001Good evening, everyone. Welcome to this meeting for the Kansas City School Board of Education for Monday, August 4th, 2025 here in the heart of downtown Canton. If you're in the audience, please silence your electronic devices, and would you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance? To our family, staff, and community, thank you for being the best in Stark County. If you're here tonight, we welcome you. If you are online, thank you for taking the time to navigate our page to join us. Mr. Gruber, would you call the roll, please? Ms. Watkins. Here. Mr. Kaminsky. Here. Mrs. Brown. Here. Mr. Russ. Here. Mr. Rinaldi has been excused. At this moment, I'll make the motion to approve the agenda as written. Motion. Second. Any changes or corrections? Yes, there are, Mr. President. We'll start on page six.
002There's a recommendation in the consent agenda. Reads Adult Education Aspire slash GED instructor, Erica Watkins. We would like to remove that from the consent and make it its own item under this section, which would be item five. And the second and last change this evening occurs on page nine. Under adjustments, we need to remove Jason Blackstone's recommendation from the agenda. We have motion, second, and corrections. Mr. Gruber, call the roll. Ms. Watkins. Yes. Mr. Kaminsky. Yes. Mrs. Brown. Yes. Mr. Russ. Yes. I make the motion to approve the minutes from the July 2nd, 2025 regular meeting as written. Second. Any questions, any corrections or changes? Hearing none, roll call vote. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Moving right along. Do we have anyone signed up to speak tonight? Yes,
003we do, Mr. President. Before I call this evening's speaker, we ask that they state their name and address and whether they are a resident of the district for the record. We remind this evening's speaker that the board allows three minutes for each individual to address the board. And finally, the president may rule out of order any person using disrespect, obscenities, or arguing a point. This evening's speaker is Mr. Eric Resnick. Eric Resnick, 1828 Grace Avenue, Northeast. I am and have always been a resident in Canton City School District. I'm here this evening to update you and the community on what's happening with the lawsuit against edge choice vouchers. As you are probably aware, actually all of you are because I sent you the decision, but those folks out there need to know that vouchers are
004unconstitutional and Judge Page ruled so. And she ruled so in a summary judgment. There, of course, are five counts in the lawsuit. We only need one count to be ruled unconstitutional for the for edge choice vouchers to be unconstitutional. In summary judgment, we won three. We won count one, which is the constitutional issue about the state shall create a single system of common schools. We won count two, that's the count about diverting tax dollars. And we won count four, which is the no religious or other sex shall ever have any exclusive right or control of the school funds. Count three, which was the segregation or no, count five is the segregation count. We are appealing that the judge did not rule that it that that vouchers are okay on that count. But she essentially ruled
005that she needs more evidence and perhaps a trial. The state filed appeals on counts one, two, and four last Wednesday in the in the 10th District Court of Appeals in Franklin County. And we will be filing a a cross appeal on count five. Count three is likely to actually go to trial. I want to say a couple of things because the state and the edge choice voucher advocates have been out there saying a lot of things. What they are not doing is arguing the Constitution. We are arguing the Constitution. They are out there with their political arguments. This is a this is a great day for public education in Ohio. We need to keep it going. The Canton City School District, of course, has been one of the leading districts in this effort. And you
006are all to be commended for that. And we look forward to this going forward. But again, it is important to say because it is true now that edge choice vouchers are unconstitutional and a judge has said so. Well, that was pretty good. Thanks. Anyone else signed up tonight? No, sir. Thank you, Mr. Resnick. Moving right along, Treasurer Gruber. Yes, Mr. President, I'm going to have multiple recommendations this evening. I think we should start with item number two. I need someone to be nominated to serve as our delegate for the 2025 Ohio School Boards Association Capital Conference. Mr. President. Mr. Kavinsky. I nominate Mrs. Brown. I will second that nomination. Any other nominations? Hearing none, roll call vote. Ms. Watkins. Yes. Mr. Kaminsky. This is Brown. Mr. Russ. Aye. All right. The next one. I need
007someone to serve as the alternate for the 2025 OSBA Capital Conference. Mr. President. Mr. Kaminsky. I nominate Ms. Watkins. I will second that nomination. Any other nominations? Hearing none, roll call vote. Ms. Watkins. Staying. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. All right. My next recommendation this evening is going to consist of three items, with the first item being approval of the June 2025 monthly financial report. The second one is recommendation that the board approve the fiscal year 2025 commercial paper report, which I provided last week. And finally, item number five is a recommendation to approve a list of donations. Once we get a motion and second, I will make some comments about the June 30th financial report. So moved. Second. The floor is yours, Mr. Gruber. I'm just going to hit some
008of the highlights very quickly. I'd like to state that our estimated revenue for fiscal year 2025 compared to our actual, our actual exceeded our anticipated revenue by 100 point, or excuse me, by 0.51%. I'd like to also point out that as it relates to expenses, our actual expenses were under our estimated expenses by 2.2%. And finally, I'd like to point out that our year end cash balance actual results were better than budgeted projections that we had previously provided the board in September of 2024. Thank you, Mr. Gruber. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none, roll call vote. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. My last recommendation this evening is for the board to approve a resolution for a TIF for the Ernesto building. Once we get a
009motion and second, I'll just have some comments on that. So moved. Second. Mr. Gruber, the floor is yours. This is for those who don't know. A tax increment financing is a public financing tool utilized by local governments to encourage economic development and revitalization in designated areas. It's a way to fund a public or private projects by utilizing the anticipated increase in future property tax revenues generated by a new development or redevelopment within a specified area known as a TIF district. The property taxes generated on the base value continue to be distributed to the various taxing bodies as they were before the TIF. However, the increase in property tax revenue resulting from the new development is captured and directed into a special fund. This increment can then be used to finance various projects within the TIF
010district, such as public infrastructure improvements to roads, water, sewer lines, sidewalks, et cetera. Land acquisition, demolition, environmental remediation, or to support residential rehabilitation in some cases. Thank you, Mr. Gruber. Mr. President. Mr. Kaminsky. Question on that. That's a 75% TIF, Gruber? I thought that's what I read. It is. And do we maintain the value from the 25%, our share of the 25%? Yes, we do. As well as the share of the existing. Very good. Just wanted to make sure I understood. Thank you. Any other questions from the board? Hearing none, roll call roll. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. That concludes my report. Thank you, Treasurer Gruber. Superintendent Talbert, you're up. Thank you, Mr. President. First tonight, I recommend that the Board of Education approve Section A, Human Resources
011Certified Staff, which tonight includes retirements and resignations, leave of absences, appointments, and adjustments. So moved. Second. Question or comments from the board? Hearing none, roll call vote. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. I recommend that the Board of Education approve Section B, Human Resources Classified Items 1 through 4, which tonight includes retirements and resignations, leave of absences, appointments, and adjustments. So moved. Before we move on to Section B, do we want to go back to Section A, Item 5? Right, Item 5. Was that Section A? That was Section A. Section A. Oh, I thought it was in Section B. So let's go back. Mr. President, I recommend that we approve Section A, Item Number 5. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none, roll call
012vote. Ms. Watkins. Staying. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Great catch. Now let's move on to B. Mr. President, now I recommend the Board of Education approve Section B, Human Resources Classified Staff Items 1 through 4, which tonight includes retirements and resignations, leave of absences, appointments, and adjustments for our classified staff. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none, roll call vote. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Moving on to our Ed Services Report. Mr. President, I recommend that the Board of Education approve Section C, Item Number 1, which is an approval of an overnight field trip. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? I just have one, loves field trips. Roll call vote, sir. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr.
013Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Mr. President, I recommend that the Board approve Section C, Education Service Report, Item Number 2, which is an approval of an additional graduate from the Class of 2025. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, roll call vote. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Mr. President, I recommend that the Board of Education approve a transportation service contract with Templeton Transportation LLC to provide student transportation for the district effective August 5th, 2025 for the 25-26 school year. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? Mr. President. Mr. Kaminsky. Since this is a new contract, was somebody else providing this service in the past? They were. Okay. And what's the nature of the transportation to schools and classes outside of our district? Some.
014The majority is special education. Okay. All right. Thank you. And one further question. I was looking for the cost, and I came up with $180. Is that per day? That's per tier. It's very cost-effective. Okay. No, I saw the tier one. Yeah, and then $130 in the second tier based on the amount of students that were out. But is that per vehicle, per tier then? Yes. Okay. All right. So if we had six running, tier one would be six times 180, unless the gas price goes up. Or down. I got it. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Any questions or other questions? No, he answered it. Roll call vote. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Mr. President, I recommend that under our operations report, item number three,
015that the board approve our 2025-2026 transportation handbook. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none, roll call vote. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Mr. President, I recommend that under our operations report, item number three, that the board approve our 2025-2026 bus stops, which includes curb to curb bus stops and our traditional bus stops. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? I do. So at the bus stops, some of them have a lot of students. Is there going to be some kind of supervision or exactly how does that work with how you have students numbered and placed at bus stops? Yes. The simple answer, yes. We communicate within the bus drives to the building principal, and if there's a large student population,
016we do our best to have safety and security at a bus stop to help manage any unwanted behaviors. Well, I was looking at the list, and it's like some have 90, some have two. How do you, how does that operation work? Because I know 90 kids aren't going to be at a bus stop, but I know some bus stops are large. So those bus stops that have those very large numbers, it'll say all stops, and that means different tiers, if I'm correct, right? There's 90 kids. I guess we're not finished routing. I'm wondering where that information is coming from. Unless all right now they're all routed and they all won't be riding the school bus? I just think that it's, when you look at that list, and I pulled up the list, the list states,
017it says all, if you look at the list that we share with you guys, there'll be a bus stop that'll say all stops. Right. And so when they approve a bus stop, that bus stop is for McKinley in the morning, that bus stop is also for our elementary schools later on in the morning, and that bus stop is for our middle schools, and that could also be a bus stop for charters. It could be a bus stop for non-pubs. And so it is just, and that's something that has came up with our system. A bus stop is a bus stop is a bus stop. So if you live in this neighborhood, no matter what school you go to, we try to send you through that bus stop. That way we know it's safe, and I
018did a really good job this year of going around, making sure that our bus stops are safe before we brought them to you to get them approved. So I think what you're seeing is that there's 90 kids at that bus stop, but that could be made up of 10 kids who are going to go to McKinley in the morning, and then the next time that bus comes around or another bus comes, that's 10 kids that are going to go to Crenshaw, and then there's 10 kids that are going to go to Heritage. And so it's not all 90 at the same time. If there are a lot of kids at that bus stop, that's when we let the school, the transportation department lets the school know, the school calls and brings transportation out, I mean
019security out. And last year when I spent time at the bus garage, the bus drivers are usually the first line of report with that, hey, this stop has too many kids at it, you're going to have to adjust something. And sometimes it's because kids make their own bus stops, so they don't like the friends that are at the bus stop that they've been put on, so they walk to the next one. And so we'll spend the first couple weeks of school adjusting that. But if we hear, and sometimes our community calls us and say, you know, I've got these kids in front of my house, and it's just a real rowdy situation, and I've seen Mr. Dixon go out, I've stopped on my way in just to make sure that our kids are safe. And
020we try to tell our parents that the bus stop is a school property, and if you violate the board of our code of conduct at the bus stop, you will receive school approved discipline or lose your route, your privilege to ride a school bus. Okay, so is that 90, is that just like for morning and then there's like rotating that 90 after school too, or do any of the students change in the afternoon? Like is that 90 just those 90 kids before school and then being brought home from school, that's those 90 kids? At this point in time, when we route a bus, we're routing every kid that has the right to ride a bus. Okay. And so when we look at the kids who live in these houses and they have the right to
021ride a bus, that's who we're putting on there. During the first couple weeks of school, we'll determine who is actually riding the bus and who's not, and then parents will let us know that, hey, my student is riding this bus in the morning and may need to ride this bus in the afternoon. But for the most part, those bus stops are telling you morning and afternoon. I have an offshoot question about transportation. I have noticed that a lot of kids are riding scooters, and something tells me that that may be something students will ride to school. Do we accommodate that? How would we help if they're- You mean their own personal scooters? Their own personal scooters. I would think they would park them at a bike rack, but we're not, you know, as a school,
022we can't be responsible for their- we'll let them park them at a bike rack, and they'll be able to chain them up there. If they're a big scooter, then they'll probably have to put them in the parking lot somewhere. We can't have them on the sidewalks. That wouldn't be safe on the sidewalk. Is there an extra special spot we can have for- We don't have special spots for scooters, but if it becomes an issue, I'm sure the principals will let us know. We've had times in the past where we've worked special things out for students that have vehicles, but as of right now, especially those scooters that students rent, I think we've taken a stance that we don't want them on our school property. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Watkins. Any other questions? Hearing none, roll
023call vote. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? Ms. Watkins. I'd like to know how that will operate. Is that a facility that Canton City and the City of Canton will be doing together? Will we have like activities there for our grade school children or is it, am I on the wrong path? Is it for something else? Like a rec center, like the Southeast Center, is it going to be like that? No, no, not at this time. This joint facilities use agreement is for the Canton PD and Camp Fire to have PD space in one wing of the building. We have two employees in the district that work in the building. We have two employees in the district that work in the building.
024We have our hope chest located there where families are able to come get clothing items and other things in need. And then the last portion of the building I've utilized a little bit as a swing space for storage as we build these new school buildings. If we're buying things because we're getting a very good price, I'm storing them there until they're needed. So. So that pretty much takes up the whole building. And so the police are doing what, like as a training, is it like going to be like a neighborhood watch building also since there's a police station there? No, it will not be a, it won't be like a police substation. No, they come in about once, twice a month and do different trainings. So that's what we're doing. Any other questions? Hearing none,
025roll call vote. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Mr. President, I recommend that the Board of Education increase the hourly rate for police officers on the temporary rate wage schedule from $45 to $50 per month. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none, roll call vote. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Mr. President, that concludes my superintendent's report for this evening. Thank you, Superintendent Talbert. I'm going to assume there's still no need to move on to the next item. No, sir. Thank you very much. Mr. Kaminsky. Mr. President, if I might have a moment. First, we buzzed through the treasurer's report rather rapidly at one point. But though the budget, both our income and our expenses are incredibly complex. The treasurer and
026the administration have a very complex budget. Our expenses are incredibly complex. The treasurer and the administration managed to come up on the plus side once again. I think they should be congratulated for that. I agree 100%. I appreciate you guys doing it. And now, Mr. President, I move we adjourn. Second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Everybody be safe and have a great night.