001Okay. All right. I want to call to order. Welcome to our board of education business meeting. Today is March 19th, 2025. Roll call, please. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are absent. Mrs. Gibson here. Mr. Mundy here. Mr. Sh here. All right. Would you like to stand for I aliance 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. All right. I'd like to thank everyone uh for being here today, everyone in attendance and uh we'll do a brief introduction and we'll get right on rolling. So um I will start let's start with the table over here. We got some wonderful admins over here. Uh well, let's start with Devon. Uh we have Devon Barry, our director of human
002resources. We have Miss Becky, our director of student resources or student services. Um we have I don't know why I can't Julie Jones. Thank you. It's also right in front of me. Our uh d curriculum director. And then we have Jack Hey, which is our business manager. It's great seeing you guys. And then we have our student reps, if you would like to say your own names. Hi, I'm Christa Barnett. I'm a senior. Hi, I'm Daniela Rodriguez and I'm a freshman. As you can tell, that's why we have them say their own names. Uh, and then we have board member Lori Gibson. We have Dr. Andrea Townson. Uh, I'm Nate Mundy. I'm also a board member. We have Andrea Shockley, another board member. Um, our other two board members are absent today. Um, but that's
003John and Leslie Miller. And then we have Ryan Sloan, our treasurer. All right, we'll move right along to um the the agenda to be adopted. Can I get a motion to second? So move. Second. All right. Ryan, Mrs. Gibson, yes. Mr. Mendy, yes. Mrs. Sher, yes. All right, this is going to go a lot quicker than the three of us. Um, there's no comments related to the agenda items, so we'll move right along to Janine Corbett for a communication update. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. I wanted to remind everyone the ways you can stay in touch with what's happening in your school district. our website west carltonschools.com Facebook west carlton city schools xwcitychools and Instagram wc city schools you'll also be getting news from your child's school through text messages emails phone calls um Dr.
004towns and also sends out a weekly message. So, watch for that. I still have school delays, closures on that, but hopefully the weather will stick and we won't have any more need for that. Are you ready for kindergarten? That's going to be a little bit of a feature on our new section of our website uh on the main site as well as the ECC because we want to make sure our kids are ready. I um did a little research on my own. I thought it was interesting. There is a link in this article that goes to Ohio State and they said if you read five books to your child a day from birth until they go to school. I know five books sounds like a lot but it's think of children's books. It's not really.
005They will be exposed to about a million words before they come to school. Of course, there will be repeat words, but a million words. You don't read as much to your child. they'll be exposed to around 60,000. Big difference. So, I urge you to go to this article, click on the links, find out a little bit more for yourself. There's a lot of information out there. Also, on our Facebook and our website news, you're going to start seeing more and more of our senior spotlights as we get closer to graduation. We're also putting up some student spotlights here and there. It's always fun to find out what the kids are doing and what they're going to do in the future. The answer is totally different when you go to 2025 in the class of 2032.
006Just a reminder, March 31st through April 4th is spring break. Students return April 7th. And there's some upcoming dates. These are also on our website under the new sections. High school parent student orientation is going to be March 26 at 6 PM. Trivia night for the band and color guard. They are having that April 17th. You can pre-register. So, uh, go to the website. You can click on that article. It'll have a link that will take you there to register for that. And senior citizens breakfast is coming up. That will be Thursday, April 24th at 8:30 a.m. They get a sneak peek of the musical, which this year is Mean Girls RSVP no later than Monday, April 7th to Wendy Circuit. Mean Girls tickets are already on sale. Performances will be in the High School
007Geer Auditorium Friday, April 25th, Saturday, April 26, Sunday, April 27th. I was looking at the cast of characters. Um, I know Kristen has a part in the play this year, but there's a lot of staff members, which that'll be fun, too. Okay, I hate to bring this up, especially for the seniors or high school kids that are here, but the uh annual staff student basketball game, the staff got 35, the students 26, but the big winner, American Cancer Society, the event raised $468 to be donated to that organization. Herald Chanel Elementary, they received the governor's science of reading recognition. I think Julie, are you gonna talk more about that a little bit later? No. Well, there's a whole article on it on the website, but it's really awesome. Read read about that. We were recognized
008one of I think there's 47 schools being recognized um from the uh Governor Dwine and the BPA business professionals of America they shined at the state competition and they will be going to the next step which is nationals. Emily Earl who's their advisor she said that this was a record number of medals and trophies that the kids brought home. So that is fabulous. And also I was really impressed, not that I'm not impressed with the high school, but these are two novice teams. They just got their BPA chapter this year and they got a first place for video team, third place for presentation team for the middle school. They are also qualified to go to nationals. Yesterday was a career fair at the high school. You can see that we were there too um exposing
009kids to different career opportunities that they may have. They got to talk to different companies representatives and find out, you know, what what is it? What do you need to do to work here? What what kind of education do I need? What kind of skills do I need? So, it was very interesting. And I'm going just back up on that for just a second. I also wanted to point out that Shook Construction was there. I think Jack knows somebody from Shook Construction. They are the ones that are constructing our new schools. So, very happy to have them represented. This is just a small piece of the pie as far as people that were there. So, there is um information on our Facebook page about all the the companies that were there. So, this was interesting.
010Montgomery County Sheriff, this is a little bit different perspective. We have a father and son sheriff and I asked them each the same question and it was interesting to get the different answers because age difference. So I just wanted to show you that. First off, tell me your name. Uh Nolan Rididgeway. Nolan Rididgeway. What year did you graduate? 2017. And obviously you went on to bigger and better things. I hear you went first to the Marines. Yes. And now here you are with the sheriff's department. How are you enjoying that? I love it. Uh in July, I'll be here for three years. Um I've worked about every district that we have and it's it's always a good time. So, what advice would you give to these kids today here at the career fair? Um so,
011I didn't necessarily take high school all that serious. If I can give them any advice is take it serious, get good grades, and graduate. And there's numerous opportunities out there. Okay, I've got to get you, too. Hello. So, you are the father of Nolan. Yes, I am. So, I just asked him and I'm going to ask you the same question. What advice would you give these kids today as they're going to that career fair? Well, find something that you like. Uh, find something that uh will provide you the most important things in my opinion are some sort of retirement or at least come up with that retirement on your own. Uh stability and uh make sure you got great benefits. Ask all the questions that interviews and before you accept the job of what what
012type of vacation pay you have or what type of sick time you're available. This all the whole big picture. uh and of course the wages and what are your opportunities to move up. So I thought that was really interesting. You got really two completely different answers but both of them very good advice for high school students especially the one about keep your grades up. Don't let those fall. So as always be safe, be respectful, be responsible, be kind. And that's all I had this evening. Great so so much. Incredible. All right, so this is probably the moment you guys have been waiting for. Uh, we're gonna be going on to presentations and Evan, I hope you don't mind if we let these kids go first. Come on up, guys. Good evening to um president of
013the board uh Mr. Mundy um superintendent uh Dr. Townson and board members and treasurer um Mr. Stone. Um West Carolton Intermediate School um fifth and sixth grade um they're full of energy um but they're also full of a lot of good ideas. So when we were presented with um the task of presenting here today, they basically came up with the idea of how they wanted to highlight our school. So with the help of our gifted coordinator Kathy Barter and Miss Flum um we present to you West Carolton just a sample of West Carolton Intermediate School students. So we are the students of the West Carolton Intermediate School which is the fifth and sixth grade. And we're going to talk about all of the things that we've been doing and learning in school. And I'm going
014to talk about our PBIS rewards, which at school we earn PBIS points and if we get like so many in one month or one period of time, we get a reward and some of those rewards are like a pajama day or a movie day. And yeah, so we and I we we have also been working on Black History Month projects. I know it's March now, not February, but it's okay. and I did Simone Biles and she is one of the most like decorated gymnasts and it's really cool that I got to do her cuz I'm also a gymnast and yeah my name is AJ Davenport and I'm here to tell you about the unity day and the UD game. So the unity day is what we did. So we made shoes and this for the
015school and then we made like a gingerbread house but out of a box. So you had to make a gingerbread house with a box that was in Christmas. And in the UV game we also made um t-shirts for the college players so they can wear it in the warm-up game. And I also did a top 10 slide and I did Serena Williams and Here are the top 10 things you need to know about her. I'll just say the top four though. Serena has 304 308 Grand Slam and four Olympic gold medals in tennis. Serena was born in Sen, Michigan, but moved to Compton, California when she was 3 years old. Serena started playing tennis when she was 3 years old. Serena holds the most significant and titles doubles, singles, doubles, and mixed doubles in tennis
016history. [Applause] Hi, my name is Jordan Long and I will be talking about student of the month in math lab. We get recognized of student of the month by being safe, respectful, and being responsible and having acts of character. You get recognized with you get recognized with a certificate and a small medal. And math fact lab is like a series of questions and it's out of a thousand points but there's like 20 questions and if you get below a 900 score, you have to redo the level. And then when you master your multiplication and division facts, you get a certificate and your name gets called on the announcements during the day. And here is my top 10 slide about Roberto Roberto Clemente. He collected 3,000 career on base hits in his last game, which was
017October 11th, 1972. Perez met number three. He won the Presidential Medal of Freedom. George W. Bush in 2003. Number two, won the Hispanic Heritage Awards in 2024 by contributing to the Hispanic community. And number one, he got 92.7% of the vote to get into the Major League Baseball. in 1973. [Applause] My name is Tessa and I'm in fifth grade. In my social studies class, we are learning about influential black leaders. My project was on Jackie Robinson. The top two facts you should know are one, he was born in 1919, January 31st, and two, he helped the civil rights movement by being the first Africanamean in a major league baseball. We also have a program called Dragons MVP where teachers nominate students for a chance to win four free Dragons tickets and a free MVP hat
018and a certificate. To get nominated, you must have good grades, good behavior, and a positive attitude. We also have a club called student and council. The student council members make posters and help set up events for our school like spirit weeks. To get in student council, you must complete an application. Don't don't get in any detentions and have a ride home on time. I hope I've helped you learn what's happening in our food. My name is Adrian and I'm here to talk about honor and spirit week. Honorable is when honoral in the school is when you get A+ or straight A's or A's and B's. You get recognized by getting called down and get a certificate for your grades. In spirit week, spirit week is when you when PBIS awards get awarded and you get
019to have like a fun week. The recent spirit week we had was read across America, which we stopped in our periods and read for 10 minutes. In other spirit weeks we had, which is the most recent one we did, was Dr. Seuss. We uh dressed up for one of the days as our future career and another one we get to wear pajamas. Is my tops. In the ring, Ali had speed and courage. He was undefeated throughout his first 31 fights. He won an Olympic gold medal three times and was the first fighter to capture the heavyweight title of champ the heavyweight title three times. In a sad moment of his life, Ali fed over his red bicycle which made him start his boxing career. In a few short years, he won the gold medal in
020196. [Applause] My name is Jackson Whfield and today I will be talking about Mindful Mondays and STEM club. Mindful Mondays is seven mindsets. We talk about goals and goals to set for the week and goals that other people have made. For STEM club, we are currently working on drones, flying them through obstacles. We are coding and we did have a competition on Saturday. [Applause] My name's Gabe. Um, I'm going to be talking about science. We just finished sound. We learned how it travels and how it travels through sound waves and vibrations. Now, we're focusing on how um, light um, travels and all that. Good job. And this is our poster. And they were located in northern Mexico during the years 1325 and 1521 AD. [Applause] Hi, my name is Emma Offenbacher and today I'm going
021to be talking about band and my Black History Month project. In band, we've been learning a few new pieces for our upcoming concert in May and I play the clarinet and I think that it's fun to be in an interactive class where we're not all learning the same thing and it's like different than any of the other classes that I've ever been in. Um, and in choir, I'm not actually in choir. My friend Amelia was selected to do this, but she's actually at choir concert right now and she told me to tell you guys that they're going to be singing the Grand Old Flag, Shine Like Stars, and the concert is grades 2 to 8. Um, and now my Black History Month project. So, here are some important things about Sarah Boon. She was born
022into slavery in 1832 and married out of slavery at the age of 14. She was an engineer. She was one of the first African American women to receive a patent for her iron board and she was a self-made millionaire. Hi, I'm Aiden Stevenson. Today I'll be talking about orchestra and my top 10 slides. We were we are learning about different like parts and pieces like we don't play like the same stuff. So as well like band um um we are like learning new pieces for our upcoming concert in May 6 I think. Okay, here's my slides top 10 list about Charlie Chisel. She graduated with honors and got a bachelor's degree in sociology and a bit of Spanish. started her interest in politics in 1953. She started house for f for house of representatives for
023seven terms. Chisel tried to run for president in 1972. Hi, my name is Satie Borders. I'm a sixth grader at the West Carlton Intermediate School. And another um club that lots of students participate in is drone club. Um it's kind of ties into STEM club. Uh but we do go on competitions and um we work on piloting, co-piloting drones and a lot of communication and uh teamwork skills. Um we just recently went on a went to a competition and we um we placed 11th. And these are my top 10 slides about Kla Harris. Starting at number four, she casted the most tiebreaking votes in voting history. Three, um, she was the first Africanamean and Asian-American woman to win a presidential nomination of a major party. Two, she ran for president with Tim Waltz running as
024vice president in 2024 by Donald Trump and JD Vance. One, she was the 49th vice president of the United States. Hello, my name is um S Cece Ramirez and I'm here to talk about art club and my top 10 slides. What we are doing in art club is we have been painting and drawing and what we are working on now is making posters for our art show on May sec second at the high school. And here are my top 10 facts about Percy Lillian. Um, number three, his home was set on fire on Thanksgiving Day by an arsonist because he was African-Amean. Two, Julian earned over 130 chemical patents and professional rewards. Number one, Percy brought attention for synthesizing the drug fist so that was used to treat glaucoma. So, ladies and gentlemen, I'm just
025really proud of these kids. These kids came from all different language arts and social studies and science classes. They they were nominated by their teachers to present their projects. And we got together. We talked about the different things that we wanted to make sure that we presented to the board. And they came up with what they were saying. We just talked about here are the things that you want to talk about. They came up with it. They practiced. They were they were ready. They were really prepared. we practiced this morning. I was like, "Oh my gosh, they're fantastic." So, um I'm just really proud of them and we're just really grateful for all of your support and um forid providing all of us with wonderful opportunities to learn and to grow both in the classroom
026and with all the extracurricular activities that they're involved in. So, thank you very much. That is absolutely incredible. Um, yeah, you guys are incredible. Let's give one more round of applause. Thank you guys. I have to say you guys speak better than me when it comes to this. So really, it means a lot to have you guys be here to be a part of this. I mean, that's why we do what we do is support what you guys do. So, right now, I'll give you guys a chance. I'm guessing not many of you probably want to stay with us for the rest of the meeting because it gets a lot more before all of you leave. Okay. So, but before all of you leave, you guys nailed it. Some of you walked in here. I
027thought you're going to heave before you get up here. And you went up there and you nailed it. You should be so proud of yourselves. Each and every one of you spoke clearly and you were passionate. I understood every word you said. You were funny. You were great. Congratulations, intermediate school. Y'all brought this. So really, thank you guys. And now I think it's time for you guys to get a photo. And thank you, man. Thank you. You get a photo. Yeah, I got it. We got a gymnast and we need some tumblers on our cheerleading team. So, there you go. I'm happy with that. Um, I'll go ahead and get started. Thank you for letting me come present. Um, you know, we kind of have a a theme right now that Mr. White and I
028talk about daily. Um, we have a lot of momentum going right now. Um, some decisions that have been made with Ketarine Health. I'm still very appreciative. Um we have we're we have more participation right now than we did before COVID. Um we have almost 100 kids on our high school track team alone right now. Um it'll undoubtedly drop off a little bit just with you know when they start really doing the work. Um the weight room's full all the time. Um we have about 35 kids right now with football. Um lifting with our strength and conditioning coach provided through Ketering Health. Um fully customized programs for their sport. Um basketball will be getting started and our winter sports will be getting started in April. So now it is truly year round. Um I had a
029meeting today with Ketaring Health about part of our package with them um for mental health um strength and condition a strength and conditioning coach or program for mental health and um preparing our student athletes for competition. So um as an outsider that's one of the biggest needs um that I have seen with our student athletes is you know we always kind of joke if you make a bad play in the first quarter you can mentally check out. Um, so this is to help our coaches and our student athletes identify um some of the things going on and how to overcome them and ultimately it's it's team building and that kind of stuff. So very exciting times. Um I have a few highlights. Um before we get there, the athletics website, west carltonpirates.com, um took a
030few screenshots. This is where you'll find all our team schedules. Um, starting this summer, we're going to start putting practice schedules on there as well. Um, we'll have everything on there as soon as we're finishing up JV softball right now, which again, we have enough for a JV softball team, which we have not had in my time here. Um, so very excited about that. Um, all of our social media pages are right there. If you click on the little icons, um, it'll take you right to it. This is kind of what it's going to look like. This was taken right before our spring preseason parent meeting. Um we will have um our rentals and stuff on there as well um to help our coaches and teams and everything understand what's going on and we do
031have a lot of moving parts. Um our hope is that all of our athletic facilities can kind of be in one spot here. Um if you click on the little composite schedule thing up there in the top right um it'll look like this. This was February. It was crazy. Um, but this was all of our winter sports. Um, okay. So, winter recap. We had um it's been all over our social media pages. Um, one of our bowlers, who I feel like I talk about him every single year here, um, set a school record. So, he it wasn't just a school record, it was a Miami Valley League record. Um there I went back in the Gwok and there was a few scores that beat this and all of those kids were um you know going
032and placing at state but he bowled a perfect game 300. Um so in a series of bowling you do two games. This was actually at Troy Bowl so it was on the road. Um he bowled a 256 and a 300. So it's a school record um and a Miami Valley League record. And the week of our awards banquet, I told him I bowled a 136 with my family the same week and I was proud. So they make it look ridiculously easy every year. Um and and Sam's just been great. Um so all league, three of our boys basketball players, um Bryson Bower Jones, who's I feel like every single season is on this list. Kylin Ingram's first team. Jess Ingram first team as well. Um great year from the boys. They won a playoff game,
033which is the first one in a while. Vinnie, who is going to be fighting it out for Valadictorian. Um, he's also pole vaultting right now. I just saw him at practice. Uh, all league in wrestling. Um, bowling, we had Sam. Uh, and then Payton Kn and John me were also honorable mention. Sam was first team. And that's all based on your average throughout the whole entire season. Girls basketball, Sydney and Stephanie. Um, if you watched our girls basketball team, both of these players have just been, uh, great young ladies that, you know, really, really play hard and it's very exciting to watch. And then the coaches association awards. Um, Joseph Ingram was named the district 15. These are done by coaches. So, this is all voted on by coaches. The league um is voted on
034by coaches as well, but just the coaches in the league. So this is all of our district um which is pretty much from Franklin to probably about Butler area. So that kind of gives you an idea. Um he was the district 15 underassman of the year. Um great honor. Kylin was first uh he was an all-star. So that's how kind of how they do the boys and they're playing in an all-star game tomorrow night at Northridge. Um all Southwest Ohio. Uh Kylin was third team and Joe is second. Joe will be coming back for his senior year. Um he's getting a lot of look. He's got great grades and um kind of he stands about a head taller than everybody else in the hallways, but um great kid, great grades, and is really putting in
035the work athletically and it's paying off here. Um Cindy played in her all-star game last night. I didn't see the stats or highlights or anything, but our coaches said she was she took a lot of things personally that she wasn't first team all league and really went out and played really well. Um she was first team um all district 15 and Stephanie as well uh was first team. Um athletic department updates, the big one just like I said the momentum that we currently have as far as involvement of our student athletes. Um, we have a lot of a lot of things going on in spring sports. Um, I was actually just out at softball. They had their first home scrimmage uh tonight. So, beautiful night for it. Baseball has a scrimmage tomorrow in the snow
036or whatever we're going to get. So, our coach wasn't too excited about that, but that's the spring. Um, athletics newsletter. We started this um I think this was our third one, so I think we started it in January. Um, Penny Stanley, our athletic secretary, um, and our athletic department intern and former alum. Um, Erica put together a newsletter which is basically a composite of everything that we post on our social media pages. Um, along with upcoming information for um, workouts and the weight room schedule. Um, it has contact information for all of our coaches so we don't miss anything. Um, and then athletes of the week, we highlight them in there as well. This is what the weight room schedule currently looks like and it's only going to grow as soon as our winter sports
037hit April and start returning to the weight room. Upcoming events for us um tomorrow I'll be taking about 10 student athletes over to help Chanel um celebrate um play with the kids a little bit and and have a good time. Um eighth grade night is next Wednesday. We'll have all of our coaches there to help um you know recruit our kids that are in eighth grade to come out to offseason workouts and get involved in athletics. Um we've been asked to go to the Dunkin Donuts opening um that's going to be right down the street. So we're going to be taking the cheerleaders up there and then Pirate Island Fest. This is more of a state of the day September 13th. Um if you've been there, it's it's a great great way for our community
038to come together um all for our student athletes and helping our um programs and teams fund all the things that they're doing. Um this was this was big for us. Um so the every year OHSAA sends out um a survey, you know, who do you have in the community that helps out athletics? Um and so we nominated Mary Joe. She's one of the first people I met when I came to West Carolton. Um, nicest lady in the world. She's worked worked in the district for 50 plus years. Um, doing multiple things, but she does tickets for us um at all of our games. Um, she's a very busy lady. So, they had the awards ceremony this past Sunday, but she was out of town. Um, so as soon as we get it, I'd like to
039come back and either present it here or do something um for her just because she's one of the real standout people in the community. Um, Couldn't ask for a nicer fa first face you see when you come to West Carolton sporting events. Um that's all I have for Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's great. And I agree with you about Mary Joe. Oh yeah. She's she's such a wonderful lady and hopefully I think it'd be great for her to come and have it here. That would be great. So thank you. Okay. Um we're moving on to the business portion of this meeting. Um, and we'll start with number nine, Ryan. Thank you. Uh, I ask that the board approve items 9A and 9B as presented. So, move. I second. All right. Any discussion on
040that? Uh, these are the financial reports. Um, July of 24 through the end of February of 2025. Um, eight months into our fiscal year. Um, as we we've been talking about, our state funding is going to come in lower than the estimate. Um, but hopefully there other areas other projections are able to offset it once once we get to the end of the year, but other than that, nothing out of the ordinary. All right, I'll call for a roll call. Mr. Mundy, yes. Mrs. Sher, yes. Mrs. Gibson, yes. All right, item number 10. You again, Ryan. For millillage levies, I ask that the board adopt the resolution accepting the amounts and rates as determined by the budget commission and authorizing the necessary tax levies and certifying them to the Montgomery County auditor as presented. Motion
041second, please. So moved. Second. All right. Anything further to discuss that? Uh this is a standard resolution prepared by the county auditor's office uh sent out to to school districts for the board to approve just uh basically just giving an estimate of taxes that the estimated tax revenue for the current calendar year. Anyone have any questions? All right, we'll move to a vote. Mr. Mundy, yes. Mr. Sher, yes. Mrs. Gibson, yes. All right, Brian, it's you again with Meta Solutions. I ask that the board enter into an agreement with Meta Solutions for services for fiscal year 2026 as presented. So move second. Anything further on than that, Brian? Uh this is an annual standard approval. Meta helps us um with all of our data that gets submitted up to the Department of Education. See, I
042thought that sounded familiar. Okay, Mr. McMundy. Yes. Mrs. Sh. Yes. Mrs. Gibson. Yes. Okay. Item number 12 deals with personnel items. Good evening. Good evening. The superintendent recommends that the board approve the list of personnel items 12 A through 12E. Can I get a motion? Second. Um, is there anything that you'd like to add? Uh, sure. I'd like to congratulate Olivia Morris on obtaining her license. Um, a couple of years ago, the the board gave us permission approved a new position uh for PAR professional of called CIP, which is a classroom instructional PAR. Um, we hired nine at that time that all had bachelor's degrees, and we've used that to try to grow our own teachers. Uh as you know there is a teacher shortage. So out of the initial nine that we've hired uh
043three and soon to be four obtain their teaching. Wow. That's fantastic. Okay. We'll move to a vote. Mrs. Shocker. Yes. Mrs. Gibson. Yes. Mr. All right. Item number 13, more personnel items. Superintendent recommends that the board approve the list of personnel items 12 A through 12 B. All right. Motion second, please. Second. All right. Anything you'd like to add? Mrs. Gibson. Yes, Mr. Yes, Mr. Yes. All right. Item number 14 deals with the BPA trip to Orlando. This is exciting. This um I'd like to recommend that the board approve I saw your picture as presented the business professionals of America VPA National Leadership Conference student trip to Orlando, Florida from May 7th, 2025 through May 11th, 2025. Over 6,000 students from across the um country will gather to compete in the showcase. Um they showcase
044their business skills and develop their leadership portfolios. This is the first year we'll have middle school going as well which is very exciting. This is their first year as well. This is their first year being a sector and this is their first year. Isn't that incredible? Great. They did a great job. All right. Can I get a motion? Second. All right. I saw your trophy. I actually don't have a trophy. That wasn't mine. That was someone else's. It actually said third place. That's why my hand was covering it because I'm first. Look at that. Good job. All right. Um, we'll call for a vote then. Just remember. Yes. Mr. Yes. This is all right. Something else number item number 15 deals with -ate purchases. Jack, back to -ate again. Yeah, this is the confusing topic.
045The superintendent recommends that the board adopt the - purchase of the following items from Ford Edge. um new high school um for the new high school and middle school, two core switches and 121 wireless access points along with 5-year licensing agreement including set up an installation with an 80% discount on that through rate. So move second. Okay. I don't know if you wanted to talk about the forward ads or Well, everything listed there is basically we're taking advantage of the rate because the funding's we're at the end of a funding cycle and if you don't spend it, you just lose it, right? So, we're taking advantage to to update some of our equipment on this and buy it through which frees up money on the building project for other items. So we're, you know, basically
046the OFCC's given us 80%. You know, you know, they pay 80% and we pay or 81 and we pay 19 on this. Uate pays 80%, we only pay 20. So it's the same discount. It's just we're using different funds so we can put more money into the building then. Now um just so um does that free up LF is it LFI money? Yes. Well, it would free up the budget for the project as a whole. Oh, as a whole it does. Yeah. Okay. Fantastic. All right. Um I guess we'll call Did you have a question? Okay, we'll call for a vote then. Mr. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mrs. Gibson. Yes. Okay. Item number 16 deals with buses. Okay. Um, I would ask the board to approve the resolution to purchase buses through the Southwest Ohio Purchasing
047Cooperative as presented. All right. Motion second, please. So, moved. Second. They go out to bid for us. We don't have to do anything and we do have to have board action to say, "Hey, we'll participate in a bid." So, that's what we're doing right here. All right. Easy enough. Call for a vote. Mr. Money. Yes. Mr. Sher. Yes. Mr. Gibson. Yes. All right. Item number 17 goes the purchasing buses. That's it. The superintendent recommends the West Carol Board of Education um allow the purchase of two 72 passenger integrated chassis school buses from Cardinal Bus Sales. Um the buses purchased so comply with the Ohio School bus minimum construction standards as published by the HUD Department of Education and Workforce. So move second. Anything you'd like to add? No. Very simple. Y and it seems like
048that's a pretty average cost of buses today, isn't it? They're from last year to this year, they've gone up about $8,000 a bus. So just in one year. It's a lot of steel. That is that is All right, we'll move to the vote. Mrs. Sher, yes. Mrs. Gibson, yes. Mr. Yes. All right. Item number 18 deal is with selling some school buses. The superintendent recommends that the board allow myself to sell two school buses, local bus numbers 12 and 23 through an online auction site, govdees.com. So move second. Anything to add to that? You know, they normally tell you average life for a school bus is between 12 and 14 years. Um these buses are 20 and 21 years old. that we're selling right now. So, we get our we use them up. So, and
049now it is time to let them go. And I'm sure they'll make somebody a nice little um hunting hunting camper or a young kids traveling around the country when they put a wood burning stove in it or something. Somebody will buy it and they will put That's what I'm going to do. I'll buy it from you guys. Can you give me a discount though because I like I'm here. Yeah. Sadly, go deals don't do discounts. Sorry. You haven't voted yet. Well, without voting, we'll move to a vote. Mr. Gibson. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. Ch. Yes. All right. Uh, we're moving on to the reports now. Does Do you guys have any reports of reports? No. Um, I had a round table meeting Saturday and basically all we talked about is that we found a new
050bill to look into which is House Bill 96 which has to do with school vouchers and allocation. And then March 24th, you have to turn in your schedules for the next school year and quarter exams are over, which means quarter four is starting, which is the last quarter. Last quarter. Almost there. Thank goodness. Great. This is your last quarter in general. That's true. Almost there. Okay, moving on to committee reports. Does anyone have committee reports? I do. You do? Okay. I go monthly to um CTC and so I I mean there is it's a ginormous school and there's so much going on. So it's difficult to know what all to bring back and talk about. I made notes. I lost them. There we are. Um so I specifically want to mention the things that West
051Carolton has done or accomplished at um CTC. Uh so the re natural resource team qualified for state which we have a student in. Um the the CTC honor guard 2025 um they uh they we had one of ours in that um youth connection graduate. We had there was four that graduated. One of them was a West Carolton student. um and they started in August of 23 and from then till now they um earned 16 plus credits and was able to graduate a year and a half early. Um so I thought that was pretty significant. They also did a um presentation on the career connections which is the same program. Um and it's really neat. It's it's amazing some of the things that they offer there that I didn't even know that they did. Um it's
052for sophomores. They have 55 students currently in this class and they have earned 410 semester units um this year uh between them. So they they they do two classes at a time. So they can switch back and forth with them. Um and so it's not like they're trying to juggle six or eight classes. They have two and they go at their own pace. So if it's something that they can go really quickly with, they just fly through it. That's the one where they also do the like work. Yes. Yes. Uh they they spend half the day doing um and and they get to do test out different careers. So it's not just one specific one. They kind of get a an overview of all of them. Um but they get to go at their own
053pace. So I thought that was a really neat thing. Um um CTC won two awards. They got the OSBA gold award. They also got a five-star award for the 2024 in the U career technical planning district. Um, and then something that I thought of you, Mr. Sloan, when they were talking about, they were talking about how they just recently had done their um, building and they came out at 0.008% over budget. Wow. Yeah, there was a lot of zero zeros in there and I thought, you know what, someone's going to be impressed with that. And I knew it would be you. Um, I mean I'm impressed too, don't get me wrong, but I knew that those numbers would Yeah, look at those eyes, right? Um, and then are you going to talk about House Bill
054three? Not too much. Not okay. Well, then I'll just leave that to you and we could just hit it once quick and be done. You want to because I'm not going to hit it. Just that House Bill three um basically it's for school bus safety. Um, there well there are the penalties have changed. If you pass a bus that stopped, your penalties will be much more immense. Um, and they're also wanting to add cameras to the buses so that if something happens, we will be able to see who said what and then and who actually did what. So, cameras in our We probably do, but everyone catches up with West Carolton. We just We've always been, right? We are just ahead of it. So, um, and then that's all I have on that. That's all
055you have. Okay. Um, I had just a few things. Nothing with, funny enough, nothing with the legislative committee. Well, you're welcome. That's a lot of research and I just didn't have the time sadly. I I wanted to though because I know there's a lot going on. Um, and I also wanted to mention that our community uh always called our community action board. I actually don't know what is actually Goldberg or CAB meeting with the city and everyone else. Um, the ball is in West Carolton City's court. So, I want to make that public and we have no date or place yet, but it's up to them and I'm excited to see what we can do together. So, um any other reports? Okay. All right. So, we'll move right along to comments for the superintendent. Um
056first of all, great job for our is students tonight. Um they did a fantastic job. Congratulations to our VPA students. Um Mrs. Corbett mentioned reading and being kindergarten ready. I just wanted to give a stat about how many students in Montgomery County come to school kindergarten ready. It's only 31%. It's important that we read books to our our kids. And I just received an email that Governor DeWine will be here on Monday to celebrate our science of reading award. So very exciting. That's all I have. Well, thank you. Well, that's kind of exciting, huh? And you all know first. Thank you. Look at that. All right. Brian, do you have anything? Um, I gave you all a handout regarding state funding and just wanted to go over that real quick. Um, as we, you know,
057the state budget, the House currently has the the state budget. Um the House will probably release their version of the state budget uh probably the first week in April. Um and h how the state funding plays out. It's it's really crucial for us and every district across the state. Um starting in the starting down the bottom um the bottom line where it says general fund November 24 estimated surplus deficit. So, like those numbers are from our November 2024 5-year forecast. Um, for example, like right now we're in FY25. So, it's it says like the projection for this year is that we have a $318,000 surplus, meaning revenues are 318,000 higher than the expenses, but in reality, um, we we had a we have one less pay this year. So, if we didn't have that, um,
058in reality, we are deficit spending this year. And then as we move forward looking at FY26 in the next few years, you know, the forecast shows that um you know, we we're looking at deficit spending the next four years and um as we move forward, we obviously want to minimize um deficit spending. Um 2015 2016 was the was the last year that we had deficit spending. Um so for the past um nine years or so our revenues have exceeded our expenses. Um and that you we passed a operating levy in November of 2016. Um we and districts across the nation got a ton of help from the federal government in terms of stimulus money. And then also the last um four years or so. I mean, we've got we've got significant increases in our state
059funding, but um as we saw from Dwine's budget, you know, we're like his projection had us and most districts across the state basically being flatfunded. So, um, the state funding is, you know, it's crucial and you we're going to see, you know, with the stimulus money gone, with the state with with there not being a lot of additional state funding in the future, I mean, we're going to see um a lot more levies all across the state. Um, that has has not been the case the last few years because because districts have benefited from federal stimulus and state funding. Um down at the bottom right hand corner um I did highlight um like like this year for example um that $440,000 number. So when I did the forecast in November um I was estimating about
06025.2 million. Right now we're looking at about 24.8. So um so our state funding this year is going to be about 440,000 less than the forecast. And so that yellow line I drew I mean that's you know that's the biggest one of the variables as we update our forecast in May. Um, so I'm you when I did the forecast in November, it had 26.4 million, but you know, like if we only get 25 million, if we're basically, you know, if we get a couple hundred thousand more and get 25 million, then that means that, you know, we need to lower our forecast by 1.4 million next year, 1.4 million. I mean, so it just compounds. So, um, I mean, we'll we'll be that'll be a big discuss like hope we have a finance committee meeting
061and have and do the forecast. Um but just the state budget is is about 50% of our general fund revenue. So how this turns out is huge. Um right above that I highlighted like our enrollment and just pointed out that um you know we're down about 200 kids the last couple years about 3% each of the last two years. Um, and right above that, the graph is just showing from FY18 out through FY29. Um, you can see we're pretty flat from FY18 through 20 or 21. And then, um, and then, as I mentioned, so we did go from about 20 million in FY20 up to about 25 million here in FY25. That's that was a large increase, but just a lot of uncertainty as we move forward. Um and and hopefully I don't we don't
062have to lower these estimated revenue numbers too much but u that's the way it's looking. Um just going up I highlighted FY25. So so like this year we got about a 5.7% increase. Um but a million of that give or take was was due to the fact that we went to 100% free and reduced lunch. Um the year before we got a 10.6% increase. So that you know the last two years were just you really large state funding increases and that um you know is is not going to happen in the future. So just looking to the right when I did the forecast I put in a 4.7% increase for next year and then flat the following year and then 2.7% for 28 and then uh flat for 29. So um you know it's it's
063kind it's uh yeah just difficult making making projections and doing forecasts and you know we'll do the forecast in May but we won't know till the end of June what our state funding looks like. Um and then just up at the very top um like look standing in the FY25 column. So so FY25 the current year so it's the second year of the bianium as we know. So which means that you know July 1st is the first year or the next two-year bienium the 406 mean um the 406 means that we are like in year 406 of that the fair school funding plan. So next the next two years you they call it year five and year six. Um when Dwine introduced his budget, you know, he did say, you know, we're going to phase
064it in in year five and six. So technically they did, but they but the big part of like they kept they kept the same inputs like they didn't they didn't they're using the same cost numbers that they used from two years ago. So that's why districts are flatfunded. So it's it's really like inaccurate to say that they're fully funding the formula. So um so yeah, as I mentioned, just a lot of uncertainty and angst across the state um in terms of how the state the state budget's going to play out, right? And that's something to definitely be paying attention, especially that fair school funding. All right. Um we have no association comments. Um, so we'll move right on to uh our central office staff. Um, let's see. Let's start with Jack. Might be a Crest
065question for Ryan. Earlier on item 10 about the effective millage for the bond with 3.45 that started out at 5.7 correct? Six. 5.6. So basically bond funding you you guaranteed amount. So what that means is the voters passed a bond for 5.6. It's basically dropped 40% because values of the houses or properties have risen 40%. So we're not because your property taxes are going up. We're not getting any more money. That that effective millage is dropping down so that our the money we receive from that bond issue stays flat. It stays the same because you pass for a dollar amount. So that's kind of good to see that we're down to 3.45. That means hey, our houses are selling for more. more property is valued at more. You're not paying more taxes towards that bond
066issue though because it's they just keep reducing that millage down to make it so it works. So since 2019, what we're six years into it or five and a half year five five years into it probably collecting money and and here it is we've lost just about 40% I'd say close. Just want to point that out. All right. Yeah. I just um I just want to say that um I'm going to let Becky talk about the designation for for our elementary school, but just real quick on the whole process of the science of reading. Last year um we uh basically uh we had a mandate from the state for all of our teachers and administrators to um complete required training to learn about the science of reading. And we had we're almost at 100%. Um
067we had a year to get that done. and the teachers did receive a siphon, but um we jumped right on that and and we're almost at 100% of everybody um doing that required training of how it fits into their curriculum, how it fits into their classroom, and what they should be doing to help with literacy. So, that was our first step. And then our next step was a designation, and I'll let Becky talk about that in the grant that we're we're writing. Like Jane said, we received the designation for Chel um for our signs of reading programming and um really it's huge um huge accomplishment for the school and I think for our elementary model because we're going to be able to codify that process and have it be kind of our K four K5
068model. Um, I'm just super proud of the staff that they're the ones that made it happen and it was a lot of work went into um doing all the professional development as well as um you know daily work with kids and so that deserves the award. All right. All right. Well, we'll move along. There's no general comments from the public tonight. So, We'll move right along to board members and we'll start with you, Laura. Um, well, I don't have a whole lot. I said, um, with the intermediate school, man, y'all just there's only one here left, so you get to get all the raves about it. Um, yeah, you rocked it. It It was It was amazing. Um, we are aware that that is a tough age. Um, that is a tough time to want
069to go to school. you're all all of a sudden getting all this uh freedom and you're wanting to push your way around and you all just rocked it. It was amazing. Um very nicely done. U congratulations to them and how well they spoke. You guys spoke for yourselves and and and represented yourselves. Um very nicely done. I'm sure that there were other things mentioned tonight that I should be thanking. So I will just piggy back on what everybody else says. Okay. All right. And um I'd like to echo what she said about the school students. They did a fabulous job. I couldn't I thought they were wonderful. Um also want to congratulate the BPA um award students and I'm excited for them to go on their trip and hear all about when they get back.
070That's it. Thank you. Do they need a board member to you had to come along. All right. I don't have too much today. Um I know I wanted to uh really talk about the the science of reading. The recognition for that is incredible. And then for you know uh Mike to come on to Mike Dwayne to come down and be a part of that is really cool. Sorry. Oh my gosh. um to come down and present that as Governor DeWine, the official version of his name, I guess. Uh to have him come down and present that is such a cool opportunity. So, that's always really neat. Um I'm happy the career fair went so well. I was fortunate enough to have to have someone that I know that kind of sneaked in at the end
071there and he did a lot talking about like just entrepreneurship and kind of what goes on with that. and it seemed like he had a blast. He's just the the kids absolutely loved uh kind of talking to him and kind of getting those ideas out there. So, I'm happy the career fair went so well. Um and then I'm happy. It is it's hard to be so young and to speak in front of all these people. So, really, you guys did absolutely amazing. Like I said earlier, you guys spoke better than me most of the time. So, it's it's just so cool to see. Do you say that's true? Yes. Um, so really, I mean, for you guys to be so professional and to be up here and have to say all these facts and everything
072else, I mean, I learned so much. It It's just incredible. So, Aztecs are now my favorite people. We learned I learned all sorts of cool stuff. So, um, other than that, of course, I'll end with a quote and then we'll go from there. So, um, it's funny we're talking, you know, Black History Month and things, all the facts. Um, the quote I had tonight was from Dr. Martin Luther King, and it's, uh, the time is always right to do what is right. So, with saying that, so moved. Well, okay. Yeah, sure. No executive session or anything. So, we'll move uh to the vote. This is Gibson. Yes, Mr. Muddy. Yes, Mr. Shopper. Yes. Easy enough. I totally forgot there's only three of us. All right, you take care. Have a good night.