001school district's business as not to be considered a public community meeting. There is a time for public participation during the meeting as indicated in the agenda. Would you rise with me for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Are there any additions or changes to the agenda? Yes, there is, sir. We've added one additional um purchase order for the um playground equipment. We had the playground furniture on there, but we've now gotten a second quote for our playground equipment that for the preschool and that will be added here. Do you have a specific number? Not yet. Okay, is I'm trying to think between it's the 20025051 194A.
002Okay. Is there a motion to accept the uh agenda as amended? So second Oh my goodness. Would you Is there any discussion? Would you call the role, please? Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Okay. We have a number of presentations. Uh, Rich, you starting off on these? Sure. The first presentation tonight will be made by Miss Carrie Morgano, and it relates to our Neotech math competition entries. Hi, I'm here again to celebrate some of our students for their outstanding math achievements in the latest round of the Noetic Learning Math Contest. For the spring round, there were almost 41,000 students around the country who competed against one another from grades um two to eight. And we have our grade level team winners here tonight as well as some of
003our top 10 percenters in eighth grade. So, when I call the students names, if you can come forward and I'm going to ask you to stand right in front of the table. So, in eighth grade, we had a three-way tie. We're here to celebrate. Charles Allen, if you're here, come on up. Robert Meyer, come on up. Morgan Damaski, I think, is not here today, but we're selling celebrating her as well. Seventh grader Cass Southern, sixth grader James Davis, fifth grader Samuel Han, fourth grader Cole Dugan, third grader Ella Branch, and second grader Ford Clark. Come on up. You all showed tremendous effort once again in this competition solving creative and kind of outside of the box thinking math questions. We are so proud of you. Let's give our grade level team winners a round of
004applause, please. And then I'm also going to ask Ella Branch and Cole Dugan to step forward. A big giant step forward. And I'm going to have four other students join them in this new row. I have third graders Lucas Oaklander and Eddie Vash. Come on up. And fourth graders Alexander Bokeis and Alexander Cullis. These students here achieved what is Noetic's highest accomplishment. It is the national honor role and it is because they scored in the top 10% for their grade level. It's outstanding work and we are proud of you. Let's give our top 10enters a round of applause. I do have a little funny story. Um, yes, before we take pictures, I have a little story and then I have certificates to hand out. Do any of you remember which grade level it was that
005I was joking around with on our results day about the acronym NOEIC? Does anybody remember that? I any was it third grade? Okay. So, on the spot, one of the kids asked me one day, "What does Noetic stand for?" And I didn't know. So, I'm very much focused on the questions, the math questions. Um, so I didn't know. And we were joking around and coming up with silly little, you know, words that it could stand for and we were having just, you know, a funny time before all of the kids were able to get into the classroom. And so, since then, I looked it up. It's not an acronym at all. It is actually an adjective. Do any of you guys know what it means? Does anybody in the audience know what noetic means? Laura
006Murray? I'm just Okay, so the word I just thought it was fascinating. The word noetic comes from the Greek word nosis or noeticose. It means inner wisdom, direct knowing, intuition or implicit understanding. Noetic refers to ways of knowing beyond our traditional five senses. So it means really smart. So a big congratulations to all of you. I'm going to come over with some certificates and then if anyone would like to take some pictures, we can do that. We're gonna do one group picture first with the board and then we'll do maybe our younger students can step forward and you focus. Yes. Thank you. Okay. All right. [Applause] Well, I too thought it was an acronym, but I looked it up long time ago, a few weeks back, but I didn't want to be a spoiler tonight.
007So anyway, true to my word, those of you who were here for the noetic math recognition, if you and your uh family want to leave at this point, you may or you may stay in this swelteringly hot room. Um, whatever whatever your preference is. Our next presentation, however, is going to be done by Mr. Jason Branch and Mrs. Taylor Dapper. And this is to recognize our let's see, it's our students. Hello everybody. That is an acronym by the way. It's Ohio Music Educators. I do know that one. Okay, good. Uh we're here to uh celebrate and recognize the accomplishments of some of our middle school students. We had 30 WestG Middle School students participate in OMA Middle School solo and ensemble competition where they prepare an ensemble of like a duet, trio or quartet or
008a solo and they play for a judge and receive a rating based on their performance and the quality of their performance. Um, out of the 30 students that we had participate, they were uh spread out among 17 different events. 11 of those events got the highest rating of a one. Five of those events got the second highest rating of a two and one of our events got the third highest rating of a three. And uh having 30 students participate at the middle school level. Um just reminds us of like precoid participation and it's a really really heartwarming thing that so many students are interested in participating and that they do so well and they're so motivated and excited. So, we invited those 30 students here to tonight's meeting um just to be recognized for their
009accomplishments and um hopefully get a nice photo op with the board as well. So, could we have uh the It's not the joke I made at the last meeting. Um could we have the uh solo and ensemble participants come up to the front? And can we get a big round of applause for all of these solo ensembles? on the edge there. want to take pictures. [Applause] And again, the same offer stands. At this point in time, we'd like to recognize some of our students who've been involved in the gear 4 club. Um these are students who have been some of our most outstanding students in terms of science and science performance. And there are two people who are largely responsible for that in addition to our own science staff. Those are Dr. and Dr. Lefver.
010And I'm going to ask uh Megan Bellen if she will introduce them at this time. Thank you. I have the pleasure to introduce um two adviserss who have done some absolutely tremendous things for our students outside of the school day and they are going to win awards all around um from a national perspective. And so we wanted to make sure that we had an opportunity to um thank the people that have have accomplished this um as well as our students who have earned um these recognitions. So do you mind coming up and talking about our students? And all of our students, can you come on up and we'll have you perfect that way. Perfect. All right. Perfect. I'm Jeff Lefer, one of the adviserss of the Gear 4 Club. Uh th this year we um
011we went to I didn't know I was going to give a presentation. Sorry. We like to surprise. Okay. Um we went to the National Robotics Challenge as as we have done quite a few years in the past beginning in 2016. Uh we we entered in uh we had 13 no we had 14 students because I I can't forget Michael. He was in a special category. We had 13 students in the in the regular uh challenge and then there's a new um challenge which I forgot what the name is but it's it's for it's school science projects that they wanted to bring in um a different category of uh uh science projects and and so Michael Jerger was was brought in for that. Um the three contests that we uh participated in were the micro mouse
012contest. Uh it's a maze contest where the the robot has to solve a maze that is unknown to the robot. You put the robot down and it doesn't know ahead of time how what the solution to the maze is and has to figure its way to the middle. Uh the the the other contest that we participated in was uh the u rescue robot contest in the middle school division. We had three robots um um entered in that uh that contest. And then the other uh contest that we entered was the robot maze contest. So we had um in the high school division we had four girls in one team. Um, so let's see if I can remember everybody's name. Remember, I'm a I'm I'm a senior now, so trying to remember these kinds of things.
013So, Matt, over here is Mandy Patonic and and Janna Winningham were on the high school team. Um, in the rescue robot, we have um Sam Jurassie here and Robert Meyer. And um then we have Michael Joerger uh for Charlie. Oh, where's Charlie? I thought he's right up there. Charlie could hide. Okay. Sorry, I just I just missed you, Charlie. Sorry. And Charlie Charlie was Charlie and Sam were uh on one one of the rescue robot teams. And by the way, they won a nomination for the Honda Innovation Award for their their innovative ball picking up device. Um, that's the Honda Innovation Awards, the highest award given at the National Robotics Challenge. And each contest, there's 13 contests and each contest gets a nomination um for that contest. So, they got for the rescue robot, they
014were nominated for the Honda Innovation Award. Um um we had on we who we have who are not here um Colette Johnson and Jenny uh Jenny Goodall were in the rescue robot. They won first place in the middle school division. And um let's see what what Oh, and I should and um uh Jacob Neing and um Caleb Caleb right were um one of the they were um the other robot the rescue robot entry. A lot of our members are graduating eighth grade today. So that's why some of them are missing. or their siblings are. So, we're we're really we're really proud of uh all of our members who participated in the National Robotics Challenge. Uh it it's a lot of work. They started in uh working on their project in October and put many hours
015in uh toward that uh that goal. uh some did better than others, but um sometimes there's a there's a little element of luck in these contests and some of our uh members didn't have a whole lot of luck. Uh for example, um Jacob and uh and and Caleb uh their robot motor failed the week before the contest and we had to figure out why. It stopped running. And after tearing out it apart, we found there was a bad bearing. that had frozen in the motor and causing it not to be able to spin. Then the night before the contest, their sensors failed and you can't make it through a maze without sensors. You have to have sensors or else you're going nowhere. And so we tried to get that fixed. Thought it we had it
016fixed uh that night. When we got to the contest and tried it out, the sensors weren't working again. So they had less than an hour till the contest started and they were frantically working. It was kind of a frantic situation. They're trying to get the sensors to work and they did manage to get some of them to work again and then had to reprogram at the last minute and made one small mistake in programming. And of course if you know anything about programming, you can't make any mistakes. You any mistake is really bad news. Uh and by mistake they programmed in a left turn where it should have been a right turn. And if it that hadn't happened, they probably uh I think they probably would have won first place in that contest. But that
017one little mistake really went against them. But anybody does programming knows you shouldn't really try to program under pressure. But you know, in this case, you know, you didn't have much choice. You have to program under pressure. Uh but they they did a great job anyhow. Uh and uh put a lot of effort into that. And so I'm very proud uh of their effort as well. Thank you very much. I'd like to note that belonging to gear is almost like having another class uh after school. Um the members um some of them come two times a week for two three hours at a time starting from October. A lot of them work all through Christmas. So it is a huge effort and um We're really hoping that it will pay off in the long run
018for them. [Applause] You guys want to get in? You guys want to get up closer? [Applause] Again, the offer stands. Anyone wishing to leave at this point may at this time Mrs. Lisa Zimmer is going to talk to us about the platinum pen award here for now. So I'm so proud of Cora Dbury at our regional power the pen competition. Her story to have finally moved away from the beach won best of round. This means of the 84 entries written in the Lake Erie region, the director found Kora story to be the best. Then the director read all of the first place stories in that round all across Ohio in all regions with just under a thousand students who had participated in this prompt. Kora's story was found to be the best of the best.
019On Thursday, Cora will be recognized and awarded the platinum pen award at the state power of the pen competition. Congratulations, Kora. Kora Kora also took first place out of all eighth grade students at our regional competition along with Colette Johnson who is sorry seventh sorry all these kids graduating seventh grade um and Colette Johnson who isn't here um also will be moving forward at 17th spot and Slain Sinnate came in at second place. So again, congratulations, Kora. Well done. [Applause] Okay, well tonight we have an unprecedented 23 retirements. It's an amazing number. I think it's because I'm leaving this year. Probably everybody's heading out. It's my theory anyway. Dr. Ben & Kasa might have another one. Anyway, I'd like to recognize these people tonight and to make it easy and to make it sort of
020fast, except for you, Joe. I don't know how you're going to navigate this. We'll make exceptions. We'll make exceptions for you, but I'm going to ask that when I call your name that you come up, um, you can come past me and Dr. Ben & Kasle will give you your Apple award and then I'd ask that you just walk behind the board members or behind the board chairs and go and shake the hands of each of the board members. Otherwise, it's sort of a mess when we get everybody out here. So, if you go that way and and circle around where Karen is standing, I think we should be all set. There's going to be one group picture at the end. Deb, come on. You know, we're not doing the individual ones, but we'll line
021you up and we'll get a group picture. Okay. Our first award, our first recognition night, our first retiree goes to Mary Beth Alli with 27 years of service. Mary Beth, come on up. with our kindergarteners, right? Yeah. Wow, that's a trooper. Next is Ernie Cavini. Ernie has 30 years of service. Is Ernie here tonight? I don't see him. I didn't see him coming in. Next would be Mate Cha Zer. Maitate. Got it. I did. The hyphenated last name threw me because I always knew as Mate Zaler, so I had to practice that one. Mate also has 30 years of service as a bus driver. Wow. I wouldn't make it a year. Next is Nancy Christie with 25 years of service. Is Nancy [Applause] here? Colleen Klucas with 21 years of service. I don't know that
022Colleen's here. I haven't seen her. She's probably with her grandkids. Greg Deneshek, I don't believe, is here tonight, but Greg also uh is being recognized with 18 years of service. Carrie Eggnot with 25 years of service. Is Carrie here? Well, that's okay. Cindy Kowski with 20 years of service. Is Cindy here? There she is. Cindy also works in transportation. So I have a great deal of admiration for you folks. Believe me. Next is Debbie Lachman with 28 years of service in the district. Ali Ledman I know is here tonight with 21 years of service. Not sure if Rick Lubie is here tonight or not, but Rick has 18 years of service with the district. Holly Mahu has 17 years of service with the district. Joe Marino, special accommodations here for you. 32 years of service
023with the district. Are we gonna make him go around? He can do it. I did not see Michael's. He has 32 years of service with the district. Is Mike here tonight? All right. Joseph Murray 25 years of service. Telly has a someone here as a fan club. We usually don't have that happen much except for graduation but you know a child in every group. Sue Rashar leaving central office with 15 years of service. [Laughter] You'll probably find I did not see Steve Starret, but Steve is leaving us after 22 years of service. [Applause] Richard Stoopek, 30 years of service. Marilyn Suks, 20 years. Michelle Thompson, 31. Kathy Todd, 30 years of service. You think you're seeing double, it's because they're twins here, too. Just saying. Kim Zenetti, 17 years of service. I did not see
024Kim. I don't know if she's here tonight or not. And then someone who needs no introduction because she's already been up here tonight. Lisa Zimmer is leaving us after 32 years of service. Thank you. 33. [Applause] Thank you very much. You're welcome. All right. Now, you guys are not ready to leave yet until you get your group picture. Then after that, you and your families are free to leave if you so choose. Okay. Thank you for all the service you've given to our kids. I'll tell you, you'll never know the impact you've had on kids' lives for many years after your retirement because it's amazing what they come back and tell you years later. And sometimes it's the things that we do that they don't even they don't resonate with us when we do them
025because we think that it's just part of our job. And sometimes some of the most special contacts you've had with kids over the years are the ones that they remember. And they're not necessarily what you taught them in your lessons or the things you've said to them and the way you've treated them. So, thank you for how well you've treated our kids throughout your years at West Giaga. [Applause] Congratulations. I like I'm now I don't want to. Oh my goodness. Karen's fiveear forecast. Karen's fiveear forecast. No more recognition. There's a lot know there are a lot of people. We're hiring a ton of people tonight. We're hiring like a lot of teachers and a lot of administrators. So, I don't know. I mean, there may be public participation, but I don't I'm not aware of
026any. The only person that I thought might come is the one who's the mother of the custodian, but I don't see her and she can't speak anyway because she's not a res boy or something. Okay. Okay, our next item is the five-year forecast. Now comes the most exciting part of the meeting. [Laughter] It's only exciting when you don't have money. That's right. All right. All right. So, we're going to go through the five-year forecast as part of the five-year forecast. We do the primary forecast in November and then we do an update in May as required by law. So, this before we get to the numbers now, the forecast has a lot of assumptions in it this year because we are going through the benium budget and we don't know all the implications of that.
027So, we're going to have a lot of assumptions on our um in the packet. You have you have the f financials. You also have all the assumptions. There's like a 20page document that goes with that with all the assumptions. So if you have some light reading tonight, you want to go back, it's all there. So if we look at this, this is a moment in time. And again, as we go along, we update this forecast all the time. So we're looking at that along the way. And we have a little technical glitch. So we're kind of doing a split screen here looking at things. So when we look at the forecast, we break it up into a couple of things. We do revenues and expenditures. what you typically would see and then we have what's
028left in cash. That's kind of the three parts that we like to look at in the forecast. Um when we look at the budget, the budget as we know is going on right now. So there's a couple of things that will impact our forecast that we're making assumptions on. So the first one is uh public school funding. Right now, public schools are estimated to get about $103 million, but we're seeing a shift in the state to vouchers, and those are getting approximately $448 million for over the next two years. So, we're seeing that shift from public schools to the voucher program for uh what's what is in the House bill. So, this is what's in the House bill now. Now, certainly the governor has put his budget together, the House has put their budget together,
029and then we're waiting on the Senate as well. and we expect that at the end of May. There are 14 proposed laws that are impacting property tax reform. As we know, we went through the 2023 reevaluation where everyone's value of their house went up 32%. Amazing. However, your taxes went up as well. So, not so amazing. So, where they're they're trying to deal with that. So they've had a joint commission, a task force that's working on property tax and that has been working with the house to develop a lot of, you know, kind of ideas about how to mitigate that increase increase as we see property taxes go up according to inflation. We don't see at this point um that slowing right now, particularly in our district. We don't have a lot of development going
030on. So we're still seeing a very robust uh real estate market. We're estimated in the trienal update, we're estimating about an 8.66% increase in our property tax valuations. House Bill 96, which is what the budget bill is, has some concerns for us, has some things that we need to watch. The first is to eliminate the funding, the fair school funding plan. The what they're seeing, we have a fair school funding plan that was put in uh four years ago. We've implemented the first four years, but it was a six-year implementation. So, we've implemented twothirds of it, but in the House budget, we don't have that last two years imple implemented. So, that's creating a little stress on some of the other districts. We're on the guarantee. We're hoping that that guarantee stays in place, but
031we are seeing out of the House budget reductions of 5% this year and 10% reductions going along for next year. There are some increases in some other costs, but that's what we're seeing. In addition to that, we have a 30% limit they want to have in carryover cash. Now, we have in excess of that. Uh we've add over the years, we've been able to accumulate some cash for long-term projects, but in the budget, they're asking for 30% over the prior year. Now, over 400 schools out of 600 schools have more than 30%. So, it's we're not unusual. uh we're not the most but we are seeing uh this restriction. So uh currently it looks like the Senate is not on board with a 30% so they're kind of talk through what they're going to be
032doing in changing that. So we do see expect that to go up a bit or we expect it to go up or hopefully go away but uh we'll see. the it also empowers the budget commission of the county to suspend voter approved levies and disregard the 20 mil floor. Currently, we're at 20.003. We're not on the 20 mil floor. In 2000 and um in our 2023 reevaluation, we fell below the 20 mil floor, which was the minimum that school districts or residents need to fund schools. This year, we were not. We're at 20.03. 3 20.03. As we look at that, if they suspend that or they drop that down, we would not see increases as the valuations go up, we would see that stabilize and kind of, you know, go down and the millillage would
033adjust and things like that. But so we're watching that very closely. If we if the budget goes through with the House bill, if we were over the 30%, then the tax commission would have the ability to come in and reduce our taxes without regard for what this board has decided to do with the financials of the school district. So, those are a couple of things that we're watching and uh monitoring in the House bill. And then the last one would be I mean, we're looking at we're not the only school. This is all public schools that are having to deal with this. So, there's a few things that we're dealing in the forecast that are reacting to some of those um issues that are in the budget. Karen, yes, sir. What you just said, it's
034not what this board has decided, it's what's been voted on. Right. So, it's not our It's not what you've decided, it's what the community has voted. Right. So, they could take away, right? They could take away. in all of our levies. If we look at our levies, we have long-term levies in place. They're continuing levies, and we have two emergency levies that we've had in place since 20 years ago. So, we've been renewing those over a period of time. So, we have two of those that are we're we're looking at and uh deciding what to do with as we go forward when they come up for renewal. On the Senate side, the they're now in deliberations. We've had a lot of testimony. We've had a lot of people writing to the Senate to talk about
035some of the implications we have on public schools and what the impact would be on financially for public schools. Um so we'll wait and see what happens, but it's unknown at this time. We don't know what's going to go forward. The Senate actually has five pieces of pending legislation that was dealing with property tax reform. So everyone is, you know, very focused on the impact and the increase because we had 32% increase in our dis in our district. Other counties had 40%, some had 30, you know, so it just it was a very large increase and people are looking at that and seeing what kind of relief they can give taxpayers. We're not going to finalize this budget process until the end of June. Hopefully by the end of June, but we're going to have
036to file this forecast by the end of May. So we're what do we know? A forecast is what do we know at this time and that's how we're forecasting. So it could change and we have the ability to change it after that if something is impacting us and we can do that again either in August we would have to make if we have major adjustments or we can wait until November and change that again. So this again it's a cyclical thing. We can do the adjustments at any time. I got to click here. I'm sorry. All right. So, we've looked at the budget timeline. Like I said, we're going to file this here in May. The budget's going to be after that. So, we'll see. And again, we won't probably get some of the after
037they file it and do this budget. We won't know what the implications are probably until October or November by the time they write the law, figure out what they wrote, and then what the implications are for the forecast and what the implications are for the formula. So, those are all kind of nuance for us. When we look at this overview of the forecast, we have a 2.35 emergency levy that we collect in 2024. It was suspended for one year. So that's now coming back onto our forecast. The revenues are growing at 1.83%. Our expenditures unfortunately are growing at 5.7%. So we're seeing that increase in inflation just like you're seeing at home. Food prices, supplies, all that stuff. We're seeing that again as well. And then we also uh have our increases in our salaries
038and benefits. State payments accounted for 24% of the district's revenues. We have two contracts uh union contracts. Those have both been settled and those have um 3.3% raises in them for next year. We are looking at we this board uh when we were looking at the whole master facility plan, they put aside $10 million. I voted to put aside $10 million for middle school renovations because this building, no matter what happened in the master facility plan, this building was going to stay. We funded part of that last year and we're funding the rest of that this year. So, that's about a $6 million increase. And that's taking care of roofs, um, windows, we're taking care of generators, things like that that are all infrastructure. So, you won't see anything glitzy and pretty, but it'll all
039be safe, warm, and dry. That's our that's our goal. We're anticipating our cash balances to be positive through 2029. And again, we'll wait for the Joint Tax Commission to uh tell us the impact on the 20 mil floor. That's really one thing that will really affect us on the 20 mil floor. All right, key revenue assumptions. If we look at our revenue here, um the big thing is our property taxes and that's we send 70 something% is locally funded. Our property taxes, as you'll notice in fiscal year, it's 24. You look at the top and then it goes to 25. That's that $2.35 million levy that was suspended coming back on to the books. You'll see it also increase in 2027. This is that proposed increase in our valuation. So, as we have a revaluation
040in 2026 of an 8.66%, we may fall below that 20 mil floor and have an increase. Now, it won't be eight, you know, won't be 8%. You're not seeing 8% there, but it'll generate additional revenue. And then you see it decline in 28 and 29. That's because the emergency levies, we don't show them in this line item in the forecast. We show them down here. We just have to take them out of that line item. So, you'll see that go down and that's the 3.7 mil emergency levy. We have a second one that expires in 20 in tax year 2030. So, those we're looking at. We've talked about what to do with those levies and to roll those into uh different types of levies, not emergency levies, but a substitute levy. That would make it
041a continuing levy and pick up a little bit of revenue on there as new construction comes on. We don't pick up a lot in new construction, so it wouldn't be a lot. It would continue pretty flat, but we need those levies because they represent 16% of our total funding. And by doing that we keep the homestead credit. Yes. So by taking it and putting it in as emergency, you know, from an emergency levy to a substitute levy, it really you don't have to ask taxpayers. We don't have that continual 5year 10-year renewal, but you will keep that homestead roll back, which is 12 a.5% to the taxpayers. So the local taxpayers, the state reimbures the school district for it, but you get a reduction on all of your taxes. So all of our levies that
042we have in place now uh fall with that homestead and roll back re reimbursement. Anything going forward would not. So if we had a new levy on the ballot, it would not get that same discount. Also in our revenues, you see the revenues uh here 2.3 1.8 and it goes down. We see that decline. Uh that's really where a lot of our interest income is. We had had some cash. we were able to put in some longer term CDs, things like that, and we're going to spend that cash down by paying for some of these capital projects. So, you're seeing that interest go down. We also have um other tuition payments in there, things like that that they're in there. But the biggest line item in there is u about $1.4 million worth of interest
043income. Any questions on revenue before I go to ex I want to keep this moving because I know it's hot. It's warm here. Uh this is just showing the breakdown of what happens with our cash. That's green is our cash. And you'll see that big gap because we're going to transfer uh that money over to the capital projects account. And again as we talked about uh local taxes are about representing about 76% of our funding and the rest again 20ome percent coming from the state. So the state budget does impact us greatly. Uh but residents certainly are paying the bulk of this and that's because we're considered a wealthier district. So, we don't get as much state funding, say, as a a district that doesn't have our property valuations, state and local. This just shows
044the discrepancy. The red is the local funding and then you'll see the state. Uh, and again, we're keeping the state, if you look at line item um 15 here, our state, we're assuming it's flat. We're on the guarantee and we're not increasing that hardly at all. Uh so we're seeing that kind of stabilize uh for the next five years. Now obviously that could change as we get new information. If we look at Jaga County as compared to some of the other counties and I put sugar falls in there because they do have a component in Jaga County for those of you who live in Jaga County um you'll see that we have the second lowest tax rate. That's an effective tax rate not what you pass but what you actually pay. and West Yiaga enjoys
045the second, you know, the second lowest in the county. Now, Bergkshire has a lower tax rate, but they have an income tax. And so, I've imple embedded a percentage in there for the income tax as well. All right, key revenue or key expenditures. We look at our expenditures. The largest bulk we're service entity is uh our wages. So, we have a two OPC two contracts. one with the teachers, one with our classified staff. We have for the next, this is the first year of our three-year contract. We had a 3.2% in uh pay increase plus steps. Then we have a 3.3 next year and then a 3.5. After that, we put in a 2 and a half% increase going forward. So, you'll see it kind of grow a little bit and then kind of level
046off there. The next line item, the next largest line item is our employee benefits. what we pay into retirement for STRS and STRS plus our medical and we're seeing in this a we'll anticipate a 10% increase in medical uh in health insurance purchase services those are seeing u an increase of about 12% uh for next year or for 2025 we had a number of uh student uh tuition outplacements and then we had transportation contracts if you recall We implemented a transportation contract for the bus shortages, for the bus driver shortages. So, that was included in there. And then we're budgeted for a 9% increase going forward as we go uh through this. And that'll be for curriculum support. We've got some additional curriculum support that we're going to use. And then uh technology increases as
047well. So, we're really trying to fill out the rest of our infrastructure and technology that we have u that we kind of started in COVID really and building that out. And we had talked about maybe breaking out some of those like the sped stuff from the IT, you know what I mean? Just because they're so different and they are different and we'll I've got those broken out by category for object codes so we can follow those through next year so you'll get a better idea of what we're spending in what categories. Thanks. The um auditor of state gave us a 128 new accounting manual this week. Um and we have to implement it by July 1st. So we're may have a few more categories than we wanted. I don't know. I have a question for
048you. Yes, ma'am. So what are you going to do in June? Not taking vacation. So when we look at the other ones supplies and materials, we're seeing this just like you see at home. supplies have gone up, materials have gone up, any type of we have that's where our repairs and maintenance are going as well. Uh so we're seeing a more of the repairs and maintenance as we go along this year. And then the last part is capital expenses. This is really where we start spending furniture, we buy computers, we buy, you know, anything that's kind of a over $5,000 we we kind of put in here. So that's what we're looking at that uh we pay for our buses out of our permanent improvement plan uh fund which as you know that's kind of
049had some changes as well. So we're um still going to fund those out of our permanent improvement plan. All right. When we take one uh example of what we're going to see and I've got to get to this last part. We are going to I shouldn't say we you as a board are going to do this um for next this year we're going to transfer a total of $18.6 million to our capital plan now with the board's decision to take the hold off on the bond and wait because of our you know economic uh concerns that the bond the board has had. We are putting money away again. Six million of that money that amount was put away for the middle school projects that you had approved in 2023 2024. So going forward, we have
050another we have other buildings. So at the high school, at the Lindsay, at Westwood, we're going to continue to operate those buildings. And so we've set up another capital account, an 070 account that will account for the over the next 10 years what kind of long-term projects we have like in roofing, HVAC, um other windows, windows, doors, things like that. And we're going to show you what those are of what we have identified. So I'm going to ask the board to approve the second group and that transfer tonight. and that will uh bring down our cash balance, but we're still in a good cash balance position going into our fifth year. Uh but we're gonna ask you to set that money aside and that's just prudent financial planning from the board standpoint. We know we're
051going to see them. These are repairs. We know they're coming and we don't have a bond on the ballot right now. Okay. So, we need to and then explain like if if it if after 10 years we don't use that, we it it has to go back to the general fund. But in that 10 years, if we need to take some of that, we can move it back into general. Correct? So, let's say that we get some unforeseen expenditures and we don't have cash of this, we're going to have to move some of that money back. So, we can move money back into the general fund if we haven't issued a purchase order. If we haven't issued a contract, we can move that money back. Now, these are long-term projects. These are five years down
052the road or, you know, three years down the road or something like that. So, we'll have time to adjust to the budget. We'll have time to adjust to getting We're now in the process of having all of our roofs analyzed and looking at those. So, that there's a lot of things that are going on to make that long-term capital plan, but we want to put that money away now. We have it now. We want to go ahead and do this this work now. Uh as we look at enrollment, we're seeing uh a decline in enrollment. And part of that is um you know, it's not a lot. It's just a little bit every year. So we got to maybe have a kindergarten class that's smaller, but we have a larger graduating senior class. So we're
053kind of seeing that 30 kid, you know, 25 30 kids a decline. Some years we might have a kindergarten class that was big, you know, so it just depends. Um, so we're seeing forecasting a a bit of a drop. Now, it's not all in one class. It's not in all in one grade. It's not all in one building. So, it's all kind of spread around. So, it's not like you can say, "Okay, we, you know, we don't need this teacher or something like that." It's so we're looking at that. So, what we've worked with is as we have attrition, as we have retirements, that's when we look at personnel and so that we're not we're dealing with those so we don't have to do any type of large scale riff or something like that that
054we wouldn't want to do. We want to take care of those things and be man, you know, mindful of those uh hires. This is just showing kind of where most of our money is being spent is in the red. That's our wages. We spend 54% in our payroll and then 20% in our benefits. So that's 74% of our, you know, of our work. All right. You can see the ending cash balance really from that transfer. That's what's creating that uh drop in the cash. We are looking at GFOA which is our government financial officers association recommends 60 days of cash at to have on hand. Don't go below that. That's like the bare minimum. Now the board has said 120 days as we look at that. So we have to manage that. the board is
055once we drop below 120 days, we the board has to the superintendent and treasurer have to come up with a plan on what we're going to be doing with going forward. So, we certainly have worked on that as well with the finance committee. So, we'll still stay uh above that over the forecast until we get to the very end of the of the forecast. It's funny that the state law of Ohio says you can't go below zero. like makes sense, you know. So, all right, that's just catching. So, as we look at this overall story, um property tax valuations are up, you know, ready for 2026. We're going to see property tax valuations go up. Property tax reform is expected as well in 2026. We're probably going to see some of that now uh in
056the bianium budget. I anticipate them doing some of that work. It's uh state budget is still 25% of our work of our our funding and the districts currently will stay on the guarantee. I don't see us coming off the guarantee unless they change it and there's been some discussion on changing the guarantee and reducing it, but it's really been like reducing the amount as we go along. Long-term planning for facilities needs to be done since the bond levy was postponed. And then what we're going to look at going forward is we monitor the revenues and expenses. We continue to do that every year. We're very mindful of what we're spending. Um we'll monitor the state funding and how the property taxes are going along. And then we're going to manage the capital projects uh that
057we have in place because we have a lot going on this summer. Uh Scott and Mark, who's not here tonight, are very busy. We have a roof that's going on this building. Um we have a new turf that's going out. Uh we've got a lot of renovations going on. And um I'm hoping that it will all be done in time. The play, the preschool, we're opening up the preschool. Uh we ordered the furniture. Well, after this, we'll order the furniture on Monday and the new playground equipment as well. So, there's just a lot that they're going to be busy with. So, let me do one thing here. One thing we are asking the board to look at is our um the capital plan and this additional work that we'll be doing. So get that just
058here. Um this is the original if we look at that this was our original plan. Now we've started off with certainly the water treatment plant. Now, the water treatment plant has taken on a life of its own. As we know, we're seeing um a lot of requirements from our EPA and where we can put the well and how we have to build the building and all the requirements we have on there. That will be for this whole campus. So, that water treatment plant will be for the whole campus. So, that's about 3.7 million. Roofs and repairs, like I said, we're getting those done. They're already staging over there at the at their bus garage. Uh lighting is going on at the high school, at the middle school. These are all middle school products. So this
059is what you approved kind of the 10 million. Now what we did is we took out the painting uh because we're going to paint the roofs. The painting is repairs and maintenance. I don't think that that's a capitalized what we should be capitalizing. So we replace that with univvents. We have a change in the units and that's about a million one in univvents that we need to have repaired. I don't know how old these are. 50s. They're old. So we're having trouble with parts and making them work efficiently. So, we're hoping as as we replace those, they'll work more efficiently and they'll be less cost to operate. So, we're seeing those as well. So, we've added those in there. In addition to, again, we talked about the maintenance building added on to the water treatment
060plant. We're under the we're put out the RFQ for the design uh criteria design and that'll come back and that'll come back to the board. So, you have time to look at that before we make a final decision on that. Um, yeah, I just wanted to make the point that we're not really approving these projects tonight. We're approving a plan and then each one will stand on its own uh when the time comes. Right. So, what we've approved, what the board has approved so far is the roofs, the lighting, and the doors. So, that's what we've already contracted out. So, everything else we'll get quotes for, and then you will have a time to make that decision and make the, you know, design changes or whatever we have available there. Okay. In the second part
061of the second 070, another capital account, we have $1.5 million for the remaining buildings. And that is really dependent upon the roofing. We have an $ 8.5 million estimate for all the roofing. Now, when they get done is dependent on how long our roofs are working. you know, the middle school, the high school is a very large building, has a lot of roof, and has a lot of parts and pieces of the roof, uh, because it's been added on five times. There's a lot of parts that have to come together. And in 96, y'all did a lot of work to get that building up today, but it's time to redo some of that work. So, we're looking at uh the roofs. We have to replace the track. We're not doing the track this year because
062we're putting in the turf. We might ruin the track. So, we need to fix the track next year. So that's slated for next summer. Unvents in the high school, Westwood and Lindsay. So those are looking at again, we've had problems with with those uh in the last couple of years and getting parts and making those work. And then windows and doors, windows at the high school, windows at Westwood. I didn't have enough money to do the Lindsay. So we're doing what we can for the next what we we feel comfortable transferring. If we come out and have savings here, then we'll readjust it. So, you have a lot of flexibility in this, but we want to make sure that we've got this phase two is what I call it, uh, in place and set aside.
063So, we're asking the board tonight to implement a second capital plan and then to transfer those funds over to that capital plan so that they're in reserve. You're saying that this is not something that's going to happen right away. It could be five years, five years. Could be five years. We have the ability to set aside money for 10 years and over 10 years we're certainly going to have to put money in unvent to spend that kind of money on roofs if the building is going to be taken down. That's correct. So this but we are also if we were to pass a you know a bond right now we've got five or six years before we're able to have a a new school a facility. So there will have to be some repairs there
064done in that just like we're having to repair the middle school now just because it sometimes has come up in meetings and we didn't say it tonight and I know but we've talked about it as the tennis courts. I just don't want people to think we aren't talking about we've talked about it. We have a we have a couple of funds pockets where we set up a so the 033 which is the PI fund is like we're committed those monies can't be moved back into the general fund. So that's where we're looking at what would be done in that in that funding. So that's like when it's decided that that's the right position for that or we can fix what we've got then that's it'll be in the 03 O3 is what we're planning on
065that. Okay. So this is not exhausted like no because our exhausted list that I've experienced like the parking lot at Lindsay is not on there but we are looking at the parking lot for Lindsay's parking lot that's slated for PI funds for next year. We are looking at a 2-in grind and then come back and put that in the high school parking lot. We have estimates for the high school parking lot. Um it is since we're doing so much construction and we have a water treatment plant, we probably shouldn't do it this year. We're going to have to wait next year because we have heavy machinery coming in. And then Westwood's parking lot, which has a drainage issue, is a bigger project to understand and it may be that it has to come back over
066here. it it's just one that we don't have we don't have solid estimates for right now because of the drainage issue and how big that retainage because we have to put a retainage pond in and where would that go at Westwood is more of the question so those are certainly Mark is working on those he's got some estimates on those um but Lindsay slated for this to be redone because I know it's had the um I think it's around 200,000 I believe it's around 200,000 So that one is first up, then high school, then Westwood. And this one will is in good shape. Okay. All right. So, just to reemphasize what you're showing us tonight is just the projects that we sort of haven't seen or talked about before and how this additional money would
067be spent potentially in the future. and you're just asking us to set aside the money to be able to do these sort of extra projects and some of the other things that have just come up are things that we've been talking about that would be funded out of different pockets of funding. Yeah. And and again the the PI fund we we um had a PI levy that's been moved in back into the general fund. So, we have 600,000 going into that from the from the levy and then we'll transfer money from the general fund. You'll see. Well, you could have seen um I didn't do it. Yeah, there's a big trans there was a big transfer over here and then there's some smaller transfers here that'll go back into the PI levy and then what
068we'll see is um those are committed. So, I don't we don't want we move those when you know here's the summer project list. We've got bids. Here it is. We'll move that money over. Okay, that's okay. All right. And I think we're looking at next year about one and a half million and then two million after that. And then one of the things that we did as well because we had so many lovely retirees, um we had a a severance pay. So we've moved $1.3 million into a severance pay plan that we are funding because those will be paid out over five years. So that's what we're doing. and we've already made that transfer. You made that transfer last month. And then going forward, we have some bubbles in our retirees that kind of all
069were hired at one time apparently. And so we'll need to prepare for those. So that's just a a little transfer. Any other questions or comments? Thank you, Karen. Uh again, you've demonstrated that our finances are being well watched and might also point out that we just got another comment from the state auditor as far as the quality of the the school district's finances. It just came out, what was it like a week or two ago? 17 different criteria that they looked at. Yes. You want could you make just a couple brief comments about where we ended up on that? Yeah, I think out of the um we it's it's a new report that the auditor of state is is looking at to really to test the strength of a district whether they would have a
070fiscal emergency. And so they look at 24 25 different indicators and we had all of our indicators were positive or except for one and one was related to our cash balance uh going down or our property taxes going down and that's part because we had the board had suspended a levy. So that wasn't really something that we could, you know, wasn't a bad thing. So as we look at those indicators, they're all positive. I mean, I think we had a couple of um they do it in red, green, and yellow. And the yellows were, you know, your property tax went down, and it implicated a couple other ones, but all very positive. We're in a very good financial position. But they really implemented this because there are some districts that are having struggling. Their smaller
071districts are struggling. are trying to um it was interesting they came out at that time when they're getting ready for the banium budget and just how many districts might have some issues if this passed and so this is really looking at 2024 it'll be interesting to what happens in 2025 as we look at it thank you any other questions from the board for Karen on this great um okay next on the agenda is the public remarks but there was no one that had signed up so I guess We will move on to the routine items. Okay. Resolution 151 to approve warrants for 20 April 2025. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the RO please. Mrs. Clayool. Yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Miss Levmore. Yes. Dr. Beers. Yes. Resolution 152 to approve student activity statements of
072purpose and budget for the 2025 2026 school year. So this is next year. So move second. Any discussion? Call the role please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Miss Levworth. Yes. Dr. Beers. Yes. Mrs. Clay. Yes. Resolution 153 to accept the donations. We have three donations. One from Mr. Forces Estate, Patterson Farms, and CFA Charity Aid Foundations of America. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the RO, please. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Resolution 154 to approve a then and now certificate. So move. Any discussion? Call the roll, please. Dr. Beers. Yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leard, yes. Resolution 155 to authorize a transfer of the first capital projects fund, USS70, establishing a second capital projects fund and authorizing a transfer there too. And the resolution
073has been attached. So move. Second. Any questions or discussion? Call the RO, please. Mrs. Clay, yes. Mrs. Miss Coleman Walsh. Yes. Miss Levvenworth. Yes. Dr. Beers. Yes. Resolution 156 to accept the increases and decreases in the 2025 appropriations. This will take care of the transfer that we have. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the RO, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Miss Leworth. Yes. Dr. Beers. Yes. Mrs. Clayool. Yes. Resolution 157 to approve the 5-year forecast update. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clay, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Uh, resolution 158 to approve the 070 capital plan. So, what we're looking at is the first capital plan, the middle school capital plan with the adjustments that we made for the UNIVTITS. And then the second capital plan, we'd
074like you to go ahead and approve that as a capital plan. It's board approved. Doesn't mean you can't change it, but I'd like to see it, you know, come through. So move second. Any discussion? Just that confirm again though because there were some things on there that probably want to discuss further. Oh, absolutely. And you know the board has final decision when you go when we have the bids back and then when we have a contract in place we'll you know we you'll authorize the bid for something going out and then you'll come back when we have a contract. So you have a couple of bites at the apple before we make any final decisions. Call the role please. Dr. Beers. Yes. Mrs. Clay. Yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Miss Levart. Yes. Resolution 159 is
075to approve administrative contract recommendations. So move second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Resolution 160 is to approve a manager's contract recommendation. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Call the RO, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clay, yes. Resolution 161 is to accept an administrative staff resignation. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the RO, please. Miss Levvenworth. Yes. Dr. Beers. Yes. Mrs. Clayool. Yes, Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Resolution 162 is to approve administrative appointments for the 2025 2026 school year. If the board puts the resolution on the table um once uh we have the resolution enacted, I will have Amy and Megan introduce these people to you. So move. Second. Okay. Okay. Amy, Megan, would you like
076to introduce the individuals who are here tonight? Thank you. Don't fight. Just turns. Um, it gives me great pleasure to introduce you to Jennifer Norman, um, our candidate for the director of people. Um, Jen comes to us with a wealth of experience. She started her career in mentor in Mayfield then went to Riverside and finally ended in Rocky River um where she is their people services director. Um she has been a principal, she's been an intervention specialist. I think one of my favorite moments when we were interviewing Jen was we asked a question that could have been answered with a lot of jargon and she started and then she said, you know, I really make a priority to put the kids first and just to kind of put us in our places and that was
077all it took. I mean truly um her expertise um is is immense. Um she brings a wealth of knowledge and she even knows um as a huge bonus. You would never That would be a risk. I know. She couldn't believe it that we were so attracted to the part of it. Exactly. Um but truly her commitment to students with special needs um is exceptional and we're very lucky to have her consider working here. Thank you. Kevin as well and join us please. and he got the job anyway. Um so I'd like it gives me also great pleasure to introduce you to um Kevin Klahar. Um these two have become fast friends behind me which is wonderful since they'll be working together. Um Kevin um comes to to us from Kenston and then Beachwood um where
078he is a school psychologist and um has his own private practice. Uh his kindness, his knowledge of of our students and their needs and um what he brings to the table in terms of expertise um is truly unparalleled and we are delighted again to have him consider coming to West. He is joined by his wife Julie tonight. So we're hoping to welcome him to this is the second time I've had the privilege of recommending Kevin to a board of education for hiring So, you're leaving and he's coming. Yes. That that that goes against what I said earlier, but what can I say? Okay, Megan, you're on. Okay. I'd like to introduce you to Samantha. She is um recommended to be Lindsay's new principal. Um she comes to us from um Cleveland Municipal School where she
079is the principal of a prek building. God bless at Mary Church Terrell School um where she was formerly um the assistant principal and then worked her way up to the position. Former to that she was at um Stepston Academy where she was a classroom teacher in elementary and then she also was the student. So we are thrilled to welcome her and to Okay, thank you. Thank you all for being interested in joining us in the school district. I guess uh any questions or discussion? Call the RO, please. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clay, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Congratulations. Thank you very much. [Applause] Resolution 163 is to approve additional PDM days for administrative staff. PDM days sounds redundant. A PDM rate second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs.
080Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Resolution 164 is to accept the certified staff retirements listed. Second. Any discussion? We have a lot of years. We do which we already saw, I guess, when we handed out the correct things earlier. Call the RO, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Congratulations to the retirees. Yes. Now you can retire. Resolution 165 is to accept a certified staff resignation. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Miss Leworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayole, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Several in attendance tonight relate to this next resolution. So, I'm going to ask the board again to place the resolution before for the board. And then I would ask that uh our principles Megan, Amy, and Ryan introduce
081people who will be assigned to the respective buildings. So resolution 166 is to approve certified staff appointments for the 2025 2026 school year. So move second. Okay. Okay. I don't know who's going first. We'll go alphabetically. May Amy got messed up there. Um, I'd like to introduce you to Alison Fala. Um, Alison, you don't know this, but I've been hearing about you for years. Um, Alison is a pair professional in um, the county program at the high school, and Allison has a reputation for just really dedicating herself to our students with some of the most intensive needs. Um, she works long hours. She loves the work she does, but everyone I wish I wish she could be a teacher. I wish we could just hire her. I wish I wish. Okay. Well, Alison went back
082and got her intervention specialist license. Um and so we are able indeed to hire her. Um and we are absolutely thrilled to have her join us at West. Thank you. Thank you, Megan. [Applause] They had a lot of questions with the forecast. I'm pretty sorry they were nodding. And I have the pleasure to introduce two new teachers, which this is super exciting to be offering two opportunities at our middle school. So the first one we'll start with is Megan um Debacer. She comes to us um as she is currently in fourth and fifth grade um at all saints um incliff um teaching. She comes to us um with a bachelor's of science in education in middle school education and she also has a minor in mild to moderate special education which kind of sets her
083apart in this. So we are excited to welcome you. Um and her primary um role will be serving our sixth grade students which have and We also have Emma Smallwood. Um she comes to us um she has a a 712 ELA license. Um she has her experience in um Orange High School where she was student teaching and then now she's um working at Heritage Middle School. So we are excited to welcome her. Thank you. Ask my people. Um so two of the retirees you saw tonight. Um we get to welcome two new teachers into the high school hopefully. Um our first is Jessica. She's coming to us from Garfield City Schools. Um so Jessica has done a a plethora of activities besides being an English teacher there. NHS advisor, class advisor. Um, funny story about
084Jess actually when I was doing reference check um was difficult to get a hold of one of her administrators and then when I finally did his response was when I identified myself was I'm not sure why you calling right now. Very nice. Monica will be coming to us from a brief in Twinsburg and then um Archbishop Archbishop Hoben. Yes. Um Monica will be working in our science department. um does uh chemistry, physical science, biology, and then fun fact about Monica, her students may not have to look too far to find her on the weekends if they need to go see her because she is also a practicing physician. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, thank you. So there's our slate. Okay. Impressive bunch. Yes, they are. So would you call the role, please? Dr. Beers? Yes. Mrs.
085Clay? Yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh? Yes. Miss Leworth? Yes. This next resolution is one of the more important resolutions that a board considers. Um because in this resolution, the board is asked to award continuing contract status to certified staff members. Um, the thing that's powerful about this is that when we first have teachers arrive, we need to determine whether or not they're a fit for us and we're a fit for them. Um, these people have proven over the course of several years that they are a fit for WestG. So, they've been recommended to you. You've seen uh their accomplishments and their resumes. So, I'm I'm pleased to present to you tonight in resolution 167, a resolution to award continuing contract status to the certified staff members at the conclusion of the 2425 school year. And those
086certified staff members are listed in the resolution. So, move second. Any discussion? Call the RO, please. Mrs. Clayole, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Dr. beers. Yes. And thank you folks for joining us and wanting to be a part of our district as well. Yeah. Stand up. Let's take a look at you. We've seen you for a long time, but there they are. Thank you for coming. Resolution 168 is a resolution to approve certified limited contracts for the 2025 2026 school year. They're listed. So moved. Second. Any questions? Call the RO, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayole, yes. Resolution 169 is to approve additional PDM rates for certified staff in the 2024 2025 school year as listed. Second. Any questions? Call the RO, please. Miss Levworth,
087yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clay, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Resolution 170 is to approve certified stipens for work outside the 2024 2025 contractual year. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Resolution 171 is to approve 2025 summer programming stipens. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Levworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Resolution 172 is to approve classified staff appointments for the 2024 2025 school year. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh? Yes. Miss Levworth? Yes. Dr. Beers? Yes. Mrs. Clay? Yes. I did not see Josephine Ward. Is is Beverly here tonight or not? Just so we could recognize her. I don't know. No, Josephine's not. I know,
088but I didn't know if Beverly was. Didn't want to snub anybody, leave anyone out. Resolution 173, especially after they I know after waiting all that time, it's like an endurance contest. Resolution 173 is to approve a change in classified staff contracts for the 2024 2025 school year. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Miss Leworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Resolution 174 is to approve classified stipen. This is for work outside of the 2024 2025 contractual year. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Levor, yes. Resolution 175 is to accept classified staff retirements. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Dr.
089Beers, yes. Resolution 176 is to accept classified staff resignations for the 2024 2025 school year. Second. Any discussion? Call the RO, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Resolution 177 is to approve classified staff appointments for the 2025 2026 school year. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Miss Leworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Resolution 178 is to approve classified probationary contracts for the 2025 2026 school year. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the RO, please. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Resolution 179 is to approve classified limited contracts for the 2025 2026 school year. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the RO, please. Mrs. Clayole, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth,
090yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Resolution 180 is to approve service contracts for the 2024 2025 school year. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leverworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clay, yes. Resolution 181 is to approve unpaid days for those listed. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Miss Levworth, yes. Dr. Mr. Beers. Yes. Mrs. Clayool. Yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Resolution 182 is to approve an unpaid day for the 2025 2026 school year. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Dr. Beers. Yes. Mrs. Clayool. Yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Miss Levor. Yes. Resolution 183 is to approve a student internship student teaching placement for the 2025 2026 school year. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes.
091Dr. Beers, yes. As an interesting side note, Jordan Lavine was one of my students in my previous district. Resolution 184 is a resolution to approve the second and final reading of revised policy 22 80. So move. Second. Any discussion? Preschool program. Call the role please. Mrs. Clayool. Yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Miss Leworth. Yes. Dr. Beers. Yes. Resolution 185 is to approve the second and final reading of the revised board policies listed. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Resolution 186 is to approve the Always Construction LLC quote for the purchase of sidewalks. So move. Second. Any discussion? These sidewalks are at Lindsay Westwood and the middle school. Is that correct, Scott? In the high school. And we got bids. We have
092a This is a state contract. Okay. So, they'll do by square footage. Now, if we do other sidewalks, we'll have to take out a bid. Okay. Any other discussion? Call the RO, please. Dr. Beers. Yes. Mrs. Clayool. Yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes, Miss Leworth. Yes. Resolution 187 is to approve the service agreement between McKeen Education Group West local schools for the 2025 2026 school year. So move second. Just point out this is in relationship to work being done at St. Ansilms and yeah it's a pass through thing for us. You call the role please. Mrs. Clayool. Yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Miss Leworth. Yes. Dr. Beers. Yes. Resolution 188 is a resolution to approve again the service agreement between McKeen Education Group and West Local Schools for the 2025 2026 school year. So second and
093again it's the same type of pass through uh setting for St. Helms. Any other discussion? Call the RO please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Miss Leworth. Yes. Dr. Beers. Yes. Mrs. Clay. Yes. Resolution 189 is to approve the customer agreement between school litics and Westa local schools for the 2025 2026 school year. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Miss Levworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clay, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Resolution 190 is to approve the service agreement between Education Alternatives and West Local Schools for the 2526 school year. So move second. Any discussion? Call the RO, please. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Lemore, yes. Resolution 191 is to approve the student transportation agreement between education alternatives and West Local Schools for the 2025 2026 school year. Second. Which particular
094is student transportation? Is this These are special ed related transportation. Okay. Yeah. Call the RO, please. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Lworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Resolution 192 is to approve the school district placement contract between the Wings of Change Therapy Incorporated and West Local Schools for the 2025 2026 school year. So move. Any discussion? Call the RO, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Scrapel. Yes. Resolution 193 is a resolution to declare emergency circumstances to purchase the replacement of the high school main entrance doors in the 2024 2025 school years. This is an immediate concern obviously or wouldn't be put on in this form. So move. Second. Yeah. So it it's an emergency. One of the doors fell off. That's what I figured. I was like
095something must have happened. It's pretty much an emergency. Yeah. So So it's already been replaced. I mean, well, it's in the process of being repaired because the door is all right. It has been it is fixed, but it won't open. It's a It's permanently. So, it doesn't work like a door. Not a good situation. Yeah, one of the main ones. There are other doors that any other discussion. Call the role, please. Miss Levvenworth, can they get out? They can get out. Good. Double doors. Dr. Beers. Yes. Mrs. Clay. Yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Resolution 194 is to approve the Shiffller Equipment Sales Incorporated prek furniture quote through the tips purchasing consortium. This is for the This is for the school. Second. Any other questions, discussion? Call the RO, please. Dr. Beers. Yes. Mrs. Glool, yes. Mrs.
096Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Levore, yes. And resolution 194A is a resolution to approve the shift equipment sales incorporated prek playground quote through the tips purchasing consortium. Second. And this tips purchasing consortium is a way that we get lower prices. It's not a state consortium, but it is a consortium. It's a consortium that we joined. Um, and then they have they go out and send out bids just like we would, but they do it on national nationwide basis. And Ohio is a state that participates in it. And and these amounts are pretty close to what we, if I remember right, I mean, when we first talked about moving it away from meenbomb to here. Yeah, we estimated uh we put aside $150,000 and we still have some additional equipment that we probably will need, but this
097will Okay, these are the ones that take eight weeks to get here. So, okay. Any other discussion? Call the RO, please. Mrs. Glo Clay, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, Miss Levvenworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Resolution 195 is to rescend the award of bid for the 2024 public um public water well installation with H A incorporated. So move second. What is this? This is sort of a belt and suspenders resolution because the the well has been moved, the site has been moved and this contract that was in place has already expired. We just thought that it would be better to dot the eye by having the board acknowledge the expiration of that contract. Okay, this was the original bid on that contract and so it they only had 30 days to initiate the contract. Any other discussion?
098Call the role, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clay, yes. Resolution 196 is to establish expense reimbursement rates. So move. Second. And um Karen, this is an adjustment to make it the GSA rate rather than us fixing a number and then having to go back and changing it. Correct. So in March, you approved the final an update to the travel uh policy. As part of that policy, you are to annually update the whatever rate you would like to have. So this will get us up to date for this year. And then every January as part of our organizational meeting, we'll update the rates to the new GSA rates. We've been What was the last one we had? It was year $40 has been our rate for I think the
099last time policy was changed in 1999. So we limited everyone's amount to $40. So, this will allow us by where they're, you know, if they're going to Columbus or if they're going to Kansas City or something, they'll be able to adjust that to a more reasonable uh reimburseable rate because what we're seeing is uh people are exceeding the $40 for three meals a day, obviously. And that number is also adjusted by location that they're going to be at, right? It will rather than a flat number. So, each city major met major metropolitan area has a different rate and then it'll adjust it if you're traveling that day or coming home that day and we'll just have an amount there. So, we're going to limit our travel to small Midwestern towns. Just kidding. We'll let you
100go to Warren. Okay. Thanks. So, long that that I can remember that they the board um would not let anybody go uh past the Mason Dixon line or past the Mississippi River, you know. It was just crazy that we couldn't you couldn't go to a national conference. You couldn't go to if you had to fly went outside of a certain area. Yeah. Yeah. If I recall correctly, some of our staff had a road trip instead of flying to save money when first year it was I was there I believe in someone I believe Megan's car sick so she got shotgun. So this will allow uh doc the superintendent to determine airlines if we get those and we have an airline flight or something like that. So it gives flexibility in our travel. We don't spend
101a lot of money on travel whatsoever, but it allows us for those conferences. That's it's good to have a consistent place. Yeah. Competitive. Everybody it's very competitive and it will cover the cost of people who have to travel. Right. We're asking them to do this. So we should cover their cost. Okay. Any other discussion? Call the RO, please. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Resolution 197 is to determine that Chromebooks used by the class of 2025 are deemed obsolete or equal to a nominal fair market value. This permits our students to either keep the Chromebooks or to turn them back into us. So move. Second. Any other discussion? Call the RO, please. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Okay. I guess
102the next item on the agenda is discussion of new business and then also suggestions to be included on future agenda. We have one item here to uh discuss and that is uh whether not to decide on tonight but to discuss whether we want to join the vouchers hurt Ohio organization which is um a large number of school districts now remember how many Kathy but that are um contending that the way that vouchers are being handled now violates uh state law, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court decisions. So, they are gathering schools to join in the lawsuit. So, um that's that's it in a nutshell. Um and the question is whether or not we want to join that lawsuit support of um against the the vouchers and how they are affecting the public schools. There any
103questions or comments that anybody would like to make at this point? Again, we're not making a decision tonight. No, I just think I mean from my standpoint, I'm just going to do a little research. I'd like to see both sides. Yeah. Like to, you know, look at both arguments. You got any comments? I don't know. as I've said before that the the um there are schools that don't even have uh there are I don't know what the number of districts but it's it's it's a majority of districts that are being taxed u to pay for vouchers and they don't even have a either a charter school or a school that can be used for money. So I I think we need to to look into it a little further but I think It's not, as
104we've discussed before, it's not directly impacting us in any significant way, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be cognizant of what's happening at the state level. And I mean, the things that they're talking about of taking away Karen had a great presentation, but taking away property taxes, going to income tax. So, there's a lot happening at the state level that on top of taking maybe some steps with our fellow school boards systems throughout the state. I'd also like to know how it wouldffect now affecting our district but how it could in the future. I am definitely a person that is on the fence with this issue and I really do need to see both sides and I have not researched and usually I am a researcher so I need to really understand the whole
105issue. Okay. I think uh we've gotten information at least an email from one one side. Yeah, I've seen that. Yeah, plenty of emails. I would like to I would like to hear from maybe one of our reps or something too as to if if the vouchers went away, what does it mean to us? I mean, I I know we say on paper that that means the money would come. I just don't know how that mechanics of that work. I'd like to learn more about that and find out what Columbus is thinking here if they are. the money that's being being taken away from public schools to pay for and apparently um and if we can get that we've seen that information but bring it forward that um there are more and more people who are
106who are paying for their students education and have paid for it but they're taking advantage of the vouchers and they don't necessarily need it. Whereas the people who are need of which is what this was formed to take care of are not taking advantage or cannot take advantage because they they can't afford even with the voucher. No, I understand. Yeah. To pay for the private school or the program school. I think what we've seen is that that vouchers have are commonly used now, as Kathy said, um by families that in the past paid tuition to private schools and now they're being reimbursed by the state. Um how that directly affects us, I I would leave to Karen to be able to define is it actually a dollar for dollar? Is there a there's not a
107corresponding loss for this district? No. I mean, as we look at those, it's just less dollars that will be allocated to public schools to fund uh our fair school funding plan. And that's what we're seeing is the second, you know, the third phase of that fair school funding plan is been put on hold. And we're seeing a larger percentage going to vouchers. So there's only so many dollars in the state and they're concerned about what goes to to P you to education and so they're lean towards more voucher dollars instead of funding public schools. So that's you it's not an immediate dollar for-dollar for us because we are still on the guarantee but you're now seeing that implication of the guarantee being impacted along with um you know we provide u when we look at
108our vouchers the number of vouchers that we had um two years ago you know we are looking at 33 vouchers 33 families taking those vouchers. Now we have over 300 of those families. Now we haven't lost 300 kids, but we're seeing, as Dr. Markwart said, those families take being reimbursed or the the schools being reimbursed through the voucher program that normally would not have qualified before we had the expanded voucher. So that expansion of the voucher is is what we're seeing, not the old voucher system where you were looking at a failing school district or you're looking at a a poverty based. They also increased the poverty base to 450% of poverty, which before it was 150% of poverty rate. So, more and more people are qualifying um and applying for those as we see
109those school districts asking them to do their applications. Those are the things I'd like to have a better understanding of. And um I mean, and people getting vouchers are paying taxes, too. Absolutely. I know like they're not we're just seeing, you know, a philosophical shift, right, in what they're prioritizing. I'm on the fence. That's why we wanted to bring this to you as a discussion topic prior to taking a position on this. It's worthy of looking into look at is is the how this has escalated over time. I mean, what what amount of money over the years has has been set aside for vouchers? what the state has budgeted and um I don't know what that is but my my guess is that it's it's gone up considerably over time which means that uh whether
110we whether we're having voucher issues right here money is being taken out of something money that should come to public schools in general and should be coming to us and we know that that's been a problem an escalating problem that the state has not not seen fit to even fund schools. Well, I think this was designed originally to provide people I'm thinking of inner city schools where some of the kids can't even read and so they wanted an opportunity to, you know, give parents an opportunity to go somewhere else. No, I agree. I think it's kind of blown. Yeah. But I again I got to look at I got to look at a lot more but it's I I do think it's worthy of looking at and looking into. So then do we want to
111have this on at the next meeting as a discussion topic again? I think that's probably a wise idea because Karen and I can assemble quite a bit of information for the board to to review in advance of that meeting and then I think another meeting for discussion before we know what direction you'd like us to proceed. We have two. Maybe the 23rd makes more sense than the first one. Yeah, we have the 9th and the 23rd. Huh? Yeah, we have two in June. Yeah, because one's like the sixth. I don't know. 9th one's June 9th and then later time. I don't know. I'm open. So, which one are you missing, Kathy? Yeah, I'm missing the ninth. The nth to the Move it to the next one. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um, superintendent have any report? Yeah,
112this is the end of the year. Obviously, there's a lot happening. You can tell we've been doing a lot of interviewing and some people have been spending quite a bit of time here. The days have been long, not just from the as this as this agenda indicates. Um, but toward the end of the year, if you wanted to go to an activity in this school district, uh, you know, right now is the time to do it. If you notice the parking lot tonight, you can see it's pretty full. Um, there are several events that conflict and we we really can't help that because there are so many at the end of the year. But two dates you really should remember. One is Wednesday, May 21st. It's the last day for our seniors. They'll be exiting
113our doors. And then senior awards night is Wednesday, May 21st as well. And then the big culminating activity for the year is commencement. And the commencement ceremony is Thursday, May 29th. It's at 6 PM. And this year, because of the uncertainties of the timing with the installation of the turf, um, we wanted to move it indoors. So, it is at the Menor Fine Arts Center. So, I wanted you to keep those two dates in mind, the 21st and the 29th. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Do you know what time the senior awards are? Um, let me see. I'm supposed to be there. So, let me look. 6:30. 6:30. Well, he doesn't know. It's at 6:30. He's right. You're here to make me look good, Ryan. Don't be acting smart. Graduation start. Six. Uh, no. You're asking
114all these questions. Six. Six o'clock. Yep. I said that when you weren't listening. I didn't hear. six o'clock for graduation. Okay. Anything that the board wants to uh mention reports? Okay. Next board meeting, regular board meeting is Monday, June 9th at 7 p.m. here in the board office. Community room community room. Oh, we don't have the appointment of no joint wreck. Oh, it's not on the agenda. We'll do it on the 9th. We'll do it on the 9th. All right. You appointed um I forget your name. I'm sorry. Mr. Vidmar to the joint wreck. We had the um meeting and we the board needs to take action to formally appoint him to the to the joint board. Can we do it? So, we sat here the whole night. I feel for you, my brother. Can
115we make a resolution? You can make a resolution. We can We can make resolution. Let's do it. Let's add it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We want him there at the meeting. You said there's a meeting tomorrow night. Yeah. Okay. Got to do this. I need a We need a motion to add a resolution and then we'll take two motions. Okay. I move we add a resolution uh to appoint Mr. Ridmar. Mark Bidmar. Thank you. to the U joint rec board. Second. Any discussion? Call the role to add motion or the resolution. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Capel, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Lev, yes. All right. The second one is to appoint I move that we or make a resolution that we appoint Mr. to the uh joint rec board. So move second. Let's see. And
116I trust that you'll make the wording open. Oh, Dr. That's right. Yeah. Dr. Beers. Yes. Mrs. Clayole. Yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. And Miss Leworth. Yes. All right. Congratulations. Thanks, Mark. Yay. All right. Thank you for your good humor about this whole thing and thank you for serving on the board for us. All right. Okay. Now motion to adjourn. Yeah. Anybody else have a motion? Anybody else we forgot tonight? Anybody else want to get appointed to something or other? Can we have a motion to adjourn? So move. Second. Would you call the role, please? Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Okay, thank you guys. 34 pages down, we're good to go.