Hamilton City School District Board of Education Meeting 4-10-25

001Thank you for coming to our work session for home city school board. We'll call this work session. Oh, Mike. Yes, I knew something was wrong. All that say, you want to say it again? Good afternoon. Welcome to today's Hamilton City School Board meeting. Um, our work session. Mr. Fraser, if you can call the role, please. Mrs. Matthews, yes. Mr. Davidson, here. Mrs. Baker, here. Dr. Copus, here. Mr. break here. First up on our agenda is our um city council. We have uh Councilman Mr. Lowour here to um talk about what's going on good in the city. You're welcome. Thank everybody for having us up here tonight as a member of city council. I appreciate the work that we continue to do. Thanks again. Um, everybody's on that. I'd like to I'd like to thank everybody

002for having us here and let us represent the city of Hamilton. Um, I want to thank Andrea Blevens for your continued work um with the city. Um, it's been great doing some of the projects that we're working on and we're looking forward to continue those works with you personally. So, you've done a great job and I'm excited about our future. Um just want to give you an update on a couple things. Um some exciting things. We have Texas Roadhouse. I believe they put a shovel in the ground today or yesterday. So the new site is outside of Meyers um on Main Street and we're very excited about that. Um the other project, um we want to talk about the YW.CA again, 42 apartment units. Um hopefully we can work together to um entice new teachers

003who may not live in our district. Um entice them. That is that is uh housing that is market rate as well as affordable housing. Um the other thing that is just coming up is Quick Trip is coming on the corner of East High Street. It's the former CVS. Um it is beginning to start. They're going to start mobilizing for demolition in the next couple in probably this week, but depending on the weather in the next couple weeks. Um, Cohatch um Cohatch, this project continues. Um, they expect to open in the early fall. Um, they are working on an exciting new speak easy. I'm very excited about with some local talent moving into um this opportunity. Uh, the other thing that I want to um just kind of touch base on is the courtyard Marriott. They're

004getting ready to do a huge renovation. That's going to be starting on 428 supposedly. Uh, the renovation, I believe, is is above $9 million. Um, we're excited about that. give us a new look um and hopefully entice some other businesses other than just related to Spooky Nook Sports Facility. Um I do want to say that um Sam Ber at Spooky Nook is moving forward. Um I think that there's some great news on the horizon. Um and his focus will be on cleaning cleaning some of the the sites up, getting rid getting past some of his issues that he's encountered. So without that with with that being said, is there any questions that you guys have? What's Coatch? Cohatch is um the old is right beside the Journal News Square spot and they're going to be

005open to different businesses coming in and using their facilities. Um like a co-working space where you can go and like do work. Yeah. Cool. Uh Mr. Low, question. It's great news about Texas Roadhouse, but what are the plans for the existing facility? There are no plans as of yet. We are just starting to talk to them about that. We are looking at a ways out for Texas Roadhouse, but um I think that there are a lot of great opportunities that will come there as we continue to develop that into Main Street, especially with the new Kroger's coming in. We did get that through last night. Um there are some details to work through yet, but um I think I think that area is going to begin to to develop and look totally different, but um

006I'm excited because I think that Texas Roadhouse gives us a a more of a spread putting it out there towards the end of our end of the district. Okay. So, thank you. Thank you guys. All right. Next on our agenda, we have a um donation recognition um from Miss Deborah Spencer. Miss Bleven, I'll let you take that. Yes. Thank you, President Matthews. Um I believe it was Dr. Copus uh who during our last board meeting noticed that there was a sizable donation that was made from a former teacher uh here in the district in in the tune of $10,000 to Ridgeway Elementary to help with their swing set playground equipment. And I thought it was a great idea that Dr. copus had to bring her here tonight to recognize her and to thank her from

007the district for her support of our students. And so I'd like to call up Miss Deborah Spencer. Uh Mr. Spencer, we just have a certificate here for you that is both to honor your dedication to education. I know you were a former teacher here. Um, and I know when we spoke on the phone, you know, you you've had a lot uh in your life and just the notion to still be selfless and pay it forward to future generations. That just spoke to my heart. I know that spoke to our board. So, we just have a little certificate to say thank you for you and a little something sweet from Luke's just to say uh just to say thank you for being such a sweet sponsor to our school. Oh, you're more [Applause] Thank you. Yes.

008Well, thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Thank you so much, Mr. Spencer, for your donation. We greatly appreciate it. Know them kids going to be swinging for years to come. Uh, next up on our agenda will be our introduction of our new assistant principal for our freshman campus. Yes. So, if you recall at our last meeting, we were able to introduce one of our other assistant principles, but Mrs. Cooper could not join us. And so, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to introduce Mrs. Cooper. She will be a new assistant principal at our freshman campus. She is coming to us from Madison local schools with previous time also in Fairfield City Schools. She comes with an amazing uh she she already told me she's nervous. So, um but with amazing credentials

009as an intervention specialist as well as a behavior uh specialist in her current role. And so, uh Miss Cooper, something that's a tradition here in Hamilton is we love to give a portfolio to just say welcome to Big Blue. [Music] [Applause] By the way, Mrs. Blummens, I saw on Facebook the Is today Assistant Principal Day? You're stealing my comments for later, but that's okay. Well, I just thought it was nice. You're good. Yes. Um, it is it's it's National Assistant Principal Week and um during my superintendent comments later, I will acknowledge ours. you you you beat me to the chase, but you're joining an amazing team of both uh administrators, teachers, EAS, and our community. Uh if you just look around this room, we have an amazing uh community that you're going to join, and

010I just hope you love it as much as we do. So, welcome. Oh, welcome. Um next on our agenda, we have an update from Fairwood Elementary. I am Adrienne Shear, proud principal at Fairwood Elementary. I've seen most of y'all before. This is Kelsey Brooks, uh, our assistant principal at Fairwood. Thank you all for having us tonight. We appreciate it. We are so excited to be here to share two of our successful initiatives going on at Fairwood. We have some shining stars. That's our theme. Um, basically shared leadership is a big focus at Fairwood because we can't do it alone. If we could, it'd already be done, but we have to work as a team to be able to get it all done. We brought some experts with us this evening who you you'll hear from,

011uh, students and staff. So, first thing we're going to talk about, first shining star is UFly. Um, UFly is an intervention program, reading intervention program out of the University of Florida literacy initiative. Um, it focuses on building foundational skills in reading. Youly is designed to address the skills needed for fluency and comprehension. Um, and basically early literacy intervention is key. Early intervention is key, but early literacy intervention is key because if you don't get your kids caught up by the time they're at third grade, the chances of getting them caught up just go further and further apart. Hence, how 3G was born. Um, the second thing we're going to share this evening will be our afterchool ELLL club. Um, we have a group of dedicated teachers and students um who have done some amazing projects

012and our our students are going to share some of that here in a little bit. A few of the bene benefits of the U afterchool club are the the language skills improve um with the ELLL club because it provides extra practice in a less formal setting. Another benefit is the social aspect. Um our kids get to the opportunity to make friends, gain some confidence um and just feel more connected. And then a third uh benefit would be increased engagement. Um, they participate in projects in a fun environment which enhances their overall educational experience. Um, I hope you enjoy our presentation this evening and I'll turn it over to Miss Brooks. All right, I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce our literacy specialist from Reed, Ohio, Tequila Fulham, and our instructional coach, Abby Drew, to

013talk with you about our pilot of the tier 2 reading intervention. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Abby Drew and I am one of the coaches at Fairwood. I'm Tequila Fulham. I come from uh Reed, Ohio with the Department of Education and I'm just honored to be here and share this pilot with you and the success that we've had. So, thank you for this opportunity to share the work that we're doing with this pilot. Um this afternoon, I'll walk you through how we implemented UFly, how we ensured success, and then most importantly, I'll tell you how it impacted our students. So, again, just an overview, what is UFly? So, it stands for the University of Florida Literacy Institute. Um, and it's a research-based intervention designed to build strong foundational reading skills. So, what sets UFly

014apart from other interventions is that it's a structured and systematic approach to phonics instruction. So, we're not only ensuring that our students are able to decode, to read, but also encode to spell and write. Um, this program does align with the science of reading. Um, and it's designed specifically as a tier 2 intervention. So, instruction is done in a small group setting. A key part for implementing UFly was our teacher training. So we did a different approach to the professional development. We did a self-guided approach which meant that our teachers used videos and resources that we put together so that they could learn the program at their own pace. So what was most impressive was the level of commitment from our teachers. They were willing to learn a new program and believe in the importance

015of this intervention for our students. They were willing to be coached. um they were willing to refine some of their instructional practices and this was critical in making sure this program was a was a success. So now that we have um this intervention and our teachers are trained, the most important aspect was making sure that we were placing students in the right intervention groups based on our data. So the first step was to analyze our benchmark data. This occurred at the beginning of the year. This is our Dibbles data which um assesses foundational reading skills. So with that information, we were able to determine students who were performing below grade level in reading. Once we had that information, we took it a step further and we administered the core phonics diagnostic. That was able to

016help us pinpoint specific skills in phonics that they needed help with. So with that information, we were able to create tailored small groups that specifically worked on individual student need. So now we're excited to share with you the impact this intervention has had on our students. So kind of to give you a frame of reference, we started UFly in November and then of course we had Thanksgiving break, we had winter break and then in January we had to administer the uh middle ofear dibbles assessment. So we had about six weeks of data for UFly. So it was a short time frame but we excited to share some growth data with you. So we took our beginning of the year Dibbles data and compared it to our middle of the year data to look for growth.

017So kindergarten we had 81% of our students meet average to above average growth. In first grade we had 72% of our students meet average to above average growth. We had 64 second graders meet average to above average growth. And we had 73% of our third graders meet average to above average growth. And in the realm of education, we're shooting for 80% and we were very excited to see these numbers with growth for a short amount of time. So we are very excited with how UFly is moving the needle for us and we're looking forward to our end of the year data. We think it's going to be pretty great. So thank you very much. And now I'd like to introduce one of our teachers for students with English as a second language, Jackie Kispay, and

018some of her students. So, I'll go ahead and talk first and then I'm going to have them come up um one at a time. They have some things that they want to share. They're very nervous, but they're going to do so great. I told them they can just look at me instead. So, um, but first, um, I just want to explain a little bit, um, about our club that we have after school. So, the invitation is open to our current and our former ELLL students, as well as other students in our building who speak additional languages at home. We we allow all of those students to participate. Um, the students have the opportunity to get that additional language support. Like, um, Mrs. was explaining it is a little bit less structured environment, less formal, so

019it feels safer sometimes to voice what they would like to try to say in English when they are learning it as an additional language to the one that they have grown up speaking. Um, so our projects and things we do, we always focus on language, academic development, we have um specified vocab that we focus on with each project. Um, and if students have homework that they do need help with occasionally, we offer support with that as well because we know at home that could be challenging when the homework is presented in a different language than what you speak as their parent and they want to help but sometimes that becomes a barrier. Um, and other barriers to receiving this kind of support, we are provided with snacks from food services. So, the kids get a

020snack after school and transportation buses a lot of them home. So that allows additional students to participate whereas maybe they wouldn't be able to. The reason we started doing it um we were seeing a lot of students that we were coming that were coming to our school either from other areas or from out of the country. Um and we noticed there were some significant educational gaps. Um some due to miss schooling maybe in other countries or just a different structure of education where they learn in different orders and in different ways. So um we kind of just decided this is something we need to offer for these students to kind of help just one more thing to help them kind of close those gaps that they they are experiencing. So uh sometimes we get newcomers

021which those are students from other countries within the first you know first few years that they come those are the students with limited or interrupted formal education could be due to a variety of things um just could be that maybe after co their schools didn't open up or maybe due to traveling they missed school or you moving from one country to another and um we wanted this club to be a place where these students who are learning English and content at the same time, which is incredibly challenging if you think about it, they're doing twice the amount of work at school during the day. And this is another opportunity for them to be exposed to the academic language, which is in particular the one of the more difficult things to acquire. They pick up social

022language pretty quickly with their friends, but it's those academic words and language that sometimes it takes a little bit longer to build. So, we have that at at club after school. Um, we also use club as an opportunity to celebrate like their diversity, their cultures, where they come from um to make sure they know that their ability um their multilingualism, their ability to speak in multiple languages is a gift um and it's their superpower. That's what I tell them. Um and they know that. So, we all we want them to feel like they're celebrated as well. So, that is an additional thing that club provides. So, one of the main projects we did this year that they really enjoyed, um, we had them create a restaurant. So, um, they went through a bunch of different

023steps. We did this over the course of maybe a month and a half, I think. But they, um, they studied vocab like concept, menu, uh, budget, decorate, arrange, hours of operation. Appetizers was a big one. They were like, "What's that?" Um, so they spent all month brainstorming. They made lists of supplies and materials that they would need to purchase. They designed the inside layout, the outside view. They created menus. And we even had a local restaurant owner, um, Victor Karo from Takaria Wanowato. He came and talked to the kids about what it is like to run a restaurant. Um, and they asked him questions. Um, and he like he loved it. He the kids loved it. He loved it. It was a great thing to have a community member come in and speak to the

024kids and for them to see someone like them who is successful and has used his skills um and abilities to to do something really successful. Um they finished the project by making a um a model of their restaurant, a diarama and um and then the other students were able to kind of take a look at it and see. So that was one of the projects that they really seem to enjoy during the school year. All right. So, we're going to have they just have a couple words to share with you real real quickly. Um, so the first student we're going to have come up is um Matias Navaro Lopez. Come on, Matias. Oh, yes. You're gonna be so great. I'm gonna stand right here. Okay. Ready? You can do it. Matias, do you want to

025read them both? So Matias is going to read his in both English and Spanish. Club can club can help many student with their English and other students that are already know English. Club teaches them things that maybe they don't know now. They don't know. and learning. You also have fun. And each day you go to club, you learn new things. Fore apprenas. All right. Next we have Wilfredo Casales Vargas. Okay. Are you ready? The club help us to learn about history and traditions and cultures. Not only about cultures, but it's also about nature and learning new words and new things that they taught us they taught us to work as a team. Great job. [Applause] And lastly, we have Leonard Medina Penuela. I like club because we can do funny projects. Club is helpful. It's

026helpful for kids that don't know English. It helps it helps for kids that know don't know English. Help helps to be informed about traditions that are going to happen around the [Applause] world. All right. Thanks guys for sharing. All right. Both UFFLY and the afterchool ELELLL club focus on key areas of student development, literacy and language acquisition. While you fly provides early systematic literacy instruction, the ELELLL club gives students a supportive environment to practice language skills and integrate into the school community. Together, these programs create a comprehensive support system for students at different stages of their learning journey, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to succeed. We want to thank everyone in the room tonight for supporting all of our kids across the district. Um, it's your time and commitment that makes a difference

027in their lives. So, thank you to all of you. We'll open it up for questions or comments. Thank you so much for your presentation. Definitely um enjoyed especially the the um the superheroes who came and shared. So, thank you guys for being brave and um getting up and sharing and um really taking advantage of um the club after school. So, and thank you to those that helped participate to make that happen. So, that's super amazing for our for our students. Uh my question is, how did you come to find out about the um you fly in um Florida? How did you come to find out about it? That lady in the back with the blonde. Ah, okay. State coach and she's like, "Hey, have you looked at this?" And I'm like, "No, tell me more.

028It's very explicit. It's systematic. We're going to do this. It'll tell us exactly what lesson." I'm like, "Tell me more." And then she took off with it. So, it has it has been amazing and our teachers have totally taken it on and done the work and it is just giving us results. It's like that was my next question is how are the teachers how did they respond to this um curriculum? They they enjoy it because it is so explicit. It's a two-day lesson. You check and see if they've got it. If they don't have it, you go back. If it's good, you move on to the next thing. But it is very explicitly laid out. It's bueno. Pun intended. Nice. Nice. Again, thank you all so much. I appreciate it. Yep. That's what I mean.

029Absolutely. Thank you. I I want to thank you for uh hosting Dr. Copus and I a few weeks ago. No. Yes. Coming through your building and I know we stayed a little bit longer, but you're very passionate in what you were telling us about your building. Yes. And um you know, I I love what you're doing. Um it's hard. You know, like I told you, I've I've traveled I've been fortunate over the last few years of traveling out of the country and I've been in areas where they speak no English and I'm trying to communicate and as an adult that was scary. Yeah. And just imagine being a student in a classroom and and you don't understand what's going on and you're meeting those needs. You're helping these children and they're succeeding. And I I

030commend you for it and I thank you for it. Thank you. And that's for the whole staff. It's It's everybody. But thank you. Yes. I' I'd like to also say thank you and particularly to the children. I myself am trying to learn Spanish and you guys did a great job because I would be afraid to get up and try and speak. They're brave at this but I I have at least I'm attempting it. But um so it's it's good to see these kids at their ages that they're able to come up and communicate. Um and just great work. Nice job, guys. Do we have any future restaurant owners over here? No. Me? Okay. What's What was your favorite food that you're going to serve in your restaurant? All right, I go with that. I know

031Mr. Wright is really excited about that. Um, you fly. Going back to the EUly and the kids. Great job. Great job. It's scary to be up here. It's scary for us to be over here, too. So, um, but u, back to you. Is that is that are we are you the only school doing that pilot? We're piloting it. I think there was another um group who had a small pilot going on. Um but I suspect with the results it shall spread. Be very interested in seeing what this is. Yeah. Are we looking at this as as something further? Yes. This is actually uh with the state of Ohio we are required to adopt an intervention program. We've been waiting for the list to come out and UFly is the program that is at the top

032of our list to look at. I do want to point out just to the board, you know, we talked about Mrs. Fulham back there. She is actually not an employee of Hamilton City Schools. She's an employee through the state of Ohio and and with Governor Dwine's push for science of reading. A big component of that was these Read Ohio literacy coaches and we are very fortunate to have her knowledge uh to bring programs like this to us. Um and it's just nice to see that in action and direct implementation. So uh thank you Tequila for for joining our our team here. Absolutely. Very good. I'm I'm excited always excited seeing what's going over at Fairwood. There's a lot of good stuff. So, congratulations. Thank you. Um, Principal Sher and Assistable Assistant Principal Brooks, first of

033all, thank you for the presentation and thank you for also acknowledging the contributions and efforts of your staff. Um, I just a a question and a comment about the afterchool ELLL program, which I think is a wonderful thing that you're doing. How often does that operate? Is that daily, once a week? so many and then cycle one cycle. Um so we we hold club two days a week after school. Um but with the number of staff that we had um that was willing to stay and run it and the number of students who apply, we do two groups of students. So the students attend one day a week after school. We as the staff were there both nights after school. So we have one group on Mondays and one group on Wednesdays. So they do

034it once a week and we do it usually from about October all the way through first or second week of May. So we have like a couple weeks left. Well, thank you. And and I love the way that you describe their ability to be bilingual as their superpower. Uh it probably is. I certainly wish that I was. Um and and I believe during your presentation you mentioned that our food service department provides snacks and you also mentioned that our transportation department provides transportation for these students. I got to tell you, in my opinion, that speaks so very highly of of your staff, your facility, but also our district. Uh that is a tremendous collaboration between so many people to benefit these young students. And I just think that's outstanding. So I congratulate you on what

035you're doing and and thank you for your efforts, all of you. Thank you. Thank you. I I would also like to recognize that it's it's good to see the familia uh with you and supporting you. So, thank you for coming as well. We thought we'd let the kids kind of clear out here, but thank you guys. You did a great job. Men, great job. And also shout out to rockstar principal uh Miss Wagenfield in the building. Yes. Rockstar principal. There you go. So yes, next up on our agenda we have our um we have an update from TV Hamilton. Hello everyone. My name is Jeff Archable for the one or two people who may not know me. Um, oddly enough, Steve truly is a rock star of TV Hamilton and I do not actually work

036for TV Hamilton despite wearing the TV Hamilton shirt and having a TV Hamilton jacket and just we have a great collaboration. I am actually the communication strategist with the Hamilton Vision Commission, but we align perfectly with what I do with what Steve does. So, I create a lot of content for TV Hamilton. When we talk about TV Hamilton, it always makes me laugh when people say, "Gosh, TV Hamilton does such good work. They're everywhere." And I'm like, you know, TV Hamilton is one person, right? When we write TV Hamilton, a lot of times we put we on post on social media because we want to make it look like we have more people. We want to look bigger, right? A staff of six or seven when really it's Steve plus me with part of what

037I do in my job. But, um, I know you came, we're here to talk because Steve has some really exciting updates. But before we get to that exciting update, um I really want to talk a little bit about what the impact TV Hamilton has had because I think that's really important to talk about. I will not take very long. Um so the first point you'll see up there is, you know, views across all social media platforms in 2024. Last year we had 3.1 million views across all the platforms. It was our largest year by far. Um eclipsing it by quite a bit. The vast vast vast majority of those are off Facebook. Uh we also use Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and a little bit of Tik Tok. We haven't really gotten into that too much yet,

038but we really need to be in that realm because we know that that definitely is where younger people are going to. So, um those are kind of the areas we're getting off of. Last year, we had 3.1 million, a fantastic uh reach. So far this year, we're off to an incredible start. We're on pace. If you look at the first three months of last year to the first three months of this year, this year we have 120,000 more views on Facebook alone than what we had last year. Now, I do want to say um for the sake of transparency the year-over-year can be a little bit misleading sometimes because we're not always doing the same events every time. Uh so this year we had a lot of really good stuff in the beginning of the

039year to talk about. Uh things like the lucky well came up. um um the wellhouse or a couple other really big videos that kind of blew up a little bit which is great. But where we are, we're very excited compared to last year and they continue to grow and that's just a trend we've seen over the last three years to have an increase in consumption of social media views on our different platforms. Uh now what you guys care about is that third bullet point truly what kind of views are we seeing from videos that involve schools directly that are really just schools and schools alone. Well so far from the 2024 2025 school year beginning with our opening day video which we do every year. We move around to different schools and Steve goes to

040one and I go another and we shoot the madness and the joy and the excitement of all the kids rushing in and the teachers there to greet them and it's really a fun video we both get to do. Uh, and then we kind of edit down to one video. From that video up until today, so far we have a little bit more than 525,000 views on stuff that's happening in the school so far. Now, that vastly exceeds last year. Now, a big part of that is because we are doing uh the football games live. That's a big big part of it. We've seen extremely good numbers there for our sake uh and for your sake. Uh, thank goodness we have a winning football team right now and they look fantastic. Go RV and the boys.

041Um, keep doing your thing. Uh, to give you an idea, last year on the Princeton game, I looked that video up again to look at these numbers yesterday and that has a little more than 60,000 views on that one. So, which is really kind of amazing. But most of our football games draw 16 to 20,000. We also did a live basketball game this year. Um, and when you start to look through it, uh, the next point I want to make is that total videos on student school events to date, it's 32 with an asterisk because honestly I got a little bit lazy and some of the things that were shot in the same day that Steve did, I kind of rolled into one. So like some of the school choir stuff and those kinds of

042things um, kind of rolls into one. So really it's a little more than 32. Um, the live stuff, as I said, brought the most views by far. Uh, including the football games, basketball games. Uh we see really good reach with the live band and choir concerts. We did the homecoming parade live which we always do every year. Um we got some help with that one because for the last two years I've been out of town on that week and Steve has had a schoolboard meeting on that night and we've uh kind of twisted the arm with some people to help us out and go live from the parade which always does great numbers. People want to see their kids which is also why the the football games do well as well as the choir and

043and band concerts in in in that regard as well. Um, but we also have things that highlight a lot of the successes of our schools, our teachers, our administrators, and what they're doing. And Kathy Wagenfeld left, which is a shame because I'm about to give her a shout out. One of those videos videos videos we've done are things like the grand event at Brookwood where the grandparents come back and and other family members come back and they they spend a day with their with their grandkids at school which is really impactful because I never thought about this but you know what I was told was for grandparents it's exciting because you know as grandkids Joe said this and Maggie said that and as a grand a grandparent if you don't know what they're talking about

044you're like that's great but then they get to meet the kids they get to meet those and understand what their children are talking about. So, we did a great video on that. We did a good video on the Garfield students volunteering their time at Chris Kindle. They did a fantastic job there. Had a celebrity chef for the high school, which was fantastic because all these kids came up and really engaged with him. If you haven't seen that video, go back and look at the celebrity chef video. I know Joe stopped by to see the celebrity chef on that day. Um, and it was amazing to watch these high school kids, which we all know high school kids sometimes don't want to connect, especially during lunchtime with an outside speaker, but they came up and they

045were taking pictures and asking all these questions about the food and about his country and about his language. It was really cool. Uh, good video on that. And then we had, of course, a great video on the Ridgeway World Changers, uh, and the impact they're making, the things they're doing. So, we highlight our students that way. So, we really get in the schools trying to highlight some of the programs that were going on. As Steve likes to say all the time, and he puts it much more succinctly than me. We want to show why you would want to send your kid to Hamilton High School. Those are the videos we're looking to focus on. What makes Hamilton unique and what makes Hamilton special. And that is where TV Hamilton can really show off the great

046things that Hamilton is doing. And there are many of them. And that 32 number um is about to get bigger because we even have a shoot tomorrow. We're going over to Wilson Middle School to highlight the um uh adopt a class. Thank you. The adopt a class program which has really been fantastic and I think that's kind of flying under the radar. So we'll be over there highlighting that program over at Wilson Middle School. Um and then of course Steve is going to be incredibly busy because you guys throw a lot at him at the end of the year with graduation. um some academic achievers and things like that. So all in all, there's a whole lot of things going on. TV Hamilton has been very involved in the schools past years, this year especially

047and I think TV Hamilton can expects to be even more so involved in the future. We're very excited talking with Jesse Weisro about some things we could do for the future. So just really exciting things going on in TV Hamilton and those are some of the things how TV Hamilton is impacting the school specifically. But now we have a big announcement to make. Steve's going to make that. But first, we want to play the video talking about that announcement a little bit. So, Steve, why don't you go ahead and play that video. This is the commercial that kind of shows off the new things that are coming to TV Hamilton. [Music] TV Hamilton is proud to announce that our programming is now streaming online and in high definition through the Cablecast app. You can watch

048live on our website or download the Cablecast app on all major streaming platforms including Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, as well as iPhone and Android devices. Now you can watch all our programming including many of our live streamed events without having Spectrum cable along with a new ondemand section containing our most recent productions. All for free and you can continue to enjoy our content on our social media platforms that are currently available. So download the Cablecast app, search for TV Hamilton, and start watching. You can find our programming schedule on our website or in Monday's edition of the Hamilton Journal News. This upgrade was made possible in part by a grant from the Hamilton Community Foundation. Okay. So, I first have to thank Kathy and Lauren, two of my three board members. Uh, and and

049we couldn't do any of this without a strong board, number one. That's that's first and foremost. But this cablecast app, if you remember, I spoke to you probably late last year, very early this year, saying it's coming. Well, it's here. And it was brought about because of the move, eventual move from 20 High Street. And when we called Spectrum and said, "Hey, we we're moving our cable channel." They said, "Oh, well, guess what? You're going to have to do some updates. You could keep your old equipment that's 10 to 15 years old and that would cost you $11,000 or you could spend when when we got the quotes about 28,000 to upgrade to what we did." The the old equipment we were told like, "Hey, don't even unplug it because it's not going to power

050back up when you turn it back on." So, that would have not been a good play that we would have spent $11,000 and then I'd been spending 28,000 on top of that. to try and keep Jeremy happy. The good news is that the community foundation gave us a grant basically for half of what we were asking for and then the remaining amount was paid for out of our fund at the community foundation. So I delivered a check uh for this portion for $11,000 a couple weeks ago. So technically none of the money came out of our budget that's here, our fund that's here at the school district. So that was good. And I I got to keep Jeremy happy and make make sure he has all of our numbers aligning correctly. But we have some

051updates with it. As the video said, it's high definition. In six to eight months when Spectrum gets their part done, it's going to be in high definition on cable. We're going to be one of the first uh local channels in the region that are in high definition. our streaming and on demand platforms have like just gotten a shot on steroids for what we can do on line. Now we're streaming the board meeting live and Jeff's going to pull that up here in a minute. And the number one thing that that well one of the top five questions that we get to ask, how many people watch TV Hamilton? Well, Spectrum would not give us that money if we, you know, held something hostage of theirs. They are not going to share those numbers with us

052for anything even though they have them. But on these platforms, we can track viewers. We can track uh how long they watch, what what they're watching, where they're from, that sort of stuff. We can do that somewhat with Facebook and YouTube, but this is also with the Cablecast app. We're going to do that. This is a subscription that uh Jeff's getting ready to go to. You can get to it through the Cablecast website or from our website. And a huge shout out to Dustin and Trisha because they're one of many people that I call and hey, I need help with this. And they've always been willing to help me out. And Dustin worked the website up. Trisha, I think, was the one that set it up when we got the Cablecast app plugged in. So,

053you can go there or you can put it on your phone. I don't have I'm not going to cast my phone up to the screen, but you can uh put the app on your phone and watch on demand. And if Jeff can figure out how to get it up to the It's on the screen already, I was confused by that. So, he's not very techsavvy, but I I was hoping to be But it was It's kind of hard to navigate through there. But if you click on the watch, it will go to live. I'm like wanting to push the mouse for you there. Oh, you're getting close. There you go. So, I said we were going to be 10 minutes. It's going to take him 10 minutes to get the So, that's the cablecast platform.

054And you can see that little tiny green button up in the top right corner that says watch. So, it'll take him a half hour to get to that. But that's also below that is our on demand. So, any of our new shows we can put in there for on demand. But when you click watch and it's easier to navigate from the app, by the way, but uh mute your speakers if you haven't because we're gonna have some massive feedback here in a minute because if I've done everything right, the board meeting will be on. That's uh what we were wanting to show off. But the it's a really cool platform. And while he's doing that, does anybody have any questions or anything for us? No, just thank you for all that you do for us,

055Steve. I know you work really hard. Well, it's fun. and we appreciate it. Yep. Thank you for covering the district and the things that are going on with our kids, our students, and just all all the great things that are happening. So, we appreciate you highlighting it and bringing attention to it so people can know the great things that's happening in our school district. We try to show off as much as we can. And we do have a part-time employee and he I'm sorry, I'm laughing. We do have a part-time employee, Sam, and he helps with covering some of the live stream and stuff, too. So, there Yeah. Okay. That's not what That's not me. Okay, that's the board meeting there. We'd have people of dancing. I Oh, yeah. We'd have I don't know what

056movie that is, but that's one of our public domain movies. So, clearly either Jeff's computer is not updated because I don't think that's supposed to be on. It's supposed to be a board meeting, but in the playback it'll be a board meeting. Okay. Um I' I'd like to as a board member for TV Hamilton, I c think Kathy would agree too. Uh Steve and Jeff are the dynamic duel that have done so much to to change the face of what TV Hamilton is. Um if you when was that back in October we had the community media allian is that CMA what was the conference we had? Alliance ACM alliance for community media. I was close. Okay. I got the most of the letters. Um, and when we were explaining what TV Hamilton does for our

057community, other communities with local access type of TV, they were like, you you do what? You you how does that all come together? And it's because of partnerships between the community foundation and the city and the schools that we have been able to do all sorts of things. And then the other thing that came up they what they had like $500,000 budgets and we go well ours is a little smaller than that. Um but um for those who don't know we we provide uh $40,000 as a school district per year. We've been at at that level for a while. Um the community foundation does the same, the city does the same. And then Steve goes out and makes other partnerships. uh both of them go out make other partnerships. Am I allowed to say who

058with? But uh Miami uh the hospital uh just different ways. I mean I've even hired Steve for some work too. Um that and that those funds go into that account. So we have we're able to to supplement the funds to go along with that with what's going on. and then community foundation with their recent grant was a a real shot in the arm for the budget. But um I I think uh Dr. Kopus you came up with you know we were talking about Ben and a while back it's probably back in the fall about you know producing stuff that makes us look good. We have that right here. We have that with TV Hamilton. um by having this partnership that's part of the strategic plan for TV Hamilton is to promote education specifically us but

059other other education but the um um one of the things we're looking that we're looking at is right now we are live and when we go to executive session what do we do with the downtime and Andrea came up with a great plan we're going to show school videos during that time until we come back out so it's it's a time that We are on TV. People can certainly look at the schedule, but this whole new thing with cablecast is an incredible opportunity for our for us to get our word out even more. And uh I want to just say I know Steve had a full head of hair before this started. And uh so it and he has worked tirelessly to bring us to this point. It's been a a long what I think

060we start talking about this at least 15 six along. Yes. At least a year and a half ago. It's been a long time because when we were right now the U TV our studios are in the old municipal building which is going to be a hotel. So we were more or less forced to do it but that's okay. It's a door closed and windows open. Well we with the move and yeah it has been forever and uh once we got the Well, where where are we going? Number one, that was the and our control room for Spectrum is located in the basement of 345 high in the city building with the IT department and they have just been great to work with. All all the guys down there in it have I've bugged them a

061number of times as well and just the outpouring of community support has has really been something to see and to help with. Tell them where your new studio is going to be. We are uh I'm not in a hurry is if we can kick this key down the road a day or two, I'm fine with that. But we're looking at signing a lease with the uh what I hate to call it the Start building because they're gone. But at the former Elder Beerman in the office spaces that are upstairs, we have lease space for that because the city was gracious for the home. But it's a very very small home and not enough room for a lot of equipment storage or even a studio space. They had you can shoot wherever you want, but I

062have to set up and tear it down every time. So, uh, we felt that having a presence outside of a basement would probably be a good idea to have a meeting or something like that with folks. Uh, and so that will be where we're moving. The the Rubik's cube of stuff that we're struggling with is everything's a moving target. And Spectrum, they're doing what they call a channel build right now. It took them almost three weeks to find us on their network uh to start what they call the soak test. Well, once the soak test is finished, then they do the channel build. Well, the channel build, there's a a station in Hiron, Michigan. They're on month eight. And I told them, I said, "Do you realize that there's a good chance that there's going

063to be a wrecking ball hitting the building that we're in before month eight happens in Hamilton?" So they said they could try to work it faster. So, uh, now I forgot where I was going with that, but Spectrum and getting all those pieces in line. So, yeah, I know. Now I know where I was going. I can't turn off the equipment that's in 20 High Street until the new equipment is activated on Spectrum's side. So like let's not hurry the move unless we have to because we can't vacate that space because we can't move our equipment that's connected to spectrum. And one thing just to reiterate I think get on the mic. Yeah. I think yeah Steve gets mad. You'll hear me in the back of the room with people on the mic. Um, one

064thing I just want to reiterate, I think it's really cool, really important, and we we talk about, I think we understand it sometimes, but we just want to reemphasize this with this move now, you can do things like on your Roku, if you have a Roku box, which I have, you can download the the TV Hamilton channel, so you can sit at your home and watch any of the content that has been archived or anything live on there. So, it's not it's only for us, but if you have relatives who live in Florida now, maybe grandparents are moved to Florida and they want to see what their grandkids are doing. They can literally click from their couch and watch that. We can now take the message of what Hamilton is doing as a district, as

065a city, as a community and put that worldwide. Anywhere in the world, you can get it now. Before we were limited almost to if you had Spectrum or not. That doesn't exist anymore. We can be anywhere, anyone. As long as you've entered to the access, you can have it. So that really is a big upgrade for us and we can really get the word of what Hamilton is doing as a city, as a school district out to anyone, anywhere. You can just send them a link or they can download the app on their Roku or on their phone or anything else and just watch it from wherever they are. And tonight's not a good example of that because I didn't have it working right. But when when we are on Spectrum with the Cablecast app,

066it will be what we put live will be live on Spectrum 2. So that's something that we have never even had a possibility of thinking about before. So anything that we I mean we selected everything doesn't have to be live on Spectrum, but it can be live. So some cool stuff underway. So download and I may never get the chance to do this again and I may be fired tomorrow, but would you like me to send you the link to the co-hatch video that we did? I know where it is. I'm just I've got the app right here. Okay. Yeah, I did that one. It was nice. I think Oh, go. Well, gentlemen, thank you for your comments. I appreciate everything, but Jeff, in particular, you made two comments that really resonate with me. Uh,

067something to the effect that, you know, part of your goal is to highlight the the great things about the Hamilton district and why students and parents would want to be involved in our district. And I really appreciate that. And I know what Mr. Sprag mentioned about uh showing videos of our schools during downtime. I've seen some of that. That's absolutely wonderful. Thank you for that. Um, and but you also made a comment about looking forward to working with Miss Weisbroad in her new position next school year. And I want to give Mrs. Blevens credit because in my opinion that's a stroke of genius on her part for creating that position. Uh, I think it's director of community engagement. I believe that position along with the continued cooperation with you guys and TV Hamilton is just

068going to do great things for our district. So, thank you very much. I appreciate what you do and and I think the the key note on that is we've always said, you know, depending what we do, there's only two of us and we have to go many different places, but if we have time, we'll cover whatever it needs to be covered. You just got to give us what is going on and tell us what's going on. And and I think the biggest thing for us to work with with Jesse on is going to be what are the things that we want to highlight. And I think she really gets it. So, I think that those conversations we're going to have in the future are going to be very much upon, you know, what do we

069need to be covered? What do we need to be at? Because part of what we do is informational, just straight up nuts and bolts. Here's what is happening. And part of it is, guess what, Hamilton community, you guys aren't in the schools. You don't know what amazing things are happening. We're going to show you. We're going to tell you because we all know in here there's amazing things happening inside those walls. But if you're not inside those walls, sometimes our teachers, our administrators, our our students, they're not great about telling everybody else because they just think everybody knows these amazing things and they don't. Yeah. So that's what that's what our job will be. And when we work with Jesse, I think we're going to see a lot more of that coming up in the

070future. Well, I appreciate that. And I know Miss Wisbro is not with us tonight, but when you see her, tell her there are very high expectations of her next. We'll see her tomorrow. We'll see you tomorrow. We got to go over to Bolson. So let her know that. Yeah. Dr. but she took the words right out of my mouth. I want to thank uh Jeff. Uh I think you do a great job of promoting for our city and Steve just you're a master of and we say, "Hey, can you make this video happen you find ways to splice things together that I couldn't even dream of. Um it's kind of scary. You take a play out of my brain at times." But in in today's market, it's really important for our board to acknowledge we

071are competing every day for every student that enters our schools. We have worldclass schools. I say that I would put Hamilton schools against any other school in Butler County, let alone the state of Ohio. We have so many programs from the ESL students that you saw earlier to our athletes to, you know, last week we talked about some of our students and their academic um aptitudes. We've got to tell that story. You know, coming out of COVID, we we that slowed back a little bit. We are putting together, Mrs. Weisro and I are actually meeting next week to put together kind of a plan that I'd like to present with the board. What are some very intentional pieces to highlight what's happening with our staff, with our students, with our community, with our partners? I

072know President Matthews mentioned to me, how can we highlight some of the amazing organizations like Hamilton Community Foundation or different places that give back to our schools and make us just a destination? So, I'm really excited about this new opportunity. Um, I'm really excited about these promo videos. I think it's just a great snapshot while they're waiting for us to come back or in other opportunities to capture that audience. And I love the idea that grandparents in Florida uh you know can get on and can watch their kids uh play the flute or uh sing because so often you know let's use the technology to bring people together as opposed to divide which so often you see today. So I just want to thank you gentlemen for what you're doing. I'm excited for where we're

073going. Jesse text me a few hundred times a day with ideas um and let's do this and let's do that. So there's an energy and an excitement and you guys are huge partners to that. So thank you. Well, you're very welcome with that with the I think it was the Banfest. It was the last one. I'd have been having some issues with Facebook not going able to go live. I wasn't the only one, but uh then like all the comments were, "Hey, we're watching from some place." It was some not in Hamilton. So, it was family members getting to get on and see that. And that's exactly it. Like we can't come here for one concert, but we get to enjoy it from our home. And this way we can enjoy it much better because

074they can actually put it on their TV and watch it instead of having to watch it on a tablet or laptop or something like that. Nice. Thank you guys. So let's see. Next on our agenda, we will consider a motion to adjourn into um executive session. I'll make that motion. Thank you. Uh Mr. Fraser, if you can call the role. Mrs. Baker. Yes. Mr. Davidson, yes. Dr. Copus, yes. Mrs. Matthews, yes. Mr. Sprag, yes. Also, shout out to um celebrity Hamiltonian Kathy Clink. Um, educator out here with us. Absolutely. That see exactly Hamiltonian in the building. Also, um, educator Luis U being here too. Former um, Hamilton City School uh, teacher as well, Miss Jwitt. So, yeah. Also, we should got all from me guys. I know. I know. I knew it. Yes. He's very

075excited. What I thought really stuck out about um Chris, I mean, he's a really short guy. I don't know if you can, but one of the things that I loved is, you know, he talked about why he wants to come to Hamilton is to get back involved in the business of kids going being involved in the activities. Butler Tech is really more of a business. You know, it's a different model. They don't have that feel like we do here. So, Chris, we have a little token of appreciation as you join Big Blue, but I just wanted to formally, you know, pending board approval. Yes. Hey, Chris, my name is Joe Copus. It's nice to meet you. We're cooking up a couple things. We're doing a pork carnitas taco. We're doing some Mexican street corn. And

076then we're doing like uh some vegetables done with taheen and lime. So very Mexican street food inspired by my childhood for sure. whatever they want to take away from it really. You we're all different. We all learn differently. Uh some people, like I said, are motivated by lessons and all that stuff. Others are just motivated by experiences. So, if we can tie those together, it's a sweet spot. I think I equated to like reading. It's like the easiest way to travel is read a book and then you're immersed in a new world. Cooking and eating food is just a quicker way to that route. And um that's why we designed this program, Global Eats, is to make sure the kids feel immersed in a culture. Uh I think we have 12 countries right now in

077the program. So, Mexico being the one that I focus on. Um, but it's rad to see the kids like reach out to me and saying like, "Hey, I saw you last year. We're coming out this year." And it's incredible. Like seeing the reaction is a big thing for chefs. You know, we are like standup comedians where we want to hear the applause and the laughter. Um, be it thes and a's of yeah, this is delicious. So, to me, it's really special. It means that we made an instant impact on them and they they're enjoying it. I hope the impact is uh lifelong for them. It's a lifelong search for experiences, food, travel, all of that. That's why we designed this program in the first place. So hopefully it impacts the kids in a good way.

078[Music] Ready? This is the Children's Theater of Cincinnati TCT on tour series and it's the production of a piratey Peter Pan and we're doing it for a bunch of third graders from Hamilton. I think any exposure to the arts is great, especially at such an early age. I got started in theater in fourth grade, so just slightly older than these guys. And I think it teaches kids a ton of essential skills like communication and feeling confident in any sort of situation. I think reading the book and then seeing it on stage obviously helps with reading comprehension. Now you're piecing together faces with characters and I do a bunch of voices in the show. So now you also have voices to match all these characters you just read about. And I think it's rewarding for the

079kids being able to see a part of what they're learning in school being reflected in such a creative and imaginative way. They're so excited to be a part of this world cuz I think so many people think theater is the actors are here and I watch from here and this we're really blurring those lines being able to invite the kids in to be a part of this world. And so that's got to be exciting. Like I know as a kid myself it was the best thing ever seeing all the touring actors come through my school. They were fantastic. I think audiences are really responding to this pirate twisted version of a story that they just became familiar with or for the adults in the room that they've known their entire lives. But it's a fun

080version that I think will last with them for a long time. But this play really reminds even the adults in the room that just because you have to grow up doesn't mean you have to stop laughing and playing and telling silly stories. [Music] We're here at Highland Elementary with the Cincinnati Bengals and Ketering Health and just a pair of shoes. We're giving out 120 new pairs of Nike shoes to the kids here at Highland Elementary. The simple act of a new pair of shoes goes a really long way. Matt shared his story earlier, uh Matt Klein from Just a Pair of Shoes about how a pair of shoes impacted his entire trajectory in high school. And to see our students who come from numerous different backgrounds coming together to be able to feel as part

081of our Highland community, feel of our greater Cincinnati community is just a tremendous feeling. We are committed to promoting health and wellness in our community. And so getting active is the single best way that you can take care of one's health. So exercise and activity and a new pair of shoes is a great way to promote and encourage activity. You know, our community is a wonderful place. Hamilton is a beautiful, vibrant city and sports is a key fabric of our place here. And so when kids are active in sports, they're active with each other. They're active in their health and it brings families and communities together. They get to come out and actually run drills and play six on six flag football with some of the real Bengals players. Uh who is here today. It's

082just a great day to celebrate community and coming together to support our students. It is just humbling and warms my heart. I've been looking forward to this for 7 months and to see it come together is just uh it's one of my favorite days at school. One of our big focus points here at the freshman campus is to bring the Hamilton community together. So we've done different things with 17 strong and neighborhoods, but those have really been groups and like extra after school events. So this year, Mr. Marcelo, who is a Hamilton historian, we thought we could leverage his talents and actually teach our students about the history of Hamilton. And it's been a huge success. We've had community speakers come in and then seen the kids really get involved and we'd love to see

083this program expand. I wanted a diverse group of people representing different areas of Hamilton. I wanted people born and raised here, you know, lifers who've been here their entire lives, but also people who have, you know, come here and made a choice to stay here. And basically, when people ask, you know, why do you want me to come? I said, because you are somebody who makes Hamilton a better place. Kids in the class, they're from here. I think sometimes, you know, when you're from a place, you don't actually see everything. You know, you have some a jaded view. When you have someone from the outside who's coming in here and they're saying, "Look what you got here." It's kind of given them some awareness of what's happening in Hamilton. I think the concept is cool.

084You know, I mean, since I've been in Hamilton, I've been fascinated by it. So, the fact that he's teaching this to the freshman, I think that's wonderful. So, when he says, "Hey, come and talk about something I already like to talk about, that's a no-brainer for me, you know. And then to kind of tie in not only the history of Hamilton, but also the stuff that's going on today. I mean, there's nothing I'd rather talk about than what's going on in this town. So, it's kind of like I was saying, it's one of the easier presentations I've done cuz there's just so much to talk about. I'm learning more and more every single day than I like normally would. Like with all of the renovations happening in Hamilton, I probably would have never known about

085some of them like Spooky Nook, little restaurants. So, it's pretty interesting. History of Hamilton elected really allowed students to like put history into a context they understand with the community that they live in and hopefully build some community pride and some citizenship into the freshman campus [Music] experience. Today we have our grand event. It's when grandparents, family members, and other people important to our students are able to come to school to do an activity with them and have a little glimpse into what their child does here at Brookwood Elementary. It's important for us to bring our families into the school because so often like our students, they'll talk with grandparents or aunts or uncles about school, but they've never seen what they do. So, we want to bring them into our school environment on such

086a fun day to where they get to do an activity, meet their teacher, see some of their friends, and just to get a short experience of what it's like here at school. Our PTO, yes, is kicking off their bun cake fundraiser today. And so, last year, I think on our grand event, they sold over 400 bunt cakes. We even had a grandpa who bought them for his grandchild's whole class. It was pretty awesome. But we're kicking off the sale today. a lot of students, they'll be able to enjoy them whether at lunch or they'll take them home with them as well. And then we're selling them in December as two. Oh my gosh, the kids are so excited. We thought the kids were excited yesterday with the first snow of the season. It is 10

087times that. Our students have been talking all week about their visitors who are coming. And we have such a wonderful school community. We know not all of our students are able to have someone who comes. So our guests who are coming in, they always pair up with all of the students so everyone gets to enjoy the activity [Music] together. In the Hamilton City School District, our students have a unique opportunity to share their artwork with the community and it's important because it provides a real life experience for our students as well as gives them a sense of self-ride. It's one thing to see them, you know, working on a surface, you know, daily, but another to just see it up in a little bit more of a professional setting. Seeing it collectively, you know, with

088all their classmates, a really it's a really special thing. I think when they know it's somewhere in a professional gallery like this, that that makes them feel pretty good. [Music] to have your artwork shown in uh the Cincinnati Art Museum is a really great honor. Um, for those students that are chosen, it's a great opportunity for high school students around the greater Cincinnati area to have their artwork shown uh outside of the school, which I think is a huge way for them to kind of step into themselves and kind of begin to explore their identities as artists and as people. I think it gives the community an opportunity to see that there is talent even in these young students. So, it's really neat to just expose [Music] everybody. Today is our future planning day here

089at Hamilton High School. We have a lot of area businesses, um, some vendors and post-secary options for our juniors and seniors to come down and explore and just see some of the community resources that are available to them after graduation. Talking to um the booths at like for Ketering Health and the Hamilton Police Department, it really like solidified my want to become a forensic scientist in the future. And I think that's that's one of the biggest pieces is just showing students a lot of the opportunities that they have available to them once they graduate. Um, you know, you drive through Hamilton and there's a lot of businesses that are front and center, but there's a a lot of behind-the-scenes opportunities that I don't think a lot of our students are exposed to until they come

090to an event like this. We're a window manufacturing company that's familyowned. Uh, you do have to be 18 to work with us, but you can check us out now um at vinylmax.com/careers. So, the Hamilton Community Foundation has a lot of scholarship opportunities. We have scholarships for students that are graduating seniors. We have uh scholarships for students that are currently in college, so sophomores, juniors, and seniors. We have a strong um history partnership with the Hamilton City Schools. We were founded actually by teachers in 1938. We want to help students establish that financial relationship before they leave high school. It's so important for them to be able to have that direct deposit when they start employment. We have students that go to college. We have students that have plans, but for those students that, you know,

091have made it to the end of senior year and kind of have that deer in the headlights look, this shows them some of the opportunities that they have, you know, just to to go out and do something within the community and, you know, benefit the greater good of Hamilton. We're cooking up a couple things. We're doing a pork carnitas taco. We're doing some Mexican street corn. And then we're doing like uh some vegetables done with taheen and lime. So very Mexican street food inspired by my childhood for sure. Whatever they want to take away from it really. You we're all different. We all learn differently. Uh some people like I said are motivated by lessons and all that stuff. Others are just motivated by experiences. So if we can tie those together, it's a sweet

092spot. I think I equate it to like reading. It's like the easiest way to travel is read a book and then you're immersed in a new world. Cooking and eating food is just a quicker way to that route. And um that's why we designed this program, Global Eats, is to make sure the kids feel immersed in a culture. I think we have 12 countries right now in the program. So Mexico being the one that I focus on. Um but it's rad to see the kids like reach out to me and saying like, "Hey, I saw you last year. We're coming out this year." And it's incredible. Like seeing the reaction is a big thing for chefs. You know, we are like standup comedians where we want to hear the applause and the laughter. Um be

093it the ms and a's of yeah, this is delicious. So to me it's really special. So, it means that we made an instant impact on them and they they're enjoying it. I hope the impact is uh lifelong for them. It's a lifelong search for experiences, food, travel, all of that. That's why we designed this program in the first place. So, hopefully it impacts the kids in a good way. [Music] Ready? This is the Children's Theater of Cincinnati TCT on tour series and it's the production of a piratey Peter Pan and we're doing it for a bunch of third graders from Hamilton. I think any exposure to the arts is great, especially at such an early age. I got started in theater in fourth grade, so just slightly older than these guys. And I think it

094teaches kids a ton of essential skills like communication and feeling confident in any sort of situation. I think reading the book and then seeing it on stage obviously helps with reading comprehension. Now you're piecing together faces with characters and I do a bunch of voices in the show. So now you also have voices to match all these characters you just read about and I think it's rewarding for the kids being able to see a part of what they're learning in school being reflected in such a creative and imaginative way. They're so excited to be a part of this world because I think so many people think theater is the actors are here and I watch from here and this we're really blurring those lines being able to invite the kids in to be a part

095of this world. And so that's got to be exciting. Like I know as a kid myself it was the best thing ever seeing all the touring actors come through my school. They were fantastic. I think audiences are really responding to this pirate twisted version of a story that they just became familiar with or for the adults in the room that they've known their entire lives. But it's a fun version that I think will last with them for a long time. But this play really reminds even the adults in the room that just because you have to grow up doesn't mean you have to stop laughing and playing and telling silly stories. [Music] We're here at Highland Elementary with the Cincinnati Bengals and Ketering Health and just a pair of shoes. We're giving out 120 new

096pairs of Nike shoes to the kids here at Highland Elementary. The simple act of a new pair of shoes goes a really long way. Matt shared his story earlier, uh Matt Klein from Just a Pair of Shoes about how a pair of shoes impacted his entire trajectory in high school. And to see our students who come from numerous different backgrounds coming together to be able to feel as part of our Highland community, feel of our greater Cincinnati community is just a tremendous feeling. We are committed to promoting health and wellness in our community. And so getting active is the single best way that you can take care of one's health. So exercise and activity and a new pair of shoes is a great way to promote and encourage activity. You know, our community is a

097wonderful place. Hamilton is a beautiful, vibrant city and sports is a key fabric of our place here. And so when kids are active in sports, they're active with each other. They're active in their health and it brings families and communities together. They get to come out and actually run drills and play six on six flag football with some of the real Bengals players. Uh who is here today, it's just a great day to celebrate community and coming together to support our students. It is just humbling and warms my heart. I've been looking forward to this for 7 months and to see it come together is just uh it's one of my favorite days at school. One of our big focus points here at the freshman campus is to bring the Hamilton community together. So we've

098done different things with 17 strong and neighborhoods, but those have really been groups and like extra after school events. So this year, Mr. Marcelo, who is a Hamilton historian, we thought we could leverage his talents and actually teach our students about the history of Hamilton. And it's been a huge success. We had community speakers come in and then seen the kids really get involved and we'd love to see this program expand. I wanted a diverse group of people representing different areas of Hamilton. I wanted people born and raised here, you know, lifers who've been here their entire lives, but also people who have, you know, come here and made a choice to stay here. And basically when people ask, you know, why do you want me to come? I said, because you are somebody who

099makes Hamilton a better place. Kids in the class, they're from here. I think sometimes, you know, when you're from a place, you don't actually see everything. You know, you have some a jaded view. When you have someone from the outside who's coming in here and they're saying, "Look what you got here." It it's kind of given them some awareness of what's happening in Hamilton. I think the concept is cool. You know, I mean, since I've been in Hamilton, I've been fascinated by it. So, the fact that he's teaching this to the freshman, I think that's wonderful. So when he says, "Hey, come and talk about something I already like to talk about." That's a no-brainer for me, you know? And then to kind of tie in not only the history of Hamilton, but also the

100stuff that's going on today. I mean, there's nothing I'd rather talk about than what's going on in this town. So, it's kind of like I was saying, it's one of the easier presentations I've done cuz there's just so much to talk about. I'm learning more and more every single day than I like normally would. Like with all of the renovations happening in Hamilton, I probably would have never known about some of them like Spooky Nook, little restaurants. So, it's pretty interesting. History of Hamilton elective really allows students to like put history into a context they understand with the community that they live in and hopefully build some community pride and some citizenship into the freshman campus [Music] experience. Today we have our grand event. It's when grandparents, family members, and other people important to our

101students are able to come to school to do an activity with them and have a little glimpse into what their child does here at Brookwood Elementary. It's important for us to bring our families into the school because so often like our students, they'll talk with grandparents or aunts or uncles about school, but they've never seen what they do. So, we want to bring them into our school environment on such a fun day to where they get to do an activity, meet their teacher, see some of their friends, and just to get a short experience of what it's like here at school. Our PTO, yes, is kicking off their bunt cake fundraiser today. And so, last year, I think on our grand event, they sold over 400 bun cakes. We even had a grandpa who bought

102them for his grandchild's whole class. It was pretty awesome. But we're kicking off the sale today. a lot of students, they'll be able to enjoy them whether at lunch or they'll take them home with them as well. And then we're selling them in December as two. Oh my gosh, the kids are so excited. We thought the kids were excited yesterday with the first snow of the season. It is 10 times that. Our students have been talking all week about their visitors who are coming. And we have such a wonderful school community. We know not all of our students are able to have someone who comes. So our guests who are coming in, they always pair up with all of the students so everyone gets to enjoy the activity [Music] together. In the Hamilton City School

103District, our students have a unique opportunity to share their artwork with the community and it's important because it provides a real life experience for our students as well as gives them a sense of self-ride. It's one thing to see them, you know, working on a surface, you know, daily, but another to just see it up in a little bit more of a professional setting. Seeing it collectively, you know, with all their classmates, a really it's a really special thing. I think when they know it somewhere in a professional gallery like this, that that makes them feel pretty good. [Music] to have your artwork shown in uh the Cincinnati Art Museum is a really great honor. Um, for those students that are chosen, it's a great opportunity for high school students around the greater Cincinnati area

104to have their artwork shown uh outside of the school, which I think is a huge way for them to kind of step into themselves and kind of begin to explore their identities as artists and as people. I think it gives the community an opportunity to see that there is talent even in these young students. So, it's really neat to just expose [Music] everybody. Today is our future planning day here at Hamilton High School. We have a lot of area businesses, um, some vendors and post-secary options for our juniors and seniors to come down and explore and just see some of the community resources that are available to them after graduation. Talking to um the booths at like for Ketering Health and the Hamilton Police Department, it really like solidified my want to become a forensic

105scientist in the future. And I think that's that's one of the biggest pieces is just showing students a lot of the opportunities that they have available to them once they graduate. Um, you know, you drive through Hamilton and there's a lot of businesses that are front and center, but there's a a lot of behind-the-scenes opportunities that I don't think a lot of our students are exposed to until they come to an event like this. We're a window manufacturing company that's familyowned. Uh, you do have to be 18 to work with us, but you can check us out now um at vinylmax.com/careers. So, the Hamilton Community Foundation has a lot of scholarship opportunities. We have scholarships for students that are graduating seniors. We have uh scholarships for students that are currently in college, so sophomores, juniors,

106and seniors. We have a strong um history partnership with the Hamilton City Schools. We were founded actually by teachers in 1938. We want to help students establish that financial relationship before they leave high school. It's so important for them to be able to have that direct deposit when they start employment. We have students that go to college. We have students that have plans, but for those students that, you know, have made it to the end of senior year and kind of have that deer in the headlights look, this shows them some of the opportunities that they have, you know, just to to go out and do something within the community and, you know, benefit the greater good of Hamilton. We're cooking up a couple things. We're doing a pork carnitas taco. We're doing some Mexican

107street corn. And then we're doing like uh some vegetables done with tahin and lime. So very Mexican street food inspired by my childhood for sure. Whatever they want to take away from it really. You we're all different. We all learn differently. Uh some people like I said are motivated by lessons and all that stuff. Others are just motivated by experiences. So if we can tie those together, it's a sweet spot. I think I equate it to like reading. It's like the easiest way to travel is read a book and then you're immersed in a new world. Cooking and eating food is just a quicker way to that route. And um that's why we designed this program, Global Eats, is to make sure the kids feel immersed in a culture. I think we have 12 countries

108right now in the program. So Mexico being the one that I focus on. Um but it's rad to see the kids like reach out to me and saying like, "Hey, I saw you last year. We're coming out this year." And it's incredible. Like seeing the reaction is a big thing for chefs. You know, we are like standup comedians where we want to hear the applause and the laughter. Um be it the ms and a's of yeah, this is delicious. So to me it's really special. It means that we made an instant impact on them and they they're enjoying it. I hope the impact is uh lifelong for them. It's a lifelong search for experiences, food, travel, all of that. That's why we designed this program in the first place. So hopefully it impacts the kids

109in a good way. Ready? This is the Children's Theater of Cincinnati TCT on tour series and it's the production of a piratey Peter Pan and we're doing it for a bunch of third graders from Hamilton. I think any exposure to the arts is great, especially at such an early age. I got started in theater in fourth grade, so just slightly older than these guys. And I think it teaches kids a ton of essential skills like communication and feeling confident in any sort of situation. I think reading the book and then seeing it on stage obviously helps with reading comprehension. Now you're piecing together faces with characters and I do a bunch of voices in the show. So now you also have voices to match all these characters you just read about. And I think it's

110rewarding for the kids being able to see a part of what they're learning in school being reflected in such a creative and imaginative way. They're so excited to be a part of this world cuz I think so many people think theater is the actors are here and I watch from here and this we're really blurring those lines being able to invite the kids in to be a part of this world. And so that's got to be exciting. Like I know as a kid myself it was the best thing ever seeing all the touring actors come through my school. They were fantastic. I think audiences are really responding to this pirate twisted version of a story that they just became familiar with or for the adults in the room that they've known their entire lives, but

111it's a fun version that I think will last with them for a long time. But this play really reminds even the adults in the room that just because you have to grow up doesn't mean you have to stop laughing and playing and telling silly stories. [Music] We're here at Highland Elementary with the Cincinnati Bengals and Ketering Health and just a pair of shoes. We're giving out 120 new pairs of Nike shoes to the kids here at Highland Elementary. The simple act of a new pair of shoes goes a really long way. Matt shared his story earlier, uh Matt Klein from Just a Pair of Shoes about how a pair of shoes impacted his entire trajectory in high school. And to see our students who come from numerous different backgrounds coming together to be able to

112feel as part of our Highland community, feel of our greater Cincinnati community is just a tremendous feeling. We are committed to promoting health and wellness in our community. And so getting active is the single best way that you can take care of one's health. So exercise and activity and a new pair of shoes is a great way to promote and encourage activity. You know, our community is a wonderful place. Hamilton is a beautiful, vibrant city and sports is a key fabric of our place here. And so when kids are active in sports, they're active with each other. They're active in their health and it brings families and communities together. They get to come out and actually run drills and play six on six flag football. But some of the real Bengals players uh who is

113here today, it's just a great day to celebrate community and coming together to support our students. It is just humbling and warms my heart. I've been looking forward to this for 7 months and to see it come together is just uh it's one of my favorite days at school. One of our big focus points here at the freshman campus is to bring the Hamilton community together. So we've done different things with 17 strong and neighborhoods, but those have really been groups and like extra after school events. So this year, Mr. Marcelo, who is a Hamilton historian, we thought we could leverage his talents and actually teach our students about the history of Hamilton. And it's been a huge success. as we've had community speakers come in and then seen the kids really get involved and

114we'd love to see this program expand. I wanted a diverse group of people representing different areas of Hamilton. I wanted people born and raised here, you know, lifers who've been here their entire lives, but also people who have, you know, come here and made a choice to stay here. And basically, when people ask, you know, why do you want me to come? I said, because you are somebody who makes Hamilton a better place. Kids in the class, they're from here. I think sometimes, you know, when you're from a place, you don't actually see everything. You know, you have some a jaded view. When you have someone from the outside who's coming in here and they're saying, "Look what you got here." It's kind of given them some awareness of what's happening in Hamilton. I think

115the concept is cool. You know, I mean, since I've been in Hamilton, I've been fascinated by it. So, the fact that he's teaching this to the freshman, I think that's wonderful. So, when he says, "Hey, come and talk about something I already like to talk about." That's a no-brainer for me, you know. And then to kind of tie in not only the history of Hamilton, but also the stuff that's going on today. I mean, there's nothing I'd rather talk about than what's going on in this town. So, it's kind of like I was saying it's one of the easier presentations I've done cuz there's just so much to talk about. I'm learning more and more every single day than I like normally would. Like with all of the renovations happening in Hamilton, I probably would

116have never known about some of them like Spooky Nook, little restaurants. So, it's pretty interesting. History of Hamilton elected really allowed students to like put history into a context they understand with the community that they live in and hopefully build some community pride and some citizenship into the freshman campus [Music] experience. Today we have our grand event. It's when grandparents, family members, and other people important to our students are able to come to school to do an activity with them and have a little glimpse into what their child does here at Brookwood Elementary. It's important for us to bring our families into the school because so often like our students, they'll talk with grandparents or aunts or uncles about school, but they've never seen what they do. So, we want to bring them into our

117school environment on such a fun day to where they get to do an activity, meet their teacher, see some of their friends, and just to get a short experience of what it's like here at school. Our PTO, yes, is kicking off their bunt cake fundraiser today. And so, last year, I think on our grand event, they sold over 400 bun cakes. We even had a grandpa who bought them for his grandchild's whole class. It was pretty awesome. But we're kicking off the sale today. a lot of students, they'll be able to enjoy them whether at lunch or they'll take them home with them as well. And then we're selling them in December as two. Oh my gosh, the kids are so excited. We thought the kids were excited yesterday with the first snow of the

118season. It is 10 times that. Our students have been talking all week about their visitors who are coming. And we have such a wonderful school community. We know not all of our students are able to have someone who comes. So our guests who are coming in, they always pair up with all of the students so everyone gets to enjoy the activity [Music] together. In the Hamilton City School District, our students have a unique opportunity to share their artwork with the community and it's important because it provides a real life experience for our students as well as gives them a sense of self-ride. It's one thing to see them, you know, working on a surface, you know, daily, but another to just see it up in a little bit more of a professional setting. Seeing it

119collectively, you know, with all their classmates, a really it's a really special thing. I think when they know it's somewhere in a professional gallery like this, that that makes them feel pretty good. [Music] to have your artwork shown in uh the Cincinnati Art Museum is a really great honor. Um, for those students that are chosen, it's a great opportunity for high school students around the greater Cincinnati area to have their artwork shown uh outside of the school, which I think is a huge way for them to kind of step into themselves and kind of begin to explore their identities as artists and as people. I think it gives the community an opportunity to see that there is talent even in these young students. So, it's really neat to just expose [Music] everybody. Today is our

120future planning day here at Hamilton High School. We have a lot of area businesses, um, some vendors and post-secary options for our juniors and seniors to come down and explore and just see some of the community resources that are available to them after graduation. Talking to um the booths at like for Ketaring Health and the Hamilton Police Department, it really like solidified my want to become a forensic scientist in the future. And I think that's that's one of the biggest pieces is just showing students a lot of the opportunities that they have available to them once they graduate. Um, you know, you drive through Hamilton and there's a lot of businesses that are front and center, but there's a a lot of behind-the-scenes opportunities that I don't think a lot of our students are exposed

121to until they come to an event like this. We're a window manufacturing company that's family-owned. Uh, you do have to be 18 to work with us, but you can check us out now um at vinylmax.com/careers. So, the Hamilton Community Foundation has a lot of scholarship opportunities. We have scholarships for students that are graduating seniors. We have uh scholarships for students that are currently in college, so sophomores, juniors, and seniors. We have a strong um history partnership with the Hamilton City Schools. We were founded actually by teachers in 1938. We want to help students establish that financial relationship before they leave high school. It's so important for them to be able to have that direct deposit when they start employment. We have students that go to college. We have students that have plans, but for those

122students that, you know, have made it to the end of senior year and kind of have that deer in the headlights look, this shows them some of the opportunities that they have, you know, just to to go out and do something within the community and, you know, benefit the greater good of Hamilton. We're cooking up a couple things. We're doing a pork carnitas taco. We're doing some Mexican street corn. And then we're doing like uh some vegetables done with taheen and lime. So very Mexican street food inspired by my childhood for sure. Whatever they want to take away from it really. You we're all different. We all learn differently. Uh some people like I said are motivated by lessons and all that stuff. Others are just motivated by experiences. So if we can tie those

123together, it's a sweet spot. I think I equate it to like reading. It's like the easiest way to travel is read a book and then you're immersed in a new world. Cooking and eating food is just a quicker way to that route. And um that's why we designed this program, Global Eats, is to make sure the kids feel immersed in a culture. Uh we think we have 12 countries right now in the program. So Mexico being the one that I focus on. Um but it's rad to see the kids like reach out to me and saying like, "Hey, I saw you last year. We're coming out this year." And it's incredible. Like seeing the reaction is a big thing for chefs. You know, we are like standup comedians where we want to hear the applause

124and the laughter. Um be it the ms and a's of yeah, this is delicious. So to me it's really special. So, it means that we made an instant impact on them and they they're enjoying it. I hope the impact is uh lifelong for them. It's a lifelong search for experiences, food, travel, all of that. That's why we designed this program in the first place. So, hopefully it impacts the kids in a good way. Ready? This is the Children's Theater of Cincinnati TCT on tour series and it's the production of a piratey Peter Pan and we're doing it for a bunch of third graders from Hamilton. I think any exposure to the arts is great, especially at such an early age. I got started in theater in fourth grade, so just slightly older than these guys.

125And I think it teaches kids a ton of essential skills like communication and feeling confident in any sort of situation. I think reading the book and then seeing it on stage obviously helps with reading comprehension. Now you're piecing together faces with characters and I do a bunch of voices in the show. So now you also have voices to match all these characters you just read about and I think it's rewarding for the kids being able to see a part of what they're learning in school being reflected in such a creative and imaginative way. They're so excited to be a part of this world because I think so many people think theater is the actors are here and I watch from here and this we're really blurring those lines being able to invite the kids in

126to be a part of this world. And so that's got to be exciting. Like I know as a kid myself it was the best thing ever seeing all the touring actors come through my school. They were fantastic. I think audiences are really responding to this pirate twisted version of a story that they just became familiar with or for the adults in the room that they've known their entire lives. But it's a fun version that I think will last with them for a long time. But this play really reminds even the adults in the room that just because you have to grow up doesn't mean you have to stop laughing and playing and telling silly stories. [Music] We're here at Highland Elementary with the Cincinnati Bengals and Ketering Health and just a pair of shoes. We're

127giving out 120 new pairs of Nike shoes to the kids here at Highland Elementary. The simple act of a new pair of shoes goes a really long way. Matt shared his story earlier uh Matt Klein from Just a Pair of Shoes about how a pair of shoes impacted his entire trajectory in high school. And to see our students who come from numerous different backgrounds coming together to be able to feel as part of our Highland community, feel of our greater Cincinnati community is just a tremendous feeling. We are committed to promoting health and wellness in our community. And so getting active is the single best way that you can take care of one's health. So exercise and activity and a new pair of shoes is a great way to promote and encourage activity. You know,

128our community is a wonderful place. Hamilton is a beautiful, vibrant city and sports is a key fabric of our place here. And so when kids are active in sports, they're active with each other. They're active in their health and it brings families and communities together. They get to come out and actually run drills and play six on six flag football with some of the real Bengals players. Uh who is here today. It's just a great day to celebrate community and coming together to support our students. It is just humbling and warms my heart. I've been looking forward to this for 7 months and to see it come together is just uh it's one of my favorite days at school. One of our big focus points here at the freshman campus is to bring the Hamilton

129community together. So we've done different things with 17 strong and neighborhoods, but those have really been groups and like extra after school events. So this year, Mr. Marcelo, who is a Hamilton historian, we thought we could leverage his talents and actually teach our students about the history of Hamilton. And it's been a huge success. We had community speakers come in and then seen the kids really get involved and we'd love to see this program expand. I wanted a diverse group of people representing different areas of Hamilton. I wanted people born and raised here, you know, lifers who've been here their entire lives, but also people who have, you know, come here and made a choice to stay here. And basically, when people ask, you know, why do you want me to come? I said, because

130you are somebody who makes Hamilton a better place. Kids in the class, they're from here. I think sometimes, you know, when you're from a place, you don't actually see everything. You know, you have some a jaded view. When you have someone from the outside who's coming in here and they're saying, "Look what you got here." It it's kind of given them some awareness of what's happening in Hamilton. I think the concept is cool. You know, I mean, since I've been in Hamilton, I've been fascinated by it. So, the fact that he's teaching this to the freshman, I think that's wonderful. So, when he says, "Hey, come and talk about something I already like to talk about, that's a no-brainer for me, you know. And then to kind of tie in not only the history of

131Hamilton, but also the stuff that's going on today. I mean, there's nothing I'd rather talk about than what's going on in this town. So, it's kind of like I was saying, it's one of the easier presentations I've done because there's just so much to talk about. I'm learning more and more every single day than I like normally would like with all of the renovations happening in Hamilton. I probably would have never known about some of them like Spooky Nook, little restaurants. So, it's pretty interesting. History of Hamilton elective really allows students to like put history into a context they understand with the community that they live in and hopefully build some community pride and some citizenship into the freshman campus [Music] experience. Today we have our grand event. It's when grandparents, family members, and other

132people important to our students are able to come to school to do an activity with them and have a little glimpse into what their child does here at Brookwood Elementary. It's important for us to bring our families into the school because so often like our students, they'll talk with grandparents or aunts or uncles about school, but they've never seen what they do. So, we want to bring them into our school environment on such a fun day to where they get to do an activity, meet their teacher, see some of their friends, and just to get a short experience of what it's like here at school. Our PTO, yes, is kicking off their bun cake fundraiser today. And so, last year, I think on our grand event, they sold over 400 bun cakes. We even had

133a grandpa who bought them for his grandchild's whole class. It was pretty awesome. But we're kicking off the sale today. a lot of students, they'll be able to enjoy them whether at lunch or they'll take them home with them as well. And then we're selling them in December as two. Oh my gosh, the kids are so excited. We thought the kids were excited yesterday with the first snow of the season. It is 10 times that. Our students have been talking all week about their visitors who are coming and we have such a wonderful school community. We know not all of our students are able to have someone who comes. So our guests who are coming in, they always pair up with all of the students so everyone gets to enjoy the activity [Music] together. In

134the Hamilton City School District, our students have a unique opportunity to share their artwork with the community and it's important because it provides a real life experience for our students as well as gives them a sense of self-ride. It's one thing to see them, you know, working on a surface, you know, daily, but another to just see it up in a little bit more of a professional setting. Seeing it collectively, you know, with all their classmates, a really it's a really special thing. I think when they know it's somewhere in a professional gallery like this, that that makes them feel pretty good. [Music] to have your artwork shown in uh the Cincinnati Art Museum is a really great honor um for those students that are chosen. It's a great opportunity for high school students around

135the greater Cincinnati area to have their artwork shown uh outside of the school, which I think is a huge way for them to kind of step into themselves and kind of begin to explore their identities as artists and as people. I think it gives the community an opportunity to see that there is talent even in these young students. So, it's really neat to just expose everybody [Music] Today is our future planning day here at Hamilton High School. We have a lot of area businesses, um, some vendors and post-secary options for our juniors and seniors to come down and explore and just see some of the community resources that are available to them after graduation. talking to um the booths at like for Ketering Health and the Hamilton Police Department, it really like solidified my want

136to become a forensic scientist in the future. And I think that's that's one of the biggest pieces is just showing students a lot of the opportunities that they have available to them once they graduate. Um you know, you drive through Hamilton and there's a lot of businesses that are front and center, but there's a a lot of behindthe-scenes opportunities that I don't think a lot of our students are exposed to until they come to an event like this. We're a window manufacturing company that's family-owned. Uh you do have to be 18 to work with us, but you can check us out now um at vinylmax.com/careers. So, the Hamilton Community Foundation has a lot of scholarship opportunities. We have scholarships for students that are graduating seniors. We have uh scholarships for students that are currently in

137college. So, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. We have a strong um history partnership with the Hamilton City Schools. We were founded actually by teachers in 1938. We want to help students establish that financial relationship before they leave high school. It's so important for them to be able to have that direct deposit when they start employment. We have students that go to college. We have students that have plans, but for those students that, you know, have made it to the end of senior year and kind of have that deer in the headlights look, this shows them some of the opportunities that they have, you know, just to to go out and do something within the community and, you know, benefit the greater good of Hamilton. We're cooking up a couple things. We're doing a pork carnitas taco.

138We're doing some Mexican street corn. And then we're doing like uh some vegetables done with tahin and lime. So very Mexican street food inspired by my childhood for sure. Whatever they want to take away from it really. You we're all different. We all learn differently. Uh some people, like I said, are motivated by lessons and all that stuff. Others are just motivated by experiences. So, if we can tie those together, it's a sweet spot. I think I equate it to like reading. It's like the easiest way to travel is read a book and then you're immersed in a new world. Cooking and eating food is just a quicker way to that route. And um that's why we designed this program, Global Eats, is to make sure the kids feel immersed in a culture. Uh we

139think we have 12 countries right now in the program. So, Mexico being the one that I focus on. Um but it's rad to see the kids like reach out to me and saying like, "Hey, I saw you last year. We're coming out this year." And it's incredible. Like seeing the reaction is a big thing for chefs. You know, we are like standup comedians where we want to hear the applause and the laughter. Um be it the ms and a's of yeah, this is delicious. So to me it's really special. It means that we made an instant impact on them and they they're enjoying it. I hope the impact is uh lifelong for them. It's a lifelong search for experiences, food, travel, all of that. That's why we designed this program in the first place. So

140hopefully it impacts the kids in a good way. Ready? [Music] This is the Children's Theater of Cincinnati TCT on tour series and it's the production of a pirate Peter Pan and we're doing it for a bunch of third graders from Hamilton. I think any exposure to the arts is great, especially at such an early age. I got started in theater in fourth grade, so just slightly older than these guys. And I think it teaches kids a ton of essential skills like communication and feeling confident in any sort of situation. I think reading the book and then seeing it on stage obviously helps with reading comprehension. Now you're piecing together faces with characters and I do a bunch of voices in the show. So now you also have voices to match all these characters you just

141read about. And I think it's rewarding for the kids being able to see a part of what they're learning in school being reflected in such a creative and imaginative way. They're so excited to be a part of this world cuz I think so many people think theater is the actors are here and I watch from here and this we're really blurring those lines being able to invite the kids in to be a part of this world. And so that's got to be exciting. Like I know as a kid myself it was the best thing ever seeing all the touring actors come through my school. They were fantastic. I think audiences are really responding to this pirate twisted version of a story that they just became familiar with or for the adults in the room that

142they've known their entire lives, but it's a fun version that I think will last with them for a long time. But this play really reminds even the adults in the room that just because you have to grow up doesn't mean you have to stop laughing and playing and telling silly stories. [Music] We're here at Highland Elementary with the Cincinnati Bengals in Ketering Health and just a pair of shoes. We're giving out 120 new pairs of Nike shoes to the kids here at Highland Elementary. The simple act of a new pair of shoes goes a really long way. Matt shared his story earlier uh Matt Klein from Just a Pair of Shoes about how a pair of shoes impacted his entire trajectory in high school. And to see our students who come from numerous different backgrounds

143coming together to be able to feel as part of our Highland community, feel of our greater Cincinnati community is just a tremendous feeling. We are committed to promoting health and wellness in our community. And so getting active is the single best way that you can take care of one's health. So exercise and activity and a new pair of shoes is a great way to promote and encourage activity. You know, our community is a wonderful place. Hamilton is a beautiful, vibrant city and sports is a key fabric of our place here. And so when kids are active in sports, they're active with each other. They're active in their health and it brings families and communities together. They get to come out and actually run drills and play six on six flag football. But some of the

144real Bengals players, uh, who is here today, it's just a great day to celebrate community and coming together to support our students. It is just humbling and warms my heart. I've been looking forward to this for 7 months and to see it come together is just uh it's one of my favorite days at school. One of our big focus points here at the freshman campus is to bring the Hamilton community together. So we've done different things with 17 strong and neighborhoods, but those have really been groups and like extra after school events. So this year, Mr. Marcelo, who is a Hamilton historian, we thought we could leverage his talents and actually teach our students about the history of Hamilton. And it's been a huge success. as we've had community speakers come in and then seen

145the kids really get involved and we'd love to see this program expand. I wanted a diverse group of people representing different areas of Hamilton. I wanted people born and raised here, you know, lifers who've been here their entire lives, but also people who have, you know, come here and made a choice to stay here. And basically, when people ask, you know, why do you want me to come? I said, because you are somebody who makes Hamilton a better place. Kids in the class, they're from here. I think sometimes, you know, when you're from a place, you don't actually see everything. You know, you have some a jaded view. When you have someone from the outside who's coming in here and they're saying, "Look what you got here." It's kind of given them some awareness of

146what's happening in Hamilton. I think the concept is cool. You know, I mean, since I've been in Hamilton, I've been fascinated by it. So, the fact that he's teaching this to the freshman, I think that's wonderful. So, when he says, "Hey, come and talk about something I already like to talk about." That's a no-brainer for me, you know. And then to kind of tie in not only the history of Hamilton, but also the stuff that's going on today. I mean, there's nothing I'd rather talk about than what's going on in this town. So, it's kind of like I was saying it's one of the easier presentations I've done cuz there's just so much to talk about. I'm learning more and more every single day than I like normally would. Like with all of the renovations

147happening in Hamilton, I probably would have never known about some of them like Spooky Nook, little restaurants. So, it's pretty interesting. History of Hamilton elected really allowed students to like put history into a context they understand with the community that they live in and hopefully build some community pride and some citizenship into the freshman campus [Music] experience. Today we have our grand event. It's when grandparents, family members, and other people important to our students are able to come to school to do an activity with them and have a little glimpse into what their child does here at Brookwood Elementary. It's important for us to bring our families into the school because so often like our students, they'll talk with grandparents or aunts or uncles about school, but they've never seen what they do. So, we

148want to bring them into our school environment on such a fun day to where they get to do an activity, meet their teacher, see some of their friends, and just to get a short experience of what it's like here at school. Our PTO, yes, is kicking off their bunt cake fundraiser today. And so, last year, I think on our grand event, they sold over 400 bun cakes. We even had a grandpa who bought them for his grandchild's whole class. It was pretty awesome. But we're kicking off the sale today. a lot of students, they'll be able to enjoy them whether at lunch or they'll take them home with them as well. And then we're selling them in December as two. Oh my gosh, the kids are so excited. We thought the kids were excited yesterday

149with the first snow of the season. It is 10 times that. Our students have been talking all week about their visitors who are coming. And we have such a wonderful school community. We know not all of our students are able to have someone who comes. So our guests who are coming in, they always pair up with all of the students so everyone gets to enjoy the activity [Music] together. In the Hamilton City School District, our students have a unique opportunity to share their artwork with the community and it's important because it provides a real life experience for our students as well as gives them a sense of self-ride. It's one thing to see them, you know, working on a surface, you know, daily, but another to just see it up in a little bit more

150of a professional setting. Seeing it collectively, you know, with all their classmates, a really it's a really special thing, I think, when they know it's somewhere in a professional gallery like this, that that makes them feel pretty good. [Music] to have your artwork shown in uh the Cincinnati Art Museum is a really great honor. Um, for those students that are chosen, it's a great opportunity for high school students around the greater Cincinnati area to have their artwork shown uh outside of the school, which I think is a huge way for them to kind of step into themselves and kind of begin to explore their identities as artists and as people. I think it gives the community an opportunity to see that there is talent even in these young students. So, it's really neat to just

151expose [Music] everybody. Today is our future planning day here at Hamilton High School. We have a lot of area businesses, um, some vendors and post-secary options for our juniors and seniors to come down and explore and just see some of the community resources that are available to them after graduation. Talking to um the booths at like for Ketaring Health and the Hamilton Police Department, it really like solidified my want to become a forensic scientist in the future. And I think that's that's one of the biggest pieces is just showing students a lot of the opportunities that they have available to them once they graduate. Um, you know, you drive through Hamilton and there's a lot of businesses that are front and center, but there's a a lot of behind-the-scenes opportunities that I don't think a

152lot of our students are exposed to until they come to an event like this. We're a window manufacturing company that's family-owned. Uh, you do have to be 18 to work with us, but you can check us out now um at vinylmax.com/careers. So, the Hamilton Community Foundation has a lot of scholarship opportunities. We have scholarships for students that are graduating seniors. We have uh scholarships for students that are currently in college, so sophomores, juniors, and seniors. We have a strong um history partnership with the Hamilton City Schools. We were founded actually by teachers in 1938. We want to help students establish that financial relationship before they leave high school. It's so important for them to be able to have that direct deposit when they start employment. We have students that go to college. We have students

153that have plans, but for those students that, you know, have made it to the end of senior year and kind of have that deer in the headlights look, this shows them some of the opportunities that they have, you know, just to to go out and do something within the community and, you know, benefit the greater good of Hamilton. We're cooking up a couple things. We're doing a pork carnitas taco. We're doing some Mexican street corn. And then we're doing like uh some vegetables done with taheen and lime. So very Mexican street food inspired by my childhood for sure. Whatever they want to take away from it really. You we're all different. We all learn differently. Uh some people like I said are motivated by lessons and all that stuff. Others are just motivated by experiences.

154So if we can tie those together, it's a sweet spot. I think I equate it to like reading. It's like the easiest way to travel is read a book and then you're immersed in a new world. Cooking and eating food is just a quicker way to that route. And um that's why we designed this program, Global Eats, is to make sure the kids feel immersed in a culture. Uh I think we have 12 countries right now in the program. So Mexico being the one that I focus on. Um but it's rad to see the kids like reach out to me and saying like, "Hey, I saw you last year. We're coming out this year." And it's incredible. Like seeing the reaction is a big thing for chefs. You know, we are like standup comedians where

155we want to hear the applause and the laughter. Um be it the ms and a's of yeah, this is delicious. So to me it's really special. So, it means that we made an instant impact on them and they they're enjoying it. I hope the impact is uh lifelong for them. It's a lifelong search for experiences, food, travel, all of that. That's why we designed this program in the first place. So, hopefully it impacts the kids in a good way. [Music] Ready? This is the Children's Theater of Cincinnati TCT on tour series and it's the production of a piratey Peter Pan and we're doing it for a bunch of third graders from Hamilton. I think any exposure to the arts is great, especially at such an early age. I got started in theater in fourth grade,

156so just slightly older than these guys. And I think it teaches kids a ton of essential skills like communication and feeling confident in any sort of situation. I think reading the book and then seeing it on stage obviously helps with reading comprehension. Now you're piecing together faces with characters and I do a bunch of voices in the show. So now you also have voices to match all these characters you just read about and I think it's rewarding for the kids being able to see a part of what they're learning in school being reflected in such a creative and imaginative way. They're so excited to be a part of this world because I think so many people think theater is the actors are here and I watch from here and this we're really blurring those lines

157being able to invite the kids in to be a part of this world. And so that's got to be exciting. Like I know as a kid myself it was the best thing ever seeing all the touring actors come through my school. They were fantastic. I think audiences are really responding to this pirate twisted version of a story that they just became familiar with or for the adults in the room that they've known their entire lives. But it's a fun version that I think will last with them for a long time. But this play really reminds even the adults in the room that just because you have to grow up doesn't mean you have to stop laughing and playing and telling silly stories. [Music] We're here at Highland Elementary with the Cincinnati Bengals and Ketering Health

158and just a pair of shoes. We're giving out 120 new pairs of Nike shoes to the kids here at Highland Elementary. The simple act of a new pair of shoes goes a really long way. Matt shared his story earlier, uh Matt Klein from Just a Pair of Shoes about how a pair of shoes impacted his entire trajectory in high school. And to see our students who come from numerous different backgrounds coming together to be able to feel as part of our Highland community, feel of our greater Cincinnati community is just a tremendous feeling. We are committed to promoting health and wellness in our community. And so getting active is the single best way that you can take care of one's health. So exercise and activity and a new pair of shoes is a great way

159to promote and encourage activity. You know, our community is a wonderful place. Hamilton is a beautiful, vibrant city and sports is a key fabric of our place here. And so when kids are active in sports, they're active with each other. They're active in their health and it brings families and communities together. They get to come out and actually run drills and play six on six flag football with some of the real Bengals players. Uh who is here today. It's just a great day to celebrate community and coming together to support our students. It is just humbling and warms my heart. I've been looking forward to this for 7 months and to see it come together is just uh it's one of my favorite days at school. One of our big focus points here at the

160freshman campus is to bring the Hamilton community together. So we've done different things with 17 strong and neighborhoods, but those have really been groups and like extra after school events. So this year, Mr. Marcelo, who is a Hamilton historian, we thought we could leverage his talents and actually teach our students about the history of Hamilton. And it's been a huge success. We had community speakers come in and then seen the kids really get involved and we'd love to see this program expand. I wanted a diverse group of people representing different areas of Hamilton. I wanted people born and raised here, you know, lifers who've been here their entire lives, but also people who have, you know, come here and made a choice to stay here. And basically, when people ask, you know, why do you

161want me to come? I said, because you are somebody who makes Hamilton a better place. Kids in the class, they're from here. I think sometimes, you know, when you're from a place, you don't actually see everything. You know, you have some a jaded view. When you have someone from the outside who's coming in here and they're saying, "Look what you got here." It's kind of given them some awareness of what's happening in Hamilton. I think the concept is cool. You know, I mean, since I've been in Hamilton, I've been fascinated by it. So, the fact that he's teaching this to the freshman, I think that's wonderful. So, when he says, "Hey, come and talk about something I already like to talk about, that's a no-brainer for me, you know. And then to kind of tie

162in not only the history of Hamilton, but also the stuff that's going on today. I mean, there's nothing I'd rather talk about than what's going on in this town. So, it's kind of like I was saying it's one of the easier presentations I've done because there's just so much to talk about. I'm learning more and more every single day than I like normally would like with all of the renovations happening in Hamilton. I probably would have never known about some of them like Spooky Nook, little restaurants. So, it's pretty interesting. History of Hamilton elected really allowed students to like put history into a context they understand with the community that they live in and hopefully build some community pride and some citizenship into the freshman campus [Music] experience. Today we have our grand event. It's

163when grandparents, family members, and other people important to our students are able to come to school to do an activity with them and have a little glimpse into what their child does here at Brookwood Elementary. It's important for us to bring our families into the school because so often like our students, they'll talk with grandparents or aunts or uncles about school, but they've never seen what they do. So, we want to bring them into our school environment on such a fun day to where they get to do an activity, meet their teacher, see some of their friends, and just to get a short experience of what it's like here at school. Our PTO, yes, is kicking off their bun cake fundraiser today. And so, last year, I think on our grand event, they sold over

164400 bunt cakes. We even had a grandpa who bought them for his grandchild's whole class. It was pretty awesome. But we're kicking off the sale today. a lot of students, they'll be able to enjoy them whether at lunch or they'll take them home with them as well. And then we're selling them in December as two. Oh my gosh, the kids are so excited. We thought the kids were excited yesterday with the first snow of the season. It is 10 times that. Our students have been talking all week about their visitors who are coming. And we have such a wonderful school community. We know not all of our students are able to have someone who comes. So our guests who are coming in, they always pair up with all of the students so everyone gets to

165enjoy the activity [Music] together. In the Hamilton City School District, our students have a unique opportunity to share their artwork with the community and it's important because it provides a real life experience for our students as well as gives them a sense of self-ride. It's one thing to see them, you know, working on a surface, you know, daily, but another to just see it up in a little bit more of a professional setting. Seeing it collectively, you know, with all their classmates, a really it's a really special thing. I think when they know it's somewhere in a professional gallery like this, that that makes them feel pretty good. [Music] to have your artwork shown in uh the Cincinnati Art Museum is a really great honor. Um for those students that are chosen, it's a great

166opportunity for high school students around the greater Cincinnati area to have their artwork shown. uh outside of the school, which I think is a huge way for them to kind of step into themselves and kind of begin to explore their identities as artists and as people. I think it gives the community an opportunity to see that there is talent even in these young students. So, it's really neat to just expose everybody. [Music] Today is our future planning day here at Hamilton High School. We have a lot of area businesses, um, some vendors and post-secary options for our juniors and seniors to come down and explore and just see some of the community resources that are available to them after graduation. talking to um the booths at like for Ketering Health and the Hamilton Police Department,

167it really like solidified my want to become a forensic scientist in the future. And I think that's that's one of the biggest pieces is just showing students a lot of the opportunities that they have available to them once they graduate. Um you know, you drive through Hamilton and there's a lot of businesses that are front and center, but there's a a lot of behindthe-scenes opportunities that I don't think a lot of our students are exposed to until they come to an event like this. We're a window manufacturing company that's family-owned. Uh you do have to be 18 to work with us, but you can check us out now um at vinylax.com/careers. So, the Hamilton Community Foundation has a lot of scholarship opportunities. We have scholarships for students that are graduating seniors. We have uh scholarships

168for students that are currently in college. So, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. We have a strong um history partnership with the Hamilton City Schools. We were founded actually by teachers in 1938. We want to help students establish that financial relationship before they leave high school. It's so important for them to be able to have that direct deposit when they start employment. We have students that go to college. We have students that have plans, but for those students that, you know, have made it to the end of senior year and kind of have that deer in the headlights look, this shows them some of the opportunities that they have, you know, just to to go out and do something within the community and, you know, benefit the greater good of Hamilton. We're cooking up a couple things.

169We're doing a pork carnitas taco. We're doing some Mexican street corn. And then we're doing like uh some vegetables done with tahin and lime. So very Mexican street food inspired by my childhood for sure. Whatever they want to take away from it really. You we're all different. We all learn differently. Uh some people, like I said, are motivated by lessons and all that stuff. Others are just motivated by experiences. So, if we can tie those together, it's a sweet spot. I think I equate it to like reading. It's like the easiest way to travel is read a book and then you're immersed in a new world. Cooking and eating food is just a quicker way to that route. And um that's why we designed this program, Global Eats, is to make sure the kids feel

170immersed in a culture. Uh we think we have 12 countries right now in the program. So, Mexico being the one that I focus on. Um but it's rad to see the kids like reach out to me and saying like, "Hey, I saw you last year. We're coming out this year." And it's incredible. Like seeing the reaction is a big thing for chefs. You know, we are like standup comedians where we want to hear the applause and the laughter. Um be it the ms and a's of yeah, this is delicious. So to me it's really special. It means that we made an instant impact on them and they they're enjoying it. I hope the impact is uh lifelong for them. It's a lifelong search for experiences, food, travel, all of that. That's why we designed this

171program in the first place. So hopefully it impacts the kids in a good way. Ready? [Music] This is the Children's Theater of Cincinnati TCT on tour series and it's the production of a pirate Peter Pan and we're doing it for a bunch of third graders from Hamilton. I think any exposure to the arts is great, especially at such an early age. I got started in theater in fourth grade, so just slightly older than these guys. And I think it teaches kids a ton of essential skills like communication and feeling confident in any sort of situation. I think reading the book and then seeing it on stage obviously helps with reading comprehension. Now you're piecing together faces with characters and I do a bunch of voices in the show. So now you also have voices to

172match all these characters you've just read about. And I think it's rewarding for the kids being able to see a part of what they're learning in school being reflected in such a creative and imaginative way. They're so excited to be a part of this world because I think so many people think the Perfect. Thank you. We'll call this meeting back. Um we'll come back from executive session and to our business meeting. Uh we can have our pledge of allegiance. Stand for the pledge. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'd like to ask for a motion for approval of our board agenda. I'll make that motion. Thank you. Second, Mr. Per, if

173you could call the role, please. Mr. Davidson, yes. Dr. Copus, yes. Mrs. Matthews, yes. Mr. Sprag. Oh, Mr. Sprag is absent. I'll make a note for the minutes. Mrs. Baker, yes. Thank you. Um I accept a motion to uh for approval of minutes. I'll make that motion. Thank you. Second. Thank you, Mr. Fer. If you call our role. Dr. Copus. Yes. Mrs. Matthews? Yes. Mrs. Baker? Yes. Mr. Davidson? Yes. Thank you. Next on our agenda is our human resource. Human resources. Um if I I'll accept a motion to for um personnel. I'll make that motion. Second. Any discussion? No. Oh, Mr. Fger, you call a roll. Mrs. Matthews? Yes. Mrs. Baker? Yes. Mr. Davidson? Yes. Dr. Copus? Yes. President Matthews, before we move on to adjournment, I know this a really light agenda this evening.

174I just wanted to put a few superintendent comments in. Um, that one I just want to acknowledge this week we um have quite a bit of recognition that happened in our community. One I want to acknowledge, we had three staff member or well three Hamilton City School uh either staff members or students that were honored as her heroes of character uh earlier this week. So I just wanted to acknowledge them. Um you know we are thrilled because they were recognized by the character council of greater Cincinnati. Uh they were selected for con consistently modeling integrity, compassion and moral courage in their lives. So three of our staff me or three of our community were honored. One was Carly Harrison who is a preschool intervention specialist at Lynen Elementary. One was fifth grade student Harper Zeri

175from Ridgeway Elementary. And then Mrs. Amanda White who is our student and family support specialist at Highland Elementary. Uh they had an amazing recognition earlier this week and I just wanted to we put some things out on social media to acknowledge them, but I I just wanted to take a minute as well. Um I know Mr. Davidson, your wife was there. I saw that uh Kim was there to help support Harper. So, that was really neat to see all the teachers that were there. Um, the other thing, and I know Mr. Sprag mentioned this earlier, it is assistant principal week. Um, and we I just want to take a second to do a shout out to all of our assistant principles. We are blessed with the be the absolute best in this district. Often assistant

176principles are the unsung heroes. I always say they're the people behind the curtain that are making the magic happen. They're not the figurehead. They are sometimes the one who have the grind. You know, they they deal with uh discipline. They're usually the first person that gets called to handle our discipline and our challenges, but they are a vital leader in our district, and I just wanted to acknowledge all of them. I also just want to remind parents that next week is spring break, so we will not have school uh from April 16th to the 20th. We will resume school on Monday, April 21st, and it will be a mad dash. When we come back, we have five weeks until the end of the school year. Um I was talking with Mrs. Makabe during the break

177and I I think she said 12 or 13 days left. 11 days for seniors of school left before uh they reach that end in that that uh monumental occasion. And the last thing I just wanted to to shout out I am extremely proud of our students. They took their first uh OST tests in the last few weeks as well as our EOCC exams, our end of course exams at the high school and that is always a big stressor for our students and our staff. you know, we provide many accommodations for students. It is a giant puzzle of figuring out who's testing where and what that looks like. So, I want to give a big shout out to our staff, our students, and the community for helping make sure that our kids do the best on

178the test. I just wanted to quickly add those. Awesome. Thank you. Um, our next meeting will be on Thursday, April 24th here beginning at 4 p.m. I'll uh take the motion for adjournment. I'll make that motion. Thank you. I'll second it. Thank you. Roll call. Mrs. Baker. Yes. Mr. Davidson? Yes. Dr. Copus? Yes. Mrs. Matthews? Yes. Meeting is