001I call to order the Westlake City School District special board meeting for February 9th. Roll call. >> Gunard >> here. >> Lamb present. Brown >> here. Venukan >> here. >> Brush here. If everyone can please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic for it stands one under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> As always, we'd like to start with our mission and vision statement. Westlake City Schools. We educate for excellence, empowering all students to achieve their educational goals, to direct their lives, and to contribute to society. And our vision is Westlake City School District will provide a dynamic student- centered learning environment. Our district will be characterized by high achievement, actively engaged learners, mutual respect, shared knowledge, pursuit of new
002skills and capabilities, collaborative learning, willingness to take action, a team commitment to datadriven continuous improvement through a strategic planning process, intangible results. We have a wonderful group of people here tonight for all of these wonderful special recognitions and I'm thrilled um you can join us on this one lovely warmer evening than what we've been having. Um, is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Roll call. >> Craft. >> Yes. >> Manukan, >> yes. >> Brown, >> yes. >> Lamb, >> yes. >> You're not? >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> And I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to you, Dr. Goen. >> Thank you very much. Uh, we do have a couple um different I'd say awards that are cap happening tonight. One is from
003uh OSBA, which is our Ohio School Board Association. As you may know that January, which has just passed, is school board recognition month. Uh this is um something that we had planned for that January meeting, but if you recall our last board, well, and and you are going to come as well. Um that last Monday was pretty sketchy weather and you know having uh a guest coming from OSBA via Mid View um we didn't want to make her uh drive out here and make sure that she is nice and safe. So we do have our OSBA recognitions tonight and then uh right after that we are going to go into our staff excellence awards. So to kick off the festivities I would like to introduce and have her come to the podium uh Mrs. Kathy
004Quintiliano uh who represents OSBA but also is a board member with the Mid View local schools. I've known Mrs. Quintiliano for a long long time and she is an excellent board member and and a wonderful representative of OSBA. So turn it over to you. >> Thank you very much Mr. Crack. >> So we have a recognition for a 10-year veteran for Zenberg. >> Thank you. which I'm assuming would have been last year. So, this must be your 11th year. >> So, congratulations on >> on being on the board for 10 years. >> It is my pleasure. Thank you. >> And Mr. Miller, can you come up too? And Mrs. Een come up and I can get a couple board members as well. >> I have four awards, four Purple Star awards. one for each of
005the buildings and this is in recognition for the commitment and the support of students and families of the US armed services. Uh do intermediate intermediate. >> Yeah. >> Like elementary Bernison Middle School High School. >> You want to get a picture? And I while they're doing that, I can explain our um so what what was interesting was um as Mrs. East was coming on board, we were looking she had mentioned something about the purple star in in this award here. And uh Mrs. Een is a military family. Her husband is active duty in the army. And so one of her first tasks as she was onboarding into our central office was to look into this particular award because one of the things that she noted is that a lot of the things that this award
006recognizes Westlake already did. And so we really um already were honoring and and trying to assist our veteran families, but it was really organizing everything, documenting everything and putting it together. and as a result of her hard work and uh the dedication of our staff, every one of our schools received uh the Purple Star award. So, we're very very proud of that and thank you for your work. And Mrs. Quinnoliano, thank you for taking your time to come and recognize us. >> Thank you. >> A second. We still have some questions for you. Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you so much for coming out tonight and I'll >> keep going. Stand up words. All right. So, this we like I mentioned before, we had all this planned on January. We like to do a nice
007festivities honoring the board um honoring our schools and honoring uh our employees and uh weather got in the way a little bit. So we did um talk about the board back in the January meeting. Um but today is the night to uh talk about our staff and we have our in staff excellence awards. We have two memberships. We have our certified staff and our classified staff. And what this process does is this process is where your colleagues nominate you. That is to me the highest honor you can have is when the people who see you every day and what you do take the time to fill out this submission on your behalf. Um what is really nice is we have very grateful and we have very generous employees here where they will take their time
008and nominate their colleagues. And every time they do that, we look at this list and it is tough to pick people because we have incredible employees here in the Westlake City Schools. Um and this evening we are honoring uh two very very good ones. Um, I would like to start with our excellence in classified service. So, if we can bring to the podium Mr. Miller and Terry Jani, come on up. Now, while Mr. Miller is standing there, you know, I do go through all of these along with Mrs. decent and we look at all the the things that people say when I'm pulling out what what is written about Terry hard worker always willing to help benefits the lives of the students trustworthy the number of students she services is amazing it is her superpower
009as it was written don't know how she has not won this in the past that's another thing we frequently hear is when people start to go through it it's like well that person had to have been nominated it before. Um, high standards, strong moral compass, um, just a an excellent employee in our schools. And I'll turn it over to Mr. Miller to expand on that. >> Yeah, I'm very fortunate. I've got two incredible staff members that I get to talk about this evening. And we uh, excited disc swept the classified certified award. >> So, um, very, very happy about that. Um but uh if when I think about Terry, she really is like the Swiss Army knife of uh Dis. Um always uh willingness comes to mind, initiative. Uh if Terry gets some time during
010her day because a kid's out or uh something she's supposed to cover uh for whatever reason doesn't need coverage, she doesn't just hide in the lounge. Um she's talking to her colleagues and saying, "Hey," or checking in with the office, "Hey, do you need anything? What needs done?" Um, but she really is a Swiss Army knife. Just a few of the things that she's involved with, attending field trips, preparing staff lunchons, uh, cleaning up the staff lounge, making copies, helping with small group testing, preparing and organizing student lunch bins, uh, laminating, uh, notification of staff birthdays, grading, um, classroom coverage, supervising buses for field trips, supporting kids in classrooms, which she does every day, uh, cover the office, and that's an abbreviated list. Um, so, uh, Terry is all over the place. Uh, I'm I
011have these visions when Terry decides to hang it up. I know there's going to be times where we'll be, you know, uh, running through the school day and something's not done and we're going to be looking around like, well, who who always did that? TERRY. TERRY. SOMEBODY CALL TERRY. Get her back here. We need Terry. So, um, she just does so many different things and her fingerprints are all over the building, staff and students, and, um, it it she just makes a huge difference. Um, a few comments from staff. Um, uh, Terry within the classroom. Terry helps when needed, working with students, pushes when needed, and steps back when appropriate. So, you'll see repeated comments from our staff about what a great job she does with kids. Uh, Terry is never idle, and that's true.
012She is never idle. She's never sitting still. She's always finding ways to support students um to help the school day run more smoothly for everyone. Um, she goes out of her way to provide timely help and support. Uh, she is kind, always willing to jump in and help, and she's an amazing human being. Um, I thought this one was funny, and Scott, uh, touched on this one. She reminds me of a hummingbird, always fluttering back and forth between flowers, but instead of flowers, it's students. I don't know how she's able to serve so many kids. It's her superpower. And so, um, I know Terry's amazing because of the things that I can directly observe. Um, but when you have someone in the building that's hardworking and, uh, does a great job servicing kids and staff,
013it's not a secret for long. And so, one of the other ways I know that Terry is amazing is by the 8 million requests I get from teachers to have her work with their team or in their classroom. So, um, every August when I send that special ed assistant schedule out, um, I get threequarters of the building mad at me. And some people really, really excited because they see Terry's on their schedule. So, um, I think Scott said it best, when you're when your colleagues notice how great you are and they're asking for you all the time and they want to work with you, that says, uh, quite quite a bit. So, Terry, thank you uh, so much for all your hard work. You've been at DIS forever and um, and your work is super
014appreciated about. >> So, thank you. We're going to come up and you can see you in the middle here. >> I don't know. Oh, there's Good job. My camera is slower. My phone's slow. That's okay. I keep pushing camera. We can share the photos. Good. Thanks. We always give you the opportunity to speak as well. So, all right. Next up, Mr. Miller can stick around. Um, we have our excellence in teaching service or our certified staff. And, uh, if I can call to the podium, Kathy Dubois. So, I know that disc claims you, but I think LBMS does as well, especially right now. And just a few words uh about Kathy even reading through this but getting to know her over the years um starting off at the core is who she is as a
015person and it's really evident in everything you've done whether it's writing your book all the different things that you do um you could see where it comes from and she started here as an intervention specialist moved into English language arts and now has taken over the media specialist role. And and what I what I will say about this particular move for her is what I appreciate is she not only looked at what was done, but she looked at what can be done. So it wasn't just coming in and saying, "Well, I'm just going to kind of sit tight and um you know, kind of see if kids come and check out books." she took over and you know whether it's creating reading activities I sit in PTA president's meetings and hear them talking about the
016things you're doing um you know across the board and and if the one thing I will say she is driven she will call a meeting with you and and indicate the things that you know what more we can do but that's her nature and that's what she's going to do is she is going to push the envelope but it's always done to try and give the kids more than what they have. So, um, very very welld deserved and I'll turn it over to Mr. Miller. >> Yeah. So, um, I've been very fortunate to work with Kathy um, for I don't know how many years now, but it's it's been a it's been a while through her transition from a special ed teacher to a language arts teacher at DIS and now our our media specialist.
017And so, um, when I think of Kathy, I do think of like a relentless drive to do what's best for kids, uh, and to help kids be successful. Tireless worker. Um, also someone that is never idle. You will never find her idol. She's always working super, super hard. Um, she's good at everything she does. She's been incredible in every role that she's been in. I could probably make her the head custodian tomorrow and she'd blow everyone's mind. Um, I have no doubt. Um, I remember when when you first started, it was a few days before the opening of the school year and you you had this vision for your classroom. You wanted certain tables. Do you remember that? >> Yeah, I do. >> And I didn't I didn't know Kathy very well at the time.
018I've got a million things to do, you know, loose ends to tie down before the first day of school and she's just pestering me about these tables. I'm like, you know, what's so important about these tables? And eventually I realized like, good lord, if I don't get her these tables, she's going to follow me home. you know, I don't think these tables. And so, you know, that was when I realized we we ended up running over to Holly Lane. We got her these tables and um you know, when you when you get her what she needs, amazing things happen. And so, you know, obviously I've gotten to know Kathy a lot better since that time. But I think that's what's helped her transition to the library. We gave her the rather vague task of charged
019her with the task of like we didn't really have a fully formed picture but we knew we wanted kids to be excited to come to the space. Um we wanted kids to get excited about reading and love reading. And so um with that vague description Kathy really went to work. She completely redesigned um our media center space. Um she bought new books. She wrote grants to get even more books. um she developed community partnerships um to secure donations. Um we just got a donation from um actually Dr. Garcia uh Rocky River Animal Hospital. Um uh she was uh she created things like Sip and Flip um to help get kids exposed to different genres. We always say like if you don't like reading, you just haven't found the right book for you. um her book
020clubs. Um her past as a teacher has allowed her to teach some really awesome lessons and connect language arts standards, vocabulary and stuff uh to get kids interested and engaged in coming to the library. Um she was also involved with actually the purple star recognition that we just received. She's our liaison for the building. Um so she her fingerprints are all over that morning announcements to introduce kids to new books, just brief summaries. Oh that you know that sounds interesting. I want to check that book out. Um, so she's just transformed that space and it's made kids excited to go there and and want to be there. And so, um, just a few comments from her colleagues. Uh, Kathy has taken on the librarian role with her usual gusto and passion. Um, she's created a
021vibrant library program for our students, and that's a really good summation. She's transformed our library from a traditional space into a vibrant learning environment uh, for students to immerse themselves in reading. Uh, Mrs. used her background in language arts to develop amazing lessons that facilitate reading, vocabulary, and writing skills for our students. Uh, Kathy is passionate, cheerful, and welcoming. Um, who's made my experience in Westlake extremely enjoyable. Um, and uh, it I think it's Kathy's it's her relentless relentless desire to help see good things happen to students coupled with her great sense of humor. Um, and she loves to have fun. And when you get to know Kathy, you love her. And so you you talk to our staff, you talk to our students, and they'll all tell you that. And so, um, it's she's
022truly created like a gravitational force in the middle of our building. Our staff's better for it, and our students are certainly as well. So, thank you. >> Yeah. Come over with the >> Is there anything you'd like to say? >> Yeah. Yeah, you gave me the go-ahads. So, if you don't mind, >> okay, go for it. >> Um, you know, I I do have to start by saying first of all, um, I really have to give all glory to God because he has blessed me with so many amazing people in my life. And on this cold day, think about getting a nice big bowl of chicken noodle soup, right? Delicious. The best bowl of chicken noodle soup you've ever seen. And when you think about that bowl of chicken noodle soup, you're going to think
023about all the ingredients that go into it to make it a really good bowl of soup. And I I can't stand here without recognizing other people because I wouldn't be here without all the other people in my life. Um first of all, I'd like to recognize my husband who 33 years we've been together. He's seen me from the beginning of teaching where I came home. I was teaching students um with severe behavioral handicaps and you know I was going to change the world and I came home every night and cried and he helped see me through that and um you know he's my sounding board. He's my cheerleader. So I could not be here today without him. Um my mom and dad Joyce and Joe who um put me through college. I come from a
024family of teachers, my aunt and uncle, my mom, my niece. Um, so it's in our blood and I've had great role models who have showed me how to love students of all ability levels and students that are easy to teach and ones that are a little bit more challenging. So, they've had some great role models. I have wonderful friends that um are supporting me all the time. My co-workers are unbelievable. any one of them actually could be here and should be here getting that award because I being somebody who lives in Westlake, sent my kids through the Westlake City schools, I know that we have the best of the best here. And I have learned so much through the years just by working with all these wonderful teachers that I've worked with. And actually, I
025wouldn't even be in the media position if it wasn't for Darlene. When the notice came out, I they said you have like 24 hours. I erased it. I'm like, I'm happy where I'm at. the next day, like an hour before the deadline came up, she runs in. She's like, "Did you apply?" And I'm like, "No." She's like, "You have to." And I'm like, "Okay." So, I did and here I am. And I'm so grateful for that. Um, and then also I want to thank Dr. Gagan. You have been amazing, the board. And Nick, I like he says, there is nobody who will support you more than he does. Um, if it's anything from going to getting tables or if we're going to be going to do field trips, you know, I walk in the room
026and he goes like this, but you know, the no becomes a yes very quick. And I know that all my crazy ideas means extra work for him, but he's always on board. And I, you know, you can't do anything great if you don't have great people around you. So, really thank you all for all you do for me. If you could pause the meeting for a minute so they could take pictures so we don't have to have that. >> We'll come on over here. We back on. >> Okay. At this time, um please you're you're more than welcome to stay. Our meetings are open to the public. However, if you would like to go celebrate, I would encourage that. Um go and enjoy this evening. Katie, did you want to get a picture of both
027um Terry and Kathy together? So, if you can not run off, maybe be out in the hallway there, get a couple final pictures. Um, that would be great. So, thank you all for coming and and congratulations to all of you. Thank you for holding on for a moment while we uh while people headed out of the room. We're going to continue on to our board committee reports. Legislative liaison. I know the house and senate were out for a bit especially with the weather. Is there any real big updates going on? >> Nothing that we haven't already talked about. I don't think Governor Dwine did come out and address, you know, property taxes abolish the 20ome percent sales tax potentially. So, first him that I've seen about that, but nothing uh >> nothing legisle at the
028time. >> There has been a proposed legislation about uh extending recess for K through 8, which >> it sounds like there's not a lot of legs going on with that, but that would definitely hit sort of the middle school particular >> would. So, I it's one I think with a lot of legislation, I think there's good intent. You know, physical activity for kids is good. It's it's nice to get kids up and moving, but once you start mandating for everybody, once you're doing it from the state level and pushing it down and taking it away control of locals, you run into uh a lot of issues. In our case, um the middle school, we do not have in seventh and eighth grade recess. Um and our most valuable asset during the day is time. We
029only have so much time. The school day starts at this time and it ends at this time. Within it, they need lunch and all the other type of things that they do. Um so when you mandate something like that, then something else has to go. you have kids who are going to be interested in both um band and orchestra. Can they take both if we have to take an hour out and do um PE a recess? And so there's all these, you know, we have our starting our STEM programming and and there's the expectation coming from the state about doing more career exploration in the middle grades. So, something's got to give. And And I I don't I mean, I'm not an expert um in what is going to move forward and what's not. But
030I have I don't think this has progressed very far. I think it was a news story, but I don't know. I don't even know. Has it had a house hearing yet? >> I don't think it's had a house. >> Yeah. So, I don't I I That's with this type of thing. It's more of a wait and see. Yeah. Um, and hopefully as conversations open about it, you'll see the conflicting, well, do you want us to increase um career and and uh uh uh vocational type of exploration in the middle school or do you want me to give PE? Do you want music programs? Do you want STEM programs? What? So something's >> I frankly I even reme remember the conversations back when uh recess was removed from seventh and eighth grade because it just was
031a hot mess and they tried a number of different things to make it productive for the but give them an outlet but it just it was one everybody was happy when it went away. But I think as you get to the secondary level and our do campus is a good example, right? A lot of times our five six building do intermediate is connected more so to the elementary. It's an extension of the elementary and then our middle school is connected to the high school. So in our in our intermediate school, do intermediate um we do still have recess. Kids still have recess but when they get to the middle grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, the recess is gone. So, but like I said, I don't even think it's at a house hearing yet, so I
032don't know if we need to put a lot of energy in it at this time. Famous last words. >> Um, anything else for legislative? >> Student achievement. Uh, superintendent committee reports. We the curriculum committee is meeting in two weeks, I think it is. Um otherwise I don't think >> just got a January batch of uh policies uh that we've been going through um including uh a new AI policy that I went through with Dr. Zay today. Um >> it's it's pretty similar to what we already have. Um talking to academic services um early entrance the the uh which you we have our on the agenda for the early entrance handbook. It was helpful getting that policy because then we were able to make sure that our handbook that is up for your consideration tonight is
033aligned with potential policy that's coming. So some items like that. Um >> um anything with treasurer committees? >> Uh we do have um finance uh that I will asking some of the board members to attend uh here in uh next week February 18th. I think we said at 4:00. Uh so we'll uh go over some things there. I know we're looking at our 5-year capital plan as well as uh some information regarding our uh forecast that will be due uh later in the month here in February at the next regular board meeting. Additionally, I do want to let everyone know that our audit has finished. Um once the audit is released, we'll be able to talk about it publicly. Uh and that should be in a couple of weeks. So hopefully it'll be released before
034our next board meeting and then we can uh talk about it and get the information out. uh if not it will be in March that we'll address it soon. >> Something I know that uh we addressed with uh Mr. Hopkins and also Mr. House was Mr. Brown, I don't believe you've ever other than a public uh board meeting that you attended prior to being a board member, but our uh uh five-year capital plan as well. So, that's something that I know we talked about in our meeting. We may have an update to that, but just to make certain that we share that with you after. Anything else? >> Nope. >> Thank you. >> Uh moving on to superintendent recommendations. >> Thank you. And thank you to the board. This is the reason why our meeting
035tonight went from a work session to a special meeting. Did have uh two items that were uh priority that we wanted to get on uh the agenda for your consideration. The first um is two overnight trips. And when you look at the date um you'll see Science Olympiad is participating in the University of Michigan Invitational um um starting on February 13th. So was important for us to get in front of you at this point in time. And then the other one uh we have a little bit more cushion but we wanted to get on anyway. And that's the Latin Club um at the Ohio Junior Classical Convention and that is uh starting on March 6th. Uh the other item we have is um the early entrance handbook that I referenced before. Uh your kindergarten meeting
036is when? >> Next Wednesday. >> Yeah. So next Wednesday, which is another reason we wanted to get this in front of the board and answer any questions as well. So those are the only two items that took us from a work session to a special meeting. Um, I would be more than comfortable with 4 A and B uh together if that's good with the board. >> Is there a motion to approve 4 A and B? >> So moved. >> Second >> discussion. >> Any qu We have Mrs. Muscleman here who is an expert in this handbook front and back. >> Thank you. >> So and I was asked actually uh called about this earlier today just for clarification for people. The adjustment on the August 25th cutoff is a state rule change. This there's three
037changes. Um there's three changes to House Bill 114. Um that August 25th is going to change year to year. The the rule is it's the first date of kindergarten instruction. So for the upcoming school year, our first date of full day kindergarten is August 25th. So that will change every year based on the first date of instruction. The second change is that for entrance into first grade that we used to have control over local control over whether it was August 1st cut off to be six or September 30th. We no longer have the choice. It is always September 30th. So that's important for our transfer students, especially when we're looking for out of country transfers. We always go strictly by birth date. Um and so that has now opened that up from August 1st to
038September 30th. And then the third thing that it has allowed for is um our early entrance process remains the same for any student um before January 1st. So for kindergarten if they're five before January 1st or first grade if they're six before January 1st they can apply for early entrance into either of those grade levels. For the first time we have to accept early entrance applications for students who may not turn five or six till after January 1st. So you could have someone turning five in March that would like to start next March that would like to start kindergarten this coming August and instead of using an early entrance procedure we use what we already have in place our whole grade acceleration procedure and we at we never were even took applications after January 1st.
039So it's those three changes and those are all on that first page of the handbook. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> Any other discussion? I would like to shestly object to the Ann Arbor field trip. >> The graduate of the Ohio State University. No, I'm just kidding. Okay, roll call. >> Craft, yes. >> Lamb, yes. Brown, >> yes. >> Motion carries. Any board comments? All right. Uh, is there a motion to adjourn to executive session? >> So move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Roll call >> to enter into executive session at 6:35 p.m. for the purposes of appointment employment dismissal discipline promotion demotion or compensation of employee um or official and to review specialized details of security arrangements. Manukan, >> yes. >> Craft, >> yes. >> Rome, >> yes. >> Lamb, >> yes. >> Not
040>> yes. >> Motion carries. You are in executive session >> and we will take no action upon returning from executive session. >> Thank you all for being here tonight. >> Thanks.