001Good evening and welcome to the Garfield Heights City School District Board of Education organizational meeting. The date is January 5th, 2026 and I call this meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. Our first order of business tonight is take roll call. Miss Cox, >> yes. >> Mr. Dudley, >> yes. Mrs. Irvin Doer >> here. >> Miss Morrison >> here. >> Miss Thomas >> here. >> All right. We will move into the next item which is administering the oath of office for our newly elected board members. Mr. Dudley, we will begin with you. >> Do you have clergy? >> Yes, I do. All right. Get your ride up here. How are you? >> How you doing? >> All right. So, all you have to do is congratulations, sir. Thank you. It pass okay a little bit Mr.
002Junior >> Mitchell Dudley. Mitchell Dougl Mitchell Dudley, do you solemnly swear affirm that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio and that you will faithfully and impartially discharge your duties as member of the board of education of the Garfield Heights City School District, county of Kyogo, Kyhog, Ohio, to the best of your ability and in accordance with laws now in effect, and herein after to be enacted during your continuence in said office and until your successor is appointed and qualified. You can answer by saying I will. >> I will. >> Congratulations Mr. Dudley. All right, we will move next to Mrs. Irvin Doer, I believe. MAYOR, >> how are you? >> Good. Good. Good. >> Let us know where where you want us now. >>
003You're perfect. Perfect. >> See that? >> Perfect. >> All right. Raise your right hand. Repeat after me. Do >> I >> Chloe Doer >> Chloe Irvin Doer >> gave the oath of office to the member as follows. Do you solemnly swear affirm that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio and that you will faithfully and impartially discharge your duties as member of the Board of Education of Garfield Heights City School District, County of Kyhoga, Ohio, to the best of your ability and in accordance with the laws now in effect and here after to be enacted. Ed during your continuence in set office and until your successor is appointed and qualified. Answer. I will >> I will. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. You ready? >> Yes.
004Raise your right hand. Heather Morrison, do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio and that you will faithfully and impartially discharge your duties as member of the Board of Education of the Garfield Heights City School District, County of Kyahaga, Ohio, to the best of your ability and in accordance with laws now in effect and here and after to be enacted during your continuence and set office and until your successor is appointed and qualified. >> I will. >> CONGRATULATIONS. ALL RIGHT. OKAY. Congratulations to our new board. So now our next item will be the adoption of the agenda. But before we do that, um we can pause and take photos if we'd like with the family. Um any members who want to
005do that before we move into regular business. >> Oh, that's nice. Take a few minutes. All right, we are going to resume as of 6:12. We'll note that in the minutes for the moment of pause for the family. So now we'll move on to agenda item 1.4, the adoption of the organizational meeting agenda. Do I have a motion this evening? So move second. Okay. All right. That was motioned by Miss Thomas, seconded by Miss Cox. Any discussion? >> Okay. I will take roll call. Miss Thomas? >> Yes. >> Miss Cox? >> Yes. >> Mr. Dudley? >> Yes. M >> Mrs. Irvin Doer? >> Yes. >> And Miss Morrison? >> Yes. >> Motion passes 5. Now we will move on to 2.1 nominations for board president. Is there a nomination on the floor for board president
006this evening? >> Mr. O. >> Yes, Miss Cox. >> I would like to nominate Miss Thomas as president. >> Are there any other nominations on the floor this evening for board president? >> Hearing none, I move to close this uh motion. I move to close this nomination session. Do I have a motion to close nomination for board president? >> Miss Cox moved. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> This is Irvin Doer. Second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All against say nay. >> Motion passes. Okay, Miss Thomas, you have been elected board president for 2026. Congratulations. >> Finally get to give up the gavl. >> Do I have to do another? You do have to do it. >> All right. It's bad. All right. Raise your right hand. Do you solemn,
007Miss Thomas? Do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio? And that you will faithfully and impartially discharge your duties as president of the Board of Education of the Garfield Heights City School District, County of Kihaga, Ohio, to the best of your ability and in accordance with the laws now in effect and herein after to be enacted during your continuence and set office and until your successor is appointed and qualified. >> I will. >> Congratulations. Thank you. Moving on to item number 2.4, nominations for board vice president. I would like to open the nomination floor for nominations for vice president. Do we have any nominations, >> Madame President? >> Yes. >> I would like to nominate Miss Tendy to Cox. >> Thank
008you. Are there any other nominations on the floor? >> Seeing none, we will close nominations for board vice president. Item 2.5 on our agenda is the election of vice president. Can I get a motion to close? >> Oh my gosh. Yeah. May I have a motion to close nominations for vice president? >> So move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> That was moved by Miss Cox, seconded by Mrs. Irvin Doer. May we or all in favor? All right. All in favor say I. >> All say. >> All against say nay. >> Okay. Motion passes. Next item on the agenda is the election of Vice President Miss Cox. You have been elected as vice president of the Park Height City School Board. May I have a motion? >> So move. >> May I have
009a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. That was moved by Miss Cox, seconded by Mrs. Irvin Doer. May we have any discussion? May we have roll call? >> Yes. Miss Cox? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Irvin Doer? >> Yes. >> Mr. Dudley? >> Yes. >> Miss Morrison? >> Yes. >> Miss Thomas? >> Yes. Thank you. That motion passes. And now Miss Cox will take her oath of office. >> What would you like to do? >> Congratulations. >> All right. Are you ready? >> Raise your hand, Miss Cox. Do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio and that you will faithfully and impartially discharge your duties as vice president of the board of education of the Garfield Heights City School District, county of
010County of Kyoga, Ohio, to the best of your ability and in accordance with laws now in effect and here and after to be enacted during your continuence and set office and until your successor is appointed and qualified. >> I will. >> Congratulations. The next item on our agenda is to establish our 202026 board meeting schedule. Our meetings are held at 6 PM. Regular meetings are on the third Monday of every month unless there's a holiday. Um for 202026 we have January 20th um MLK day is that Monday so that is a Tuesday February 17th March 16th April 20th May 18th June 15th July 20th August 17th September 21st October 19th November 16th and December 21st. May I have a motion to pass this item? So move. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> A
011second. >> Thank you. That was moved by Miss Cox, seconded by Mr. Dudley. Is there any discussion um on our calendar? Any board members have any discussions? Think we need to move. >> Uh Madam President, >> yes. December 21st That is the Monday before Christmas is that Friday. Are we on break at that point? We probably won't be on break until maybe about >> any other discussion. >> All right, seeing none, may we have roll call? >> Miss Cox, >> yes. >> Mr. Dudley, >> yes. >> Mrs. Irvin Doer, >> yes. >> Miss Morrison, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> Thank you. That motion passes. Next item on our agenda is our service fund resolution. This is resolution 2026-02. And this resolution establishes the board member service fund um in the amount of
012$20,000 for 202026 um and sets our board meeting compensation at $125 per meeting. Is there a motion? >> So move. >> Thank you. Is there a second? Second. >> All right. Seconded by Mrs. Urban Doer. So that is moved by Miss Cox. Seconded by Mrs. Urban Doer. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, may we have roll call. >> Miss Cox? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Irvin Doer? >> Yes. >> Mr. Dudley? >> Yes. >> Miss Morrison? >> Yes. >> Miss Thomas? >> Yes. >> Thank you. That motion passes. Next item is our appointment to the Ohio and National School Board Associations conventions for the year 202026. Um I will appoint this board member to serve and there will also be an OFIT delegate. Um, our board member that will serve um as our delegate for the
013Ohio National School Board Association conventions will be Tendika Cox and our alternate will be Heather Morrison. And do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. That is moved by Miss Cox, seconded by Mr. Dudley. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, may we have roll call. >> Miss Cox, >> yes. >> Mr. Dudley, >> yes. >> Mrs. Irvin Doer? >> Yes. >> Miss Morrison? >> Yes. >> Miss Thomas? >> Yes. >> Thank you. That motion passes. Item 4.3 is the board president's appointment of representatives and liaison for the 2026 Kyhoga Valley Career Center Board of Education. We will have Tinda Cox as our legislative liaison. She also will serve as leg legislative liaison to OSBA, Heather Morrison. Our policy committee, Tandica Cox and Heather Morrison. Our academic excellence committee, Mitchell Dudley
014and myself. Wellness liaison, Heather Morrison. Legislative Committee, Khloe Urban Doer and Tandika Cox. Finance Committee, Heather Morrison, Khloe Irvin Doer. And family and community engagement committee, Khloe Urban Doer, and Mitchell Dudley. May I have a motion to pass these appointments? >> So move. >> I second. >> Thank you. That is moved by Miss Cox, seconded by Mr. Dudley. Is there any discussion? Thank you all for accepting your appointments. I did try my very best to um keep in mind your passions and your interest um when selecting our committees. Um and descriptions of our committees can be found in our board handbook. Uh, may we have roll call? >> Yes. Miss Cox? >> Yes. >> Mr. Dudley? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Urban Doer? >> Yes. >> Miss Morrison? >> Yes. >> Miss Thomas? >> Yes. >>
015Thank you. That motion passes. Item 4.4 is our legal firm representation approval. Um, we are going to continue our representation with our attorneys that we have. Um, you all can read those here. U. Uh, may I have a motion to approve our legal council firms? >> Some move. >> I second. >> Thank you. That is moved by Miss Cox, seconded by Mr. Dudley. Is there any discussion? Um, Dr. Reynolds or Mr. Oko. Can one of you quickly just tell us um which firms do which things because I know we have like different firms for different topics. also Western Herd. Western Herd is our most used um law firm. I handle anything from discipline to negotiations and everything in between. Um and the others generally work with Mr. Oko. >> Uh Riley Law Firm is our
016construction attorney. So our projects that we renovate our buildings and anything we do that have uh competitive bidding with federal money grants or just in general, we usually use Mr. Riley and his law firm. They specialize in that. Squire patent bugs uh deal with levy related issues uh putting levies on ballots um financing uh the amount for bonds if needed for those issues. Um so any of the past issues that you've seen have come from Squire patent bogs and then Peters Kle and Markas deal with board of tax revisions for uh the city school district uh with Ka County. So when folks or businesses appeal their tax decision with reappraisals and updates and reappraisals, they specialize in that and represent the board for that when needed because we have to be representative at that level.
017>> Thank you. >> Any other discussion? >> Seeing none, may we have roll call? >> Miss Cox, >> yes. >> Mr. Dudley, >> yes. >> Mrs. Irvin Doer, >> yes. >> Miss Morrison, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> Thank you. That motion passes. Item 4.5, employment of temporary personnel. Um, this is a motion to authorize our superintendent to employ temporary personnel as is needed for emergency situations. May I have a motion? >> So move. >> Is there a second? >> A second. >> Thank you. Is there any discussion? Madam President, yes Dr. >> This is usually for situations if someone is out sick or on leave that we're able or um there's a position or something we need a position we need to fill immediately. Um it allows me opportunity to bring the
018person on board until the next board meeting with the board will officially um vote. So it just gives a little leverage to to respond to a need. >> Thank you. >> Any other discussion? Seeing none, may we have roll call. >> Miss Cox, >> yes. >> Mr. Dley, >> yes. >> Mrs. Irvin Doer, >> yes. >> Miss Morrison, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. Thank you. That motion passes. Item number 4.6, treasurer investments. This is a motion to approve and authorize our treasurer to make investments on behalf of the district. May I have a motion? So moved. >> Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? >> Yes, madam president. >> Yes. Mr. Ok. >> Yes, ma'am. with investments. >> So, great question. Our revised code limits school districts to what
019they can invest in. It's usually u the most we can do is commercial paper and what we usually do is money market accounts. So, it's through Star Ohio which is the Ohio collateral pool system um which all political entities use in state of Ohio. We also use red tree which does uh invest in commercial paper on our behalf but again following the very strict guidelines for which they invest the district and myself and Dr. Reynolds do not individually invest the money. Um if it's in star Ohio it's in the state system if it's with Redry which we use is a financial firm that uh uses it and they are within the Ohio collateral pool system for banking. Any other discussion? >> Um yes, I would like one. Um how will this benefit um the students
020and the teachers this investment? So the investment we have is our cash balance that we have at the time is usually what's invested and it's at a rate of return roughly about right now about 4 and a.5%. So it makes interest every month for us. That's what it if we let it sit in our our regular just general bank account, we're not making the same amount of money as we have if we invested it over time in the market, which which is the money market account. >> Any other discussion? >> Seeing none, may we have roll call? >> Yes. Miss Cox? >> Yes. >> Miss Morrison? >> Yes. >> Mr. Dudley? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Urban Doer? >> Yes. >> Miss Thomas? >> Yes. >> Thank you. That motion passes. Item number 5.1 is our
021tax budget hearing and I will hand this over to Mr. Ok. Is there any public participation on the tax budget this year? >> Seeing none, we will move on to 5.2.2 which is the approval of the tax budget. This is resolution 2026- one. Um, and it is to approve the 2027 tax budget as presented in exhibit A. May I have a motion? >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. That is moved by Miss Cox, seconded by Mrs. Morrison. Is there any discussion? >> Yes, >> Miss Thomas. So, our tax budget is a har revised code. We have to do this before January 15th of every year in the Kaio County. We are submitting the alternative tax budget versus the traditional which is what the county utilizes. So there are seven
022schedules on the tax budget outlining everything from our approved millage that we submit to the county which is what they tax against the community uh and what the division of taxation audits with us all the way through to what we believe our cash balance at the end of our fiscal year which would be June 30th will be. So, the tax budget you're approving now will set the appropriation rates and the expenditure amounts for our 2027 fiscal year amendments from the county. So, they'll use that and they'll issue that for a July 1st of 2026 start. Um, you'll notice that our O2 bond improvement, our bond retirement fund is empty this year. So, our tax base in Garfield Heights, the millillage is dropping off for the high school that we built. So they will be we'll
023be making our final payments on that and there will be no longer uh millage going against our community which is about between nine and 10 mills depending on how many dollars are needed to pay off the debt for the bond. But that is going away as of tax year 2027 which is January 1st of 2026 for our taxpayers. So they won't see any immediate relief until 2027 when that tax bill collection comes out. Um, you'll also notice that the emergency levies on there. We adjusted the millillage down to be uh more compliant with what the county had on theirs from last year. So, we took into effect the fixed sum amount and adjusted the maximum rate authorized to the county. What was approved back in 2010 and 2012 is was for a certain dollar amount
024at a certain millage rate. Obviously, as valuations have increased, we have to adjust the millillage down to make sure we're collecting the exact amount that we need to collect so we're not submitting overolction requests. You'll see that that ends in 2035. That was the one we just passed in November. You'll also see the emergency levy um that ends in tax year 2026 comes due for fiscal 27 is when we will begin to look at that uh revenue stream and that is 7.38 mills. Um this was created before the governor signed the package of property tax reform. So obviously this is the state wants this to match our forecast but our forecast is going to look a little bit different given that they are restructuring how our emergency levy millage is calculated within the 20 mil
025floor for our school district. But uh mo most importantly, you'll see that we have our mills that we are submitting to the county and the state. And then we have our cash balance uh funds and any debt in um outside of the 10 mil limitation, which would be those bonds that are being paid off. And other than that, that is really what we have for our tax budget. We do not have any um certificates of purchase. We do not have any lease financing, any new lease financing that goes against the general fund. Um, so that's what we're submitting and need to approve before January 15th of this month. Any questions? >> All right, seeing none, we have roll call. >> Miss Cox, >> yes. >> Miss Morrison, >> yes. >> Mr. Dudley, >> yes. >>
026Mrs. Urban Doer, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> Thank you. That motion passes. And the next item on our agenda is our adjournment of the organizational meeting. May I have a motion to adjourn our organization meeting? So move. >> I second. >> Thank you. That is moved by Miss Cox and seconded by Mr. Dudley. May we have roll call? >> Yes. Miss Cox? >> Yes. >> Mr. Dudley? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Irvin Doer? >> Yes. >> Miss Morrison? >> Yes. >> Miss Thomas? >> Yes. Thank you. That is the adjournment of our first meeting of the evening. All right, we are moving on to our organizational meeting, our special board meeting. Welcome to our January 5th, 202026 special board meeting. I would like to call this meeting to order. Mr. Oo, may we
027have roll call? >> Yes. Miss Cox? >> Yes. >> Mr. Dudley? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Irvin Doer? >> Yes. >> Miss Morrison? >> Miss Thomas? >> Here. The next item on our agenda is the adoption of the agenda. May I have a motion? >> Some move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. That is moved by Miss Cox, seconded by Mrs. Urban Doer. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, may we have roll call. >> Miss Cox, >> yes. >> Mrs. Irvin Doer, >> yes. >> Mr. Dudley, >> yes. >> Miss Morrison, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. Thank you. Item 2.1 is our tenative agenda review. Um, at this time, we have the opportunity to ask um Mr. Oko and Dr. Reynolds, any questions um that you may have about our
028regular board meeting agenda that is also on our table. Are is there any discussion? All right. No discussion for our tenative agenda review. Um, as items are uploaded into our board doc, if you all have any questions, feel free to reach out to anyone around the table. Um, item 2.2 is our board of education training update. Does anyone have any updates on training that they've attended? Seeing none, item 2.3 is our board retreat discussion. >> Dr. Reynolds, can I hand this over to you? >> Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. Um we have been working with board members, our new board members as well to uh develop a date. Uh the date that we're looking at is February 7th. Uh we are still working on the time, but the time is usually about from about
0299:00 to about 1:30. So we'll be able to provide breakfast and lunch. Um and that time is where we're going to be used to to really just talk about u uh Mr. Oko and I will be talking about where we've been as a school district and some of the things that we've been able to do in the last few years. And then there'll be opportunity for uh Miss uh Miss Keys Wright uh who's consultant to come in and really just talk about board governance um um responsibilities of board versus the responsibility of treasurer and superintendent. And it's just kind of an introduction of of who we are as a school district and the things that we are we're seeing uh coming ahead. And that'll be an opportunity to ask questions to really kind of get
030to the things that uh you may have in mind or even some some things that you would like to see for the uh the remainder of the school year and and things that we need to think about going to the the next school year as well. But that is an opportunity for us to gather together and fellowship a little bit and also just kind of get to know uh the district better and the vision of the district as well. >> Madam President, >> yes. What do we have an estimated time that we'll be there from on the 7th? >> Yes, we're looking at maybe about 9:00 until about 1:00. That's generally the time that we've used in the past. Um, and also just some feedback from you all will be assist in the conversation I'm
031having with um, Miss uh, Keys Wright on anything that you'd be interested in going over as well. All you have to do is just shoot me an email or give me a phone call. uh let me know if there are some things that you would like to to make sure is addressed by the the consultant uh as we get to know uh ourselves as the new board. >> Thank you. Um I do have one thing that I was right um as we've used her in the past. I think that it would be beneficial for us to have some pre-work. >> She's she's mentioned that as well. She's done that. >> Any discussion? Madam President, what what good would prework like >> uh who you are as a leader? Uh communication, how you uh respond to
032certain communication basically how so that we can know our learning styles and our communication styles as well. uh because it's it's very important that as a board we are able to communicate uh are able to uh come to a consensus. Uh and that's where her work will be focused on just making sure that we're once we enter this world of public education that we're all on the same page and we're working in the same direction. Thank you. Last item on the agenda, the adjournment of our special board meeting. The time is 6:41 p.m. May I have a motion to adjourn? >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> That is moved by Mr. Dudley, seconded by Mrs. Chloe Urban Doer. Any discussion? Seeing none, may we have roll call. >> Mr. Dudley, >>
033yes. >> Mr. Irvin Doer, >> yes. >> Miss Cox, >> yes. >> Miss Morrison, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. Thank you. The meeting has been adjourned. Congratulations again.