0016:30 p.m. Mr. Shinkle, can you roll? Mr. West. M here. Mrs. Papari here. Mr. Herrera here. Mrs. Gray here. Do I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Before I do that, or before we approve tonight's agenda, just uh I emailed the board this morning. So, just want to uh bring a motion forward to to the board. Uh tonight, uh I'd like to bring a motion. Were you asking to amend the agenda? Yeah. Well, right. Yeah. I'd like to do it prior to approve. Correct. So, first you call to amend the agenda and where you want to place on the agenda. Okay. And then we'll Sure. Sure. I'd like Well, I'd like to to amend it prior to the approval process. Amend the agenda. Amend the agenda. Yeah. Amend the agenda. We can put it
002uh under new business if we could. Okay. After uh you have to make a motion to amend the agenda. That's what All right. Let me make I'll make the motion to amend the agenda. Okay. Do we have a second or the motion made to amend the agenda to place a new policy? No, not a policy. Just just a motion to uh add additional um per my email additional u outside service for the 2026 school year to add the service. Yeah. So to the board to look at it uh and vote on it to move forward with that um to amend the follow. No, no, I'm not putting on policy. No. Okay. So, I'm a little confused here. Just can we talk through this? Okay. So, um currently this is not on the agenda and you
003want to add a discussion. Correct. Correct. A motion to to add a discussion. So, you want to add a discussion to the end of the agenda of tonight's business meeting. No, not to not to the end. No, prior to the end. We can do it. We can do it under old business too because it it kind of goes back to last month as well. So your motion is to amend the agenda to add a discussion at the end of old business. Sure. Related related to the policy. Sure. Yeah, that's fine. Do we need to if it's just a discussion? Do we need to amend the agenda since we are having a policy since we're reviewing what was on the agenda last month? But I I will bring a motion to for the board to consider
004adding outside uh services when it comes to investigations. So I'm not sure if you want to add that. It wouldn't necessarily be a policy, but Well, it does change our policy. So I think it would be a motion. Okay. Look at the policy. Okay, that's that's fine. We can do it that way. So, do we have a second to add a discussion related to the policyf followup and I don't think we actually need to make that second. I think we can just do it at that time. Okay. I appreciate it. I mean as long as the discussion is related to the specific policy of JFC if the discussion is not related to policy JF CF then I don't it would be it relates to bullying and different things like that. So it would be is
005that policy JFC? Yes, that's the bullying and harassment policy. So um we'll have a a discussion at the end regarding um what you want to move forward. Okay. Thank you. So do we have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? So moved. We have a second. Second. We have discussion. All right. Mr. Shinkle, can you please call the role? Mr. West. Yes. Mr. Clerky, yes. Mrs. Papy, yes. Hera, yes. Mrs. Gray, yes. All right. I'd like to call for a moment of silence as we consider the safety of our students traveling to Washington DC right now and any other business um related to the school. Thank you. And we have a little change to the agenda as we have principal Wendy Flynn coming to um say the pledge because the assistant principal um who's on the
006agenda is actually traveling with our DC kids. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And when you'll welcome our student achievement of the month will. Yes. All right. So all of the teachers and business students that are here if you'll come stand in front of me please. as they're coming. Uh, yeah, sure. All right. For those of you that don't know me, I'm Wendy Flint. I'm the principal at Gian Middle School. I am finishing up my 10th year here. And tonight we are going to present. I'm sure you can see some of these students do not attend the middle school. Some of them are much
007smaller and some are much older than the kids in our school. Um, but we thought it was really important to highlight just the common thread that we try to weave from kindergarten through 12th grade as a middle school. Uh, and so um I just wanted to tell you that we are going to focus on um service leadership tonight and this crew has a great many things to say about that. So, good evening. My name is Brook Whitley. I'm a sixth grade intervention specialist at GMS. Um we're here tonight because we are just so proud of our students and we just wanted to share what we're proud of with them um through their servant hearts. Um how they pay it forward and how they grow with gratitude. So I feel like this is such a something
008we weave within our community so deeply and we just wanted to continue to show that with our kids and to build that within them. So, um, one of the first things that we do as our, um, team is we do what we call campus cleanup. So, every, um, homecoming and every spring, we take all the kids outside. We get trash bags. We pick leaves. We throw trash in the trash bags. And here are selfies to prove it. Um, we we do this for points. It's a little competition, but it's also just to show the kids that we want to serve others. So, I have a wonderful student here with me who's going to share what as well. Hi, I'm Jenna and I'm in sixth grade at GMS. I love campus clean up because it helps
009us take care of our space and appreciation what we have. Thank you. Since then, another one that we did in at Christmas time was we did candygrams for cancer where the kids could send each other these really nice notes and then there are candy canes attached to them and then the money that we made went to cancer research for kids. So I have a a student, she's in DC as well, so she's here to speak. She was so sad that she could not be here. So we told her we would record her and play her video. Awesome. Okay, Kylie. So what has been your favorite service learning project that we've done at GMS. My favorite learning project so far has been the cancer grams that we did during Christmas time and our preschool year club
010activities that we recently have been doing this year. How do you think service learning has impacted you as a student in person? Service learning has impacted myself and GMS as people to show that we are not by ourselves and that we can have the opportunity to step in other people's shoes and realize what they're going through and give them that chance of hope to help them when they need it. Thank you. And then another one that we just got finished doing was we had all of our students in the middle school write notes for our um Spalding and our Marup kids and they were just testing motivation cards um just wishing them their best luck on the test and they were really sweet. So we have a video for that. Hi my name is Pearl.
011I just want to say thank you for the math testing motivation because when I had my test of math and and my teacher gave me these cards and they wished me good luck so I could put on. Thank you for the um OS testing motivation card. It really helps people in my school especially the test stay focused on my problems and I got on the Yes. [Music] [Applause] Hi, my name is Pearl and I just want to say to GMS that that they're so thoughtful of giving them and it really actually really helped me on the test. Good luck. And it's it made me um do the paper on all the questions and remember to take my time even even though other questions are hard and others are easy. [Applause] Don't worry, I don't know
012what it's like to have technical difficulties. I know, right? I always scroll too. All right. Hello, I'm Shelley Dazzio and I'm the family engagement specialist for the district. And one of the big things is growing with gratitude and um teaching our kids that it's not only giving back. I mean, it's not only receiving, it's also giving back and what that means each and every one of them. And so this year I've gotten the opportunity to co- um advise with Missy Myus the Leo Club, which is a brand new um club here to Goan. And I have three of our or two of our Leo Club members. Will you guys come up and Milton? Would you say your name? I'm Leam McRoberts. I'm the president of the Leo Club. I'm a god of Chau. And what's
013your name? What's your name? I just know whatever I just So some examples that we have done through Leo Club is the Holly Fair. We were able to um give back there. Um we also did um a um holiday event. I don't want to say Christmas, but a holiday event where we brought our preschoolers over with our Leo Club and they were able to What was it, Milton? Did you go on a What did you go on? I don't know. A field trip. They were able to go on a field trip um and actually come and and get to do a bunch of different things. We made cookies. We um made reindeer food and then we did the same thing again um in the springtime and we did springtime and sunshine and it was just
014amazing. Do you guys need to say something? Okay. Well, I think that the preschooler project was a really fun and entertaining project. Um I loved working with my buddy right here. I feel like it was a great opportunity for the preschoolers to get to socialize with people out of their age range, I guess. Um, I just feel like it was an awesome, very thought through project for the Leo Club. [Applause] Um the Holly Fest was um a festival that the high school does. It's like a craft show and all the Leo club members helped out with that right here in the high school. I feel like that was an amazing opportunity for the Leo club members to get to know people around Goan and um get to help out in the community. [Applause] Hello, I'm
015Missy Myris. I see a lot of friendly faces here. Um, I'm an intervention specialist here at Goa Middle School. Um, not only have I had the opportunity to work with these wonderful, um, students and colleagues. Um, but recently u, we've also been working on a huge project um, at our middle school cafeteria. or we call our GMS cafeteria renovation project. And um so this part of our um presentation is all about paying it forward. Um like you heard earlier from Brooke and Shelley that so many things that we do um just encompass what it is to be a warrior. Um I always say every day it's a great day to be a warrior. I love waking up. I love going to work. I love that my kids are here. Um, and we just and I
016love the sense of community that we have here. It is like no other and it's just a pleasure to be here and the opportunities that are given to our kids in our community. Um, this project um there has been countless hours given by staff, students, community members. Um, it's been pretty incredible. So, we're going to introduce a few people here, a few students here, and they're going to talk about their experiences with the project, and we'll go from there. So, Raven Slaggel would be first if you want to come up and talk about your experience. What have you enjoyed about painting in the cafeteria? Uh, I really liked volunteering in painting cafeteria after you gave me that opportunity because it let me become friends with Phoebe and become friends with other people and grow other
017friendships. Awesome. Thank you. Vivian is Raven's sister. Come on up, Vivian. So, Vivian has done a lot of work for us in the cafeteria. We have um what we call houses in the middle school. Brook talked a little bit about the point values that are given. We do so many initiatives throughout um the the school year as far as every student is designated to a house and she has very time consumingly I don't know you probably have over what 100 hours painting in the cafeteria um painted each crest of our houses onto our cafeteria wall. So if you want to talk a little bit about that. Yeah, my name is Vivian Sgel. I'm a high school senior and I'm going to go to Berkeley next year. I'm going for fine arts practice and I have
018lived in Goan my entire life. My family is from Goan and Goan has done an impossible amount for me. But a lot of kids here are kind of in survival mode whether because of their financial situation or something going on at home. And you know, you just you can't get every single kid the individual attention to like tell them that they can go and do something great. And I think having these kinds of things around go like promoting the idea that kids from Goan can go to these Ivy League schools is really wonderful. Um getting to work on the project really reminded me of how much Goan did for me. And also, uh, I truly believe that like this mural service is like the reason I got into Berkeley. Um, I'm impossibly thankful for it.
019Caitlyn Landers, and she's also helped with our cafeteria painting, and I've also snagged her for some cleaning projects in my room. Want to talk about what's your favorite thing that's been for the cafeteria? My favorite thing that has that I've gotten in the cafeteria is painting meatballs. It's been really peaceful and like an escape from school but still in school. Good. I have a quick question. Is that your art piece that you have? Yeah. Yeah, sure. So, she is an extremely talented artist and if you were able to come to the art show a few weeks ago, um Caitlyn had like four or five. How many pieces do you have? Okay, I saw a lot. There was a lot of art. She has she um is very very talented. This is um um she's just
020done really well and she's donated a lot of her time too and that's been really [Applause] special. The kids that have come out of their shells through this has just been absolutely amazing. and seeing the talent that we've seen, it's just wonderful. All right, go ahead, Phoebe. So, my name is Phoebe Myers and I will be in GMS next year. It was fun painting the cafeteria and I even made a new friend, Raven. And what I liked most about it is even though it took a while, but it was like a peaceful thing to do and it was a nice thing to do for our community and yeah, I enjoyed it. The really awesome thing about the cafeteria project is that so many people have come together. Like there was a vision from Jen Mink,
021our um art teacher at the middle school, and she was like, "Hey, I think we should do this and I was like, "Okay, no problem. Let me call Todd Shinkle." And so Todd got right on board and he was extremely supportive. Um, and that helped us out. So once we started painting, then it was like so many people had ideas. Emily Sliggel was like, "Hey, I think it'd be cool to have lighting." I'm like, "Okay, let me get on that. I want to contact the education foundation." And then so like here's the education foundation providing us with lighting. And then my goal rate was like, "Hey, I think we need TVs." I'm like, "All right, I'm on it." I said, so we reached out to businesses and like Styles and Sons, they've been like extremely
022generous. Butner Insurance Group, um, Tug Brock from Autoworks Tongue, they've all generously have agreed to provide an 85 inch television for our cafeteria. I'm hoping to get hoping to get maybe one or two more. My prayer, we're going to make this place look sweet. U but what we're hoping to do with it is to have a space for not only for our kids to come in for the cafeteria and have a great place just to relax and have lunch and just connect with friendships. Um we can utilize this space for professional development opportunities. We can use it for classroom opportunities. We can use it for um if teams our teams or our house like they have initiatives or rewards or games. We can use the TVs to set up gaming centers or to show March
023Madness games. I mean the possibilities are endless just that or just to have a great place for banquetss, sports banquetss. I mean there is so many wonderful things uh that's going to come through this and I mean we've had community members come and build and frame build picture frames paint. I mean, anything that's needed done, just the amount of people that have come together to make this successful, it has been enormous and it's just been extremely just we're so thankful for our kids and we're so thankful for the wonderful community that we have. So, thank you for the opportunity. Thankful for the Energizer [Music] Bunny. Hang out here with me for a minute because we've got a certificate and a GP pen for going above and beyond. I do want to say um anytime I
024need a lift me up moment, I can always go to our buildings. Um but the stuff that comes out of the middle school is truly does the heart good. um they're teaching kids the right way to act, the right way to behave. Um talking about, you know, supporting our community and this staff truly goes above and beyond. So, it is very much appreciated. I will say as a member of the Gan Lions Club, uh we've tried to start that Leo Club for quite a few years under the direction of the Lions Club, but have not been successful until we had two advisors step up. I think that program is truthfully going to grow over the years, whether it starts at the middle school and kind of leads its way to the high school. But to
025have the Go Lions Club supporting our entire community and our schools and then have the Leo Club as part of the school district, you guys are awesome for being a part of that. So, I truly thank you for being the girl members and stepping into community service and giving back through that club. So, I do appreciate it. um you know the middle school is is rocking and rolling over there from test scores to um what they do for our kids and community and I can't thank them enough. So today you're going to help me here because so what we've got it's a certificate of appreciation and then a go pin that you can put on your book bag or put it on your shirt when you go someplace but it is for going the extra
026mile and doing something for others. So you guys are all getting one of those tonight as students and staff. So we'll start with and tell us who's here with Thank you for reminding me. All right, Jenna Chaplan. Who's here with you? Her mom came too. She's in DC. Leo Mc Roberts. Leo. [Applause] I got my dad and my [Applause] brothers. Who's here with you tonight? Buddy, who's here? Daddy here. Daddy's here. My mom, my dad, and my brother and sister. [Applause] Who's here with you tonight? Raven, my mother, and my father. [Applause] Um, my awesome little sister, my mom, my dad, and my boyfriend. All right. Mom and [Applause] dad, sweetie. My mom, my dad, um my great teacher, Mrs. Anderson, and our and my um co-host, Mrs. Styles. Thank you. I miss it. You
027guys have people here? I know you do. My sister, brother-in-law, sweet. [Applause] So, thank you guys. Thanks parents for coming out and supporting the schools and supporting the kids and teachers through that process. And I wanted to say in the fall we we are planning to have like a reception and like a tour of um our cafeteria once the TVs are up and we have a banner that the saggels have worked tirelessly on. Um so we've got a lot of moving parts in there that is still not finished. Um um but we will have an open house um and reception for everybody to come. So yes, thank you. [Music] [Applause] So we before we move into old business, I would like to say someone once said to me create a place that people are proud
028to go and feel proud to come from and I think that was such a great example, right? Um, you know, seeing the updates of that middle school cafeteria, um, just makes kids so proud to be able to come from the middle school and go in there every day. Um, who doesn't like a nice facelift on anything, whether it's your home or your workplace? But, um, I know that that's a lot of hours spent outside the workday. And I love that people see like you and all the others who are willing to invest time outside your workday uh to make our place just better to come from. Thanks. And then this is a time where you can choose to stay um for old business and the rest of our agenda. Um or you can choose to
029slip out if you so choose. I will be slipping around. Thank you all for attending for choosing the lead. Right. Moving on to old business. Um we have a review of policy JFC followup by our superintendent um Mr. Bailey. Right. So obviously last month um into the board meeting uh we had some concerns during public participation and then some followup. So as I said to you guys as a board there was some conversation that I would do some research um bringing back my recommendations kind of a understanding of where our practices fall. So, I've done a lot of research, reviewed a lot of things, and it's reaffirmed a lot of things for me. Um, but I want to share that with you tonight. So, in that time, I've looked into our practices. I've looked into
030the practices of other districts. Um, I've been information gathered for public records requests that we received. And then we also met with all the families that spoke um at the board meeting as a followup. Um, I would say, you know, from that side of it, I, you know, completely appreciate public participation, but I want to make sure that, you know, from that board policy side that I have an idea of those things are coming so that I can deal with them ahead of time because I think a lot of times we can preemptively take care of issues if they follow that top proper chain. Um, I I have some answers to two, I think, resounding issues that came out of last month that were concerns about our reporting practices and then our investigation requirements. So,
031I'm going to start with um in my research, the board of education adopted the model policy um in December of 2007 as a state requirement. So, the state board of education has an anti-harassment, anti-intimidation or anti-bullying model policy. We adopted a similar one for IDA a couple months ago. So there's a model policy by the Department of Education. It requires us to have a policy. That policy, our board policy on anti-harassment, intimidation, and bullying has been updated numerous times over the years, but the model policy for the state of Ohio remains the same. It is the model policy. So there have been changes to our board policy, but not the model policy. So I want to share with you a little bit here. Um the first one is the reporting obligations and it this is
032straightforward. I mean it's a 20page document but this is 8 8.0 of that section 8.3 list ver list of verified acts of harassment intimidation go down. I'm not going to read it all to you but the list I provide a list to the board president. The list shall be limited to the number of verified acts of harassment, intimidation and bullying. uh whether that's in the classroom, on school property, to and from school, or at the school sponsored event. So, just to make sure that I was understanding, uh I had Mr. Turner, I know that that's small up there, but I had Mr. Turner email uh the safer school department at the at the state department of education and workforce. Essentially, what I did there was I gave them three scenarios. A student is alleged to
033have bullied bullied another student. the report is followed up on and is not to be is not to be verified incident. Uh the second one, in another situation, a student C is alleged to have bullied another student. The report is followed up on and is verified as a bullying incident resulting in an out of school suspension. Scenario three, student is alleged to have bullied another student and is verified as a bullying incident resulting in an out of school suspension. For the purposes of reporting is required to the board president semiannually. The district identifies two incidents of bullying and results in disciplinary action. The resulting report is because the resulting discipline is for two students and verifiable incidents as it would be recorded and loaded into ENIS as part of our total report shared. It appears
034as follows and that's kind of the way our report shows to you guys. Is this scenario in this scenario have I reported accurately and included what I understand to be required? Received a return email from Jill Jackson from the Department of Education Workforce. Thank you for contacting the department. Based on the information shared below, you've indicated two bullying incidents. One is alleged to have bullied another student. The report is followed up on is verified resulting in an out of school suspension. Student C is alleged to have bullied another student and is verified in bullying incident resulting in out of school suspension. As a result, you reported two out of school suspensions for the bullying, harassment, intimidation in EMIS. Reporting is based on the number of verifiable incidents as discipline incidents would be recorded and loaded
035into EMIS and the heading below requesting the number of verified school discipline cases. She said, I hope this is helpful. the second part of it. So I do feel like our reporting to the state and the report that I provide to you on a semiannual basis is correct through the model policy and through what the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce is requiring of us. The second part of it in the model policy is investigation. Um the investigation 7.211 211. The principal and his or her design shall be promptly notified of any formal or informal complaint of suspected harassment, intimidation or bullying. Under the direction of the building principal and his or her design, all such complaint shall be investigated promptly. And then it goes through about what we do in that investigation and what
036we should complete as far as written um investigation, such reports, factf finding. Those are things that we're doing and we share those with individual families and the individual student discipline files or individual student files. Our policy states the investigation the principal or designate is notified under the direction of the building principal design. All such complaints are investigated. So this is a regulation under JFC. So in both of these it is saying our principles are the mandatory investigators or their design which design me is my assistant superintendent director of student services in the building that's um sometimes assistant principal could be guidance counselor depending on how we're doing things. So in both of the policy and the model policy it is stating our principal should be doing the investigation. I really feel good about and I
037have in the past about what we do as far as our anti-bullying policies and programs. Um I want to reiterate that to the board that I feel confident that we're doing the required reporting procedures for students and staff and parents. Our investigation we gather evidence on all three elements of bullying. And I'm not going to go into the hierarchy of what is determined as bullying, but you have to have and and and we communicate with families throughout the process accordingly. I'm going to say at times uh we're not perfect in some communication but we learn from it when those when we don't communicate appropriately I would expect parents to call us on that and let us talk through it because it's not done intentionally um appropriately disciplinary appropriate disciplinary measures for verified and unverified cases
038occur I would like to you know for those in the board to understand when we have an incident where a student is mean rude disrespectful whatever it might be and it's brought to us the first time, we deal with it. And there's discipline for that. If a student is disrespectful to another student where it needs out of school suspension, in school suspension, whatever it might be, there are discip discipline codes for that. So, as we investigate that and it's the first time, doesn't mean we have to wait till it's bullying to discipline. Kids are disciplined as part of that investigation process. Um, I feel like our intervention programs and counseling services for student conflict are um they're solid. I mean, between child focus, catalyst, our counselors, our teams at the middle schools, um, our teachers
039in the buildings, when we're able to communicate that and intervene, when we see student conflict, because, you know, I look at today's society and there's conflict between adults, there's conflict between students. I really stress that what the middle school tries to do, what we try to do, K12 with our positive behavior supports is teach kids how to treat each other appropriately. Um, are we always perfect at that? We're not. Um, I don't think any human's perfect, but I do feel like our intervention programs and the services we do to intervene keep those numbers from truly being bullied. We provide age appropriate prevention education at all grade levels. Our staff is regularly trained on recognizing and addressing bullying and the practices that um build a community and promote effective communication is seen throughout our K12 experience
040for our kids to make sure that they you know if you look at a portrait of a graduate and you start talking about socially responsible effective communicators we are drilling that with kids every day and with families every day and we're trying to make them better people as they go through for our system. My recommendations at this point with that all known is to continue our positive behavior intervention supports, continue working in the buildings to find ways similar to the GMS houses to you know the the middle or the um PBIS that just got silver at at Spalding and down to our little littlest warriors and then obviously at the high school as we work with older students. We have sources of strength. We have all the pieces at the high school, RAK, all the
041different pieces to make sure even at the high school level that we're providing students that opportunity. Um, I think we need to continue educating staff, students, parents on anti-bullying strategies and understanding what bullying is, um, and what it is not and how do we work through that process together because, um, we're here to be advocates for every kid at Ocean Local Schools, not adversaries for their teachers. So, that's what we need to do. We need to be advocating for every kid. Um, my staff does. I know that for a fact. I couldn't have a better administrative team. Couldn't have a better better set of teachers in the classroom to do that with kids. If we know about an incident, we deal with it. If we don't know about it and it comes six months later,
042it's hard for us to backtrack six months and figure things out. But we'll do it. We look into every case that we can. Um, the only thing I can say is, you know, we can look into reporting. Again, as I explained to you, I am recording what is required of me by our policy and by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. I think I could look at um at our semiannual reports u looking at reporting incidents on the midyear u a number of reported incidents on the midyear and end of year reports. I think I'd have to formalize a process for this um because as you guys know complaints can come in informally. They can come in anonymously. They can come in formally. Could be a conversation with a teacher. So, we have those.
043All of those are dealt with. If you know, if I took that chart and said number of bullying complaints reported and then verified on the other side of it, uh if that seems to be um a clear way to present the data, I would again have to formalize a process with my administrative team to do that. That is something that I will look at over the summer. Is it possible within that uh to make sure that we're capturing everything in there because the last thing I want to do is report in accurate data. So I want to make sure that I have a source that allows me to accurately report that. So you know those those three recommendations and then finally um continue to follow board policy and our odo model policy as administrators are
044required to follow these as part of our district policy and the educator code of conduct standards. That's a lensure piece. Those are things that we have to do um as administrators, as teachers, whatever it might be. Uh so keeping that investigation with the people that know our kids uh that work with our kids on a daily basis, that work with our family on a daily basis, uh that's my recommendation there. And then finally, uh, I would ask that, you know, as my principles work with families and as as board members here have have concerns brought to them as families, there is an appeal process for discipline or other complaints that's in our board policy. Uh, as I said, we're not always going to have people agree with everything that we say. Again, we're trying to
045do everything in the best interest of every kid and take everything into consideration. But that board policy that I'm referring to is the board believes that complaints and grievances are best handled and resolved as close to the origin as possible. The staff should be given the opportunity to consider the issues and attempt to resolve the problems prior to involvement by the board. Therefore, the proper channeling of complaints involving instruction discipline or learning materials will be as follows. the employee, the principal, then to the superintendent, and then to the board of education should be the way that concerns or complaints are brought. I feel like it's our responsibility is to look out for goan kids in the future of goan. I trust our staff to work with our families to do what they do best and
046that's take care of all go students. So again, I've, you know, those are the things that I was asked to bring was um investigations. I can say there is no other school district having other people do their investigations um that I found in the state of Ohio within my network. Um I do feel like it it does require a policy change if we were going to do anything with it because our policy clearly states it and I'd have to understand if I can break away from the Ohio Department of Education model policy that we're expected to follow as well. So, I do feel like again um our staff, my administrators, my administrative team at central office um do an incredible job of taking care of our kids in tough situations. And there are things that
047come out of some of those bullying investigations or different different investigations that I wouldn't want an outside party hearing or talking about with kids. So, I'm your superintendent. That's my recommendation as I look at policy and as I look at the next steps for us as a district. Um, so at this point I think that's the end of my presentation. If you want to go into discussion of the amended agenda or questions of me, I'm happy to to do that now. So the agenda didn't get amended, but I think this was the area that we felt was most appropriate to have a discussion um related to the recommendation of our superintendent and um Corey, whatever discussion you would like. Yeah. No, appreciate that. You know, to me that does make sense. I my my opinion
048or my recommendation is just that we take it a step further and just allow, you know, either u that's probably would be outside services that that are trained by law. They're trained, you know, with board of ed or with the education, you know, Ohio education. So, this is, you know, what they do. And so they obviously would follow the laws and they would follow, you know, any type of recommend or any type of school policies or any type of laws of Ohio. So these folks would would do that. My recommendation is just to to have someone that is not attached, you know, and free up the teachers time. Not saying that um they're they're doing not doing a good job. not say I just my my perspective would be to allow the full transparency of
049an investigation and you guys can do yours investigation on your on your own if you want to, but I think it'll reduce a lot of questions potentially towards the administration. Um it'll free up their time to to do other things as well. Um so I would just recommend that that as a board we look at bringing in someone you know a company that could do those investigations uh by policy by law uh create that transparency create you know the avoidance of whether it's real or perceived of of not uh a conflict of interest or having you know connections inside um the investigation. you know, it is sometimes difficult to investigate friends, relatives, uh people that you know, people that you known for a while. So, you know, my thought would be if we could have
050someone come in and investigate separately and their findings would that would put our our administration in a better uh spot because then it's looked at as a full transparent. nobody had anything to do with it that's local or uh maybe related. So when they come back with their findings, then there really could be no push back I think um either from the from the parents if it comes back that it's not a bullying case. Um I my my concern with that is just like student privacy too. I mean, don't you think that I I would be concerned that Yeah. You know, that um I know obviously you there um I mean I know that you did um unfortunately not follow policy and emailed all of us um which is a violation of the sunshine law.
051The office email you just can't respond to it. I can inform you guys which is why I put so it's not a violation. Well, it actually is since it is to not you should not email all of us um and ask us to support something. But um then I would be accused of not uh bringing it to you prior. So So I guess I'm screwed if I do or if I don't. So it's not a violation. We just can't communicate or vote on it. Can we have a discussion on on what we're what we're looking at right now? I have therefore um Yes. I um just would think it would um be a Yes. I Okay, never mind. Um, well, again, like I said earlier with the like legalities and and whatnot, these folks are
052trained in the law and they do this. And what step would they would you would you propose engaging? My thought is is when it's reported, every time somebody has a complaint that I mean, right, to create that transparency, if they look at it and they deem that there's no bullying, then that's what is reported to the to the parent. Okay. Um, and we don't I have these these uh you said you can get us numbers though we don't have that currently but you could get us number my concern with the word monthly and having a but I'm just talking about how many complaints I mean how many I I don't have that database and that's where I said if that is the number could I and again I'm not going to guess of the number
053um but I could tell you the number of emails or phone calls or in passings that that word is said um you have to you have to respond quickly to so when you get an outside agency to do it sometimes that's these kind of things coming to us Friday afternoon at 1:00 and we deal with it and it is dealt with at that time at least both parties are involved and I don't yeah I have I have a few um child focus and catalyst I know we um How how much are they involved in this? This they're involved in the intervention process. When we have two students that have conflict or students that are struggling, there are groups, there are conflict resolution groups that they run. There are different ways that they step in and
054intervene with their kids. The victim, the aggressor, just depends on the situation and how they can be utilized. Yes. That's what I think that that would be my recommendation if maybe we could if is there a way we could use them more to you know as prevention or intervention you know I'm telling you that we are using them for that is so if we feel like if there's concerns from our parents and community that we're missing some is there an opportunity to increase that that would be again I think I would go back to that if there is complaints or appeals on discipline that follow the the appeal process. And would that involve um a separate investigation? Absolutely. Um again, you know, I I feel like my staff does what they need to do on
055these situations. If there was an appeal of a bullying investigation, I would find a third party, whether it be internally or your current board's attorney, um, to have somebody that would could do a separate investigation on that. I think the I think it rest on our administrative team and our staff to make sure that we're taking care of kids. Um so any parent right as of right now any parent would have who would have concern that um there was conflict of interest or some of the things that Corey mentioned uh they could appeal the ultimate um decision and then that would be up any decision on that I mean I you know if we discipline a student for bullying and the parents don't agree with it there's an appeal process for discipline so again I
056think that is concerns or complaints that would follow the proper command. If they're not happy with the outcome, they voice that to the principal. If the principal can't make it clear, it comes to me. I listen to it, understand with my staff where we're at with it. And again, I don't to me, if we have 20 cases of bullying that are on that end of the year bullying report, we're not dinged by the state. It's not an issue. I have a problem when we have 20 that we've got to look at what we're doing internally to intervene and make sure that we're not dealing with this fast enough with two kids that it's getting to that point. Although outside social media and things that go on outside of school bring their way back into school.
057So, you know, right now all transparency, we have five reported five verified bullying this year. Four of those occurred before we started this conversation in April. So, there are four discipline bullying cases that are on this year's report since December. Five of them. Four of them occurred before we had this conversation in April. So, I know that we're following an investigation process and I know that the outcome is. But does suspension and discipline stop that situation? No. It's the intervention that my staff does and that our different advoc advocacy groups in the building work with families and students to make sure whether it's a safety plan in place or a plan in place to keep the students apart um we put those in place. So I in the end I'm we're not dinged by the
058state of Ohio financially or slap on the wrist for the number of bullying cases. So in the end if we have that many discipline that's what's on the report. I I So yes, I have a few followup that I just want to ask because I've been I've thought about this since I read your email this morning. One thing that in hiring like an outside agency that would come in is like the prompt, right? The prompt response is like how prompt is can they get to go? Can they follow up? Can they get this stuff? That would be one of my main concerns because you don't want to send two kids who are in a bullying situation back to a a classroom or a space in which that's happening. Right. And then um with that, my
059second is I know earlier last month or since the last board meeting um Corey, you sent Brian and I an outside agency that was an attorney. Right. Right. Right. And my all of us my um my personal as a parent concern with that is say your child said my child was bullying them and then we said my child has to go in and be questioned by an attorney. I immediately am going to say let me get my own attorney. Right. My kid's not being questioned by anyone. Yeah. Until my attorney's present. Right. like yeah I can understand but I think we need to work through that process though and find out what that you know that's why what the options are correct and it's to go back to your first point how prompt you know
060I I don't know what I don't I would have to we would have to ask which is you know part of the process to begin and my thought would be the 25 26 you know give us time you know May or June July you know August to work no they she talk about prompt response no no I know I know I'm going to get to that um I obviously we they would address it immediately as the administration to whatever needs to happen, separation or whatever. And then if those parents request, you know, investigation to fix, you know, the bullying problem that it may be, that's when that's when we would have those those Okay. folks come in. I'm sorry. You have I'll forget about it to interrupt. I'll I will too. You just contradicted yourself.
061Okay. Because earlier you said that um you wanted all the administration employees and such taken out of the investigation process, the investigation, right? But right now you just said that if there is a report of bullying, you want the administration to Yes. You just said that. No, what I said is I want the investigation. They can't if if the administration finishes the investigation and the parents are not satisfied then an outside what I'm saying is the administration would separate the the issue first and then investigation process would then they would have to investigate that's what I'm saying is the administration would separate the issue to address it quickly so those students aren't going back and forth and then we then we would bring in the for the investigation I'm not saying they would investigate I'm
062just saying I'm hearing I'm hearing all of you and um the reality is is this would be a policy change, right? It would be just through the entire policy review and rewrite. You just have to go through the one policy. It's not a big deal. You could go through pol You should go through policies throughout the entire I'm not finished, guys. Um, so the reality is this would be a change to our current policy. And so we have a policy committee and there's a process form to begin the modification of a policy or a recommendation of a new policy. So it sounds like really we need to start there because there's a lot of like unknowns and Yeah. No. Yeah, for sure. I'm okay with that. But I think as a board we should look
063at really supporting if that if the the transparency is there you know that gives a perception to the public that we are really taking it you know seriously. I actually think we're very seriously. So I do I want to say I appreciate so the state model policy has not changed since day one. Ours has changed to make the law change. So changing it would not be we can make it a little better or change something whether it's procedural or whatever. I mean it's I would have to ask there's probably legal ramifications. I I mean my administrative team through that process you'd understand. That would be part of the process. That's the process that we have outlined. we outlined a year ago is that in order to submit for a new policy or a modification of
064a policy, there's a very clear form that we work through and it goes to our policy committee. So, it can we can go through like how does it impact us financially, how does it impact us um from a school district standpoint, individual schools, how you work through that because there's so many questions, right? And we need and we have some time. I think that's where we need to take this recommendation to is um you know Corey if you have this recommendation I think taking it through the process of the policy committee allows all of that homework to be done so by the time it comes back here all those time you know the promptness um what it looks like from a legal standpoint I mean I'm I'm one parent so I am definitely not all
065the parents out there but I imagine that every parent out Or say you are you do have a kid and someone you know the word bullying is used a lot. Say someone says Lauren Gray bullies them right and she gets pulled into a meeting with an attorney. I'm going to say yeah we could look at I think that needs my right. I mean that's part of looking at that whole process. So I think we got to dot our eyes, cross our tees, you know, put our periods at the end of the sentence before we bring it back here um for consideration. Sure. No, that's good. No, I appreciate that's what I can ask for. Appreciate I um just reached out to the student achievement um liaison at OSBA following our last board meeting just to
066say you know hey give any recommendations or what other school districts um are doing and um she recommended that potentially we have a a special board meeting and you know obviously it's a public meeting community could um be there and so perhaps maybe that's a a takeaway from this that we have a um you know a discussion and and and take recommendations and ideas and and to kind of form that policy and and what we do from that um you know and like what we do and then also um just coming up and you guys can all we can pass this around but um from our board leadership um institute um one of the um sessions was just it really didn't have anything to do with it was just about um a community in conflict
067and it was really about selling off um school buildings um in a declining um Oh, you can have mine if you want. Um no, no, no. I meant we need more school buildings. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was. Yes, it was completely different. It was in um Holmes County um and it was like these five villages and they needed to sell bu um buildings and and they were going to um go into one um one elementary school. Um and anyhow um they said that oh we had an issue um of bullying several years ago and we um follow this matrix from Orville City Schools and you should reach out to them. So I um had contacted Teresa and I said, "Hey, why don't could you send a message?" And she did and we got this um
068and they just said that this um has matrix has worked well in communicating um to everyone and keeping everyone on the same page. So maybe this would be helpful to have that um in that um discussion. So I think maybe that that could be a next step. And then if we do want to write a policy and we want to have an outstate agency that would maybe be helpful. I mean a public um like a a public session session kind of yeah could be part of the policy process right? Yes. Are you talking about the uh what they said they had like a 30-minute meeting before the regular board meeting that you're talking about something different? Yeah. It was something Yeah. totally different. It was just literally it was totally in passing and I was
069just like oh I have and I had no idea what it was. It was just Yeah. Do we have any further discussion? Oh yeah. So so um I I really think that we have uh you know as we have uh child focus and catalyst I mean they're they're not they're not go employees contract with them. um if there's tools, additional tools they can provide. Um so that's something we can consider um if we get them involved earlier in the process or um keep parents invol uh updated as to okay here's here's why this decision was rendered. I mean it was was not bullying or whatever you know and uh do we can we get them involved in that process now? Is that part of our policy or maybe we can tweak our policy to get
070them involved? parent should be involved in that. No, I mean I'm talking about child focus and catalyst with you know that resource is like a community resource. Yeah. I mean just you hear so many great things about well Mr. Tony and what he's done you know I mean and uh we have and we you know we definitely care about the kids with the kids with parents. I mean we have a a family engagement specialist just was in here presenting Dazzio. you know, if we didn't think that was valuable, we wouldn't have created that position and retained that position. Well, I know surely I neglected to say is part of some of these supports, too. So, what's that? Sh is part of some of these supports with students as well as we have conflict with students,
071but um I would go back to that recommendation number two of continuing to educate staff, students, and parents on anti-bullying strategies. And that is part of what you guys are all talking about is parent engagement, parents being a part of how we do this, not just at the end when there is a case and there is an investigation, but how do we avoid having yes bullying in our schools and I think that's a huge part of parents. So I you know the input on it um you know I'd rather get input on how do we prevent intervene and how do we end up disciplining through an investigation. So what about uh following up with all our staff? Okay, let's say you know the incidents that happened over middle school eighth grade or whatever that all
072the staff in the district can learn you know we have the training manually with the staff right and then they bring it up to them say hey these are the cases we had and detail itself this is goes through the process of lessons learned right what we again I you know I'm not I don't want to make something smaller or bigger than it is. As a superintendent, up until last month, I had not received one email on anybody concerned about bullying. So, I I understand that it's out there and I understand as you get towards the end of a school year that things have mounted and all of a sudden it's, you know, become a bigger issue. But we don't know what we don't know in some situations. So that's where I think the communication
073with parents about how where the processes are for intervention to begin, what the proper channel to express concerns if kids are bringing it home. It's part of that education process. Um, and I think that's a a couple parent nights, a couple opportunities for parents to come in, hear what we do because I got to tell you again, I'm going to go back to my recommendations and working with my administrators. I feel like we work with all of our families and support all of our kids. Sometimes you got to agree to disagree, but in the end I know for a fact that when it is bullying, we are disciplining for it. No matter who it is, they are disciplined for I think he says something key there too which I like, you know, in in the
074end if if we're not if we get to a resolution. So maybe we can almost have maybe the best of both worlds and maybe work them together. you know, if there if there potentially is still something afterwards that that they don't that that a parent may feel, you know, at maybe that point if we could have a backup plan um to the administration just to make sure we did our due diligence, you know, maybe it's the best of both worlds and I would be I think that would make sense. I mean, I think that I think that should be our like appeal process, right? Right. But I'm saying but outside I mean I would say outside service do the appeal process. So then it's not the folks that investigated first and came up with the
075decision. No no no about like uh like if it was like our attorney. They're not attached to us. They're not they don't go to go. They don't have any kids that go to go or anything. They're literally if anything goes down in the court of law they're representing the five of us in our district. Right. And so I would just be concerned. Is it a conflict? I don't know if I would have to add No, they would they would remove themselves if there's conflict. they could have our attorneys and maybe that's okay. Maybe we do that as as a happy medium and just and really truly just, you know, protect ourselves, but also let let them know that we're serious about it. And if you guys did an investigation, you said, "Well, no, it doesn't
076look like it." And the parents are happy they appeal it and that maybe that point we potentially bring in just an outside person. That is our policy. It's not an outside person. Our Kenis Britain, your board of um on staff retired administrators that do title N investigations that do investigation. That's perfect. That is a no and we've used that and just this talking about this and bringing this up like I didn't know there was two ways to report bullying. One's one way and one's another one until this process. There's like a handful. No, no, no. There was like there's two ways depending on the severity. Teresa, you may be able to help me with that. But the parents didn't know that. So just the awareness of having this conversation, right? So if we can just
077figure out how to even if it's at the end where where the administration said, "Hey, look, we've done our due diligence. We've looked at it." We don't think it is. Parents, you may appeal the contact that you can reach out to. They're not related. They're unbiased. They'll look at the investigation. They'll ask the questions. Yeah. You know, I think that's what maybe I think that's what parents would want maybe. and just at the end and and then if the people come back and and they say, "No, it wasn't." Well, you guys have done your due diligence. We've had an outside person look at it. Yeah, I think that's what I think that is our policy. Yeah, that's currently in place. Okay, that's fine. Well, let's use it and let's make sure that that is and
078make sure it is unbiased and it's not a conflict of interest, right? Yeah. So, I I would be I don't think anybody and we want parents to we want parents to be able to to to speak on their children's behalf. Um, we don't want somebody to ever feel like intimidated or Well, there's there's a lot of Yeah, I know. I know. And and we know something like twothirds of kids that get bullied don't report it. You know what I mean? So, we we we we encourage kids to report it. We definitely want to follow up with it, you know, because that's, you know, only one in three kids. I mean, so we want the kids to be able to be comfortable to uh find somebody that they, you know, they're comfortable speaking with and then
079something's going to be followed up. I mean that's that's for sure. We don't we don't want to never want anybody feel like you don't have a voice. I um had heard a suggestion that you know maybe we do have a survey to this the students to understand if they think they are being heard or not. Um and if if we are going to have a community forum I think that would be good. So you know maybe they feel like if they go to the office they are being heard. So I mean can there be there's an anonymous form there is a Google and that's where the confusion lies I met with that's from last can you explain so the middle school has their own reporting like an it can be anonymous it collects their addresses
080sometimes but it's more for like a check-in or if you need something so it could be I didn't have breakfast today or I missed my lunch or something. It could be anything from that to so and so is driving me crazy you know please move their classes and they get all kinds of emails from that. So that's more like an internal middle school handling thing. That way they can just have a quick check in with kids. Then there's actually actual like formal reporting of waiting and that's you know student safety concerns on the website or you can call the state tip line and state tip line gives it back to us. There's a multitude of ways you can walk in it. Yes. I mean and it's all on our website from that standpoint as far
081as our bullying communication process. Melissa the matrix here we have a very similar one just a different color of what so good that's awesome conflict or rude to mean to what is eventually bullying and we try to work with families through that because it's all an educational process in the end I'm going to go back to I want to be advocates for all of our kids and families not adversaries because if we're adversarial in this it's not good for kids so I do want to make sure that we're open and transparent and I feel like we do um even if there is a disagreement how do we resolve that with the parent and make sure the kids are taken care of because there's always two sides to this. Um, so but I, you know, I
082do, like you guys said, appreciate the dialogue and I'm hope my door's always open. I say that and I mean that wholeheartedly to parents to stay at board. Um, open to having those conversations because in the end it's what we're here for is to take care of our kids. I appreciate that and the the conversation and the discussion about it. Maybe we just look at the last part of it if there like Mr. Bailey said if there's if the parents still have issues with it maybe that's the time that we would at that point reach out just to there should be a policy committee right policy committee meeting sorry I didn't mean policy committee in general policy committee meeting I think starting there to say here's our policy this is what we want to look
083at is is probably just best because we we are voting on actually the update of that policy tonight so um that goes to affect what next month. Yes. Yeah. So, um I think starting there to say how, you know, what is this process? How's our policy doing? Is there something we want to look at? Um I know there's lots of things that the school has been working on in general to um do some outreach for the upcoming year. And I know you guys have spent lots of time over the last month on this. So really appreciate all that you were able to bring back to us um from other districts and um and the different organizations. So any further discussion? I don't mind being the champion of the starting just because nobody else is. You
084people look to us because we're doing so much better than all the other districts and this could be another one of them and just take it to that next level and making sure that we're, you know, doing the best we can. I mean, if we have to adjust policy, right, we should always look at it and see if you know. I mean, we're writing on a lot of adjustments of policy tonight. So, that's Yeah, appreciate it. All right. Anything else? All right. So, moving on to new business. Um 8A um public hearing for personnel um savings plan. The Goian Local School District Board of Education hereby gives public notice in accordance with Ohio Revised Code 3307.353 that it will hold a public meeting to consider the reemployment of the assistant to the treasurer and Smith
085as superit to the same position from they from they will retire from as of June 30th, 2025. live. Sorry, that's like a thing you have to read. So, um, all interested persons are invited to speak at this time. Okay, nobody's speaking. So, um, we just will move forward and thank Ann for her service and continued service to the district. [Applause] This is a process that again anytime that we have a staff member that wants to stay and you know it says on their personnel savings plan it says it is the savings to the district have a retired person that is has all the skills and that an has and what she's done over her time here in the treasur's office but you'll see a little later we've been provided the auditor estate award again and
086that's what Todd and his staff there do a great job. So, we're thrilled to have her back. But that will be voted on next month. Yeah. All right. So, moving on to um new business uh public participation. Mr. Sherzinger, do we have anyone sign up for public participation? We have two. Okay. So I'm going to read a quick paragraph and then we can fold them forward. So each person addressing the board will give his or her name and address. Unless you are a student, please do not provide your address. In my case, if several people wish to speak, each person will be allotted two minutes until the total time of 30 minutes is used. During that period, no person may speak twice until all who desire to speak have had the opportunity to do so.
087Persons desiring more time should follow the procedure of the board to be placed on a regular agenda. The period of public participation may be extended by a vote of the majority of the board of education. As a board, we do listen and take notes. Please know that all subject matters that require followup just as last month will receive followup by someone from our administrative team. In addition, please note if information shared is in violation of any policy or requires us to move into executive session, the board is required to take act immediate action at that time and move into executive session. Mrs. Sherzinger, Caitlyn Collier. Hello, Caitlyn. Call your one256 Marwood Woodhill Road, Lancaster, Ohio 45107. Good evening. I'm speaking tonight not just as someone who cares about our schools, but as a parent and
088a member of this community. Like many of you, I've heard the concerns about bullying in our schools, and I want to say clearly, I care deeply about all of our kids. No one wants to see a child hurt or feel unsafe. These concerns are serious and they deserve to be addressed, but they also deserve to be handled in a way that brings us together, not tears us apart. Over the last 12 months, we've listened to a variety of orchestrated concerns from books to bullies and everything in between. But while some of these concerns may come from a genuine place, the way they're being delivered is beginning to tear apart our community. We are starting to lose the very thing that has always made Gian special, our unity. I want to remind everyone of who we
089are. We are Gian. We are a community that rallies together in the face of hardship. And the school is the center of the community. When students need glasses, we get them. When families have never been to the the dentist, we bring dental care into our schools. When cancer, illness, or unimaginable tragedy strikes, we don't look the other way. We step in. We feed our kids breakfast and lunch every day. We are among the first to respond when a tornado devastated our community. And our teachers don't just teach. They show up to games. They check in on students. and they love them like their own. That's who we are. We are warriors, not because we fight against each other, but because we fight for each other. To the parents who spoke at the last meeting, I'm
090not saying you don't have a reason to be concerned. What I'm saying is if we're truly committed to protecting and supporting our children, we must come together. Real solutions require real collaboration. If your goal is to make our school safer and stronger, we welcome you to be part of our work. But if you refuse to engage, we have to ask, what's really the goal? Let's talk. Let's listen. Let's fix what needs fixing. That's what true Gushian warriors do together. Thank you. [Applause] Karina did it. You gota wait. I messed something up. M trying to rewind. I don't know what I did. I can also fix a lot of tech. I'm sorry. Yeah, you're good. Once you say your address, we start. Okay. My name is Karina Ben and I live at 1695 Clark Drive, Lovelin.
091Last year, my child experienced the worst year of his life simply for existing. I won't go into detail because it's not pretty. He was relentlessly targeted, threatened with graphic violence, and assaulted an unprovoked attack by someone he once called a friend. Over a year later, he still is with memory loss and chronic headaches. As a result of the stuff that he has been through, there have been three suspensions outside of school, two for expulsion. So, things are done. When I saw another parent raise concerns online, I took notice because I understand what it feels like to want to protect your kid. But while the pain is real and deserves attention, the direction this has taken deeply concerns me. The focus no longer seems to be on finding solutions. Instead, it became about blame, about punishing
092adults and infringing on one of our most sacred constitutional rights, the rights to free speech. Targeting teachers and support staff who respectfully share their views in a public forum and attacking those with differing perspectives feels like less like advocacy and more like adult bullying using intimidation to force an outcome. Bullying doesn't stop with a report. It begins with the example we set. And right now, some of those examples are disappointing. I've watched a member of our own school board, someone mentally with integrity, post divisive, hurtful things online just because someone disagreed. What message does that send? Change starts with us, with how we speak to others, even when we disagree. adults attacking other adults isn't setting a better example. It's repeating the very behavior we ask children to stop. And I'm sorry, but I'm not
093looking for a band-aid or a way to make sure bullies get punished. Why are we focusing on what happens after an incident instead of asking or more important question, what do we do to prevent these things? My kid deserve to have it prevented, not to be handled afterwards. I want real change. We must model respect and good behavior if we expect students to do the same. And parents, we need to stop coddling and start holding our kids accountable. Just last week, I saw a mother in this district do exactly that when her child was called out for picking on a girl. She held him accountable. That's the kind of parenting and courage I commend. What I'm asking is for a shift in mindset. Less fingerpointing, more respectful collaboration. We all want safe, kind schools. Let's
094remember why we're here to support kids, not score points. I'm asking all of us, parents, teachers, board members, to rise to a higher standard. Our kids are watching. Let's show them what real leadership looks like. Let's be better. Let's be the adults we want them to be. [Music] [Applause] Thank you both for speaking. Um uh we will follow up with both of you in regards to your um outreach tonight as well. Our administrative will be Moving on to um agenda item H, new business C, executive session. Do we have a motion to go into executive session for the following three items? One, to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, motion, or compensation of a public employee or official. Two, to consider the purchase of a property for public purposes because premature disclosure of information
095would give an unfair, competitive or bargaining advantage to a person who whose personal private interest is adverse to the general public interest. Three, preparing for conducting or reviewing negotiations or bargaining sessions with public employees concerning their compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment. So move second. So Lisa made the motion. Corey second. Do we have any discussion? Expecting action. There will be action um in our meeting coming out of uh executive session. So you're welcome to stay while we meet on three of these in another space. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Mr. West. Yes. Moving on to um new business uh D treasures report. Mr. Shinkle. Yes. Um first off uh I just if we can go to the next one I I I do want to say that we got our auditor state
096aboard again and appreciate that. But I mean really it's it's a total team effort and you know like Annaise is here and Jenna I mean like they deserve all the best because they are the they're the 18 we were not for you. Okay now stand up. you need to stand with I mean really it I mean you know it's one of those things that in in the past we never brought this up a whole lot but when was running the bond issues you know a lot of people would come out and say live within your budget manage your money better I mean I've heard different things and you know this year I mean we're on we're going to hit 12 years in a row under budget and so to me I mean I live in
097goan my kids my wife I mean we're all right here And you know, I expect that. I mean, my expectation for our district when we get an audit, whether it's me and the chair or another treasur, we should be 100% we should get this award. I mean, if that's not your expectations, then shame on you. So that's I mean so now that's why I put that out there because I want everyone to know I mean that we do spend your money wisely and being you know 12 years under budget and doing that that tells you with the programs that we got you seen what happened here tonight with the you know the presentation of the middle school we're doing great things like that because we have the funds to do it. So that's the only
098thing that you know I I want to say on there is that in the rest of the district I mean athletics the cafeteria all the teachers they collect fees we go on field trips everyone collects money and those are all looked at in our office but I mean it it's really a testament to the whole district. So, um, I just really want to take a minute. I apologize. I know everyone's waited late and all that stuff, but, um, it's one of those things that, hey, you know, we're doing a we're doing a pretty good job here. And it's it's not just the treasure. I mean, it's it's a team effort. So, you should absolutely take time to celebrate. Um, so here's where we are uh right now with our district. This is just general fund.
099So, we, you know, we started the year off with our $15 million. We have pulled in so far 35 million. Our fiscal year to date is 30. And you can see right now we're currently at 19701. So uh our ending fund balance right now is four and a half million compared to last year. I can tell you you know on that a big part you can go to the next one. Uh on our it's on our revenue side. If you look what we got for 24 is 33 million and in 25 we are now at 354 and the state resources at 1.6 million. Our biggest thing that transpired there is that we went to C and how we code our kids is DPIA, you know, for disadvantaged use. We got another million and a half
100dollars. I mean, and that's you can see it right there on that. So, our revenues up 20 2.2 million and we're sitting at 7%. On the on that one. So, on the expenditure side, next one. Uh, April of last year was at 295. This year we're at 30 million8. So through April we're up 1.3 million compared to last year we're 5% which is basically you know 5% that's just the cost of living that's going on you know around there and you can see u huh I got to No that's fine that's fine well it makes me go quicker then prior year ending fund balance is 15 and right now we're projected to 185 and uh that's where we're at right now. So, we have 182 days of cash. I'm sorry, I rambled on. Um, I
101should um I do want to just share and I know you guys went to BLI so you probably heard some of this stuff. I mean, right now huge huge legislative things going on with school funding and pro the biggest three I mean we broke out right here is House Bill 96, the fair school funding model adjustments. So, right now they're looking to give us I think it's 20. I got it on the next slide, but you don't have to. That's all right. That's all right. You don't have to put on there is um so on there I I will show you in a little bit where we're at on that. I mean, they're just giving us a little bit of money because of the budget cuts. There's also with 96 there's a 30% carryover limit.
102So, what they do is they'll take our expenditures. I'll just say we're almost $40 million. And if at 30% we anything above the $12 million on that number this the state can cut that. It'll go to the county uh border revisions and they can roll back our millillage even though we're at the 20 mil floor and drop that down there. That would be a huge number for a lot of districts if you're starting to lose that that that type of dollar um on this for where our money comes from. I mean the reason the state number for us is so important I just want 52% almost is where is is comes from the state. So these changes that they're making is really really really important for us. And so we've reached out uh to our
103congressman and talked to them about like to not put in the 30% rule and to fully fund the fair school funding formula. Um, this right here, this is the this is what we're getting for student under the first house bill. $20 per student in 26 and 30 for 27. So, we go up $50,000 and then we go up 25. I mean, basically 0.2%. And I think that's the thing is so frustrating is like that's going to dip into our cash, you know, drastically when you have that kind of number there. So we'll we'll be you know like this year there's a lot going on with hearings with the Senate and stuff. So really stay tuned this week will be a big one. So just I mean just on this one this is the fair school
104funding plan. This is where base increase were supposed to happen and they they were supposed to account for inflation of what it cost to educate a kid. Looking at that $20 a kid $30 a kid is essentially flat funding that when you've had inflation and you've had things happen over time. So, not only are we looking at property tax revision, property tax revision that Todd's speaking of, whether it be House Bill 96 or Senate Bill 66 or a plethora of other property tax bills that are up there, it's all focusing on schools. Um, and that's where we're at. So, we're kind of in an unknown. Um, but go ahead. Sorry. Oh, no. Can I ask a quick question? Yeah. Why why do you see a a major gap between some of the schools like the
105US? Like what's the valuation and and their community and what they're what that dollar it's probably more state dollar is driven that way. Okay. Yeah. I mean like for us I mean Claremont County was like if not the largest one of the largest on on that growth at 39%. I mean and that's what we got and being at the 20 mil floor it hit a lot more. I mean it's for some of these districts here it just could be you know their state share what they what they okay property values increase so much around Cincinnati better anywhere else in the state which yeah sorry about that so um really we talked about this the house passes version of 96 on the state of budget and includes a provision that will significantly impact our district across
106the state uh the bill proposes capping school districts off at with carryover to 30% of their expenditures, penalizing districts with a higher reserve by reducing funding. While this may sound like a technical change, it poses real threats to student programs and long-term funding plans planning. And I I think that's the thing that's frustrating is like when we go through and on our budget and we tie everything down, we try to remain under budget. It's very frustrating when you know that you might have to cut some stuff because of what they're doing up to the state. So that's probably the most frustrating thing. I'm old enough to be in this long enough now that 10 years ago, 12 years ago, they told districts at this point in time, you should be reserving more money. You know,
107you should be creating your own rainy day fund because we can't continue to fund it. So what districts have done if we've heard that, we've made financial decisions along over time to make to have that so that we can do things to, you know, fix campus, fix roofs, whatever it might be. keep operations when you have those influxes. So, you know, that's really what we were told to do honestly from the state legislature 10 years ago is you need to create a carrier. So, that's what districts have done financially is make decisions that you're not continually being over budget, you're trying to stay under budget. So, that's what your carryover is. Yep. Thank you. Did a good job explaining that. Um, so for us, why do carryover matters for our district? And it's, uh, living
108cash on the 30%. Again, that is just the hugest thing right there. Uh, inconsistent funding. So, with when they have the property tax reductions, what's going to happen on down the road if we cut out $6 million in one year and then our new number comes up, don't we have to cut another two or three million? So, that's very frustrating to to put on there as well. uh the rolling five-year forecast requirement combine combined with the potential mandatory tax reductions makes long-term financial planning difficult and so again lack of the state share and all that stuff and I think that's the thing you know when we're looking at our building is that is the main thing we're trying to do is like what are we going to do when this growth really hits in in
109our our district. Um the last one down there too though which I think is is hugely important like when we go through and we get rated Moody's does the rating for us like when we went out and doing a bond issue right how's the ocean look financially kind of like just you if you bought a house and they do a credit report where do you sit one of the things they do kind of talk about is they recommend 50% in the bank because they want to make sure you're a good investment you know like hey can they make their payments same as a house and so it's almost contradictory when you sit there and think like man they really want you to have a lot your cash on hand and you have the state saying
11030% your lid. So, well, and if you don't have that, the lower carryover you have, the bigger interest rate you're going to have on the pond. So, yeah, in the end, that cost taxpayers more because the interest is higher over a 30-year period. So, it's so the last thing I really want to talk about is why do we have a carryover? It's kind of like what I was alluding to earlier. Um, energy savings in our investment plan. We we save about $420,000 a year. Esser funds used to offset general funds. We got $3.8 million. A huge amount of money. I I mean, it was more than I ever dreamt. But we on what we're spending on. I mean, we were not out there building buildings or doing anything of that nature. We were looking at
111the kids coming back from COVID and tutoring and intervention service, you know, a lot of things like that. So, we offset our general fund which helped grow that. You know, negotiations, we try to, you know, keep our all of our employees paid well. I mean, if you take a drive basically north and and to the west, you're hitting bigger districts of Indian Hill and Mason and that sort of thing where that's who we're competing with on on salaries. So, that that's a big deal. Um, sound investment strategies. Uh, I'd like to think that, you know, while we do have the cash, the thing is great right now is we are averaging about $70,000 a month on interest revenue and we take a lot of pride in that to try to, you know, do what's best
112for our district in that regards. And then our community eligibility program when I put in there that's talking about earlier when we went to C, everyone's categorized as DPIA and we went from up $1.5 million compared to last year. Now remember that was just us entering a community eligibility provision grant to get students free breakfast and free lunch. It was an unknown that it was going to bring in that we this does. So we're using it to offset some intervention services and whatever but we didn't plan for that this year and that's a four-year program. I've heard there may be some changes in that too. So we'll see what happens within the per within the four years with what you're going to what what that PPI PPIA dollar is. [Music] Okay. Sorry. Oh no. Um
113last couple things there. We did uh outside of the C we did get $685,000 in grants for school safety technology which we did a lot of the upgrades on that. And then um we negotiate agreements with our contracted services. So, our busing cleaning services, the ESC, we sit down with them and do a five-year contracts and work out where we're getting zeros and ones, and that's helped out tremendously when you're talking those kind of spins. And then the last thing is like, you know, we haven't talked about a while, but the green property we sold that we've been keep we've got that basically in reserve just waiting for the next thing that we go out there and do on on a building project or whatever comes that we may need it. All right. So, uh,
114where is the money that we plan for to use for locally funded facilities and uh, projects going forward? And really in just a nutshell, it's like we know right now that passing a bond issue is not going to happen. So just looking and we're just watching houses go up and houses go up and houses go up and watching kids start to come into our district and we're running bus routes and that's going to be that at some point, you know, are we going to add a couple classrooms to this building or that building or do we need more? And I think that's probably the biggest thing that's going to be, you know, we're going to be looking at on down the road is when this growth does hit us. So just I think that's kind
115of it. Is there any questions? Any questions with the financial updates review? Good job, Mr. Moving on to new business 7E financials 1 through 11. Do we have a motion? So move a second. Melissa has the motion. Lisa with the second. Any discussion? Obviously, that's a big um three big two big contracts and I do want to thank the Gian Education Association and our support staff personnel uh for successful negotiation season and being uh great teammates in this work that we do for kids. And I do feel like, you know, three-year contracts with with those are uh it's beneficial for the district as our staff and we appreciate the heck out of them and I'm glad to get this one behind us and keep moving forward. Then you also have exempted employee handbook and those
116as well. Um so it's a few financials, but the two big ones are our negotiated agreements being three-year negotiated agreements. Thank you for your work on that. Mr. Shel, can you please call the role? Mrs. Papy, yes. Mr. Rar, yes. Mrs. Gray, yes. Mr. West, yes. Mrs. Wy, yes. Moving on to new business. Uh, F personnel 1 through 12. We have a motion. Second, Cory. Second. Any discussion? It's a long list of hirings. It's a time of the year where we've got teachers moving from one year to two year, two year to continuing. Um, couple resignations. We do have another resolution to initiate the procedures under Ohio law for reemployment or rehired um with a 32-year change with STRS. Um Troy Smith has reached 32 years this year and I need a director of operations
117and not walking out on June. So we are initiating that process to do a re retire rehire with Mr. Smith that is number 12. But it is a uh long list of hirings. We've got great people in great spots and we're put in the right spots on the bus and forward. So it's it's a big personnel month. Any additional discussion? Mr. Shinkle, can you please call the role? Mr. Rivera? Yes. Mrs. Gray? Yes. Mr. West? Yes. Mrs. Wing? Yes. Mrs. Pepp? Yes. Moving on. New business G. Athletic Personnel 1 through five. Do we have a motion? Second. So moved. I'll second it. Cory made the motion. Bill second. discussion. Um, just reminding uh we've got supplementals in there. I will say there's one big change inside of those supplementals and it's part of those conversations
118that we've we've had with uh within our athletic department. Greg Miller is going to take on the reigns of uh the high school athletic director. Scott Wake going to be the assistant athletic director and mentor Greg. Um so that Greg's ready to go and Scott you know, find that time. But I I think that's great transition in our department. We always try to be proactive if we can with those situations and in conversations with those who those two. Scott's excited to mentor Greg. Greg's ready to take the ratings and go. So, I think it'll it'll be great combination there. Any further discussion? All right. Mr. Shingle, can you please call the role? Mrs. Gray, yes. Mr. West, yes. Mrs. Wing, yes. Mrs. Papro, yes. Mr. Ra, yes. Yeah. Moving on to new business, age personnel.
119Um, one. Uh, do we have a motion? So, moved. Second. Motion by Lisa, second by Melissa. Any discussion? Mr. Shinkle, can you please call the role? Mr. West, yes. Mrs. Marine, yes. Mrs. Papraki, yes. Mr. Raer, abstain. Mrs. Gray, yes. Moving on. New business. I miscellaneous. We have three items. Um, do we have a motion? So moved. Motion. Lisa second. Any discussion? I will. I mean, anytime we get those, it's great. But the one for Joe Spalding, Jane for his scholarship and the le continuing to supporting us and then the big agency stepping in for that middle school renovation. Got great people that support our schools and great organizations. So, we thank them for those generous donations. Absolutely. Get your gas at the LA. Yes. Any further discussion? All right, Mr. Shinkle, can you please
120call the role? Mrs. Wy, yes. Rocky, yes. Mr. Rare, yes. Mrs. Gray, yes. Mr. West, yes, energy saving. Okay, moving on to new business. J, uh, policy motion. So, um these are uh the policies we've reviewed and um we had our first reading last month. Um would anybody like to make a motion? Second. Lis and Corey serve on our policy committee. Uh any discussion, I want to thank everybody who took the time to do this. Um Mrs. Zinger, I know this was a big thing over the last year and everybody that attended all the meetings um to really review all of our policies and update every little dot and cross tea. I think it was great too that we had a representative like whatever policy was or who it affected like to get their input
121was great. Yeah, sure. So, thanks for everybody's time on that. Uh Mr. Shinkle, can you please call the role? Mrs. Mr. Rocking. Yes. Mr. R. Yes. Mrs. Gray. Yes. Mr. West. Yes. M. Yes. All right. Moving on. New business. K. Board of Education reports. Um Melissa. Um. Yes, I will. I can just um send this. Um so yeah, really great things um at the board leadership institute um and some really um good ideas that came um out from um student achievement um and just ways I think that we can um you know showcase our um community better um you know in the future. Um, one I think my favorite idea, I'll just summarize it and then I'll just forward this on to everyone, but um is um from Hillyard City Schools was um a way
122to communicate the vision to the community um and showcasing the portrait of a graduate is um to have the GNN interview recent graduates um and say like, hey, this is what they're doing. and you know some are you know college graduates some went straight into the workforce some are military um and then you know and use that to say hey here's um you know how they brought that to life so I thought that would be a really good thing that we could showcase um and you know um I thought that was a great idea um oh and then one thing um I don't know I've never heard of this but um they said school CEO that publication they that is a free publication and it has lots of good ideas so we can all have
123something for free but there's a few other things that I will send but hey there's school CEO so I don't know sign up for it and you might get a whole bunch of spam in your account but Melissa Bill um great oaks we have this is our senior ceremony week tonight with Scarlett Oaks I believe this Walker attended that one. So we missed that one. I will be at the live oaks tomorrow night and then Thursday night we have Laurel Oaks graduation. I'll be at that one also. Um then Wednesday I have the Great Oaks board meeting. So it's a busy uh I attended the Ohio Ohio High School Athletic Association um meeting uh the liaison meeting a couple weeks ago. They talked about the you know the additional divisions we have now. Um and
124uh you know volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball. This past year since the new uh divisions, they uh they had five first time boys state champs and four first time girls state champs division. So that's pretty cool. Um they're also evaluating division tournaments also. Uh there's some kind of thing and Mr. Shankle, you might know more about this, like something about like if they the low team takes the the buy because some of the higher teams like they don't they don't want the buy in the first round of the tournaments, the postseason tournaments, they want to play, you know, and and so the low team takes a buy and then if they get then if they win one game, the next thing you know they're one runner up in there. Yeah. So something good. So they're evaluating
125that. Um what else they discussed was Oh, it's pretty cool. Um, girls wrestling now is, you know, has been a OSA sport now for a few years. Uh, during the COVID season or before the COVID season, there were 250 girls wrestling. Now there's 5,000 girls wrestling in Ohio. That's amazing. And there Yeah, it's it's it's crazy. It's been a conversation. It's just can we can we sustain it? Some years you have it, some years you don't. So, it's how do we when you get the numbers? It is. Yeah. They're pretty good, too. Oh yes. Yeah. Um and uh oh there's also we had a student leadership conference at last this past year was in Princeton High School. I'm not sure if we participate. We did not do that when we did the we chose hy
126this year for student leaders. Okay. Middle school and high school. That was the Anthony Munoz one I believe. Gotcha. Gotcha. Um also uh I attended BLI also went to good sessions on uh finance of course. That's always interesting. um good to know that we're doing things right because you hear a lot of districts that are just jacked up. But um also another one uh with um community engagement, you know, and and they're show ladies showing everything to do and I'm like, "Yeah, we do our senior citizens dinner and it rocks, you know, we got, you know, huge turnout for that every year." Um but yeah, she showed one. It was actually uh it was prom themed senior citizen prom. Gosh, that would be so that was Yeah, that was pretty cool. But also some things
127too like engaging the community um you know how they can sign up for newsletters or something you know I mean so I think maybe a little bit easier or whatever I'm going to discuss um with Mr. Bailey about that some of the things I learned while I was up there that um yeah but VLI can't speak highly enough about it. It really uh you know it's just board members. It's not uh superintendent and treasures messing messing everything up. Yeah, they talk to board members. I mean, they talk they talk to board members, you know, they don't come up with a list of 300 acronyms. I mean, they'll say what it really mean because you guys say it every day, you know, we're Yeah. But, uh, yeah. So, acronyms I'm not great with, but no, it's
128it is it's great. Every year I go, I just I said, "Okay, probably learned all there is learn existed." Not on UC's graduation week. I know. I know. I I thought you were going to make it this year, too. I was like, "Yeah, Deborah's going to be here." And yeah, that was uh But yeah, it's great. All right, that's uh all I have. Thank you, Bill. Lisa, so for um legislative Todd kind of stole my thunder with House Bill 96. Sorry about that. Um that's okay. I appreciate it. Um, I do want to add to that though that over 400 school district treasurers, superintendent, and board members gave testimony in opposition of House Bill 96. And that is the largest amount of um opposition testimony that they have had um for something school related in
129the in the house. So that was impressive to read that. Um, so from BLI, um, one of the sessions that I really enjoyed was the mock board meeting that they, um, that they put on for us. And, um, a couple of the things that they, um, reiterated is that consistency is key. So, if we're going to do something one time, we need to make sure that we um, follow through with that, which we do. Um and they talked about um public participation and the policies regarding that. And um one thing that I found interesting was that they um that there are quite a few districts that actually do public participation before the meeting. Um so that um we're able to because in a board meeting we're not really supposed to respond in that. So, we're
130taking it out of that board meeting to where they can come with their concerns and we can listen and we can engage since it's outside of the board meeting if that's something that um and the majority of the schools that do that they um they do like 30 minutes before the meeting. They have a public participation public participation session and then it stops at the 6:30 mark and the board meeting begins. And and that that was just two board members that would be present at that. Right. Yes. So it doesn't have to be all five of us. It can be. So it's not a public meeting. Right. Correct. Right. Correct. And that way they get some engagement. People maybe are more comfortable speaking. They say, "Hey, I have a question." And then you can go
131back and forth on that. So that's interesting. They said they had, you know, some meetings they'd have whatever a dozen or so people. Sometimes they would have anybody show up, right? But yeah, maybe they said they had administrators there or just board if they did or not. They said that they would um that they normally had um at least one administrator. Sometimes both superintendent and assistant superintendent were there or the treasurer. Yes. So I just thought that it was interesting. It's not something that I've ever heard of being done before, but they said that a lot of um school districts, not a lot, they have several school districts um that have moved to that because it is more of an informal conversation that the public can have with the board members um where there can
132be that type of discussion. Yeah. And and one thing to that they also said that sometimes during the session it's um if it is during the board meeting it's called public comment because they're not really participating in our um board business meeting. It's comment and right I thought that was interesting and the the board the mock meeting was put on by um the lawyers. They were the actual today. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, that was that was really good. Um and then the other session um Melissa talked about it, the strategic storytelling session I thought was really good as well. And just to add to hers, um one of the one of the um the takeaways that I got was um develop messaging for scanners, skimmers, and readers. So, you do brevity, bold, and
133bullets um and communication and that for um whatever we're sending out. So that we're making sure that the scanners, the skimmers, and the readers all enjoy. Yes. Yes. But that was a very very great educational professional development um conference. So thank you for allowing us to go. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you guys for attending. Cy, uh just the you know the obvious, the firehouse, it's starting to take shape. So, I'm still waiting on a message from from the township, but I reached out to him earlier, but just that's about all I had for that. So, okay. And then audit and finance, we have a June 5th meeting um that we'll be following up on and um Gan Education Foundation um is running a fundraising campaign for the George Rise Field at this time. So, um connect
134with that if you're interested. Um, and our golf outing is almost sold out. So, if you want to participate, go ahead and make sure you sign up. Um, it's close to being sold out. Um, does anybody have any questions for one another? Any comments? Right. Moving on to new business l uh, superintendent report. Mr. Bailey. All right. For sake, I'm going to make this short and sweet. you guys have covered most of it. Uh Oaks graduations this week. We did have 11 kids at Scarlet tonight, so congrats to them because they've already graduated. You have uh 35 tomorrow for Live Oaks and also our senior scholarships are tomorrow night. Um I will be attending that. Tom will meet you there, Bill and Lisa, um for that live oaks at 4 and then Laurel um is
135on the 15th. And then our high school, I gave you your parking passes for the 22nd. There's a lot you can get in. Mrs. Walker sent you the details on that. I wish our middle school good luck on their trip to DC. Always an exciting time to be an eighth grader and head to DC. I know they'll be doing some updates here as we kind of go through those three days, but great experience. Appreciate the board for allowing those type of experiences for our kids. Um, our annual staff recognition, you guys are all invited to, that's our end of the year, last day. uh celebration with our staff starts at 7ish breakfast and then um we'll kick off and recognize years of service and rec and retirements and that at that Memorial Day parade. I
136will need I will send out a survey tomorrow to see who's going to go. I am up in the air for that one right now with a opportunity I may not be able to pass up and I'm hoping to be there but we will line up. We will have a bus uh if you want to walk in front of the bus. The bus is really for the band to get them back. So, we'll have candy and all the fun stuff. But, it will be line up at 9:00. Parade will kick off at 10. You guys know the drill on that one. Reminder of our June board meeting dates. Uh June 9th is our regular. And then Todd's financial special is June 20th. So, and that's at 7 a.m. That's our morning meeting for Todd to
137close the books to get with the county. So, quick one. Usually isn't too long unless there's a couple personnel things that need to happen on that. It all depends. And then lastly, um I do want to I know I put out a um email and I just want to bring it to the board's attention. Um Tik Tok and nothing that I'm ever on, but boy is it a great place for kids to pick up really dumb things to do. Um currently we've identified 25 intentionally damaged Chromebooks. Um, problem with that is there's a potential for that lithium battery to possibly be punctured and catch fire in the future. So, we have taken those 25 computers. Um, given the limited time we have right now between the end of the year, Mark's working with his team
138to collect all the computers. We're going to look at every computer. You can see the damage there. It's not You're going to notice it. If somebody stuck something in there to short out that computer, you're going to notice it. And currently right now I don't we hand we give every one of our students a Chromebook at no charge. You look around other districts there's big technology charges. We hand them a computer and we ask them to return it in the same manner. I you know I know that there's probably going to be some unhappiness but we're going to charge these kids for the damage to that computer because you can't you can't fix a blown up USB port. You can't fix a blown up battery. And those computers are about $274 right now. So the
139risk we'll be communicating correct the risk to themselves, the risk to our if it's happening in a classroom. I mean, there were plenty of news stories. Fortunately, we weren't a news story of computers catching fire, buildings having to be evacuated. Um, I'm really hoping that we've nipped it at this point, but we're going to have some damaged computers. So, we will be putting we'll be communicating with those families, working through the process of what happened. I can't they sign an acceptable use in the technology contract that says they're going to turn those computers back in. There's always, you know, things we drop it, we break it, we replace that. You stick something in the USB port and melt it. That's not an accident. So, that Tik Tok trend when people were ripping stuff out of
140the basket. Yeah, I remember all the Tik Tok trends because they're all so I uh it's unfortunate. I do feel like our administration at each building got on the PA once we're aware of it and we probably cut down on the number. Um but we didn't get them all. So, we're going to be working through a process to make sure that we work with the families of those damaged computers so that we can have computers to hand to kids next year. That's the other side of it. Um, so questions on that. Hopefully we communicated well enough with families and kids and it stopped, but we'll be looking at every computer this summer. Our tech interns will start with it and we'll work through to the administrative side. All right, that's all I have. All right,
141any any questions for Brian? All right, do I have a motion to adjourn this meeting? Moved. Second. Bill make a motion. Corey second. Any discussion? Mr. Shinkle, can you please call the role? Mr. Yes. Mrs. Gray. Yes. West. Yes. Mrs. Working. Yes. Brock. Yes. Meeting adjourned at 9:22 p.m.