001After the tragedy, the families of the lost astronauts came together [music] and wanted to do something in memorial for their families. Well, nobody believed I could do it. They said, "This has never been done. Uh, you're just a teacher, you know." And I said, "Watch me." Once [music] we had built the first center, President Bush said, "We need more of these centers." It just immediately was clear to me that Dayton, Ohio, birthplace of aviation, had to have a center. And along I came. When students come to the center, [music] they take on the role of mission controllers and astronauts and engineers. It's taking [music] you out of your everyday environment and putting you in the environment of flight. A number of educators [music] have come back and said that they were inspired to be a
002teacher and and [music] it began with Christian McAuliffe, but then it continued when they went to a Challenger Learning Center. The community response was overwhelmingly positive. Teachers from around the Miami Valley are preparing for the mission of a lifetime. as a student being able to command your very own space lab. We have main engine start. Dreams have a way [music] of manifesting themselves. Three, ideas [music] have a way of coming into this world. Two, we created uh all these grand things that you can find at [music] a Challenger Center now and right here in Dayton. One is a prime example of what can be done. Liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission and it has cleared the tower. Roger. Challenger. after the tragedy, the families of the lost astronauts came [music] together and wanted to
003do something inmemorial for their families. Well, nobody believed I could do it. They said, "This has never been done. [music] Uh, you're just a teacher, you And I said, "Watch me." Once we had built the first center, President Bush said, "We need more of these centers." It just immediately was clear to me that Dayton, Ohio, birthplace of aviation, had to have a center. And along [music] I came. When students come to the center, they take on the role of mission controllers and astronauts and engineers. It's taking you out of your everyday environment and putting you in the environment of flight. A number of educators have come back and [music] said that they were inspired to be a teacher and and it began with Christian McAuliffe, but then it continued when they went [music] to a
004Challenger Learning Center. The community response was overwhelmingly positive. Teachers from around the Miami Valley are preparing for the mission of a lifetime. as a student being able to command your very own space lab. We have main engine start. Dreams have a way of manifesting themselves. [music] Three. Ideas have a way of coming After the tragedy, the families of the lost astronauts [music] came together and wanted to do something immemorial for their families. Well, nobody believed I could do it. They said, "This has never been done. Uh, you're just a teacher, you know, and I said, "Watch me." Once we [music] had built the first center, President Bush said, "We need more of these centers." It just immediately was clear to me that Dayton, Ohio, birthplace of aviation, had to have a center. And along I
005came. When students come to the center, they take on the role of mission controllers and astronauts and engineers. [music] It's taking you out of your everyday environment and putting you in the environment of flight. A number of educators have come back and [music] said that they were inspired to be a teacher and and it began with Christian McAuliffe, but then it continued when they went [music] to a challenger learning center. The community response was overwhelmingly positive. Teachers from around the Miami Valley are preparing for the mission of a lifetime. Imagine as a student being able to command your very own space lab. We have main engine start. Dreams have a way of [music] manifesting themselves. Three, ideas have a way of coming into this world. Two, we created uh all these grand things that you
006can find at a Challenger Center. I'm right here in Dayton. You could have started. Ready to go. [laughter] I'm in. All right. Calling to order Dayton Public School Board special meeting at 4 p.m. Roll call. 5 p.m. 5:00 PM. Sorry. 5:00 p.m. Roll call. President Bailey here. Dr. Gdane here. Mr. Lacy here. Mr. Smith here. Miss R. Reard present. Mr. Walker here. Miss Garrison present. Seven present. today to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, Dr. Lawrence. Thank you so much, Dr. Bailey. Um, I would like to ask the board to uh vote on option one. If you could show it on the screen for me. Uh, I was just told I have
007the wrong version. So, I see a second to come through. Is it the same as we had at the retreat? Yes. So, move second. Man, computer is slowing down. Yeah, super slow. Yep. We're waiting for the presentation. Do we need to refresh? Okay. Questions, concerns? I just want to put a comment out. I do appreciate the video that came out. It was long. [laughter] long. 9 minutes is a long time to look at a video on the internet. So, I do I've already talked to you guys at our committee meeting about kind of cutting it up so people can actually see that. But that's it. Thank you. Thank you so much. My team is in the process of doing that right now. Anything else? All right. Go ahead. Go ahead, Will. No, you can go
008ahead. I don't have any. Okay. So, we are just voting on the one uh option one as a whole, Dr. Lawrence. Yes. Yes, indeed, Mr. Smith, is there a possibility to vote on things separately through here? But do we just want to vote on the whole thing? Well, to the will of the board. You mean option one, two, or three? No, just Yeah, I am only proposing option one in its entirety. Oh, okay. Okay. Um yeah, my biggest concern here is just the lack of preschool options. Um appreciate 6 through8. I really am excited about that. Understand some of the other needs. Um but yeah, that's my biggest thing. That's it. Anyone else? M Reinhardt. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I think I just want to state that my concerns are rooted in a desire
009to let the public know the decisions before us with adequate time and transparency for what we're doing. Um I have thought many times in the last um I'm in my ninth year as a board member and I've thought a lot about the very big decisions that faced me the very first year that I was a board member when we did right sizing. Um the initial proposal was to close a number of buildings. We had town halls in every single building. Um it was a monthsl long lengthy process and the way [clears throat] in which we valued the feedback and incorporated that into our decision-m process and made it transparent to the entire community was something as as difficult as that process was. I came away with an appreciation for um the very hard work that
010it takes to be transparent with the public. Um to respect their contributions and um not want in any way to look like we are doing something without taking into account how it will affect their lives. Um, in fact, one of the reasons why I ran for school board back in 2017 is because I felt like we needed more people on the board who would be making decisions about not just, you know, kids in their neighborhood, hypothetical kids, but their own kids um, and rooting that um, service in knowing the real lives that it touches. My big concern here is that you know we got this information in an initial form on Tuesday. Um and it was the first time I had heard about the PK through6 model until then I just heard about the PK
011through8 and then um we had a more in-depth presentation on Saturday. Um and this even has um this this is a this has most of the same information but we have three options now. I cannot vote for something that has not been communicated effectively and have given the public and the community an opportunity to let us know their feelings and give us input. um even if it's the right thing to do, if we're not doing it transparently and with full communication, the only the only thing that will be remembered is how we did it, not what it is. And that's my frustration here. That's all I have. Thank you. Anyone else? Oh, go ahead. Okay. So the new f So is limiting preschool to the four is that is that a funding or is that
012a um a a building um or is that a the an amount of space in the building? Can the new funding source, can that be in more schools than just the four? Good evening everyone. In order to answer that question, I just want to talk about a couple different things. Uh this model, we would be able to service um approximately um about 658 preschool students. We do need space in many of our buildings. So, it's twofold. One, it's funding optimizing funding under um idea in a new format to service more students uh with more staff, but it's also in to reduce costs. Um and the other piece is that we have buildings that need space. um in order for us to do several of the other models, we would need to have classroom space in
013order to do that. So really the answer is both. Yes, it does pretty much. And under the new model 600 how many? 658 students and that's is that more than we s currently service uh 724. Okay. And it's limited down to the 600 because of the funding source or it's space capacity that's space that we're projecting in those uh four locations plus itinerate services. Okay then I understand that. But thank you. Uh Miss Burlock, could I ask a follow-up question? I don't think I was clear on the answer. Can we switch to the PFCC funding with the preschool configuration we have now? Yes. Okay. But we would not be able to put um because we would not be able to run the new configuration. We would not be able to place um teachers additional teachers
014in because we're looking at placing students under idea B funding um increasing the number of people. We right now we have about 800,000 in there. we could use that as a funding source for uh 1.5 under the new configuration, but um if we don't do that configuration, we will not be able to put additional staff in there. Okay. Thank you. [clears throat] I'll go after Will. You can go some things that have been in my communication with uh parents as well as um some of my colleagues. Um, I was I really was hoping we were we were going to look at more than just option one tonight. Um, I'm really more in favor of option two. Um, in my mind and as a pro person who does pro program management as well as project management,
015we we also have a levy that we're trying to to pass in November. And in my thought process, um, I understand and overstand from talking to some teachers, it takes time for teaching staff, uh, to get acclimated to new buildings. We have teachers who are currently in new buildings that are just now coming to the end of the school year getting acclimated in their building and really feeling comfortable with the potential to move those individuals come next school year for them to get acclimated again to another building and then expect that some will have time after hours to work on a levy. And so I'm looking at doing things doing what we do and doing it well and not doing it haphazardly. And um I'm definitely in favor of the need to move our prek
016students out of Kaiser and into a space because those trailers are at the end of their life. definitely in favor of moving, you know, Mound Street because of the cost of repairs needed for that particular building underneath the model that Mr. Smith presented where every school would have their own wing at the new uh Jackson Center. Um not in favor of K through 7. Um it works in some buildings. Uh, however, I know K through 8 has been in charity and it's uh we're told is working at River's Edge, but I haven't seen any data on that just yet. And um, every every school has a culture and I think some that's just not being taken into consideration with some of these u proposals that every school has a culture and what works at one
017necessarily work at another. And I really think it's something that we should stagger as opposed to jump to do in one setting. We have another school year coming up uh 2027 2028 where I think some of these uh other things could be broken up and done over time as opposed to in one lump, you know, school year. So that's just where I personally stand with it and where I'm most comfortable. But I do appreciate all the work, all the options that were given to us by the superintendent. I'm disheartened that we're only voting on option one tonight, but more to come. Thank you. Before Mr. Smith go, I just to provide clarity. This board has not taken any action to put a levy out yet to do anything. Just want to say that for the
018record. All right, Mr. Smith, I'm sorry. Come on, guys. I'm good. Go ahead. I'm good. No, I just have to provide context because I don't want us getting into waters of things that we have not made an actual decision on legally as a body. So my in looking at all of this, [clears throat] my biggest concern is to hit the ground. Yeah. Hitting the ground running. Um [laughter] like doing it the right way. So like when I think of right like to make sure it's done. you look at it's been a it's been a climb trying to get things together with the alternative school and that's a change that we had. This is looking at changing a lot of people at the same time and trying to figure out if we can make this work.
019Um and I think I brought up a lot of it even before when we talk about like just River's Edge. We haven't seen what that looks like in the future. We don't know what those high schoolers what that looks like. Um, and I think for me, I would have felt better if we look at this and we say, "Okay, these are K through five, cuz we're creating these feeders. We're creating this um this move to be able to have sixth graders go into this new six through eight configuration." Well, that means at a K through five now, we remove preschool and we're removing sixth graders from the building. So, that still leaves space if we're really wanting to be intentional even if we do not have the same amount of classrooms for preschool. And you're
020then actually creating a true feeder model where somebody could go from preschool to 12th grade in the same neighborhood. So, I think that's my biggest concern there. And then just making sure it's it's done right, like getting it done right. Um there just a lot of moving pieces and I appreciate the information. I do think moving in into this um new preschool kind of tuition space is also something I want to make sure that we're able to really keep our families to really talk to them, let them know what that looks like. Um let them know what that process looks like. being able to walk our people through a real enrollment process when it's we're changing up how they first get their touch point to us. Um I look at, you know, the other preschool
021options that are out there. And if we're pairing this down, we really do not know how many children will still choose us, but then that still opens up the ability for parents to choose other school routes and then stay there for kindergarten as well. And so we don't know the full scope and that's why I just want us to be wary of when we like look at these things. Like even when we put things out to the community, words matter. Like if we look just right here, it says option one, district reconfiguration. Option two, do almost nothing. It's as if we're trying to say that only one of these options is the right way to do it. We're trying to say because at first it said option one, do something, the other one do almost
022nothing. When we're acting like changing Mound Street to Jackson is almost nothing. We're acting as if changing Kaiser and moving them out and getting those sixth graders back acclimated to the building is almost nothing. That is not almost nothing. Changing anything in the district this size is something. And so like the words we even put out to the community and to each other actually matter. We have to pay attention when we're doing those kind of things. It's like we're leading people to say this is what we believe is the only right decision. Even though I'll give you three options, this is the only one I really want you to pick. And that is the way we shade things. Like we went from talking about funding at first for preschool and saying we have to get
023out of this funding to saying, "Hey, we can do this funding model any way we want to do it." Like we have to do better when we're talking to people. Um, I did want to ask if it's possible since we have um, Miss Lycap in in here. Is it possible, Dr. Morris, if I asked her a few questions or if she came up with Miss Spurlock? Absolutely. Appreciate you coming out. So with this, could you explain to me what does this look like for a parent coming in? Oh, I mean I knew who she was. I knew who she was. For the audience, could you explain who our guest is? Can I introduce myself? Oh, yes, you can. You can. I'm Robin Leap. I'm the executive director of Preschool Promise. So, thank you for having
024me. Thank you. So, you asked a question about what will it look like for families? What does that look like for a family from going from how our current preschool model is where it is you enroll, we put you in now by going after PFCC dollars and having a tuition, what does that look like for a family coming in now? Gee. Okay. Um, so right now obviously you've been offering a free preschool for a long time. So the change would be requiring families to fill out additional paperwork. And honestly, this year they have been filling it out for the ECE preschool program. And so that's why I have suggested that the good thing is you've already moved in that direction to have families fill out this paperwork. So why not take advantage of this other
025funding stream from the state because we need to pull down every dollar we can because preschool is not funded appropriately in our country or our state. So all of us have to access every dollar that we can. So, in a lot of ways, you've already made a big effort toward that change this current school year. So, that's one positive that it's not quite as drastic. But I also have to be totally transparent to say it is an administrative burden dealing with publicly funded child care. It is not simple. It's not like you just flip a switch and it all works smoothly. However, we've already been talking with Karen and Ununice and with Chief Miner and Chief Spurlock and we've got um we are ready to help you all as much as we possibly can and
026advise. We have people on our team that have been directors of child care programs that rely on publicly funded childare so they have navigated those systems so we can support you in that effort. It might take two, three years before we can realize the full revenue potential from that funding stream as we work through all the kinks. But I think it's it in my opinion it is wise to access every available dollar. And honestly, that's what the preschool promise financial model was built on because we don't have enough money to pay for everyone to go to preschool. Our model was built on pulling down all available federal, state, local money first. So, does that answer your question? That's appreciated. And no, I had to follow up with that. It is one more. So, with the
027tuition, what does or maybe even if that's for somebody on our team, what would that look like for a parent to try to apply to get the scholarship or a voucher to help them cover that cost? Certainly, we we have talked about that and we've talked to Robin as well. So, what happens is first they fill out the paperwork [clears throat] and we know that if they already qualify um that they would qualify. So, they can qualify in a couple different ways for PFCC and it might be fully funded PFCC and then they may have a partial payment and we've already talked to preschool promise that they we could ask for tuition assistance for that family. Now, they allocate dollars every year. At this point in in February, they still have money available for tuition
028assistance to families across Montgomery County. Last year, they did not hit their cap for tuition assistance. So, families can apply at any time during the school year for that tuition assistance. And as a team, we talked about so first they can qualify for PFCC tuition assistance through preschool promise if something happens. And we're already in conversations about they're talking about rearranging funds to supply more. We're also talking about what can we do for those families in scholarship for the if the funds run out that we can offer scholarships as well because we don't want to deny preschool to any any family. But first, we want to get as much money from the state that we can through our ECE dollars um and through vouchers and through PFCC. Appreciate that. That's all I had. Dr. One,
029thank you. This is more a question for the the district team. So, you've you've all heard the concerns from the board and you I've gotten to see your work a lot more over the last couple months. And my question, and I'm asking each of you to come to the mic and just tell us in like a sentence or two, why do you support? because I know the superintendent didn't do this himself because I hear you all talk about this stuff. Tell us as a board because you are the individuals who work with this. You are the individuals who talk to the families. Any surveys that have occurred, all work that has gone on this is from this team. Why are you in in support of us or if you and you may not be in
030support if you're not. I mean, I know you're not going to tell me that, but I can get [laughter] what you say. I get that. I'mma listen to what you say. So, I'm just asking you guys, [laughter] just tell us as a a body, why should we do this? You're up first. You hear it. I'm up first. So, um we actually did do a survey of families and we have families that do want to continue with the district. When we look at the um possible PK7, PK8s, we have families that say that choose to leave our district in sixth grade going into seventh grade. We have had families that said, "If I could stay at this elementary school, I would want to stay in the district." We also have data from REMM uh River's Edge
031that this past school year, we were able to retain 90% of the sixth to seventh graders, either at River's Edge or another Dayton Public School choice. at Charity Adams, our number was 94% retention, whether it was at Charity Adams or another choice in the district. Um, so those are just some of my reasons. Um, we did the survey. We also I went out and I spoke to several um at parent meetings in the fall. Um, and I had lines at after presenting I had lines of parents saying, "Thank you. Um, we you've heard us. We do want this option." So that's why we began uh the transition at several buildings. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Miner, it's like baseball to be follow. Actually, I'm going tell you it's going to be Miss Miner, then we
032going to Chief Douly, then Dr. She, then Miss Goins. Okay. And Mr. Simmons. Thank you. Good. Good evening board members and [laughter] visiting uh audience. Mr. Simmons. You hold Miss I want to get you to We want to hear you all. Mr. Simmon, you want to I'll wait until Go ahead. Sorry. Okay. I I guess the first thing I think about is all those families that lined up excited about an opportunity of a K8 model and I think about their faces and them wanting that and many of the schools as we said with the survey. I also think about my experience as a prek principal and the development that happened with the leadership skills that were developed amongst my sixth, seventh and eighth grade cuz the buildings many of them were designed to be prek8
033and I can remember a survey happening um well a team came in and did an audit of the middle school in within my building and my big concern was are we getting them prepared for high school. And they did an analysis and because of the way we structured the middle school, we even had a different uh schedule for them. Uh they scored a five out of five on preparation. Some of our prek principles if it were approved were part of that team like lead teachers and had experienced it. So I know that would work. But I also appreciate the need to do six, seven, eight because as principles have said, by the time they get in there at seventh grade and leave and get to know them, they're already gone. So the fewer transitions, the
034better. I I believe Dayton Public Schools is a comprehensive district that has a lot to offer and we should offer our ch our families these choices. I'm also looking forward to a stronger preschool center uh and increasing the quality of instruction because there'll be more collaborative teams. Right now with them all spread out the preschool teachers have maybe one or two people to collaborate with but at Rosa Parks they'll have a whole team. So there's a lot of benefits to this and we appreciate the opportunity. Is Dr. Davis in a lineup or not? Nah, she just didn't [laughter] I'll say ditto ditto ditto. Um, but I do want to say that I work directly with Joy in the Student Assignment Office and also with Judy Spurlock and I've watched them struggle all year long in
035trying to find seats for preK6 kids in the north, which is what prompted this idea of relocating PK other reasons of course, but getting some uh classroom space freed up in our elementary schools. Um, as Miss Miner said, I'm a huge component proponent of 68 for the relationship building. I think it's just a healthier model. Um, the consolidation of the alternative programs into one building, I think, can only um impact more kids in a in a more uh efficient way. We have an exemplary staff at Mound Street um with a lot of experience doing this work. So I don't need to repeat what the others have said, but this all started because we were looking for seats for elementary students in the north and then all of this other planning kind of evolved over time.
036Thank you. Thank you, Miss Stokes. You going to be the closer. It's like a couple people ahead of you. Good, good evening. [clears throat] I must say ditto as well to our associate superintendent and the concepts that she presented uh as a former um ele uh elementary principal and middle school principal. I also appreciate the opportunity of having sixth, seventh, and eighth grade in one building for relationship building. Um high school preparedness, all of those things that uh Lisa Miner presented as what I'm in favor of. There's definitely benefits there and I've seen it firsthand. I came up uh in my schooling through sixth, seventh, and eighth grade as a middle schooler. Um so I was exposed to that myself. So I do see the benefit of it. Uh when it comes to Mound Street
037and the combining Mound Street, I'm in favor of that as well. Um I see the benefits there. You know, we have the issues with the building, the this, the maintenance, all of those types of things. But I definitely see uh those benefits in merging those twomies together. So thank you. Good evening. Um this option one, if we start with um preschool, um as was stated before, consolidating the resources into one space, um we've really grown preschool because we've talked about kindergarten readiness so much. Um, I want to give a huge shout out to our preschool team on the resources, the instruction, and we work really closely together to make sure that's happening. And consolidating these programs will only increase the rigor and instruction for our preschoolers to be kindergarten ready. We've talked about some of
038those literacy concerns. This is definitely going to help that. Um, the K5 and the feeders are to me very exciting because as a student of Dayton public schools, having those feeder patterns um, and building those relationships is very important. We knew what school we were going to go to. Our siblings went there. We experienced that with them and we were really excited. So, um that feeder pattern I think brings a new level of excitement for our district. uh the K6 model. Um those students are taking those preschoolers out because as a a K6 principal, I think someone mentioned it before, the preschool teams are kind of isolated and we've been working to make those preK and K connections, but in those buildings, they're they feel a little isolated because their work is slightly different. So
039I think that's going to um help that the K7 models I was a prek8 principal and having those students so long and seeing their growth and development was I just really appreciated that seeing that and supporting them going into high school. the 68 model. I was in EJ Brown today. Um, and having getting them prepared for high school and seeing some of the programming that they have right now is is really exciting. Getting them prepared for that wallto-wall academy is happening in those spaces as well. So, I think that's just going to strengthen our time with them. And of course the consolidation of our alternative programs, bringing all the resources together. Um there's been a lot of work done at the alternative school this year, tweaking things, figuring it out, and I think bringing that
040established mound community there is just going to improve those services for all of our students. Having such a diverse community, I think it's important for us to have diverse options so we can all bring them together and um increase our enrollment. Thank you. So, I want to I want to thank you guys. I think I think a key person is coming up because we're asking people to speak and we haven't talked to the people who do preschool here. bit. I They didn't move, so I was like, "Go ahead. Come on." Thank you for your time. Um, preschool does not have a mascot, so I can't explain that the Wolverines [laughter] are best. But I can say that I firmly believe that preschool is by far the most important grade levels in this in this district.
041It is our family's introduction to the district and it is our students beginning of their school career. and I feel an extreme amount of weight to make sure that we get it right so that when they go through the district they feel like we have started and we love this place and we're never going to leave it. Um, part of my role I I feel a strong proponent of keeping as many classrooms available, as many teachers in their positions as available because I want to serve our students and I want to see our kindergarten students come from our preschool. We know that the kids when they get to kindergarten, they fare much better than those who don't go to our DVS preschools. Um, that said, money, as Robin said, is is a big problem, not
042just in Dayton, but in Ohio and across the country for child care. With Title One funding, which has been no fault of preschools, that there's problems with that, and we realize that it's just not fair to spend all our title one funds on preschool. So, we realized that we had to come up with a different model. Um, it presents a great opportunity because we as of now has have not taken advantage of a variety of revenue streams. Um, we've taken we have students who have IEPs and there's some money that comes in because of that. We have uh the early childhood grant which we have taken over in the last two years. There's a little bit of money from that, but we don't have something steady that seems like it could cover our needs for
043staffing um and beyond. So looking into PFCC, while it is an administrative headache, um it does seem like it's a way to create more sustainability in our department um because it would cover a lot of the funds that we're needing to give back to the schools. Um another thing about this is that if we are no longer bound by title one, we have this great opportunity to restructure the classrooms. We have what we call ECE right now, which is bound by title one rules. The kids have to have certain requirements for age and otherwise. We have these ESIP classrooms. Um, and we've been operating in a way that is not consistent with the state's guidance on least restrictive environments for students with IEPs. Um, the the there's sort of this spectrum of options and we
044think that we could fit into the second option down the line. Right now we're falling in like the fifth or sixth down the line in this spectrum of options. And that would be having a model where we have all gened classrooms and we have an is an intervention specialist who splits his or her time between those classrooms. Um so there's just a lot of opportunity here in staffing and support. It would almost be like a halftime co-eing model. Um so it's as chaotic as it is I think there's just a lot of opportunities coming out of this chaos. um we would be able to work more strongly with Preschool Promise whose job it is for Montgomery County well beyond Dayton to support families to get into preschools and we could take advantage of their tuition
045assistance. Um something we can't do right now because we don't charge it. Um and we talk about this idea of tuition, but that's something that we have to say that we're doing, but the vast majority of our families would come here, be able to take advantage of county assistance or preschool promise assistance, and it would still be free to them like it is now. Um it's we're saying tuition on paper, but there be [clears throat] people or places supporting them to pay that tuition. So I just think there's a lot of there's a lot of good things that could come out of this. Thank you. Thank you. You don't you don't have to. You don't have to if you [laughter] don't want to. If you think everything's in They just threw your name out there.
046So somebody said your name, so we called you. You said her name. You said her name. [laughter] She said it first and I was like, "Oh, well, let's not forget." Miss Stokes, you going to be last. Yeah, I did. But Miss G was supposed to go before us since that's our community engagement over there. Sorry. We was laughing at Mr. Simmons. That's why Miss Gins are here. Um I am a proponent of whatever is going to be best for our kids. Um, at the end of the day, um, we just need to make sure that they're in a safe spot and that they're being educated, um, to the best of our ability. Um, and with that being said, the other piece is, you know, we just need to make a decision one way or the
047other because in order to start next year, we need to we just need to make a decision. So whichever way you decide, I'll roll with it. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Dunks. Thank you. You'll be the one who Thank you. So, and again, I don't have a preference. You'll be the one telling to fill out more paperwork. Well, yeah. [laughter] We do this work together. As the arms budsman, my piece of being involved was keeping folks in the district. Retention, retention of folks in the district. We were losing kids to the STEM school if they couldn't get in certain schools. The intentionality of the work that they've done to redistribute some of the resources, some of the supports that are in certain schools. And I mean, our classrooms are full and this has to happen
048today, I think. So, that's why I support this effort. [laughter] Thank you guys for retention of students in our in our in our district. I'm almost Okay. Thank you guys. So, I want to I want to thank you all because I think it's imperative to hear from the people who have to deal with the decisions that we make as a board. And I do want to point out too that this wasn't the original option that you guys brought us. We did collaborate as a board with you. You initially came with one preschool and board members asked for something to also be on the east side and now you added those on there. We also you also came with a 68 model and you only had K6 and the request was it didn't make sense if
049the sixth graders weren't going to come anywhere and you found schools to pair with those ones to add that on there. So I'm appreciative that like this is actual collaboration. It's not just your idea. It is not just our idea. It is us coming together to do a idea that seems the most logical and reasonable at this moment in time. And the beauty about the things that occur here that if if this model does work, if this does pass today and it does work and later down the line next year you see that you are able to bring more preschools back based on the things that you have seen that also can happen because you also have to come back to us to add the eighth grade on to the K7. So we're in a
050testing period like we tested Charity Adams with seventh grade, eighth grade it's on year three. We are now with River's Edge on seventh grade. We're projected that they're going to be in the eighth grade there as well. And we'll we will actually see what that happens. If some of these models do not work out over the next year, I'm sure you'll bring another recommendation back because you guys are graded on this stuff. So, at some point from this seat, it has to go. I have to allow you to do what you believe you can do because at the end of the day, we're going to grade you on the success or failure on whatever happens out here. So, I do appreciate the amount of time that has gone into this discussion and this piece of
051it. And I mean, I agree at this point either we're going to allow you to do what you believe you can do or we're going to say no, do something else and still grade you either way on how those things turn out. Thank you. Conspiracy. Yes, thank you. Um, and I'm glad to hear from DPS staff as well as uh those getting into this. I wanted to read the email of a parent that sent us their thoughts on the preschool changes so that we can have a full picture also from and this is only one parent. Again, I'm not sure if they received the survey that went out, but I'm going to go ahead and read it. Um, this is the parent of three children who attend Cleveland Elementary. her youngest child is currently enrolled
052in preschool and expected to attend preschool again next year. I am writing to respectfully express my strong disagreement with the proposal to remove preschool from Cleveland Elementary. This decision would have the direct and negative impact on my daughter's educational experience and our family. One of the most meaningful parts of her school experience is being able to attend the same school as her older siblings. Each morning she walks into the building encouraged, confident, and excited because she feels connected and included. Removing preschool from the elementary school will take away that sense of belonging and stability without clear calls. For a child so young, that consistency matters tremendously. Cleveland has successfully operated as a prek through 8 building in the past. Preschool students currently occupy only two classrooms. It is difficult to understand how such a small
053program is disruptive enough to warrant removal. If space or structure is a concern, I believe solutions can be found that preserve preschool within the elementary setting. If additional grades are being considered, adjustments can be made. They have been made before. I strongly believe Cleveland should remain an elementary school that includes preschool. Early education is foundational and keeping our youngest learners integrated within the elementary environment strengthens families and build continuity in education. For these reasons, I'd respectfully urge the board to vote against the proposal to remove preschool from Cleveland Elementary. I ask that you carefully consider the impact this decision will have on young children and the families who rely on this school community. Thank you for your time and consideration. That's all. Thank you, Mr. Smith. Did you have something else? Um, just that I
054really appreciate hearing from everyone and I just want us to just always keep in mind that There's challenges and when we talk about these things, we can't ignore the challenges of doing these things. Like we had a K8 district, there was a reason we switched it. We talk about the buildings being built for preK through 8, but we don't talk about the fact that we had Gorman at the time and then Gorman got shut down. So, so many things happen and when we go into these modes where we're talking about testing theories and trying things out, what we're really saying is we're trying things out on our children. And for me, that is why when we try things, we have to be intentional because we can come back, you guys can come back in a
055year, you can come back in two years and say, "Hey, let's do something different." That child might not come back. That family might not come back. Like that is what we're talking about when we talk about making any change in this district. I don't care if it's from changing a staff member. I don't care if it's changing bus routes or changing the time of day a school starts. We're talking about affecting families. And so the work is one thing. Moving families is a whole different thing. And that is why I think we have to be intentional with everything that we're doing. When we're talking about doing these things, we're saying we we looking we're looking at the investment into our children, but at the same time, we're hoping that our families will be okay with
056pairing down the first touch of school for them to three places. And let alone not saying that, we look at we say we have a space at River's Edge, which is one quadrant. You have one in another colon in southeast and one in the northwest which is totally ignoring the fact that we have nothing then in the southwest like we're we're making decisions and not stopping sometimes to go hold on let's see how we can carry this through and like I said we do preschool very well. If we want our kids to be kindergarten ready, we have to think of how do we put that investment in because whatever investment we do not put in at the beginning, we're going to have another investment or we're going to have to pay for that down the
057road. If it's that piece, if we're saying, "Okay, we are going to try to find PFCC money to do transportation here to go to other sites," then we're we're banking on that site doing just as good as we would. We're banking on other people being just as good as preschool as the people that do it right now in every elementary building. We're banking on people being able to do that. We're banking on families deciding, yes, I will get up in the morning and go from South Southwest Dayton to Northwest Dayton because I I'm going to do that. Or we're just hoping they don't go, you know what, I'm going to go to this charter school instead or [clears throat] I'm going to keep my kid at home or I'm going to have to do another
058thing to try to figure this out. And so whatever we do, I want us to work all the way together to make sure it works and really look at whatever challenges we're going to have. Even when it comes down to enrollment, like I have a question and I don't know if we've looked at it yet. What does the feeder system look like when we're talking about this? If a student coming out of fifth grade and they're at Louise Troy, is is does the community know if they can only go to Wagman or can they go to any sixth grade across the district now? And then what does that look like when I'm at a K through six building and my kid gets to fifth grade and now I want to go to middle school. or
059if I'm in a building where now I'm I can be a kid and I'm in fifth grade, go to another building for sixth grade and then go stop at a K through seven building if I don't feel I'm ready like for that. So, we're saying one thing and we're trying to get the feeder, but what do we really what does it look like? And I know we can work on it. We can say, "Hey, tomorrow if this goes, we're going to start working on it." But when we work on plans, that's what we should work on before we even have the plan. You have to have contingency plans in place before you get to any decision where you're asking somebody to make a decision on their children. And that is the thing like even if
060I'm a person who would love to be in the the the feeder system of this school to this school to this school, it doesn't does it mean I have to go there. Do parents know what that looks like yet? So, I think that is the part to make sure that we're we're looping them in, making sure that we're getting real real clarity on what people's options are because I don't want parents to feel like I think this is happening and so then I take my child somewhere and then that affects our bottom line. But that is it. Appreciate you. I will I will say too, thank you Dr. Bailey. We did put the request out today in our committee meeting to have exactly what Mr. Board member Smith just asked for the feeder pathway programs
061and I believe we will have that in the near future because they did a great job of the last assignments we gave them. So Mr. Walker, I think this is the quietest I've ever sat through a 47 minute presentation argument, debate, whatever. Um, Dr. Lawrence, I will say I applaud your team for answering seven pages worth of questions, shooting a video that is 9 and 1/2 minutes long, Miss Goins, your team for surveying 750 parents, um principles for sharing feedback and their support of having sixth grade and buildings to see students progress longer than just having them a year. um board members who showed up to committee meetings and actually heard these presentations. We talked about it even in student after school activities because my question was we have a community partner that is operating
062out of Fair View and [clears throat] 21st for their 21st century program with EJ Brown having a 21st century and how they've struggled having numbers in that program but now looking to potentially have sixth grade to actually hit their cap in numbers to support families. So, I'm appreciative of the entire word from Dr. Lawrence, your original submission to this board back in last August or September about this plan coming forward. So, it's not something new that this board has not seen a communication on. Again, we've done the [clears throat] work in committee. We've talked to families have been surveyed. Building open houses have taken place. So, I'm appreciative of the work. My questions are these. Dr. Jones trailers at Kaiser. What is the timeline to remove them? How long will they still be on the
063property? Safety and security. Does that change buildings now because they'll have middle school? And then the last one for you is transportation for these new configurations in line with bell schedules of writing together. Okay. First things first, the uh the trailers over at Kaiser. Uh we will remove those as soon as possible. uh they'll be gone uh hopefully before the beginning of next school year uh sometime this summer. In terms of SRO configurations, we'll make sure that each building uh has an adequate number of um staff members. I don't believe that we would need to add to our bottom line. Uh however, we are in the process of examining that. And the third question was uh transportation alignment with those schools and bail schedules. Uh we are still working on that. I think we'll be
064fine uh in terms of like calibrating between the different tiers that we have. Everybody knows we have three tiers. Um and so uh we'll get with the transportation team uh to make sure that we're able to offer stellar services to our community. Perfect. And then uh thanks Dr. Jones. My questions for Dr. Lawrence. Dr. Can I Dr. Jones, do you mind if I add something to the second piece about Seros? Certainly. Uh Dr. Jones has agreed to have a chief's meeting where all the chiefs meet to go over security in general. So, athletics, uh, I have three chiefs who are in academics. So, he's agreed um through email said, "Hey, I agree to a chief's meeting to address your second question about Esos." Yeah, that's to I could [clears throat] add a little more specificity.
065Thank you. Thank you. No problem. Um, you know, buildings uh often differ uh by culture. Some need more resources than others or not more but different. And so uh we're going to engage in examining um cultural needs uh of each building and how many SRO's each building would need to uh ensure a high quality environment for our staff and students. Perfect. Thank you. Uh Dr. Dr. Lawrence, my questions for you are um buildings that are on this plan for K through 7, will we have the same presentation later similar to River's Edge before we vote to add 8th grade to those buildings? Yes, absolutely. We'll be excited to do that. And I want to say that uh Miss Riner actually reached out to me and asked me was I going to be ready to present
066for River's Edge. So I I knew that that's an expectation of the board and we'll be excited to do that to talk about where we are in the process. Perfect. And then two questions which kind of go together but we'll see. Um Miss Chief Spurlock uh [clears throat] and I don't know maybe Chief Douly. So, I'm looking at the buildings of Bell Haven, um, Bell Haven, Valerie, Horseman, Cleveland. Um, when looking at those buildings, what does that now stay for Styver's enrollment? Because I know a lot of families go there. Would that now get more students in open enrollment spacing or how would that piece work? And then the second part of that question would be we're looking at these buildings now that will be K through 7 or K through eight. How does that
067end up working with your M master schedule and time frame and things like that? Absolutely. Thank you for that question. Um first I want to say that all those buildings we walk through as a team with the principal with operations with athletics so we can make sure that we have a solid program for those buildings. Um yes. So just like at Charity Adams and at River's Edge, we had students that did go and audition for Styvers and was able to go to Styver. Some families chose to go to another DPS middle school. But we also had at Charity Adams um last year four new students that joined that that um that middle school. [clears throat] And um at uh River's Edge, we had nine I mean sorry, 10 new students that joined um River's Edge
068in the seventh grade. Nine came within the district and one came from outside the district. All right. Um I know there's another piece. Master schedule. Master schedule. Absolutely. We've already talked about master schedule and I know um that uh Chief Douly has actually already met with those secondary counselors uh to begin the planning for master scheduling um and so that we can do that for the middle schools as well and also talk to um CTE programming because we do want to have career tech options for our middle schoolers as well. That is all my questions. Mr. President, I would say I appreciate our agenda today having this on here. However, that was not the intent of our special meeting for today. So, I appreciate us allowing this fifth presentation that we have about the same
069topic. Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, there are some things here that I think are really good ideas. I will preface by saying that. Um, I'm in favor of um moving to the PFCC funding. I I think that that's really important to make sure that we are doing everything we can to staff preschool and make that available for students. Um I really like the K8 model. Uh I think that's also really good for students and I'm in favor of um consolidating and moving Mound Street. I think um some clarification I'm looking for um I've heard for about a year that the K8 model works really really well um and that it's you know it's working out really well in the schools that we're phasing it into already and that it is design
070it and one of the effects of the K8 model is that it uh keeps students in the district at a very very high rate. If that's the case, then why are we not doing K8 across the district? Why are we opening ourselves to potentially losing students if they're in the K6 or if they're in the 68? Mr. R, I want to take that and say that um this the conversation around K8, K6, um there's enough empirical research to make cases for either one. Um we had a speaker who came on at the last meeting with empirical research around the importance of not having K8s or having K6s. And so when I what that means is enough researchers do enough research and they have enough methodologies and they can come up with reasons. Um we know
071what we know here is that what we're doing here in this limited space that we have happens to be working. Now I don't know if it would work districtwide. We actually have thought talked about that like what does that look like the next phase or the next iteration of this? Um we just figured this was these were a lot of band-aids to rip off at one time and we're ready. Um I'm not so sure we were ready to rip all the rest ones off. We're going to look at the uh the research after this year and who knows we may we may present that next year. So research shows that both K6 and K8 are Yes. as successful for students. Yeah, you can you can find research on either. I'll have my we have lots
072of PhDs in this team. We'll look it up and send it. Can I either way? Then then pardon me, board member Walker. Then why are we making so many changes if it works with what we have already with K6? But I said I said the research says that we're making changes because we think that this is the most important place for right now. Right. No, my question was though, if it if it looks like from what we're seeing in Dayton that K8 keep students with us, Mhm. then why are we not doing that across the board for all of our elementary schools? As I said, we'll see what happens in this space and we may predict that next year. We may do that next year. Um, thank you Dr. Lawrence. I appreciate that. I do
073also want to push back on board member Walker. Um, we have been, um, you know, this has been something that's been mentioned a number of times. Uh, but my concern is that the communication to the public, the the public uh, the email that went out this morning with the video and the full video from Dr. Lawrence. Um, recapping what we talked about on Saturday was sent out this morning. That is not transparent communication that our public and our families deserve. Um, I was not part of the committees that discussed this for a long time. Um, I only heard about a model other than K8 last Tuesday and I had texts from parents this morning saying, "What's this reconfiguration meeting today? Are you really voting on this today? That is my concern. Thank you, Mr. President.
074All right. Go ahead. I will. Mr. Riner, I you have been on the board for nine years. For the last two, you chair parent, family, and community engagement as a board committee. So, you've had a lot of opportunity to bring this up in your committee meetings that you have parents a part of. uh the superintendent sent us a [clears throat] weekly update which I can clearly go in my email and find a report where we initially talked about this last year about change in buildings. So I just want us as a board to stop sitting here and acting like we did not get communication about what is going on. There has been a lot of communication about what it is that we are discussing. I invite individuals to actually come and sit in committee meetings
075and hear first off to see who shows up amongst board members and then second hear what is actually being discussed. We actually give opportunities for public members to be a part of those same committees. So there is opportunities to do work. And if I'm looking at this model of K through six, some of these buildings, Edison, Roosevelt, Westwood, three buildings on the west side of Dayton that are heavy with group home kids who do not remain in the city of Dayton who constantly leave this district and go somewhere else. So if we're talking about keeping families there, we have to talk about actually adding other services for those students, which I'm sorry, we have not passed a levy to do any of that type of thing. However, we do know and a lot of families
076that stay [clears throat] in this district is because of the actually actual family environment that they have in these other buildings. Edison, Roosevelt, Ruskin, Kaiser, uh, all of those buildings have great educators. The issue is a lot of students that are coming into those buildings, the city has not done great things with allowing limited group homes in spaces. So, a lot of our teachers are afraid of being attacked in those buildings. I'm not going to call them up here, but Dr. Davis could probably tell you we have a teacher that resigns every single day or doesn't show up for work because of what they've been subject to at those same buildings. So yes, it would be nice to have it across the district, but again, as you said, you've been here 9 years, so you've
077had time even then to do this same model. So can we not act like this is something that is new? We can vote. I mean, so uh I'm just going to say this. Thank you guys for all of the hard work that you did. Thank you again. I I don't like sounding like a Tyler Perry movie and [laughter] things being repeated over and over again, but I do want to thank you guys for the hard work. I do want to thank you for [clears throat] answering all the questions that was given to you uh from the board members. I thank you for the changes that you made uh with this plan. And uh I think that we should also vote. Anything else? That's it. All right. Well, it I just don't want to give people
078the wrong idea [clears throat] that we were not just here last Tuesday and multiple people said the presentation we got was the same thing that we had got in the committee. So, when we talk about being in these committees, we're getting the same thing. So, yes, we can say what we have been doing, but I don't want us to then try to fight each other and say that people should have known things that people in those commi committees said they hadn't even seen yet. So, if we're going to vote, that is fine. What we don't I don't want us to do is to go at each other about what people should and should not know when today is the first day we even talked to anybody from preschool. No preschool period here. So, we have
079to stop that. That that will not build what we need to do to move forward. Whatever moves forward, we have to move together. But we cannot move into actions as if people are wrong in their assumptions or wrong in their thoughts about what had been presented and where we are with this because a lot of these things that we talk about things have been moving. There had been no real presentation about what we were going to do. We just had a we were able to throw in two schools because the first presentation said do this. Other schools we're talking about moving different things. So we have to move forward and say yes maybe we started too late on this. Even if we move forward we cannot act like we have been doing this and then
080some people have just been in the dark. We moved late on it. And so now we have to everybody get together and do whatever we're going to have to do to make these things work because once we vote everybody has to move forward whichever the way the vote was. That's true. We have to move forward in that way. And the way we're we're walking into a [clears throat] vote, all that has to stop once we get past it because at the end of the day, it's for these kids. And I'm ready to vote. All right. Call for vote. President uh Bailey, yes. Dr. Goodwin, yes. Mr. Lacy, yes. Mr. Smith, no. Miss Rer, no. Mr. Walker, yes. Miss Garrison, no. Congratulations, team. Do the work that needs to be done. Four yeses, three nos. Good
081work. The educators. Uh, Dr. Bailey, I have another resolution I would like to bring for a vote that will conclude my motion to approve. Second. Call any questions, concerns? Who did? Good. I motion Dr. Ywan second. Yeah. Okay. Questions, concerns? All right. Call for vote. Okay. President Bailey. Yes. Dr. Dwine. Yes. Mr. Lacy. Yes. Mr. Smith. Oops. Stain. M. Reuter. Yes. Mr. Walker. Yes. Miss Garrison. Yes. Six. PSS1 abstain. All right. Pursuant to section 121.22G2 of the Ohio Revised Code, I move that this board go into executive session. This meeting is being held to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, and or compensation of a public employee. Second. Roll call. President Bailey. Yes. M Dr. Goodwin. Yes. Mr. Lacy. Yes. Mr. Smith. Yes. Miss Reard. Yes. Mr. Walker. Yes. Miss Garrison. Yes. Seven. Yeses. After the
082tragedy, the families of the lost astronauts came [music] together and wanted to do something immemorial for their families. Well, nobody believed I could do it. They said, "This has never been done. Uh, you're just a teacher, you know." And I said, "Watch me." Once we [music] had built the first center, President Bush said, "We need more of these centers." It just immediately was clear to me that Dayton, Ohio, birthplace of aviation, had to have a center. And along I came. When students come to the center, they take on the role of mission controllers and [music] astronauts and engineers. It's taking you out of your everyday environment and putting you in the environment of flight. A number of educators [music] have come back and said that they were inspired to be a teacher and and it
083began with Christian McAuliffe, but then it continued when they went to [music] a Challenger Learning Center. The community response was overwhelmingly positive. Teachers from around the Miami Valley are preparing for the mission of a lifetime. Imagine as a student being able to command your very own space lab. We have main engine start. dreams have a way of manifesting [music] themselves. Three, ideas have a way of coming into this world. Two, we created uh all these grand things that you can [music] find at a Challenger Center now and right here in Dayton. One is a prime example of what can be done. Liftoff of the 25th Space Shuttle mission and it has cleared the tower. control program. Watch.