001All right, we'll call the meeting to order. Mrs. Newman, if you're okay, we'll call the meeting to order. Oh, I just said to Bob, I'm not going to talk tonight. He looked at me like this. Yeah. Well, are we taking bets on that? I'll take you over. [Laughter] Thing about that is you have to have an even number. Yeah. Leadership too. I'm like I'm not I walked in not going to say a word at talk about that. That was great. Well, we will call the meeting to order now at 6:00. Mr. Mr. Road here, Mr. Funk here, Mrs. Newman here, Mr. Perez here, and Mrs. W here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God,
002indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Thank you for being here. Oh, so this is uh exciting. This is um the Onet Falls Intermediate School team is here. I was with them all day today. Um these are members of their district leadership team from office and I hope that you have uh one of their handouts. Um we talk often about benefits based accountability and the different kinds of things that we do. Um, so I believe what's going to happen is they're going to talk to us about probably their action research project and maybe a little bit about how benefits based accountability fits in to that. So without further ado, Mr. Spec. Okay. All right, guys. Um, first of all, thank you for uh for having us and and the first the first thing
003I wanted to throw out there on the camera. Okay. Sorry about that. The first thing I want to just start with is um uh the thought of let's turn this into a bit of a discussion. Um let's not feel like we have to sit there and not interrupt. Uh because I think that what we've found is that the best way to accomplish and to to uh to move forward is to have open dialogue about whatever it is we're discussing. So okay. So Falls Intermediate School, you have this in front of you. This uh it's a handout talks about opus beliefs. And I think that the key to this is one of the pieces to uh benefits based accountability is is making sure that your stakeholders have an understanding of what it is you're trying to
004accomplish. And this has been an ongoing I'd say the last uh how many years we've been in for three threeish something like that. And every year, every month, to be honest with you, we ourselves become a little more familiar with what it is and and and truly understanding um how to use it to help us move forward at the intermediate school. So, we've created this uh quick dock. Uh you see it was it was at your seats this morning. We had uh breakfast buddies. We had so we had hundreds out of hundred, I should say, uh sets of parents in and out this morning. And we littered the tables with this handout. And as I watched, I saw parents picking it up, looking at it. I don't know what they were thinking about it, but
005but at least we're trying to get this out and get it into the hands of our stakeholders. So, if you think of Opus, I want you to really just think here's what we do. I mean, we foster strong friendships and connections between students. Uh we create safe and supportive classrooms. We definitely definitely talk about respect for self and others. and and that would be really what we've been doing for years with our PBIS team, positive behavior interventions and supports. We also have really spent a lot of time focusing on creating engaging meaningful work for students. And most recently, we have started a little more of a the mindset of we've got to get the basics in order to to allow our kids to reach their full potential. And ultimately we have come to see we
006learn a little something every time that every single thing we do is focused on move the podium. Every single thing we do is focused on making sure our kids are ready for the future. And today we learned a lot more about that. And we'll talk as we talk today we spent time with John Tanner. John Tanner from Braybed. Uh he has helped us immensely throughout this process and and where he has helped us most and today was very eye opening. uh he said something that I won't that that I I wrote down and it was uh we are a school is a a an organization of systems but it's the mindset piece that really matters and what I thought about that was that describes exactly what we're doing and where we are we believe our
007work our work in all those areas that we just talked about is immensely important and we believe it's the right work and so what we're working to do is build systems around that work to help us define it to help us uh uh implement it in a in an objective repetitive way and ultimately we're looking for ways to measure our success in each of those areas. So if you take a look at this uh flowchart if you will this is a picture of you'll see where we have been working on PBIS for for years. I can't even tell you how long that's been. 7 8 9 10 maybe more. I mean, life goes fast when you get to be my age. Okay. I think it was three years ago and it was 10. Okay. So,
008PBIS, positive behavior intervention and supports. We didn't know when we really started this work where it would be today, but it is an integral part of what we do at Opus. See down there on the right the Schlei design work. So we've been working with the Schlei Center um with Anissa at the Schllecti Center about equally as long I would say. And when we started that work, we had no idea really where it would end up today. You know, if you could write a letter to your future self, I don't know that we would have written that up. Okay. Um and then just recently, benefits based accountability has has become part of our uh big three. I think the last time we here, we talked about the big three. And so the benefits of based
009accountability what that has really allowed us to do is to bring coherence and connect everything we do in a succinct way. So for example hopes and dreams. All right the the essence of measuring your effectiveness of the school is are you providing for your stakeholders whether it's the kids the parents the community as a whole. Are you providing them with the benefits that they want? Are you giving them what they need? So, we asked the parents years ago, probably two two and a half, we probably need to go back and and do that again to see if we're still in line with with the hopes and dreams of our stakeholders. But they said clearly and and I will I I will generalize this. They said, "We want our students to learn. That's your number one
010fundamental goal. Fundamental goal as a school is you these kids need to learn, but we also want to make sure that they are happy. They have friends. They feel welcome." Okay? So that that resonated with us. And then they also said we want our kids to be safe. So we had safe, learn, and happy. All right. Now, that's a very generalized uh description of what our stakeholders want. And so, okay. So then we said, what does that mean? Well, we need to make sure that they uh are happy in order. We need to make sure they're happy. So, we're going to focus on friendships and connections, and we'll talk more about that in a minute. Um, we're going to continue the engaging and meaningful work because that to me, we put that in the bucket
011of learning. Kids will learn if you provide meaningful work for them. Um, safe and supportive classrooms. Obviously, that's a that will help kids be safe. And I want you to think not only physically safe, but emotionally safe. Um, it's not a matter of simply locking the doors. It's a matter of making sure that all the kids in the room are seen. All the kids in the room feel welcome. They feel comfortable. They feel they feel like they can raise their hand and ask a question without being judged. That's safe and supportive. Um and then respect for self and others are PBIS work. So it's it's it's all coming together in one like in one bigger idea instead of all these pockets of separate uh initiatives. And so we talk about create I'm going to go
012go back just for a quick sec. Um so ultimately what what we were thinking is we have to create the learning environment in order for the learning to occur. So that's where this all happens. If we have safe classrooms where kids feel uh welcome, they feel seen. If we have if they feel like they have respect, they're respected and and everybody is respectful of others. This is basically creating a a an environment in the school where kids can relax and learn without worrying about behaviors, without worrying about um disruptions, kids being disrespectful or kids making fun of them just to break it down. And if they have friendships and connections, if those three pieces are in place, then the me the learning can occur. So we said, let's create that environment. We spent a ton
013of time creating the environment because we could create the most engaging lessons in the world. But if we don't have those three pieces, respect for self and others, the PBIS work, if we don't have safe and supportive classrooms, and if we don't have kids that feel welcome, friendships, and connected, then the work is meaningless. Doesn't matter what we provide them. They're not focused on that. So, okay, this this is obvious. Excuse me. respect yourself and others. That's an obvious connection to creating the environment. We used our PBIS work. It fit right in. It wasn't something we had to recreate. We were already really, really, really getting good at the PBIS work. So, it was easy to plug that in to make sure that we had a respectful environment. It was very easy to connect that
014to safe and supportive classrooms as well. And even part of the supportive would be would be our work with Dr. Knight. And we talked about that a little bit. He's really helped us make sure that that every child in the room is seen. I think that's a great way to look at it. They're seen. They feel they feel like uh they matter. And then finally, we have the engaging work. We we've been working with Schleie for a while, so we know how to do that. But how do friendships and how do we create this these friendships and connections? That was an area that we didn't have like a a plugandplay sort of uh of a of a fix for or a strategy. we have PBIS, you know, we had we had engaging work, uh, design
015work, but we needed something to really focus on developing friendships and connections. So, that was the essence of last year's, um, action research, and that's we came here and we shared that with you guys. It was the the strong connection between friendships and connections and learning or engaging meaningful work. Not sure if uh, action research and that's me. Okay, Audrey. That's me. You kind of stole my thunder, but hi. Hi, Audrey. Um, yeah. So, I mean, not really, but last year, um, I was not here because my son had a tennis match or something. I don't know why, but this is our work from last year. So, I know you guys all heard about it last year, but basically that in a nutshell, we um heard loud and clear that parents want their kids to
016feel safe, to um have friendships, and feel connected to school. Of course, you know, if you don't feel safe where you're learning and you don't have friends, you don't feel like you belong, how are you going to be able to access the curriculum? So, we did one question surveys once a week asking kids, sometimes they were silly questions, sometimes they were really serious. Do you have a friend? Do you feel like somebody says hello to you when you come to school every day? Somebody to sit with at lunch? Things like that. And we use that to help us design our lessons. We use that to help us um create groups for kids to be part of. So it it's ongoing. Just because it was last year's action research doesn't mean we're not doing it. It's
017in addition to what we're now doing this year, which is not what I'm going to talk about. But it's so important and we feel like we can't it's just it's part of us now. I said to Don today at our meeting, it's ingrained in who we are. we'll never not do it now because it's so important for kids to feel welcome and safe and in an environment where they can learn and I think that comes really back to uh you know the idea of yeah we have systems we're an organization of systems but it's the mind piece the mindset piece that truly matters and we believe that that's the right approach create the environment the kids have a chance to learn right so and that's why it is part of what we do now and
018it will always be my guess is it will be a neverending attempt to get better at that. So if we come back in 10 years and see what's going on, it should be an extension of what's going on today and not just disappear. We talk about it too in our staff meetings like we'll it'll come up you know what are you doing to like for relate breaks like we'll do relate breaks where the kids you'll give them like a minute you know talk about like I don't know I guess it's almost Easter what's your favorite Easter candy or you know during Christmas time what's your favorite thing to do on Christmas day or maybe you don't celebrate those things. What do you like to do over winter break? Anything. And then teachers say well what
019do you do to make kids feel welcome? Do you meet them at the door? Do you have something on their desk? You know, so it's just it's constant conversation amongst us as adults and then asking the kids these one question surveys once a week. That information is still aggregated. Thank goodness. Um who gathers all that information for for us and makes lovely graphs and we're able to look at them and really decide is this working, is it not? How can we make it better? You're all right. Um, so part of what happened last year was we're really trying to like when we talked to you guys about this like prove there was this connection and we saw and we believe really positive connections between behavior and um attendance and things like that but we have
020really struggled with um like is there a connection to the academic piece? We feel and we really believe that there is a strong connection between the academics and being connected in school but it's kind of hard to prove. Um, so that's one of the reasons we're kind of like still looking at this and it's something we're really trying to get a lot smarter at is how do we know kids are growing academically based on our efforts not just in friendship connections but the things that we're going to be looking at this year. Okay. So last year was friendship connections. We're still doing that. It's something that happens all the time. This year um we were kind of changing things up a little bit. It still is definitely connected. A lot of this goes back to
021our design work kind of is twofold. So one we have the friendship connections looking for that academic connection. We're still kind of trying to explore that. We're getting smarter at that. But when we're looking at a a question for this year um we were thinking about design work and one thing that we do is we design these really cool lessons. Uh and we ask the kids were you more engaged? They're like yeah yeah. We're like okay great. But we don't really know did that have an impact on moving that like achievement needle and we're not really sure. we're not necessarily measuring that. That's a hard thing to do. So, we're kind of thinking about that a little bit. The other piece we started hearing a little bit from teachers, too, is, you know, I really
022want to do these really cool lessons, but some of these kids don't have the skills to get to that highest level of engagement. So, we started thinking about, well, we don't want to hold kids back from like their act absolute maximum potential, but maybe we do the obligation to spend a little bit more time on some of these basic skills, make sure we can get them all there. So it kind of landed us on this question of the grade level curriculum teams, you know, can they explore whether there is like if focusing on a skill in a really engaging way will move that achievement needle somehow. So that's kind of our research this year and you'll see it's a little messy but we're getting smarter at it and it's something we're keep going with. Okay.
023So again I said this is kind of our question. Um, if we teach foundational skills in a more engaging manner, will it lead to mastery of these skills and ultimately result in a greater over overall success of each subject area? And again, we're looking to link that with with engagement and whatnot. Also, now this slide, I think if we, you know, were had time today to redo it, it would look a little different. We learned a lot of things today about engines and realizations and things like that. Don't ask me to redo it on the spot. I won't have a good answer for you. Um, but this was like our last week's version of trying to like articulate the engine or the benefit. There's a get the basics benefit. I like that last week's version.
024You need to time stamp these almost by the day, maybe even the hour. Hey, you know what though I like about this is and it's okay because it shows that um we're a continuous improvement organization and we're not setting goals annually that then we have to wait until a test comes and give it and then we get the results back in like September. I mean this is more on the spot. You learn something today and you're going to improve upon um what it is that you that you wrote because we're smarter today than we were last week. Yesterday. Yesterday or this morning. Yeah. Yes. Anyways, so our benefit, you know, our realization, I guess maybe the word we're supposed to be using, uh, you know, in the next 18 months, we'll become a school in
025which students demonstrate skills in order to succeed in writing and math. Um, and then, you know, our engine will be collecting data from teachers and analyzing it routinely. So, that's kind of where we're at right now. And, uh, Debbiey's going to talk about whole process that we're kind of still working on. Hi, I'm Debbie Pman. I teach fifth grade language arts. Um, and one other thing I wanted to kind of say is something that John Tier brought up that I think was one of those, oh yeah, I knew that already, but he kind of brought up, okay, well, nothing's a one and done. And just because something works this year doesn't mean it will work next year with next year's kids, right? Um, so I like that we use this terminology with the students because
026it's sort of, I guess, part of our culture now. Now, I mean, the kids know the lingo and they're very familiar with it and so next year when they come from fourth grade, they'll know the fourth grade lingo. So, it's just kind of um like you were saying, it's who we are now, which is great. It lets the kids know that they're also part of the team. So, what we did was we kind of brainstormed a bunch of things and what do we think that the skills are that these kids need first thing right when they enter the grade? So, fourth and fifth grade, of course, on different skill levels. Both chose for math that they need to have their basic facts down. So, there's assessments that are kind of jumping ahead here, but we've
027got four times a year assessments. Um, okay, we got math done. Now, what for language arts? So, we thought, okay, the basics is can they write a paragraph? What's the criteria for the paragraph? So, we all got together and brainstormed. We came up with a rubric and so the very beginning of the year we've got the kids writing a paragraph and we've got that three more times and we're grading it the entire fourth and fifth grade language arts we're using the same rubric that way it's pretty consistent and and if you if you think about math testing there's fall winter spring and you hope to see an upward trend their skills throughout the year same thing here we have like a beginning kind of a baseline a middle and an edge like three times will
028by the end of the year we will have assessed their their their ability with each of these skills writing a paragraph and their math facts and hopefully we see a nice trend moving forward. They're getting better at that by the end of the year. It um but doing the you know the math facts and the writing of the paragraph and then the students handing them off to the teacher. we get that information right away and I know who doesn't know capitals at the beginning of the sentence. Um, with maps testing, it's a more general bit of information and it's um not necessarily always visible with this kid and this particular thing. So, it's like really fine tuned and we can unfortunately for the kids sometimes be really nitpicky about it. Uh, maps testing doesn't always
029give us that, you know, exact of information. Um and then so you know we get the information back from the kids whether it's the times test or whether it's the graded paragraphs and then we're able to sit down and as a teacher evaluate that and who has what needs and then how do we develop plans and how do we design things so that they're not only engaging but they're hitting all of those needs that those kids have. And and just to to uh you've heard the word design two or three times already. you know, Deb's talking. So, the key is like not just teaching math facts in the oldfashioned basic way, but how can we do it using like affiliation where they're working together in some way or some novelty and variety, some some sort
030of a way that's that's novel, that's different so that they're more focused, engaged in learning those math facts uh in hopes that that helps them grow a little bit more. Flashards are boring. Yeah, paragraph writing is boring. We all know that. So that's the challenge, right? And finding out and that's another thing with the one and done. What necessarily works with this batch of kids may not work next year. And then we have to be ready to pivot. Exactly. I also want to add in like science and social studies to doing paragraph writing. So the kids get a chance to kind of have that crosscurricular piece and we've heard especially for the middle school that that's really important as they get more into those subject areas be able to write within the content area. So
031that's another part of like that ready for the future that kind of goes back to Yeah, we've got the fiction and then the non-fiction writing. Okay, so our results I mean it's kind of we've got our fall, we've got our spring, we're sort of gathering up all the information, but at this point this is our first go at it. So we're just kind of we're learning as we go. Um, and as far as is this making a significant difference, I mean, anecdotally, we feel that it is. Data, we're not quite there yet. We're still working on that. So, the more we do, the better we'll be at it. Sorry. We did learn a lot. Shannon and Jim did come over and help us. uh they pointed out to us and I and check me if
032I if I'm wrong here but we've been measuring academic growth um not always at the individual student level we've been measuring like is the whole fifth grade getting better uh is the whole fourth grade and that's not that's good though Don don't don't put yourself down too much I mean you want to use the aggregate level to be able to make programmatic kinds of um conclusions and and but at the individual level when you can make difference in kids' lives obviously. Yeah, just like I'll just say I mean I think we have a couple more slides. Um but basically we're getting smarter at this. Some teams have more data than others. Um and we haven't given the spring assessment yet so we really can't like draw any conclusions but I mean kids are doing better.
033I mean, at first glance, we see improvement in growth, and that's all good. Um, but next year, we're going to measure things a little bit differently, so we can actually really calculate like a growth factor and see like, is this legit or, you know, more than just our feeling. So, we're working on it. Uh, we will be better at it next year. Um, so this is not a one and done. It's a definitely something we're going to do next year and get better at it. Um, and then here were just like our general kind of I don't know overall impressions. We saw increases in language arts, perhaps not enough stretch on our rubrics. That's something we need to talk about a little bit more. Kids were topping out right away and then then the data
034skewed afterward, right? I mean, we're happy about that in one sense, but we know there's room to grow and improve. So, we need to look at that maybe a little bit, which might be a problem measurement wise moving forward. I don't know, but we do need to to look at it. math. We're seeing an increase in science and social life. Very similar in language arts. We're seeing an increase on rubric scores, but again, maybe there's not enough stretch. Um, so we're working on it. There's one more slide maybe once we're done. Okay. So, a lot of arrows. Um, like you know, we talked about we are learning as we're learning a lot as we go. And so, when we started this work, we we didn't even have get the basics in there until this year
035we realized that was a need. So then we added that to our our kind of like our our picture of of and and ultimately and we talked about this today a little bit every single thing we do points to the future ready f a future ready focus students need to be ready for the next next step in their lives and what we learned today is especially in the intermediate school I mean we're only have for two years so they're transitioning in and then they go from fourth to fifth there's a transition then there's fifth to sixth another transition. And so really one of our big responsibilities is to take third graders and turn them into sixth graders. And there's a lot that goes with that. And so everything that we do, everything ultimately is going
036to help our kids be more successful as they move forward in life. Um and and it incorporates all of the big ideas and none of this stuff is ever going away. And I think that's essentially where we're at. Do you have questions or Can I can I add I have I commend all of you for recognizing that our students can live in two worlds where they are growing in concept understanding but then the application of may be held up because the paragraph writing, the math facts, whatever it might be. And so when you came forward with your research question, I I I just thought it was so smart. Right. and then this building in particular all year you've been planning and um reflecting and so I'm I'm so proud of the work that you've done
037and I think you are being hard on yourselves and I think it's because um you're you're so driven to answer the question but when we ask a question a new question also comes so I just want to add that because we have had time spending with this building in the trenches and I do know that and when you talk to any teacher um students are going to live in two worlds where they they're growing but they may be stuck because you know some of these basic skills that you you want to help them grow a whole now they're like long division they get they get they get all tripped up because they struggle with their math facts they never learn long division right so that's just a very simple example I I appreciate you saying
038that Shannon because um you know um if our parent stakeholders see this or understand this and and we share out, they're going to be like, "What do you mean they don't know the basics? I thought they knew the basics in third grade to get to fourth grade or in fourth grade to fifth grade." And they could get confused by that. But you articulated it very you know carefully and clearly that you know they are growing and learning all the time but sometimes they they do sometimes maybe all the time they still need constant reinforcement of the basics and so I think that we should think about that going forward because we wouldn't want people you know back what have you basically the same subject matter fifth grade basics is more complicated than the fourth grade
039basics, which is more complicated than third grade. So, yeah, it's the leveling up process for sure. Um, just thinking something related to uh your writing because you said that they were topping out. You're going to have to determine whether or not you're you're writing you're grading for writing to sort like top you know very top top whatever or you want to grade for competency which is and this is where I think getting those would it's okay that you're grading for competency it's okay that some kids are topping out because you know that those kids have achieved the paragraph writing and so you don't have to necessarily I I mean you can I mean obviously you want to you want them to go you know to a higher level but as it relates to determining goal
040accomplishment if the goal is to be able to write a basic paragraph you could say that based on whatever results that you have 80 85 90% whatever it may happen to be have been able to achieve that and that's okay and now you know with that 10% what you need to focus on versus a standardized assessment that is going to sort them into this is the you know two standard deviations above one standard deviation. This is average. You know, we don't that's not very helpful when you're talking to a parent um of whether or not a student is uh is able to write a basic paragraph, which is what the goal was in the first place. We're stuck. We're stuck in that mindset, which we need to adjust is um that just because you you
041are, let's say, gifted, you know, you're good. We're now we're not going to give you We need every student to grow no matter where they start. And that that kind of trips us up. And that's okay because they're going to if if they are gifted and they're with Ann and Ann's going to have them do writing and when she does that she can give them feedback in a different way. But as you're looking at a programmatic kind of decision of can students in fourth grade overall write a basic paragraph. You could make an inference to say we have this data that says that 90% of them can do that. The 10% that can't. here's the growth that they're making as it relates to that fourth grade benchmark that you've set, which is there's tons of
042validity. You have ex, you know, educational experts that have set that, you know, that benchmark, whatever it may happen to be. Yep. And and uh today we learned, you know, what are you going to stop doing? We're going to stop assuming that kids know their basic facts. We're going to stop assuming that they can write a paragraph. we're going to actually start making sure of it by teaching it and make sure we reinforce it uh often throughout the year. And those are great skills. You know, I mean, I know John talked today about that one skill as far as when you ask parents, you know, knowing the basics maybe further down the list, but there is a ton of research related to the automaticity of math facts and that leading to further on being able
043to kind of do higher level math and also with writing and particularly writing in non-fiction and across the curriculum having that, you know, associated with with high levels of student achievement. science has been uh using that to kind of write their conclusion for middle school science people and high school lab reports people will here's our hypothesis that's our topic set you know here's the three uh supporting sentences would be like our data and then our concluding sentence is the conclusion and and that has really kind of helped take science and and make it fit right in Yep to write a paragraph Sorry. No, we I I appreciate all this so much. I know we all do. It's such a special building that you guys have because it's only two years and the the difference between
044a third grader and a sixth grader, you know, this is anecdotal, right? Has to be greater than any other three-year split, I would say. Right. I think I think a high school senior and a high school freshman are more alike than a third grader in sixth, right? So, it's a it's a very important time and your clearly reflects that your account. So, thank you for everything. Well, we appreciate you listening and and every time we have a chance to tell our story, I think it it helps us get better at ourselves. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. Thanks, guys. [Applause] Now you have to save the rest of our boarding meeting. Are you sure? Okay. Yeah, you're all right. Go home and enjoy the outside. I mean, all the other buildings stay, but you guys want to
045leave. It's fine. No one has. Thank you guys. That was awesome. Just so you guys know, um Shannon is overseeing this work. That's kind of like their action research project and every building is working on an action research project and in May May 20th that was going to be a part of my report. Okay, good. I'll be quiet. Okay, I'll be quiet. I'll stop right there. Uh, cool. Um, hearing the public. We have anybody wants to address the board tonight. One guy who would is not looking up. So, um, administrative reports. PTA is not here. I'm sure they're very also Polaris. Um well, we met this week. Uh first we had they have did their um dinner for to recognize outstanding students and they've actually scaled that back a bit. It used to be much
046larger to but they did like one student in each program but they are trying to transition back to doing an overall graduation ceremony which they stopped during co and there's been a lot of feedback from parents that they would like that back. So they um had the principal's advisory board that was there and there was a student Gavin I know I forget his essay um that uh he is on there he's a in criminal justice and he spoke and his he's going on to college to study criminology and he wants to be it was either an FBI agent or a secret service agent but so um and then they recognized like an outstanding student um for the campus outstanding student for satellite programs and their outstanding student worker. And then so then later each program
047will do their own ceremony to recognize their program where those families can attend and then hopefully next year they'll be back to some type of full-on graduation. Um like so next year they'll do like the grace church thing where everybody's there and we all go. The hope is to get back to that. Yeah, I think that's what Diane said too. that that would be good that they're trying to ease themselves back into that so that every student feels and every student's family feels like they're getting recognized for the work done at players. Um we then had our meeting after after they fed us really well, which they always do. Um and then we voted on uh they just we just approved their contract for their staff. So that was done. New superintendent has had a
048lot to work work to do since she started in January. Um the other there was an update on their uh program that they're doing where they're trying to find things for seniors where they're doing O'Neal. They do have 11 spots for next year of the 16th fil. Um depending on they're looking into maybe adding like a manicurist program. Um they're working with Southwest to maybe add a program for lab technicians. So those would be people that like they don't take the blood but they test the blood. And they're working with uh Main County Community College to maybe do a pre uh vet tech. Um again, those are all we'll see how the first one goes with O'Neal. Those will be accepted, but they will rely on the home districts to in essence recognize the students
049that would benefit from those programs. Obviously, um and that was about it. Did they fill the assistant superintendent position yet? They are close to it. Okay. Uh she has told us that by May we'll have something to vote on. Okay. She's been busy. Oh, I I know. I They're like doing a whole re like they're sort of restructuring. I've talked to Diane more this year than I have to Bob Timmons in the last five years. Um we all have there's some change going on. That's great. We appreciate it. The other thing is she has also um she has been very um active in obviously reaching out to principles and superintendent. She's now going to chamber of commerce meetings in all of the districts. Um it's a good thing she her kids are older because I
050don't know how she would do it otherwise. Um and she is speaking to boards of the home districts and if we would like her to come and do a Polaris presentation like at a work session, she would be more than happy to do so. So that's you guys can think about that. So we should do it if everyone else like Right. Yeah. I don't want to be the one that doesn't do it. Exactly. So think about if and when you want that to happen whether that's we that used to be a matter of practice. They used to do that a lot and I think because that hasn't happened in a while. Um, I mean, I think it'd be a worthwhile kind of thing to have them come in very like probably next year, right? And
051do it um because we don't have board reports like that that are really the first part of the of the year. And so I think to do something in October, September will be kind of a cool thing. Yeah. And everybody's kind of busy right now. Exactly. Yep. And she's on the calendar. So like we're the Yeah. So like thing to do. So I'll talk to her about um getting on for the call. Great. guys would love that. Awesome. Yeah, because like I I wouldn't know who she was, right? You would just I'm all in. Awesome. Any other questions? Thank you, Kelly. Uh going backward, I realized that I uh I need some remedial reading training myself. The You did not know the basics. Agenda. I did not know the basics. Agenda item 3A was not
052the regular um hearing of the public, but a specific hearing of the public for a specific reason that just walked out the door a minute ago. So, but if you'd like to No, I mean um I've written to the board about this. Uh Don is retirement eligible. um this year is his 34th year and uh we have a provision in the negotiated agreement for both the OFA and OLSI um to be able to retire and then um an interest if if the board is interested in it to have the person come back. Um it's in the district's best interest and I've said this before to you that uh to not lose two principles in the same year. Mark is retiring. Um, Don has an interest in continuing to come back. And so, legally, you have
053to have a hearing of the public in order to, you know, just put it out there if anybody has anything to say about um, Don or any kind of reservations with that. I I would say it's a for a couple different reasons. First, um, I'll just go financial at first. It's a substantial financial savings for the school district to have somebody um leave and then come back. Particularly when, you know, we're struggling to find highquality people um in a school district, whether it's a teacher or an administrator or whatever it may happen to be. Um so there's a financial component as well. And um Don has institutional history. It's a lot. Um and so I would strongly recommend which is the reason why it's on here um for that to uh to happen that you
054would come back. It is a yeartoyear after that once a person comes back like much like it is for a teacher or um somebody else a bus driver who may retire rehire um it's a one-year contract. That provision of this retire rehire language was put into the contracts probably about 13 maybe 14 years ago or so. That's when the retirement age of years of eligibility was 30. You could retire at 30. Nobody really does it has not done it much because they've raised that. Um I think you will see you see today not only with Don but there are some others that are interested in doing a retire rehire um as well. And in the difficulty of trying to find teachers it's in the district's best interest to do that. So that's the next part.
055Thank you. Anyone want to comment question on that? I think I speak for everyone. I always say let's keep going as long as we can keep going. Yeah, thanks. He'll appreciate that. I would have said it in front of him, but I went on a board. I think there are legitimate reasons to do retire retires. And I say that as somebody who now has seen retire retires used a lot that I didn't quite understand. Yeah. Um so for for uh both of our associations it's an automatic negotiated agreement is it's an automatic that the administration has no uh we can't block that with administrator you can the other this one makes complete sense all right make it happen uh Brian you uh next week Keith and I will be meeting with future Energy Solutions. Let's
056talk about their LED lighting program. Something that just came up recently. We're just picking the tires on it, taking a look to see um what they have to offer. Uh basically just do LED lighting throughout the district, see what kind of cost savings it may have for the district. So, we'll report back more when we uh learn more from them next week. Um probably by this time next week we'll have closed on the two open high school English positions and the open high school Spanish position. Um pretty excited for the candidates who are coming in there. Um again we have to do our due diligence but again by this time next week we will probably have that closed. Uh, I've been talking to you all about Lean Six Sigma. We had our last class or
057I'm sorry, yeah, we had our last class a couple weeks ago, but this week we took the students on a field trip to Medical Mutual. Um, you could say the bus broke down on 4. Um, so that'll be interesting. Actually, I want to give a shout out to Heather Hos cuz she we were talking to her about her like, "Man, you were super comfortable." She's like, "I may have been crying on the inside a little, but no, it's okay." You know, she did awesome. And it was a little nerve-wracking again. You know, we're by the airport. It's 9 in the morning, right? It's rush hour. There's like brake fluid or whatever leaking all over like 480 and things and they had to do a transfer. So, um, but and really a shout out to the,
058uh, the bus garage and Sean. We were probably stuck for 10 minutes before the next bus was there. So, I mean, it actually everything happened so quickly that we still made it to MMO on time. So, and uh, just very thankful for the people at MMO because the tour was amazing. Um our first stop was in their fitness center with uh Homestead Falls alum, Chaz McGrain, Tracy McGra's son. He's also a Hall of Famer. Um he was showing the students around um the fitness center and you know basically telling his story of how he got there. So that was pretty cool. Uh the students will do their report outs next week, next Tuesday. Uh hopefully they'll all earn their yellow belts and then uh we'll present the yellow belts to them during the May meeting.
059And then um last thing I have in the past I've talked to you a lot about uh our participation in the camera consortium. Um I was notified this week that given our current climate uh camera has ceased operations. So um we had to shut down the website kind of remove everything for camera. Um so you know should things change or should it become an environment where u fellow districts in the consortium feel comfortable moving forward we'll restart but right now we're putting everything on hold that's all I have what what's the environment I I'm a little confused the no so there's you know there's that whole thing of um turning civil rights is um around the another way. And so um any position that would or any activity by a school district or a government
060group that gets federal funds, you're not permitted to be part of organizations that look to try to create a pipeline for minority candidates and other kinds of things. And so when the community has said to us or there have been former board members who've said, "Is there a way for you not to hire just all like um white blonde girls? Can you find some people who look like our staff?" Our qu our answer will be um we're hiring, we would always answer this, that we're going to hire the best person anyway because that's what we always do. But any efforts like that to try to um go out and seek and find are now um eradicated. I'm sure you're disappointed. We're equally as part of that group. I'll speak for myself. I'm equally as disappointed.
061I'm just disappointed because Jeff Van Arum really helped me. Um, we we I think we were starting to like get some traction because Jeff helped us build a a registration form to share information for educators, any educator to any of the consortium members. And coming off all the job fairs, we were just starting to to get all those notifications and to shut that off. It shuts down not only our access to potential applicants but access for the other 32 me or other 31 members in the consortium. Yeah. It shuts it shuts our pipeline down for potential amazing candidates. Yeah. I mean that's what you want. You want that if they happen to you know. Yeah. We don't be a member of group whatever. Thank you. Go find them another way. Yeah. We can I think
062we have to not going to we've been pretty successful. We don't stop for the line. We're a very competitive district. We've talked about that, but um and I've mentioned it before. We don't get the same number of applicants that we have in the past. Um just even in the time that I've been here, but again, the quality that we're getting, especially from the students who are just graduating, um it's actually been pretty refreshing. um you know we're not always hiring someone who's fresh out of college but um they they've been very very competitive in our for instance would be the one of the high school um English candidates that we got is right out of college um will be and once once all the vetting has been done by Leo and then the recommendations we
063made to you and then you approve this person she's phenomenal really good so we're lucky and she's to be a That's how we think of No, we don't think she's a That's how Well, sorry. That's how he thinks of No, you got to keep the treasurer happy. He's like, "Okay, so how we doing?" Like, "How many M10s you giving me?" Right. Calls them unicorns, right? you can find somebody that is like there because you know how it is when we hire somebody they stay and we're glad that they stay. at the Polaris board meeting. We went through all the new contracts and all the new guidelines and it was pages and pages of letters and numbers because they're making they're ch like and I was like oh my gosh I'll never like okay I trust
064you guys know what awesome thank you Brian any questions for Brian Jim good evening so you heard Mr. spec and his group talk about and you hear us talk about um the design work that we've been really engaged in since uh 2016 and so this is our second year this began with Py Kogan um our second year where each building who has a devoted design team so building admin um so that was a part of their design team they they have a few more teachers that are available as a space a sounding board for other teachers to come to right but it's even evolved olved and what that looks like in each building. So in your mind picture each building has a design team. Um and along the way um including new teachers we um
065have built capacity and brought our even our new teachers through the concepts and the ideas behind design engagement work. What we are doing for the second time this year is really a culminating activity where the buildings or those design teams come up with a research question. And so since the beginning of the year, we've been working with Dr. Anissa Roland and um each building their research question is different. They've been working all year long and it while it may not just be insulated to their design team, they could be working with all the teachers in the building and and gathering the information and and guiding the work. May 20th is the day that they will be presenting. So we will be in 437 at Opus. Each building will have about 30 to 45 minutes to
066share out their work. Uh Dr. Roland will also be there with us. So we'll open and close the day. But when we close, we reflect upon first we offer them affirmations and support for the research that they've done. But then we ask them and each other, what does this mean for our work moving forward? And then we start to think about next year. And as you can see with their presentation tonight, what they are working on this year is still integrating things that they've done in past years. So, I wanted to extend an invite to anyone who's able to come, whether it's for one presentation or all day. Um, I know you may have equally important commitments that day, but I will go ahead and send you an invite and wanted to give you the
067context of what that was. So, Tuesday, May 20th, um, we'll be in that room around 8:15, 8:30, and we should be done by 2:00. When I send the invite, you'll see the different start times. So, you might be able to pop in for one presentation, and you'll see when they start and end. I'm really proud of the work the buildings have done and we are not telling them this is what your your research is. So every building has a different focus right than the other one but it's appropriate for them. So I'm excited for them um in that day. Any questions about that? I have a quick question. Sure. Um so I I I recall I've seen this last year maybe I was there or the year before but they are the um other school
068districts that are doing schlacky are they are they like I remember one time we were presenting in front of other districts are they still doing that or no? So I I think in part that came out of the Ohio network which has dissolved. Let me know if I'm speaking but there are still active districts right because now we're part of the national network. There are still districts in the area that are immersed in in the Schley group. Um I am extending an invite to Kelly Fogan and her independence group. We wouldn't be where we were without her work along with Dr. Lee. Um and then um there may be some other local districts where we say if you want to bring two or three people because if you think about 437 there's only so much
069room. So we will be here um rather than going out to the ESC and so you might see a few people from other districts. Yeah. I just wonder it felt like it it wasn't the same as it used to be. it. I mean, it's been kind of one of the things that I'm very proud of is that whenever we get involved with something, I think that we implement and we do it pretty well. Um, and other districts want to come and see us do those things. Um, as Shannon said, the Ohio network is no longer there, but we're part of the National Standard Bearer Network, which has school districts in Minnesota and Georgia and Ohio and Kentucky and California and all over the place. Um, just this year, you know, the Opus team did kind
070of a lunch and learn and shared some of the things that they're doing with a national network. There are two districts, as Shannon said, Independence and Chrin Falls that are part of that standard bearer network as well or but they're like in year one. Kelly isn't there yet with Independence. is in year one and so we may have some of them come and look at what it is that that we're doing which is something to be really proud of because it's pretty advanced kind of stuff right and just to make the connection two of our buildings are going to be presenting this summer their re their action research projects as well so when when you see me send a Google invite with that itinerary I wanted to give you the context um and if you're
071able to come please let me know um or if it's a last minute decision that would be that will be fine too. So you can decide if you are able to join us. Um if you look later in the agenda, I wanted to draw your attention to the consent agenda in in part nine. Um there are two items that you've heard me talk about throughout the year and in particular I am talking about item E and F. um where we have been working with teachers at the preschool and K to 6, K to 5 um where they have immersed themselves in identifying what do our preschoolers need in terms of the curriculum and then K to 5 as it relates to ELA and the resources that we are bringing in. Um this first started because
072ODU said that this is something that each district needed to look at. Um, but we're now at a point where these recommendations are really memorializing the work we've done all year. So, you've heard me talk about the preschool benchmark comprehensive curriculum and then the ELA curriculum. Um, so wanted to draw your attention to that. I'm really proud of our teachers and their bravery and the work that they've done and the positive stories that have come out of that. Um, some of you were at key communicators the other night. You heard me also give a highlight on that. So what we what I'm recommending is being adopted is adding to the resources our teachers have now. Um and I I think they're excited and also we're not done. Um I have told the teachers it's going
073to take us two or three years to fully find our footing and along the way we'll be meeting collaborating and offering them professional development as well. So if you have any questions now or if you get to that point I'd be happy to answer them. I also should say we bless I bless the state often. And this is one where they assisted with the financial um impact of this and gave us some resources about $150,000. Yeah. So we're thankful that they've helped to absorb part of that cost. They'll deduct this for next year. Yeah. More cynical than I am. Yeah. That's all I have. Questions? Sh. Awesome. Thank you, Shannon. Correct. So, we ended uh on the revenue side, we ended uh March $35,000 uh ahead of where we thought we would be uh year
074to date. Uh the good news is that we did receive finally uh all of the real estate monies county. You recall that they were uh about a month behind in their advanced schedule and and their final settlement. So, we have received that, but we still are waiting on the homestead roll roll back exemptions. They actually send that money down to the state. The state will set on for a month. Um, you know, the the folks in my circle will say they do that intentionally so they can get an additional month of interest before they give it back to us. Wasn't that long ago where they used to send that money directly to us, right, from the county and now it goes to the state first and and then to us. But uh on the expense
075size, we're running just a little bit warm uh for the month of uh the month of March and and we're about 348 over plan uh as to where we thought we'd be. Just, you know, remember this is a one day in time, you know, so when we close the month, that's where we were. We expect that to be in line with what our projections were by the end of June. So I'm not concerned about that. Um, if we look at, you know, ending cash balance projections, you know, we started the year thinking, uh, we'd end up with about 12, what I say, 12.98 million and and now we're at about the 12.67 million. Still, uh, still up from where we uh, where we ended last year. So, again, I think we're in in in good
076position here. Our ending cash balance uh uh for March was $18,953 18,953,000 compared to 18,545,000 this time last year, an increase of about $48,000 on the state budget. Uh still a lot of chatter uh going on down in Columbus. Uh we were at the OASBO conference this past week. Um and there's just not much uh of any uh good news there. Um, you know, Governor Dwine had released his thoughts early, uh, that went to the House. The House kind of threw some some changes in there that were, uh, unique, uh, kind of some head scratchers. Uh, the big one for us is a cap, a proposed cap on your carryover, uh, from year to year within your general fund. It started out at a 25% cap. So, if I carried over more than 25% of
077my operating expenses from the prior year, the state would direct the county budget commission to reduce uh our effective tax rate so we collect less um and don't have that money available to us, which we're sitting there asking ourselves how the hell can they do that when the voters approved a dollar amount to come to us yet the state's going to say, "Nah, don't collect." in the world maybe unconstitutional just which doesn't seem to lawyers and all that doesn't really so are you saying right now our carry horde will put us in trouble put you in trouble I mean obviously by doing what by doing what we're supposed to be doing you know being on the missiles are in the air this is one so yeah I we're like we're lucky in some ways because
078we're like one of maybe two or three school districts in Kyoga County the department is in Yeah, we're just encouraging we're 23%. Yeah, we're right there. So, they raised it to 30%. I thought it went to So, now it's at 30. That's discussion now. 25 to 30, which is to me schools that that doesn't they'll just spend their money now. Yeah. Um well, I mean the sweet spot, right? you you you got to carry over for a variety of different um reasons. But, you know, there's some school districts maybe to the north of us that, you know, they have this constant commercial and industrial base that continues to grow and they continue to get additional resources to where they don't need to be, you know, on the ballot. So, you know, I don't think the
079percentage is probably 30, right? it, you know, but it it it's not like 80. I don't know what it is, but So is the other one that I saw was capping your admin costs at a certain percentage. Admin cost. Obviously, that is that could be wide open. It depends on how they define admin. And there there is a there is uh definition behind that based on function and objects. It's essentially your salary benefits and discretionary spending for all administrators. So from the central office to the buildings like yeah like are they is it just principles assistant principles and that include like a lot of that's kind of open-ended but like that could cause could that cause that one that one didn't seem to bother me as much others were having a cap on that I
080putting a state level cap on something that is so uniquely different from district to district just doesn't make sense I I don't see the logic in it but that's That's what's on the table today. Um they they also had uh you know remember DeWine's uh initial draft had us down about a million two over the bianium. Um they scrapped that they came back and said okay no no district in the state no public district in the state is going to receive less than what they received this year which is actually that's that's what we had planned on anyway. we, you know, we could kind of sense that that change in the climate coming down there and and so we flatlined our state our state aid uh throughout the course of the 5-year forecast and it
081actually had us getting this this this new this new version that's out there now has us getting about 15,000 or so a year. Maybe that's why they gave you so we'd all be happy to find out. Yeah. So, we're happy with all but the the worst part to me is that they just they they have sidelined the fair school funding plan. So, four years ago, you know, there there was a lot of work that was put into that. The legislation adopted that plan. They agreed they're going to phase it in over a six-year period. We're just now finishing up year four, and they decided they weren't going to do that anymore. Um, and that hurts. You know, that's that's uh uh we're back to whatever, you know, the whims are, I think, down there today.
082Interestingly, that they haven't done that on the on the vouchers and uh the privates and so on. I'm with Jim. The bigger issue is I don't know how the state can overrule an actual vote. Just stand for districts, please. That's like I don't know how I I to me I think that you could that's a ser that's a a legal case. a hot a hot topic is right now is tax reform, which you know I I I think that's a fair a fair debate to have, but to try to push it through on the budget bill just doesn't seem to make sense. And some of the the comments that were made uh just kind of lead you to believe that there's not a maybe a true understanding of how this all works with schools. Well,
083that's what I said about Polaris meeting. Tell me you don't understand how school financing works without telling me you don't understand how school financing works. And and their their mission to uh reduce the amount that that we're going back and asking the voters for more. And again, I don't disagree with that, but the action that they're they're taking is actually going to cause us to go back more often. Uh maybe for lesser amounts, more often for lesser amounts so we don't exceed a cap uh that may be imposed on us. But it's it's going to be a different I think in the end some of this stuff is going to stick and it's just going to be a different environment. And June's when we expect or May when do we expect June June 30th June
08430th. So we got about two and a half months and it's going to change a couple three different times between now and then too. So uh we'll see we'll see how that goes. I am very very proud of the Elaso organization for their their efforts uh and their approach in in working with the politicians. It's not adversarial um but but but more of the factual approach. Let's sit down and talk and and run through this and and let's show you what you know when you make these statements. Here's what that means. Here's what that truly means in the operational side of that. So, uh they're doing a nice job working. Hopefully, everybody listens. uh central admin office project. We had uh Monday uh AVG came out along with prospective biders and we just had kind
085of an open format Q&A. Let's review everything. Do you have any questions about the project um so they could get them answered and they can, you know, continue on with uh with the development of their bids. The openings are scheduled for May 2nd at 1:00 uh down in the board office. So hopefully uh there'll be some good news that comes out of that and we made a lot of revisions to the to the design of that after the last round of bids came in. Um and we're very optimistic. I I remain optimistic. There were some comments though in that session that's like you know here we go, you know, we pushed things off a few months and now we're talking uh some inflationary cost on on building materials and tariffs. So what what's this going
086to do? Is this going to put us, you know, still keep us in that same range with a lesser ability? We don't know. So, we'll we'll see. We'll see what May 2nd brings. Uh good news. Uh we met this afternoon with the uh health insurance consortium. Uh we knew that this year uh uh our our performance, financial performance within that program was doing well. So, we we expected a a lower premium rate increase for the coming year. Uh we met, Brian and I talked with Dave and Brady uh recently and we were expecting kind of a three and a half four and a half percent uh increase on there and they blew me out of the logic today. They said one and a half and I'm like what we haven't had one and a half
087here in what four or five years I think. So um so we're very pleased with that. That does not include dental. That's just medical which is the lion share of of our total cost. So we're happy to see that. That's That's about a $350,000 savings in our forecast of of what we had. That's a compile. Look at you. 25%. Oh, yeah. There's a multiplier there for next year, right? That's just for next year. Yeah. So, that'll start July one. Yeah. We came off of the last three years 14, 14, six and a half. So a one and a half is nice. Um the debate and and loud noises that you may have heard prior to the start of the meeting, we were going through the records commission, the retention schedule and approving uh boxes upon
088boxes of items that have exceeded their um our requirements for retaining them under the the public records law. We did uh we approved a bunch of those to go. That's the last of the garage items in our house. Oh, really? Going to be empty. We We had to do this in phases like we need there before and just see it when we burn it down. Burn it. Oh my god. Celebration. We're not going to burn it down. Yeah, they'll come. Well, no, there's some of that stuff is still there, but All right. Um, class, take it down. Like, you know, we're going to take turns riding the bulldozer. Questions. Thank you. Y, a few things and one is related to some things that Brett had said. until on um April 25th with uh assistance with
089the Northeast Ohio ESC and um and ad advocacy group that we've been partnering with. There's a number of superintendents that are going to hold um a news media event virtually that is going to um get superintendent to kind of talk about on behalf of our colleagues in Northeast Ohio several different kinds of things. And um I'll just mention uh some of them. The first is uh school facilities and the budget issue associated with that. And one is related to the house versions of the budget that suggests that schools should be forced to sell their buildings and property to regional charter parochial or private schools. Um that's a big issue for us and uh it for school districts, public school districts and it's going to be a big issue for Homestead call schools as well. if
090um the group decides and you approve to eventually move forward with um a primary school, a new primary building that you potentially could have two vacated buildings. Um that if things go forward as they're written that you would have to do business with uh regional charter, parochial or private schools to allow them to come literally like right in your backyard um to deal with. So So meaning even with like Falls Linux, we wouldn't be able to demo it and rebuild. No, no. In the current language that they there are some things that are being proposed that um you know and this is this is the agenda that they have they're they're for um you know public dollars going for private um education and one of the things that they want to do is because they
091know they can't build schools. They wanted people to be able to well first they're going to try to take public money to build schools which we think is illegal but they want to be able to offer the buildings to private schools um as well to have them move in rather than for instance you could say hey let's work with uh the township or somebody to create a recreation department and give them you know lease them the building or sell them the building or do something um like that or take the building down and let's use this uh property and sell it to the township or somebody for fields and other kinds of things for recreation because no sitballs we have recreational um field. We're in the recreation business and we don't really want to be
092but you know we are. So that's one. Um there's stuff related to uh um transportation and and the school district's um obligation for transportation and how transportation is funded. So we have a superintendent that's going to uh to talk about that. So it's really like here's the issue with the budget. Here are the facts associated with that particular issue and here are some solutions. Um, one of the other ones that Brett had indicated was the uh the carryover cap of 30%, just some numbers that that some of the facts that the average carryover across districts in the state of Ohio um is 45% and 86% of school districts have a cash balance greater than 25%. So, this is going to greatly impact um public schools across the state of Ohio. Um, and then there's issues
093associated with why you need to have that carryover that it impacts your moody bond rating and other kinds of things and that's the reason why you need it. So, if they're taking that away, then you're going to go to voters more and you're going to, you know, more often and ask them for things. So, there's problems associated um uh with that. Um, the other thing is related to just the overall school funding that 90% of kids in K12 attend public school. Um yet the majority of fund increase is going towards private education. We think that that's a problem. They could take the money that they were going to give to private education um and they could fully fund the school funding formula. And while Homestead Falls is going to have a windfall of cash, what
094it would at least do is provide Brett, the board, and others with um predictability kind of um solid ground with being able to budget out the things. They also talked about having a rather 5-year forecast, having a three-year forecast, and other things. I don't think we think that's going to um going to happen. And then, um so, uh Mike Hanlin, who is from Chardan um schools and is on the the group, um that helped to create the fair school funding, he's going to talk about that. And then, um I've been tagged to uh to talk about vouchers and the impact that vouchers have um overall on public school and the funding associated with that as well. Um, so it will be a virtual event. We will invite news media to be able to after we
095give a five-minute presentation on each one of those topics, they will have the ability to be able to ask questions. And so um I just wanted to make you aware that uh um that I'm part of that and I'm doing that. So do you have any questions about any of those? When is that going to take place? That is going to take place on fe I'm sorry on April 25th, not February because we already did that. But and now it would be would we be able to watch I'm going to find that out. I will I will find that I mean, it should be open to the public overall. Yeah. So, I I'll find that out to determine how they're going to uh to do that. Mainly, it's going to be a media event to
096have them kind of cover. It's now starting to get more and more on coverage as far as the state budget and the impact on public schools, particularly if they do the 25 or 30% carryover thing. That's going to have an immediate impact. And again, that's 85% of school districts in the state of Ohio. And that's a problem. So, um, we felt like a little paranoid and we're under attack. We feel like we're a little bit more under attack now. Um, so that's going to happen. So, I'm looking forward to, uh, to doing my part taking, um, you know, doing that. Um, DOT was today. Holly Newman was there um, as others were there too. And it was a great experience. You saw some of the things that, uh, that of learned. And so one of
097the things that I would do with you probably in a work session or like towards um probably like a May board meeting is really give you a report out on benefit progress that each building has had as well and let you know the learning that we've done and kind of like where the growth that we've made on all of those. Um so that is uh something cool. Um also uh it's getting it's strange you have the graduation list that's going to be right. So, when that that you're going to um approve tonight, we're going to have to think about like does the board want to do like a dinner um and that sort of thing. So, we're going to have to think about what that might look like. Um nobody has anybody graduated this year.
098Graduating this year, that's right. Okay. So, um you know, we can talk about what uh you know, what that might look like. Um and let me think what else I have tonight. Um, you will have uh contracts that you will approve for one-year contracts for people. You also have continuing contracts for people. John's a glutton for punishment, so he came to the board meeting, but um Miranda and Virginia are here and um there are two people who um are, you know, awesome teachers um for us and apply for tenure and there are a number of others as well. And so um those are the kinds of things to highlight and that's all I have. If you guys have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them. just as a whole figure out. Yeah,
099we'll figure out we'll we'll talk like off the grid. Yep. All that we could do. Well, I appreciate the uh the the superintendent media events and if we can't watch it um maybe we can like see it after. Thank you for that. and we've been working as a group of superintendents part of that ESC had been meeting with leg we've had these legislative breakfastes for a while um you know they've been mostly Democrat uh attended rather than Republican but I think a lot of times that's just um probably how schedules um work. I've I've long said that you know um Republicans support public education as well. they have um when 90% of kids go to public school, you know, um there are Republican people who have kids that go to public school. I just wish
100those in elected positions would speak up a little bit more. There's kind of like some hostage taking I think that's happening. People don't have their voice and maybe someday they will find that. Um meanwhile, we have an obligation to advocate on behalf of our school districts to do that. So, we're we're looking forward to um to getting the word out on those things. But thanks for staying. Sir, did you re you reached out to some of our elected officials, correct? I've had conversations with some of our elected officials about responsive. Um I've gotten feedback from, you know, Patton and Dilla and others um on on things. Patton indicated he was concerned about, you know, kind of how the budget works. And I will say this, it's not necessarily that like we got cut $1.1 million
101and then they come out with like this reversal. We're not getting cut as much and so we should feel good about that. That's not the point of it. The point is um I would like for us to get additional resources, but they should stick and stay with the plan that was put into place with the fair school funding formula. The only professional organization that is that is advocating for that is the one that Brett um is a part of which is OASPO. BASSA has stunk at it and OSBA has been awful as well. I believe when I say the backdoor dealing, I think they're going and talking to people and going, "Well, what's the right number in order to make it work?" And that is like every two years you're coming back and you're trying
102to figure out what the budget's going to be rather than saying, "This is the formula for the base cost for public education and this is what it should be and this is what they're going to get." Well, I mean, even their their discussion about, well, we'll make it only a three-year forecast because I get it like the last two years in any organization's kind of prep anyway, but that five-year forecast had more to do with cycles of levies. And if we can't have consistency and understand the funding, it makes it very difficult to make a solid argument to your taxpayer, particularly in a in a district that is primarily homeowners. 95% of our resources come from investments that know like we're doing our job well or the school is doing their job well financially we
103got hit with something out of the blue I mean that makes it very difficult for schools to to I think regardless of what that would be if it's three treasures will still create a five or create a 10ear forecast that's the way the levy how your levy cycles work yeah but it it's legitimized whenever it's in the law that says it must be a 5year forecast that is legitimate, you know, and and and that change from five to three then has a big impact on the auditor state and how are they going to identify who's in fiscal caution or fiscal watch, you know, because that's like a three out of five years and what you had in year three now you're going to you're not going to have that. So HL's working on that to
104or favor to put us on a similar to what townships and and other municipalities do, which may or may not be you got the right thing to do. He's got no time. He's got two months to put that in play. So, yep. Questions, Jim? Thank you, Jim. Uh, take two on hearing in public for real this time. Thank you. Uh, moving on to our consent agenda. do want to call out thanks to the middle school PTA for donating $550 for the DC trip scholarships and also Michelle Kirby donated a wagon used stroller wagon to be used in the modern tents room at the ECC. So, thank you to both of them for those donations. Uh with that, I'll take a motion to approve the items in consent agenda seven, eight, and nine. So moved. Second.
105Any discussion on anything in the consent agenda? Hearing none, you may call the vote. Mr. Funk, yes. Mrs. Newman, yes. Mr. Perez, yes. Mrs. Walker, yes. And Mr. Yes. Motion carries. Uh, we are currently scheduled for a work session on May 1st, which I believe is also the scholarship night. So, I would propose not having a work session on May 1st. Who's attending the scholarship? Mr. Funk will definitely be attending um on May as well. I put this here. If if you need it if Yeah. I mean, if you need someone to present this, I'm going to be there anyway. So, Justin's going to be there anyway. We'll definitely We're guaranteed to have somebody all the more. But, as to the work session, I think we could dispense with it. Anyone vehemently opposed to that?
106Because we'll still be able to get the regular meeting in before graduation, right? which will be important because we're going to have hirings on there and we'll have to see like potentially what a June work session would be like. We don't want to run up against it in July. We like to get all those hirings done in June. I have like a couple that are in there. So, we want to get that taken care of. Yeah. Our our July work session is the 3. All right. Well, first let's cancel the May 1 session and then we'll figure out July. So, let's plan on plan on having the June one for sure. That is June is the session and then 18 is the Wednesday. Okay. Uh we'll be here on the 15th for our regular meeting.
107Uh any general discussion? Sorry, miss. You were you were miss my schedule, my travel schedule has gone from none to intense. So I might miss another one. I I just got back from Mexico yesterday. So, I was I got home late Thursday night and then I was on a plane at 5:00 a.m. Monday morning. Country of Mexico? New Mexico. Oh, New Mexico. And like you're busy with like your kids like 24/7. Like I that's hard for you. Yeah. Yeah. Well, good luck. Thanks. Anything else? Good. Congrats everybody. Congratulations. Good job. Starbucks with us and not somewhere else. We love it here. We're not going anywhere. You're stuck with us. We just We just made sure that didn't happen. Thank you. We love it here. It's a great place to be. Thanks for hanging out with
108us. I will. Thanks, guys. Thanks very much. Yeah. Happy Easter. Happy Easter to you. Happy Easter, Kelly. So they voted to change the retirement rules now to 32 years. Oh my gosh. Somebody really Did you know that? Are you turning it off, Mrs. Snow? Turn it off. Vote. Vote. Vote on. Yes. Mr. Mr. Funk. Yes. Mrs. Walker. Yes. Mr. Eenro. Yes. Mr. M. Thank you.