001Call ordain from the school board. [clears throat] Roll call. President Bailey here. Dr. Goodwin here. Mr. Lacy here. Mr. Smith present. Miss Raina present. Mr. Walker I am back in my seat. Miss Garrison present. Seven present. Pledge allegiance. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Any more discussion or questions? I do have Joe. Mr. Lacy, I'm going to pass stuff. I love when Mr. Lacy has his receipts. I've got a couple before deciding on going to a levy. I thought it's prudent to look at our chances of success electorally. Um, so I pulled what I feel to be maybe the most like election and and uh that would be the the 2022 primary and
002I was able to pull the the D's and Rs that voted in that primary in our district. And then I compared that with the 2022 general election. And um they don't just um the the quickest way to get the a somewhat similar D's and Rs is just to take a generic D candidate and a generic R candidate. I just chose the um the one of the constitutional offices, the um the attorney general's race. And yeah, so um that that assimilates the Democrats and Republicans that voted in that election. Um, we all I think know that that um the people that are Democrats are more likely to have children in Dayton public schools or in public school in general. There are they are more likely to vote with us than the other side. Um, if you
003look at the total for the primary, [cough] you've got nearly 10,000 Democrats and and around 5,000 Republicans. That's a a total of about 15,000. That's about the same number that voted in the 2025 election that we just went through. Um, and then you compare it to the general election and the D's are are 25 26,000, Republicans are 13 14,000. Um, um, off-year primaries have a fairly low turnout within this district. Um, and when you're go when you're going with a first of all, yeah, the the kind of numbers we have, any suburban district, they they would uh they would kill to have the numbers we have, but in a primary in the in a [cough] rough year, we do have a low turnout. And when you have a low turnout, I I really believe that
004you're swimming upstream. Um the result could be easily affected by a group um by a large group of of of people that are opposed um just coming over um when yeah when there's only 15,000 voting um but there are a lot more not voting a lot of those people can come over and vote and and and I've seen this happen. I mean, it's it's a very Democratic city, but yet since I've lived here, we've had three mayor's races where Republicans have won. And um and that what happened in each of those cases, it was just um some excitement that brought more RS out. Um, and then yes, the 2000 levy, which we lost, that was also a very low turnout. And it really didn't take a lot of the other side coming out to um
005to overcome overcome the yes vote. Our successes were the general election of 2002 when we passed the bond levy and the general election of 2008. And I remember clearly the 2008 um levy uh we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars that we got. And u but I do remember I looked at the polling and we were ahead before the campaign even started. They did polls before the there was any campaign. We we were ahead from the very beginning. And um I don't think I don't think the campaign really made much difference at all. It probably boosted our lead, but uh I really believe that the general election is the most is the more prudent way to go because it it we have a better chance of success in the general election. Um, and to say
006that, yeah, we can try it now and possibly lose. I mean, I'm not saying we would lose, but I mean, if if if if there is a turnout that doesn't favor us. If we lose, that's fine. We can try it again. I really I mean um and then you're asking people to contribute again. you're asking the community for support again. You're going through a campaign again and um I've been through enough of them that yeah um going [laughter] going into one after the other it could be a nightmare and it doesn't make us look good. Um so these are the these are just some facts to look at and to consider as we vote. Um, I I will be voting no, although I I am convinced of the um the need and of of and
007I would support a levy. And I would just say that I just want to clear clarify that that my no vote, if it is a no vote, I'm sure Mr. Smith is always has a good way of an eloquent way of of making me chase my mind why. But if he does not, my no vote is really um um it it's it's really because I believe we can do better for our students. Uh we can really do better by ensuring that we get we do it right one time and that's uh and that's what all I have. Thank you, Mr. President. Go ahead. So, thank you Mr. Lacy for the information and mine is more of a discussion than anything because in [cough and clears throat] 2022 I think we got to I think we
008have to also put in the entire look at the totality of the circumstances around us in 2026. People are more political online than I've ever seen. We're going into the primaries this year where like yes, our levy I think Miss Riner said that we would be possibly the only ones out here with that one. Is that correct? But all the other things that are bringing individuals out like you know the state races though that's a big factor looking at where we are as a society and our morality as a culture and that piece of it. I don't know if uh this year will be different because you know politics has never looked like this from everyone who has been on this earth longer than I've been who has told us in that one. Um I
009hear the the piece of the credibility of us as an organization. But I do think that's one of the things that when I saw the city of Dayton put the hospital out, one of the biggest arguments that I heard over and over from lay people was let the people decide if it's something that they want to support or not. I don't have children in the district. I have nephews and nieces and that and I said this last week that what happens whether the district is successful, which I would hope you are, we are successful at anything we do. I would hope that it lessens some of the financial realities that we know are coming to us. I asked last week if we did pass a levy in May and you know the projections of cuts,
010how many of those will we be able to hang on to knowing that we had money coming in January? And I'm I'm going to ask if you guys did figure that out because that's a I mean I think that's a key factor of us being successful in May versus November because in May I can plan in November we've already let those people go because we had a month at that point. So Dr. Lawrence, did you guys figure that out for us at all? We made a [clears throat] budget revision yesterday and we are still $9 million um over projected budget for next year which means that we would have to make some some reductions um based on the school programming and committee meeting you had the day before the day before we talked about what
011some of those were. So, um, we're going to drill down and we don't know the exact number of individuals, but, um, yet, but, in each one of those categories that we covered yesterday, there will be some reductions. Okay, that was great to say. My question is, if a levy passed in May of those reductions that are already projected, what percentage could we hold on to knowing that money 100%. Every we can hold on to them. Every program and every person. So, if we passed the levy in May, Yes. and the voters approved the levy, you're saying that we would be able to hold on them knowing that the money was coming in in January. Yes. And if we did it in November, what did that look like? What's that turnaround? Well, they'll be gone at
012that point. Yeah, we do in November. We're going to we're going to make the decisions in March and April to have a reduction in force. So, yeah, Mr. Lacy, I do agree. Or some on some transformation in the district somewhere else. So I do agree with you that november [clears throat] is the bigger pull because we are a strong democratic city in that piece of it. Yeah. But I want to save jobs more than I want to take. I mean I want I would rather take the risk right now if it meant that the people who work for this district if it passed that they could continue to stay with us up until I mean like this is their career. So thank you. Thank you for giving that back. And I just think that math
013though for me does not m just clarify the primary is in May, right? So the math you're saying is if we were to wait till November, we would have already made decisions in March about an election that comes in May. That makes no sense because we'll be making decisions based off something that say if we went for something in May and it didn't pass, then when would we make those changes that you're talking about? if you're saying if we were to wait we would have made those decisions March and April like that that doesn't line up like and so that's where I'm thinking of for me these things aren't lined up in a way that is conducive to helping the district like even right now you're saying even if we say okay you put something
014on the May ballot which really means it's up in April because you have early voting it's February Now I do not look around and see okay well we have a levy committee of people lined up ready. This means now we will be stressing people to move around to try to pass something like even the the things that like the I saw the city when they passed when the city went out and they passed the levy for this hospital. It was months and months and months of seeing this group go out and get signatures and signatures and signatures to put it on the ballot and get turned down and then come back and do it again. That's right. And so you saw the work. We're talking about possibly putting up something that we would have to
015stand a levy in two months. And we're saying that if now we're dangling this thought of if we do not do it, then we would make these cuts that we as a district have not even identified that we're going to do. These are just drafts and ideas of what people would do. So, we do not fully know where we are right now outside of a draft that people are coming up with right now because no one has made decisions on any cuts or anything like that. Like, it puts us in a weird space because we do not have a wealth of volunteers right now lining up to say, "Hey, I'll go out here and knock doors and I'll make calls." And so you would be creating this space where now people I do not want
016people feeling like I need to go and help pass this levy or I may lose my job within two months. Like part of when I see levies, the big part of a levy is allowing people to learn what's going on, what are the issues, what's at stake. That is very hard to roll out from tomorrow to the first week of April. And right now we're saying we would make decisions based off if we would know we would have money coming in next year where that money would come in next year no matter if we won in May or if we won in November. So I'm not getting where we're putting these things in. And I also just look across the state as well. Like the urban districts who have passed levies in the last three,
017four years have all been in November. Columbus, Akan, Cincinnati, like Cleveland, they've been in November elections. Like if we were set up and stand to go and move and there was a machine to move these things and there was already public pieces for the public to consume about these things, I would feel much more comfortable. But right now, I'm not as comfortable if we really don't even know what's at stake. Like that is a hard thing to get people to commit to. So it's just that that line of of if we wait then we would have already made these decisions is based on us assuming that we would win and saying that we would make decisions to release people and terminate jobs before the primary anyway if we're not up for it. It's just it's
018it doesn't create a good environment like you want to have a good environment to run a levy. I wanna I want to say this maybe another way is simpler. I was working with the finance committee. On the finance committee are board members Lacy um President Dr. Bailey and um Mr. Walker and we've been had multiple finance committee meetings outside of the regular monthly ones to prepare for the 2627 budget. And what we came up and all budgets are estimates uh actuary estimates at this moment. And so what we came up with was listen, we are still have a $9 million gap for next year and we are preparing to make proposals to the board as if we have that $9 million gap and these are the things we're going to do to close it. We
019can't continue to do that. And so that that's that's where we that's just where we are. And I'm sorry, M. Garrison. Um, well, he mentioned Eric Walker. Walker, you've been in some of these meetings. So, before I say my piece, I would like to hear your feedback. Oh, thank you. Um, okay. So, I just want to clarify something. If I'm looking at this fiveyear forecast, right, Madam Treasur? Okay. If we don't do a levy, then we still go into 27 still with a cash balance of 78 million or how do we interpret this like where the bottom of the of that forecast? Okay. So this the deficit comes in 2029 three years from the third year. Okay. And Dr. Lawrence, what you're looking to do is do the levy now to get ahead of 29
020of what needs to actually happen physically in the district. Yes. We also don't know what the banual budget is, how that's going to play out. Uh I'd ask the treasur to chime in on that, but we've seen reductions every time you have a banual budget. And I think it's also important to remember that board member Lacy, he's done this a couple decades. He started off giving us data. Um and he said he's going to vote no. But I acknowledge the need for a levy. Yeah. And I mean the bional budget is is a major thing. This year publication was funded 300 million. Charter school, private school, whatever was funded 600 million. So, when we look at where we are as the really the only district right now in the state of Ohio to not have
021put out a levy um of any sort of our size and things like that um in the area right now, I know that Jefferson Township has a levy again on the ballot. Um, it's a district that it's very small and fortunately if it if it doesn't pass this time then I'm [cough] I mean at what point at some point the state's going to end up stepping in. You have Inglewood I believe is putting a renewal levy on or a bond levy or something like that. So there's different things that will take place this year. For me, it is. And I'll I'll put on a different hat right now and looking at the politics in Ohio and what's on the ballot for the primary. Primary, you have ger national things, but everyone probably is going to
022run and just be on a general election. Statewide offices in this area. Um, you have some contested races, but not a lot of contested races. For me, I would be interested to seeing, hey, if it we put it on for this primary, I'm good with seeing what happens, but I am more inclined with uh for me, not a property tax levy, more of an income tax levy. And I think I even said to Dr. Lawrence and Madam Treasure before, I'm interested to see what happens with both, especially where the state of Ohio is looking to go with property tax levies um and things like that. So, yeah. Yes. Um, [clears throat] as I stated before, I'm I'm I am with uh Joe Lacy as it relates to the timing um May versus November. Um, I
023don't really um like putting fear in the hearts and minds of people of situations just to get something passed. Um, so I'm hopeful we are very cautious with our words um, in reference to uh, the situation when it comes to staff, especially knowing there are other areas where we can make cuts that do not have to impact staff um, to uh, fulfill or bridge any any uh, shortages that we may have if the levy does not pass. It would be nice to see whether this is in November or May. what is the plan um going forward if this doesn't pass in May or November? Um having some different options out there to see um if this doesn't do well this year at all, what is the plan to, you know, save uh jobs across the
024district, but also where can we, you know, continuously cut back because we're going to have to think outside the box. Um this is a interesting time for the area. we don't know, you know, what people are going to want to do as we continue to rebuild faith and confidence in the Dayton public school district amongst amongst our constituents. So, that would be something that I would love to see uh Dr. Lawrence if you have um some of those scenarios in the event this [clears throat] doesn't pass in May or November, although I would love to see it pass uh preferably um in November. Thank you, President. Thank you. Um, President Bailey, a couple thoughts. Um, thank you for these numbers, board member Lacy. I appreciate the, um, look at the numbers of turnout in a
025comparable comparable year. Um I I it's so my one counterpoint um to the thought that this is more likely to be successful in November and I [snorts] say this from a neutral point of um view is that looking at the turnout numbers in May versus November, it might be cheaper to run a levy campaign in May than it would in November. So that's something to think about. um the goals in terms of fundraising and working towards that since it's about um less than half the amount of voters we would be targeting. Um the second is that um I I think the board is fairly unified in understanding that the need for the levy this year is there. I think the the major point of disagreement is whether it be May or November. Um and board
026members are free to speak up and um let me know if I'm misunderstanding the what I'm getting collectively here. Um I did reach out to my contacts at the county and the city. Um as of now, uh there is no likely levy to be on the ballot for the city of Dayton this year or the county. Um, so you know, we we always try to balance out the need for our jurisdiction, which is Dayton public, um, with the needs across the city and the county. Um, if there are too many levies on a ballot, they are likely they're less likely to pass. So, in terms of looking at the landscape this year, we're fairly good. There are a fairly high number of municipal levies that are going to be on the ballot in May. Um,
027uh, not a lot of school district levies so far. Um, but that's all we know for May and I don't know what it will be in November. Um, I anticipate and I'm not alone in anticipating that starting next year there will be a high number of district lobbies that will start being on the ballot um, election after election. And so I I think it's wise to be doing it this year um just to kind of get ahead of uh how the changes in um funding, the funding elimination and the funding reductions that are happening at the state house are going to start hitting districts harder and harder and harder and districts will have to go for levies much more often to stay afloat um because the uh reliance on state funding has been undercut so
028much. Um, I would I I would just prefer that we have as much stability as possible. Um, I understand the concerns about going for the levy in May. Um, I would prefer to cause as little disruption as possible. And so I will most like I'm I'm still not sure how I'm going to vote. I'm I'm likely to vote for the May levy just given I would like to make sure that we are um causing as little disruption as possible for the district. That's all I have, Mr. President. Thank you. You want to conspiracy? Uh just a point of clarification. The gentleman who reported um on Friday, what's his name? Dan Shaw. Yes. He said it's more expensive to do a levy in May than November. He didn't have the dollar amount, but he said it
029was more expensive to do it in May than November. So, just a point of clarification. I don't know why because he didn't have any details to give us. So, I think it can be and I I don't have a clear answer on this, but when I spoke to um uh somebody the there are a pretty high number of municipalities that will be on the ballot across the county this year. I think a little bit higher than expected. So, you know, we all have to share the cost of that. So, I think that that is less of I don't have a concrete answer for this, but it was my understanding that there were more than um than than expected number of levies on the ballot this spring. So, I think I think that might not be
030as much of a concern as initially was stated last week. I [clears throat] just and for me when when we look at primary elections the biggest thing is the get out the vote since people don't really [cough] turn out to vote for primary elections. So your messaging and ad span and things like that typically is going to be higher whereas your general election everyone typically is going to vote in November. So, it's trying to reach more people who will go out and support things or be against things and that's what makes it more expensive for the property. And I think he was more so talking about the fing of it, not necessarily the additional funding on top of that for the campaign itself. But I'm glad you brought that up, Mr. Walker. Thank you. My
031question for us as a body and I guess well personal for us as a body who's going to last time we talked I mean one of the conversations we had about Mr. Le are you still the treasur of the committee? Yes. Are there people on the levy committee there? When I took over as treasurer I just sent out an email to all the levy committee members that were on the levy committee for 2008. I think I can only think of like Nan maybe I can't think Nan why the former mayor I can't think of others but um I just asked if they minded if I took o I took over from Janice Allen and so um I just asked if anybody anybody was opposed I got no answer so I just assumed it no we
032don't we do not currently have a levy committee okay so we have a committee. The question is, I guess for you, Mr. Smith, how do you get a committee? Um, it is a process. It's getting people who have a shared concern from different walks. Um, getting them to come together. You have a treasury, you have somebody who probably shares, co-chairs the the levy committee. Um, that is my biggest concern when we look at My question is who does this? Oh, well, not what it is, but who's going to do that? Because if we if I'm for giving the district a shot, whether it's May, November, both, I'm for giving you guys a shot. My question is if if we don't give them a shot in May, who's doing all this other work that you guys
033are talking about between now and then? An ad hoc committee has to be created because when we talk about the cost of running the levy, that isn't district dollars. The district cannot pay. 100% know that that has to be like fundraising all these things. So Lacy could get his call as the treasurer. So he's ask like who wants to take the lead and bring these people in. But yes, that is how that it has to be. It has to be outside of us. So Lacy is the one who makes that call. Who could? I mean that's my question. Not necessarily. Like this could Yeah. He could board members. You can go out and recruit people to be on the levy committee. You cannot wear anything DPS related or anything like that regarding the month. It's
034the same as if you're sitting here on a day is can I have Yes, you can. Yeah. So, you go out recruit people outside of your role as a schoolboard member and then you refer them to the committee. The committee works with them. Same thing as if staff wants to volunteer on the levy. They cannot do it on their hours of actually working for DPS. They can, however, take vacation or something like that to then go and work on a levy committee or something like that. But it has to be [clears throat] offschool ground property somewhere separate to then end up initiate all of that. So are members on this board committing to do the work that they want to see done? Like that's my biggest question. I don't want to get back here and
035no one has taken the affirmative steps to go, hey, let's get this going. Are who's going to do that point? That's the whole like even referring to committee. We have no committee to refer them to. We'd be going out and standing up a committee. But are you are you committing to do the work is my question. Oh yeah. I've I've done the work but in doing the work I also know this is not the right time to start the work. That's my thing is we're talking about starting the work. We're talk well we're doing two conversations because this like we need five people. It doesn't sound like five people are on board for this. So this now I'm starting the next conversation of this is starting now. Yes. That part is if we're that's my
036thing is if you're doing November, this is a perfect time to start the work because now we can talk about what is needed. We can actually have a roll out plan of this is why we're running a levy. This is what we would do with these dollars. This is what we're facing if we do not pass this like right. And it's it's easier to get people to work on the levy when like Mr. Walker said they'd be really looking at taking time off using lunch breaks starting next week and you don't have scripts. You do not have call lists already. Like you you do not have these pieces that are already supposed to be in place when you're trying to put [cough] Don't disagree with you. My question is so but you already said yes,
037you would commit to doing that work. Are there other people who are committing to do the work? So if we get to this point again, which this will probably be somebody help me here, this would be what what's 90 days? August. August. We get to August that we're not having this same discussion discussion because people we talked about it in February and we got to August, but no one did the stuff in between. Sure. I'll commit. You committed too? Okay. I got is is anyone else on the board committed? I mean, so let me add to what you're asking. So, I am committed, but I'm also wanting the superintendent and team to be committed to the back-end work that it takes to bring this all together as well, not waiting till till August because a
038lot of this work could have started in 2025 before we got here for a levy in May. Right or wrong. From my training, the superintendent or the treasurer can't Yeah. They can't do that. Didn't Wasn't it your request to put it on the agenda? Yes. for us to vote on as opposed. So that's what I'm referring to. Yeah. So the actual stuff they need to do at work. So because they can't do not levy stuff, but we could have had a levy committee. Is that we're not allowed? That's not that. So yeah, that's Well, the conversations you guys have been having for eight years. What committee was that? They can't based on some training they can't because they're always assuming at work. Correct. That's the only thing I'm referring to is the planning part of
039it out. Not because you can meet to plan something out, but we're not executing underneath that same committee. Does that make sense? You can plan it out though. If we going to start doing this, we start recruitment here. We're going to start it's a whole project plan. Let me ask board member Walker and Miss Ryder because I feel like you guys have the most knowledge which goes to the most trainings on this one. The staff like Miss Gar is asking that's not what our staff can do. Correct. As a board, we have to do what we're doing now with regards to having a levy discussion is like we can initiate a conversation here and then prepare things, but our team has to do what Dr. Lawrence and them have did so far from my understanding.
040That's right. We we've done that work so far. Mr. Riner's been there. You've been there. Several board members have been there. We have at least eight different scenarios. scenario. Scenarios where a levy passes, scenarios where a levy doesn't pass, scenarios where we carry debt into the next year, scenarios where we don't carry the debt and we have a reduction in force, scenarios where we consolidate schools and have a reduction in force. All these different scenarios we've worked out. Appreciate you. We asking a different question. [laughter] Uh so the work that that would have to be done and I think the question was posed who's going to do the work um it doesn't happen on the deis and it doesn't happen on uh school district time or on school district grounds but I would um there
041should be a representative from the board who is organizing there basically needs to be like an unofficial commit. It's not a it's not a board committee, but somebody on the board needs to be heading up this work and having the conversations and bringing the people together outside district locations and outside district hours um finding uh and putting together the levy committee through all the different groups across the area. Um and making a plan um very often there is a consulting team, a consulting firm that is brought in to guide us through the process. um and to um help with fundraising. Um again, not from the deis, not official uh district work. But um at this point, maybe there should be uh um a board member who is heading up that process and guiding that process.
042Yes, ma'am. Thank you, John. So, it'll be between I mean, Mr. Lacy said last week, Mr. Smith is the most politically that you already said you could do that, right? He's worked on. You mean you have done that? said we got like said it's already two people now and I think Mr. Walker said he wanted to do it. So that's three, which the rest of us, you know, want to do. Yeah. Yeah. Four. So [laughter] whoa, whoa, whoa. Four of them. Four. That's too many. Well, and I think there's two different things. Pardon me for interrupting. There's the actual people that are guiding the ship on this. And then there is the um acknowledgement that as board members, we are committed to the process and we will help outside district official district hours and district
043work. Um, I am committed to helping as I can whatever this committee is um and doing that work and I and I think probably every single board member is on the same page in regards to that. Does that make sense? Yes. Yes. I just want to make sure y'all got like I don't want to come to all these things. Yes. Because we doing this all over again. Now to to clarify, if it is not May, then after the primary election day is when legally like we can have, hey, by August, we already are filed and things like that for it. So the background work or whatever we're going to do can lead up to that primary election day and then like you can immediately file the day after for the general election. Just clarify. I've
044said like like as far as when the process starts to continue. Yeah, they should the team should move on here because there was no one that was against us unless and you correct and say that if you want to was against the district putting levies out because it's not just a levy the two levies guys that are out there for that one. No one is against that. Is that am I correct on that one? Not against the levy. Correct. The timing is the issue here. So if again I don't believe that there are five individuals who are going to move forward with this one based on what I'm hearing here. But that means you still will need to start working on the next stuff to have this stuff prepared for the August deadline that piece
045of it. Is that correct? Has anybody contradicted it? Yes. So that's that's pretty much what you need like but we're giving him a direction to Mr. Walker's point. That is a whole different timeline and track like the legal track of getting that done. like you can do the work for a levy before it becomes a space of when it has to go and file. That's why a lot of the times like I've worked on levies where there's actual furniture out before there's even a levy number because that's how much time was going into before the levy comes out. The levy number and the things you get which are going to be on the ballot comes with the old filing. That's another side. So yes, that like the work of doing this can start this afternoon.
046Yeah. Is that correct? That it's that piece is where my concern has always been is how do you do that? Because I don't want us to go into this space of having people running around being fearful and then say we do not get the result we want and now people take that on themselves and now they feel like they didn't do the work needed to save their own jobs. That is disastrous to do people. Well, I just wanted to clarify because last week Dr. Horns made a statement somewhere in there that we've never as a board directed them to do to put this on him or madam treasurer to do this. So we are directing them as a body contradict if you are to work on this in the event that this doesn't pass today
047for the November. Anybody in disagreement there? So they have actual direction of what to do. All right. The silence means everybody was on board with that piece of it. And now back. So I I just have one question so I can be clear. Uh if we do not vote on this thing put on in May, what is your plan? [laughter] I mean I will bring this back again and change the date. So I mean that will have to be cut that we'll do. I know that you're already making cuts in different areas. you um I'm going to repeat it again. Board member Reiner has been to a meeting because I've opened them up to board members. Um board member Goodwin has been to one. There's three members on the committee. I talked to other members
048at Hawk. Um they're aware that we have at least now [laughter] eight different versions of what if. Um and I would also defer to Madam Treasurer. She she said, "Hey, we can carry some of this, but there's a there's a number where we can't carry um this this over over budget into next year. It's just not doable." Okay. Thank you. Nothing else. So, Oh, go ahead. But we do not have to do some of these things because even if we would have put up a levy in May and it would have passed, we wouldn't get the money till later. So no matter what things would have would could have a space to be. So it's it would be disingenuous to say that because we do not put something up in May then now there's this
049number that we can't carry over if they were saying that we could have carried it over if we would have known that we're going to magically get this levy money down the road. like that's that's not like so there are things that we need to do as a district to be fiscally responsible but they're not tied they cannot be tied to a May or a November decision because the money wouldn't come this year anyway. That's right. And so whatever is going on, I want our people to know that it is not due to us not putting something on and made because the money would not have been there. And I think that's where we really need to come together as a group and have real discussions about what does it look like to cut some
050of these things and not having these spaces where okay this is what it would look like but then we're not looking at the ramifications of what happens if we do those things like if we look at things like we have conversations and we've seen it okay districts closes a building charter gets a building or we close a building and we think that students are going to follow somewhere else and then they don't and then they go somewhere for us and then we lose that money as well. Like we have to really sit as a team, as a group, everybody here, not just that the day is slow cuz we don't work here, but really get to saying how do we fix this thing? And the only other way to do that is to also have
051these things laid out and let people know what we're looking at. But if we're saying we can't carry certain things over into July, August of 2026, then we wouldn't have been able to do it if we passed the levy because we wouldn't have the money yet. So it's not based upon that. It is based upon the fact of where we are and how do we shape these conversations. So I would say I would be very perturbed if we're saying, okay, if we're going to walk out here and we're saying we're not going to put a levy up in here. So now, yes, these people, we're going to have to roll with these cuts because that's disingenuous because the money was not going to be here if we passed the levy in May. We uh have
052put forward several proposals such as K8 to attempt to hold on to our middle schoolers. We've had projections from a flat projection to as many as 300, a student increase. We have modeled this in lots of different permutations. And so our job, Mr. Smith, is I will provide you with some recommendations in April or May for next year and then the board will make a decision and and I'll provide them based on my work with the treasur's office, which we've been doing um and operations. And so we've been dealing with this for at least six weeks now, multiple meetings, and like I said, multiple permutations. So, we'll be prepared to um based on levy or not, we'll be prepared to provide a recommendation on what we do next year in staffing and what we do
053in terms of this district um and what it looks like. That that's our job. Thank you. There's nothing else. Motion to adjourn. Second. I thought we were voting on it. Why? If Mr. There's a motion in a second. There's a motion with a second to adjourn. But if if you want to vote on it, then Mr. Lacy would need to withdraw the motion to adjourn and then we I'm fine. Okay. I'll withdraw the motion. Should we I mean, are we okay with voting to see if we can do this? It doesn't matter. Go ahead. Superintendent, Madam Treasure, you want us to vote on this? That's the question. Y'all need to huddle for a second. Look, slide back. Yeah, we just need to [laughter] assistant treasure. Y'all go talk. You hear from business before y'all talk?
054Let us know if y'all want the vote. [clears throat] With haste, please. Please. While we're waiting, if I may, Mr. President, um I would like no matter how the vote h goes today and if we have a vote on one of these proposals, um I would like to discuss about how we will involve the community in this decision. I think it's really important um to make sure not only that we get a pulse on how the community is feeling before um we do anything officially um but I would like to also make sure that their voices are heard in um the campaign. I a lot of people in Dayton believe in Dayton public schools. Um, it's been my personal mission for the last eight years on the board to build trust in Dayton public schools
055and I would like to offer people there are a lot of people who are feeling really politically engaged right now. Um, I would love to extend a hand to community members to put their boots on the ground and join us in um, a lovey campaign if we go for one either now or November or in the future. Um, this is a great opportunity to meet your neighbors and to advocate and fight for something we all believe in. Um, and I would I I'm just expressing my desire for strong community [clears throat] involvement and a commitment from the board unofficially on my part to make sure that the community is informed and involved in whatever this campaign will be. Agreed. Thank you. So, Miss Reiner, Columbus did do the same thing and what they created was
056a operational efficiency and cost containment task force that involve community members and district members that then looked at this and then took this plan out to the community with what cuts were going to happen, buildings may be closed, things like that. And then they still put a levy out and still did everything that they just told the community. So if we involve a community community, I want it to be something like that that is the members of that. I just want y'all to be work. That's all I'm asking for. Someone like not because we talk a lot. We talk a ton and we have all these conversations about community and this group, that group, that one. I'm just I'm happy that we walking away with because you were part of the group. It's one, two,
057three. Hold on. Make sure people at home. If there's a closeup, I can get on my mic on my camera. Ryan, can you get my closeup so they can see me? Close up. Hold on. I got to finish my closeup. I want I want them to this 30 seconds of moving. Hey. Hey. I believe I believe and declare you. It's on me. Let me live. It's not cuz [laughter] the last video was Mr. Walker, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Lacy are the charge on here. And the rest of us, he the treasurer. So, he already on the group. the rest of us are backup dancers on this, but we're going to help how [laughter] they see fit cuz we going to get to this next conversation and we're not going to have this same conversation that
058we've had twice now over again. And if there [clears throat] is nothing to show, it's because Mr. Walker, Mr. Lacy, and Mr. Smith didn't do their part. And now, man, like come on the date. And I I I will say like I I think the my rationale for saying yes, I'm going to do this is because a lot of times it gets tiring hearing community members say things, but then they don't want to come to the table. So now we're giving you that open seat to bring your own chair or take one of our chairs and actually come and actually do the work in which you say DPS needs to be better at. I'm never going to bet against the district. I'm going tell you that. Yeah. If this is put up today, I'm a
059supporter. If it's put up in Denver, I'm a supporter. Yeah, people people pay me for this kind of work. So, consider yourself lucky. President, baby, I will say [laughter] one thing about Joe Lacy. Joe Lacy going the best right now. [laughter] No, I mean that right now. We can adjourn this one and start a new one. I have to get another one. One of our levy chairs got a school named after him, didn't they? Who's that? Who's who? Oh yeah, man. He's still around. That's not gonna happen. [laughter] He also made but I will say that is I I do think that there's a lot that we can do. Um and the things that I've seen working on multiple levies is that the times that I've seen people make mistakes comes from not having enough
060time to plan. All right. So, I think right now we're in a good space. They hear back to do that. All right. [laughter] Uh Dr. Goodman, thank you for the opportunity to huddle up. Uh the treasurer said something really important while we were huddled up. Treasure Aarash. He said, "I've been happy uh Dr. Lawrence with all the work we've done to work on different budget scenarios, and I'm happy with where we are. So, we should work together to continue to um educate the board about all those different versions we have and at some point uh educate the public. And so, we would we would love to do this in November. Move to second. Can't wait for Goodwin motion. Goodwin motion. Yes. Yes. And second, Dr. Bailey. Dr. Bailey. Dr. uh President Bailey. Yes, Dr. Goodwine.
061Yes, Mr. Lacy. Yes, Mr. Smith. We Who are you? Miss Reard. Yes, Mr. Walker. Yes, Miss Garrison. Yes. Seven yeses.