001Good evening, everyone. Welcome to this regular scheduled Board of Education meeting for Monday, December 8th here in the heart of downtown Canton. If you're with us, please silence your electronic devices at this time, and would you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance? At this time, I'll turn it over to Mr. Kaminsky as he has a message from the board to share. Thank you, Mr. President. Ladies and gentlemen, Virginia Jeffries, a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, was a science teacher in the Canton City School District from 1963 to 1989. Later, she served on our Board of Education from 1990 to 2001. When I saw her obituary yesterday on CantonRep.com, I contacted Mr. Russ to make sure he knew. Mr. Russ told me that she was his earth science teacher when he attended the then
002Sowers Junior High in the late 1970s. He also asked me to make these remarks. So in pursuit of that, I called former board member Amal Alakusen because I knew that Mr. Alakusen and Ms. Jeffries served together on the Board of Education for several years. Mr. Alakusen told me that Ms. Jeffries was a mentor to him in his early days on the board. But he also told me that she was his science teacher at Belden School in the 1960s. So while introducing science to many hundreds of our students over the years, Ms. Jeffries developed an unusual specialty. It was to educate and cultivate future board members of the board. I knew her only because I was a father of Canton City students and an observer of this board. But I always was struck by her thoughtfulness
003and the elegant dignity she projected in her public life. I know my fellow board members join me in saying to her surviving friends and family that we deeply appreciate her service to the school district and her dedication to our children. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kaminsky. If you are here tonight, we welcome you. If you are online, thank you for taking the time to navigate our web page to join us. This is also a very special meeting. It is the final regulars board meeting for both Mr. Kaminsky and Mr. Rinaldi. As they did not seek reelection this time, it will be stepping down in January. Mr. Gruber, would you call the roll, sir? Mr. Rinaldi. Ms. Watkins. Here. Mr. Kaminsky. Here. Mrs. Brown. Here. Mr. Russ. Here. I'll make the motion to approve the agenda
004as written. Second. Any changes or corrections? Yes, Mr. President, there are. We will start on page 11. At the bottom, there's a recommendation that currently reads not to exceed 17 hours. We need to amend that to read not to exceed 19 hours. Next, several corrections around page 12 under non-certified pupil activity permit contracts. We need to remove the names Jamar Barsic and Joshua Grimsley from the list. And finally, we have an addendum this evening to section C. We want to add item number four, which is a recommendation that the board approve the following courses for the 2026-2027 school year and item number five, which is a recommendation the board approve name changes of the courses being offered in the 2026-2027 school year. That's it. Thank you, Mr. Gruber. We're also removing item seven on the
005executive session. Correct. It's correct. Okay. Thank you very much. We have a motion. We have a second. We have changes. Roll call vote, sir. Mr. And all the is Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. Mrs. Brown. Mr. Ross. I'll make the motion to approve the minutes from our November 3rd, 2025 regular meeting. Any changes or corrections? Hearing none, roll call vote. Mr. And all the is Watkins. Mr. Kaminsky. Mrs. Brown. Mr. Ross. Aye. Moving right along. Recognition of our retiring board members. Mr. Herberg has asked to say a few words to you. So, Brian, you're up, sir. I think I'm loud enough everybody can hear. Okay, there we go. So I've been teaching in Kansas City schools for 20 years. And during those 20 years, excuse me, Mr. Rinaldi has been, you know, part of Kansas City schools.
006But I've known him for probably about 40 years. And it was a memorable first meeting when I first met the gentleman. He was my midget league football coach. And we will not go into the attire that he, you know, rolled up in on that, you know, fall evening midget league football. So, but we go back and forth about it with the, you know, anybody remembers the old, you know, bike style coaching shorts that the coaches used to wear. That's what Mr. Rinaldi had on that day. And I still never let him forget, you know, that moment that he stepped out of that car. But I just want to thank him for all the service, you know, over the years. You know, I look around Kansas City schools and I look at, you know, where it
007was when I came in 20 years ago, and I look where it is now. And, you know, like Mr. Rinaldi's always said, he's like, you always want to leave something in a better place than when it was when you came in. And, excuse me, and he's definitely done that. And, you know, he's also not only been a friend, but he's kind of served as a mentor. Excuse me. So, and I just want to thank him for all that. So, you're truly going to be missed. But you know what? You'll still get that occasional phone call from me, you know, usually early in the morning on my way to work at about 630, a quarter till 7. So, okay. So, like I said, you know, I wish you all the best. And, you know, thank you
008for everything. Thank you, Mr. Herbert. Our next presenter will be our CPEA president, Mr. Paul Palumba. Thank you. I just wanted to address how well Mr. Kaminsky and Mr. Rinaldi, how you've kind of fit in with this legacy of school board members. Canton City is very blessed. It's incredibly unique to have such unbelievable school board members who continue to go the extra mile to make sure everybody in the community wins. And it's really hard to believe when you think about the people who came before you and where we are now. But sometimes when I tell people and I try to describe our district, it doesn't seem possible. It's not likely that you can have a football stadium, right? That looks the way ours does. A lot of kids will go to college and never see
009that opportunity again. But they got to experience, they didn't have to go play at a Division I football program to experience a moment like that. We have a basketball arena that seats 9000 people. That's unheard of. That's nowhere to be found. We have a Bulldog activity center and a weight room that rivals professional sports programs. If you want to swim, we have an auditorium, but it's just incredibly unlikely that all those things could exist. And that comes from people who understand the valuable assets that we have and protect them. I know, Mr. Rinaldi, you work very hard to bring the baseball program to where it is now. So that's another thing. I mean, think about this. Whether you play basketball, football, baseball, swim, you have a world class facility. And I really mean that really
010a world class facility. So thank you for always understanding what we've always had in front of us. And it just doesn't end there. I don't want to sell ourselves short that we're this academic machine because we routinely put people into speech and debate who qualify for the Nationals. We have a nationally acclaimed music program, CTE. All right. I know the board members have a few words they'd like to say. So Ms. Watkins, we'll let you start it off. Sure. So I've been a board member one or two years now. And I first of all want to say I appreciate how all of the board welcomed me in and taught me a lot of different things. But I really appreciate the guy on my right and the guy on my left because they're the ones that
011led me through the vote, showed me the protocol of how a board member should be, especially during a meeting. And, you know, I just am in a place where I really felt happy about the board. You know, we all talk and we all work together so well. And when I heard that the two of you were retiring, it just like gave me this emotion of sadness. And I'm like, they're leaving. We just got to the place where we understand each other and we're moving with the district. And I was just very complex about that. I was really sad. I'm like, the one thing they better not do when he leaves is make me lead over here with the I's and the yes's and the no's because that's going to bring confusion. But I just want
012you to know that I appreciate both of you so much. And we as a district have made so many great accomplishments and so many obstacles have been, you know, just knocked out of the way because of the experience and the expertise that you all bring. And I saw on my phone this little quote. I'm a person that really loves quotes. And it's an anonymous person that wrote it and it says behind every great achievement is a team that worked together. I'll tell you what, I appreciate this team and I'm going to really miss the two of you. And I hope, you know, you guys are still going to be there when we have questions. But it's just been a very, very good two years being with you. And I just really appreciate you both. And
013I want you guys to have a blessed life. I want you to do everything you're supposed to do. And then for years, if you're bored, run for it. A board run for the board. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Walkins. Miss Brown. Yes, I've been here a little longer than than Myra. I've had a little more time with both they are and with Mr. Kaminsky and their dedication to the board and the district and their hard work is seen throughout this district. And then we'll know and we will continue to see all that they have done. It's been a pleasure working with both of you. And Mr. Kaminsky always walked me out. So I wouldn't be by myself walking out. But I always appreciated that, too. Thank you both. Thank you, Mrs. Brown. J.R.,
014I'll start with you. We've been through a lot together. And you're the reason that I occupy this seat. Back in 2014, 2015, when we were working the ballot issue for combining the parks department with direct department, we passed out door hangers, put signs up, many other things. And at the end of the day, we were sitting down at the J.B. Stern signer talking about why McKinley did not have a varsity baseball field. And at the end of the conversation, Mr. Rinaldi says, you really want to help me get a baseball field run for the board. And here I am. So, J.R., that's one more thing we can blame on you. My fault. Sat through a lot of meetings, all up in Village. As Mr. Paloma said, all the facilities getting Turk Alberta built. Your legacy
015is unmatched. A lot of things in this district can directly be back to you. Working with Mr. Komitski on all of the different projects that we've done during our tenure. I mentioned Turk Alberta, Thurman-Munson Memorial Stadium, the Bulldog Athletic Center, all the improvements at Crenshaw, all the improvements at Hartford. And then the two new elementary schools that are going up. Those are all things that everybody sees every day that this board works hard, along with our superintendent, to bring to Canton City Schools. It's the other things that you don't see. All the meetings with Mr. Gruber on finances. All the different meetings that we had with the superintendents. And one of the things is your relationship with Superintendent Talbert is what brought Jeff Talbert home and back to Canton City Schools. And that might be
016the two of you, that might be your best achievement that you can hang your hat on. It'll be very strange to look out and not see the two of you occupy those seats. JR, you've been here in my whole nine years that I've been here. And Dave, you've been here for everyone but about a year and a half. So it'll be very weird looking out on January and not seeing the two of you sitting there. I will miss both of you dearly. You're going to be getting phone calls from me. I'm just going to warn you right now. And good luck with everything you do. And I wish you nothing but the best. Thank you. Anybody else have anything they would like to add? Yes, I have a few words for Mr. Kaminsky and Mr.
017Rinaldi. First of all, on behalf of the staff and students and families of the Kansas City District, I'd like to thank you for your service. And while we have board meetings once a month, and that's for the public to get to see the work that you do, there are a lot of things that happen that everyone doesn't get to see. The community meetings, the neighborhood meetings, the phone calls that we have, and might I add, individual phone calls, information that will later be shared out aboard me. But just the hours and hours and hours that you put in in this role, that does not come with a lot of compensation. But it is rewarding. And I think as I think back and look back over the time that I've been here, you get an opportunity
018to go through the whole gambit. There are things that happen that you can laugh about. There are things that happen that make you cry. There are things that really make you think and put time into making really tough decisions. And I think those are the really good things that I think come from being on the board. But in the short time that I've been here, and it's hard to believe that we're working on year six, the things that this board has had to do and to overcome right off the bat, COVID, and making decisions about COVID to put the safety of our staff and students first, unlike a lot of districts, and to make sure that we were able to come back and to have face-to-face school, unlike a lot of districts in the state.
019The Hall of Fame Village, Hall of Fame Village, Hall of Fame Village, Hall of Fame Village. It seems like it never goes away. But working through that whole process to make sure that our district and our students are protected when it's all said and done. And it's probably one of the best and tightly written contracts that I've ever seen. And to make sure that everyone knows that no matter what happens up there on that hill, our students are protected and our use and our rights will always be there. And that's because of the forethought of this Board of Education. Living through levies, budget cuts, the good times and the bad times with finances, academics, staring state takeover in the face and working our way out of it, redistricting, closing buildings, opening buildings, building new buildings,
020your time on the board has been tremendous. And then last but not least, I just really want to thank you for really, really trusting in me and giving me an opportunity to return home, which has been a dream of mine from the time I sat in that chair, Mr. Rinaly. We won't even talk about what I said to that superintendent. It got me thrown out of her office. But it's always, what's that? I might have to tell that story. But it's always been a dream of mine to come back here and to support the staff in a manner so that they could help the next little Jeff Talbert that's coming through to Canton City School District. And that's why I went into education. And when I realized that I could do that for more children
021sitting in this seat, it was my dream to come here. And I really appreciate you guys, along with the other board members, having that faith in me and allowing me to do that. So I wish you the best of luck in your next endeavors. Remember that you will never be a stranger because, again, once a bulldog, always a bulldog. I'd like to echo everything that everybody has said. It stinks when you have to go last, right? But for obvious, you know, thank you for your service, your legacy, your infinite wisdom. I'll be calling you both, as Mr. Russ said, I'm sure, as I do now on many occasions for building projects and many things that we're going to continue the greatness and legacies of both of you and all the great work that we're doing.
022The passes that we give board members, the new ones that you will have will now say lifetime on them and won't say the 25, 26 school year. So I'll have those printed, your parking pass and your passes. So we would like to obviously see you lifetime events throughout the district still. So you can't you can run, but you can't hide. You've got to come back. So I'll make sure that we get you those passes, those lifetime passes. And again, thank you for everything. Thank you. You're welcome. My pleasure. Now, Mr. Kaminsky, you have to come to sit the football games with me and Mara still. So you have no excuse. And thank you, everyone. Do we have someone signed up for hearing of the public? We do. I'm going to call their name to see
023if they're still in attendance. Is Kelsey Bryant here? OK, so before we allow this evening speaker, I'd like to ask the individual to state their name in the address and whether they are resident of the district. Remind the speaker that the board allows three minutes for an individual to address the board. And finally, the president may rule out of order any person using disrespect of some of these are arguing a point. But that being said, this evening's speaker is Kelsey Bryant. My name is Kelsey Bryant. I am a part of the district. I have several kids in between three schools out here. And I wanted to speak just to ask if parents can get access to the kickboard app. I know that it was taken previously. I'm from Indiana, but I was told that it
024was taken because parents didn't like the notifications. I feel as if notifications can be taken off through the phone. But for parents who do care, I think that we should have access to that. I feel like teachers have a lot on their plate, especially when you have over two dozen kids in a classroom. It's really hard for that teacher to go to the side just to email a parent or tell a parent what's going on with their kid. So I would like to request access for parents if that's possible. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other speaker signed up for tonight? Thank you, Mr. Bryant, for your comments tonight. Our policy is that I will reply to your public speaks at our next board meeting. OK, thank you. Thank you. Anyone else tonight? I
025was going to have some comments while we were doing all that. Is that all right? Say that again? I was going to have some comments after everybody spoke. Is that all right? Or you want me to wait? Yeah, no, that's fine. Do it now or at the end? Is there another speaker, Mr. Gruber? No, there is not. OK, yeah. Everybody wants to go home, so we'll do it now. I apologize for not giving our two retiring members a chance to speak. So at this time, I'll turn it over to Mr. Rinaldi. First of all, thanks for a lovely evening of coming a little bit early and sharing some fellowship. And Ms. Watkins, I'll start with you. I'm not sure that it's ever been said at this table that someone's going to miss me. So you
026told me you were going to miss me. So there's the first thing I want to touch on. But I appreciate. And just so you know, when we vote, she votes like me. So when I say here, she goes here. When I say aye, she goes aye. Well, the one night I went here for a vote, and she went here. So when she says it, she plays off of me. So we have that bond with each other. In the story about Mr. Talbert, we were interviewing principals, right? Way back in the day, Mr. Thompson and all that. So we're sitting in Superintendent Talerico's office. So we're all waiting, and there's not a lot of chairs and everything. So Jeff sits down in Diane's chair. So needless to say, she comes in and looks at him. What
027are you doing sitting in my chair? He goes, well, don't worry. One of these days, I'm going to be sitting here. Well, needless to say, his resume went on the bottom of the pile that day. So that's the story about that. That's an honest to God true story. I've been here too long. Real quick, I just want to thank my family for putting up with me doing this for 40 years and almost 60 and a half on the board. It's not easy being related to a sitting board member, just ask my kids. But they're better for it, and it has seasoned them, and it's given them a perspective of what it means to be involved in a community. When you look around to see what we've done together, and it is together. And it's what
028they said, it's not just about a stadium, it's the whole package. And I've said it before, you take our staff and you put them at Jackson, and you take their staff and come here, that Jackson staff will be home by noon. They wouldn't know what to do. And I've said that before, and I believe that. The resiliency of our staff and community is up here when you look at other people. So that's when I say you win with people, and you have to have it. The thing that I've learned in my baseball career, everything has a shelf life. And I was smart enough to know that it was time for me to go. And I'm real excited, because when you look at Skyler Parks and RJ Van Allman. Now their moms are gonna get mad
029at me here, but between those two, what is there? Like 70, 80 years, whatever, of teaching experience. So when you talk about Maryland's gonna kill me, I'm not quite sure it's 80. Let me go down to 70. But that's what we need, we need somebody, we need folks that understand what our community's about. And they've had good teachers along the way. And it was so exciting on election night to see Skyler win, because he is what's the future. Our kids need to be able to look at him as a role model and a mentor growing up. Our kids deserve the best, and it doesn't matter if it's band instruments, if it's a turf field, if it's new curriculum. And I really think we are just at that place now. When you look around total package,
030there's a lot of great things for our kids. And I will rival everything that we have up against a lot of these other districts that talk about it. We have the best of everything for our kids, and they deserve it. So it's been a long 40 years, I'm tired, but I know that everything's in good hands. And thank you for your comments this evening. Thank you, Mr. Rinaldi. Mr. Kamensky. Thank you for allowing me to make some farewell remarks. And thank you to all the kind words from the people who have spoken previously. I'm grateful for the chance to have served on the board for nearly six and a half years. At this, my last regular meeting, I want to first thank Mr. Rinaldi and Mr. Russ, who are the remaining members of the board
031that appointed me to complete an unexpired term in late summer 2019. In later years, Mrs. Brown and Ms. Watkins were elected to the board and became dear colleagues. Next, my thanks goes to Mr. Gruber and Mr. Talbert, both great professionals to work with. Mr. Gruber is a prudent steward of our public funds and expert in the laws that govern the use of those funds. And a counselor to this board when it comes to the laws that govern how we operate. On a personal note, he is 100 times the better golfer than I ever will be, and I admire him for that. As for Mr. Talbert, I have known many school superintendents over the years. But I've never known another school superintendent with more talent and vision than he has. I'm thankful for his decision to
032come home to Canton City in 2020, and for assembling a team that has never failed to make us better, has kept us focused on our goals, and has built a culture of trust through the administrative teaching and support staffs. The administrators who regularly attend our meetings, starting with Mr. Dixon, and to all the people in the back rows, these qualities and principles are shown whenever any of them present to the board or answer our questions. When I think about our teachers and the highly skilled people who serve every level of the support staff, I am filled with nothing but admiration for their dedication to our students. I have never left one of our buildings with less than a smile on my face after seeing what our adults are doing for the sake of our children.
033Finally, thank you to parents and taxpayers in this district for your support of Canton City. Our job on the board is to represent you, spend your money as wisely as possible, and support the high quality leadership and staff that our district is blessed to have for the sake of the children you entrust to us. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Kaminsky. I appreciate both of you too. Moving right along, Superintendent Talbert. We have an internet safety plan presentation. I'd like to have our Director of Technology come forward and she's gonna present an internet safety presentation tonight. Mrs. Heater. Won't work? Okay, I'll go ahead and use this one. All right, good evening. I'd like to thank the board and the superintendent for giving me the opportunity to discuss our strategy for internet safety and
034student data protection. Before we dive into the details, I want to take a moment to sincerely thank my team in the technology department. The work we are discussing tonight is vast and complex, and is their daily dedication that keeps our digital environment running smoothly. Tonight, our goal is to outline exactly how we are building a secure online environment for the Canton City School District. Everything we do in technology is grounded in our district core values. However, we know that to be truly confident and creative, students need a safe space to learn. By upholding our core values of excellence, leadership, and community, we ensure that our digital environment supports these goals rather than hindering them. With those values in mind, we are dedicated to ensuring a safe digital learning environment for all students. Because the digital
035landscape changes so fast, we cannot simply react to issues as they arise, but we must proactively build safeguards. The four safeguards that we will talk about tonight are blocking inappropriate content, restrictions on devices, protecting student data, and education and awareness. So how do we actually keep students safe? We rely on several different layers of protection. First, the firewall. Think of this as a secure front door and security guard for our district's network. We use a Palo Alto firewall, which gives us application visibility. That means it doesn't just look at where the traffic is coming from, and identifies exactly what application is being used. It's like a security guard who doesn't just check ID badges at the door, but also checks inside every bag. If someone tries to sneak a game disguised as homework, the firewall
036sees right through that disguise and blocks it at the door. It ensures only safe, approved traffic enters our network. The second layer is our content filter. If the firewall is a security guard at the door, the content filter is like a chaperone in a classroom. It follows the user everywhere they go on the web. Even on proof sites, it is constantly scanning for specific bad content, like inappropriate keywords, images, or hidden pages. So imagine a student that goes to the library. The content filter is like the librarian or a teacher standing nearby. If a student opens a book and tries to turn to a page with inappropriate pictures or text, the librarian or teacher steps in and closes that book immediately. It allows learning to happen, but blocks the specific harmful pieces. The third layer
037is gaggle. This is our safety net inside our own tools. It monitors student activity specifically within Google apps like Docs and Email to identify signs of cyber bullying, self-harm, and violence. We know our students are digital natives. I'm gonna say that again. We know our students are digital natives. So our management tools need to be sophisticated enough to keep up with them. We use Google Admin Console to set policies that restrict access to apps, filter content, and enforce safe search on Google. Additionally, our mobile device management solution, FileWave, gives us granular control and allows us to remotely lock down or wipe devices, distribute necessary apps, and track usage to ensure digital learning remains safe and effective. Beyond what students see, we are equally vigilant about protecting who sees them. We have strict guidelines to prevent
038unauthorized disclosure of personal identifiable information. We vet our vendors to protect against the dissemination of personal details. We ensure every vendor has signed a district privacy agreement and put that in place before we deploy their tools in the classroom. This ensures full compliance with federal regulations like COPA and FERPA. While our technical safeguards are robust, we believe education is equally critical. We provide student education regarding appropriate online behavior. This includes annual internet safety training for all grade levels, utilizing resources from several reputable tools. We also train our staff on cybersecurity awareness and response protocols, and we conduct student data protection training via Senate Bill 29 sessions and leadership reviews. So in summary, our goal is to ensure students benefit from the digital world while remaining protected. This requires a balance of collaboration, proactive monitoring, and
039a commitment to respectful environment. Moving forward, we are continually collaborating with other districts to stay ahead of trends. We are working closely with safety and security and curriculum department to ensure our tools support learning while protecting students. And using proactive monitoring to catch potential threats before they escalate. Thank you for your time and your support, and if you have any questions. Thank you, Mrs. Heater. I'll open up to the board for any questions. Nice job, thank you. Thank you. And I would like to say while I'm up here with a mic, which is very empowering, by the way, that to Mr. Rinaldi and Mr. Kaminsky, thank you for what you've done for the district. And I appreciate you and hope you have the best of luck in your next adventure. Thank you, Mrs. Heater. Moving
040right along. Treasurer Gruber, you're up. Yes, Mr. President, I'd like to recommend that the board approve items one through five under the treasurer's report this evening. Item number one is approving the October 2025 monthly financial report. Item number two is approving some advance repayments. The advances were actually made in fiscal year 2025, and at this time, we would like to return the funds back to the general fund. Items number three and four are budgetary amendments. And finally, item number five is a very lengthy list of donations that the district greatly appreciates. So moved. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none, roll call the roll. Mr. Rinaldi. Aye. Mrs. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Next up, Superintendent Talbert. Thank you, Mr. President. First we'll start off, I'd recommend
041the board of education approve section A human resources certified staff, which tonight includes retirements and resignations, leaves of absence, appointments and adjustments. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none, roll call the roll. Mr. Rinaldi. Aye. Mrs. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Mr. President, I recommend the board of education approve section B human resource classified staff, which tonight includes retirements and resignations, leave of absences, appointments, adjustments and two terminations. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none, roll call the roll. Mr. Rinaldi. Aye. Mrs. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Mr. President, moving on, I recommend the board of education approve section C educational service reports item number one, which is an approval of an overnight
042out of state field trip. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none, roll call the roll. Mr. Rinaldi. Aye. Mrs. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Mr. President, I recommend the board of education approve section C education service reports item number two, which are our plus 22 graduates. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? Congratulations to those graduates. Roll call vote, sir. Mr. Rinaldi. Aye. Mrs. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. Mr. President, I recommend the board of education approve section C education service report item three, which is an MOU for the chasing hope house. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none, roll call vote. Mr. Rinaldi. Aye. Mrs. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky.
043Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Aye. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none, roll call vote. Mr. Rinaldi. Aye. Mrs. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Aye. Mr. Russ. Mr. Ryan. Aye. Mr. Wharram. Aye. Mr. Wharram. Mr. Ryan. Aye. Mr. Wharram. Mr. Wharram. Aye. Mr. Wharram. Mr. Wharram. Mr. Wharram. Mr. Wharram. Mr. Wharram. This is Brown. I stir us I. Moving on to our operations report Mister president recommend that we approve item one under the operations report which is an advertising agreement. Any questions or comments from the board. Mister an all time. Is what Mr. Kaminsky I Brown. I Mister Ross I. Mister president, I recommend that the Board of Education approved section the operations report item number 2 resolution for request for proposals for network equipment and managed
044internal broadband services. Any questions or comments. Hearing none, no call vote. Mister nodding I is Watkins Mister Kaminsky I Mister Ross I. Finally, Mister president. I recommend the Board of Education approved section the operations report 3 resolution for change order for the new elementary school building. I believe this Lincoln building or that all both buildings for a total of. 1,000,569 dollars 5,569 677 dollars. So move second. Any questions or comments. Hearing none, no call vote. Mister nodding I is what Mister Kaminsky I this is Brown I Mister Ross I. I'm gonna jump in and explain this the change order 3 parts to this change order. The first part being both new buildings will have a production kitchen have as I've presented in the past our original plan was to kind of do those on our
045own including a funding source. All of very construction who's the CMR for both built or both new buildings also did the same exercise we did going out for pricing and it actually is going to work better for us to have them do the project in inside the project and we are going to use a different funding source for this as well. So that accounts for a little over 900,000 for both buildings production full production kitchens. The next piece of this change order is a design change for the new Lincoln Elementary when the MOU expired with the Stern Center we had the ability to kind of change design and look at the way we were building the new Lincoln Elementary a little bit differently. So we went back to the drawing board quickly at the 11th
046hour and we did make a change changing the academic portion of the building changing about 35 degrees which is going to allow us more green space additional parking and a larger playground that's more safe and hidden just like the one with the new Timken elementary new old Mason site and that changes about 450,000 dollars with change in steel and underground utilities. The last one is that the new Timken Elementary and it is an additional parking that will accompany our softball new softball facility there that will be additional parking that will be paved and add an additional 51 spaces that actually will also be connected and have a connector to the parking at the new building as well and that's about 200,000. So that's that's the synopsis of what the change order is for and in
047hopes that I won't come back at all anymore and get both of the projects done we're in great shape. Otherwise, so thank you. They do it at the end of the year. I don't care. Thank you, Mister Dixon. Okay, moving on to superintendent action items. We have one item that for action today. I was not even actions as I can reading. I recommend the Board of Education approve the second reading of the attached for Paul. Any questions or comments. We need to vote on this. Not the second reading. Okay, right. Did we vote on it earlier. You can take it. Okay. Yeah, we are approving that this is the second reading of the policy additions and we will vote them on the next meeting. Oh, I'm sorry. Roll call. Mr. Rinaldi. I is Watkins. Mr.
048Kaminsky. I this is Brown. Mr. Ross. I technology to work here. There we go. So there are two things that I would like to present on this evening. One is our budget reduction plan. The last meeting in November, we talked that there was a need for us to make a budget reduction. And the state is requiring us to submit a plan that was due at the end of this month. So I'll talk about that a little bit. And then the second part of my presentation, we're going to talk about the our transition to K to six elementary in the process that we're going to go through to start that process. The buildings that Mr. Dixon talked about. One of them will open for the 2627 school year, which will require us to change some attendance
049zones and change some great configurations for for a few of our other buildings. So we'll go through that process today as well. So just kind of it's been a long time since our November board meeting. But back in October, our treasurer did a five year forecast and that five year forecast has some significant changes in it from the forecast that we have back in May. And and it showed that we were going into deficit spending starting this fiscal year a little bit into the last fiscal year that it till a tune in the next two last two fiscal years of negative 23.1 million dollars, which in twenty twenty eight will give us a negative fund balance of about seventeen million dollars if we don't do anything about it. And and and so if it and
050again, I like to take people back like just in November of twenty five when we did the five year forecast, it was one of the best five year forecast that that we've had around here. And so like I said in November, well, what changed that all that we we did we celebrate having that extra cash and run out and spend it all. No, that's not what happened. What happened is we there was a couple of a bunch of adverse factors that happened altogether. But a lot of it, most of it was out of our control. So there's a fund called Targeted Assistance that we got that was reduced and there was also a reduction over all state aid and folks who've been paying attention know that back in May when this budget was being considered,
051we we we all rally this whole community rally to say that there was an attack on public education. And while there are folks who tell you that more money from the state has been put into public education, that money did not go to did not flow through the traditional public school. And so this year, the next buying this buying budget, we are taking a four point seven million dollar cut and state funding. And that is compounded with three point two million dollars in federal funding cuts for this year alone. And we expect that there's going to be more next year as the Department of Education is completely stripped. And so but what we know right now, we lost over seven million dollars. So if you take that for this year and forward it to the
052next year, that's 14 million dollars. And now and so in 28, we have a 17 million dollar budget shortfall, a three million dollar budget shortfall. And then Mr. Gruber correct me if I'm wrong, we usually try to reduce that every year and that's something that we've done every year since I've been here over the last two years through attrition, we've reduced nearly 100 staff members. So we continue to try to align ourselves and to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. And we have been. This is, again, something that was created that is outside of our control. If you've been paying attention to to what local news, whether it's newspaper or television, you can see that Cleveland's going through this. Columbus is going through it. Barberton's going through it. Norton's going through it. There are because
053of the budget, because of things that were eliminated from the state budget, which we said was coming, more and more districts are going to have negative balances. And more and more districts are going to have to go through this process that we are going through right now. And some of those districts are even in a place where they're in fiscal watch because they're negative balances within two years. Ours is, again, doesn't happen until 28. So because of that, we have to put together a plan. The plan is just simply to make sure the board is aware that there's a deficit coming, that we have a plan in place that's going to reduce that deficit so that it doesn't move forward into the next fiscal year. It has to have actionable implementation, implementation timelines, and has
054a narrative that explains how we're going to make the cuts, how either we're going to increase revenue in those things. So we've already started working on that plan because our deadline was the 21st. I don't know if it's fortunately or unfortunately. I was scheduled to have my knee replaced. And so Mr. Gruber worked magic and got us an extension. So it was due on the 21st. At this board meeting, I was going to give a presentation about what our cuts were going to be. And then we were going to have you come back on the 18th and approve it. We don't have to do that now because our new date is not until the end of January. So what I would like to do today as far as this process is to go over timelines
055so that our entire community will understand the timeline we're going to go through. Mr. Rinaldi and Mr. Kaminsky, we'd hate to lose you for all of these meetings we're going to have, but there is one that you're going to have to come to. December 18th, we will have a special board of education workshop. At that meeting, what we will do at that time is we're going to talk 30,000 feet big rocks. So I'll continue to work with Mr. Gruber and his team to identify the big reduction rocks, the big buckets. So there won't be any specifics. We'll say things like we're going to cut 2 million from here and 2 million from here to get to our 17 million. That will happen on the 18th. On January 5th, the first board meeting for our new
056board members, unfortunately for them, I will present the reduction plan and go into more details about how we're going to reduce that, what was that, 17 million dollar deficit in year 2028. January 12, 2026, we will have a board of, another board of education special meeting. That will be, that will give our community an opportunity to come here and talk to us about the plan and for us to garner feedback about what we are planning to reduce. And so that will happen on the 12th. And then January 26th, we will have another meeting, another special meeting and that will be the presentation and approval of the final plan. So there's a lot that's going to happen within, between now and the end of January, we're going to have four additional board meetings when we usually
057only have one. And so it is going to be a busy time. But this is real important work. What I, what I can tell you is that we're, we're going to continue to do the things the way we've always done them. We're going to identify and we're going to identify the cuts that we're going to need to make, but we're going to make the cuts while paying attention to what we say we value and making sure that we protect all the things that have allowed us to make the improvements that we've made. As I said back in November, 85% of 85% of our budget is on people. But I do believe that there's some areas where we can make cuts. And so we're going to have to make some hard decisions and we'll start talking
058about those buckets next week. Are there any questions from the board on that part of our presentation? Mr. President, only, only a comment for the sake of, for the benefit of the audience and the community. I'm relieved that you had your knee surgery when you did. And this was all delayed because it seemed to me that if there was any chance that we were going to make critical decisions before the end of the year, it would be unfortunate because you will have two or five new board members in January. And that frankly, they need to be invested in whatever we're going to do going forward. So I'm happy for that. Thank you, Mr. Kaminsky. Any other questions? Back to you, Superintendent Dabber. Okay, so next year we begin our transition the K to six elementaries.
059If you remember when we did the very first strategic plan that we were involved in back in 21, it was something that the community told us loud and clear. They wanted to go back to neighborhood elementaries. And at that time we were not able to do that because our buildings were too small. Then we had our bond issue fall off. Our community passed another bond issue, which has gotten us to this point to where we're building two new elementaries, which will allow us to begin our transition the K to six larger neighborhood schools. So that will begin next fall. So tonight I'm going to talk for about 26 27 our great configuration. And we're going to talk specifically about Whirling, Bellstone, Yutz, and Gibb. So next year our configurations will look like this. Our K
060to three buildings will be Gibb, Cedar, and Harder. And then you can see in parentheses there because of the transition, Gibb will need to be a K-4. We'll have our remaining K-6 buildings at that time will be AIM at Belton, Arts Academy at Summit, Patrick Elementary, Porter's Collaborative Montessori, Simpkin Elementary, and Yutz Elementary. And then our four to six buildings will be Clarendon Intermediate and McGregor Intermediate. So let's talk about Whirling, which will become Simpkin. So Whirling, the entire current Whirling attendance zone, all the students, all the staff will go to Simpkin. So while Simpkin is being constructed and will be a new building, in essence, we're changing the name of Whirling and moving everybody to that building. There will also be, to make sure that we are at capacity, there will be some students
061who are currently in Clarendon, students who are currently in Stone, and some students at Gibb's will attend Simpkin. And so you can see their attendance zone, you can see how big it is. But again, it is their current attendance zone, adding a few more spots. And you can see that it goes all the way over and picks up Myers Lake. And that has more to do with making sure we're able to not have Simpkin at capacity. And then the move for when we go to K6, after that, with the harder Clarendon neighborhood, and making sure that building's not full. So it was a very difficult task to make sure that all our buildings were full, but that they weren't over capacity for the next year. Bellstone. This is a very tough one, because Bellstone will
062be closing. And I had the opportunity to meet with the Bellstone staff this week to talk to them, because their building's being split. Half of their students, a little over half of their students, will be going to Yutz. The remainder of their students will be going to Simpkin. Their staff will be split between. And the reason for that, splitting the staff, is because we want to make sure when students are going someplace new, that when they get there on that first day, there are familiar faces. Transitions for kids are hard. And no matter how you do it, it's hard. And so we need to make sure that while we're doing these transitions, that we make sure that the kids see people that they know when they go there. Again, this building will be closing at
063the end of the year. Our plan for the building, right now, we will follow the law. We have to advertise the building. It will not be ours. As we talk about these budget cuts that have to come, we have to shrink our footprint. So we can't continue to cut grass and heat and to secure. And we can't do that. So this building, when we return from our holiday break, Mr. Dixon will get an appraisal of that building, and then we will start the process. Our goal is to make sure that as soon as we are out of that building, as soon as we possibly can, we are no longer the owners of Bellstone. So we'll see what happens. State law requires us to follow some steps. We'll follow those steps. And then we'll work with
064partners or anyone else who's interested in that building. But our plan is to not own that building and spend any district funds in that building as soon as we possibly can after our students and staff are moved out. So you can see the attendance zones at Bellstone. So the changes that will happen. Our first thing that we did is we took for Yutz, and we'll get to Yutz. Any student who lived to the east of Maple, those students will go to Yutz. Yutz and Bellstone are kind of sister schools right now. So kids who live in the Yutz neighborhood had to travel for K to three. And then for four, five, six, they got to stay closer to home. It was just the opposite for students who lived in the Bellstone neighborhood. They got to
065stay close to home for K to three, and they had to travel for four, five, and six. So when we go to K sixes, the students who live to the east of Maple Avenue and really Harrisburg Road, those students will get to stay at Yutz for K to six. The students, except for a little sliver of students between St. Elmo and Maple, they're those students to the west of St. Elmo and to the north of 19th Street, they will be going to Temkin. The students to the south of 19th Street and the students in between or to the east of St. Elmo and Maple Avenue there, it actually comes right into the park there and the Nemesilla Creek there. Those students will be moving on to Gids. What that does is that allows us to
066have about 540 kids in the new Temkin building, which will have a pack, will put us about 430 at Yutz and we'll have another about 400 kids at Gibbs when Gibbs is completely a K six building. Our goal again is to make sure that our buildings are at capacity. So we are being efficient, that we reduce duplication and staffing that. And so right now, because our buildings aren't full, we have situations where we share staff, where a nurse may be two days in one building and two days at another. When we do this, we hope that we'll be able to not have to do that as much because our buildings will have enough students to warrant having the full time staff there. Moving on to Yutz, again, I kind of explained this before, the Yutz
067neighborhood, Yutz students will remain at Yutz. The students who are currently live in the Yutz neighborhood, they will take on, the students at Yutz will either move to Temkin or some of them will go to Yutz. They will pick up students from Bellstone, some K to three students from Bellstone who live again to the east of Maple, to the far eastern boundary of our district and to that far northern boundary of our district. Those students will stay and go to Yutz K through six. We have some students now who go to Gibbs and I'm speaking on the next slide, who the students, they go to Gibbs, but they would go to Clareden. Those students would stay, they would stay at Gibbs for fourth grade. We have some students who live in the Gibbs neighborhood now
068who are currently in 456 at Yutz next year. They would probably, the fourth graders, the rising fourth graders would come to Gibbs and those will be the folks who are actually going to stay at Gibbs as well. Again, looking at the Yutz zone, east of Nemesilla Creek to the railroad tracks, north of the east branch of Nemesilla Creek up to our district northern boundary, like I said, there for that district. Then Gibbs Elementary, students who remain at Gibbs or move on to Yutz. If you live in the current Yutz boundary that we're changing this to, you will go to Yutz for fourth grade if you are at Gibbs. If you are at Gibbs and you live in what the new Gibbs boundary will be, you will stay at Gibbs for fourth grade. If you are
069a Gibbs student, that would go to Clareden, and I think I said that wrong, you will go to Clareden for fourth grade. So Gibbs will keep some kids there. They will pick up kids who are currently at Bellstone and live in the new area that they're picking up there, that 19th Street. The current Bellstone boundary comes to the south, the 17th Street. So you can see we're moving the Gibbs boundary up to 19th and going all the way there up, making that turn to the north off of 19th Street, St. Elmo, and extending that all the way to Nemesilla Creek. Those students, if they're at Bellstone, they will go to Gibbs next year for K-3, which will increase Gibbs enrollment a little bit. So these are some very big things, and we don't want to
070just make sure to not talk to our families. So we will have parent meetings at the buildings, and we will start them in January. So January is going to be a very busy month. Members who have a board meeting on the 5th, we will see you guys probably on the 7th that Bellstone, and then we'll see you again on the 15th. We'll have another board meeting on the 26th. So on the 26th, we'll do double duty at that special board meeting. After we get this feedback from our families and our community about these attendance zone changes, then we'll make tweaks that we need to make to those attendance zones. We had it on, as I mentioned early, you will touch the plan, but you will also have a 26-20 attendance zone. By April of this
071year, we will have attendance zones set for the remaining K-3 buildings as well. So if you're going to go to parent meetings in the spring, and hopefully at the end of the school year, you will be able to utilize those so families can go from where students are going to go. We want to build something, and I want to go back to why K-4, and get to the K-4 because we didn't want to get Clarendon and Yutz, and then make it a K-6 the next year, and have to rip it. So we look at what happened with Cedar, McGregor, Carter, Clarendon, that if we change that, we also pay attention to if there's a need to do that. So we'll start talking again, we'll start talking about that in part in April and May, our
072goal is to have that done and complete before the end of the school year. So are there any questions about these attendance zone changes? Yes? How much does this increase transportation? Is this going to have like a student at Yutz going to Temkin? Is that going to be like a long time on the bus, or is it going to decrease? Students at Yutz who will be going to Temkin are students who currently live in the Bellstone part of the Bellstone neighborhood. So we have, like I said before, a Bellstone student got to go to school close to home for K-3, and then they had to catch a bus all the way over to Yutz for 456. So those students who actually live closer to Temkin will no longer have to be bused to the other
073side of town. Actually, it's going to save us on transportation. This whole move is to move back to neighborhood schools. The kids are closer to home when they go to elementary, unless they choose a choice school that has them bus across. So the largest neighborhood that we have right now will be the new Temkin building, and that's because that building holds 530 students. And when we get to looking at the Lincoln building, that's going to be a large neighborhood as well, because that building will hold 700 students. So those are very large buildings, but we needed to build big buildings so that we could get a lot of students there. Because remember, our current buildings don't hold a lot of students, which is why we could not go back to K-6 and be fiscally responsible.
074Mr. President? Mr. Karitsky. I'm curious about these projections on where students will go and the new open enrollment policy. Are we seeing any growth or are we anticipating any growth from that policy when we're making these calculations? So the way open enrollment works is that if we have seats, we'll let you move. In a specific building, right. Right, in a specific building. And so our elementary buildings, we only have a few that would take people in. And I believe, and I think Board Member Brown asked me for these numbers, we only had about, what, 15 or 16 students come in this year, and most of those students were at the secondary level. And that's what I anticipate. I anticipate most of our open enrollment folks to be at the secondary level. And then maybe for
075some of our choice schools, which Portis Collaborative Montessori, Arts, AIM, and STEAM, and Early College. And so those buildings will always have space and we should be fine. But our more neighborhood schools, I don't see, if anything, it will be intra-district. Okay. And most likely they will be full. Any other questions? Okay, that concludes my presentation for this evening. Thank you, Superintendent Talbert. Moving right along. Do you want me to make the announcement? All right. We need to nominate someone to serve as the President Pro Tem for our January 2026 organizational meeting in accordance with Board policy. Mr. President. Mr. Kaminsky. Without consulting her, but relying on her vast experience in this area, I nominate Mrs. Brown. I will second that nomination. Is there any other nominations on the floor? Hearing none, roll call vote.
076Mr. Inouye. Aye. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Kaminsky. Aye. Mrs. Brown. Abstain. Mr. Russ. Aye. Anybody reading the executive session? We don't need the second one either. We can get rid of the second one. We don't need the executive session. Okay. There's no need for the second executive session. So Mr. Kaminsky, one more time, sir. It takes my breath away to realize for the last time I move we adjourn. I second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Everyone have a good, safe night and thank you for coming. I may still wear a tie for that meeting. I'm not sure.