001The West Lake City Schools board work session for Monday, September 8th, 2025. Roll call. >> Here >> would you all stand with me. The pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic stands one indivisible with liberty and justice. Together tonight we recall our mission. Our mission we educate for excellence empowering all students to achieve their educational goals to direct their lives and to contribute to society. as well as our vision. 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 respect, shared knowledge, pursuit of new skills and capabilities, collaborative learning, willingness to take action, a team commitment to datadriven continuous improvement for a strategic planning process and tangible results.
002Thanks for joining us tonight. I move to approve the agenda. Is there a second? >> Roll call. >> Pratt. >> Yes. >> Lazinski, >> yes. >> Penukin, >> yes. >> Lamb, >> yes. Pa, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> We're going to move into recognitions and informative reports. Dr. Gagan, would you like to have some light? uh it's that time of year where um the uh accountability measures from the state come out and um we always like to even though it's still consider it's preliminary data at the time uh we do want to share the data that we have because I think it becomes official on the 15th and um want to make sure that we're sharing out that information. So to do so, I have Amanda Mleman, our associate superintendent, and Paul Wilson, the
003director of academics for grades 7 through 12, who are have a presentation ready to go for this evening. >> Thank you. >> Hopkins, when you can fill out theations for me, >> Dr. said the um data will become final next week, September 15th. However, all data disputes were due by October 20, I'm sorry, August 29th. So, the data should be finalized that what we're seeing um in our system right now. So, as we look at this, um it's the same star rating system as the go. Oh, there it goes. Um, last year was really was the first year that we really sat here and went through all the different ratings for all the components and what the components mean. Those components have not changed. So, I will go a little quicker through it this year.
004So, please stop me um if I'm going too fast, but it's the same star rating system. Um, as we have seen the past few years, right now we are looking at a four and a half star just as last year. So when we compare this I'm going to start with a little bit right now just because it gives you a really good overview of where we stood from last year to this year because we made some really really great improvement and great growth um from last year to this year. So when going through this the first thing you're going to notice is that progress component right now that says not rated. That is new for this year. Last year it was rated. They have now put all of them into gap closing. So that is
005a a huge difference from last year. And then the other difference is that last year where you saw the NR was in the college career workforce readiness and that is now rated. So the NRS kind of flipped but we still have five components being rated. When we go through this, this is the 2324, right? This is last year's. Our achievement sat at a five star. Our progress start at four. Again, that's not being rated anymore. gap closing at five, graduation at five, early literacy at four. Those were the the four components still rated last year. Our stars for those four compon components are the same as last year. We've stayed at 5554 respectively for those four. Again, last year college career not rated, but then um it was rated this year. When you look at
006this year though, and I'm going to go back and forth a little bit, so I'll try not to make anyone dizzy. As we look at this, we again we made some really nice growth. So when we talk about just achievement, then I'll get to each one. But when you look at the achievement, achievement is strictly how we did on the state test performance-wise. 91.4 last year up to 91.7 this year. When you jump over jump to gap closing, this was our huge one. Gap closing is how well did we grow our subgroups. Last year we were at a 67.2 overall. This year we jumped up to 88.6. When you look at graduation rates, stay pretty constant 97 to 97.1. Went from an 80.1 overall and it jumped to an 87.3. So again, college career was
007not rated. So we made some great great growth. So to look at why we made that growth, I'll spend just a minute on each one. So again, achievement is it's just how did the kids do on the state test? What was our proficiency, our accomplished, and our advanced? Anything above that proficient level? How did we do? Five stars overall. So, when you look at this, when they give us our final performance index, that is just the number of points awarded to us by how kids did on the test. So, you're given so many points for kids that got proficient, accomplished, advanced, or they didn't get proficient and they were either basic or limited. And they they assign points for each category, and they add up your points. So this year in terms of our total
008number of points was 100.681 [Music] in comparison um to last year we were so g it's a little hard to compare the percent because the maximum changes each year. The maximum points you can get are not the maximum points on the test. It's the average of the top 2% of the folds in the state. So the top 2% scorers in the state, they look at their PI points, they average them, and that's your denominator. So that changes every year. So it's hard to look at performance index year to year, the percentage because the denominator is different each year. So instead, looking at the actual points total is going to give you a better raw score. So it's so again, we went from 99.91 up to 100.681. So again, we showed that growth um of moving
009kids up into that proficient, accomplished, and advanced level. I shared this with you in the uh spring based on our preliminary data. I did go through and make sure that these percentages stayed the same. And again, when you're looking at it, you have your percent proficient. This is just what we got last year, well above the state average in every test. And then comparing it to 2024, just so what you know, when Paul and I, Jane and Bailey were having our discussions with our staff, we can kind of see where those areas are that we need to focus on. Um we did see a dip in grade four ELA. that is consistent with what um what we're kind of seeing in terms of our number of rents, our reading improvement monitoring plans. However, we're still
010seeing great growth by that group of students. >> Yeah. >> Well, what I find interesting is the knowing the fourth graders last year, the kindergarten kids coming out of the pandemic. >> Yeah. So, that doesn't surprise me. We saw a little bit of a drop off, but >> No, I agree because that that that group absolutely we've been working very closely with that group of students and we're still very pleased to see that 79% of of our group of students, we've made some great growth with them. Again, we're looking at RIP because obviously we didn't have data for them the the year prior >> and and that 7% is not their cohort. It's um from last year's fourth grade to this year's fourth grade. Exact your point. >> Exactly. Right. >> So that's what I'm
011saying. So even that 79% that that's very strong and we're very very pleased with that because correct we're not comparing cohort to cohort. So that's what ELA is looking like. Again, some really nice growth. And then it's some areas that we fully acknowledge and are continuing to work on. Looking at your percent overall with math, again, everything very, very high in terms of comparing to the state average. And then when looking at our amount change, again, some really nice growth, some no growth, um, a couple dips. And again, when again when we see those dips, we look at, you know, historical data for that specific cohort because again, this you're comparing two different groups of kids when you're just looking at percent proficient for each grade level. And those are great discussions um that we
012have with teachers. Um we also know that when value added data comes out, which is October, that gives us great information in terms of the growth of students. So when we look at proficiency, that's one thing, but if you still, you know, raise a child from 635 up to a 655, you might not hit proficiency, but that's a lot of growth in one year. And so that's we like to look at, and that's not out until October. Um, so again, we can always see what what what we need to work on and focus on with our principles and our staff. This is now science and social studies. See a really nice uh growth in grade five science and some slight dip in grade eight science and biology. Great growth in American history, slight dip in
013American government. And again, you'll see at the top of all of these, I put a roller coaster at the top because that's it's normal. You're going to see some some highs and lows when you're talking proficiency from one year to the next. Um, nothing alarmingly jumping out at us, but obviously always a list of things that we still like to to focus on going into the next year. So, that was the achievement. Again, achievement is strictly how they do. Gap closing again is how are we doing meeting the needs of our subgroups. So, we're looking at English language arts. We're looking at chronic absenteeism. We're looking at um the ELLL population, our gifted population. All of the things that used to be in progress are now all thrown into gap closing. Five stars and huge
014growth. So again, we went from 67.2% with our subgroup growth in 2024 to 88.6% in 2025. So the growth here, I can't wait to see the value added for a lot of our subgroups to see where we made kind of that that biggest improvement. and are there areas that we still need to focus on and that will come out with the value added data even more specifically um in October when we can sit there and look student by student. Um but again as we look at this pretty incredible I definitely want to give a huge shout out to Jenny Pedacorn in our ELLL department their percent proficient rose 19% from 2024 to 2025 um which is huge. So we went from 19% proficient to 38. So I mean more than more than a third of
015our students exited the ELLL program last year. So absolutely incredible. So combining all of that because all of those two components have to do with performance on the state test. Here's our takeaways for this in terms of our areas of strength. Looking at our achievement um for ELA, math, English learners, crux, absenteeism, graduation rate, we've got very very high um growth for all of those. Something that we are continuing to do because um it the points are not there right now is that gifted creative thinking. I mentioned this last year. Creative thinking is a brand new identification area for the state of Ohio. And even though it's a brand new identification area in terms of being counted on the report card for last year, unless you have more than 15 kids identified in that um
016ability by grade band, you are not you don't qualify for the points. So last year was the first year that parents, you know, that we did a full grade screener that we had kids qualify for it. And so we didn't have 15 kids per, you know, per grade band. So that is something though that will continue to be built. We we have a handful, but we don't have 15. So, we'll continue to work on that. And like I said, we'll continue looking at value added. Things that we are doing this year with our um administrative team is really focusing on what's called MTSS, multi-tered systems of support. This is a process that um the elementary school is in grade four or I'm sorry, in year four of where you notice a child is struggling. What
017are you doing? Immediately, you get a team together. It could have your principles, your counselor, any specialist, the teacher and what what can we specifically put in place to help intervene and then you measure it every two weeks and in six weeks you decide is it working, is it not working, you change intervention, you do it again and so you're constantly looking at data and figuring out that intervention. We are now working through that process with grades five through eight on how do you identify a gap? How do you target a gap and how do you progress monitor a gap? So that's a huge one. The rest we've been continued to do. Assessment authoring is utilizing a state system to practice um the state test. But what's nice about it is it's not just here's
018your state test. That's not the reason for it. It gives the teacher a breakdown of what standards kids are still struggling with. Paul is working very closely with Bernathan on actually on looking at data. How do you look at data and how do you decipher what is needed and what is not needed based on the data? They actually have the next round of that tomorrow starting tomorrow, the next three days. Again, we're now in year two of CKLA, which is our new ELA program. Anytime you have a new program, that first year can be a little bumpy as you just kind of learn the ins and outs. So, it's nice going into that year, too. This has added a reading intervention period this year. So, kids that are struggling with reading actually have it as
019part of their schedule for 30 minutes reading intervention every single day. Um, continuing with win periods, the what I need periods at this except that used to be every Wednesday, that is now every single day. that going being able to go on to a common belt schedule really opened up doors to for us to do a lot continue the no new instruction period west so it's very similar to the win period where you pull kids for intervention math intervention program it's called zern it is free and endorsed by the state of Ohio this year and we were able to get that for grades three through eight we had to apply for it we were accepted and that is a targeted math intervention online program that we are piloting along with many others in the state
020um for grades three through eight math and Yeah, gifted will continue working on that creative thinking ability and making sure families understand if their child qualifies for further testing. Here's what that entails. >> So the creative thinking ability is just for the gifted >> the gift identifier. Right now it's truly, you know, mainly been visual and performing arts, reading, math, science, social studies, creative thinking has now been added. Mult graduation rate if you recall um a few years ago we were at a fourstar really put in a lot of work um over at the high school and shout out to Rob's whole team the whole office area there came up with a plan on how to address this a little bit um how we monitor these things um kind of opportunities that we had for
021students to graduate. So our graduation uh rate currently sits at 97. I believe it's 97.1. Um and then the 5year is 97.3. And you can see that equals four and a or four and a quarter points there. I just put this I this is a graph that we can pull up on some of the information we have that I think is a good indicator for you to see kind of what it looks like for us. And if you notice that dip that 2122 I believe uh dip. Oh, there we go. Right down there and there. Uh when you look at that uh that's a lot of that has to do with co obviously we were coming out of co we had about 10 students who really had a rough go and we were trying to
022get them through. So you can see kind of where that dip lies and then where we went from there. So you can see our percentages are on the rise and once again shout out to the high school team. I think they have a really good plan in place for that. So here are some of the steps that we have taken um looking at um really tracking uh all of our students. We have an in danger of failing list or falling behind list uh credit recovery program um through admentum that we've really um come to rely on and it's actually been really good for us uh double math period to try to uh catch our students up an English lab some assessment offering as Amanda spoke about which is really helping our uh departments work together
023and then um just looking at some different PV and the PLC programs that we have. So we feel like right now we are in a good shape with graduation rate. >> Talk about what a PLC is. >> Uh yes. Um essentially um what we're when when Rob will get his groups together. So um uh it's a professional learning community. So what will happen is uh say it's math. Rob might bring in his math team at the high school, get together, kind of outline, hey, what are we teaching in algebra one? Let's all make sure we're teaching the same thing. Let's make sure we're looking at everything uh collectively together. I also have to give a shout out for the math labs. I know that's been incredibly helpful for a lot of parents and a lot
024of students where they're able to go in during open times. >> The math labs. >> Yeah. Overall, we are seeing um that in the double period has really helped our students out. So, we are seeing >> what is the double period? >> So, for example, what we decided to do when we looked at algebra and geometry, um we felt like it was kind of fast for some of our students. So, we made a double period so it could be slowed down more in depth. So, like inchwide, um, mile deep. So, you want to make sure that you cover things a little bit more in depth, allow a little bit more in-depth teaching. So, we've seen that as uh pretty helpful for us. Any other questions? All righty. So, let's talk a little bit about our
025three star, college, career, workforce, and uh military readiness. So um obviously a little bit disappointed in this but as you um as you recall last year when we did this presentation I had mentioned that this data is the 2024 data. So the data that we currently have the three star on is for current college sophomores. It's our it's our 20 class 2024. So here's some of the information that I can share with this. So when you look at this um rating you can see it's never been rated before. has showed up on the report card as NR. So when you look at some of these things, um that's where we're sat. We have made improvement. We currently sit at 65.9. So let's talk a little bit about this and I'm going to slide back this
026in a minute. So when you look at this, uh you can see what we decided to do as far as how are we going to improve that 65.9. So we developed a tracking system as a way to document. So, we have a document with every single class that's uh coming through the high school starting the class of 2024 all the way up to the current freshman. So, what does it look like? And there's a bunch of measures that I'll share on the next slide. So, we're tracking all of those things. We're offering different uh enhancements. Thank you to the finance committee and the board that now allow us to do the ACT. We've added uh additional apprenticeship programs credentiing um possibly credentiing more credentiing through our Westshore program. And then we have a partnership with
027the ESC of Northeast Ohio and BAC is the business advisory council. And then it says OMJ, which is Ohio meet jobs readiness seal. So here is a comparison that I think is important to look at. So this is where we're ranked right now. And then in 2025, you can see that this class we're confident right now that we have not for next year. We believe based on the data that we have input that we'll have a five star on this. So obviously a lot of work went into this um we weren't sure and the reason you know why we have a three star we weren't given a lot of information at the front end at one point we were on a call we didn't know how they were going to judge um or rank everybody
028and then we weren't sure that they were going to actually have this count. So what they ended up doing is I think it was around February around February we received some information about um here's we are going to rank it here's what it's going to look like uh for you guys. So once we received that it was the 2024 data so it was hard for us to really go back we could go back and address it. So like I said we're confident here. Yes. So one thing with that though and I think what was really frustrating is some of the improvement you're seeing could be new programs like when we we already had plans to do internship and those kind of things. We already have the demon brew in place and then found out that
029you know we can apply for um certifications for our kids with disabilities when they work it those kind of things. But the issue is we didn't know what to track. >> Correct. >> Like and and so we didn't have that data in place because we didn't know what was going to be in it. And then by the time they told them >> the data was already recorded, >> right? >> So then you see the difference once you learn the rules and you know you go through and and and get that that's very helpful. >> Yeah. So when you look at this information, ACTs at remediation free um we are seeing progress in this and you'll see a lot of progress honestly across the board and just so you know when you see some of these
030um each student counts once. So you might have a student who qualifies for all of these we just really put it in ACT SAT remediation. So if we were to dig down I can get I could definitely give you percentages by each of them um you know how many students we have. So when you see um like when you see pre-apprenticeship completion at 0.24 it's higher than that but a lot of those students either most of them had a lot of the things at the top. So you only count one time in each thing. So what we do is just track and really make sure everybody counts somewhere. So, but this is a good glimpse and like I said, this is a good um we're proud of the effort that the um high school team
031put in with that um and happy with where we are and I feel like we have a good system at play. >> That that seems like a ton of data collection obviously and how does that how does that happen? Well, honestly, like I said, we we have a an open spreadsheet that we all have access to, and really what happens, for example, like ACT or SAT comes in, uh, the counseling team at the high school will sit down, enter all of those things, um, into that sheet. Then what I do is I double check that sheet, and then we give to Jackie Massa, who's our coordinator, who enters all of that information. So, it's a whole group effort, and it does take a lot. Yeah. Like uh, Scott was mentioning >> some of the credentiing
032before we were like, oh, you know, that doesn't matter. Well, we count everything now. Like we go after points like uh in the spring I or excuse me, in the summer I talked to Yakoup over at West Shore just to make sure our students were taking tests um in making sure that we had accurate numbers from if they were passing them, what that looked like for us. >> Thank you. >> Why do you think there was such a drop in the 12 plus college credits from 12 down to eight? you know, once to get to the point I said earlier, I'm not necessarily sure um that that is is accurate in this regard because those some of those students would have counted um could have counted in ACT or SAT, but I will tell you
033um we did see somewhat a little bit of a dip in it the last last year. We feel like we're in a different spot now. Like um in the board report you'll get for the end of the month, I was doing some information. We have about 31 students who took classes in the summer this year, which is pretty high for us. And then we're seeing more English 1010, 1011. So I think that will scoop back up. That could just be an anomaly as well. I think we actually dipped down to I want to say what was it 12? I think we were down around when I talked to Chelsea Linton who works over at the high school in that area. I think we were down to like 9 something, but I think we're going to
034probably bump up to close to 15 this year. >> But if you notice the APs are up >> for sure. Yeah. So people could be taking kids could be taking AP instead of >> and so I'll tell you um one of the interesting things is as we have this tracking so this is the class of 2025 data which will be on next year's report card um currently and I just did this calculation we already have a 53% for the class of 2026 and most of that's just based on ACT remediation three um and some a couple a couple APS but um this last year we had I want to see 89% of our students who are three or above on their APS. So, we anticipate that number going up there. So, like I said, it's
035frustrating. That three is hugely frustrating um to all of us for sure. And um but I do think we have a plan in place to make sure we track and monitor moving forward. And if the metric stays the same as this year, um the 91 should give us a fivestar. They may change it. We don't know what if it stands now. We're hoping next year's five star. I'm going to turn it back over to Amanda for >> early >> last one. Okay. So, if you remember last year, early literacy was kind of the one that that caused us our our headache. Um, and so let let's go through that a little bit. We are still at a four star. Um, but I need to talk a little bit about it because um, if it had
036been graded as it was last year would have been a fivestar. They made some changes this year to how how it's being measured. So just very quickly for comparison last year, last year we were weighted on three components. The percent proficient, improving literacy, which means how many kids came off of that reading improvement monitoring plan, and then the promotion to fourth grade. The only reason we were weighted on that improving literacy is because we had more than 10% of our kids on a RIMP, a reading improvement monitoring plan. And that occurred when it was changed from MAP assessment to the Dibbles assessment. So last year we went back to the MAP assessment and because of that we were well below the 10%. We only had 11 kids that scored off track and so that measure
037is not counted. So because of that this year we're back to where we were in 2023. 60% of our score came from proficiency 40% promotion. We have information for improving literacy but it was not counted in our so knowing that again this dated we went from math I'm sorry dibbles back to math. So this one when we look at this and it's locked to the top. This is the 24 25 or is this? Yeah 24. I'm sorry. This is weird though. It's flat a little far. So this is 2024. This is not right now. we had 81% 81.9% counted as proficient. I'm going to skip this for right now. And then our promotion was 100 because I just want to compare last year to this year for again we don't have that middle one. So
038our percent proficiency was 81.9. When you look at this year it's showing our percent proficiency is 78.9. The difference is last year until this current report card. there to a couple things that were not included in your proficiency count or were included and are no longer. So the first one, our students who are on alternate assessment, they used our AAFCD alternate assessment data used to be its own separate component for third grade only. The overall ELA proficiency on the alternate assessment does count towards the district's overall proficiency. >> Yeah. >> Who takes the alternate assessment? >> It's our students with severe um cognitive disabilities. Um yep, students on IE. So that is the first one that got added. But then what got removed was the state gives you alternate measures to show proficiency. So there
039are three ways you can show it through a score of 50 on the reading subcore of the Ohio state test. You can show it with a full overall proficiency of 700 or above on the ELA test or you can take one of their alternate measures which for us is MAP and they give you the cutoff score that shows proficiency. Okay. So we were able to use those for promotion in terms of yep your child has no third grade content you're good go ahead to fourth grade for the report card this year proficiency is 50 sub subcore or nothing so students had to achieve the 50 subcore for it to count how that impacts us is by 22 kids we had six kids that passed not by the reading subore they received either a 47 48
040or 49 but they were well over 700 00 overall. So those six kids, no problem. You score proficient fourth grade, but you did not count our proficiency on the report card. And then we had 16 kids that showed proficiency by math where in the past we could code them as proficient and show them the math reports. They do not count anymore in our score either. So being able to compare proficiency last year to this year really isn't. Again, apples to apples. Had they all counted, our proficiency would be around an 84% which would have been a five-star in this category. Um, so when we look though, so our proficiency again 78.9, but again counting what we would have counted last year, it's more about 84. Promotion stayed at 100. Now for promotion again, you have
041those three ways. Good to go. That that didn't change. And then if students did not make one of those methods, parents can request their child be still moved to fourth grade knowing that they will receive 90 minutes of intense reading intervention daily. So we had a group of students that were promoted based on parent requests. That all counts towards promotion. Next year, none of that will count towards promotion except the proficiency on the state test. So just so we are aware that promotion to fourth grade could vary next year because again the parent request will not count towards our promotion to to uh prod. So then though some again some great things to celebrate when you look at that improving literacy again improving literacy is how many kids we moved on track from off track
042in say first grade to on track in second or second to third or K to one. So when we look at 24 from 23 to 24 we removed 49.5 49.5% of our kids moved to on track almost half great percentage but then we jumped to 56.1 so from 24 to 25 we moved from on track off track to on track by the one year to the next which is absolutely incredible. So again, we kind of pulled this graphic like Paul was saying we can get these. I don't like this line chart because every year proficiency has been measured differently. So it's very hard to compare it on a line. But so far improving K3 readers has always stayed consistent. It's the number of kids you're moving to on off track to on track and we
043have a really nice progression starting at 2022 up to 2025 with some huge growth. So again, what what is occurring at the elementary school with those I was talking about MTSS, multi-tered systems of support, targeted interventions, utilizing our no new instruction periods every day, it is working and it's working very very well. Um so I already went through the changes coming to those rating scales just what you occur this year and what will occur uh next year. Um so just you know for early literacy I probably shouldn't say because it drives me it frustrates me in my very core. So our overall three was 87.34% 88 would have been a fivestar. So >> um and again I talked about our action steps. We're going to continue doing what we're doing and just continue doing it
044better. Every year you get better. So our literacy committee continues to meet. What we do there is talk about those targeted interventions. We receive training from an ESD um literacy consultant a leadership team. There's about 20 of us that then we go provide that training to our staff. We're going to continue with those intervention groups and those intervention groups now continue all the way up through eighth grade uh along with different targeted things that are occurring at the high school. We did change our title one qualifiers every year. We continue to change those and you actually you will have the new handbook tomorrow. something to look forward to that will show you those qualifiers. And so every year we see who did we miss with our qualifiers and then we adjust our qualifiers the next
045year to try to scoop more kids. And so you will see some changes in so again just kind of oops overall for the four and a half stars but looking at that always the the normal fluctuation achievement um adding in the college career readiness factor and then the change to the reading sub score we were total by state average 4.042 042 points which is 083 away from a five very very close. So again that on paper we're four and a half but the growth that we have achieved I mean looking at that gap closing it is unbelievable that some of the growth that we are seeing and so we're excited to see where we continue to go. >> Any questions? >> I'll start with one um Paul going back to the um housing career. I
046think it's that that one is really focused on the high school, but I it it's interesting where during the span of a year and it's during the the school year, you see a three on the state report card, but then the US News and World Report comes out and ranks you in the top 10 in the Cleveland area >> and and and actually you've been here for a long time. >> Yes. this might be. >> And this was the first time in a long time we've cracked the thousand. >> Uh yes, >> nationally. >> Uh I think we're 971 nationally if I'm not mistaken. Um we were top 10 in the Cleveland area and I believe uh 35th overall in the state of Ohio which puts us >> last year we were in the 50s.
047>> 50 I believe we were 50 career 50s. Okay. >> Yeah. So and great strides made there. A lot of it has to do with the opportunities that are provided. um the APS and all all of the work that's going on my opinion at the high school to try to improve learning. >> Thank you. >> So my question was also on that category, but it was the military workforce readiness. What do we do for military workforce readiness? I know we're very college oriented and career, but >> there's, you know, so oftentimes what you'll see is you'll see different um recruiting groups come into the high school um do some promotion. We offer the ASVAB testing for students. We do different things like that. So, um honestly that that's the if you go to the high
048school probably once a month or it's a different set up a table. you do different things like that but really offer testing and our counselors meet with the student kind of walk them through that process as well. >> I congratulate you on uh what you do and and your progress. Um and I think about you your leadership team and teacher um how do they feel about these numbers? So, I can speak for case four especially because we met in TBTS um and started talking through it a little bit. I will tell you our staff, which I appreciate, they don't get hung up on the data in terms of we try really hard not to let them beat themselves up. We use it as here's what you're going to do to grow from it. And they
049have gotten really good at that. And so, our K4 especially truly, they're great at looking at the data and deciphering what the kids need. They are thrilled by these numbers and proving literacy. absolutely amazing. Um, looking at our 5'8, we are really digging into data on that campus this year. Um, they have been extremely appreciative of the time we're taking teaching them how to dig into data. And I will tell you that's something that I didn't think about as much where if you haven't been taught how to dig into the data and find what is where the problem area is, how can we expect people to do that? Um and so we've really spent a lot of time the last um couple years and especially now going into this year doing that and so far
050the it's the response has been very appreciated. So that's >> and I think the teachers will appreciate hearing that as well because I you know I think from both of our perspective whatever the information they know it's coming out. Amanda and I get texts emails what how do we do I think of uh seventh grade ELA um Todd Milky and Sarah Lacowski. We want to know immediately how do we do it get an improvement it says but how do we do the pre hoover so um >> they take a lot of pride which as they should >> in the high school the same way even when APs come out normally around July 9th the first person I I mean I will get something from a high school teacher all the time Tracy Solowski who has
051since retired but you know reaching out wanting to know how they do so um it means a lot >> it means a lot >> can we get a copy of this presentation because especially when we're having conversations in the community and I know there's going to be some more changes. Of course, the changes to how the data is done for next year. It seems like it's a little bit less. Will they come out with more? >> You never know. >> We'll see. >> I I don't anticipate more being added. Nothing has been stated to us as being added. I do will see cautiously will say that I think the report card will remain the same from this year to next year and we will be able to pass. Then again, we never know. >> Yeah,
052you never know. Maybe they adjust this equals five star. >> Correct. right now that could change. >> I said the reading subur only change occurred in May, you know, and so there who knows. Do you have any sense of from the other districts in the area or throughout northeast northeast Ohio how the college and career readiness is impacted? >> So, so they what they did was um when because nobody knew how their work and they said the best way to do it is an actual bell curve. So, um we fell in a three with 221 there's 222 total threes. Um around us there are some fours. I don't know of any fives. Um a lot of threes. Um I went to a meeting on Lake who a lot of people who I know out there
053from here um who used to be here told me that they're going to get three. So really they just did itself. I think you're going to see a lot of threes around that. >> You may not see it impact their >> final score because even when you we almost got away with getting at the 00082. So if they had a performance index that was slightly higher, they could still be at five. >> And I believe there's probably four or five2. >> I thought River River maybe had a four and a >> river. I think River has >> Bay of three. U but if they have the higher Yeah. >> performance index, it's not going to knock them down to four and a half. I think like So not anything to do with this, but are
054you hearing any rumblings about bring back the third grade guarantee? >> I mean, we still have that in place in terms of the promotion to fourth grade. Um, that still occurs. The only difference is that parents can now request to move to fourth grade regardless of the the assessment. Um, but but even with that though, the student is placed on a reading improvement monitoring plan which now follows it continues to follow that. So we have RIM now. It used to end at grade three. We now have students in grade six that are still on a reading improvement monitoring plan. Um, and so any child that did not meet any of those requirements, they are on that plan. They continue on it until they earn a 700 proficiency score on their state tests. So that's 90
055minutes of intensive interventions daily um in reading. And that like I said that will now it'll go into seventh grade next year and eighth grade the following. We have 22 right now in grade five and we have six that have continued into grade six and then next year it will go to grade seven. So it does still exist. Like I said, there's just a little different in terms of the intervention that you now have to provide to that child and it doesn't end at third grade and parents can request to be delivered, but it does still exist. Anything else you would like to share with us? >> No, not at this point. >> Um, I'm going to move on to board committee reports. Anything from our legislative leaders? I have reached out to Representative Sweeney
056regarding cell phone rules particularly for the high school. Um the cell phone ban doesn't go into effect until January 1 and that is from the beginning of the day to the end of the day. Um her understanding was not that and so she's going to have a conversation with people who write the legislation um in regards to department of education workforce. >> Yeah. So Amanda and I went back through the the link and and went through and it it does seem to have the at least the document we read did have a carve out to be able to use in the classroom for educational >> it exemptions I 504 and student work it was left very vague but it did have a >> this was also from the perspective of between periods because cell phone
057>> Oh yeah right Right. Right. >> Full day from beginning val to end bout between periods and launch and particularly being able to hear from employers being able to respond to employers. So >> So what uh regarding the smartwatches now >> the well we in the past said no smartwatches for the handbook. I remember reading that specifically as part of it that we said no smartwatches. >> Is that our language? >> But is it part of our handbook? >> Are they so I know we do it 712. I will have to look. It's not spelled out for um cell phones. Um and so we'll have to look at 56, but I don't I believe I'm sorry. I believe that it is spelled out as not allowable >> because I remember seeing smart watches listed when
058we when I was going through all the handbooks. >> I can double check that >> like the usage of them like I mean not allowed. So, like like if a kid's wearing it, not going to have them take their watch off, but they shouldn't be using it, >> right? >> My understanding was they're not supposed to have that. >> Yeah, we'll double check that >> because that's even harder to >> a monitor. Well, the hilarious comment was made that nobody knows how to read a clock anymore >> at the high school level because they're all used to wearing digital. >> We can get them the old AIOS. >> I don't remember those, but a little calculator. Why going to reinvest in that? >> With regard to uh legislation, um has anyone taken a peek at
059OSBA um as far as offerings with regard to legislation? I was thinking last year a lunch in particular where I believe two senators had an opportunity to present. Do we know if anything was a capital conference? Yeah. Um I haven't heard who the speaker is going to be. >> I have not. We'll have our first um alliance meeting this month. Gotcha. >> Um there is >> there has been the trifecta of property tax legislation that has been introduced in the house. Um I think they're calling it the three acts overall. Um and they still do have the working group about property tax reform. So we are going to constantly be hearing about this over the next year or so. Anything else on legislative? >> Yeah, that's what I got. >> Student achievement. Um, anything following
060the presentation by Mrs. Muscleman and Mr. Wilson >> or other than anything? >> We have a national merit violence. Has that come out? >> Um, >> is it embargoed? Okay. We can't we can't say public. Okay. >> But are we happy? >> Yeah, I think we're very happy. >> Okay. >> Superintendent committee reports. >> Um policies coming. we started going through um the first batch of August uh policies and then I realized there was also a second batch um within August as well. Uh so we have a significant number of policies to uh that that have been adjusted and a few that are going to be rescended um that I will be getting to you shortly. Those are there. Um, another one just even talking about uh communication. um just behind the W is just
061about done and I had sent uh a copy and one of the the parts that we really are trying to see if we're getting the message right and I don't know if you have any feedback um just being in here is when I we were trying to find and Brad and I had a long conversation about how do we present our capital and we talked about putting forward or putting what we have done are trying to do it represented representative in there and >> see >> now I'm just showing you where which part so the last one we kind of look at this so this is the that's the section where to try and explain the the levies because I think when people are people are paying attention to the different types of levies that
062are being discussed on the news you're going to hear emergency levies u you know um all these type of different levies when ours are really just continuous like the and so we're um we have the we have the the operating levies and then we have the permanent improvement levy and the bond issues and to just trying to lay that out but also talk about some capital projects. We went back to kind of show what we've done the past few years. Which way do you guys like when you look at the document? Does that give us a good summary of what we're doing or do you want to see something different in there? And and the other struggle that we have in writing that section is and and Liz just talked about new bills being introduced
063is we want to try and be very careful that when we send this to print and then it goes to mail by the time it hits the mailbox um there may be a new piece of legislation or something that makes that people look at this and say well wait a second you're saying here that this is this and and so we're trying to be specific yet vague enough to not be pulled into a different conversation. Does that make sense? >> It does. >> How do you want us to How do you like that? What type of any thoughts? And if you don't have them here, you can share them via email to me or call me. But um anything out immediately? >> One of the things they are talking about is getting rid of continuing
064levies. >> Correct. >> Like 2030. >> That is one of the things that are on the table. >> The three. >> Yeah. X one of the 300 >> that's what that and that's one of the things because it was interesting because at first so the one of the big concerns when it came to levies were districts utilizing emergency levies and then it wasn't impacting their 20 mil floor right and and so they would go below the 20 mil floor and it would go back up and the the goal was to say we're not doing that and the the number of levies we have they all they count towards the 20 mil floor approp appropriately. We're not, you know, we don't have these other kinds. So that that was the original thing to say that, you
065know, there's no there's no hidden things. I'm I'm not saying that the other districts are hiding it either, but there's everything is on the table and and then Yeah. So then when the continuence came out, we didn't >> realize that was going to be something that >> came out of nowhere. >> That and that's my point, you know, and and we we'll still talk about it because it's the kind of levies we have. Yeah. So, if they're proposing to get rid of continuous the continuing le uh lease by tw 2030, how would that impact us or are we going to be grandfathered in so to speak? Some so I saw in they there were conversations about and and that question happened because there are some forms of levies that if you change it or not
066have the if you take it away as an emergency levy Todd that it if it's been if it was passed before a certain time it still gets some sort of exemption >> that doesn't roll back >> hop to roll back but then the new >> but then the new ones don't >> correct >> so then the the fact is if you eliminated that older one, you essentially would raise. >> So, and I was going to talk about it as we get into treasure, but I guess we'll go down the route now. It is it is the trilogy that they've introduced here. And I did want to bring that to the attention of the board here because uh there's just a lot going on. Uh there's more going on in really in the past six months
067around school finance than in my prior 20 plus years around school finance. And um and there's some pieces that are are concerning uh and there are some pieces that uh I think that when this all comes to an end, something is going to happen. This is not just somebody yelling, you know, fire. There's actually a fire. And so, um when we look at the different pieces, this really revolves around property taxes. And so we have a group who are pushing a a a citizens initiative to or a constitutional amendment to outlaw property taxes and that's currently collecting signatures to be on the November 26th ballot. You have uh the governor who vetoed a number of items in the budget bill who has his team uh working together on proposals of what that could look like.
068And then you have your legislative body who just uh uh very recently introduced this trilogy of three bills. One would be eliminating uh continuous limits. So they would be phased out. They would not be uh replaced. If you wanted to replace them, you would have to go to uh back to your uh tax payers um for a vote and uh you wouldn't be able to put it past it as a continuous. Now it would be an operating levy with a fixed time period. Generally speaking, the current law allows for anywhere from 1 to 5 years or a 10-year continuous operating you know le. Um the second part of the trilogy is um allowing citizens to challenge um which would be uh voting out inside millage. We talk about our inside millage. We're 5.8 mills inside
069millillage. Uh that's part of insides because it's already part of the Ohio Constitution. Okay. So >> explain that a little bit. >> So um the Ohio Constitution when was passed way back yonder somewhere around 1805ish um you would have they they put in there and said that uh the publics to pay 10 uh up to 10 mills, okay, without a vote of the month. And so it was allowing uh your uh city, county, schools uh to have portions of this milling, okay, of that 10 mills uh to bunch. I mean, it's it's how uh uh government functions. And so uh the law says that that inside millage is a theft. Uh it's always a theft at 5.8 mills. You talk about the the uh House Bill 920 and being reduction of of levies. It's never
070reduced. It's always that for us the 5.8 mill. Um all of our other millillage is called outside milling that it's outside of the the inside mill in the constitution and it's voted on separate. So for the uh so for the public and and again I'm not a legal scholar by any means but I even look at that and go I'm curious on the constitutionality of that. Okay because it's it would say a by a simple majority of the public they could override the Ohio Constitution. Okay, which seems to be conflict for me, but that's for people far smarter than I. The third part of the um levy would be for uh voters to um um uh to change the way uh levies are passed where it would no longer be simple majority. Okay, you could
071do simple majority on levies under one mil. Okay. So, um the reality of it is um while I am very grateful for our tax base and currently one mil for us generates around uh $2 million, um you would be on the ballot pretty much every year looking for another.99 mills, you know, to go simple majority. uh levies between one and 1.9 or you know one under two one one to two mills uh would require a 60% majority and then anything over 2 mills would super majority of 60. So um it would become very very challenging to to pass two limits >> almost impossible for most school district >> you know it's it's a good question now when we look at West Lake here and um there are 600 roughly 613 school districts in in the
072state of Ohio um it's not that I don't care about other ones but I focus on our district here and when we look at our district here um we are roughly uh 80 plus percent uh funded by our local taxes. So when they talk about you know state funding when they talk about the state reimbursement of that homestead roll back um uh homestead exemptions um only roughly 20% of that will come from the state. The other 80% is either local revenue generated from interest or uh uh pay to participate or or kindergarten fees, things like that. Uh but the vast majority of our income comes from uh the local property taxes. Uh if any of these parties want to change the way schools or way property taxes work, I'm not against that. And I and
073to and to the public, I don't necessarily believe our board is against an idea of of of changing. I think the reality of it is someone needs to provide or talk about the solution when you do these things. So when we look at that first part, that taxpayer initiative, how do you replace the billions of dollars that are used to fund our libraries, our schools, our parks, our port authorities, our counties, uh uh cities, police, fire, you name it. How do we fund that? Okay. When we look at uh the the governor's uh uh team, how do you fund whatever changes you're making there? I I'm not fully up to date on I've not heard on what those proposed changes are right now. Or when you look at this trilogy, you know, here, this might
074be fine for someone proposing this on a school district that's 90% funded by the state. Okay? Well, they're probably not going to the taxpayer very often. Now, we're very fortunate that we've not been going to the taxpayer very often. We've got the lowest tax rate in the threeount area. Okay? Uh but we would be penalized in this because we're going to need to go back to the taxpayer. And so when we're ready to do that, if it's over two mills, we would have to have a supermajority. And the reality of that is when I look at the history of our levy history within Westlake, I think that would be challenging for us. Um, and I and that's probably what the goal is, but I do think it would be challenging for us. So, how do
075we replace that lost uh uh uh revenue? If they want to reduce property taxes, hey, I have a property owner. I'm all for, you know, uh uh some relief on property taxes, but how do we replace that so that we can still provide that high quality education here in Westlake? So that we can still provide those uh uh also opportunities. You're being uh uh rated on all of these. In one as aspect, they're saying here we're going to rate you on you have to provide all these things. You got to make sure you're college, career ready, military, you know, all these different things. And then on the other hand, we're taking money away from you. So now you better figure out how to do it. And we're in this conundrum right now. So I don't
076have an answer. Okay. Um I'm the first one to tell you that. I don't know if they would be looking at income taxes. Okay. Um uh looking at school districts trying to do uh income taxes, but you you would have to replace the income some way. We're looking at we're roughly $50 million we receive in local tax credit. Off the top of my head, we're pretty close to that. And so how would you replace that $50 million? So it's not a good piece. Uh I know they're they're pushing very hard on this trilogy right now. I think they're they're they're formally calling it the taxpayer freedom trilogy. Uh and again I don't think anyone is standing up here or I'm certainly not standing up here saying no, we have to keep it the way it
077is. Okay. I do understand that uh property values have increased significantly. I do understand that there are taxpayers who are paying significantly more than they were last year, two year uh two years or three ago, three years ago, but we are coming to a head on this and something's going to change and we need to figure out how we can protect uh our district uh the best way possible. So, I do appreciate Dr. Gagan's uh involvement and uh work with the alliance. Uh they've been very good uh to work with and uh protecting the interests of Westlake schools and and schools like ours. And uh it feels a tough time. Sure. Sure. >> So do you think because most of our our revenue 80% is based on the local economy or the local property taxes
078versus others like city Cleveland's definitely not >> certainly. So um so if they said all right can't do property taxes. You're going to have to go figure it out yourself. So for us, we would just have to go back to our community and ask for the money in some fashion or another. So in some ways it would be a wash at least for the for the residents. You may save a little bit of money here at the property tax, but they're still going to have to pay something to be able to fund their levels. Well, I think the the piece of it is um one of the arguments right now is property tax increasing on long-term homeowners who may be on fixed incomes. >> So, in California quite a while. >> What's that? >> In
079in California, that happens quite a >> No, that does happen. >> It does. >> No, California. So, California um forgive me I don't remember what the uh exact law is there but um the way they structure property taxes is um you are assessed on what you paid for your home. Okay? So, if you've lived there 30 years, you're still paying so you may pay taxes on a $200,000 home. Your neighbor may be paying taxes on a $2 million home and they're the same. Okay. Um because what they do is they lock it in at that. Now they can you can pass new levies just like you know so you may have increase on new levies but uh they specifically lock in the value or the the the taxable value at what you paid for it
080which might have been a day ago or you know 30 years ago >> and so it's a little bit different. Uh yeah and that's date does things differently. Um and that's one of the the challenges. But so when you look at it from that aspect when you say okay people have been in their home are on fixed income. Well if you change to an income tax okay whether local or state uh uh an example would be state income uh tax is really on your earned income and uh uh most of a person's income on a fixed income especially on a lower fixed income is sheltered from state income tax. So, uh, it may shift who pays taxes and that may be part of, you know, their goal to provide some relief for certain taxpayers. >>
081The family of five probably pay more than the a retired couple of two living in a fixed income. >> Again, depending on how they structure it, uh, that's certainly a possibility, but they don't have anything that they're looking at. They're just cutting. >> The problem is as far as that aware >> no one's providing solutions. They they've identified a problem. I think we all agree on the problem, but no one's providing solutions. And it's an idea of I was talking to someone who uh ran into uh a someone going out and collecting a signature and what's your solution? Well, they'll figure it out. >> Oh, we're in trouble. >> Now, there is a working group also. So, not only do we have this pathway u this legislation that's been in introduced, there's also a working
082group. >> Dwine's working group. >> Yes. >> Governor Dwine's working group. Correct. >> I've not heard from any uh I I've seen only very little coming out of that that group at this. >> Is there anything comparable in the Senate that uh they're working on anything kind of parallel? So far, I have not heard of anything coming out yet, but I hear of anything else. >> A lot of time bills do come up and they disappear. >> Right. They do. And I think the big thing, and here's the the piece, and I'll and I'll publicly say it is I think a lot of the legislators feel that if they don't act, uh, you will pass this constitution. And if you pass the constitutional amendment with having no other solution in place, this is going to
083put a huge issue not just for schools but for you know when you look at your tax bill, schools get a lot of it. There's no lie about that. Okay. But your city uh gets a portion of it, your county gets a portion of it, your port authority, your metrop parks, your library, uh health and human services. Trying to think of other ones that uh uh MRD I think is on on there as well. So if you look at it and you so to your point, you know, 49% in Westlake comes to us. 49% >> that means 51% is going elsewhere, >> correct? >> There's other entities that are going to get a bigger piece. >> But but we're also but we also don't get any income. >> We don't get income tax. We don't
084get the county has sales tax. We have income tax. >> That's our, you know, port authority has landing fees at the airport and uh and and dockage fees at, you know, SE port. So, you know, you have these other ones that have all this other income coming in. We don't. >> So, I don't understand the super majority. Has any fantast [Music] >> But that was also was it not an increase if I remember? >> It was. It was not. It was not. Yeah. They had they had millage coming off to be able to do that. >> It's always a wash. >> Yeah. >> Uh we are still uh on the superintendent committee >> reports the superintendent committee reports. Uh the Buckeye Association of School Administrators has awarded Dr. Gagan. He'll be receiving the 2025 Buckeye
085Association of School Administrators Exemplary Leadership Award on October the 7th. So, congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Oh, thank >> we will have a representative from BASA join us at some point in the year as well. So, congratulations. >> Thank you very much. >> Uh, Mr. Hopkins had your venue report. Do you have some other things you'd like to share with us? >> Well, I you know me, I am just a ray of sunshine. So I there's more good news. >> Uh uh going back to the changes in in in the fiscal world. Um in the budget bill, House Bill 97, uh some of the other changes that are in effect or coming into effect is uh we no longer have the five-year forecast. Okay. Uh they decided to lop a year off of it. So
086we have a four-year forecast. Okay. We have uh some different reporting on appropriation instead of expenditures. I'm not sure exactly what that means. We're trying to get some uh uh guidance from the state on that. Um it looks like for this year we're pretty much going to be uh uh in the same format that we've been, but they've said that they're changing the format going forward. Um so there's going to be a number of changes on on the forecast. So we'll see how that goes. Uh one of the changes with the forecast is um years ago it used to be an October um and May forecast. Then they changed it to November and May. Okay. Uh, now they've changed it to August and February. >> I don't know why. >> Do they put like months
087in a hat almost randomly? >> Um, I will tell you um I've understood the rationale between November and May. And really it wraps around uh uh tax uh tax and tax collection rates and certifications and and certification of of your tax amount. Okay, that makes sense. um August we're we've just closed fiscal year. Okay. So everything is going to be a guess for the upcoming year. Um we uh have not received all of our taxes yet. Typically uh you'll get an advance in July, advance in August, and then a settlement in uh uh September. Uh so I have no clue why they've picked uh uh uh August. And in fact, our permanent budgets aren't even due until the end of September. So, I just don't have a clue. Uh but they've changed it now. And
088uh because August 31st has already passed, um they've made this year due October 15th. Uh so, uh with my my finance uh uh committee here at the next meeting here, I'd like to do next week as we look at our budget for the year. I need you to look at the forecast as well. Yeah. >> Because I'm going to ask the board at the September 22nd meeting >> to approve the uh uh both the budget and the the now four-year forecast in order to submit it timely uh on the October 15th deadline. Um but I don't know why they're doing these changes. And again, even in February, I'm not sure. February doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. uh you know, we're we don't even know what staffing is really going to look
089like for the upcoming year in in February, although we have some hope of getting uh retirements by then. We're not sure. It's just a weird a weird piece. So, that that's another thing that we're going to throw on and uh you know, we'll we'll work through that. But there's been a number of changes uh with the both the budget bill and now proposed bill. Uh it's just a interesting ride right now. So, I'll let you know what I know. >> And we'll move next week. >> Yeah. I would uh uh I'm hoping that um uh you'd have some availability either Wednesday or Thursday afternoon um for uh two board members who I meet with or finance and um you know, we'll work through that. and and uh so Wednesday or Thursday I I can do
090either one. Are you available? Yeah. All right. >> Okay. Would you have a preference? Do you guys you can tell me if your what your preference is? I can do >> Wednesday. That's fine. >> We'll do Wednesday uh uh four o'clock. Is that okay? >> Excellent. Yeah. >> All right. And then uh you know, bear with me. I'll get you the information as soon as I can. >> Uh but really uh really they just came out with a forecast uh at the end of uh the week before last. So I was not prepared to have that ready. So uh bear with me as I get get that information together and get that loaded for for you review as well as Mr. Hopkins. Anything else? >> That's it. All right. Uh board comments. Anything? >> Was
091able to make it to the Warsville Heights Wesley football game on Friday. Anything? >> What do you think? I >> think we won. >> Yeah. >> Both uh during the play on the field and at halftime. >> Yeah. >> So three and 0. >> What's that? >> Is the band three and 0? >> Back soon. >> They've been under for years. >> But it was interesting. Um, I got to hang out with uh Corey and Colin. So, >> thanks. >> Colin's been a nice addition. >> Yeah, >> I think he's done a really nice job. >> It's doing You know what? I've had some interaction with him and he's been very responsive and he's been great uh and and very uh been a great resource. So, >> I like the reports he sends out. >>
092By the way, just another thing to throw up. Congratulation to Rob and Amy Woods. Oh, >> Danielle Woods born last week. So, we're really excited. He was actually in our administrative council meeting this morning. >> Oh, like what are you doing? >> Is he back to school? >> He's doing some half things. >> Yeah. >> Half asleep. >> That is definitely They're on the three-hour cycle. And he said that at first he didn't quite have when was day and when was night and so they had to spoke. >> Really? That happens. fire truck for homecoming. >> Little set up. >> Well, thank you, ma'am. >> Way to go. >> They had that taken care of for about two months now. >> I'm not surprised. >> And do you want uh the little red convertible for
093the demon? >> Could we please? >> Yes. Yes. >> Because I know the um we always like having the demon. >> Yeah. >> Especially when it's nice and cool. Fourth of July is a little harder. >> Yeah. >> But being in the demon costume and cool weather is nicer. >> Yeah. So, I have one comment. I had it come up and um and and Brad, this is going to be directed to you, too. Uh we were we vacationed last week in the Canadian Rockies. So, we were out, you know, way far west. So, we were coming out of a restaurant, struck up a conversation with a patron there and and he asked where we were from and we said Ohio. He kind of looked at us and I said, "Well, you know the Ohio State
094Buckeyes?" and he just looked at me with this real vacant stare said, "They're national champs, you know, college football." And he said, "Never heard of them." When they run out on the field, so I thought, "We're not so worldrenowned. We're not as a strong kid." I think you should have yelled out oh >> see if you got one >> because of the pairs they may have you know be holding a little >> grub bourbon and can it's gone >> no there's some that they got it up before the tariff so they do have their >> it's yeah pretty much run down though yeah talking local in Toronto and Ontario area. It's really it's Yeah. >> Any >> Yes. >> back to >> Well, I've not heard a lot of neg or any real negative comments
095on back to school, all the issues and especially transportation. Adam, I know that you're no longer exactly over there. You know, the only thing I heard was a couple comments on how did it snap work? the links not working and like people freaking out a little bit about that the night before. >> And I think that was something well even when we talked to Brad and it was a change from going anytime you have that transition where you're going to go from paper to electronic you know put a video out send it out and do all those kind of things. And um I got to give Quinton a lot of credit. He went to the open house for the elementary school and DIS and just sat at a table and then just people able to
096just come over and and ask him all the questions and be able to sit at a computer and be able to to go through that. It's it is the the things I talked about it I think last time in the last board meeting. Um there's certain things at the beginning of every year and transportation is always going to be one of them. The biggest concern people have is they want the the bus to stop at the end of their driveway. And we try and do that as we can, but sometimes we can't go down and No, no, just in general all the way across. >> Oh jeez. >> And and we get that for our kids. >> But no, >> yeah. And and but you'll have that. You'll have um you know, stuff like that.
097and and transportation is always the the big animal, you know, we're we're >> the app works uh really well. Uh I get notices if the bus number changes or whatever and and I'm happy with the app as as it is right now. >> So that been interesting where you know it's funny because in the elementary school um they have a really nice system where no matter what the number of the bus is, it always go comes to the same spot. And in the elementary they'll use animals and so they're a little the kids are a little less reliant on the numbers and more so on I'm on the lion or the elephant, you know, and and they they know their spot. But for the older kids, especially when you're looking on the do campus, um
098it's a little confusing because they could ride bus 12 in the morning and then 21 in the afternoon >> and and so those those number changes mean a lot. But overall, very very happy. >> Overall, I mean, we're we're pleased with the start and and I know Amanda had to had to go, but um you know, with what her and her team are doing academically with stuff you saw there, we are we are really really excited about this school year. You know, despite the noise from the outside and the things we have to deal with, what do we have going inside? We're really excited. >> Any other board comments? Is there a motion to adjourn to executive session to discuss appointment employment dismiss motion motion or compensation of employee or official >> discussion roll call
099>> to enter into executive session at 7:17 p.m. You're not >> yes. >> Pukan, >> yes. >> RF, >> yes. >> Lamb, >> yes. >> Lazinski, >> yes. Motion carries. You are now an executive