001Good evening, everyone. Welcome to this Board of Education meeting for no Monday, November 3rd here in the downtown Canton at the moment Would you please silence your electronic? Yeah electronic devices. Would you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance? If you're here tonight, we welcome you if you are online Thank you for taking the time to navigate our web page to join us to our staff and community Thank you for being the best in Stark County. Mr. Gruber would you call the roll, sir? Mr. Rodali Is Watkins here. Mr. Kaminsky here. This is brow here. Mr. Ruff here I'll make the motion to approve the agenda as written Second any question any changes or corrections? Yes, sir. Mr. President to the first change is on page 1 actually item number 8 was the executive session
002There's no longer a need for executive session. So we will be removing it from the agenda And the second and last change occurs on page 5 under retirements and resignations We need to add the name Kathleen writings retirement effective May 29th 2026 and that is it Thank You treasurer Gruber. We've had a motion second changes roll call vote Mr. Nolte Is Watkins? Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. This is brow. Aye. Mr. Ross. Aye I'll make the motion to approve the minutes of our October 13th 2025 special meeting in our October 13th, 2025 regular meeting Any changes or corrections hearing none roll call vote Mr. Nolte It's Watkins Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. This is brow. Aye. Mr. Ross. Aye Moving right along our presentation tonight superintendent Thank You. Mr. President I'm gonna make this Presentation for me from here
003tonight. I usually try to make the state of the school's presentation from here Usually because it's a it's usually a longer presentation for me And I feel better standing up making it than I do sitting down This is usually the state of schools is the board meeting where I give my state of the schools presentation It's one of my my favorite board meetings You know if you take away We do that the fall graduation We work with with those students that that didn't get to graduate on time and we can see their happy faces in the faces of their families The the retirement Celebration when we recognize our teachers for their their years of service in our district who are moving on into retirement when we award continuing contracts to our Educators and our staff
004members is also a fun Board meeting for me and This one is usually fun because this is a time where we get to Look back at what we said we were going to do the previous year And we we do that and we also have the opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of our staff and our students From the previous year and then after all that's done We get to look at the work that we're going to do for for the present year and we will do all of those things today in this state of the schools, but But due to some unfortunate Decisions made in Columbus We have to start this this state of the schools report Talking about district finances and before I jump into that I'm gonna pass it To our treasurer. Mr.
005Gruber who who will give a few words Thank you Board members people in the audience if you remember last month the Board of Education had to approve our financial forecast every school district in the state Had to pass their forecast last month and they had to be filed with the Ohio Department of Education and workforce No later than I believe it was October 15th and so now that information is all public what I elected to do was I wanted to analyze What other school districts throughout the state were anticipating and what I found was? Quite honestly very eye-opening So what I did first is I went out to fiscal year 2028 and I put together a list of all the school districts that are were Anticipating negative cash balances in their general fund and that
006list of schools came up to be 63 school districts statewide representing 33 counties with a cumulative negative deficit of 151 million dollars so then I went out a year further and that's even more frightening in fiscal year 2029 at some point there are going to be a hundred and sixty nine school districts in the state of Ohio that are anticipating negative cash balances with a total deficit of 1.67 billion dollars So I went to an exercise here that represents 65 of the 88 counties in the state So I just put together a brief exercise It's on page 6 and it's made an assumption How about if an employee between salary and benefits cost us seventy thousand dollars and there's no good. There's not going to be any New additional money coming from the state and
007These communities that are on the list for whatever reason would not support local levies How many people who averaged seventy thousand dollars a year in costs would it take to a limit to need to be eliminated in Order to remove this one point six seven billion dollar deficit and that grand total is twenty three thousand 919 people leaving this Job sector and then just for the heck of it because they're talking about potential consolidation of districts So I put together a list Of entire counties that are going to have collective negative deficits in fiscal year 2029 there are ten out of eighty eight counties that are going to have collective deficit balances ranging from anywhere from $900,000 all the way up to 70 million Start County is one of the ten Counties on this list
008of ten With the highest being summit as I stated then it goes on to Lucas County second on the list at 65 million dollars Cuyahoga County fifty eight million dollars Delaware County forty six million dollars. I don't know how this is going to play out I don't know where we're heading as a state, but I just felt compelled to report this information this evening Thank You. Mr. Gruber and then I'm gonna Take it from there and I'm gonna again, I'm gonna start with what with our our financial position Kind of how we got here and Talk about what our next steps are as a as a district and and and then I'm going to to dive in to the rest of our our state of the schools, so We always start with with our dog
009chart and we always start with what we say we value and As I was putting this together today And the team the leadership team the cabinet we've talked about this kind of a lot the last couple of weeks Once we started to see that Due to no fault of our own that we were going to be put in a tough situation as a district and and We when times get tough, I think it's real important that you fall back on the things that you say you value and you fall back on The actions that you say are expected of you in your task and so some some things that I really want to point out because as Bulldogs we talk about working hard and we talk about working together and and and as we move
010forward We are going to have to double down on working hard We're going to have to double down on working together because the work is still going to continue no matter. What's happening outside and And you know my father used to set used to tell me or always tells me that that it's always the water right on the inside of the boat that sinks it and So as we we talk about the things going forward We talk about the things going forward We're gonna have to make sure that we stick together as a team because there's always seems to be a storm brewing on the outside Especially when you talk about urban education So what we can control is what happens inside our ship and we need to continue to work on that We all
011need to to look at each other and speak our truth and it's going to be really important For us to listen for understanding And then our community we're going to have to really pull together because it's clear based on what's happening to district like districts like ours Especially to us when you look at some of the funding cuts That happen across the state with 600 plus district with our district having the fourth highest cut when it comes to one source of funding Um that if we don't do this together as a community, no one is going to be there for us So taking taking this journey back in 2020 Before I was hired the district went out for a levy to get new money in 2020 That levy was passed by the community and as
012a part of that effort the district Made commitments to making cuts being fiscally responsible and living within our means The the next school year we spent a year that 2021 we spent a year working As an organization looking at how we do business making a plan to consolidate schools to to Um make sure that we can live with within the the money that we had just received from our taxpayers And and during that whole time we talked about how state funds urban schools and have been very honest to say that During some administrations they like urban schools and they fund us and we see our cash balances grow Over time and then there becomes a new budget and they cut us and we see our cash balances decline over time and our goal Moving forward
013as an organization was to make sure that on the time during those years when things were going well That we were able to put money away so that when the rainy day came We were able to ride the storm long enough So someone got an office in columbus to change it so that we can begin stacking money away Never in my time in education that I think we would be attacked For being fiscally responsible and putting money away in a rainy day fund Because of covid money, which we received almost a hundred million dollars worth that we used Responsibly in a manner so that we did not face what was called the covid funding cliff That we were able to ride past that and we were able to save in 2024 or five I think
01441 million dollars at the end of our year fast forward to the forecast that mr. Gruber gave you That 41 million dollars in 25. So that would have been What mr. Gruber last? So last june july end of june. We have 41 million dollars fast forward to 28 And we're 11 million dollars in the hole Um, if you look at I believe that's line 10 if you look at line 12 Where 17.1 million dollars in the hole And if you look all the way out to 30 30, there's a negative 52 million dollar budget And so you you usually when that happens it happens because your district Is spending recklessly Spending more than what they're bringing in And I can promise you that that has not been the case for us over the last Two
015years we've reduced over 70 positions here in our district And we've done that through attrition and to the staff that's in the building They've heard me say that time and time again that our enrollment is declining We have a negative number and negative numbers in our forecast Aren't new and our board members have been on the board for a while We will usually get a negative number Most likely because it's a five-year forecast and we're funded for two years at a time So no one knows what to expect After those first two years, so we usually hold revenues flat Because we don't have a funding formula in the state of ohio that we can count on So we usually see a negative number out in year five It's when that negative number creeps to year
016four that we begin to worry And so every year mr. Gruber has said you've got a negative number to deal with and We put a plan in place to make reductions and those reductions are usually three four five million dollars And we're able to get it through some type of attrition And we've been able to do that and we take you back. I take you back to november of 24 We all sat here at a board meeting beaming over a five-year forecast That people that we said was probably the healthiest forecast that we've had in a very long time I believe mr. Gruber said the best forecast he's had in his entire career here in the canton city schools Fast forward to may that year because of the talk coming out of columbus That forecast
017had a huge negative number in year five fast forward to October of 25 That negative number in year five has went from eight to nine million dollars to 52 million dollars To 32 million dollars in year four and says 17 million dollars And in year 20 and 28, which is year three Again, and that is with the district constantly making cuts in expenditures And doing everything that we said we would do when we got the levy passed in 2020 so Again, as you look at the slide that's up there for you now our red Crosses over the green so what we bring in We are spending more than what we're bringing in starting in fiscal year 25 to the tune Of 9.3 million that goes to negative 10.6 million and then balloons up to 23
018point That's a change of 23.1 million from 24. So in 24 We the the green what we brought in was above the red 25 we started deficit spending in 26 that deficit spending continues so what's going on state funding starting in In fiscal year 26, that's our current fiscal year Our we've lost targeted aid. Mr. Gruber talked about this so Our total state support is projected to decrease by 4.7 million dollars And the lion's share of that is because of our targeted assistance going from 4.4 million in 25 to zero in 26 And again in in all of my time in education i've seen districts be held flat I've never seen the state take money That they've already given to a district away And so we were well into developing our forecast for this year.
019We were ready to come and we had a negative number And then at the last minute when we got our our mr Gruber was able to get online and see how much money we're going to get as he's building his forecast That number that said 4.4 went to zero So how are you supposed to balance your books? How are you supposed to decide? What you're going to offer and what you're going to have if you don't have a consistent understanding of what your revenues are going to be So as we talked about that this summer We said that public education was under attack We spent a lot of time talking about that And we were told by a lot of folks that were whining That we're complaining I heard the Sit down get your scores
020up We're doing those things But when you decide that you're not going to fund the formula that you created And that you're not going to hold schools harmless for changes that you're making in that funding formula 4.7 million dollars is a big change And and when you think about our 130 million dollar budget like well, what's 4.4 million dollars? um When you start to take that 4.4 million dollars and then you add that to the next year Right and we're at 8.8 and then the next year it adds up pretty quickly Also going on right now is what's going on in the federal government So the federal government have made cuts to title And if you've had a chance to to look at how we're funded in the canton city school district And I always
021and I asked mr. Gruber to speak up if i'm wrong Because i'm the superintendent and they make districts hire treasurers for a reason but we We get about 70 plus percent of our funding from the state and from federal government combined so There's the lion's share of our money does not come from our local tax base And so when the state Cuts back 4.7 million dollars in one year Then you have the federal government Taking 3.2 million this fiscal year So that's 2 million less for special education That's almost a half a million dollars less for title one and 200,000 less for 21st century and for those folks watching who aren't familiar for those with those funding sources um Special education is self-explanatory, but we use that money to put aides in classrooms to help
022with our special needs students Our students with disabilities we use that money to pay for extra Special teachers, um certified special education teachers. We use it for materials and supplies for them title one Title one is money that are given to schools that had a high number of students who live in poverty But the money is for reading and math supports So the gains that we are making in reading and math Can be directly attributed to how we use those federal dollars And so we are starting to move in the right direction. We are starting to have students grow and reach state expectations, but yet We're looking at a cut of five hundred thousand dollars there and then 21st century Those are those dollars pay for students in their after school Programming to making sure
023that our students have opportunity to be involved in either enrichment activities or remediation activities Involved in something positive across the community and we've lost that as well now at the same time The same inflation that we are seeing as as individuals. We're also experiencing as a school district Um our staffing costs have gone up Um our materials and supplies continue to go up and become more expensive operations increase transportation Again, while public funding funding for public education has been decreased funding for vouchers has increased We are responsible for transporting students to charters and our students in our district to charters and non Public schools that are that are a reasonable distance away from our district That increased transportation has increased our transportation cost The majority of our bus drivers have moved from five hour employees
024to seven and eight hour employees Because not only are we running routes for our schools. We are running routes for other schools as well Um food service expenses have gone up if you haven't been to the grocery store lately Um, if you have been there lately, you know this you've seen this and there's no different for our food service program as well Our food service program used to be self-sustaining and did not touch the general funding for this year It is now dipped into the general fund And of course our energy costs have gone up as well So all those things have gone up um and at the same time we're losing Almost 10 million dollars or over 7 million dollars in funding So what does that mean for us right now? It is okay.
025You've heard me say it is okay for you to forecast a negative number out five years It is okay for you to forecast a negative number out four years But when that negative number moves into year three, then the state Starts looking at you Um And they want you to put a plan in place and they start telling you At that point in time what you're going to do now if that moves into the present year Then we got real problems and then and that's when they come in and they start managing what you do and we're not there yet But we have to have a written plan in place and the board has to approve that written plan by 12 december 21st And and that plan has two parts there's plan a and there's
026plan b plan a And it's not funny, but it makes me laugh because they want to reduce everybody's property taxes um But yet their actions are forcing us to go back to our community for money When if they just would have funded public schools, we would not be here today And and i'm saying this because they have a rainy day fund Right, we're not allowed to have one And we it's frowned upon if we save money in our savings account, but they have one And it's pretty large But it could be used to build stadiums, but i'm not gonna go down that road today But the first plan is for us to go to our taxpayers And ask our taxpayers for money Because they have so much In this time again, our taxpayers may not
027have the rainy day fund but the state does And then the next one is for us to make reductions um and so again when I talk to you and say that We know we're going to have to put a plan in place to go out for new money 16 of our funding comes from our community So we're going to be able to if the community gives us money We're going to be able to to to cut this deficit, but it's not going to fix it 16 of our funding comes from our community The rest of it comes from the state and federal government and they've made it clear that they're not going to live up to their obligations So that takes us to plan b, which means we have to make reductions and so 80
028percent 80 percent of of our expenditures Go to people We are a people organization and so You're never we're never Going to make reductions without impacting um Who we pay and how much we pay them? So that's on there Also, we're going to have to look at places we are We are still you've heard me talk about this a lot We are still operating the same number of buildings that we operated when we had 13 000 students And it's if you've been paying attention to our strategic plan Our strategic plan had in it to reduce buildings and so that needs to continue to happen and that is one of the reasons why we are Building new buildings and so that will be a part of our plan as well and and then finally things What
029we spend our money on how we spend our money on what we can spend our money on we're going to have to do that as well We are required again to put that plan in place By 1221 25 um the board for you what that means is that our board meeting in december We will bring to you the first version of that plan for your approval um At that point in time We will Go detailed through the plan Talk about what the reductions look like Um give you an opportunity to kind of ruminate on that a little bit And and then we will have to come back um later in december at a special meeting to approve that plan by the 21st and and so you know If if our five-year forecast um would have
030Look like this in may that plan would have already been together and we would have talked about it all summer um Due to the drastic changes and the things that came about in the budget the things that we tried to sound the alarm about um back in june When when we all came together at the civic center? the the things that that I I talked on the radio about the things that i've been interviewed in the paper about this is what happens when when people Make decisions that are not in the best decision best interests of their constituents so A school district that has been making slow steady slow steady daily progress Kids who've been putting the work in improving um We're going to have to take a a a drastic turn and so before
031I go into the next part of The state of the schools which I think is probably the most crucial Um, I want to give the board of education an opportunity to ask any questions about this next This financial process that we have to go through Open the table for questions Mr. Dixon, would you explain how many buses we transport and how many students in a day? That information you share with me currently we have approximately 55 buses on the road as We drive about 5 000 miles a day transport about 9 000 students Thank you, sir. That was eye-opening to me when he shared that information with me Any other questions from the board? Back to you superintendent talbert Okay so as we move forward into With these cuts here a few things that I
032I need for everybody to understand that that that one I believe um are I believe everything that we do Has to make sure that we're able to live our vision and our mission and and our kids That are in our schools Don't get a second opportunity to get an education and so as As this as the district um as educators as leaders when we look at Making financial cuts We have to make Make sure that we protect the court And we have to make sure that we are still able to offer the type of education that our families want That and that they deserve And I believe that's even more important today because there Are more options. There are more choices For our families and so if we lose sight of what Our core is
033if we lose sight Of making sure that our students have the opportunity to to be inspired to be confident become confident to become creative To become open-minded learners to have the opportunity to see what's out there for them in this world And to be able to learn the knowledge and skills so they can go out and do it then their families are going to leave us And they're going to choose other options and our financial picture will continue to to crumble Right, and then the opportunities that we will have in this community to educate our kids will go away and I believe That that has to be our mission to stop that because there are too many people who want to see that And so when we go about making these cuts, we're going to
034make them We're going to make them defiantly and we're going to protect the core And that is my promise to the board. That is my promise to the members of my team here That is the promise to the students and that's my promise to the community so you're going to hear me talk and we're going to celebrate about What we've done because we need to take time to celebrate that But also going to talk about where we're going and where we're going Is going to be tough and especially when we're talking about making cuts But I believe and again the board is going to have the opportunity to do this that if we don't improve the product we offer If we do not make our programming Attractive to folks inside our community and maybe the
035folks outside our community. We will cease to exist Because that's the plan And so we are going to have to step up our game We are not going to apologize anymore We're going to let people know that we have the unique ability to provide some programming that other districts can't And we're going to be a place people come to and not run from And that is the promise and that is the plan that I will outline outline for you today so celebrations You can see that we have two and a half stars this year And and the next slide says that we had two and a half stars last year And that we just got two and a five two point five stars this year and you can look at it But there's a difference
036in those two and a half stars The year twenty three twenty four the total number of points we had is one point six four three And this year we got one point seven five zero and there are people who say that can't city didn't make any growth We stayed the same now If you go back and you look at our twenty three twenty four report card There was this little asterisk there that says that the data there was some mistakes in the data and there were and and there was a mistake in how Ode reported our data in the literacy measure And so our two point five was actually a high two point. Oh So the two point five we got this year is an even greater jump from what we had in twenty three
037twenty four But if you look back in history you look back a report card, you'll see a two point five with an asterisk But that's the real story underneath that asterisk career tech Our career tech program received four and a half out of five stars And and and I want you to understand that that's not without a lot of work by a lot of people and that is something That really should be celebrated if i'm correct. That was an increase from a three or three and a half the year before So they jumped to four point five stars and in this there are some some programs in schools because we are career technical planning district that means any public school In the community that's receiving dollars for career tech. We're in charge of and their
038student success Falls in on our report card So there are multiple charter schools that are receiving money that we really don't control Their kids are in here too. And so we manage all of that We've done it so well that we are just a half a star away from receiving five stars in career tech So that is something that should be celebrated. And if you happen to run into any member of our career tech team Make sure you you congratulate them some of our buildings that are doing great And people are quick to tell you that we're a failing school district and and I fight back and push back on that because we're not Porter's collaborative Montessori for the second year in a row received five stars arts academy four and a half stars, I
039believe for the second year in a row Crenshaw McGregor and whirly three and a half stars cedar and steam three stars aim clared in mckinley patrick and stone two and a half stars Choices gibbs and yutz two stars and then harder. Um had 1.5 stars Something that wasn't mentioned during the course of last year every last one of our schools except for two Moved out of state oversight We are moving in the right direction All of our schools are moving We have a chart that I keep in my office And I just keep this chart to make sure we're moving in the right direction and it's like high achievement high growth And we should always be moving to the right and every year I put it up on my board I look at it I
040take a picture and I look back at the year before and everybody needs to go to the right And all of our buildings are going to the right our promise to the community is that we are going to make improvement We're going to make improvements like you make improvement in life slow steady Daily And that's what it's about right? It's about making improvement It's about getting better and that's what we're doing. That's what our teachers are doing every day That's what our support staff are living for and doing every day and that's what our students are doing every day And I want to take you back 1819 f Looking at state takeover focusing on getting a d two multiple buildings over three stars A district that's sitting at two and a half stars and was
041a couple of students away and a couple of sections of the report card for meeting state indicators All of that has happened And since 1819 because of the hard work that's been happening in in our districts and in our district and we're going to continue to do that Even though we are looking at financial hardships Some things that we need to focus on again, we're going to continue to rise our performance index how each individual student Does on their test we're going to do that by focusing on individual growth. I had the opportunity to visit harder this morning And they started off monday with something that they call pause time And that's where they group the kids and they say you're going to get some intervention based on your specific needs And myra had the
042opportunity to go with us and we were able to sit down and watch kids Doing work that was specifically designed for them to move forward And that's the type of work that it is going to take for us to continue to move Again, we're going to continue to work on gap closing and you can see there. We were two points away From getting a three and gap closing which most likely would have put us as a three We need to continue to work on our graduation rate. Our graduation rate is going in the wrong direction Um, and when you look and this is something the graduation rate as we said at our last meeting is something that we can see um As a district right now because kids already graduated We know how many of
043them graduated and so we already know that that number next year will be a tad bit lower Than what it was this year And and we understand why? And and our high schools are working to to correct that But we're going to have to make sure we pay attention to that Some of it is in our control and some of it is not in our control And then we need to increase the percentage of students proficient in third grade reading and we've done that time again time and time again Our elementary buildings are continuing to focus on that and we will continue to see that metric move in the right direction as well So what is our work for the 25 26 school year? Working on improving academic performance for all students. Okay, that is
044always going to be goal number one Um and in our district some of the things that we're what we're going to focus on This year the big place Is to work on mtss And we use a lot of acronyms in the district and mtss is multi-tiered systems of support So making sure that we're able to understand what our students need in order to be successful And that we are working to provide those individual supports for all of our students And and and that is goal one for us We will continue to work on implementing the science the science of reading We will continue to make sure that we have instructional frameworks in place That there is to ensure that there is high quality teaching and learning in every classroom Um, we are going to continue
045to look at our grading policy, especially at the upper levels to make sure that it's not something We are we are doing um that Is it I guess leading to students not being able to meet graduation targets? And again, you can see aligning our structures to support mtss Goal two And this is all about supporting the heck out of our students We know that our students come with a lot of needs and we need to make sure that we are able to align those supports To ensure safe and and healthy schools. And so this is reducing discipline Improving attendance Something that I did not show on our report card Um, we continue to improve our chronic absenteeism moving from from upwards of 49 percent A few years ago down to I believe 33 percent or
046lower this year When it comes to large urban school districts when it comes to that We are the best and people are asking us and we continue to improve there because of partnerships partnerships We have with the prosecutor's office Partnerships, um we have with the courts And and the unique programs that we have in place For supporting our students. So what are we going to do here? um We're going to continue to to look at programs Um both during the school day and extended day to support our kids and to make sure that kids have opportunities Uh, something i'm going to talk about later is we're going to develop or next we're going to develop some pathways to help kids Find their passions and to be able to connect what's in school um To increase
047engagement and I think that's the key for us to continue lowering our our attendance rate um our chronic absenteeism and for us to um To have more kids engage and to increase our graduation rate So when I talk about these pathways Some people are going to say to me we've already tried this we've done this before and it isn't new and And it isn't it isn't new um I think we've tried it before um, I think we might have given up on it before um We should have There are multiple districts who took their lead from canton And ran with it who are doing great things and are actually doing better in some areas than we are so We're going to take another look at it And basically I think it's it's time for us
048to reimagine what education looks like Again, if we don't We're going to disappear I've been doing this almost 31 years and all 31 of those years i've heard people say school reform We've got to reform school. We've got to do school differently and In those 31 years, we haven't done it And we still teach kids the exact same way So here we are in 2025 2026 And there's a group who want to abolish public education Because I believe we've held on to ways to things far too long If we do not change how we operate and you've heard me say it a couple times In five years, we won't be here And that is the target. Am I right? Mr. Gruber five years public education Will be gone I think that the target isn't all
049public education. I think the target is urban public school and if you don't have to look far to see in other states where they're robust public school options for areas outside of the large urban centers, but in the large urban centers, they are Completely chartered organization And so again, I can't tell the future But I do a really good job of reading the the the wind and seeing what's going on in other places and it seems that What happens in some of the states to the south always tend to end up in ohio? So if we do not become the choice of our families Then we will cease to exist And so we can either sit back and allow it to happen to us Or we can create opportunities for our students and I think
050we are in a unique uniquely positioned to be able to do that So again the concept that i'm presenting and I will present this tonight We will continue to work on it For the remainder of the of the winter and spring Um and then begin implementation Next year of some of the the processes, but the basics of this program Is to transform how we provide schools and educational experience for students By implementing groundbreaking models at the lower level Helping kids identify their passions and their interests as low as seventh grade and making sure that all courses align to career Tech programming so that all of our students have a meaningful choice of how they're educated And that they have an opportunity to receive quality training in a career field that will allow them to become
051productive citizens in our community or go on to college Again, we're going to do this by aligning students experiences to their interests and their talents and their learning styles We're going to move away And so we've been so hard and i've had a principal tell me this now Wait a minute. We bought all this scripted curriculum and we have to teach to what they say and you're telling us now Mr. Talbert that we have to move away from that. I know there's teachers in here right now that are like yay Not so fast We still have to make sure that kids know the things that the state says they have to know and be able to do right, but Kids are telling us That if we don't align how we teach them to what they're
052interested in They will turn us off and the folks that stand in front of classrooms every day getting turned off know this And so we have to change that and that's what we're going to do with this This also not only will help engage students, but it will help engage our staff members, too So when staff members are able to teach about things that they are passionate about Right it enables them it encourages them to work a little harder Right because they're having fun as well And we all know because we've had teachers that have impacted us because they were passionate about what they do And all of us love a subject or a content or know our story Right because of a passionate teacher who told that story to us and that's what it's
053about for us moving forward so We currently have choice offerings, but those choice offerings are for a selected few kids Students can choose to go to the arts academy students can choose to go to aim We have students who choose to go to portage monastery We have students who choose to go to steam and we have students who choose to go to early college And and but the rest of the students Get to go to a school or they not even get they have To go to school because they can't get into those schools And I take the call for parents who don't have a choice because they didn't register soon enough Or their kids didn't meet the requirement And so moving forward Every kid when they hit seventh grade will have the opportunity to
054make a meaningful choice In how they're educated So that means all of our schools Will be choice school And so, how are we going to do that? We're going to create three pathways and we're going to build these pathways actually five pathways, but three of them are new here in the red These pathways are going to be built off. These three are going to be built off of choice schools that we already have And and so one creativity pathway again, we have an arts academy. It is a very popular school You saw earlier has four and a half stars And we are working with them to reimagine what the arts academy can look like but arts academy stops now at sixth grade It used to stop eighth grade, but some bad superintendent came in here
055with a plan that made it stop the sixth grade Gosh should be ran out of here. But the Again, there are limited opportunities for students We believe that this creativity pathway should not stop at the sixth grade that that creativity pathway should continue all the way up through And we will describe what that looks like we have A discovery school a design school that school is called steam It is a state approved steam high school middle school The problem with that is that doesn't start at kindergarten. It starts at fourth grade and once you leave steam There is no opportunity to continue that type of focused problem-based learning anywhere else in the district And so by implementing this plan We will continue that all the way up through and we're even looking at turning one
056of our elementary schools into a stem school as well And then the third pathway leadership and service again, we have We have our portis collaborative Montessori school Which is designed for students to work at their own pace and to learn on their own and it has a lot of this leadership And service built into it. But again after sixth grade there It kind of goes away now Hey, all of these things are built into our core curriculum But we have students and we have staff whose interests Passions and beliefs may be aligned to this Early college will also continue to be a pathway. It is a very Successful pathway in our district and i'm going to tell you why it's been successful It's been successful because there's been a group of people who've worked together
057to build it They've built it they stay together and they protect it. And so when we go through building this process While I am telling you this is the way we're moving The pathways are going to be built from the people who are going to have to live them And someone asked me they're like, well, you just said you've been in education for almost 31 years. Mr Talbert What's going to happen when you walk away from this and this is just going to go in the trash and I go Won't go in the trash if it's built from the people sitting behind If they build it and they take ownership of it, then they will fight for it I dare a superintendent to come into canton city school and take away early college To completely
058take away the arts and completely take away steam And I will probably get a call to come out of retirement when that happens Because these schools have been around for a long time and that people are invested in them And that's how we're going to go around go about building these pathway schools So I'm a parent. I don't understand How do you want me to make a choice so young for my students? It's real simple. You have a kid who walks around the house every day and sings They're drawing whether it's on paper or on your wall with permanent marker Right. They you got a kid who takes a box and that box turns into an airplane one minute and it's a car the next minute Right. That's a kid that may be creative in
059mind in nature and then you might guide that kid into the creativity pathway Discovery and design you got the kid who's always taking things apart because they think they can fix it I have some of those kids in my house kids who really want to know how things work That's a kid that you want to send to the discovery and design pathway Leadership and service. We all know who these kids are you got that social butterfly The kid that's always raising their hand to lead the person who's always organizing kids in the in the group The kid who's always the captain of the team We know who those kids are and we can see it in them as early I believe As early as the upper elementary school grades And so what ends up happening
060is we force all those kids to general classrooms and we ask them to leave that part of themselves alone And every once in a while they get an activity that peaks that curiosity And when we are able to do that, we see those kids again our early college pathway Um, it is set it starts in the seventh grade But under this when kids are making a meaningful choice The likelihood of kids going into early college pathway for the wrong reasons And not wanting to do college early Which is a different situation Right doing college at the same time as you're doing high school Is different and it's not for every kid, but we have kids making that choice For the wrong reason so by creating more opportunities for students and and exposing them to it
061earlier and then educational opportunities Different programming's um, we like sometimes we use that term alternative, but I don't want to use that word anymore I want to use options for our families some of our students have to work full-time jobs They can't come to school early in the morning Some of our students need to graduate early and need to move on their own on their own pace Um, some of our students make missteps during school During school that may have to have them removed from school for a point of time We need to make sure that even though we're in his budget cuts. We have options for all of those students again We need to be the choice For families in this community and again the place that people run to The purpose again for
062all of this is to make sure that all of our students Right are empowered because we are aligning academic experience to their unique interests talents and learning styles so K through six Our k through six buildings will adopt instructional frameworks And the reason why we want to do this Again, we we talk about you saw on an earlier slide Universal design for learning and all the instructional strategies that we want to put in place Um by adopting and I believe this by adopting proven models that include these Bringing them in and helping them train us and how to use them in a manner that fits what we want to do Makes those frameworks or make those strategies stick in buildings and we've already had some people out to visit some of these places And we're
063going to adopt research-based instructional frameworks across our k to six buildings our stem elementary and Will will adopt the ohio stem learning network This is also the the network or the the framework that steam has adopted over time And I believe steam had three stars this year And the steam model steam steam school at harford is always full And and parents are signing up to go there So we will take this and one of our k to six elementary moving forward will will work to to be to obtain State of ohio stem school and become an elementary problem-based learning school The other k to six buildings that we have in place will adopt the international baccalaureate program Um, they will drop and they will adopt the primary years program um again The ib model is
064the inquiry based transdisciplinary approach for lifelong learning critical thinking um It instills in the kids a love of learning Um, and so when you look at all those qualities that are there below that slide It kind of looks like our profile of a graduate and if you go back to the slide for project-based learning Those things kind of look the same there And the reason for that is it's no matter where you go to elementary school You are learning the same skills because those are the skills that you need to possess In order to be successful in this world and to be ready when you hit seventh grade And then we are also working with our arts academy and we've had multiple meetings with them We've had them out visiting schools and they will also
065adopt the framework and the model and they will also get back To doing the things that they've always done and so they've been very open with me in conversations They've been very open with the things that they believe we need to do and bring back and we'll continue to work with them so k through six Students are going to be learning whether it's the ib model whether it's the ohio stem learning network whether they're in an art school They're all going to be learning and living up and then learning the skills that are going to help make them Ready for graduation by developing our bulldog profile of a graduate in the seventh grade students are going to get an opportunity to make a choice into which pathway they want to go into And whether they
066want to if i'm in the arts academy and I want to continue into the arts pathway I can make that decision to go into that pathway If i'm at steam and I want to continue into discovery pathway, I can continue that pathway Or I can pick the leadership and service pathway Our middle schools will house these pathways Also our high school will have the three teams at mckinley will pick one of the three Pathways the pathways will always all of them will have career tech programs embedded in them and so when we think about A student who says i'm picking the creativity pathway I'm picking it because that's how I learn best So the english teacher the social studies teacher the science teacher that team of teachers understand that and so when they design lessons
067They will design lessons that that work for that the learning style of that students They will design interdisciplinary lessons that work with those students inside that team Those students will have exposure to career tech programs that are aligned to Their their interest or their particular learning style Why do we do that? One we are required by state law to provide career tech instruction at the middle school This will allow us to reduce duplication, especially when we're looking At having to make budget cuts that the ability to create first class labs In all of our middle school buildings is something we're probably not going to feasibly be able to do but to create them And and and certain middle schools aligned to that middle school's pathway will allow us to do that Students will be able
068to make that decision. We will start students as early as fourth and fifth grade looking at that We will do this and provide opportunities for field trips for visits For students for them to start talking about their interests with employers and learn about jobs as early as the fifth and sixth grade So that they can make an informed decision Students will be able to move in between these at particular times again The content that we're teaching them Is the same across the board the standards and expectations are the same across the board So students will be able to move between them. So why are we doing this? one It is important for students to as they move through high school to understand who they are and develop that But also it's we need to make
069sure that students are getting an opportunity to see what careers are out there out there for them earlier And and so if we're able to get students to say hey, I really like to I really like to see how things work What careers are out there for me? That allowed me to use my hand allow me to explore things allow me to fix things And so I choose steam and at steam as a seventh grader There will be multiple career tech options there for them. They will get to go through those in the seventh grade Probably most of them in the eighth grade that student would narrow that down to just a few And they'll get to experience that in the ninth grade and currently in the ninth grade our students Get a break in
070career tech And they don't get to do it until they get to 10 And then that's when we see usually 10th and 11th grade. We start to see the decline in our enrollment Because kids aren't connected to the high school So we hope that by making sure that kids get a chance to look at jobs and opportunities And to learn in a manner that is that that talks to them or speaks to them That we won't lose kids in the 10th grade anymore and that our graduation weight will continue to grow for teachers I get to align my passion to how I teach and so if I am a former speech and debate person or english person or a person that was in drama and and I believe that I need to be a part
071of the creative pathway And I believe that I can work with a social studies teacher to design great lessons to encourage kids That's going to encourage me to want to do that Um for employers in this community all I hear is that we're not preparing students And that students aren't ready for the world. And so when you think about the number of kids Juniors and seniors only Over a thousand are able to get into career tech programs That's not nearly enough And so we want to make sure that every student has an opportunity to be trained in a career Whether they're going to go to college right away or not Because the new way of going to college is going part-time and working your way through it And so we want to make sure that
072students are able to be gainfully employed whether they're going to college Um right away whether they're going to the military or they're wanting to go right out to the workforce Parents we want our parents to have the confidence to know no matter where you go in the canton city school district You're going to get a quality education Your kids can have the opportunity to learn the manner that they learn best And for the greater community if we're able to get kids to graduate from here with a high quality education Train to do something that will benefit this community And and we're working right now We're working with partners to to to build programming Will impact our employees right now for folks who've lived for a while I'm talking about the old timken building where the
073timken company used to come in and go into the classes and pick Walk them right into the timken plant. We have some programming going on We have welding students who are actually learning well on site with other employees who want to do the same thing and Again, we are uniquely positioned as a district Anyone else in star county so That and move forward with that and be the place for parent students to meet the needs of employers be that parents see as value-added student change To a place where people want to and not from And go three aligning systems structures To support high quality and teaching and learning And to talk about that i'm going to pass the mic to mr systems instruction Thank you I don't think I can advance. Yep. So what you
074see in front of you is our current gray banner building configurations Pre-k building K3 buildings for six buildings We do have k6 buildings currently Seven and eight building and a four eight building seven twelve and also nine twelve buildings our proposal next slide proposal for next school year We will maintain and continue pre-k building at the early learning center at shriver We will start additional k6 buildings Continue our seven eight building at crenshaw four eight building at steam academy at heartford seven twelve Buildings early college and nine twelve buildings as well next slide So the start next fall 26 27 next school year again the early learning school at shriver will remain k6 buildings will Be at this time aim at belden arts academy at summit patrick elementary our portage collaborative monastery Timken elementary which
075is new at the former mason site and yutz elementary as well The k3 buildings Gibbs you see there will be a k4 because it will naturally progress into a k6 every year as the as the students get older cedar elementary harter will remain k3 buildings for next year Excuse me and the intermediate buildings will remain claredon and mcgregor for next year as well because you don't what you don't see On there is lincoln elementary At the former sour site we're approximately and i'll get into that in a minute a few months behind on building That project as well You get advanced to the next slide What you see in front of you is current well they move so fast that the current building pictures These are a couple weeks old at this point Again, the
076new timken elementary school at the former mason site the amount of people that tell me that I think we're going to cause an accident somebody getting on route 62 that looks on the on ramp and looks over the side to see This new building is progressing Very very fast and and on target and on track for completion to be open the fall 26 My hope is that we can coexist by may at the latest june Turnover occupancy to us so that we can get Bellstone and whirly moved into the new timken Elementary again a couple highlights from the beginning. These will have full production kitchens You see the cutout kind of in the top left square. That would be a full inclusion playground Approximately ninety five thousand square feet in totality for the building itself
077And k to six obviously a building with an enrollment of proposed 500 students also top left you'll see The gymnasium and a little appendage kind of that goes off to the left of the gymnasium It will be our new softball indoor hitting and throw throwing facility that will pair up You know, obviously very nicely to their new home and their turf field Also on this site as well so next slide So this is the new lincoln elementary school at the former soursite And again, these pictures are a couple weeks old because happy to say we're out of the ground You see a trench being dug there to pour footers, you know footers are done And we've got the majority of the gym walls up some parts of the cafeteria Of part a and b already
078out of the ground at lincoln as well As I mentioned, we're approximately four months behind on building. We did make a design change At the 11th hour on this building that design change will allow us for more parking more green space and to Enclose as we did at the timken elementary the playground for the safety purposes Again, this building will have a full inclusion playground production kitchen and this building is approximately 110,000 square feet two stories and will house approximately 700 k to six students and so the the hope is that I don't think that we're going to make our 2026 or fall 26 opening deadline so it looks as if the building will be completed probably the first of the year january februaryish of 2027 so we will look at a fall of 27
079opening for this new building next slide building attendance boundaries, so currently We do have a software in a program. We are looking at our current attendance boundaries and we will bring Recommendation our hope is to bring a recommendation for any changes or new boundaries to the board for our december board meeting These new boundaries are what we're taking You know largely into consideration will be building capacity, you know, as we've mentioned in the past We have many buildings that are well below Threshold for capacity. So we're looking at the 80 plus percent capacity for all of our buildings Transportation as we bus currently all over the city You know, hopefully with new some new attendance boundaries that will reduce some of our transportation costs and expenses And then the last one is walkable safe routes
080to school We do have a grant that we approved with the city of Canton with the safe routes to school So we're excited with the Gibbs Yutz and Crenshaw those buildings will be affected by that grant funding But all of our buildings were in looking at our attendance boundaries Do do our students have to cross busy busy roads and busy intersections? And can we help and make changes in that way as well? So Again, those those changes will be brought to you at our December board meeting and so finishing up goal number three when we talk about Making our place or making our school district a place that that our community Wants in the district that our community deserves We have to make sure that we're able to compute it communicate with our community That
081we're asking them to come in and join us and that was something that one of our parent meetings last year in community meetings We heard loud and clear and so this was added to our strategic plan and we are well on our way to doing that this year Using multiple tools to and to improve communications To improve our community events and we've done that through surveys with parents And and we've also done that by now having some parent advisory groups Some of them will meet next week And and sitting down and having real conversation with with our families to see what their wants and needs are Our goal is to make sure that they understand that we are hearing them and we are listening to them and that they feel Welcome in our schools and
082and and that is is very important right now based on where we are again We have to make sure that when it comes to choosing how you're educated Inside the city of Canton that we are your choice and and so everything that we're doing here is about Improving that communication with our families So there is absolutely zero doubt when it comes to choosing where your kids are going to go to school so as We move forward if I can't sit here and tell you that The that the next few months are going to be easy we've got Difficult work ahead of us and especially this Board of Education when we we have to Make tough choices as as we move forward But I think as we do that we have to be focused on our
083mission and And and we have to be focused on the results that we need to get for our students again as I said earlier The students that are in our building do not get another chance at an education Second graders cannot do second grade over again. They can but we don't want them to This is their one year to do that And so we need to make sure that currently we are living in the moment and we are working with our students To make slow and steady and daily progress We will continue our Work on being fiscally responsible as mr. Dixon talked to you about we're building new buildings. Those buildings are larger We said many years ago that we will close buildings as a result of that so we will look at consolidating buildings
084and And continue to do that some of that consolidation may have to happen sooner rather than later And that is something that we will look at in a plan We will continue to look for efficiencies and how we operate and we will continue to do that We've been doing that since 2020 we will continue to try to reduce through attrition as much as we can and get again we Reduced over 70 positions the last two years through attrition and we will continue to look for every opportunity to do that For our staff in the room and for our staff watching this video at home. This isn't the best news I Went into education to educate students. I landed in administration This is the worst type of news that I have to ever Give but we
085have to keep rowing this boat forward this year It is imperative that we achieve our goal of getting a three and I've said to this staff over and over again I've been in Columbus and We've been told Don't talk to us until you meet state standards We have to meet state standards Because we have to be in a room we are blessed to have board members who have been politically active and who are talking to our Representatives and are stating our case and they've been in our district our treasurer has sat with them and talked with them and they've been in our district and Actually, one of them gave us kudos that said we've made improvement and that is great and they continue They need to get to three and then right after she said
086that and she goes she needs to tell the taxpayers Why they have 42 million dollars in the bank? I believe that's what the article said and my answer to her is we had 42 million dollars in the bank now, we're broke thanks to you and your friends So we are going to Because we have to keep Moving forward and what we said we were going to do my promise is to the staff and to this board is As superintendent, I will continue to fight as superintendent I promise to make sure that the main thing maintain stays the main thing I promise to make sure that we're going to provide every student in the city of Canton the best education that they can possibly have Because it's what they want and it's what they deserve We
087will we will make these cuts because we have to It's not because we want to do but we will do it in a way to protect our instructional core We will be transparent and how we do it for as much as we possibly can I Hope that we've built that trust Not only with the folks who are on our team over the last Almost over five years now. We're in year six That you will trust us to do that and to be open and honest with you We will be back in December at that board meeting to present that plan as That's the first step in this And then we will take comments and take questions And if at that point in time we need to make tweaks will meet make tweaks and then we
088will bring the final version of that written plan To be put in place for the board to adopt Be some time before that 21st that week. I think the 21st is a Friday. So sometime during that week. So stay tuned To those folks walking watching at home if you don't like the stuff that you're hearing I tell you to get involved Get involved understand what's happening bad policy bad policy hat they have impacts and We've been talking about this for years and now it's here it is not only impacting the Kansas City School District is impacting districts all over the state of Ohio and And good people need to stand up and say and support public education That concludes my state of the schools and I'll turn it over to the board if you have
089any questions I'll open the floor for questions Miss Watkins, I have a question about pathways so students are going to have choices of Which pathway they want to follow and you said teachers will also how was that going to look for teachers? Because if you look, you know steam has its teachers everybody has teachers in those middle schools But if you have a great talent and that's where you want to go. How do you go about doing it? Are you going to shuffle teachers? Push people out the way what's gonna look like so board member Watkins You always are light years ahead of where we are Right but We will develop a plan on how folks will have choice and as educators of where they want to be but looking at our Every year we
090our staff has an opportunity to tell us Right where they want to be and we're going to continue to have that option And so as we get clearer on developing what these pathways are going to look like and what they're going to look like in each Individual school because we're not there yet right right now we're like hey, we're gonna have three pathways and because Talbert said they're going to be Creativity discovery design and leadership and not leadership and society Now we're going to turn it over to people who are actually closer to the field to make those decisions And so they're going to line that up And we believe what we want to do is start at the high school level to say, okay This team will be creativity. This team will be leadership
091and service and this team will be Discovery and design and then they're going to begin to look at then the career tech department is going to say, okay Where do our programs fit so then they're going to align their programs to each one of those places Then we'll go down and say, okay How do we build those programs at the middles and which ones need to be at the middles? at that point in time once we do that then we'll start saying okay, let's develop courses and We'll bring teams together to start developing courses. And so that's when we'll put this the step in place for teachers So then I think your other part of the question was choices The choices that choices is a as an educational option pathway that We've the choice of
092students will have Opportunities inside of choices to take career tech programs. They will have access to all areas of career tech They won't necessarily be in the inside that creativity pathway or a discovery pathway They're their own pathway because they're a different type of school sort of like early college early college different way of doing business And and as a student you need to understand what you're signing up for when you go to early college and so We talk about that a lot we talk about that we sometimes have students get into those programs that aren't really equipped to do that and And so the same thing is going to be about choices is that yes will choices students have opportunity to take career tech Yes, the reason why they're located in the building they
093are is because we want them close to career tech programs Well, they have an opportunity to take all the career tech programs that the student the pathways are in yes But they're their own individual path. I hope that answers your question That's good, but I just want to say something on behalf of teachers because I'm a formal one the anxiety and the chatter has begun now as far as what the future is going to look like for them and will they have a voice in shaping what this new model is because they're the ones who are going to be the ones who make it work this and so if you heard me earlier on that Anything that is pushed down from me as Talbert's idea goes out the door when Talbert leads, right? And so
094the very important part of this is Here's the structure right how it is aligned in the buildings and how the courses are developed and where the course is set up all building base right and and The the all I ask is that we develop a model and we stay true to the model and again I think that we have proven Programs that have been built that way and and that's what we're that's what we're going to do We're going to do this very slowly and I said at the elementary level Mr. Candle he's been in the Arts Academy and he's talked to the arts teachers and we've got Information from them on what they believe needs to happen on our next PD day, which I believe tomorrow We're going to go back and revisit with
095them and we're going to say is this what you told us and then we're going to Take that and come back and build some more with them. We've been we've met with aim multiple times We've done aim parent surveys. We're going to take that information that we get from them And we're going to use that to build it again It has to be built from those folks moving up if it's going to be sustainable So great great comment and know that we are going to do it that way Thank you. I think I think it's exciting and I'm happy to be a part of it and I'm happy that I do have questions And the voice that you need to give good answers to so we can make sure that our teachers and staff are
096being Properly addressed. Thank you Thank you, miss walkins any other questions from the board. Mr. President. Mr. Komitsky. It's hard to have questions at this point because There's So much in the outline and so few specifics yet Considering what we've accomplished over the last five years. I have I have great confidence that we'll we'll see a challenging but but Hopeful plan in December. That's it. Thank you, sir. Any other questions or comments with this brown? The Development of this will include parents to toward the end Are you going to include them in the actual planning or you're just going to present it to them to the side? Where there's how how the plan? Our parents how our parents going to be involved in the planning Are and our parents going to be involved in the
097so in the in the schools that are looking at? Reimagining themselves, especially our elementaries. We have reached out to parents to kind of say hey, how do you like what's going on now? And how would you if we are looking at changing that? What are you thinking about the changes that we're discussing? So we've done some of that the the the other pieces I think we need to put a little more meat on the bones before we present it because it right now it's just at that conceptual level and and so Parents are going to ask some of the deeper questions And if we can't answer those deeper questions are going to walk away a little more confused So I think that we need to put a little more meat on this and and so
098we're just at the beginning of hey The three high school the three teams at the high school is going to align We're going to align for tech once we're able to talk about that and we're able to say then we can go to parents and say What do you think of this? What what what's good about this? What's bad about this? If you could change one thing how would you change it and and I think once we get to that point and and I would Think that that's more of a spring Conversation for it for this the goal Is for new courses new courses Aligned to this program will not be introduced until next fall So we're not this is not something that we're gonna walk out of here today We're gonna go to work
099and we're gonna open up schools and do it if that's it's not gonna happen that way So we're gonna talk about this for the remainder of this year And then next year we'll start and we'll have some courses to bring to you and then in the winter of next year Kids going to the seventh grade and maybe kids go into the ninth grade We'll have an opportunity to make that choice And so we still got some work to do but once we get a little more meat on that framework Then we'll be able to go out to parents and say this is a little more concrete now Tell us what you think and then we'll go tweak it from there, but that's a great question. Yeah This walk is back to you. Thank you, Jeff
100I just want to say this to and I've said this to you before that when people ask me like what kind of qualities you have as a superintendent that I like and I I do love your foresight and The vision you're such a visionary where regardless of what obstacle comes along You always can see ahead and see the positive light and I greatly appreciate that about you And I love your energy. It's kind of like when bad things are said or happen You get this burst of energy That's really like so exciting to watch Because you're never discouraged if you are you never show it and I just want to say that I appreciate you And I'm happy to be a part of the team that you serve on because you're making this time that
101is so unstable So exciting and it's like it's going to be a wonderful ride that we're going to win And I just want to say I thank you for that and I appreciate you Well, thank you for those kind words and it's because I eat cheeseburgers with bacon every day No, but the reason why I think I'm able to stay so calm is because of the team that I have around me and the team that we have here both Administrators the teaching staff are dedicated professionals who work their tail off So I'm allowed to be a visionary and and I think that that's Something that for me right has been great about coming back here. I Was born and raised here. I was taught to be an educator here So I trust the people and
102so I can get out of the way and let them do their work And that allows me to be a visionary and to be out fighting so thank you for seeing that And but the reason why we're I'm able to do that and lead this way is the people that we have around us And so I'm committed to fighting for them and making sure that we're able to continue this good work Thank You superintendent Talbert, will we run along the agenda do we have anyone signed up for hearing of the public No, we did not this evening. Okay, right back to you Jeff for the treasurer's report superintendent. Excuse me treasurer Gruber Yes, mr. President I'd like to recommend that the Board of Education approve items one through four in the treasurer's report With item
103number one being a list of donations, which the district greatly appreciates Item number two is approving the September 30th, 2025 financial report Item number three is a list of permanent transfers and the last one is a budgetary amendment to the amount of money we Anticipated receiving in the general fund has to be adjusted down due to Circumstances out of our control so move Second any questions or comments from the board? hearing none roll call vote Mr. Nolte Miss Watkins, mr. Kaminsky. Aye. This is brown. Aye. Mr. Ross. Aye To superintendent over mr. President recommend the Board of Education approve Section a human resources certified staff, which tonight includes retirements and resignation leave of absences Appoints appointments and adjustments so move Second any questions or comments from the board hearing none roll call vote Mr. Nolte
104is Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. This is brown. Aye. Mr. Ross. Aye Mr. President, I recommend that the board approve education Board of Education approved section be human resources classified staff, which tonight includes retirements and resignations Leave of absence appointments and adjustments for our classified staff. So move Second any questions or comments from the board hearing none roll call vote Mr. Nolte is Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. This is brown. Aye. Mr. Ross. Aye Can we go back to item 5 under Section a human resources class certified staff Item number five. I like to recommend the Board of Education authorize approval for a three-year contract for Mary Jo Slick at the in-house legal council effective November 4th, 2025 So move. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? Mr. President, mr. Nolte Mary Jo might be the
105only other person in this room that has more time than me sitting around here If we're hiring her What is the county providing to us because that was her job? That's a great. That's a great question But you know, I'm not very smart. So help me So what we what we get from the county other than legal services right now One they they house our student information system they They provide support to our networking folks They also provide support for some software There they they are the organization that does and houses and manage the state support team that that comes in And provide some academic support Especially for our our two buildings that are still under state oversight they provide transportation support when we have questions about Some of these rules and then policies and
106procedures that seem to change every day They provide that technical assistance when we have to fill out Fill out Reports about how many students we have riding and The where our buses are as far as age and those things like that So when we apply for funding that we get all the funding We deserve They they are the ones That that help us with some cooperative purchasing But I could tell you that for us the the lion's share the bang of for the buck that we got as a district Came from the essentially free legal service we were able to get From a from a school lawyer that's been around for quite a long time and And and that service not being available for us Is something that is so important that I brought it
107to you immediately Because that is something that we can't afford I believe when I was hired we were looking at it every day eight hundred thousand dollar bill that we were able to Get down to around two hundred thousand before things happened and another that made us go a different way But the that is something that we can't afford to have that go back up because that is money That is being taken directly away from from educating students. So that's why we're we're going to in-house legal counsel The the cheapest wouldn't been able to spine Legal services has been about two hundred and seventy dollars an hour And that's because mary joan negotiated If if she didn't negotiate that rate because of her relationships We'd be paying upwards of four hundred dollars and we do
108have an attorney that right now is nine hundred dollars for the call So as soon as they pick up the phone, it's nine hundred Dolls And then when you send them something in the email Nine hundred dollars and then you take all the time that they they spend working on a project for you So this is really important that we're able to do this and to get this Get so much experience for such a discount from from I think one of the best in the business Well, I appreciate you taking the time to explain that Uh But i'll just close by saying this might be a paul harvey moment So the rest of the story will come out but welcome mary joe And appreciate your candor and your diligence and making sure we're protected. So,
109thank you Thank you. Mr. Rinaldi any other questions for the board? hearing none roll call vote Mr. Rinaldi. Aye Mrs. Watkins Mr. Kaminsky. Aye Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Ross. Aye Moving on to education service report Mr. President I recommend at the board of education Approved section c education service report item one is the approval of an overnight field trip so move Second any questions or comments from the board? Just hope the government's open by then so our students can enjoy the washington dcs roll call vote Mr. Rinaldi Aye. Mrs. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Ross. Aye Mr. President I recommend at the board of education approved section c education service report item number two. It's our plus 22 graduates so move Second any questions or comments from the board? Congratulations to
110the recipients of these awards roll call vote Mr. Rinaldi. Aye. Mrs. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown Mr. Ross. Aye Mr. President, I'd like to turn it over to Our chief academic officer elena monahan for presentations of our new course proposals for the 26 27 school year Today, she will just be presenting them to you. They will return in december for your approval All right. Good evening board president vice president and members superintendent assistant superintendent and treasurer gruber So excited to be able to share with you the new course proposals that we Are proposing for you to vote on in december I just want to tie this into superintendent talbert's Presentation earlier because a lot of these these courses that are coming to you are actually Thought of by teachers back in the middle
111schools in the high schools Vetted by principals vetted by ed services and then approved by superintendent talbert then awaiting your approval So and the other thing that I want you to Hopefully that you'll see is that these courses many of them align to the pathways that we Are looking to create and and grow over the next few years So I will keep this brief I don't want to bore you with reading everything to you But there are three components here to these course proposals the first of which is just name changes to existing courses to align with Just to make sure that things are aligned within our course our course registration guides The other thing is courses that were previously offered so technically they're already approved But we wanted to make sure that you knew
112that those courses were coming back and so that they were kind of hidden over the last Few years and they're coming back and finally our new course offerings So the first list of courses I have for you are those that are currently offered But the names of the courses are changing for various reasons Most of them are simply because of career tech or because of AP So we are offering fundamentals of theater formerly performing arts fundamentals of dance and broadcast media And you can see their former names there and then the high school courses a lot of our AP courses have changed their names So we will now have AP drawing instead of AP studio art AP 3d art and design AP 2d art and design and the KSU research and writing course was formerly
113known as College writing to and that's just to keep everything in alignment So the next courses that we have are the courses that were previously offered but have been omitted from scheduling But now we're we're hoping to be able to put those back on the books and so those courses I'll go over those briefly as well Personal finance is if you see SSC that means Stark State College So these are courses that are more than likely offered at Stark State or they could be college credit plus courses But personal finance is one of those the beauty of this course is that it is a financial literacy Component that we're required to offer to our students so students can get college credit as well as high school credit for that course The next course is programming
114Programming logic and problem-solving which would have been a course I would have enjoyed back in the day This course aligns with the associate of art or science pathways for early college So that's a course that just as it sounds it's about problem solving and logic Next we have offered C plus plus and I don't know if I'm saying that right but C plus plus programming This course is a course that is about software engineering concepts this aligns with the computer science pathway that we have at early college high school as Well as the the next one which is our Java programming and that is about creating and executing Java programs and applying sequential conditional and Repetitive logic practices, so I don't know what that means But our students are much smarter than I am and
115they'll be learning about those things But the beauty of this is it aligns to our computer science pathway Okay, so our new course offerings These are coming to us from teachers in the middle schools in the high schools And again, like I said approved by their principals and their BLT also So it's a it's a combined effort comes through Ed services and ends with the superintendent and then ultimately the board So the first course offering these are our middle school ones. We are going to hopefully offer electrical systems and small motors This is a career tech course that will be an exploratory course offered to our seventh and eighth grade students And this would align with the CTE mechanical electrical and plumbing pathways The next course is a code and build course Again, it is
116a CTE course that is allowing for seventh and eighth graders to begin exploring their career tech pathways and possibilities for the future The beauty of this course is it crosses many pathways it crosses engineering informational technology Manufacturing and computer science. So it's a course that we get a big bang for our buck allowing our students to explore these these options and Determine if that's a pathway they wish to choose the next courses are Exploratory core courses not necessarily aligned to career tech But more to just the expose that we offer at our middle schools Ceramics just gives it a title We currently do pottery. We do clay we do 3d art But this is a course completely dedicated to that So students would be able to sign up to that if that's something that they
117find interest in The next one. Yeah, I know you all have seen our beautiful and amazing steel drums Performance group that we have at the high school we want to take that down to the middle schools and so this would be a course that our middle school students would be able to participate in and Start learning how to play those steel drums even earlier, which is great So now we move into our high school courses a lot of these are you'll see SSC in front of them and just to remind you that is Stark State College courses So the entrepreneurship class is just that it's part of the business management pathway It would be an offering that would allow our students to start to explore That work as part of their their coursework at early
118college or perhaps even as a college credit plus course Basic AutoCAD this course also new course being offered So it ties to the associate's degree of science Also within civil engineering electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. So this would be a great pathway even for students who are pursuing that in their future business administration also for the business Associates degree this would be a course that we would offer for them And then the last two courses three courses that I have to offer do deal with career tech The first is fundamentals of hair cutting and styling We currently have cosmetology offered to our students in the 11th and the 12th grade What we don't have is an exploratory class for our 10th grade students to go and see if they want to do cosmetology So this
119is expanding our cosmetology program for an exploratory year We would offer this to our 10th grade students and they can kind of get their hands in and start really doing a little bit of trimming and a little bit of wet styling and Start it early to see if that's the path they wish to do The next course also an introduction to media arts You all know our beautiful broadcast media program that has done tremendous things We do not have an exploratory class for that. So this is our opportunity to add that to our Opportunities for our students in 10th grade to allow them to see if that is a pathway that they would like to choose The last it's not really a course But the last pathway that we're exploring is the teaching professions pathway
120So currently in CareerTech, we do not have a teachings teaching professions pathway We are exploring this what this does is with your approval in December This will allow us to explore that and to bring this back as a pathway for our students And for us to apply to to make this a pathway in Kansas City schools But we wanted to make sure that we brought it to you first before we really do start pursuing that So those are all of our courses in a nutshell As you can see I am excited that so much of this work aligns to the pathways that superintendent Talbert talked to you about Good things are happening and our teachers are starting to embrace All these ways to get our students to learn in in ways that are particular just
121to them So any questions? I'll open it up to the floor Miss Watkins, I just want to say thank you and this is an exciting time for our students where they now can begin to make choices at a young age and Be able to get the type of education that they're interested in and I think that It's going to really help them in life because a lot of them say I'm not learning anything about what I'm going to do When I grow up, so I think that giving them a voice and a choice Is going to be something that's going to be wonderful for them And I think it's going to really improve our scores and our graduation rate as you excel things that you love Thank you. Thank you and if I could add
122to that we actually a lot of these courses came from student interest surveys and Finding that students do have interest in these Allow the teachers to say hey, let's offer it. So thank you when they do better when they own it for sure your choice You know Any other questions from the board? Thank you. Thank you Moving on to operations report this evening. Mr. President. I recommend at the Board of Education approved section D item number one a resolution declaring the impractical transportation and to offer a payment in lieu of transportation for some students so Any questions or comments? Hearing none roll call vote Mr. Nolte, I miss Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. All right, this is brow. Hi. Mr. Ross. Hi Mr. President, I recommend at the Board of Education approved items number two and three
123under operations report which are in advertising agreements for CSC Federal Credit Union and AEP for athletics advertising so move second any questions or comments hearing none roll call vote Mr. Nolte, I miss Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. Hi, this is brow. Hi, Mr. Ross. Hi Moving on the superintendent action items Mr. President, I recommend the Board of Education Approve items number one under section E, which is the first reading of multiple board policies so Second any questions or comments? Mr. President, mr. Kaminsky. I'm glad the superintendent didn't highlight the importance of some of these we'll talk about them at another time Thank You mr. Kaminsky and any other questions from the board hearing none roll call Mr. Nolte, I miss Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. Hi, this is brow. Hi, mr. Ross. Hi Mr. President, I recommend the Board
124of Education Approve item number two, which is an amendment to the calendar for students in grades 9 through 12 on December 5th 2025 so move Second any questions or comments from the board? hearing none roll call vote Mr. Nolte, I miss Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. Hi, this is brow. Hi, mr. Ross. Hi And then finally mr. President I recommend that the Board of Education approve item number three under superintendent action items tonight, which is a resolution to amend the stadium lease with Hall of Fame bill so Second any questions or comments? Mr. President, mr. Kaminsky Mr. Superintendent Because of your diplomacy, I think We've calmed down our relationships with the Hall of Fame Village But for the most part over the past year or so, but in my six years and three months on the board
125There have been a lot of frustrations roads that have been blocked payments that have been not made on time Construction that wasn't being finished that we had to pay local contractors to finish Etc. Etc. So I look very closely at this agreement. I have a couple of questions I don't mean to be nitpicking the first comes from section one Which states in part because I'm leaving out a lot of this subordinate clauses It states in part that this board hereby confirms That further development of how a fame village is in the best interest of the board in the school district Have we or an attorney looking out for our interests ever question the need for this statement that we confirm that the development is in the interest of the school district and And if at
126some time in the future We determined that further development of the Hall of Fame Village was not in the district's best interest Would we be impaired from taking any new position having endorsed that statement? I know that's a speculative question, but Again, I'm skeptical I think that what What we start with is that? Due to the foresight I believe of the Kansas City Board of Education and the folks Putting this plan in place. We sit in a pretty strong position up on the hill because we own most of the land and and so I do think that That That and I think that we've kind of said this too if it ever gets to a point To where it is not in the best interest of the school district the students of the school district
127and the community I think we have up we have options and and as long as our rights are protected and and The things are being people they're living up to what they're supposed to do for us I think it is in the best interest for us But that could change and we've seen there have been times when they haven't lived up to that and And we had to either one refuse to sign documents to hold back some payments and to make sure that they live up to what they're supposed to do and We you're right things have been better over the last year. I think mr. Dixon and his team have have worked closely with some of the folks I think that there's been some change in leadership I think that there's been some change
128in people who are running some things the youth fields are now being run by another organization And and I think that this agreement here as well Which basically takes brings another organization in who will come and take over? our lease From the hall for the stadium and we're talking about the stadium here another organization will come in They will be the main leaser on our our lease the project lease for the stadium for us And then they will turn around and lease back the property to Hall of Fame Hall of Fame Stadium and So the people who will run the day-to-day will still be the same people that we're working with but If for some reason they're not living up to what we need them to do We have another group who have a who
129have a very bested interest and making sure that they do what they're supposed to do because None of that happens if our agreement isn't lived up to Because if we say we want to take our ball and go home You can't get to the stadium because again the property we own all the land so I think that I think that again we sit in a really good position and As as of right now as we speak today It's I believe that it's in the best interest for us to continue to do this And as long as I'm here when it's not we will make sure when it's not we'll stop playing ball Okay, I have one other question. Yes. Now this comes from a summary of the agreement in non-legal language, which we We board
130members were provided with In preparation for this meeting and I didn't go back and trace it into where it was in the in the lease document but Under the heading waiver of past slash related defaults It states that CCSD agrees to waive any Defaults that may have occurred prior to the date of the consent or those that arise solely as a result of the transfer Assumption or lease back. That's again the summary language. So my question is Are we being paid regularly and currently on the land leases and is there any chance? That we are unaware of money owed us for some other reason which this agreement then would seem to erase, right? So the the the reason why that language is in there is because this is an agreement to allow them to read
131to Restructure our our lease, but it's also an estoppel. And so the estoppel is our giving the the new group Giving them our word that there's nothing old and that the lease is up to date and at the contract is up to date So that's why that language is in there is that we are saying right now That it is current and up to date and mr Gruber and I got emails and the city got emails about everything's been paid So at this point in time we are good now Their money's gonna be old to us real quick But approving this today means that they're the new group that's stepping in place of Hall of Fame Stadium Anything that's once we approve this tonight anything going forward they owe us because they they're taking all
132obligations They just don't want to be on the hook for some past obligations and we assured them by looking at everything that we are all up to Date and ready to go right now. Okay. Thank you for indulging those questions. Thank you Thank you, mr. Kaminsky any other questions Mr. President, mr. Rodali. I have more of a statement more than anything after wrapping up decades of volunteering for the museum Playing a part in taking care of the teams that have come into town I've had a front-row seat over these last few years and and my comment is, you know the village And I'll speak for myself their behavior towards us Us volunteers and working for the museum and all that, you know The hierarchy of the village needs to figure this out because without the
133museum they don't exist and vice-versa I'll give kudos out the Jim Porter because he runs a top-notch Entity they treat us with respect But you know, and I'm sure this will be played tomorrow on every screen at IRG headquarters, but I Don't get it. You got to get along And all and all and all the hatred and the behaviors that they convey on us Volunteers the people working at the locker room level It's just never going to work if all that continues because it's petty and People come in and we put on a show once a year for them Professional teams come in here and they see it at times So, you know, my only statement to IRG is get your stuff together Work with the museum stop it Dave Baker's not here the Disney
134guy left Hope you got a book. Mr. Talbert from him. He signed it but Enough of the of the of the reindeer games. This is about our community You have a lot of people that have invested a lot of money here and they play reindeer games with this stuff But if you're treating us poorly The guys that give up work to go work a whole week to make that one-time thing happen And we do a pretty damn good job of it, but get your stuff together Can't deserves better. So that's it. That's all been holding on to that for six years Thank you, mr. Rinaldi you and I are the only two that I've ever dealt with Stu Lector still sitting on the board So I want to miss you on that part of it.
135Well, I was only getting one more Christmas card I think I'll be down to zero after that comment You just got removed from their Christmas list Any other comments from the board hearing none roll call vote mr. Rinaldi. No Miss Watkins, this is our mr. Kaminsky. I Mr. Kaminsky Yeah, this is brah Mr. Ross. I Thank You superintendent over Mr. Kaminsky down to one of your last two mr. President I'm sure everyone will be overjoyed to hear me say I move we adjourn second all those in favor say aye and all opposed no Everyone have a good safe night getting home