001Good evening everyone. Welcome to this meeting of the Canton City Schools Board of Education for Monday May 8th here in the heart of downtown Canton. If you're in the audience please silence your devices at this time and would you rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. To our family staff and community thank you for being the best in Stark County. We're very proud of you and proud of everything we have accomplished. If you are here tonight we welcome you. If you are online thank you for taking the time to navigate our webpage and join us. Mr. Gruber would you call the roll. Mr. Rinaldi. Here. Ms. Watkins. Here. Mr. Kaminsky. Here. Mrs. Brown. Here. Mr. Russ. Here. Moving right along Mr. Talbert. Board of Recognition. Thank you Mr. President. We'll now call up our high school
002principals Ms. Grimm and Mr. Stranger who will present our summer graduates. Good evening Board of Education members, Superintendent Talbert, colleagues, teachers, friends, family, and most importantly our graduates. I want to thank you all for your attendance tonight and the support you have given our graduates throughout their school careers. This group that I'm presenting before you today is a group I'm proud to call graduates from the Canton City School Districts whether it be through Choices or through McKinley High School. When I look at the names before you tonight I see students who have overcome obstacles in their lives and educational journeys to make it to this point. I will be the first to attest that we shared sweat, tears, tantrums, I won't name the rest to get here. Families your support for these young folks has
003been instrumental in their success. I hope through it all we were able to build relationships that will last a long time because I know for sure that I'm gonna miss all of them. As you continue graduates through your life and you make big or little decisions please make sure to listen to the suggestions of others. When you get a chance keep your mouth shut, keep your ears open. This doesn't mean you have to heed their advice just that you should be open to receiving and considering it. What works for someone else may not work for you or even be the decision or route you want to go but it's at worth it's worth at least considering. In your life you'll learn that rejection is not always a bad thing as when we was one opportunity
004disappears a better one could be waiting for your time and your attention. Do not allow failure to trip you up or be afraid to fail because you can learn a lot from those mistakes. I know we all did this year. As you begin to adult and navigate this world and explore all the new opportunities that come your way remember to take life with just the right amount of seriousness, do all the good you can and be the best that you can be. Your best in life you will be best in life if you strive to be a lifelong learner. Don't be afraid to try and fail and try again. The only true failure we face is never trying in the first place. So as you begin this new journey as a high school graduate take
005the time to figure out who you want to be in five, ten or twenty years from now. Envision that person and begin to do the work and do the things that help you become that person. Practice those things daily. You do not have to let your past dictate your future. You did it, you made it, you are a graduate of the Canton City School District and at this time I'll call the name of our names of our summer grads and if you are here please come forward. Evelyn Ruth Beverly, Jalen Demeer Birch, Jonah Gabriel Craig, Celia Jean Curieli Lamelli, Stuart D. Hamilton, Jamari Demeer Emanuel Horton, Luciano Dominic Pablumbo, John Alfred Range the Third, Draelyn Terrell Thomas and Deonte Marcellus Williams Longmire. Please give a big round to applause to all of our graduates this
006evening. Thank you. Thank you and congratulations to all our summer graduates. At this time I'll make the motion to approve the agenda as written. Any corrections or changes? Yes there are Mr. President. Start on page 14. Under packing and unpacking we need to remove Melanie Danis, Nicole Rennacher and Nicholas Varga from the list and a second and final change this evening occurs on page 31, item number five under the superintendent's report. We'd like to remove that recommendation from this evening's agenda. Okay we have a motion, we have a second, we have changes. Mr. Gruber call the roll sir. Mr. Rinaldi. Aye. Ms. Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Mr. Russ. Aye. I'll make the motion to approve the minutes of the August 4th 2025 regular board meeting. Second. Any corrections or changes? Hearing none, roll
007call vote. Mr. Rinaldi. Aye. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Do we have a presentation? So hearing of the public, Mr. Gruber. Yes Mr. President before I call this evening's speaker we ask that they will state their name and address and whether they are a resident of the district for the record. Remind this evening's speaker that the board allows three minutes 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. Good evening. Eric Resnick, 1828 Grace Avenue Northeast. I am and have always been a resident of the Canton City School District. First of all congratulations to our graduates this evening. I forgot it was graduation in September. Last month this
008board voted without any public discussion to extend the tax increment finance package for one of the most successful developments in the city, the Ernesto, from 10 to 30 years and again this is a successful one it really doesn't need the Canton City School District's help. Had I been here in 2015 I would have voted against it as I hate what most of these do to school district budgets especially over time and would I have and had I been up here I would have voted against extending it last month as well. In these times of severe hits to this district from the state and federal governments why did this board vote to reduce the capacity of what it can raise locally for another 20 years. I would like for someone to say that I'm wrong and
009that this TIF benefits the Canton City Schools. In 2014 that property was valued by the county at a hundred and thirty five thousand one hundred dollars. I've given you all the charts with the tax history on that building. When the when the TIF forgiving 75 percent of all increased value due to improvement was enacted that property was already valued at one million one hundred one eight hundred. Today the county values that property at six million five hundred and seventy four thousand five hundred dollars. Forty nine times the unimproved value. Forty nine times. But the Canton City School District is only capturing 25 percent of that extraordinary appreciation because of the original TIF. When you voted when you voted it should go on another 20 years. In 2020 voters passed a seven point nine mill levy.
010That property was valued at four million two hundred and forty thousand dollars then 31 times the unimproved value. That levy should have captured all of that increase not 25 percent. One has to assume that in the next 20 years this district will seek two or three more operating levies and because you voted last month to extend the TIF none of them will capture more than 25 percent of the improved value on that property no matter how high it goes. We're talking real money left on the table. Benefiting a very successful project while many of our residents struggle. I'll ask you again how did that vote benefit the Canton City School District? Thank you sir. Any other speakers? No. Okay moving right along. Treasurer's report. Treasurer Gruber. Yes Mr. President I have four items underneath my
011agenda this evening. I think I'm going to take these one by one. So we will start with item number one which is a very lengthy list of donations which the district greatly appreciates. So move. Any questions for Treasurer Gruber? Are we going to vote in each one then? Each four items. All right roll call vote sir. Mr. and Aldi. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. The second item this evening under the Treasurer's report is a list of all funds that we need to make permanent appropriations for for fiscal year 2026. So move. Second. Any questions or comments? Mr. and Aldi. Aye. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. The third item this evening is proposing amendments to estimated revenues for fiscal year 2026. We
012originally made estimates for revenues for this fiscal year back in January of 2025 and so these increases or decreases are due to the fact that we have received more information over the past eight months. So move. Second. Any questions or comments? Hearing none roll call vote. Mr. and Aldi. Aye. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. The last item this evening number four is the credit card rewards program report. I'd like to report to the board that the district deposited $749.15 into our general account from the American Express credit card rewards program. So move. Second. Any questions or comments? Hearing none roll call vote. Mr. and Aldi. Aye. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. That concludes my report. Thank you Treasurer Gruber. Superintendent Talbert
013your backup. Thank you Mr. President. First tonight we'd like to I might recommend that the board approve section a human resources certified staff which tonight includes retirements and resignation leave absences appointments and adjustments. So move. Second. Any questions or comments? Hearing none roll call vote. Mr. and Aldi. Aye. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Mr. President I recommend the Board of Education approve section B which tonight human resources classified staff which tonight includes retirements and resignations leaves of absences appointments and adjustments. So move. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none roll call vote. Mr. and Aldi. Aye. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Moving on to educational services support ever education services report tonight we have two items we will
014take both those items separately. So first item Mr. President I recommend at the Board of Education approve item number one under education service report which is an approval of an overnight field trip. So move. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none roll call vote. Mr. and Aldi. Aye. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Our second item tonight in our education service report recommend the Board approve our contract program contract with Mentor Start. So move. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none roll call vote. Mr. and Aldi. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. We have three items under our operation reports again we will take all three separately. The first one I recommend the Board of Education approve
015item number one under operations report. It's a resolution declaring impractical transportation. So move. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? Could you maybe give a better explanation on this resolution? When we talk practical or impractical the first step in this process is to determine whether the route or the distance is eligible. That is defined in ORC 33-2701 and 2 by 30 minutes driving a school bus. We drive these routes and determine first if the child in the school is a practical. Once we determine they were practical which these are within the 30 minute limit by school bus then then we have to determine is it practical to send a bus or a van driver with one or two children you know during the time of day that we're most busiest at times then at
016times we deem these impractical and which is what you have in front of you tonight. And then the parents are privy to in lieu of payment. Thank you assistant superintendent Dixon. Any other questions for the board? Hearing none roll call vote. Mr. Rinaldi. Ms. Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. Mrs. Brown. Mr. Russ. Mr. President I recommend that the Board of Education approve item two under section D operations report. It's approval of a resolution for for the FCC cyber security pilot program. So moved. I think that was number three. Okay yeah number two is the police auxiliary officer. Let's do how about we do number three first. Okay that's I've already read it and we'll come back. So moved. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none roll call vote. Mr. Rinaldi. Ms. Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. Mrs.
017Brown. Mr. Russ. So since that's been approved I'd like to congratulate our technology team for getting that grant. This will help keep our network safe. It will help us build a system that authenticates every device that tries to get on our network to make sure it's safe. So help us prevent cyber attacks which have become a pretty big thing for school districts. And this would I think the program that we're buying would cost 172 thousand dollars and because of this grant the district only has to pay 17. So we like that as well. All right now moving back to item two and I believe item two is recommended the board approve a new pay rate for the Canton Police Auxiliary Officers increasing it to thirty dollars an hour starting January 1, 2026. So moved. Second.
018Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none roll call vote. Mr. Rinaldi. Ms. Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. Mrs. Brown. Mr. Russ. Moving on to item number four I recommend the Board of Education approve the nutritional standards for the 25-26 So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? Hearing none roll call vote. Mr. Rinaldi. Ms. Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. Mrs. Brown. Mr. Russ. To superintendent action items tonight we have four items. The first one I recommend the Board of Education approve MOU with CPEA regarding retire the hiring of re of retired certified staff. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? Hearing none roll call vote. Mr. Rinaldi. Ms. Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. Mrs. Brown. Mr. Russ. We're really excited about that MOU gives us the opportunity as we are staring right into a shortage of teachers. This gives us
019an opportunity to retain our staff that has worked with us. It allows us to do that and retain highly qualified people who are willing to come back who know our district, know our students, know our families to stay a few years long. So we're really excited about that. Moving on to item number two I recommend that the Board of Education approve an MOU with CPEA to create dance supplements for dance coaches. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? Ms. Watkins. Do the students get credit for that? There's a there is a a dance program career tech program and I believe that dance is also a program that can substitute for P.E. credit. So they can also substitute it for P.E. credit. Okay. Thank you Ms. Watkins. Any other questions? Hearing none roll call vote. Mr.
020Rinaldi. Ms. Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. Mrs. Brown. Mr. Russ. Moving on to item number three. We I recommend that the Board of Education change make a change to our telephone communications policy. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? This is the first reading so we don't need to take a vote. Oh okay. And and so just to let you know what that change is for our current policy states that only on very rare occasions can our phones be answered by a auto attendant or a voicemail and it really spells it out really narrows the scope of when we use the automated attendant and our current practices are a little more than that. So we wanted to make sure that we align our current practices with board policy. It was something that we found just reading and
021it's a policy that sits deep in our policy book and just wanted to make sure that our our policies align with what we're doing. We will make sure that any automated attendant gives people clear directions on who to talk to or which button to push to get to where they can get an answer and so we'll continue to do that but making or basically making it impossible for us to do that I think is an outdated policy that we needed to amend. So we'll come back and take a vote on that at our next board meeting. Then moving on to item four I'd like to recommend that the board approve policy 5780.01 parents bill of rights and waive the requirement for a second reading under the emergency approval allowed and policy number 0131. So moved.
022Second. Any questions or comments for the board? So that's one to state for the record why the reason for that. Back I believe in January we approved 5780 and when that policy was approved I missed the 0.01 presenting the 0.01T. These bills went into effect in June and so we are already operating under these standards we just want to make sure that you approve this policy so that we have policies to support the steps we are taking. Does this replace the parent-student contract that parents and students used to sign? No no it what it does is it just it mandates that we spell out a little more that we can't we announce to parents some of the things that we're doing when it comes to testing. Right now what we do is if we're giving
023medical testing in our buildings we would send a permission slip home right before the testing. Now what we'll have to do we'll still have to do that but at the beginning of the year we'll send a letter out to parents and say here are the medical things that we do in the school and the services we provide in your building for this year. What this policy also does is it asks us to notify parents if there's a significant change in a student's mental health whether they're seeing a counselor, whether their grades have dropped, whether they've been a victim of bullying and those types of things that we have to reach out to parents and let them know. Our policy that we approved back in January says that we do all of this and says that
024the parents have the right. This policy gets into how we communicate to the parents and what our responsibilities are to communicate to parents. We do all of this stuff already. It's just we needed to make sure the law states that we need to have this policy adopted so we're doing that tonight so that we are in compliance with the law. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Watkins. Any other questions? Mr. Rinaldi? Aye. Ms. Watkins? Aye. Mr. Kaminsky? Aye. Mrs. Brown? Aye. Mr. Russ? Aye. Mr. President, that concludes the superintendent report for this evening. Thank you, Superintendent Talbert. I'm assuming there's no need for another executive session? No, sir. Thank you, sir. Mr. Kaminsky? Mr. President? Second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Everyone have a great night. Be safe getting home.