001We're gonna call this Sorry. Now my mind on We're going to call this meeting to order. Um, can you call the role, please? Mrs. Sherwood? Yes. Dr. Beers? Yes. Mrs. Clayool? Yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh? Yes. Miss Levvenworth? Yes. Okay. You rise for the pledge, please. I pledge allegiance 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. Okay. This meeting is a meeting of the West Yaga Local School District Board of Education in public for the purpose of conducting the West Yaga Local School District's business and is not to be considered a public community meeting. There is a time for public participation during the meeting as indicated in the agenda. Are there any additions or changes to the
002agenda? Yes, we have addition of resolution 136A for employee severance plan. Okay. Do we need a motion for that? We do. Okay. So, moved. Second. Okay. Call the RO, please. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Scapel, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Mrs. Sherworth, yes. Okay. And moving on to programs, reports, and presentations. We have several tonight. Um, there are several presentations tonight, and typically I don't get to say much for these presentations because I always turn the mic over to someone else. So, for tonight, I'm going to steal a little bit of the thunder for just about 10 seconds and uh I'm going to ask uh Mr. Amst if he will roll this clip and then I will turn it over to Mr. Patty and Mr. Oja. Gosh, I need a break. In third
003place with 450 points is the team from Pavilion. In second place with 465 points is the team from the winner of today's challenge. [Applause] Okay, that's it. That was fun and our kids uh our kids definitely were uh some of the more animated uh entertaining kids there. So that was a very good time for us. Okay. We had uh Go ahead. I'll turn it over to you. Turn it over to the real champion here. Oh, well thank you so much. I appreciate it. You're welcome. So, one of the the fun aspects that we've been doing lately in the newsletter at the high school is Wolverine's on the move, right? So, it's it's always fun to see the different aspects that the our students are doing, the the accolades they're accomplishing. Um, for this one, I
004want to bring up Cindy Ojampa, our adviser to the academic challenge team. And I'm going to let I'm going to let Cindy introduce the students. But this is an incredible accomplishment because we haven't had an academic challenge team. And now we do. And not only do we have one, but as you can see, a winning one and and very proud of the accomplishments they've made. Yes. So, since last May, I think I started talking about it and we did have a team, but it was pre- pandemic. And luckily, I knew a lot of them and how they were into trivia. And so Parker Pacificico, Hayden Maku, I said your last name correctly. Um Rose Han, Morgan Savage, and Tristan Morgan because we have the two different Morgans. And and um Matilda Tumada, did I say
005it right? And also Eve Cardi, who was our production person. Um she acted like Rob Powers. She was always able to say if they were too slow, answer and if their language wasn't appropriate language and she was always getting them, you know, to rotate and try different teams. Um, not here tonight is u Mason Tawi. I think he's the only one not here tonight. But um I'm so glad they won the episode, episode 12, and they came from behind. And I think we only maybe missed four questions. And so 100 points short of for next year getting in the top and trying to, you know, maybe get some money for the school. But so proud of them. They work so hard. They're so much more intelligent than I could ever be at knowing their trivia.
006And so, um, since Parker was the captain, and we're going to put this in a case at school, I'll give it to you again. [Applause] I'd like just I'd like to say just a couple things real quickly. First of all, thank you to the parents for being here tonight and for raising such great kids. And for some of them, uh, this is multigenerational. You know, we've had the big brothers and big sisters here before. So that's interesting. And I have a sort of a bond with Parker because he introduced me the night I came here 10 years ago. So obviously he was just a little guy and I was a young man what 30 32. Anyway anyway and Shrek you look good tonight but you shred your you shed your pounds so quickly. I'm impressed
007you could lose that weight and your coloration came back so so swiftly. Also you must have spent the whole day in the bathroom. We're not going to go into too many details there. But before you guys leave, I'd like it if you guys would come up here behind the board and get your picture taken with them. I'm going to get out of the picture so I don't ruin it, but you guys can get up there and get your picture. Are we going to stay sitting? Should we scooch? Should we stay sitting? Yeah. We watched it. Look, theych. Yep. Perfect. Your parents You want to go up there? No, I got two more coming. He was mostly doing [Applause] congratulations. Hey, good job. It really was really enjoyed it. Next, we have Stephanie Meyer. Jeopardy. Yes.
008Just stay off Family Feud. That kind of I don't like that too much. Uh Stephanie Meyer is going to talk to us a little bit about our science fair participants and give a little bit of shout out to them. Good evening. Um before I introduce uh we have two seniors I'm going to introduce tonight. Only one of them is here. But I first wanted to thank the West Giaga Kuanas Club. Um every single year they put together and organize our uh district STEM fair. This year in February we had about 80 student participants from grades 5 through 12. They compete in four events. uh our individual STEM fair projects, our junk box wars for high school students, how do I fair for middle school students, and then two levels of math competitions. And uh if
009you haven't come before, I I recommend you all come next February or late January, whenever it ends up being uh because the enthusiasm and creativity our students show is really in inspiring and it wouldn't be possible without the Kowanas Club. So, I first want to thank them for everything they do to help our STEM fair run each year. Give him a round of applause. All right. Um, at the high school, our first and second place individual STEM fair project winners um went on to compete at the Northeast Ohio Science and Engineering Fair, which is held at Cleveland State in March. Um, both of them did an outstanding job. I'm going to start by just talking about Robert Vash and his project. He's not here tonight. He's homesick, so thankfully he's not here. But um he
010uh did a project where he was presenting an alternative lock design. So he designed a basically unbreakable and unpickable lock. He went through multiple prototypes, 3D printing it in our STEM fair room and all of that. Um, at NEOF he placed third place in the engineering category and he also received a special award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Cleveland section, which also got him invited to one of their like fancy evening dinners as well. So, um, I know he was excited to attend that one. Um, our other uh, recipient for our STEM fair is Matilda Tuma. So, she's getting recognized twice tonight. Um, Matilda uh her project was entitled a development of antimicrobial soap formulated from rambutin extract and its impact on bacterial growth. Um so she took rambutin fruit she extracted
011um got the extract from it. She then went around the high school and swabbed to collect lots of bacteria. um put the randbutin extract into the soap and then tested its efficacy on on fighting that bacteria. Um with that she earned second place in chemistry at NEOF along with uh multiple special awards, one from the American Chemical Society, the Cleveland section, one from Cleveland Clinic Learner Research Institute, and then the William Ruite Award for Chemistry. and she just told me the other day that she's competing in one more fair, the best medicine fair, um which is next week, I think April 26, something around there. Yeah. So hopefully she'll get some more uh awards under her belt at that one, too. But we're definitely really proud of all of our participants and especially these two
012that went on to uh to test themselves against lots of Northeast Ohio STEM Fair projects. Matilda, would you mind coming here for one? We're gonna come up. We're gonna go up there. Thank you. We have one more presentation tonight. This is a shameless pitch from our band people. So, without further ado, I'll have uh Mr. Branch get Oh, okay. Mappri is here as well to do this. Shouldn't have placed him first. I apologize. Hi, everybody. Um, so Jason and I just wanted to share some of our upcoming band concert events with you all and extend the invitation to attend any of these upcoming performances. I think they're all going to be really great concerts. Um, so the first one coming up is our middle school band concert. That's going to be on Thursday, April 24th.
013Um, and those middle school students have been working really hard to put some great music together uh to share with the audiences. Um, and then our high school band concert is one that we're very excited for. That's going to be on Thursday, May 1st, and that's going to be our first kind of really big themed concert that we've done. Um, so we're doing a big movie music theme. All of the music from all of the groups. Um, concert band, symphonic band, steel band, jazz band is all going to be movie music from like really recognizable movies that people will, I think, really enjoy to hear. Bambooers is going to try to put together some like popcorn concessions type thing to kind of give it that movie uh atmosphere. and I think it's going to be
014a really fun event. Um, so we wanted to extend that invitation to you all. And then our fifth grade band concert is the last one. That's going to be on Tuesday, May 6th. And our fifth graders have been doing such a phenomenal job this year. They're such an awesome group. Um, and so we're really excited for that concert as well. Uh, we just wanted to extend the invitation to you all for those events and um, share what our students have been working on. Thank you guys. Yeah. Uh, and then just to like shamelessly plug said concerts, and it's it's not a shameless plug. Uh, it's just a plug. Um, and we like we know that we don't have to come up here and say like, hey, here's an exciting concert, but the movie music theme,
015we're really excited to do one of these because it's usually just like concert band works that we get very excited about, but audiences love hearing music that they know. And then in terms of like inviting our administration and and board members, we see you guys at the performances all the time and we really really appreciate that. And I just want to say for the past 15, it's 15 years, Bill, not 16. Um, for the past 15 years, we've always had continued support. Uh, from my first board meeting, uh, when I got hired 15 years ago, Bill pulled me aside to give me some words of encouragement. and we always see you at, he might remember it differently, uh, but we always see our administrators and our board members at our concerts and the band program
016continues to grow and grow and grow and we couldn't do that without your support. So, we just wanted to invite you and tell you how much we appreciate you guys. I think this is the 11th one I've seen because I came the year before I started here. I came that year. Well, this will be it's been a long time. The best one because there's food because I'm leaving. No, no, no. I Okay. And now that we told you about our concert, can we get a picture with you guys? No. That is shameless. I'll I'll sign off. That's funny. Okay. So, the next section is public remarks and we don't have anyone signed up. Oh, if you guys would like to leave and your families, you are welcome to stay, but if you have other things
017you'd rather do than stay here for the rest of this meeting, you may take advantage of that now. Bye, guys. Good job. Thank you so much again for coming. Byebye. Lock my house especially my dog alert. Bye. Good night. Hey, Mr. Branch. Are you gonna be showing the movies while you're playing the songs? We talked about that a lot. That's what they do down at Blossom, you know. be a very long time. Be careful, Mr. Branch. Because ticking. You never know what he's going to ask for. You know better. That's better. Um, okay. Moving on to routine items. You skipped public remarks. Oh, I said it and then we got it. I'm sorry. Sorry. Um, but there are none. So, now can we move on to routine items? My apologies. Fantastic. Resolution 108 to approve
018routine matters of the Westiaga Local Board of Education. Second. Any discussion? Call the RO, please. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Wall, yes. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Financial resolution 109 to approve warrants for May March 2025. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayole, yes. Resolution 110 to accept donations from the second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Levvenworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Resolution 111 to transfer the following funds from the general fund to the capital fund in the amount of $1 million. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Is this this have a particular um target on it? This is our second transfer. We had
019agreed to transfer 2 million and then we have an additional transfer coming up for the water filtration system. Right. So what we've done is made this the second transfer. How much is the water treatment? Is that the three million? We're going to talk about that a little later in the program. Okay. But this is but this is tied to capital projects that are talked about for middle school. So right now in that those eight or nine projects that we have, you know, we've identified as a board that you looked at that we have several of them have been we've accepted bids. They're going to be out. So we want to make sure those are covered. But then when we go to look at the water filtration, we're going to need additional funds coming into this
020into this 070 capital account. Call the role, please. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Lewart, yes. Thank you. Resol resolution 112 is a resolution to accept an administrative resignation. Um, I would ask that the board make this motion and second it and then I have some words I'd like to say before the board votes. Please move second discussion. All right. It's really not a discussion as much as it is a commentary. Melissa came to us uh to head the team at Lindsay Elementary and she brought a wealth of instructional experience with her when she came. Um, she also has done quite a bit to engage the community. that's been one of her initiatives and the uh affairs of her school. If any of you have ever been
021there for her Veterans Day assemblies, they're phenomenal and I get so much positive feedback from people who come in and see those. Um so she's not just a relationship builder, but she's also someone who's uh who's an outstanding outstanding instructor. Um, one of the things I'd like to compliment of our administrative staff is that uh there's no shortage of jobs for them after they've worked here at WestG. And Melissa has built herself an impressive resume. Um, she recently applied for and was awarded a job with the Educational Service Center of the Western Reserve that is going to uh make very very judicious and abundant use of her skills as an instructor. Um, Melissa, if you wish to say anything more about this, I'd be happy to have you say it. But all I can tell
022you is that I've known Jennifer Felker, who's the superintendent of the ESC of the Western Reserve for probably 20 years. Um, maybe longer than that, and she is so happy to have Melissa on board, and she has told me multiple times she's exactly what we needed. So, congratulations, Melissa, and you will be missed here, but I know that you are um going to someplace that will make good use of you. And I believe in your new capacity, you're going to be here at least two days a week working with our kids. So, we're not going to lose her instructional skills. She's still going to be back here, still going to be working with our kids. Um, only her uh her contributions are going to be a little bit more widespread now than they were before
023because she won't just be in one building. So, congratulations. If I could add a little bit because I've had multiple people that I've just seen at events or call and I had a couple call me once they saw the minutes expressing their sadness that you're leaving. So you will be missed and emails. I bet the happy Congrats. Congratulations. And we're glad she's coming back. So that's good. So with that out of the way, now's the time to vote. Call the RO, please. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. I would ask if the board treats this next u resolution the same way. Um this is a resolution to approve certified staff appointments for the 2025 2026 school year and it is in fact a certified staff
024appointment singular. So move second. Okay. Dr. Davis, will you do the honors? You startled. You didn't know this was going to happen tonight. Just showed up. you just just happened to show up and wander in. I know. Um it is my pleasure to reintroduce you to Rosie Santos tonight, not as a football coach, um but as an intervention specialist, um a talented one at that. We are delighted to have him join our team um after 10 years at Riverside High School. Um and at a school in Cleveland before that, um we have managed to um win him over. Um he really um his his student focus, his sincerity, um his earnestness just shine through every time um we have a conversation. Sarah Salsbury, our department chair of special education at the high school. Um and
025I have met with him and we are just thrilled with what he will bring not only to our students but just our culture in general. Um as we really try to grow um a culture of inclusiveness um and acceptance for every student and student live that successful life that we want to see them graduate to. So we are so excited to have on board and we hope tonight. Yeah, just want to say thank you for having me again. Good to see everybody again. Yeah, I mean I've been here pushing two months and everything has been like everything's been awesome. Everything that you guys said you're going to give me Mr. all the counselors everything's been awesome and a lot to say thank you for everything very excited to be here talking about potential openings about
026you know the kid that I've been dealing with for the past 11 years that that's exciting to me as well so again just very exciting and I can't thank you guys enough for having he's already started it Saturday morning practices are I mean that never has the attendance been so high. Um so I believe you have 80 kids, don't you? Going out to to lift now or working with So somebody lied to me about that. What's that? Somebody lied to me about that. I'm just kidding. Good. That's very good. It's a good sign you're doing the right things. I've got a question for you, coach. Yeah. Um, my daughter is special ed in Indiana and they have a u a program where they I forget what they call it, but where they have u a
027mixture of kids playing various athletic events where some of them are uh kids with special needs and others are maybe the normal football player and they'll put them together on teams for various things like not only football but botchi and a whole bunch of other things. Are you familiar with that kind of program? I mean it seems like this would just really fit in your I've never heard of that before. No, but uh like right on or what team we have with special needs and stuff and they participate just all the other players and you know they're on the team and they're going to play games and stuff but when they get in the game we just have to notify the other coaches and things like that. just a lot of communication with the other
028coaches. But I mean, I've never heard of anything like that. That does sound interesting. Um, it's like I say, they have it in Indiana. It's a whole separate conference, I'll call it. Okay. It isn't just I mean, what you're doing is I'll say true inclusion, but this is um not it it's creating a separate set of teams to play against each other. Yeah, I was just gonna say Ross, you're gonna be so busy, but we love you. We're so excited. You're gonna love it. It's a great place to work. It's a great place to be. Call the RO, please. Mrs. Claypool. Yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Miss Levvenworth. Yes. Mrs. Sherwood. Yes. Dr. Beers. Yes. Congratulations, Ross. Yep. Congratulations. Resolution 114 is to approve certified stipen for work outside of the 2425 contractual year. So
029moved. Second. Call. Oh, any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Resolution 115 is to accept certified staff resignations. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clay, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Resolution 116 is to approve classified staff appointments for the 2024 2025 school year. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leav, yes. Resolution 117 is to approve an additional transportation route assignment. This is um to fill the mail run which was vacated recently. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood,
030yes. Resolution 118 is to approve the rehiring of the classified staff named in the agenda. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leverworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Resolution 119 is to accept classified staff retirement. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clay, yes. How many years? We used to have number of years. I'd have to check. I I don't know. I can find out and let you know. Okay. I just I mean maybe we that Sure. Not a problem. Next resolution. Resolution 120 is to accept classified staff resignations. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Miss Levvenworth. Yes. Mrs. Sherwood. Yes. Dr. Beers. Yes.
031Mrs. Clayool. Yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Resolution 121 is to approve unpaid days. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Lewart, yes. Resolution 122 is to approve 2025 summer programming stipens as listed. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Levart, yes. Mr. Sherwood, yes. Resolution 123 is to approve supplemental contracts for the 2024 2025 school year. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Mrs. Mr. Sherwood. Yes. Dr. Beers. Yes. Resolution 124 is to approve service contracts for the 2024 2025 school year as listed. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Miss Leverworth.
032Yes. Mrs. Sherwood? Yes. Dr. Beers? Yes. Mrs. Clay? Yes. Resolution 125 is to accept the non-renewal of all 2024 2025 long-term substitute contracts. So move second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Resolution 126 is to accept the non-renewal of all 2024 2025 supplemental and service contracts. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Skullman Walsh, yes. Miss Levelin, yes. Resolution 127 is to approve chaperones for the middle school sixth grade trip to Camp Fitch. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clay, yes. Mrs. Miss Coleman Walsh. Yes. Miss Leborn. Yes. Resolution 128 is to approve the first reading of revised policy
0332280. This is the preschool program policy. So move. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Clayole, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leverworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Resolution 129 is to approve the independent contractor agreement between Alana Ruscu, Ruscu, how Ruska, how do I say it? Ruska, I was close the first time. And Westa local schools for the 2024 2025 school year. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leverworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Resolution 130 is to approve the aiology consortium services contract between Summit Educational Service Center and West Local. Second. Any discussion? Call the RO, please. Miss Levvenworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Resolution 131 is to approve the Always
034Construction LLC proposal. So moved. Second. Any discussion? I just have a question. What is it? What is it? I have the same question. It's the construction drive to the location of the new well. The location of the well has been solidified. We have to have a construction drive to get the equipment back to do the the work on the well. So, it's the construction of that driveway. Wow. Expensive driveway. Yeah. Yeah. It's a long heavy duty big drive. I mean, it's a deep it's a project like two feet deep with gravel and it's a lot of work. Okay, call the roll, please. Well, I have a question. Why wouldn't that be included in the whole well project cost? Mark, can you answer that or Scott in terms of how just seems to be one and
035it would be a different company. It wouldn't be the company that drills the well. Okay. So, go ahead. But should we be approving the well before we approve the road? That's what I'm questioning. In order to do the testing for the well, we're going to have to have this road and this road is going to stay. Is it connected to the to the baseball field? Is it connected to the baseball field? To the back of the baseball field as well. So we have that available for So even if we didn't do the well, we'd do the road. or we have to put the road in so we can go back and find out whether the well can really go there. Okay. Yeah. All right. Do you need the road first on this one? Yeah, I
036understand what you're saying, but I think I understand what they're saying. Yeah, I do, too. They both make sense. Yeah, the road will stay in place after the well is drilled. Got it. For access to the well. Okay, we good. Okay. Call the RO, please. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clay, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Le, yes. Resolution 132 is to approve the addendum of the 2024 through 2026 aligned school district service agreement between West Local Schools and the Educational Service Center of the Western Reserve. Second. Any discussion? Yeah, I just have one question. It nothing really changed except the price. Maybe it's just an addendum. So it looked like it was Yeah. Whenever we have additional services, we have to file an addendum with the ESC. Okay. So this is the
037addendum for that service that wasn't included in the original um contract. Okay. Which you'll see the next year's contract in the next resolution. We have a list of all the services that we would like to What is this new service? What is this? The the this one we just did. That's the adaptive PE services. Got it. That's further adapted, not adaptive. Adapted. We had to look it up because I thought it was adaptive and Karen thought it was adaptive and I thought they made a mistake, but I looked it up and it's adapted PE, not adaptive. So, I've been saying it wrong all these years. So, so are you admitting that you made a mistake? I make plenty of mistakes. Asking for a friend. I make plenty of mistakes. Okay. to help students access. So,
038it's physical adapted. Okay. It says it in the last line of the resolution. Yeah. But I was going to change didn't. Okay. Yes. Dr. Beers. Yes. Mrs. Clayool. Yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh. Yes. Miss Levort, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Resolution 133 is to approve the 2025 2026 educational services center of the Western Reserve service request form. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Clayole, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Resolution 134 is to approve the proactive behavior services district tuition agreement. This is between West Jug Local Schools and Proactive Behavior Services. A second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Leworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clay, yes. Resolution 135 is to approve the quote from CDW Government
039LLC for the purchase of Chromebooks. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Miss Levorth, yes. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. And we were able just to get these Chromebooks in before the price increases. Uh, Scott, it'll it'll be right in there. Excellent. So, good. Excellent. Resolution 130 is a resolution to approve Cafe 306's ability to charge cost plus 35% for t-shirt sales in the 2024 2025 school year. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Mrs. Sherwood, yes. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clay, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes. Miss Le, yes. And then the additional resolution, resolution 136A, is to approve the implementation of an EPC severance incentive program. So moved. Second. Any discussion? What does EPC stand for? EPD. What is it? What EPC?
040What is it, Karen? It's the It's the It's the incentive employment. She's got to look it up. Look at that. No, it's it's it's by the That's their name. EPC. It's that's all I've ever called them. It's a consultant group that we use. Oh, it's a consultant group to determine our uh buyout in the in the savings we'd have in the buyout. Okay. See, wasn't so bad that I didn't know. All right. Second mistake. Three more and you're out. What you gonna do? Baseball. Three more on top of the two. Fancy baseball game. Feeling pretty free right now. Did we do we have a motion yet? We've had a motion and we need to take the vote if that's all right. Call the role, please. Dr. Beers, yes. Mrs. Clayool, yes. Mrs. Coleman Walsh, yes.
041Miss Levworth, yes. Mrs. Sherwick, yes. Um, okay. Discussion of new business and suggestions to included on future agenda. Um, so we at the last meeting wanted to get a voucher update. Um, and I know that this is something that that Kathy in particular has been um really working with. So, do we have I I can give you a little bit of information on this. It's hard for us to say how many kids take vouchers. We don't know. I mean, we don't have that count um just as we don't have the count of the kids who go to private school here. Um because we don't get that information. They go, they enroll at the private school. They're not here. So, some of the kids have never been here. what we did. Uh Sarah gave me some
042some figures today that were um that were kind of revealing to me. First of all, um I I'll give you the the good news one, I guess, is that we have a number of kids who are served out of district every year. And those are kids who go to um they go to the IT STEM school, they go to uh Auburn career center, they are kids who are in community schools, open enrolled kids to other districts. Um and then also kids who have the autism and John Peterson scholarship and overall this year we have a a smaller number of kids who are served who are westg kids served outside of district. Uh we have 182 kids served in those various programs this year. Last year we had 221. So that means we have less kids
043in those out of district placements. When I looked though at the actual transfer of kids and I say I looked at this I looked at it and that I said Sarah can you please give it to me and she did. um how many kids did we have this year who transferred from WestG to private schools and how many kids did we have who transferred from private schools into WestG? Um, now this is linked to the voucher program, I believe, because we don't have a huge difference in the number of kids that we would normally have in private schools from what we can tell, but we did have overall 30 kids who went to private schools this year that we know withdrew from WestG schools to go to private schools. And we had seven kids moving
044from private schools back into West Giaga. Was some of this due to the voucher program? I'm not sure because a lot of the kids who are getting vouchers now went to private schools before the voucher program existed. So they went there, the parents paid tuition. Now in a lot of private schools, they're advising their regular students who they had for years, hey, you may qualify for the voucher from the state. So apply for it. And of course, the parents do because the the standards for that, a family of four can have an income of $140,000 and still qualify for the voucher. So are you going to take the $8,000 or leave it on the table? chances are you're going to take it. And so we feel that in certain cases some of the kids who've
045gone to private schools now do so because in fact they have a big boost in their tuition payments to those private schools. I did look at the schools though because Sarah had listed them out of the of the 30 schools the students went to um only seven of those 30 were non sectarian schools. Other ones were sectarian schools. So if you ask someone and and they were primarily either Roman Catholic schools or evangelical Protestant schools and so those schools can offer an element to the education that we can't and that we by being a public entity we're not able to and that is that they can integrate the concept of reason and of academics with the components of their faith. And we're not able to do that because as a public school system, we can
046neither um suppress religious expression nor unless it interferes with the the education nor we can't promote nor can we procilize proitize nor can we oppress um students religious beliefs. So if you're if you're sending your child from a public school to a Roman Catholic school because you want learning to be run through the lens of the church or if you're sending them to an evangelical school where they want a strong biblical foundation to the learning, we can't compete with that. So I wasn't when I when I looked at that and I thought, wow, 30, you know, 30 kids went out and seven came in came back to us from private schools. When I looked at the schools they were going to, it made a little bit more sense to me. Um I'm sure there are
047some kids who do go for academics. I'm sure there are some kids who go for um you know for athletics, but I think that there are also quite a number of kids who go because they want the religious component that that thread in their learning. So that I guess gives you an idea of where we stand. Did we spend did we have a lot of kids take advantage of the vouchers this year? I would guess that we would because we normally have a sizable number of kids as does any public school district who avail themselves of a private education and it's not nearly that's not indicative of how many kids we have leaving. It's not like they're leaving by the hundreds. If we had 200 kids in private school before, we may have 220 now.
048But I think the voucher has influenced some of the decisions. And I think also that many of the kids who are receiving vouchers are kids that we didn't have anyway because they were kids who were already in the private school. So it's a misnomer. It's it's a misperception. It's not true to think that kids are migrating from, you know, WestG to go to all these private schools. That's not the case. And the voucher program has um developed along the way too. In the very beginning, this was developed for people in failing school districts so that they did not have to and their children to a failing school district and that was the only reason that you were going to get a voucher since that beginning that inception of the voucher program. has continually been broadened.
049And so now, you know, if I wanted to send my kids somewhere, it didn't matter that we were a top 10 district, I can still take the voucher and send my kids to a school that has no way to to be ranked. But depending on what my beliefs were, if I wanted that religious component, then I could now use the money, which before I would not have because this has never been a failing district because we're not Yeah, you're right. I mean, it was it was designed initially for students who were disadvantaged or who were in a failing school district. And our students are in neither of those categories. To Cathy's point, there's a there's a movement, there's a lawsuit called Vouchers Hurt Ohio, and a lot of districts have joined that. We never have,
050but that might be a discussion for the board in terms of do we want to identify ourselves with this and um and join this lawsuit because as you say, now vouchers are hitting us in a way that they didn't hit us in the past. I think I mean we need to look at it from a standpoint of what um Dr. Markwart just shared with us as far as how it's impacting Westiaga, but I I think more my concern is what you were talking about Christina is how it's grown and that it it's taking money away from public schools in general. And I mean there are a lot of districts in the state that don't even have private schools. they don't have schools that they can use vouchers for and their their tax money is going
051to the state and then it's getting sent to people who don't even live in in those counties. Um, and there's more legislation to follow. I think we just need to be more aware of and more on top of and more concerned with what's happening with our tax dollars and and where the money is going. Uh the ever since I was president of the Iowa School Boards Association and before that the state legislature has not followed the state law which is saying how schools should be funded and um our friend John Patterson who put forward Patterson bill um which never got passed. Uh we're just schools are not being funded as they should be in Ohio. more money is be taken away from public schools and from some of the stuff that's happening now u of
052looking like they're trying to cap um what money we can have for carryover. I don't know whether how many people have been reading about that but you know schools we we pass school levies and we haven't had new money since what 2005 so we've been very lucky with that that uh you we we generally would pass a levy to last three four five years and we do that so that we have a carryover in order to plan for uh our salaries going up and and uh changes that are being made and with with some of the laws that are being proposed now. Uh we would have to have a levy on the ballot every year or every other year because the legislature wants to say you can't have more than a certain amount of carryover.
053So, you know, um trying to tie our hands and I think we just as a school board need to be more involved with what's going on uh financially. Well, I think you get into the situation then where you're facing levy fatigue. Yeah. People don't want to be going to the ballot and voting on operating costs every two years. The other thing that's a little bit different and um and that is that the standards to which the private schools are held and the public schools are held, they're very very different. Um and and I say that as a person that I would consider to be a friend of private schools. I used to teach at a private school and it was a great experience and I think very very highly of that school. was one of
054the schools that some of our kids have um have chosen to go to this year. And yet I look, you know, as a parent and as a grandparent and as a grandparent, I have grandchildren who've gone to public school and who've gone to private school. And in either case, it was what was deemed best for the child by that child's parents. And I think every parent should exercise that same judgment when it comes to the education of of their children. However, I also think that it's it's it's frustrating to me to think that tax dollars, my tax dollars may be going to support an enterprise that I wouldn't have chosen to support. When my children send their kids to private school, they pay the tuition to go there and it's their choice and I respect
055it. Um, but I think that right now it's it's it's hard for public schools because we're on an unlevel playing field. We're held to a host of standards that the private schools I don't believe there is a cap on the carryover for private schools. Correct me if I'm wrong, is there? No. So, but we're being told that we're going to be held to a 30% carryover of our budget and yet private schools which receive donations, etc. as well and grants and endowments don't have any such cap. I'm not saying they should, but I don't think we should either. I guess that's my point. I agree. I think that every parent has the choice to send their children then that's that's entirely up to that family. Um but but the that public money is now being
056used to build private schools coffers as well. And that's that becomes problematic for us especially, right? I have one more thing. Yes, sir. This is new business kind of. I'm going to hand this out to you because I I don't want to be an alarmist here. Um but I'm going to mention measles to you. The reason I say that is because if you watch the news, especially the television news, which people here have dubbed the old person news because I watch it. Um, if you watch any of the major networks, you'll know there is a measles outbreak that's affecting several states right now. It's one of them is Ohio. The the district that's clo the area that's closest to us, the region that's closest to us that's been experiencing this outbreak has been in um
057Ashtabula County. Now, Ashrabula County, the last I knew had 12 active cases of measles. You're probably thinking, well, that's not really an outbreak. Is it by the definition of the health department, guys, two is an outbreak. If we have two or three, and I've heard both, but what they're saying conservatively is two cases, two active cases constitutes an outbreak that we have to report as an outbreak. We have had no cases in our school district. So we can say in WestG there has been no outbreak whatsoever. However, if there is, we are following the recommendations of the health department which is on the other side of your sheet. It is recommended that we have students who have not been inoculated excluded from school for 21 days. And that's 21 days after the last case that
058we have is no longer contagious. We have 72 kids who have not been inoculated. So I hope we don't have an outbreak. I hope we don't get those two kids who get measles. So far we don't have them. But um I do need to send something out probably fairly soon to the parents. I thought this week after I talked to you so that you would so they would know what measles are, how to deal with measles. Um and then also to advise them of what the health department's recommendations are because I don't want people to be surprised. Um, and it seemed a little bit uh counterintuitive to me because if you look at those health department recommendations, the first one says that a student who contracts measles can return to school for on the fifth
059day after the rash appears. And that has to do with but then it says they have to stay out 21 days if they haven't had it. So I said, so if I just let my kid get exposed, there's an incubation period of it says in in this literature how long it is. Um, but after they get the measles and they have their they're presumed to be then immunized and and not able to get it again. They can return. But the one that's going to irritate people, I'm sure, is 120 day or 21 days my kids out of school. My kid's not sick. You're telling me I have to keep my kid out of school because they're not inoculated because you have two cases of measles. But that's the health department recommendation. That's what they're telling
060us we should do. So, I wanted you to have that heads up. Um, and I'll be sharing some of this with the community. I'm sure there will be people who may have things to say to me about it, but we'll see. Is this a board decision, Dr. Mark, or are you Not really. I mean, it's it's one where, you know, the the question that was posed by me is the way I anticipate this occurring would be that parents would use the same rationale they use to oppose the vaccine. It's either a matter of conscience or a matter of religion. There are several conditions whereby people can choose not to get their kids inoculated. One is because the child has already had the disease and already has a natural immunity. Two is that the child is
061medically fragile in some way and a physician says that that vaccine would be bad for the kid. We should not give that kid a vaccine. And the third would be matters of conscience or religious beliefs that a parent just says, I it's against my religious convictions. It's against my conscience. I don't want my child to have a vaccine. And they have a right to not have their child inoculated. We have a form that we send out to them or they give us a doctor's a physician's excuse. Usually, if it's one of the one of the first two, it would be a physician's excuse. The last one would be just, you know, the parents can fill out the form and say, "I as a parent don't wish to have my child um inoculated." I did say
062though that I think that last one will come when a parent says, "I want to send my kid to school because, you know, I I think my kid will be fine. Trust in the Lord on this one. Whatever. I'm going to send my kid to school. Has been inoculated. you can't tell me I can't and we can't tell them they can't. So, I would not want to be the person who says you can um knowing that the child would face a risk of getting the disease and I don't know what what secondary results could occur. So, I did ask the question of legal counsel. I said, are we able to say unequivocally, your child has to stay out for those 21 days? And I was told yes. So, I hope it doesn't come to that.
063Hasn't come to it. We don't have any outbreaks. Um, we don't have any measles cases here. I would just ask people to keep your kids out of crowds where there's sick kids and keep your kids healthy so we don't have that so we don't have to cross that bridge. But I did want the board to have an awareness of it before I send anything out to families. Um, as I say, it's it's a small percentage of our kids who are not inoculated. Um, but it's 72 kids and 72 kids if they were told had to stay out of school because we have two or three kids who have it. I mean, especially if you're, you know, if you're you have a child at the high school and you have a kid that contracts measles at
064Westwood, it's like, well, my kid's not at Westwood, so why, you know, why does my kid have to stay out of school? And I may be able to check on that. Actually, that's one of the things I hadn't really thought. I was going to say that might be something. Why couldn't we keep the kids in the other buildings? I think it would be location. I think that would make a lot of sense. I'll ask the health department how they feel. What does the third bullet mean? What is that? IG if immuno comp. Which one? The third bullet. I think something globulin third bullet or which one? The this the Oh, I'm sorry. Letter from Oh, the health department. Let me see what it is because I don't have that one here. I'm sorry. Oh, I
065am immuno compromised. Um, I asked the same question to the health department. You couldn't tell me, but it's an imunocmpromised kid. So I asked the same thing. I said, "What does it mean?" He didn't know the answer. That was the health department. Was it transmitted by It's airborne. It's airborne and it's not. So kids are riding in the same buses. Yeah. If they were. Yeah. And we could check on that. I mean, they use the same buses for the high school for the middle school. We do use Yeah. I I think we should also check on children who've had measles and have a natural immunity. Yeah. And a lot of our adults might I mean I I had measles. I had measles. I had measles and I had chickenpox both. Yeah. A lot of us
066have. I think I had MS 29 which was definitely an unpleasant experience. It's not fun. Okay. Don't go any further with that one. Don't. So, have you I know you guys are always ahead of the curve on lots of stuff. So, have you figured out the uh Pam found the one thing I couldn't find out that was what is IG stand for? I did ask that. Um but he was I can get an answer from him. I'll ask him again. But we've met with the I've met with the health department commissioner a few times on this. But my question was are we prepared to provide schooling to those kids that are out for 21 days in terms of distance learning? Yeah. Well, how are we going to do it? I don't know. But I'm just
067thinking this is this is sort of similar to when we had the pandemic and we more or less turned on a dime and figured out how to provide some instruction for the kids when we had given an option when we turned on the dime. I understand. I agree with Bill though. It might be something we need to think about. I mean, I hope we don't need effective true. It was I mean, it was to say we did it, but it wasn't an awesome experience for any of us. It wasn't great for anyone. But, okay. Hopefully, we don't ever have to talk about it again. Hope we don't have to do this. I do too. But there is also a solution. And we didn't have a solution during CO. We were told schools were closed and
068here schools would not be closed for almost everyone and there's always an allowance made in terms of work being sent home and and made up and turned in late. I mean, not that you'd wait two months, but I mean, it could be turned in and maybe that's the answer to the question. But my real question is is if a kid is out for 21 days, how are we going to make sure that he doesn't I think you'd have to deliver. You'd have to deliver over the Chromebook because no one's going to go to the house. I mean, people aren't going to go into a house that has an illness and risk getting it themselves or giving it to their kids. Um, and I think that would have to be what would be done. But I
069mean, I'm I'm not we're not prepared to allocate staff to say you're the remote teacher and you're going to teach all these kids online. I'm going to take you away from your classroom and you're not going to teach all your regular kids because you're going to be teaching kids whose parents have chosen not to get them inoculated. I'm not arguing with the parents for making that decision, but I also don't think I can take a kid away from the reg or a teacher away from the regular classroom and devote them to to teaching those students. And and the the ways in which they'd be taught, those 72 kids aren't all in one class or one grade level. were scattered all throughout the school. So I think we'd probably have to deliver it. Bill, and answer
070to your question, I think it would have to be on a onetoone basis. The teacher would help the kid get through the situation, but it would have to be work that be could be turned in remotely because we can't send anyone out to the house or anything like that. And we have that capacity now. I mean, every kid has a Chromebook. Okay. Okay. That that's the answer to the question. We have the capacity now and we would do it over Chromebooks. Yeah. My question there's some things, you know, they might have to turn in later. Yeah. My question was how do we make sure that those kids don't fall 21 days behind? Yeah, I understand. Okay, I get it. Is that your report or is that that was it? No, that was the the last
071part was those questions. But the measles I just wanted you to know it's coming. We have to get something out into the hands of parents so that they understand. Okay. I do not have any more reports. No. Okay. Anyone on the board? anything for the good of the order. Okay. Um we will be um adjourning into executive session for personnel matters appointment andor employment and conference with legal counsel concerning current or possible litigation. We'll be inviting Ryan Patty, Julie Moshberger, Megan Bellen, Dr. Marquar, Dr. Benasa, Karen, and the attorney Peter Zowski. And there will be no action taken after executive session. Way to go, Christina. Best I've ever done on that one. Okay, ready. So move. Second. Call the RO, please. Wait just a minute. I was stunned by the list of people by the
072efficiency of my your delivery. Mrs. Clayool. Yes. Mrs. Coleman. Yes. Miss Levvenworth. Yes. Mrs. Sherwood. Yes. Dr. Beers. Yes. Uh, we're going to meet here. Yeah. Well, I don't want to exclude you if there's a Is there a different day? Yeah. Anytime you want. Can we do it earlier than seven? I can do it anytime you want. What day of the week is it? It's a Wednesday. Wednesday. You want to leave it at seven then? No. Oh, I would love to do it earlier. What time do you want to do it? I'm fine. Five. I'll bring popcorn. You're retired. Only sort of. That would be great. Let's go. Yeah, I think I could do it at 5. 5 o'clock on April 30th. All right. April 30th, 5 o'clock. And then I'll send out a special
073meeting notification with what we've got. It'll be closer to April 30th because we'll know a couple of other things by that time. Okay. Okay. Very good. All right. Are we good then? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Um, do we have a motion to adjurnn? So, second. Okay. Call the role, please. Mrs. Coleman Walsh? Yes. Miss Levvenworth? Yes. Mrs. Sherwood? Yes. Dr. Beers? Yes. Mrs. Clayool? Yes. Thank you so much.