001I call to order the Westlake City School special board meeting for Monday, July 7th, 2025. Roll call. Ref here. Not here. Lamb present. Lazinski here. And would everyone stand and join me to say the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. As we gather tonight, we recall 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,
002willingness to take action, a team commitment to datadriven continuous improvement through our strategic planning process, and tangible results. is wonderful to see everyone. Thank you for being here tonight and welcome to the district. Um I move to approve the agenda. Is there a second? Second. Discussion. Lov motion carries. At this time we have a hearing of the public. The public may address the board during the periods of the meeting designated for public participation. We, the board of education, do not engage in a public debate and especially do not have a public discussion about individual student situations. In this setting, each person addressing the board shall give their name and address if several people wish to speak. Each person is allotted three minutes until the total time allotted is used. During that period, no person may
003speak twice until all who desire to speak have had the opportunity to do so. Period of public participation may be extended by a vote of majority of the board present in voting. If you'd like to address the board, now is the time to do so. We are going to move on to superintendent recommendations. Thank you very much. I would like to start by um thanking our board of education. Uh we this is the time of year where we have to complete our staffing. Um, for those who may be watching in our community, the way it works in education is or at least in public education is July 10th is a big day. So, we can hire up until the first day of school, but when it comes to the date of July 10th is if
004we move to hire anybody after the 10th, then they would have to be released from any district that they're working in. And we've run into it before where districts won't release um uh employees after that time. I typically don't. I would usually let people go. However, this is we're really getting into um a different market when it comes to teacher shortages, leadership uh challenges, and those kind of things where I would be really concerned that if we did move for employment after the 10th, um people on this list wouldn't be available and and they would not be made available. So, I greatly appreciate the board. Uh they actually set up a special meeting. this is not on their calendar. This is done specifically for the folks here. Um and and I really appreciate you adding
005this meeting to your schedule because we actually have a work session next Monday. So um we will try and be respectful of time. Um so the purpose for today is to introduce and um uh hire some new employees. And on our agenda, uh, we have, um, an administrative employment. We also have a licensed staff member as well as two long-term substitutes. The letter E, when you look at 3E, that's a resolution to approve some of our classified staff who've actually already been working in our extended school year program. So, we thought it would be appropriate to add them now instead of waiting till the end of the month. So, let's get started. Um, the first person that I would like to introduce is Colin Bryant. So, Colin, if you can, uh, come up to our
006podium, you could stand there awkwardly while we talk about you. And so, um, we kind of had a little bit of shuffling that happened inside the district. Um, our middle school principal, DJ Shaw, is, uh, taking a position at his alma mater, uh, Keystone High School. Uh, we're grateful for everything he did for us, and we're excited for him to be able to go home and work inside his community. Um, that led to a position opening where we moved Britney Meta, who was an assistant principal at our high school, took over for DJ, and then Nick Ronaldo, our athletic director, went over and uh took over for Britney, which left us with an opening in uh for our athletic director position. Um Colin is an intervention specialist with the Avon schools. Um he also has
007been shadowing their athletic departments to kind of get insights. Um Eric Framach has been the longtime uh athletic director there. So a really great person to be able to pick up the right characteristics and the way right way of going about running an athletic department. Um and he also I believe is wide receivers coach with the football team. And uh he's here with uh his wife and his daughter. Um, so Colin, if you want to take a moment and introduce yourself, that'd be great. Yeah. So, I am Colin Bryant. Um, first off, want to thank you board for being here tonight. As Dr. Gogggin, uh, already mentioned, I appreciate you guys being here and welcoming me, uh, and my family. Um, and Dr. Gogan, Todd, I want to thank you guys for, you know, believing
008in me. Um, I want to thank, uh, Rob Woods, too, Nick Ronaldo, and also Carrie. Um, she's here tonight. Here tonight, she's the glue of everything. So, can't forget her. Um, and just want to thank my daughter and wife, uh, my wife Allison and daughter Amelia just for supporting me and, you know, taking this next step in, uh, my career. It's really been a career, a career goal for me and dream. Um, and I think this is the right place to do it and a great community um, with the great support of you all. So, I'm really excited to hit the ground running and uh, continue to build my wardrobe and get some more Korean stuff. So, my tie was. So, I'm excited that, you know, continue it from there and I'm really excited to
009get out, meet the kids, meet the coaches, and really, um, become a, you know, important piece of the community. Great. Uh, welcome. We're very excited for you to be here. Uh, what a challenging position, but also communitywide. What a beloved position as well. So, we're excited for you. Thank you. Uh, and all that you bring to the table. Um interested to hear about that interv intervention specialist uh you know that background and how that molds you. Uh very very happy to hear you're a family person, family man. Yep. Uh that's good to hear as well. But we're excited for you and welcome. Well, I appreciate it. I'm excited. Good. Get rolling. Super. Okay. And questions from any other questions or comments? So, you're not going to be coaching the wide receipt? Oh, no. Yeah, go
010ahead. I think about something that uh uh uh previous um ad uh involved with uh corporate sponsorship and is that something that you will be involved with as well? Absolutely. I've you know um talked to Nick and you know he has mentioned you know reaching out to sponsors and stuff how that's something that is top priority of things to do. reach out connecting with everybody and going from there to renew and also to seek new ones and you know so that's definitely right at the top of the list of things I'm going to be doing right away. Yeah. And and we look at that position that they that you lead that and there are certainly folks in the community if you want to build your team with regard to really any of that that there
011are many out there that may have some context. So if we can help in any way you say the word. Absolutely. I appreciate that. Super. Any uh of your own personal sports history you'all want to share? Um yeah. So I was born and raised Lorraine, Ohio. Um, I was actually part of the merger, um, when Emerald King and Southw came together. Um, I was a junior. Um, so, uh, first quarterback to get to throw a pass for the Lorraine Titans. Pretty cool. Um, so that was pretty cool to be a part of. Um, I went to Lake Erie College, played football there. Um, I graduated after three and a half years. um I could have played a little bit longer, but I um had a knee surgery to my ACL my my junior year and
012it kind of really got me thinking about how I was excited to kind of move on to my career and how, you know, exciting that was for me. So, I made that decision. Um I also was a a baseball player in high school, too. I should mention that. Um I was probably better at that than football, but that was football was my, you know, number one passion. Um I've been a part of wrestling as well, actually. Uh, fun fact, I wasn't really good at it, but I did join the swim team for two years as well to try something new and it was by far probably the toughest sport. So, um, yeah, that's fun fact about me, too. I'm not even sure if my wife knows that about there's no highlights of that. I found
013um, and just to mention, too, because he's very important to me, uh, my grandfather was education for many years. He was athletic director, a head coach, uh PE teacher. Um Chuck Bryant, he would play football at Ohio State for Woody Hayes. Um was part of the 1961 National Championship team. Um he had his brings and you know would show everybody everywhere we were. But um I had mentioned in interviews how important he is to me because I was able to see him build a life through education and the relationships um that were so important to him. and just seeing people come up to him that he taught or coached 20 years, 25 years before that and um that how they remembered him. I really looked up to that and he's a big part of, you
014know, why I'm here today. Super. Thank you. Great. Good luck to you. Thank you. Yes. Appreciate it. And it's nice because you have Carrie and then Nick. Absolutely. If you have any questions, absolutely. I'm excited about the team that's, you know, around me and, you know, going to be there to support me. So, so another thing that really was uh great about Colin was he one of even as we talk about our strategic plan next week, one of the things that parents really want to hear are positive stories and and seeing a lot of different things coming out out about our kids. And he also ran a good amount of the the social media and publicity for in Avon as well. So skilled in that. Yes. I take a lot of pride in promoting our
015student athletes, our, you know, our coaches, just all the programs. I think it's a big part of, and I I think the kids and parents truly appreciate appreciate that, too. Even if it's posting that, you know, a happy birthday to their kid. Great. Um, just seeing their kid on, you know, being represented by Westlake is really important to them. And, you know, they can take that then and show it to all their family. I think it's a big part of um athletics and you know academics today and promoting their success and um really marketing them. So I'm excited to do that. Super. Great. Woods would have been here but the rain did hold off and he's coaching his son's baseball. So that's that's why he had called earlier and said I would be there with
016Colin, but yeah. Um he does he is coaching his kids baseball. Important role. Yeah. Anything else for Mr. Bryant? Welcome to Westlake. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now, we have the longest one. I don't see them covering the rest of you. I could see you guys kind of looking. Thanks, okay. Um the next person we'd like to bring up is um let's go Madison Hler. So, Madison, come on up. Now, Madison is going to be coming into the high school to teach science. So, if you want to take a minute and uh just say a little bit about yourself, Madison. Yeah. Hi, it's super nice to meet you all and I really appreciate your time um making the time for us on this Monday evening. Um I grew up in the area actually. I
017graduated from Keystone High School. Um and then after that, I went to the University of Finley where I majored in biology and then I went on to get my teaching license after that. So, I just recently moved back to the area. Um being from the area, I feel like I have a huge advantage. You know, I've always understood the amazing reputation that Westlake City Schools has and I'm excited to be a part of it. Thank you. Thank you. Well, welcome. Thank you so much. Any questions for Madison? Former science teacher at the end. Anything? She looks like one of the high school kids. 23. We just flu couple of weeks ago and they all I looked out there and they all look so young. So, you're not alone. And mom's here and there's also elementary
018teacher at Keystone. I didn't catch who else who and Okay. No, but and I'm Carter. Okay. All right. Nice. Congratulations, Carter. Absolutely. Well, welcome. Thank you so much. Thank you. And she was, if you want to know, she was a catcher um for Keystone. So, there's that as well. Since we were asking Colin about his days, we have um a couple other people on our agenda. We have uh Taylor Barrett. So Taylor is uh coming in as a long-term sub um being able to fill in for the entire year in our title one uh for uh reading intervention in our elementary school. So if you want to share a little bit about yourself. Well, thank you all for having me here. I appreciate your time and being here on a Monday night. Um so I
019previously have taught Title One at a school back in Youngstown, Austin Town Elementary, and then I was a fourth grade language arts teacher at Jackson Milton. However, I have relocated to the Cleveland area. I'm in Edgewater. Um, thanks to my wonderful boyfriend, Andrew. So, I appreciate him being here. Um, so I'm very excited to join the team and be a part of West Lake. Super. So, when we were looking at your information, we kind I I know we were talking about it and we're like, "Wait a minute. Lima's not neartown, but it was but it's is it North Lima?" North Lima. Yes. And North Lima is in that Camp was it Campfield? What's the area near Campfield area boardman? Okay, welcome and thank you both for being here. Appreciate it. Great. Thanks. And we have
020Emily Mateek. Mateek. Now Emily's fun to talk about because she is uh a Westlake grad. Um we were saying 2018. Is that what it was? And uh Mr. neighbor actually had to go over to the elementary as she was working in link to uh see if she wanted to accept this position. So, she really I think maybe found out this morning. Yes. So, she found out this morning and had to probably finish her workday and run home and get changed and then get here by 6:00 p.m. So, Emily, if you want to take a second and oh, by the way, um half day kindergarten and half day title. So that's what we have Emily coming in to do this year. Well, thank you all for being here. I appreciate that. And growing up in Westlake
021and going to the schools, it was awesome. I enjoyed the experience. And then getting to sub with the school district was very, very eye opening because all of the educators that I worked with are very wonderful people and I learned so much from all of them. So, being able to be here full-time and working with these groups of people that I know very well very closely now that I'm here full-time, I'm very excited to do that. Super. And in high school, what did you participate in? Anything? Um, I did basketball and then I threw discus for the track and field team. Good. Awesome. All right. Any questions for Emily? Welcome back. Thank you. I don't think she's ever left. Yeah. Welcome. Well, she went home. Now, I will say so we do have um when
022we look so with with Colin coming in and administrative position and uh with Madison coming in as um in in the full-time teaching position, I will tell you the the long-term subs are an incredible way to get in. And and I remember uh my wife, she's, you know, taught in in Lakewood as an intervention specialist and she was hired as a long-term sub and she's been there now for 30 years. And and I think we see that so frequently where people start one way and that's one of the things that even my daughter who is now in education I I would always advise her get into the district you want to be in in any way you can get in and then don't let them let you go. And and I think that's whether you
023come in um as uh a you know a teacher that's not on a subcontract or whichever way it is, it's getting in and then then really getting with the making relationships with your colleagues, the students, the families and it takes it from there. So we're really excited to have all of you joining us. The only other item that we have is we have two classified members who are employees of ours um who we brought in and they're helping us with our extended school year. We thought this would be a great opportunity to put them on the agenda as well um instead of waiting till the end of the month. But other than that, um I do not have any other items. And if it's okay with the board, um you Oh, the other only other
024thing on there is we do have some transition days for you Colin on here that I'm sure Carrie you come back when don't you come back soon. It is August 1st. Um but we will we do have some transition days for you to come in and uh get your office ready, get the lay of the land and do that. So that's the only other agenda item that we have on here. So if it's okay with something okay if it's okay with the board um I would say 3 A and B. Are those okay to put together since they both relate to column. All right. And then um might as well do C on its own, D on its own, and then E on its own. And you know just to give each person their own
025vote. Gotcha. Okay. Is there a motion to approve superintendent's uh resolution recommendation uh 3A and B? So moved. You did you so move it? I have second discussion. Rolloff. Yes. Wasinski? Yes. Fenukin? Yes. Craft? Yes. Lynn? Yes. Motion carries. Is there a motion to approve superintendence resolution uh 3C? So move. Second discussion. Roll call. I apologize. Mr. Craft, did you second it? I did. Thank you. Finukan, yes. Craft, yes. Lamb, yes. Lazinski, yes. Motion carries. Is there a motion to approve superintendent recommendation 3D? So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Lazinski? Yes. Fenukin? Yes. Graft? Yes. Land? Yes. Motion carries. And I move to approve superintendence recommendation 3E. Second. Discussion. Roll call. For the record, I have Pier not as the second. I do too. Um, KF, yes. Pirat, yes. Fenukin, yes. Lamb, yes. Lazinski, yes.
026Motion carries. Okay, now that concludes the voting uh part of this. Um, you're all welcome to go get on with your evening. Um, but I do want to emphasize again, if you are employed with another school district, you do need to submit your resignation prior to um, July 10th. So, awesome. Well, welcome and again tonight and we'll just continue with our meeting, but please don't feel like you're being rude if you get up and leave. Yeah, and enjoy the rest of your summer. Except for you, Conend. Right. Oh, yeah. Comments. Anything? I would just like to publicly thank uh Cooper Pollock who dressed up as our demon Fourth of July parade. He was ecstatic uh for the opportunity to do it and enjoyed every second of it. And um thank you to him for uh
027for doing that with us. And as always, the kids on the parade route absolutely loved the uh demon and seeing the demon and just waving and whatnot. So slashgoblin. We need to get some banners that say Wes Lake demon for a long They called him the demon. Oh my goodness. Demon, not the devil. It was the goblin and the monster this year. Some some looks on some of those younger kids faces was interesting. somewhere a little scared. There's usually gone and brands. Little snow. Absolutely. I I did have the opportunity after the parade. Uh our neighborhood had a bike parade for all the kids in the neighborhood and I dawned the uh team out. That was you wearing it? I went over there and waved and took pictures with some kids. Okay. Yes, I did.
028I understand the fan battery needs to be replaced. It's a Yeah, it's a warm outfit. Gota. Any other board comments? Yeah. Yeah. You look like you had a thought. No. No. I do want to make a note comment. Um I do know some people had reached out uh to advocate for public school education especially with the budget to the governor's office whatnot and I really do want to acknowledge their work and their advocacy and the governor for yes linetos and to continue the advocacy for public school education because it's not going to go away just so the point that that I think just to say it while we're being recorded and and it's being published out there is we we as a district um understand that you know property taxes revisiting that is not a
029bad thing and and it's something we would support. major concern with us is the vast majority of the uh property tax items that were placed in the budget bill um haven't been vetted there. They were ones that haven't been researched. Um I think nine of them um were not in the research that was done by the legislators earlier because they had a committee and they came up with suggestions and ideas and many of the ones that were put in the budget bill were ones that were not researched. And so at least that's what I'm told. And the issue if that's the case is you don't know what the ramifications short-term and long-term are or if you're truly going to get the benefits from those. And so that's why when the governor not just coming out
030and um drawing line item vetos but also said let's put put together a working group to actually look at um uh property tax probably reform that would be beneficial for property tax owners but also can be feasible. So I think that's something that I really appreciate that the governor did. What do you think the outcome will be with them the judge finding that the um voucher system is unconstitutional? I know it could take years, but do you think he'll be anything that'll come from that? I don't I I think um um just and again I'm I'm a school superintendent. I'm not an attorney. I don't know. But um uh they may get the appeal and um but I think if it gets to the state supreme court that is a a huge you know the
031way it's been described it's like you know that really hard uh ending of a video game like you know the big giant Donkey Kong that you can't get past the boss battle. Yeah. That what's that? Boss battle. So, whatever the boss battle is, that that one as it gets to uh our Supreme Court would be a boss battle. It would be a very tough one to win. And climbing up a grease bowl. Yep. Because it's probably destined for there matter which way it goes. Other thoughts, other comments? Is there a motion to adjourn to executive session to discuss the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion or compensation of an employee or official? So move. Second discussion. Roll call to enter into executive session 6:27 p.m. Fenukin, yes. Craft, yes. Lamb, yes. Lazinski, yes. Per, yes.
032Motion carries. Board will take no action in executive session nor when we exit executive session. You already said that in session.