001have that for that portion of our meeting. Um, if we could all please stand 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. Thank you so much. And moving to section C, our meeting agenda statement. This meeting is a meeting of the board of education in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and it is not to be considered a public community meeting. There is a time for public participation during the meeting as indicated in the agenda. Um, at this time we'll enter into D, which is student and teacher reports. And we have the middle school here tonight for a US history project presentation. Mr.
002Janitovich, just joking. Just joking, Mr. You came in all with the with the tie in the in the in the in the shirt. Okay. How's everybody doing? Good to see you. How are you? Good to see you. Thank you for being here. You good? All right. Good. So, really quick, we have our presentation tonight. It's going to be amended quite a bit because of a track meet being rescheduled for tonight. So, I I actually called TJ earlier. We were going to do a little song and dance for you, but we still kept on and we still have at least a adjust like adjusted uh presentation. Now, there are a couple things I did want to spotlight specifically for the middle school um that have happened within the last couple weeks here that I really really
003wanted to point out. One, I wanted to say congratulations to our seventh and eighth grade choir um who performed at the OMA uh solo and ensemble contests um at the end of last month, beginning of this month at High School. Uh these students rehearsed in their free time um improved their voices over six weeks with Mrs. O who's in the back there. Students were rated on a scale of 1 to five. Uh seventh grade and one being the highest possible score you can get. Seventh grade soprano. Um, Anna Paige, Scar, Anna Sevil, Paige Nogle, Scarlett Lewis, Jame Stokage, and Alexis Conklin. All rated as superior rating. Uh, Scarlett Lewis as Alto Alto. Um, she actually had a two excellent. Freddy Abear, Tener Solo, one superior, and Maddie um, also had a superior rating. So, we're
004really proud of them. I also wanted to spotlight at least some of our winner sports and how they finish up this year. Wrestling finished second overall in the CBC Metro Division. Mickey Caruso was first of CBC champion. Uh Dominic Dudo was a runner up. Eighth grade boys basketball finished with a season of 10 and seven. Had a nice postseason run defeating Birkshshire um and end up falling short to Richmond Heights. Seventh grade boys basketball actually drew the first seed with a 12-4 record. They defeated Ka Heights 36-17 in the playoffs and lost in a heartbreaker to Fair View which uh was a heartbreaker for us all. Seventh grade basketball team for the girls um had the number two seed. They defeated Cardinal in the first round of the playoffs um and then ended up losing
00532 to8 to Birkshshire. And lastly, our eighth grade girls basketball improved each time. had an impressive impressive run towards the end. Um, and they played well in the uh postseason and actually opened up with a win against Lutheran West. So, I'm really proud of all of them. Part of the reason why we're here tonight for at least middle school. Um, we did our last report was a spotlight of the entire building. This time, we wanted to take something that was worked on academically and kind of focus through that. Like I said, half of our kiddos are running right now in the cold and the rain. probably rather be here right now than anything. Um, but I do have several people here, Mr. Ambrose, uh, Haley, Ustranic, and Jules Churnney. If you guys can come on
006up here, um, they're going to explain the process. And there again, we we had to pivot a little bit today once we found out that there was a track meet and the presentations that we practiced yesterday, we kind of threw to the side here a little bit, but really proud of these uh, individuals. And I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Ambrose, who's going to talk about the process. All right, let's get that going. All right, how you doing? My name is Steve Ambrose. I always forget to introduce myself. Always. Mr. Vanic makes fun of me when we do our promotion speeches and everything like that, so I got to make sure I always remember to say that. Um, National History Day began in 1974 as a way to inspire students in grades 6
007through 12 study history. It provides an opportunity for students from across the country to engage in historical research on a topic of their choice pertaining to this year's theme, rights and responsibilities in history. The eighth grade team has been involved in other co-curricular PBL research projects through the IMS Science Expo project that ran from 2020 through 2024. This year, the team was looking to expand our PBL project ideas and Mrs. Satollah mentioned the NHD competition. We gravitated toward this idea because it gave us students the ability to take this further than just our school with regional, state, and national competitions. IMS students were given opportunities to make their own decisions on the project. They were able to choose their own topic, what groupings or collaborations they wanted and they presentation format. They had exhibits, documentaries,
008performances, etc. We began the project in November and used time during advisory, ELA, and US history classes to research and work on the assignment. This project focuses not only on the history content, but research, communication, collaboration, problem solving, and time management skills while working with long-term project with many different facets. The rubric that was used to help guide the students in the creation of their final project was taken directly from the NHD competition. Since the overall goal was that we wanted the students to submit their project to that competition, students had an opportunity to submit their project to the NHD competition which is divided into three tiers, regional, state, and national. Ohio history day is divided into 10 regions and four IMS students chose to enter their project to the regional contest on Saturday, March
0091st. Haley Castranic advanced to the state competition with her with her project on the secret story of books. Before I introduce some of these competition students, I wanted to share something that Mrs. Veio and Mrs. Satollah expressed to me after the regional competition. The students highlight of their experience, I'm sorry, the teachers highlight of the experience was seeing the students faces from around the region when they were recognized by the NHD judges for all their hard work. The cheers and the roar of the crowd from the competition was incredible. The cheering came from the hard work of students, not for scoring a touchdown or being able to put a ball in a basket, but on their academic performances. These students were given their competitive moment. I have tonight with me Haley Castranic and Jules Churnney
010to discuss their experience with the project and going to a regional competition. As Mr. Vanic said that we also had others but to un undo foreseen uh circumstances, crazy Ohio weather, they weren't unable to make it today. All right. So, Haley Castranic, please on coming on up right there. Hi, I'm Haley and um this year's National History Day theme was rights and responsibilities. So, I chose to do my project on the secret story of books. The secret story of books highlights that books we take them for granted. Sometimes we take for granted just reading in general because many people around the world can't read and they don't have the right to read. So, The Secret Story of Books highlights banned books that have been banned in the US and recognizes that reading is a right
011that we should practice and cherish. I'm going to start by talking about the research aspect of the project. Um, so we had to use primary and secondary sources. So we had to learn what the difference was between them. Primary sources being sources that were during the event itself like newspapers or pictures and stuff like that. And then secondary sources are websites that were made after the fact to talk about the event itself. Um so along with those sources we had to learn how to site them because I mean you got to site your sources but um we were able to site them which is a lifetime skill that you kind of need to know for college and future academics and we also had to find where to get good sources that like we could rely
012on and trust. So we many of us used the library of congress that our teachers provided us with but we also had to find our own resources too and that's pretty much the research aspect. Hi Jules and I'm here to talk about the writing and the history of the project. The writing itself was a lot of writing, but having to do it in a way that was clear and like detailed enough to keep going or to even be proud of your work. There was a mixture of different types of projects that we could do, but our teacher offered us three types. We were offered a documentary, a exhibit board or presentation. But other projects include documentary, paper, exhibit, website, and exhibit board presentation. And these projects over the time have brought us a lot of
013time together and just the writing and history itself just keeps going on and on. We were given many templates and many rubrics but and most importantly those rubrics help us gave construction criticism before the competition. Certain projects require different things like the presentations included as like a certain amount of time or exhibits included amount of word count but I mean it's okay because in the end you get through it. Essays it may not be your strong suit but you still can help get better as a writer with this project. All overall the history part's a good thing to learn too. History helps us like know more events and cultures all over the world and people all over the country were able to participate meaning there's all different types of events and cultures that were being
014present at this at this ability. This give us ability to learn more about our topic and overall history is important today for all of us to understand about our past and our events. Um, I'm back to talk about the competition part since we talked about the process to get to competition. Now I'm going to talk about competition. So overall the competition was a great experience. And I mean it was kind of sad that only four kids participated, but I think they just wanted to be done with the project. And they didn't really they didn't really see like the part that um the contest part made it like a much more um complete experience, I'd say. Um, and I don't want to say worth it, but kind of worth it because you kind of get to
015see other projects that other kids made from other schools and you get to actually see your project and hear how it's how other people view it from like judges or other teachers from other schools. Um, the competition, I'd say overall brought us together as classmates. Um, I remember when the Independent School District got called during the awards ceremony. We all like held each other's hands and we were all super surprised and that was like a really great bonding experience I'd say. And um, it also offers another way for students to be involved in their school if it isn't through sports or other clubs like they can go and represent their school through academics. Lastly, many life long skills were learned like time management because you had to find time to balance this project which was
016very long but also very worth it. Um, and sometimes it wasn't easy to balance everything but the teachers help you get through it and they set it up into chunks which makes it much easier. Um, and that's pretty much it. Oh, also problem solving. It taught you how to deal with problem solving. Um, if something didn't go well or you got to the competition and you forgot something, your board's not working, you have to problem solve. And that's it. So, that was awesome. They really did great. And just watching them practice yesterday as a team and then they came in this morning. Mrs. Beckio was like, "Mr. Beck, what are we going to do? Her son's got baseball. Mrs. Satollah's uh daughter has softball." And then obviously the runner. So, they did a really good
017job doing this. I just asked them, we'll leave the boards here if that's okay. So, if anyone wants to see them at the end, um, feel free. And then I can get them tomorrow or something like that. But, can we give them one last round of applause? Mr. [Applause] Thank you so much. Can I I want to just say that that your speaking skills both of you were outstanding. Um for your age like to have the confidence like very well done. I'm very impressed and congratulations on making it to the contest. That was awesome. Awesome. So, okay. Um thank you so much. U moving on to administrative reports. Um and I believe Mrs. O'Neal is here. She is Mrs. O'Neal is here from CVCC to update us on what's going on at the career center.
018You know how much I love following students that do such a great job. It's tough. They did a great job. Good evening everybody. Good to see you again. Um I have a very short report tonight because our board meeting follows this meeting. So, I'll be shortly having our own meeting, but I did do some research on a couple little things, and I just have a couple little things to share with you this evening. What I'd like to start with is um HASSA, which is the Health uh Occupational Students of America organization that happens at uh well, it happens lots of places in in the United States. Um there's actually 260,000 kids involved in it in 54 chapters across the country. So, our students are able to participate in this through CVCC. And I'd like to
019read you because I I think the mission is statement is so well written that I don't want to paraphrase it. I want to read it exactly as it is. The mission of of um HASSA is to empower future health professionals to become leaders in the global health community through education, collaboration, and experience. And you could really tell from that how mature that level of expertise is for the students. the things that they're going to be able to experience through this organization are significant. Um, so we had seven of our students attend a leadership conference regarding through HASSA in October uh in Canton. So these are the kinds of things they get to participate in and in those things there's um speakers and they get to talk with you know people in the field and it's
020just an excellent leadership opportunity for them. Um, and then to prepare for the regionals, we had students that start in about October thinking about what they might want to compete in, what area they might want to compete in. And they go from October to February preparing for these regionals. And uh this year, two of our juniors in the health careers class, uh Tevin Coulson and Anderson Sears, competed in a team of five students and the creative problemolving team. So they um competed in several rounds. When you read through what they have to do, they have to do an awful lot actually to um qualify and they keep qualifying as they go through the rounds. um at one point they have to present their solution. They might get eight minutes. They get a a problem. They
021have eight minutes to solve it and then they have to present their solution to a team of judges that then determines whether or not um they feel like they have done a good job and they can and move on. So um I just think that that makes such a tremendous difference for our students to be able to learn to critically think and to be persuasive in their arguments. So at regionals the team finished second out of 10 and then that earned them a chance to go to the states which they just returned from. So I think we will see um a nice group of students again next year participating in this. It was a really nice opportunity and I think it's a great organization for our students to be involved in the second thing and
022Ron I'm going to ask you. You're my you're my helper here Ron always. Oh no this is mine. This goes with you and this and then this. Okay. The first thing I'm handing out to you is that we had um 54 students total uh be inducted into the national uh technical honor society and that was last month and it was uh really wellreceived. Lots of parents there, lots of folks there, superintendents came and our own superintendent was there. Great to see her and we had parents there um that sit on the board. So, it was really a nice opportunity and we had uh seven students inducted and the what's coming to you are the students that were inducted uh that evening. It was a really nice night. The kids were all dressed up. They were
023so proud of themselves and I was really proud to see them as well. In the second handout I gave you, it um I mentioned uh Tevin Coulson. Um she is in the uh featured this uh month in the student connection and um she was trying to decide what she was going to do and she went into the health careers field and she does plan to go on to college which I always love to see that happen and uh to pursue a career in pediatrics pediatric medicine. So that's excellent. And the final thing I have to share with you today is the last handout and that um I'm providing you with in information on the outstanding senior recognition night. On the front is the invitation that they sent me and the only reason I'm giving you
024that is because that's the link that you RSVP to. And then on the back of that is which programs are being honored or recognized which day. So you can see it's May 7th and 8th and it's broken out for you to be able to see which ones you'd like to attend. So that is coming up and I know that'll be a great night. I will not be able to be in attendance that night. I won't be in the area at all and so I won't be able to be there. So I'm really glad that I know some board members have reached out and said they'd like to attend. So now you have that information. Okay, that's really all I had this evening. Last last week it was just last month it was a lots and
025lots and this week it's less because I didn't have my meeting yet. But I'm sure next month I will have lots of good things for you. All right, take care. Thank you as always. Thanks, Linda. Have a great Easter holiday if you're celebrating that and a good weekend. All right. Um, my turn. Number two, Miss Nap. So, I a couple things. Sorry, I want to remember to do that. A couple things for uh us. One is super super exciting. We certify the tax rates tonight, which for some on its face value could be pretty boring. um we have to set millillage with our county auditor budget commission that allows us to then collect the taxes that we all pay in our respective areas. So on fixed sum levies, which we have an emergency levy, and
026I wish they would just change the term to fix some because they're not emergency purposes any longer. They're fixed sum purposes. Those are ones that they do adjusted millage for. And then bond funds. So when your valuations go up, your millillage would go down to collect the same dollar amount. And in uh the hard times like in 089 when valuations were plummeting, the millillage went up then to collect the same amount. So in this situation, we're pretty excited to announce that we are emergency levy that brings in $4.2 million will go from 8.6 to 7.8 mills. So we're excited that we can lower that for our taxpayer residents. And then our bond fund, which is currently collecting at 2.2 2 for the high school bond ending in 2030 will go to 1.1 mills. So we
027we're able to cut that one in half to allow for us to still make our mortgage so to speak and um move forward with that. So that's really great news when we can report to the community that we're able to roll back some millillage to reduce the tax burden happening for them particularly as the valuations have went up as we all know that was a large increase in Kyoga County that everyone experienced. So, um, that's exciting because in 2024 it was collecting at 8.8 mills. So, in 2025, well, 2026 it'll collect at 7.8. So, that shows you the value of the assessed valuation going up. It's pretty significant, but exciting news to share for that. So, that is on my I'm asking for that. It has to be a separate resolution for county auditor purposes.
028That's why it's not in the consent agenda in case there was any question about that. Um, we have a contract for Minutemen, which is our third party administrator for the workers comp claims. Um, it's a consortium that we belong to to get group premium savings. And the estimated savings annually is $7,800. And it costs us $290 in a fee. So, it's definitely worth the fee to be able to reap those savings. And that's an annual um an annual contract that we do. Um, in the appropriation section, we're increasing our permanent improvement appropriation to allow for the summer projects that are going to get kicked off here. So, we want to make sure we have those funds ready to go for purchase orders and do those projects. Um, I know for sure some paving will be
029completed and some other things going on. So, that's exciting. And then lastly, the legislation going on in Columbus for those of you that are following it for the bienium, it is um like a ping-pong match going on down there and you're never really sure what's happening. The House passed their version of the budget. It's in the Senate. There's a couple things in there that are very concerning that make school funding vulnerable um for public education. So, we'll see where that goes. Um if we tried to follow every one of them and do modules and simulations, that would be a full-time job for me right now, the way it's changing uh regularly. So, I'll keep you guys updated on that as soon as we know more and where it's landing for sure. But, there's no way
030to know exactly where it'll land now. but they're taking a lot of testimony. People are being vocal, so we'll see where it lands. Okay. So, um I wanted to keep mine short because I know we have a lot of other things to go. Okay. So, I'm going to toss it toss it back to Mrs. Goan. Okay. Very good. All right. Good evening, everyone. Just wanted to kind of um I apologize profusely for the last board meeting not recording. Um, that little thing on the wall is where we pushed the start button and somehow it started and caught the first couple minutes of us sitting down and getting ready and then it stopped recording. So, I apologize. Um, I did have our tech director come and or tech person come and make sure it is recording
031in the back. So, we're good for tonight. So, I just wanted to kind of recap a a few things from our last meeting where we talked about our facilities and our facility needs and AVG did the um assessment update on both our primary building, our middle school building, and our bus garage/bus shelter. Um, and just for those who are sitting here, I'm just going to recap kind of a little bit of what those totals were. So, um, AVG, uh, let us know that if we were going to renovate the primary school where it is right now, um, that their estimate for that for just a renovate would be $18.2 million to renovate that particular building. Um, and in their report, which is linked on our website, also um, on our board docs, you can go
032in there and see all of the areas that they assessed, what their recommendations were um, for each of those areas um, to renovate the middle school. And these are both at their current square footage. So not changing anything of either of those buildings. To renovate the middle school, it was 44.5 million. Uh so those were kind of the assessments of the buildings. Then um they gave us kind of what they would say if you wanted to build those same buildings new. So knock the primary building down, build a new building would cost us $27.2 million. Uh if we wanted to knock the middle school down, build a new middle school in the same place, and this is the same size, it would be 54.4 million. Um so basically, if we're going to renovate both those
033buildings, we're looking at a 62.7 million to renovate both the buildings. To build both those buildings new where they are, same size, um same kind of footprint, we're looking at $81.7 million. Okay. Uh we asked AVG to also give us based upon current pricing of what would it be if we wanted to build a prek8 campus building. And I clarified last week when we say a preK8 we don't mean it's a prek8 where everybody's housed in the same building and kindergarteners are walking around with eighth graders. What we're asking for is a connected through a long hallway that can be closed off a prek to five building and a 6 to 8 building, but they are connected by a walkway, a covered area, a hallway. It allows us to share service. You need one kitchen,
034not two. It allows us to share staff where currently we have staff that have to travel between buildings um to service students in different areas of the district. So, it would allow for that. It would allow for maybe some innovative programming where you could have we have eighth graders taking algebra 1 who could be taking that at in a high school class. Um we have students who take our um Mr. Ford does a lot of our industrial tech with students. They could all go right now. He comes over to our middle school building, travels back to the high school building, or brings the kids with him to the high school building for his um lab area. It'd be great to have just one lab and then that's where he teaches out of. So that prek8
035would have its own entrance for the prek5, its own entrance for the 6 through 8, its own principal, its own secretaries. They are for all intents of purposes two different buildings that just share kind of the same footprint. the cost for that based upon AVG's assessment with current numbers would cost the district um I have 49.5 um so again it was 62.7 to renovate both those buildings it's 81.7 to build both those buildings new and keep them where they are and it's 49.5 to build a prek8 so obviously financially speaking right it makes sense to go with the 49.5 we also know in Our concern is with both the primary and the middle school. That's AVG looking at what they can see. That has nothing to do with once they start going into walls, redoing
036electrical, looking at our piping, what they're going to find. Um we currently have, you know, when the rain is hard, it's flooding at our primary school. We have bandaided that basement area um probably for as much as we can. We're going to have to start putting money into there to fix that. We've talked about the fact that we have to cart our food from the middle school down to the primary school because they don't have a walk-in cooler because they don't have the electrical um ability to have a walk-in cooler there. Teachers have two plugs in their classroom and they can only use one in each of those plugs or they will blow a fuse. It is just h we have done as much as we can with those buildings and they've kind of served
037a really long lifetime here. Um, and so really we're at the crossroads of what do we do because we don't get enough PI money to put in to keep renovating those buildings or fixing things as they're needed. Um, you know, the cost of a roof is not cheap. It would take one year of our PIs to do the roof. Um, and then we're done. So if anything else happens, the money then comes from the general fund, from our operating um, on the instructional side, on our teacher side. So, if we have to keep dipping into that, we're back to the community sooner than later for funds to help us with operating. Um, we start to have to stop programming for students because we're trying to use those funds to fix our buildings. It is a
038vicious circle. So, I know that it was on um back in 2019. Um, I know that it failed by 323 votes. I know that back then there was some concerns from the community about um what's it going to look like? There weren't really renderings. There was talk of 21st century learning, maybe walls that could be moved, um collaborative space. This new preK through 8, the 49.5 is really just looking at updating our facilities. It's not going out there and saying we want removable walls and we want all of these other bells and whistles. Our teachers do an excellent job of educating our students in the facilities they have. But when you walk in this building, and I was one of those people before I worked here, it's a wow, this is a really nice building.
039That's what people say. Our auditorium is state-of-the-art. People come and rent that auditorium because it's so amazing. Um, but when you walk in the middle school and the primary school, you do not have that same response. It just isn't like, "Wow, this is amazing." So, I'm going to say our kids deserve, right? Our classrooms are small at the primary school. They're not they're just smaller. They said AVG even said it doesn't meet what they say an elementary classroom space-wise should have. Um and you can't get that by just, you know, renovating. You're going to have to make that area bigger to do that for that primary building. And for those of you who drive in and out of there every day, there's not a lot of space to make that building any bigger. Um and
040so that's where we are with with having to build something. Um, and that's what I would recommend to the board is that we look at that. We talked a little bit about the bus garage and the bus shelter. Um, and that proposed cost was um, $6 million. Um, I will say that I've had some conversations with u, Mayor Curts. We've talked a little bit about um, opportunities if the board was to move forward with a new building. Um, one of the things is looking at our soccer fields that are current there, building on that, which is technically we lease that land from the city with our shared use agreement with the fieldhouse. I've talked to the mayor about, you know, what are the um options? Would the council and he be okay if we were
041to build on that land? Um, and they are, you know, receptive to having conversations about that. Um, the idea is if you could build right there, you could potentially build up. You could put a little walkway over to the high school that's covered. So again, separate facilities, but the opportunity for us to share staff um to have our our primary school students go to the middle school for their performances. Well, now they could come right over and practice in our auditorium instead of us busing them up to the middle school to practice. There are so many things that we can do if we were a campus field. Um so we are in conversations about that land. Um, the other thing that I've talked with the mayor about and and he he's mentioned that the library
042is looking for a new home. Um, and we've talked a little bit about could it be something where we have our prek8. There's another walkway where it's, you know, we're not attached to the library. I don't know that I'd want the library attached to us, but in our vicinity where our students could go use that library. Our students talk a lot about the lack of a media center. I know at the primary building they've kind of run out of space. Our media center is in the hallway. Um, not necessarily the most conducive, but we're trying to make use of the space we have. So, the opportunity to maybe partner with the library for programming for our students, partner with the library where we could go over and use those for our students. Just talked about
043research. Um, you know, having that opportunity at space. Um, I think too, we know that the fieldhouse and the in this high school were kind of sold together. it it had the community say that's something that everybody can use, not just the students who are going to the school. So, thinking kind of a little bit about could it be something where the community sees themselves at the at the library even if maybe they don't have students uh in the preK8 building. Um the other thing I I mentioned the bus garage being $6 million uh dollars, you know, and you think, geeh, for just a a bus garage, if you go down to our bus garage and you haven't been there, I am happy to give you a tour. Um it is a one bay. He
044gets on his little rolling board to get underneath buses. We don't have any lifts. There's nothing that he can do in there. Um it is it's not conducive. Um you know we have 20 buses. We don't we have like four or five that we keep as or four that we keep as spares. Um because we try to keep them in good shape so we can always keep running the same number of buses but there is no space there. Um, one of the things, you know, in talking with the mayor, another consideration again is if the city over the next few years decides to move their service garage, which is again right on on this campus, move over. They have space for potentially us to move our bus garage there. They have the lifts. They have
045the office space. It could potentially be um a land swap if that was something this board and council agreed and the mayor if we were going to build here. We have the primary school land. Um there is a a law um and I think they're going to re-up that law again that if we want to sell that land, we can't. The first people who get the choice on that is a charter school. If anybody that's operating within our district wants that land and that building, they give us fair market value. This isn't a bidding war. It's whatever somebody assesses that property at, they get that choice. The only thing that supersedes that is a land swap with the city. If the city wanted that land and we were getting something in return. So, to for
046me selfishly, I'd love to have a campus feel where I'm up here, we're all up here, I would be in the buildings way more often. Um, I'd be with students may way more often because you're here. Um, you know, not down on Stone Road, which nothing is wrong with Stone Road. I'm just saying that it would be great to be up here. Um, so we've talked a little bit about those things. You know, the one thing um that the the mayor and I talked about a couple weeks ago and I found out it's already like in movement is we talked about currently even if we are going to build a new prek8 by the time you pass the bond issue, you put the shovels in the ground and you start, we're still looking at a
047couple years, you know, before we're moving students in. Um, and that parking, I'm sorry, not even the parking, the dismissal. Um, and the arrival at that primary school on Hillside Road is a mess. Um, and I told him, I worry about safety with our students. He agrees. There's anything that happens during that dismissal like that street just trying to get in there um is just horrible. So, he has um his engineers, he's had the police out there. There is a back road off of uh 21 kind I shouldn't say it's a road it's a pathway right now um where there used to be some towers and stuff he's meeting with the engineers really wants to by next year pave that enough that it is a oneway in off 21 so we would do pickup on
048the back of the building preschool would still be on the front buses would still be on the front and everyone exits outside onto Hillside so there is no longer that stop traffic right there on hillside side. Um, and I told them that would be amazing. Um, because even if in we're building a new building in a couple years, it relieves that traffic for a couple years and if we do the land swap and it works out, whatever they decide to do with that particular land, it's got an entryway into it. Um, we wouldn't put buses on that back road. They're not going to there's a certain level of weight that you have to put roads to be able to hold the buses. We're not looking at that. we're really just looking at it as temporarily
049being able to reroute some of that traffic. Um, so I would definitely say that, you know, in trying to be collaborative with the mayor, it's been a great conversation of, you know, what are what are you thinking about? What are we thinking about? And are there ways that we can work collaboratively um to relieve some of the pressure on our residents to not have to put a $6 million um to add that $6 million to what we have at the 49.5. Ultimately, that reduces the amount we have to go to the the the taxpayers for. And unfortunately, it's how schools are funded. um you know and it doesn't look like they're hearing a lot of what we're saying about putting it on our our taxpayers backs but that is how schools are funded. Um we
050don't have any other choice. We've looked at potentially opening the district for interd district enrollment. Um and we have been told that you know the only way you can do that is you charge the tuition that the state says we have to charge which is $16,000. I think we're an amazing school. I'm not sure how many people are going to pay $16,000 to come here who don't live here. Um especially when you can use a voucher and go to a private school. Um but we've looked at those options. We are looking at fees. We are looking at pay to participate. We are looking at those things that can help push our operating levy out. But we have to address our facility needs because I'm concerned that if anything happens within the next year or two,
051we are going to have to really start saying we can't offer certain things that are best for our students and best for our teachers. And since we weren't recorded last week, I just want to um point out that um the reason why the middle school is so much more is because it's twice the size of the primary school. So to renovate and to build new um that's why the number is uh so drastically different. Um and then the new build would not be um quite as much. I think we said 101, right? Yes. So the primary school's square footage currently is 56,000 square feet. The middle school currently is 123,000 square feet. The proposed new prek to 8 building based upon our number of students and adding some in there is only going to be
052101,000 square feet. So it's less than what our current middle school is, which is 123,000 square feet. So again, when you're looking at the size, you go into that middle school and it's great. They've got a lot of places for them to do some things, but it's it was built to be the high school, right? It it was the high school. It was our high school, right? It was your high school. Raise your hand if you went there. it was your high school and these are 65 70 year old buildings now. So yeah. So I mean that is to your point it is the space. The other thing I do want to point out because I know there was um the one um picture and then the statement in regards to the furniture at the
053primary school. Um I will tell you that the PTO at at both at at our whole the PTO's at each of our buildings are amazing. Um, but the PTO at the primary school has done so much fundraising and they have bought desks and chairs and they're currently buying lunchroom tables. Um, so I want to clarify that when they talked about the furniture being a three out of 10, what AVG is looking for is all of it, not just the desks and the chairs, but going for teachers desks and bookshelves and all of your other furniture, the desk that the SRO sits in. It does look like it was from a really long time. They're looking at the secretary, the attendant secretary, and and what she said. They're looking at all of that encompassing, and they're
054saying like, listen, all of that together, it it's a little bit of a hodgepodge, and it's probably not up to date. They were not commenting on those things. And so, I want to um that would be something where when we talk to AVG, listen, it's like if you build a new building, you're taking the things that are new and you're bringing them with you. We're keeping the desks and the chairs. We're not going out and buying all new stuff just because we have a new building. Um, we're going to do what we need to do and keep the things that are going to fit within that building. Um, and those would be the things that we would carry over. So, when PTO has put money in that, I don't want them to think that we're
055tossing all that stuff and going and buying new stuff, which we don't need. Um, so that was one area in the report I just wanted to clarify. Thank you. Um and I know at our work sess work session we'll you know discuss it a little bit more but um that's where we're questions for me. No I I appreciate you recapping everything especially because we didn't have that recorded but you know I just I also want people to understand that it's it's not like just about the numbers too at the primary school. like yes, we have a lot of students that are down in that building and like yeah, we could move them to the middle school, but the middle school is still like we're still just putting a band-aid on a problem. We're not solving
056the problem by moving our kids to a different building. Like and you'd have to add a little bit more on there because that's a lot of that space is auditorium, the gym, like things. You still need classroom space. Yeah. Right. And I and I know that there's also this legacy like component to our buildings too. you know, people don't want to see the auditorium go in the middle school um or the primary school um because they have memories there. But I I just feel like we're at a point now. We're at this crossroads where we can't I the memories are great and I have the pictures and everything, but we've got to move on and make things better and greater for our kids. Um so, you know, I I appreciate the legacy idea, but I
057think it's time for change. So, that's just my thoughts on it. And you know, I talked to the mayor about that and I said, you know, you could keep that auditorium and that gym still there, but like the city's going to have to pick that up. Yeah. I don't we wouldn't like how would like that would be something then that how are we staffing that? What would it be used for? So if there's a use for that and the city's like, hey, that could be another fill in the blank, right? I'm open to that. Yeah. But but I did tell the mayor I was like, okay, but you you have to you have to kind of I'm going to push on you a little bit. You have to kind of take that over. But I
058mean that's always an option too depending on conversations with you know council in the in the city or the mayor. Yes. I would also urge everyone to read the report. I know it's it's a long report but it's pretty it's it's a quick read. It really is. And it they they did a very nice job of of um really making it elementary uh you know for the average person to read through and and whatnot. And they really highlighted everything that they that they needed to highlight. And Kelly, I just wanted to ask you, I I found it. It was I don't want to say the report was in our board section. Can you Is there some way you can put that like front and center on our website like with a PDF or something like
059that? I think yes, there should be one that says um Yes. I will ask I know Charlene put it there. I will find out exactly where it is and see if we can do a link. Okay. Yeah. And or on the front page of our website, like on our website, homepage or something. It was, but let me just check. I tried to look too. All right. Maybe I think I asked her, but we will find out. Yes, I can do that. That's an easy fix or an easy ask, I should say. That's all I have. Any other thoughts? No. Okay. Moving on to section F, which is public participation um for public content. Here is our statement. It's the policy of the Independence Board of Education to hear public comment at board meetings. The public
060is invited to speak to any of the agenda items and other school topics at this time. Comment should be limited to three minutes. And also just a reminder that we don't um go back and forth. We listen to you and we encourage you all um to email us. Our phone numbers are available online as well if you ever wanted to um speak to us personally. Um, so if there's any public participation at this time, you can head over to the podium. And there is a computer in the back to sign. Yes. Yeah. I don't know if anybody Okay, we'll move on from public participation. Thank you. Uh, moving on to section G, approval of the minutes consent agenda. Um, we will be approving the minutes from our March 4th special meeting as well as our
061March 18th regular board meeting. Um, there anyone need to speak to anything? I move. No, not voting on this one. Still worth the consent. I'm just getting warmed up. I heard you wrong and clear. You got this. We're still getting used to We are getting used to our consent agenda. Um and with our consent agenda, we will go through everything and then at the very end we'll be approving um section H, our treasur finance report. So I really updated most my four items earlier. Okay. Um the treasures report is very self-explanatory. It's just our reconciliation for the month of March. The PI is the main uh appropriation change there for appropriations. We already talked about group workers compensation and lastly is the donation acceptance. Um, this is exciting for our art department, our art departments.
062We're getting art supplies from Pit Pig Brush Pens, all colors, and 36 cases of um, graphite drawing sets. So, that's exciting. We appreciate their um, donation, and their estimated value is $22,000. So, it's a really big donation. We really appreciate that. So, that is also on the agenda for approval and consent. Oh, very good. Thank you. Um, superintendent recommendations. Right. You're on a separ uh second reading of um the parents bill of rights and the release time for religious instruction during the school day. Um, both of these are brand new policies um for the year. Um, and so these are policies that we have to um have to that have to go through board approval. Um, you know, the question could be, and actually Lynn asked it and I was like, you know what? I'm
063going to reach out and try to figure this out. Uh, she was like, well, if it's already law, why do we have to make a policy about it? Um, and so, you know, kind of in in thinking about that, you know, that the law sets the requirements, but the policies then specify specifically what we need to do in order to meet the letter of the law. So, the law can be um something like parent like every district should have a parent bill of rights. And then we're like, well, what does that mean? So, Niola then works through all the legislature, everything that's been passed, and then they create the policy with the recommendation of if you follow these things, you've met the letter of the law. Um, if you choose not to follow these things,
064then there would be an issue with the law as written and you would then be kind of in in trouble if you were doing things against the law. Now, I'm not sure if there's policy police, but um just kind of letting you know because I thought that was a great question and I was like, I really need to kind of think through that. Um but the parent bill of rights is in here and then the release time for rel religious instruction during the school day. Um I did do a little amendment on the release time for religious instruction during the school day. I did on the first page check the one that says students shall not be um I'm sorry, it was I lied. It's the um last page uh the back of the policy
065and it says any private entity providing religious instruction during the school day must agree that it will not provide participating students with any materials, snacks, clothing, candies, trinkets, or other items for their return to school. The district will not release students for religious instruction release time to any private provider that fails to adhere to this prohib uh prohibition was one of the um the the checks and in looking um in talking with Lindsay that was one of the ones that we added on there from the first read. So it was just another check on there. Okay. It's one of the way they they uh promote the recruitment through the kids. Yeah. And that's the ways that's a big issue. Yeah. for parents. So, those two are in there. You will see both the IEA and
066the ICEOU for um a one-year rollover. We did not negotiate um this year. We rolled it until the spring of next year to negotiate then for um the 26 27 would be the first year of that three-year contract. Um couple reasons for that. One is it gives Jen and I who are both brand new to the district an entire year to kind of get to know the contract, to understand where our finances are, to understand what the needs are of the district, um, and to balance those needs with what our financial what our finances look like. Um, and so we appreciate both unions agreeing to that one-year rollover and for the board for supporting that um, when Jen and I proposed that. So, you're going to be approving thoseus questions on that? Uh, Independence High
067School course catalog. You see the course catalog for this year. Uh, there's the changes document which basically just speaks about that. There weren't too many changes in there. Um, one of the ones I wanted to highlight which I think is really cool is for next year we are offering a CCP speech class, like a speech course. Um, and it's already filled. Oh, awesome. So that's probably all the parents telling the students that they should take that. Um but yeah, so it's exciting. That's a first time for that course. It'll be interesting to see if it affects Dale Carnegie class. Yeah. I don't know. Kind of two different things though, right? So I don't I don't know that it will. Yeah. Yeah. Just wonder um student overnight trip proposal for the high school um music department
068for their Florida trip. That's in April of next year. Um but she wanted to have that on there um sooner than later. So, I appreciate that. The district school calendar for the 26 27 year. Um, again, it's really best practice to have two years of calendars on your website um approved so that families can make decisions on certain things. And so, we will always try to have two years of those calendars. Um, yeah. And then I'll come back in a minute. So, I think you need to um moving Oh, so can I Oh, yeah. I was going to say we're going to personnel. Okay. So, going to personnel, you'll see classified there. Um couple re um retirements. Jan, one of our bus drivers um for a long, long time. She's been wanting to retire for
069a while, but we've been so short on bus. It's like the I think Linda said it earlier. You try to get out and we just bring you back in. So, Jan's finally out. I think she's put her She's like, I'm out. Um but she's been great and we really appreciate her stepping up and helping us out this year because we were um you know we started the the year with not enough bus drivers. So really appreciate her. Barb um Basset, she's our middle school head cook um and she is also retiring um and always enjoyed um talking to Barb when I'm in the kitchen and she will be missed. She's been doing it for quite a while. So, um she is going. And then there's a couple um just new hires there for classified sub
070and potential bus driver. Uh supplemental contracts. You'll see those there for um a couple of our athletics, few of our athletics. You see some resignations of following supplemental contracts. Um those were contracts that were originally in the very beginning of the year uh back in spring before the start of this year that were approved, but then they didn't run this year. So we're just pulling them off the the we're resigning them for that. Uh there's no supplemental contracts for this year. There's nothing to approve at this time. Um and then I just wanted to kind of move to um I always love when I can't find my documents. Um I just wanted to move to Yes. Thank you. Appreciate you. Um other uh personnel. So um as most of you know um in my I
071did an update for staff and then also an update for the community in regards to um Tom Drying and his resignation as um his role was the assistant superintendent in charge of business and operations. This is um Tom's seventh year in the district. I'm almost positive. Uh, and so, um, you know, I just I highlighted, you know, working with the board members and, um, and Charlene, you know, in what we wrote, we we highlighted a few of the things that Tom has been, you know, part of and the things that he's brought to this district. And so, you know, obviously, thank him for everything that he's done for the district. Um, and and he's definitely going to be missed. Um but with Tom's resignation came an opportunity for me um in the beginning of the
072year to kind of think about what I needed with um Mike Pennington who um also resigned in July of last year and it was really too late to replace him. Um one thing that I um feel strongly about is that the most important part of our district is the teaching and learning side. We are a teaching and learning organization and um I've been trying to do some of that lift this year by getting together with our math teachers on curriculum and our ELA teachers on curriculum and working with our science teachers on curriculum um and recognizing that social studies and all the other content also need to have um opportunities to come together. We need to adopt new curriculum and it's not just as easy as just adopting something and saying okay everybody now run
073with it. It's teacher professional development. It's implementation with fidelity. It's looking at all of our programming. It's looking at early literacy. It's thinking about our programming at the high school. Um, and so I'm really happy that I was able to um steal someone. Um, and so tonight I'm recommending uh Natalie Matthews. And so Natalie Matthews is currently the associate superintendent uh in Ayria and uh has been there for um six or seven six years. six years um and really comes with a wealth of experience with curriculum instruction and assessment. Um her background, she was a special education teacher and a general education teacher. So, she comes from both sides of that. Um she has done curriculum adoption. She's done uh curriculum implementation. Um she's worked works really hard with her principles and with the teachers
074in Ayria. Has done lots of great things within that district. um prior to that was in Avon Lake curriculum director, principal, um was a teacher. So, I'm just excited um to really think about the stuff I've started this year and next year she can just hit the ground running and start working with the staff and our principles um and and really um elevating our curriculum and instruction. Our teachers, like I always say, have been doing amazing things without a lot of resources um and a lot of professional development. And um I think that given those two things um it's just going to elevate um you know our student success um and and more focus more a little bit on our our students achieve well um but we'd also like to look at that student growth
075indicator and and see that be a little bit um better than it has been. So excited to welcome Natalie tonight pending board approval. So you'll see her contract on there. She is here with her husband Michael uh who happens to work in Fairview Park City Schools. daughter Liliana. Um, so I'm just excited. Can I disclaim you stole her legally? Legally. I didn't like I didn't like steal her. Yes. Um, we just happened to be we're we have been collegial friends. I met a text message with probably 10 other curriculum directors and I mentioned I have this opportunity. Anybody know of anybody? There was like kind of this like everybody's trying to think like who do we know that could be this person? Um, and then you know she called me to talk through it and
076she was like well what are you looking for? And then I was like, would you ever come? Um, and so yeah, so here we are. I'm just really excited. Thank you. You're welcome. Almost. Yeah. Right. Almost. Almost. Almost. We're almost there. Um, and then um use Does she want to give a speech? Does she Does she want Does she want to say anything? We're going to as soon as we approve her contract. Okay. But then we're going to bring her up. Yeah. Um, and then, um, Jeff Van Arnum is, um, just an individual who does not work in the district, but he's helping us with, um, kind of, um, doing digital forms instead of paper and pencil for everything we do. So, he's helping Jen and I. Um, we're going to be sending some stuff
077out to staff about like how how many years of service they have so we can make sure we have um the right number and all of those things and kind of rectifying some of our documents and and things like that. So, we're just paying him as he's helping us out for some of those things. Um, so you'll see him on there as well. Okay. Thank you. Um, section K, approval of the consent agenda. All items on the consent agenda will be taken with one vote. At this time, board members can request an item to be added or removed from the consent agenda. Does anybody have anything? Um if not we will approve consent agenda items G1 through J4 as presented including any amendments presented. Have a motion please. So move second. We're on and Tony
078and call roll please. Mr. Aila. Yes. Mr. Bernstein. Yes. Mrs. Laskkey. Yes. Mrs. Sears. Yes. Mrs. Hill. Yes. Section. Congratulations. Oh. It's motion passes. Now you can come up. Yeah. Yeah. Here. Do you want to give it to her? [Applause] So nice to meet you. So nice to meet you. Congratulations. Nice to meet you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations to your husband. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, sir. Thank you. I am very honored to be here and uh I was fortunate enough to meet some of the staff already and administrators and completely impressed. Um I had a warm welcome and I I read over the strategic plan and and what has happened within the last year is very impressive. um you know, cultivating a legacy of excellence is is something that I'm I'm very much looking forward to do.
079I love curriculum instruction and assessments and um the opportunity to be here and and working with the staff and getting to know all of you as well is is an honor. So, thank you so much. Um I am embracing the blue and gold already. She's like, "What color is the blue?" I'm like, "I don't really know." A little difficult. We try to coordinate a little bit, but I I'm honored. Hearing the students and having the voice of the students at a board meeting is very impressive. So, thank you so much. Thank you. I'm looking forward to being here and getting to know everyone. So, thank you for coming, too. Um section L, certification of tax rates as determined by the budget commission. um approving the attached certificate of amounts and tax rates um as determined
080by the county budget commission. Bernstein Bernstein second. Tony is a second. Were there any other questions from the update regarding that? Okay. No. Thank you. Call roll. Mr. Bernstein. Yes. Sorry. Um Mr. Aila. Yes. And then Mrs. Laskkey. Yes. Mrs. Sears. Yes. And this is it. Yes. Section M, new business. All right, I'm back up. Um, so, uh, these two policies are being added because, um, last Monday we received a, um, email. All superintendent of all local school, all all public school districts in Ohio and actually all superintendent throughout the country received this. We have by um midnight on Friday to certify that um the district does not have any DEI policies or practices within the district. Um we have gone through legal counsel to determine whether or not we can forego signing this. Forgo
081signing this puts our federal funds um at risk. Um we do receive federal funds for various programs within our district. [Music] um we are between Iraq and AC like it's just there's it's a it's a rock and hard place. There's there's really no dis like we we actually there was a survey that went out today from the ESC of Kyhoga asking if we were signing or not signing. Um I would say that those who have a few more years left in their career um are signing. Um there may be a couple who this is their last year that maybe are just going to try to chance it and see what happens. Um but in talking with um our attorney, there are two policies that we needed to update. Um so you will see them on
082here. One of them is the um parent and family engagement policy. Um this was last revi revised in um 2019. But in this particular policy, you will see on the last page, uh we needed to strike um a few sentences and we then replaced it with language um shared by um council. So, um, basically the policy for parent and family engagement stated with particular attention to parents who are economically disadvantaged, are disabled, have limited English proficiency, have limited literacy, or are any racial or ethnic minority background. We had to change it to the district shall ensure that any particular attention paid to parents who are economically disadvantaged, are disabled, have limited English proficiency, have limited literacy or of any racial or ethnic minority background does not result in any disfavoring of other families who are
083not part of these groups. This line is meant to only ensure that engagement is appropriate for all families. for example, a person with limited English proficiency might require a translator. So, um that policy is updated to meet um the requirements. Uh the second one you will see which is kind of an interesting one is our intra district enrollment. And I want to clarify intra district is different than inner district. Intra district is for districts who have multiple buildings of the same grade level. So for example, a district that might have four elementary schools, two middle schools, and a high school intra district allows families to say if there's a gifted program at one middle school but not the other middle school, I want to transfer because my student needs to experience that program. So they
084would put in a request for an intradist enrollment because we are only one building per grade level. Uh that is why option one is checked which basically says we are only one building so there is no opportunity for intrad district enrollment because students can't go to another building of the same grade level. Um that being said this policy had not been um updated for a while so we updated it. Uh and I also though because the intra district even though we're checking option one speaks to things like racial balance um racially isolated buildings uh maintaining appropriate racial balance which is part of the policy as written um I have to send a letter when I sign my life away um by midnight on Friday that basically says I'm signing this and telling you we don't
085but there's a policy that is in contrast because this is federal law and you're or federal law. This is our state law and we're they're in they're not agreeing with each other but we're not changing this particular policy. So my letter will be signed um that is written to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to request for certification basically saying I'm signing but you need to be aware that this policy and that we'll continue to work with our legal counsel through that. So those are the two policies you're approving. Thank you. Um, section N,formational items. Just want to share a few upcoming events with everybody. Kindergarten registration is Wednesday, April 16th. Spring break. Oh, yeah. Tomorrow. That is tomorrow. Man, April is flying. And they're doing it at the board office, which is great
086because I get to meet all these parents. Spring break. Yay. Um, starts this Friday and goes until April 25th. Prom red carpet is May 2nd at 4:30, which is really fun if anybody is able to come. Like my daughter just loves that event just to see everybody all dressed up. It's really cool. Um the 23rd annual jog into spring is Saturday, May 3rd from 9 to 11:00 a.m. Um and then we also have a May board meeting date. Um May 6 work session at Independence High School Media Center or the board conference room. I think we changed we changed it the board um the board office. Yeah, board office. Okay. So, it is at the board office on May 6th. And this is the middle schools, correct? Online, but not on the printed version. Okay.
087May uh 20th will be a regular meeting here at the high school. Um independent state of the schools, please mark your calendars for this and share the word. What? It's at school. It's at the middle school. Yes. Wednesday, May 7th at the middle school. 6 p.m. At 6 PM. Um and our academics academic excellence award dinner is Monday, May 19th. The invitations have already gone out. Mrs. Brown has done a wonderful job of um preparing for that and that's when we recognize um our high school students who have already been invited. Um and section O board member discussion action. Does anybody have anything they'd like to share? Mr. Bstein, nothing. Thank you so much. Um and we already did our executive session at the beginning of this meeting, so there's no need for executive session
088at the close. So, can we have a motion to adjurnn? Some move. Carry. Second. Tony has a second. Call roll, please. Mr. Aiva, yes. Mr. Bernstein, yes. Mrs. Laskkey, yes. Mrs. Sears, yes. Mrs. Hill, yes. Refford. Thank you everyone for attending tonight. We appreciate you being here. Microphone. I'll congratulate you. [Music] I'm telling you that whole situation. I told Kelly about it. I didn't realize they were putting in that immediate consent. Mhm. And I said, you know, I I'm because I've I've been thinking about it even before you even brought it up because I'm so furious about the whole situation, including this other that they're doing with the DI with their policy. At least the way that that was rectified by saying that you just can't discriminate against Yeah. white people basically. Sorry. Like a
089nightmare. I know. I'm sorry. Good idea. Did it work? Okay. Okay. I'll have what he wants to do with it because