001should be all set. >> Okay. >> I call to order the January 26 regular board meeting for Westlake City School District. Roll call. >> Pan. >> Yes. >> Lamb here. Rome here. >> If we can all stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> And as we always begin with our mission and vision statement, Westlake City School District, we educate for excellence, empowering all students to achieve their educational goals, to direct their lives, and to contribute to society. And the vision is the Westlake City School District will provide a dynamic student- centered learning environment. Our district will be characterized by high achievement, actively engaged learners, mutual
002respect, shared knowledge, pursuit of new skills and capabilities, collaborative learning, willingness to take action, a team commitment to datadriven continuous improvement through a strategic planning process, and tangible results. Thank you for being here this evening and coming out on this poll night. Has everybody had an opportunity to review the agenda? Is there a motion to approve? >> So move. Second. [laughter] >> Uh, any discussion? >> Roll call. >> Lamb, yes. >> Ron, yes. Pear, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> And I'm going to go ahead and kick it over to Dr. Goden for a superintendent report. >> Thank you. Uh, just a couple items tonight. One, it is uh board appreciation month. And I know we only have three of our board members here. Um, but I think this is something that is important to
003talk about and recognize and and to say thank you to our board of education members. uh they are elected officials um who represent the community uh in in regard to the matters of this school district and I think I hope that this community doesn't take for granted the the quality of school board that we have and it's you're seeing too frequently where you have school boards that are not working together for a common vision or a common good but separate agendas. And we don't have that in Westlake. We do have um I would say uh people who will productively challenge things which is good and I think that's why you're elected is to be able to be the voice of people out in the community. So I think that's a positive thing. Um, but it's
004something that I know, um, for for Todd and I and our directors and our administrators, it's really beneficial to us to have a united school board. Um, and and it really impacts our job in a positive way. So, we do have like a cookie, small gifts like a smoke. They're all within you, which you're allowed to accept a cookie. And uh and we also got you a blanket that um one of our high school students are selling and it was for a benefit for the uh lymphoma leukemia lymphoma society. Um so we thought it'd be a nice gift but just a little thank you uh for all that you do. So um moving to the next thing that I want to talk about that everybody loves talking about is uh snow days, calamity days. That's
005something that um is it's it's so funny because it's something where as a kid you rooted for him. You know, I I was uh a child once, believe it or not. And um I loved hearing that there was going to be a snow day. Uh but then when you grow up and become an adult or when you have multiple snow days, you're kind of like, "All right, this isn't fun anymore." You know, this isn't the the novelty of having a day off that we didn't expect. And um I will tell you that as a superintendent, it's something you labor over because number one, you want to get children to school safely. And number two, you want to instruct and you want to provide education to the students. And number three is, you know, that parents
006rely on you, you know, because we do have um families where we have dual income families where where both parents are going to go to work and we are an outlet for their children and and they expect us to have them during that time that they have their work scheduled. So, it's not a decision that we take lightly in any way. Um, I I did look back and I don't know what we did last year, but I I had asked our EMIS coordinator, I think it was last year, to let me know how many snow days or calamity days we called in previous years. And so, in 2024, we had three. In 2023, we had zero. And in 2022, we had zero. So, this is, you know, we're sitting here after calling off tomorrow at
0075. This is outside of the norm uh for the Westlake City Schools. Now, um what else I'll say with that is we are well above the number of hours that are required by the state of Ohio. So, when it comes to grades 1 through 12, uh, we have a really good cushion. Now, I'm not saying that to jinx it, you know, uh, but I'm saying we have a nice cushion before we have to really kick into any makeups. All right. Um, then the areas where we do have concern would be our half-day programs, which so we do a full day kindergarten and half day kindergarten. The vast majority of our kindergarten programs are full day, but I think we have one or two half-day classes. Um that we have half the cushion because it's a
008half day. And the same thing with our preschool um where that is half day as well. So we have less of a cushion inside there. Um, we do have a plan in place where if we go if we need to tap into it grades 1 through 12 and we also have plans in place for example in preschool. Preschool is um we usually run that Monday through Thursday and then Fridays are open for play-based assessment and testing. If we need to take some of those Fridays and put those in place to make up days, we could do things like that. So, we do have outlets to be able to uh make up if we need to, but in the vast majority of our um grade levels, we have uh a pretty strong cushion uh for for
009the days that within there. Now, it doesn't again make it any it's easier to make the call because you don't just say ah why not let's take tomorrow off because we have plenty of days inside there. you know, we typically have two types of well around here when we're talking about the winter calamity days, we we've had tornado in the past. So, um but I would say in general, the vast majority of our calamities are snow related or weather related in in the winter. So you have your um uh impassible roads and that's going to be when um the the snow comes down whether it's snow or freezing rain or something that makes the roads um treacherous and especially as we're looking at um uh teenage drivers because we don't bus high school. So we're
010putting uh teenagers in a car in treacherous conditions can become an issue as well. Um, and so like I said, it's either uh the the snow and and there the the the v the variables [snorts] that fall within there is number one timing. Um, you can have because we've had it before where we get hammered um right at the right time. It comes in four or five o'clock and goes through 8 or 9:00 and by 11 o'clock everything's cleared and people are like why did why didn't you have school today? Um those times happen. I had a time where um I kept school on and I was so you get up really early, you know, 4:00 or 4:30 and you're you're you're watching the weather and you're you're watching all the um uh the conditions
011outside and we usually have to make our call by 6:00 a.m. because um that's when our buses go out on the road and once we start picking up kids, we're not bring we're not just going to turn around and drop them off back again, right? So, um, you got to make your call by 6:00. So, I made my call. Everything looked fine. Don't know what the weather people are talking about. It looks fine outside. Go upstairs, get ready. And then by the time I came down, within that hour, we got crushed. And I felt horrible for for having school in session that day because, you know, it looked great, had to make the call by 6:00 and you're and then all of a sudden this happens where it was like the visibility was terrible and
012it was just uh uh something I didn't feel good about. Then you have those days where you make the call and you're expecting that sort of a result and it doesn't come. And and that's the other part of the balance is when do you make the call? We have families who have to um plan where where they need to find child care for the next day. So, it's like, man, you let me know at 5 a.m., you're killing me, you know? I I I And then, you know, but then the earlier you let them know, the more of a window there is for you being wrong, right? So, if you do it at noon the day before and they're like, "Wow, you know what? It turned and the warm front's coming up." and and then
013you know it's 8:00 and they're telling you it's going to be 60° tomorrow. So those are the kind of things that you try and balance and that's the the needle you have to thread is when um you want to make sure that you're you're making a decision off with the best information that you have, but you want to do it in a timely enough manner so that if you do cancel, people can um uh make arrangements. So that's really hard on the the actual passable roads because a lot of times that's why the the best call most of the time is doing it the morning of even with wind chills. The best call is usually the morning of but it's the one that frustrates people the most because it's 5 in the morning or 5:30
014in the morning and you're getting a phone call and you are getting ready for work and now you got to find out what you're going to do with your kids. So it is trying to find that balance there. So that's passable roads and and really how we do that is I get out on the road, our business director gets out on the road and we also have our uh plow drivers drivers. We have our guys on uh maintenance guys who are on plow trucks and they need to let us know are the lots going to be ready? I mean there are days where they they will call and say we can't keep up. You know we take the snow off and by the time we come back it's on there. So, it could be the
015fact we can't get our lots ready. It could be the fact that the the the roads aren't ready. We're fortunate in Westlake where I think the city does a tremendous job with their roads. Um, but that's a lot of times you're out on the road, you're talking to people and you're communicating and coordinating and then you make that best call there. The hard part with doing that is typically when you're driving around, I can tell you firsthand is that and logically the the first roads that are the best are the main roads. And one of the things we get concerned about are the side streets because those are usually the ones that are hit after the um uh after the main roads are done. That's where my buses spend most of the time. most of
016their time is going to be in side streets going through um uh developments picking kids up. So, you want to make sure those are good as well. So, like I said, when it comes to making a decision for snowfall and passable roads, that's what you go in there. The trickier one is windchill. This is one that did not exist when I was growing up. I'm sure they had windchill, but I don't remember, you know, having schools closed because of that. But it's interesting because you you almost have to triangulate because everybody has a weather app and a lot of weather apps are giving you different information. National Weather Service is going to report windchill and then you're going to see um other apps that are going to give you feels like, right? And then you
017have Acue weather that gives you real feel. So you have real feels like wind chill and and so people will look at real feel and say, "Oh my gosh, it's going to be minus 24 degrees tomorrow." And then you look at National Weather Service and it says it's going to be minus15. Now they're both really really cold, but one sounds much different than the other. And then uh in like today for example, I know there are districts calling at noon. Um, and I kind of sat back and I and I was watching the National Weather Service and I can't access it right now, but um, it was something where I actually saw the windshield warming up on the National Weather Service once. So, it's like, hm, [clears throat] you know what? and and and the
018frustrating part and I was talking to another superintendent is, you know, I made the call to cancel and I said, I know that I'm going to be I'm going to go on that site at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow and it's going to be like minus 7 and and I'm just going to be standing there shaking my fist at this guy saying, "Ah, I could have opened school." But that's kind of what you have. I mean, it could be it could be minus 7 minus 8 tomorrow and not the minus 17 that they're saying, but then you're taking away that advanced notice. So, those are all the things that makes it so tricky, I think, as you start to do it. Now, I know we in Westlake, this is something, this is not the first time we've
019had this conversation. And a few years ago, um, Mike Waters runs our link program, which I think our link program is a crown jewel here in Westlake. It's something that not every district has and and it's it's more than just your latch key type of program. And um, I remember talking to him and he talked to his staff and we actually have a calamity link. So, so what happens is they won't do it on impassible roads day because that we're not going to have our staff drive in on uh days where it's treacherous for them. But on windchill days, they'll open up and um uh provide um service to families because we know that families do rely upon us. Now the the bad news with camp with doing link is you can't take everyone you
020know. So there it is going to be limited to the amount of uh kids they can bring in with their team. Um but it is something that we at least wanted to offer so that we do have families who do need uh to get into work um and and do that we can help some of them. So, it's it's something and I think and it and and I sat there and I was just writing notes today and it was just because I I I joke and say I go through the uh uh five stages of grief every time I um uh uh call a snow day, you know, where I'm I'm I'm angry and and then I'm denying it and then I'm bargaining saying, "Well, if this goes up and this goes down," and then
021I get depressed when I finally get say, "Oh my gosh, I'm going to have to call it." Then I get to acceptance and then I click send on the uh um uh on the announcement. So it's it's something that you know we don't like I don't like to do it. I'll speak for myself. Um but I understand that at times we have to. So if there's any questions or you want to have a discussion about anything with those I am all ears and ready to So people have been fine. I I haven't gotten I have not received um maybe on social media, but I don't have Facebook, so that probably a healthy thing. But um uh you know, I've not I'll check. I don't think I've received any emails over the past days. >> Said
022too much other than they've been appreciative of the calls coming out a little bit earlier. I mean, you're going to have people who are going to say are going to be negative no matter what. And the vast majority of them don't even have kids in the district or grandkids in the district. So >> I just have my son at home asking every 20 minutes. Is it going to get called? It's been >> Why hasn't it been called guys? >> Dr. Golster cancelled. Why have we canceled yet? >> Well, and so here's what's funny is I had I had two kids that went through Westlake schools and for some reason my son got it worse than my daughter and where uh so I told you there were some years where I I didn't call Annie, right?
023And so we will go to school when it's cold out and we will go to school when it snows because we're in Ohio. It's going to snow. It's going to be cold. So I can't say we're never going to be in school when it's cold or snowy. So there he there there was the I some days where I think people would have liked to have seen me call a day and and those were the worst. My son would come come home and he's like, "You have no idea." He's like, "I'm just trying to go from class to class and people just stop me and they want to tell me about their drive to school." And I'm like, "I didn't make the call. My dad did." And so, um, that's that was always funny. He's like,
024"I spend my whole day having people come up to me, tell them about their driving to school." But, um, I said, "That's part of it." >> Well, I'm a little disappointed. I thought there'd be better, uh, Dr. Doggan memes out there. Come on. last think with AI, right? That would be >> I'm [clears throat] okay with that. >> I'm okay with that. So, if students, if you are enjoying it, enjoy it. Parents, if you are not, I apolog I did have a parent call me today and she was really funny because I hadn't made the call yet and she called me and she says, "Listen, if you are going to make a call, if you were going to cancel school tomorrow, I am dropping my children off at your house." >> Yes. because they are
025eating everything in my home. I said, "Well, you know, I'm sorry. I'm about to click send." [snorts] So, um, last thing that I I do want to say is, uh, car raffle, uh, this Friday, last chance to buy tickets. Um, 2025 Chevy Tracks, heated seats, heated steering wheel. Those would come in very handy right now. Uh, >> but uh it is it's a great little car and uh please support the educational foundation by buying tickets. >> Cassic. Uh Mr. Hopkins. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um I do want to take a minute and um just reiterate Dr. Gagan's comments about our board and January's board appreciation. Um I [clears throat] growing up, my father was on the board of education school that I attended. Um, you know, all too often, uh, the service of board
026members is overlooked. Uh, you know, I I don't think people realize this isn't a salary type position. This isn't a large, uh, uh, payment. It is regulated heavily, uh, by state law on what the boards can make. >> Um, >> okay. Pause you for a moment. So, you've got the three of us laughing hilariously because we >> Yes. So, it really is. Um while you get a small uh token of appreciation from uh any payment of uh coming to the meetings, the time and effort that you guys put in is far greater than sitting here at the table for an hour or whatever it is for our board meetings. Um I truly uh value and appreciate being able to work with uh uh all five of you. Although obviously two of you guys are missing
027tonight, but uh the board of education here um we've had excellent relationship uh between Dr. Gaga and myself and our board over the past 10 years and we look to continue that with a new board member uh Alex coming on. So uh we look forward to uh building this relationship and uh maintaining the the excellent relationship that we've had. Uh but I do want to say thank you uh not only as uh someone who works uh directly for you, but thank you on behalf of our staff here in the district. your leadership is reflected in the quality of our district. Um, and I want to thank you on behalf of the community because again, uh, your leadership uh, both academically and fiscally helped set the tone for our community and and it has reflected uh,
028immensely over the past I can speak directly to the past decade uh, but certainly long before that as well from boards that you've been on or have served uh, before you. So, thank you. Um I also want to take a minute here and uh give you an update on our uh financial audit. So I spoke in December on how the plan was having the audit done uh by the end of uh uh December. And that's typically the timeline that we always uh do. Um we are required uh under state law to have a filing of our financial statements by uh the end of uh November. Uh it's uh it's not exactly November 30th. It's based on a number of days after the end of our fiscal year, but it it's that that last few days
029of November when it's uh filed every year. We met that legal obligation and uh filed our financials. Uh the next piece is uh we have the audit that goes through um and we have a timeline because we file for a uh the government uh finance officers association GFOA uh their award certificate. We file for that each year and that deadline is December 31st. Okay. Um, we have a [clears throat] new audit team this year. Um, I've been very uh fortunate uh over the uh previous nine years that I've been here. I worked with the uh same audit team. We've had some changes in that audit team now. And uh so the audit itself is is taking longer. So uh at the uh last week December or so uh the uh head of the audit uh
030uh the senior audit manager uh contacted me and asked if I would file an extension for GFOA. Uh I agreed to do that and so uh our extension currently goes until February 2nd and that's when they're planning on having the audit uh finished up. I asked for an update on where we are with it. Uh a written update. I can send this on to the board to give you a snapshot of where it is today. Doesn't mean that you know they have not finalized everything but to give you an idea of where it is today. Um there are no major uh citations. uh this audit team uh is looking um is being very thorough. I'll I'll put it that way. So, uh there's going to be some changes over the next few months that I'm
031going to ask the board uh on how we uh pass specific policies uh that we've not done in the past. Um and uh uh an example would be uh how we invest in commercial paper. Uh the law allows us to invest in commercial paper. the board under board policy allows me to invest um in in line with the law. Uh the auditor's office uh wants to have a specific board policy explicitly stating that we can comm uh uh invest in commercial paper. So you'll see some of these pieces. I'll send it to you guys to review. Um things could change over the next uh week as we finalize everything and go through. Uh but it is what it is at this point and uh we should be wrapped up here uh and have our formal
032opinion by uh the second. We'll file for the GFOA award and then uh we will uh schedule our post audit. Again, it's a meeting of the auditor's office. All five of you will be invited to attend that. But wanted to give you an update because um it's been a struggle for me over the past um really about 6 weeks as um you know typically we we have that uh not just typically we've always had it filed by the end of December and so when I reported the board in early December I think our last meeting was around the 7th of December. You know things have changed over the past six weeks because of the timelines and stuff. So um just wanted to bring you up to speed on where we are with that. Uh that's
033all I have for my report. I'm happy to go into agenda items. Um although I I we'll get to agenda items after our Okay. >> Uh we next have hearing of the public. [clears throat] >> Seeing none, we're going to go ahead and move on to approval of the minutes. All those in favor of approval of the minutes. I >> I moving on now to your agenda items. Friday. >> All right. Um, you can see I have a terribly terribly long uh list for you tonight with one item. Um, and it's just a then and now. So, if you have questions about this or if you have questions about the audit that I just went over, uh, let me know. I'm happy to answer those right now. If not, um, well, it's just one item,
034nothing to combine. So, good. >> Is there um, I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve 5A. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Roll call. >> Jup. >> Yes. >> Round. >> Yes. Lynn, >> yes. >> Motion carries. Thank you. >> Moving on to superintendent's recommendations. We have 6 A through L. >> Yep. So 6A always do separately. In regard to our gifts and donations, we have Antuaneta Bikardi donating $250 to Westside Connections at Westlake High School. Stanley and Marcian Bullard uh donating $300 to Westside Connections at Westlake High School. Tim and Lisa O' Conor donating $100 to Westside Connections at the high school. and the Richards family donated a conveyed easy rider adapted stroller to the pupil service department uh here at Westlake City Schools. Like to thank everybody for
035their generosity. Um going through the different items, we have an inter a and a lot of these were described by the directors to you. Inter agency agreement um and overnight field trip. We have varsity boys baseball as well as uh the high school hockey tournament in Springfield, Ohio. Resolution [clears throat] for employment of classified staff. Then we have our athletic supplemental contracts. um a team leader supplemental in the elementary school, a resolution to approve classified substitutes and resolution to approve an employment of somebody with project link and a resolution to approve um some moves in the licensing staff. And then we have three amendments. Um is it okay if we combine when when you're looking at the just thinking of the um supplementals you okay with the >> Yeah. Uh then 5 6A um on
036its own and B through L if I could put together. >> Okay. Um I'll make a motion for five approval of 5A the 6A. >> I did the same thing. I almost said six. >> 6A. uh the resolution to accept the gifts and donations. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you as always to our kind generosity of our community. Any other comments? >> Roll call. >> Yes. >> Lamb. >> Yes. >> Rome. >> Yes. Motion carries. >> I'll make a motion for approving 6B through L. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Discussion. Yeah, I just had a quick question with regards to the athletic supplemental contracts. I see that Mr. Sullivan is listed both uh for the boys and the girls head coaching position for LBMS track and that's in addition to
037his athletic director responsibilities and his teaching responsibilities. >> Correct. >> So, seems an awful lot. >> Is he able to >> So, he's right. So what we have and and I did talk to Colin about this and I gave him a call after um uh you mentioned this and and so he does the the history behind it is there are times where it's hard to find coaches and um and at the time when these two were combined the the the boys and the girls uh Mr. Sullivan agreed to take on both teams. um he does and it's not really the athletic director, it's like the athletic advisor there, you know, Colin's the athletic director. >> And um when it comes to spring, so right now Dennis Sullivan goes to like all the basketball games, you
038know, in the fall football games, he's running the clock, he's doing all those kind of things. And in spring, um I think the only sport other than uh the track and in the middle school is softball. >> And so spring definitely makes it a lot easier for him to be able to manage that. And I don't think they have competitions at the same time. So that's one of the things that I did uh talk to Colin about said that >> you know in the future if there is gonna you know we're not opposed to having a separate boys coach and a separate girls coach >> but um yeah >> yeah and then the other question I have is what exactly does the was it the faculty manager do >> faculty manager so that's another one
039that in in Westlake we have an athletic director um now we do have in the middle school some like Dennis Sullivan to help out. But many districts have like an assistant athletic director inside that office. We don't do that. We utilize these stipens to help uh our athletic director with coverages. >> Okay. >> And especially coverages that you may be taking revenue and and now spring doesn't have any of that, but there are times where Colin's going to be over here at a senior night and then this need this uh event needs to get started. um get the referees in place or the umpires or whoever it is and and to be able to do that. So, it's almost like um an assistant, but they're really they're, you know, making sure I don't know the
040the the equipment's there, the people are there, you know, everything that needs to be set up is set up. Okay. So, that's >> cool. Thank you. Yep. >> Any other roll call? >> You're not. >> Yes. >> Brown. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Motion carries. >> We're on to our second hearing of the public. Okay. Moving on to board comments. >> Um, do you want to talk about salt shortage? >> I don't know a whole lot about the salt salt shortage. Um, >> but that's >> more from the standpoint of we get our salt from the city and they have put out a shortage. >> We do. Yes. So, yeah. Unfortunately, and you're hearing about in the news. I mean, there's a salt shortage throughout Northeast Ohio. We don't get our uh salt directly from a salt
041provider. We have no storage of salt. So, we are reliant on uh the city of West Lake and and so we go pick up our salt just like any of their city trucks do. We pay for the salt that we use. Um as far as I've been informed at this time, we've not been told uh that we can't get salt from them or that uh they're holding back salt from us. Uh but as things go on and depending on how this winter continues to go, it potentially could become a problem. But uh at this time it is not. Now uh we buy salt separately for all of our sidewalks, all of our walkways. That's bagged salt that's used by our uh custodians who go through and clear the uh uh the walkways, sidewalks, things like
042that. Uh and we we've made large uh uh purchases of bag salt. But for the road salt, the road road salt is what we're hearing about. uh Cargill I think is the company specifically uh uh uh we don't have a direct relationship with them. It's indirect and it has not had an impact on us at this particular moment. >> So one of the things you'll notice is that uh my directors aren't here. I said you know you don't have to come but watch it on YouTube and then if anybody asks a question is responding. >> So Adam just replied >> I did that as a test. >> So you passed Adam. Um he said spoke to the city about salt last week. They have enough and we should be okay. No limitations as of right
043now. Perfect. >> So more was about just since this has been all over the media and just so people understood that where the salt comes from and how we get it for the especially the parking lots. >> Yep. >> So any other board comments? >> I would just like to say thank you very much for your kind comments at the beginning of the meeting about us as board members. But, uh, I'll tell you what, uh, the two of you help make our jobs a heck of a lot easier out in the community because our schools are so so wellrun and, uh, you know, finances is not something that we have to worry about out in the community at all really. Uh, unlike other communities that surround us. So, thank you both for for what you
044do for us. Uh, you really make us look uh, look good in the community. So, thank you. I also want to make sure uh to say thank you to our maintenance custodial staff for all the hard work today uh preparing for schools to be able to reopen. >> How cool was that front loader though? >> That it's a new product we bought, Bruce. It it's you probably see them out and about, but it's new to us where you know they were able to uh and Brian was driving it and I saw him this morning when I was driving around checking out the lots and uh you he's a the cool thing about it is he's able to push the snow but then to be able to lift it instead of just continue because you can
045only press it up so much and then it starts taking up your parking lot and uh so it was really cool and it looked like he was having fun driving. It's kind of jealous and then go to my house and maybe I'll >> That's not a >> Any other questions or comments? Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Some moved. Second. >> Roll call or discussion. Roll call >> to adjourn at 6:36 p.m. Lamb. >> Yes. Brown. >> Yes. Pier not. >> Yes. We are a jerk.