001[Music] Okay, welcome everyone. I'm going to go ahead and call the October 7th, 2025 special board meeting to order. Can we all stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance 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. >> Roll call. >> Mrs. Dweiler, >> present. >> Mr. Hulie, >> yes. >> Mr. McCartney, >> present. >> Mr. Voto, >> here. >> Mrs. Walker, >> here. Let's all take a moment for silent prayer and meditation. [Music] >> Thank you. [Music] Can I have a motion to approve the October 7th, 2025 agenda for the Jonathan Oliver School Board of Education meeting special meeting? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Mrs. Dweiler. >> Yes. >>
002Mr. Hulie. >> Yes. >> Mr. McCartney. >> Yes. >> Mr. Voto. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Walker. >> Yes. >> The motion passes. May I have a motion to approve the presented annual budget and three-year forecast? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay, Mr. Engles. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you, M. Walker. Thank you everyone for coming out tonight. I know it's a rainy day, so appreciate you guys spending the evening with us. I'm going to go over um a general fund 5-year forecast and um kind of go over some of the changes that we passed this May um and kind of explain operationally where we stand. This is separate from bond what we're talking about, but it all tied together. So, first of all, usually I don't do this in October. Usually this is
003November. The reason for this is that there was a state uh state budget included a change in the filing deadlines. So in the past it was the end of May and the end of November when I had a file as forecast for this year they changed it to the end of February and October 15th which this morning they announced actually it's October 24th now and then next year it will be end of February and end of August. Really no rhyme or reason for this but got to go with it. And also they chopped off the last year of the forecast. The state does not want to see 5 years. they only want to see four years. Um, again, really no rhyme or reason, but um, I'm still going to be preparing and presenting to the
004more at 5-year forecast because it is for better practice to have a longer range planning for planning period. Uh, speaking of state budget, uh, last time I gave this presentation, we're still in negotiations. The House passed his version, the Senate hasn't done passed their version yet. Since then, a budget has been passed and signed by the governor who also did a lot of vetos. Um there been one veto over so far. Um the house and senate can do um any other veto overrides they wish up until December 31st, 2026. Um, I do have to say though that the overrides that they have done and are considered doing won't have an impact here in Johnson and Alder based on how we structured our levies and how we get our revenue. So, that is some good news
005there, but it's still something that's on our radar. And the purposes of this forecast is, you know, to engage the board and the community in long range financial planning. That is way we can identify um areas of concern before they become a real problem. They also are the basis of my ability to sign certificates and contracts um with vendors and our teachers and our staff. Um I got to certify that we have the money to meet our obligations and this allows us to do so and also provides a method for how department of education workforce and auditor state to identify districts that would need their assistance. Our general funded revenue sources for this fiscal year which runs July through June um so July 25 through June to 26 is um estimated to be 34.5 million
006of which 69% is coming from local sources. So that is property and income taxes. Again this is for operating dollars which are keeping the lights on and paying our staff providing benefits um and um basically keeping our doors open. Our state foundation is only estimating at 27%. That's the money that the state kicks in to help support our operations. Fortunately, that's going to be a trend going forward. I'm not seeing this changing at all anytime soon. The funding formula looks at us as a wealthy district. Therefore, the state is only kicking in 20% of what it calculates the cost to educate a student here at Jonathan. So, we're not expecting additional state support than what we're already getting. Um, I do have to mention that there's currently 17 bills pending at the state house um
007that deals with property tax reform. I um until something is passed and signed into law, I'm not going to factor into a forecast because there's too many variables to consider. Um, but it is something that we're keeping an eye on. And I do want to stress that any bills, all the bills being considered right now exempt bond issues. So if the bond does pass in November, whatever they pass down at the state house will not touch it. They're only looking at operating levies. Our expenses for fiscal year 26 estimated 32.8 million. Um this is operating expenses. So not including transfers to other funds, reserves. Um so salary wages 80.5% of our budget and that is typical. Uh we are a service organization. We need to pay people to provide services to provide education to support
008our teachers our staff support our students and that's where the money's going and that's a trend that's going to continue um going forward. We are experiencing enrollment growth. That's why we're here. That's why we're discussing a bond issue. That's why we're looking to expand our facilities. that also drives our operating costs. So we are factoring in our enrollment increases um realized and and projected into our budgets as well as the inflation rate. Schools were not exempt from the high inflation that everyone has seen the last few years. While that's come down, prices themselves are now going down. So it's just a smaller compounding factor there. Um but we are utilizing this as a long as a method for long range planning. We are budgeting for increased staffing due to enrollment. So for each additional 25
009students as projected, we're adding additional employee and that that includes their salary and benefits. So that way when it comes we are able to say we already have budgeted for we know who we can hire, what we could afford. Curriculum adoptions working with Mrs. Quick, our assistant superintendent, that's built into our forecasts. Those are on cycles. So every six years there's going to be a subject that's up for readoption. So curriculum uh so science and social studies was this year. We have math all the way out of future 29. So that's showing how we're using this tool as a way to budget have long range budgeting. Technology replacement cycles work with Mrs. Buyers to identify when those could be years where we got high cost of replacement equipment. Every year is going to see a
010wholesale replacement of cost of equipment, but it might be every other year, might be every third year. That way we have a cycle in place so we can make plan and budget for it. Um and also including the inflation that we've been seeing and of course just keeping an eye on revenue trends and impacts of policy decisions. So that's policy decisions not only locally but at the state level and also at the federal level all that plays a role in impacting our operating budget. Um our ended cash balance and this is soon this is in days. So how many days can we operate if no revenue comes in um at the end of each fiscal year? So you can see between those green band and the red band, we are well within a board adopted
011policy of maintaining a a positive cash balance. Um when we get down to fiscal year 2030, which of course the state does want to see, you know, we're a little below that policy, but Dr. Mill and I discussed we're going to wait till I do this update in February to see where we stand. We'll have new property values by then. So, we'll see what that looks like. Um, and then see where we can make tweaks or our long reach plan to get us above that red band per policy. So, yeah, that's that's us using this to identify areas of concern well ahead of time so we don't do anything drastic at last minute and have to rush. Um, one of the changes that I didn't really mention is that fact that this is no longer
012forecast per the state. They gave it the um the great title of annual budget plus three forecasting years. I like to call it forecast. It was four years, but because this is our current year budget, we're also monitoring it every uh well more than once a month, but definitely at least once a month, seeing where if we're on on trend. So, our end cash balance at the end of September, so about a quarter of the way through the fiscal year shows that we're right on track. Same within with our revenues. There's a little bit of a gap between the plan and the actual because I was expecting Uni Countyy's real estate summit to end in August. We actually didn't receive it until September. So, there's a little bit of a gap there based on when
013I was expecting it versus when it happened. But once it received, we got right back on track and our expenses are lining right up to to expectations. So, this is a way that we use this tool to make sure that we're on track. If there's any major variances, identify them early, make course corrections as needed. But as of right now, we're right on track three one quarter of the way in. So, thank you for listening. If the board has any questions, I'll take them. >> I have a question. Yes. >> Um, first of all, thank you for preparing this report and thank you for the work you're doing. I want to um there's been a lot of talk about property tax reform >> and earlier you said of the uh 17 pending bills >> um
014they all exempt bond issues. Can you address what that means a little bit further? >> Yeah. So what that means is that what the legislature is looking at is um operating levies. So the money that's get that gets brought in that operates our buildings. And the reason for that is because deaths have a limited purpose. It is only set up to service our the debt that a school district would take on or a city, township, county. It would affect every entity. So they they don't want to risk upsetting the bond market and throw have basically economic catastrophe if they were to suddenly take away that revenue source. So since it's dedicated for that one purpose, they're not looking they're not targeting it. What they're targeting is um you know school districts are on the 20th
015floor where they see revenue increases as tax values go up and we're trying to cap that. Um they're trying to put limits on you know for inflation for tax revenue increases. Um and they're also just trying to limit the frequency of tax leg requests and also the tips. So that's what they're doing. that all that is accepting bond issues. So if this were to pass, whatever legislation passes, everything was going to keep operating the way it was always in this building when it comes to bond. >> Okay. So to to flip it a little bit, if I was expecting property tax relief, um as it stands right now, uh is there any other way proposed by the state to build a school building but for a bond? >> No. They um based on the the
016last the current by Indian budget which got passed this past June um they left um they gave a little increase to the Ohio facilities construction commission but not enough to fund all the projects that are needed. The state still expects to have some kind of local skin in the game. So that would come from having local revenue to help offset the cost of any projects. So that's just something where the state's not looking to take in any more money to help us here. It is still going to be relying us relying on our local taxpayers to help fund the project. >> Thank you. Um does anybody else have any questions? >> Okay, >> great report. Thanks, Mark. You're welcome. [Music] Okay, we're ready for roll call when you are Mr. Engles. >> All right, Mrs.
017Dweiler. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hulie, >> yes. >> Mr. McCartney, >> yes. >> Mr. Vot, >> yes. >> Mrs. Walker, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh this is the portion of our special meeting in which we have invited the community to come in and engage with the board. First of all, I want to thank everybody for being here tonight. Um we this is the third meeting we have had a special meeting in which we have invited the community to come. I want you to know that you're all invited to come to every single board meeting. They're only once a month. They're super fun and entertaining, but you're always invited to come and check on what's going on in the school district. Um, but in reference specifically to this bond and our
018building plan, this is now the third meeting that we are having. And we came here tonight to address any additional questions or concerns. So, if you um would like to ask a question, you are welcome to walk up to the mic. Um, I did receive a few questions from people coming in, so I'm going to go through those uh or statements real quickly first. Um, and >> do you guys hear wind or is it just >> the band next door? >> Oh, the drums. >> Okay. Okay. Is that better? Okay. All right. First, I'm going to go through the couple questions that I have in front of me now. Um, or statements. The first is from Amy Kelly. Amy, do you want to >> I have I have a prepared statement that I can It's
019not a question. >> Do you would would you mind coming up so everybody can hear you? And apparently you need to stand close enough to the mic for it to actually work. Uh >> oh, I need to find my >> That's okay. Take your time. [Music] Maybe somebody else wants to come. >> That's fine. That's fine. Um >> I'm going to I'm going to need to reference it cuz I'm a >> No, that's fine. Um Mr. Mr. Storz, did you have a um statement you would like to make to the board or a question? >> That's okay. Come on up. We'd love to hear from you. It's um it's not a question. I just I want to and I'm probably preaching to the choir as we should say, but um we have a farm on
020Plane City, Georgeville Road. I've got a few years more experience than most of you, but I also have um seven grandchildren that either are attending or graduated from Jonathan Alder schools. And if you count my grandson's wife, we have eight I have eight grandchildren that graduated from Jonathan Alder schools. And your your presentation was spot on. I want to say I'm I would love to have that presentation. You can he did a very good job. By the way, I follow I've been following this pretty closely. Very interesting to me about the uh the budget vetos and property tax issues and how Ohio how Ohio I'm going to say something maybe that you wouldn't have said. Ohio is a very interesting state. Um Ohio puts the emphasis on local support for schools. the state. He said
02120%. >> 20% is for this fiscal year what we're getting from the state. >> And how does that compare to the other states? >> Very low. >> We're 48 out of 50. So, it's local dollars to support their schools and and and I also have been following research on our education and what makes you know a good school and and good education and and you know reading, math, science, but money and and there's been a lot of research recently local money makes better schools. That's an important fact. And we have to rely on local money. And for those of you who don't have kids and don't have teachers and don't have coaches and don't have any ties, if you're if you're here because you you think this is a tax, this is the best investment
022you can make because one of my grandkids is a mechanical engineer and he makes sure the bridges we drive on are safe. He's local looking at local bridges. I have another grandchildren who does bookkeeping and taxes for you and do small businesses here in Oakville. I have another uh grandson who is in the medical field and he works with materials and prosthetics. So, if you get injured falling off a bridge, you can go to him and get your your repairs. and he's a graduate of Jonathan High School. And I have a I have another grandson who's studying law, so he'll take care of your law requirements. I have another grandson who's working at Eli Village who takes care of your medicine. We're farmers. We take my grandkids help us take care of your food. If
023the best investment you can make, if you don't have any kids, if you don't have anything other than making investments, the best investment you can make is to support our local schools and put the money where your mouth is. And I'll try to thank you. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Schwarz. Um, I'd like to add to that and say that I know a lot of people don't love paying taxes. I'm one of them. Um, we're going to see this though. We're going to see the buildings in our community. We're going to watch them go up. This isn't a matter of sending your dollars to the federal government. You have no idea where they go. You will watch every phase of this development happen. And it will be done efficiently and it will be done
024uh with well being money conscious. But you will see your tax dollars. It is an investment and I thank you very much, Mr. Schwz, for your comments. >> Okay. Um Amy and >> thank you. >> My name is Amy Kelly. I am a parent of a Plain City Elementary student. She's a first grader this year. Um I'll have a kindergartener next year. So both my children will attend Plane City Elementary School. I am a Dublin City Schools teacher and I have been for 10 years. Um, prior to that was in Westerville. So, I'm a longtime teacher and believer and supporter of the schools. And so, I wanted to take a minute and thank you guys for two things. Number one, the athletic passes this year have been such a special thing for my family to
025experience. My daughter has gotten to go to volleyball games where um, one of the senior players was um, addressed publicly at the game for her thousandth kill. And if you don't think my daughter doesn't want to go do something like that, you're crazy. She is so inspired. So, thank you for that. >> Yeah. >> Um when Miss Bonus came back on the ballot after not passing in May um by 16 votes, which was the slimmest of slim margins. We didn't we almost didn't pass in Dublin by 200 votes. And I thought that was a slim margin. So, imagine how 13 or 16 felt to me. I've decided to be the neighborhood captain for Derby Station, which is my neighborhood. I am part of the growth. I am a reason people are upset at the growth.
026Um, but I am here to contribute and plead our case as this new neighborhood who is so excited to be a part of this school district. I've only been here for a short time, but growing up in Dublin, I always passed through town on my way to college. Um, I've only lived here since November of 2023, and I've been very fortunate to feel the love of my kids teachers at a very short time. Their dedication and commitment to my kid, I only have one there now. And her well-being is something I will never second guess. from extra special fitness time with Miss Farwell or COG enrichment in first grade because of a stellar math score, which I'm so proud of, but so amazed she gets that kind of service here already. Um, it's just second
027to none. I can't imagine a world where we don't support this bond issue. I can't imagine not supporting these amazing teachers behind me. And I can't imagine what it's going to be like if it doesn't pass. The most reassuring aspect of this bond issue for me is that as more people do move in, which I know isn't the most exciting thing for all is that our individual contributions will decrease. We will not all be paying the same amount of money year after year after year. The more people truly the merrier. There is no place like home and I'm so delighted to call city ours. Dr. Miller Board of Education, teachers, political advisory campaign members, thank you so much for your dedication. Thank you for coming to talk to my neighborhood last night. Thank you for
028thinking of our kids and working tirelessly. Like, I saw you all last night. I know you're exhausted and I can't believe you're sitting here tonight. You work tirelessly to get us our best foot forward. And I thank you so much. Thank you. Amy, we haven't met personally yet, but I just wanted to say welcome to Plane City. >> Your words mean a lot, especially considering your background and your knowledge. So, thank you very much, and we're excited to have your kids. >> Thanks. Very excited to be here. >> Okay. And then we have one question for um from Mr. Bis. Come on up. >> Sorry about >> Mr. Bis. I feel like I sat behind you twice at the football games. >> Probably. >> Yeah. >> My uh So, my name's Trevor Bis. Uh I'm
029a alumni graduating 21. I'm currently attending Columbus State, uh majoring in civil engineering, planning on, uh doing either urban planning or transportation planning, maybe both. I don't really know. I also have a brother who's a senior this year. He's in the marching band, plays clarinet. But I really I really want this to pass because it would leave such a tremendous impact on our community. But I also question what would happen if it doesn't pass. Like is there because I feel like there's there shouldn't be a way where it doesn't pass, we should do nothing. There's got to be like something that we have to do because we're growing and this the school is in. So there's got to be something we can do. >> Yes, you're you're correct. I'm going to let um Dr. Miller
030address some of that, but I will say something has to pass. If it doesn't pass now, there will be temporary measures that that Dr. Miller will talk about, but eventually we're still going to have to pass a bond. And every 6 months, every year that we wait, the price goes up due to inflation and building cost that will add millions to the same building project that we could get today. So, it's going to keep coming back. Will it come back every six months? Probably not, but it will be back. >> Dr. Miller, >> thank you, Mr. Bis. Excellent question. I appreciate you asking and I and me having the opportunity to address this. Um, if it doesn't pass, regardless, we are required by law to educate our children. and we have thousands of homes that
031we're expected over the next 5 to 10 years and our buildings are reaching capacity. And so it's my responsibility and it's Mrs. Quick's responsibility to make sure that every child that's enrolled in Jonathan Aler has the very best educational experience as possible. I want to give you a couple scenarios and and share that this is not a final plan. This is a lots of moving parts. This is a draft plan. I'm actually going to be presenting it to the board next week and I'm going to be asking the school board to authorize me to be able to make some decisions on what I think is best for the families that continue to move in and how we're going to carefully balance where those students sit and sit in front of their teachers. Okay. Um, at
032Plane City Elementary, we've reached capacity. We're more than 100% capacity, but it is um, complicated because we could take more fourth graders, but we can't take more second graders. I can give you a very hard scenario that tomorrow we have a family move in and they have a second grader and a fourth grader. We don't have enough second grade seats, but we do have enough fourth grade seats. We could enroll their child at fourth grade or we might have to send their second grader to Monroe. Well, that's not what we want to do to our families. So, we need to think about every scenario is going to look a little bit differently. So, I'm working with J AEA. Um, the, uh, JADA president is with us this evening, and I want to thank Mrs. Nola
033Ren because she's done just a fabulous job working with the board administration through these capacity issues. And the board approved just last month or two months two months ago a letter of understanding that allows us if we put that second grader in the second grade class and we um maximize and enroll a student over the teacher contract cap. Well, we can just pay that teacher additional funds to take that extra student whether it's over 25 or over 28. But we also know that that's not uh sound practice for best teaching and learning. So we can do that with the different scenarios with families that are coming in. So we want to have some flexibility. We could begin busing Plain City Elementary students to Monroe because there's extra seats at Monroe in second grade. But then
034we are going to have more transportation costs, more mileage, more fuel. We also want to be courteous and understanding of our families that move to Monroe want their children to go to Monroe and families that move to Plane City want uh the Plane City Elementary School, I would send my child to either of our outstanding elementaryaries. But if a family moves here like Amy to the neighborhood that says your children will go to Plane City Elementary and they move in, they're still building houses in uh Darby Station and we say they can't go to Plane City Elementary. we need to bust them to Monroe. Um, those are the complications that we're we're dealing with right now. So, something else that can happen, Mr. Bis, is I'll recommend to the school board, let's bring in some
035modular classrooms and sit them at Plane City Elementary. Well, families like Amy might not want their child in modulars that are sitting on the parking lots of Plane City Elementary. And if we get into it later tonight, Mr. angles can share with you how expensive the modulars are. You have to connect them up to water, uh, electric, and maybe they're not as safe or as sound for teaching and learning. So, taxpayer dollars would go to a temporary fix, classroom modulars. Okay, so that is one of those moving parts. Another piece to this is, well, we have a district line that separates Plane City Elementary and Monroe Elementary. Well, let's just redraw the line in a way where we have to ship more Plane City Elementary students to Monroe. Sounds simple, but when we went through
036a four-month community advisory team meeting uh last fall exactly this time, we were talking about well, let's redistrict and redraw the line to even out the number of students that go to Plane City and the number of students that go to Monroe. But it was a very emotional and uh challenging conversation to have because like I said, the families that move to Monroe want their children going to Monroe. the families that move to the north part of Plane City expect their students to go to Plane City Elementary. So redrawing that line is also a a diff a difficult correction. So with all that being said, Mr. Bless, I basically just wanted to let you know that there's not a finalized plan. All of the moving parts that I just mentioned are the things that I'm
037going to ask the board for next week to give me the authorization to do what I think is best for every child in Jonathan. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And keep going. It sounds like you're doing a great job. >> Thank you. >> Um Dr. Miller, when you talked about the modular trailers, um that's not just a plane city potential. >> Correct. >> Could that be possible for all of our schools? So, what I want what I've been working on the last couple months is a sound plan for the board that puts us through the next three years that makes sense where it's just not putting four or six modular classrooms at Plane City Elementary. It's it's spacing them out at each building so that by the time we have a junior high
038grade six, seven, eight at the high school site, those modules are sitting exactly where we would want them to be. whether it's even at the old junior high where we can have central office and PK classrooms um move into the modulars after the students move into the new junior high and since the old junior high is being renovated we could have the modulars sitting there not have to pay taxpayer dollars to move those modulars that we are currently leasing or or purchase. So the plan that I share with the board after November 4th will be a a phased plan of what and what I think is best to cost a cost savings plan by following the enrollment projections over the next three years. >> If this bond were to pass in November, would construction happen
039quickly enough that modulars would not be needed? Could you take extraordinary measures to get it by without modulars, do you think? I I can tell you, you know, we're going to have to see what the enrollment looks like, but I can I can share that there things that I'm looking at are um unique, such as if we want to not get modulars the very first year and create two fourth grade classrooms to be at Kanan Middle School, maybe um enrichment classes where there's only two fourth grade classes there, not have any modulars. It's a possibility and I think that we can make it work, but I'm still determining if I think that's what's best for the fourth grade class and those families. But Plain City Elementary cannot increase its capacity. When that building was built,
040it was built for 625 or 650 students. You calculate that uh capacity by um OFCC has a calculation, Josh, you can correct me if I'm wrong. It's 25 students per regular classrooms, not labs, not computer rooms, not art rooms. But what happens over a decade and a half when the enrollment grows, principles and and administration will convert a nonregular classroom into a classroom to create capacity over time. So I'm going to give you an exact example. a computer lab that was built at Plane City Elementary back in 2008 or 2009. They're not using the computer labs anymore because we're one to one. Let's convert that lab into a regular classroom. Now, per specifications of OFCC, that building is still originally built for 650 students, but over time it capacity increased to basically four more classrooms
041were converted. And so now it's it can take 750 students, but we have 777 students in that building. You cannot create or develop any more capacity at Plane City Elementary. However, Kanan, we might be able to create two more classrooms and convert them into regular classrooms to increase the capacity and take fourth graders to that building. And so, do we move fourth graders to all fourth graders to Kanan with modulars sooner than the three years it takes to build a junior high? All of those things are going to be in the plan that I'm going to present to the board, but I think I need to see what takes place on November 4th to give you a sound three-year plan. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you for that. um for does anybody want to
042talk about modulars and the upside downsides? >> I'd like to address just a couple things not on modules but just to share with all of you. Thank you for coming out in the rain. Uh I'm the I'm the newest board member, so two years in. And um my regular job is on radio where I talk a lot about education, a lot about local uh Columbus schools, suburban schools, Orange, um Tam, Berlin, Dublin, Hillyard, all that. And I heard all the horror stories and I felt like I was equipped to deal with um education issues. reason why I wanted to make myself available to run for the board. Um, I've been blown away by our leadership, by our teachers, how great they are, how invested they are, our kids, and that's just not my personal opinion.
043We had a state report came out in in September, and they rate every school district in the state of Ohio, 611 districts in the state of Ohio, and they give each district a star rating. And there are a lot of factors that go into that. We all know there was a learning loss during COVID. So they measure the learning gap closure, they measure attendance, they measure graduation rate, they measure a lot of things. And John Pauler Schools came out with a 4.5 star rating on a fivepoint scale. So there are two other districts that touch our district that also receive 4.5 stars. Dublin and Fairbanks. But if you take our enrollment and divide it by our budget, there's another metric the state has which is called the state auditor's spending efficiency map. And it's a
044very simple measure. They evaluate your students test scores across the board and then they look and see what you're spending per pupil. Take your budget divided by your total enrollment. That's how much you're spending per pupil. So Dublin had 4.5 stars. Fairbanks says 4.5 stars. Alder has 4.5 stars. Alder spends $10,213 to educate each student. Fairbank spends $11,800. So it spends $1,600 more per student and Dublin spends $13,500. So I know we're talking apples and oranges bonds to operating funds which you know if you approve the bond that's not going to pay teachers that's not going to educate students. Essentially it sort of is because we're having a new building to put students in. But I bring that up to demonstrate that thanks to Mr. angles and things to like our curriculum director and everything.
045We have a very responsive administration and we're very costconscious and I'm very pleased the bang we're getting for our buck. So I think you can take from that that we are very careful with how we spend your money and the kind of results that we get from your money. And I just want to offer one other number. I told you the star rating is a metric for how schools are doing throughout the state of Ohio. The auditor who calculates that how much are you spending per pupil number also folds test scores into that to come up with a rating that's different from the star rating. And as I said there's 611 districts in the state of Ohio. So the top 61 would be in the top 10 10th percentile 91st percentile to 100 percentile. Alder
046is in that group. We are 44th in the state. Remember I said Dublin has 4.5 stars. We're 44th. Auburn 44th. Dublin is 373rd. Fairbanks 4.5 stars. You spend $1,600 more per student. Fairbanks is 220. We're 44th. Everybody else around us, if you're curious, Mechanicsburg is 92nd. Hillyard is 418. West Jefferson is 401. London is 221. So there's a reason why people want to move here and the reason why is our schools. A lot of other reasons too. We have great community, super community support. But that's the observation two years into a 4-year term of somebody who didn't know what I was going to find when I got on this board. And we have amazing people in this district and I promise you they will do a great job for our students, for your grandchildren, for
047every student they have. They care very deeply about them and so do we. >> Bruce, can you clarify a little bit what that 44th ranking exactly is? Yeah, as we get they're looking at they're folding in how much you spend per pupil relative to your student bodywide statemandated test scores and our test scores and our and the amount we spend per pupil. They come up with a ratio and we're 44th from the top. So I don't want to do the first but the number one district is they might have they might spend more money per pupil. My guess is they do but maybe their test scores are higher. So it's kind of a balancing act but in terms >> is there a fair takeaway there that JA is super efficient with that money and how
048>> that is the takeway and you can all Google this just just go home and Google state auditor spending efficiency map and it's very easy you have a map of the state of Ohio with every district you know broken out on the map and the ones that are in green are in the top 10% and all is in green and you move your mouse around and check every district throughout the state of Ohio, wherever you went to school or you're curious about any other district, what they're spending for people and where they rank. >> State auditor spending efficiency man. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. >> Anybody else have any comments they would like to make? >> Questions? Mr. White? Hello. Hi there. >> Don't want to be too loud. Uh Nathan White. I'm
049a resident here in Plane City and my son of course is in the district. Um I have 12 questions, but I I went with down. Okay, we want to go home, right? Uh but I I pardon too the redundancy. I know y'all probably said a lot of these things, but we see a lot of misinformation and for me it is coming here to get facts and and to get pertinent information. So, I took that list of 12 and and whittleled it down. Um, I'm open to whomever wants to answer each question, but the first one I have is what signs are you seeing that the district has outgrown their current buildings? Um, and I feel like Dr. Miller clearly articulated that, but are there any other signs that we're seeing beyond that? >> Well, we're
05021 students over capacity right now in City Elementary. We're 37 under at Kayan. We're 20 over at the junior high and we're 23 under at the high school. So, some of those junior high kids are obviously going to be at the high school next year, but we're pretty crammed to the gills in the building. And our goal with this bond and the size of this junior high school is that we'll be we'll have room to accommodate growth that are too um we we've employed two firms that specialize in projecting enrollment growth and their projections are very close. And both of those firms say that if we build this building the way we want to build it, we'll be able to accommodate growth that's a little bit more than we anticipate. And they're very good at
051what they do. So it's probably unlikely to happen with, you know, 10 years out. So our goal would be to not come to our voters for a bond for another 20 years. Another thing, another excuse me, another thing we saw this year is we had over 100 new kids enroll in our district in the last 12 months. That's a huge spike for us compared to what we typically have. >> Thank you. >> Your mic's on. >> I don't think my mic's on. >> I know that. I think you can I think you can all hear me. >> No, thank you for the answer. And to further that, can I add you to go to a different question? >> Oh, no. I was going to but I can pivot. Thank you. No, >> I would like
052to share you know I explained the uh calculation for how Plain City Elementary is is over 100% capacity. Let me explain to you about the high school. So we are over 100% capacity at the high school. It doesn't mean that every classroom is completely full. We can take more students in maybe a biology class or an English class. We also have students and families coming to us asking for more elective opportunities, FFA and different programs. We don't have anywhere to put them even if we wanted to. The board wants to provide more opportunities and elective courses for our students and for our families, but we wouldn't be able to house them. And we have a teacher uh it's one or two teachers right now. I think it went from it changed from last year to
053this year. Every teacher has their own classroom, but now we have two teachers on carts. They don't have their own classroom. They they're on a cart, they push it around. One teacher is out of the classroom for lunch or planning. That teacher in the cart wheels their cart in has class. That's how tight we are at the high school. >> Thank you. Just to furthermore, I talk a little bit more, you know, one of my questions was the bond ties into a 10-year master facility plan. What's the long-term vision there? So, the master facility planning process was a four-month process last fall, this time with over 60 community members. It was one of the the best processes that I've ever went through because put 60 uh committed, devoted community members in one room and say,
054"Okay, guys, we have to come up with one plan." Seems kind of impossible, but that this committee didn't do that. We put every possible facility plan on the wall that was possible. We started with 10. As we started going through the process of elimination and pulling some off, two more were added along the way. And how we landed on this junior high plan, building a junior high and making it sixth, seventh, and eighth grade building. why the community landed on this. It was the best cost to provide the most amount of space to not have to return to our taxpayers for the longest amount of time. Some people in that room wanted a new high school. Like I was thinking a new high school early on in that process, convert this building to a junior
055high, but that wasn't most cost effective for our taxpayers by building a new high school. Well, some families like Amy was thinking, "Well, why aren't my why aren't we getting a new elementary at the property that you own on Butler 161? Build a new elementary there like MI told them." But then if you have to build an elementary there, you're not fixing the capacity at the other building. So now you're building two buildings. That those cost factors, two projects like that are more expensive than this plan where it's build one brand new building, add on some classrooms to expand a couple buildings. That goal was to create the most amount of space in 10 years from right now with the projections that we have. And what it does is bring our buildings to 80% capacity
056in 10 years. So years 11 through 15, we have some time to see what has happened with the development in the houses that are coming in to determine what's next step. So to answer your question about the plan being proposed for years 1 through 10, actually this plan is proposed to prepare our community for years 11 through 15. >> Okay, great. Thank you. So why is a bond the right answer instead of a levy? >> Yeah, there you go. Go ahead, Mark. >> Yeah. >> All right. To So for the bond, we essentially do not have enough of reserve and we're not bringing in enough of revenue every year to pay for this project long term. So that's why we're asking our voters for the one for the ability to go out and borrow the
057funds that we need to actually to uh construct um the new junior high edition to do the renovations needed to um to increase our capacity and um part of that is to that will love additional tax which would then be used to u make our data payments every year. Now, one of the things we took in consideration of when developing the master facility plan is, do we want an additional building? Right now, we have five school buildings. Do we want six? Do we want seven? Well, the issue with that is that that costs more operating dollars because then you have to staff a natural building, extra two buildings. So, by doing this plan, we're able to stay off the ballot for new operating dollars because essentially what we're doing is we're shifting staff from the
058current junior high up to the new junior high. um and we're not adding an additional principal, additional lunch ladies, additional custodians. So that's why we went with that route. Um when we go to a bond market, they're going to expect to see um a dedicated revenue source. And so that's how we can get the best race possible, keep our interest rates low, which keeps our debt payments low, but also reduces the need to ask for additional money from the taxpayers. So that's why we went with the route of the bond. Um and also that way it's a dedicated revenue source. So if we do have anything pulled out from us at the state level or the federal level in terms of our local funding, we know we have a protected source and we can pay
059off the bonds and have these um buildings stay open. >> Mark, why why don't you just make the developers pay for the new building? um because there's no legal mechanism to force just the developers or just the people who are buying into a development to pay for um for the local share of a property tax. Um under article 12 of the Ohio Constitution, if anyone wants to look it up, it is a rainy night um and is available online. You can't um there is a uniform system of taxation. So, because because you live in Derby Station doesn't mean you can pay a different tax rate than someone who lives in a 200-y old farmhouse. Everyone has to pay the same tax rate and the same tax and jurisdiction. So, legally speaking, it's not something we
060can do. >> Thank you. And last question, Mr. Bis did touch on it. Uh, we talked about opportunities that we can't even provide now. Are there opportunities that you would actually that they have now that you would have to remove if the bond wasn't passed potentially? >> I mean I look at Mary's deal and I go >> all right that's an oper that's all operating stuff. >> Yeah. >> So yeah that ties to our operating budget. Our operating budget is strong. Um so if the bond doesn't pass that is not on the table. Um, but what is on the table is the inability for us to have a long-term facility solution for our our staff and our students. So, if we have to divert operating dollars to hook up a modular unit to pay the
061lease on it, um, to keep up the maintenance on it, that's millions of dollars, about a million dollars that would then be taken out of the classroom to go towards module units. So, we might have to shift some of our operating budget. Right now we're, you know, budgeting uh two to three new teachers a year based on a projected enrollment. But if we have to do the modular units, then we might have to say only one new teacher, you know, instead of two and try to shift our budget around to stay within our boundaries or accepted our board policy. Um and instead of focusing more on the classroom, we're just looking to pay to spend our operating dollars on these bodily units, which um you know, by nature they're temporary. And if we were to
062put say some plane city elementary where that's the greatest need right now, those kids are not going to stay at Play City forever. So eventually we'll have to put more modular units like Kanan when they age out to that building and then they're going to age up to the junior high, then they age up to the high school. So that's going to be um addition a very expensive solution that won't provide a long-term um answer. So is it fair to say that while today there's not a plan for what would be cut without new without the bond passing and new facilities money will be have to be redirected to to house through modulars and that could in turn impact opportunities available to our students. Yeah, that that would be um I would say that's fair
063to say you because we're instead of using dedicating it to our staff um and our students, it'll be towards temporary walls and trying to, you know, as Dr. Miller said, we have an obligation and duty to educate every child who resides in our district, regardless of how long they've been here, how long their family's been here, if their grandfather graduated here or not. We have to educate them by law. That's what we have to do. We're a public school district. So, we'll have to find ways of housing them. And that's the way that I hope that's not the way we have to go, but if that's what we have to do, then unfortunately, that's the route we have to go. And that would put a strain on our operating budget. >> Thank you, M. Maybe
064you can answer this one, Dr. Miller. Beyond the walls and roofs though, this bond, how will it change our student experience? I mean, we're not going to have crowded crow that nobody wants crowded classrooms. I don't want my child in a trailer. What other things that as a a parent I'm not thinking about that would change that experience? The first thing that comes to mind is we have a 70-year-old building in our portfolio. And I believe right now our seventh and eighth graders don't get the same educational experience as seventh and eighth graders in Dublin. And I believe that we can build a sixth, seventh, and eighth grade building that is gives all of our students, all of our teachers, all of our staff what they need to give them the very best opportunities. Athletics,
065cafeteria, auditorium, classrooms, lights, air, you know, AC, heat, flushing toilets. Our students deserve the very best. And so that is the first example I can give you is sixth, seventh, and eighth graders that building will be built for um what our families deserve. >> Thank you for answering my questions if you >> Thank you. >> Yeah, since Mr. Wayne brought up, you know, misinformation. I'll just say last night I was at Amy's neighborhood, Garvey Station, and I had about four of the residents uh ask me when the new elementary school was going to be built over on the corner of that. >> Tell our sales lady to knock it off. >> We tell our sales lady to knock it off. >> Yeah. So, that's one thing that MI has told people who are buying at
066Derby Station that there's going to be a new elementary school there. And several of them told me that MI's representative told them that they gave us the land to build that elementary school. And that's not accurate either. >> They sold us that land back at a premium. Um, but speaking of land, I know there's some concern in the community that boy, you're cramming two buildings on a very small high school property. Um, we have to remember what we know that maybe the community doesn't know and that is we are have we finished acquiring 12 acres or we're in the process >> in contract on 12 additional acres here at the high school 2 acres to the north and 6 acres across. So that'll allow us to build sports fields share sports fields and down the
067road if we build them in junior high we won't have to plus junior high students up here for practices of our athletic fields here. and share our athletic fields. The other thing is I've heard people say, "Well, I don't think it's a great idea to have sixth graders and seniors interacting." That will not be happening unless a sixth grader is gifted in is taking classes at the high school or an eighth grader. They'll be escorted through key card access. So, we will not have interaction. Junior High Junior High have its own uh cafeteria, its own two gymnasiums. They're two buildings on a campus, but they're not connected and people wandering aimlessly from one to the other. >> And it's more than just the physical space, too. It it has a lot to do with the
068opportunities that um will come with having the additional space. FFA FFA is a big one. Um we have a um this board really wants to see that through. We don't have the space to do it now. It's starting as a club now. We're hoping that we can evolve it into a full-fledged program. Um, that's one example. So, the education, when we say educational opportunities, we're not talking about walking around a nice new shiny school building. That would be great, but there's so much more that we can be providing our students to give them a broader educational experience and hopefully foster the love of learning about all different kinds of things, >> right? And that's not even addressing class size. I mean class size is a huge factor in learning and who wants their kid to
069have six or seven more students in their class than what they maybe would if we have to, you know, if we have more space. We can make smaller class sizes and we can allow those teachers to focus more intently on the students they have and not try to spread it out as as thin as they as they are having to now. Even >> Dr. Miller. Um, I'm I'm curious. We have high school teachers right now who are teaching college credit plus. If we have to make some choices on some of our educational offerings, is it is college credit plus something that might be compromised? We maybe not offer as many the robust number of college credit plus courses we do now because if you're kids are taking college credit plus while they're in high school,
070those are college classes you don't have to pay for. And we have on our report here that uh 40% of JA graduates earn college credit plus which averages a savings of $9,600 per family in terms of them taking those courses at college. So I wasn't prepared for that question, Mr. But I I can I can promise you that we would do everything we can to not take college credit plus opportunities away from our students. I mean, what would come first is state requirements to earn a high school graduation, but we would do everything we can to provide all the CCP that our students want and need. >> Will we be able to increase our CCP offerings with the new buildings? >> I don't think right now we would be able to create any more class
071offerings. I mean, we could be creative with the schedule and where uh students are meeting teachers for certain certain opportunities, but I can't think of any creative way of how we're going to create more CCP opportunities without more space. >> Right. That that was my question. With if the bond passes, can we create would that in allow us to create more CCP uh classes >> with with the states? We will always look to what our students need and are asking for and see what the interest is and see how that will set them up for lightning on Jonathan Motor High School. But absolutely with the space we can provide more opportunity, more classes. >> Okay, thank you. Okay. Um any other questions, comments? >> Yes, Frank. I don't think they >> can everybody hear me
072because I don't want to speak to that. I want to fix you. These people see me every last time we had a special meeting here. It was standing room only. Every board meeting I told you we had two visitors about the board meeting. They filmed every board meeting. Last meeting 33 people watched the video up on board. These people do one well job. I listen to where they go to watch all these to meetings to see if we get our money. They don't spend it unwisely. They do everything they can do for this school district. Not only are we going to pay more tax money, they are too because they live in our district. Their taxes are going to grow too. When it comes to elections, instead of looking so much as property taxes here,
073we need to look at the officials that we hire when we vote in in Mass County and Quint City. And they're the ones that control our property taxes that go for a golf course in Mary'sville. We pay for that keep pay for the people that take care of that. All comes out of property taxes. Look at how much we're paying the judge by accountable for his service to fair. You want to know what to do? Investigate people that are running for these offices and ask you, "Are you against lowering taxes?" And then they help us. I mean, I have talked to farmers that spend $50,000 a year in taxes and they have no child go to this school. I'm talking to other ones that have a small block of high paying 15,000 a year probably
074and they have no kids here. At the one meeting they talked about FFA. I watched 10 kids go to prayer banks bar 10 FFA jackets to bring up here to give a presentation to these people about FFA. I was a member of FFA. I was an officer in 71. 1971 Penn City was larger than Dublin. Now Deon has three high schools. We had one. We were compared to Oldtown Carrier. They were just a little bit bigger than us. They had three high schools. We had one. These people have done a good We never, like I said, I graduated 71. Both of my kids graduated from 2000. But we never seen anything until 2002 till this school was built. Every year we hear a difference from the district everywhere. have a period in Western Illinois working.
075This is the first year since what 2002 that we've asked for money for the school district. And the reason we're asking for it, 1971, we have 2500 people in this community. Now we're over 5,000. You want a Kroger buyers in your country, in your town, you have to have over 6 to 7,000 people living there for them to bring storage into your community. We have 25 more hundred blocks available. Two people per house. Another 5,000 people cut in this community. And if they have kids, what we're going to put again I next election I vote for every one of these people. Before I mean, but see they might vote for them. But you know what? I've learned something by coming to every meeting. I missed one. I'm sorry. I missed one. I've come to every
076meeting and I really disappointed in I've seen them in there. I don't know your name but I've seen him as you walk in there signing sheet sign your name on and then there's an agenda sheet and they go what they're going to talk about and every agenda there's a spot in there to list the people that come to the meeting. Well, you don't have to. life comes and everything they brought up tonight about in these meetings with the sixth graders here the FFA one thing we didn't talk about did you know that the state of Ohio says you your child can't charge lunch if you go get his money he can't these people have found a way to do it and then the spring before school start how much did you get donations $2,100 to
077catch up on the food food bill >> it was every year the community steps out and pays the overdue field food bills. It's amazing. >> Well, probably by January, we're going to run out of money again on that. >> Great. >> But you never hear about things these people do like things like that. So, I'm setting up I'll be next meeting in another week. >> Yep. Yep. >> Next Tuesday night. >> I should be there. >> Good. >> I'd like to see more people show up. Yeah, >> I mean it's sad all 5,000 people in our community. We have people show up. >> That's all I've got to say. Hey Frank, I I want to thank you and I want to reiterate that the last time we had a property tax on the ballot was
0782002. >> Yes. And what it did was build this facility, Plain City Elementary, Monroe, and it renovated uh Kanan. That that that levy was over 8 mills at the time. Today, you're only paying about 1.5 mills for that levy. The reason it's gone down is because more people moved into our community and it's sharing that cost. Um, so just keep in mind we are a very, very conservative district. Financially, we are very conservative and we've always spent your money well and we promise that we will do the same thing. But keep in mind, it is an investment. It's just like Mr. Stewart said, this is an investment. It's not an investment in Steve Ots or Sonia. It's not an investment in junior high in uh in John Dollar School so much as it is an
079investment in our kids. When you hear about Mr. Storz and what his kids are doing, we know I know what my kids are doing, what your kids are doing. It's phenomenal. Our kids leave Jonathan Alder with a great education and a great foundation for future success. And so it really is an investment. And we are very conscientious about tax dollars. We know it's tough. It's a really tough time right now. But the reality is um for this for this bond right now, if it passes and you had a $100,000 home, I think it would be $3 a week that it would cost you. Um it's probably about $15 a week if you had a $400,000 home. But keep in mind, every new house that is built in our community, the minute somebody moves into that
080house, they have to start paying that tax and it starts reducing what you pay. And so, let's just say that there's 5,000 homes, I think, on the books to be built in the next 5 to 10 years. That's going to drop that down in half at least. And so, it really is an investment in our kids, in our schools, and in our community. And I really hope that you'll consider voting yes. Seriously, it it's just so needed. >> Steve, when does that O2 bond fall off? >> It falls off, I believe, in 2030. >> Yeah. So, you'll stop paying for that as well in 2030. >> Mhm. >> And the amount that this bond can raise is fixed. So, as more people move in, we don't get more money. your share of what you're paying
081toward that approved amount goes down if the amount of money your bond raises stays fixed. >> Okay. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> That's all right. Um, thank you everybody for coming tonight. Thank you for contributing to all of you. Um, you forgot to mention Trevor and all the great things he's doing and >> have being an older grad. >> Oh, I'm sorry, Trevor. You're right. Yes. >> Good luck. Good luck, Trevor. Um, if you have any additional questions, uh, please spread the word. People are more than welcome to reach out to us. We have been at every home, uh, football game. We'll be at the pumpkins on Maine event. Um, we're at any of the community caravans that are going on in the newer neighborhoods. We're available. You can also email us or you can
082call us. our cell phones and our email addresses are all available online to answer anybody's questions. Um, thank you so much everybody and uh we really appreciate you coming out tonight and I won't hold it against you if you don't come to every board meeting but I can't speak for frame. True. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, can I get a motion to adjourn? >> Second. >> Okay. >> Welcome. A second here. >> Mrs. Delweiler, >> yes. >> Mr. Hulley, >> yes. >> Mr. McCartney, >> yes. >> Mr. Voto, >> yes. >> Mrs. Walker, >> yes. >> The motion pass. We're adjourned. Thank you.