001You're all set. All right. I call to order the Westlake City Schools regular board meeting for Friday, June 27th, 2025. Roll call. Craft here. Fenukin here. Lamb, present. Lazinski here. Mrs. Pirat uh could not join us uh today due to a work obligation. Would you all stand and join me in 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. We always begin our board meetings uh with a reminder of our mission and our vision. Our mission, we educate for excellence, empowering all students to achieve their educational goals, to direct their lives, and to contribute to society. And also our vision, the Westlake City School District will provide a dynamic
002student 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 or a strategic planning process, and tangible results. It's great to see everyone out there um both uh uh of course out there uh in the seats as well as online. Thank you for joining us today. I move to approve the agenda. Is there a second? Second. And uh discussion. Roll call. Craft. Yes. Lazinski. Yes. Pukan. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Motion carries. As we begin, uh this is our last meeting before we end our fiscal year and Westlake City Schools has had a tremendously successful year and that's due to uh really all of you. Uh, it begins with our
003leadership with our superintendent, Dr. Scott Gagan, our treasurer, uh, Mr. Todd Hopkins. I think of our administrative staff, our certified staff, our classified staff, all of our volunteers and volunteer organizations, our students, as well as our community. Um, this has been a challenging year and everyone has risen to that challenge and as a board we say thank you. We're going to move into recognitions and informative reports. Dr. Gagen. Yes. Um we have Paul Wilson here uh who's going to um start with our reports. Morning everybody. Great to see everybody this year. Appreciate you being here. So I thought I would talk to you a little bit today about student wellness success funds and disadvantaged uh pupil impact aid. So this is something that um we've had available to us for about the past four years.
004So the task with this and I'm going to read directly what we're supposed to use uh this for. So basically with these two funds, districts and schools must use at least 50% of these funds for mental health services or physical health care services or a combination of both. We are to develop a plan for using student wellness and success funds in collaboration with both community and mental health prevention and treatment providers, local drug addict local alcohol, excuse me, or local alcohol, drug addiction and mental health services and involving a community partner. So, what we were able to do was we were able to partner with the ESC of Northeast Ohio and we partnered with Crossroads Health. Crossroads is a mental health um agency that we work with primarily out of Jane uh Perry's office, but
005works in our schools to do some different things. So, through this partnership, uh we were able to focus on two areas, uh physical safety and mental health services. So, with physical safety, we focused this money on our nursing staff. So we were able to do that and then as far as mental health services we were able to focus on our social workers. So truly through this um through these funds we were able to cover the cost of these was about $264 uh,000. So through these two accounts we were able to use about $181,000 to cover that. So really for all of those services we only had about an $83,000 net to our general fund. So really uh thanks to uh Jane, thanks to Amanda working with Todd as well, we were able to take advantage
006of that. So any questions is that now I I was looking at something when you first started. Did you mention that the which of these grants are continuing like that we're going to have access to this year? Um for uh both of them for this year, but what we elected to do was we elected to use kind of to pay ahead so that we could do that. So, we're not sure if we will have this moving forward. At least I'm not sure if we will have have the if we will have this moving forward. So, these are both built into uh the state uh budget in the past. Uh to be honest with everything else with the state budget, I've not looked specifically to see if these are continuing into the next two years or
007not, but we will look as more information comes available. Other thoughts or questions? Okay, great. Thank you. Thanks, Paul. ready for me? I am. Okay. Um, a couple items that I want to uh touch on. Um, one we're really really excited about and uh the other we're going to have to work through. Um, what's more fun to start with? I guess I'll start I'll start with uh the I I'll start with House Bill 96. And we're I'm not going to dig too deeply into this because I know as Mr. Hopkins get in gets into some of his recommendations we'll be able to uh address parts of this. Um uh as a school district right now taking a step backwards um we are in a really busy time. Th this is a very busy time for
008schools. Uh people may look at it and say, "Well, your kids are at home, your staff are at home." But it's kind of like that time when um everybody leaves and then you have a whole line of workers and people who are trying to get everything cleaned, repaired, upgraded, all those kind of things. So, it's a mad scramble. You know, you have uh uh Fourth of July coming up, you have summer vacations that people have. um you have technology you want to put in, you have all these things that have to happen. So, it's kind of like one of those home improvement shows where you see people rushing around at the last minute to put the pillows in place and put the chairs in place in order to meet some sort of deadline. So this
009is a very very busy time and I think about it as I see our maintenance guys out our window window here working um and just want to acknowledge those who are spending this summer getting prepared while a lot of others are on vacation. So thank you for that. We're excited about what's happening and we're looking forward to uh the maintenance and upgrades that are that are happening within our facilities right now. Um, you know, another thing that we're dealing with and something that that does continue because uh, as Mr. Craft said at the very beginning of the meeting, this is where we end our fiscal year. We typically not do not do a Friday 9:00 a.m. board meeting. It's usually Monday at 6 p.m. Um, we're doing it Friday at 9:00 a.m. because we have
010a budget that needs to get we have to close our books. We need to get everything wrapped up for this fiscal year. Um, same thing with the state of Ohio. They need to have their budget passed. Um, and their budget bill is House Bill 96. Um, just this week, probably even yesterday, uh, it was approved by the House and the Senate, and it is going to the governor's desk for signature. um as we talk about it with our uh uh group that that's called the Alliance uh for highquality education. We had two meetings on this budget bill yesterday and with what was passed in the House and the Senate. Um, our conversation is we believe that as we look at look back upon this budget historically, this is going to have one of it's probably
011the most significant in my career that I that I'll say with the amount of stuff that's in there that the the document I think the bill was 6,000 pages and and the edits to it were about 600 pages. the amendments. So, this is this is huge and we're going to see some of these um we're going to see some immediate impact and then there's going to be impact that districts feel 2, three, four, five years from now. Um and there's going to be some that are going to hit some district's heart. Some of these items that are inside House Bill 96 may not impact us. Like I'll give you an example. Part of one section eliminates certain levies, emergency levies or certain levies you can't put on anymore. It takes away options for school districts
012to be able to go out fund their schools. But West, now you look at West like we don't use emergency levies. We don't we don't use some of those kind of levies. So you may say, well, it really isn't going to have an impact on us. But when we look at public education as a whole where there are communities that rely upon those, you know, certain levies for certain reasons, so we don't want to look at it say, well, just because it doesn't impact us doesn't mean it's not a relevant uh uh change within this House bill. Um, like I said, there's changes um to levies. you know, it's kind of the the fair funding uh school the the fair funding program for schools. Um the next two years are put into it, but they
013didn't change the they didn't update the inputs like kind of like the the different things that within the measure that really make the fair funding program the fair funding program. Um so there's there's a lot of stuff in here. The and and I'm not I'll give you another future one. So there's there's uh a part that gives um the county budget commission. Is that who gets the authority? Correct. The county budget commission um they are able to implement um let me find it here. allows uh county commissioners to to double the homestead uh exemption for eligible oyans which we don't have. I mean that's great. We think that relief should be there but there's no reimbursement mechanism. So that could be a true income loss for schools, you know, to where it's like we're going
014to give the breaks, but because in the past they would say they would then say, well, we're going to make districts whole through this, but now that component's not there. So there are some things that are not immediate, but if these things are put in place, you know, today we're going to talk about how there could be some funding taken away, but there's also uh in the future possibilities where funding is not going to come in. There's going to be less money coming in for some of those reasons. So there's there's a lot a lot a lot a lot in here. Um and um the part that that I think is the biggest immediate impact to the schools is that they they did uh uh put in a 40% cap on um uh carryover balances.
015Um for for those of you who um are not aware of how this board has done business for a long long time is um we haven't taken money and as a matter of fact when when Mr. Hopkins came in he did the opposite where there was there was money in different funds and he pulled them all out and made them very visible in our ending balance. That was a transparency uh mo move that we thought was uh very honest and to be able to do and say, "Well, we're going to take them out of these accounts. We're going to set them in the in the the the carryover so everybody knows what we have. This these are the funds that we have." And then we balance our budget. And then what we do is we
016have at the time it was Mr. Kosar, now it's Mr. house who will stand up and say here are five years worth of projects and we talk about those projects in finance committee and then finance committee will report to this board and we'll have a conversation and say this is we never have enough money in PI to do all the projects we want to do. So then what the board does is they take money from that general fund and they put it towards the projects. Now, our practice hasn't been to take all of our money and in one shot try and do every project that we have because you never know what's going to come up. So, we we will pick and choose projects to do. One example um is we we wanted to turf
017the baseball and softball fields and we didn't have enough money in the the permanent improvement account to do that. We move the money over this year. We want to build a new vestibule for safety reasons at Dober Intermediate School. We're moving the money over. So the the issue with this carryover is now the state is coming in and saying that because you're and our carryover is at 55%. Uh just over 6 months of of our budget, right? and and so um we think having six months is also a good practice as well. If you run a business, you generally don't want to be running month-to-month, you know, because people you need to be able to pay your bills. So, what we're going to have to do now is dedicate money specifically to those facilities and
018and and pull that out and do that. So, it's it's just something that takes away again, I think, local control and the flexibility for school districts to be open and honest with their public, which now we're going to have to be even more intentional to do. Um, so that that's kind of maddening. It's it's something where and especially at a time when they're giving the county commissioners more authority to be able to roll back millage if necessary. So if you see a district is doing this then instead of having a mandatory cap to roll that back. So one of the things and we may get into it a little bit more is I mentioned that this is going to the governor's desk. All right. It has not been signed yet. And one of the things
019that um that we had talked about was what are some uh what are some items that um we would like to encourage the governor to veto? Um and for us we would like to encourage and we would like our community to encourage um a line item veto veto on the cap. um we just you know don't believe that is something that is necessary that is really uh producing you know the benefit that is there and it really uh will will hamstring districts like us because here's the other part that it does is it pushes us to the ballot quicker and when you take I don't know $10 million out of our carryover and say they're going to be held in projects then we are going to run out of our general fund quicker, which means
020we're then going to have to go to the community and ask for taxes, a tax increase. So, in a district, um, and we have some teach some people who are coming in, uh, to teach force who are sitting here who are new to us, we have not passed an operating levy since 2006. So, if you think about the math there, um, and it was 19 years as of this past May. That is unheard of. It's unheard of. We are managing our money well. And and what you're now doing is saying we want you to manage that money differently. And then then a result of this is going to be we are going to have to go back to our taxpayers more frequently. And even when you even if the taxpayers support it, we can only
021pass a certain amount because we can't go over the 40%. So it's it's a structure that is going to it's I think it's going to be confusing for our community. It's going to be frustrating for our community and it's going to be like, wait a minute, you you didn't come back for 20 years. Now you're coming back every four years. What are you doing? Why are you mismanaging? Why aren't you take we gave you money? Why aren't you why aren't you using it correctly? So, I think it's going to be very confusing because it's very opposite of the way our city works, of the way our schools work and our community operates. So, I I think there's going to be some things that are going to be significantly impactful for the schools. Um, I'll pause
022there. Anything you want to add to that, Todd? Anything board members want to say? What I hear you saying is that every successful enterprise, every successful enterprise, every successful family, every financially successful enterprise or family works within their operating budget. And if they have special plans to put on a new roof, uh put in a new furnace, uh build a new factory, expand into new markets, you plan ahead and the district plans ahead. Uh Mr. Hopkins and Mr. House along with managing our operating budget very very well has presented to us always a list of those special projects which uh the district has planned very carefully for and put dollars aside has planned for these things, planned very very well and an entity wants to come along and disrupt that and that disruption appears to
023be you know um a very broad brush of stro uh stroke uh to that's going to affect all districts when maybe their effort should be focused on certain districts. But um that's what I hear you saying and and I do believe that the district has has always managed amongst other things um their financial fiscal responsibility very very well planned very well over time and there is going to be a disruption to that. I think the press has done a relatively good job with putting that out there. I think uh as a uh district community, as a as a West Lake community, we're going to have to continue to talk about a lot because this is uh in my opinion a very unfair disruption. I I agree totally. I think that uh they're trying to destroy
024public schools. Um I I have a question about the cell phone thing. I know it's not it's not with us. Is that okay? It is on there. Yeah, please go ahead. Okay. Which which annoys me be because I do think that should be local a local decision. That's my opinion. So what are the plans? Have the administrators talked about how they're going to handle the banning of the cell phones in the school. Yeah. So kind of and and what's I one of the things that we've been dealing with and and here's the other Yes. kind of. And and and the reason I have to say it like that is when I say they passed the bill, I don't believe there there they actually physically had the bill to vote on, you know. So we we're
025we're trying I think this was passed I I don't know it was like 1:00 in the morning on I can't remember what was it Tuesday. Tuesday. And so we're trying to piece together um specifically, you know, what what things mean. And when you when we talk about the cell phone, I'm also going to say that not everything in there's good components to this bill. There there's things inside there that um I would support. I think it's good. I will tell you for me, I agree with you. I don't like the the the the push against local control, but the cell phone thing to me is I can really go either way. I could see the benefits of not having them in there, you know, and we had our own policy anyway. The issue that we
026have is in some areas we don't have specifics. And so from what we've seen from that cell phone ban was that it is prohibited during instructional time. Now, we haven't seen the definition of instructional time. Um, is it something is is travel in the hallways instructional time? Is lunch instructional time? Is study hall instructional time? So, you know, do we need to actually get the pouches and then have kids put them in and we we set them aside and and they get them at the end of the day. So, and then the other part is the a previous bit of legislation that they passed. We need to share our um cell phone policy because remember this has been a topic and they've said in the past that we encourage you to not uh allow cell
027phones during the day, but we're mandating that you have a cell phone policy and that you share it with your community and parents by a certain date. We have a policy and we have it loaded up in our registration gateway. So when parents start doing their paperwork in two weeks, um our policy is listed there and they're going to acknowledge that they've seen it. Well, that policy is going to change because once the governor signs it in 90 days, our policy is obsolete and and it has to be different. So, it's just weird where we we want to be able to share with parents and we'll put an asterisk in there saying this is our policy right now, but it will be changing, you know, um based on legislation that has been passed. So, we
028are talking about it. We are putting plans together. We don't know if in K6 is our current policy already compliant because we don't allow cell phones and and we don't allow them during lunch or during three times. It's 7 through 12 where kids can have it during lunch and and uh times. As a matter of fact, I don't even know if 7 through 78 allows um that during lunches. So, we're trying to get it together, but we're missing specifics to what the band looks like. It's just tough, right? And with 6,000 pages of the bill and 600 pages of amendments, I doubt that there's anybody in Columbus that actually knows what's in the whole thing. And what we need to do, Barb, and and one of our goals though is whatever we're going to do,
029I want to have it in place on the first day because I don't want to say, well, you know what, 90 days from when he signs, it's going to be October. So, starting October, this is going to be the new cell phone policy. I want to open the year with what it's going to be because putting putting staff in a building in position to change that two months into the school year is crazy. So, do you um is there a possibility that the kids will have to not have the phone on their their like would they put them in their lockers and not be allowed to have them during the day or could they still have them? I mean, there's going to there's a lot of different ways you can do it, and I think
030it's going to be based on building. So, let's just take the Dover campus as an example. If you have a home room based uh system where kids report to a home room, they can put their cell phones in their homework. Like, you could say, "Okay, here's a calculator pouch or a box or a case or some place where we're going to secure these cell phones." Um, and then they'd be able to retrieve them at the end of the day. the high school would be different where high school I don't believe next year you don't h or Britney as well you don't have a home room base yeah so you know it's not like you're going to drop them off in your first period and then report back to your first period so I think it
031could it could be different based on the structure of your your school day and and schedule so but we'll get it we listen it's it's something it's not it's not insurmountable and and That's my my final point I want to make about this is, you know, there there there there was one element when when there was an attempt to put into this house bill um removing inside Mill that that would have if if that would have happened and then if the community didn't vote to reestablish those that millillage that's $12 million a year correct $12 million a year which I'm looking to then cut 100 teachers now that did no the people who are getting jobs today are looking at me and so um but everybody every district will be in that position you know
032when you if you were to take away that inside millillage fortunately that was not put in this bill so there when when you know the saying is it could have been worse. This could have been a lot worse and and there are elements into this that are going to be frustrating. We're going to have to make sure that everything is aligned. But the but when as from what we've been able to review and what we've seen, we can work through this. We can we can manage this. We can work through this. We're going to work through this. um it's just adding it's taking away some of that local control and some of that good planning that we're used to and and and being able to do. So the good news is now I will also
033put a warning out there. House Bill 335 is where that inside millillage was. There are people who still want to push that because as we get to fall, there will be a lot of conversations about property taxes because something that everybody agrees on is something has to be done with property taxes and and so that's something that most people can agree that some change needs to happen. So, I do believe you will hear again this pushing of uh eliminating the inside millage and pushing that to an area where it does need to be voted upon. So, I think that that could reemerge. It's not in here, but it's something we really need to keep our eye on as well. But as it's written and as it's been described to us, looking at everything, the uh
034elimination of emergency levies or different types of levies, a lot of these things are not going to impact us immediately. The one thing that we will act on today and and we do need to plan for is that 40% gap. So, I was just going to say I hate working with attorneys um on a daily basis. So, my questions are in the language. Does it say county commissioners or I wonder how that's phrased in the bill? It's phrased in the bill as the county budget commission. So, that's different in different uh uh counties. Your budget commission is generally made up, I believe, of your county auditor, county prosecutor, and maybe the county treasurer. So, how would that work in Kyoga County and Summit County because we're executive base? So, we are and they still have
035a appointed budget commission. Okay. So, we I work with the budget commission on a regular basis for our amended certificates uh uh do not exceed uh certificates, different things like that. I didn't know if there was a difference because, you know, there's 86 county or counties with county commissioners and just two of us with the county executives. I don't know how that would play in the bill. No, it's it's specifically budget commission and all 88 counties have a budget commission. Okay. And then uh um you mentioned pouches for cell phones, the possibility of pouches for cell phones. Is that another unfunded mandate by the governor? Well, and but they're not saying you have to get pouches, but but it but that's one of the things that you know um that's that is definitely something you
036struggle with and and well, we have this and we have this conversation within our group that we do share with our legislators is and and I I I don't want to paint the legislators with a a brush as as them being evil people. When you sit and talk to them, they're like, "How can we help you? What can we take away? what can we do to make this easier? And what they what we try and emphasize and doesn't seem to click is that every new rule you add every one of them whether it's um rents the reading improvement programs whether it's you know sticking with literacy um you know science of reading all which could be great things everything that you're doing someone has to manage. So now when you're doing the the new if
037you want to do something different with cell phone someone has to manage it. So I have to turn I have Britney there as the new middle school principal she is going to have to manage it and that is going to take time from her day. So whether it's time resources, fiscal resources, all those kind of things, when you see a bill come out and say, "Here are the new things for school districts, someone has to manage them." We have a good amount of our treasurer's office back there. So when we're talking a lot a lot about the fiscal responsibilities there, guess who's going to have to manage these new fiscal components? Them. So that's another part. We do talk about the the financial purchase order of and and the the that resource we have to
038spend on a pouch but the other resources of of time and then they put on top of it saying your management you know your administration fees can't be over 15%. It's like okay well you're giving more stuff for administrators to manage but you can't administer. So it's just kind of it we're going to I think we're going to get through it. That's the message I want to give to our community and to our new staff, we are going to get through it. But you need to know that when you know school districts are coming to the ballot more frequently and doing those kind of things, that is the new structure they're establishing. So we'll do it. We'll we'll we'll get done what we need to get done in order to provide services to our kids.
039But this is the new way of doing things. and and we do believe House Bill 96 is going to significantly change the landscape of that. The last thing I would like to say is that uh I know there was like um we've got strong advocates at the statewide level in the form of um state representative Sweeney and state senator Antonio. So I know that we've been or various members of Westlake have been in communication with them. I'd like to thank them for all their efforts um throughout this entire process. And I know that uh um I had a conversation with State Senator Tom Padden, although he doesn't represent us, he has in the past here in Westlake, and it was a good conversation that I know he was advocating um for a number of things
040for for schools. Um I also reached out to uh Mike Dilla, the state representative from the Strongsville area. He didn't bother to get back to me, but ultimately I'm not surprised by that. So, but I do want to thank uh Representative Sweeney and uh Senator Antonio for, you know, working for our best interests here at Westlake. What else do we have for Dr. Gag? I add real quick with uh on House Bill 96. Just um and it's specifically here for our new staff and uh people who are watching on uh online. Um I've had the opportunity I've been in education now uh uh this my starting my 24th year. Uh it's certainly unprecedented what's going on right now and the timing of everything. But uh as we hire you guys on uh coming to our
041district and for our existing employees, uh the big difference that you're going to see here at Westlake then you'll see at other districts is uh the leadership of the district uh is amazing compared to districts uh that I've worked at before. uh your board of education who's sitting here in front of you today um is a uh a thoughtful, dedicated uh calm um and uh uh calculated in making their moves. Um this is a huge huge huge huge huge change that we're facing, but you're not seeing panic from your board. Okay. Um you'll go see other yet, but even as we've had this, you're not seeing panic from your board and and previous as well. You'll go out there right now and you'll see uh different superintendents speaking or boards speaking who are will be
042in panic mode today. Okay, that's not what we have. And that's due in large part, okay, in really the major the 99.9% to the uh the direction that this board of education gives, the superintendent, the direction and oversight that he gives here in making our moves. um we have a history of being very financially thoughtful u and financial planning as uh has been mentioned here uh already um and that's not always the case. So, while there is a lot of uncertainty, okay? And while, uh, I certainly, uh, can't sit, uh, sit here and say that I'm not stressed out by all of the changes, um, I can look at you with a straight face and, uh, look at you with complete honesty and say that you're coming to a great district, that we will manage
043these, uh, challenges. And I'm confident in that because of the leadership that you have, uh, sitting here at this table. So, uh, I want to thank the board of education and Dr. for uh their uh uh leadership and uh this is something that is going to be a challenge but uh we will get through it and uh we'll work through it. So, thank you. One other item that we're we may ask uh in in our hopefully recommendations for veto since you're bringing up the board is one item they put in there was um for board of education uh elections to become partisan. Um historically, um when you run for the board of education, you don't run as a party. Um, and that's something that may sound like a a small deal, you know, to where
044you do have to affix a party to your um uh candidacy. The issue that I could say that me and a lot of my colleagues have is we don't view education educating children as a partisan affair. We believe that it really should be nonpartisan. And one of the things this court does and this district does is we do not run this district in a partisan way. And and we think that's a really really big deal. And um so that that's yet another thing inside here that when you start to see boards of education come together, you really could see them become more partisan bodies than actually nonpartisan looking for the good of children and not of a party. So, just some things we're going to have to work through, but that's where we are. But
045I'm going to switch gears if I can. Sure. Um, you know, uh, one of the things that we we have in our school district is, um, it is a life cycle where we have teachers retire and new teachers come in. You know, we're always grateful to those who served the district for a number of years. Uh but we're also excited to bring in uh the next generation of Westlake educators. Um one of the things we have done uh as we talk about fiscal management was we do know our enrollment's down. So every position when it is vacated we do uh analyze it look at it and say is it something that we should replace could replace and would be appropriate to replace. um this going into this next year, uh we have um reduced four
046positions, I think four FTEEs. Bob's back there. He's shaking his head. Yes. Um and that's good for you guys to know as you're coming into a district because you don't want this is a relationship. You're trusting us to come in and be good employers and and to be uh thoughtful about your careers. And if we overstaff, that puts you at risk. So, as we go into every year, we want to make sure that we are using those opportunities to make sure our staffing is appropriate. Um, so that's why we're very happy and excited to welcome all of you um to the Westlake schools. You are on the agenda for today. And if I could um just have I'll call each of you up and just say hello. And now remember this is on YouTube, right?
047So, and and if you look at our YouTube channel, we probably have about 1.2 million views no anything like that. No, there's probably about So, yeah, I don't know all the trending, but um but yeah, but it is an opportunity for you to stand up and introduce yourself to the community and say hello, say who you are, kind of where you're from, where you go to college, uh what you teach, and why you're excited to be coming to Westlake. and Isaiah, since you are at the end, uh we'll ask you to come up to the podium there and just introduce yourself. All right. So, we already spoiled my first name, but my name is Isaiah Patton. I'm from a small town about 45 minutes away, Manowway. It's close to Aurora and Streetsboro area. Um I
048went to Kent State University for the last 5 years, studied health and PE, and I'm going to be teaching that at the high school this upcoming year. I'm very excited for the opportunity to get to know high school students, work with a new community and a very involved and trusted community and just to see where my career takes me. But I'm very passionate about health and PE and I think the connections that I'll make for this year and forward will be amazing. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Isaiah. Uh Adrian. Hello. I'm Adrien Perez. I I grew up in Lakewood my whole life, so not too far from here. similar district. I feel like um I went to Cleveland State originally for early childhood and then I I found a deeper passion for PE and health.
049So I went to Finley online and I got my PE license in that. Um but yeah, I'm extremely excited to to get started, very eager. Um amazing meeting everybody here and just very excited to to build those relationships, get to know everybody. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Adrian. Gia. Now, Gia has the added bonus of being a Westlake alum. Hello, I'm Gia Salomus. I actually am from Westlake, Ohio. Um, Dr. Scott Gaggin said, I graduated in 2019. I um went to Miami University and I graduated in 2023, was it? I think it was. Um, and I will be the new high school math teacher. Very excited to be back in my home area. So, yeah, thank you for having me. Thanks, J. We have Sydney coming up. Hi, I'm Sydney. Um, I went to Ohio
050State and I kind of stayed in Columbus. I'm coming from Warthingington City Schools there where I've been teaching fifth grade math um for the past couple of years. Um, I will be teaching seventh grade science at Lee Bernison. Um, and I'm originally from Cleveland. I grew up on the east side, graduated from Bumont um in Cleveland Heights, and I'm just so drawn to Westlake from the community and everyone's commitment to really supporting students. And that was really evident in all my interviews and even today, everyone's willingness to work through things together. So, super excited for this week. Thank you. Thanks, Sydney. Um it's good to have a Buckeye. See? Yeah. You know what Brad's excited? He's got a Westlake alum. He's got a Buckeye. They can't state or they All right, Alison. Yeah. Well, I'm
051a bit of both. Um, I my undergrad, I actually studied communications, worked in marketing for a couple of years, went back to school at Kent to get my masters in art education because art is always something I've been passionate about. Love art. Um, I actually did my student teaching here at Westlake a couple years ago with Kristen Regus and now I am replacing her at Fernison. I'm very excited to be back here in the community because it's where I kind of got my start in education. Love the schools. Love just her mentorship and what she taught me and helped create me to be, you know, the teacher that I am today. Um, I am from Cleveland. I'm from Kirtland area, so that's where I went to high school. I live in Cleveland now for past
052five, six years. Um, but I'm really excited to be here. Oh, and I actually am coming from Midview, so that's where I've been teaching arts for the past two years. So all over the place, but very excited to be here and meet everybody today. Thanks. We have two other people who are on the agenda. You guys can come up together, Nick and Britney. Um you really I mean we know evil. Um so we have uh uh two folks who happen on the high school administration. Nick Ronaldo is our athletic director and Britney Meta as um an assistant principal. Uh Britney is uh replacing DJ Shaw who is heading back to his alma mater um Keystone High School and Britney is going to is on the agenda to move into the role as the head principal
053Lee Bernison. Now that opened an assistant principal role um at the high school and Nick Ronaldo um just historically with Nick uh Nick was Nick in in Chippoa and in Madina Highland. um had a dual role. He was assistant principal and athletic director. He joined the Westlake schools as an athletic director, but has also shown an interest in moving back into the administration as an assistant principal with uh Britney moving to Lee Bernison, opening up that assistant principal position. Nick is now fulfilling the other half of his previous jobs. Uh is coming in and back into an assistant principal role. So, we're excited uh for both of them to join um their new positions and we are in process of um replacing Nick. Uh we do have interviews coming up for uh the athletic director
054role. Um so that should be filled shortly. Anything you guys I mean you guys are veterans, but say I've been here three years, absolutely love this district. I've taught uh in two other districts here in Ohio throughout my career and absolutely love that I landed here. Um, middle school is kind of my thing. I taught 14 years of middle school. So, I'm very excited to get back to, you know, the bulk of my career where I was and just really kind of build on TJ's foundation that he got rolling the last two years. So, I'm very excited to to get back to my roots, I should say. Yeah. And I'm looking forward to get back to the academic and instructional side. I was a classroom teacher for 10 years. Um, you know, 7 through 12
055integrated social studies, and I taught a wide variety of, uh, disciplines. So excited to get back into that role. Um, you know, we live in my wife and I live in Westlake. My wife teaches at Dover. She's been there now 17, 18 years, which is crazy to think. We have three kids at West. So, I'm happy to be still in the district in a new role. Um, and ready to get going. Stupid. Are you The three are already in school. They are. They were still little guys. Green school first and second. Wow. Hey Nick, I know who the PE teacher is going to be. Yeah, by the way, also Nick, these guys coach as well. I've spoke to F. Yep. Wow. Congratulations. And I think my daughter's quote to me this morning was either vote
056for Mrs. Matchka and Mr. Ronaldo or don't bother coming home. Caroline, thank you. Well, Mike Caroline, thank you. And I think you both did a a really great jobs at your previous roles and uh uh so we're looking forward to new beginnings. Thank you. And that concludes my report to the craft. Thank you, Dr. Gagan. Uh Mr. Hopkins, thank you. Um you know, I'll go over a couple things very briefly and then um uh and then we'll talk more as I get into recommendations if that's okay. But um first and foremost, uh I do want to thank the board of education for meeting here this morning. Uh as Dr. Goagan had said, um we typically don't meet um uh at 9:00 a.m. on a on a Friday. Um we do meet uh typically on the
057last business day of our fiscal year uh in order to do one last appropriation measure. So I appreciate your time and willingness to meet here this morning. Um and then as I have some uh things in my personal life, I appreciate specifically meeting here uh today compared to Monday when uh I will be out of the office. But um so that so thank you for being here. Uh additionally I do uh like to take the opportunity because um I am very blessed working here not only with board but I have an amazing staff and my staff is here tonight. Not tonight, this morning. I'm say I'm used to the tonight meeting. So, uh, uh, this morning and, um, you know, so I do want to recognize them because, uh, you're going to see a lot
058of resolutions here, uh, today, uh, specifically, uh, through my recommendations, far more than I normally do. and uh the work that my staff uh uh does is amazing. Uh and really is and and our awards that we've received uh the quality of our financials are reflective not of me or my name that might go on things, but rather my staff. And so I have uh the four amazing staff members sitting back there. I've got Mary Stutter, who uh does AP uh for us, accounts payable. I've got Robin Allen, who I call her my Robin because uh I've got two Robins, but she's my Robin. Uh she not only uh takes care of as my uh administrative assistant, but also uh handles all of our uh uh AP and requisitions for our non-general fund or or
059our activity accounts is really what it is. Uh so uh I also have Robin Murray and and I'm going to pick on Robin Murray here uh for uh one she's our our payroll manager but uh this is probably the last June meeting that Robin will be at. Uh Robin is looking to retire after a very long career. All that has been here at Westlake. So she has been here for uh 30 years or coming up on her 30th year with uh yeah hitting 30 years in May. Yeah. So, she'll uh 30 years and she's uh uh coming up on her last year uh with the district or at least that's a plan. I continue to try to talk her out of it. Uh I ask her for just 12 more years. That's you know, nothing
060too much more. But uh you know, so uh uh she uh handles our payroll and uh if you've ever worked uh in payroll or know someone who does, uh it is not an easy piece because it is a cycle that as soon as you finish you start again. And so it's a it's uh for her it's been a 30 plus year cycle that just doesn't stop. But we appreciate it because as employees we want to get paid. Um and then I have uh in front uh uh uh there I have Robera Ren and and Robera is our assistant treasur has moved into that position uh a couple years ago and uh is really my right hand especially as we have uh come through to uh finalize our numbers for the fiscal year. So I want
061to thank each of them personally and I just want to draw attention uh of the board to them as well and the work that they do uh here. Um as I had said uh there's a lot of uh recommendations uh here on the board. Um there are a number of them directly in response to house bill 96 that was passed uh as Dr. Gagan had said and we've spoken about here uh as well. Um, as I stated, uh, I'm I'm caught off guard, uh, with, uh, a number of changes, uh, that have been put into this House bill. Uh, it truly is unprecedented, and I don't mean that to be dramatic. Uh, it's just as, uh, 24 years in education, I've not seen something like this. Um, we've seen changes in foundation formula. We've seen
062changes um in uh uh some of the funding mechanisms, but uh for the state legislature to go after um districts and and uh you know, I will stand up uh and defend this district because uh we are a district that uh has uh exceptionally high marks on the quality of our education and our staff who uh provide uh a true quality education to our students. um we uh have been fiscally responsible carrying over uh uh money so that we can stay off the ballot and that's clearly shown uh in the uh staying off the ballot now for uh 19 uh years. Um we are a district that has worked with our our city and the economic development of our city to sustain long-term growth. Um, and we are a district who has done all of
063that while uh assessing to our community one of the lowest tax rates uh in the state. Um, and so right now we're sitting at just under 22 mills um of uh uh of a taxable rate uh effective tax rate for our residential homeowners and the state minimum is 20 mills. So when even when we hear about other districts that are on uh the 20 mil floor, which is that state minimum, um most all of them have uh either uh additional property tax levies that do not qualify for the 20th floor. They're considered outside the 20th floor or uh have income taxes. And so for our district to sustain uh 20 plus or 19 plus years now off the ballot uh to do it while carrying over uh uh uh funds and and to have it
064at at such a low millage rate and now be uh uh uh looked at as we've done something wrong or at least that's how I feel and we're being you know uh uh disciplined per se by the state legislature uh is stunning to me and and and I and I don't fully understand it. Um, I do appreciate uh again uh with true honesty the uh the board of education here and your uh input on this as we've spoken about some of these uh resolutions. Uh I appreciate uh the insight of the board members who serve uh with me as a treasurer's finance committee. U and I know Miss uh Pirat Miss Pernot couldn't join us here today, but she's been fantastic in communicating with me. I know Dr. and and and the board here about
065some of the changes as she has uh uh been almost uh she's our legislative liaison but has also acted as a liaison between us and uh some of the local uh representatives to pass along information. So I appreciate that uh her involvement uh with that as well. So um I think I'll just leave it at that and we'll get into more uh as we get to recommendations if if that's okay. Thank you Mr. Hopkins and really your entire staff. Thanks for the wonderful work that you do every day. It's appreciated. At this time, we have a hearing of the public. The public may address the board during periods of the meeting designated for public participation. We, the board of education, do not engage in public debate and especially do not have a public discussion about
066individual 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 speak 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 the majority board president voting. If anyone would like to address the board at this time, please do so. We have all had an opportunity to review our minutes. All those that approve those minutes for June I'm sorry the May 19th 2025 uh meeting say I. Those opposed say no. Minutes are approved. Going to move on to Mr. Hopkins treasur's recommendations. Thank you Mr. President. Um I think there's about
06710 resolutions here in front of you. Uh I'll go through them briefly, but uh if you have questions, feel free to either stop me or at the end I'm happy to answer any of the questions uh that you may have. Um the first two are asking the board of education to establish two new funds. Um one is the uh 070 fund or 070 fund 07 uh uh 070 fund. This is a capital improvement uh fund specifically for capital projects. Um, I am asking the board to move $10 million into that fund uh specifically so that we could work through uh our uh capital improvement plan that has been presented by Mr. House uh and Mr. Kosar before him. Um, under this resolution uh the district uh the board has 10 years uh from the date
068of this resolution to enter into contracts for uh those projects. If the board does not, the board can just send the fund and send money back to general fund. Um so there additionally we have uh some of our PI funds so that uh if projects are not on your capital improvement plan we can uh we can also use other funds in our PI to do those projects as well. So uh it gives us some some flexibility. So uh please don't feel that it is uh tied only to uh uh the capital improvement plan because we can add additional ones through the PI fund. Um, we have some, uh, most of our termination benefits, our severance, uh, was paid out. Uh, but I have a little bit more that I would ask the board to move
069into an 030 or 035, I'm sorry, 035 fund. And, uh, that is specifically for termination benefits. Uh, so I am asking the board to move a little over $58,000 into that fund. Um as we do every year um I I am not able to end the fiscal year um in uh a negative uh in any of our funds. So I need to uh advance funds out of general fund into uh other funds. You'll see these are all uh grant funds. Uh the way that we work with uh grants in in the state of Ohio is we expend the funds first and then we request the money back through a project cash report. Um, in this case, uh, we had just filed project cash reports on most all of these grants and received money, but we
070still have constant spending as we've, uh, continued to do payroll and then paying some last invoices that were able to get in before the end of the fiscal year. But I'm still in the negative, uh, on a number of, uh, those funds and I'm asking the board to move uh, or to advance those funds. Remember, advances are uh, loans, not uh, gifts. So, uh, we advance the funds. When we get the money back from the federal government, we return those advances back at general fund, uh, next fiscal year. Uh, I have a handful of then and now, uh, uh, certificates. If you have questions, please let me know. Um, E, I'm asking the board to enter into a contract with CTOR. Uh, as has been presented to the board, uh, we are looking to move
071forward with a interior vestule at, uh, DIS. I don't have final numbers on the contract uh yet, but I'm asking the board to authorize me uh once I get the contract to an amount not to exceed $275,000. It creates a uh interior brick and glass vestibule that will allow uh dual uh entry or or dual points of uh uh restricted entry. So, you'll walk in uh to uh DIS courtyard uh where the door to the office is right now. That door will be taken out and will be relocated. Uh really only about 10 feet, you know, 10 15 feet away. Um there'll be a new door. We're going to put a little bit of a overhang over it. Uh so that you'll be protected from rain. Uh you'll have to be buzzed into that door.
072Once you go into that door, there will be this now new glass and brick uh interior vestibule. Um you'll then go to another door where you'll have to be uh buzzed in again. and that will then get you into the main office. Um, obviously this is for uh better security for our building students and staff uh in that building. Um, but it also matches what all of our other buildings are uh educational buildings. So if you go either uh LBMS, the high school or or the elementary, this is the same dual restricted entry that um we're proposing here. Um, moving on um to F, I am asking the board uh in consultation with Mr. House and Mr. uh Banks um to uh allow us to purchase two new uh buses. Uh if you recall, we're
073uh a bus cycle where we have a fleet of a little over 40 buses and so we're looking to uh keep them uh replaced on a a regular basis. So this is two more. Uh the prices are uh like everything else in the world right now, uh up a little higher than they have been before, including um a $2,500 per bus tariff fee uh for some of the uh pieces and parts that they need to uh import in. So, uh that's unfortunate, but it keeps us on a schedule to replace some of our older buzzes. Uh G, we are asking the board to uh approve property insurance. So, it's our fleet liability and property insurance. This is an annual resolution that I asked the b the board to do. Uh this is uh the property
074insurance is up this year about 10%. Uh this is in line with uh and not I'm sorry, not just property, the total package is up about 10%. This is in line with uh what we're seeing in the market for insurance in general. Um I wish it uh I wish it wasn't, but uh you know, we are working our best and uh Mr. House is working with Ohio school uh the Ohio school plan um which we get our insurance through and uh pricing out other options. And you'll see that we've separated out uh our cyber insurance and our crime insurance to uh under Ohio school plan but with two separate underwriters. And then uh moving on to uh H uh I have uh transportation deemed impractical. Again, uh under state law, uh you know, we've had
075in the past, we had done this a little, uh closer to the school year. Now, under state law, uh this has to be approved. So, we can give notification uh with a minimum of 30 days before uh the start of the school year for uh uh the students. So, this will allow us to get the transportation department to move this out. This is not adding any new uh uh schools. We're not changing the status of any schools from last year. Uh this is whatever schools were deemed impractical last year. This is a continuation of that. Uh we are currently under uh appeals process on two schools that we uh have uh deemed impractical uh last year and uh but it's a process of changing it from deemed uh uh impractical uh to allowing us to
076just make a payment uh as we're still running routes for those two specific schools. But uh we're working through the process and this again when Dr. Gagen talks about changes and having to manage changes this is another change that they made uh you know in the past couple years where uh it is a significant process to go through uh changing a school that that had transportation to impractical. Uh I've got I and J are your step and wage increases for you exempting your administrative staff. Um this is uh the increases and the step and the base increases are in line with both what the board approved uh under the collective bargaining agreements for your certified and your classified staff. Uh K um you know it took me a long time to get there, but this
077is uh the real reason why we're here today. Um it's one last opportunity for the board to do permanent appropriations uh before the end of the fiscal year. So I'm asking the board to approve our appropriations. uh you'll see um in the information I provided for you um you know this is uh about nine.9 million more than uh I had anticipated but that's uh due to the transfer uh so we would have came in less than what we had uh uh board approved in May as our five-year forecast but uh we are uh living in a different world than we did in May u and then L I'm asking the board to do temporary appropriations for next fiscal Temporary appropriations allow us to operate uh up until October 1st. Um by October 1st, the board
078of education needs to approve uh permanent appropriations. Uh so temporary appropriations this year I've set at uh roughly 70%. Uh I think uh actually I used uh 75% in my calculation, but what we put into the system I try to be under that. So I'll do about 70% of the system. Uh this allows purchase orders requisitions to move forward in July and August as we work on the uh budgeting pro work through the budgeting process and uh ultimately to present permanent appropriations to the um I know it's a lot. Um I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. I have a question on a which is the vestibule. Yep. Will that be done before school starts? that is uh the one that is our intent two that is what we've been uh told
079to plan for. So I will say at this moment in time on June 27th yes uh there we can always run into uh uh uh obstacles but right now uh the construction company's on on board with that uh the attorneys on board with that and the district's on board with that. So yes, our deadline that we've given them I think was August 24th, 26th, something like that. 24th. So August 24th, uh that's it needs to be completed before students show up. Uh it may not be completed before staff show up and that's okay. We can direct staff around, but um uh every intent is to have it finished before uh the uh students show up. And I'm trying to recall at the um student entry, are there two doors for each student entry or just
080a single door? I think it's two double doors as you go into U. Yeah. So, it's four doors total. The the two double doors that you go in uh that that doorway, that entrance will not be touched. Okay. Uh this is all working just to the right of that and then inside just to the right of that as viewing from the exterior. Thank you. So, um uh but our goal is to have it finalized before the the students are there so that just having construction around does not impact them. Right. Uh, two quick things. First, thank you um for everything. And second, should you and you for send out any type of architecture plans, could you please give a notation so that I don't have a little PTSD? Took me back to the days on
081planning commission and meetings that last about eight hours literally. But no, thank you very much. Thank you. Other questions or thoughts for Mr. Hopkins? Is there a motion to approve treasures recommendations 5A through 5 L? So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Lamb. Yes. Benukan. Yes. Craft. Yes. Lazinski. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Dr. Guy. Thank you. Uh starting off the one that I will read in its entirety is our gifts and donations which is 6A. Uh big thank you Gary Dilo um for donating $5,000 to the Chad Dilo Spirit Award Scholarship Fund at Westlake High School. Mr. and Mrs. John Lux donating $5,000 to the Gavin D. Lux Memorial Scholarship at Westlake High School. Mark Sarna donating $500 to the Frank Sarna Memorial Scholarship Fund. Michael Sarna uh donating $500 to the Frank Sarna Memorial
082Scholarship Fund at Westlake High School. Um Westlake High School Music Boosters donating $7,000 to the band department at Westlake High School. And I skipped intentionally um Westlake Demon Athletic Boosters for donating 57,000 25760. When you look at the items that that they donate um to that our athletic department, it's amazing. uh the support not only from music boosters, athletic boosters and and our organizations are incredible and we are very very grateful um for what they uh donate to better the opportunities for our students here in Westlake. Now the rest of these I put these in in categories for me. So when you look at six B, C and D, uh these pertain to certified employment, whether uh you saw the new teachers who were here today, um Britney and Nick, uh they're included. When you
083look at B, C, and D, letters E and F are classified staffing. When you look at letters G through J, those are going to pertain primarily to athletics. when you're looking at event workers, student workers, and uh coaching supplementals. Letter K is in regard to personnel for Project Link. By the way, just a thing for pro for Camp Link. And talking to Mike Waters, I think it was one of the first days they had, they had one of the largest and most attended that they've ever had, and they could take more. They had over 400 kids. Oh my gosh. Um, and they it's it's crazy. I mean, they are running. It is it is getting it's our enrollment is going down, but our participation in Camp Link is is going up. So, just an incredible
084job that they're doing there. That at West. Primarily at West. They were here a little bit yesterday. Um, but primarily at West. Yes. Letters L through R. These are going to be uh recommendations that pertain to special education like our ESY program, that's extended school year program, um preschool, and also summer cleaners. So that's not special ed, but they're they're within uh when you look at L through R, those are what those are going to cover. S through W are going to be contracts whether it's through purchase services like the ESC um uh the the project link handbook is in there uh me memorandum of understanding with Bowling Green State University. So that's what you're going to see in S through W in letter X 6X that is a resolution to adopt the business and
085fine arts textbooks um and materials. That's something that I think Liz and Barb sat in on um in that discussion as well. And then letters Y through BB are amendments to previous resolutions. Um if it is okay with the board, I would probably do 6A on its own because it's always nice to recognize those gifts. 6B and C together, that's the uh teachers and administrator positions. and then the rest uh letters D through BB I think would be appropriate to have together as well. Is there a motion to approve superintendence recommendation 6A? So moved. Second. Discussion will include uh as Dr. Gen said, thank you. Thank you to all of those that give so much to the district of Westside School. Other comments, I would just echo what uh the president just said. It's amazing
086to see the uh contributions by the uh the booster organizations and we're truly fortunate to have uh uh have them working with us to help uh our students out. Other comments. Roll call. Lzinski, yes. Panukan, yes. Craft, yes. Lamb, yes. Motion carries. Is there a motion to approve superintendent's recommendation 6B and C? So move. Second. Discussion. I just want to say in particular, happy for all of our new uh partners that are joining us here at Westlake City Schools. in particular the solution of Britney and Nick brought a smile to every board member's face. It's exciting to see them in their their further comments. The all the faces are so young when I s oh my god I guess that's good. Further discussion call. Yes. Lazinski. Yes. Craft. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Motion carries. Now you
087can go. Yeah. And I move to approve superintendent's recommendations 6D through 6B. Second. Discussion. I know this is a tangent, but I think I'm I'm always excited to hear about the success of uh Link and with uh with Link and um so many possibilities there. So much that's going on and and it seems like leadership there too is always thinking about, you know, next steps, what what else can uh it's just exciting to see that uh that program continue to grow. Mike Waters is always the guy where he never says no. He's like, "We can do it." Yeah, we can do it. You know, we're gonna have over 400 people. We can do it. And every family you talk to just uh enjoys that uh so much. Other comments or thoughts? Rooff. Craft. Yes. Lamb.
088Yes. Yes. Lazinski. Yes. Motion carries. At this time, we have a second hearing of public. The public may address the board during periods of the meeting and designated for public participation. We board of education do not engage in public debate, especially to not have public discussion about individual student situations in the setting. Each person addressing the board should give their name and address. If several people wish to speak, each person is allowed three minutes until total time to speak. During that period, no person may speak twice until all desire to speak have had the opportunity to do so. Period of public participation may be extended by a voting mater. Anyone would like to address the board, now is the time to do it. We are going to move on to uh board comments in board
089members' like to share. disappointed in Columbus. Tough scene, please. Yeah, as as Dr. Cton said, it's probably the one of the worst uh changes that it's going to impact not just us, but so many different school districts, years to come. Yeah. and and and I think that the thing about it is it's going to hit us with the the cap, but then you could have a a district that doesn't have a cap, but relies on certain levies. So, it was like it it's just going to have that detonation all all over for different reasons. It's going to make planning future planning for each district that much harder. It's going to change how you do contracts with labor organizations ever. It's it's a whole new game. Yeah. Well, and then just this week too, uh they
090it was declared unconstitutional for the voucher system. So that's probably going to be way down the road that but but that will affect everyone that'll go through the appeals um the waves. Yeah. So the path is it'll probably make it through the appeals and then uh Supreme Court would be a challenge. Like the way it was described is kind of funny. You know, it's kind of like in a in a video game having to beat that um uh big boss at the end. You know, that's going to be a tough one because this really could be a partisan type of rulings at each level. So, you know, we shall see. you know, even the Supreme Court's reviewing uh whether or not that they would allow for a uh charter charter Christian school, Catholic school to
091be created and receive funds. So, it's something that they're discussing right now, right? Big topic. Yeah, a big topic. Lot going on. you know, elections have consequences and we're starting to see that. Hopefully, all of these red districts throughout the state of Ohio will realize what's going on and how it affects the their local. I think it's going to catch a lot of people. Well, when you look at the the state of Ohio and and another thing that we discussed is 70 70 to 80% of students in children in Ohio are educated in public education. I ran I've heard 70% I've heard 80% but 70 to 80% um are are educated and when you look at some of these programs you don't have a lot of private schools inside rural districts and and so to
092to be losing uh funding coming from there it can hit there you have in rural districts who may rely on more of a carryover you know uh uh in order because they they can't pass initiatives and and deal with things and then So, it's it's really going to be interesting to see how all of those works. Do do you both think that the the smaller say public school districts are uh as in tune with uh what's going on. I think everybody is. I mean I when it whether whether you're in a large school district, medium, small, I mean it I think you're you're in tune with because you're talking about being able to bring back employees, provide opportunities, do busing, lunches, all these type of things. I can tell you that if whether I was
093the superintendent of the Westlake schools or the superintendent of a rural school district in Athens, Ohio, you know, if I was sitting inside there, I would be sitting there still trying to figure out looking at your budget, talking to your treasur and saying, "How are we going to do this?" You know, what impact does this have on us? So, yeah, I think I think everybody's in tune, but the difference is it hits everybody differently, but it's going to hit everybody. Yeah. And that's where I wonder if they understand the potential impact that's going to have on it. Something's changing. They do, you know, like it may not today, but right a year from now, we're going to see Rex. We're going to see Rex. I don't know if any of us have an idea of
094what Rex we're going to see. going to see uh you you've mentioned already from a leadership point of view, from an employee point of view, uh this is a very well-run district and we'll all rise to this new challenge, but I I think throughout the state you're going to see districts get wrecked and u I don't believe that legislature has a plan for that. Yeah, I mean it, not that I'm not in tune with it, but it it seemed like it was u maybe self- serving. U it didn't seem like there was a lot of I mean, we pushed back, you know, but it didn't it didn't seem like there was much consideration from other legislators specifically other than I know folks on the other side of the but yeah, so it's just Yeah, I
095agree with you. It's almost like there's an ulterior motive somewhere. Someone just, you know, did this. I also don't like the fact of the partisan board. Um, and I don't understand the reasoning for that just to drive more division amongst global politics instead of let us make our own decisions a little bit own. Well, Mr. Lamb, you mentioned it early on. We do have advocates and we'll continue to work with our advocates and build that over time and uh again we have challenges ahead of us and all rise to those challenges. We're going to move on to board items. Uh board items A, B, and C. Todd, do you want me to kind of take that or do you want to type that? I can. Yeah. So again, this in response to House Bill 96.
096Um, under House Bill 96, there has been a standard operating procedure for nearly every district in Ohio, or at least everyone that I'm aware of, uh, that benefits are provided to the superintendent, treasurer, and administrative staff. And, uh, they're looking to say that the districts can no longer provide those benefits. So each of these three measures would uh put in place saying that hey as the state law changes uh because right now one we don't know if it will fully go into effect and things like that but it's changing the language and uh the superintendent's contract the treasur's contract as well as our administrative handbook. It says if the law does change and says that you can't do these benefits that the employee is still made whole. So uh it the intent is not to
097uh increase the cost of the board or anything like that. Uh there are some consequences where uh have a a uh uh it potentially will have a small increase uh to the board. But uh it's looking and saying here you've already we've already negotiated these benefits. You're entitled to these benefits for your contract. So we will uh uh in lie of the benefits we'll uh pay you in salary. So, uh, that's the change that we'll see in each of those three. So, can I ask a question now or do we Okay. So, uh, in, um, Dr. Gogggin's contract, it uh, throughout you referred to as Mr. Goen. Are you okay with that? Should we No, I'm not worried about that. Okay. I didn't even notice that, but thank you. But it's Dr. Hopkins, so Are
098you okay? Sorry. You need a good laugh. Any other discussion uh at this time regarding board items 9, A, B, and C? Is there a motion to approve board items? Should we do them separately? I I believe you could group them if you if you choose, but if you wanted to do separate, you want to have preference? No. All together. Is there a motion to approve board items 9 A, B, and C? So second discussion. Roll call. Lamb. Yes. Yes. Fenukin. Yes. Craft. Yes. Motion carries. Is there a motion for the board to adjourn to executive session for the appointment and employment dismissal discipline promotion devotion or compensation of a degree or official? So moved. Second discussion. Roll call to enter into to enter into executive session at 10:24 a.m. Lzinski. Yes. Bonukin. Yes. Craft.
099Yes. Lamb. Yes. Motion carries. Board will take no action in executive session nor in board uh exit executive session. Thank you.