker. Yes. Next item. Public participation. I see none. Only public we have is Mrs. Mackerby here. So, we'll move on. Um, we also uh or never mind. We did that last one. Superintendent comments. Yes, thank you, Vice President Davidson. Thank you for uh filling in tonight and uh taking over. I do have a number of um announcements this evening and my comments. One, we have really hit the ground running coming back from spring break. Uh we have five weeks now, four and just a few left and the flurry of activities and excitement in the buildings right now um is almost contagious. One, I want to commend our students who
047came back and got right back to business. We we started right back into our state assessments this week and it was it was like they didn't miss a beat. And so I just want to commend our teachers and our students for their hard work on that. Uh our sports teams are continuing to win on and off the field. One, we had two students um that have set new school records, Elijah Le and Mason Hullbrook, who set personal records. Um Coach Hecman with our women's softball team, girls softball, uh hit another impressive milestone. I had to add another because he just keeps hitting them. it's just the hitmaker, but he hit an impressive milestone of 450 wins. I know that in May, Mrs. Harvey will be coming and and giving an update to the board, and
048I'm sure she's going to talk about some of the other accolades. Uh, in fine arts, I just continue to be amazed at all of the talent in our schools. Uh, this evening, actually, while we're here, there's a talent show happening at the high school that's being put on by the National Junior Honor Society. Uh, they're going to have our spring fine arts showcase on May 3rd at the high school. And then we're actually for the first time ever hosting an ac capella night. Um and that will be on uh May 5th and that is an opportunity to showcase our new ac capella group. It's been in existence for two years now. We've actually been provided to or uh invited to perform at other ac capella events. So our notoriety is getting out there with the
049caliber of performances that we have. So just a lot of amazing things going on. Um, we also this weekend, as mentioned before, it is prom this Saturday. Uh, I wish all of our, uh, juniors and seniors a safe and wonderful time. It's one of those milestones that, you know, I still remember to this day. And I want to thank the Courtyard Marriott for being a great partner of allowing us to host there. In preparation for that, you know, it's not just a dance. It really is more about um, you know, growing into adulthood, but we also want kids to understand that safety matters. And so tomorrow at the high school, we will be mo we will be hosting our mock crash that we do at 10 p.m. we or 10 a.m. 10 a.m. not pm.
050Um but we use students from our theater department who act out um what underage drinking looks like. Um and it's a somber event, but it's important for kids to understand that safety has to be first. So if you see any medical professionals uh tomorrow in the area of the high school around 10:00 a.m., please know all is under control. It is our mock crash. Um, speaking of seniors, I would be remiss not to mention last night we had a wonderful top scholar celebration where we were able to acknowledge 21 students who are graduating uh, sumakumloud. That is that means that they have a 4.3 GPA or higher. What was crazy is in the room the average for those 21 students was a 4.46 GPA. uh they have completed 725 college credit courses and they have
051tackled 192 honors and AP courses. Most impressively, that room of 21 seniors have earned over $3 million in scholarships to college. And you want to talk about, you know, what the future of the world looks like, you sit in a room like that, it's one of my absolute favorite events. I know Mr. Davidson and Dr. Copus were able to join us last night and it was it just really renews your faith of we provide services for all but to see the the talent and the dedication of these kids and their families was remarkable. I had made a note to mention that last last night was so impressive. They got up each one of them and gave a little talk about themselves, what they accomplished in school, what they liked. uh and they had their favorite
052educator or the one who really mentored them um on their path given opening comments from them and they were every one of them was very very impressive made you proud of the the Hamilton City schools and the number of opportunities to hear these kids deciding whether they're going to go to Arizona State or Ohio State and pre-law and just just to hear the diversity in the room of of what they're going to Hamilton is in good hands when when you sit with these 21 seniors. Yeah. Um I also want to just acknowledge next week uh we will also we have our on Wednesday, April 30th, our military breakfast which will be another important recognition. Um as someone who comes from a long line of veterans, I'm married to a veteran. Um dedicating your life to
053service and to serve in this country is I don't think there's a greater honor or a greater sacrifice. And so that is next Wednesday at 9:30 at the high school. So I'm excited to be that. And last, we'll have some other updates in our next one, but Wednesday, May 7th, which is just right around the corner, is our senior's last day, which is just crazy. I don't know how we got here so quickly. I was just talking to Mrs. Mcabe about her daughter last year at this time. So it's just it it's crazy. On that same day, we're doing something a little different. We're doing our parade of graduates. If you remember last year, um, we did that and we took groups of seniors, uh, to multiple schools. This year, the seniors will go back
054to their own elementary that they went to. So, that will be I'll send out additional information, but I'd love for you to join all eight of our buildings roughly about 10:45. We're inviting visitors. Information is going out to parents about that. We already have about 165 seniors who have signed up to attend that day. That's right. Yeah, I think so. I also I had some um former alumni who said or alumni uh Hamilton students who said why didn't you do anything fun like that when I was here. I said I'm sorry you can come back and join us. But it's a spectacular day. I just wanted to mention those to you before our next meeting coming up. My last comment tonight is just an overview of what's on our consent agenda this evening. Um we
055have quite a number of curricular programs that are up for approval. It's that time of year where we do um just as we do for our facilities process where we have a rotation of when we review and audit different uh or upgrade upgrade different facilities. We do the same on our curriculum side. This year is a social studies audit. So you'll see there's quite a few social studies programs that are listed there for our intermediate or our secondary buildings. You will see there's a math program that's on there. That was actually the program that we talked about last year that our teachers piloted and gave impact and we were able to do that last year for free or this school year for free. So now we are purchasing it because it's been a successful implementation.
056Uh you'll also see that we have our school links uh contract on there that helps kids with credit planning with career really starting to look and explore. I always say I missed that day at school when I was a kid of what career to grow, you know, what what are opportunities that are out there for our our future careers. Um, we also have a number, I think this is always something that you'll see on our HR agenda, but we have a number of our staff who don't stop working when school ends. They volunteer in a variety of other capacities. Katie's laughing at me over there, but um, for third grade summer school, for our ESL word camp, our high school credit recovery, um, they do all kinds of learning over summer, including professional development. So,
057you'll see a number of our staff that are signed up for that on the HR agenda tonight. And then last, you'll see a field trip for our NJOTC uh that that is a renowned. They they win uh almost every comp competition that they compete in, and I just love that we have that opportunity for kids. So, those are my comments this evening. Thank you. A lot going on. We'll move on to human resources. Entertain a motion to accept. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Mr. Frasier. Dr. Copus. Yes. Mr. Sprag. Yes. Mrs. Baker. Yes. Mr. Davidson. Yes. Move on to the consent agenda. I would entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda. I'll make that motion. I'll second it. Any discussion? Yeah. I' I'd like to have just a little bit more information
058about school links only because it's a different program and I I think it's something that our community might be more interested in. Um how I know that it took over for over no what I forget what the name of the other overgrad overgrad. So what this program is is it helps to track it helps to match kids with possible interests for careers but it also tracks what items are they doing to get closer. So for instance, there's different milestones that they they learn how to write a resume. They learn more they take a entrance inventory, if you will, to match them with careers. Uh they wonder if that's what yes, it does all of that um kind of piece, but it also sets milestones for them to work towards that goal. So it might be
059to research a website, you know, about that particular company, finding out what the average salary is for those particular pieces. It allows the student and the counselor to track that in live time so that they can make sure that students are progressing again beyond just the diploma. That's a a valuable piece of paper, but really to our students it's just a piece of paper. This program is a program that helps us the then what what's after the diploma kind of. So is it um work with counselors or do we have other teachers involved with that with students? A little bit of both. Our counselors are the driving force behind it, but teachers do work. you know, last night even at the top scholar um celebration, there were students that shared that their teacher helped them
060fall in love with this particular field or or pieces. So, it's kind of an all hands-on deck. Our counselors do manage that particular piece. It's an online program that creates a portfolio. Parents have access to it, too. Students do. Um I do not believe parents have a separate login, but yes. Okay, cool. That's what I was interested. No problem. Any other discussion? Hearing none. Mr. Frasier, Mr. Sprag, yes. Mrs. Baker, yes. Mr. Davidson, yes. Dr. Copus, yes. Next is on the agenda is the treasures contract. Um, make a motion. I'll second that. So, the motion to Yeah. Yeah. To accept. Yes. Correct. Okay. Maybe this should be after the finance agenda instead of before. Well, we've discussed it at there's a motion to accept the contract in a second. Any discussion? I would just like
061to say and I've told Jeremy this, I'm so happy that he is with us. We have all discussed this at at some point, but I'm I'm feel our district is very fortunate to have you in charge of our financial uh situation. Uh I know it is a rough seas right now uh battered and torn and you are actually here tonight after everything going on, but I just want to thank you for your diligence. I know this is home for you and I I we love having you here. I love you here. Thank you so much. Um, as you all know, this is uh what I have have called my dream job and um you know, I'm just very appreciative to have the opportunity to to work here and serve the district um and to do
062it for uh at least five more years. So, thank thank you all so much. I did owe Mr. uh Sprag's comments and I think I've said to you um and and to the board uh we are very fortunate because I think you're probably the best uh treasurer in the state of Ohio. So, thank you. And I agree, you're doing a great job and we're fortunate to have you and I appreciate you taking my calls when I call and getting information and explaining things and and I you know I've been around other treasurers and um in my past and some of them like to talk over people's heads and that's not you. you like to you give us the the information and you put it in terms that we can understand and the citizens of the
063district can understand and you've modernized the treasur's office. You brought it up to where it needs to be and we're just so fortunate to have you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Any other discussion? Mr. Frasier, vote. Mr. Sprag, yes. Mrs. Baker, yes. Mr. Davidson, yes. Dr. Copus, yes. Next item is the finance agenda. Thank you, Vice President Davidson. Uh this is traditionally the lightest finance agenda of the year. Uh the the April finance agenda as we prepare uh for the May forecast which we will have at our next business meeting. Uh I only have a few items for you this evening. Um, we have the normal treasure reports which include the cash position, cash flow analysis, uh, and cash reconciliation reports. Uh, we have a few confirming purchase orders. Uh, and we have
064one donation tonight. Um, which is, uh, reading with the Redhawk. Uh, and that goes to Crawford Woods and that's a donation from, uh, Kemba Credit Union. And those are my items this evening. Entertain a motion to accept the finance report. I'll make that motion. I'll second it. Any discussion? Hearing none. Mr. Frasier. Mrs. Baker? Yes. Mr. Davidson? Yes. Dr. Copus? Yes. Mr. Sprag? Yes. Okay. Our next meeting will be Thursday, May 8th, 2025 at 4:00, same place. Uh, entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. [Music] Second. Yeah, we are ajourned.